Food for Thought

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2007-05-16T20:45:00.000+09:00

What do Japanese kids want to be when they grow up? According to an annual poll by Dai-Ichi Mutual Life to elementary school and younger children, professional baseball player is the most popular occupation for boys, followed by football (soccer) player, and scholar/doctor. Food creator such as a pastry chef/baker is the most popular occupation with girls, followed by kindergarten teacher, and nurse. Baseball and football players had been the top two since the Dai-Ichi Mutual Life started the survey in 1989, but both fell to forth place in 1999. With Ichiro, Godzilla and Matsuzaka doing well in the Major League and Shunsuke Nakamura becoming MVP in the Scottish League, professional athletes seem to have regained popularity in the last several years. Carpenter came in fourth for boys, which I think is typically Japanese and reflects the craftsman culture.

Records in my my kindergarten year book show that I said "I want to become a stewardess, so Mummy, can I learn English?" I don't remember saying that at all!

Singing Roads

2007-05-11T06:41:00.000+09:00

There's a road that plays a song when you drive over it. The 320m-Melody Road running through Wakayama prefecture Kimino-cho Akagi area plays Kyu Sakamoto's "Miagetegoran Yorunohoshiwo" for about 30 seconds.

You need to keep the car windows closed to hear well.
Driving too fast will sound like playing fast-forward. Driving around 20km/h (12.5mph) has a slow motion effect, making you almost car sick, according to a report. 40km/h (25mph) sounds a bit slow. You get best results driving at 45km/h change in(28mph). The last sharp curve doesn't work that well.

"Melody Road" (patent pending) was first experimented in Hokkaido Shibetsu-gun Shibetsu-cho. According to the developer Mr. Shinoda of Shinoda Kogyo, he first heard a sound when driving over the grooves of the asphalt road which he had accidentally scraped by a bulldozer. Then he realised that the sound changed with the driving speed. So he thought, by adjusting the grooves, you could even turn it into a song. Melody Road has multiple thin grooves on the surface. The pitch changes by the groove interval; a narrow interval gives a high-pitched sound, and a wide one will give a low-pitch sound.

You can listen to the experiment sound by cliking on one of the icons (AIFF or WAV). The song is "Shiretoko Ryojyo".

These's also a Melody Raod in Numata-shi, Gunma prefecture, which plays "Natsuno Omoide (Summer Memories)".

Swords and Bats

2007-03-03T00:36:00.000+09:00

I'm seeing shameless amount bats broken and thrown away in the waste basket. The spring training is a testing place for new models, so a lot of bats do break during free batting. Even so, it's a bit too much. Lighter bats, together with the consumption mentality must be the cause.
Batters opt for lighter, easy-to-manage bats to respond to breaking balls, and it's the same trend in the Major Leagues. But bats weren't commodities to be wasted in such a way. Being made with natural wood, some bats go along much better than others, even with the same shape and weight. A really good bat makes you feel that it's guiding you to hit the ball. I would save those kinds of bats and not use them for screwball pitchers for fear they might get broken.
May be it's similar to how a samurai treats a sword.
I used to be called "Samurai Toyoda" when I was an active player, and so I collected a lot of swords. I was especially attracted to the beautiful guards of the swords. I later gave them all away to other people, but still own about 100 sword guards.
Once, I was given a sword. Since then, my wife became ill, and other misfortunes followed. When I showed the sword to an expert, he informed me that there was an engraving which said "killed so and so with a big slash". I was scared stiff, and had it taken away to be purified.
But the person whom I entrusted the sword died soon after. Could it have been a curse sword? May be it's just my imagination, but there's something scary with swords. When you draw a sword with refreshed spirits, it feels really satisfying; when you draw with a bad mood, evil thoughts are sure to occur.
This kind of man-tool relationship must have continued when men started swinging bats. You can feel the craftman's soul in the bat, so in our days, we avoided breaking them as much as we could. We refrained from using too light bats, even if they were more easier to swing.
A bat reflects the day, and the game. It's more than a mere tool for me.

Toyoda Yasumitsu (Baseball critic)
From the Nikkei Feb 1, 2007

Sumo Stable These Days

2007-01-26T20:36:00.000+09:00

Sumo stable master Shikoroyama Tsuneyuki writes of his new stable building in a Nikkei article (Jan 23, 2006). He was formally known with the fighting name of "Terao", taken from the maiden name of his mother who died of cancer -- very unusual way of naming for a sumo wrestler. He was handsome and slim with long legs, and popular among female fans. He was my grandfather's favourite, so that's why I know his name despite my uninterest in sumo. In my childhood, I thought the sumo broadcast on TV was the most boring thing in the world.

