eigoTown International Halloween Party -- Saturay, October 25th
***********************************************************************
The latest in the hugely successful eigoTown International Parties will
be this Saturday's Halloween Party.

Once again the venue is right in the heart of Tokyo - enjoy the view of
the city skyline while you network, make new friends or just relax at
the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

The admittance fee includes free beer, wine, and other beverages and
plenty of food and snacks. Over 250 people are expected, a good mix of
male and female, foreign and Japanese. Discount for those who dress up!

For more details see:

http://www.eltnews.com/party/

FOOD BANK USE UP ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The number of people who use a food bank in Canada is greater than the
entire population of New Brunswick, says a new report on hunger.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/16/foodbanks031016

2003 A DEADLY YEAR FOR JOURNALISTS
Nearly a third of all journalists killed on the job so far this year
died covering the war in Iraq and its aftermath, says a newspaper group
based in Paris.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/15/journos_die031015

To text or not to text
You knew it had to come. When it was reported last week that a British rehabilitation clinic had begun treating patients for an uncontrollable addiction to text messaging, it certainly sounded like a sign of the times. Or something. It was hard to be sure of the precise significance of the announcement that The Priory, a clinic in London, had staked out this new territory in the relatively uncharted realm of techno-driven psychosis. But the fancy facility is known as one of the best acute psychiatric hospitals in Britain, so its doctors probably knew what they were doing when they identified unstoppable text messaging as a complaint comparable to eating disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse and stress-related illnesses.
[MORE] ->
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20031013a1.htm

MUSIC INDUSTRY CRACKDOWN SPAWNS 'CYBER-SPEAKEASIES'
Music download enthusiasts are flocking to 21st century versions of
"speakeasies" --high-tech clubs that offer encrypted software designed to
shield users from identification and prosecution by a zealous recording
industry. Coincidentally, the software now being served up may have broader
appeal in the business world as well. "The software that users are moving
toward, it has characteristics that businesses need -- which is a high
degree of privacy, a high degree of security and the ability to handle
large files," says New York University telecommunications professor Clay
Shirky. "Thanks to the RIAA, ease of use surrounding encryption
technologies, which was never a big deal before, is a big deal now." In
addition to old favorites such as Kazaa and Morpheus, file-swappers are now
turning to newer iterations, such as Blubster, which features both stronger
privacy protection as well as easy-to-use encryption and decryption.
Another program, called Waste, can be used to set up an encrypted
instant-messaging and content-sharing network of 50 users, without the
potential liability of a central server. And an offshoot of Freenet, dubbed
Locutus, is targeting corporate users with its ability to search corporate
networks for information distributed across a wide range of computers.
"It's kind of like Google for people's hard disks, but with added security.
You can define who has permission to find what kind of files," says Ian
Clarke, who heads up Freenet and Locutus parent Cematics. (AP/CNN.com 6 Oct
2003)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/10/06/underground.internet.ap/index.ht
ml

Here's what the news is about in Japan:
Time to come clean on foreign crime wave
Rising crime a problem for Japan, but pinning blame on foreigners is not the solution

For those who read and watch the Japanese press, these are scary times. Foreign crime is allegedly on the rise, members of the new Koizumi Cabinet are making clear policy statements against it, and the National Police Agency is ready for a new push.








Cabinet ministers (left to right) Taro Aso, Kiyoko Ono and Daizo Nozawa have all made policy statements relating to foreign crime -- but the basis for a crackdown is at best statistically weak and only addresses less than 2% of all Japanese crime. SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTOS


This is despite incontrovertible evidence that foreign crime rates are actually lower than those of Japanese.

Of course, Japan's overt stoking of public fear of foreigners is not in itself news -- it has been going on for years.

However, the problem this time around is that the fearmongering is not merely another fad. It may be about to gel into public policy.

