31 August, 2006

A Fear Come True

I was going to seriously start a Japan Guide, but there was a shocking news so I changed my mind to write about it.

Several weeks ago I was writing about the sad fate of the coral reefs in Okinawa and our obligations to protect them. Well, I was reading through this Okinawa blog as part of my daily routine and faced this very sad passage.

Nishibama (or Nishihama), known to be the most beautiful beach on Aka Island in the Kerama Islands is being damaged by banana-boats and jet skis. That’s already shocking but what’s worse, ropes are tied under water and food stands are selling food on the beach... totally lawless. The damage to the coral reefs is clearly spreading and they say that the dead corals are much more visible.

When I first saw that beach and water there, although it was before season, it was still a very beautiful and quiet paradise without a single person. Even during my second which was exactly two years ago I didn’t see a single banana-boat or a jet ski even though I did warn a few people who were resting on the tables of coral.
Never knew that the situation has worsened so quickly... It’s really depressing :-(

Many people have showed interest in this blog and took actions including complaints and e-mails to Zamami Village and Okinawa Prefecture.

The natural treasures which so many people wish to keep as it is, are being ruined and (hopefully not! but) eventually destroyed by heartless and mindless businesses and tourists.

I will see with my own eyes in two weeks the place that I hold so dear, so I will write comments and reports here.

It’s really really depressing, but from tomorrow I’ll get started with my personalized Japan Guide.

Past entries for your reference:
7.21 The Lives of Coral, The life of Sea
7.24 Rain Again... and the Rain and the...

30 August, 2006

Japan Travel Guide

A couple of days ago, we received an e-mail asking us, “I’d like to travel Japan some time soon, but how much money should I prepare?” through our web site Japan Mode.

We are very grateful for such e-mails (we’ve had several before), and if the client is expecting us some information uniquely Japan Mode, then she knows exactly where to ask!

It really depends on what your travel interests are, however. If you want to see historical and traditional monuments and things then you simply cannot miss the Kyoto area, and if you are interested in shopping modern technology-related stuff or seeing such places (like the townscape and architecture, etc.) then your destination would more likely be Tokyo.

There are many many travelers who cover both in one trip, but I believe a trip that includes neither of them in its itinerary is also deep and interesting. (well, if you’re coming to Japan for your first time, then you might want to plan carefully.)

Anyway, because Japan is stretched north-south so much as it is east-west, the climate and therefore customs or people’s lifestyles are different depending on the area you’re visiting, despite being a small country. So the flora and fauna are different, and the shapes of the houses are different. As for my hometown Kagawa, it belongs to a Mediterranean climate so I guess you can enjoy similar climate to the Mediterranean area like Italy and the southern coasts of France and Spain. (Yeah right, who enjoys climates :P)

Well, technology is evolving allowing you to see the same flowers and taste same food from north to south, but if you turn your eyes to something that is indigenous to that area you’ll be able to see Japan from various angles.



You might be able to enjoy Japan like this happy family in the video :-)

Summer is over and some of you may be like, “Um, it’s not really a traveling season.”
Anyhow, I still plan to introduce you the different aspects of Japan with details, so if it helps any of you who’re planning to come over to Japan some time I’d be one happy guy.

Hey just realized, why don’t I do this as a feature on Japan Mode? Right, but it’s easier here... I mean, it’s kind of less responsibility when it turns out boring... :P

29 August, 2006

Cell Phones in Japan

Yesterday, twelve A/W (Autumn/Winter) model cell phones were announced from Japan’s No.2 cell phone service company “au”. They are not yet on sale but will be soon. All of the phone service companies promote few new models at once, but twelve is still a big number. I believe this is due to the new service of “number portability” that the cell phone carrier companies are starting this October.

Until today, when you wanted to switch cell phone carrier for example from company A to company B you had to change your phone number and that was common sense. It was nothing different from having to have to change your home phone number when you moved to a new address. (And of course, even if you stay with the same carrier you’ll have to have a new number if you wanted a new contract.)

However, you can’t deny the troublesomeness of having to have to tell your friends, colleagues and business partners when you changed your phone, so you kind of want to stay with your old phone or transfer the memory & personal data to a new model in a same carrier even if you want to change the hardware of your cell.
For this reason the spread rate of cell phones have stabilized and the service companies are stuck with ideas of drawing large numbers of new users.

In such situation, the “number portability” service sounds attractive to the users because it’s convenient and hassle-free, and to the carriers because they are given fairer competition conditions among each other.

I wasn’t sure so I looked up on the web and found out that this kind of service has started in other parts of the world much earlier. I was surprised to learn that the introduction of number portability is obligated in Europe, and also the service started in the States back in 2003. So I guess we’re behind. Come on Japan.

