Second Chapter of WebMANGA Released

The Second Chapter of Japan Mode's 100% original WebMANGA ChamaTama is up and out now!

In this chapter the girls encounter the cutting edge Shibuya fashion and get fascinated as compared to the kimono and ninja costume of the last chapter, so there should be a change somewhat. Now the manga has slowly started to move towards the direction of "nifty fashion-ninjas kicking ass in modern Japan". Hope it's good enough.

From the next chapter there will be more action and battles inside the city of Tokyo, and of course fashion stays to be the core element all the time so keep checkin'!!

Anyhoo, yesterday the weather was just CRAZY. Highs went up to 28C or higher, but today it's only 18C and it's cold. You know, if this was a couple of weeks ago and if the previous day hadn't been this counter-Indian summer kind of day, I would've thought, "wow 18C, awesome, I'm gonna go out in my T-shirt" but today, it's freezing cold.

What the hell generates this insane temperature gap!?Yesterday I was even like, "geez it's hot even in a T-shirt" but today I can't go out without a good jacket.

And what's worse is that the AC is on inside the office building, I mean like the entire building, on such a chilly day. What are the building managers thinking!? Okay, this is a software company and we have a BUNCH of computers in this small room but we do not need fridge air! Tomorrow's GW (yes finally, holiday for the last workers) but I feel like I have a cold somewhere inside me. C'mon, I'm not a high school kid!
(When I was in high school there was this horrible event on the previous day of GW, which made all students walk for 75kilometers: that's about 47miles: in one day. The school's scheme is this: after this dreadful event you get muscle-ache all over your body and can't go partying around over the holidays, thus prevents delinquency.)

So anyway, from tomorrow till Sunday Japan Mode as well as this blog will have no updates. Of course, Golden Week. See y'all next week!


Chapter2 !!

GW begins!

So as I wrote last time the Golden Week (GW) has begun here in Japan. Unfortunate enough, today and tomorrow are regular weekdays meaning regular business days so I have to come to office, but a load of businessmen who got these two days off on LWP seem to be rushingly flying out from the country with their family and friends. According to the announcement of Narita International Airport (aka Tokyo Int'l Airport) the number of people travelling abroad over the GW (counting from April 28 to May 7) totals 363,600 which is a record-high.

So far it sounds like the most popular destinations are in Asia, but in other places too, you might have higher chances of hearing Japanese around you than usual.

What most non-Japanese speaking Japanese people (I wanted to say, non-foreign language speaking Japanese) are wanting to ask people around them is probably most times "could you take a picture of us?" or something like that.
I guess tons of people from any country would travel around with a camera in their hands, but for some reason Japanese are especially known for their liking for cameras and "commemorative" photographs here and there. Along with the popularization of digi-cams these days, I think that the tendency is becoming more and more remarkable cuz you don't really have limits to the number of pictures you can take and you don't have to carry around film rolls.

If you're travelling with your family and/or friends, you'd probably want to have a group pic with all of you in it, right? But if you don't speak the language, things might not go smoothly as when you're in your homeland. If you happen to encounter a Japanese-looking person with a camera in his/her hand and has this "excuse me, could you?" kind of expression, kindly take a pic of them.
And of course, if you're in Japan and want to have somebody to take a picture of you and your friends, people here would be happy to help :-)

Huh? You'd ask for it anyways even if you don't know the language?
Well, take it this way. Japanese are shy LOL.

Golden Week right there!!

I already wrote about it on "Made in Japan" in Japan Mode yesterday but I think I'll write here too that the entire country (with some exceptions :P) is about to dive into the Golden Week as we call it. It's a weeklong May holiday and this year if you take off just a couple of days of work you can get a 9-day weekend!! ('m not sure if you even call that a "weekend")

Unfortunately my holiday isn't that long... I have to work on both the 1st and the 2nd :(
It's about time for me to head south to Okinawa. Man, it must be so nice there this time of year! Wanna swim in that clear blue water.

Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture of Japan and I think it belongs to the sub-tropical climate zone? It used to be a Kingdom apart from Japan and the islands still retain a lot of its unique culture, customs, language and life. It's an exotic and fascinating place for the people living in the rest of the country, especially for those in the northern half. It's Japan but isn't like the rest...time passes slowly and life is tranquil.

There are many Japanese like me who are strongly attracted to the southern islands, and I hear it's becoming a little boom among some people to move to Okinawa and live there for the rest of their lives.
I, of course would absolutely LOVE to move there and spend everyday diving and swimming. Well, my ultimate dream I guess.

I can't go there this Golden Week, but I am definitely going to step on the land by the end of 2006, so be prepared Okinawa, I am coming!

I can write a looong report here and/or on Japan Mode about Okinawa when I do go.

ob-gyn please

As I watched TV while getting ready for work, it said that there is a huge shortage in obstetricians and gynecologists (ob-gyn) in Japan. It said the problem is especially severe in the suburbs and the rural regions. An increasing number of maternity clinics are forced to close down or cannot give emergency surgeries/ cannot respond to emergent cases due to the lack of doctors.
Some local administrations are even trying to recruit ob-gyns with an unbelievably high salary (53 million yen = approx.USD460,000) but still they can't find anyone raising his/her hand, and some other administrations have to invite ob-gyns from abroad to see the local residents/mothers.

It doesn't naturally mean though, that doctors in general are running short. In fact, the number of doctors in Japan is increasing. However, only the ob-gyns are showing remarkable decrease.
In contrast to the aging of the present ob-gyns in Japan --- more than 40% of them are older than 60 years of age --- new doctors hoping to become ob-gyns have decreased to the point of only 3-4% of the total of those who pass the national exam for medical practitioners.

What's behind all this?
The TV show pointed out three reasons.

1) The frequency of duty: it is said that ob-gyn doctors have to be on duty more than twice as much as doctors of other departments. Makes me feel the fragility of tiny lives...

2) The number of medical lawsuits: because giving birth is a happy occassion unlike injuries or illness, failure in child delivery is considered to cause much more shock. Well... true, I guess. But then, ob-gyn doctors are given mental stress on top of physical fatigue. Poor thing... s/he'll be worn out.

3) Last but not least, the increase in high-risk pregnancy & delivery and the lack of hospitals' ability to respond to emergency: due to increase of the demand and supply of female labor force, more and more women marry late and become pregnant at an older age than before. For this reason and also because of fertility treatment in other cases, pregnancy has gotten riskier. But on the other hand not many hospitals are actually ready to take care of such pregnancy and thus the burden of each doctor is becoming heavier.

Each reason is pretty heavy and I can understand that not many want to become ob-gyn doctors...

You know, in a country which the birthrate is dropping one-way, isn't it critical that there aren't many hospitals that are ready to welcome those precious ones who want to give birth to their babies? Makes me feel like the future of this country is collapsing silently.

Several decades ago, like in my parents' or more like my grandparents' generation there use be a lot of midwives called samba-san. Samba-san didn't only deliver the baby, but took care of the mother while pregnancy, from food, daily care, massage, councelling and all that. They supported the mother physically and mentally.

The Japanese ob-gyn association looking ahead of the situation announced on 22nd a plan to secure maternity clinics that can respond to the described situations.

But as far as what I can see from the plan, there doesn't seem to be a concrete plan to increase the number of doctors.
Hey, I think that samba-san can save the future of Japan. Why don't the clinics and samba-san tie up and work together? Why don't the samba-san deliver babies with low birth risk while doctors take care of the more serious cases?

A pretty difficult and heavy matter, huh? But I think people have to face the reality so I decided to choose it as the topic of today's blog. Any revolutionary suggestions out there?

What's hot Shibuya?

Today I headed down to Shibuya to get some pix and ideas for the webmanga ChamaTama.

It's known to be one of the craziest place on earth (those who've been there know what I mean, I guess) but since it was a gloomy Wednesday 2 o'clock it wasn't as bad. I mean, I kinded wanted to get hold of a pic of the world's craziest crowd, but still I think it was the most crowded 2 o'clock in Japan April 26th.

Here's where the mecca of teens and early twenties girls Shibuya 109 is, and I (male) went into this fashion building (the whole building is another world) gathering up all the courage I have. Man was I nervous. I was dog-tired by the time I crawled out of the building.

So here I think I'll write down this season's trends (or perhaps more like tendencies) that I felt today.

First of all, the marine look. Something new this year, I think. I saw a bunch of border stripe patterns or clothing with sailor-looking embelishment. Colorwise, definitely white and navy blue. White is making its way this year, and cropped length rather than long pants.

Other than that, the sexy style still holds it position in the fashion trend. I'd even say it's gaining energy and is spreading throughout all styles. A little show-off of skin here and there. Phew.
In Japanese girl's fashion, the sexy-line and the cute/conservative-line for a long time were considered to be on the opposite side, but this time I saw sooo many cute&girly brands dressing up the mannequins with short-lengthed stuff.

Let's see, the other style that's becoming more popular is the 60-70s American style (at least, what Japanese acknowledge as 60-70s American... dunno if Americans would call it American). Can't explain it well, but it's like Samantha from Bewitched with a modern Japanese twist. I hear from the ladies that the latest fashion must-have items are... uh, what do you call them in English? Those plastic hair bands that kindergarten girls wear.

