Hi All,
Anyone been following the news will know that Japan has been rocked by a few decent quakes over the last few days. What I find amazing is the speed at which we are informed here, our mobile phones sound an alert a good 5 seconds before the quakes hit, the TV has instant information where the quake occurred, Tsunami warnings are issued pretty much straight away. The Japanese have a very good warning system in place. Many of the houses here are clad with a brick veneer sheet, it has about 1cm gap between joins that is filled with silicon sealant, I can only assumed compared with chch quakes the Japanese have learned that this reduces damage to houses in a quake as things can move a bit. In NZ our houses still using brick an mortar, this cracked on many house during the quakes in NZ.
See You
Friday, 16 March 2012
Monday, 12 March 2012
Sky Tree/Combi Van
Hi,
Skytree is decorated in lights at the moment so at 7pm we thought we would walk to the bridge and have a look, well we live a bit far away so it was hard to see it. I did see a cool looking combi van parked in a garage that we walked past so I quickly took a photo on the way pack. Combi vans for some reason hold some sort of charm with everyone, not sure if it is because they symbolize the 1960s, they are a surfer wagon, they just look great! Anyway enjoy the combi photo.
Skytree is decorated in lights at the moment so at 7pm we thought we would walk to the bridge and have a look, well we live a bit far away so it was hard to see it. I did see a cool looking combi van parked in a garage that we walked past so I quickly took a photo on the way pack. Combi vans for some reason hold some sort of charm with everyone, not sure if it is because they symbolize the 1960s, they are a surfer wagon, they just look great! Anyway enjoy the combi photo.
You can just see sky tree
Looking down the river
The Mighty Combi Van
Friday, 9 March 2012
Beef
Hi Everyone,
Today we went to the super market and they had a special on beef, the super market is quite large and is a chain of them. NZ beef doesn't seem to be for sale nor do any NZ dairy products. In the super market they were selling real nice looking Australian beef steak, it was 880yen ($13NZD) for 425grams. Talking to people here they say NZ beef is to expensive, what is NZ doing wrong to make Japanese think our product is to expensive, we get told in NZ we have to pay a lot for our beef because thats what the international market demands, looks like that is a load of rubbish. In Japan they think NZ product is expensive, in NZ we think NZ product is expensive.
See You
Bruce
Today we went to the super market and they had a special on beef, the super market is quite large and is a chain of them. NZ beef doesn't seem to be for sale nor do any NZ dairy products. In the super market they were selling real nice looking Australian beef steak, it was 880yen ($13NZD) for 425grams. Talking to people here they say NZ beef is to expensive, what is NZ doing wrong to make Japanese think our product is to expensive, we get told in NZ we have to pay a lot for our beef because thats what the international market demands, looks like that is a load of rubbish. In Japan they think NZ product is expensive, in NZ we think NZ product is expensive.
See You
Bruce
Japan Quake March 11 2011 a year on
Hi Everyone
We are coming up to the 1 year anniversary of the big mag 9.0 earthquake in Sendai Japan, so many people lost so much, many paid the ultimate price and the country has for ever been damaged by Fukashima Dai ichi. Its just sad all round for the Japanese, they are at a loss to how to clean up the radiation, its un charted waters, maybe the easiest and cheapest option is make it a no go zone for the next 120 years, that will give the Caesium-137 time to drop to 1/8 of what it is now.
There has been quite a bit on the TV leading up to the anniversary, from video of it happening, the clean up effort, the problems at Fukashima power plant, earth quake proof buildings etc some of which has been very interesting and some has been pretty sad for the people of Japan.
I will leave you with one image that has forever symbolized the whole quake.
We are coming up to the 1 year anniversary of the big mag 9.0 earthquake in Sendai Japan, so many people lost so much, many paid the ultimate price and the country has for ever been damaged by Fukashima Dai ichi. Its just sad all round for the Japanese, they are at a loss to how to clean up the radiation, its un charted waters, maybe the easiest and cheapest option is make it a no go zone for the next 120 years, that will give the Caesium-137 time to drop to 1/8 of what it is now.
There has been quite a bit on the TV leading up to the anniversary, from video of it happening, the clean up effort, the problems at Fukashima power plant, earth quake proof buildings etc some of which has been very interesting and some has been pretty sad for the people of Japan.
I will leave you with one image that has forever symbolized the whole quake.
Snowing in Tokyo this morning
Hi,
More snow in Tokyo, probably won't amount to be anything but the city looks good when it snows :)
See You
More snow in Tokyo, probably won't amount to be anything but the city looks good when it snows :)
See You
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Interesting Facts
Hi Everyone,
I read some interesting facts about Japan - Japan has an aging population, people are living to a very good age here, birth rates are very low, so you know where this is heading :) By the year 2050 the population is expected to be approx half what it is now, so that is 60,000,000 people, my wife tells me the government is putting the GST from 5% to 15% to get the money to pay for the aging population.
Japan also has a residents tax of 10% plus income tax, when the GST goes up that will be 25% tax before you pay income tax WOW!
I have been reading on-line about how NZ has had a budget blow out and how the asset sales is not going to net as much as what was first thought, I think in NZ they will be looking at 17% to 17.5% GST soon to cover all these short falls. Time will tell but thats my prediction way before anyone else.
This is mostly likey to be the last term natioanl has in power, NZ people seem to get sick of govs every couple terms and turf them out for another party, so it may not be the nats who increase GST but one of the parties will.
Every time a new party gets in they say oh the books are far worse than what we were thought we are going to have to take drastic measures. You watch :)
Thats my take on Tax
See You
I read some interesting facts about Japan - Japan has an aging population, people are living to a very good age here, birth rates are very low, so you know where this is heading :) By the year 2050 the population is expected to be approx half what it is now, so that is 60,000,000 people, my wife tells me the government is putting the GST from 5% to 15% to get the money to pay for the aging population.
Japan also has a residents tax of 10% plus income tax, when the GST goes up that will be 25% tax before you pay income tax WOW!
I have been reading on-line about how NZ has had a budget blow out and how the asset sales is not going to net as much as what was first thought, I think in NZ they will be looking at 17% to 17.5% GST soon to cover all these short falls. Time will tell but thats my prediction way before anyone else.
This is mostly likey to be the last term natioanl has in power, NZ people seem to get sick of govs every couple terms and turf them out for another party, so it may not be the nats who increase GST but one of the parties will.
Every time a new party gets in they say oh the books are far worse than what we were thought we are going to have to take drastic measures. You watch :)
Thats my take on Tax
See You
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Trip to Ueno Zoo
Hi Everyone,
Saturday was a nice day about 10 degrees so we decided to take the kids to Ueno Zoo, I took a few photos to share, I could put hundreds up but will share a few of the more interesting animals.
Saturday was a nice day about 10 degrees so we decided to take the kids to Ueno Zoo, I took a few photos to share, I could put hundreds up but will share a few of the more interesting animals.
This guy was big
This guy was small
This guy looked friendly
This guy was big
Leo caught it!!Good one leo!
Flimingos doing what ever they do
Polar Beer
Soaking up the winter sun
Dunno but looked pretty
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