That thought made me feel like the Japanese cell phone market is enclosed in a way, because we don’t get much information about the use of cell phones outside of Japan. I even think that the way our phones evolve is quite unique (I wrote about that on Japan Mode so check it out if you’re interested in Japanese “kay-tie”). Anyway, it’s not too much to say that the introduction of number portability service in Japan is going to escalate the competition in the cell phone industry here in our society. In fact, I too am one of those people who are looking forward to new services and models (gadget freak). Geez, I can’t imagine working for one of those companies tho...

28 August, 2006

The End of Summer and Chirps of Cicada

I’d been writing about glasses for the past few entries, but let me write about something else today.

We’ve been having pretty cool breeze in the evenings for the past few days, but still the cicadas keep on chirping (now, I don’t know if they “chirp” but I don’t know a better way to describe their “cries”) and that kind of feels weird.

If you grow up in this country, you’ll be able to tell which part of summer we are in (like, early – middle – late... only abstractly) by how the cicadas are chirping. It doesn’t mean that the cicadas are changing the ways they ring their bodies, but in fact different kinds of cicadas come out of the ground accordingly to the season.

The earlier ones go like “jeeeee-jeeeee” and they are what we call the ni-ni-zemi. Towards the middle of the summer when the temperature goes higher and higher, the most famous ones come out which are the min-min-zemi that goes like “min-min-min-min...”. When these are out, it really feels like it’s summer but it does get annoying. Anyway, in the midst of the summer comes the “jeewa-jeewa” aburazemi, and when the chirps turn to “Tsuk-tsuk-howsh” we can tell that the tsukutsukuhohshi are there, meaning that it’s getting towards the end of summer.

I once heard that long time ago, some Japanese invited and English ambassador over for dinner. During the evening they heard a beautiful tone of the chirps of suzumushi (suzumushi are autumn insects that go like “rin-rin-rin...”). This was part of the Japanese’s kind and refined hospitality – in terms of Japanese culture and custom – but the English person asked, “What is this noise?”

I’m not sure if you can hear all these kinds of cicadas in Tokyo, but listening to the (loud) sounds of the littlest creatures in this world is not a bad way of spending the evening.

25 August, 2006

Glasses and Types

We’ve talked about glasses for men and women in the past couple of entries so this time let’s see the details like the shapes for each classification.

Straight-A-Student Type
A lot of the glasses that fit this type have no frames or metal frames, and they are thinner as compared to other types. One reason for this is that here glasses are more for eyesight correction rather than fashion, so functionality is stressed than fashionability. When the frame is thicker it gets more in your sight and is kind of bothering. Thus, they are thin, light and are for wearing long hours.

Intelligent Type (older and smarter bro/sis type)
This one is similar to the type above, but is more for the boss/ teacher/ researchers image rather than studious students. Intelligent and cool but always have some respect from the others and never plain. Glasses for this type too, are metal frame glasses but the top part of the frame is a little thick bringing out the metalness a bit. They have a slightly pointy shape (around the lens) and are commonly known as the FOX type glasses. Square-type glasses with pointy corners (so I guess that makes them trapezoidal?) are common too.
These ones make you look rough around the edges, but is part of self-presentation for those with higher status who don’t want to look too friendly. Also, some wear them cuz they want to be looked as someone intelligent or smart.

BTW, the pointier ones appeared a lot on TV dramas to denote education-minded moms and were called “Zamasu*-megane”.

*zamasu is a phrase you add in the end of sentences (where normally “desu” should come) and is very commonly seen in manga/anime or TV shows. It carries the images of “rich” or “finicky” (only for female characters) but I have never in my life heard of anyone actually using it in daily life.

Otaku Type
Otaku Type glasses are also similar to Straight-A-Type in the sense that glasses are not of fashion as much as they are of eyesight correction. Thus a lot of them have large lens in contrary to skinny designs in the trend. It can be said that this is because people who wear these (i.e., otaku) pour in all their energy into whatever they’re into and spare little attention to glasses. Glasses are ok as long as they improve eyesight, and are worn for years.
This is nothing more than my personal observation, but I get the feeling that there are more oval or round (I don’t mean completely round, however) glasses are preferred... or are the majority. Opposite from the above Intelligent Type, I think.


Fashionable Type
It is almost impossible to describe the shapes and preferences of glasses that belong to this type. Everybody wears whatever s/he likes so it’s basically everything. But the conspicuous point of this type is that whoever wears them, wear ones that are quite assertive. If you only observe the mainstream as being thin – thick cell-frames in bright colors with thin rectangular lens, that’s all about it, but these people wear them so that they definitely stand out as if saying out loud “I am wearing (cool) glasses.” In this respect glasses are part of self-presentation, but fashionability goes over functionality. Some even have 20/20 perfect vision but still wear fake ones.

Sooo I guess that’s about it. Sounds definitive but they’re basically my personal observation so some parts may be different from truth. If you see a Japanese around with glasses, it might be fun to guess his/her personality.

24 August, 2006

What About Men’s Glasses

So so, I got started with glasses topic and wrote about women’s glasses so let’s go over men’s glasses today.

