Dollar Festival.

March Third is the day of Hina Matsuri or the Doll Festival and I'm going to hijack the day on behalf of my fellow Canadians who have been "Spocking" their fivers in honour of Leonard Nimoy. Fortunately, the Bank of Canada has considered his behaviour to be legal so go on out and Spock your bills!

I found a fiver in my drawer so I'll take a crack at it tomorrow. I'll show the results if I don't embarrass myself too much.

In actual Doll Festival news, we received some sweet mini-Senbei bits at lunch yesterday. Pretty yummy.

Today, I made an impromptu Doll Festival lesson for my Special Ed kids and we made paper dolls. My meager effort is below.

Finally, I was happy to find some Evangelion/Hello Kitty mashup dolls in the conbini today. Even better, they were slashed from 771 yen to only 200, therefore I got all three!

I challenge others to showcase their Spocked fivers. Good luck!

Coincidence?

Alas I can't find the originals nor the originating conspiracy-theory magazine but only some copies I'd made a while back of one of the bills. (**UPDATE-see below) If you fold each of the US Bills (5, 10, 20, 50 & 100) in the same fashion as shown in this 20$ bill, you get a progression of the Terrorist attack on the WTC 8 years ago. I'll get my students to fold the other bills tomorrow (I suck at origami) and provide the evidence afterwards.



UPDATE: Rather than make a separate post, I'll show the results of my guys' origami skills.



Starting with the fiver, you see an intact WTC before the tragedy.













The first plane hits...













The devastation continues as the second plane collides...













Only rubble remains as the smoke billows forth...












Only the smoke remains.












What do you think?
Incredible coincidence? Another instance of Pareidolia. A subplot for the next entry in the National Treasure franchise? Or a case of a nut-job with way too much time on his hands?
You be the judge.


UPDATE: I found the original pages that juxtapose the original photos of the disaster along side the origamized bills. It is a lot creepier now...

















ps. I don't want anyone to take umbrage against me for making light of the tragedy that occurred 8 years ago. I feel very strongly for those whose lives were lost and even more so for their families.

Up The Academy!

Oops, I mean economy. Japan's Economy is looking up for first time since '06.

It wasn't always like this though. It all started with the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on Northern Rock in the UK. Then uncertainty hit Japan hard. Here is the resulting backlash:

In the last 7 days, Origami Bank has holded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today's shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

While Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

I can't take any credit for the above, I scammed it from Alex's dad last Christmas and he probably scammed it from Reader's Digest. It is rather amusing though!

For the masochists amongst you, here is Part One of Up The Academy!

I Have a Yen For a Hundred.

Actually, I have a Hundred 円, or en, anglicized as yen. I've been doing a lot of tidying of the apartment lately and came across a 100-Yen bill that a student gave me back in my Soma days. This bill was minted around 1954 and though I'm no numismatist, I know it is worth about 10 times its value. So I won't be able to retire by selling this bill. But I can appreciate its appreciation.

板垣 退助 Itagaki Taisuke (1837–1919) was a Japanese politician who became a leader of 自由民権運動 or the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (jiyu minken undo). Itagaki Taisuke was born on April 17, 1837 in Tosa, Japan, into a middle-ranking Samurai family. After a long history of politics, in 1881, he created the Liberal party and was granted status as a 伯爵 (Hakushaku or Count.) He also has one of the coolest beards I've ever seen.

The obverse of the bill shows 国会 or the main building of the National Diet of Japan (kokkai) which is Japan's legislature.


Who knows what other gems I'll dig up during my tidying binge?

Pixar Presents CARS.

Upon arrival, I discovered that I was unable to rent a car because my VISA card was rejected. (It turns out that I need to inform my VISA card people of my intention to rent a car before I go to the rental agency. This would be helpful information to know, before one goes to the Rental counter. It would also help if someone at VISA spoke English, so I could inform them!) So this led to a lazy Friday night at Phil's, quaffing a few and engaging in some illicit substances, not quite legal in this end of the world.


The next day we went to our local Thrifty's rental which provided me with a car for only 189$ for the week! Of course, when you add all the taxes, insurance, gas, double-driver, etc. it came to 492$ but that is still pretty cheap compared to the 750$ quoted at the airport.

The sub-compact I had ordered wasn't available, so I got a free double-upgrade to a Chrysler 300, or as I like to call it, "The Pimpmobile". It was a joy to drive and was pretty good on gas. Good thing too, for gas had jumped by over 30 cents a litre since Xmas. It was between $1.05-$1.15 per litre (by comparison Japan is around 1.20/litre and has been for over a year!)