Mari - diary

Short, simple, funny is the best

I understand that people spend their weekend playing computer games to beat up a big boss or fight again and again to get a super sword. This weekend, I did the same. Yes I kept on playing all day long. On the other hand, though, I really hate those games. I didn't stop holding the controller and saying "faaaku you!" to the game :-) in a room exposed to the afternoon sun. Basically, I don't like long, big, serious and complicated games. I feel those games exploit the weakness of my addictive nature and invade my weekend. (I found many people complaining that Arc the Lad was "too long fighting!" in Japan. I know my nature, so I took a step back from gaming. If I get a PS2, I would rather play simeple, short, light, funny game like Katamari Damacy.

Anyway one of such simple, silly game would be "Feel the Magic" for Nintendo DS. When I saw their Japanese HP first, I laughed because it's too silly. But it has good reviews in the U.S. Hmm. Yes, actually it is okay to sweat in order to throw up golden fish. :-) If you don't know this, you can see video here. By the way, Japanese original title is "Kimi no tamenara shineru" = "I can die for you". We call the game "Kimishine" for short. I think the original title, "I Can Die For You" is not bad. Why did they change it? Is "I Can Die For You" something strange?

Yesterday SEGA opened the new version of official game site,"Akachan wa dokokara kuruno?" which means "Where Do Babies Come From?".Yep, it looks silly again.

A lifelike Robot

I find articles about this Repliee Q1 often. Actually today's CBS news show has free video today. The lifelike robot was created by Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University and Kokoro Company, Ltd. Inc. You can see more moving lifelike robots on their homepage. What do you think?

I mentioned often that Japan has good robot tech but no space tech, yes, big company, small company, animation, manga. There are many many robots. I am not sure why we are attracted to robots so much. Actually I want to have an aibo, but to be honest with you, I don't like Repliee Q1. She is a guide robot. But should guide robot be lifelike? I would love to talk to R2D2 or C3PO. Of course the Repliee technology is great, but still far from real and I just feel discomfort. Anyway someone said she looks like TV comedian Kiriko Isono.

As a new product topic. I prefer this new Gimmicky USB cable to Repliee Q1. Ha ha completely unnecessary silly cables. This is the product of this maker.

Justsystem And Japanese room kit

JustSystem is a national computer software company situated in Tokushima Prefecture that created a well known Japanese word processing program called Ichitaro. It was the only competitive program to MS Word. Actually it was very popular and I have used it before. I wrote that Japanese OS has special word processing way, how important it is for us and actually it relates to writing speed for us. At that point, some of my co-workers say ATOK (JustSystem's Input Method) is superior to MS IME (MS's Input Method). Even now you may choose MS word or Ichitaro as the preinstalled program when you get PC in Japan. But I must say it is hard to find someone who uses Ichitaro at work. And this year they got sued about the Help icon. If they lose, it would seriously damage Just System.

Anyway I did not know that Just System have an online shopping mall called "Just Myshop" which sells software and PC tools, PC desks etc. Recently they started to sell a small Japanese room Kit. I have no idea why they make this. Let's make your Japanese healing space in your room?! Wired. Actually many new apartments don't have Japanese rooms, but without such a kit, one or two tatami mats, one shoji screen, one small desk and an Ichirin zashi will make a Japanese mood. Some make small Japanese spaces by themselves like this. This is cheaper, easy to move, easy to make. desho?!

Gundam Again

Again Gundam. I am not a big Gundam fan, but I like to see Gundam fan's craze. Suntry Museum in Osaka has Gundam exhibition -For our future: War, Evolution and life- now. Artists create their Gundam Arts and products. Hmm look at this, their blog.. Look at this, that big object is Sayla Mass. Looks sexy? She is angry so her face is very scary. ( I think crying pretty Sayla would be MOE for guys more).

A real size core fighter is cool. This "Japanese painting" of Gundam is cool too. Some arts and objects, I cannot understand what they mean, but Gundam fan would get exactly what it is or means. You can see some more in this site here, here and here.

What will you do? Aiful

A typhoon called BANYAN is on its way to Tokyo this evening. I am writing this in my lunch time, and I am really looking forward to see if we can get off earlier than usual and I hope we don't have any serious damage done. After the typhoon passes away, we can see a clear blue sky. But I always wonder how the typhoon victims could accept things that happened during the last night.