With the most recent election within the Liberal Democratic Party for a new leader, all four candidates in a Sept. 18 TBS TV debate offered their policy visions for foreigners, including Japanese language tests for new entrants, crackdowns on crime, etc. In other words, dealing with the foreign element in society was as much a policymaking litmus test as, say, dealing with bloated public works or rekindling national growth.




Foreign crime policy
Koizumi was re-elected on Sept. 20 and two days later the new Cabinet was announced. No fewer than three Cabinet members (Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa, Public Management Minister Taro Aso and National Public Safety Chair Kiyoko Ono) appeared on NHK talking about foreign crime in their first policy statements.

Nozawa talked about how Koizumi has charged him with making Japan the "world's safest country" again. Ono was the most specific -- saying that foreign crime and youth crime were among her policy priorities.

Meanwhile, news stories on foreign criminals are commonplace. One two-hour show, aired nationally on NTV during prime time on Sept. 16, 2003, had cameras following police on the beat (a la the American Fox Network show "Cops"). More than a quarter of the airtime was devoted to foreign crime alone (with no interaction between police and foreigners except to arrest them). Rightwing Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, came on after every foreign-specific segment to remark on, inter alia, the cruelty of Chinese crooks and the need for more police.

The topic of foreign crime is seasonally recycled. The National Police Agency supplies the media with regular updates on any rise in the crime rate (about once every six months, going quiet when crime rates go down.) Result: The public get fresh scare showers about rising crime.

Unfortunately, very little has appeared in the Japanese media to temper things -- like comparisons between rising Japanese and foreign crime rates. Pity. This would reveal that the foreign crime rate is less -- far less -- as a proportion of the population than the Japanese rate.

But what of the data on foreign crime?

The National Police Agency had its most recent White Paper on foreign crime available for download from its Web site ( www.npa.go.jp) conveniently in time for the new Koizumi Cabinet. One look indicates that, yes, after a dip in 2000 and 2001, both the number of foreign crimes and foreign perpetrators have increased.

What is still left out:

The number of registered foreigners in Japan is also increasing year on year: From 1,778,462 in the beginning of 2002 to 1,851,758 souls by the end ( www.moj.go.jp). More people means more potential criminals. So statistics detailing only foreign crime rates both in raw numbers and in percentages only tells half the story.





Postwar crime high
The other half is this: The number of crimes regardless of nationality in Japan in 2002, according to this paper on Sept. 23, 2003, was 2.85 million, a postwar record high. However, since the Japanese population is not really increasing, the rise in the Japanese crime rate is more marked than that for foreigners.

Moreover, the number of crimes committed in 2002 by foreigners was 1.39 percent of the total. Given the fact that the number of registered foreigners (those on one-year visas and above) is 1.5 percent of the total Japanese population, this means that foreigners are less likely to commit crimes on average than Japanese.

Let's mitigate that even further: Note that crimes committed by foreigners also includes visa violations -- crimes that Japanese by definition cannot commit, which should be caveated out for a better comparison of crimes committed by everybody. Since visa violations constitute up to a third of the total of crimes committed by foreigners, the rate for crimes committed by foreigners that are similar to those committed by Japanese can drop to around 1 percent of the total.

While we're at it, how about those visa overstayers so often bandied about as on the rise? According to the most recent data from the Immigration Bureau (available at any Nyuuyoku Kanrikyoku office as a free orange pamphlet), the number of illegal aliens has fallen every single year without fail since 1993.





Serious flaws
Hence upon proper examination, the whole statistical basis behind the push to curb foreign crime is flawed and distorted to the point of being plain wrong.

The cause of this statistical manipulation on the part of the police and politicos is to a large extent, economic.

In May 1999, the "Policy Committee Against Internationalism" ("Kokusaika Taisaku Iinkai") was formed within the National Police Agency with the stated aim of drafting policy against foreign crime and their syndicates. This is the organization producing friendly neighborhood warnings about foreign miscreants, which are plastered beside ATMs nationwide.

