watashi to tokyo

A new year eve

I finished cleaning up and went to my parents' home to share osechi (special new year meal). Now I am watching K-1 Dynamite! and will eat Toshikoshi Soba (New Year's Eve Buckwheat Noodles) and Tempra later. Maybe when I finish eating, I can hear "Jyoya no kane" (bells on New Year's Eve). For some years now, this has been my New Year's Eve pattern. But by doing so, I can feel the New Year Eve very much, it's great mannerism. I love to hear the bells, I think it's the holiest time in this country. Will you enjoy it with me on this LIVE site? You can hear the bell on this official site of a temple in Kyoto. *

everything contains a kami(God)

I am working today. Most Japanese companies except for finance and IT companies would be off today. We will have "Nou-kai" (last meeting of the year), eat lunch together and get off around 2pm. After that I will go straight home and I will do the rest of my big cleaning up.

After Christmas, store and town decorations have changed to a New Year mood. Yesterday we prayed for Christ and today we pray for "our Kamisama" of Buddhism and Shinto which teaches that everything contains a kami (God).

Nifty Portal Z has a funny post about Shinto. In Shinto we use Kthe amidana as a miniature shrine at home. (I rarely see a family which has a Kamidana in their house.) A big model maker Tamiya has a miniture Kamidana in their product line. The post is "what has the most God-like appearance in the Shrine." The chart explains this: Top of center is the most God-like, low is just the contrary. Right are the most socially accepted images (she supposes many many people would agree, since it looks like God) and left is her personal opinion.

In that chart, a white snake is the best. Actually we have such folklore; I forget what story it is. The stone is next; this is so true. Many shrines worship the stone as God, actually.　She did not show them in the chart, but mountains, dogs (especially white dogs), and trees are often god in the Shinto religion. She picked a souvenior of Bali and a Turkey amulet as having a god-like appearance in the Kamidana set. I agree. Personally, I think the dried cactus which I saw in Arizona would have a good god-like appearance. Well, does this makes sense to you? Do you think we are impudent that we make jokes with religion? But I like this "ゆるい" loose attitude about religion.

Popular chocolate slab

I am eating Sukeroku sushi for lunch now. Sukeroku is a package of roll and Inari sushi. Originally Sukeroku is a title of Kabuki. The story of Sukeroku is the love affair of Mr. Sukeroku and the Oiran "A-ge-ma-ki." We call deep-fried tofu which is a main ingredient of inari "A-ge" and we call roll sushi "maki." That is the why the package is called Sukeroku. It's a kind of Edokko wit. Sushi is good, but I really love pickled ginger, "gari". I can eat gari as my afternoon snack. (I have never eaten it as a snack though; I mean I like it that much.) Why do we call it "gari"? In the Japanese wiki it is said that when you eat gari, it makes the sound "gari gari," or when you cut ginger it makes the sound "gari gari." Well, I suppose this doesn't make sense. In your country a pig says "oink," and in this country a pig say "boo boo." By the way, it is very easy to make gari at home. In winter time, it works to warm up your body.

I am eating sushi and I am looking for some good topics to write, but today is a very poor topic day again. So I will pick "the best selling chocolate slab in Japan." I found this ranking on the Nikkei site.
1 Meiji Milk chocolate
2 Lotte Gana milk chocolate
3 Meiji Rich strawberry chocolate
4 Meiji Black chocolate
5 Meiji White chocolate
6 Morinaga Milk chocolate
7 Lotte Gana Black chocolate
8 Meiji High milk chocolate
9 Lotte Crunky chocolate
10 Meiji Chokolate effect cacao 86%

In Japan, Meiji has an overwhelming share of the chocolate market. I wrote I love 99%, actually that my favorite slab is Meiji chocolate too. My No.2 isKiri no ukifune(a vessel in fog). It has many bubbles inside, so that gives it a very light taste. And No.3 is Chocolife. It has 8 different tastes and each package has only 4 pieces of thin chocolates. So we don't need to worry about eating too much.

