watashi to tokyo

The "metabolism" was city design concept

I walked round the Yamanote line again yesterday, since it is mid summer, it was all night walking. Tokyo is a sleepless city, we easily find 24 hour cafes, restaurants, clubs, convenience stores, internet cafes, supermarkets. This time it took 11 hours, I will talk about it later.

The "metabolism" was a city design concept proposed by Kisho Kurokawa, Noboru Kawazoe, Kiyokuni Kikutake and some other architects. As it's name suggests, the concept was that a city and it's architecture should not be closed space, they should be organisms with breeding-replacement-splitting and breakup.

A representitive building is this Nakagin Capsule Tower Building which was built in 1972 byKisho Kurokawa. You can see this near Shinbashi Station. That reminds me of Astroboy or Space Odyessy. The future life we dreamed long long time ago, which is convenient, but also restricted life. Actually each units has only 2.3m X 3.8m X 2.1m space, with a TV, refrigerator, AC and small closet. That's all. There is no place for washing machine or new audio, visual stuff, etc,. Everybody said this can't be fit for living. But a guy who use the Nakagin Apartment as his office says, "I have to have leaking of rain, many inconvenient part, but I still love this because I can sense architects has sprits to ask values of city, space, human life to the society." There are a few architects having metabolism like this, and this.

Original titles, Japanese titles of movies

When Hollywood movies or other foreign movies are released in Japan, sometimes they change the title for the Japanese audience. Maybe to make it easy to understand? Catchy? To make it more effective to Japanese? But those changes ruin the mood of the original movie. Sometimes it makes me laugh or sigh. I will introduce foreign movie titles in Japan. Many movies I picked from this top 250 of IMDB

Case1. No change, original English title.
If the original English title is world-famous, or easy enough to say or sounds nice to Japanese, they do not change the title.
Godfather
Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
Matrix
Schindler's list

Case2. Direct translation.
Titles are translated into Japanese directly, but the meaning of the original title is not adapted. My impression is that there are not many of this type.
The Graduate : 卒業
Singin' in the rain  :雨に歌えば
12 Angry Men  :12人の怒れる男
Clockwork Orange  : 時計じかけのオレンジ / in Japanese this title sounds very cool too!!
The Silence of the Lambs : 羊たちの沈黙

Case3. French, Italian, German, Spanish, etc,.
These languages are hard for Japanese to understand, so basically they are translated into Japanese or easy English. But just a simple word or name can be used without changing it entirely, like Ameri, La man, Ponett.
French / A Bout de souffle  : The Hell with it. (blue means Japanese title)
Italy / I Girasoli : Sunflower
German / Der Himmel Uber Berlin  : Berlin, the song of an Angel
Spanish / Como Agua Para Chocolate  : A legend of Red Rose sauce

Case4. "LOVE" titles A funny story:
If Officer and a Gentleman were relased in Japan with its original title, it would not be such big hit in Japan, they say. So after this movie's success, so many movies had to be changed into "Love ****"

An Officer and A Gentleman : A departure of Love and youngdays
Gorillas In The Mist　The　Adventures Of Dian Fossi : Love is far away in fog
Out Of Africa :  After love and sorrow
Terms of Endearment  : Days of Love and Memory / Even this Oscar-winning movie had its title changed; however, I have to admit, this original title is difficult for Japanese.
The Turning Point : Days of Love and Applause / The bad part is since Shirley Maclane appears, this movie's title was changed in the same "Love"way. So although those two have no connection, they sound like first and second parts.

Case5. NY and Manhattan titles
New York and Manhattan can be catchy for Japanese. So they change the title with those words. Hmm for me this stereotyical title makes me lose interest.
The Secret Of My Success  : Manhattan is wonderful
Coming to America  : Prince Star goes to NY
Legal Eagles : Manhattan in night fog
Batteries not included  : A Miracle on NY 8th street
Ghost  : Ghost a Phantasm of NY

Case6. Devil titles.
To make horror movies catchy and impressive, many horror movies have their titles changed to include "devil." Personally I will not watch the movie if it has "devil" in the title.
Flesh for Frankenstein  : Bowels of the devil
It Lives Again : Devils's baby
The Smityville Horror  : The Devil's house / I think Meeno was in the TV drama Bears!  I was wacthing it when I was kid.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre : Sacrifice for devils
The Toxic Avenger  : Devils's Poisonous Monster

