Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Hall

島津製作所

For fans of industrial history - or old buildings - the Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Hall in Kyoto is a good way to spend an hour or so.

Located at the northern end of Kiyamachi Dori, where it meets Nijo Dori, the museum was created in 1975, which marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Shimadzu company.

The museum features and highlights the successes of the company, whose current headquarters are now several miles southwest in a much larger compound (and where 2002 Nobel Laureate Koichi Tanaka continues to work as a Fellow).

Medical technology is prominently featured, but the company manufactures a wide variety of items.

Meiji Period:

Pipe organ, exhaust engine, electrical induction machine, x-ray technology

Taisho Period:

Microscopes

Showa Period:

MRI, PET, CT

Heisei Period:

Koichi Tanaka's work in lasers is prominently featured.

Access

Take a Kyoto city bus to City Hall. From there it is a five-minute walk. The Tozai subway line also stops here.

Information

Open 9:30 - 5 pm (last admittance at 4:30 pm)
300 yen for adults

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Amorphophallus titanum blooms in Tokyo

ショクダイオオコンニャク

The world's largest flower, the Amorphophallus titanum, which is native to Indonesia's Sumatra island has drawn huge crowds as it bloomed in Tokyo's Koishikawa Botanical Gardens.

At full bloom the plant gives off a terrible smell. The plant has grown from a seed donated in 1993.

The Koishikawa Botanical Gardens open from 9am-4pm and are closed on Mondays.

Access

東京都文京区白山3-7-1 112-0001

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Outdoor Dining Along Kamo River Kyoto

京都川床

One of the great pleasures of living in Kyoto is eating on the decks that overlook the Kamo River.

Every summer, the many restaurants that line parts of Kiyamachi and then Pontocho set up decks that face the river and are connected to the back of the restaurants.

This makes for wonderful dining, in the early evening as the sun goes down or later under the stars

A cold beer or cool choko of sake on the decks is about as good as it gets.

The decks are set up in late May or early June and will be in use until early September.

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Amaterasu

天照大神

On a recent trip to the town of Kawagoe, about an hour by train out of Tokyo, I saw this poster in a rather unattractive little Shinto shrine called Kumano Shrine in the town’s Renjakucho area. Drawn by the odd-looking character depicted on it, with his stick-on looking beard, I did some research.

He is holding a fuda (the name for the oblong piece of card he is holding) with the words
Amaterasu-sume-ohkami-miya, a shrine name that indicates it is affiliated to the national shrine bearing that name, Ise Jingu in Mie Prefecture.

Amaterasu is held by the Ise Jingu shrine to be the supreme god of the Shinto pantheon, the god of heaven, who created heaven and earth, while all the other gods are no more than her retainers.

Amaterasu, however, has not always been held to be the supreme deity. In a fierce dispute that happened within the Shinto ranks in 1880 and 1881, the followers of the Ise Shrine pitted themselves against the followers of the Izumo Shrine in Shimane. While the Ise faction insisted on the supremacy of Amaterasu over the separate worlds of the seen and unseen, the Izumo faction insisted equally vociferously on the unity of the seen and the unseen, and the supremacy of the god of the earth Ohkuninushi (as opposed to the god of heaven, Amaterasu) who should be regarded as supreme.

The dispute was so virulent and divisive that the Emperor Meiji was brought into the dispute to pronounce upon it, declaring in favor of the Ise faction.

The doctrine of the Ise faction has spread throughout Japan, and there is a Jinmei Shine (i.e. one where Amaterasu is worshiped) in every part of Japan.

Along the very bottom of the poster is the name of the body that produced the poster, the Iruma Branch of the Saitama Prefectural Department of Shrines. The Department of Shrines is a nationwide body administering Shinto shrines that, for all its (no doubt wishfully) official-sounding name, has nothing officially to do with the government.

Finally, I never found out who the bearded gentleman was - maybe just a poster boy for Amaterasu.

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Frank Lloyd Wright Imperial Hotel

明治村旧帝国ホテル

Frank Lloyd Wright's former Imperial Hotel, in Hibiya Park in Tokyo, survived the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but did not escape the wrecking ball, in 1968.

