Yutaka 日本へ

12月からテニスコートに毎日通いましたが28日11時15分の名古屋行きで桑名に帰ります。毎日楽しいテニスが出来いい時間を過ごさせてもらいました。次回は、9月に帰ってくることは、決定しています。それまで桑名と沖縄を行ったり来たり日本を楽しみます。皆さんありがとうございました。ブログの投稿は、出来る限り継続します。


Yutaka leaving for Japan

  Since December last year I have not missed even a single of playing tennis at KPTC.
  I'll leave here for Kuwana, Japan on 2/28 and plan to be back in September.
  Until then I'll enjoy my life in Japan, travelling between Kuwana and Okinawa.
  I'll try to post my message on the blog as much as possible.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

テニスコート維持募金報告

25日寄付金 31$集まりました。
26日寄付金 7$集まりました。
27日寄付金 20$集まりました。
Yutaka 28日に日本へ帰るので Masako さんに預けました。
Masako さんから Pauline へ渡します。

1口2$以上なので賛同される方よろしくお願いします。
28日以降賛同される方は、Hiro に渡して下さい。


3rd interim report of fund raising campaign

  Contribution:  2/25 - $31,  2/26 - $7, 2/27 - $20
    Masako keeps them temporarily to eventually hand over to Pauline.
    I, Yutaka, will leave here on 2/28 heading for Japan.
    Hiro will handle future contributions.

Fumiko ?

Fumiko 分らないことがあり Charles に訊ねています。 Charles も問いかけに答えようと一生懸命に確認するように聞き入っています。BOB もサポートしようかと気にしています。カピオラニ・コートメンバー皆色々なことに対応してくれ分らないことが出てきてもこうやって皆で助けてくれます。英語と日本語お互いに分るように成って行くんですね。
Fumiko?
   Fumiko seems to have a question and is seeking the answer from Charles,
    who is attentively listening to her.  Bob is willing to help.
    Multi-language conversations at KPTC will clear queries our players have.
   

Saturday, February 26, 2011

テニスコート維持募金報告

25日寄付金 31$集まりました。
26日 Pauline コートに来なかったので Yutaka 預かっています。
26日寄付金 7$集まりました。
明日27日 Pauline へ渡します。
1口2$以上なので賛同される方よろしくお願いします。

Contribution:  2/25 - $31,  2/26 - $7, both to be handed over to Paulinetomorrow 2/27
We solicit your Kokua to contribute min.$2 or its increments.

センターベルト・フック

26日 Keith がコートに来たのでセンターベルト・フックが無くなったこととNo4コートに屋根を取り付けたことを説明し現物を確認してもらいました。センターベルト・フックを応急処置のS字フックから正規品フックにNo2,4コート交換しゲージでネットの高さ確認しました。No1,3コートのフックは、 Keith が月曜日に取り替えます。


On 2/26 Keith checked if the roof had been properly fixed to the fence,
  replaced temporarily put S-shaped hooks of No.2 and 4 courts with the standard proper hooks
  and checked the net height by the gauge.  He will work on No.1 and 3 courts on Monday.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Mail from Hitoshi and Michiko

ハワイでのテニス他今日のメール写真有難うございます。こちらも少し暖かくなりましたが20度以上の日はまだ先です。次回は1ヶ月滞在を目標にしたいと話してます。いろいろ本当に有難うございました。高橋均、道子

  We really thank you to let us have enjoyable tennis play and other fun in Hawaii.
  We have acknowledged the photos sent via internet. Here in Japan
  it is getting a little bit warmer but the temperature of 70 F is a future thing.

テニスコート維持募金報告

24日寄付金 29$集まり25日 Pauline へ渡しました。
25日寄付金 32$集まりました。
明日26日 Pauline へ渡します。
1口2$以上なので賛同される方よろしくお願いします。

Esther のラケット・ギター

Hitoshi,Michiko そして Esther 写真を撮るよと言うと早速 Esther がポーズをしてくれました。仲のよい Hitoshi,Michiko にラケット・ギターでラブソングをプレゼントとミュージシャンのポーズをしてくれました。テニスもベンチも楽しい Esther に Hitoshi,Michiko 感謝!!感謝!!

Hitoshi, Michiko and ESther who posed playing her racket as if it were
  a guitar are photographed together. Three intimate players sang together
  a love-song to the "guitar". They look enjoying both tennis play and
  a casual time on the bench.  Thank you, Hitoshi, Michiko and Esther. 
  

