Problems commenting on my blog?
A couple of people have sent me emails recently, telling me that they are having problems commenting on my blog. The problem seems to be with the authentication code that you are supposed to type in not appearing on the screen when you try to leave a message. This problem only seems to be happening the 2nd time a user leaves a message (presumably something to do with the computer remembering your details or a glitch in the space/time continuum or something like that!). Well the news is that I am working on a solution and have tried a couple of things to maybe sort it out. “Jan” left me 2 messages on the site last night which gives me hope that maybe the problem has been resolved, but if you have a minute or 2, please try posting a couple of comments on my stories. If you have any issues, use the contact me link at the top of the page to let me know.
Thanks.
Student teachers have arrived
Another slight personal update today (as you might be able to tell, I have quite a bit of free time on Mondays!). June is the time of year when student teachers come to various schools throughout Japan for a few weeks of teaching experience, both watching and then later taking part in lessons. The student teachers are university teachers and will be 21 years old, give or take a year. They always come looking exactly the same: same hairstyle (differing ever so slightly between males and females), black suits, white shirts/blouses and darkish coloured tie for men. This seems to be the case for anyone newly entering a workplace in Japan. But this year was a little different as I walked into the school staffroom and suddenly realised that I knew 3 of the students! Now comes the more scary thing from my point of view: I know them because I have taught them! In my first year here in Okinawa, these three were 3 of my favourite English students. And now I’m going to be teaching a class with at least one of them and maybe two of them. It will feel a little strange and makes me feel very old; I shouldn’t be teaching WITH my students! But it should be a good few weeks as we learn from each other and I get the chance to catch up with a few people from my past.
Suicides in Japan: no support for people in need
A couple of weeks ago you may recall I posted an article about suicide in Japan, why it has been rising and what is being done/can be done in order to bring it down. I gave a few examples, and included that of a singer called Kago Ai (pictured below), who was in a group called Morning Musume. In that entry I made comment about the Up-Front Agency, who managed Ai at the time, and who offered her little support when the media was just using her for easy target practice. Well, it seems like the Up-Front Agency, were actually doing something to Kago Ai to rehabilitate her after the first incident. It seems that they had her placed under house arrest so that she could cause no more scandals for them. I kid you note, and here is a translated press release that was distrubuted by the Up-Front Agency:
To whom it may concern:
Regarding our client Kago Ai and the article in the weekly magazine that went on sale on March 26th, the information in the article has been verified with Kago herself, to our regret.
One year ago, when Kago was 17 and the smoking problem happened, we still considered her future in this company, and as punishment, she was imposed to house arrest in her parents’ home. Seeing how she had progressed over that year, it was decided to start from scratch and start preparing for a comeback by bringing her to Tokyo and having her do clerical and other office duties, starting on January 23rd. Although this worked out well for two months, there was another incident and the comeback plan was abandoned. After consulting with the family, as she is a minor, it has been confirmed, and she has been released from her contract.
We’re very sorry that it has come to this, and accept full responsibility.
We feel a renewed sense of responsibility for the future, especially when it comes to minors.
2007/3/26 Kawaguchi Yuukichi, Representative Director, Up Front Agency
So one recorded incident of her smoking had her placed under house arrest, all of her singing and showbiz career coming to an abrupt halt, and made to become an office lady as she is re-educated on how she “should” behave. And then when she was seen with an older man, it was decided the re-education wouldn’t work and that she was a lost cause and should be dropped. The “accept full responsibility” is a joke, as if they had done this then they would try and help & support her if they thought it was their fault. But saying that would save face, which is what it’s all about here. When something like that happens, you can imagine where she’s coming from in thinking about taking her own life.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, the support for people here is shocking, and until this gets addressed and people are seen as more than financial commodities, this will not change.
A crazy goes crazy in a crazy part of Tokyo
A chilling story for you here, which most of you have probably read about by now so I will try and give you a different slant and opinion on it. The news event I am talking about is the one which happened in the Akihabara district of Tokyo yesterday, in which a man went on what I believe constitutes a “spree”, killing 7 people and injuring 10 others.
For those that have yet to read the story, here is a brief summary. This guy, 25-year old Tomohiro Kato rented a truck in Shizuoka Prefecture, on the way to Tokyo. Once he got to the Japanese capital he headed to the Akihabara district. This is a popular area of Tokyo with both Japanese and foreigners. It is the electronics district of Tokyo and on Sundays some of the main roads are pedestrianised. Arriving in Akihabara at 12:30pm, this man proceeded to ram his truck into a bunch of people. He then got out and started stabbing wildly with a 13cm-bladed survival knife, aiming first for the people he had hit with the truck (slower targets) and then anyone he could get to, as he headed into the labyrinth of alleys in Akihabara. The police acted quickly (and deserve commendation for their actions), restrained & arrested the man, and seized his knife. Kato told police, “I came to Akihabara to kill people… I am tired of the world… Anyone was OK. I came alone”. At the time of arrest he was only charged with attempted murder as none of the suspects had died, but since then 6 men and 1 woman between the ages of 19 and 74 have died. The deceased have been confirmed as Mai Muto (21), Kazuhiro Koiwa (47), Katsuhiko Nakamura (74), Mitsuru Matsui (33), Kazunori Fujino (19), Naoki Miyamoto (31), and Takahiro Kawaguchi (19).
Finally some diving news!
It has been a long time coming, but I have a bit of diving news to report. The water is warming up, and so on Saturday I arranged an Open Water pool session that has been put off since the water started getting cold back in November. The day was a success on the whole and am now looking forward to getting into the water with those students at the start of July.
The day didn’t start too well, with rain scything down and strong winds on the west side of Okinawa. It was a good job we weren’t planning on getting into the ocean as there is no way we would have done it. Things didn’t improve when I got to the meeting spot and 5 minutes before we were all due to meet up one of my dive students called after being involved in a traffic collision. Not sure what happened exactly, but the main thing was she was physically OK. The car didn’t sound too good, with one of the front wheels not pointing the way it should, but cars can be repaired with money. So from 3 students we went down to 2, and those other two arrived promptly. We got gear and then headed off to the pool at Island Message in Sunabe.
Although we had done some of the skills before, I decided to run the course pretty much from scratch again as it had been a while since we’d done anything underwater. I was really pleased and, I have to admit, a little surprised at how well they did. Neither of them had any real problems, even when it came to the mask skills. The mask skills (filling it with water then clearing it, and removing the mask and putting it back on) are always the ones that could be tough for students. That skill is all psychological too: people often get worked up about water going in their nose and them inhaling it, that when they finally come down to doing the skill, they are so worked up that it happens just like that. The key with that skill is visualization; you have to picture yourself taking the mask off, the feeling of water touching your nose but not entering your nose, you keeping calm about it all etc. If you can picture yourself doing it, then you’ll do it without any problems. And I am happy to report both students did the mask removal first time, without any worries whatsoever. You could see the relief in their faces when they’d done it, along with the realization that it wasn’t nearly as tough as they’d built it up to be.
Once the mask skills are done, the rest of the session usually proves to be a breeze, and this one was no different. Smooth and methodical was the order of the day, and it worked well for both of them. So now I think we all look forward to the start of July (the next time we are all free) and a chance for us all to get into the ocean and see what diving is all about!