For Asa

Meet my daughter Reese. 

She is one and a half years old.

Meet my chubby baby boy, Francis.  He's only four months old. 

They both want to wish you a happy birthday :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASA!!! :)
Sending my best regards to you and Hiroki. I hope you enjoy your special day.
See you!

You're not getting older. You're getting better.

Cooking becomes popular among male retirees

Men from the generation that worked hard to turn Japan into an economic powerhouse are increasingly turning to cooking classes as a retirement activity, even though housework was considered strictly women's work back in the day. Some male retirees sign up for cooking classes to maintain social contact, while others simply want to prepare meals for their families — something they lacked the time to do during their workaholic lives.

At a cooking class held for men only in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, one recent weekday morning, most of the 23 participants were retirees. "Since I retired, I decided to sign up for this class as I wanted to do something for my family by learning to cook," Hitoshi Tanazawa, 64, said. "I also found it was great fun to spend time and chat with other participants." The day's recipes were mackerel cooked with miso and boiled spinach, as well as mushroom soup.

The monthly cooking class is part of a six-month beginner's course that the Better Home Association is providing for ¥21,900. Compared with classes for women, the association said that men-only classes provide more detailed explanations of each cooking process, such as why it is best not to touch spinach while it is boiling — so that the flavor is not dissipated in the process of stirring. "Men who are often logical thinkers tend to throw so many questions at a teacher — why they need to do this and that," said Chie Muto, an official at the association's planning and public relations division. But Muto explained that once they understand the reasoning behind each process, male students tend to learn quickly.

The association launched a male-only cooking class in 1991, around the time Japan's aging society and declining birthrate started to become a major issue. The number of male participants in the association's 18 cooking schools nationwide currently totals 6,500, a 20-fold surge from the number in 1991, the association said. Twenty years ago, men started learning to cook out of necessity. But men today are instead choosing to cook for fun or as a hobby, the schools said.

Kazue's TOEIC Vocabulary Exam

PART FOUR

TOEIC Part 5 (Reading): Incomplete Sentences

Choose the word that best completes the sentences.

1. Our union representative _____ members that our rights would be defended.

1. assured
2. assurance
3. assuredly
4. assure

2. I don't feel any ______ to give my boss more than two weeks notice when I leave.

1. oblige
2. obligatory
3. obliged
4. obligation

3. Marketing specialists have conducted extensive studies of what _____ customers to a particular product.

1. attractive
2. attraction
3. attracts
4. attracting

4. Manufacturers like to know what features ______ find useful.

1. consumers
2. consume
3. consumption
4. consumable

5. Without good _____, good products can go unsold.

1. market
2. marketable
3. marketed
4. marketing

6. A careful analysis of the _____ products on the market indicated that our product lacked innovation and optional features.

1. competence
2. competing
3. competed
4. competition

7. The timing belt _____ shows signs of wear after about 180,000 miles.

1. character
2. characteristic
3. characterize
4. characteristically

8. If there is any _______ of the director's involvement, we need to follow up swiftly and thoroughly.

1. imply
2. implicit
3. implicated
4. implication

9. It can be very helpful to consider the __________ of the manufacturer and the merchant when making a major purchase.

1. reputation
2. reputable
3. reputing
4. reputed

10. After you turn in your business plan, you will receive a written _______ of your work within two weeks.

1. evaluator
2. evaluative
3. evaluate
4. evaluation

11. It is now legal to ______ a generic brand drug for a prescription medicine if you have the patient's consent.

1. substitute
2. substituted
3. substituting
4. substitution

12. The banquet room could _______ up to 750 for dinner.

1. accommodated
2. accommodate
3. accommodation
4. accommodating

13. The association's members were asked to ____ for the special session well in advance because space in the lecture hall was limited.