This time of year (when it's not exactly warm nor cold) many girls wear denim jackets like they have for the past several years. Short denim jackets with lacey fluffy frilly skirts here, fluffy curled hair with hair bands there... Gosh, how am I suppose to distinguish one from another from a distance? They all look the same.

Anyhoo, you can see the latest fashion everything if you go to 109. Items, shop staffs (cuz of course they wear the featured items of each shop) and last but not least the customers...

Imagine me thrown into such place. Must've looked like a real nerd.

Oh, forgot to say that these fashion styles will appear in ChamaTama ;-)


Today's Shibuya

One Year from the Tragedy

Today one year ago, there had been a huge train crash... probably the worst train accident in decades, in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture.
Since it was in the morning during the commuting hours the crashed train was loaded with passengers and in the end, 107 including the motorman died and 555 injured in this terrible accident. So today marked the first anniversary of this tragedy and there has been a memorial service held with many many victims' families attending.

Yesterday in fact, a track fault was found on a JR railtrack in Tokyo and the Yamanote Line (it's the loop railway running through core districts in Tokyo) had stopped for nearly all day. It just came at the wrong time I guess. I mean, it's only been one year and similar faults being found... I'm just glad that the fault was discovered early so that it didn't develop into a major accident. Geez.

Things like safety and security are disappearing from Japan today.
Worried about food due to BSE and bird flu,
doubts against public transportation due to the JR accident and faults,
having to have to suspect your own house's strength because of the quake-resistance data fabrication...
Since when have worries and concerns and doubts and suspicion spread across Japan like this?

Of course, I don't think that no country in this world has absolutely no worries at all. But a lot of them I suppose are worries beyond domestic issues. I mean, a country can't really solve problems like hunger and poverty and war issues all by her own, right? A bit different from the kind of worries Japan carries, I think.

Japan is not threatened by severe poverty or immediate wars. On the contrary, she's rather peaceful and rich. So at a glance, I guess she looks like a free and easy happy country.

But I believe that that's what makes it scarier and disappointing. The absence of tension makes people irresponsible and sloppy and lazy and we all have to feel worried and have doubts against each other because of that irresponsiblity. Very sad and disappointing and upsetting, isn't it.
Extreme selfishness lurk behind this insanity. In fact, the "restruction" of this extreme selfishness may be the most effective way to help Japan out from this insanity.

What do you think about the modern social disease of Japan?

The ChamaTama Wave?

It's been one week since the release of the first chapter of JMODE's webmanga ChamaTama. Thanks to several portal webcomic lists, the manga has been having quite a number of guests. Good start, I guess.

Some of the viewers kindly left comments (and we are very very grateful for them), and there was one suggesting us we should pay attention to the details of men's fashion as much as women's. True enough, but I have to say that it wasn't really in our initial plan. But he or she does have a point once that s/he's brought it up. Japanese men these days are quite conscious about fashion. And if we want to present the reality of Japan today, we simply can't neglect it, right?

So what's hot in men's fashion now? Largely influenced by the celeb fashion trend in women's mode (celeb fashion is a style imitation Hollywood celebreties and top Japanese actresses or charismatic idols/singers) Japanese men are into men's celeb fashion right now. What kind of a style is that? In a word, neat and cool. No dirty looking, no baggy clothes, no. And where do these men go shopping to? A lot of them go to Marui men's or the men's floor on 109-2. I tend to wear second-hand clothes so I'm on the Harajuku side, but.

My favorite shops are always the same. I just browse around my favorite places and that's it. Sometimes I go on new adventures but I can't seem to find new favorites that easily. Although, because I don't find new favorites that often the satisfaction of when I do is pretty big.

In that sense, the fact that a bunch of trendy shops in a wide range of styles and genres gathering around Shibuya - Harajuku - Omotesando area (they're pretty close to each other. barely walking distance, if you wanna give a try) is really helpful. Even if I cruise around town looking for secondhand clothing, I get to see the trendiest clothes on display on the streets so I get to know what's hot in town.

Anyhoo, I got off the track a bit but what I wanted to say is that ChamaTama isn't only a ninja-action manga but is a dispatcher of the hottest fashion and pop culture in Japan this moment. And now that I've written this, for both men and women. You'll see if you walk around Shibuya or anywhere elso around in Tokyo, there is no single style that everyone really follows. There are several styles and trends indeed, but different people have different tastes and they dress themselves quite differently. You see a whole lot of varieties in a city as big as this. It's a biiig mixture of different-ness. And I hope to implement and express this variety in the manga.

The second chapter of ChamaTama is scheduled to be updated on May 1st. That's next Monday. There'll be Shibuya and Shibuya fashion and all that sort in it, so make sure you check it out! Keep tuned to Japan Mode ;-)

A film on udon!?

Heyhey, hold the phone, a movie on udon!? How can you do that without inviting me to the board???

Uh, for those who are unfamiliar with udon, see here => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udon
So anyway, why this news makes me go crazy is because I'm from the land of udon, Sanuki. Sanuki is the old name for the present day Kagawa Prefecture, and as everybody in the country knows its THE land of udon.

Sanuki udon is excellent, of course (you MUST try it), and because of its brand Sanuki udon eatouts are extremely popular in Tokyo, too. As I wrote, I was born there so naturally I grew up with the most delicious udon in the world. I can even say that my baby bath was water used to boil udon! JK.

Newayz, I can't stop talking about udon once I start so I think I won't.
So this movie, it's going to be directed by the same director AND the producer as the biggest domestic hit Odoru Daisosasen which makes me really excited!

For a person like me who wants to someday become a film director, it's umbelievable that this project is going on without me in it, but just because the director Motohiro is from Sanuki like me, I think won't fuss about it anymore :P

Click here http://www.udon.vc/ for the official site of "UDON". It's all in Japanese but you can just enjoy the pix of udon appearing one after another :-)

All time McDonald's

The head of McDonald's Japan held a press conference and announced that from this May they'll start a 24/7 McDonald's here in Japan. They'll begin with 200 stores and will see how they turn out.

Come to think of it, 24/7 in Japanese fastfood industry is nothing surprising. I mean, most of the gyudon (beef bowl) eatouts are open 24/7. It's even strange that McDonald's wasn't open 24/7.

You can easily predict what the places are gonna be like, though. They'll definitely become good midnight "accommodations" for youngsters.
I once went into a First Kitchen at one o'clock in the morning and it really was a mess, I tell you. They act like the place is their own room, messing around, screaming yelling screeching, wearing make up, sleeping so on so forth... It really was a devil's nest :-(

Anyway, there's gonna be another night ZOO to look into!

Are McDonald's open 24/7 in the States?

63 years...

Today there was a news on a former Japanese soldier stepping on the land of his mother country for the first time in 63 years.

Wow, 63 years! sixty-three years! I haven't even lived half of that...
He says he has forgotten most of Japanese language and now all he can say in Japanese are only greetings.

So these things do happen I guess. I don't mean to discuss here about the War at all, but it makes me feel like the war is still going on. Born as a Japanese and fought as a Japanese, but couldn't come back to Japan and being declared among war dead, forgot the language but welcomed back after 63 years... unbelievable.

Recently the Japanese Diet has been having heated discussions over nationalism. The core of the discussion is whether or not to add a single sentence of "nationalism" to the Basic Education Law. So the ruling and the opposition parties have been confronting on this, but come to think of it, is there any other country in the world that actually refuses to teach their people to love their country?

In the end they concluded on the expression: "cultivating an attitude which respects tradition and culture, loves the nation and homeland that have fostered them, while respecting other countries and contributing to international peace and development." (Apr 14, 2006 Japan Times).

The former soldier coming back to Japan after 63 years says, "I'm really happy to be back in Japan. I can't describe in words how much I appreciate the Japanese Government and those who worked to make this come true. I'm excited to see and talk with my brother and my cousins."

Before arguing whether or not to teach nationalism (or patriotism?), I wish the country was one that would be loved by its people before having to be taught, just like this former soldier who had even forgotten is mother tongue didn't forget the love for his country.

Oh no, not again...

Um, is it only that I lack a sense of season? Some weeks or months ago (when I'm pretty sure I hadn't started this blog here on blogspot) I wrote that I accidentally wore a down jacket to work on a really nice 'n warm day and had a tough sweaty day.

Big surprise, I did it again. Although, it's the opposite this time.
Today I came out in a T-shirt and a thin jacket, and naturally took off the jacket in office that naturally made in T-shirt and blue jeans.
Before long I felt something wrong with my nose... and then I realized I got a bit of a runny nose... it was chilly. It was damn chilly.
I mean, the weather forecast said that the highs are gonna be as warm as 23C! That's almost summer you know! Why the hell am I so bad about this?
Well it's not me, it's the weather that's to be blamed! So cold for days and suddenly warm, and then you get cheated by the forecast and all that... gimme a break!

This morning on the news I heard that NY is getting more springlike, warmer and warmer. Now, I have one question here.
I feel like so many Western people here in Tokyo (I dunno if they live here or just on vacation, doesn't matter anyway) are stronger against cold weather/ temperature than many Tokyoaites. Like say, there's a day when the majority of Japanese people are wearing at least two pieces of long sleeved clothes (eg a shirt and a jacket) but then a white guy goes cruising down the street in a T-shirt.
The news of spring in NY said that the outside temperature there was 18C. People there were wearing short-sleeved Ts. Saying so, I started to feel like I came out in a T-shirt BECAUSE I saw that on TV. Today's high in the end was something like 18.

