My first night in Osaka was my first time to use the internet cafe as an accommodation. It wasn't awfully bad, but perhaps by no means comfortable. Chilly and smokey, plus the flat type rooms were all taken so we had no choice but to take the recliner seats. Well... the seats weren't bad. What bothered me more was the rustling sounds people made throughout the night whenever somebody moved around. It's an internet cafe after all. Can't complain.
We spent the first real day in Osaka in the Namba area. That's probably the busiest and noisiest area of the city, I think. This is where you can find the famous Glico neon board and the Kuidaore figure, not to mention tons of eatouts particularly of Osaka's specialties takoyaki and okonomiyaki. It was a Friday morning but the place was already bustling with mostly tourists and students on school excursions. Busy place. I went back to the area alone on a Sunday after my friends had headed back home. Well, that was quite a crowd. Not just this Dotombori area but even more crowded in the Shinsaibashi area. My impression of Shinsaibashi was Shibuya made into a single straight arcade. Lots of shops and young people. I had heard before that the fashion in Osaka (actually not just Osaka but also big cities like Nagoya and Kobe respectively) is different from Tokyo. I think I would agree. At least for the girls, it looked like Osaka girls prefer gears on the gal side more than the Tokyo girls like. Strong vivid colors and glittery accessories, too.
The following day we went to Osaka Castle and Shitennoji Temple. The temple ground was pretty big though not vast like the ones in the ancient capital Nara. Still the 1,400-year-old temple is preserved well (of course with nummerous refurbishing and restoration) and is a peaceful place to stroll around. The exterior is good enough, but the impressive features of this temple are the religious (wall) paintings and statues stored inside the halls. The paintings tell the stories of Buddha and Asoka and the art is very beautiful.
I stayed in Osaka for another day after my friends have left, and went to see a shrine called Sumiyoshi Taisha. This was another pretty shrine with unique architecture (I like architecture of shrines and temples). An amazing contrast of vermillion lacquer, deep brown of the thatched roofs and white all surrounded by early summer green. I got to see three Shinto style weddings that morning. They were certainly beautiful especially on a day with such perfect weather, but I have to say that although they were three separate weddings, the way the shrine conducted (conducted more like, than carried out) the weddings were kind of systematic. One right after another. Popular place, good day, I guess it couldn't be helped.
Then I wandered into the Shinsekai area. That's where the Tsutenkaku Tower is (every big city has its own tower). Since I already went up the Castle to get a view of the city I didn't go up this one and just walked around the area at its foot. Shinsekai looked like a block of dozens of kushikatsu (fried... pretty much any kind of food stuck through skewers) eatouts huddling together. Most of these places had statues of Billiken in all sizes placed at the entrances. First I didn't know what it was, but later on found out that this is the famous Osaka god of all-purpose luck. Actually, I just found out that Billiken was designed by an American artist based on the inspiration she got from her dream one night, and the figure went popular worldwide, that is to say back in early 1900s. Is that right? At least, not too many of the Tokyoites know of the god. Anyway.
The following day I woke up in the morning and decided to leave Osaka for my personally most exciting destination for this trip, Kyoto. I've been to Kyoto so many times but like many say, you can visit Kyoto one hundred times and not even see half of it. This trip was particularly an exciting one. Will go on to vol.3.
Didn't mean to have a break so long... well I am back to blogger after 6 weeks. Many things happened - or rather, I was engaged in many projects during these past weeks.
I did quite a lot of Tokyo guiding as well as interpreting, went to Australia for a week accompanying a filming crew as an interpreter (now that was one awesome trip: we traveled parts of Cairns, Brisbane and Gold Coast). Then I played in an orchestra for an operetta, and after another Tokyo city tour I traveled around Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto, all pretty big cities as well as tourist attractions in mid-west Japan.
It was my very first time to go to Kobe. Quite honestly I didn't know what to expect.
The overnight bus from Shinjuku (Tokyo) to Kobe was surprisingly comfy with considerably wide space and relaxing recliner seats. Though the price can't exactly be described as cheap, it's a whole lot more affordable than bullet trains when traveling this country for such long distance. The downside of it, however, is that the bus arrives at the destination pretty early in the morning (7:3o-ish) when not many of anything in town are open. Two more friends and I had to kill time in a cafe, but it was okay cuz this way we could plan the route for the day.
We only had one day in Kobe and that day had been pretty miserable weatherwise. It poured and poured and poured all day and I got myself soaked on the first day of my trip.
Kobe I imagined prior to this trip was a classy stylish town: the impression I actually got was that the town resembled a lot of the int'l port town of the east, Yokohama. Of course these two cities are different, and if I had more time to explore the town I probably could have gotten more different impressions, but it seemed to me that the types of attractions... or districts they have are quite similar. The former foreign (western) residential area, China town, the shopping/commercial district, the port area - I thought that the two cities shared a lot of common elements.
What interested me the most, or gave me the biggest impact, was the remains of the dock located in the port area. The dock known as Meriken Hatoba had been damaged severely (almost destroyed) just like how the entire region was by the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake back in 1995. As a remembrance of the tragic disaster of more than 40,000 casualties the dock is preserved in exactly the way the earthquake left it.
Afterwards we went to a Chinese temple (by chance, kind of) and made an interesting observation on Japanese uni students and professor. I looked like a class on religious studies or art or sociology or one of the kind was visiting this temple, one professor and about a dozen students. At first they were just looking around the small temple and its grounds, but (unfortunately, to them at least) they were caught by an elderly (yet more energetic than any of the class there) worshipper who literally started a lecture that went on for half an hour. The lecture was actually pretty good, though the attitudes of the students were by no means nice. They looked like they as well as the teacher were terribly annoyed and wanted to leave asap. No comments, no questions. My two friend coming from overseas were amused by the situation. They said they couldn't believe what they were seeing, the silent and annoyed group, because if this was the case in their country there would definitely be a shower of questions and the professor would have to stop them because otherwise they'd run out of time, not because they wanted to leave any second.
The day ended with good Indian dinner followed by a businessy conversation with the Indian owner of the restraunt, and after relaxing in a jazz bar with live performance we left the city for Osaka.
So much for today. I will write about Osaka in the next entry.
At the same time as writing articles and editing them for the website I automatically do some JPN-ENG translations because the base data for these articles are in Japanese, and every time I try to write something very Japanese I hit a wall of language differences. For more professional translators and interpretors this wall of language differences (and I say wall, not a barrier... I feel like they're somewhat different) is probably close to nothing, but for a person like me who understands both languages pretty well but not well enough to accomplish the task without almost no difficulty, the little things about the language differences bother so much. The differences of the languages are the differences of cultures and I can't be adding footnotes everytime I do translations. I feel this especially strongly when translating sentences that have to do with senses of beauty and comfort.