What is one goal of any government organization? To justify its budget. What better way in this case than by stirring up fear of crime? This tactic worked very well during the World Cup in 2002, particularly when the promise of hooligan riots due to the Argentina-England game provided a budget to fly 3,000 mainland police to Hokkaido for a week, as well as to hire three ferries to cart thugs back down south. How much money was spent to arrest a total of 11 people (two foreigners) during that whole week of games in Hokkaido? Uncertain.

Most Japanese, though very few people overseas, know that clearance of crimes in Japan (meaning finding the perpetrators for every crime committed) is now down to around 20 percent -- a postwar low and a shock for those expecting Japan to be the same old clean, safe place. This is in part due to a long standing economic downturn in the provinces, and a slow but perceptible breakdown in respect for property by Japanese people.

But that is not what we hear about. It's much easier to say the foreigners are responsible.

Indeed, during a Q & A session following a speech given to the PGL Conference at Seisen University on Sept. 27, Diet member Mizuho Fukushima (Shamintou, Kanagawa) remarked that she is quite aware how the government is fudging statistics to create a culture of fear related to crimes committed by foreigners. Consider, then, a normal public reaction. If police were to tell us that Japanese crime is out of control -- people would criticize the police for not doing their job.





Easy target
However, if they say the same about foreign crime, public attitudes are less antipathetic. After all, foreigners shouldn't be here in the first place if they're going to make trouble (and what policeman can anticipate what heinous crimes foreigners will commit?).

The point is that foreigners are a much softer target, and it is far easier for the police to shift the focus on them instead of on the other 99 percent of criminals in Japan.

Given a general rise in crime,a reasonable case could be made for more cops on the beat. However, the clear and present policy push to target foreigners is not only unfounded statistically, but also has been up to now half-baked and arbitrary in its application.

Good public policy needs common sense, but it has been sorely lacking in Japan so far.







The Japan Times: Oct. 7, 2003

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens most famous work will be performed as a live drama at the Aoyama main campus and will be free for all students. The play will be presented at four in the afternoon of November 15. Hope you can all go and enjoy a really great play, one that may have been instrumental in helping to establish the way you now celabrate Christmas.

The English Literary society at the English Department will be sponsoring a production of "A Christmas Carol" on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 4:30pm (doors open) by TNT Productions. They are the same group that brought "Hamlet" in the spring. The performance is free for all of our students.

This weeks assignment is a story from page 76-77 in the text book. You should write a story about either Health or the Environment using two of the vocabulary words on page 77. You should also decided if your are going to write a broadsheet story or tabloid story as per example described on the previous pages in the chapter.

excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: FANATICISM YESTERDAY, TODAY, & TOMORROW
Bill Emmott, editor in chief of The Economist, writes:
"There are many wonderful things about being a journalist. The
excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: FANATICISM YESTERDAY, TODAY, & TOMORROW
Bill Emmott, editor in chief of The Economist, writes:
"There are many wonderful things about being a journalist. The
excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: FANATICISM YESTERDAY, TODAY, & TOMORROW
Bill Emmott, editor in chief of The Economist, writes:
"There are many wonderful things about being a journalist. The
excitement of responding to, and trying to make sense of, the flow of news.
The challenge of trying to sort out the wood from the trees, the important
from the unimportant, the honest from the dishonest, the reasonable from
the hyperbolic. The independence of mind and of spirit, the accompanying
sense of the ridiculous, that are available to an outsider, an observer of
rather than participant in events, processes and organizations. The fact
that so many people read or hear what you have to say, and that some of
them even pay heed to it. The privilege of being able to, and actually
being paid to, write or broadcast what can fairly be described as a sort of
first draft of history, albeit with all the foibles and frailties that
performing that task typically implies.
"Yet that is also where the limitations of journalism begin. Our
perspective is always a fairly short-term one. Our readers want to know how
something that happened today might be connected to something that happened
yesterday, or last month. Furthermore, our preoccupations are forever
vulnerable to the fads and fashions of instant hopes, fears and worries.
And, like all instant analysts, the journalist is constantly at risk of
overinterpreting the short-term and underrating or underinterpreting the
longer-term trends. Something that did not seem to matter at all yesterday
becomes, tomorrow, the only thing that does seem to matter.
"Thus it was that on 10 September 2001 international terrorism by
religious zealots was not thought to be an especially important topic. It
was just one fear among many on the standard lists of present and future
threats, but not a very immediate one. After 8:46 a.m., American Eastern
Daylight Time, on the following day, such terrorism was, for a time,
transformed into the only topic that mattered."
***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374279659/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Bill Emmott's "20:21 Vision: Twentieth-Century Lessons for the
Twenty-First Century" -- or look for it in your favorite library.

