He's in Jingu Stadium near the center field entrance.
Labels:
baseball,
food,
sports,
Tokyo Swallows,
TPR
Garrett and I recently finished our 2008 Season Preview for the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NPB) over at TPR.
It includes a 30 minute podcast and lots of prognostications about what might be expected this season.
I posted again over at Trans-Pacific Radio on the upcoming baseball season.
This time the article is about player moves during the off-season. There were several sales and trades, and a bunch of good free agents headed for the majors.
Please have a look and leave a comment over there.
Click here to read NPB: Off-Season Player Moves.
Two guys who are mentioned in the article are former Tokyo Swallows players Alex Ramirez and Seth Greisinger. The were both allowed to leave after the club decided (incorrectly) that they were replaceable.
A huge hole in the outfield has been left by Ramirez, and the team is now looking for its new ace pitcher.
TPR has a good write-up on the South Korean independence movement that occurred on March 1st, 1919.
On the Korean calendar the "day" is referred to as 삼일절 (samiljeol), and the independence movement itself is known as 삼일 운동 (samil undong).
Labels:
history,
holidays,
South Korea,
TPR
Japan Economy News' Ken Worsley was interviewed for the Times' blogroll (article in English).
As you've probably figured out by now, Ken is a director at TPR (where I sometimes post) as well.
Labels:
Japan Economy News,
TPR,
websites
Fake degree scandals are a dime a dozen in South Korea (click here, here or here for recent examples) . The testing/credential-obsessed nation has been forced to do some soul-searching as it turned out that non-Korean English teachers (mostly teaching kids at private language schools) weren't the only ones being dishonest.
Now it appears that the same thing is going on in Japan. Personally, I'm not surprised because like South Korea, Japan is also crazy about testing kids into oblivion in order to earn four-year holidays at name-brand schools so that they can then cop desk jobs at name-brand companies.
The story in the Yomiuri was quiet enough. Japan has suffered through its own share of corruption scandals this year. Dishonesty has been rife enough in business and politics that people are a little corruption-weary at this point, so there's no telling if the masses are willing to tolerate another eduction-related scandal at this point. Many will recall the string of bullying-related suicidesbullying-related suicides that broke in junior and senior high schools at the end of 2006. Perhaps this next scandal will have to wait until 2008.
In case you didn't read it, here's a quote from the Yomiuri article:
Forty-eight academics at 43 universities possess bogus diplomas they were
awarded by overseas organizations claiming to be universities, an Education,
Science and Technology Ministry investigation has revealed.
Labels:
business,
crime,
education,
life in Japan,
news,
society,
South Korea,
TPR
Head on over to Trans-Pacific Radio for a quick podcast dealing with the Pacific and Central league editions of the Climax Series (Japanese baseball playoffs).
Yes, I recorded it myself.
DeOrio and I just posted another podcast dealing with Japanese baseball over at TPR .
This podcast deals with the Central League (the league that our beloved Tokyo Swallows play in).
I encourage you to read the article and listen to the podcast. The content differs quite a bit between the two...which is probably due to the fact that we were drinking when we recorded it.
If so, you had better listen to this. TPR interviewed several people connected to NOVA, and a lot of useful information ended up in the podcast posted over at TPR in the form of a podcast titled Nova Employees: Their Voices, Their Stories.
Garrett DeOrio's detailed introduction to the LDP presidential election, was published over at Pajamas Media (they actually posted it about an hour or two after the election results were announced, but we won't hold that against them).
Lots of interesting tidbits about Japanese politics in that article, so read up!
Labels:
Pajamas Media,
politics,
TPR
TPR is looking to interview people who work for NOVA language schools. It doesn't matter what your position is within the company, please get in touch with them if you're willing to be interviewed for a docomentary that they're doing.
So if you or somebody you know might be interested, click here for more information, or email: transpacificradio@gmail.com.
For more evidence that the end is near, read this article from the Mainichi.
A new podcast on Japanese professional baseball (Pacific League) was just released over at Trans-Pacific Radio.
Just like last time, there is a very large difference between the print and audio versions of the publication. There's a big more background and history involved in the podcast itself.
Thanks for listening!
DeOrio (of TPR fame) wrote a good piece for Pajamas Media about the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.
Labels:
Pajamas Media,
politics,
TPR
I'm watching it unfold on TV right now.
He's scheduled to make an official resignation speech soon (2pm Tokyo time).
More over at TPR.
Does this mean that Taro Aso (in terms of competence and intelligence, he is Japan's version of Dan Quayle) is the new Prime Minister?
Update: [September 16, 2007, 9:19 pm]
It looks like Fukuda has garnered heaps more support than Mr. Aso, so we can rest easy knowing that Aso will miss another chance at being the prime minister of Japan.
The election for president of the LDP, who is then crowned PM, will take place on Sunday the 23rd of September.
Mr. Idubor has been locked up. This case sounds very similar to what happened to my friend, Josh, a couple of years ago.
Labels:
crime,
justice,
life in Japan,
news,
TPR
This article in the Guardian talks about how school children in Taiji, Japan are being fed dolphin meat that has alarmingly high levels of Mercury.
I have complained about the practice of hunting dolphins before, and it was also discussed at length in the comments section of this post over at TPR, and now finally some people close to the hunt are breaking rank and sounding the alarm.
Not that anyone in the Japanese media is paying attention.
Labels:
health,
life in Japan,
politics,
society,
TPR
Wow, that was quick!
Only one week after being appointed to the post of Agriculture Minister, Takehiko Endo submitted his resignation today to take responsibility for financial improprieties.
This is another big embarrassment for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government. He just reshuffled his cabinet last week in response to his party's resounding defeat in the July House of Councillors election. Endo was one of his new appointees.
Endo is the third Farm Minister to bow out in shame since Abe became Prime Minister last September. Toshikatsu Matsuoka ended up committing suicide in response to a political funds scandal, and his successor, Farm Minister Norihiko Akagi, was forced to resign over a separate scandal. Endo is the third Farm Minister to resign from the post in the last year.
Wait a minute, I thought that corruption was only a problem in developing countries!?!
I just posted again over at Trans-Pacific Radio. This time I wrote about Japanese Professional Baseball.
Please swing by and have both a look and a listen. The podcast is in interview form (as are all the posts in the "Spotlight" section of that site), and it diverges sharply from what is written in the post itself.
You can listen to the podcast without actually downloading it. Just click on the little doohickey that says "listen now".