Like I said, Tokyo Governor Ishihara makes insensitive remarks. Today some French teachers from Meiji University visited him and presented a "French textbook, dictionary and calculator."

I talked about Aiful's TV commercial that caused the chihuahua boom in Japan. Yes their TV ads are popular and most Japanese know their copy is "what will you do? Aiful". Chihuahua Qoo-chan gives people a sort of good image for Aiful? Hmm maybe yes, if they don't use Aiful... Aiful is a consumer loan company (SALA KIN), and yesterday about 500 customers sued Aiful for disclosing their loan and repayment records and are demanding the firm refund overpaid interest. And I have found a poster which was made by plaintiffs and attorneys to appeal for damages from Aiful. The poster says "Give me back my home! What will you do? Aiful". Hmm still people will love Qoo-chan's AD? He does nothing wrong though, we will see what will happen.

Which is the lightest color beer?

I don't drink beer. So I am so confused about the recent Japanese beer situation. I told you, we have "Happoshu", CNN.com said Japan drinks cheap alternatives. And like I wrote before, It was one of "big topic in Japan of 2004". In short, Happoshu is a low malt beer (Japan sets content rules, so more than 66.7% malt is "Beer"), the reason why Happoshu is popular would be related to Japan's long recession. Beer's tax is 77.7yen per one short can. The tax depends on the amount of malt. So if it's contents is only 50% malt, the tax is about 55yen. In this way, most new low-malt beverage costs half the price of beer.

Then this summer each maker add more selections. I can't tell the each difference, but some maker call it "beer_taste alcohol", "miscellaneous alcohol" (yes I am sure they say "雑酒"）, etc. I can tell the point was cost before but this year's trend is "diet" and "healthy". This Sapporo Slims (TV ad: Left woman is Kimutaku's wife.) is 40% calories off, 70% carbohydrate off and 30% purine bodies off. Kirin green label has 70% carbohydrate off. (TV ad) Suntry also has 50% calories off "Suntry Diet" (TV ad : She is guitarist Hotei's wife.) Asahi made Asahi Shinnama with soybean content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide) that works for metabolism.

For beer lovers, they are apparently different, though for no-beer drinker like me, usually it is hard to tell the difference. But when I tried Sapporo Slim (my gym gave away free to gym member for trial.) I could tell it is light taste. My favourite nifty portalZ made funny trial again. They compare colour of each beer and Happoshu which we can get at store easily, and then check "Is colour related to the calorie?". The darkest one is YEBISU beer and next one is Asahi Super Dry. The lightest colour beer is Budweiser, it is lighter than Diet and Slims. The graph tells calories, top is Bud, next one is Slims, the third one is Draft one which ranked in last year big 10 topic, they are sorted in the order of "light colour", so the last one is Yebisu. Hmm Bud is light colour and high calories, and since it is beer, it's more expensive than Slims or Diet. ?? how about taste? I don't know :-p. This is the order of COLOUR, not taste. (^_^;) a..ha ha...ha

Let's go "Sumo town" Ryogoku

Sumo is...
Sumo, it is Japan's national sport, and it has long history and related to the Shinto religion. Even Japanese are suprised to know the details of sumo, because it has very ritual. A famous strict rule is that women cannot step on the sumo ring. Grand tournaments are held 6 times per year - Tokyo (3), Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka. In each place, the prefectural governor presents a prize to the winner of the Grand Tournament for his achievement. But now Osaka's governor is Ms. Ota, and she can't give the prize because she cannot step onto the sumo ring. She protested and tried to change the rule, and actually some feminist groups supported her too. But the association did not change the rule. Personally I like to keep these kinds of traditions. I want to keep sumo's rules and style without changing anything. I can't think it's serious gender issue. I can tell you another funny bit of trivia. Their uniform belt is called mawashi; since it is made from silk, they do not wash it. They just dry it like this. Stincky? Yes maybe so.

