The iron fireman and the golden tiger

Makoto Nagano, a.k.a., the Iron Fireman, takes on what has to be the world's toughest obstacle course in the hit Japanese TV show "Ninja Warrior":







And take a look at the simply stunning golden tiger:



Here kitty, kitty, kitty.


—Mellow Monk

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Olympic highlights performed by puppeteers [video]

—Mellow Monk

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Two Olympic panoramas

Is your green tea brewed? Good, because here are a couple of amazing panoramic shots from Beijing that are perfect for gazing upon while sipping a nice cup of green tea: a diver's view of the Water Cube and the Beijing Olympics Stadium (a.k.a. the Bird's Nest) about 30 minutes before the Men's 100 Meter Final.



Click on this image to view the full-sized version.


—Mellow Monk

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Live in a baseball stadium? Uh, not quite

Let's say you're a baseball fan, and your team moves to a new stadium, leaving the old one abandoned. That's the bad news. The good news is that you could actually build a home — a real, honest-to-goodness house — smack dab in the middle of the old stadium and live there.


Wouldn't that be just too cool?


Yes, it would be too cool, which is why you can't do it.


Rumors spread on the Internet, however, that a lucky handful of people were doing just that in Osaka Stadium in Japan. Probably because of pictures like the one below. But it turns out that although those are honest-to-goodness homes smack dab in the middle of shut-down Osaka Stadium, they're only model homes put there by a homebuilder to show off their wares.


So, you can walk through those homes, but you can't live there.


Because that would be just too cool.


[Source (Japanese)]



"I even tried Febreze, but I still can't get that hotdog smell out."


—Mellow Monk

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China's tea growers too busy to watch Olympics

Yi Feng is a tea grower in the Chinese farming village of Fan Sheng. Two-thirds of China's 1.3 billion people live in farming villages like this, and like most of them, Yi Feng is far too busy with everyday chores to pay attention to the Olympic events going on in Beijing, to the north.

"The Olympic Games?" she asked, apparently perplexed that anyone would bring up such a subject at harvest time on these prime tea-growing slopes in coastal Zhejiang province. "With all I have to do these days, how could I pay attention to the Olympic Games?"

Carrying bags of freshly picked tea leaves down a narrow lane in Fan Shen.


—Mellow Monk

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Bobby Valentine on "The Zen of Bobby V."

Former NY Mets manager Bob Valentine talks about what it's like to coach baseball in Japan. He also discusses "The Zen of Bobby V.," an ESPN documentary about his life and career in Japan. Below is an interview with the filmmakers.






Bobby V.


—Mellow Monk

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The Japan Series of baseball

The Kansas City Star has detailed coverage of the Japan Series of baseball.



The Chunichi Dragons celebrate their recent win in the 2007 Japan Series.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea boosts endurance

Earlier this week, I wrote that green tea is now the beverage of choice in the New York Yankees' clubhouse.

The article to which I linked referenced a study about the performance-enhancing effects—make that the legal performance-enhance effects—of green tea. A detailed summary of the findings is available in the online version of the journal, the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Important take-aways from the summary include:

• The study found that over 10 weeks, endurance exercise performance was boosted up to 24% with 0.5% green tea extract (GTE) supplementation, and 8% with 0.2% by-weight addition to food.
  
• These results came from the equivalent of about 4 cups of tea a day. In other words, if you drank 4 cups of brewed green tea each day—which is not excessive by any means—you would be getting the same amount of green tea compounds that the subjects in the study ingested.
  
• Taking epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) along did not have the same endurance-boosting effects as green tea extract. In other words, EGCG alone does not explain the benefits detected.
  

And here's more food for thought: Although the study found that green tea extract had an endurance-boosting effect, extracts do not contain all of the natural compounds found in green tea. So, by taking an extract instead of brewed green tea, you're probably missing out on other benefits.

And pills cannot give you an important part of the green tea experience—the calming, relaxing effect that comes from the act of brewing, and from kicking up your feet and enjoying the earthy flavor and soothing aroma of great green tea.

Accept no substitute!


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea, the "official" beverage of the New York Yankees clubhouse

Who would have ever thought: Green tea is now the beverage of choice for more than a few players in the New York Yankees clubhouse. Even manager Joe Torre drinks pints of green tea each day. Says Torre, "It's become more a part of our lifestyles."

Torre made the switch to green tea after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and his doctor gave him a list of antioxidant-rich foods—including green tea.

But green tea isn't just healthy; it may also improve athletic performance:

[O]ne study that appeared in the online edition of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology found regular use of green tea extract might improve endurance.

Play ball!


—Mellow Monk

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Ball players and blood type

The Japanese use blood type to predict a person's character, akin to astrological signs in America—but much more popular.

For instance, most Japanese wouldn't be surprised to hear that Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Matsui, Kazuo Matsui, Tadahito Iguchi, home-run king Sadaharu Oh, and Kei Igawa are all type O:

In Japan, people with Type O are commonly referred to as warriors because they are said to be self-confident, outgoing, goal-oriented and passionate. According to Masahiko Nomi, a Japanese journalist who helped popularize blood typology with a best-selling book in 1971, people with Type O make the best bankers, politicians and — if you are not yet convinced — professional baseball players.

He's blood type O.


—Mellow Monk

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Matsuzaka signs with the Red Sox

Thrower of the gyroball (a.k.a. "ghost pitch"), Daisuke Matsuzaka has signed with the Boston Red Sox.



"$52 million? Well, I think I'm worth it."


—Mellow Monk

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Sumo bout!

Asashoryu beats Chiyotaikai in this 43-second clip from Day 13 of the spring basho (tournament). The commentary is in English.





—Mellow Monk

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Athletes drafted to make green tea macho

Taking a cue from just about every other industry that fears its products don't seem manly enough, a major tea manufacturer has announced the signing of professional athletes to appear in commercials for the company's line of green teas.

The athletes in question are retired NFL star Phil Simms and his son Chris, currently quarterback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Mellow Monk, meanwhile, continues to rely on its simple message: Mellow Monk green tea is good for you, tastes great, and is grown sustainably.

—Mellow Monk

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