You should only hate people you know (and other additions to the Gospel according to St. Ourmani)

Temperatures of drinks in Japan

Having done alcohol consumption earlier in the week, today I take a look at a survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into temperature of drinking water, etc, with a faddy diet as a bonus!

Demographics

Between the 6th and 8th of November 2009 9,947 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 8.4% in their twenties, 27.6% in their thirties, 32.7% in their forties, 19.0% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

The fad diet is the Sayu diet, 白湯 in kanji, the drinking of water at between 40°C and 50°C. Looking at the answers below, it appears it should raise one’s metabolism and burn more fat for the same food intake. Who knows if it works or not, although I would guess that the answer would be no, it doesn’t!

Research results

Q1: Usually, which of the following ways do you try to look after your body with regards health, beauty, etc? (Sample size=9,947, multiple answer)

Get lots of sleep	52.2%
Try to eat a balanced diet	44.1%
Try to drink lots of water	40.7%
Try to lead a regular lifestyle pattern	38.7%
Take appropriate exercise	34.2%
Try not to build up stress	31.2%
Take nutritional supplements	24.5%
Try not to chill my body	15.2%
Take waist-deep baths, sweat, etc, to stimulate my metabolism	9.2%
Other	0.7%
Nothing in particular	13.9%

Q2: Which of the following apply to you? (Sample size=9,947, multiple answer)

Lack of exercise	61.0%
Feel need to lose weight	31.0%
Lack of sleep	29.9%
Chilled extermities	29.4%
Metabolism, circulation is poor	21.0%
Constipated	20.8%
Water retention, swelling occurs easily	16.8%
Rough skin	15.6%
Low blood pressure	14.4%
Currently on weight-loss diet	11.9%
None of the above	13.5%
Don’t want to answer	0.9%

For chilled extermities, 12.3% of men but 51.1% of women reported it, with the younger age bands more likely to suffer from it. For poor metabolism or circulation, just 8.5% of men but 36.8% of women reported it, but there was almost no age-based trend.

Q3: What is your preferred temperature for drinking each of the following liquids? (Sample size=9,947)

	Water	Tea	Coffee	Milk
0°C to 10°C	57.0%	19.5%	13.6%	63.1%
20°C to 30°C	27.0%	11.5%	4.7%	12.7%
40°C to 50°C	6.8%	19.3%	15.4%	5.2%
60°C to 70°C	2.5%	21.2%	20.4%	4.0%
80°C to 90°C	2.4%	23.9%	32.2%	2.1%
Over 90°C	0.0%	3.1%	6.9%	0.2%
Don’t drink at all	4.3%	1.5%	6.8%	12.7%

Men preferred colder water, and those who suffered from chills preferred warmer water.

Q4: By season, at what temperature do you drink water? (Sample size=9,521, water drinkers)

	Summer July, Aug	Autumn Sept, Oct	Winter Nov - Feb
0°C to 10°C	80.1%	51.6%	37.4%
20°C to 30°C	15.6%	36.9%	38.0%
40°C to 50°C	1.9%	5.2%	10.4%
60°C to 70°C	0.8%	1.4%	4.2%
80°C to 90°C	0.8%	2.1%	5.3%
Over 90°C	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
Don’t drink water during that season	0.8%	1.9%	3.9%

Q5: Why do you choose to drink lukewarm water? (Sample size=2,682, 20°C to 30°C water drinkers, multiple answer)

In order not to cool my body	48.9%
May be least worst for body	35.5%
May be best to have something close to body temperature	30.8%
Don’t like drinking cold water	11.3%
May be good for metabolism	10.7%
May be easy to absorb	10.7%
May be good for the bowels	6.2%
Avoids water retention swelling	1.9%
Other	3.8%
Just because, no particular reason	23.9%

Q6: Why do you choose to drink 40°C to 50°C water? (Sample size=676, 40°C to 50°C water drinkers, multiple answer)

Warms the body	47.0%
May be good for body	37.4%
May be least worst for body	33.4%
May be good for metabolism	26.3%
May be easy to absorb	14.9%
Don’t like drinking cold water	12.9%
May be good for the bowels	12.0%
Avoids water retention swelling	2.5%
Other	2.5%
Just because, no particular reason	16.3%

Q7: How do you prepare your 40°C to 50°C water? (Sample size=676, 40°C to 50°C water drinkers, multiple answer)

Boil a pan, kettle and let it cool	41.7%
Heat a pan, kettle to before boiling and let it cool	8.4%
Heat a pan, kettle to just the right temperature	8.3%
Boil an electric kettle, pot and let it cool	35.2%
Use hot water from a thermos flask	3.8%
Heat in the microwave	17.0%
Other	2.7%
Don’t know	4.7%