Let's go to Ryogoku!
In Tokyo, most Sumo-beya(sumo stables) are in the Ryogoku area. Ryogoku is a kind of SUMO town. When you visit Ryogoku, you can see many sumo wrestlers walking about, but there is also a lot of other interesting stuff. This one of my favorite sites: nifty portal daily z (They are really crazy, I wish they had an English version. I wrote about this site before in "Yaminabe"). Anyway, Nifty has a post called "Let's Go Ryogoku!". Many things in the town are designed around sumo. Food tends to be big in size. And you can find big clothes and shoes. To enjoy this down town Tokyo area, I will pick some good places to visit here.

Area information
Train map
Ryogoku area map

Some places to visit
Kokugikan
Sumo Museum
Edo-Tokyo Muesum
Kyu Yasuda Teien
Sumo Picture Museum(JP)
Tokyo Water Cruise

Souvenir information
Sumo goods shop Takahashi

A day in the life of a Sumo wrestler
I heard sumo wrestlers have such big bodies but their health condition is excellent; actually, they are a kind of pro-sports players, not regular fat guys. They shouldn't lose weight and some wrestlers have to gain more weight to be strong in healthy way.
How? They have their own eating style. To increase weight efficiently, they practice in the morning without eating breakfast. Then they eat a big lunch. After lunch they take a nap. Yes, skipping breakfast and after that eat and sleep, eat and sleep. This is the best way to be big. Their main meal is basically Chanko nabe. It is a kind of hot-pot meal. The lower class wrestlers in the Sumo stable have to do cooking duty. Mail is nabe, but they cook and eat various food. Each sumo stable and sumo wrestlers may have their own unique recipe, but I will introduce the basic type: Chicken Chanko. Here is another chicken type. There's a lot of different food in the pot - at least a good variety of vegetables. This is the important part to being big and healthy. You can't only eat potato chips, french fries, and pizza.

Chanko restaurant
In Tokyo, there are some good chanko restaurants which famous retired sumo wrestlers opened. Japan Today introduces five restaurants in Tokyo. If you want to check the movie, Anthoney Bourdain enjoyed Chanko in this show. Now the most famous chanko restaurant is Chanko Waka. It is the restaurant of Yokozuna(= Champion) Wakanohana. (they have a tough family business too).

Here is a good blog about Tokyo and sumo. It explains how Asashoryu received the prize in his left hand. Because he is a lefty, maybe he did it unintentionally. But in Sumo rules, the winner should accept a prize with their right hand. As he is Yokozuna, he is a kind of symbol of the national sport of Sumo. So people expect him to keep rules and traditions. In that respect, he sometimes made trouble... He is really strong though. That is the reason some people like him so much and some people dislike him.

Dolphin and earthquake day

Finally I got home, it is almost midnight. What a long trip it was. Why? The train schedules in Tokyo are still messed up by the  earthquake. It was big one and some would think finally "IT HAS COME". When it happened, I was in a train, so I did not sense anything. But the trained stopped suddenly and the train conductor said "We had an earthquake and now we got an order to stop..."

But I did not think it was so big or serious. So I went to Hakkeijima Sea paradise. Dolphins are so beautiful and wonderful. And I understand they have a power to heal people. Hakkeijima Paradise has some funny dolphin plans, dolphin wedding and one night stay at dolphin dome. I don't need them but one night stay in dome would be interesting. Now my wallpaper of PC has changed from We will rock you to white whale. I enjoyed the aquarium, dolphins (now I enjoyed it more than when I was a kid. It was not "surprise type"of enjoyment. It was just "healing" type of enjoyment.) and fireworks on the sea. My friend recorded interesting video, beruga is so smart and they enjoy to cheat people. Look at this, they did it on purpose to see peope surprised. (I updated it file site), the Roller Coaster ruined it all (It made me sick, I hate Roller Coasters). Anyway Hakkeijima Paradaise is an enjoyable place which is not so far from Tokyo.

When I returned to home, trains were still messed up and it took long time to home. I checked for damage in my apartment. Only a little frog had fallen from around the entrance door. What? Why do I leave that there? It is a little feng shui idea which I took. Anyway this was my long dolphin and earthquake day.

Yankee are bad boys in Japan?

