Olympic training includes more than fitness. Athletes need stamina. Focus. Specialized diets. And, apparently, foreign food survival and utensil adaptation lessons.

Every Wednesday, a special menu based on the food that will be available at the Olympic Village in Beijing, is served at Japan’s National Training Center. A sign at the NTC declares the food is offered so athletes can get used to unfamiliar tastes.

Miso soup and soy sauce is not available on Wednesdays. Athletes can instead enjoy spring rolls and dumplings. Japanese rice is not offered, replaced by rice from India and Thailand. Plastic knives and forks substituted for chopsticks. The Olympic menus will be offered every Wednesday until the end of July.

Name that Plan

This special Olympic menu training needs a name. May we suggest:
Good Eating Rules Instruction (GERI)
Japanese Inedible Nutrients Information (JINI)

Suggest a name!

photos: NTC; JOC; NTC table; NTC table Sponichi; Athlete eats

The average US mainland price June 28 was 4.59 per gallon. The June 28 Japan nationwide average price for one gallon of regular was USD 6.20 per gallon (sold at JPY163.88 per liter). convert$

The price is expected to rise to JPY180 by mid-July.

At least one Japanese oil company has surplus gasoline that could be exported to the US. Reuters reports Nippon Oil Corp President Shinji Nishio said Japan’s oil demand will decline 2 percent per year through 2010. But as the Asian market is set to grow 4-5 percent a year, Japan can export domestic surplus overseas. He said Nippon Oil had considered shipping gasoline to the United States to meet peak summer demand, but it was difficult due to the variety of gasoline specifications that exist in the country.

In May 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy, Japan’s trade ministry and oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and Nippon Oil held a meeting in San Francisco to discuss gasoline exports to the US from Japan. According to the Reuters story, Japanese exports to the United States of distillates such as gas oil have been steadily increasing, but exports of gasoline are relatively uncommon. The meeting ended with no detailed arrangements of exports, but both countries agreed that the US would stand to gain as it has consistently suffered from a lack of refinery capacity and gasoline shortages, especially in the summer.

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The fashion campaign was initiated in 2005 by former Japan environment minister Yuriko Koike. She argued that by getting men out of suits, office building air conditioning thermostats could be raised to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) and would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. story

Now, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda leads the way in no-tie short-sleeve work attire. Or does he?

The 71-year-old prime minister seems reluctant to give up that necktie. Asked how he will dress when the campaign starts this year, Fukuda, on May 27 said “I don’t want to look shabby. But there is no need to go against the trend.”

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