3 years ago, I became independent from my brother's Izutsu-beya (stable) which was originally set up by my father. Until our stable building was ready, the wrestlers and I lived in a rented apartment, and held practice at a sumo ring made inside a warehouse. The training hall was away from the apartment, and the bathroom was too small for the customary mass-bathing. It must have been inconvenient for everybody. Now we have a 6-story building with the training hall on the first floor, dormitory for the young wrestlers and the office the second floor, training gym and laundry on the third floor, individual rooms for the high ranking Sekitori wrestlers on the fourth floor, and my home on the fifth and sixth floor. Convenience isn't always good though, and I feel lack of intensity than before. In the days when the training gym was located far from the apartment, the wrestlers had some urgency to go when they could, or else they might miss training. But now at the new building, I take a glimpse inside the gym on the third floor and find wrestlers fidgeting with their mobile phones. Call them young folks of today -- but you can't keep in shape like that, and distraction can lead to injury. If people are given fulfilling environment, maybe they just take it for granted and won't appreciate. A new independent stable like us have no inheritance of know-how seen in established stables. The wrestlers must be taught from scratch -- everything from daily greetings and respects to sumo basics, and cleaning. Sloppy sweeping is no surprise -- I was once shocked to find a young one wiping the low dining table with a cloth, using his feet! Sometimes, I feel as if they'll never learn, but we just have to keep on telling them. My stress has increased in proportion with the size of the building.

Reference: Life as a professional Sumo wrestler

Terao homepage
It says "New Wrestlers Wanted".

Please Refrain from New Year Calls

2007-01-08T19:42:00.000+09:00

A newspaper ad:
To mobile phone users -- the dog's last, and the boar's first request.

For the first 2 hours of the new year, please refrain from making "Happy New Year" calls and mails.

Geeky Mothers

2006-12-29T07:20:00.000+09:00

A mother of a 3 year old girl makes “character bento (lunchbox)” every morning, using tweezers, scissors, star-shaped and heart shaped cutters…She takes 1 or 2 hours and creates Dorae-mon, Kitty, Anpan-man, etc. from food material, takes a picture of the finished bento, and posts it on her blog. She gets 30 to 40 comments. Now, she has over 200 “character bento” buddies over the internet that she has never met. (from the Dec 28, 2006 Nikkei)

I couldn’t find her blog, but got 556,000 hits searching “kyara-ben” (short for character bento) on the net. Here’s a site called “Kyara-ben Club", with 74 members.

I’m not sure if kids brought up on kyara-ben become otaku.

School Dinner Monitor

2006-06-13T20:13:00.000+09:00

Children in Japan usually eat school dinner in their classrooms. The school dinner is considered part of the educational curriculum, so a group of children take turns every week to serve their class. They wear aprons and caps which they take home at the end of the week to be washed and ironed.

Parents are given the monthly lunch menu, so they can avoid cooking similar things for dinner. (I never check though.) The menu shows calories, protein, and ingredients by nutrition groups.

I was really surprised at the news on banning junk food from school meals in England. Chocolates, crisps, and fizzy drinks?! It wasn't like that when I was there 30 years ago.

The obesity rate is increasing in Japan, as well as in many other countries.
While searching the web, I found an article on school dinners around the world - quite interesting.

By the way, Japanese lunch boxes are often very appealing to the eye, from the usual to the very creative.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

2006-06-06T23:41:00.000+09:00

Japan is no longer the safest place in the world for children. Several nasty incidents (ex. Osaka School Massacre) have generated serious concern over children's safety, and parents fear kidnapping and sexsual abuse of their children. Yes, we're catching up with the U.S. situation.
My children have these "security buzzers" attached to their satchels. Our local government were generous enough to provide each elementary schoolchildren with a buzzer (with our taxes). I'm skeptical on the effectiveness of these buzzers...every day, there's someone accidently setting them off so we're getting used to all the crying wolf. I feel that all this "fear" - that there's countless crazy pedophiles or indiscriminate killers all over the place - is rather exaggerated, similar to "Bowling for Columbine." Now, they do "suspicious intruder" drill as well as fire drill and earthquake drill at school. Teachers learn how to use sasumata, a U shaped fork tool (dates back from the edo period !) for pinning down thugs. All this obsessive fear is sure to make children stressed and distrust people.

