Happy Valentine's Day!

Yup, it's that time of year again -- time to celebrate one of the most commercial holidays of the year (probably neck and neck with Christmas and Halloween -- your choice). I'm laughing at my co-worker, right now, as he sits and ponders (and stresses) as to what he should take home to his girlfriend (flowers or chocolate?). It's also probably THE holiday, if you have a significant other, when you shouldn't come home empty-handed -- unless you're a guy in Japan (or Korea or Taiwan, I'm told). He was shocked when I told him that in Japan, the guys get something on V-day, but then have to reciprocate one month later (March 14) on "White Day".

Watch out for bad gyoza!

Well, if you haven't been perusing the Japanese headlines, lately, you probably don't know about the big "gyoza" scare that's been going on. Apparently, a bunch of frozen gyoza (both meat and vegetable versions) from China has been tainted with pesticides getting people sick. This, has also been hurting business for gyoza restaurants leading some to take gyoza-related items off of their menus. I wonder if this would affect gyoza in other countries as well.

I Can Get My MUJI now!

Mujirushi-ryohin (Muji, for short) along with UNIQLO, and Tokyu Hands were my fave stores in Japan. Looks like the first Muji store in the US is now open! :) It opened last month in NYC.

Gairaigo -- beneficial for who?

This is nothing new, but I thought this article was an interesting one commenting on the concern over the abuse of borrowing loan words (gairaigo) from other languages, particularly English, when there are already perfectly good Japanese phrases that can describe something.

If this is a benefit to anybody, it should be for us non-native Japanese speakers. But seriously, if someone were speaking to you in Japanese, would you be able to understand them if they said something like this: "pa-bu-ri-kku-i-n-bo-ru-bu-me-n-to". Say it with me...come on, I know you want to. :) Or how about this one? "ro-do-pu-ra-i-shi-n-gu"(unless you have a knack for phonetics, you may need to read the article to see what these actually mean). I'm guessing, in the end, though, nobody really benefits from stuff like this.

Earthquake hits Northwestern Japan

All over the news today: a major earthquake registering 6.8 on Japan's meteorological agency's scale (US Geological Survey put it at 6.6) shook the northwestern coast of Japan (Niigata-ken) causing a fire at a nuclear power station and sparking fears of tsunamis. The earthquake killed nine people and injured another 1,000.

This puts nuclear safety in the limelight as authorities feared the accident could raise public doubts over all of Japan's nuclear reactors. The country relies on the generators for about 1/3 of its electricity.

Ichiro will stay with the M's for roughly $100m

Wow, that sounds like a LOT of money. Do the Mariners need Ichiro THAT badly? Well, if you look at other ex-M's stars, you'll see that this isn't all THAT crazy:

The M's tried keeping Ken Griffey Jr. with a $148 million over 8 years contract, but he left to be closer to his family.

When A-Rod became a free agent in 2000, the M's didn't want to pay him the $252 million 10-year contract the Rangers shelled out. THAT would've been crazy.

So does Ichiro really need the Mariners? He seems happy at Safeco Field. He also seems to enjoy playing for teams for long periods of time (he played with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan for 9 seasons).

If anything, this is a great time for M's fans. You've got a future Hall-of-Famer on your hands...

Kobayashi Loses

If you're a U.S. Citizen, hope you had a Happy Fourth of July! Ever since I made the trek to Coney Island a few years ago to watch the annual Nathan's hot-dog eating contest (took the photo to the left in 2003), I couldn't help but continue watching Takeru Kobayashi's dominance in the event and wonder if anyone would ever catch him.

Well, this year, he lost the competition and a few hot dogs along the way (as in barfing). The six-time defending champion barely won last year's event to San Jose (California) native, Joey Chestnut. This year, Chestnut came back with a vengeance and ingested a record-setting 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes needed to win the crown. Gives me indigestion just thinking about it.