watashi to tokyo

Location in Japan

I don't know who decided it, but we have NIHON 100 kei(JP) (=100 great beautiful sights to see). Then most of them are designated as national parks. But there are more unknown great places, this magazine Location of Japan(JP) introduces those places. Great nature(JP), season special(JP), area special(JP).　An especially interesting part of this magazine is that they have an English edition, then they introduce good shooting locations for TV, movies, etc,. Actually a Korean movie company changed the shooting place from China to Japan because of their information they say.

Regarding locations, I do not have an interesting one though; some people seem to have interesting locations in exactly the place we can see in the movies, TV dramas, and TV commercials. This is the one such site, and he said this place place is on this Cold medicione TV commercial in which Miki Mizuno appears. This is the energy conservation promotion by our government, in which Yukie Nakama appears. It was shot at this place in Shinjuku.

KIMI WA PET. It was a comic-book love story originally. A very successful career woman have to live with a younger very poor dancer in her home, so she sets the condition that he is just a PET for her...Of course in the end, they fall for each other. I did not watch it, but in the drama, Koyuki (The Last Samurai) and Jun Matsumoto played the woman and her PET. Koyuki was working in my job office ah you can see it a little bit:-). The day before the drama shooting we needed to clean up our desk.

Chuo line, its long straight railway is...

This morning, when I was almost going out to my job. I heard the huge horn and noise of a train. My apartment is next to a train station, so that it has good sound insulation. Actually I have never heard such a big noise. I looked out the window, and then I found a car crushed at the crossing place. Since all trains had to stop, I could not go to my job :-]. So I watched and took pics and sent them to my parents(to say look!) and co-workers(to say I will be late!). It was a sort of live coverage, until the trains could start running again after two hours.

That was a car accident; I saw the driver was alive fortunately. But we have such train delays so often because of suicide. I must say during this long recession. The number of train suicides has increased. Especially the Chuo line of JR EAST It has a lot of suicides, it was said that in 2003 they had 48 accidents resulting in injury or death, then many of them seemed to be suicide.

So why is Chuo line the only one to have so much trouble? The biggest reason is they have a long straight railway(pdf). It is around 24km (about 13miles?) Someone said it is the longest straight one in Japan, but I have heard the longest one is in Hokkaido (29km). So maybe Chuo line is No2 in Japan.  In such way  trains especially the express trains make good speed. (Nobody wants to throw oneself in front of a slow train!!), this would be a factor. Then I suppose it is like this: he is thinking about it. He is unsure whether he should do it or not... So it is really hard to make up his mind if the time is short after the train appears in sight. But in this Chuo line, he can see the train in far away then, when it is getting closer and closer...enough time to gather up his useless courage? :-(

Recently group suicide is getting to be a serious problem in Japan, People who have suicidal wishes might get their death buddy on Internet sites. One day all the strangers gather at the set place and commit suicide together. Since it is winter, they try monoxide poisoning by using artificial coal inside a car.

Healing music CD made big sales

Today I got an order from my boss to make a contents plan for healing music. Four years ago, we had a big healing music boom in Japan. This album feel sold really well. Then after this success, many many healing compilation CD were released. feel series by Toshiba EMI made the best seller list. And image series by Sony music entertainment was next.

They said that the reason why they made such a big hit was that the time was right for it (as if we don´t need it now too). Most of all though, they made good choices of music. Actually I had an image: that healing music would be boring to listen to. And that some people would feel uneasy to pick this type of CD because of the new age, meditation, spirituality kind of image it is associated with. But all the sounds in "feel" are picked from sound tracks of TV programs, movies, and TV commercials. All we had ever heard were artists and sounds somehow.

For example, in feel 1, they pick this, by Karl Jenkins project Adiemus, the music was a theme of documentary program NHK Special "Seiki wo Koete" of NHK. I like Kamigami no uta by HIMEKAMI, they are a sort of Japanese folklore music, if you have interesting to them, you can listen shortly all music of them here, and Wong Wing Tsam  this is nice too.  In image 1, they pick more popular music, New cinema paradise,  Rose from Titanic, and Paris is burning? by  Takashi Kako.  this is the theme of NHK docmentary TV roo. Actually NHK has good sense for sound track I think.  Ah unfortunately HIMEKAMI died this year. That was sad news.