Case7. Exaggerate it.
Thinking of movie promotion, I cannot complain about those changes. Actually, I must agree that some changse make the title impressive. It may sound strange, but a title like "Rocky 4" cannot reveal anything to a non-Rocky fan (like me).
Colors : Colors: A town angels left behind
Exodus : The runaway to the victory
Evil Dead : Bowels of the Departed
The Wraith : Execution rider
Rocky4 : Rocky4, Flame of Fellowship

Case8. Make it more understandable.
Original title cannot make sense or may be hard to understand for Japanese.
A Fish Called WANDA : Wanda & Diamond & Good Fellows
11 Harrow House : Fashionable Burglary
Parenthood : The Backman
Bull Durham : Goodbye Game
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid : Shoot toward tomorrow
We did not know the names until this movies come; if their name is more easy or more popular, the title may not be changed. For example, John and Mary was not changed.

Case9. Attach an actor's name.
Movies from before an actor got big, or movies without expensive ad campaigns change their title to include the main actor's name (if he is famous enough by that time.)
All the right moves : Tom Cruise's Beyond the Victory
The Light At the Edge of the world : Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner's The adventure in the far place of the world
Happy New Year : Peter Folk's loving master thief
Missing In Action : Chak Norris' Hero in Hell
Monsieur Verdoux : Chaplin's Homicidal Mania Days

Case10.Good changes
This is my selection of good changes. Basically I think not changing is best. However, there are still good titles. I have to admit that the following were good jobs. They makes movie's title more impressive and chaty for Japanese.
Against All Odds : A hot night in the Caribbean
Don't look Now : Red shadow / I like this movie!
Body Heat : Woman in a White Dress
As good as it gets :  The Romance Writer
Dog Day Afternoon : Wolves' Afternoon

Case11. Bad changes
Not just B movies, but some normal movies' titles had to be changed to something stupid.
Jerry Maguire :  The Agent / The Agent itself as a name is okay. But the pronunciation of "the" had to be changed to fit the pronunciation, so we get a Japanese pronunciation of the words "The Agent," instead of a translation. So this title had to be an impossible Japanese/English one.
Dirty Laundry :  Dirty Laundry, Bad guys, Wash more / Wash more!? I do not lie at all. This is the Japanese title.
Behold a pale horse :  Kill a mouse on Sunday / Make no sense right?
Double Cross : Biting Woman/  I dont know why they gave such a title to this movie.
Army of Darkness : Captain's Supermarket

Ah Weird food..orz!

Everyday it is hot. I am a little bit tired because of summer weariness. On such a day, should I eat eel or sticky food?. Yes I will try. But if you are interested, you can try turtle dish too. We say Suppon is stamina food. It's meat is a gelatinous texture with rich collagen and it's blood is not so bad with wine. My friend tried this a few weeks ago, she said it was not problem, however she could not feel it worked for her summer exhaustion. Well if I pay 15000yen for dish, I would rather choose sushi or kaiseki.

What? Yuck?! But I must tell you, some weird food are said to be "stamina food", to "work for your body's energy". I wrote about some "Odd and Rare food in Japan" in my theme area. But if you want, you can try "stronger version".

In Shinjuku, there is a shop called "Asadachi". Ahem it means "morning hard-ons". Here is the site reporting the place. First photo is of pig balls. (Stars under picture means 1. visual impact, 2. unpredictable quality of taste, 3. how delicious.) Next photo is acorn shell, in Japan we call this "Fujitsubo" because of shape. Hmm it is delicious? Third one is "Kame no te", directly it means turtle hand, but it is a kind of actiniaria in fact. Ah ah the fourth pic is out of focus on purpose. Sorry if you don't like that! By the way of course it is frog. 5 stars for visual impact?! Yes but it's unnecessary excess bit. The fifth one is sashimi of horse. Ha? I can tell it is delicious. Then last one is salamander??? They are a national monument in Japan, so maybe a different kind of salamander. Then here is another review. Actually in Okinawa, they make "fanged snake" liquer. Maybe it would work for long life. This is pig's uterus, this is cow's udder. Ah! look at this! a pretty lizard is taking nap there......no, no, it is lizard liquer...orz.
I must tell you this, most Japanese can't drink such a stuff. Asadachi looks very weird for us too. Don't misunderstand.
Ha? Turtle? it is not weird. you can buy on online shop!.

