Mari - diary

Go to Fukuoka or Aomori by 2300yen!!

When you go around Japan, railway will be the best way. And JR has some useful tickets and passes. One of them is "Seishun 18 kippu." This will be the most reasonable ticket to go far if you have time. Here is the rule of the ticket. Seishun 18 is sold as 5 sheets, its holder is entitled to enjoy one-dayunlimited travel on all JR lines (local and rapid trains only, not express). You can use it for 5 days by yourself, or you can share it with your friends.

Then one guy tried to go as far as possible in one day on Sat March 4th . His rule was simple. Ride on the first train in the morning, Make the fastest connection always, and keep on going until he can't make connections or time runsout.

The South route.
5:20--Tokyo(Tokyo) 321M local to Shizuoka. : Tokyo is the biggest station in Japan.
8:28--Shizuoka(Shizuoka) 736M local to Hamamatsu. :Shizuoka is famous for green tea.
9:51--Hamamatsu(Shizuoka) 5117F rapid to Ogaki :Hamamatsu has special sweet named Unagi pie. Unagi pie means eel pie!
11:44--Ogaki(Gifu) 3215F local to Maibara :This city is called "water city". The special sweet mizumanjyu is yummy.
12:56--Maibara(Shiga) 3253M rapid to Himeji. :This is the famous station, even though Shinkansen stop here, there is nothing.
15:34--Himeji(Hyogo) 967M local to BanshuAkaho :Himeji castle isa world heritage site!
15:54--Aioi (Hyogo) 1325M-463M local to Mihara : The beautiful city Kobe is in Hyogo.
18:28--Mihara(Hiroshima) 377M local to Hiroshima : Mihara city has nice view of Setonaikai (Inland Sea).
19:53--Hiroshima(Hiroshima) 5487M Tukin liner to Tokuyama :I can tell you Hiroshima is abeautiful city now. I hope you have a chance to visit once.
21:50--Tokuyama(Yamaguchi) 5487M local to Shimonoseki :Yamaguchi is the westernmost prefecture in mainland of Japan.
23:49--Shimonoseki(Yamaguzhi) 5273M to Kokura :Don't miss eating blow fish here!
0:03---Kokura(Fukuoka) : There are many many delicious foods in Kyushu.

Total distance : 1107.7km, Time : 18h 43m, he took 11 trains. Usually it costs 12.850yen to take Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kokura, this trip cost 2.300yen. Cheap!

He did the samein theNorth from Ueno Station. He left Ueno at 5:10 and arrived at Aomori at 22:39. What? One hour and half more he had? Yes, but Aomori is the northernmost prefecture in mainland, there is no part you can take Seishun 18 kipputo the north anyfarther. Total distance : 720.km, Time : 17h 29m, he took 11trains too. The distance was shorter in theNorthern route because of bad connections of trains he said.

Okay, we can go to Fukuoka and Aomori for one day by 2300yen only with Seishun 18 kippu. By Shinkansen, you can reach Mishima (Shizuoka) onlyfor 2300yen. Do you want to try? I think I will pass, time is money that is for me. :-)

Ah it's a Viral marketing!

Although I updated JR EAST Ostrich TV ad, I am not good at TV topics because I hardly watch TV. When I found a funny ad on the Internet, I thought they would be aired on TV. But sometimes I wonder if it would be Okay to show on TV because they were extreme.

Then today I knew they are viral marketing. It means advertising only for Internet. So that they could make them such radical, sometimes so evil. Did you know that? Maybe in Japan, viral advertising doesn't boast yet?! I really don't know that. Here are some viral advertising sites viral videos & ads, funny virals, and in this viral chart. There are 3 Japanese ad ranked in. Now I realized I wrote about exit, aah that was the exclusive ad for the Internet then called viral ad hmm. But it looks creepy so that I can't open No.2 "Blood on the carpet". And I found this about Japan, it would joke for Burusera. but I am so ashamed of that... orz. And most of all, I couldn't laugh at this Ford's evil one (last link is alive), that can't be even a black joke. Well I shouldn't open viral ad links easily, I should be careful.

After seeing these, ads for TV seem to be very easy, peaceful! They are ads of Sushi delivery. This one says, if you go dining out, you may have danger that you can suppose. So let's have sushi delivered. This one says, if you order Pizza, some will mistake it as a second base, or black live might be someone's hair. if you order a crab soup set, his fellows may come to revenge. So let's have sushi delivered...orz.

By the way, I was watching Olympic, I could know this Robocco campaign. You can get that small "serving beer robot". Look at these ads. We have a habit to pour sake for others, especially on business drinking, it's very messy. but he will help us! Thanks! I will try the prize!