Good examples (which means I have to deal with the following rather frequently) are as follows:
- yuugen: subtle and profound, ethereal
- mugen (yumemaboroshi) : illusory, dreamy
- shimpiteki: mysterious, unearthly
- gensouteki: fantastic(al), magical, translunar(y)... (it's more... dreamy and nice)
- iki: chic, edgy, nifty, stylish
- shareta: chic, classy, fancy, stylish
- joucho yutaka: exotic, emotional... (I don't think this's right)
- fuzei no aru: taste, flavor, appearance, attractive
- joushu afureru: sentimental, spicy... (haha! "spicy")
- okuyukashii: discreet
- ryuugi: style, way, fashion, tradition
- yuusou: gallant, valiant
- hanayaka: gaudiness, pomp(ous), gorgeous
- jojou: lyric(al)
- yuruyaka(na): mild, gentle, relaxed, moderate
- miyabiyaka / jouhin / yuuga: elegant, refined, ethereal
- seijaku: quiet, tranquil(ity), composed, relaxed, silence
- wa: Japanese
- kokoro: heart and mind
- kyoushuu / natsukashii: nostalgia, nostalgic, reminiscence
The nastiest one for me personally is "kokoro" which according to the dictionary is "heart and/or mind". It's not wrong, but it's neither exactly heart nor mind, nor is it feelings, emotions or spirit. It's like a mixture of everything mentioned but is indescribable in other words. Kokoro is kokoro.
The other ones that are hard to tell are those related to other-worldliness like yuugen, mugen, shimpiteki, gensouteki, etc. There was a translation in the dictionary, "ethereal" but because I've never really used that vocablulary in my daily life when I lived in the States, I have no idea what it means exactly. Can somebody tell me if it's an appropriate word to describe other-worldy beauty, or the quiet and profound atmosphere that makes you feel a sort of sacredness???
Shimpiteki is another tricky one that I can't completely agree with the dictionary. The kanji says, "god(s) - secret" and the Jpn-Eng dictionary gives "mysterious" as the English translation, but it's a twist different from mysterious. It certainly implies mysteriousness, but it also carries the meanings of sacredness or holiness. Something sacred and holy, something that makes you feel the presence of the gods is mysterious. I think that point is more or less common in any culture or religion. Well, the traditional Japanese religion (Shinto) believes that there are gods in pretty much everything existing in this world and worships especially the nature. Therefore the term "shimpiteki" is used many times with descriptions on nature, scenery, art and atmosphere. When the term is used it does denote holiness, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a sanctuary that the outsiders are prohibited connection. It's just the description of the atmosphere.
So. My point. How much of these translations are credible? Most of the above, I have been using every once in a while because I cannot find alternatives, but honestly I do doubt if they're actually correct. They are Japanese-unique expressions that perhaps can be translated better into Chinese and Korean more than English because we share part of the writing systems as well as having similarity in the cultures. How can I tell precisely the most delicate nuance of the difficult language in a different language?
If there's anyone out there who understands both languages perfectly, I am dying for your suggestions!
After all that fussing and complaining and making excuses, I finally joined mixi not too reluctantly. "mixi" (pronounced mix-ee) is the name of an SNS which I believe is the largest in Japan? I think. My ex-boss wrote about the discussion (or maybe controversy) on how it spread so widely so fast in Japanese society and its addictiveness (see entries for May 18 & 19 here: it's kind of confusing that the blog keeper's name is me, monamie, but the author of all the articles there is my ex-boss kaduak).
Anyway, I had a bunch of friends who were making full use of mixi from a while ago, and they've always asked me to join it. Because mixi is a completely exclusive membership network, you need to receive invitations from a member in order to become a member. So I had several invitations sleeping in my e-mail inbox, but they were always there being untouched because I had no intentions to join the network and my friends did know about it. The reason for being so reluctant to join this online community was because I didn't really appreciate the idea of being connected online... how do I put this... I always like meeting people in person and making new friends in person. Put simply, I don't entirely trust online communication (don't ask why I'm in this business, keeping a blog). When I tell this to my friends, they tell me that mixi's safe because you only need to form your own network among people you already know etc. etc. and that is kind of true, but back then during those days I was still pretty suspicious about the whole idea. I was also too concerned with by these "rules" the SNS has. They're not real rules, but it can sound almost religious at times (just read my ex-boss's blog. it's all explained).
Now, the reason I decided to join it: it's simply because I have more time. I have so much time now that I'm almost bored to death. I actually did register myself on mixi but never really made use of it, and this time I decided to add some information about myself on it so now there's my profile and one entry of a journal. I doubt I'll have new entries everyday, but let's see how long I can continue this. Speaking of continuing, this very blog going on for so long is already like a miracle.
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Went to see the movie STEP UP. It's a dance movie and I think it came out in the US and other countries last summer or so? But it came out in Japan finally this spring, a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't advertised so much as compared to other imported films, but I got to know about it through my younger sister who just came back from her studies in New Zealand. She saw the film in NZ last winter (?) and loved it, so we went out to see it again for my sister and for the first time for myself. The film made me want to dance so badly - I can't dance that much, but I did use to dance classic ballet so I kind of regretted I quit it. Dance movies are cool.
Random Selection of News: late March, 2007
Those Japanese manga fans out there, there's a little news.
You don't have to wait months for the newest volumes of Japanese manga to come out in your langauge! Unfortunately, this doesn't apply for all the works being published internationally, but just recently publisher Gentosha announced that it will release paperback copies of the works published online on its webmanga site GENZO (Japanese / English). The very first one to be published is Gravitation EX the newest version of the popular series Gravitation, and it is scheduled to come out in seven languages including Japanese, English, German, Spanish, Taiwanese, Italian and Korean.
Again, this is only for the works on GENZO, but once one publisher starts doing this I bet others will start similar projects as the international manga market is steadily growing.
"Ikemen" connects East Asia
I think the whole fad about ikemen started several years ago just about the same time this crazy hanryu boom (Korean boom) swirled up in Japan. And I think this was when the Asia-internationalization of showbiz really started to become part of the mainstream of entertainment in Asian countries.
Ikemen is a Japanese term for "hot guys" which popped up around 2000. The term is coined from the words "iketeru" (modern casual language for "hot", "cool") and the English word "men". Right now the term is used so commonly from daily conversation to titles in magazines and variety shows, even on news sometimes despite it not being "proper" Japanese language.
When the Korean boom started with the import of a number of Korean love romance TV dramas best represented by Winter Sonata starring Bae Yong Joon, a whole lot of other young and handsome Korean actors were introduced to Japan with titles like "Shitennoh (Four Heavenly Kings)".
Chinese ikemen are introduced to Japan many times through movies rather than TV dramas, and Taiwanese as well as Korean ikemen through music activities. I notice that now there are so many musicians who sing songs in Japanese and you never know they're actually not Japanese.
I don't know so much about how Japanese pop stars have been seen in other East Asian countries in the past (I mean, before the trend of ikemen Asianization), but I have been told that Japanese actor Tsubabuki Satoshi and several members from the Johnnys Entertainment - (supposedly) the ikemen talento agency - are really popular in Taiwan right now.