Q8: What problems, inconveniences do you have when you prepare your 40°C to 50°C water? (Sample size=676, 40°C to 50°C water drinkers, multiple answer)

Can’t prepare it just when I want to drink it	27.4%
Difficult to get to the right temperature	24.7%
Often let it cool off too much	18.0%
Soon cools off	17.9%
Often overheat it	17.2%
Bothersome if I just want a little	12.9%
Don’t know the best way to prepare it	2.8%
Other	0.4%
Nothing in particular	30.5%

Q9: Do you know the “Sayu Diet”? (Sample size=9,947)

Currently on such a diet	1.4%
Used to be on such a diet	2.7%
Heard of it, but not tried it	15.4%
Not heard of it	80.5%

Women were much more likely to have heard of it than men - about 10% to 20% of men versus 20% to 33% of women, with younger people more likely to have heard of it.

Q10: Would you like to try the “Sayu Diet”? (Sample size=9,947)

Definitely	16.3%
Perhaps	25.6%
Can’t say either way	24.1%
Perhaps not	15.7%
Not at all	18.3%

About twice as many women as men were willing to give it a go.

Updates - Discussion about a new online playing website at 81-Square Universe

Updates of Worldshogi.com

Weekly J-Links 8

This week’s collection of cool and interesting Japan related links:

Japan Images Video Buddha of Kamakura Tokyo Skies Utsunomiya Gyoza Matsuri 2009 Kosan-Ji. The architecture ShichiGoSan 753 - la cérémonie des enfants au sanctuaire Shinto Hamamatsu International Mosaiculture 2009 Tokyo’s best maid cafes A Master’s Touch - Sushi and the secrets of its chefs

Previous week: Weekly J-Links 7

Top 10 Malice Mizer - 3rd place, Shiroi Hada ni Kuruu Ai to Kanashimi no Rondo

The 3rd place in my Top 10 Malice Mizer: Shiroi Hada ni Kuruu Ai to Kanashimi no Rondo.

Govt. White Paper: ‘Law Abiding Spirit’ in Decline

According to figures released in a recent government white paper, Mainichi reports, the law abiding spirit of the Japanese people appears to be in decline. Japan has long been proud of its record of relatively low violent crimes and high success rates of solving and prosecuting crimes. But recent figures suggest that these trends are all falling off, as Japan becomes an increasingly more dangerous and less ‘law-abiding’ place to live.

The incidence of random attacks (14 last year) is by no means at a level to suggest that it is no longer safe to walk the streets. But the rate at which this figure has increased in recent years, from 3 cases in 2004, 6 in 2005, 4 in 2006 and 8 in 2007, does give some pause. Coupled with this, the white paper also shows that the arrest rate is also down, from above 50% for most of the second half of the last century, to the low 30s in recent years (it even dipped as low as 19.8% in 2001, but has stabilized slightly to around 31.6% last year).

According to Mainichi, the National Police Agency Commissioner General Ando Takaharu had the following to say on Nov 6 as an explanation for these declines:

“It appears that Japanese people’s high law-abiding spirit and social bonds such as those in schools and regional communities, which had supported the country’s high standards of public order, are declining”.

There are no doubt a number of reasons for any decline in the law-abiding spirit in Japan, and it must be noted again that things are by no means at the point of panic. However the trends do appear to show that things will continue to get worse unless something is done to reverse these trends.

A lot has been said and written over the last decade or so in particular about the declining social ties throughout Japan. Once upon a time, everyone knew everything about their neighbors. But those days appear to be long gone, especially in more urban settings. How often we hear the neighbor comment on television that ‘he was such a quiet person, and kept to himself’, in relation to a suspect in a major crime… There was a time where such behavior would have made the neighbors concerned, but these days it is pretty common. I’m not saying that is necessarily a bad thing – I happen to appreciate privacy myself – but it has led to difficulties for police, who in the past have relied a great deal on help from the public in solving crimes.

I remember several years ago sitting in the home of an older couple in a small town in Iwate-ken, when the local police officer came knocking on the door. He was invited inside and offered some tea, and the hostess then proceeded to peel an apple for him, as he asked her if she had noticed anything suspicious around the neighborhood. This wasn’t a particular investigation, and the couple that had been visited were not particularly close to the policeman. This was just something akin to a policeman ‘doing his rounds’, and ‘getting the lay of the land’. Apparently he did it every 6 months or so, visiting many of the homes in the area to chat and exchange information. In any other place in the world, this may have seemed intrusive, and even ‘police-state-ish’…. but in this small town in rural Japan it just seemed nice and quaint.

