Mar. 7,
2016 - ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons likes beards, legs, and cars
Fox News' "In the Zone" host Diana Falzone interviews ZZ Top's
guitarist
& lead vocalist Billy Gibbons, who stars in the Discovery Channel's
new show "Rockin' Roadsters."
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
@ YouTube here.)
Gibbons is an avid car collector and custom car enthusiast with an
extensive collection that includes a 1948 Cadillac Series 62 (known as CadZZilla), a 1962 Chevrolet Impala (known as Slampala), a 1950 Ford
Business Coupe (named Kopperhed), and a 1958 Ford Thunderbird. One of
his earliest custom
cars, a beautiful red 1933 Ford coupe (known as the Eliminator),
was named after ZZ Top's most successful album and featured on the
album's cover & in 3 of their music videos. Billy's Eliminator car
has also made worldwide appearances in television, movies, auto shows,
and charity events.
ZZ Top, commonly referred to as the "Little Ol' Band from Texas" &
formed by Gibbons in 1969 in Houston, Texas, was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. They have the distinction of
being among a very small group of bands with a 40-year-plus history
that still has all of its original members.
As of 2014, the band has had global album sales in excess of 50
million. The band is also known worldwide for the trademark
chest-length beards grown by Gibbons & bassist and co-lead vocalist
Dusty Hill during a 2-year break from public appearances in the late
70s.
ZZ Top performing at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio in 2015
Dusty Hill (L) & Billy Gibbons (R)
(Frank Beard on drums behind Billy)
(Photo credit: Ralph
Arvesen (Wikimedia Commons))
ZZ Top is also quite famous in Japan, having appeared on the covers of
Japanese music and guitar magazines & toured extensively, most
notably even
performing in the 1999 Fuji Rock Festival at the Naeba Ski Resort in
Niigata. Billy has twice brought his custom cars to the Yokohoma Custom
Hot Road Show, the 1st time in 2002 along with his Kopperhed &
again in 2005 with his CadZZilla.
And here is ZZ Top advertising for the Honda Z car in a TV
commercial back in 1998...
"ZZ Top on the Z" Honda Z TV commercial
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
@ YouTube here.)
Mar. 6,
2016 - The magic of Japan's cherry blossom season...
....Coming to a location near you SOON!
According to the latest forecast by the Japan Weather Association on
Mar. 2, the
cherry blossoms will start blooming in Tokyo on Mar. 23 (only 17 days
from today!) and peak on
Mar. 29. Can't wait!!
Well, I FINALLY got a
(round tuit).
I finally finished My Boracay, Philippines Travel Adventure webpage. I
posted my pics on this
page Feb. 20, my video on Feb. 22, and just tonight I finished my
4,250-word page
describing in detail the magical 7 days I spent in this gorgeous
Pacific island paradise last month. Whew!! It was a borderline
gargantuan
effort, but at least hopefully no one will be able to accuse me of not
being thorough.
If you should ever have any interest in visiting this beautiful, but
TINY, little Pacific island in the Western Visayas region of the
Philippines, you might enjoy reading my
account, including my pics, video, & map. I was very touched by the
unbelievable, heartfelt hospitality of the wonderful Philippine people!
To read more,
click here: My
Boracay, Philippines Travel Adventure
Enjoy!
Boracay sunset from White Beach
Feb. 29,
2016 - 10 things Japan does better than anywhere else
1. Video Games
2. Anime/manga
3. Robotics
4. Cars/motorcycles
5. Precision engineering
6. 3D technology
7. Food
8. Environmental engineering
9. Transportation infrastructure
10. Video games
Feb. 23,
2016 - President Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office
It seems that the almighty Trumpster billionaire might already be
measuring the drapes in the White House...
President Trump in the White House Oval Office
(Photo credit:
financetwitter.com)
Feb.
22, 2016 - Video
of my Feb. 10-17 Boracay, Philippines travel adventure
It
was a magnificent trip and I was blessed to have sampled so much of the
amazing Boracay, Philippines culture & beauty....especially the
wonderful people. I hope this video
helps you
catch a quick glimpse of this spectacular tropical Pacific paradise.
Don't miss out on action-packed stunning time-lapse sunsets, my zipline
adventure, a reverse bungee, a wave pool, guys surfing on the "Wave
Rider," White Beach nightlife including live music, the Oceanarium
tunnel walk, kitesurfers on Bulabog Beach, and YES...believe it or
not.... even a wedding celebration ON THE BEACH!
