I’ve been watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics here in Japan. It’s interesting because I’m hooked on sports I didn’t watch in the past like ping pong, badminton, and judo along with my regular favorites. Of course everything is from the view of the Japanese team which is a lot of fun since I haven’t watched the Olympics in another country before.

I’ve always wondered how much Olympic athletes get paid, so I did some searching. The financial support varies from country to country, so I’ll be focusing on Team USA since that’s the team I’m most familiar with.

I read the PDF file from TeamUSA that has a lot of details about reimbursement and income. Here are the main money makers.

Gold Medal: $25,000
Silver Medal: $15,000
Bronze Medal: $10,000 Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading the news today and came across a few articles I thought were worth mentioning.

• Reuters reports how Golf-Japan’s ‘Tiger’ Ishikawa turns professional at 16 – Just turned 16 and he’s worth over $10 Million USD over the next 5 years. That’s pretty cool!
• Google/AFP reports Japan police receive 400th secret pledge to poor after 33 years – “The police station in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo, received the first envelope in August 1974, which contained 1,000 yen, or nine dollars at the current rate. It did not bear a sender’s name but enclosed a piece of paper only saying: “Please use this for the unprivileged people.” This money came in every month and gradually increased. This week they received the 400th envelope which brings the total amount donated to 1,744,000 yen over time. Awesome! It’s nice to know that somebody cares that much.
• CNN Money is reporting that Japan’s Softbank wins more new subscribers in December than KDDI, DoCoMo – I like the name DoCoMo, it’s fun to say. Docomo docomo docomo… but I like Softbank’s service (friends with Softbank + woman who talks a lot = cheaper than DoCoMo). What’s the key to Softbank’s increase in success? I blame Cameron Diaz. She’s all over the place with her softbank phone she’s not even talking in the commercials

photo courtesy of sleepycat
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVPlipdl8eg[/youtube]

Today’s currency conversion rate is at ï¿¥114 to $1. Good thing I converted some money when the rate was 116 Yen per 1 US Dollar, and I almost made the 117 mark! The dollar is getting weaker (of course) and now the Yen is on the rise. Thank God I don’t live in Canada right now with that type of conversion ($1 USD = 0.96 CAD). I’m no financial expert but if the US Dollar keeps declining in value at this rate and Japan’s economy improves… well… this could mean that 100 Yen to $1 USD might be happening in the next year. That sucks for people getting paid in US Dollars. On top of that conversion rate I’m getting nailed with a 2% transaction fee. 1% from MasterCard and 1% from my Bank to convert money at stores, restaurants, atms, etc. I’m waiting to get the debit card from Capital One all squared away to lessen the fees I’m getting hit with but it’s going to take forever. (Side note: in this case forever means about one month)

I just read about the Yen’s 6 week high at Bloomberg.com Read the rest of this entry »