The days of such anecdotes seem to be in decline, as police are busier and people are more guarded and private than ever before. Again, I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. I believe that privacy is one of the more important hallmarks of freedom, and this should not be artificially limited in any way. But this is the problem that police now face. They have no course to limit the privacies of the people, but this means that they need to find new ways of solving crimes, and new ways of interpreting the information that they find.

I won’t take much space here to discuss another important aspect to this so-called decline in law abiding spirit, but it is worth noting nonetheless. That is the attitudes that are being taught and accepted among children. Children are taught by the actions of their parents and teachers, and other authority figures around them. They are taught whether or not they will value authority, whether or not they will take responsibility, and whether or not there are morals. Too often in today’s society I feel that adults fail to adequately teach these things to children, and the result can be somewhat anarchistic in certain ways. Lack of discipline, lack of clear moral guidance, and a lack of expectation of good behavior has left many children ‘dazed and confused’. Of course, this is not a purely Japanese phenomenon. But it is nonetheless an increasingly common situation for children, and I have no doubt that this is impacting any decline in keeping the laws and morals of society.

Japanese Box Office: Nov 14 – Nov 20

Japanese Box Office: Nov 14 to Nov 20

(Rank, Movie Name, Weekend Box Office (US$), Cume (US$) (Note: US$1=89.85 yen))

1. A Christmas Carol, $3,186,707, $3,186,707

2. Michael Jackson’s This Is It, $3,017,194, $32,331,133

3. No More Cry (Nakumonka), $2,299,362, $2,299,362

4. Zero Focus, $1,758,882, $1,758,882

Hayabusa Asteroid Probe’s Rescue Plan

Japanese engineers have devised a plan to combine parts from two partially-failed ion engines to resume the Hayabusa asteroid probe’s journey back to Earth.

An ion engine in ground testing. JAXA

In a press release Thursday, officials said they will use the neutralizer of Thruster A and the ion source of Thruster B to provide enough power to guide the 950-pound spacecraft home next June.

Hayabusa launched in 2003 with four ion engines. Thruster A was shut down due to instability shortly after launch, while Thruster B was turned off after high voltage in its neutralization system.

Thruster C was manually switched off after signs it might be damaged by high electrical currents, and Thruster D failed two weeks ago due to a voltage spike.

The Nov. 4 glitch left Hayabusa without a propulsion system and put its scheduled return to Earth in serious doubt. But the new plan gives Japanese officials new hope.

“While the operation still needs monitored carefully, the project team has concluded the spacecraft can maintain the current return cruise schedule back to the Earth around June of 2010, if the new engines configuration continues to work as planned,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a statement.

Hayabusa’s four experimental microwave discharge ion engines consume xenon gas and expel the ionized propellant at high speeds to produce thrust. Ion engines are more efficient than conventional chemical thrusters because they use less fuel and can operate continuously for thousands of hours.

The craft’s thrusters have accumulated almost 40,000 hours of burn time since the probe launched.

Plans call for the spacecraft to continue thrusting until March, when it will shut down the ion system and coast toward Earth for a parachuted landing in Australia.

For More Information: www.spaceflightnow.com

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‘Runaway Sites’ Latest Exploitation of Young Girls

Desperate measures: A cell phone in Shibuya, Tokyo, shows an 'iede saito' (runaway site), where runaway girls post requests for a place to stay in return for sex. YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO

‘Runaway sites’ latest Net-based exploitation of young girls as men advertise a place to stay for troubled youths in return for sex.

First there were the “enjo kosai” Internet sites where underage girls hook up with adult males in exchange for money. Now there’s a new type of Web site that unites girls running away from home with men offering a place to stay in return for sexual favors.

Called “iede saito,” or runaway sites, and potentially harmful to children, they provide a forum where messages posted by runaway girls asking for a place to stay are answered by men.

Observers say such sites have emerged because the operators and male users want to dodge new laws on “deaikei,” or “encounter sites” (where members of the opposite sex can meet), that ban people under 18 from using them, diminishing the chance they will attract underage girls.

“If you regulate one type of Web site, users will go to another,” said Atsufumi Suzuki, an expert on Internet activity. Runaway sites first emerged about five years ago, he said.

With online encounter sites flourishing as a hotbed for sex with minor girls seeking pocket money, a law was introduced in 2003 that bans under-18 users and, since last year, requires site operators to register with authorities and confirm the identity of their users.

Another law regulating Internet use by minors was passed in June, this one requiring that cell phones used by children under the age of 18 block sexually provocative sites, although their parents can switch this feature off.

These regulations do not apply to runaway sites, which technically carry messages only seeking accommodations.

For More: ‘Runaway sites’ latest Net-based exploitation of young girls

Source: The Japan Times

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