When I was a young kid growing up in Houston, Texas (trust me, that was
a very LONG time ago, ha ha), like a lot
of other American kiddos, I really looked forward to Saturday mornings.
Why? Well, for one thing there was NO SCHOOL! Yay! Also, as a result,
Saturday morning TV programming was almost exclusively for children…
cartoons, kids shows, Disney programs, game shows, etc.
So naturally, all of the TV commercials were directed towards us
youngsters… toys, games, candy, breakfast cereals, you name it.
Through the years I came to admire my favorite cartoon character by the
name of Tony the Tiger (トニー・ザ・タイガー). Born in 1952, Tony is the mascot
for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
breakfast cereal, known in Japan as Corn Frosty (コーンフロスティ)...
Read more and watch a video of Tony the Tiger TV commercials here: Tony the Tiger
Mar.
26, 2021 - In
view of the global pandemic, is it possible to climb Mt. Fuji
virtually?
YES!! The Mount
Fuji Virtual Challenge will take you on an
exciting
46-mile (74-km) adventure around the Fuji Five Lakes and then on to the
summit of Mount Fuji.... the tallest mountain in Japan.
Using their mobile iOS and Android apps, each time you complete a
distance-based exercise such as running, walking, cycling, swimming,
etc., you can enter the distance in miles (or kms) into the app either
manually or by syncing your activities from your favorite fitness
tracker or smartwatch.
After you reach Mt. Fuji's summit, you can celebrate your achievement
with a stunning, limited edition Mount Fuji Virtual Challenge
finisher's medal, which you can see being proudly displayed below
recently by
a couple friends of mine in Wisconsin!
Mt. Fuji Virtual Challenge finishers with their gorgeous medals
Mar. 20,
2021 - Spring has sprung!!
The springtime flowers in Japan bring a non-stop exhilarating display
of brilliant colors and sweet fragrances to titillate the senses. The
plum blossoms begin in mid-February, followed by the absolutely
breathtaking cherry blossoms, and then a continuous overlapping of
blooming periods for azaleas, camellias, wisteria, magnolias, peonies,
roses, tulips, pansies, irises, hydrangeas, etc. that last well into
mid-summer.
What you see now in the album linked below is just the start, so
I'll be adding more pics to it in the weeks ahead! Stay tuned and check
back soon!
Mar. 14,
2021 - Ikspiari's Rainforest Cafe in Tokyo, Japan
For the 1st time in AGES, yesterday I had a chance to dine again at the
jungle-themed Rainforest Café, this time at Japan's FIRST Rainforest
Cafe in the amazing 140-store Ikspiari shopping mall at the gateway
to
Tokyo Disney Resort.
Part adventure, part restaurant, and wholly entertaining for the whole
family, this cafe recreates a tropical rainforest with waterfalls, lush
vegetation, bird songs, elephants, gorillas, roaring thunder, and
colorful fish in a huge 5-meter-tall cylindrical aquarium.
I found the cafe's American favorites like guacamole, hamburgers, pork
chops, pasta, and seafood to be a bit pricey, but I'm sure that
includes the cost of the rainforest ambience and the elephant, gorilla,
and lightning & thunder shows every 5 minutes or so.
Ikspiari's
Rainforest Cafe in Tokyo, Japan
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
Mar. 13,
2021 - My shrimp cocktail yielded a shrimp tail clock
When I was a young kid, Mom always asked me not to play with my food.
Now 6 decades later, I’m still not listening.
Tonight I enjoyed my shrimp cocktail so much that I decided to make a
shrimp tail clock. And as you can see, that all went down about 7:15 pm.
Well, now you can see why my university students love me so much… I am
STILL a child!
Gary's shrimp tail clock
Mar. 5,
2021 - 2021 Cherry Blossom Forecast
Only 10 more days till the cherry blossoms are forecast to begin
blooming in Tokyo on Mar. 15! Yay! This is 11 days earlier than last
year and the 2nd earliest ever! Full bloom in Tokyo is forecast for
Mar. 23. Can't wait!
2021 cherry blossom front in Japan
(Source:
Japan Meteorological Corporation)
Mar. 3,
2021 - Ending Nighttime Urination
Too many trips to the toilet in the middle of the night? Frequent
nighttime urination is the #1 problem for many seniors, a number of
whom suffer dangerous falls to or from the toilet in a darkened home.
This is especially hazardous for elderly who must navigate up and down
stairs.
Many people think that frequent nighttime urination is just an
inevitable part of getting old, but we now know that most cases have a
specific cause: the water you consume during the day is being stored up
in a certain part of your body... and it's not where you think!
This 45-min. Japanese TV show with English subtitles reveals some very
shocking and surprising facts about how and where our bodies store
water and why it always seems to want to exit after we go to sleep.
Presented in a jocular, quiz-style game show format, it also includes 3
tips for what you can do about it.
I found the program very enlightening and well worth my time...
[Mar. 5
update: Dang, it looks like the video was made private! Sorry 'bout that.]
In short, because our calves store HUGE amounts of water, here were the
3 tips:
1) Wear medical compression stockings during the day
2) Lay down and elevate your legs 10-15 cm for around 30 minutes in the
afternoon
3) Reduce your salt consumption
Feb. 22,
2021 - Today's Humor: "Do you have a dime?"
Now that we all live in a masked society, what we often think we hear
is not
what was actually said. The funny comic strip below I discovered last
night by
accident on the back side of a sports news clipping Mom sent me from
the
Houston Chronicle newspaper.
"Do you have a dime?"
(Source: chron.com)
Feb.