The hotel was Wright's best-known work in Japan, and featured Maya design elements.

However, in an odd twist of fate, the lobby of hotel was rescued and rebuilt. It can be seen in the amazing Meiji Mura, outside of Nagoya.

Entering the vast lobby is literally like taking a step back in time. There is a second floor, a cafe, and some original furniture.

Access

Meiji Mura
1 Uchiyama
Inuyama
Aichi
484-0000
Tel: 0568 67 0314

Admission ¥1,600. 9.30am-5pm (Mar-Oct) 9.30am-4pm (Nov-Feb). Take a bus from outside Inuyama Meitetsu Station.


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Yoshida Shrine Kyoto

吉田神社

Kyoto's Yoshida Shrine is just east of Kyoto University, nestled against the base of the hills that surround the city.

In the past, the shrine enjoyed imperial patronage.

Today it is a quiet refuge for neighbors and students.

Its most well-known event is the annual "setsubun" bean throwing ceremony that signals the end of winter.

On this night, Feb 3rd, people scatter soybeans to drive evil spirits out and bring in good luck.

On that night, revelers gather at Yoshida Shrine and drink and party until the wee hours.

Access

Kyoto city bus No.17, 102 or 203 to the Kyoto University of Agriculture bus stop. By Kyoto city bus No.31, 65, 201 or 206 to the bus stop near the gate of Kyoto University. Or by Keihan train to Demachiyanagi station, and from there walk for about 15 minutes.

Open: 9:00~16:00
Admission Fee: Free

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Japan This Week 25 July 2010

今週の日本

Toyota Receives Subpoena on Steering Flaws

New York Times

中国增持日本国债：目的、意义与风险

Caijing

Ex-North Korea spy to help solve Japan's abduction mystery

Guardian

Japan PM's wife criticizes him in new book

Washington Post

¿Qué fue de Megumi Yokota?

El Pais

North saboteur Kim leaves; visit 'very meaningful': Sengoku

Japan Times

Le japonais Rakuten part à la conquête du marché mondial du commerce en ligne

Le Monde

Japan pupils' unique history lesson on Hiroshima

BBC

Japan Training Program Is Said to Exploit Workers

New York Times

Many in Japan Are Outsourcing Themselves

New York Times

Japan's World Cup bid 'very balanced', says FIFA

Yahoo Sports

Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

In 2009, Japanese embassies and consulates provided aid to 18,843 Japanese nationals. That was a rise of 4.1% compared to the previous year.

Many of those were senior citizens who fell ill while abroad.

Source: Yomiuri Shinbun

Top Donors to Haiti for Reconstruction (amount pledged, in millions of US dollars)

1) Venezuela: 1,324
2) USA: 1,152
8) France: 256
13) Japan: 100

Source: Washington Post

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Calbee Japanese Baseball Cards

野球

Calbee is a major Japanese food company specializing in potato chip and various other snack foods. The company, established in 1949 as Matsuo Food Processing Co., Ltd. in Hiroshima, also dabbles in granola products among other types of food.

Oddly enough, it's also in the baseball card business. Each year Calbee releases it's series of Pro Yakyu Chips in groceries and convenience stores all across Japan.

The chips themselves are standard fare. But glued to the back of each bag is a gray foil wrapper containing two baseball cards featuring players and managers from the 12 Nippon Professional Baseball teams.

The cards are usually released in sets, with the first going on sale around the start of the season, with the others being released later in the year.

Two sets for the 2010 season are currently available. There are 192 "regular" player cards with a host of special cards to go out and find.

Calbee's website contains a database of all the cards from each set dating back to 1998.

The card database can be found here (in Japanese)

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Kawagoe - "Little Edo"

川越　小江戸



Kawagoe is a small city about 20 miles slight north-west of Tokyo. It is best known as "Little Edo," Edo being the pre-1868 name for Tokyo, because it preserves much of the look and feel of old Tokyo lost in the 1923 earthquake, World War II, and modernization.