Are Japanese originally more weak against cold as compared to western people?

I don't think I can spend an 18C-day in a T-shirt.

Alas! The MANGA starts!

Well, here you go! The original webmanga series on Japan Mode has made its start!
Completely created by Japanese staffs only, from scratch, directed towards every computer screen in the world. Geez, I can't tell you how nervous I am. I mean, how are people going to react to this???

It's fully colored, completely free, no registration required, no software downloads needed, so if you get a chance, or have some free time, or like manga or are bored not having anything better to do, please please come have a look :-D

And if you have any comments to give, post it up here or give us an e-mail thru Japan Mode.

Here's the link to the manga. Enjoy!

Things do come out if you look for them

Some days ago I mentioned about the Singaporian karate family lost in the north mountains looking for the secret book. Well guess what? They've found it! Can you believe that? Now it's even more manga-like.

To go over the whole story again, 13 members of a Singaporian budo family came to Japan looking for a Japanese karate master, all because their deceased father left a message to do so. His last words were, "In the northern land of Japan which is not Hokkaido, there is a Japanese karate master. Visit him and ask him to give you the Secret Book."
There was a little accident in which 3 of the 13 members once got completely lost in the woods of Shirakami Mountains, safely found, but 11 of them still remain in Aomori Prefecture.

Well this was the story few days ago. This news was reported nationwide, and one person came forward thinking it could have been him that they're looking for.

His name is Mr.Fukuda. He was told by one of his friends "Mr.Fukuda, aren't you the one?" and as he wondered he went to see them in Hirosaki city on April 9th.

According to Mr.Fukuda, the Singaporian deceased father came along with a companion to the mountain training hall in Aomori Prefecture, and with a translator practiced karate discipline for 3 days. Their relationship lasted even after the father went back to Singapore, for Mr. Fukuda flew over.

At their meeting Mr.Fukuda told the deceased's wife and son about the training then and about the deceased. He described the deceased as "a serious, stubborn, introverted budo-ka whose hands were quicker than his mouth" and the family listened to him as they agreed with the described character.
Introverted... hmm, well, he was with him for only 3 days...

Anyway, what really attracts me is the Secret Book. This guy, Mr.Fukuda is actually not exactly a karate master. He's a master of this rare martial arts called Kukenpodo or something like that. I think it's a Chinese martial arts but what they do is this: they control the movement of the air and aura which is called "hado". Ain't that awesome? I wonder what's written on the Secret Book. I want one if I could LOL.

In the end, this Secret Book, Mr.Fukuda cannot give it to anyone because it's something he received from his master when he completed his training in China. But instead he offered to award the deceased a certificate of this art, and the family happily accepted his offer. The awarding ceremony is (or was?) held today, on the 14th of April.

Well if you can get it just by asking for it, then it wouldn't be a "secret" book right?
But then they had this "ceremony"... who imagined things would become this big? It's a national news LOL.

Anyhoo, it was the first news in a loooong time that made me feel like a little boy again, with lots of exciting words in the news. Let's see, shall I start creating a Secret Book on yam-natto salad (see yesterday's article)?

Maybe tonight, too

Yesterday I wrote that a new webmanga will start on Japan Mode, but sad news... due to some technical problems we can't release it tomorrow :-( I'm so sorry. But we will have it out definitely during next week, I promise, so those of you looking forward to the manga, I'm super sorry but please wait for a few more days and please please check it out.

Sorry for opening up the blog with "sorries" two days in a row.

Now. I haven't had chances to get back home as early as I wish to... it's actually quite late... so naturally I have dinner around or past midnight. And this, by no means is good for me, a person who is quite conscious about his weight. I don't want to fill in my stomach before I go to bed, but I can't sleep starving so I have been having just small meals for dinner these days.

And I've found a new hit! At one chain of the convenient convenience stores, there is this... uh... salad? which is a mixture of cut yam and half-boiled egg. You add some natto to it, pour the attached soy sauce-based dressing and a hint of wasabi, mix it, and then you get a marvelous taste! This and one onigiri (rice ball) make a nice dinner. Satisfies your stomach and nutritious, too ;-)

...Uh, having said that, I realized it's a 100% Japanese dish. Can you imagine what it's like by reading this? Frankly, it doesn't look good at all so I won't put a pic here, but if you're in Japan and are okay with natto AND yam... and wasabi and egg and soy sauce... (wow, then you have a Japanese tongue!), it's available at any Seven Eleven so go grab one!

A new MANGA is starting!!

Firstly the rain. I wrote that it's too bad that the cherry blossoms had to be beaten down to ground.
But it wasn't just the cherry blossoms were beaten, so were the houses! The storm was so much more powerful than I imagined.
Geez, I feel so sorry for those who were worse affected by the storm. Sorry for being so carefree.

OK. So those of you who had a peek in our web site (thanks a ton!) already know, we are going to launch on Japan Mode a completely original webmanga :-D
It's fully colored (so beautifully), totally charge-free, and solely created by Japanese staffs from scratch. If I do say so myself, I believe it's high-quality. So all the manga work is in high gear, and I do hope you guys'll like it. Don't forget to check out Japan Mode this Friday. k?

The locale is Tokyo in the near future (really near, like a few years from now), and I can't tell you much about it right now but two ninja girls and a guy unfold an amazing series of nifty and cool action against the enemy. We're trying to bring in latest Japanese fashion elements into the manga as well as other craze and traditional elements at the same time, so it shall give the readers a new punch ;-)

Anyway, I'll pick it up here on this blog every now and then.
Come join the fun!!

Storm Beats the Blossoms

The entire country is covered by thick and heavy rainclouds. Rain is pouring pretty much everywhere from north to south of the country. The low that hit Kyushu yesterday is said to have brought more than 250mm (1 inch) of rain in 24 hours.
Now this low is trying to make its way from west to east as it gradually grows, so it's hanging out around western Japan today and will come across Kanto tomorrow.
It's ok to rain... it's a natural law... but this time it's very unfortunate that it's coming at the time when the cherry blossoms are starting to fall.

Cherry blossoms at full blossoming is certainly beautiful, but to walk through a shower of falling sakura petals is as beautiful and moving. I think it takes you to another world for a while, and the pink carpet created by the fallen petals too is something you can't miss. Or at least, I can't miss.

But this heavy rain...

Too bad :(
Instead of a light sweet shower and pretty carpet of sakura what I'll have is a real cold and gloomy rainshower and dirty, beaten up poor petals.

Very disappointing, but I guess I won't see the marvelous end of sakura this year. I'll have to stand it. I've seen a lot of full blossoming through my reports. I hope next spring will be a pretty one to the end. And I hope the front will wonderfully avoid Kanto region so that I won't be soaked.

Released on the same day in Japan and US!

Released on the same day in Japan and US!
...wow, that's pretty long to say in English. Nichibei-Douji-Koukai in Japanese.

Anyhoo, this is about movies.
This phrase is kind of like a biiig ad word in Japan. It makes the movie sound really special and it gives great advertising effect. But of course, it's not a bit effective to promote movies this way in the States, is it?
I didn't even care about it until I saw the trailer for DaVinci Code.

Come to think of it, Japanese people have a unique and interesting national character. They feel huge complex against the West and at the same time love foreign stuff. Some Japanese person who didn't exactly succeed in Japan sometimes goes abroad and gets great praises, and guess what? He or she becomes a hero back in Japan. It actually happens quite often.

Is it that the grass looks greener on the other side all the time? Or is it because Japanese people is said to lack nationalism?

This so-called lack of nationalism is actually one of the most significant problems regarding the connections between Japan and the world.

Globalizing Japan and Japanilizing Globe.

As this is probably my biggest interest at this moment, I'd like to write about it every now and then if I notice something or if there's any news on it... or more likely, when I don't have anything else to write about :P

a VERY manga-like true story

This is a news from April 5, 2006.
Several members of a budo-ka (martial arts) family from Singapore, lost in the snowy roads of Aomori (northern end of mainland Japan) were safely taken into protective custody.

If this was all about the news, then I would have been like "hmm, maybe they were going through some kind of shugyo (training/ discipline)... which already is enough manga-like.
Anyway, what really flipped me out was the reason for coming to a snow mountain in Japan all the way from tropical Singapore.

5 years ago this family had lost their family who was a grand master of martial arts teaching Karate and other budo in Singapore. The two sons of this GM were not at all interested in their father's passion and occupation, and while they (this was when the father was still alive) hovered around the succession problem, the dojo's most precious Book of Secrets of Karate got stolen by one of the disciples.

The poor dying father had to worry about his dojo and succession untill his very last breath. Coming up with no concrete solution to get back the stolen book, he finally gathered his last breaths and voice and told his family, "There is a keeper of Kyokushin Karate in Soma-mura of Aomori Prefecture. Pay a visit to him and ask him to pass over his Book of Secrets."

So, that's why they were in the middle of freezing white way up north in Aomori.

Doesn't this sound like a story inside fiction books or manga?
Well I do understand this is fricken serious business for the family, so I dear hope they get to obtain the Book and complete the succession ritual.

....