Today the ikemen network (not of the ikemen themselves but of the media and fans) is wider, tightly connected and stronger than when it started. Fans for an ikemen are scattered around East Asia from Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong to Taiwan, and hearing news of Korean, Chinese, Hong Kong or Taiwanese ikemen coming to Japan has become almost regular. One day, so-many-thousands of fans gathered up for a concert in place A, and the next day several hundred fans flood over to an international airport to have a glance of another ikemen. These news were fresh news a few years ago, but now it feels like making oneself famous in the Japanese entertainment industry with his handsomeness is not too different from debuting in the eastern end of the Eurasian continent. Ikemen connects East Asia.
I wonder why handsome men tend to be more featured than beautiful women, though. Are men in these countries not as interested in beautiful women as women are in handsome men?
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Today is the last weekday of March so people are kind of busy and some maybe nervous too in this country. As some of you probably know, the school/fiscal year in Japan starts from April and goes till next March. I think by now all schools from kindergarten to universities have finished their graduation ceremonies, and freshers are getting ready for their lives starting in only three days from today. Next Monday the faces on the commuting trains would probably look a lot different, and there would be a lot of new uniforms and business suits walking around. This is also the time of year when you feel like you've grown old :p
If there any of you are regular readers of this blog and of my website, first of all I would like to thank you for sparing time to read my writings (which sometimes aren't even worth calling articles). From next week, you may notice some changes in the blog as well as website, and that is my "seasonal change". I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for reading and leaving comments on this blog (not to say that I am going to stop writing) and for sending e-mails to my website Japan Mode.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Webmanga CHARMY ROP Chapter 13 - Final Episode (to be updated around 18:00, Mar30, JST).
As I was writing about the "Japan Boom" in Japan today, I came across the idea of Japanese aesthetics in the old days. Things people see as "beautiful" differ from culture to culture, and I'm not sure for other cultures but at least for Japan what people consider "beautiful", or the value of certain things, have changed or forgotten over time.
There is this concept in Japan, wabi-sabi, and is an expression of simple refinement. The expression contains a rather lone, simple, quiet and decaying meaning, but for some reason the ancient people considered this aesthetic and sought refinement in things that were lone, quiet and decaying. In a similar sense, there is an adjective hinabita which means rural and rustic. This too is associated with a sad, quiet and lone image, but is a word used most times to compliment the place.
During the years when it was fairly peaceful (before and after the Sengoku civil war era), Japanese people had much affection to nature, time and space. A slow life was a luxurious life, and the most luxurious and refined practices back then were to read poems and appreciate the nature. The tradition of blossom viewing, moon viewing and autumn leaves viewing are thought to come from those days. People, especially those in high rank in the courts, spent time looking at the smallest lives on earth like grass and bugs, and let their imaginations run. Sometimes they put those imaginations and emotions into words, and a thousand years later those poems become legacies of the history.
Traveling was another leisure, though more costly and dangerous in a way. Even in the peaceful days, roads were neither smooth nor lighted at night. There were wild animals and thieves. But there were people who spent years traveling without a particular goal or a purpose, and recorded what they saw or felt on the way. I was writing about Matsuo Basho, a poet and a writer during the early Edo whose haiku poems are very famous, and he too wrote about the most silliest things with little value - that is to say, in our sense. But the words he use and the nature of haiku or tanka of compressing sentences worth of expressions and emotions into 17 or 29 syllables attach ancient aestheticism to whatever he has written about.
Slow and qualitatively rich life is grabbing attention of Japanese people these days. It's probably the counter-reaction to the time-pressed, busy and stressful lifestyles that's been here for half a century. It may be the time we look back on our culture in the older days when people were more relaxed and laid back. And that's probably why Japan is the trend right now in Japan.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Trends in Japan <> - it's basically about the details of what I wrote here.
I wrote a while ago about Japanese food nationalism, that some of the so-called, so-sold and so-thought Japanese food aren't really Japanese. Well, this morning it was in the news that Japanese food, particularly sushi is really really popular in Moscow (and probably other parts of Russia too). So many people dream to become a sushi chef (we calle them sushi shokunin) and have their restaurants, and so many more like to enjoy sushi even though sushi by no means is inexpensive there. The news also mentioned that there are competitions for sushi chefs, and the participants as well as their art and ideas are truly amazing.
The chef I saw in this feature makes a lot of his original menus that are, from a Japanese point of view, extremely unique and unimaginable in a positive sense. The one he showed was called "fusion sushi" and as far as I can remember it had sushi rice, almond, salmon and chocolate sauce. I don't know if this is counted as a dish or a dessert, but more than I can't distinguish which it belongs to, I can't imagine what it tastes like. It sounds impossible, but since he came up with the idea and the final menu over several trials (I assume), and because there are people who like his other creative menus I bet it tastes pretty good.
I did say that authenticity is a difficult issue to talk about once something leaves its native origin and especially if it wants to be accepted from the destination it lands. But developing and changing is always a part of adjusting and adapting, of evolution in a way so I'd say this sushi chef's fusion sushi is something good. I even feel like it's outside of the authenticity issue. One of the judges for the sushi competition, an experienced Japanese sushi chef, praised the ideas of the fusion sushi chef that they are innovative, and also commented that sushi or whatever the food is should flexibly adapt to the culture it travels to.
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Switching the subject to trendy food in Japan: doughnuts
It's not like we never had doughnuts before, but doughnuts are people's favorites these days. I mentioned Krispy Kreme Doughnuts causing a crazy fad in Tokyo, well, the fad and the crazy popularity of its glazed doughnuts kind of stimulated the other doughnut shops and now there's a doughnut battle emerging (not that it's that visible).The hottest doughnuts these days are the mochi-mochi doughnuts. It isn't the name of a particular doughnut or a brand, but is the name for doughnuts that have mochi-mochi texture. Mochi-mochi is an onomatopoeia for this texture that is sticky, glutinous, kind of opposite of crisp... how should I explain... I think the expression comes from "mochi", Japanese rice cake even though I don't think it's cakelike at all. Kind of like the texture of tapioka. Anyway, the mochi-mochi doughnuts are doughnuts that have a slightly glutinous texture when you eat them and they're good :-) Um, I can't describe any further in words... maybe you'd like a look at this website: Mister Donut (Japanese)
Today's update on Japan Mode: Cherry Blossom Festivals in northern Japan
So sports. Right now the country is still in the midst of the swirling excitement of the night Ando Miki and Asada Mao won gold and silver medals in women's figure skating. I actually watched all of the programs that were available on TV so the past week had been a very exciting one for me. Winning not just one but three, and not just any medal but gold and silver is an extremely remarkable feat. Many expected the medals, I think, but the actually winning them is a different matter. The whole nation is enthused over the news. One news article said that the highest viewership of the figure skating championships marked above 56%, which was the moment right after the points for Ando was announced and the whole arena got to know she won first place. Although not a Japanese, another favorite skater of mine, Yu-Na Kim won bronze medal allowing Asians to monopolize the podium.
And other sports: well, I'd mentioned baseball several times before so I think I'll skip over that.