"Yankee teacher returns to his old school"....This is a Japanese TV drama that originated with a real story. Is it an American guy's story? No, no, no. The story goes like this, a Japanese guy, Hiroyuki Yoshiie was such a bad boy in his high school days, he returned his old school as teacher and taught the bad boys in his class stopping them from being bad. This is his documentary show in English. Ha ha the title was changed to "Returns of Rebel". In Japan, we call bad boys and girls yankee. I wonder if American people will feel uncomfortable about this, and now I remember a Turkish bath story.

We call"sexual clubs" TORUKO BURO = Turkey bath. It was because Turkey was famous for their sauna baths. In 1984 one small article was published on the Yomiuri. It was a Turkish student in Tokyo University protest we named "sexual club" from Turkey. One day he went around downtown, and he found his land name "Turkey" written in colourful neon. He opened the door of the shop thinking of his mother land, then he was welcomed by a half nude Japanese woman. He complaned strongly to the shop but he realized it was not the name of the shop, that it was a more general term for sex clubs. In the article he appealed and said that Japan should change the name. It worked fine, and led to Japan changed the term "Turky bath" into "soap land" everywehere in Japan. (My American friend misunderstood: Soapland is just a clean place like a public bath or something and said "Let's go to soapland!" loudly in public and embarrassed his friends. Yeah Japan has no sense for naming maybe. )

Anyway we call bad boys and girls yankee. Here is some yankee samples. In Tokyo area they tend to wear street fashions. In the country, they tend to wear cheap colourful trainers. This is an online shop of a yankee magazine, This game is "Run! Soul of Yankee", actually "country" crazy drivers group; Bosozoku are our typical image for yankee too. Actually it is far from American Yankee. Why we call them Yankee? I checked internet derivation dictionary. They said in the 70s-80s in Osaka area, people called Yankee bad boys who walked around downtown, because they wore colourful Aloha shirts and pants in the American village. But Yankee was not only an American Fashion, in Osaka area people say "yanke" at the end of a word, it is a sort of a dialect. This caused the name of Yankee too. Japan Times use this American yankee and this Japanese yankee differently, so they use "Yankii" for Japanese on their web site :-)

Hmm what do you think about Yankee? You think "American dog" is much worse?

Matthew Barney in artistic city in Japan

Matthew Barney's first exhibition in Japan is being held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture, which is one of the most artistic cities in Japan. Since it is far north west from Tokyo, it's not easy to get to for Tokyo residents. But when I checked some blogs, still arts fans went there by night bus or airplane. Matthew Barney is most celebrated as a sculptor and performance artist. Have you ever seen his art Cremaster 1-5?. They say Cremaster is the name of the muscle that wraps the tendon connected with the testicles, it expands and contracts with changes in the temperature. I remember that I was so impressed with this photo. Yes unfortunately only photo..., I didn't watch the movies. Most scenes seem to be so attractive, artistic and beautiful on trailer. But sometimes there are extreme, still-raw image of corporeality. I am too weak for that. You see very essential beauty in his art? Or it is not your type?

In the exhibition, his new film "Drawing Restraint 9" is released too. I did not know that this film by Matthew Barney with a soundtrack composed by Bjork, is the first creative collaboration of two, husband and wife. A Japanese tea ceremony and Whaling are the motifs of this film. I have an interest in what message he makes with the film. Talking about a national level, the US is anti-whaling, Bjork's mother land Iceland is a whaling country like Japan.

Here is some English reviews on Bjork's official site. I tried to find some Japanese reviews, but I could find only a few. One said "they are too beautiful and I forgot time". One said "As an art fan, as a Matthew fan, I just had to watch them all without sleeping at any cost, but 2 and a half hours without dialogue was very long" (yap, another raw voice too) Some said some images are extreme again (eat each other or something... I know that is metaphor, it would not be equal to cannibalism.), I am not sure I can see it all, but I would like to see this film and exhibition.

Anyway I got mails "Why do you eat intelligent Whale? Or what do you use them for?". When I get such emails, sorry I did not reply to them. Personally I don't think intelligent or not cannot be good topic for discussion. We can eat cow but we can't eat pig, because sometime pig can perform. This may sound strange. There are other good points of view for discussion. And it is easy to access information about the history of whaling. Those sites will be better for information.