JR east new winter ad, Ostrich want snow.

The TV ad from JR East called "Ostrich skiing" was great. Like I wrote in this post, I thought someone would be skiing backwards. But it was my misunderstanding. The creator of that ad said, it was a image composition of real skiing and CG. So the leg part would be CG.

They released a new version this year, this time the copy is "we want snow", even though in town, ostriches want to ski. (when you find the link is broken, let me know. I will fix　it.)

Can't cleaning syndrome

I love cleaning up. Actually I can't be relaxed in a messy place, but in a crowded place too. So my room has a few things like a hotel room. My friends say I have a cleaning phobia, and they think that I should be more relaxed :-). The opposite of my case, there are people who can't clean up. A few years ago, a book was published and it was much-discussed, its title was "Katazukerarenai Onnatachi" (women who can't clean up). Charles wrote about it with an interesting TV show... wow can you believe that? That would be an outstanding case though, I can find many sites saying "I am a woman with can't clean syndrome" from just messy levels to heavy ones, no place to live like this, this and this. Yes they were called "Can't clean syndrome" in Japan before, but now people know it will be related to ADHD (can't concentrate, very unstable.) in some case. And there are some companies which have cleaning services for such houses and rooms.

Then as a similar topic, we have "GOMI YASHIKI". It means garbage place surrounded by the garbage the inhabitant collected, like this, this, this. I found an article where the BBC said this would be related to OCD. Well even though we know it would be a disorder, such houses disfigure the appearance of the streets, cause bad smells, are in danger of collapsing etc. They just give their neighbours the creeps and cause a nuisance. But as long as he keeps things inside his place, it is hard to stop him collecting it or saying please try to have some therapy for OCD. People are compelled to accept in many cases, I heard. But finally Fukushima pref, Yokohama city have a measure to prohibit taking back things from the rubbish tip. How do you deal with in such cases in your country?

Monkey magic & Monkey Majik, and Ellegarden

The numbers of Japanese musicians singing in English is increasing. So many Japanese songs have some simpe English lyrics like I love you or I miss you (they sound so funny to native people, I know I know) even brain crasher SMAP's song :-p Their singing sucks.  Some tried to sing all in English like Godiego. But unfortunately I remembered that Freddy Mercury (yes, that!) left a comment "I couldn't understand what he sang" on a music magazine interview when he came to Japan. The one big hit song of Godiego was Monkey Magic (No.16) which was a theme song of TV drama Magic Monkey that was based on a famous old story Journey to theWest. I found many pages talking about its lyrics. Maybe itdoesn't make sense?　However I could find some remix versions too, this is a remix of monkey magic by Jungle Brothers. I am a little bit surprised to find so many Magic Monkey sites.

That TV drama was very popular and this yeara new version was remade. Please check the cast page out, you can't see who acts the monkey. It because it is Singo Katori of SMAP (Hmm, I feelI talk about them every dayrecently). And then this time, who sings the theme music? It is Monkey Majik, I saw them last year in Canadian embassy in Omotesando. Wow they succeed! Here is the theme Around the world. Hmm, his Japanese would be better than Godiego's English?? I suppose so. I think Monkey Majik will be more popular. (And I like their original ニホンゴワカリマセン T-shirt ontheirGoods page, it means I can't understand Japanese.)

The English ability and pronunciation of Japanese musicians will be getting better than theold days, because most of them have experienced life in the U.S. Hikaru Utada lived in the U.S. in her younger days and went to the international school in Japan. She sings in English and released some singles in the U.S. too. In Japan, her first single Automatic was a big hit.　I am not big fan of hers, but if I pick one song, it would be　Movin' Without You(this song is Japanese though.)

And now we have another English songon the music charts in Japan. The band is Ellegarden, I saw them too inthe indies band festival last year on my job. :-) I was lucky. I like their new song Space Sonic, this is my type! The vocal guy was working in the U.S. as systems engineer. They will release Riot on the Grill in the North America.  I hope they can make ahit there! Gambare Elle!

The famous AD is back.

As long as I can remember, the TV ad that most looks like it must have cost a fortune was the NTT East Gatchaman campaign starring SMAP.

Gatchaman is "The Battle of the planet : G-force". Like I told you just a few days ago, (sorry! similar topic!) it is very popular animation what most over the 30s know and can sing its theme in Japan. And SMAP is a boys POP group of Johnny's agency which officially you can't see any of them on the Internet. The most popular guy of SMAP, Takuya Kimura has been No.1 for over ten years in an an's most popular guy ranking.