At the same time as the figure skating championships, the World Swimming Championships was taking place and was aired on TV. The media was especially excited over syncronized swimming because Japan's pretty good at it. Swimming is one of the sports Japan is good at, and because the young swimmers are staying at the top level rather stably people do expect medals and watch the matches.
Professional golf: the way people see golf or at least the golfers especially female golfers are different from before. Young golfers led by Miyazato Ai are treated as idols of the golfing world and are in great demand among TV shows.
Idols - overall, I think I've come to reach this conclusion that the way people are drawn into sports and the difference of 10 years ago and now is all about media attention. All of the atheletes mentioned and a handful more in the sports world today are featured on TV and magazines like idols, not so different from the "talento" (TV personalities) and fashion models pampered by the media. The only difference is that the atheletes' profession are their respective sports instead of being interviwed and giving comments. I don't think that there were as many active atheletes showing up in variety shows and being used on various commercials.
I guess the attention of the media works positively in many ways (though perhaps not including enough respect for individual atheletes). Whoever wants to use the fresh and active image of the atheletes will probably get the kind of impression they want from the general public, just like how many of the brands and companies use famous TV people for as their "image characters" (poster people) and for their commercials. Many of the sports benefit from the media's attention on their young and prospective players because the way media portray the players attract more children into that world.
Well that's the end to my random thought on sports. Sorry it's pretty disorganized.
Today's update on Japan Mode: This Week's Events in Tokyo / Sakura Forecast Tohoku & Hokkaido / Night Sakura Spots
I was thinking about what's hot in Japan - like what the social/ cultural trend is right now. It's actually a bit hard of a task because you tend not to notice a trend when you're in the midst of it but only realize it to be a "past" trend after the heat has gone. Some of the trends are pretty visible, especially fashion, but keeping your eyes open for cultural trends is kind of hard. At least for me. Also, even though you're aware that one thing is pretty hot at the moment you feel like it's settled down, kind of stablized as something "normal" rather than a transient trent. Maid cafes are one example. There are so many of them that it's not as worth giving attention to as the earlier days.
A couple of ideas came up in my mind, and they were LOHAS (life of health and sustainability) and the health related boom (food, yoga, etc.) and the other is JAPAN. They kind of intertwine, but since the former is half an imported trend (it's not particularly Japanese) so I decided to focus on the latter - which is actually a very deep observation and discussion if you start thinking about it.
The JAPAN boom is in Japanese called the WA boom (wa=adj. Japanese) and is about the revival of Japaneseness in various aspects. For example, it can be food like so many other countries are experiencing Japanese cuisine trend, tea like I talked about before (see here also), fashion (maekake mentioned a little while ago) or wearing yukata to fireworks, learning the traditional arts (calligraphy, flower arrangement, tea, etc.) or acquiring the essence of bushido (way of the samurai) etc. etc. It's visible in daily life and also on TV, like a number of traditional / cultural Japan related TV dramas and films get high viewership and the Japanese films doing well last year in terms of box office.
Part of this social trend comes from freshness and exoticness especially for the younger generation, rather than the idea of treasuring the good old things. For many people the beautiful patterns of the kimono are pieces of art that can be added to and blended with the latest fashion, the prints of the maekake aprons a stylish design to make into bags, yukata (summer kimono) a season-limited fashion specialty. The other part of the trend, especially for older people, comes from the spirit behind the Japanese designs and act. For instance, having tea in a relaxing and strain-free cafe is a time to treasure the quietness in your mind. Learning the ways of art is acquiring the spirit of art or the way, of concentrating, of emptying your mind. This is in a way related to the idea of LOHAS and having a life of good quality.
I think I will not reveal too much of it here at once. May continue some other day, but for the meantime read here for details (which also turned out to become a series to my regret).
One of Japan's most famous animation production Studio Ghibli announced its ongoing project of a new animation film. Its title revealed yesterday is Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on the Cliff) (N.B. the title and translation I give here is only a pure romaji conversion and literal translation for the official English title has not been announced) and it is an original story created and directed by the master of Ghibli, Miyazaki Hayao.
Not much of the story has been revealed but we know that it is a "Japanese version of The Little Mermaid" (Producer Suzuki) and the main characters are a mermaid who wants to become a human, and a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke. I think the story takes place in Japan, maybe in an unverified town in the western seaside regions, as it is said that Miyazaki fell in love with this town facing the Seto Inner Sea (close to Osaka and Kobe, the northern shore of Shikoku Island located mid-west of Japan) when he visited the place in 2004 and rented a house for 2 months coming up with the story. But this is just my guess. As far as I know, the locales in most of his stories are untold clearly to the viewers but are based on existing towns.
The announcement also included the information about the model figure of Sosuke being Miyazaki's eldest son Goro, and mentioned the relationship between the creation of Ponyo and Miyazaki Goro's director debut film Ged Senki (Tales from Earthsea). Producer Suzuki spoke for Miyazaki Hayao that, "Miyazaki took Ged as a rebellion of Goro against his father, and believes that such situation developed because of his (Miyazaki's) lack of attention to his son (Goro) when he was a young child, coming from his work busyness. In Ponyo, Miyazaki puts in his feelings of reflection so that children like him will not increase."
The images are not yet available, but according to the news article they are softer in touch, quite differing from the previous Ghibli works. In this new film, Miyazaki hopes to return to the very basics of animation.
I'm pretty sure that this announcement has given much anticipation in the hearts of many Japanese people. Miyazaki's films always enjoy great attention, part of it because the name "Miyazaki (Hayao)" or "Ghibli" have become an established brand (sadly, kind of) but also because his works are worth the attention and are enjoyable as well as well themed. Apart from the fact that his works are marvelous pieces of art and creation, they carry messages throughout the stories that makes the audience think during or after watching the movies. Once I commented to somebody that some of his movies are difficult to understand, but he only responded, "which part of it was so hard? It was very simple: this happened, that happend so they bla bla bla...". Of course I understood the flow of the story, but that's on the surface. There's always much more to his films (that perhaps some people don't want to discuss about).
Well, I don't mean to become so enthused about the topic so I'll stop here. I really look forward to its release though. It's scheduled summer 2008.
Today's update on Japan Mode: country names in kanjiThis, for a while, is the last update of country names converted in kanji. The kanji conversions are of existing ones so don't think we (Japan Mode) did it. Most of them don't make sense as a word or a name. They're converted purely phonetically. Today's update covers the Central and South American countries, Central Asia to Middle East and African countries.
...was the promo phrase for JR East's Suica came out a few years ago. Suica the name for the IC ticket card usable for JR trains in Tokyo and around and it spread quickly across the city as it is very convenient because it takes away the time and trouble to stop by at the ticket machine and deal with coins. All you have to do is to charge some money in your card and let it (and you can keep it in your wallet or pass holder not taking the card out) touch a specific part of the gate when you get to the platform and vice versa. All you have to be careful is to make sure you have enough charged money left on the card (you don't even have to bother with this with the JR IC card in Osaka, at least that's what I heard). I'm sure some of you if not all are familiar with the system. I know that some other countries use this IC card system.