Webpage to follow shortly...
My Boracay, Philippines travel adventure video
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
@ YouTube here.)
0:00 White Beach pre-sunset 360-degree panorama
0:53 White Beach Feb. 10 sunset
4:18 White Beach palm trees blowing in the strong breeze
4:35 Rotisserie chicken
4:42 Wild Boracay turkeys
5:20 Puka Shell Beach
5:51 Riding on a trike back to Station 2
6:46 White Beach nightlife
7:47 Male fire dancers
8:47 Female fire dancer
9:38 G-Max reverse bungee
11:44 White Beach live music
13:13 Beer pong
14:07 Boracay Regency Wave disco
14:47 Riding on a trike to the zipline
16:02 Panorama from zipline launch platform
16:19 My AMAZING 1st-ever zipline adventure! (Is it going to ever
STOP!!?)
17:41 Return cable car ride back to zipline launch platform
21:07 Buggy cars near Mt. Luho
21:29 360-degree panorama from atop Mt. Luho, Boracay's highpoint
22:32 BUSY, BUSY kitesurfing on Bulabog Beach (the #1 beach in all of
Asia for kitesurfing!)
25:50 Busy Main Road traffic (no traffic signals on the entire island!)
26:17 Beach volleyball
26:49 Feb. 12 time-lapse sunset from Steve's Cliff (8 min. sunset in
only 31 sec.)
27:20 Showdown basketball free throw game in D'Mall
28:02 Young woman fails to reach top of rock climbing tower in D'Mall
28:52 Fresh live catch @ the D'Talipapa fish market
29:45 Speed boat shuttle to the off-shore parasailing launch platform
30:50 BBQ meat grilling on White Beach footpath
31:16 Shoreline wedding celebration on White Beach
35:33 Feb. 13 time-lapse sunset from White Beach (5 min. sunset in only
20 sec.)
35:53 Rotisserie pig (as in the WHOLE pig!)
36:21 Feb. 15 sunset from the Spider House Bar & Restaurant,
Diniwid Beach
38:27 Crown Regency wave pool (Surf's up!)
39:16 Crown Regency Wave Rider (Hang 10!)
40:03 Overhead fish tank outside front entrance to Crown Regency
40:22 Crown Regency fish pond tour
(our tour guide was GORGEOUS!)
41:47 Crown Regency Oceanarium tunnel walk
44:17 World's largest pearl (Oops, don't blink or you'll miss this
2-sec. clip!)
44:19 Crown Regency Oceanarium mermaid show (pretty girl!)
48:42 Crown Regency Oceanarium fish feeding
50:05 Busy Main Road traffic
51:40 White Beach pre-sunset panorama
52:06 Feb. 16 sunset from White Beach
54:22 BUSY Philippine Airlines check-in counter @ Boracay Airport
54:43 Sayonara Boracay! (takeoff
from Boracay Airport)
55:21 Landing @ Manila Airport
56:16 Takeoff from Manila Airport, bound for Tokyo
Feb.
20, 2016 - Pics
from my Feb. 10-17 Boracay, Philippines travel adventure
Here is just a small sample of the 229 pics waiting for you in my Boracay,
Philippines Travel album @ Flickr.
I hope you enjoy seeing some of the sights I was blessed with in this
true tropical paradise! Boracay's 4-km-long White Beach won Trip
Advisor's 2015
Travelers' Choice award for the #1 rated beach in all of Asia. Stay
tuned for my video (it's gonna be DY-NO-MIGHT w/ even time-lapse
sunsets & my 1st-ever zipline adventure!) and webpage to follow shortly...
View all 229 Boracay, Philippines travel pics in my Flickr album here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskuLCTKJ
(click thumbnails there to open up full-size images or click the icon in the
upper right to view entire album as an automated slideshow)
Feb.
7, 2016 - Sakurajima volcano blows her top!
Never a dull moment in Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported
that the Mt. Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture on the
country's southern main island of Kyushu erupted at 6:56 pm on Friday
Feb. 5, Japan time.
Although Mt. Sakurajima had at least 700 explosive eruptions between
January and September of last year, it's been quiet since Sept. 17.
About 15 minutes after the eruption, the agency raised the alert level
from 2 to 3 on the scale of 5. Level-3 alerts restrict entry onto the
mountain.
Volcanic lightning in the Feb. 5, 2016 Mt. Sakurajima eruption
(Photo credit:
Kyodo/Reuters)
Feb. 3,
2016 - ♪ Have a Nice Day! ♫ - a grrrreat song by Kazutoshi!