So do they have like this ultimate esoterica?
Wonder what it's like... :-)

Recovery...?

Hmm, my cold doesn't seem to get any better. Well it hasn't been that long since I first felt something wrong with my throat so I can't expect that good of a recovery, but you know, when I was much younger I never dragged colds. It only took me a night's good sleep to cure it.

This half-recovery is again a bit difficult. Since it's half recovering I go like "Ok, it's almost cured" and stay up late. But that ends up torturing my poor body. So in another word, it's the time when I have to be the most careful, isn't it?

And I'm pretty sure this is universal. But similar my stomatitis editions, there must be a zillion folk remedies around the world. Why don't we have a contest to see which folk remedy works the best? LOL
Who knows, you might get some interesting result.

For those who can read and understand Japanese, see this: http://www.nandemo.syo-ten.com/search3/hidentop.html
You can browse through all kinds of Japanese folk remedies.
BTW, my symptoms now are coughs and sore throat so the remedy for that must be "sugered kumquat with a hint of ginger".

Doesn't sound that exciting... I mean, pretty normal isn't it, considering the "baked snail" for stomatitis... which apparantly I have NOT tried.

The sick season

Four seasons in Japan are quite distinctively different. Weathers and temperatures change dramatically…supposedly.

Of course, there are the shifting seasons which we are experiencing just now, and this shifting season is the most difficult time to go through. For example, you have a couple of days which the temperature goes above 20C with clear blue sky, and then the next day you suddenly get a rainy 14C. You don’t know what to where so your room becomes so messy with woolen and down feather coats with T-shirts all mixed together.

There’s this saying in Japan “sankan-shion” which means “three cold, four warm”. It literally means after having three days straight of cold weather you get four days of warm one. What it really means is though, you get a whole mixture of different weather and temperature during the 7 days of the week.

What’s bad about this is it really confuses the human body. If it was getting gradually warm, you can adjust and adapt to the shifting of the seasons, but this “faint attack” of switching b/w warm and cold really makes you sick physically.

And so here I am, with a nasty cold. Well I guess it’s my bad that I wasn’t careful enough, but how could I be? So many people around me caught colds.

If you’re coming to Japan during any of the season shifting seasons, beware. Don’t forget to bring some clothes both for warm and cold weather (and pollen allergy’s pretty nasty this time of year too). Of course you can buy them here too. So many people still think everything is freaking expensive in Japan, but it’s not that bad everywhere. I mean, you just have to look into the right places.
Buying some clothes here can be souvenirs for yourself, but bringing back a cold definitely isn’t cool.

It is a season that is also beautiful cherry blossoms, really the best for the
travel.

Tokyo - Osaka 3,900 yen!?

You know, something about spring really makes you want to go to Kyoto. Well if you know Kyoto even just a bit, it's an awesome place to visit at the peaks of every season.
Anyway. I used to live in Osaka so Kyoto was only a stretch away. It was a tiny excursion. But in the past 3 years ever since I came to Tokyo, I only visited the ancient capital just once.

It's not that cheap you know. If you take the shinkansen (the bullet train) it easily costs you more than 10,000 yen which is not cheap at all. It's a big trip. You can't be like, "hmm, maybe I wanna go to Kyoto over the weekend for hanami" anymore.

But the other day I happened to come across this unbelievable number Y3900. Wow was I surprised. Tokyo - Osaka for only 3,900 yen! And what's the transportation? Bus.
I knew about the overnight bus services even before I got to know about this Y3,900 service, but those were somewhere around Y5,000. In fact, I used it a lot cuz it's cheap, but the presence of this Y3,900 one really knocked me out.

If you take the shinkansen it takes only a bit less than 3 hours, whereas you'll have to see a good 10-hour-ride if you take the highway bus. Time is money, if you want to make it cheap, you have to take time I guess. So for a 10-hour-ride I actually think 4,000 is quite decent.

But as many of you probably know, these kinds of long-distance-buses run only during night so as soon as you hop on, all you have to do is to fall asleep... which for some people may be the hardest part.

I hear that the seats are nearly full if not completely full even on weeknights. It may be hard to take a ride right after landing in Japan, but for those backpackers it may be an efficient and cost-saving way to travel around. Keep it in mind ;-)

...but I can't guarantee the comfort level of your sleep.

Beginning of April!!

As I wrote last Friday, it looks like the new shakaijin (lit. means 'ppl of the society' = full-time employed workers) have entered their new environments.

This morning as I was commuting, I could see that there were more people on the train than before and I could really feel that a new year was beginning (as explained before, the fiscal/school/work year starts in April). Thanks to the recovering domestic economy, this year the private sectors have employed more workers as compared to the previous several years. Even the well-off companies like for instance Toyota, has increased new employees from 1700 last year to 1900 this year, and held the entrance ceremony in Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture.

The news tells that the rate of senior students with job offers at the point of February 1st 2006 was 85.8% which exceeded that of last year's by 3.2 points. Like I said, the gradually recovering economy plays a big role in the increase of job offerings, but there is a bigger reason behind it.

This is kind of a unique case to Japan, but there is this problem called the "Y2007". Anyone heard of it before?
Just after the War ended, from about 1947 to 1951 there was this phenomenon in Japan called "baby boom". People born during these years are generally called the dankai generation (the babyboom generation) and these dankai generation people are the very actors who played the most significant role in bringing Japan up to one of the largest economic countries in the world.
However, the roles they have played are so big that the loss would no doubt be as big when they retire, and in the following few years most of these people are going to.

Of course, there's this problem of severance pay too, but the loss of working skills are much bigger. The number of workers retiring - people who are in a way professionals and adaptable fighting potentials in each field - is significantly large, large enough to tilt the management of companies especially those with quite a bit of history. So to fill in the biiig hole which will come soon, companies have started to recruit more new employees, and in year 2007, it is said that the numbers of demands (companies) and supplies (newly graduating students) will equal if you won't be too picky about which job you want.

Well this was too much of an abstract description and the reality is much more severe.

So here you go, shinshakaijin! The hole is big and deep, so work hard to fill it in ;-)

The end of March

In Japan, April is the the time for fresh new start. Some enter new schools, and some others become full-time workers for a company.
That means, today, March 31st is the very last day for all of us to enjoy the "old" positions and environment.

Although, new students probably don't feel as much differences as compared to new-workers since there's about a week till the entrance ceremony and additional few more days till classes really start. But the new-workers.... imagine how excited and anxious they are. Whew. I bet many are sighing counting down the last hours they have "the privilege" of lighter social responsibility.
...But then, I just realized now that today's a Friday. So I guess people can enjoy a couple of more days of party freedom ;-)
Monday, first day of work... must be hell :P Youngsters, be prepared!

It's actually not that bad though being a working adult.
Indeed, social responsibility may daunt you making you feel really stressed and tired, but if you have something that you really want to obtain in that field, it's actually a fantastic environment to settle yourself into. So don't be so scared :-)

I wish you all of those becoming a working adult happy departure!


...well, I myself is not that good of an adult, LOL

So is wasabi that big?

As I was watching TV the other day, it said that wasabi is really a huge craze in the West.
Well?

TV shows most times exaggerate the story like three times at least and make the story sound so true where as the reality isn't exactly as it tells. So this time, I guess half of the "huge craze" is true which means that the fact that it's popular to some extent is true.

So this show showed the extreme: this white person (I think it was in the States), in a sushi restaurant, without soy sauce --- and even without the rice of the sushi --- put some lemon juice on wasabi and dipped the sushi topping in that wasabi and carried it to her mouth. Now, I don't think that's the common way.
The reason for this wasabi craze (or whatever you call it) I hear is the anti-aging effect it has.

Originally, wasabi and other stuff like ginger are called yakumi which are a bit different from seasonings. The primary role of yakumi is to add a hint of flavor, relish and color to the main dishes. Yakumi takes away the "raw smell" of the ingredients and stimulates one's appetite. Moreover, as it is written with the kanji "medicine" and "taste", yakumi also has some medicinary efficacy.

Is this stinging flavor of wasabi something like, "Good medicine stings more"? LOL

When I was a kid I couldn't have this really stinging green stuff like many other kids, so when I had sushi they were basically all non-wasabied sushi, but strange thing, this hotness becomes comfortable as you grow old. Now I can't have sushi without it.

So I hear that the popularity in the States and Europe off from the health aspect, but you'll soon find out the medicine turning into addiction.
Anyhoo, even if you're addicted to it and you're really in love with it, no one thinks sushi with fish on top of lemoned wasabi is cool. Watch out. Your mouth (and actually prolly stomach too) is on fire.

Revel in the Night Blossoms...

Last night I went to take some pix of night cherry blossoms for my web site.
Wow, can't tell in words how admirable they were.
The place I visited this time was Rikugien, a former Daimyo (feudal lord) Garden in Japanese Style. Suddenly it flicked in my mind that the cherry illumination is until the 29th so I grabbed my camera and set off.

Actually it wasn't my first time to visit Rikugien. I once visited the garden last autumn to see the light-ups of the autumn leaves, and since it was so beautiful and I loved the garden then, I was in fact expecting a lot this time as well.
As I got off the JR Yamanote Line at Komagome station and walk just a bit, I found many people forming a line at the ticket office of Rikugien entrance. There weren't this many people for the autumn leaves, and it made me reaffirm the love of Japanese people for cherry blossoms.