19, 2021 - Marriott Marquis Houston's Lazy River pool
The Marriott Marquis' Texas-shaped Lazy River pool is now looking more
like frozen Alaskan tundra rather than a tropical
sunbathing spot in downtown Houston, Texas.
Marriott Marquis' Lazy River in Houson (Photo credit:
chron.com)
My heart goes out to the millions of folks in my home Lone Star State
without power, and dealing with record snowfalls and the coldest winter
storm in decades. And thank God for global warming! Can you imagine how
much worse it would be WITHOUT it?
Early in my professional career, I was a registered professional
traffic engineer in the states of Texas and Arizona. And part of my
duties, while working for state and city transportation agencies as
well as in the private sector for traffic engineering consulting firms,
was to design traffic signals, traffic signs, and pavement markings to
ensure the safety of our streets and highways.
Also, for a few years I was even licensed through the National Safety
Council as a Defensive Driving Course instructor. Needless to say,
developing a strong traffic safety consciousness was part of that work,
and which I have carried with me to this day, even though I haven’t
worked as a traffic safety engineer in over 3 decades now.
One of the fun things about working in the traffic safety field was
learning and sharing interesting, catchy traffic safety slogans that I
became aware of through the years... (Read more and check out my
list of slogans here.)
Feb. 9,
2021 - The Japan ‒ Texas Connection: Best Friends Forever (BFF)
Hot off the press! After years of just dreaming about it, I finally got
around to writing about the surprisingly large number of cultural and
business connections between the Land of the Rising Sun and my home
Lone Star State of Texas. I've been at it fairly consistently for the
past couple months now, and finally uploaded my latest ebook yesterday.
With over 80 images and 24,000 words of text, I first introduced some
interesting facts which highlight in general the many connections
between Texas and Japan.
I then covered other topics in more detail including early Japanese
settlers to southeast Texas over 100 years ago, sister city
relationships, Japanese gardens in Texas, the amazing Samurai Wall in
Dallas, the authentic Little Texas honky-tonk in the heart of Tokyo,
NASA, sports, education, and many other business, political, and
cultural connections which I hope will prove to be both interesting and
enlightening for the reader.
The free download is available in 7 different formats
from Smashwords, the world's largest publisher of indie ebooks. I hope
you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Enjoy!
The Japan ‒ Texas Connection: Best Friends Forever (BFF) ebook cover
[For iOS users, for best readability I recommend the epub version which
you can open up on your iPhone/iPad in the Apple Books app (the pdf
version had a few formatting conversion glitches this time, plus
doesn't include the ebook cover image). Instructions for viewing
options on other devices (e.g. Android, Kindle, etc.) are explained at
the top of Smashword's FAQ page.
It's already that time of year again when we might get a chance in
Tokyo
to view an amazing phenomenon known as "Diamond Fuji," when the sun
sets
into the cone of Japan's tallest peak, setting off sunbeams that
resemble a glittering diamond, and which is a popular target of both
amateur and professional photographers in Japan.
Until mid-February, if you're lucky, you might be able to catch Diamond
Fuji from the top of some of Tokyo's tallest buildings and towers.
In December 2014, I decided to put together the webpage linked
below, listing the best high-rise spots in Tokyo for viewing Diamond
Fuji along with recommended dates, sunset times, admission fees, and
links to their Google maps: Diamond
Fuji Viewing Spots, Dates, and Times in Tokyo
Best wishes! Let's get LUCKY!!
Diamond Fuji - July 30, 2012 (photo credit: The
Asahi Shimbun, Asia & Japan Watch)
Jan.
16, 2021 - Origami (折り紙) Changes Everything
The ancient art of paper folding known as origami (formed from 'ori
(折り)'
meaning folding and 'kami (紙)' meaning paper) has been used for
centuries,
but in recent years research teams have adapted the origami folding
technique to many other interesting applications, ranging from
microscopic stomach cleaning robots to solar sails and telescopes that
can unfold in outer space. One obstacle to its full potential, though,
has been achieving mass production.
Professor Ichiro Hagiwara, Ph.D., a professor in Meiji University's
Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences, and his origami
engineering research team have been working to solve this problem and
have successfully developed a 3D origami printer. He believes
origami-based manufacturing will greatly improve our lives in the near
future in fields like automobile safety technology, car parts, space
development systems, beverage containers, and more.
Watch the "Origami Changes Everything" video below to learn more. [The
video is also available with Japanese subtitles (日本語字幕) here.]
It's one of
several other videos in Meiji University's "Incredible Senseis" series
viewable here in a YouTube playlist.
Origami Changes
Everything
[The
video is one of
several others in Meiji University's "Incredible Senseis" series.]
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
Jan. 1,
2021 - 1st Sunrise of the New Year in Tokyo - 初日の出 Hatsuhinode
Hatsuhinode (初日の出) is the Japanese Shinto tradition of viewing the 1st
sunrise of the New Year to greet Toshigami (年神), the god of the New
Year, with hopes of receiving good luck, well-being, and health. Before
sunrise on January 1, many people will drive to the coast, climb a
mountain, or go to the top of a tall building or structure, like the
Tokyo Sky Tree or Tokyo Tower, to view it. Here's the one which
occurred in Tokyo this morning at 6:51 am. Happy New Year!! May we all
be blessed this year with "good luck, well-being, and health."
1st Sunrise of the
New Year in Tokyo - 初日の出 Hatsuhinode
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
The video's background music, George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun,"
is sung by Brooke White, an American indie pop singer-songwriter from
Arizona who was the 5th place finalist in the 7th season of American
Idol.
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like a lot
of other American kiddos, I really looked forward to Saturday mornings.