Suica is very convenient indeed, but a bit inconvenient in fact because you can only use it for very limited area, meaning only JR lines and a couple of other lines in Tokyo. The train network of Tokyo is a mess - there are way too many lines literally tangling with each other (see this map for example) though I have to admit this messy network allows you to get to pretty much anywhere within a 15-min-walk from one station or another. Anyway, half or more of the lines of this network are non-JR lines which we usually refer to as "shitetsu" (meaning private railways because JR used to be state-run and the others were and are private sectors) and they had their own shitetsu-interoperating system that were non-interoperable with JR. The card for their system was (and still is) called Pasnet which is a mag card that you have to let through the gates like the other tickets. The part of contacless (Suica) or mag (Pasnet) doesn't matter so much, but having to have two when you wanted to make transfers etc. was kind of troublesome.
Yesterday this new system and card called PASMO started and this allows the smooth interuse of pretty much all if not all the lines plus bus services in Tokyo. You either buy a new PASMO card or can keep your Suica card and get on and off JR and shitetsu and buses without trouble. I was out yesterday and had to take several different kinds of trains so bought myself a brand new PASMO and used it. It's not like it was my first time to experience this "touch and go" but it was kind of fun. As far as I observed yesterday, many people preferred buying normal tickets yesterday at least at the subway ticket machines at Shibuya Station. The news last evening told though that the service seems to have had a good and fairly smooth start. I think it will settle down as part of our normal lives rather soon.
Both Suica and PASMO have optional services most of it having to do with points. You can attach the cards with or to credit cards so that you can make use of the auto-charge allowing you to be free from worrying the remaining amount on the card, and the use of the card as train fare counts as points for your credit card. Then what happens is that several credit card companies promote their services and how benefitial each are comparing themselves to their rivals and so on. The benefits are quite different - you can earn points to use at department stores, or earn mileage on a plane company - and trying to pick the one that best suits your interest becomes a headache, so I only bought a plain only-charge, no-points PASMO.
The downside of it though, if I were to point out, is that it numbs your sense of how much you're spending on your transportation fare. Suica doesn't show the details on how much you've spent on one trip and how much you have left but Pasnet did, so being kind of used to seeing your trip records, the new systems feels a bit blinded. In any case, it did become much more convenient to get around using the train and subway system (which many of the people do to commute). Now their next task is to make is usable nationwide. That'd be really helpful, though I do kind of suspect that for some local areas it's only going to become deficit projects.
Today's Update on Japan Mode:
- Tokyo Event March - April... the most exciting one for me personally is the figure skating world championships 2007. I've always liked watching figure skating (especially ice dancing) but because the younger Japanese athletes are doing pretty well the matches are very exciting these past couple of years. Generation change, finally.
Also the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2007 is coming up this weekend.
>>Resources>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PASMO (Japanese, English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Korean)
Suica (Japanese, English)
Since I started this little corner on Japan Mode introducing cultural and traditional festivals (in advance) I came to realize how so many of them are out there. Only a handful of them are featured on country guides and news and sometimes I think it's such a pity that the majority of them are not known, or if worse, fading as a tradition because there aren't enough attention given.
It is kind of true that a lot of the tourism-wise unknown take place in locations that aren't as easy to access, and I guess the most important part about having them - since they are after all rituals and ceremonies related to one religion or another to some extent - is to practice them not with reluctancy but with sincerity.
Well I'm running out of time so I'll keep this super short.
Today's update on Japan Mode (go figure)
A number of spring festivals are being held literally all over Japan and it was very very hard to pick out just a few to introduce on Japan Mode. Spring events are graceful and beautiful with lots of decorations in bright yet soft colors. Enjoy!
Maid Cafe
So the other one: the other one is about part-time jobs the girls in Shibuya are interested in trying at least once. This was not from a news article or a program but a TV show that does all kinds of rankings.
I don't remember all jobs of the top 10 on the chart, but I remember the following were included:
-working at a "combini" (convenience stores)... because it's fairly easy work, fun, and relatively young
-cafe staff... because it's kinda stylish (cafes in general are considered stylish here)
-staff at a gasoline stand... apparently some people like that particular smell of gas (which makes me feel sick)
-staff at a movie theater... you get some chances to see the latest movies for free or with discount
Uh... obviously my memory's pretty bad.
Well, the most popular or intereseted job among the girls (18-25 yrs old more or less?) in Shibuya was a
MAID AT A MAID CAFE.
This was quite surprising as I knew there are people who are interested in going there as regular customers but not so much who wants to work as a maid. I mean, not so much anyway among those who don't have the slightest appearance of being an Akihabara kind of person, and also among those who already have one or more jobs. It seems like the maid cafe trend is still present in Japan. I thought it already kind of stabilized as a regular part of the subculture. Maybe it's still simmering as a trendy trend.
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Pen
It's near the end of a school year and that means that a variety of companies related to school stuff like stationary and study goods as well as children (grade school to up to high school) like clothing, shoes, bags, are busy getting ready for the new school year.
Pens in various colors - not coloring pens but colored pens - is a must-have for young Japanese students especially girls. If you get a glance at their notebooks you'll find them very neat and colorful. As a matter of fact, I was one of them up until about 8th grade. Then one day I realized that three colors (black of pencil, red and blue pens) looked more smart.
The Japanese stationary companies announced the release of a new series of colored pens just recently. The business is so big, big enough to make the developers come up with new pens at least every year if not every season, with colors, scent, lame, erasable, extra fine, etc. etc. and for the media to pick it up as a small pleasant news topic for the beginning of the new school year.
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Cherry Blossoms
This isn't really part of the "Uniquely Japanese?" topic but since it's a fairly big news I think I'll jot it down over here for the sake of those who are expecting to enjoy some hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in Japan this season. The Met Office announced the blossoming forecast for this season and said that the sakura blossoming is very early this year due to warm winter coming from global warming. How early - two weeks.
The blossoming forecast is announced for the blossoming of this kind called Someiyoshino which is by far the most numerous kind that is most widely spread in terms of area also, so its a good tree to set as a blossoming guide.
Usually sakura starts blossoming from the southern and warmer regions including Kyushu & Okinawa, Shikoku Island and Shizuoka Prefecture being the head starters. According to the Met Office, the Someiyoshino in Shizuoka is expected to blossom by the end of next week which is 15 days earlier than average. And because Someiyoshino is not the earliest kinds to blossom, there are several earlier kinds that are at the peak of its beauty right now already so the hanami season from now is really going to fly by quickly.
If you have plans for coming to Japan in April for the blossoms, you might want to head to the northern regions.
I have two things I want to write about today, of which I suppose are kind of characteristic to Japan though not necessarily unique.... well, let's see.
One is about karaoke. In Tokyo alone there are more than one thousand shops that we call "karaoke box" which is a place you go in to sing songs (I'm pretty sure you know what karaoke is). These came out during the 1980s and quickly became part of our culture that simply cannot be cut apart from our daily lives (wow, unimaginable).