Kawagoe is well-known for the Kawagoe Matsuri (Festival), held on the 3rd Saturday and Sunday in October with its huge floats(up to 7.5 tonnes) paraded by groups of men straining under their weight, urged on by percussion and woodwind bands that compete with each other in what is called a "hikkawase," attempting to make the other team lose its beat.

There are numerous famous buildings in Kawagoe, most of them religious, including Narita-betsuin Temple, and the nearby Kita-in Temple with its mysterious collection of over 500 stone statues known as Gohyaku Rakan.

The center of the town is 10-15 minutes walk from the station down Crea Mall, where you can see the 16m high Toki-no-kane bell tower, the Kawagoe Festival Museum, the Kashiya Yokocho (Confectioner' Alley), and much more.

Read more here about Kawagoe.

Kawagoe breakdance

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Yoshinoya

吉野家

Yoshinoya is a household name in Japan for gyudon - beef served on a bowl of rice - and has 1000s of branches throughout the country and overseas, employing over 8,500 people in Japan alone.

Yoshinoya began life in 1899 as the Japanese took up beef-eating under western influence in the Meiji Period.

The first Yoshinoya restaurant opened in Nihonbashi in Tokyo before moving to the Tsukiji Fish Market after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

The BSE crisis in the US caused Yoshinoya to suspend imports of American beef in 2004 and switch to pork (butadon) as a substitute.

Yoshinoya now serves beef from both the USA and Australia as well as pork gyudon.

Yoshinoya has restaurants in the following countries overseas: Australia, China (Hong Kong), Indonesia, Malaysia (no pork on the menu), The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States (Arizona, California, Las Vegas, and New York City).

Yoshinoya's motto is "umai, yasui, hayai" (tasty, cheap and quick).

Yoshinoya
115-8529
Kita-ku
Akabane Minami 1-20-1
Tokyo

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Giichi Tanaka

田中 義一

Giichi Tanaka (1864-1929) was the 26th Prime Minister of Japan and an important officer in the Japanese army during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), and the later Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

Tanaka was a native of Hagi in south western Japan and his statue stands outside the gate to Hagi Castle.

A vehement anti-communist hawk, Tanaka's policies while Prime Minister dragged Japan deeper into a growing conflict in China, though he withstood the machinations of the Japanese ultra-nationalists in China, which eventually lead to the resignation of himself and his entire cabinet in 1929.

Tanaka died a few months later.

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The Keisei Sky Access

スカイライナー

The Keisei Sky Access service began running on Saturday between Ueno Station and Nippori Station in Tokyo and Narita International Airport.

The new Skyliner trains run at a top speed of 160kph on the 51.4km route and completes the journey in just 36 minutes.

The train stops at both Narita Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 stations. The first service from Nippori is 6.35am with the last Skyliner at 5.50pm. Trains begin the journey 5 minutes before at Ueno Station.
Keisei Main Line trains run until 10.06pm from Nippori Station.

The present fare from Nippori to Narita is 2,400 yen. The new service is a direct competitor of JR's Narita Express from Tokyo Station.

Keisei's Access Limited Express connects Narita and Haneda Airports via the Toei Asakusa Line with the journey taking 1 hour and 40 minutes.

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Gland Open Vitamin Golf

グランド　オープン　ビタミン　ゴルフ

Were your testes terminated? Your lymph laid off? Your kidneys kicked? Your adenoids absented? Is your pancreas payless? Your spleen on the scrapheap?

Fret for them no more: there's an opening! And at a Vitamin Golf Course at that, providing a clearly nutiritious and supportive environment for any gland with the gumption to sign up.

But seriously, Vitamin Golf is an indoor golfing school in Tokyo's Aoyama district that opened last month. You pay 20,000 yen (USD230) to "register," then a per-hour fee of 9,000 yen (USD100) (with a junior teacher) or 12,000 yen (USD140) (with a senior teacher) who takes you through your swing on a virtual golf course, lined up along a wall with a dozen other punters in front of a screen - these fees further inflated by a miscellany of minor "facilities usage" charges and the like. Looks like it's basically Nintendo Wii golf for OL with the addition of some live young male charisma.

