Yesterday, June 15 was the first anniversary of my best friend’s death. So, let me talk about him.

There are only two world boxing champions that I remember the names. One is, of course, our great Filipino champion, Manny Paqcuiao and I’m a big fan of him. Another one is Yusuke Kobori, who won the WBA lightweight title by knocking out the Nicaraguan champion in the 3rd round on May 19, 2008.

I had a friend who was a boxer. His name was Junji Murakami and also went by the name of “El Matador” because of his quickness and beautiful techniques.

On May 19, 2007, Murakami fought 7 rounds against Kobori in the title match of OPBF (Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation) Super featherweight Championship, and he lost. I was luckily able to watch his last fight since I was in Japan. I had a business trip at that time and I had to go back to the Philippines the day after the title match. In the following morning, he sent me off at Narita Air Port even he was exhausted with the damages he got in the fight. He had hit the mat twice that night.

              Three weeks after the title match, his fiancé found him dead at his apartment. According to the result of the autopsy, the cause of death was heart failure. But, everybody understood the real cause. I have heard that Kobori also attended Murakami’s funeral conducted few days.

              Kobori shifted to lightweight and exactly one year after the big day, he became the WBA lightweight champion. And now, he has conveyed his interest to fight against Manny Pacquiao.

              As I said, I’m a big fan of Manny. But this time, I support Kobori if they fight. How about you?

Although new school year has started, the college that I am working for is still accepting new enrollees. There is a reason why we have to extend the deadline of enrollment. This year, we only have one fourth of the enrollees compared to last year. I wondered why. The number of students in my college had been increasing past 5 years in a row, and I was thinking that we, teachers deserve to say it is because of the quality of education. We didn’t provide good education last year? Or, our marketing officer did something wrong? I was thinking WHY.

And in this morning, I picked up one of the Philippine newspapers and I found it. The newspaper says “Inflation soars to 9.6%”in the front page.” I presumed that is the reason. So, I texted one of my friend who is teaching at another college and asked her if the number of enrollees in her school decreased or not. She responded to me, “only 50% compared to last year.”

It’s not only our college with few students enrolled in this semester but also other private schools. In short, they shifted to public schools or, probably, some of them cannot afford to enroll even in public schools. Parents need to buy rice before they send their children to school. And enrollment fee for a college is also rising.

I never expected that inflation would influence education so directly. Our wages also have to be raised corresponding to the increase of commodity prices. But, how can it be? Private schools do not have money, too. It’s a vicious cycle.

It was a little sudden but, I purchased a taxi last week.A taxi with franchise. My taxi is now moving around the city. I never expected that the first taxi I would buy is a taxi made in Korea even I don’t have driver’s license. Hmm, life is interesting. I rent a taxi to a driver and he pays me rental fee at a fixed amount everyday. The investment will pay off in 1 year if there is no big accident or problem. Actually, it was not a studied decision. It was like this. My friend was looking for someone to buy his own taxi and I just told him I would be the one. It was a sudden decision.  In the world, business-minded people seem to be desperate to get free ride. And in fact, you can find such chances as this all over the Philippines. 

I myself am not that much interested in getting unearned income.

But at least I can provide someone an employment if I buy a taxi.  The Philippines, the country where you can immediately buy a taxi even you don’t know anything about it

-  interesting, isn’t it?

In pursuit of its objective of promoting cultural exchange through Japanese Language Education in the Philippines, the 2008 Nihongo Speech Contest was held on Saturday, 23 February at the EDSA Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City. The speech contest, in its 35th year was one of the major events of the 3rd Nihongo Fiesta, which featured the National Bento (packed lunch) Competition, the Japanese Taiko and a lot more cultural performances, contests, exhibitions and demonstrations.

I was luckily in Manila on the day of the speech contest and I was able to watch it. In the contest, there were 17 people who delivered speeches and all of them performed very well. And what the most made me happy was the result that there were three Davao People out of a total of 4 winners in the contest. 

The Winners will take part in an all-expense-paid week-long study tour in Japan. 

Von Voyage!

What do you think is the thing you have to do before your child is born only when you live in a foreign country?

I have a female Japanese friend who visited me in Davao City. She has a beautiful name that means a beautiful girl in Japanese language. Actually, she is beautiful. In addition to her inner beauty, she is good-looking, too.

There was once, around five years ago, that she came to Davao and we visited together at an orphanage in Samal Island, which is located in the opposite side of Davao bay. I don’t remember the exact reason why she wanted to visit there but in some reason she knew the name of the orphanage and asked me to bring her there. I think it might have been related to the fact that she was at that time working as a social worker in Japan. Anyway, it was on December we went there.

When we visited there, fortunately, there was a small Christmas party at the orphanage. We asked the orphanage director to allow us to observe the party. He said it was natural to visit the children in Christmas days and we naturally joined the party. In the party, of course, we had to introduce ourselves to the children and we did. I mentioned my name and age in English. And now, my beautiful friend introduced herself to them. She mentioned her beautiful name, and suddenly, children burst into laughter. I didn’t understand what was happening. Everybody was shaking with laughter. I couldn’t help asking the reason. “What is wrong with her name?” peevishly I asked. And one of the social workers answered, “She said— ‘I AM A SHIT’ in our language.”

As you are aware, her name is Tae-ko. Tae-ko is a common female name and means a beautiful girl in Japanese. But in Visayan language, it means, “I am a shit.”

This is the thing you have to do. I recommend you to check if the name you are planning to bestow your child has a different meaning in other languages before you name her.

Now, don’t you give a shit?