Men, as compared to women, tend to have glasses more for eyesight correction purpose so naturally functionality was stressed over fashionability – until a couple of years ago. Similarly to women fashionability started to draw attention, and together with the influences of rock bands and pop comedians, men with glasses are gaining more and more popularity among women.

A clear example of this can be seen in Japan’s largest SNS mixi. Within mixi, there is this girls only community called “megane-danshi aikohkai” (boys in glasses circle) joined by nearly 200,000 members. Their activities include the establishment of “megane-danshi cafe” where all of the staffs are boys wearing glasses, and publishing a book on megane-danshi. Some even claim that the handsomeness goes up by 30% when men wear glasses. Almost crazy, lol.

I classified women in glasses yesterday, and it seems like that classification works for men too.
But like I also mentioned, men in Otaku Type glasses are by no means the most popular group. Even then, there are some “surprises” like the social phenomenon Densha Otoko (Train Man) so the reputation might be improving... maybe.

Tomorrow, I’m going into the details of the classifications for men.


*Densha Otoko... an otaku Cinderella story of an Akiba-otaku that started with his rescue a beautiful lady on the train from a drunkard.

23 August, 2006

Glasses Anybody?

I always wear contacts to work, but today I came out with glasses.

I have a bit of complicated work right now, and sadly I thought I’d have to stay in office tonight. It gets extremely troublesome and tiring too, when I have to keep wearing contacts on occasions like this so I decided to wear my glasses, but fortunately it looks like I can hit my bed at home tonight.

A long time ago I wrote that in countries outside of Japan, Japanese people are many times associated with glasses and buckteeth. Dunno ‘bout the buckteeth part, but yeah, I guess the glasses part is right, sort of. The glasses population here is pretty big.

Until just a little while ago glasses represented either dorkiness or geekiness if not book beaters, but today glasses are so widespread as fashion especially among young generations that so many people wear fake glasses like any other accessory.

Quite a number of TV personalities, actors/actresses, idols and comedians wear glasses like they’re part of their faces, and books on megane (glasses) and megane-fashion like “Megane Danshi” (boys in glasses) and “Bijo Megane”(glasses beauty) are selling off the shelves.

The impressions or preconceptions against glasses are totally dependent on each individual, I suppose, but the common impression is probably “intelligent”. The results of a research carried out by a major ad company also says, 1) intelligent 2) stylish, fashion and 3) serious.

So what exactly is this fad?
Are intelligent looking people more popular than others?

Let’s get a closer look at this phenomenon.

First of all, why are meganekko girls (girls with glasses) so popular?
I have heard several stories about this, but the major one says that because glasses are more associated with men rather than women, when women wear such “muscular” things it gives out strong attraction. It’s not only that. There are four kinds:

Strait-A-Student Type: The leader kind of people in classrooms. Dislikes troubles and rather strict about rules.
majime-type (serious) in the above research, probably.

Older Sister Type: Women older and higher in rank, like female bosses and teachers who look intelligent and cool.
chiteki-type (intelligent)

Otaku Type: As it says – when men wear geeky glasses no one really likes it, but girls with geeky glasses seem to be rather popular. As a tendency, it might be close to the Straight-A-Student type, but this type tacitly assumes the gap between the face with (uncool, unsmart)and without glasses (adorable). It’s sophisticated.

Fashionable Type: Glasses rule as fashion! This one is slightly different from the other three. Some do wear fake ones, but not always. It’s totally up to the mood and fashion coordination of that day. Nothing inspirational mentally like the above three.

Hmm, looks pretty deep. I might want to continue writing about this as a series.

22 August, 2006

Autumn hath come...

akikinuto meniwa sayakani mienedomo
kazeno otonizo odorokarenuru


This is a Japanese song – or a poem from the ancient days.

It says,
”Autumn has come. Although I do not see it clearly, I was startled by the sound of the wind.”

Sounds kind of melancholic but in Japan, autumn is usually started with a series of typhoons so yeah, I guess the sound of the wind can startle me.
As for me personally, I just saw some thunderclouds the other day (like I wrote in the last entry) and felt like it was summer but then, last night as I stepped out of my house after work to go to the coin laundry I heard the chirps of bugs (sort of like crickets but not exactly: suzumushi in Japanese) and I have to say, I was surprised by the shift of the season already.

Come to think of it, it has gotten a bit cooler in the evening from around sunset yesterday and this morning wasn’t too bad either. The noises of the cicadas suddenly feel agonizing, like how candlelight burn the strongest and brightest right before it dies out. Now I feel like autumn is here.

We have four seasons and the changing is rather vague – it’s not something that ends on a particular day and starts from the next day – but it’s a little surprising how you can feel the difference or the shift in the littlest things like the smell of the air. And being able to attach feelings to it is another thing that I value and am proud of being born as a Japanese.

Having said that, I might be saying “woohoo it’s so summery!” tomorrow :P Who knows?

Oh, so I was writing how I saw thunderclouds for the first time this summer. Well my colleague told me that it’s been around like any other summer. Was it just me not having the breadth of mind to gaze at the sky?