Driving Mr. Kamikaze

2006-04-29T10:24:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, we went to the funeral of my husband's uncle, who died in a traffic accident. He crahed brakeless into the car in front of him, which was halting at a red light. It may have been inattentive driving, or he suddenly felt ill or something. He was 80 years old and his sons were telling him to give up driving, but he gave no ear. He drove daily to visit his dementia wife at a home for the elderly. She suffered a cerebral infarction several years ago.
At the end of the funeral, his son said, "I heard that my father joined "Yokaren," or "Youth training Corps" around the end of war. If the war had lasted longer, he might have become a Kamikaze suicide attack pilot, and we wouldn't have existed..."
It was the first time we heard such episodes. I'm sure his generation has a lot of untold stories, which would soon be lost as they pass away.

Polished Toilets, Polished Minds

2006-03-31T22:41:00.000+09:00

Article from The Nikkei, March 31,2006
By Hidesaburo Kagiyama, director and advisor of Yellow Hat

Cleaning gives you the same delight regardless of race or nationality. I never dreamed cleaning had such a notable character when I started scrubbing the office toilet alone 45 years ago.
“Until now, I hated the Japanese because my grandfather was killed by a Japanese soldier. But I’ve changed my mind.” A university student once told me at “Learning by Cleaning China Association” meeting, which has been held 7 times in Beijing since 1997. Volunteers for the association go to China and clean public toilets spick –and-span, and also introduce their activities through seminars. Personally, I was truly surprised that cleaning had the power to soften the hearts of Japan-haters.
It all began when I established my own company. Through its activities, I wanted to realize my ideals: make the society better and the people happy. When I established Royal, a car parts wholesaler and predecessor of Yellow Hat in 1961, I looked for good talents as the first step for the ideal company. However, it was virtually impossible for a newly risen company to find good employees. Many had hardened hearts through their past experience of numerous jobs.
Now, immediately after the end of war, my family used to live in a tattered hut. But my parents were fussy about cleanness, and kept our home speckles. So I never felt miserable even in the devastated postwar period.
From this childhood memories, I thought of making the workplace clean to soften up the employee’s hearts. But how could I explain? Besides, I felt forcing people to clean won’t work. So I began cleaning just by myself.
For a while, the employees showed no understanding. They wouldn’t hesitate urinating right beside me while I scrubbed. Some were saying, “All the president can do is clean.” Still, I continued.
After 10 years, the employees shifted their attitude and started cleaning by themselves. It was like rebellious children following the good example of their parents. Once you start cleaning and know the pleasant feel of a spotless toilet, you can’t leave the work place untidy anymore. In no time, the whole office became sparkling clean.
When I clean toilets, I always use my bare hands. Gloved hands are too numb. Bare hands will never miss a hair. First, I pour boiling water inside the toilet, and then scrub with detergent and a sponge. For scales and tough dirt, I polish with nylon scrubbers and sandpaper. When you finish and glance at what you’ve accomplished, the refreshing and fulfilling feeling is just great. Not only the toilet but your mind also shines. You realize any dirty thing can become clean, and you will start treating them in a different way.
In November 1991, I met Mr. Yoshihito Tanaka, president of a circuit board manufacturer in Ena-shi, Gifu prefecture. We talked about dirtiness during our conversation. I later went to visit his company.
At the entrance, Mr. Tanaka told me to change into a pair of rubber boots because the floor was extremely dirty. I said “It must have been clean at first.” He answered, “Yes.” In that case, it can become clean again. I explained him the effectiveness of cleaning. He felt the same way, and sent me his employees for training.
Next summer, I returned to Mr. Tanaka’s company. Again, he told me to take off my shoes. “Please wear these slippers so our factory won’t get soiled.” The place has transformed dramatically within a year.
With Mr. Tanaka’s lead, our first “Learning by Cleaning Association” was founded in Akechi-cho (now Ehara-shi), Gifu prefecture in November 1993. Now, we have an organization in almost every prefecture in Japan, and also in China, Brazil, U.S., Mongolia and Taiwan.
In Brazil, the activity began after Mr. Hideaki Iida, a Japanese hairdresser in Sao Paulo returned home to help in the aftermath of 1995’s Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. He and I cleaned the horribly filthy refugee toilets, transforming them sparkling clean with sandpaper. Mr. Iida went back to Brazil, deeply impressed with this incident. Next February, I flew to Sao Paulo with my Japanese fellows to start off “Learning by Cleaning Brazil Association,” joined by the Japanese residents Mr. Iida called together.
Last year, the “First Global Conference” was held in Sao Paolo with as many as 5,000 participants.
I was convinced that cleaning had the power to overcome race and nationality.