Bonenkai, it is year end party

Bonenkai season has come. Bonenkai means a "forget-the-year party" directly. Basically it has the meaning to forget the unpleasant memories of the passing year and to prepare oneself to welcome the new year. It is usually held around mid or late December among office colleagues or business acquaintances. So in fact bonenkai tends to be a year-end drinking party free of charge because the companies pay for it.

First of all, we decide on an organizer. At my job, it is the youngest guy every year. Then he picks the best day and confirms the number in attendance. ( but normally it is a sort of duty, Bonenkai at work is a sort of JOB). Then he will choose the party place and make reservations. This is the hardest part because the good places can fill up much earlier and if he chooses a poor place everybody complains :-), but of course the budget is limited.

On the other hand, izakaya tried to set good party menu and get many reservations. For example, Eating and drinking in Tokyo is a n English restaurant search site. And Grouomet Navi has a page "2004 Climax" which is bonenkai special pages.

Large scale histrical Cledds Drama

In Sunday night at 8pm. NHK (National channel, no commercial) will broadcasts its large scale historical Cledds Drama, it is called "Taiga Drama", it means "great river" as in the river of time. NHK's "taiga drama" is a cultural institution, a yearlong serial about an important figure in Japanese history. They have made them since 1963, so around 40 titles they have aired already. Since Japanese like Nobunaga Oda ( a sort of charismatic Shogun), and Hideyoshi Toyotomi ( he got to be Shogun from a poor farmer, big success story ). I suppose their stories were bound to be made into dramas sometimes. The good actors tend to play the main characters in Taiga, for example, Koji Yakusho of "Shall we dance" played Nobunaga Oda, Ken Watanabe played "Masamune Date" in 独眼竜正宗.(one eye Dragon, Masamune)

This year's Taiga is Shinsengumi. Shingo Katori of SMAP plays the leader of Shinsengumi-Isami Kondo. But since Taiga is a sort of a national drama for all Japanese, there was criticism "Why SMAP"?　But I do not think this is a case of miscasting, actually both have a big mouth. (Isami Kondo is said to have been able to swallow his fist) Vice Leader of Shinsengumi Toshizo Hijikata was a handsome guy, so many women still visit his grave still now. Kouji Yamamoto acts as him. Hmm this is nice casting too.

Basically I cannot introduce Shingo Katori's photo, because of this reason, But I have found the site which show ALL the cast members. I 'll be able to introduce the SITE here. Thank you.

Eki-ben - Japanese Train meal

When I try to think of an unique Japanese experience for tourists in Japan I recall, "what about travelling by train with an eki-ben!?". Japan is a very small country and if you rolled her into a ball, you could sink her in the Great Lakes of North America! So, since Japan is a small compact island, I recommend you use train travel to get around and see the great cultural attractions of Japan. From Tokyo to Osaka, it takes less than 3 hours by the Superexpress Nozomi train, part of the Shinkansen - the bullet train. The train flies like a flash to your destination and it is the best way to take in the sites, like MT. Fuji and the beautiful countryside, so, so much different from the urban sprawl of Tokyo.

KOBE in Kobe !!??
A popular way to eat while on the train is to have what is commonly called an "eki-ben" (eki= train station, ben= short for obento, or lunch box) . Since Japan has a long history of travel by train, nobody knows how many kinds of eki-ben we been developed in Japan! There are several types of regional eki-bens all over Japan, each make full use of the region's food specialities and unique package too. For example, the Kobe beef bento is　in Kobe. This beef is very famous worldwide and is also the source of Kobe Bryant's first name!  Please check my photo album! "A Delicious Selection of EkiBen"

Are department stores better than stations to buy Eki-ben?
You can't buy eki-ben anywhere except at train stations in various regions. BUT department stores and big supermarkets hold "eki-ben fairs" sometimes as special events. They are always a great success!
As a matter of fact, they say ikameshi bento at Mori Station in Hokkaido is the best eki-ben sold in Japan! Yearly, they sell over 90% of their 800,000 packages at eki-ben fairs. It is 'DEPA-ben' instead of EKI-ben? Isn't it? Where Depa is part of the word 'depato' which means department store in Japanese. Okay, I would like to introduce some of the most popular and famous eki-bens in Japan.

