Guimauve
Japanese people can go crazy about touring from shops to shops, cafes to cafes exploring new kinds of luxury cakes and confectionaries, but this is probably the first time for luxury marshmallows to catch attention.
One TV show featured luxury marshmallows in Tokyo the other day. It seems like the petit boom started a couple of months ago around the White Day season (White Day = March 14th, a day for boyfriends to give their girlfriends a gift in return for the Valentine's Day gifts. For Valentine's girls usually give boys chocolate, and for White Day boys give white sweets like white chocolate and marshmallows).
Luxury marshmallows are those that are given labels of luxury hotels and restaurants, and they are available at the confectionary/ pastry shops of those places.
At first, I was only like, "how could marshmallows be so different?" but I happened to have a chance to buy these marshmallows for my aunt so I got a box for myself. The place I went to is the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo and they actually call them not marshmallows but "guimauve" (French, I think?), and Park Hyatt's guimauve looks like the one in the picture (I didn't bother taking a photo until the last piece so it looks kind of odd...).
The shape is like a slightly bigger version of kiss chocolate, and the texture smooth and moderately springy. As compared to regular marshmallows sold in supermarkets this one is a lot softer and delicate, and you'll feel that even more when you take one into your mouth. It's really delicate and fine. I was surprised how it melts on the tongue. It feels more like meringue barely keeping its form... and the flavor too was very rich. This one in the picture is raspberry flavor and it tasted like I was tasting raspberry puree. Very rich.
Park Hyatt had two kinds, raspberry and passion fruit, and I bet the passion fruit tastes as rich as the raspberry. A box costs Y800 (US$6.7) so although they call it luxury, it's not like it's unaffordable. I think it's certainly worth a casual gift for someone or even for yourself.
Baseball
About 10 months ago the entire country was literally stirred by the two highschool baseball monsters Saito Yuuki and Tanaka Masahiro. The same fever has now shifted to university baseball league and professional baseball league.
Winning pitcher Saito Yuuki decided to go on to higher education and entered Waseda University this past April. Waseda is one of the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League (Tokyo's uni sports conference, sort of like the equivalent to the IVY League in US) and its baseball team is strong enough, but with Saito joining the team looks like its gotten even stronger and energetic.
The participation of Saito in the Big6 didn't only vitalize his own university but brought a huge influence on the popularity of the Big6 League itself. University baseball, back 60 years ago was the most popular amateur sport that attracted the largest number of crowds (people waited in ticket lines overnight... thought this was a modern phenomenon, nevertheless...) but the popularity kind of sank in the following decades. Eventually the center of baseball became the professional leagues (we have two, the Pacific and the Central) where the top players play every night.
However, by entering university baseball instead of professional Saito brought his fans to the Big6 games and now tickets for every game he plays sell out in seconds. More games are being shown live on TV, and the goods are selling out as well as the tickets.
This weekend is going to be a festival around the Jingu Stadium and at the campuses, for the game taking place is fought between Waseda and Keio. Known as "Sokei-sen" (So for Waseda, Kei for Keio, sen means match/battle) the match-up between these two are traditionally the most popular especially for baseball, and this weekend is even more special because if Waseda wins it automatically makes Waseda the winner of the spring tournament. The game is going to be aired live on two channels which is needless to say an irregular case.
Besides the baseball game itself, Sokeisen provides a stage for another kind of battle, which is the cheering. Called "Ouen-gassen" the cheering for both schools (and other schools of the Big6 as well) is another feature of the Sokei-sen and no doubt the most important leader of the crowd. So that's another something to look out for. As for Saito, he's doing pretty well improving his baseball skills and marking good records.
The other mammoth pitcher Tanaka joined the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, a relatively knew team having its home base in Sendai. The team despite its unwell team performance in the past couple of years is quite popular and the popularity rose higher with Tanaka joining the team. He's expected a lot from the fans. Though his debut game was not really a good one for him (as far as I recall which is not too much) he's been dedicating to the team a lot in terms of results in numbers and as a stimulator for the other players. His influence on the team can be seen in the team performance of Rakuten this season. Pretty good ;-)
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
Sports are pretty hot in Japan right now. Playing sports has always been part of our daily lives, and watching too, but I feel like the enthusiasm of the nation (well... mainly media) for especially national or world scale sports competitions has distinctively changed over the past several years.
