25 March 2009

ECONOMY or ECOLOGY










According to most of media, we are in depression once in a century. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda and other automotive makers are suffering with this depression. Sales of cars in Japan marked the lowest since 1979. But Honda’s new eco-friendly car Insight received over 10 thousand of orders. Insight is eco-friendly and it is an economy car. It is cheaper than Prius (Toyota’s eco-friendly car).

Most of countries are announcing their policy to boost the economy. In Japan, the government decided to provide 12,000 yen (about 120 USD)to all of Japanese person. (20,000 yen (about 200 USD) for kids and elder person)
Also they decided to special deal of using express way with ETC. (ETC is electronic toll collection systems. If you use ETC, you don’t have to stop your car at toll gate.) If we use ETC and drive our car on express way, we don’t have to pay more than 1,000 yen (about 10 USD). This special deal is only for private use car and only on holidays. I think it is good for car users to go to trip.

According to the JITA (Japan Electronics Information Technology Industries Association), February’s sales of ETC was 45% more than its sales in January. Yes, many people are buying this to get the special deal. This policy is effective for most of car users in Japan. But this policy is not good for business drivers. They must pay usual toll even they are using ETC. I think, it is not good. The government should act for business drivers too.

By the way, today’s title “ECONOMY or ECOLOGY”. This special deal is good for economy. But how about for ecology? ETC users are increasing day by day. And most of them will use express way more than before. They will drive their car to go to trip with using express way. Then I think, amount of exhaust gas would increase rapidly. Most of ecologist are saying this exhaust gas is one of cause of the global warming. Of course, most of them are driving eco-friendly cars like Insight and Prius, it is not so bad. But most of people are driving old and not fuel-efficient cars, I think.

So, what should we do? Buy the expensive eco-friendly car?

For ecology, the government decided to aid for eco-friendly car buyers. It is good deal for rich person who are planning to buy eco-friendly car. Most of cars’ prices are including tax of course. But this is aid to reduce its tax. I heard, if you buy Prius or Insight, you don’t have to pay tax price. The government believe that this aid would boost the sales of eco-friendly car more. But I don’t think so. Because most of eco-friendly cars are expensive than other cars because these cars including new technology. Then we are in depression, most of people are not planning to buy new car, I think. Some rich person would buy these eco-friendly cars but most of us wouldn’t buy it...
But it is good aid for rent-a-car companies. If these companies would stock these eco-friendly cars, some people that can’t buy eco-friendly cars would rent it like me. I don’t have plan to buy eco-friendly car because I don’t have to drive car so many time. But if I have a time to drive a car, I wanna rent eco-friendly car:)

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!
http://web.mac.com/masaya.09.11/MaSaYa_Web_Page/
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Posted by Masaya at 15:29
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24 March 2009

Again and again part 2

Today I watched WBC game on TV again! Today was the final game of WBC 2009. This game started at 10.30 am in JST. And this was 6th game with South Korea national team. Of course, I believed that Japan national team would win the game and became the champion again!

Then today's game.
Japan national team took a 1 point lead in the 3rd inning. But Korea national team also took 1 point in the 5th inning. At end 9th, score was 3-2. Japan had one point lead. And I believed that Darvish will keep this one point. But....

In the 10th inning, Ichiro did great job! I was a little concerned about him but he did it!!
Then Japan won!!!
Yes, Japan became the champion of WBC again!

Of course, South Korea national team was really nice team and this final game was the best game of WBC 2009. But we won...

I also hope that Japan national team will be champion next time again. But I don't know when the next WBC will be hold... lol

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!
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Posted by Masaya at 17:32
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23 March 2009

Again and again

Did you see the WBC game? Of course, WBC is World Baseball Classics. Today I watched the semi-final game Japan national team vs. the United States national team. I didn't have a much time to go to the United States then I watched it on TV. Japan national team is the defending champion of WBC. And I hope day will do it again!

Today Japan national team won the game then they will have game tomorrow. Tomorrow's game is Japan national team vs. South Korea national team. They did game 5 times in this WBC. In 2006, they did it many times too. I don't know who made this schedule but I felt something different.

Why did we need to have game 5 times? Of course, South Korea national team do nice play. And they are strong I think. But I hope Japan national team will win and become champion of WBC again!!

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!
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Posted by Masaya at 13:50
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20 March 2009

Graduation ceremony











Yesterday, we had the graduation ceremony. Then we could graduate from our college. lol
Our college is different from other universities in Japan. Half of my class mates will work for their companies from April. Rest of them go to other universities or advanced course. I will go to advanced course. Every one chose different course. We might not be able to see them again... But we might be able to see them again...

Japanese words "一期一会(ichigoichie)" means meeting only once in a lifetime. Also we must savor every meeting that will never recur.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!
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Posted by Masaya at 13:18
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18 March 2009

Convenience stores











Last week, I went to Okinawa with my friends. We were driving car there because we couldn’t use train... At that time, we couldn’t find 7-ELEVEn there.

In Tokyo, there are many types of convenience stores. These are 7-ELEVEn, LAWSON, FamilyMart, Circle K Sunkus, Ministop, am/pm, Daily YAMAZAKI and etc. But in Okinawa, we found only LAWSON and FamilyMart. According to the Ministry of Economy and Industries’ research, there are 32.16 convenience stores per hundred thousand people in Okinawa. There are 33.47 convenience stores per hundred thousand people (national average). So, there are many convenience stores in Okinawa. But we could find only LAWSON or FamilyMart there...

Then, I searched other convenience stores’ web site afte I came back from Okinawa. According to their web site, 7-ELEVEn, Circle K Sunkus, Ministop, am/pm and Daily YAMAZAKI don’t have there stores in Okinawa prefecture. I didn’t know about that... I believed that there are 7-ELEVEns in Okinawa too... lol

Anyway, I went to the main island of Okinawa only this time. Then if I have a chance to go there again, I wanna go to the other island too.

Thank you.
Good day & Peace and Smile!
http://web.mac.com/masaya.09.11/MaSaYa_Web_Page/
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Posted by Masaya at 15:46
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