Had fun yesterday. It got up to 35 degrees here which made for a nice afternoon and evening of 'let's go into as many air-conditioned places as possible'. In Gunma Prefecture it got up to 40 though - and 3 people died of heat stress around Japan. Now, I've experienced hotter... but it certainly wasn't very pleasant dealing with the heat yesterday... and this weather looks set to continue until next week - yay!
You remember that awful sci-fi 'Minority Report' with Tom Cruise flying around the future with a future-predicting mutant? No? Well, the future in that movie is one of 3D advertising appearing mysteriously before your eyes everywhere you go. Sounds like fun? Well - now they have the technology...
The Western press has finally picked up on the story of Net Cafe refugees - part-time workers who can't afford an apartment so they stay the night in 24-hour internet cafes. It goes on a little how this new 'working poor' are an example of how Japan has changed over the past few years since the bubble-burst. I'm here baby, and let me tell you - Japan is starting to look more and more like the rest of SE Asia - in not a good way...
Japan could take a leaf out of Russia's book though. Faced with a steadily declining population due to a low birth rate combined with a high death rate, some parts of the country now have an official 'procreation day' with a chance to win money and prizes if they give birth to a child on Russia's National Day. Interesting idea. Japan has quite a number of public holidays spaced throughout the year so perhaps enterprising local governments could set up similar competitions...
It's always nice to read how my worst years are just ahead of me... not.
But it's also good to read that they're making progress with some research too.
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