1. register
2. registration
3. registering
4. registrar

14. In order to_____ you e-mail messages, you must type in your password.

1. access
2. accessible
3. accessed
4. accessibility

15. After reviewing the schedule, I realized we had not _____ enough time for software training.

1. allocate
2. allocated
3. allocating
4. allocation

16. ______ is still a major concern for inner-city schools that want to install computers.

1. Affordable
2. Affording
3. Affordable
4. Affordability

17. When a problem ______ frequently, it is time to reexamine the process.

1. recur
2. recurrence
3. recurring
4. recurs

18. Ms. Handa was unable to express her ______ for all that her colleagues had done for her.

1. appreciation
2. appreciated
3. appreciating
4. appreciates

19. It looks like this disk was _____ to intense heat, because it's warped and pocked.

1. expose
2. exposed
3. exposing
4. exposure

20. There is a _________ approach to software design integration that all the big software developers are currently learning.

1. revolutionized
2. revolutionary
3. revolution
4. revolt

21. It's worth ________ in the memo that we've finished the draft of the proposal.

1. mentionable
2. mentioning
3. mentions
4. mentioned

22. The signatures on the _________ weren't all legible because rain had caused the ink to run.

1. petition
2. petitioners
3. petitioning
4. petitioned

23. After each ______, you need to reread what you've written and note your suggestions for changes.

1. revise
2. revised
3. revision
4. will revise

24. The applicants who _______ will be flown to the corporate office and interviewed there.

1. qualification
2. qualify
3. qualifying
4. qualifies

25. The company hired a professional ___________ to fill the vacant positions.

1. recruited
2. recruiting
3. recruitment
4. recruiter

TOEIC Part 6 (Reading): Text Completion

Thank you for buying a Flexco product. Flexco is a top name in women's clothing, and the Flexco brand carries a reputation for excellence. Customer satisfaction is out top priority, and all Flexco garments carry the Flexco guarantee. All our products must ____(1)____ to high standards. They ____(2)___ by trained professionals before they leave the factory. If your purchase is defective in any way, you must take it __(3)____ to the store for a complete refund.

1.

1. conform
2. conforms
3. conforming
4. to conform

2.

1. inspect
2. inspected
3. are inspected
4. have inspected

3.

1. up
2. out
3. off
4. back

In order to stay competitive in today's market, companies must continually work to develop new products. Through ____(4)____ research, a company can ascertain what consumers are interested in buying. Then products that match those interests can be developed. Nothing should ___(5)____ about consumer interests. Product developers need ____(6)____ all the data carefully before spending money on a new product. This is only logical. Consumers will buy products that meet their needs and desires. The money and effort spent on market research will be repaid many times over by a product that sells.

4.

1. system
2. systemize
3. systematic
4. systematically

5.

1. assume
2. assumes
3. assumed
4. be assumed

6.

1. examine
2. to examine
3. examining
4. will examine

Pictures

Chris Walton, known as The Dutchess, drinks coffee with fingernails stretching and curving from her hands like a tangle of spaghetti. Meet the 45-year-old grandmother with the world's longest fingernails. This Las Vegas singer and musician stopped cutting her fingernails 18 years ago and now her nails have reached a total of 20 feet. Her amazing dedication to her nails has been officially recognised by the 2012 edition of the Guinness Record Book.

A man has invented a typewriter that paints. The Chromatic Typewriter works by having each letter loaded with oil paint. Washington-based artist Tyree Callahan converted an old 1937 Underwood Standard model. 

A blue tit perches on branch in snow, at the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

 Michael Kemeter balances at a dizzying altitude of more than 3,000 feet on a strip of material no more than one inch wide. The highline was set up between a fissure across a steep gully at the Yosemite National Park in California.

 A farmer has harvested a human-shaped red radish from his field in Xuzhou, eastern China's Jiangsu Province. Bao Jiagen said the radish even more closely resembled a human figure several days ago when it had a small head with radish leaves on. "The head was pulled off by onlookers at the market".

