watashi to tokyo

Tanita Body Fat Monitors

Last week, I got the results from my complete physical examination, of two weeks ago. I always go in for it once a year and since I am kind of a kind of health geek, on each occasion I spent a long time to read my result.  I can tell I am a health geek because I know what my weak points are. if I am not careful, I could became sick easily.  My weak points are: 1. My thyroid function is weak. 2. My hepatic function is also weak (ALP is so low) 3.  And I ahve an abnormal cardiac rhythm. 
When I was 11 years old or so, I was very thin, but even back then I was cautioned that I should be carful or my hypothyrodism might cause diabetes.  Which is why its is easy for me to gain weight.

So going to the gym,  drinking a lot of water, and monitoring my weight have become important for me. Since I don'T have a weight scale at my apartment, I should get one. I am thinking of getting a good one from Tanita  even though they are a little expensive. Then I have this page, where a lady tested her weight and body fat  with Tanita's Japaneses version and the North American version of their scale. Of course she weighted in with both on the exact same date, however the results were so dfferent that she was puzzled. Briedly , with the North American version, she showed as having less fat than she had with the Japanese version. Since she wondered why, she asked the people at Tanita about it. Tanita's response was that since Western people and the Japanese have different body structures, especially in regards to bone and muscle density  ( the Japanese have less of course), the sclaes are seto to a different reference value.
Of course it is okay,  the points is if I weight myself on the North American scale I would soon be dissatisfired with the lack of restults.  And you do not need to to worry about that " high fat"  result on the Japanese Tanita.

A dream of riding robot volume2

I wrote about Toyota's walking robot and I think all Japanese boys dreamed of riding a robot when they were younger. :-)

Here is another big boy who made his dreams come true. This company  made it before Toyota released walking robot last month?　Look at this movie. Yes, that robot is walking.　Kakkoii!

Good site's link leads to a good site.

Today is "site walking day", I 've start with one nice site and check its link and visit one. Then again I check its link and visit the next... I like this way because I can come across many lovely sites by chance.

Today I will start with this lovely design site. If you like her designs, you can print them out and use them, there are name cards name tags  and small paper bags Cute! Then her link page is here.   From her site, I visit another lovely design site. She makes an icon and desktop tool for Mac. Cute! Since I checked out two cute sites, I would try two different type pages from her link.  One of them, this site, has a nostalgic mood with it's cut paper art, those look very new retro?!. The other is a famous flash site; I added this site to my favorites folder a long time ago, and this hotel page too. But I did not know about this page. So it was my first visit. And they have link to a Tokyo Plastic!. I introduced that site before in this post.   Anyway she links this Flash page too and it links to this game site. I introduced it before in this post.( ahhhh I have never escaped from any color room.)

Hmm this time, web walking, reached a site that I already have in my favorite folder . This is interesting.

Kowai; a Japanese horror TV show for pay channel.

Sometimes I wrote about Japanese horror movies in my blog. Actually because of hits like The Ring, and The Grudge, people in other countries are familiar with Japanese horror, and it's gloomy. wet , resentful, wet mood. :-)

There are two types of horror characters in Japan. One of them is called "YUREI". Basically they were human beings before they died, so that they have the shape of human body . They still haunt this world because of a grudge, some annoyance, a regret, or misundersting ( I am still living ). I think the English Ghost are slmost the same concept as the Yurei. Basically Yurei stories are so scary because of their realistic background story, but this Izakaya Yurei is a comedy movie, in which the Yurei appears as a main character. Taira no Masakado may be a Yurei story too.

Another type is  the Yokai. I wrote about Bake neko and Zashiki Warashi before. The Yokai are a kind of creature like those found in Japanese folklore,  Many of those stories tend to be comical.

KOWAI is a name for the yokai who appeared in the old folklore stories "絵本百物語". Natsuhiko Kyogoku rewrote one of these old stories to be featured as horror entertainment "KOWAI", and that novel has been remade into an movie for a pay channel wowow.

UEMON is one of whom it is said "Never dies and always revives" even though he is killed again and again. This time is third his beheading. In Edo, a rumor goes around. The day of Uemon's beheading, people have gathered to see him beheaded. Then....Here is the trailer.

