The Chinese Calender based on a 12 year cycle. While the western calender is based on the sun is the Chinese calender based on the moon. The Chinese new Year starts at the beginning of the new moon late January or early February.
The Chinese years are called after animals. On January 26 2009 the year of the Ox started. The Ox is the second sign in the Chinese Zodia, which starts with the Rat and ends with the Pig.
The Chinese Zodiac is based on a legend. The twelve animals quarreled together near a river about which animal should start the cycle of years.
The Gods were asked to decide and they suggested a contest. The animals who reached the other side of the river first should start the cycle, followed by the second and so on.
The animals gathered together at the riverbank and jumped into the water.
The Ox didn't know the Rat had secretly jumped on his back. When the Ox was close to the other side, swimming in first position, the Rat jumped of his back and quickly climbed out of the water. So the cycle starts with the Year of the rat, followed by the Year of the Ox.
The Pig, the lazy animal, swum very slow, so he reached the other side as last, so the last year is the Year of the Pig.
This calender exists already more than 4700 years, so it's 2600 years older than the Western calender. 
I'm born in September 1966, so my Chinese Zodiac sign is the Horse. In Chinese folklore a horoscope was created, which predicts how a person is. The Chinese Horoscope says about the Horse:"Your capacity for hard work is amazing. You are your own person-very independent. While intelligent and friendly, you have a strong streak of selfishness and sharp cunning and should guard against being egotistical. Your sign suggests success as an adventurer, scientist, poet, or politician."
Actually these predictions are considered amusing and it is not taken seriously by the Chinese People. As it is not polite to ask directly to someone's age, you can ask a persons sign. You can often calculate someones age, since you can estimate a persons age and with the twelve year cycle you can calculate the birth year. 
In March 2000 (year of the Dragon, so Bram is a Dragon) Casio released a series of 7 watches called "12 Beasts" with a design based on the Chinese Zodiac. The one in the photo's is the G-100BT-6E1JR. I also got two G-100BT-1E1JR's. You might expect that the dial shows the signs of the 12 animals, but it are the Chinese numerals (as you easily can see at the 11 and 12 position).This dial design was used again in November 2001 on a Street Style model.
I won this watch in a eBay auction in October 2002. I don't know what I paid for it, but I think it was somewhere around €40.-. For this price I didn't expect an practically unworn watch (I could not find any trace of wearing).
The upper part of the double Velcro watchband is "tie dyed". Therefore the watchband looks a bit like camouflage. The double Velcro watchband is very comfortable and makes the watch look bigger also. There are two symbols on the strap adapters. It seems that every model has other signs printed on the adapters as my -1E1JR version shows different characters.
The G-100 has a bit different button asignment. Therefore you can easily make a mistake if you own several G-Shocks, like me. As you can see on the photo above the ADJUST button is the upper right button, while on other G-Shock models the ADJUST button is located on the upper left side. By touching the H-SET button (Hand Set button) the hands immediately start to move with 20 second intervals.
The G-100 is equipped with the 2327 module. Luckily the MODE button is located on the casual bottom left position. Starting from the Timekeeping Mode, you can scroll with the MODE button to ALARM mode (no hourly Chime), Stopwatch Mode (24 hour stopwatch), Dual Time and finally the Calender Mode.
The EL backlight is compared to the digital models relative week, but sufficient. At night you won't shock everybody with lighting up the room if you use the EL button. It's actually pretty discrete. 
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