21 August, 2006

A Wish Come True Blog!?

Saturday, the following day of the entry with the nyudogumo (thunderclouds) story, we had a beautiful weather with bright blue sky and summery temperature from the morning allowing me to fully feel like it was really summer. I gazed outside for a moment, and rather inevitably the white fluffy marshmallowy thunderclouds came into sight. It was something super little I guess, but because I just wrote about how I missed it on the previous day I was feeling really lucky, even hyper (hyper enough to give myself goose bumps) XD

Before that I was writing how I didn’t have the tickets to my dreamland Okinawa, but I managed somehow to get them so I’m counting down the days to paradise. Let’s see, is this a wish-come-true blog or what? LOL

Then my next wish is – to not become friends with typhoons and heavy rainfall when I finally set my feet on the soil of Okinawa. Too personal? Who cares :P

But seriously, if some of you write in some wish-comments and those came true, wouldn’t it be just awesome? It’s strange, I mean, the combination of digital stuff like computers and superstitious yet pure stuff like wishes and dreams... It’s not like there’s someone on the other side that makes your wishes come true, but you’re like talking to a world of 0 and 1. Yeah, so I’m not the kind of person who believes in fortune telling web sites cuz I know it’s just giving you random data (no offense to those believers). But honestly, it’s more than disappointing when you get the same results as your friend next to you.

Japanese people from the ancient days believed in the million gods (Yaorozu no kami) feeling awe and sacredness in every object and element of this world like mountains, rivers, rocks, animals, plants, fire, rain, wind, thunders etc. etc. In that sense, there may be a god in computers and the world of Internet. Anybody in for a wish-comment? :-)
(Disclaimer: Having said that, I also have to say that I don’t assure the results and I have no responsibility in whatever that happens.)

18 August, 2006

Where’s Summer?

Today we have more sunshine than we had in the past week together. It’s hot and bright and feels so like summer.

Ever since the rainy season ended officially at the very end of July we’ve been swaying back and forth through heat+sun and rain+darkness and I never really had a chance to feel “yeah, summer” kick ass!” and for the first time this year I realized why I don’t feel like we’re in the midst of the deadly hot and humid season – I haven’t seen nyudogumo yet.

Nyudogumo is only something like a nickname for thunderclouds. Originally the term “nyudo” was used to describe Buddhist monks (bozu) precisely because the term is consisted of the kanji which mean “to enter” and “the way”, namely “to go into religion”.
Some of the Buddhist sects including the Shaolinsi are on the martial side, and some giant men of extraordinary strength were invited for their strength to enter the way. Such men – besides their physical strength – were believed to have power also in psychic and divine powers, gathering respect and awe from lay people.

Not only for thunderclouds but also for many other strange, other-worldy phenomena the names of nyudo or bozu were given in those days. As for the thunderclouds, its weird appearance of growing larger and larger higher up in the sky with that unique matte kind of fluffiness and moreover its size amazed people into calling them “nyudo-gumo (nyudo-clouds)”.

Hmm, so I guess it’s like... people naming thunderclouds after Marshmallowman from Ghostbusters in 20th century... or maybe not. Something like that. Never mind.

Anyway, what I wanted to say wasn’t marshmallowman, but until I had my coming of age I grew up in Kagawa in the island of Shikoku located mid west in Japan, and because I lived by the water I grew up watching a lot of thunderclouds as if they were growing from the sea surface. The summer landscape I have in mind were, are and will always be the blue sky and bright white thunderclouds.

Because I haven’t really been seeing much of the sky to begin with this summer in Tokyo, I can’t really comment or complain but anyway I haven’t seen any thunderclouds this year yet.

It doesn’t matter too badly though, cuz my target is Okinawa in September and that’s when and where my summer is supposed to be. I know I’m going to have a blast! .... that kind of reminded me that I still can’t get hold of an air ticket for my vacation... hope I’ll get something this weekend...

17 August, 2006

Sprinkling Water for the Heat

Tokyo today, humid and uncomfortable as it can be. When it’s hot but dry, it’s usually pretty cool in the shades no matter how hot it is in the sun, but on a humid day like today shades never really make any difference. The best place to escape is probably the office where it’s chilly as winter :P

A/C is a great invention. It makes summer so pleasant. Water has this character of taking heat when evaporating (heat of vaporization) and as far as I know (not to mention this is made extremely rough) A/C are made with this principle to cool. Isn’t this the same as feeling cool when you wet your finger with water and stick it out in the wind? It’s super simple when you think of it that way, but A/C continues doing this for hours and generated enough heat of vaporization for the entire room or even hall. Wow, isn’t that something.