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Japan This Week 18 July 2010

今週の日本

Japan's Ruling Party Suffers Setback

New York Times

揭秘日本饮食中潜伏的危险—回转寿司篇

Caijing

Japanese government faces heavy losses in elections

Guardian

Annandale boy heads to Hawaii to compete in Pokemon championship

Washington Post

Fitch cree que el FROB cubriría a la banca si suspende las pruebas

El Pais

Kyoto ryokans: Zen and Now

Guardian

Three die, two vanish in deluge

Japan Times

Les démocrates nippones boivent encore la tasse

Liberation

Japan is more associated with high-tech companies but that is not the whole
picture

BBC

The sound of a Princess on the toilet

CNN

Toyota Acknowledges 2 Vehicle Flaws

New York Times

Scandals expose venerable sumo’s shady underbelly

Yahoo Sports

Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

Average number of days per year when rainfall exceeded 400 mm in one day:

1987 - 1997: 5.2 times
1998 - 2008: 9.8 times

Source: Asahi Shinbun


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House of Flys Tokyo

House of Flys Tokyo is a chic little shop in Tokyo's Jingumae district, near Omotesando, that specializes in the US eyewear and fashion line, Blackflys.

The really eye-catching thing (so to speak!) about House of Flys Tokyo is the immense panorama of eyewear visible through the front window as you walk by, or, more likely, stop and look.

Blackflys Eyewear is subdivided into Blackflys (for guys) and FlyGirls - both of which are party-hard, street/club style, and BFOP, the optical brand of just frames for corrective lenses.

The range of materials, colors, models, and looks is huge, and the prices range from about 8,000 yen to the 20,000 yen range, but with an average price of about 10,000 yen.

The clothing they stock is strictly young rocker and, fortunately, doesn't define the store as much as the cool eyewear does.

House of Flys Tokyo
1F Cynic Sekine
6-28-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
03-6418-4933

東京都渋谷区神宮前6-28-4シニック関根1F


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Shark Fins At Kesennuma

気仙沼

This gruesome video was shot by Hong Kong based British photographer Alex Hofford in Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture.



Kesennuma is Japan's and indeed the world's shark fin capital with most of the fins destined for the domestic Japanese market and some exported to Hong Kong and mainland China. The fishing port also lands large numbers of tuna, bonito, and Pacific saury.
Kesennuma was virtually destroyed in the March 2011 tsunami.

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Ryosenji Treasure Museum Shimoda

了仙寺宝物館/黒船美術館

The Ryosenji Treasure Museum and Kurofune Art Gallery in Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula is the main place in town dedicated to the historic landing of Commodore Perry's Black Ships (kurofune) in Shimoda back in the 1850s.

Located near to the main buildings and garden of Ryosenji Temple, the two storey museum has a video introduction to the momentous event of Perry's unannounced arrival in Japan, contemporary paintings and sketches by both Japanese and foreign eye-witnesses and numerous authentic objects from the period including weapons, uniforms and maps.

The museum also covers the story of Okichi, a local woman who was supposedly forced by the shogunate to become a maid servant to Townsend Harris, America's first consul in Japan.

Facts surrounding the story of Okichi, who later became a bitter alcoholic and committed suicide, are decidedly murky and often contradictory, but this poignant vignette in early US-Japan cross-cultural relations is a pantomime story readily propagated throughout Shimoda. Think Nottingham and Robin Hood for a comparison.

An excellent 12-page English  introduction to the exhibits including the complete text of President Milliard Fillmore's open letter to the Emperor of Japan is available free of charge. Ask at the counter.

"I am desirous that our two countries should trade with each other, for the benefit both of Japan and the United States."