Another Ramen mall has opened.

I heard that ramen is befoming popular in NY and they have some new shos opening up. I found his funny article in The New York Times. It seems London  has been seeing a lot of ramne shops open too. Ramen is getting popular in other countries?  I think Ramen is one of most popular foods in Japan, when weekly magazines feature special articles on ramen special, they usually sell quite well and Ramen TV show special alwayds seems to get good viewer ratings.

Shin Yokohama ramen museum is the first place where some ramen shops have gathered togethere; recently a small ramen mall was opened in Tachikawa. One advantaege to dining in these kinds of places is that you have the opprtunity to sample many varieties of ramen ( if you can eat that much), and usually a good or popular shop will join the group (one shop's reputation could affect the entire maill's popularity).  From what I could tell by looking at this site, this shoyu base soup looks nice; maybe this black one is black vinegar?   It made me laugh because he is an actor, maybe he loves ramen so much that he opened a shop (like Takeshi Kitano opened curry shop? ). Before in Tachikawa, Kyoka was the most famous ramen shop before. So now we will see which place will become the most popular.

Personally I like this Chinese type noodle shop Yoshu shonin (they are different from typical Japanese ramen) , their 酸辣湯麺 sour noodle,  is very nice really. Anyway because of blogging's popularity, many ramen manias post ramen blogs and update with daily report on today's ramen. (here is another blog). They are a good source of information should one very decide to visit. but I suppose many people just enjoy "looking at pictures of ramen". Really, Japanese love ramen that much.

The Silk Road, it's romantic story.

The Silk Road is the ancient trade route passing from the shores of the Mediiterranean through Bukhara and Samamrkand to Dunhuang and on to Zian in central China. In the 1980s, NHK had TV program special show  called "the Silkroad", and as a result suddenly the Silk Road became a big boom. Poeple went to the Silk Road tour, this exotic mood song Ihoujin became a big hit. Some TV commercials and films used the  scenes froom the Silk Road.

25 years have passed since then. This year NHK has begun showing the Silk Road 2. Three programs Loulan. Turpan. Yining have already aired. I loved watcing it. Why is the Silk Road si orivicatuve? Of course  the fact that it played sucn an important part in Asis's history and the exotic nature of that time period might lend something to that.  Thinking of nature's severity in the Takla Makan Desert, Tian Shan, it was really amazing that people could travle such a great distance even today much less in the ox and sandal days of 2nd century BC.

But more than that,  the Japanese love to read this old Chinese story "Journey to the west". People are familier with it because of books, and an animation by Osamu Tezuka, and not to mention a very popular TV drama Monky (which aired in the UK and Australia too).  Of course Japan has a lot of influence, which originated from those Silk Road days. In Shosoin, there is an old 5 strings lute (biwa), which is  a national treasure. It is the only 5-stringed Lute in the world.  The lute came from Centeral Asia during the 4th century via the Silk Road. Normaly China and Japan use 4-stringed lutes even now.  So where did that 5-stringed lute come from?  There is a small oasis city Kucha, in Xinjiang Uyghurs Autonomous Region. In Kucha, there is Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves. This Buddha in a cave painting is depicted with a 5-stringed lute. This means that perhaps in the 6th century or so, that 5-stringed lute made it's way to Japan via a lengthy excursion along the Silk Road.  That was 1500 years ago!! Hmm romantic.  The feelings evoked by lute and the Silk Road are so romantic and people have always ben drawn to that, like this.

A royal dog in Tokyo. Hachiko

In front of Shibuya station, you may find a bronze of Akita dog. The dog's name is Hachi. Everybody call him Hachiko. "In front of Hachiko" is one of popular meeting points in Tokyo. Hachiko was a real dog who lived in Tokyo who faithfully waited for his owner there long after his owner had died. An American woman wrote about this story and published in the U.S. as a loyal dog story for children. I was surprised to accidentally find the book on Amazon, And it made me very happy to read some of the reader's comments. 