NTT east made two Real Gatchaman TV ads with SMAP, and they gave up to make after two because it cost very expensive to make. But many people loved it and missed it when they stopped it. And NTT got a lot of requests "Show me it again!".

Then NTT show it on their site temporary until the end of March since today. It was over but you can check it on You Tube now. They made the same scene by animation and real video by SMAP. Here are real one by SMAP 1 and 2. Then these are animation version 1 and 2.
Ken Washio is Masahiro Nakai.
Joe Asakura is Takuya Kimura.
Jun is Goro Inagaki.
Jinpei is Tsuyoshi Kusanagi.
Ryu is Shingo Katori.
They will delete the page in the end of March, after that please check this page
(Shh....I hope Johnny's hunter don't find this page)!!

By the way, the Russian movie Night Watch shows the entire movie in 2 and half minutes on their site. It's a new way.

Stincky food of the world

I was asked about the old movie Nankyoku Monogatari (Atlantic story) a few days ago. She found this post on my site. I wondered why, then today I've found the Disney movie Eight Below making a hit in the U.S. That movie is a remake of Nankyoku Monogatari based on the true story of Taro and Jiro. はあ、なるほど。それでね！ Taro and Jiro. You can buy the DVD here. This is real stuffed Taro in Hokkaido University. It would be smaller than you guess.

Recently I found some Scandinavian topics. A few days ago, I wrote about the Japanese movie which took place in Finland. And today I've found this funny food AD. Is this real in Finland?? Somebody knows that? Then my friend ordered "Surstromming" on the Internet. It is a canned fish that is said to have the strongest smell food in the world. Here is a Japanese site "Surstromming meeting". Hmm she makes me scared. I don't know how much it costs in Sweden, but it costs around 3000yen in Japan. Well, do I want to try that? As long as I say "try Natoo!" on my site, I feel I should try that fish too. By the way that friend is a kind of food geek. Last time when we have a drinking party, he brought a soft cheese (maybe one of them) . All of us agreed that it smelled like something from under the nail of a big toe.

But I must tell you Natto is not the worst smelling food in Japan. What is the worst? It is Kusaya. Kusaya is a fermented fish product. Mackerel and similar fish are soaked in a brine or "kusaya gravy" that is used over and over again because salt was a rare material. After soaking, the fish is dried. Kusaya is distinguished from other dried fish by its strong, unique, peculiar odour. "If you broil kusaya in your house, the odour will not leave for three months." Three months!? To be honest with you, I have never tried it before, so I don't know. This site has a good explanation. Does not sound bad, right? Please try it when you have a chance. :-)

You imagine, I imagine

I found a foreign version of 2channel,it's 4channel. The site looks very close to 2channel. I didn't read it yet.

By the way I am reading a sort of comparative culture book. I won't tell the details but I am just wondering how different our image for word or description will be. ( make sense? )

What image do the words "Home Town" bring up to you? I think many Japanese will imagine the scene like this. I was born in Shibuya, but still my image for the word "home town" is like that. This is a cover of book titled Hometown, This is a cover of book titled Hometown, this is the wood print titled Hometown. Our general image for Hometown is such mountain countryside. This is the result of a Google image search for Hometown. This might be related to the old song Furusato that we learn at school.

Yesterday I wrote about Haiku, Haiku would be enjoyable because we can share the same image, same scene by even such short words. This is famous Haiku by Basho, what scene will you imagine by reading this?
Furuikeya Kawazu tobikomu Mizuno oto : 古池や　蛙飛び込む　水の音
Old pond, a frog jumped in, sound of water.
This site explains about that Haiku. Most Japanese, including me, would imagine the silence was broken by sound of a flog plopping into a poor looking old pond. The pond won't be big, frog won't be more than one. This is close to my image. How about you?

Here is another famous Basho's Haiku.
Shizukasaya Iwani shimiiru Semino koe : 静けさや　岩に滲み入る　蝉の声
This pervasive silence, Enhanced yet by cicadas simmering
What scene do you imagine from this? Mine is this...He would be sitting by a stream in the wood. Stream was flowing gently. He watched dark colored rocks, stream, water, trees, grateful shade. It's quite a clean and calm view. Then droning of the cicadas permeated into the rocks. This site talked about the Haiku very well. So this photo would be close to my image.

How was yours? In the same way, when I read foreign poetry, I am wondering how my image or view is different from a native's one. I know it is not a matter of correct or not correct, but I am interested in the difference.

Say Japanese in English

When we say "掘った芋いじるな; Hotta imo Ijiruna" in Japanese, wich means "don't touch a potato that you took", it sounds like "What time is it now?" in English. We call it soramimi. Today I've found an interesting site trying to do it the opposite way. It means saying Japanese words and sentences using phonetically similar English words and constructions. Actually, the site is called Hotta imo Ijiruna. too.