For those who don't have a clear vision or imagination of what it's like, it's a place that has several separate rooms (not exactly "boxes" like phone booths) each with karaoke machines and you can go in to sing your favorite songs from all time favorites, latest hit singles, from J-pop, enka to imported songs. One room hosts about 4-10 people in larger rooms and the rooms, although most times they don't have such good acoustics, lets you sing (or shout) in full volume with music. The average money you spend is about 500 yen per hour, plus drinks and food which is usually required. Rates vary widely depending on day and time. Anyway.
Karaoke boxes are extremely popular among Japanese mostly from middle school students up to working men in their 50s. Students hang out in karaoke boxes in a group of two to five more or less after school. It is part of the routine dating spots for couples too. The most popular and common use of the boxes are for after-parties or after-after-parties among college students and working people. People get together for dinner and then after a couple of drinks and food they go into karaoke boxes for another drink or two. This is a very typical scene you see if not engaged on Friday and Saturday nights.
Well there was a report on the news the other night that an increasing number of people are suffering polyp in their throats from overuse of throat by karaoke. Unlike singing out loud at home or in your car or just humming along the music, karaoke (naturally) puts you in an atmosphere and feeling that you want to shout out and sing in the loudest and best voice you have. For those who are good at singing and know how to control the voice there is nothing more soothing than singing, but for those who aren't good or unused to it the singing parties are throat killers. As a result from over-singing people get polyps in their throat, and a Japanese doctor recently named this "karaoke polyp".
One is likely to happen when singing songs that have high notes, which is steadily increasing these days. The report noted that high note songs are increasing because many of the music today are composed digitally, and it is easy to make high note songs with digital technology which wasn't a conspicuous tendency for composing with acoustic skills. When high note sounds are made the vibration of the vocal cords increase by five times, and that sudden and high impact activity literally bullies the vocal cords. In addition, the jumping and the dancing that oftentimes accompany the singing escalates the creation of the polyp.
Karaoke polyp can be a minor threat as it doesn't always happen but is yet a threat because it can happen to anyone anytime. There are ways to prevent it though. A professional voice trainer suggested that relaxing your body with simple exercise (especially around your neck and shoulders) before singing lightens the strain on your throat, and also warned that facing upwards at high keys which happens a lot would only kill your throat. The namer doctor of karaoke polyp suggested to be quiet for three minutes after singing three songs. That's not too hard, I guess.
This has become long. I think I'll save the other one for tomorrow.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Live Action Manga (manga-drama review and requests) - it is a rather personal, subjective review on the live action TV drama of Nodame Cantabile (it was the best one that I could comment on in terms of original - drama comparison). I think you'll find the other page more interesting though, which is a list of manga titles that Japanese people wish to see live action made in Japan and in Hollywood. You can see quite a bit of a difference here.
Visit Japan for traditional beauties? The awe-inspiring nature and history? Fashion trends? Manga and anime?
There is this long running campaign called the "Visit Japan Campaign" aka "YOKOSO JAPAN" which I bet many of you reading this have seen once or more on other websites. In a word it's a campaign that encourages increase of inbound tourist traffic (details here ). When it started there were about 16 million Japanese travelling overseas but the number of tourists coming into Japan is (actually "was") less than one third of that and the govt wants to narrow the gap for --- well, good reasons.
The Japanese government (according to my personal observation) is rather on the conservative side - serious and conservative (plus unclear)... a typically Japanese quality one may say - and would have included only the traditional, historical and natural beauties to the Japan's beauty list, maybe joined by a glimpse introduction to the manga and anime industry... that is to say if it were a decade ago. It wouldn't have approved the manga+anime+game industry as something the country can be proud of and in that sense, never the herd of the so-called "otaku".
But the latest situation is different. Actually, a lot of thing have changed about the character of the govt during the five years under the Koizumi administration. Now that we have a new prime minister, I come to realize the changes in the country that I have never noticed during Koizumi's politics. Things have become more... how should I describe... modern? The clinging to the old systems and styles seem to have loosened a bit.
One of the "modern" elements that I think is the acknowledgment of many things that the country didn't want to turn their eyes on, including the existence of the otaku. Otaku, as you may already know, in a word are geeks particularly those who are deeply into the fictious world of manga (comics), anime or video-/computer games. It is still to some extent, but until a while ago these people were looked at with disapproving eyes from the society because the general impressions of otaku, as the non-otaku claim, are weird, obsessive, unsociable, immature, etc. and a good adult deeply amused by 2D characters or young idol girls was kind of a shame to have or to be one.
In truth, there are many that are over-obsessive and extraordinarily passionate about particular things, but then the Japanese society is full of otaku from school to office because anyone can have a passionate hobby or two. In fact, being just a tad bit otaku (referred to as "choi-ota") is even considered as being cool. Let me get back to this sometime later.
Going back to deep otaku, it has been found out a couple of years ago that these otaku have the power to really heavily influence the Japanese economy towards a positive vector. A little while ago one research & consulting company said that the market has not just escaped being a niche but also have become of the very largest in the country, and so it seems because the govt can't keep turning their eyes off of it.
The govt certainly cannot and I doubt they ever will encourage people to become an otaku of a kind, but have started to make use of this millions-population of otaku and their activities as well as entertainment spots (chiefly Akihabara) as attractions to invite international tourists. Now they have a free "Akihabara tour", a tour going around major otaku attractions scattered across Akihabara districts with an English speaking guide, and not only do they came up with such tour, the tour is actually one of their top features for the campaign. It's not clearly written as part of the tour but otaku themselves are clearly attractions. So there are otaku tourists coming for goods and just to breathe the air of the otaku capital, and there are the non-otaku tourists coming in curiosity to have a glance at the Japanese authentic otaku. In just five years or so, the govt has turned from neglecting the otaku to making them one of the highlights of Japan. This is quite amazing.
So this is how the govt is reacting to the expansion of the otaku market - but I wonder how much non-Japanese are actually interested in the Japanese otaku culture. I mean, the sense has numbed quite a bit amongst us Japanese at least in Tokyo. Seeing people crowding over Akihabara doesn't amaze us nor do the existence of the maid & butler cafes that have become a huge fad and quickly stablized - stabilized but not gone. Is the otaku culture still something Japan can boast as a uniquely Japanese specialty? And if so, how long is this whole otaku craze is going to last?
So much for now... ended up with no point again :p
Today's update on Japan Mode: This Week's Events in Tokyo - March 2nd Week
I didn't know this till last night, but Japan's traditional national specialty kabuki is going to be performed at France's traditional historical art theatre Opera National de Paris next month.
After I heard about it on the TV news I looked up for articles on the internet and found out that they had already made official announcements last spring. Oops, missed that.