Ryosenji Treasure Museum
Ryosenji 3-12-12
Shichiken-cho, Shimoda
415-0023
Tel: 0558 22 0657

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When umbrellas go cup-shaped in Japan

おちょこにされる

Japan's rainy season, or tsuyu, generally happens between May and July. Japanese are very particular about getting rained on, and umbrellas go up at the slightest hint of droplets in the air. The past three or four days have also been quite gusty, meaning the sight of umbrellas - especially the 500 yen, convenience store, variety - turned inside out is a common one. There is even a special word for the phenomenon: ochako ni naru, or ochako ni sareru.

An ochako is a small sake cup, the two characters for the word being "boar" and "mouth" 猪口　- a combination that, nevertheless, is believed to be substitute characters used phonetically, not etymologically. (However, it is usually written using only hiragana.) The word is also used to mean "cup-shaped."

Thus, having your umbrella turned inside out is to have it made cup-shaped: the typically small circle of a base, under which you are haplessly standing, flaring out upwards on now ramrod-straight ribs towards a large-diameter rim.

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Nagoya Friends YUKATA PARTY! - THIS SATURDAY at Red Rock 7/17

Nagoya Friends is holding it’s 92nd party in Nagoya!

at

• Date: SATURDAY July 17th, 2010
• Time: 18:30 - 21:00
• Drinks will be served between 6:30pm-8:45pm.
• Place: The Red Rock (2F Aster Plaza Building, 4-14-6 Sakae, Nagoya (very close to Sakae Station)
• Fee: EVERYONE 2500 yen!! 1st 15 foreigners 2000 yen each!
• Dress code: Anything (Casual, etc)
• Reservations: Not necessary but recommended and appreciated. Just show up to the party!
• Over 25,000 Yen worth of exciting prize giveaways each month!
• Great Prizes for best Yukata!!!
• There will be free food along with free drinks (beers, wine, cocktail drinks and juices).

Our party is not a dinner party, but we will have light food & snacks. Quantities are limited, so please come early! Please free to come alone or bring your friends. EVERYBODY is welcome to join regardless of nationality/gender. Reservation is greatly appreciated. About 125-150+ people are expected to attend. Approximately 55% female and 45% male, 70% Japanese and 30% non-Japanese. Pictures from previous Nagoya Friends Parties.

Map & Directions

Contact: 080-3648-1666(Japanese) 080-5469-6317(English)

Get off at Sakae Station [Exit #13]

The Red Rock (2F Aster Plaza Building,
4-14-6 Sakae, Nagoya (very close to Sakae Station)

The Red Rock is located behind the Chunichi Building in the Sakae business/shopping district.

Subway access from Sakae Station (serving the yellow and purple lines) Exit 13. It’s a big station connected to a huge underground shopping mall so you’ll need to do a little underground walking.

We’re also just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Tokyu and Precede hotels, and a 10 minute walk up Hirokoji Street from the Hilton Hotel in Fushimi.

Train Directions

From Nagoya Stn. take the Higashiyama Subway line to Sakae Station (GET OFF at Sakae Station!!) Take exit #13 and then walk straight AWAY from Hirokoji-Dori for about 3/4 of a block. TURN LEFT Red Rock is on the right side of the street in the middle of the block. Look for the sign on the sidewalk.

Sakae

Sakae Station

Higashiyama Line

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Happiness Realization Party

幸福実現党



The Happiness Realization Party, founded in May 2009, is the political organ of the Happy Science religious movement. Happy Science is a sci-fi religion founded by Ryuho Okawa, a former high-flying trader turned charismatic religious leader who claims to be a reincarnation of the Buddha.

The Happy Science movement has been extremely successful. With a law degree from Tokyo University and a finance degree from the City University of New York,“Master Okawa” is obviously brainy; having set himself up as a literal demi-god, he is obviously ambitious; and, having attracted enough followers to have well over 200 centers in Japan and over 30 overseas, he is obviously charismatic and convincing.

The beliefs of Happy Science as outlined on its website are an untidy package of banal New Age platitudes: basically watered down Buddhism with plenty of sci-fi seasoning: “The ‘Real World’ is multi-dimensional. Human spirits exist from the 4th dimension to the 9th, with each having different qualities.” etc etc. (Incredibly, by the way, Tokyo’s free what’s-on magazine, Metropolis, published an article on July 9 about Happy Science that lauds the organization for its “heroic attempt to inject religious values back into modern society.” What other oddball cults has Metropolis magazine raved about in the past, we wonder?)

