Lonely post waiting for another Flood
Steppingstones; incarnation against the bad luck
Divine Comedy 2007 (VII)
[Comédie Divin 2007 - VII]
1. Summer Holidays
The Weekly Diamond, a Japanese business magazine, has made public the ranking of popular sight-seeing-spots/tourist-towns in Japan based on an Internet survey (with Japanese respondents).
#........Town............Prefecture.......No. of Votes
1........Kyoto................Kyoto..............423
2........Shiretoko..........Hokkaido.........213....(peninsula)
3........Sapporo............Hokkaido.........207
4........Naha.................Okinawa..........195
5........Hakodate..........Hokkaido.........192.....(port)
6........Otaru................Hokkaido.........160.....(port)
6........Yufuin...............Oita................160.....(hot spring)
8........Furano..............Hokkaido........119.....(field)
9....Ishigaki-jima.........Okinawa..........109.....(island)
10......Aso....................Kumamoto......104.....(volcano)
11......Tokyo 23 Wards......Tokyo..........98
My recommendation for your visit in Japan is, of course, Nara with many ancient wooden religious structures and remained atmosphere you cannot even find in Korea and China.
Though poor people are the same all over the world, those with any notion on Japanese Civilization can better live even in New York and Paris than those without it.
If you are pious and free for travelling, you would probably have to see a country where the religions traced back to Abraham have finally reached at the End of the East.
But who guides you? So, choose a right one.
2. Handwriting on the Wall
Nomura Holdings, Inc. has reported on its after-tax profit during the second quarter of 2007 as 76.7 billion yen (640 million dollars).
(http://www.nomuraholdings.com/policy/privacy_hd.html)
However, it lost 72.6 billion yen (600 million dollars) due to adverse effect of US housing loan slumps, during the first half of 2007.
Nomura purchased claimable assets on US housing loans and integrated them into financial commodities to sell to corporate investors. Specifically, Nomura started to deal with US sub-prime loans in August 2005.
No other major Japanese financial companies are reportedly involved in transactions leveraging the US housing loan credit obligations.
Now, the dollar is getting weaker; the NYSE index is expected to go down but not further up; Chinese export might be suppressed through adjustment of monetary rates and due to product contamination; and the gasoline price has never shown any signs of going down.
Nomura's loss, though covered by its profit, may be handwriting on the wall for those involved in Wall Street. It is time we are going to enter another cycle of the world econmy, since even Russia has recently paid off due to the energy boom.
Maybe you had better have another way of investment.
But who guides you? So, choose a right one.
3. Switchgrass Fever
The last night the Fuji TV news program introduced President Mr. George Bush's recommendation for adopting a specific kind of plants, the Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum), as resources for new biomass energy.
President Mr. Bush is not acting like a voodoist, at least in this issue, since some Japanese researchers are also studying the switchgrass for prevention of desertification especially in China and Africa.
(http://crwp.mine.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp/~ichizen/F4C0A10C-8797-4A39-8A8F-4FEC150A323B/Nobumasa%20Ichizen.html)
American scientists are also developing better use and growth of the switchgrass.
(http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1710.pdf)
The plant is abundant not only in America, but also in Sudan, so interestingly.
President Mr. Bush may be remembered as a great leader who has first advocated the large-scale application of the miracle weed switchgrass.
When Mr. Bush was the governor in Texas, it is said that he strongly supported introduction of wind force power generation which seems to be now successful as business in Texas.
President Mr. Bush may be right, this time, too, as it involves desertification effect especially useful for China and oil-rich but war-torn Sudan.
Indeed, American voters can be described in a future history-textbook as having chosen a right one, if the switchgrass works well before the oil reserves are depleted in 40 years or so.
4. Dogs
Jesus Christ never kept a dog.
I do not specially blame those who love their dogs more than other human beings.
However, you should not have dogs fight each other, though such a practice and business can be seen in most of countries in the world.
I like to see wolves. And, there are three types of wolves: the first that never likes human beings and human environment, the second that likes human environment but not human beings so much, and the third that likes human beings and thus human environment.
There is no difference between DNAs of a wolf and those of a dog. Indeed, a dog is a spiritual creature, but it is not humanly spirited. It has only a spirit of a wolf that likes simply human environment or human beings; but it can have a spirit of a wolf that never likes human beings and human environment.
You need a guard against dogs in case. You need a guard against the villains who look like the first type or the second type of dogs.
Truly, you have to choose a right one, though love is not a matter of choice.
(This Sunday, eligible voters in Japan are expected to go and vote for its Upper House Election. You may think it is very irrelevant to you, if you are in New York or Paris.
But, even weeds can be a key to the future; even a dog reveals what mankind is and what Jesus Christ's teaching is; even poor people's broken dreams in the U.S. affect Japan's top financial company; and even a sight seeing trip to Japan can be an expression of your faith in God.
The election that might decide the fate of Japan's Prime Minister or the top opposition leader can have an influence on you even working in New York or Paris, since it may have some influence on me, according to God's will.
Have nice holidays, since the summer sun is burning upon good girls here and there!)
"...Be Ready for Whatever Comes, Dressed for Action and with Lamps Lit..."