Learning by Cleaning (Soji ni Manabu Kai) official site (Japanese)

Nostalgic Movie

2006-03-25T09:14:00.000+09:00

Went to see the movie Always - Sanchome no Yuhi (Sunset in Third Street), based on a long-seller manga comic. The time setting is 1958, the good old Showa era, when Japan was still relatively poor but energetically recovering from the defeat of WWII. The nostalgic scenery was created using CG magic by Takashi Yamazaki. Although a George Lucas and Steven Spielberg fan, Yamazaki is "sick of Hollywood sci-fi effects."

The CG supports the story -- it's not what people come to see," he explains. "It's like the music or the color cinematography." And that, he feels, is the wave of the CG future, for Japanese films certainly. "
"What people want now are films that appeal to the heart," he says. "That's also why 'Always' is a new type of CG film." His aim was not to send eyeballs spinning with his CG effects, but to use them, together with real sets and miniatures, to creates a warm, thoroughly authentic period atmosphere. "CG is becoming more of a supporting player, not the main actor," he comments. "I like that trend."
(quoted from "CG wizard eyes new cause" by Mark Schilling)

There's a funny sequence in the movie when a new TV set arrives at Suzuki family. TVs were still a rarity and the whole neighbour makes such a fuss. Next, the wooden furniture-like refrigerator cooled by a large block of ice, is replaced with a new electric one. Mrs. Suzuki remarks "Now we have all three of the Sacred Treasures - TV, refrigerator, and washing machine."

I was born in the mid-60's, so about 10 years later than the period depicted. Considering the time frame between the end of WWII and now, I realized I'm much more closer to the post war generation than I thought. But it's hard to admit it and perceive it. The Showa era seems so remote now.

Toyota Vice Chairman and Kendo

2006-03-08T10:10:00.000+09:00

Toyota vice chairman Fujio Cho talks on how kendo paved the way to his career (Nikkei 6 Mar 2006)

I entered high school in 1952, and became friends with a boy called Yamada. When I went to his house, I found a kendo protector in a closet. In those days, school kendo was still banned remnant from Douglas MacArthur's commands. That situation made kendo more attractive. Another incident turned me on. There was a police kendo hall near Yamada's house. One day, the two of us were watching the kendo practice through a window when the instructor came up and said, "You two come in and do it." We were really beaten up the first day, but also showed up the next day. This time, the instructor showed us how to put on the protector and taught us the correct manners, and we began regular practice.
As soon as the ban on school kendo was lifted, I founded the kendo club. Kendo really suited me, and the more I practiced, the better I became. I joined the kendo club at Tokyo University, and became a regular during freshman. We frequently went away on tours and training camps. On the way back from a tour in my third year, I visited a graduate of our club who entered Toyota Motors, and did a knockout match against Toyota members. I beat 5 of them in a row. That evening, we had a drinking party with the Toyota people. It was then that their personnel manager told me to join Toyota. At the entrance exam in the English test, I didn't even know what "the Big Three" meant.
Anyway, I sometimes think that if I didn't open the closet at Yamada's house, I would have lead a completely different life.

1250 Year Old Spring Festival

2006-03-06T07:42:00.000+09:00

The Omizutori (Water-drawing Ceremony) heralding the arrival of spring, began March 1 at Todaiji Temple (UNESCO World Heritage Site)in the ancient city of Nara. Monks carrying blazing torches walked up the balcony of Nigatsudo Hall, lightening up the evening sky. This annual ceremony began in 752 AD, and it will be the 1250th time this year. Todaiji Temple is also famous for the huge Buddha statue.

Junior high school and high school students in Tokyo usually go to Kyoto and Nara for their school trips. I went when I was in junior high school. At Todaiji next to the Buddha statue, there was a pillar with a hole which was supposed to be the same size as the statue's nostrils...We went through it, and imagined how big the whole thing is.