 A model presents a creation during the 2012 Korea Hair Collection in Seoul

Young woman with cancer asks Hollywood actor out for coffee using online video

 

Attempting to re-enter the world of dating after being diagnosed with cancer, 26 year-old Lindsey Miller has posted a video of herself online in which she asks actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt out for coffee.

 

The heart warming video in which Miss Miller asks out Gordon-Levitt, who is set to star in the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, has become an internet hit. In the footage the Los Angeles-based redhead says she has found it difficult to date since being diagnosed with cancer. However, she reveals that after seeing Gordon-Levitt star in 50/50, a film in which he plays a man struggling with cancer, she has decided that he is just the man to help her overcome her fears.

Looking straight down the lens, Miss Miller, who is suffering from pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer, invites the 30 year-old actor to join her for a casual drink. "After a year of living with this, I've decided to get back on the dating scene and I'd like my first date to be with you. Let's not be overdramatic, just a cup of coffee with you would make me happy." The video, which was posted on YouTube, has so far been watched by over 370,000 people.

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8900453/Young-woman-with-cancer-asks-Batman-actor-out-for-coffee-using-online-video.html

Superman fan goes surgery-mad

Because of his love for Superman, Filipino designer Herbert Chavez changed his physical appearance to look like the Man of Steel. For more than a decade, 35-year-old Chavez has undergone a series of procedures that have made his nose higher and slimmed down his thighs. He has had surgery on his cheeks, lips and chin, and injections to whiten his skin."Superman is my idol. I want to look like him," Chavez said. "That's why I copied his nose and the proportion of Superman's face." Once a typical-looking Filipino, Chavez now has the face of Clark Kent.

His admiration began when he was a child and watched Superman save the world in movies. He later began collecting Superman items, including cups, bed sheets, action figures and life-size Superman statues. He has even designed his own Superman costumes. 

People in Calamba, south of Manila, refer to him as the "village superman". Children play with him when they see him in the streets. "It's ridiculous when you look at it, but it's a source of happiness for the children. They can forget the problems facing our world," said resident Filipe Rabanan. 

 

Chavez says doing good deeds is what makes a hero - a lesson worth teaching children."We should show them that even if you're just a regular father or mother, anybody can become a superhero," he said. "Doing good to someone, to your neighborhood or to your social life, that makes you a superhero." 

Miss USA 2006 Q&A

1. If you could tell your younger self something that you know now as an adult, what would it be? (Miss Ohio)

2. Do you think that today's pop superstars are positive role models for young people? Why or why not? (Miss Kentucky)

3. So many families seem to be growing apart. How can we keep them together? (Miss California)

4. What can men learn most from women? (Miss Georgia)

5. Are we as a society getting a little too concerned with being politically correct? (Miss Florida)

Getting Japanese Women Back on Track

Japan's economy is threatened. Not just by an ongoing recession and March's disastrous earthquake and tsunami, but by an aging population that is decimating the workforce. If ever a country needed a breakthrough idea for productivity, it's now. In fact, a solution exists: Japan's underutilized women. According to a 2010 study by Goldman Sachs, "If Japan could close its gender employment gap, Japan's workforce could expand by 8.2 million and the level of Japan's GDP could increase by as much as 15 percent." 

Yet according to a new study from the Center for Work-Life Policy, 74% of college-educated women in Japan voluntarily quit their jobs for six months or more — more than twice the number of their counterparts in the U.S. (31%) and Germany (35%). The reason for this enormous brain drain: a toxic combination of social mores and how they're manifested in Japan's corporate culture. 

Japanese tradition defines a woman's primary role as ryosaikenbo — "good wife, wise mother." It is assumed that most women will quit their jobs when they marry, a phenomenon known as a "happy resignation". Because of this, female college graduates are automatically sidetracked onto the "office lady" path, a dead-end support staff role whose duties include making tea for male managers, dusting their desks, and serving drinks at after-hours functions. Between men and women, there's a huge earnings gap: On average, women only earn 72% of the compensation paid to men for equivalent jobs.

