Arashi 嵐

After watching the series Hana Yori Dango on the net, I became familiar with the boy band Arashi 嵐. All Hana Yori Dango's theme song was sung by Arashi. The first song was entitled "Wish" from HYD 1, "Love so Sweet" from HYD 2 and "One Love" theme song of Hana Yori Dango Final The Movie. Out of the 3 songs I like Love so Sweet the most, in fact I have downloaded this song to make it as my phone's ringtone. I provided a bit info about this Japanese boy band, check it out.


Biography

嵐 means storm in Japanese, consist of five members under the management of Johnny and Associates. The group made their debut on September 15, 1999 in Honolulu Hawaii. Arashi covers a wide range of music, including R&B, hip hop and various forms of pop music. Aside from being a popular idol group in Japan, the group is widely known across Asia and to J-pop fans all over the world.
Members:
Masaki Aiba, Sho Sakurai, Satoshi Ohno, Kazunari Ninomiya and Jun Matsumoto

To date, Arashi has released ten albums (which includes eight studio albums and two compilation albums) and twenty-two singles. The group's latest single is "Beautiful Days", which is the theme song for the Japanese television drama, Ryusei no Kizuna. This is Arashi's 13th straight number one release and their 21st number one overall.

Studio albums
2001: Arashi No.1 Ichigou - Arashi wa Arashi o Yobu!
2002: Here We Go!
2003: How's It Going?
2004: Iza, Now!
2005: One
2006: Arashic
2007: Time
2008: Dream "A" live

Compilation albums
2002: Arashi Single Collection 1999-2001
2004: Arashi 5x5: The Best Selection of 2002-2004

Arashi's "Love So Sweet" music video, enjoy!!!

Japan Baseball: Giants VS. Lions

I am not a fan of baseball leagues. In the Philippines baseball is not a popular sport, I preferred basketball instead and watched NBA most often, my brothers always tune in to cable TV just to watch the NBA series. Our habit everynight is watching TV while eating dinner. My aunt's husband likes watching sports such as soccer, boxing, K1 (kickboxing) and baseball games. Recently, he always watched baseball because of the Championship series and at that point I got interested in baseball. I only knew 1 team in Japanese Baseball League and it's Chunichi Dragons. Honestly, I have knew this team because of Dragons Day SALE in the department stores with matching Dragons theme song playing over and over again. Out of curiosity, I asked my aunt about it and she explained that the Dragons is the Aichi prefecture's team in the baseball league, everytime they enter the championship series, all department stores and supermarket in Aichiken give special discounts. This season Chunichi Dragons made it to the championship series, but their battle for the championship easily ends. Yomiura Giants from Tokyo beated them. My uncle was a fan of Yomiuri Giants and as for me, though I am not an avid fan my bet is off course Chunichi Dragons. The battle continues for Yomiuri Giants as they face The Saitama Seibu Lion for the final leg of the series. Still my whole family here, were Giants, I go for Lions, why? Most players were handsome....

Seibu Lions defeat Yomiuri Giants in Game 7 to win Japan Series
TOKYO (AP) -- The Seibu Lions won their first Japan Series title since 2004 on Sunday by defeating the Yomiuri Giants 3-2 in Game 7. Former major leaguer Hiram Bocachica hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth inning and former New York Yankees pitcher Alex Graman recorded the final six outs for the save as the Lions won their 13th Japan Series title.

In fielder Hiroshi Hirao drove in the winning run with a single up the middle in the eighth inning at Tokyo Dome.
Seibu pitcher Takayuki Kishi, who was named series MVP, won Game 6 to set up the decisive Game 7.

It was a disappointing end to the season for the Giants, who built a 3-2 series lead before heading back to their home stadium for the final two games.The Giants signed former major leaguers Alex Ramirez and pitcher Seth Greisinger from the Yakult Swallows before the 2008 season. They also signed hard-throwing reliever Marc Kroon from the Yokohama BayStars in the offseason.

Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara was named manager of Japan's team for the 2009 World Baseball Classic before the start of the Japan Series but couldn't guide his team to their first championship since 2002.
(Mainichi Japan) November 10, 2008

Okazaki Castle

A friend of mine decided to give me a visit here in my place. My friend lives in Nagoya (名古屋)and compare to my place it is more rural with not so many places to go and hang out. Since my place is far from Nagoya, I told my friend to take Meitetsu (名鉄) Exp. limited via Toyohashi (豊橋), stopping at a limited stations and I will just meet him in Higashi Okazaki (東岡崎). Before we start our day trip in Okazaki, we ate first in Mc Donalds. Then from Higashi Okazaki (東岡崎) we walked all the way to Okazaki Park (岡崎公園 "Okazaki Koen"). We went to Okazaki Castle (岡崎城 "Okazaki Jyou"). The 2nd, 3rd, 4th floors of the castle tower have been converted into a museums. We decided to take a rest on top of the castle so, we can also enjoy the beautiful scenic view on top. After the castle we continued walking and decided to go to a game center near my place. From the park it took us 30 minutes to the game center. We spend our time playing video games and billiards. At the end of the day after walking for a long distance and doing activities, it's a good thing we never even felt tired.

