Onions, onions, onions!!!
All around my town and the town next to mine, there are onions all out from the ground, ready to be sending to market!!

As onions being harvested, it is now the time for people to grow rice. A lot of rain pouring today, Japanese fields is changing the color. I will be updating the changes in the fields.

I was out with my best friend on Friday going to karaoke. The place is our favorite, because the price is reasonable and clean. During the weekdays, you only need to pay 750 yen for as much you want between the hours of 10.00a.m. ~18.00p.m.

I had lunch at my friend before going to karaoke, so we started sometime before 2.00p.m., so we ended up singing for four and twenty minutes and paid only 750 yen!!!　People in the States are more familiar with karaoke bars, but in Japan we have private rooms for everyone, even for a single person. Singing four hours and twenty minutes between two of us was pretty good work out, but my friend told me that her friends went to karaoke 12 hours straight!! I have done seven hours, so 12 hours singing is just crazy!!

Another thing I realize about karaoke in these days is that karaoke is becoming more international. Couple of years ago, there were only songs of Japanese and some English, but lately there are songs in Korean, Chinese and Filipino in addition. Unfortunately I can only sing in Japanese and English, but this is a good indicator of how Japan is slowly opening up for international people, or it can just be the karaoke market finds that this is a good field that they can invest including more songs with different languages. I wonder what will be the next language to be added to the karaoke books… I feel it could be Russian as there are quite few Russian people coming to Japan, or maybe French?

What do you think the next language to be added? Or what do you want to be added??

Some southern parts of Japan have already entered tsuyu; Tokyo has yet entered the season. However, last night heavy rain already reminded us all that thetsuyu season is about to begin. I bet many people would be rather annoyed with such heavy rainfall like last night that wet everyone’s clothes even having umbrellas; tsuyu season is also very beautiful and necessary for the agriculture and forestry of Japan.

Walking around my town today, I saw new lives coming out that are particular to this season. Earthworms are walking on the still wet road. Dokudami flowers flourish beautiful white flowers despite its rather strong smell. Don’t forget! This is also the time when mosquitoes start to annoy our peaceful lives with irritating sounds they make!!!　Be ready to set akatorisenkou (A traditional Japanese item used to kill mosquitoes with the smoke that is created from the rounded green thing in the last pic.)

One early morning in Tokyo last week, there was a baby found still alive in the garbage. It was so shocking that it reminded Japanese people of the akachan-post/baby post that was placed in Kumamoto Pref. just couple of weeks previous to this terrible crime.

With much debates of placing akachan-post, in such case of leaving just-born child, people wished that there was a post in the crime sense. On the other hand, the first child placed in the post was three-years-old, thus the usage of the post was from the very beginning misused. Sadly to such two crimes, there have been many news about leaving children to death or still alive in various parts of Japan.

Today, there was another baby found dead in Sapporo, Hokkaido Pref. In comparison to the case of Tokyo, this Sapporo case was devastating. In the case of Tokyo, the baby was fortunate to be found alive before the garbage cars collected trash. However, in the case of Sapporo, the baby was found dead in a cooler who seems to be died soon after birth and weighted only 2 kilograms with navel still being attached.

How can people so easily dump innocent lives who have no choice of choosing their parents!?

Report from Mainichi Daily News and Asahi Evening Newspaper

http://http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070531p2a00m0na020000c.html

http://http://www.asahi.com/

There might be many factors that have resulted in the success of Japanese women’s winning. I am not a big fan of watching Miss. Universe, but as much as I have known, there have been dramatic changes for whom to be chosen for Top 5 or Top 10. It is not only the physical beauty, but also intelligence, charismatic character, and communication ability has been so crucial. Japanese contestants have been changing into ladies with having all of these qualities as well as having extra point being exotic.

I remember watching Miss. Universe when I was in junior high school and I always felt funny how Japanese contestants wore old fashioned dresses when all other contestants wore sexy, but appearing dress. Not only that, when I saw it then, Japanese contestant couldn’t speak English. However, Riyo Mori and Kurara Chibana both speak some English as well as they are capable of speaking several other languages.

Such success of these recent Japanese contestants has been possible with great sponsors who teach manners, healthy diet, what to read and how to exercises. According to Japanese media, there is a French woman who is behind such Japanese success story for the past ten years. Not much information of this lady is out there, but this French woman has been crucial for Japanese Miss Universe contestants to be set in the right path for the winning many prices for especially for the past five years.