Japan boasts a large pool of well-educated women, with women constituting nearly half of university graduates. Companies should make a special effort to recruit, retain, and accelerate female talent to give Japan's ailing economy the boost it so desperately needs. 

Vocabulary

decimating - destroying a great number of (workforce)

breakthrough - significant development or achievement

underutilized - not fully used

counterparts - people resembling another (American and German women are counterparts of Japanese women.)

brain drain - loss of trained professional personnel in the country's workforce

mores - customs or practices in the society 

sidetracked - being led out of the way

pool - source

ailing - troubled; sick

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-14/getting-japanese-women-back-on-track.html

Miss USA 2008 Question and Answer

1. Some cosmetic companies have marketed beauty products for girls to learn elementary school. Do you think this is a good thing? (Miss Pennsylvania, 4th runner-up)

2. In some countries, when you turn 18 you are required to spend a year in the military. Do you think this should be enforced in our country? Why or why not? (Miss Texas, Miss USA 2008)

3. If you could help one famous person to better themselves, who would you pick and how would you help them? (Miss Oklahoma, 3rd runner-up)

4. There are parents today who raise their children without letting them watch any television or look at the internet. What is your opinion on this? (Miss New Jersey, 2nd runner-up)

5. Has being a beautiful woman given you any special opportunities in life? And if so, how have you used it in a positive and constructive way? (Miss Mississippi, 1st runner-up)

Miss USA 2011 Q&A

1, Many have argued that marijuana should be legalized and taxed to boost the economy and alleviate drug wars. Do you believe in the legalization of marijuana? Why or why not?

2. Recently, a controversial pastor in the United States burned the Koran. Should burning of any religious article be protected by the first amendment in the same way burning the flag is protected?

3. Recently the personal discretions of men in positions of power have exposed their families' private lives. What advice would you give a woman whose spouse put her in a position of public humiliation?

4. There have been recent deaths of students who have been bullied on the internet. If the victim commits suicide, should the bully be prosecuted? Why or why not?


Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGU0M7xTyvE

Miss Universe 2002 Q&A

1. If you had to represent another country in this competition, what country would that be and why?

2. What is the biggest misconception of people about your country?

3. What's the one thing you need to overcome?

4. What is the most important thing that you learned about yourself through participating in Miss Universe?

5. If your life were videotaped, what would you erase and what would you replay?

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRksaJriCHA

Managerial Job Interview Guide

OPENING:

1. Provide job description – What is the specific position? What is the job about?

“The position available in our company is operations manager. The operations manager is in charge of overseeing, designing and redesigning business operations to provide Internet service to clients/customers. He is expected to handle ten subordinates (operations officers) in his department.”

2. Ask for application or resume (if not yet submitted)

3. Overview of unit and campus – Give short introduction about the office
“Should you be hired for this job, you will report to this office in Manila. As you can see, there are several departments – accounting, sales, etc. You will work together with these departments...”

Transition from Opening to Interview Proper:

“Shall we start the interview?”

“Let's move on with the interview.”

INTERVIEW PROPER: Specific Questions
1. General  

• Tell me about your previous work experience. 
• How is your experience relevant or helpful to this job?
• Why are you interested in this position as operations manager?
• How would the people around you describe you?
• What’s a common misconception some people have about you?
• Tell me about a difficult decision you had to make recently. Walk me through the problem and what your thought process was, and how you ultimately handled it.
• What is one thing that you have had difficulty overcoming in your career, and how did you do that?
• What is some of the most useful criticism you’ve ever received? Why?
• Have you ever been given criticism that you disagreed with? What was it? How did you handle that?