Little can then be expected then, of the Realization of Happiness Party, and little, indeed, does it deliver. I came across the Party campaigning in Ginza and, the next week, in Akihabara. “Doctor Nakamatsu” was the candidate for the proportional representational seats for which the elections were held last week. He paraded in absurd fairytale finery while a recording of him singing his election song in a quavery voice to the tune of “Doe, A Deer” played from his election van.

His young minions paraded behind him holding to their faces the paper masks of Doctor Nakamatsu that were the feature accoutrements of his campaign: a major platform of which is to ... lower taxes! The Party also milks the Japanese public's fear of China and North Korea for all it's worth by predicting a nuclear attack on, and the colonization of, Japan by either or both of these powers.

The dignity of Japanese politics got some respite in the first half of this decade with Junichiro Koizumi, but the lid is clearly back off. The encouraging thing is that “Doctor Nakamatsu” got only 30,000 votes. Er, did we just say “encouraging”?

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Green Car

電車

The Green Car on Japanese trains including the Shinkansen is the equivalent of First Class.

For the extra cost you will find Green Cars have better seats and fewer passengers. The Japan Rail Pass also has a Green Class if you really want to do Japan by rail in style. Perks may include free slippers, personal TVs and laptop power points.

The Green Window (midori no madoguchi) is the place to book train tickets.

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Sunshine City Ikebukuro

サンシャインシティ

Sunshine City Ikebukuro is located on land formerly occupied by the infamous Sugamo Prison, which held political prisoners in the 1930s and 1940s.

Sunshine City was completed in 1978 and consists of four buildings forming "a city within a city" complete with an observation deck, aquarium, theater, planetarium, hotel and shopping mall.

The centerpiece of the development is the 240 meter tall Sunshine 60 skyscraper.

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Japan This Week 11 July 2010

今週の日本

Sumo’s Ties to Japan Underworld Go Beyond Limits

New York Times

决战夏天（上）—日本的参议院选举由来

Caijing

The 5 most picturesque beaches for Tokyo day-trippers

CNN

Sumo wrestles with illegal betting scandal

Guardian

Democrats face test on eve of Japanese election

Washington Post

Banzai artístico en el CCCB

El Pais

Retrial of '67 Ibaraki murder case begins

Japan Times

Les "filles à pédé" sortent de l'ombre

Liberation

NZ whaling activist escapes jail but remains defiant

BBC

Japan’s Nagatomo close to signing with Cesena

Yahoo Sports

Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

Relative poverty rate, by country:

1. Denmark: 5.3%
2. Sweden: 5.3%

6. France: 7.1%

10. Holland: 7.7%

13. UK: 8.3%

27. Japan: 14.9%
28. USA: 17.1%

30. Mexico 18.4%


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Horinji Temple Kyoto

達磨寺

Horinji Temple not on one of the major tourist routes in Kyoto.

It is located a 5-10 minute walk north of Enmachi Station on the JR Saiin Line.

The temple itself is not particularly grand, and the day we visited the only human being there was a wizened old woman at the ticket booth. We had to wake her from a nap to pay the 300 yen entrance fee.

The temple is better known as "Daruma Temple." The reason for this becomes obvious as soon as you enter.

According to the pamphlet we received, there are 8,000 daruma in the compound.

Daruma are the hollow, usually red dolls modeled on the founder of Zen Buddhism.

They are considered symbols of good luck, and are often displayed in newly opened restaurants or at the campaign headquarters of a politician.

Access

From JR Enmachi Station, walk back half a block to the corner of Marutamachi - Nishi-oji. Cross to the northeast corner (there is a small shop that sells train, and other, tickets). From here walk north up Nishioji Dori for two blocks. Above you will be a small sign with a painting of a daruma doll. Turn right and walk about 100 meters. On your right.