Mori Empire, the strongest stuff in Japan?!

Like I said, I will talk about the Mori Building. this is a old comedy show of   5 member heros group "the Goranjai" One day they wore costumes which they thought "this is the strongest stuff in Japan";

The first one is Falcon of the movie "Never Ending Story". Next one is "Lady R" (a famous stoker woman who stoked a comedian) The next one wears Dokin-chan. She is a character that appears in the Kid TV animation Anpanman who is the hero who give his face. Then next is No-pan shabu shabu waitress. Do you know Japanese food shabu shabu? No pan means "no panties". Well, it is a "shabu-shabu" that the "waitresses" serve with NO PANTies. Customers enjoy shabu shabu and flashing service (you know what I mean). YES I will tell you, this is one of the disgusting and strange things in Japan's history. Anyway later in the 90s, it actually became popular in the booming Japanese economy.  The one on the right .

The last one is the Mori Building. He thought Mori Building was the strongest one in Japan in those days, the 90s. Mori Building is one of the leading property developers in Japan. Sometimes I talked about Roppongi Hills. It is one of their buildings. Ark Hills (TV Asahi Network is in there), LaForet Harajuku (very popular fashion building), now Omotesando Hills (new building in the most fashionable street in Japan) which is under construction, they are all Mori Building's property. If you know about Tokyo, you would realise these buildings are a kind of "key buildings" in Tokyo. Not only are they located in the centre of Tokyo, but they also provide a source of entertainment, information and fashion trends. Time Magazine calls the CEO of Mori Tokyo's most powerful property tycoon. When you walk around Tokyo, you will find many "Mori Buildings" in place. Thinking of the TV show aired in the peak of the property bubble when land price was extremely high. I may agree he thought they were the strongest in Japan in the 90s!!.

The bubble is over, but they are still rich of course. Reading this kind of page or interviews, Mori Building will have an important role in urban plan of Tokyo in 21st century. They call it the Mori Empire,  I just hope they are a good empire to make and keep this Tokyo beautiful in the Japanese way. Their websites have English pages. Please check here. I like their Mid-Tokyo Maps. It is great. You can enjoy information about Tokyo, the history of Tokyo and other big city info etc with cute design. The details are so great and you won't be bored with these pages.

To shake off sleepiness...

My Obon holidays were over yesterday. I am here at my job and looking for some fun topics to write about. Well nemu!! I am sleepy. I would pay 3000 yen if I COULD sleep right now. In Japan this Black Black gum is suppose to be strong, and good for sleepy eyes. But I don't think it works well.

Entertainment news said another Japanese horror NOROI will be released soon, and it seems that it will be the scariest horror film so far this year. A psychic watched a movie preview and said that some of the scenes have evil power. Of course these are ads, but if you want to check it out yourself, here is the site and here is the trailer. (I did not watch it, so don't ask me what it's about) Noroi means curse in Japanese. The most traditional way is "USHINO KOKU MAWARI". He goes to a shrine and prays at 3AM for seven days. In that time, he must wear a white Kimono, an iron ring with two candles on his head, and he must be careful that no one finds him doing this. If the prayer is someone's death, he can use this type of corn doll. (I tried to find a "light" one, I don't want to find the serious type). There are some groups which carry out Ushino Koku Mawari for people. It cost around 100,000yen. I have no idea, how many customers they get.

But for me, this odd news in the UK sounds scary when I imagine the scene. "Are there any baby changing facilities around here?" hmmm scary! Now I am wide awake! :-)

Airplane crashed

First Cyprus and today Venezuela. "We have a series of Airplane crashes." That sounds true.

In Japan, three airplane crashes happened in one month in 1966. On Feb 4th, JAL crashed in Haneda bay, and 135 people died. One month later on March 4th, Canadian Pacific crashed at Haneda Airport, and 64 people died. Then the next day a BOAC plane fell down to Mt Fuji. 124 people died. 1966 was horrible year in Japanese aviation history. Then Japan has the worst Airplane accident in the world in 1985. 520 people died and like I wrote before Kyu Sakamoto was one of them. This year, Sukiyaki was used for the 3 mobile advert and became popular. If we have have another bad airplane year, it is ironic.

Then today we have another earth quake. Actually everybody think we will have a big one soon in Tokyo. In such a high risk index, can I survive? I don't know. But Gambarimasu!!