2. Getting things done

• What has been your biggest achievement at your previous company?
• What were your department’s major goals last year? How did you settle on those goals? Was your department able to meet them? How did you measure whether or not you met those goals?
• What’s an example of a goal you didn’t meet? How come? How did you respond to that?
• What will success look like for you this year? Why is that important? How hard will it be to get there?
• Tell me about one of the (previous) organization’s (or department's) largest or most important projects and how you managed it, from start to finish. I’m interested in something where others were doing the work, but you were overseeing it.
  - What was the goal or vision for it?
  - What happened?
  - How did you ensure that happened?
  - How do you know it happened?
  - What lessons did you get from that project?
• What are some of the biggest obstacles your organization/department experienced in the last few years? What did you do to address them?
• Tell me about something you got done at  your previous company that someone else in your role probably wouldn’t have.

3. Managing People

• How would you describe yourself as a manager? How do you think others would describe you?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses as a manager?
• What is your philosophy about management?
• What do you think the fundamental purpose of a manger is? 
• How has your management philosophy evolved as you’ve gained more management experience?
• What do you do to work on being a better manager?
• What do you think are some of the most common ways people fail at management?
• Tell me about an employee who became more successful as a result of your management.
• Who are your best people? What are you doing to retain them?
• What do you look for when you hire people?
• When was the last time you fired someone or coached someone out? How many people have you fired in the last two years? Why? (You’re looking for a manager who fires people who don’t perform at a high standard.)
• Tell me about the most difficult employee situation you ever had to handle. What did you do and what was the result?
• Tell me about a time you were managing a poor performer. How did you handle it and what was the outcome?
• What was the most difficult management decision you’ve ever had to make?
• Tell me about a management mistake that you made in the past. What would you do differently?
• Even the best bosses generate complaints from their employees now and then. What complaints do you think the people you’ve managed would have about you?

CLOSING:
1. Questions or additional comments from the candidate

"Do you have any questions about the job?"
2. Timeline to conclude interviews and make a hiring decision

"The company will contact you within a week to inform the results of your application."
3. Explain who they may be meeting with next 

"Should you get the job, please come back to the office and report to the HR (Human Resource) Department for further instruction and orientation."
4. Thank the applicant
"Thank you for your interest in this job and for taking time for this interview. We will keep in touch. Have a good day!"  (shake hands)

Desperate, Sick Indonesians Use Railroad Therapy

Villagers lie on a railway track for an electricity therapy in Rawa Buaya, Jakarta, Indonesia. 

Ignoring the red-and-white danger sign, Sri Mulyati walks slowly to the train tracks, lies down and stretches her body across the rails. Like the nearly dozen others lined up along the track, the 50-year-old diabetes patient has given up on doctors and can't afford the expensive medicines they prescribe. In her mind, she has only one option left: electric therapy. "I'll keep doing this until I'm completely cured," said Mulyati, while an oncoming passenger train sends a current racing through her body. She leaps from the tracks as the train approaches and then, after it has passed, climbs back into position. 

Pseudo-medical treatments are wildly popular in many parts of Asia. There are stories about people who are cured after touching a magic stone or eating dung from sacred cows. These miracles attract thousands, especially in Indonesia, where the health care system is not available to the poor.

Medical experts say there is no evidence that lying on the rails does any good. But Mulyati insists it provides more relief for her symptoms - high-blood pressure, sleeplessness and high cholesterol - than any doctor has since she was first diagnosed with diabetes 13 years ago. She turned to train track therapy last year after hearing a rumor about an ethnic Chinese man, who was partially paralyzed by a stroke, going to the tracks to kill himself, but instead finding himself cured. It's a story that's been told and retold in Indonesia.

Japan's bored audiences turn off TVs

The Japanese, once one of the most TV-addicted people on the planet, are watching less television these days. Daily TV viewing time, which averaged more than five hours in the 1970s, decreased to 3 hours and 28 minutes by 2010, according to the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute. Males aged 10 to 20 are watching less than two hours a day. Meanwhile, program ratings have been going down for most networks, including NHK, TV Asahi, NTV, TBS, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo, despite spikes for major sport events and other special programming.