After a few minutes walk from the entrance, the famous shidarezakura of Rikugien came into sight. Shidarezakura is a weeping cherry tree, and it literally means "a cherry tree with drooping branches". As famous as it is, this tree was truly beautiful. Shidarezakura usually blossom earlier than the representative of cherry blossoms Someiyoshino, so already at yesterday's point the tree was at full blossoming which of course is the most beautiful of all times.
My fingers unconsciously clicked the shutter so many times, and many other people around me were also taking dozens of pictures with their cameras and cell phones.
You can see the pictures that I've taken in the PHOTO section of Japan Mode.

Anyhoo, cherry blossoms are just so pretty! Faint yet colorful pink blossoms against the dark night sky... amazing. You really forget time, you know.

Unfortunately, the illumination of the cherry blossoms end today (29th) so those who're thinking of visiting Rikugien for something lit up, consider going there in autumn for the autumn foliage. They're equally beautiful. And even if you don't really stubbornly stick to "lit-up-something" do remember the name RIKUGIEN :-) It's definitely a place to visit when you come to Tokyo.

So here I go, off to the next sakura coverage :-D
Do check back this blog and Japan Mode for seasonal pix of Tokyo!

The Convenient Convenience Store

End of the month! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
Why whee? Of course whee. Pay day!
It's the only time of the month when I get really really dreamy doing some fictive happy money calculation LOL.

But as I drown in the sea of material desires dreaming of the next things to buy for myself, somewhere in reality what is left in the corner of my flying mind, I hear the daunting shadow tip toeing slowly bringing me back to this world.

Bills......

Oh please.
Rent, gas and electricity, Internet, water, cell phone bills bills bills...
Money so vigorously flying off from my hands...
My sweet little excited heart gets bitten by reality and shrinks and shrinks and shrinks.

In Japan, things are becoming sooo convenient that you can do pretty much anything but residing in a convenience store. Additionally to being able to buy food and drinks and daily supplies, or concert tickets or plain tickets or video game softs and books, or draw out money from the ATM, you can pay for public utility charges like water, gas and electricity and even cell phone bills in pretty much any convenience store you see around regardless the chain.

But the downside of this convenience is that because it's so convenient and easy, you tend to forget to actually do the payment thinking, "Oh, I can do it next time." It's just so easy that the convenience becomes the flaw. Right. I'm one of those (as always) falling into this trap.
I was going to pay for this month's bills during lunch time as I went to the convenience store to grab some food but beautifully forgot to. Well, I guess I'll do it on my way home tonight.

I don't usually spend more than 1,000 yen at convenience stores cuz the only things I buy there are food and magazines, but every end of the month I realize my self with thousands of yens slipping away through my fingers at the cash register of the convenience store.

Anyway, I guess I'll be in good care of the convenience store for a little more while for the end-of-the-month payments. It certainly is a bit troublesome going to the stores just to let go some big money, tho.

Huh? Why don't I just make the payments automatically at a bank?

It is a bunch of the bill that this is frightened.

The day when we have two Tokyo Towers

Now, the location for the Tokyo Tower Jr. has been decided and the project is on the move.

Whether a Tokyoite or not, or a Japanese or not, I guess that Tokyo Tower comes to the minds of many people when they think of picturesque Tokyo.
That tall red steel tower is actually facing a crisis of not being able to fully function as a digital terrestrial broadcasting tower being surrounded by buildings much taller. If the current situation continues, the complete shift of braodcasting from analog to digital in 2011 is highly likely to not go on smoothly and the future of the broadcasting in Tokyo would endangered!
So this is how the construction project of the 600 meter scale monster broadcasting tower came up. (FYI the current Tokyo Tower is 333 meters tall.)

And what comes next after some big project like this starts to move?
Of course, fierce competition for attracting the monster.
Although it's a junior, it's still Tokyo Tower after all. Is it like, even if you're a second wife you're still the king's wife? lol

The candidate locations for the junior included Sumida Ward (which in the end won), Saitama City, Adachi Ward, Toshima Ward and so on.
For those who have no clue about Tokyo geography it may sound very uninteresting, but anyway, so many places yelled out, "Junior to my area!" fighting to catch the heart of the board. Well, competed. Anyway, this strange committee called something like the intellectual board for the construction of the New Tokyo Tower (or whatever) decided that Sumida would be the most suitable. The reason: Sumida has the most advantage in technological terms and geographical terms, among all the candidates.

Those living outside of Tokyo may have no idea what's in Sumida. To give you a brief brief brief note, this is where Japan's biggest fireworks competition is held, where the Kokugikan is (the holy ground for the national sport sumo). In another word, it is the Shitamachi (former downtown) area which still retains thickly the atmosphere of the good old Tokyo.

I don't know what went through the minds of these intellectuals on the board to build a 600-meter-tall steel monster in the midst of the Edo downtown, but in a way, I feel like "Right, that's so Tokyo." You know, mixing the old with the newest.


http://www.sumida-tower.jp/index.html (Official Site, Japanese)

So what do you think?
All I can think of now is "what would Tokyo look like from 600 meter above ground?"
At this moment, it's just that the location has been determined and nothing more, so if there's an update I'll write about it here and on my web site Japan Mode.

Have your name converted into KANJI!

Recently the "Kanji name-converter" is showing some popularity on my web site Japan Mode.

Quite frankly the visitors to my site is not that much... :-( but yet there are several requests a day on busy days and even if not that much, there is still at least one request every other day.
Visitors don't just read the contents but actually click and open up the mailer to give us an e-mail... some feel kind of reluctant doing this feeling a bit troublesome, so e-mails like these really make me happy.

At the same time of being cheered up by these e-mails, I also get this excitement and content that I'm helping people get to know a little piece of Japanese culture :-)

We thoroughly consider the best combinations of kanji for the names we receive, as if parents deeply think of what to name their newborn baby. Really.
Since kanji names can go both by sound and meaning, there can be hundreds of combination patterns for a single name, but among those hundreds we try to come up with the best one that we think has the brightest or most elegant, or strongest... so on so forth... meaning.
The only problem we have is probably the sophisticatedness of the kanji. For simpler ones don't look as cool or not enough kanji-like, the ones we choose tend to have many strokes and complicated structure (like most of the used kanji are, actually). I assume for non-kanji-readers they're all like another kind of shape or figure, and most times end up a bit difficult to write yourself...

So fixing the difficulty level as we combine the more appropriate kanji is a bit of a brainwork, but still all staffs are quite excited to see the next requests. It's all the more exciting cuz we get to know so many different names from different cultural backgrounds :-D

If there are those who want to see what your name looks like in kanji, or want to add your kanji name on your business card, or for any other purpose, come have a look at our site for some examples and perhaps send us a request.

Or, if you have anything you want to know about Japan, if you have any requests for some new contents, or have a question that you can't seem to find an answer to anywhere on the web, give us a holla!

Could Yellow get any yellower!?

"Hey, aren't your hands super yellow?" said one of my co-workers the other day.

"Do you think so?" I replied sticking out my hands to him as we compared our hands.

"...!!" Indeed, mine looked super yellow.

"Jesus, this is what you call yellow... gross." I said to myself. This was the first time when I realized how yellow my hands are.

Hmmm, is this telling me that maybe I have jaundice?
I suddenly grew immensely worried so I looked up on the Internet what the jaundice symptoms are like, and this is what I found out:

- Jaundice is the status in which the blood vein carries excessive amount of yellow pigment "bilirubin"
- mass production of bilirubin... hemolysis/ blood infusion
- reduced processing ability of bilirubin... deterioration of liver functioning (leads to hepatitis)
- reduced excretion ability of bilirubin... blockage of biliary tract (leads to stones and cancer)

wow wow wow wow, hang on a minute. This doesn't sound any good. Let's see, hepatitis, bilestone, cancer... some of the worst names you'd like to hear, huh?
But why is it? I don't drink at all and I don't remember eating and drinking excessively either. I do keep irregular hours to some extent due to work, but still I think I'm getting enough sleep.
Why? What's this naughty little thing that's trying to make me even more yellower?

...is it the Chocola BB (vitamin supplement) that I've been taking for my stomatitis

The left is my hand, and the right of an ordinary Japanese.
Can you see that the colors are totally different??

Congrats to Oh JAPAN!

The World Baseball Classics is now over stirring up great excitement across Japan.

The finals yesterday marked a TV audience rating of more than 40% since first, Japan made it to the finals and second it was a national holiday here (NOT because we made it to the finals!). Wow, this is quite something. Nearly half of the TV population was glued to the TV, right?

Well, before it all started many people were like, "Does it really mean anything?" but once it started it really produced high fever --- with some "happenings"... but I'd have to say that if there weren't these "happenings" that is to say the refereeing error issues, the tournament wouldn't have been so hot.

That "misjudgment" gathered attention of baseball fans of course, but not only them also more common people not as excited by baseball itself. Quite scary... the power of anger... lol.

But excitement with just a one-time attention doesn't last long on its own. What made the tournament to exciting was after all, the wonderful, amazing and powerful performances of the players :-)

And how did I spend my day? Well I was literally drowned in baseball celebrating the most glorious day of Japanese baseball history, watching the game all day long since I got up at noon, then the live broadcast of the champagne party afterwards, and the sports news till the very end of the day.