In Japan, as a means of cooling that doesn’t use A/C we have a custom of sprinkling water on the roads and grounds calles Uchimizu. It’s really simple, you just sprinkle water around the roads and gardens around your house (mainly in front of the entrance). For its eco-friendliness, the prefectural government of Tokyo started this campaign called “Tokyo Uchimizu Project” encouraging thousands of Tokyo residents to do Uchimizu at once to cool down the outside temperature. The national government also promotes Uchimizu as part of the global warming prevention policies, and many towns, villages and NGOs across the country are reviewing the significance of Uchimizu.

http://www.uchimizu.jp/

This Uchimizu Official Site holds high the slogan of “Let’s do Uchimizu and bring down the temperature two degrees!” If Japan alone can bring down two degrees (celcius), how cool can the earth be if more countries participated in the project?

Originally, Uchimizu was practiced with the principle meaning of purification and Uchimizu for the main entrance of the house was nothing more than care for visitors. It was common cultural practice until when, I don’t know, but anyway the custom is slowly dying away if not completely dead. It’s sad cuz it makes me feel like the heart and spirit of such Japanese values are being washed away.

Some of you may be experiencing hotter summer than here, some others cold cold winter, but when the hot time comes try sprinkling a bit of water outside your door front. And oh, it’s better you do it in the morning when it’s cooler cuz if you do it during the day when the ground is hot, the water evaporates faster and makes the air even more humid.

16 August, 2006

GAS!?

The price for gasoline is raising every second these days. According to the announcement of The Oil Information Center last week, the average gas price (nationwide, Aug 7, 2006) was 143.7 yen/liter. It says that the record has been broken for the first time in sixteen years since they started the research in 1987.

Like I mentioned in Monday’s entry, the season is summer and everybody’s on vacation with cars and planes for long distance moving. It’s probably the time of year when we need most gas. Even if it wasn’t for obon or for the oil anxiety gas prices go up up up during vacation seasons and torture our pocketbooks. It’s even said that it could lead to the shrinking of the gas market.

I heard this is because the oil distributors took in this new price setting system of clap on transportation fee and personnel costs on top of the rising oil price. Well, good for you guys. Take super unfair advantage, right.

By the way for your information, the highest price until now was 142 yen per liter back in November 1990 right before the Gulf War erupted. This was more due to the reason of oil crisis so it was proper to some extent, I guess, but this time there is way too much calculation to it. Usually what the distributors do in situations like this is to try to keep the price down as low as possible even though the surplus could be smaller, so that more people would still want to get gas and would hopefully lead to enlargement of oil sales. The price rising this time is unusually unusual... can you believe that it has risen for 14.9 yen per liter (11.6%) in only seven months?
I dear hope that this tendency stays only in the gas market, but I do kind of doubt it for obvious reasons...

15 August, 2006

End of WWII

So, as I wrote in my entry for yesterday today is the obon day, but it is also the day when WWII ended for us Japan. The day Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration. As a Japanese, I let many thoughts and feelings mix and whirl in my mind.

On this day 61 years ago, the voice of the Emperor announced flowed across the entire country through radio that we were defeated and that the war was over. My grandparents’ generation went through all of the war. Unfortunately, my grandfather who has actually gone to the battleground had passed away when he was still young, so I never had the chance to make him tell stories about the war. I wonder how he felt when he heard the radio.

My grandmother on the other hand, was very young when she experienced the war and has lived so much longer afterwards through the age of turbulent shifts and transformation, and cannot fully express her feelings then about the war.
She does, though, talk a lot about the peace today. A life with her grandchildren, a life with abundance that she could’ve never imagined back then. Happiness is smiles bringing more smiles, to be able to smile naturally.

The peaceful Japan we have today is the treasure that the war dead and the survivors have protected with their life.

But with the increasing atrocious crimes and cases, how much can we protect the treasure to pass down to the coming generation?

14 August, 2006

The Obon Week

Seems like the country is diving into the short short summer break. The middle few days of August are called obon and is the time of year to welcome and console the spirits of your ancestors. It was (or still is) originally July 15th, but due to school vacation season which starts in late July and more due to media, the main stream today has become mid-August.

Sadly, if I may describe, this is not so much of a break to really welcome the ancestors’ spirits as much as it is a national event of people in the urban areas going back to their hometowns all at once.
It’s a volkerwanderung. It’s a movement of herds. In other words, the decline in religiousness of Japanese people made obon nothing so much more than plain summer break for lay businessmen.

And I, one of those lay businessmen, cannot spare a break at this time of year (geeeeez I’m holy so busy) so will do so in September instead. It’s not even close to obon but will go back to my hometown and spend some time with my family and pray for my grand grand grand grand parents.
Although, I will be off to Okinawa before that.

11 August, 2006

SO HOT

Not really. It’s been rather cool to my great disappointment. Last summer
the weather or more like the heat was horrible. Bummer... bummer? Anyway.

I don’t care how hot or how cool it is this month cuz my summer break will
be in next month. Yoohoo, YES I am going to Okinawa next month. I have no
hope I can get some time off from work this month so I decided to work my
butt off during August and get a fairly long break in mid-September when
there’re less tourists around. I just can’t wait! So that’s my plan, and
of course I will be going to my favorite island in the Kerama which I have
been writing so much about in the past entries.