There are various causes for this decrease in TV viewing. Like other countries, Japanese families no longer sit around the TV watching the same show, as viewers did in the 1960 to 1990s. The Japanese now use other devices for entertainment, including PCs, smartphones and game consoles. But the biggest cause, says Hiro Otaka, a media analyst for the Bunka Tsushin entertainment news services, is that the programs have become boring. "They don't put as much money or creativity into the shows as they used to, so program content has declined," he says. "You have so many of these cheaply made variety shows with comedians, it's hard to tell them apart. Viewers have just become tired of the same thing again and again."

Yakuza Awareness Classes

This August, Police in Fukuoka have started conducting organized crime education and awareness classes at middle and high schools in the prefecture. Prefectural police report that the current cultural tolerance of the yakuza often results in admiration of them by misinformed youth; indeed, many yakuza first participated in gang activities in their formative early teens. The police have therefore created this program to educate middle and high school students about the realities of yakuza life.

The curriculum includes ways of dealing with yakuza confrontations (for example, what to do when approached in the workplace by a yakuza demanding to be payed off), a run-down of how the yakuza make money (through drug smuggling, loan sharking and other illegal activities) and general advice on how not to get entangled in a gang.

Of the 69,000 students who had taken the class before June of this year, 24,000 were asked to participate in a survey. According to the results, 40% had some yakuza presence in their lives. 2% had reported they were even invited to join a gang. 97% of students reported that the classes were easy to understand, and that “they now understood the truth about the yakuza.”

In the space allocated for comments, some reported that there were shootings near their house, and that they were afraid of being hit by a stray bullet.

Seven teachers have a special license to teach the class. They plan to visit 545 public and private schools at least once by March of next year.

Cat cafes purrfect for lonely and childless people

TOKYO —On the third floor of a rather plain looking building in Ikebukuro, there is a small but busy cafe called Nekorobi. Customers do not come here for the food but for the staff, a sophisticated crew of 12 that are as varied as they are beautiful. 

After disinfecting their hands and putting on a specially provided pair of slippers, customers can talk to and play with Sugar, Aisha, Anko and the others for as long as they like, if they are willing to pay.

Nekorobi is one of Tokyo’s ever-growing numbers of cat cafes. Faced with a high cost of living, long working hours and the realities of life in cramped apartments, many Japanese people are unable to keep pets of their own.Cat cafes have increased in number for the Japanese population that is increasingly single and childless, and where loneliness is also a rising problem.

The world’s first cat cafe opened in Taiwan in 1998, but after it became popular with Japanese tourists, Japan’s first cat cafe, Neko no Jikan (or “Cat Time”), opened in Osaka in 2004. There are now at least 39 cat cafes in Tokyo alone, and some are so popular that reservations are required. Because of this popularity, the cats have also become mini-celebrities, starring in magazines and coffee table books.

Anti-Korean Wave in Japan turns political

Despite Bae Yong-joon’s continued demigod status in Japan and K-Pop’s domination on the Oricon charts these days, it seems that some Japanese have had enough of weepy Korean soap operas and Korean idols. 
 

Although the exact numbers vary according to media outlets, Chosun Ilbo reported that 500 demonstrators gathered outside Fuji TV headquarters on Aug 7, ostensibly to protest the broadcaster’s perpetuation of the Korean Wave. 

GIRLS GENERATION appear at MTV Video Music Aid Japan

Popular Japanese actor Sousuke Takaoka, 29, of “Battle Royale” fame first sparked controversy when he tweeted anti-Hallyu sentiments last month. “I’ll never watch Channel 8 (Fuji TV) again,” he said. “I often think it’s Korean TV. Japanese people want traditional Japanese programs.” 

When Takaoka was reportedly dropped from his agency following his Tweets, critics of Korean pop culture and right-wing nationalists organized the rally via the Internet. 