One of the biggest differences is sumo. 10 years ago, the grand sumo tournaments (professional) held every other month (odd-number months) was a sports for 40s+ to watch on TV on evenings and not so much of the younger ones cared about it. But now, even though the sumo world is said to be suffering shrinking athelete population, the sport itself appears on the news much more and with excitement. I think that the exceedingly good records of Asashoryu (who is a Mongolian) the only yokozuna at the moment and the internationalization of the rather closed world makes the difference. Every time Asashoryu renew his championship records, the fans and viewers get excited with his performance the next tournament. Right now a good portion of the makuuchi (higher level) wrestlers come from overseas led by Mongolia, and having so many of them in the field is still a fresh sense so they provoke a kind of amusement (in positive terms) as well as national identity among the Japanese because sumo is a national sport. So as compared to a decade ago, the sport is gathering more attention.
Many of the young Japanese atheletes are proving that the level of the sports in Japan is dramatically improving to the stage that they can equally compete in the top level of the world scale competitions. A good example of this is figure skating: starting a few years ago especially with the women's single skating, the Japanese atheletes started to mark good records and finally reached the top a year ago at the Turin Olympics (Arakawa Shizuka winning gold medal for the first time in Japanese figure skating history). Just yesterday, Japanese skater Takahashi Daisuke won silver medal in men's single-skating at the world championships which is also another historical event in Japanese figure skating. Then today there's the women's single skating the entire nation looks forward to.
At the same time as being the top athelete country in some sports, being a Japanese was considered disadvantage for some other sports because of the body type etc. But now these young ones are positively growing in the so-thought disadvantaged sports and are reaching the world standard. This is a great excitement.
I was going to write about some more of other sports but couldn't finish it in time. Will mention them later... hopefully (so many unfinished projects on my mind!)
Today's update on Japan Mode: Charmy Rop Chapter 13 Preview... ant it's the FINAL EPISODE!
The baseball season soon begins - had the opening of a new baseball season been this attention-getting before?
I've never shown much interest in the professional baseball league here nor in the States. Well, I mean, not regularly. And I'm pretty sure that there are quite a number of people like me here in Japan especially women. But, the situation for this year's baseball - at least the beginning - seems to be a bit different from the past years.
It's all because of the handkerchief generation. Saito Yuuki, whether he likes it or not, is the leading figure of this so-called "handkerchief generation" (of course, his handkerchief is where this "handkerchief this" and "handkerchief that" all started from) along with Tanaka Masahiro, but like the name "generation" suggests the players from his same year are generally quite talented in baseball and a number of them have been given media attention even though they may be hidden by that of Saito's and Tanaka's.
Yesterday was the day for the pro teams to have what we call the "open games" which are pre-season games, and I bet it was a super busy day for sports reporters cuz they must have had to struggle the media swarm at several fields to get the best spot for photos/movies/interviews of the baseball freshmen and the team/coach that welcomed them. Last night the sports news reported on many of them who have got themselves into pro teams, of what it was like to actually play with their dream sempai players and how they are feeling towards the real opening of the league.
It was also the day for Saito to make his first official appearance as a Waseda Univ player which was by no means a brilliant one for him. I noticed that in the interviews, many of these players who haven't even exactly graduated high school yet, have grown surprisingly mature (or maybe just got used to the media, more like) over the months.
Speaking of baseball, media and unusual excitement, I also heard on the same news that the new Red Sox monster (already before the league!) Matsuzaka threw forty-something balls yesterday against the minor and showed the media a pretty good performance. I hear that the US media call his pitches "mysterious gyroball". Hmm, as far as I can remember, he's getting more media focus and compliments right now than the past few years all together.
The news said that at the moment there are 13 Japanese players playing in the MBL, some for several years now and some for the first time leaving and expecting to leave good records. Then, it also mentioned that Japanese language is becoming a petit boom among some of the players??? I think that's pretty something, you know. They're giving enough influence to make the other players want to learn the language even if it's for mere fun.
So goes the new baseball season. I can tell that the viewership - not to mention how much the media is going to focus on the games and interviews - is going to go higher more or less this year.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Tokyo Event March 1st Week - there are five events all together all differing in their genres. The Tokyo Girls Collection 2007 S/S is my top feature. I also changed the seasonal descriptions from winter to spring though the colors not yet.
There is this baseball field called Koushien in western Japan, and there is this inter-high school baseball tournament (koukou yakyuu) taking place at Koushien twice a year during spring break and summer break. Baseball is probably still the most popular sport in Japan perhaps being caught up by soccer, but anyway, the Koushien tournament of the summer holding is socially a huge deal for the Japanese people in general not to mention almost all the teenage baseball players who dream to become a professional baseball players in the near future.
Well, the reason for me to talk about this topic even though it's not exactly summer is that the players who have become suddenly famous at last summer's holding are starting to begin new baseball careers in new environments.