So what's the real thrill of baseball? Personally I think its this development rythm of the game, you know, you really put in your emotions to every move made. I used to play baseball when I was in school so I feel especially close to baseball than to other sports, but frankly my interest in it was becoming weaker as I set myself apart from it. But this tournament brought me back to the excitement of baseball. Woohoo. K, I feel like digging out my baseball glove I put somewhere.

Can't beat the sleepiness

In Japan, there is this saying "In spring one sleeps a sleep that knows no dawn".
It's originally Chinese and is a sentence from one of the Chinese poems called kanshi.
What it fundamentally means is that the sleep in spring is so comfortable that you never realize the break of dawn, and in my reality... so drowsy that I can barely keep my eyelids open.

Even when I sit towards my desk, each movement becomes super slow. First, my brain stops functioning and abandons to "think". And then from the fingers I set on the keyboard I get this sensation like my blood is flowing backwards, but still I feel so relaxing, and then that sensation spreads across my body to my head and to my legs.
Slowly any kind of sound around me starts to fade away like I got my ears muffled, then my body grows warm from inside, and by the time that warmness reaches my ears my mind is already off to the world of dreams.
And you know, at times like this you never realize that your eyelids had shut, so without being able to be aware that you're actually sleeping, time passes surprisingly fast. So when I see the clock again, I'm always like, "Hey, was I sleeping?"

Well, I'm not too different the rest of the year so it doesn't sound that...uh, you know.
But even then, why is it that you get so easily sleepy and tired in spring as people have been saying for thousands of years ago?

A recent study reports that this spring drowsiness has something to do with the disturbance in the balance of the autonomic nerve, which supposedly keeps control of various functions like breathing, digesting, circulation and metabolism.

During winter, this autonomic nerve controls the blood veins to tighten up so that no extra body heat goes out of the body. But in spring when the weather becomes warmer, the nerve orders the veins to loosen to let body heat out. The thing is that during this season shift, weather and temperature fluctuate so much from day to day, morning to night that the nerve loses control of adjusting and becomes very unstable. And when the autonomic nerve is disturbed like this, uncomfortable symptoms like drowsiness and listlessness start to show up, contributing to the increase of people saying, "I get really sleepy in spring."

Scientific researches like this really helps me you know, cuz I can make an excuse by saying "sorry, my automatic nerve seems to have lost balance" when I fall asleep during work. Hehe, just kidding.

Anyway, anyone out there coming to Japan on say a business trip, don't be upset when your business partner seems sleepy and unconcentrated. Sleepiness disturbs carefulness and discretion. Perhaps leaving your partner sleepy would be favorable to you, lol.

The Spring Storm

Last night the wind and rain was so hard that I was actually stunned rather than surprised.
It was what we call a spring storm, and although it's not the rainy season or the typhoon season or anything like that, we often times get strong wind and rain because of the occlusion.

Oh, and I learned just now that the definition of storm is a high wind accompannied by rain, and is not an authoritative met term. Hmm. Didn't know that.

Anyway, I was a bit impressed to see the domino at the bike parking outside. Barely any bikes were actually standing and most of them were literally slammed to the ground.

The wind hasn't settled down yet, and although we have no rain today the wind is pretty strong that my hair which I perfectly set in this morning got all messed up by the time I reached my office. Not only that, the public transportation seems to be hugely affected by this wind: some train lines have stopped for some considerable time or have been delayed. So our company, with clients scattering around the country with a good number in Tokyo and the outskirts, seems to be in a petit panic today.

But to see the other side of it, it's an indicator telling us the clear switch of season, and I feel in a way happy about it cuz it allows me to see this special atmosphere in the air when the season changes. Since I like the sea very much, I often think "I wish we only had summer here" but I guess a wide variation is always welcome, be it season or fashion. So, last night and today, the storm made me feel that being able to enjoy the pleasures of four seasons is something happy :-)

Ume at full blossoming

This morning as I was commuting on train, I had a pretty view of the plum blossoms just outside the window.

I think cherry blossoms come first to the minds of many people especially for non-Japanese, synonymous with Japanese spring, but it's actually the plum blossoms that come first announcing the arrival of spring.
And for some reason, the plum blossoms are so appealing and attractive that they really grasp my heart.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me at that time (writer burnout?) so I can't show you my favorite flowers, but if you look up google with "plum blossoms" I think you can get much better pix of the spring blossoms.

What they look like is, they have darker pink as compared to cherry blossoms, slightly smaller in size and rounder in shape, folding their petals inwards just a bit. They're really pretty and the faint sweet-sour fragrance makes them even more pretty.

And moreover, I think that they have this something beyond the beauty of their appearances that appeals to your heart.
The days are yet chilly, with even freezing days at times, but it feels like they're trying to tell us, "It's the beginning of spring, just a bit more to go for warmer days."
I think that there's a unique taste to cherry blossoms that makes you sweet and nostalgic at the same time that even gives you small tears.

If you have a chance to come to Japan this time of year and if you're like, "Damn, the cherry blossoms aren't out yet!" try out the plum blossoms. Go see the petit, soft and sweet flowers sincerely telling the arrival of spring.

Health-Conscious?

The recent health boom in Japan seems to see no end.
Natural food are picked up on TV shows everyday, focusing on some uncommonly heard but convincing-sounding nutrition or element in food telling that this works for preventing cancer or that works for diet.

Food featured on TV shows like that go out of the market by the next day making it hard for people to obtain it for the following few days. This is really annoying for people who have that food ordinarily.

Sparkling water was far from popular in Japan but you can now see various kinds of sparkling water from US and European brands on the shelves of supermarkets and convenience stores, and just a month ago the first Japanese brand of sparkling water came out. It seems that sparkling water is popular among those who're conscious about calories and sugar but still want to have something popping in their mouths.

The supplement industry seems to be on the current too. You can easily get the kind you're looking for in any store or drug store around town, and it's not just a small number of people who buy truck loads of vitamin on the Internet, just to keep some stock.
One thing about it is that, it seems like the "hottest" supplements in Japan now is what used to be "hot" in the States 2-3 years ago, so Americans out there, try to bring in some of the "hottest" stuff in the States now into Japan a bit later. Your business has some chance of becoming a giant ;-) Not to guarantee it!

So anyway, this is what the health boom is like.
It's sooo big and ridiculous that it even makes me think "Are Japanese born to be healthy or what!!?"

But, this, is the reality.



I took this pic just now right outside of my office.
The blue-white stuff filling the air is, of course, car exhaust.
Or perhaps, is it better to call it toxic gas? Wow, now that looks healthy, doesn't it. Whew.
You eat healthy food and breathe polluted air. What kind of a health boom is that.

This morning the gossip show was sneering at Paris Hilton for her expensive effort in anti-aging but seeming unable to stop clubbing and sun-tanning.

......

Well, I guess it's not completely unrelated to us.

Dash thru White Day

I kind of fussed about Valentine's Day before, but it seems like a month has passed since then in the outside world. Hey, it only feels like a week in my head. Where did the other three weeks go?

So I was wondering, do they have White Day in other places? I looked up on the web and found out that there are similar customs (I don't even know if you can really refer to them as customs) in surprisingly many countries! They have different names like Poppy Day, Cookie Day, Marshmallow Day so on so forth, but the basic common understanding seems to be "to celebrate one month from the day the lovers confirm their love." Eeeks, what an itchy day! Anyway, the customs seem to be there.

But then, why is it "white" in Japan? The story is that the candy industry (and I mean like hard candies excluding chocolate) jealous (oops, I made that part up) of the chocolate industry which successfully made Valentine's Day their day, somehow wanted to make this one month anniverssary their day to promote candies. The initial plan included ideas like calling the day "Candy Day" but some airy one suggested "white" b/c "white is the symbol of purity and goes well with the pure love of teens". So the others were like, "Okay, make it White Day and this is how it all started.
Well, is it only me that thinks the purpose itself is pretty black?

However, I don't really see guys giving back candies for White Day nowadays. It's true that if you search for "White Day" on google web search you get the candy association's "WHITEDAY OFFICIAL SITE" the very first (ugh). What the hell do they mean official???
As a webmaster myself I can't help thinking, "wow, they must've really worked on the SEO..."

Uh, sorry, but the members of the association? I'm afraid that choosing candies as the return gift in present day Japan where the tacit understanding of "return gifts must be more than twice the Valentine gift" has deeply rooted can kill you. Before spending so much time and energy on SEO perhaps you want to develop a candy that has a surprise diamond coming out :-P

Lost it in Japan? Find it on the Internet.

If you come to Japan on vacation or on a business trip and happen to lose some article,
or if you realize after you get back home that you've lost something across the ocean,
do you just give up convincing yourself that that's life?
Well, now the situation will be a bit different: things might become easier for you to look for it than before.

The following is a brief citation from the Nikkei Newspaper:


"March 7th - The Japanese Government has decided on the revision of the ordination of lost and found in order to review as well as to lighten the management of reported articles - well over 10 million a year - and to improve the efficiency of returning them to the owners. The core ideas include full equipment of nationwide online management and search system of lost and found articles, and the shortening of the storage period from six months to three.