Gold and Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friends

2006-03-04T16:38:00.000+09:00

Japanese people are rushing to get the same three-stone diamond earrings Shizuka Arakawa was wearing when she won the gold medal in Turin Winter Olympics, women's figure skating. Diamond retailer Lazare Kaplan Japan is getting over 100 calls a day, and running short of stock. Arakawa's was a present from her mother, who wished her daughter would keep "shining". The price of the earrings range from 270,000 to 500,000 yen (about $2300-4300 at $1=116 yen). Seems to indicate that the Japanese economy is picking up.

Sacred Tree

2006-02-28T21:00:00.000+09:00

I visited Kinomiya Jinja (Shrine) when I went to Atami. There's a huge camphor tree over 2000 years old which is designated as a natural treasure. Camphor trees are often seen at shrines, probably because ancient Japanese believed there were gods in enormous trees, rocks, waterfalls and the like, and worshipped those places. There was a board explaining the origin of this tree. "About 150 years ago, there was a large dispute over fishing rights, and the village of Atami needed considerable money to make payments. Five huge camphor trees were cut down for this. When a man tried to chop down this tree, a grey-haired old man suddenly appeared and stood in the way with open arms. The ax split in half, and the old man disappeared. The villagers thought it must be a sacred tree, and gave up cutting it down..."
There's a saying that if you go around this tree once, you'll extend your life a year longer. My children ran around it 10 times!

In the animated movie "My Neighbor Totoro", a little girl goes through a hollow in a large camphor tree and finds the forest spirit Totoro. When you stand by huge trees, it really does feel divine.

Sweet Sweets

2006-02-23T15:34:00.000+09:00

A box of wagashi, or Japanese confectionery that not only looks good, but also tastes good. Not overly sweet, but just right. Many Japanese feel western sweets have too much sugar in them, since we prefer moderate sweetness. I was quite shocked the first time I ate icing on a cake...I thought my teeth would dissolve. But I heard that people from abroad feels Japanese cakes have "no taste". Yep, every man to his taste.

New and Old (Classic Novels and Manga)

2006-02-20T15:14:00.000+09:00

I went to a book store and bought some books for my daughter."Journey to the West"(3 volumes), a classical Chinese novel, and "Botchan" by Natsume Soseki.

My daughter is crazy about Dragon Ball manga. She also watches the animation (Dragon Ball Z) on cable TV everyday. Since the main character Son Goku is taken from Journey to the West, I thought it wouldn't hurt to know the original story. It's considered basic reading anyway.

Driving Out the Demons

2006-02-20T07:07:00.000+09:00

3 February was Setsubunn, the last day before spring by the lunar calendar. On this day, it is our custom to throw roasted soy beans to drive out the oni (demons =evil spirits). First, we shout, "Oni wa soto! (Demons out!)" and throw the beans outside from doors and windows, then shout "Fuku wa uchi!(Good luck in!)" and scatter the beans in each and every room. Then you're supposed to eat the same amount of beans as your age...but children always eat more!
They do this event in day-cares and nursery schools. It's very funny to see terrified small children running away from the demons (teachers dressed up with mask). Some boys may be brave enough to fight them off with beans...Holly leaves and the head of sardine are hang up above the entrance to scare away the demons (like garlic for Draculas?).
Spring is finally here. Well, first, we need to clean up the scattered beans.

All We Need Is "Ai"

2005-12-30T07:00:00.000+09:00

"Ai", meaning love, was announced the Kanji of the Year for 2005.
It was chosen by public votes, which was rather scattered between different Kanjis.
"Ai" gained just 4.7%, followed by "Kai" (reform) and "Yu" (postal).
The reasons voters wrote for choosing "Ai":
Princess Norinomiya's wedding, pure love boom, marriage of many celebrities, giving relief to hurricane and earthquake victims, Aichi-Expo ("Ai-Chikyu-Haku"), various Ai-chans doing well (Ai Miyazato in golf, Ai Fukuhara in table tennis, Aiko-sama may become empress in the future), and heart-rending incidents such as murdering of small children and quake resistance data scams indicating that there's not enough love...
Priest Mori of the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto calligraphed the character at the temple's Oku-no-in, which had been repaired after a 370 year interval.

Viva Hokusai!

2005-11-02T23:09:00.000+09:00

I went to see the Hokusai Exhibition (Tokyo National Museum, until Dec 4). They say this will be the biggest Hokusai exhibition ever.