Tel: 075 841 7878

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2010 Tokyo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

第19回 東京国際レズビアン＆ゲイ映画祭

The 2010 Tokyo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival gets underway today with the world premiere screening at Wald 9 in Shinuku, at 6.30pm, of Evgeny Afineevsky’s Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!

The Festival is in two overlapping stages, with the first dozen or so films being shown between today and July 19 at the Wald 9 cinema complex in Shinjuku, and the remaining films (plus many of those screened at Wald 9) being shown between July 15 and 19 at Spiral Hall in Minami Aoyama (pic below)

Many of the films are short films and come from directors in ten different countries:

USA
Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!, dir. Evgeny Afineevsky
A Single Man, dir. Tom Ford
The Four-Faced Liar, dir. Jacob Chase
Hollywood, je t'aime, dir. Jason Bushman
I'm Just Anneke, dir. Jonathan Skurnik (USA/Canada)
And Then Came Lola, dir. Ellen Seidler & Megan Siler
Revelations, dir. Tom Gustafson
Girl Talk, dir. Jennifer Smith

Canada
Peking Turkey, dir. Michael Mew
The Golden Pin, dir. Cuong Ngo
No Bikini, dir. Claudia Morgado Escanilla

Hong Kong
Miao Miao, dir. Cheng Hsiao-Tse

Sweden
Regretters, dir. Marcus Lindeen
A Little Tiger, dir. Anna Carin Andersson
Birthday, dir. Jenifer Malmqvist

New Zealand
The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, dir. Leanne Pooley
Teddy, dir. Christopher Banks

Australia
evelyn everyone, dir. Kylie Plunkett

Japan
Secret, dir. Takeshi Matsuura
La forêt de Rachel D'Amour, dir. Rachel D'Amour
Mariko Rose the Spook, dir. Devi Kobayashi
A Tea-Grown Flower, dir. Yoko Yusa
Koiseyo Otomoe, dir. Yoshitomi X Saii
Friends?, dir. Manabu Oda
Cloudy Then Fair, dir. Marie Sakamoto

Diavolo, dir. Meiko Amano
Jellyfish Boy, dir. Sho Kataoka

China
Spring Fever, dir. Lou Ye

Peru
Undertow, dir. Javier Fuentes-Leon
South Korea
Just Friends?, dir. Kim-Jho Gwang-soo

Pre-paid tickets are cheaper than the regular movie price: 1,400 yen per showing at Wald 9, and 1,300 yen at Spiral (or 4,800 yen for 4 movies, or 13,000 yen for a Spiral pass)

Media partners of the Festival include Furukawa Shobou, publishers of gay manga, the chic, cutting edge Tokyo Wrestling: Tough Girls Lifestyle website known, amongst other things, for its kick ass parties, and gay magazine publisher, Tera Publications Inc.

More about gay and lesbian Japan.

More about What's On in Tokyo

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Iliad Japan

イリアッド・ジャパン

One of the most dramatic sights in the Otemachi area of Tokyo’s Chiyoda ward is in Sankei Plaza, in front of the headquarters of the Sankei Building Company. It is a massive industrial-style sculpture by the Russian-American artist, Alexander Semeonovitch Liberman (1912-1999). The huge steel complex of bright orange tubes is an organic insect-like structure, 14.2 meters high, called Iliad Japan.

Installed in 1987, it is a conspicuous reminder of the Bubble Era in Japan when big was never big or bright enough, and money was there to be exuberantly thrown. Sigh!

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Troubled Sumo Seeks Fresh Start At Nagoya Basho

相撲名古屋場所

The troubled sport of sumo lurches from one crisis to the next ahead of the opening of the annual Nagoya tournament this Sunday.

Rocked by revelations of betting scandals and connections with Japan's underworld, the sport is seeking to restore its tarnished reputation beginning with this weekend's basho.

Champion wrester Kotomitsuki and stablemaster Otake have both been fired from the over 1,300 year-old-sport and 18 other wrestlers have been suspended from the upcoming tournament by the Japan Sumo Association (JSA).