Hokkaido region 
Ikameshi bento (Hokkaido Hakodate city Special) at 470 Yen, about $4.50 US, at the Mori Station on the Hakodate Honsen Rail line. Made with glutinous rice and squid and cooked in a sweetened soy sauce

Tohoku Region
Hanagasa kokeshi bento (Yamagat prefecture Special), at 900 Yen, about $8.30 US, at the Yamagata station on the Ou Honsen Rail line. The bento container is in the shape of a kokeshi head (a Japanese wooden doll). A carefully arranged bento that includes a large prawn with shell, scallops, a chestnut, a shiitake mushroom, burdock and edible mountain plants on top of rice.

Kanto Region
Toge no kamameshi bento (Tochigi Mashiko city Special), at 900 Yen, about $8.30 US, at the Yokokawa station on the Shinetsu Honsen Rail line. This eki-ben has tea rice in a Mashiko-ware (well-known folkcraft ware) pottery bowl. Chicken, bamboo shoots, shaved burdock, a shiitake mushroom, a chestnut, an apricot, a quail egg, red pickled ginger and green peas over rice. The lid is made from pottery.　Since pottery bowl is pretty, it is very hard to throw it away after eating, however hardly we use it for something :-)

Hokuriku Region
Masu no sushi bento (Toyama city Special), at 1,100 Yen, about $10.20 US, at the Toyama station on the Hokuriku Honsen Rail line. Pink trout is spread on Koshihikari sushi rice made in Toyama, then tightly-pressed and wrapped in bamboo leafs all enclosed in a round container. Toyama has high mountain, it means their water is very clean and tasty. In those place rice, sushi are so delicios too.

Chubu Region
Matsusaka-gyuu Mootaro bento (Mie Matsusaka city Special ), at 1,260 Yen, about $11.70 US, at the Matsuzaka station on the Kise Honsen Rail line. This is a really high-tech bento. When you lift off the cow faced lid ,off the container, the melody of Furusato is heard (a nostalgic song that everyone knows in Japan, meaning hometown), Sukiyaki flavoured Matsusaka-beef (a grade beef, well-known like Kobe-beef) is placed on top rice.

Kansai Region
Kobe Gyumeshi bento (Hyogo Kobe city Special ), at 1,000 Yen, about $9.30 US, at the Kobe station on the Tokaido Honsen Rail line. As you probably have already guessed, this bento contains Kobe-beef sukiyak.

Chugoku-Sanin Region
Seto no kaki-meshi bento (Hiroshima Hiroshima city Special ), at 1,000 Yen, about $9.30 US at the Hiroshima station on the Sanin Honsen Rail line. Delicious boiled oysters flavoured in soy sauce on top of an additional oyster and rice fusion.

Shikoku Region
Konpira mairi bento (Kagawa Takamatsu city Special ), at 1,050 Yen, about $9.90 US at the Takamatsu station on the Yosan Rail line. A ceramic container containing a miniature Konpira Shrine warship is used for this eki-ben. Teriyaki sea bream and teriyaki conger eel are layered on top of a sea bream rice mixture.

Kyushu Region
Kurimeshi bento, at 892 Yen, about $8.20 US, at Hitoyoshi station on the Hisatsu Rail line. Shredded daikon radish is spread on a bed of soy sauce rice in a red chestnut shape container. Edible mountain plants, several sweetened chestnuts and veggies cooked in broth make up this bento.

Special Thanks for this great ekiben sites
Wicket To Ekiben(JP),　kishatabi ha tanoshiku(JP).
This is a nice Ekiben Blog (JP)　and you can see various package Ekiben here.

K-1 and PRIDE

I would have been back home earlier, but I could not stop watching K1 on the step machine at the gym again. They say, "Karate, Kickboxing, Tae kwon do and Kung fu are among the martial arts upon which K-1 is founded". I think they do really fight. Another fight I like to watch is PRIDE. They say "The top fighters from different combative sports: Wrestling, Karate, Judo, Kickboxing, and others ・all fighting in one ring under the same rules.". I really hate pro-wrestling, because it looks like just some crazy entertainment show. But this K-1 and PRIDE seem to be somewhat different. I cannot tell if this is a real fight or not, but at least for me they seem to really fight.