Talking about chocolate slabs, I saw many chocolate bars in the U.S but I don't remember about slabs. Maybe I saw Hershey's?? I am not sure. On the other hand, there are not so many chocolate bars in Japan; maybe Snickers and Kit Kat? Ha ha, both are U.S products. I don't know why, maybe Japanese don't eat so much chocolate all at once. Slabs are easy to break but bars are not easy to break without biting. What do you think? I wrote about Kit Kat in this entrance exam post. The BBC picked the same topic in this news.

　

Gloomy

This winter, the norovirus attacked Japan. I did not get it, but some co-workers took time off because of the virus. In China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday warned Chinese travelers to Japan not to eat uncooked seafood. Of course, people are nervous about seafood, especially oysters. Since I love oysters, it's pretty tough to be away from them. In Japan, Hiroshima is a major production area of oysters. Hiroshima is well known for Japanese Pizza Okonomiyaki, so they have nice oyster Okonomiyaki. Look at this: it's oyster Okonomiyaki. The oyster is said to be the milk of the sea, so in this oyster town, they made "milk meets milk, "fried oyster soft ice cream. Today's yahoo news picks it as a topic.

By the way, I wrote about the violent bear Gloomy in 2004. In those days, he had a cult following even in Japan. He is very popular in Japan and I saw a girl who had a Gloomy wallet in the U.S. on my trip. Actually some online shops have Gloomy items like this pillow. Hmm, Gloomy landed in the U.S while I am unaware. So let's check the Gloomy sites again. This is a page where you can see many violent Gloomy images. This page has a smaller size for cell phone wallpaper. This is the online shop in Yahoo Japan. This is a site of the Gloomy "hang bear" keychain. Mori-chax is a designer of this violent bear; you may check his other work and Gloomy items and news in this blog.

Trans-America Ultra Quiz

Mark sent me this funny information. TBS network will air the TV Program "Trans-American super diet: 240-day trip of 5 big ladies who have over a total of 600kg weight." They say 5 ladies (20-32 years old) will go to the U.S and challenge various new diet methods. One lady痴 son said that he doesn't want to introduce her to his friends. One lady failed to get a job and she supposes it would be because her weight. All the ladies want and need to lose their weight and challenge this long diet trip. The starting point is LA and the goal is New York. In Arizona, they have a camp with a demanding instructor. In Utah, they will learn food customs from Navajo Indians and also experience a Navojo sauna. And in NY, they will try walking 100km! Will they lose their weight? It will come on Thursday evening. I don't think I will watch it. I am sure this TV will make many ladies feel encouraged and also easy. They can enjoy the show while eating snacks and thinking, "I am not big like her." Women are like that. Don't you think so?

Mark said, and I agree, this TV show reminds me of a very popular old TV show, "Trans-America Ultra Quiz" (America Ultra Oudan Quiz). NTV network had it once a year since 1977 for 16 years. Anybody could have a chance for entry. They started the quiz in the Tokyo Dome and they did various types of quiz for survival. Only the survivor could go to the next point, for example after Tokyo dome it was Narita airport. After Narita, next was riding on an airplane to America and then getting off an airplane (if not they had to return without setting foot in America). In the U.S. they started in LA or somewhere else in the west and did a survival quiz trip to the east. The goal was always NY. Only two people had a quiz battle on the top of a high building in Manhattan. Since it was a very popular show, over 70000 people entered and over 20000 people took the yes-no quiz in Tokyo Dome in 16 years. The host guy shouted the same remark in the opening, "Do you wanna go to New York?" And the main theme music was "Theme From Star Trek." I wonder if some Japanese would misunderstand that this is the theme of trans-America Ultra quiz. ha ha

I did not think I would find the film, but someone uploaded the movies on Youtube. This is the opening with theme music. This movie is Tokyo Dome, only 130 people go to Narita from here. Then they had to havea paper quiz in the airplane. After landing in America, they had a quiz in some location-specific way. In Orland, they had a quiz at Universal Studios. In an aged people's city, Sun City, they had a quiz and also they had to give a correct answer for pairing childhood pictures and aged people. This is Jackson, this is New Orleans, this is the American Rocky Mountains. Here are more. And always the goal was New York.