I will tell about Hachiko today. Hachi was born in Akita pref. in 1923. Because of his bent ears, people sometimes get wrong impression that he was a mixed dog, but he was a purebred Akita dog. His owner was a professor of Tokyo university. His house was big and located around area where Tokyu department store is now. He already had a pointer dog named John and another dog S when Hachi came to live his house. John, S and Hachi went to Shibuya station  eveyday to see their owner off in the morning and were there every evening meet him. It seemed the happiest days for dogs. Unfortunately the owner died one year later and his wife and dogs had to leave home to make ends meet. The dogs were taked to different homes with different owners. Mr. Saito who was a member of the Japanese dog Preservation Association, saw Hachiko sometimes and he remembered him as a faithful dog. By the time he discovered poor Hachiko in Shibuya Station, he was already sad shape, dirty pitiful but still waiting for his ex owner. Mr.Saito detailed Hachiko's plight in the newspaper and suddenly Hachiko had became a famous dog in Japan. While he was still alive, his statue was erected and his story was told in primary school textbook.

Ha ha Hachiko's tale itself was a pretty good, loyal dog story. But some people's reaction to Hachiko seems a little bit over-the-top actually. Anyway like I wrote in eddoko topic, my grand mom met Hachiko in her school days. Yeah, she said it was a dirty dog. :-). First Hachiko statue was melted once during ww2 to make armaments. The 2nd Hachiko in Shibuya station was recast again after ww2. Ah you can meet real Hachiko in the National Science museum with another famous dog Taro and Jiro.

Gimmicky toy 2

I used to love funny, gimmicky toy when I was a School girl. I remember my pencil case more than big enough because of its useless ornament. This site introduces many strange pens and other desktop items. (Sorry, only Japanese). He said this Farrah Fawcett head pen came from NY. Hmm grotesque. I love this nose sharpener. This lip type is good too. Those could be good jokes, humorous! However how about  this? And this? They are not good jokes.

Of course you know,  I like use nicely designs ( cutter,  and eraser with many corner ) desktop tools. By the way, it is rare to use a pen or pencil now because of the PC. It was hard to find gimmicky items for PC before; recently I find some on online shops. This is a UBS memory stick. I prefer this fried shrimp type.

Foreigner's Statues in Tokyo

Statues tell us of someone's great achievement, and show our deep appreciation for him/her. I think looking into famous foreign people in Tokyo will be interesting. You know, it can show some history and relationships of Japan to other countries.

Did you know that for two centuries until 1854, Japanese ports were closed to all but a few Dutch and Chinese traders? It meant we almost closed our country, and it was only 150 years ago that Japan started to communicate with the world. I suppose it is not so easy to find statues commemorating Japanese in other countries. Well, maybe I can find the status of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi somewhere. He was a bacteriologist who worked on the cure for yellow fever in the early 1900's. He died in Africa because of yellow fever while working on his research.
Okay, then! How about foreigners' statues in this modern Tokyo?
Here are two great sites. Chokokoku Tengoku, and Dozou Gallary. Thank you!!

Statues of Foreigners in Tokyo.
There might be statues I don't know, of course. These are the results of my research!

The United States of America. 5 statues
Matthew Calbraith Perry(1794-1858) -----Minato Ward/ Shiba Park
Commodore Perry negotiated tirelessly for several months with Japanese officials to achieve
the goal of opening the doors of trade with Japan. Because of his visit, Japan opened the country after about two centuries of isolation.
Edward Sylvester Morse(1838-1925)-----Shinagawa Ward/ Omori Shell Mound Garden
He excavated in Omori Shell Mound. which was the first modern systematic archaeological
exploration in Japan. He published a few books about Japan, I like his "Japan Day by Day"(1970)
Dr.James Curtis Hepburn(1815-1911) -----Minato Ward /Miji Gakuin Univ.
His work included the translation of the Bible into Japanese, the compilation of
the Japanese-English dictionary and dissemination of Western medical science.
Douglas A. MacArthur (1880-1964) -----Hachioji City/ Unryu Temple
General Douglas MacArthur was the Supreme Commander of Occupied Japan.
United Kingdom of England 3 statues
Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823) -----Taito Ward/ Ueno National Museum
He dedicated himself to the discovery of vaccinations, and was the pioneer of anti-smallpox treatment, which eventually led to global eradication of the disease.
Josiah Conder(1789-1855) -----Bunkyo Ward/ Tokyo Univ.
A British architect, urban planner, and teacher who had come to Japan in 1877 to serve as a professor of architecture. His representetive architect in Japan is ROKUMEIKAN.
John Wesley (1703-1791) -----Shibuya Ward /Aoyama Gakuin Univ. (This is my college!)
He was a renowned preacher and spiritual leader of the 'Methodist revival.'