Anyway, the kabuki programs with strong, distinctive colors and costumes are going to be shown under the ceiling softly yet marvelously decorated by the paitings of Chagall, for five times starting March 23rd, 2007. The actors starred are genuine successors of the traditional Edo Kabuki family line Ichikawa Danjuro and his son Ebizo, and the programs they're performing are their specialties Kanjincho and Momijigari.
This all started a little more than two years ago when Ebizo made a statement with other actors in French of his succession to the name at Theatre National de Chaillot. Brigette Lefevre, the art director of Paris Opera House was there at Ebizo's name-succession ceremony, and was so deeply moved by the performance that she decided to invite the troup to perform at Paris Opera House. The news article noted that Lefevre commented for the name-succession ceremony, (something like),"the moments of modernity beautifully blended with tradition, and felt some similarities between kabuki and ballet." The troup is going to give the opening statement in French. For the other parts of the program... I'm pretty sure there's going to be translation headsets provided.
The news has been popping up in several Japanese blogs, and a lot of them like myself are trying to imagine kabuki being played at the dazzling gorgeous Paris Opera House. The colors are different, the movements are different, everything is different except for the fact that it does have centuries-long authenticity just the way classic ballet does. Very interesting indeed.
It seems like the tickets are already on sale. See here: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison0607/Spectacle.asp?Id=988 (Francais) for details.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Sakura (yeah I know I've been doing lots of "guides") varieties. As I was building the pages for cherry blossom viewing spot guides, I realized that a whole lot of them require more basic background knowledge about cherry blossoms especially their kinds. Just found out there there are roughly 300 kinds of cherry blossoms in Japan... increasing.
On New Year's Eve every year there is this show aired on NHK (a broadcasting station that stands in the middle of public and private sectors) called the "Kohaku Uta-Gassen". It's a music (song) show that goes on for nearly 5 hours featuring the prominent singers of the Japanese music scene and the attention-getting or top-CD-selling singers of the year regardless the genre i.e., covering J-pop, enka (traditional ballad) and classic for the show is geared toward all generations. The singers are separated into two groups, red and white (=ko(u)haku), and they compete which group gets higher scores. The judgment nowadays are given by the selected judges (the leading figures of the year from actors/actresses, atheletes, etc.), the audience present at the auditorium, and the viewers via internet.
Well, it's the end of February and I am certainly not intending to give an introductory to the Kohaku part of Japanese culture. Today I want to write about this particular song sung two months ago on Kohaku which literally grasped the hearts of many Japanese who have watched the show.
The song's title (literal translation) is "A Thousand Winds" and as some of you may know it is not an originally Japanese song. It is probably known quite widely as an English song of the same (or similar) name, or more importantly a poem which the original title is "Do not stand at my grave and weep". The poem has been read at many sad occassions from fairly small to large ones, but here in Japan it wasn't as known until two months ago.
Last year's Kohaku by all means was hardly a success. It was, on the other hand, one of the worst - as far as I recall and judge - with lots of mess. But in the midst of this mess (well the messy controversy arose after the show) there was a moment that the viewers' eyes and ears were glued to the TV, when the tenor singer Akikawa Masafumi sang the song "A Thousand Winds" (Sen no kaze ni natte).
The lyrics of the song is very sad, deep and moving, singing - as you can probably tell from the title - about the death of a dear one. The topics of the song started to appear in the media and in people's talks and blogs shortly after it was sung at the Kohaku, and the song spread widely across Japan very fast especially among the older generations. And finally, though only two months from the air, the song ranked first place on the Japanese music chart, creating a record of the best-selling classic CD in Japan with a sales of more than half million copies which beats the previous record-holder Princess Mononoke (Mera Yoshikazu). Classic music doing this well in Japanese society is quite something.
There are probably many reasons for this big hit, but the biggest are maybe one) because its theme "death" can be very close to anyone and the lyrics can be resembled easily, and two) the social backgroud of today full of sad news. So the rapid spread and increasing attention of this song are somewhat different from the hits of other songs. Even though the number in sales can be smaller as compared to some of the top-selling J-pop songs this single, individual song and the impression it leaves on people would probably remain longer in the hearts with great meanings and significance than the momentarily gone pop songs.
Several versions of the song is available, but my mother said that the song in English sung by some boys soprano in UK was the best, equally beautiful and moving as Akikawa's single tenor if not more. Hope the message of the song won't decay in today's world of constant and rapid change of creation and disruption.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Tokyo Maniac Event - Several events on anime coming up, not to forget the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2007.
Today I think I'll introduce you to a blog kept by a Japanese housewife. Well, rather than calling it her web journal it's more like her web record of the lunchboxes she makes for her husband and son(s) pretty much everyday. Before going any further, just do have a look (it's in Japanese but what matters are the pix anyway):
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kasumin_yorosikuThese pieces of art are food, and not like any artistic food made by the best chefs around the world but LUNCH made every morning for the blog keepers mere and pure amusement to "abuse" her husband and son. It's not too common anymore for wives to make lunches for husbands to take to work, but a good portion of the mothers still make lunch for their kids to take to school in Japan if the school doesn't provide "kyuushoku" (school lunch).
In her title she writes (lit. translation) "Abusement Lunch for the Rebellious 2nd Son, Weary Lunch for Husband - Mommy's Gyakugire Lunch Series". "Gyakugire" means something like a counter-anger... say person A was angry with person B but as B listens to A's point's B becomes even more angry against A. That's "gyakugire". It also implies a meaning of anger suddenly bursting out.
Well she says in her blog description that she was getting frustrated with making lunch for her husband and four kids cuz it was all about "early hours, plain work, troublesome" not even being appreciated by any of them for the work she does. So one day her frustration bursted out and since then she started making these "abusement lunches" to tease and in a way, abuse her family through the lunch she makes. Imagine, one day you open you lunch box in school or office sitting together with your friends/colleagues, and what you see is a marvelous, artistically beautiful lunch designed into a manga character's face... that would surely be a kind of abuse for the one who eats it, and an amusement for the mom.
Over the years her skills improved a lot and now she's got a good comical gallery on her blog. Some of them are just plain artistic non-abusing lunches and some of them you just can't help laughing at when you see them. Her blog has been placing high ranks for a while on Yahoo! Japan't blog chart and is now pretty popular, needless to say, especially among housewives who get up early in the morning to prepare her family food.
The selection of designs vary from traditional art pieces, manga, anime, game, TV personalities, animals to embarrassing messages, and like I said she makes them really well. Then the text on her blog is another thing. She doesn't write like a typical Japanese middle-aged housewife who barely knows how to use computers and cell phones, but writes her blog very youngly. She uses a lot of the youth language, lots of jokes, emoticons and shapes like stars.
So that's for today.
All right, today's update on Japan Mode: Onsen Guide - hot springs in Tochigi and Shizuoka prefectures added.
Tochigi is the pref. that has world heritage Nikko and at onsen in Shizuoka You can have a grand view while relaxing in the soothing bath.