The famous "Great Wave" from the Metropolitan Museum (on display until Nov 12) and "A mild Breeze on a Fine Day" both from The Thirty-Six views of Mount Fuji, are surely great. They were smaller than I expected. Three pictures of "A mild Breeze on a Fine Day" are displayed, showing how the change in colour gives a totally different impression.

It's interesting to see the yokai, or the Japanese demons. They're so humorous. The root of manga is certainly here.

While we were viewing the exhibits, a man looking at "The Country of Kamakura" said "I guess these are like postcards in those days," and turned to my husband standing by. "You know, I used to play along this beach." Then he started saying he owns a lot of ukiyo-e, for they could be bought very cheap right after the war. "If you had money, you could get them all. People took ukiyo-e to Honma-san, you know, Honma-san in Yamagata, and exchanged them for food. So Honma-san had a great collection of arts. As a 10 year-old boy, I would go to Honma-san with my money and say, 'Can I have an Utamaro?' What a cheeky brat! Well, I only bought nude women pictures..."
So his family must have been very rich. He didn't look so now.
He kept chatting away at both of us now, for I was being polite and smiled as he told his tale. We managed to get away from him somehow. He boasted that he has 3,000 ukiyo-e. My husband said he doesn't believe it. I wasn't sure.

Ginkgo Nut Gathering

2005-10-15T14:20:00.000+09:00

Went ginkgo nut gathering to a nearby field. The field happened to be closed off in preparation for some festival, so we searched around the fence. I guess we were a bit late, for there weren't much left on the ground. My husband was saying the trees were heavy with ginkgo fruit last week, but I saw none up in the trees today. Still we managed to collect 50~60 nuts. The nuts are inside the orange ginkgo fruit, which smells like sh*t(!) and could be irritating for sensitive skin. After removing the pulp, I'll dry the nuts in the sun. Searching the net, I found an easy way of cooking the nuts:
Put the ginkgo nuts in an envelope (some suggests you crack the shell beforehand), and microwave for approxmately 1 minute. Serve with salt.

Hibiya Club

2005-09-30T12:22:00.000+09:00

Found an article in the evening Nikkei about "horizontal bar oyajis".
These oyajis, or senior men are nearby office workers and bureaucrats, all members of the "Hibiya Club".
A Japanese page with pictures
These horizontal bar maniacs gather in one corner of Hibiya Park and practice their techniques, many of them naked from the waist up even in winter. The Hibiya Club is said to have began during World War II. One of the oldest members Mr. Ebihara, 62, says he has been coming here for over 36 years (the macho man in this page).
Some members do the giant swing like in the American Express commercial.

Anyone can join in for free. Many don't even know each other's names.
Members usually come around 7:30~9:00 a.m. & 12:00~13:00p.m.

Discount Pioneer Dies

2005-09-20T16:17:00.000+09:00

Isao Nakauchi, founder of Daiei Inc., died of stroke at 83.

As a boy, he became fascinated with retail business when he helped out his father's medical store in Kobe. He fought in the Philippines during World War II. Under fear of US attack and suffering hunger with only weeds to eat, he dreamed of eating Sukiyaki till he was full. This obsession led him to establish Daiei in Osaka, after he returned to Japan. He offered discounts, while all other stores sold at the fixed price, causing a revolution in the retail business. Daiei soon became the largest supermarket chain in Japan. However, Daiei was hit hard by the burst of the economic bubble, and Nakauchi resigned from presidency in 1999.
Nakauchi's philosophy was "Pay less for good products." "Mr. Nakauchi's DNA is still alives, in places like UNIQLO or 100 Yen shops," said writer Shinichi Sano.

Information Divide

2005-09-07T15:04:00.000+09:00

From the Nikkei 5 Sep 2005 "Manabi Saikou" column:
There's a "information divide" between high school students. Not the "digital divide" from unequal infrastructure, but a gap from whether they have a perceptive mind and acknowledgement or not. High school students these days think they can get information whenever they want. Sure enough, the Internet is available almost anytime, anywhere. So they think, no need to search right now, can do it later...
And when they start looking for information on things like college education at the last moment, they fail to gain what they need for making adequate judgements.
Information is abundant, but it doesn't get through...
There are some who carefully gather information, and screen them according to necessity and credibility.
Information is just one example. The "divide" resulting from how serious you are, will probably become apparent in other aspects too.