Until my last visit, I went with my good friend who worked in Kerama some
time ago and also appeared in my blog several times, but he can’t come
schedule-wise this year so I decided to invite four good old friends I’ve
been hanging out since college. The troublesome point about this trip
though, is that all four of them are first timers to Kerama and two of them
have never come down this south (this is their Okinawa debut). That means
that I have to be their tour conductor.

Unlike my friend I have never really spent much time there like working or
living, so I’m not that confident in entertaining my friends. But then, of
course, I remembered that there is no need for me to entertain them cuz
being there is just AWESOME. You don’t have to do anything to make them
have a great time, just be there!! All I need to do is to make sure everyone
is safe, and make sure the nature’s safe while we have all the fun.


I hope everyone simply falls in love with the island so that we can all go
together next year.
Until my trip, I’ll keep posts here including preparation and all that.

10 August, 2006

Day off

Sorry, kind of in a super hurry but wanted to drop a line anyways.
I'll try to post more from the next entry. Seeya!

09 August, 2006

Precious Japan

I found something really interesting yesterday on YouTube. It’s a film on Japan recorded by American delegates SEVENTY YEARS ago and it’s fully in color!!

See this:
Old Japan


Title: Floral Japan.
The funny imbalance between the sailboats and steamboats, the streams that make you feel the slow and mild flow of time, the beautiful ladies in kimono enjoying the seasons, the snow of cherry blossom petals, the modern architecture standing out in the city of Tokyo, relaxing resorts...

There was a line in the narration as follows:

”Japanese love cherry blossoms. They bloom at once, and gracefully fall – Japanese people see the course of human life in its wistfulness and vanity.

We Japanese have this spirit of loving anything fragile or brittle, not in terms of tangible objects but of intangible sense. Fireworks, they are truly a one-moment beauty visually but gives rather a strong impression and this kind of nostalgia or feelings in us. Sunset, what we see beyond sunset is the end of life. We care for these little daily and seasonal moments, feel wistful and are moved deeply.

I guess, part of this has to do with our idea of Buddhism and our perspectives for religion. Maybe I’ll touch upon that subject some time on Japan Mode.

As far as I can see from the film, I would say that despite the two huge wars and the pollution brought along the economic growth, present Tokyo still retains many of the values of Japanese beauty. It’s sad to say though, that those values are not scattered everywhere like it used to be and are something you have to search for in the narrow alleys and small corners. There was even a craze of looking for those values madly and call them “healing”.

When this beautiful country was called the Floral Japan, there might have been the precious values in all places that we now look for everywhere.

08 August, 2006

The Absence of Rain

Is now over. Until just a bit more than a week ago it rained and rained and rained like the sky wanted to drown us, but ever since the end of rainy season was announced all we’ve had for days was sun and heat. It was so nice and damn summery.

Today, for the first time since summer “officially” started we are having rain, and quite a heavy one from early morning. It’s been brought by the typhoon which can hit the country any time. It’s actually stopped now, but this morning the rain was so heavy that it almost stopped traffic and I had to sit in the commuting train for more than an hour whereas it usually takes only half an hour. I was fortunate, though, cuz I could get hold of a seat and get back my sleep ;-)

The good thing about rain this time is that it brings down the air temperature quite a bit. It’s true that it gets muggier but still. Oh, and as I was thinking, “all right, is it going to be hot again from tomorrow?” I just realized that today is technically the beginning day of autumn, Japanese calendar-wise. We have this calendar system which we apply the flow of time into year, month, week and day, and according to this system today is supposed to be the first day of the year when we can feel autumn in the air.

In reality, however, it turns out to be the hottest time of year with lingering summer heat. In fact, it’s not even “lingering”, it’s mid-summer. It would be super sad if summer is really over and all we have left is shorter and cooler days, cuz then it would mean that we only had a week of summer.

Oh, but I did see a dragonfly around last Sunday. I hear that dragonflies don’t have positive image or symbolism in the West. Anyway, Japanese people used to call dragonflies “akizu” in the old days and Japan itself was even called Akizushima meaning the island of dragonflies. That’s how dragonflies are close to our daily life. As it has in its name “aki”, the character for autumn, we do feel autumn in the air when we see dragonflies.

Feel summer in the buzzing of cicadas and feel autumn on the airy appearance of dragonflies – there’s nature left in Tokyo, good enough to feel the season. Not bad, huh?

07 August, 2006

Long Days

It has been so super hot and sunny for the past week that I can hardly believe the gloomy rainy days we had ten days ago. It’s a little past 17:30 (Japan time) here in Tokyo but it’s pretty bright out there. Not like there’s a good reason for it, but I just love these kind of un-drawing in evenings.

When I was a little kid I liked having longer days just because I can stay out and play longer, but as I grow older I feel like this is the time when I can take a deep breath and really relax for a moment.