Kazutoshi,
a very talented musician & one of my university engineering
students, has composed a new song named "Have a Nice Day" and posted it
to
his
SoundCloud channel. He has managed to create a very innovative
rendition of his own teacher's voice. WOW!
Check it out!
Thanks, Kazutoshi, for sharing!! Grrrrrreat!
Song lyrics:
Have a nice day
I think I'm OK
Oh, well
It's a fine day today
1, 2, check, check
It's time to wake up
Wash my face
Hmmm... Beards to shave
But my razor's gone away
Anyway, by the way
Let's breakfast, yeah
No way / What a shame
Nothing's left to eat, great
Toothpaste
Good taste
Never have a toothache
I say "hooray"
Have a nice day
Come on, DJ!
Feb. 1,
2016 - English loanwords in the Japanese language
Historically, the Japanese language has borrowed many words from
foreign countries, starting with China back in the Nara Period
(710-794).
Beginning in the 17th century, the Japanese language began to borrow
these loanwords, or "gairaigo" (外来語) in Japanese, from western
languages, including Portuguese, Dutch, German, French, Italian,
Russian, and, especially since the 2nd World War, English. Today,
English is the origin of most modern loanwords.
In Sanseido’s 2010 edition of Concise
Dictionary of Foreign Words,
there were over 56,300 foreign loanwords in the Japanese language, and
of the 20,000 loanwords added in the past 2 decades, most of them came
from English. One reason for their popularity is that almost all of
these loanwords are a much shorter, abbreviated version of the original
English word or expression, or their Japanese equivalent.
Although in many cases the new English loanwords are adopted to express
concepts for which there are no equivalents in Japanese, most of the
time people simply prefer to use the English words for
practicality....e.g. the words are shorter, easier to say, or because
they are fashionable. This is the case even when there are existing
synonyms in Japanese.
So it comes as no big surprise that McDonald's Japan has taken this
trend
to a new level with their latest sandwich campaign.
How about a チキチ (pronounced chee-kee-chee), short for チキンチーズバーガー
(chicken cheeseburger)? Or how about an エグチ (pronounced ay-goo-chee),
short for エッグ
チーズバーガー (egg cheeseburger)... or a バベポ (pronounced
bah-bay-poh), short for バーベキューポークバーガー
(barbeque pork burger)... or a
ハムタス (pronounced hah-moo-tah-soo), short for ハ
ムレタスバーガー (ham lettuce
burger)?
McDonald's Japan's latest sandwich campaign
Here are some other examples of popular English loanwords used in
everyday Japanese conversation:
sumaho スマホ -
smartphone
maiku
マイク - microphone
pasokon パソコン -
personal computer
waapuro ワープロ - word
processor
suupaa スーパー -
supermarket
depaato デパート -
department store
amefuto アメフト -
American football
puroresu プロレス -
professional wrestling
sando サンド - sandwich
furugura フルグラ -
fruit granola
konbini コンビニ -
convenience store
eakon エアコン - air
conditioning
masukomi マスコミ - mass
media (from mass communication)
erebeetaa エレベーター -
elevator
anime アニメ -
animation
furonto フロント - front
desk, e.g. in a hotel
reji レジ - cash
register
naitaa ナイター -
nighter (nighttime baseball game)
furima フリマ - flea
market
risutora リストラ -
restructuring
Jan. 30,
2016 - Paraglider dancing with
the Northern Lights!
33-year-old Spaniard Horacio Llorens, a 5-time world champion acrobatic
paraglider, has pulled off a truly amazing, once-in-a-lifetime feat by
riding his paraglider thru & dancing with Norway's Northern Lights
near the city of Trømso.
Llorens’ dance with the Northern Lights was made possible by his
sponsors Red Bull, paramotor chassis company Kangook, and motorcycle
engine builder Polini.... as well as by the Norwegian government, which
granted permission for the stunt.
Llorens dedicated his flight to his cousin Alejandro Rodríguez, who
died in a paragliding accident 5 years ago.
Paraglider dancing with
the Northern Lights!
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
@ YouTube here.)
Jan. 26,
2016 - Please vote for Cindy!
Can I ask you for a favor? Cindy, the 15-year-old daughter of my dear,
longtime friends Peter & Elke in Frankfurt, Germany, had such a
positive experience on a 3-week exchange program last year in Canada
that she has decided to apply as a high school exchange student in the
U.S. this fall.