OKAZAKI PARK (岡崎公園)

This park, spreading over 80,000 square meters around the Okazaki Castle, is known for its beautiful cherry blossoms. There is a Mikawa Samurai and Ieyasu Museum, which displays historical documents. There is a flower clock, a teahouse, a noh theatre, and a replica of Ieyasu dancing the noh dance (which is actually a clock.)

●561 Kosei-cho, Okazaki　TEL:0564-24-2204　a 10-minute walk from Meitetsu Higashi Okazaki Station.

Okazaki Castle (岡崎城)
THE HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

Tradition has it that the 1st Okazaki Castle was constructed at the present site in Sugo, Okazaki around 1455 by the Saigo family...In the 1st half on the 16th century, the Saigo family yielded possession of Okazaki Castle to Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, the 17th lord of the Matsudaira family (and the grandfather of Iyeyasu)..that had risen into power in northern Mikawa. The prevailing belief based on recent research work, however, is that the 1st half of the 15th century, and that Matsudaira Kiyoyasu moved it over to the present site in 1531..Incidentally, the original castle was most probably a fort of the main citadel today, on a small plot of land. In 1590, Tanaka Yoshimasa, then lord of the castle, enlarged the precincts surrounded with moats and Lord Honda Yasunori built a complex castle tower well worthy of the name. For 3 centuries, Okazaki Castle, honored as the birthplace of the deified Iyeyasu and cradle of the Tokugawa Shogunate, was guarded successively by the hereditary vassal daimyos. At the same time Okazaki was valued as a strategic point along the Tokaido Highway. In the Meiji Restoration Period, the feudal clans were abolished and in 1873-1874 , Okazaki castle was demolished, leaving only its moat and stone wall. In 1959, the triple-roofed , 5 story donjon, together with the annex and wellhouse , were reconstructed according to the original model.

OPEN 9am to 5pm
CLOSE Dec. 29-Jan. 1
FEE:
Okazaki castle -- adult 200 yen. / child 100 yen
Mikawa museum-- adult 350 yen / child 200 yen
Museum and Castle (combined) -- adult 500 yen / child 270 yen
Address: 561 Kousei-cho Okazaki, Aichi prefecture.

Japan in Crisis

Before leaving the house for work this early morning, the news on TV caught my attention. Due to economic crisis we are currently facing, a lot of people lost their jobs. Here in Japan, not only Japanese but most especially Foreigners were laid off, what I saw on TV, a lot of Brazillians in Hamamatsu went to City Hall asking for jobs. The company I was working with, is located in Toyota city, where the car manufacturer mogul Toyota Motors office and its car factories were located. So, the main industry here and to its neighboring cities were auto parts supplier for Toyota. Due to economic crisis we are facing, Toyota Motors scaled-down its production to 75%, leaving a lot of employees jobless and thus also created an impact to its suppliers. The situation made me feel bad, I felt sorry for those who lost their job, I am lucky I still maintain my job and I thank God for that.

Economic Crisis of 2008

It all started when the United States' economy collapsed, the serial bursting of the housing and financial bubbles and of the pursuance of the US dollar fall, means the virtual freeze of the American economic machinery: private and public bankruptcies in large numbers, companies and public services closing down massively. Thus creating a domino effect, neither Asia nor Europe as well as all the countries/economies strongly linked to the US will suffer the roughest, the most sustainable and the most negative impact of the ongoing crisis.

In Japan exports in June declined for the first time in about five years falling by 1.7 percent. Exports to the United States and European Union fell 15.4 percent and 11.2 percent respectively. The decline in exports and increase in imports cut Japan's trade surplus $1.28 billion a decline of 90 percent from the previous year. An economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland said the decline means the Japanese economy most likely declined in the second quarter. Taro Aso, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said he believes Japan had entered a recession. Japan's economy declined by 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2008. This was later revised to a decline of 0.7 percent. Japanese exports grew 0.3 percent in August of 2008 compared to a year before down from 8 percent the previous month. Exports to the U.S. fell 21.8 percent, the biggest decline on record, and exports to Europe fell 3.5 percent. Two Japanese banks appeared on the list of major Lehman creditors.

October 31, The Bank of Japan cut the key interest rate to 0.3 percent from 0.5 percent. This is the first cut in seven years. The move from Japan is the first that supports rate-cutting measures in response to the global financial crisis by other central banks. Some citizens say that the cut of 0.2 percent was desultory and the meeting of the nine member bank’s policy board showed how deeply divided they were.
Japan’s central bank have come under fire lately for its reluctance to reduce the key interest rate, which is already the lowest in the industrialized world, in an attempt bolster the stock market and to control the surging yen.
The interest rate cut that many economists though would have been halved to 0.25 percent came just a day after the government announced a $51 billion (£31 billion) stimulus package. Anal lists have said that the cut that was lower than expected would give off the wrong signals about Japan’s commitment to boost the global economy. In the stock market in Tokyo the Nikkei 225 index tumbled 5 percent to 8576.