Germany 3 statues
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) -----Taito Ward/ Tokyo Art Univ / Shinagawa Ward/ Nihon Ongaku Gakko
I don't need to explain about him, yes, he is a symbol of "music" here in Japan, too. There are two of his statues in Tokyo.
Siebold (1796-1866) -----Chuo Ward /Akatsuki Park
Siebold introduced Western medicine to Japan and contributed enormously to the modernization of the country. He was in fact one of the first Europeans to study Japan in depth and to promote knowledge about the country overseas.

Greek 2 statues
Hippocrates(BC 450?) -----Bunkyo Ward/ Tokyo Univ.
Hippocrates, the father of medicine. "I swear by Apollo the physician, by Aesculapius, Hygeia and Panacea, and... " This is the famous "Hippocratic Oath"
Prometheus (BC ) -----Minato Ward/ Nippon Oil Corporation
One of the gods of Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to people.

France 2 statues
Honore de Balzac(1799-1850) -----Taito Ward/ Tokyo Art Univ.
He is said to be the greatest of French novelists.
Josep Flaujac(1886-1959) -----Nakano Ward/ Jiseikai Hospital

Sri Lanka
Junius Richard Jayewardene -----Hachioji City/ Unryu Temple
The first prime minister of Sri Lanka.

Austria
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart(1756-1791) -----Katushika Ward /Symphonies Hills

Holland
Baudouin(1822-1885) -----Taito Ward　Ueno Oncho Park
He suggested the making of Ueno Oncho Park to the Japanese government

China
Confucius (BC 551?) -----Musashino City/ Inokashira Park
The eminent Chinese philosopher.

Phillipines
Jose I Rizal (1861-1896) -----Chiyoada Ward/Hibiya Park
The Philippines' most beloved poet and nationalist.

South America
Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) -----Shinagawa Ward/Columbia embassy
The great liberator who made South America independent.

Taiwan
Chiang Kai-shek (1887- 1975) -----Hachioji

Outside of Tokyo, I suppose St. Francis Xavier(1506-1552, Spain) has some statues in Japan. In 1549, He introduced Christianity into Japan and set up the first Christian mission in the country. His statue is in Nagasaki.
Well, for the people of other countries, some of them will be not so popular. That is the interesting part of this.
Ah if you have some Japanese statues in your country, please let me know.

A popular souvenir in Tokyo Station

I wrote about my idea for Tokyo souvenirs. Last week, I found a popular souvenir ranking in JR Tokyo station. Here is the ranking.

No.1 Tokyo Banana
Since it is a sponge and cream cake, I think foreign people will like them too.
No.2 Imoyokan of Funawa
Imo Yokan (sweet jelly made from beans and sweet potato) it is a classy natural sweet.
No.3 Tokyo Tamago
This is a kind of cake, inside is sweet sesame paste and the cake is coated with white chocolate.
No.4 Tokyo Hiyoko
A baby chick shaped cake. Many people think this is a Tokyo special, but basically this came from Kyushu. Here is a good page which talks about Kyushu Sweets in English.
No.5 Minnano Ichigo

Then here is rest of the best10.
No.6 Tokyo Busse tsubutsbu Ichigo
No.7 Tokiwado Ningyo Yaki
No.8 Ginza French pie
No.9 Soka senbei
No.10 Nure Amanatto
Yes, all are sweets. We think sweets are the best souvenir of domestic trips. They are easy to find, reasonable, and light weight, Basically people like to eat sweets, and they disappear quickly.