Random thoughts

Just had a mild earthquake here a half-hour ago. Around 3 on the Japanese scale. It felt like a truck passing by, but a few seconds longer, so I decided to check on the Japan Meteorological Agency website (they have a pretty good English page), and saw it there.

Gasoline has dropped to at or below what it cost back when I started driving in Japan two or three years back. ¥118 per liter. However, that's still US$4.66 a gallon...

Japanese TV often has shows where "tarento" (basically, people who are famous for being on these shows) go out into some seldom-visited part of Japan and do...interesting things. Today's show has four or five of them off in Hokkaido, participating in farming activities and traditional Japanese inns.

Oftentimes, these shows use stock music from a variety of sources. I've heard a lot of incidental music from various anime in these shows, plus the occasional pop song, either Japanese or western. (Don't ask me how I recognize the anime music...as if you couldn't figure it out on your own.)

During a segment on cows, milk, and yogurt, they used a song which I recognized immediately -- Innerst i sjelen, by Sissel Kyrkjebø. I thought it odd that a Japanese variety show would use a Norwegian pop ballad for background music, but I guess Sissel is fairly popular here.

I recognized the song because I picked up this album in Northfield back in 1993, prior to traveling to Norway as a member of the St. Olaf Choir. One of our performances was at an outdoor concert in Bergen where she performed as well.