A lot of the most eye-catching, talented players entered the world of professional baseball league in Japan aka Pro Yakyu, including Tanaka Masahiro the ace pitcher of Komadai Tomakomai High School who lost against Saito Yuuki the ace pitcher of Waseda Jitsugyo High School at the Finals. Finals, in this case, because they played twice as a result for the game didn't end at the first final match. Tanaka chose to play for a new, actually weak but extremely popular team called the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (good for him ;-). Although the league hasn't opened for the new season yet but the camps and trainings have and so far he has thrown two intrasquad games for a few innings each. So far it seems like the difference between high school baseball and professional is pretty big for him as he has given out several homeruns. But I hope he'll become a really good player because I think he has the talent and potential for becoming a real monster.
The point I wanted to get to is not about Tanaka's results but more about the panicky fever that's been surrounding the other ace. The winning ace for last summer's holding, Saito, has got not only the victory he desired but thousands of fans across the country and a social phenomenon he probably didn't intend to arouse. He unlike Tanaka and other players decided to go on to Waseda University (parent school of thehigh school he went to) and play as a varsity player before pro. Even as I see it now after half year since the victory, the attention of the media and the society is beyond the boundaries of sane. It is so big and crazy that Saito's surroundings like the Tokyo six universities baseball association (don't know the proper English name... a baseball inter-varisity. kind of like a baseball limited Ivy League) which usually don't like to favor one player over others have to get together for a conferences to discuss full measures against Saito fans flooding over to his first game.
According to their announcement yesterday, it looks as though a lot of the most normal things are going to be different with Saito being on the team. There will be longer practices, longer practice hour intervals, shorter press conferences after games, wider space for the press, buses taking the team right to the entrance with the short passage entirely covered with sheets, and ten times as much guards as the other "regular" games to shut the players from the panic wave. His debut is going to be such a mess - meaning outiside of the field.
Going back to Tanaka, his first game after the pro league opens is also probably going to be a panic. After all, even though he did lose against Saito he is a good player who has a better high school strikeout record than the so-called "monster" Matsuzaka making his debut soon as a Red Sox player, and also winning the Summer Koushien twice before (2004 & 2005).
And speaking of fan panic, the debut game for Matsuzaka I just mentioned will probably become a panic more or less close to that of Saito's at least here in Japan. Like I wrote some time ago, an extraordinary number of media and fans flew across the ocean just for his press conference. Imagine how many are going to fight over the seats for his first game.
So baseball. Seems like it's getting revitalized with good fresh and young (and I stress "young" for good reasons. Guess why) players these days.
Today's update on Japan Mode: Kanji Names - got five names published today. Come see if the same name as your's are listed on our kanji name section.
(FYI I borrowed the title name from the American band PANIC! AT THE DISCO just because their album's been playing in my head for hours now.)
The news of Japanese baseball pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke playing in the States has stirred up the Japanese and American (baseball) societies at the end of 2006 (see here for more observations on him). It's been a little quiet this past month, but today the latest update on him popped up in the news.
It was about the specific date of his debut match. Since his move across the ocean involving 6 billion yen made such a big news it was quite natural for many of us to think that he'll make his debut at the very first match of the new season at Fenway (Boston Red Sox Home), but it turned out that the opponent for the first match is the Mariners, which is precisely the team another monster Ichiro has been playing with since 2001.
If it were only a match-up of two Japanese players in the US than it wouldn't have become much of a news, but it's Ichiro versus Matsuzaka, and above anything else, Matsuzaka happened to reply at his press conference to the question "which player do you wish the most to play against in MLB?" - "Ichiro." Okay, it's good maybe to acknowledge Ichiro as an MLB player, but personally I don't really think it was the smartest answer to give at his US debut press conference. You know, he could've given a name or two or three of a non-Japanese player.
Anyway, if Matsuzaka pitched against Mariners from the very beginning, it would mean that his dream is highly likely to become true in a day. I believe that that would surely make a big mess around Fenway. It's said that more than a hundred press-related people from Japan and several times more of fans would flood over to Boston that night. I'd say this fever is uncontrollable.
The monster reveals his "power" on April 5th, so it seems. Hope his monsterlike-ness doesn't only end up in the monsterous contract money and the monsterous news topics.
Today's update on Japan Mode: kanji name conversion samples - I don't know it I mentioned before but I've restarted kanji name conversions. Give me an e-mail through the website if you want to see your name in kanji. I appreciate the requests, but please don't flood me with a dozen names at a time just cuz the service is free! It'll take a little time to get back.
Guimauve