She has prepared a video application with photos from her friends in
Canada, her English teacher in Germany, etc., and along with her
competitors, uploaded it to the website of the exchange program
organizer
(EF High School Exchange Year - Deutschland). This will be a very tough
competition: whichever students get the most votes in the shortest time
will be selected!
Can I ask you, your family, and friends to vote for Cindy? Just click
the link below and then click on the “Vote” button (NOT on the
Facebook "Like” button). (Cindy does not have nor do you need a
Facebook account to vote.) And then, by all means watch her very cute
video!
Please vote for Cindy! Plus, you'll get a chance to brush up on your
German!!
Thank you in advance! Here is the link:
http://woobox.com/i65paa/vote/for/12567651 (no longer functional)
Mar. 8,
2016 update:
Cindy didn't finish in the top 3, but garnered thousands of votes,
thank you! On Mar. 2, the top 3 students won 3,333-euro (~$3674)
scholarships for their high school exchange programs in the U.S. Wow!
Vote for Cindy!
Jan. 16,
2016 - The brilliant art of deception
The Swimming Pool,
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan (photo credit:
Japan National Tourism)
Is your mind playing games with you? At first glance, when viewed from
above, the swimming pool appears to be filled with deep, shimmering
water. But wait...aren't those people in regular street clothes
standing on the bottom of the pool & gazing upward? And without air
tanks?
"The Swimming Pool," by 43-year-old Argentinian artist Leandro
Erlich, is actually an empty swimming pool topped by a layer of water
about 10 centimeters deep suspended over transparent plexiglass.
This 2004 permanent exhibit is among the many other artistic creations
from wide-ranging
fields at the 21st
Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa,
Japan. Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture and is well-known
not only as the home of some of Japan's most respected artists &
museums, but
also for the centuries-old Kenrokuen Garden, one of Japan's 3 most
beautiful gardens, as well as for Kanazawa Castle, which was built in
the 1580s.
For a view from inside the pool & below the water, click here.
Jan. 14,
2016 - Save the Gyotoku Bird Observatory (行徳野鳥観察舎)!!
The Gyotoku
Bird Observatory
is a 56-hectare natural habitat for aquatic birds located in Ichikawa,
Chiba. It was built by a non-profit organization (NPO) 37 years ago as
a wildlife protection area to serve as a wild bird sanctuary.
As one of the biggest landing zones in Japan for some migratory aquatic
birds like terns and greater scaups, the Gyotoku Bird Observatory has
attracted thousands
of birdwatchers from all over Japan & overseas. The facility
includes
a 3-story visitor center and educational facility, as well as a small
adjoining bird hospital to care for injured and sick wild birds. The
2nd floor has 44 telescopes and a large picture window for viewing the
expansive wildlife protection area.
But just last month, the Chiba prefectural assembly decided to close
the observatory indefinitely, due to severe damage to the building
caused by the disastrous earthquake that occurred in Japan on March
2011. The prefectural assembly is not planning to either resume
operations or reconstruct the observatory, but rather to reclaim the
bird sanctuary wetland.
If this decision stands, Japan will lose a national treasure where
generations of children will no longer be able to benefit from learning
about and experiencing natural wildlife and the ecosystem. And we will
lose a great place to observe aquatic
birds in their natural waterfront habitat.
As a result, Kaoru Hayashi has started an online petition
@ Change.org directed toward Chiba governor Kensaku Morita to encourage
his
government to reconsider their decision. If we can save the Gyotoku
Bird Observatory, the NPO can continue its vital community
service to allow local residents as well as visitors to experience the
great nature of Gyotoku.
Kaoru is a veterinary medical science student at The University of
Tokyo who benefited tremendously from often visiting the bird sanctuary
as a child, having been raised in the nearby Shiohama area.
Having lived in the area myself, I've visited the Gyotoku
Bird Observatory
numerous times, and the place has touched my soul in such a
profound way that I even built a special webpage about it a few
years ago. As a nature lover & bird watcher myself, thru the years
I
found this bird sanctuary to be a very therapeutic spot for me
to escape Tokyo's concrete jungle.
If you'd like to learn more or would care to sign the online petition,
please visit: Change.org
It's going to be a very sad day indeed if we lose it. Thanks for your
support!
Sun. afternoon tour of 56-acre Gyotoku Bird Observatory,
Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan
Jan. 13,
2016 - Tokyo Metro's
Mega Solar (メガソーラー) project
Since the big 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami, Tokyo
Metro, the operator of Tokyo's largest subway system which transports
nearly 7 million passengers daily, has been working diligently toward
reducing its power costs and carbon footprint. Thus, it has a goal to
keep its total energy consumption in Fiscal 2020 at a level lower than
the actual consumption in Fiscal 2009.