Photos and some info from Miss Universe Official HP.

http://http://www.missuniverse.com/

Shocking news in Japanese music society suddenly crossed the nation two days ago. Izumi Sakai known for the leading vocal for ZARD passed away from slipping from the hospital slope on the 27th resulted in death. She was originally hospitalized for the treatment for cancer, but from the unfortunate event that took place early Saturday morning, it ended her 40 years of short life.

ZARD was extremely popular during the 90s and still very close to many Japanese people’s hearts. Izumi Sakai had such clear smoothing voice that was favored by wide range of age groups both men and women. Her most famous song 「負けないで/makenaide」was even used for the song for annual high school baseball competition as well as many other songs were used for dramas and TV anime. Although ZARD was most popular during the 90s, the songs are still very popular today that many people often sing at karaoke. I myself also just sang her songs two weeks ago, when I last went to karaoke.

According to Oricon today, ZARD’s 「Golden Best 15th Anniversary」that was released Last October has risen its ranking from outside of 100 to top 6 for the past two days since her death was announced. Not only have those, many fans gone to her memorial service to her office with tears in their eyes, disappointed about such early death.

http://http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070530p2a00m0et015000c.html

As well as those many fans, I am personally a big fan of ZARD. I am also very shocked and sad about such unfortunate event. I hope that she will remain in Japanese music and Japanese people forever.

Going to onsen/ryokan also comes with great Japanese food! Although our room attendant seems little slow with her work; brought rice and miso soup when tempra and all hot dishes got cold, the food was great. I also enjoyed little ume-wine that was served before the meal (Usually Ume-shu, Plum-Japanese sake is well known, but it was Plum-wine!!) After the meal, we also had a sakura-ice cream/cheery blossom ice cream, which was the highlight of the meal for the night.

Taking a break from busy Tokyo life costs a fortune. However, Hakone has always been a popular vacation spot for such busy people, as well as it has been a popular onsen/hot spring spot for family and elderly people. Taking Odakyu-line from Shinjuku, you can get to Hakone by not switching to any other trains.

A week passed my birthday, I took a weekend vacation to Hakone with my best friend. To be exact, I stayed at a traditional Japanese style hotel in Goura (Hakone is a broad area and Goura is one of the places in Hakone). The weather was perfect. I took a train to Hakoneyumoto by Odakyu-line and met a friend there. Driving up the hills of Hakone is rather tough for beginner drivers. The roads are steep and have many rough curves. It is well known for the steep hills that challenges many runners for Hakone-Ekiden; traditional college marathon festivals held every year. Below is a picture of Goura station.

Being in such rich green environment, I totally forgot the busy life that I always have. It made me want to come to Hakone every month to reset. I also have to admit that I was little jealous that my best friend works in Hakone where life is slow and the air is so fresh ( Not to mention the weekends traffic is usually really bad !!.)

Although I had always been not a strong onsen-lover, my best friend and I were in the onsen for over an hour. As the ryokan/Japanese style hotel only has 12 rooms, we had a huge bathroom for ourselves. I used to be really shy going to public naked, but only with my best friend, it was nothing. I even swam! I mean I think the real luxury going to Onsen is to swim in the huge bath tab as much as I want ^^

Are you looking for anything to do this weekend? My friend is performing in the ‘The Pirates of Penzance!’ this weekend. Unfortunately I cannot make it as I have some prior plan, but if anyone is bored or simply interested in seeing performing arts, this might to be it!!

Come see The Pirates of Penzance! The cast is very diverse in age and truly international representing Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Philippines, Japan, Netherlands, USA, to name a few. It has been a lot of fun building up this grand operatic parody of the Victorian era! They have had some press in Metropolis : http://http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/recent/agenda.asp as well as the weekender and our musical director, Katherine Cash was featured in the Japan Times on May 5th http://http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070505vk.html

Don’t miss a rare occasion in Tokyo theater!

(Unfortunately Sat tickets are already sold out >.

With yummy smelling Brazilian soap and bath-salts from various well-known Onsen (hot spring) of Hokkaido, I got two pigs! One is a pig body sponge and another is a big ashitsubo (foot therapeutic point) massager. My friend who got two of these gifts in the picture told me that when she went looking for gifts for my birthday and other friends, she somehow found herself picking up pig-character goods quite often.

Is this the time to relax with pigs??