Disabling finders to claim ownership to articles with personal information input such as cell phones, PCs, various kinds of cards and so on, is another significant point of this revision.

The revision of the present law enacted in 1899 is the first time in nearly half a century after its first revision in 1958. As well as the revison of the contents of the ordinance, the language itself will be modified into "modern Japanese" from the present classic text. The government seeks the revised law to pass the Diet during the current Diet session, and to enact it by the end of 2007.

The reviewed ordinance presupposes the construction of a system enabling nationwide Internet search of lost and found information including the follwing provisions:
1) The announcement on the police headquarters' homepages of lost and found information (date, place, characteristics of the article) gathered from district police offices
2) All-points notice of "valuable" articles."

As I first mentioned in the beginning, the establishment of this system really helps when you want to look for something you lost in your travel destination or something you don't exactly know when or where you lost it. I think it saves a lot of time, money and trouble if you can search for what you lost on the net spread nationwide.

The thing that worries me though, is that frauds might (or will, more likely) increase claiming ownership to articles that have been found even though that person is not the real owner. The problem becomes worse cuz you can claim the thing is yours to articles found across the country, so identification becomes an even more serious issue. Well, I bet they're of course considering solutions for such outcomes of course. And I'm afraid you can't expect foreign language service from very the beginning :-( Well, you never know.

So, can I also search for my pure and innocent heart that I lost sometime somewhere???lol

Graduation Season

So, cherry blossoms have started to whirl and twirl on my web site.
< http://www.jmode.com >
That means that wave after wave of graduation ceremonies are surging.

If there are any out there coming to Japan during March, I assure you'll see a bunch of beautiful young ladies wrapped up in elegant traditional clothing for graduation called "hakama". I think, in a way this is a great "chance".

But it seems that this hakama is not something that every female student actually owns. Most of them are rental costumes.
Ladies used to have one for each in the old days (decades ago), but today when ordinary clothing has shifted to Western clothes there is only like one chance of wearing a hakama all through your life.
And it's super expensive, too.
But even if you rent one it still costs you quite a bit - something like 20,000 to 30,000 yen (approx. 200-300 USD) for a 2to3-hour-long ceremony seems to be the minimum. This is quite something, isn't it? So why is it so expensive? Partly b/c almost no one can really wear a hakama by herself (it's an ancient piece of sophisticated clothing, I guess), each of them are made with special techniques, you have to have a certain set of bags and shoes to go along with, and even hair and make-up too. What a hakama looks like: it's better to search for an image of it on the web, but to verbally explain it it's something like wearing a long, skirt-like flared and pleated pants over a kimono. Did that help? lol

Guys are easier and lucky too. We just wear Western suits and appreciate the beauty of the ladies ;-)

It seems like most girls wear hakama just because others do.
So it's not like they're really dying to wear one.

In my opinion, I think that universities should financially support the students since they squeexe out so much tuition. I know it kind of contradicts with the idea above (wearing b/c you really want to), but I think that there are many who'd want to wear one if it was free.

Well that makes it sound like guy's don't get much privilege, but it's okay, our eyes do.

Click here for the image of a hakama.

AKIBA holds the power

Akihabara UDX, the new multi-complex building right in front of JR Akihabara Station seems to have opened today (March 9). Together with the Akihabara Daibiru opened up last autumn, the Akihabara Crossfield is now complete and welcomed the grand opening.

...Well, how many of you out there can really understand what that means?
In a word, huge commercial buildings have been jumping out here and there around Akihabara area, the "center of Japanese anime and game industry" (oh, some people really don't like to refer to Akihabara in that way. no offense to those ppl).

The one opened up today - the Akihabara UDX - contains 36 commercial facilities including AKIBA_ICHI, a food court with cafes and restaurants, and the event space AKIBA_SQUARE, studies & research center "Sentan Knowledge Field", Tokyo Anime Center, Design Museum and so on. For details, go to < http://www.akiba-cross.jp/english/index.html > (English Site)

At the opening ceremony held today, the present governor of Tokyo Ishihara made a speech saying: "There is no other place like Akihabara in the world. While you see the wide main street like that of Broadway, you also see small stands and stores selling electric supplied in the back alleys," and, "Many hidden skills still reside underground in Akihabara. Most of the national politicians come from the countrysides and don't exactly know Akihabara. The real driving force of Japan hides in places like Akihabara and Tsukuba. I'd like them to see and know the situations here. Private sectors should stand at the point where they can have a wider view, and give pressure to the world instead of easily pouring out the special skills we have."

Also, according to the comment of one of the "great" politicians: "There's no place in Japan like the Silicon Valley where the latest IT technologies concentrate. I had always thought that if we're to make one, it would be AKIBA. Now we have a great container. What we need now is a live spirit."

Well, I do feel like the desires of the politicians are whirring around, but I do hope that these huge buildings would be some good once they're made.

Japanese Society and the "oyakusoku"

oyakusoku - how many of you know this word? It's not a mere yakusoku, it's an oyakusoku.
It means "a tacit understanding", and what it presicely means is the patterns of cause and effect.
For example, let's say there's a banana peel left right there in a comedy show. The actor in this show, with barely any exception, will "accidentally" step on this peel and slip. Or say, a grade-conscious mother in a TV drama most likely wears a sharp, pointy pair of glasses. I don't know about the banana peel situation or the education mama situation, but I'm pretty sure there are many many kinds of these "oyakusoku" around the world, and there must be a fit phrase in each language to describe this kind of situation.
There are so many oyakusoku and in some cases, people intentionally betray this oyakusoku to impress the audience.

Anyway, why I got into writing about this is because I have heard so many times here and there that "Japan is a very closed country." and I'd like to take some time to reconsider this preconception.

To tell you my conclusion first, yeah I'd have to agree that Japan is closed somewhat.

But I don't think it necessarily means that Japanese is bad in nature, and I even think that this closedness is what makes Japan Japan.

In Japanese culture and language there are these two concepts "honne" and "tatemae". The former is the true feeling / thought and the latter, public face. "Well I actually think A, but I don't want to break the harmony here so I think I'll just say B." In another word, if the consequences are going to be smoother for all, let's just give in to the social oyakusoku.
In a way I guess this can be explained as a Japanese survival skill to live in a small country where you have to live just a few inches away from your nextdoor neighbor and you don't want to cause any disputes.

This way of thinking is now causing some controversies in the online world these days among Japanese net users. To react in a way not to break the harmony, we describe this as "to read the air (=atmosphere).

Say, you're new to this popular blog or a forum and forget the fact you're a newbie and try to join communication rings of regulars by throwing in flabbergasting comments as if you've been here all the time. Most definitely someone would shout at you to read the air, and the surprised newbie will either stop saying anything or snap at the warner and start an endless quarrel. No one really starts reading the air.

This is most likely to be a phenomenon unique to the faceless and nameless world of Internet.

I realize these days as I write this blog, that non-Japanese people tend to have more real faces on the Internet as compared to Japanese. Not as many Japanese display their real names or have their face pictures on their profiles. What I came to think of is that maybe b/c Japanese people are more brought up to distinguish honne and tatemae in the offline society, the online world is the only place where they (or we) can blurt out our real feelings without risking to be tracked down who said this or that.

Having said so, I don't have my face out neither here nor Japan Mode. It's only because I don't think there's the necessety to do so. But some other people even put mosaics on their personal travel pictures they put up on their private blogs.

Of course, a whole lot of them are conscious about privacy and net crimes, but why then, do more non-Japanese expose their profiles than Japanese? Hmm.

Maybe some of you know about this: there's a new kind of mega net business in Japan called "mixi" and this is an online social network that boasts a huuuge number of members. This gives another kind of description to what I wrote above.

Gotten way too long... I'll try writing about the relationship b/w mixi and oyakusoku next time.

The Smell of Spring!!

The weather is so nice and warm today. I can smell spring out there!

Do you feel like there are seasonal smells (or fragrance, should I say?)? I think that summer has the strongest smell - I mean, not sweat but smell of fresh green and probably of many kinds of plants. Spring, on the other hand, I think has a bit more sweeter smell maybe because of the buds and flowers.

But once you become pollen allergy, breathing deeply with your nose holes wide open is like committing suicide. I don't have one by the way - at least not yet - but the scary thing about hay fever is that you never know when you'll really get one. So I'm still afraid of it, but I bet it's nothing funny at all for those who already have it.

I hear that 1 out of 5 Japanese have pollen allergy. Among those 20%, most suffer from cedar pollen. The direct cause of the amount of cedar pollen and the number of poor sufferers is the planting and expansion of cedar trees by the ministry of forestry back in the 1960s. These trees were planted to meet the increasing demands of wood during the rapid economic development and in fact greatly contributed to the constructions of new houses in the age of increasing population.
But soon after, cheaper wood were imported from overseas and the demands for domestic wood went remarkably low for they were much more expensive than the imported ones. So the excessively planted cedar trees were kind of abandoned I guess, growing and increasing wild. Plus, they say that cedar trees give out pollen the most when they're about 40-50 years old, so now is like the worst years for pollen sufferers.