On New Years Eve, K-1 and PRIDE will have a big event and it will air on Network on TV. K-1's event is K-1 Premium 2004 Dynamite!. Real Yokozuna AKEBONO will fight with Royce Gracie. I must tell you AKEBONO will lose again. Actually he has not won even a once, so some Sumo fans have asked him to please quite as if he might ruin his career.  The sad part is that Mike Bernardo will have fight with Bobby Ologun. He has just started learning martial arts this year. Basically he is just a funny foreigner who appears in the comedy TV program SANMA NO KARAKURI TV, he challenges many kind of stuff in Japan on the show. Then this K-1 is one of them. Of course he had a long training period, without it he would be die or injured soon. But the match makes this time K-1 seem miserableI agree with this article so much. On the other hand. the PRIDE eventlooks much better.

Anyway I will have to change the channel so often, it will be a busy night. Last year, we had THREE fight events on New Years Eve. Strange? Yes, mixed martial arts matches are still quite popular in Japan these days. (But the peak is over though ) Last year my co-worker had to record two more videos to see all the events. He was pleased and cried for so many events on the same day, at the same time.

Tonight's k-1 champion was Remy Remy Bonjyasky. He is not so big, but he has a lithe body, a sharp kick and stamina. But my favorite fighters are Yoshida and Herring of PRIDE. Ahhh anyway I am tired.

What was big in Japan in 2004

I wrote What is big in TOKYO in first half of 2004. Then in Every year end,SMBC consulting releases a list "the BIG products in this year". Their ranking way is unique because they makes it as Sumo Banzuke (ranking). Basically there is East side and West side, In each side has Yokozuna(champion), Ozaki(No.2), Sekiwake(No3) in such way,

No.1: (e)Winter Sonata, (w) blank
Ah! what a timing, I wrote about Winder Sonata yesterday, then this morning I saw a middle age woman who has Yong sama Bad and Yong sama scarf. ahhh SMBC makes west Yokozuna Blank, they fit to real Sumo Banzuke or they could not find such big competitive to Winter Sonata. I don't know.

No.2:(e)Sekachu (w)Athens Olympic
Hmm I wrote about both. Sekachu was ranked in first half of 2004 ranking too, then Athens! Of course I am glad Japan got a lot of medals most of all, but olympic memory started that horrible uniform..

No.3: (e)Sharp Aquos, (w)ipod
Both have nice TV commercial, I thought ipod TV commercial would be common in the world. But I heard this Sazae san version aired in the U.S. Is this true? (I don't think so) I don't think American people understand what this means. This is exactly THAT Sazae san Opening animation. Aquos commercial introduce excellent house in the world. For example one of them is this designed by future system. This means every fine scene Aquos can fit. Actually Aquos has custom made service with various materials.

No.4: (e)Ichiro, (w)Iemon
I wrote them too. Both are name of person. Ichiro is major league baseball player, Iemon is Japanese green tea.

No.5: (e)beveled laundry machine, (w)FOMA 900i
I need this laundry!! GIVE ME. Then FOMA900i is my cell, I enjoyed to play FinalFantasy 1 and Dragon Quest actually.

No.6: (e)Habanero, (w) Potato Shochu
I said I would try Habanero, but I have not yet. My friends love to drink Shochu, sooner or later I will write about Shochu and Nihon shu. But basically I am Whisky and GIN woman. So I can not tell about taste and recommend good one.:-(

No.7: (e)coenzim Q10, (w) Toyota Crown new model
I take Q10 everyday, I got them from Canada. Crown is the most expensive model in Toyota Japan.

No.8: (e)Net Auction, (w)Black beans coco
. Black vinegar I use very often Yahoo auction. This year Black colored food (ram) was boom in Japan, because they are rich Poliphenole.

No.9: (e)Happoshu Draft one, (w)Making Nice leg pants
Since I can not tell the different of taste between beer and Happoshu, actually who drink beer?? I think. Regarding pants, I bought this last month. HOWEVER the reality is not sweets always.

No.10: (e)Yokohama China Town, (w)Rakuten Eagles
Yokohama China town was topic because we can get ther much easier by Minato Mirai Line. Rakuten is big net shop. Old industry had to leave professional baseball owner than some IT company have join as new face. This was big news in this off season.