Charles News

Thoughts and Implications

There is not going to be a huge exodus of Japanese bonds anytime soon. However, the world's largest fund has gone from being a buyer of bonds to a seller of bonds. The amount is not trivial.

82.4 trillion yen in domestic bonds is about 1 trillion in US dollars. That is a lot of pent-up supply, especially when the government is running an annual deficit of of about $240 billion with no external buyers at all.

Those factors put huge pressures long-term upward pressures on interest rates.

Deflation Irony

The irony in this madness is that all the Japanese people want is their money back. They are not looking for appreciation. They do not have absurd pension plan assumptions like the 8% expected returns we see in the US. They do not want stocks, or real estate. They just want cash, and they want it to be worth something.

Yet, the Japanese government was hell-bent for two decades attempting to generate inflation which would have weakened the value of those bonds.

Recently, those bond holdings have been rising with a strengthening yen. However, lingering debt from preposterous deflation fighting efforts of building bridges to nowhere must be paid back.

Horns of a Dilemma

Japan choices are to default on its debt, print money to fund interest on the debt, raise taxes effectively robbing savers of their money, or undertake huge spending cuts.

The dilemma stems from years of Keynesian and Monetarist stupidity.

Charles News


World's Largest Pension Fund Needs to Sell Japanese Bonds; Japan's Demographic Time Bomb Officially Goes Off


I's now official. Japan's demographic time bomb has gone off. However, don't look for a big crater, at least just yet, because this has started off with a whimper and not a bang.

Inquiring minds note the World's Biggest Pension Fund May Sell Japan Bonds.

Japan’s public pension fund, the world’s largest, said it may become a net seller of bonds to cover payments in the world’s most rapidly aging society.

The Government Pension Investment Fund, which oversees 117.6 trillion yen ($1.4 trillion), in September forecast that it would sell 4 trillion yen in assets in the business year ending March 31 to fund payouts. Sales may be less than that in the year starting April as bonds reach maturity, said Takahiro Mitani, president of the fund, known as GPIF.

“We will likely be a net seller in the market,” Mitani, a former executive director at the Bank of Japan, said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We certainly have to come up with an adequate amount” to pay pensions, he said, declining to elaborate on the amount.

Sales by the fund, which helps oversee public pension funds for Japan’s 37 million retirees, come as the first of Japan’s baby boomers is set to turn 65 in 2012, making them eligible for pension payments.

The GPIF, historically one of the biggest buyers of Japanese debt, held 82.4 trillion yen in domestic bonds, or 70 percent of its assets, as of September, according to the fund’s latest quarterly financial statement. That compares with 12.6 trillion yen in Japanese stocks, or 10.7 percent, 9.6 trillion yen, or 8.2 percent, in foreign bonds and 11.5 trillion yen, or 9.7 percent, in overseas stocks, the report shows.

GPIF doesn’t plan to start investing in so-called alternative assets such as commodities, real estate, infrastructure, private equity or hedge funds because the risks don’t suit its strategy, Mitani said.
‘Too Early’

“It’s too early to get into alternative investments now,” Mitani said. “Japanese investors are conservative and it’s hard to justify to the public investing in asset classes such as commodities, real estate and hedge funds.”

Japan’s 10-year bond yield is the lowest in the world, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Japan’s gross domestic product shrank an annualized 1.1 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, the Cabinet Office said on Feb. 14, and China’s economy overtook Japan’s as the world’s second largest for 2010.

People aged 65 or older will account for 29 percent of the country’s population in 2020 and almost 40 percent in 2050, according to the statistics bureau. They accounted for 23 percent population at the end of 2010, the highest among the Group of Seven countries, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That compares with 12 percent in 1990.

Japanese pension funds posted the lowest annualized growth among 12 countries between 2004 and 2009, at 2 percent in U.S. dollar terms and unchanged in yen terms, according to the survey. Brazil reported the highest growth, 24 percent in dollars, the report showed.

Whose jacket is this?

Somebody forgot this jacket at Court #2.

Repost from 2/18

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011

Please Kokua to make comments about Don's Tennis Swing.

Don wants to improve his tennis. So could you make an advice for him?
Example:
You had better bend your knee.
David has left a new comment on your post "Please Kokua to make comments about Don's Tennis S...":

Full swing - as in turning your waist when you swing. The longer you are able to keep contact with the ball when you swing, the more control you have on the ball.
So use your core muscle, not your arm, to give it the full swing. You'll have better control and more power while less chance of injury to you elbow and shoulder.
The bottom line is to have fun, but you already look like you're doing that.