When I was a kid, I don't remember pollen allergy being such a huge news every year. But now, you see pollen forecasts just like a normal weather forcast. I suppose it means that "patients" are increasing that much, but also think is a result of Japanese people's allergy to something like dirt, dust and pollen.
Actually, I think that some of the "counter-pollen allergy products" have gone too far. There are so many things with the ad blurb like, "The strongest sterilization!" or "photocatalytic" or "sterilize with the power of silver!"
Hmmm, I do sympathize with it to some extent, but gee, still I think people can be more... easy-going.

Well, I can't be predicted that it won't come to me tomorrow. That's a waste of energy ye know...

But I definitely don't want to be the Red-nose-reindeer even in spring.

What a moving news...

What I'm going to write about today is a little news in Japan. I think that the article probably won't be released in English or on overseas media, so I'm going to translate the article here:

"Marathoner Rios Gives His Gold Medal to a Wheelchair Girl"

Jose Rios (31, Spain), the 61st champion of the Biwako Mainichi Marathon held by Biwa Lake on Sunday, March 5th, gave his champion medal to a girl on a wheelchair after the race.
"I am so surprised, but very happy," said the girl to the unexpected gift. Being a great fan of Rios, this girl has always cheered him along the marathon course for 3 years.
"I knew she was always there and cheered for me when I ran. This time I wanted to cheer her for living so cheerfully overcoming the handicap she carries," Rios commented before leaving Kansai International Airport on the following day.

The girl's name is Mizuki Hozumi (14) a 9th grader at Dai-San Junior High School in Kita-Sakurazuka, Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture. For her cerebral paralysis she is forced to live her life on a wheelchair.
Her father being a civilian runner participating in many marathon races, the family has been cheering the Biwa Lake marathon every year since several years ago. Two years ago she cheered and waved to Rios, who was a first-timer participating in a full marathon and Rios waved back to her. Rios ran through the goal line with a good record of 2 hours and 7 minutes 42 seconds.

Ever since, she has become a fan of Rios and has cheered him last year and this year. After he passed by Mizuki, she went to the goal to congratulate him for winning the race. Rios soon found her waiting by the entrance of the goal stadium, went up to her with a great smile and gave her his shining gold medal.

"The medal must be a very important thing for him that would become a lifelong memory. I don't know if I really deserve to receive this..." worries Mizuki on the other hand. She is going to send him a thank you note very soon.


Isn't it a wonderful story? I think you're already as moved as I am. There's no need for me to leave my impression here!
Wow, I never imagined that there'd be an athelete this pleasant. God, he's such a hero to me. How can you directly give the gold medal you received a few minutes ago? Too cool!
I re-felt that sports give another emotion after the event as well as during one like this.
I feel like I want to know more about Jose Rios, but I can't get much info on him since he's still not that famous in Japan.

Let's hope he'll do well in the upcoming races too and cheer for him :-)

Fashion Show

I went to see the Kobe Collection (it's a huge fashion show) held in Yokohama yesterday. (URL-Japanese Site)
I actually wanted to write a special edition on my web site Japan Mode, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos so I thought I'd write here some of my impressions of the show.

Well my first impression as soon as I got there was, "girls..."
Man, I can't tell you what the air was like there. I mean, even the audience there were all like fashion models, all dressed up in the latest fashion, hair set neatly, perfect make-up... Of course, it's a fashion show so I understand that girls would definitely want to dress up in their best mode, but even then... whew
I bet friends and co-workers of the models were also there, so some of them must have been real fashion models. I have to say that the atmosphere was so gay - I dunno how to put this - flashy, elegant, fashionable... it was a totally different world from my daily life. I almost felt daunted. (Well I got a feast for my eyes though, lol)

Anyway.
The fashion models were sooo beautiful. The main models included those from the popular fashion magazine JJ and there was also Natsuki Kato whom I see on TV quite often these days. She was very cute.
They all had unbelievably long legs and they were coming down the stage in this "model walk" (or whatever the name is) and they were like right in front of me... boy was I excited.
How the hell can they walk like that? Do they have an extra joint or what!?

The show as a whole was really an artistic one and I think it was really well-made. Some major brands had really nice shows, especially "Chesty" and "MERCURYDUO". They've done a perfect job making full use of the visuals and the images and collaboration projects, making a clear difference from the other brands.

Afterall, the most important point is undoubtedly the designs of the clothings and how to make them look the best on stage. The models only help make them look the most impressive, and most of the energy is put into that very point. It's pretty tough I think. Besides the designs, each brand has to express the difference from each other. I once again felt that showbiz is a really tough industry.

Other than that, all I could think of that day was about the beauty of the fashion models.
In fact, I must admit that that was the only thing my eyes were fixed on during the entire show.

iiTage JUMP fever

The "iiTage JUMP", a really simple game in which you make this character jump over the holes, has been showing a pretty big craze within my office since its launch last Friday on Japan Mode.

Qualities of the visual images - from TVs to computers to games to everything - are becoming finer and more beautiful each second these days, but these really simple games using FLASH show unexpectedly high popularity still. Or maybe, they're popular because they're simple.

So anyway, this JUMP game is pretty popular but I have to come up with a new game (yes, it's Friday and I have to update the game) which is more fun than the JUMP. The pressure I feel from my co-workers is actually pretty big, lol.

Although, because I have practically no exprience in programming games so what I do is to borrow materials from web sites providing free program sources, changing the design to suit my web site.
But then of course, materials for good games aren't easily found for free so I really have to search around for something I want. It takes so much time that I sometimes do feel like I might as well study and make one myself. I hear that those kind of sources are more commonly provided around the world, but not as much in Japan.

Well...

And even after I finally find one, I have to start fussing around with that source, and that really gives me a hard time, too. So I go knocking around my co-workers' (they're all SEs) desks bugging their own jobs, get their help and finally complete one.

That's how the games on my site are made.
Today's update is "iiTage NINJA". Come try it out :-D

Oh, and if you have any recommended sites offereing free program sources, please please tell me!
I'm pretty desperate.

Want a castle???

Anybody out there want a Japanese castle? Here's a good one.

There's a little something going on in Japan among some people.
First, just click this link:

http://www.shimada-jyutaku.co.jp/info/info_pay.html

That's right, a castle! A castle.
A castle is on sale.



This is no silly joke. It's sold just like a normal house is sold.
Of course, water, gas and electricity is drawn just like any other house so you'll have a nice and comfy life.

It costs 41 million yen. Now, I don't know if this is expensive or cheap even though I live in Japan.
Looong time ago in Japan, during the age of war after war, the monster goal of a samurai (lower rank) was to become a lord of a country (=domain) and have his own castle.
So they survived each war hoping to gain more power to become a "master of one country, one castle".
Today, this hope of owning a country and a castle has turned into a hope to owning a house instead of having to have to rent one, and so the phrase is still used in modern Japanese society.

So this castle is now really killing castle-fans in Japan.
You can literally become a master of a castle (and that's much much more than a mere house!).

It's located in the mountains of Toyama Prefecture, that's on the west coast of Japan facing Japan Sea, so why not but it as a summer house? And boast off to your friends,

"wanna come over to my summer castle in Japan?" lol

Btw, I have nothing to do with this company or the real estate. Just so you know, this is not an advertisement so I can't take any responsibility!

Japan Blog Association founded

...hey, what the heck is that!?

Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications have announced on February 28 that they have founded "Japan Blog Association" on the same day, due to the rapid expansion. The organization will undertake its job until March 2007.

Japan Blog Association will develop and expand the activities the MIC has been working on before, and by enlightening, rewarding, studying/ researching, interacting, supporting and giving suggestions to blog-related issues, aims to speed up the growth and expansion of blogs. No executives will be set on the board for a while, and instead the Foundation for MultiMedia Communications (FMMC) will take the job.

Main activities of the organization are as follow:
enlightenment - holding of lectures and symposiums regarding blogs
rewards - rewarding outstanding (model) blogs such as those of business
research - logical analysis of awareness, market performance and future estimates
interaction - construction of a reciprocal linking site of blog-related organizations
support - offereing consultation and providing information regarding blogs to those who wish
suggestion - offering suggestions to blog service providers

You don't really need any qualifications to join the association and you can freely join as an individual entity. No fees occur in joining, just do it online.

...is what they say. Is the expansion of blogs something the nation has to act upon?
And their activities seem to be a great big ??? to me...
I mean, this entire thing sounds like a ready-made template that can be used for pretty much anything elso if you replace the word "blog" in the sentences.
Not moving or even tempting at all, huh?

Or even, what the hell do they mean by promoting the growth and expansion of blogs?
Is it like some pop on-screen talent comes up on TV commercials saying, "Let's blog!"??

I thought blogs all started from a "web log", you know, literally a personal record on the web, sth like a diary... which used to be called homepage in most cases, or am I wrong?
K, the nice part about blogs is that you can easily update on browsers and they have RSS and trackback functions making you easy to communicate with others. Well, like I have one here, I have no problems with the idea of blogs.

But it's just that I don't feel that comfortable with the idea of the nation spending money there, to promote blogs. There're a bunch of other stuff the country should be working on, I mean better stuff.

The government should do sth that the private can't do but the country can do.
But then on the other hand they try to privatize a bunch of ex-national projects like the post system.

It also makes owners of non-blog sites feel kinda isolated. It wouldn't be as bad if the project was part of a website association or whatever.

Oh well, I guess there's no good fussing about it once it started. Let's see how it all turn's out.

I just want to have this blog get going more... like boost up the counter.