Anyway today is the day of Japan's surrender in World War II. Here are some news.
Nearly half say World War II a "mistake," Mainichi poll shows (Mainichi)

Koizumi apologizes for Japan's wartime aggression Maicnichi)

Time ripe for review of war responsibility (Daily Yomiuri)

60 years after its defeat, Japan still struggles with responsibility (International Herald Tribune)

Yukata is boom in Japan

The traditional Japanese clothing Yukata is very popular now. I saw girls, even guys wearing Yukata in Tokyo. I like cool middle age guys wearing Yukata. Actually Yukata hides big stomachs and gives a dignified appearance.
This department store has a Yukata special page. I think it looks very nice. Even UNIQLO have made affordable Yukata.

Then there are also many events and services that have Yukata night or Yukata discount. It means if you go there wearing Yukata, you can get in free of charge or for a discount. I found such service at a Professional baseball stadium (This team's director is Bobby Valentine), Maijimura park and many clubs in Tokyo. I like this movement which tries to keep our traditions alive.

The good part of Yukata is it is comfortably cool to wear and it matches the humid Japanese weather and also we can wear various patterns. For example, a cat or goldfish pattern would be difficult for regular clothes but for Yukata, they can be cute and okay for even adult women. It is very fun to see Yukata's pattern and combinations. Ah I found Yukata for foreign people too, they are longer than the regular Japanese type. If you try, here is a movie on "how to wear" Yukata.

Anyway we wear Yukata as our street clothes, but originally it was sleeping clothes. You will find Yukata when you stay in Japanese type hotel (Ryokan) and some Ryokan have a colourful selection of women's Yukata. But I must say, it is a little bit uncomfortable. Here is site which introduce Yukata before-after.
Before and After 1.
Before and After 2.
Before and After 3.
Well, for Japanese this is also an authentic and charming part of Yukata. he he he

How much? An appendix operation.

I wrote that medical prices are cheap in Japan. I had a another episode yesterday. My friend came from America, she accidentally fell down and had a crack in her toe. We went to hospital, and talked to a doctor, he took two X-rays, fixed her toe with small metal board and gave her a prescription for inflammation reduction medicine for two weeks. Then the price without insurance was 10,000yen. The nice part was the doctor discounted the bandages and metal splint and said to her "enjoy rest of your trip". I was very happy to be there actually. It took around two hours on Saturday.

While she got a treatment, we talked about how the U.S medical price is so high. Then I checked it by myself. Here (AIU insurance company research in 2000) is the price comparison chart of price of an appendix operation (sorry, I can't find any in English). The data says "If you have an appendix operation in "foreign county" without insurance. (I mean not for citizen)  How much it will cost.

1. New York--------2,439,000 yen ($23,000)
2. Las Angels------1,939,000 yen ($18,460)
3. Hong Kong------1,520,000 yen ($14,470)
4. London-----------1,142,000 yen ($10,870)
5. Taipei--------------- 642,000 yen ($6,100)
16.Japan---------------378,000 yen ($3,600)
(about 105yen=$1)

Wow. This is not a new car price chart right?  Japan is the cheapest among the G7!!  And in Japan you will stay 7 days in hospital. In NY they say it would be one night stay. Hmm for me it sounds a little scary. Actually, the appendix operation cost 546,000yen ($5,200) in Vancouver, people in Seattle get cheaper treatment without insurance, if they go to Vancouver. (This is very difficult issue between USA and Canada, I heard).
I have to be very nervous for my family's health, so if something wrong even a little, I ask them to go to the hospital and get the doctor's opinion. But I heard even a meeting a doctor cost a lot in the U.S. That sounds bad for me.

The price of land. 1.2 yard in Ginza 4chome is...

Some co-workers have bought apartments in the last few years. Maybe they think the price of land would be around the bottom in this long recession.
In the Tokyo area, the price of an apartment is around ¥40,000,000. These apartment may have one kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms. They would pay around ¥7,000,000 as an initial deposit and have a 30 years mortgage. Wow what a big decision they made.  By the way Here is a new apartment in Tokyo information site. Click the orange button and you can see new apartment movies. This is an expensive one which is located in the center of Tokyo. You can see Tokyo Tower and Tokyo bay area from the windows. The price range is ¥52,000,000 - ¥140,000,000. I would like this which is located in Yokohama bay, the price is ¥18,000,000 to ¥150,500,000.