One of its strategies for achieving this was the recent installation
between 2012 & 2015 of rooftop solar panels at its 8 aboveground
stations on the Tozai Line. These include, from west to east,
Nishi-Kasai, Kasai, Urayasu, Minami-Gyotoku, Gyotoku, Myoden,
Baraki-Nakayama, and Nishi-Funabashi Stations.
Rooftop solar panels on the Tozai Line's Urayasu Station (photo credit: Tokyo
Metro)
The stations individually generate anywhere from 93-253 kW of
electrical power, or a total electricity output from all 8 stations of
about 1 megawatt. This annual generating capacity of around 1.1 million
kWh, equivalent to the annual power consumption of 322 households,
provides for the lighting, air conditioning/heating, elevators, &
escalators at the stations.
Here's Tokyo Metro's 45-second promo video (in Japanese) showing its
Mega Solar (メガソーラー) project:
Tokyo Metro's 45-second promo video of its
Mega Solar (メガソーラー) project
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
@ YouTube here.)
Jan. 9,
2016 - Rambling Steve
Gardner, live @ What the Dickens, Jan. 8, 2016
Last night I had the honor of hearing one of my favorite musicians,
Mississippi native and globetrotting bluesman Rambling Steve Gardner,
who kicked off the 2016 live music schedule at the "What the Dickens"
British pub in Ebisu, Tokyo.
Not only is Steve without question Tokyo's most accomplished harmonica
playin' & finger pickin', slide playin' blues guitarist, he is also
a university professor who has traveled to several universities around
Japan, playing the blues and doing programs on Mississippi and southern
U.S. culture. He also travels the world making music and giving
seminars about musical history.....in fact, he has tours booked during
the
next 3 months in Hawaii & Mississippi.
If all that weren't enough, Steve spends a lot of his time in
Fukushima, having made over 50 trips in recent years, working in
association with the Tokyo American Club’s Women’s Group to play his
music or conduct workshops, especially to boost the morale of child
victims of the big 2011 earthquake/tsunami who are still suffering from
a fairly high level of depression.
For more on Steve and his music, including his videos, photos, blog,
& live gig schedule, head on over to: http://stevegardner-roots-n-blues.ning.com/
(Don't miss his amazing rendition of Hank Williams' 1953 classic, "Your
Cheatin' Heart" on his 12-string National Reso-Phonic left-handed
guitar.)
Rambling Steve
Gardner, live @ What the Dickens, Jan. 8, 2016
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
@ YouTube here.)
This 4-lesson American English pronunciation mini-course focuses on the
most common & troublesome pronunciation problems that my students
have struggled with through the years. These include the TH/S, R/L,
B/V, & F/H sounds.
Each lesson contains 3 exercises (speaking, listening, &
dictation), which have been intentionally simplified to aid the
learning process.
And although this mini-course is tailored to Japanese learners, it may
prove useful to non-native English learners from other countries as
well.
Jan. 2,
2016 - "How
To Win Friends and Influence People"
The other day I was reminded in Dan
Miller's Dec. 29 podcast about a very important principle from Dale
Carnegie's best-selling "How
To Win Friends and Influence People" book about making other people feel
important and that it be done sincerely.
Here it is in a nutshell...
6 WAYS TO MAKE PEOPLE LIKE
YOU:
1) Become genuinely interested in other people.
2) Smile.
3) Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and
most important sound in any language.
4) Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5) Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6) Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
It's an important principle which I've always found works well for me
personally, since first being introduced to this remarkable book early
in my professional career. So I doubt I'll be changing horses in
midstream anytime soon.
Thanks to Dan's kindness, you can download a free pdf of "How
To Win Friends and Influence People" on his Dec. 29 podcast page linked
above.
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(round tuit).
I finally finished My Boracay, Philippines Travel Adventure webpage. I
posted my pics on this
page Feb. 20, my video on Feb. 22, and just tonight I finished my
4,250-word page
describing in detail the magical 7 days I spent in this gorgeous
Pacific island paradise last month. Whew!! It was a borderline
gargantuan
effort, but at least hopefully no one will be able to accuse me of not
being thorough. 
(takeoff
from Boracay Airport) 
icon in the
upper right to view entire album as an automated slideshow)
book about making other people feel
important and that it be done sincerely. 