I recently read in one book that, “the older we get, the faster time seems to pass. This is because we start to run time with the years we have lived.” I see, so a year is one fifth of your life when you were five, but one twentieth when you’re twenty. Sensuously, the same one year seems like it’s getting shorter, and so in that sense, the long daylight of summer becomes a true treasure to me.

Then, what is it like to have an entire day without sunset or night, like midnight sun? Wow, to me who’s never experienced midnight sun myself it’s unimaginable. Can kids play outside all day/night long?

I like the sun so I’m most comfortable when it’s warm and bright, but I bet there are many people who like night in contrast to people like me. There are places in the north where they don’t get to have much sun, right? Makes me feel how big this planet is. The idea of time and space... it’s overwhelming even just giving a tiny thought to it. Still, I like to let my mid drift on a long evening like today.

04 August, 2006

KOKOGA HEN DAYO NIHONJIN

KOKOGA HEN DAYO NIHONJIN
(“Japanese, ye guys r weird”)

There was a TV show with the above title aired for quite a while until 3-4 years ago. A number of non-Japanese people (except for those born and raised in Japan) living in Japan were invited to the studio as panelists and discussed about dozens and hundreds of topics on culture and custom of Japan that appeared weird to them. It was a very funny show. It wasn’t like a formal stiff show at all but had a lot of honest opinions and comments portrayed in a comical manner.

Well it’s been quite a while since the show had disappeared and I’m just curious to know what kinds of habits and manners of Japan and Japanese people amaze/ surprise/ stun/ shock/ etc. you? OR is asking this question already really Japanesey?

Japanese people like to compare other people with yourself a lot, down to the littlest facts. There are rankings for a bunch of things, and numbers for a lot of things. Some don’t care so much about the numbers they have, but some are over-conscious about ranks and lists and numbers that they suffer to hell. If we could all live in a more easygoing lifestyle, the top-of-the-industrialized-countries (by a loooong shot) suicide rate could drop a bit.

Let me say this, though. There must be a load of things that are understood wrongly from the original or the true meanings and reality. I’m not trying to correct all the misunderstandings or discuss about them, but I just wanted to let you know and also wanted to know how people outside of Japan view us. I mean, I’m sure there are many things that I just don’t see or never gave a thought to because I’m a Japanese from the core. Let me here some opinions :-)

03 August, 2006

At Last, Summer

Now it really feels like summer here. I hear the rainy season is over in Tohoku meaning that although later than usual, the entire country has now entered real summer. Hmm, the days when I was a little kid, I remember the rainy season ending in June and having summery summer from the beginning of July.

Considering the recent downpour in Japan and in other parts of Asia as well as the heat wave in some other parts of the world, the nature is surely losing balance. I mean, anyone can tell that something’s wrong with nature and the ecosystem. But the scale is so grand, you can only feel how powerless and helpless you are when you face the impact of nature. Sooo many people here despair over the disorder of the mother earth, but very few (if not none) move forward to actually do something about it. Everybody is like, “Oh no... the world is falling apart”.

Is this something happening only around me?
How do people talk about, or react against the topic of abnormal weather when it comes to a conversation?

And what are the solutions?
Raise one degree the A/C setting? Separate garbage?
I assume everybody knows that in his or her minds, but merely as a fact.
But how much effect can you actually see with your own eyes? How much does it help stopping abnormal climate to separate garbage? Way too vague, you need a lot of imagination and conscience.

But no, there might be something urgent or better for us human beings to work on. It might be that we just feel the present attempts aren’t good enough, but don’t know what the better methods are and just let our anxiety grow inside us.

Umm, I don’t even know what I’m writing or trying to write here, but I guess I wanted to say that it’s not time to be quarreling over gas exhaust regulations. The issue is bigger yet hard to see and hard to feel. That may be the biggest terror of the whole thing.

02 August, 2006

Big Boom in Japan

Some time ago I introduced here the magic gum that makes you smell like rose. Well, it’s disappearing from the storefronts as fast as it can. I mean, it’s disappearing in a positive sense. It’s way too popular. So popular that the supply can’t catch up with the demand.
Impressive... or surprising, isn’t it? I’ve never heard of anything that’s being discontinued because it’s selling off too well. The selling company Kanebo Foods commented about the discontinuance, “It has become so much more popular than we have expected and we have to stop producing it once and make a new start on this.”

Does this mean that there are that many men who are worried about their body odor? Then why don’t they just dash to the local drug stores and get something more medical that have more certain effects?

Another boom we have nowadays is mango. Anything that has a name that starts with or includes the word “mango” sells off really well. It’s not because those food make you smell mango fruity, but is because it’s something seasonal. The most popular desserts at restaurants are mango sweets, and the same thing can be said for supermarket shelves. But, we don’t see real mango that much, and I don’t hear about people swarming to the fruits section in the supermarket for mango fruit.

