I prefer my water with pieces of pig carcasses

A couple of days ago in the Huangpu river in Shanghai hundreds of pig carcasses have washed up ashore. It seems that farmers in the northern part of Shanghai have been disposing the bodies by throwing them in the river instead of burning them (which is required by law).

According to the Shanghai Government the water is still safe to drink... however, according the central government only 3% of China's water is safe to drink... Someone needs to get their facts right.

None the less, according the CNN, many pigs to the north had contracted Porcine Circovirus which is deadly to pigs. According to the farmers in the area 300 pigs were dying daily to this disease.


Currently the carcass count is 7500...

That's a lot of pork......

photo from
 http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1190886/more-7500-dead-pigs-found-shanghais-huangpu-river

I'm spoiled

America is known as the land of the free. Haven grown up there for most of my life I know what it is like to grow up in a privileged society. However, as a child growing up I was not from a rich family nor a middle class family I was from an slightly lower middle class family. During this time in my life all I remember are the good times of spending time with my family and my friends in my neighborhood. However, once I got to high school my father got a job as a government official and my mom became a high school teacher. During this time in my life all I could remember is the challenges that young people today have to face today. Children all over the world have to study hard in order to enter good universities and have to make sure they keep up with their studies.

Growing up an American has made me spoiled. I am not saying this is a bad thing but I feel that my generation and the generations after me have become so spoiled that we have lost part of our humanity. No longer do we care about our fellow men we have become so self centered that we do not care about the longer term outcomes of our actions. This could be said with the current gun shootings in America, I understand that we as Americans want our freedom and with that freedom we want to be able to have firearms. But, at what cost will freedom cost the lives of young and innocent people. I feel that there is a time in everyone"s life where they should leave their comfort zone and head to a place completely different from where they are accustom. For me it was coming to Japan, but it could be anywhere anytime. You could volunteer at your local homeless shelter or even work in a lower income neighborhood.

I believe that wealth is not the amount of money you have or how successful you are but how you treat other people and how people respect you. I do not believe in heaven nor hell but I do believe in karma and if you do good to your fellow brothers and sisters you will gain the best wealth of them all.... love and respect.

Such as this great women by the name of Irena Sendler. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 for helping many Jewish Children escape the Nazis during the Holocaust. She saved hundreds and possibly thousands of children from the Nazis. Later, when she was caught the Nazi's broke both of her arms and legs as well as beat her severely. After the war, she tried her best to help the children she saved find their families as well as help  find foster families for the children whose parents have perished during the war.

In closing, I feel that everyone should try their best to look out for their follow brothers and sisters don't be a douche

Stabbing in Japan

A day ago there was a stabbing in Japan in Hiroshima. Usually, crimes in Japan are committed among family member or coworkers. However, in the recent years there have been crimes which have been committed for the act of committing a crime. Such as the infamous Akihabara stabbing incident a couple of years ago.

A similar event happened a couple of days ago. In Hiroshima a Chinese exchange student went crazy and attacked a group of people at his workplace. Six people were injured while two died. Although this looks bad on Japan China relations. It also has a lot to do with how foreigners are treated in Japan. I feel that this is an important thing to look into if Japan plans to keep up with other neighbouring  countries. Currently,  Japan has declining birthrate and in order to keep up, Japanese companies will have to employ more foreigner workers in the next couple of decades.

If you want to read more about this store click the link below


http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/2-stabbed-to-death-5-wounded-by-chinese-exchange-student

Cell phones in Japan

Just like many other countries Japan has a lot of cell phone providers. Today I want to talk about a couple of them and the difference between them all.

The first on the list is the most popular among Japanese families. The provider Docomo is said to have the best service in Japan. However, they don`t have the iphone and from my experience in the past they are a very conservative Japanese company. They offer really good family plans. But they are a little on the expensive side.

The second cell phone company is AU. I used AU for about three years when I was a Japanese language school student. The only reason I left them was because they did not offer free phone calls to friends like Softbank offers. Au`s service was good but I found it a little expensive for my budget considering I prefer to call people  rather than texting them. Yet, if you do not talk on the phone so often they do offer great student discount plans if you plan on studying in Japan.

The most familiar  company among foreigners in Japan is Softbank. The reason they are very popular is because they were the first Japanese mobile company to offer the iphone when it was released. Their plans are also very cheap starting at 990 a month. They 990 yen a month white plan is very good. You can make free phone calls between 2am-9pm free to any other softbank subscriber. Moreover, they offer tethering on their new iphone 5 models. The only negative thing about Softbank is that their service is not soo great and their getting a contract with them could be a little difficult.

To find out my details check the links below

Docomo
http://www.nttdocomo.com

KDDI AU
http://www.au.kddi.com/english/index.html

Softbank
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/

Why am I still here ?

Living abroad in a country that does not speak my native tongue has helped in many ways. One it helped get out of my shell and experience a country which has a very different culture from my own but it also gave me that chance to study a foreign language and learn how to use it in a daily setting. 

