Japanese Ambassador Kazuhide Ishikawa to grace FJF-FJFA NL Anniversary Rites

YESTERDAY, Friday, the Roman Catholics specially in this part of the world celebrated with joyful and meaningful activities the sweet Natal Day of the Blessed, loving and merciful Mama Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Supreme Creator and Savior. My caring wife Consuelo Sol and I joined the celebration in our own simple. We offered flowers, candlelight’s and prayers at the Shrine of the Brown Madonna along Km, 7, Asin Road. We greeted and wished Mama Mary and asked again for her Motherly Blessings for all members of our family and loved once and friends who are here in the country as well as those residing overseas. We also offered prayers for the earliest return of peace and order conditions in Marawi City and other parts of our beloved country and in many parts of the world. We all know that the Maute invasion of Marawi City, the Queen City of Southern Philippines brought untold suffering and miseries to thousand of people including death to over a hundred of soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and innocent residents including members of the invading Mautes. It is hightime that with the grace of the Almighty God, peace, reconciliation and solidarity will reign in our magandang Pilipinas. Other rebel groups must also stop their rebellious intentions and activities so that we can truly live under the roof of a genuine peace, understanding and programs. So be it!

By the way, the project committee of the Shrine of the Brown Madonna with yours truly at the helm is presently preparing the set of activities for the 31st anniversary celebration of the Shrine. The red letter day is on October 10, nest month. A concelebrated Holy Mass and a salo-salo to commemorate the special religious episode are in the bore. Again, we are requesting Rev. Fr. Joey of Immaculate Conception Parish Church of Aurora Hill Barangay and our spiritual Adviser Rev. Fr. Alejandro as the celebrators of the Holy Eucharist. Of course, we will also invite the Don Bosco Parish Church male choir to join us with the help of our good friend former GSO of the city Romy Concio, is. Gardens everywhere. Free movies and featured sporting events in areas, mostly football, I watched a little of tennis, it was the US OPEN. Every seat had its own charging station. There were even snooze lounges, it was a silence zone, people slept.

For the active there were walkways that had exhibits. Video games for kids! Free! I even played some virtual football in another area. Juan had a chance to kick a virtual ball before a virtual goalie. Kids are seen coloring and drawing in some corner, adults too. Oh I make the goal!

Once, we checked in, in one of the hotels inside the airport for a few hours. Just to take a shower and rest. I read that they now have shower rooms provided plus a swimming pool! They find ways to make anyone's stay better.

For every fifty dollars worth of purchases from the airport, a traveler gets a chance to become a millionaire. With two hundred, a hundred chances is given. Imagine a Vegas style slot machine. I learned that not a single Singaporean has ever won it. Always a foreigner. Juan wanted to try his luck. A watch worth two fifty it just had to be. I pass.

Food is another thing. There was everything. Eastern to Western fare was there. Franchises from everywhere, there too. I saw a whiskey tasting room in fact. I was just too shy to try. I would if I had another to do me with.

I failed to see a smoking area. I must not have looked for it too. Surely there was but surely too the fumes or smell must have been enveloped. It did smell nice around the whole airport. The gardens help. There was a mist garden, sort of an Amazon themed area. I know it was just to absorb smell and set the right temperature with the mist and waterfalls or rain mainly to suppress smell and sound. Purposeful.

During the day there is always ample light- a devotee of the Blessed Mother. More on this will be on your way next weekend.

Yesterday, the joint anniversary celebration of the Filipino-Japanese Foundation, Inc. and the Filipino-Japanese Friendship Association, Inc. for Northern Luzon started with a Photo Exhibit dubbed “Dreams” at the gallery, lower basement of SM Baguio. The hostechibitor is Ruday Furuya, a Baguio born Japanese photographer showcasing his journey into the surreal realm of digital art. The photo display will be on focus until the end of October, next month. Learn more about Fil-Japanese relationship, courtesy of Furuya’s through the lens exhibit.

This afternoon, the Fil-Japanese botherhood links on friendship bridge will be more visible and prominent with feeling. A colorful “Kimono Fashion Show” will be staged at the Baguio Country Club’s W.C. Forbes Ballroom scheduled at 5:00 p.m. The big show will certainly become a melting pot of fashion enthusiasts coming from the ranks of fashion designers and admirers. Arnel Cabanisas, executive director of the Filipino-Japanese Foundation said the Kimono show is a rare fashion palabas of the Fashion Avant-Garde of Baguio (Fashion Association of Baguio, FAB) in cooperation with the International Angel Association, Japan; FJFNL in partnership with the Embassy of Japan, City Government of Baguio, Japan Foundation Manila, Baguio Country Club, Japanese Association of Northern Luzon, Friendship Tours and Resorts, BIG Sound FM 95.9 and the FJFA of NL Inc. ing, it is designed that way. Less use of electricity. It is very bright. At night there is alternative energy that produces electricity.