I see some common points in these two stories. Do you?
What sells well in Japan have added values, like high-tech accessory functions and/or things that make you feel like you’re saving money or get more advantages.
I know I shouldn’t be saying anything based on observations on only two phenomena but anyway, chewing gum. Assuming that the base function of chewing gum is to give some kind of taste for your tongue, the added value would be the function of making you smell good. This tiny added value raises remarkably the consumer’s appetite and the price isn’t different from the others. If you wanted something from the drug store to change your body odor from inside your body, it would cost you about 1000-1500 yen/week on average. Here, there is another added value of saving money.

Same for mango. Mangos... they are super duper expensive here. If you want a decent one it would cost you about 2000 yen. No matter how delicious it may be, normal people can’t afford that much money few times a month for fruit. Then what? People go reach for processed mango goods. Mango pudding, dried mango, desserts with small chunks of mango fruit etc. etc.. They’re like 500 yen each.

And never to forget diet products. It’s not like a particular one flies off the shelves, but there are tons of kinds. This too, like the rose chewing gum, has added value of this time “losing whatever-you-don’t want”. These food are handy when the problem’s not as serious as going to the hospital or drug store for medical care but you don’t want to leave them that way. Human psychology. Interesting.

If you ever want to sell something in Japan, set the price rather low and add just a hint of “(free) values” to it. “Wanna be/do this/that without hard work”...another indicator to measure Japanese character. I’ve gotta do more research on this.

01 August, 2006

Are You Happy? – Japanese People and the Sense of Happiness

It is super cool (temperature-wise) today here in Tokyo. No need of A/C, and is probably not a very smart idea to go out to the beach, but it is a perfect day to go sightseeing and also to play sports.
It seems like the high pressure – which usually is supposed to move up north together with the end of rainy season – has gone down south temporarily. But it’s not going to stay there long. It’ll come up again and we’ll have a nice sweaty summer as usual. Even today, the regions south of Kanto (that’s where Tokyo is) is right underneath the high pressure leaving them to nothing but heat. So we have cool weather in the northern half and hot one in the southern half. Interesting situation, the weatherman commented. Hmm.

Well today’s topic is not on weather but on Japanese people and the sense of happiness.
The other day on the news, I heard a report about this research and its results on the world’s population’s sense of happiness. To flatten it, the research was about whether you consider yourself a happy person, or an unhappy person. Adrian White, professor and analytic social psychologist of Leicester University analyzed the results of 80,000 individual reports in more than one hundred kinds provided by UNESCO, CIA, WHO, etc. who have conducted researches based on data of a British thinktank.
Based on his own method, he calculated each countries’ “happiness level of its people” and created a rank list. For details click here http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-07/uol-uol072706.php .

1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Austria
4. Iceland
5. The Bahamas
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Bhutan
9. Brunei
10. Canada
11. Ireland
12. Luxembourg
13. Costa Rica
14. Malta
15. The Netherlands
16. Antigua and Barbuda
17. Malaysia
18. New Zealand
19. Norway
20. The Seychelles

Seeing the ranking so far, you can easily tell that the top listed countries are those that have well-established social health and welfare plus education systems. When you think about yourself aging or coming down with some kind of illness, having and not having support from your country makes a huge difference, I think.
Anyway, so where’s my country? ... I scroll down and down, but can’t find it till... ah, there we are...

23. USA
35. Germany
41. UK
62. France
82. China
90. Japan
125. India
167. Russia

SWEET, 90th place out of what? Nearly a couple hundred countries. Super low. It’s even a bit surprising, at least for me. Even though the detailed calculation method is not disclosed, do we think of ourselves that unhappy?

BTW if I’m being asked the same question, “are you happy now?” I’d say YES. Don’t have mean diseases, not being chased after by collectors and I love my country. It’s not that I’m one hundred per cent satisfied with the present status, but satisfaction and happiness are different, in my opinion.

In the end, I think of happiness as something we speak of in relative terms. Some like me are happy with theirselves, but at the same time there are people who just don’t look at the bright side and keeps on complaining about what they don’t have and want. Man, if you start doing that, I’m sure that every single person in this world would fall into the unhappy category.

As I started to think that way, I realized that in that sense, countries with more people that have upward mobility in good terms and greed in bad terms rank lower in the chart. Of course, by absolutely no means I mean to say that the top ranking countries are lazier.

What I’m more interested in is how Japan and Japanese people are portrayed in the eyes of non-Japanese people. In some parts of the world, there are war and people dying from hunger.
There’s this saying in Japanese (altho prolly originally Chinese), “ishoku tatte reisetsu wo shiru”. It’s difficult to give the literal translation, but what it means is that “only after having enough to eat and wear you learn to have manners and courtesy”. To flip it around, it means that poverty invites chaos.

The point I want to get to is this: from the eyes of some other countries, Japan must be a country that has enough food and material for almost everybody. But the question is, do we have good enough manners?

It is not wrong to stride forward to gain something that you don’t have and want to have.
But, people who can use that energy for people around them, or people who can stride for other people’s happiness – I hope we have a lot of people like that in our country. And of course, I hope to become someone like that. That’s what’s on my mind on the first day of August.