Recently the average price of land was announced. Then finally land price in Tokyo rebounded for the 1st time in 13 years. The most expensive places are always around Ginza 4chome. The brown building is Kyukyodo. Japanese know Kyukyodo "NOT" because of its business (traditional writing tool), but we know it as a shop located in the most expensive place in Japan. So how much it is? 1.2 yard (1m X 1m) is 15,120,000yen. If you set a coke can in front of the shop, you may lock in 1,058,400yen. By the way Kofu city in Yamanashi pref is around 2 hours from center of Tokyo. (You can enjoy a lot of different fruits and Mt.Fuji.) I don't say it is so far from Tokyo but still you can buy 200 times wider land in center of Kofu city for the same as 1.2 yard wide in front of Kyukyodo.

Anyway fianally the prices rebounded, but it is only center of Tokyo. In other parts of Japan, the price of land is still going down. Look at this "crazy hard to read" graph of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. They compare last year and this year's bands of fluctuation. Triangle means goes down. (I suppose), most places are still down except for just the center of Tokyo. (Anyway they should make more clear data, actually English version is here, but it is last year's one and you can enjoy map super out of focus.) Our myth of ever-higher land prices was broken, but we don't know the future. The price of apartents which my coworkers bought might rise and they may get money from resale. Nobody knows. What I know is I don't want to have 30 years finance loan and be locked to my job to pay each monthly payment. :-).

It was a Sunday midnight in Tokyo

2 Channel does it again.
2 Channel has become a topic of conversation in various ways, like here, here. This time around I read that they had an interesting "unofficial" interactive broadcast on TV. 2Channelers said that it was the god Hicanozo's joke. It's an old topic now, but since it is funny I will introduce it today.

Even major TV network broadcasting ends around 2AM on Sunday night (see blank area). After that, a video of scenery or some kind of filler is broadcast. On TV Asashi, they keep broadcasting scenery from a live camera which they set somewhere in Tokyo until they restart the broadcast the next morning.

It began with a message.
It all started because of a message that appeared on a 2channel board on a Sunday evening, saying "Look at TV Asahi".Then all 2channelers who found the message on the board turned on their TVs and watched TV Asahi - of course it was Sunday at midnight, so only this scenery appeared on the screen without BGM or any captions.

No matter how long they waited, nothing fun was happened. The 2channelers started to look at specific parts of the screen. "Where is that? Roppongi Ark Hills?" they asked, and "Doesn't it look like Yurakucho?" Then one person left a note "Okay, I will go by motorcyle now. Let me check," and disappeared from the board.After his leaving, all the other 2channelers began to wait for him to appear on the screen.The board was heating up (a single board can hold 1000 remarks at a time, but soon the board was filled up, and they needed to start a new one), so some others said they would go there too and disappeared also. After a while, the place was specified as in the vicinity of Yurakucho.

"Someone do Comaneci, please!" The message appeared in the 1005th total remark. Takeshi Kitano makes this weird pose and says "Comaneci!" (maybe he likes Nadia Comaneci and her leotard...). It is sort of part of his comedic style. So when we say Comaneci, it means this pose, in many cases. Anyway, 2channelers began to wait for someone to do Comaneci on the road.

However there was no change on screen, even though it was past 2AM. Some dropped out, some started to suspect "Is this a tape?", some went to bed after setting the VCR in case. In time many people started to get bored, but finnaly a change took place. The place was clarified by the 1108th remark "Is the pole on the left of the screen the one in front of Tokyo Forum?" Then around 3AM, they realized the place was the crossing of Marunouchi, in front of Tokyo Forum.　It is next to Tokyo Station, the very center of Tokyo. Then a change came on screen. One car passed across the screen.

Communication with intelligent life is achieved.
2channelers got excitedd and called it,"Communication with intelligent life is finally achieved" on the board. After the car, many people appeared on screen, one danced, one skipped, one car carried out a rapid turn (of course it is against the law!)! The 2channelers went bananas for this interactive broadcast between TV Asahi and one thread in 2channel. One board got 1000 thousand messages in just 28minutes. Then finally someone appeared in the road at 4:27, and he did Comaneci. The 2channelers named him a Comaneci god and were overcome with admiration.

Nobody knew that someone had informed TV Asahi, or perhaps the network itself noticed, but suddenly TV Asahi turned the direction of the camera, And that festival was over, they said. In short, this is the story of a festival for 2channelers held one midnight in Tokyo.