This year will mark my 8th year anniversary of arriving in Japan. During these last eight years I have experienced the best and the worst of speaking and learning a foreign language. Upon arriving in Japan I only knew a couple of phrases to get my by daily such as hello and itadakimasu(which is a phrase that should be said before you eat.) None the less, Japanese was a difficult language to learn. As many might know I came to Japan back in 2005 as a Japanese language student. My original goal was to come to Japan for a year and study Japanese and then head back stateside to attend university but I am still here in Japan. Many ask 

"Lawrence why are you still here?"

 "Don`t you miss America?"

To tell you the truth, I am a bit afraid of going back for many reasons. The first being I am afraid that I will forget all the Japanese which I have worked so hard to learn. Moreover, I feel that my skills are not so useful back in the states. How many companies do you know hire Japanese speaking Americans? ... That`s right not very many. 

I also have a lot left to experience here in Japan. Although I have lived the last eight years in Tokyo, I have yet to climb Mt. Fuji. Also to tell the truth I feel at home here in Japan. I basically grew into adulthood here and I plan on staying here as long as I can. 

FX Hotel Review (Shanghai, China)

I have decided to write reviews on hotels which I have stayed in during my travels around Asia. The first hotel I would like to is FX Hotel Northern Bund.

Nice room for the price 

I originally booked this hotel as a set with my plane ticket on expedia.jp. The hotel is a great bargain price for what you get. The rooms are huge and the staff is fairy nice. The rooms come with free daily drinking water as well as sodas and juice. Moreover, the room has free wifi for all customers. The only downside to this hotel was that is was a walk to the station. It took about 10 minutes by foot and at the time I stood at this hotel there were not many stores in the near by area. However, I could not complain this hotel came to about 15 USD a night which a bargain.

These were some weird statues at the entrance of the hotel

If you are looking for a cheap hotel around Shanghai and do not mind walking 10 minutes to get to the closest station,  this might be a good hotel to stay at. Just make sure you print the address in Chinese if you want to ride a taxi.. sometimes Taxi drivers had a hard time finding this hotel.

My last China trip a short video

Here is a video I made about my last trip to China. The highlights are Beijing and Shanghai .

I hope you enjoy

Shiritaki noodles

Having living in Japan, I have become accustom to eating Japanese food. I really enjoy everything from  Sushi to horse sashimi ( raw horse ). However, today I want to share my favourite Japanese food. Today I want to tell you about Shritaki,

Shiritaki is a made from the Japanese plant Kanjaku. This noodle type thing is great for dieters and  a healthy diet. Shiritaki has little calories and almost no carbs. I like to cook them with a lot of dishes such as stir fry and I even eat them as noodles.


If you have a chance to try these out as a substitute for Chinese Ramen noodles, I say give them a try.

Japanese Monster parents

It is the thing all teachers fear in Japan... no it is not budget cuts, its the dreaded monster parents. In Japan, like other countries in Asia parents can be overbearing when it comes to education. If you talk to any of my students and ask their schedule, you would be shocked to hear how busy they are. On average they attend school from 8-3 followed by joining some school sport and then head to cram school which ends around 10.

By the time children become adults they are lacking childhood experiences. Thus, parents try their best to make sure their kids get everything they want. Thus, we get monster parents. I have only had a couple of run-ins with such parents but let me tell you... the run-ins are not pretty. There was a story I read about a whole group of monster parents at one school. The school was doing a play of Snow White... In America, we usually only choose one person to play the role of Snow White. Yet, in Japan a majority of parents got angry at the school board when they had discovered their daughters had not been chosen to play Snow White. Thus, they argued with the school board and won. Thus, the play ended up having 15 Snow Whites...


This might sound like a stupid story but it happens quite often. I personally had this happen to me a week ago. A week ago I had to do a trial lesson with a mother who is very demanding. She actually makes a plan for the teacher to teach and you have to teach it to her liking. I knew coming in that she was a difficult mother to please but I had listened to previous teachers and got their opinions prior to teaching this student.

The lesson was a complete failure. For starters, the mother had her one year old toddler with her while she was watching the class. The child was screaming at the top of his lungs and was spilling food everywhere. Moreover, she was eating dinner while she was watching class. Soon after class, she gave me her two cents. She slated that I was a good teacher and had good pace but she was angry that I did not show her son the words for some of the vocabulary words I had taught him. Being the smart ass I am said " Your son is only three and he can`t distinguish the difference between A and B, do you think he can actually read full sentences? " This was a shocker to her and to my boss who was standing next to me but to my surprise my boss took my side.

In the end, I feel that if you are a parent and you want your children to succeed in life. Do not give them everything they want. Some kids need to be taught a lesson in failure and that they cannot get everything they want in life... Otherwise, they will learn the hard way when they reach adulthood and get declined....