For example, this is a famous Haiku by Basho Matsuo.
autumn deepens
what does he do
the man next door (via AHA! POETRY)

That haiku says -Autumn season is getting deeper , then one feels so lonely that he starts wondering what the neighbor might be doing.- In original Japanese, we say
Akifukaki Tonariwa naniwo Suruhitozo: 秋深き　隣は何を　する人ぞ

According to the site "Hotta imo Ijiruna" , you can say this Japanese Haiku in English through using these words:

A key hooker key,
tunnel it wanna knee
Oh! through hit zone.
Ha ha ha yes, it sounds like very close.

Next one is one of my favorite haiku by Issa Kobayashi.
plum trees bloom
nightingales sing...
all alone (via Haiku of Kobayashi Issa)

The haiku says -Plum trees bloom, and nightingales are singing. It's spring now but I am alone.- I can imagine Issa was sitting on the big rock or bank on the road. He looked up and appreciated the beauty of a small plum, hearing the birds chirping. He sensed spring coming closer, then he realized his loneliness.
Ume sakedo Uguisu nakedo Hirotikana : 梅咲けど　鶯鳴けど　一人かな

The site says you can say it by those English sentences：
Women sack aid,
would grease knock aid,
he torrid canal.

In that way, you may sing Japanese songs by English words. Here is the song "Red dragonfly :赤とんぼ" that is very well known as a nursery rhyme. You can sing it by this.

You Yankee, call Yankee know a cut on board.
Oh wallet meter no one, it's now he come
Yammer know her talking knock what norm me on,
Call cargo need tool down were, marble on sinker.
Ha ha ha so funny. You can check it all here. I found this site when I was looking for some cultural differences. now I am reading about it. I will write it soon. Have a nice weekend!

Manga, and Japanese movie.

The great manga Death Note is being made into a movie this June. I have got new information about the cast. Here it is.
Right : Tatuya Fujii
Saya : Hikari Mashima
Misa : Erika Toda
L : Kenichi Matsuyama
Watari : Shunji Fujimura
Ray Penber : Shigeki Hosokawa
Naomi Misora : Asaka Seto
Each actor and actress is close to the original character's image. So I think they make a good cast, but still I am a little bit disappointed Hollywood are making it.

Today the chart site Oricon had a survey: "Which manga do you want Hollywood to remake?" Here is the result.
No.1 Dragon Ball (Official site): I don't need to explain any about this, I prefer Dr. Slump.
No.2 Death Note (Official site): Yes, I agree. I told you, we are traumatized by Devilman and Casshern.
No.3 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Official site): I have never read this manga, when I looked for some information, I found this funny site. They made body imitation of each cover. Yeah, weird pose.
No.4 Golgo 13 (Official site): I wrote about it in this post. After you read this manga, you might feel every incident and accident would be related to his job.
No.5 Akira (Official site): Do you remember? This cool Kaneda's bike.
Some (I may tell -many-) Japanese don't like Japanese movie, and feel hopefully they don't touch our favourite manga anymore. he he he

However some quiet drama stories are not so bad. My American friend like this movie "After life". You might know Yasujiro Ozu, people call him The quiet master. So I check recent Japanese movies.

This looks nice, Roukala Lokki (Kamome=Seagull Diner). The story is "In summer that year, a small Japanese eating-house opened on a street corner in Helsinki by the name of Kamome Diner ..." The point of the movie will be that locale is Helsinki. For many Japanese, North Europe will be so far place. It means distance and also in psychology. I don't know even a one word of Finnish, South American countries are far from Japan too, but we have an image Latin people would be breezy. But we have no idea for Finnish, actually our common image is very poor "it would be cold place". By the way, in this story a Finnish guy Tommi, a zealous fan of Japan and its way of life, asks a Japanese lady whether she knows the lyrics of the song for the Japanese animation "Gatchaman." Gatchaman is called The Battle of the Planets : G-Force. He asked the lyrics of this song. Ah I can tell you 95% of over 35 years old guys can sing this song. This is trailer.

Tadanobu Asano will be one of the most popular movie actor in Japan, he appears on two different types of movies, one is Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?, it's a kind of fantasy drama? (trailer) and the other one is Nice no Mori, it's a nonsense comedy. (trailer)

And Saishu Heiki Kanojo is another movie that originated from popular manga. It is called "Saikano" in English usually. One girl was made into the strongest weapon by the self-defense force of Japan, and she has to fight to save Japan. Here is a trailer, Saishu heiki Kanojo means "the last fatal weapon, she".