It's Monday and that means it's time for "Current Events".
As this is the beginning of these new segments I have been thinking about ways to make these segments better and more interesting for those of you who are reading. In today's blog and eventually VLOG you will find that we talk about some of the current events here in Okinawa as well as some other current events in the JVLOG community. I hope that this is an improvement.
Okinawa Aquarium one of Top 20 Tourist Attractions in Japan
An organization in Hiroshima Prefecture has announced that the Okinawa Aquarium is one of the top 20 travel destinations here in Japan. I imagine that this is no surprise to those who have visited the Okinawa Aquarium before. If you have never been to the Okinawa Aquarium before let's talk a little bit about it. This is not just an aquarium, this is a vacation destination. The area known as the "aquarium" is an aquarium, gardens, beach and outdoor eating area. The area is amazing in and of itself is amazing but this is before you even look at the building that is the aquarium itself. The building was actually featured on Modern Marvels which was an amazing show and you should check it out if you have not already. Now going in to the building itself you will see some amazing animals including whale sharks (which are personally my favorite) and a variety of other sea life which are all in the oceans surrounding our little island. The amazing things, however, is the tank that they have which is considered the largest in the world. Looking at it is feeling like you are standing on the bottom of the ocean floor because of it's massive size. This is a must see for anyone coming to Okinawa and in fact I have been told that this is also one of the destinations that school children visit when they are traveling to Okinawa from the Main Islands. It is no surprise for Okinawa's Aquarium to be listed in this top 20 but then again it is pretty awesome to hear that something we have here on Okinawa is one of the must-see attractions in the country.
Osprey's Coming to Okinawa
If you know Okinawa you know that we have a heavy military presence here by the US. If you are a follower of my work you may know that I have not focused so much on the politics and details of what happens here as far as the US Military goes. This is not because I have any particular political stance or because I want to avoid the comments that people may have on these areas. The honest reason is because I don't want my blog and VLOGS to be mostly about the military presence and politics and trust me there are so many of these situations that it would take over much of my blog and VLOG. That doesn't mean that I will never talk about anything like this and hence why I am writing about this right now.
As many of you may know there is a base here in Okinawa called MCAS Futenma which is known by many as a dangerous base. There are many reasons for this but for the sake of time I will not discuss that at this time. Nonetheless there is a new aircraft that will be deployed here to Okinawa in the near future known as the Osprey. This is a very interesting aircraft which can take off like a chopper and then fly like a jet. Unfortunately although these are awesome and interesting planes there have been a lot of crashes and malfunctions that have happened during the development of this aircraft. This coupled with the recent crash of an Osprey in Morocco has not make anyone feel really warm and fuzzy about the aircraft coming here to Okinawa. To be completely honest I do share concern with those who are worried about these aircraft. The reason for this is very basic. Honestly I live around the area of the flight pattern of these aircraft and I am very aware that they fly extremely low and in bad weather. It doesn't really matter your position on this or that there are times when you have concern.
It has been reported that Okinawa officials are going to receive training regarding Osprey Crash Training although I am not sure of any other details. I will keep you posted if I hear anything more about it.
Brown Sugar Cola
As I reported last week there is a new kind of brown sugar cola which is going to be released today. I am not sure where this cola is going to be sold although I am thinking that it may be in the vending machines like other drinks of this kind. I will be searching today at the end of the day and I will report back to you and let you know if I find what I am looking for.
JLand Kev/Bussan Kevin: "Teacher gets suspended for giving 0's"
I watched a video this weekend posted by Kevin who is one of my favorite and I date to say (because my memory doesn't always serve me the best) first JVLOGGERS that I had ever watched. He was reporting on a story which basically said that a teacher in Canada had been suspended for giving their student's zeros in class. These students had not attended class or completed assignments and therefore this was the reason that they had received these marks, however the school had what is called a no zero policy which basically means that the students are graded on the work that they pass in and not on the work that they don't. Kevin being an educator obviously had an opinion on this as do I which is what I wanted to report to you now.
To be completely honest as an educator myself I think that this is only to be described as sad. This concept that this school has in place basically says that if out of 10 assignments if a student passes only one of them in and gets 100% they get a total grade of 100%. I do not understand how on earth this is beneficial to the students in any way whatsoever. How are students going to have the capability to succeed in life after school if they are being taught with such soft principles as this? Now I will add that I do not think that all of these kids will be failures nor do I think that all of them are failures for not coming to class or passing in work but in my opinion it is a concept of "if you can't do the time don't do the crime". Silly I know but if you don't pass in work, you get a zero. That's my opinion at least.
So ladies and gentlemen that is today's current events. I hope that you all enjoyed this post! Don't forget if you have any questions or comments please feel free to shoot me an email at okininjakitty@yahoo.com contact me via Facebook or cheek out the youtube page. Have a great night.
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