Before entering the plane, I see security, X-rays present, enough of the enjoyment. They were rightly over strict. We were required to show our passports and boarding passes, we removed our jackets, asked to bring out any laptop and leave cellphones inside our carried luggage.

I was set aside and asked what was inside my sling bag, a liquid bottle they detected. I checked the monitor and knew it was my Tabasco sauce, I always carry one with me. Another is a small bottle of Cognac, that was OK? They let me have it after I showed it. That was it.

That is the Best in the World. CHANGI Airport the Singapore Airport. Not here, no way near. peers never found it offensive for him to munch and now and then spit on a portable receptacle beside him during sessions.

Up here, the comparative legislative tolerance for betel nut chewing may spur a shift by smokers to a legally freer and less hazardous habit, both to the wallet and to health.

It’s harder to hide smoke than spittle. Yet there’s no truth, as the police would swear, that they’re concentrated against smoking at the expense of other regulatory ordinances, especially after that report of a violator allegedly assaulting a police officer a day after the cop told him not to light and puff in public places.

As in Davao , Baguio has made the smoker’s world narrower. The city’s comprehensive antismoking ordinance bans the habit “in a public utility and government owned vehicles, accommodation and entertainment establishment, public building, public place, enclosed public place or any enclosed area outside one’s public residence or private place of work, except in duly-designated

The 30th anniversary celebration of the FilipinoJapanese Foundation will be on center stage tomorrow, Sunday. His Excellency Japanese Ambassador to the Philippine Kazuhide Ishikawa will grace the occasion as the guest of honor and speaker during the program billed at 9:00 o’clock in the morning at the ABONG’S Social Hall, located besides the newly Venus Park Hotel along Bukaneg Street. The Ambassador will be introduced by former Honorary Consul and incumbent FJFNL Inc. chairman Carlos Teraoka. To add luster to the special historic event, short inspirational messages will also be delivered by Mariko Higashimura, chairperson, International Angel Association; Miniru Daito, Vice President, Baguio Scholarship Foundation and Akihito Onozeki Sr., trustee of Unno Memorial Scholarship Foundation. The presentation of awards and recognition by Teraoka San and Hilda Tadaoan, Trustee, FJFNL Inc. to deserving personalities will end the day’s calendar of events. Irene Hamada will serve as the program emcee.

At this juncture, I would like to thank Mr. Cabanisas for inviting me and my better half to the commemorative anniversary celebration. We are happy to be part of the friendship endeavor.

Meanwhile, the Baguio Elderly Assembly (BEA), City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) and the Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) 2017 OCTOBERBEST Celebration is just around the corner. The monthlong series of activities honoring our Senior Citizens have been organized and raring to go for the benefit of our elderlies specially for the officers and members of the Federation of Baguio Senior Citizens Associations, BARP Foundation, Philippine Government Retires Association, Baguio Chapter; Veteran Federation of the Philippines, Baguio District and the United States Armed Forces in the Philippines( USAFIP) , Northern Luzon Chapter, particularly the World War II Veterans from the fighting men and women of the 66th Infantry Battalion, AFP. The forth coming OCTOBERBEST Celebration is yours and mine. It is ours. smoking areas”.

“Public place”, as defined in the ordinance, is quite encompassing: “(It) refers to gasoline stations, banks, malls, town squares, terminals, shopping, business arcades, schools, churches, hospitals, cinema houses, gymnasia, funeral parlors, barber shops and other similar placers were people usually congregate either to while away their time or to listen or attend concerts, rallies, programs such as, but not limited to, Mines View Park, Sunshine Park, Imelda Park, and the like provided that existing establishments in Burnham Park shall be subject (to the coverage of the ban).”

At least twice in the regular Monday breakfast meetings at city hall, then city councilor Fred Bagbagen also asked the police to give more enforcement teeth to his “King of the Road Ordinance” he authored the other year. The law requires motorists to fully stop/yield for five seconds before pedestrian lanes.

Pedestrians, especially the elderly and differently abled persons, rue violations are commonplace, according to Bagbagen. On the other hand, police in charge of traffic management claim there are too many white zebra strips, prompting them to close some pedestrian lanes along Session Rd.

Then councilor Richard Carino, on the other hand, found truth in the observation that there are too many traffic lights installed – four of them along the less-than-a-kilometer stretch of Harrison Road - thereby slowing down both motor vehicle and pedestrian flow.

Carino suggested turning some of the traffic lights into blinking yellow, allowing both drivers and pedestrians to pass based on their visual judgment of vehicle and people flow.

Which some do, as a matter of habit, no matter what the color of the installed traffic light is the moment of their crossing or cruising.(r-mail: -mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments).