watashi to tokyo

no good topic day

I can't find any good topics to tell. Actually this week is hard every day. Today I will pick some I found on internet.

These two are movies from youtube too, titles are "Some Things Are Similar 1" and "Some Things Are Similar 2". I like eva and the spray bottl.

A foreign guy talked about unique things he found only in Japan. They are a maginc hand, taxi auto door, blagger maker. Hmm these are petty usual stuff for me.

In Russia, it could become news and a movie as an alien fish, but in Japan we can see it in markets easilyt. It is Rajiformes.

Hokkaido woman is violent?

These blogs are in Japanese, but the pictures are beautiful and you can enjoy just seeing them. Kyoto blog, Japanese sweet "wagashi" blog and idyll blog that appeals to Japanese nostalgic feelings (I was born in Tokyo, but I feel it.)

Hmm, some crazy Japanese may have made this Trojan. Apparently this is similar to the "Haruhi Virus"...orz.

A few years ago, a guy wrote his complaints about his lazy, scary wife. And the blog became a book and TV drama. It was a kind of success story that web 2.0.brought to us and actually we felt it was just his bragging, so I laughed to see the post was linked to this "domestic violence link."

I found the article on Hokkaido local news. There are 16 "Spousal Violence Counseling and Support Centers" in Hokkaido. In 2006, they got 1668 calls and 42 (2.5%) of them were from husbands. They confessed some violent problems like their wives kicked and punched them, or threw something at them. And also they said there were mental attacks like their wives loudly complaining or casting out their stuff, especially what they liked and cared about. Compared to other areas in Japan, 2.5% is higher and also the rate is increasing every year in Hokkaido.

They suppose this might come from the history of Hokkaido. Hokkaido was known as Ezochi until the Meiji Restoration and it was just 160 years before when Hokkaido was developed in earnest. When they developed the land, men and women worked together fairly. Because of such history, Hokkaido is said to be the most gender-equal area in Japan.

That is interesting, but I am not sure 2.5% is high or not. And it means Hokkaido women tend to be violent more than others? Because of their equality of the sexes idea, we might think Hokkaido men would use counseling more easily than men in other areas. Actually, some research said 46.9% of DV victim wives used counseling but 84.4% of husbands didn't tell anybody when they experienced violence from their wives. Men hesitated to tell their domestic problems.

Chimpan news channel

Chimpan news channel is the 10 minute "TV show of the animals, by the animals, for the animals." The main caster "Gomes" is a chimpanzee. He hosts the show and a voice actor makes ironic and arrogant comments fitting Gomes's performance. The very cute but crazy Gomes is really great. I read this TV show was introduced on CNN maybe as a Japanese version of "The Tonight Show"?

Gomes is of course cute, clever and crazy. An assistant director Paul is a Japanese ape. He is always short tempered. Sometimes there is a hostess to support Gomes, but the show becomes a party. This is the recap: ep 1, 2, 3, 4. And introduced the show in their news show. Ha ha ha Check it out.

The influence of manga

A big publisher Shueisha announced it will end the 37-year-history of its manga magazine "Monthly Jump" in June. Since the circulation of MJ was down to 1/3 of its peak, Shueisha said it will release a new magazine this Autumn instead of MJ. "Weekly Jump" (official site) released big titles like Dragon Ball, Dr.Slump, Death Notes, Naruto, Slam Dunk, Yu-yu hakusho. After June, Weekly Jump will be at rest as a Jump series.

On this page (web translated), people discuss manga which had a big effect on them. "Captain Tsubasa", "Slam Dunk", "Kyojin no Hoshi" started a trend of popular sports. "Astro Boy", "Doraemon" influenced Japanese Robot technologies. Because of "Hikaru no go", the Go boom happened in Europe, especially in Switzerland, etc. Actually the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Tech announced that Japan will promote not only traditional stuff but also manga and animation as Japanese culture.

By the way do you know the "Yodo-go incident"? That was the hijacking done by the Japanese Red Army (Sekigun). When they left Japan, they declared, "we are Ashita no Joe" (Tomorrow's Joe). Tomorrow's Joe is a boxing manga, a troubled orphan Joe's boxing story. I wrote the detail here before. The hijackers said they would fight until they burned out white like Joe. The Yodo go incident is a very interesting story, so I don't know why there are no English pages in wiki. The hijackers directed the plane's captain to go to North Korea. Around above the 38th parallel, one battle plane was close to the Yodo and ordered a landing. Actually the Yodo had contact with "Ping yang airport control" at that time. When the Yodo arrived at the airport, there were soldiers wearing NK military uniforms and female solders held a sign that said "welcome to Ping yang". But this was all a deception by South Korea. The place was Kimpo airport in South Korea in fact. Shortly afterwards, one hijacker found it was deception when he saw a Northwest airplane, oil tracks with a Shell logo mark, etc. Then the hijackers asked the airport to bring a picture of "Kim Il-Sung," but of course they didn't have the picture there. (There are various stories about this part.) Finally the hijackers realized they were not in North Korea and left there for the real NK. Some of the hijackers died, some are still living in SK now, some returned to Japan. Joe was our trauma and also such a spiritual symbol. Manga is really big in this country.

Darth Vader Kabuto and Tokyo governor

Girl's festival "Hina matsuri" will come soon on 3rd March. The family who has a daughter will display "Hina Ningyo (dolls)" and eat traditional rice snack "Hina arare". The Bride of Hina Ningyo wears "Jyuni hitoe" ("twelve-layered-robe"). Recently a Japanese actress Norika Fujiwara got married and she wore Jyuni hitoe when she had a wedding ceremony in Ikuta Shrine. By the way Boy's festival is "Tango no Sekku" on 5th May, at that time family who has a son will display "Koinobori(carp shaped flags)" and "Kabuto(feudal helmet)". The Yoshitoku is the famous doll maker of such Hina dolls, Kabuto, Japanese traditional dolls. Then they released "Darth Vader Kabuto and armor".Look at this, hmm cool. He looks very cool, I have never seen a foreigner who can fit Kabuto like that. That Kanji means "Sir Dark come." You can see that Darth Vader in the Tokyo Gift show in April.

I was surprised to read this news. As an architecture fan, of course I know Kisho Kurokawa. He designed "Nakagin Capsule Tower Building", "Kuala Lumpur International Airport", "Osaka Sony Tower" and recently "National Art Center Tokyo" opened. I wrote about him in this post "the metabolism was city design concept".

He indicated Wednesday he may run in the forthcoming Tokyo gubernatorial election on his official site. On the page, he lists 15 campaign policies. They are: If current governor Ishihara doesn't withdraw his candidacy, he will run in the governor election; He doesn't get a salary and doesn't use the official governor's quarters or official vehicle; He serves only one four-year term; He cancels Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics; He will support a part of capital relocation, hold lands in the center of Tokyo for redevelopment and make those lands urban greening. etc. Hmm, very interesting. Ishihara shows a strong attitude as usual. Do you know in the Ishihara page of wikipedia, there is a topic "alleged racism." Not only about other races, he made bad comments about old women and homosexual etc. Crazy? Yes, but he would get a good credit rating because of the tough remarks. I will watch this news.

Great origami work

I can't find an interesting topic to write on, so I will link to some good sites I found recently. I wrote that the Japanese pioneered Origami, but contemporary Origami has evolved into a new field of fine Arts, and now great origami is created by foreign artists. Today I found a Japanese Origami creator, here is his great works movie. They said his hornet was used in the window display of a Hermes shop. You may check his other works on his official site. Chocobo seems simple though...would you try it?

This is the American Rapper "Kokujin Tensai". He raps in Japanese. He fell in love with a Japanese girl who came to his high school for her studies. He tried to master Japanese for her because she couldn't speak English well. She returned to Japan after just one year but he started to sing original rap in Japanese. Good story.

Here is the Japanese design group wabisabi's official site. Their motif is bonsai or such Japanese item, I like this "The Birth of Venus", it is very interesting.

because he was stupid kid

Gabrielle and her friend are traveling through Japan and write all about it in their blog. It's nice, check it out. I knew her blog because she asked me to some nice bar in Shibuya and Shinjuku. Since I don't explore new bars around there, I sent her some info on "Bar Tube". Bar Tube is when a bar has a small editing studio for making YouTube video. You can go there and use the machine to edit your movie and upload it to Youtube from the bar. You may appear as an actor or be a spear carrier in someone else's video when you drink at bar too. And now Heinz Japan sets Ketchup chat robot there and you can chat with customers in BarTube.

By the way, I read this research. the 30s and the 40s think that light Otaku talking (web translated) is cool and 61% of people answered that they had really an exciting time about old TV show, animations, Tokusatsu, manga. Yes, I think so. Most Japanese guys can tell "坊やだからさ" (boya dakarasa : "Because he was a stupid kid") is a statement of Char Aznable (ah he got into it). (at least, all my guy friends know it). This is the round-table talk of four SE, they talked how much robot animation impacts their lives and how they use the phrase at work. (Since it will be crazy, I won't use web-translation.) When someone makes a mistake, they say "ha, because he was a stupid kid".

At that point, I like to talk about Hanna-Barbera animation, especially my favorite "The Herculoids". When I was a little kid, Hanna-Barbera animation was aired only in a big city like Tokyo or Osaka. So comparing it to Gundam or Ultraman, it was just such a popular show, but the level of "degree of Otaku" is a little bit higher. "The Herculoids"'s Japanese title was 怪獣王ターガン (Kaijyuo targan) and my favorite character Gloop and Gleep was called "Hyu-hyu" and "Po-po". Even though Zandor can drive a flying saucer and has such high technology, they wear primitive clothes and live on mushrooms without any electrical tools. They would be Eco people.... Now I feel I wrote about this before. you know, how much I love the animation :-).

Kamon art work

Kamon Design is the project of contemporary creators' various artworks of Kamon.They said creators create new values and expressions and contemporarily express Kamon as artworks. And they have an exhibition at CIRCLE culture GALLERY now.

If you want to see a traditional type, this is English site, and I wrote about Japanese crest Kamon before. I still get a few emails and comments about the post now. "Please check my family's Kamon," people of Japanese descent ask. Unfortunately I can't reply because it is impossible to find the Kamon from a name. This is a Japanese site "the Kamon world". They say some picked their Kamon from their religion, philosophy, hobby, trends. If you really want to know, you might find it on your ancestor's gravestone.

I am sure this will be deleted sooner or later (maybe soon): a person uploaded all episodes of "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" (IWGP) with English subtitles. Here is the information about IWGP on wiki. I don't watch TV, especially TV drama, but I watched all of these last weekend. If you like Tarantino, you may enjoy this series. Kudokan's's direction was too much sometimes, but it does look very real.

Learn language

Big English language school NOVA faces sales ban. It is very big school, I wonder there is one NOVA in each train station in Tokyo area.

Talking about English school. I did not know these funny TV ads of Berlitz "German coastguard".　I think this was made by Scholz & Friends, Berlin. And they got some ad awards by Berlitz poster "Chinatown" too. Since this these posters has the same concept, I suppose they are works of that agency too.　Pretty good sense.

You do it? so you are Old.

I believe, and persuade myself that "the youth depends on soul". Yap, of course, why not? I am living as "an everlasting twenty-seven". However, I freeze when I find the "Obasan (old-lady)" on me sometimes. I have heard I talk like my mom (especially, when I use listing sounds), I realize I can complain easily when I shop. (I was too shy to do it when I was young), and I hardly use manicure now (I won't have an elaborate manicure like this, because I need to wash and cook.)

I found this message board. They are talking "You do it? so you are Obasan". (web translated) It's very interesting to read this for myself and I wonder if people in other countries will agree, or find any of the following characteristics familiar:

Lick fingers to open the plastic bag at a store.
Cut in the line and dash into the train to get a seat.
Talk and laugh loudly.
Talk in the middle of the sidewalk or in front of a shelf in the store.
Ask a clerk for help without checking for yourself at a store.
Wear expensive but old fashioned clothes.
Wear a T-shirt -- long and with an animal print centered in front is the worst.
When she laughs, she taps with the person next to her.
Tend to queue tightly when we make the line for the ATM machine.

I think becoming Obasan means no shaming and no feeling the vibration (we say read air) beyond a certain range from her. Then the range will be smaller and smaller.

Hmm I will add some.
rubber Wear elastic waist skirt or pants. (actually I should stop wearing some with stretch material.)
she likes animal print. (I suppose they need sexy pheromone, so she borrows it from the wild. Some said Obasan in the Osaka area need it when she browbeats the clerk to ask for a discount. It's kind of uniform for Obasans in Osaka.)
she cooks and eats foods that are nothing out of the ordinary. (food routines are part of getting into this Obasan pattern, changing is getting hard when we get older, and even on diet we can see it.)

On the message board, some said "she talks to strangers at the store or bus stop." This reminds me that my American friend said he could feel "I am home" when somebody said "hello", "how are you doing?" at a store in the U.S. In Japan, especially in the Tokyo area, we hardly say hello to strangers. Some think taking and keeping a certain distance is necessary etiquette. I don't dislike it when we say hello to each other. I am not sure which is nicer.

By the way, they did not mean that Obasan says hello to you at the store, or that an Obasan says "this is delicious, I knew it." when you see some food. She says "Ah.. what should I cook tonight" and watches you with a big "Huh?". Any creature except for the Obasan won't do it. What do you think? It is the same in your country?