...and what a disaster

2005-01-01T05:00:00.000+09:00

So it ended like a year of "disaster."
Reminds me of the Flood...god really must be mad at us.

Kanji of the Year

2004-12-15T12:31:00.000+09:00

In a word, 2004 was expressed as "Disaster."
As the priest of Kiyomizu Temple wrote out the big character, Japan Kanji Aptitude Tesing Foundation announced the Kanji of the Year: "Wazawai," meaning disaster or calamity.
The character was chosen by public votes. For the reasons, many people wrote that they felt god, or nature was infuriated with humans causing man-made disasters, that they felt men were helpless when facing natural disasters.

The Kaji for previous years are:

2003:"Tora" - tiger. Hanshin Tigers became baseball champions after 18 years.
2002:"Kaeru" - return, back. Abductees returned from North Korea.
2001:"Ikusa" - war, fight. 911, war against terror, anthrax
2002:"Kin" - gold, money, 'Kim'. Gold medals in the Sydney Olympics.
The two Kims meet.
1999:"Matsu" - end. End of the century, end of decency.
1998:"Doku" - poison. Curry poisoning in Wakayama, dioxin.
1997:"Taosu" - fall, knock down. Large scale bankruptcies like Yamaichi,
knocked down the rivals to compete in the world cup for the first time.
1996:"Shoku" - food, eat. O-157 food poisoning, mad cow disease.
1995:"Shin" - quake, shake. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake,
Aum sarin gas attack.

Just looking at these words gives you an overview of what happened in the past 10 years.

The Month of "Running Teachers"

2004-12-02T11:08:00.000+09:00

"It's already December," you'll hear people say with a sigh.
The arrival of this last month of the year always comes with a feeling of resignation. No use starting anything new now - have to hurry and finish off all the tasks before year end. Have to think how you'll do the new year cards.
So 2005 will be the year of the Cock. Technology (like these card-creating softwares) has changed the way we make our new year cards - you can download illustrations from the net, or use family pictures from your digital camera, and print off the cards on your home printer.
The most remarkable progress is the address book function. I can't believe I used to handwrite like forty names and addresses, and also jot down personal comments on the back! If you can get them posted by say, December 29th, it's sure to get delivered on New Year's Day, thanks to our reliable postal system.

Different Games, Different Rules

2004-11-26T14:15:00.000+09:00

I'm currently reading the Japanese translation of
Different Games, Different Rules: Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other. The Japanese tile is "Speaking Americans, Listening Japanese". The author Haru Yamada is a linguist fluent in both languages. Although there are some parts I disagree with, it still is a good book explaining why misunderstanings happen between Japanese and Americans.

Seeing and Seen

2004-11-25T16:03:00.000+09:00

I went to the Printing Museum, Tokyo to see "Seeing and Seen: Variations in Depiction between Japan and Foreign Lands", a temporary exhibition on until Dec 12. The museum is inside the Toppan Printing Co.'s office building. I saw the poster on the train, but it seems under-publicized, and there were very few people around.
A small exhibition, but quite interesting. I found some drawings in "Illustrated London News" rather funny, like "a Japanese God descending from heaven riding on a wild boar". Never heard of such a thing myself. What I found most amazing was this corner comparing imagination vs. actual. Drawings based on other people's reports were hilarious! Yes, images speaks more than words, like the Japanese saying, "Seeing once is worth hearing 100 times"(Hyakubun ha ikken ni shikazu).

MUJI House

2004-10-28T15:06:00.000+09:00

Following the Grand Open after the renewal, MUJI Yurakucho store has a model house displayed inside the shop (17,850,000 yen including tax, about US$170,000). The Ki-no-ie (wooden house) is built by the following three concepts: changeable, one-room space, and modular.
Quite cool.

Started a Blog!

2004-10-28T02:50:00.000+09:00

Here I am, starting my own blog, thanks to this impressive technology!

I think I'll write off my daily thoughts from the point of a Japanese living in Tokyo.
A lot about Japan and its people are misunderstood, partly because we're not used to "speaking up".
Blame it on the low context language feature; there's a lot that goes between the lines.
I hope people abroard will get to know us more, and realise that there are other ways of thinking in this world. The western (U.S.?) approach is not the global standard.
Loud speaking doesn't prove you're right.

As I write this, here comes another earthquake. I guess it's about shindo 3 in Tokyo. The TV news says it was shindo 6 in Nigata.