Doors of perception opened by multimedia

By ERIC PRIDEAUX
Staff writer

The plaza at the United Nations University in Tokyo, typically so serene, will be awhirl with activity next week when a large international cast performs "Seeing the World Through Different Eyes," a multimedia extravaganza that seeks to stimulate the senses through music, dance and light -- and in so doing, achieve a higher social purpose.







A multimedia event to be held in Tokyo next week will encourage audiences to see the world in a new light.


During the 70-minute work, the audience will journey through sonic and visual landscapes, ranging from the contemplative chanting of Buddhist priests at the opening of the show to the jarring racket of an American percussionist banging on iron pipes, and from the dreamy undulating of dancers to the disturbing image of children putting on gas masks in anticipation of chemical attack.

The goal is not to titillate or shock, but to compel the audience to think deeply about perception itself, something the creators hope will foster cultural openness and help people address their own prejudices.

That is largely to be achieved through symbolic references to the act of looking, as in when a chorus of cherubs peer through binoculars (provided by lens maker and main sponsor Carl Zeiss) before lending them to the audience to, in effect, share their innocent world view.

What it all means, in the end, is purposely left open to interpretation.

"I want people to use their imagination. I don't want to force them in one direction," said the creative director of the production, Monique van Kerkhof of the Netherlands, 42, a former dance student at New York's Merce Cunningham Studio whose previous works include a contemporary opera held in an empty reservoir in Chiba.

"It's your choice whether to be blind by covering your eyes. That's what I want to show."







"Seeing the World Through Different Eyes": Show time is from 6:30 p.m.-7:40 p.m. on Oct. 3-4, or Oct. 17-18 in case of rain. The UNU campus is in Aoyama, Shibuya Ward, a 5-minute walk from Omotesando Station on the Chiyoda, Ginza and Hanzomon lines.

Admission is free, but donations gladly accepted. Some proceeds will go to charities.

See www.roboudendijk.com/unu for details or call (0471) 87-5666.

BBC REPORTER APOLOGIZES FOR NAMING KELLY
A BBC reporter apologized Wednesday for indirectly identifying David
Kelly as the source of a story that said the British government
exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq's weapons.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/09/17/kelly030917

- Why is the Mobile Internet a Hit in Asia, but Almost
Nowhere Else?
http://www.glocom.org/special_topics/activity_rep/200307_miyao_usc_jetro/videos/AB_Kim256k.ram

- Transistor radio was the medium of choice as blackout
affects communication
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2003/08/14/160962-cp.html

- Finns busiest newspaper readers within EU
http://www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20030812IE10

- Love, hate and newspapers
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030811.gtjack0811/BNStory/Technology/
- Newspapers Alive and Well
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6862019%255E421,00.html

- Regional Newspaper Readership on the Up
http://www.sundayherald.com/35667

CLIMATE RESEARCH SHIP HEADS TO BEAUFORT SEA
A large Canadian climate research expedition to the Arctic sets sail
from Quebec City on Saturday bound for the Beaufort Sea.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/09/12/amundsen030912