Twitter spread word of the anti-Hallyu charge, which took on a political slant as some protesters whipped out Japanese flags and chanted “Long live the emperor” while others belted out the Japanese national anthem.

Men's life expectancy rises, but women's falls

The average life expectancy of Japanese women slipped 0.05 year in 2010 to 86.39 years, the first decline in five years, but remained the highest in the world, the welfare ministry said Wednesday.

"Last summer's intense heat wave probably took a toll on many physically fragile seniors," an official at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.

 

Heat stroke-related deaths reached an all-time high of 1,718, with those aged 65 and above accounting for 80 percent of the total. Deaths among the elderly from heart disease and pneumonia also increased — especially last summer — compared with a year earlier, decreasing women's life expectancy, according to the ministry.

Japanese men's life expectancy, however, hit a new high for the fifth straight year at 79.64 years, although the annual increase was just 0.05 year, down from 0.3 in 2009, the ministry said.

Worldwide, the longevity of Japanese women remained the highest for the 26th year running. Women in Hong Kong ranked second with a life expectancy of 85.9 years, followed by French women at 84.8 years.

Japanese men, meanwhile, moved up the global rankings from fifth in 2009 to fourth last year. Men in Hong Kong came top with a life expectancy of 80.0 years, while Swiss men placed second at 79.8 years and Israeli men were third at 79.7 years.

Wedding rings a hot item in disaster zone

Sendai — Sales of engagement and wedding rings have risen sharply at major department stores in Sendai since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Fujisaki, a Sendai department store founded in 1819, said an increasing number of customers have bought rings since the store fully reopened on April 22, with May-July sales rising roughly 30 percent from a year earlier.

 

"I think the disaster prompted people to rethink the bond they have with their partners and to reflect on family," said Yuka Aihara of Sendai Mitsukoshi, which saw April-July wedding and engagement ring sales double from a year earlier after full store operations resumed in April.

Sendai Mitsukoshi's customers are mainly elderly women, but "since the disaster, we now have more couples in their 20s or 30s," said Akira Sato, who runs the store's jewelry section.

At Fujisaki, a young woman who was looking for a wedding ring for her partner said the catastrophe motivated them to get married.

When the quake struck, the woman, who is from the Kanto region, was visiting her boyfriend in Rikuzentakta, Iwate Prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas. It took them four days to be reunited at a shelter, prompting them to tie the knot, she said.

Photos of the Day: 8-22-11

A boulder topped with a pink ribbon and covered in a spray-painted message: "Happy birthday, Isa" sits in the driveway of Isabelle Prevost in Acton Vale, Quebec. The 20-ton stone was left there as a gift by Dany Lariviere, Prevost's ex-husband and mayor of a nearby municipality, following lengthy divorce proceedings. Lariviere joked that his wife had always wanted a big rock (diamond) — and he quipped that this one is, in his words, between 18 and 24 "carat-tons".

Susanne Eman, 32, and her two sons, Brendin and Gabriel, do their weekly shopping trip at the local supermarket in Casa Grande, Arizona. She is trying to become the fattest woman ever. Already 50 stone (318 kg), she aims to reach a whopping 115 stone (732 kg) by guzzling more and more food every day.

The driver of this car tried to find her way out of a traffic jam - only to drive into a lane of freshly laid cement. The driver, believed to be a lawyer, was attempting to perform a U-turn when she made the embarrassing mishap in front of bemused construction workers. She then had to sit in the car while dozens of passing people took pictures of the Lexus GS in Houston, Texas.

Tribesmen work at the Mae Salong Flower Hills Resort in the Mae Salongnok District, Chiang Rai Province, in Thailand

Holidaymakers, most with swimming rings, crowd in a salty swimming pool, locally known as "China's Dead Sea'', as they wait for man-made waves coming to them during a hot summer day in Daying county in southwest China's Sichuan province.