It was a very popular show. Actually it was made into a board game and TV games later. Entrants and also viewers could enjoy the trans-America trip in the days when oversea travel was not so easy for many. People were fascinated by great views of each place and the difference in the size of everything. But in the later 80s and 90s, people went overseas by themselves, and so the show couldn't keep its charm.

Anyway in the 70s and 80s, the show was created by "TVman-union". They are a production company which makes very good docmentary shows. The popular TV show "Find wonder of the world"(sekai fushigi hakken)" is one of TVman-union's works. I was working for them for a couple years. It was very good memories and an interesting career for myself.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Tokyo!!

I was a little bit surprised to know California has bad road. There are a lot of bumps and holes on roads and I could know I reached Nevada because the road suddenly was changed to smooth. And not only in California, road signs are so small, they are very hard for my weak eyes to see. On the other hand, I like North-South, East-West signs which tell the general direction. We don't have such information; every sign tells the name of the town or city. It means if you don't know cities, you don't know which direction you are going. And I love that there are no lights on highways. In Japan, highway lightings are continued on any country mountainside. And most of all, I like the pool lane! In Japan, we don't have such good idea.

As far as I noticed, roads signs are very similar to Japan's. This is the U.S school area and this is the Japanese school area. Hm, the Japanese one has details?! (but it is not always good. Look at this, alien?) This one is the U.S "deer ahead" and this is the Japanese one. They are quite similar? A different point is that both of the U.S signs look to the left and Japanese signs look to the right. Actually I think looking to the right is comfortable to see. I wonder if this might be related to a writing custom. In the vertical writing of Japanese, text starts at the right side. You can check Japanese road signs on this page.

Anyway I could easily get the meaning of U.S road signs. But I don't think this one will be in Japan. I don't understand this (emergency care?). And I suppose this "safe area" won't be in the U.S.

I am back

Hi, I'm home now. It was a pretty interesting trip in the South West United States. My image of the United States has been changed in a lot of ways actually, but maybe it will be changed when I go North or East too.

I wrote that the Ministry of Agriculture said they will make a system to rate the quality of food served at Japanese restaurants abroad. Here is the page. But it received unfavorable criticism as "Sushi Police". Then the Ministry of Agriculture changed it, saying they won't make a "Certification of Japanese Restaurants," but rather a "Supporting system." But basically the contents have not changed. Ha -- at any rate, the Japanese government wants to monitor restaurants abroad. However, actually it was very hard to find a nice-looking Japanese restaurant on this trip. Las Vegas will be a target of the Sushi Police, and I must admit there are many tricky restaurants. Perhaps the menu looks okay but the rates are unreasonably expensive, or most of them are Chinese, Korean mix or something else that I don't know. I did not go to this one, but as long as I checked reviews, many Japanese recommended this Izakaya shop "Ichiza" in Vegas. By the way, did you know "French chefs seek UNESCO heritage recognition of French cuisine"? Japanese chefs can do that before sending for the Sushi Police.

In my trip, I ate a lot of Mexican food in Arizona and Mexico near the boarder. It was pretty yummy and cheap! In Japan, Mexican is very expensive, but finally some Mexican food restaurant chain lowered the price a little bit. This is the Mexican restaurant chain "El Torito" official site. The price of combination plates are $9 - $12. I think it was more before. Not a chain restaurant, I heard Posta del sole in Shimotakaido is good. By the way, I loved to eat Mexican food, but it was impossible for me to eat menudo, which I can't find anywhere in Mexican restaurants in Tokyo. Maybe good menudo would be different, but what I ordered smelled like a zoo....orz.