Anyway while I am making today's post, I came across this. Ahhhh he did it.

Who is Yong Sama?!

If you checked some Japanese news sites, you would know Korean actor Bae Yong Joon is a big boom in Japan now. I wrote about him before,  I thought the boom hadd peaked at that time, but it has not ended even now. A few days ago, he came to Japan for this portrait exhibition in Roppongi hills.  Over 3000 Japanese women went to Narata Airport to see him, and at Roppongi Hills, Japanese women were CRYing to see his photo.
In Japan we can see him in commercial of Sony Cybershot, Lotte sweets, au mobile phone.

How could he capture the hearts of so many Japanese women? I heard it is a topic discussed in Korea too.  Actually now Japan is a big market for Korean Show biz.  Since I did not see Winter Sonata or his other drama, I cannot say exactly what, But like I said before, he is a perfect match as a LOVE target to over 30s Japanese women. Recently Japanese pop culture has been too young/childish I feel.  Then we are getting bored of seeing SMAP on everything.  So Bae Young Joon's clean image, an adult image, and an orthodox LOVE story is very comfortable for them.  At that point, I understand very well how he could be popular in this country at this timing. Well I think he is handsome actually...But that drama is such..... Since I am afraid to make anger some avid fan, today I will not make any ironic comments, hai.  But at least I can tell this clearly, Japan has shown that we can be very open to Sounth Korean culture and appriciate and enjoy them without being nervous politic topic.

Anyway Regarding Bae Young Joon, I have another type of issue at my job. It is the theme song for Winter Sonata.  Since a certain group insisted to have copy right of the theme song. We had to delete the theme and several Korean songs from our ring tone site.  On the other hand, this raise a new question about the credibility of plagiarism for this song.  Okay, You can listen to the theme song of Winter Sonata "From the beginning till now" here, good site.  Then this is the Japanese old song AI HA KAGEROU (MIDI) which was released in 1980.  Hmm what do you think?

A icon of Japanese self-deprecating humor

After ww2, in 50s, 60s Japan longed for the western world, especially the U.S. Actually I suppose the TV show "Bewitched"; had influenced the Japanese' image of Life in the U.S. So mannequins in the department stores had this type body and face.. Of course they sold Japanese size clothes to Japanese. Maybe until the middle 70s we could see those types of mannequins in the store. Now it is very hard to find them. Then I think those mannequins got to be a sort of icon/symbol of our self-deprecating humor. You know we laugh at ourselves "Japan longed for the western world very much". "This is our image for the Stereotype of western people"... such feelings.

A visual artist Yoshimasa Ishibashi used them for his visual work; an all mannequins film "Oh Mikey". It was aired after midnight, and got to be popular because of its cynical humor. Hmm I have to tell you that TV show has our self-deprecating humor + irony for the U.S. society. Ishibashi's work always has such poison, if you have an interest, I recommend checking out his Vermillion preasure night.

Anyway Sony Playstation2 will release a game "TOKYO SURPRISE". Their site has no details yet, but as far as I could tell from the info, it will be a roll playing game of people in Tokyo, some are Japanese, a few are foreigners. A setting of each person is an exaggeration of our image for the stereotype. For example, Edgar comes from the UK; he was born on Baker St. He loves Sherlock Holmes very much; He痴 often late to his job, every time he makes an excuse why his alarm has suddenly disappeared. Jean Jack comes from France, he loves Japanese Samurai movies, he has a legend about seeing 28 samurai movies without eating, or sleeping. Regarding the Japanese characters, there is IT girl who adheres to her custom PC. A MTB boy goes everywhere by his MTB, but he has no sense for directions. Oh do you remember we have the "er" rule for addicted people? In that way, there are cafers, martial artsers, Japananimatioers etc etc. Are they unique? Or are they just stereotypes after all, which can we categorize? Those old mannequins (they made a surprise version though) are used effectively as a sort of irony.

In commemoration of the release of this TOKYO SURPRISE, those surprise face mannequins appeares in some shopping buildings in the center of Tokyo. They say they will appear in Ropponigi Hills and Marunouchi Building etc,. If you were in Tokyo, you could meet him (weird....) somewhere.