Sumo was already a sport in serious decline before the latest scandals broke: allegations of drug use, the hazing death of a young trainee and nagging accusations of bout-rigging that refuse to go away.

The sport is no longer popular with Japan's youth and the best wrestlers now come from Mongolia, including the Yokozuna Hakuho and the now disgraced Asashoryu.

The public's patience with Japan's national sport was finally snapped by the revelations that 50 gangsters from the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest crime syndicate, had obtained front row seats at last year's Nagoya tournament. The plan was to be seen on national television and thus offer support to senior Yakuza members locked up in Japan's prisons.

When national broadcaster NHK threatened to pull the plug on live broadcasts the hide-bound JSA finally had to act to try and clean out the Augean stables. However NHK has made good on its threat and will not show the Nagoya tournament live for the first time in 50 years, opting for a delayed and abbreviated highlights show each day instead, after receiving 1000s of complaints from its viewers.



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Ambika Indian Groceries Tokyo

アンビカ　インドの食品

In Tokyo needing basmati or jasmine rice, pickled lime uttam, turmeric cream, mustard oil, coconut milk powder? Almost everything Indian culinary requirement is catered for at Ambika, a well-established Indian mini-market in Tokyo’s Taito ward.

Ambika began in 1998 and is now, according to the Ambika website, “Japan’s premier online Indian grocery shop for authentic Indian spices, groceries, juices, wine, ready to eat curry and herbal products” – all imported from India.

As well as the physical premises, Ambika Trading Company runs an online store for Indian food shopping from anywhere in Japan.

Ambika is located in a small street one block east off Route 462 and one block south of Kasuga-dori Road in Tokyo’s Taito ward.

Ambika
3-19-12 Kuramae, Taito-ku, Tokyo 111-0051
111-0051東京都台東区蔵前３－１９－２
Tel 03-5822-6655

Map to Ambika


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Naoto Kan

菅直人

Japan's new Prime minister, Naoto Kan, came to office after the resignation of his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama early last month, becoming Japan's fifth premier in only four years.

A native of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Kan studied physics at Tokyo Institute of Technology and has a background in patent law and as a grass-roots activist.

Kan served as Health Minister in a coalition government headed by the LDP in 1996 and is popular for his role in admitting the Japanese government's responsibility for the spread of imported HIV-tainted blood among hemophiliacs in the 1980s.

Kan has led the DPJ before when he stood unsuccessfully against the LDP's Junichiro Koizumi in the 2003 general election, but stepped down in the wake of the unpaid pension contributions scandal sweeping through Japan's lawmakers at the time. Kan is seen as an opponent of Ichiro Ozawa's influence within the DPJ.

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Japan This Week 4 July 2010

今週の日本

An All-Japanese Mash Up

New York Times

一期一会—再见了，日本队

Caijing

Sumo wrestles with illegal betting scandal

Guardian

In Japan but surrounded by U.S. influence, Okinawa struggles with split identity

Washington Post

Santa Cruz contra Japón

El Pais

Japan urges more dads to swap desks for diapers

Washington Post

Nagoya movie theater to show whaling film, 'Cove' as package

Japan Times

Zentai, la bonne combine

Liberation

The savers financing Japan's debt

BBC

In a Space Probe’s Journey, a Test for Japan

New York Times

Japan Start Search For New Boss After Takeshi Okada Reiterates Retirement Plans

Yahoo Sports

Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

Cases of School Bullying, by year:

1985: 155,000
1993: 22,000
1994: 56,000
2006: 125,000
2008: 85,000

Source: Japan Ministry of Education

Visitors to Japan, 2009:

South Koreans: 1,835,000
Chinese: 1,230,000
Taiwanese: 1,006,700
Americans: 729,000
Hong Kongers: 422,000

Source: Asahi Shinbun

Doctors per 1,000 people

Greece: 5.4
Belgium: 4
Italy: 3.7
France: 3.4
OECD Average: 3.1
UK: 2.5

Japan: 2.1
South Korea: 1.7


Source: OECD

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