A letter express 2006

Last year the chinese character ability test association announced the result of its poll "The one Kanji = Chinese character to express the current year" "love" (Ai in Japanese ) was chosen because that year Princess Nori was wed and Princess Ai-chan (the Kanji is pronounced “ai”) played very well in sports. In 2004, it was "disaster" because we had a big typhoon, earthquake, big rain, etc. in the world.

This year's Kanji was released at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto yesterday and it is "life". Prince Hisahito was born, and though this was good news, people chose this Kanji because we should think again about the value of human life. This year, actually, every day I read news of drunk drivers and bullying at school.

By the way, it's 9am now. I am leaving on a trip to the U.S.; hopefully I can write often during this trip.

Inugami family returns

Kon Ichikawa, 90 years old, remade his film "Inugamike no Ichizoku" (1976). it will be released next week. Koji Ishizaka plays the main character Kosuke Kindaichi (figure!) again (he acted it at 35 years old and 65 years old!). I hardly watch Japanese movies but I like this. Actually, this movie is said to be a monument of Japanese cinema mastery.

The story: a wealthy man named Sakubei died, leaving behind no wife but three daughters who each had a different mother and who now each have a son. In his Will, Sakubei leaves his friend痴 daughter Tamayo the treasure of the Inugami family, "Yoki, Koto, Kiku" (three gold items), and leaves his other property to whichever of his three grandsons who Tamayo chooses as her husband. After that, mysterious murders happen one after another. A detective, Kosuke Kindaichi, tries to tell who is the murderer.

Here is a trailer of the 1977 film and this is the one of 2006. The old one with English subtitles was released on by DVD. Check it out, if you like it.

I like Inugami, but I prefer another Kindaichi series: "The Devil's Bouncing Ball Song" (Akuma no Temariuta). Actually, it is said to be Ichikawa's best..

I hardly watch Japanese live-action films. But I like this Kindaichi series. The story setting is postwar, when everything was a little dark and chaotic. Some murders happened in local areas that kept the old customs and constraints. Murders were a chain-reaction and obviously some dark message was hidden in them. This series has a style that can show a very Japanese grudge of being bruised by old customs, class, history. Even though much time has passed, I wonder if Japanese will still have something in common (soul?) to understand this, making the Kindaichi movies so attractive for us.

Anyway, today I read this article, Dankai no sedai like to go Ohenro (shikoku pilgrimage). After retirement, they walk a long way temple to temple and then see themselves, think of their lives. It's nice, I think. It's easy to go Ohenro by package tour as sightseeing now, but basically it is a trip of the soul walking around hallowed ground.

20th centruy boy will be film

I did not write last weekend because I was busy cleaning up! In Japan, we have a big clean-up "o souji" at the year end to have new year day in a fresh house. Why do we have to do such big cleaning in the coldest season? It is be related to Shinto religion and the idea of "Misogi". Now I remember that I wrote about this before, I did the same every year end and I write the same thing every year end. I love cleaning and I can't help cleaning very well everywhere in my room. Under the refrigerator, I use chopstick in tissue like this stuff and did you know glass can be cleaned by news paper(with wet one first and dry one after that) very well? Let me know if you know a good cleaning idea.

One of my favorite comics "20th century boy" will be made into a film in 2008. They said it will be the first chapter of three. This is the official site, but you can't see anything yet. I suppose chapter one will be "Bloody New Year's Eve". I really loved it and it was a very popular manga, but we all were so shocked to read the tepid ending. But it was not the real ending (we all thought it was the ending though), Split says the last chapter will start on 25th December. Some comic fans recommend reading this: "Jojo's Brizarre Adventure", but I don't like that graphic. For me, graphics are important when picking manga.

Anyway I did not buy wii, but I will pay attention to this site. Look at this.