Happy Valentine's Day! I don't know how it's celebrated in other places, but in Japan Valentine's day is a day 80% for couples either dating or married. The mainstream tradition here ever since Valentine's day have become recognized as a special day, is for girls to give guys chocolate. Why chocolate, the reason is simply commercial - it's only because some chocolate company one day promoted to give chocolate as Valentine gifts and that manner became the mainstream.
Though today the gift-giving is becoming more two-way especially when it comes to more expensive gifts like jewelry and accessories, the custom of giving chocolate - and giving "returns" on "White Day" a month later - remains strictly one-way.
I said 80% for couples... well, 17% of the remaining 20 is for singles, singles who are committed to "confess" their affection i.e., ask someone to date her(/him) - (I wonder how many new couples are emerging today) - maybe 2% for non-serious, "social" chocolates called "giri-choco" and the last 1% families. Um, the numbers are completely random so don't take it seriously. Anyway, Valentine's Day is a HUGE deal for many girls and boys. Girls being so nervous worrying whether her favorite boy accepts or refuse a new relationship, and boys nervous and excited about how many chocolates they'll get and whether any of them are serious "hommei-choco" (which means that the girl is asking for a date).
Completely unrelated to the above topic, I read yesterday in the paper that the worldy famous fashion and punk and goth town of Harajuku is starting a guide tour for foreign tourists. The guide tour is available as far as I know in English, Chinese and Korean and will go around a dozen or so fashion shops and tourist spots in the so-called "Urahara" (backside Harajuku) district. The group is going to be consisted of 10 tourists more or less depending on the day's requests.
Harajuku is mostly known for the street Takeshita-Dori which is a cool, interesting and exciting spot to be walking around even alone, but the inner and backside areas are as intersting and perhaps more fashionable. I don't see too many tourists exploring the Urahara so I think this is a good chance to let the name spread and a good opportunity for the Urahara designers to dispatch their talents worldside.
The third term in the title for today is a HUGE fad among high school girls right now. I didn't know about it at all but my younger sister who is an 11th grader told me about it one day and later on I searched for articles for research.
Basically it's about having your own profile site on the mobile internet, but the astonishingly unbelievable fact about it is that all the information about you is published on the mobile web (within the Zenryaku Profile) and and basically none of the information you update on your page is protected. There are about 40-100 questions about you, from your real name, address, phone number, blood type, birthday, to favorite talento (showbiz ppl) and so on, and most of the users who are high school students answer pretty much all of these items. It's practically a well-built dating site and in reality, high school couples are being produced through this service. But so far there hasn't been any social issues arising such as fraud, prostitution, blackmailing and so on. 
Analysts say that although the service is like revealing on purpose your personal information, the service is actually closed and are used only among teenage students. I can't really understand what this's supposed to mean. It's a service on the internet and no one checks if you're really a teenager or actually a weirdy. I only think it's a matter of time for crimes to happen. The problem for the moment lies in another place, but I will save that for some other time.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Sakidori Events March VOL.2
There're also webmanga wallpapers and one-day-limited Valentine Cards :-)
For the past three weeks, the news of this popular health-related TV show faking the numbers for several data has been everywhere from TV to papers pretty much everyday.
The central focus is on this topic about "natto" (fermented soybeans) having great effects for losing weight, and while other sources prove that natto does have some diet benefits, this show was over-exaggerating the numbers for data on experiments and also had false Japanese subtitles for the words of an American professor spoken in English so that his explanations would sound more convincing for the show.
Later on it has been found out that the same show have aired false information several times on different topics.
Airing false information nationwide itself is a big problem, but what made the issue bigger is the fact that this TV show is very popular among the country's people because it talks about health issues. Ever since the show was first aired in 2005 it has maintained high viewership and its influence is big enough to make dramatic changes in certain markets (especially food). For instance, say the show scieď˝tifically explained that grapefruit helps losing weight (note: this is just an example, not necessarily the truth) than the following week grapefruit will sell flying off the wagons and supermarkets and fruitshops. This was actually the case for natto, too.
I suppose that this show could have so much influence to the public because it focuses on daily problems that a good lot of people are concerned more or less, and because it provides solutions using cheap and available stuff for the general public. It also recruits examinees for the tests from common people that can be your nextdoor neighbor or even yourself - of which now, I am unsure how much is true.
The Power of Media ---
Well the other media and people accuse the data fabrication as if it was a vicious mistake only this program had made, but I'd say that most if not all of the shows of the same sort are doing the same. They're just probably not busted yet. I hear people say "don't believe everything on the Internet" but I think that the same thing can be said for every kind of media. People believe too much of what's said in the media and are influenced too much, I think. I have a feeling that we're losing ability to observe matters objectively.
Um... that's about it. There wasn't really a central point to discuss nor to make. I just wanted to let out my thoughts regarding this news.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Country Names in Kanji - since we had non-Japanese names in kanji and Japanese popular names published, I thought I'd add some country names written in kanji. Unlike the kanji name conversion requests these kanji combination aren't something I nor my staffs came up with, and are put together 99% pheonetically so they look kind of messy. In any case, come have a look!
My first night in Osaka was my first time to use the internet cafe as an accommodation. It wasn't awfully bad, but perhaps by no means comfortable. Chilly and smokey, plus the flat type rooms were all taken so we had no choice but to take the recliner seats. Well... the seats weren't bad. What bothered me more was the rustling sounds people made throughout the night whenever somebody moved around. It's an internet cafe after all. Can't complain.
The following day we went to Osaka Castle and Shitennoji Temple. The temple ground was pretty big though not vast like the ones in the ancient capital Nara. Still the 1,400-year-old temple is preserved well (of course with nummerous refurbishing and restoration) and is a peaceful place to stroll around. The exterior is good enough, but the impressive features of this temple are the religious (wall) paintings and statues stored inside the halls. The paintings tell the stories of Buddha and Asoka and the art is very beautiful.
I stayed in Osaka for another day after my friends have left, and went to see a shrine called Sumiyoshi Taisha. This was another pretty shrine with unique architecture (I like architecture of shrines and temples). An amazing contrast of vermillion lacquer, deep brown of the thatched roofs and white all surrounded by early summer green. I got to see three Shinto style weddings that morning. They were certainly beautiful especially on a day with such perfect weather, but I have to say that although they were three separate weddings, the way the shrine conducted (conducted more like, than carried out) the weddings were kind of systematic. One right after another. Popular place, good day, I guess it couldn't be helped.
Then I wandered into the Shinsekai area. That's where the Tsutenkaku Tower is (every big city has its own tower). Since I already went up the Castle to get a view of the city I didn't go up this one and just walked around the area at its foot. Shinsekai looked like a block of dozens of kushikatsu (fried... pretty much any kind of food stuck through skewers) eatouts huddling together. Most of these places had statues of Billiken in all sizes placed at the entrances. First I didn't know what it was, but later on found out that this is the famous Osaka god of all-purpose luck. Actually, I just found out that Billiken was designed by an American artist based on the inspiration she got from her dream one night, and the figure went popular worldwide, that is to say back in early 1900s. Is that right? At least, not too many of the Tokyoites know of the god. Anyway.
