Noda, Irene, Bolt

First, as he promised, Mr. Kan resigned last Friday, and then yesterday Noda became the new Prime Minister of Japan. (Actually, he is not officially the Prime Minister yet, but it should become official sometime today.)

Then, last weekend, there was a powerful hurricane, specifically Hurricane Irene, which tore up the East Coast of America last week. The storm even hit New York City. The storm caused a lot of flooding, and left many people without electricity, and even took 10 peoples lives. Fortunately, my parents and their house in Philadelphia was left unharmed...When I spoke to my father Sunday night Osaka time, around 6:40am Philadelphia time, he said "We were lucky. Everything is alright." And I got an email from my mother on last Saturday saying, "An earthquake and a hurricane, in the same month...What an August!!"

But again, we are all reminded again of the force of Mother Nature...

And some sports news... Last Sunday, I waited all day to watch the 100m Final of the World Championships in Track and Field. I am a fan of Usain Bolt because I like Jamaica (I have been there once, for about one week, when I was about 19 years old ) and I like Bolt's flamboyant style. Plus, he is an awesome runner! He is one of a kind! He is above all the rest and in a totally different league than the other runners. And, when he runs, he is beautiful. There are very few athletes who can do this, look beautiful when they perform. Well, in my opinion, Bolt is one of those athletes. I was expecting to watch him become a legend that day...Everyone on the world was expecting him to win the 100m Final that day...
But, as well all know now, that is not what happened.
Bolt was disqualified(knocked out of the competition) for jumping the gun (leaving the blocks before the starting gun was fired). Actually, he was disqualified due to the very controversial zero-tolerance false start rule which was enacted in the World Championships from this year!!
I was really disappointed because I wanted to see his "beauty." But to be honest, I was also a little lucky, because I got to see Bolt angry, like an angry lion. I have never seen him angry before, because he is always smiling and laughing and dancing and joking around. It was a shame that the world couldn't see his performance on last Sunday night, but I am looking forward to watch him run in the 200m Finals later this week. He is gonna explode!


Below are some peaceful "healing" waterfall shots from Ms. e. Thanks.