Fund raising for tennis court maintenance - $2 per lot (increment):コート維持募金:1口2$

23日No4コートに新しい屋根が取り付けられました。この機会に屋根の材料費を含めコート維持募金を集めようと言う事になりました。1口2$で募金を集めます。 Pauline が募金の窓口になっています。日本人プレーヤーは、YUTAKA か HIRO に渡してもらえば Pauline へまとめて渡します。
コート維持募金は、スポンジローラー,清掃用道具,屋根,防風ネット,テニスネット補修部品 等々に使われています。沢山の方の賛同をお願い致します。

Fund raising for tennis court maintenance - $2 per lot (increment)
As you will see a new roof was put on the fence of No.4 court and there
came a general voice for fund raising for maintenance of KPTC initially
reimbursing the cost of roofing materials.
You are kindly solicited to make contribution in the increment of $2.00 to
Pauline who takes care of our financial matters. Japanese players may hand
over their contribution to Hiro or Yutaka, who will pass them to her.
The money will be spent for rollers, cleaning aids, roofing, wind-shielding nets,
tennis net maintenance etc. Your support will be greatly appreciated.

センターベルト・ホルダー無くなる

23日朝6時10分過ぎNo2テニスコートに来るとセンターベルト・ホルダーが無くなっていました。S字フックを取り付けベルト調整し高さを合わせました。突然無くなっているのでおかしいなと思い他のコート確認すると全てのコートからセンターベルト・ホルダーが無くなっていました。全てのコートにS字フックを取り付けベルト調整し高さを合わせました。屋根の取り付けとセンターベルト・ホルダー取り付けそしてゲームと慌しい日でした。
We lost the center belts' holders
At about 6:10a.m. of 23rd I noticed the center belt holder of No.2 had gone.
Checking other courts, I found all had gone away. With S-shaped hooks I made
height adjustments. It was a very busy day forme: putting the roof on the fence,
height adjustments and playing tennis.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

No4コートに屋根を取り付け: New roof on No.4 court

Bill が屋根が無いコートに新しく屋根を付けようと材料を買い集め22日に屋根を作り上げ23日6時30分頃自動車で運んできました。コートを確認しNo4コートに取り付けようと決めました。人が集まるのを少し待ち IRV Randy Russ に声をかけ Bill Yutaka の5人で屋根を取り付けました。作業は、1時間30分位掛かりましたがこれでNo4コート日差しと雨を遮る屋根が完成しました。Bill に感謝!!感謝!!(写真を合成したのでRussがチョッピリ変ですが勘弁)
New roof on No.4 court
Bill thought we should have a roof above the bench of No.4 court and
prefabricated it on 22nd after purchasing materials. Around 6:30a.m.
he hauled the roof to the court and confirmed No.4 needed a roof.
IRV, Randy, Russ, Bill and I, Yutaka, jointly worked for about an hour and
a half to put it on the fence. By this you will be kept from direct sun-light
and rain. Thanks a lot, Bill. (The photo may look awkward because I had to
compose it.)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

立派なモミの木: The gorgeous firtree

きれいな空を見上げると4面のテニスコートを挟んで中央にそびえるようにスクッと真っ直ぐ伸びているこの立派なモミの木が目に飛び込んできます。もう何年何十年とこの場所で育ち年々伸びて行き存在感を示しています。本当に絵になりますね。
The gorgeous firtree
Close to our courts you see a gorgeous firtree standing straight toward the sky.
It presents its decades long existence here and is still getting taller year by year.
It is really picturesque.

Bonnie & Bob together.

Their special relationship
1. Visiting from same city Spokane WA.
2. Bob's mother is Bonnie's best friend.
3. One is Waikiki condominium owner and one is tenant now.
4. Both of two are tennis fancier for a long time.

Reiko, Yukinobu & Satsuki

1セットゲームが終わりベンチでくつろぐ Yukinobu & Satsuki & Reiko ゲームは、長いラリーが続く好ゲームが展開され激しく動き回ったのといいゲームが出来たことで満足感一杯でベンチに座りゲームの余韻に浸っています。ラリーが続くゲームをした後は、満足感がありますね。
Yukinobu, Satsuki and Reiko look having a relaxed satisfaction sitting on the bench
after a good set of continuous long rallying game.