MUSIC WORLD MOURNS DEATH OF COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND JOHNNY CASH
Legendary country music singer Johnny Cash has died at a hospital in
Nashville, Tenn., his manager says. He was 71.
FULL STORY:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/09/12/cash030912

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TEACHERS
Well-known columnist Thomas L. Friedman pays this tribute to the
teacher who set him on the path to his successful career in journalism.
"Someone who made the most important difference in my life died last
year -- my high school journalism teacher, Hattie M. Steinberg. Hattie was
a woman who believed that the secret for success in life was getting the
fundamentals right. And boy, she pounded the fundamentals of journalism
into her students -- not simply how to write a lead or accurately
transcribe a quote, but, more important, how to comport yourself in a
professional way and to always do quality work. To this day, when I forget
to wear a tie on assignment, I think of Hattie scolding me. Hattie was the
toughest teacher I ever had.
"Those of us on the paper, and the yearbook that she also supervised,
lived in Hattie's classroom. We hung out there before and after school.
Now, you have to understand, Hattie was a single woman, nearing 60 at the
time, and this was the 1960s. She was the polar opposite of "cool," but we
hung around her classroom like it was a malt shop and she was Wolfman Jack.
None of us could have articulated it then, but it was because we enjoyed
being harangued by her, disciplined by her, and taught by her. She was a
woman of clarity in an age of uncertainty. That was my teacher! I sit up
straight just thinkin' about her.
"I have been thinking about Hattie a lot this year, not just because
she died on July 31, but because the lessons she imparted to us seem so
relevant now. We've just gone through this huge
dotcom-Internet-globalization bubble--during which a lot of smart people
got carried away and forgot the fundamentals of how you build a profitable
company, a lasting portfolio, a nation-state, or a thriving student. It
turns out that the real secret of success in the information age is what it
always was: fundamentals -- reading, writing, and arithmetic; church,
synagogue, and mosque; the rule of law and good governance. The Internet
can make you smarter, but it can't make you smart. It can extend your
reach, but it will never tell you what to say at a PTA meeting. These
fundamentals cannot be downloaded. You can only upload them, the
old-fashioned way, one by one, in places like Hattie's classroom. I only
regret that I didn't write this column when the woman who taught me all
that was still alive."
***

Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=8816
In Canada we have the good fortune to have two languages on a lot of
our consumer products. Recently, while in the midst of painting a room in
our house, I discovered that the French word for enamel is émail.
Considering the note in the July 21 issue of NewsScan [ADIEU TO 'E-MAIL'?]
concerning the French Culture Minister declaring Courriel the official term
for e-mail in France I thought you (and other readers) should be aware that
French just might be the only language on the planet which already had a
word with the same spelling as e-mail and this is a very good reason (by my
way of thinking) for having a different word so that one of their other
words does not become obsolete. You can reply by enamel if you wish. (Dave
Trautman, Edmonton)

IS 'SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION' THEORY AN ACADEMIC MYTH?
Columbia University researchers have conducted the first large-scale
experiment examining the "six degrees of separation" theory, which posits
that a short chain of acquaintances (six links or less) can be found
between almost any two people in the world. In this global study, more than
60,000 people tried to get in touch with one of 18 people in 13 countries,
and of the more than 24,000 e-mail chains that were started fewer than 2%
reached their targets. The successful chains arrived quickly, requiring
only four steps to get there, but the rest failed when someone in the
middle did not forward the e-mail. Psychologist Judith S. Kleinfeld of the
University of Alaska calls the "six degrees of separation" theory the
"academic equivalent of an urban myth" and says: "Instead of showing we
live in a small world, it really shows the opposite. Ninety-eight percent
of people can't reach anybody. What do they conclude? 'Hey, we're all
connected.' What? All I'm saying is this study didn't prove it." The
follow-up experiment is at http://smallworld.columbia.edu. (New York Times
12 Aug 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/08/12/science/12MAIL.html
See you all in October. Hope you are having a dry summer somewhere other then in Japan.;>}