Stationary Songs

Japan’s trains are iconic parts of the daily lives of  If you’ve ever ridden these vital links between work and home for Japanese residents, you’ve noticed people are perfectly comfortable sleeping, reading, or standing trapped in a crowd of dozens with no way to see where they are.  How do they know when their stop has arrived?  

There are approximately 160 million people using trains around the world on any given day. Of this, there are over 60 million people in Japan who use trains – Japan is an extremely train-centered society with Japanese passengers comprising one-third of world’s train passengers. While Tokyo’s official population hovers around 12 million, during the day there are as many as 15 million people in the city; each day over 3 million people are travelling into the capital from the outer suburbs, and most of these people take a train. 

Did you know that in Japan many train stations have theirf the train close?  Call it a signature tune or a theme song…the Maihama Station on the Keiyo line is the stop for Tokyo Disneyland and the tune you hear is It’s a Small Word.  Just a few stops down the same line you will find the Chiba Lotte Marines (a Japanese professional baseball team) song playing at Kaihin Makuhari Station.

Once upon a time, a bell was used to signal impending departures. Then this evolved into an electric buzzer, and later a computerized melody. In Tokyo, computerized melodies were first used in 1989 at Shinjuku and Shibuya stations. In the early days, it was common for the melody to be comprised of a single instrument, such as the harp or bell, but now simple bar melodies are the norm.   

One of the most famous train lines in Japan is the Yamanote Line, a circular route operated by the JR East Japan Railway Company that traverses 34.5 kilometers (22 miles), has 29 stops and provides transportation to approximately 3.5 million riders each day.  Trains depart every two to four minutes in each direction from 4:30AM to 1:20AM daily and it takes approximately one hour to complete a ride around the Yamanote Line.

A ride around the Yamanote Line will take you to some of Tokyo’s best sightseeing spots and will also give you an opportunity to listen to some of the distinctive train station melodies.  The melody at Takadanobaba station is the Atom Boy theme, in honour of creator Tetsuka Osamu (known as the ‘father of Japanese animation’), who had his studio nearby. Passengers at Komagome Station will get serenaded by ‘Sakura, Sakura’ (‘Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom’), tipping its hat to Komagome being the home of the famous somei yoshino varietal of the Japanese national flower, the cherry blossom. 

Of the 29 Yamanote stations, the only stations that are still in need of musical enhancement are Ueno and Shin Okubo.  In the meantime, you can hear selections such as the theme song from ‘The Third Man’ at Ebisu Station, which was the song used in the Ebisu Beer commercial.  While you may have heard a version of ‘Sakura Sakura’ at Musashi Koganei Station on the Chuo line, the version at Komagome Station on the Yamanote line sounds very different.  The ‘Astro Boy’ theme playing at Takadanobaba Station was only supposed to be temporary, but fans felt otherwise and clamored for it to be permanent.  Today you can still hear the theme at the station. 

Want to hear more?

You can click here for an audio journey along the Yamanote line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=470_2wt2t1o 

Or you can learn more about each station, including the theme music, along the Yamanote line here:
http://yamanote.tumblr.com 

Sources:

The Nihon Sun
Timeout Tokyo

Legacy of Musashi

A mystery that is over 70 years old has been solved: a dive team funded by billionaire Paul Allen has discovered the long-lost wreck of the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Musashi. That vessel, together with its sister ship, the Yamato, were the largest and most heavily armed battleships constructed in naval history.  The vessel was sunk on Oct. 24, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 

The search was funded by Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder. It took eight years. Last year, Allen's team closely sonar-mapped the Subuyan seafloor. This year, they sent an autonomous underwater vehicle to investigate sites of interest the survey had revealed. Musashi loomed out of the blackness at a depth of more than half a mile.

The Musashi was built as part of the Yamato class of vessels planned in 1937, of which there only were two battleships. They were about 30 percent heavier than the largest U.S. battleships, the Iowa class.  Commissioned in 1942, the Musashi weighed 72,800 tons full,  On October 24, 1944, the Musashi’s short life as the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy came to an end during the Battle of Sibuyan Sea.  Aircraft from the U.S. aircraft carrier Intrepid located the Japanese fleet, and before long it was swarmed by 30 incoming hostile aircraft.

Severely lacking in air cover, the Musashi fired its guns into the sea, which sent out massive geysers intended to knock U.S. torpedo bombers out of the sky. However, the Musashi finally succumbed to massive damage inflicted by 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs, sinking in the Sibuyan Sea, taking 1,023 lives. The Battle of Sibuyan Sea, which sank the Musashi, was one of several battles fought as part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which is considered by some standards to be the largest naval battle in history.

The first video footage of the wreck of the wartime Japanese battleship Musashi shows the main deck catapult to launch seaplanes and an anti-aircraft gun used in the final defense against a U.S. aerial attack that sank the vessel.  The giant guns on the Musashi and her sister ship, the Yamato, were an engineering marvel.  Musashi and Yamato carried the largest guns ever placed on a ship: nine massive Type 94s that fired 3,220-pound shells a distance of up to 24 miles. At 18.1 inches across, those shells were substantially wider than (and three times the length of) a standard beer keg. The barrels measured nearly 70 feet breech-to-muzzle. Together with the breechblock, they weighed more than 150 tons

To build these guns, the Japanese government poured money into a Hokkaido firm called Japan Steel Works (JSW), which built the big guns. Although Japan lost the war, JSW's advanced knowledge of steel-working survived. In the 80 years since, the company has put it to use building something equally remarkable: the reactor vessels of nuclear power plants.  Until very recently, Japan Steel Works enjoyed a monopoly on the lucrative reactor-vessel trade.  Today, nearly every one of us at some point in our lives has enjoyed the electric power generated through JSW’s steel, a legacy of the Musashi that still lives on today. 

Mr. Allen posted the video footage on his official website:  

http://www.paulallen.com/

Sources:

The Asahi Shinbun

The Diplomat.com

Popular Mechanics

Blade Runner Venus

Japan is a nation that, like any other, struggles with prejudices and fears.  Although one of the most uncomfortable stigmas in Japan is that against amputees, new efforts in Japan are focused on overcoming that negative image and allowing Japanese amputees freedom from prejudice and fear. 

There are an estimated 80,000 people in Japan using prosthetic limbs.  In particular, in Japan, an estimated 70,000 people are missing all or part of a leg. The top cause for amputation is diabetes, which accounts for about 40 percent of cases, followed by cancer and traffic accidents. National insurance pays 90 percent of the cost of a prosthetic, which must be custom made and carefully fitted and adjusted. In some parts of the country, however, it is difficult to find a prosthetic maker and amputees are forced to use crutches or wheelchairs. The more rural the area, the more likely it is that amputees face difficulties and discrimination

This month, a fashion show at the CP+ camera and photo-imaging convention in Yokohama Japan, has been receiving extensive TV and newspaper coverage worldwide.  The show featured amputee models and was the follow-up to 36 year old documentary photographer Takao Ochi’s ‘Amputee Venus’ photo-book which pictures the lives of eleven Japanese women with artificial legs who have rebuilt their lives and now excel at everything they do, including karate, motorcycle riding, running and football.

Some 7,000, including Paralympians, have been fitted for prostheses by Usui and his workshop, part of an organization set up in 1932 to help injured railroad workers.  Usui also founded a sports club to help amputees train for competition. 

One of the girls, Hitomi Onishi, who lost a leg fifteen years ago as a result of a medical procedure, is now Japan’s fastest 100 and 200 metre sprinter in the T42 paralympic committee category and has set her sights on competing at Rio next year.  The ‘Amputee Venus’ photobook and events have been surprisingly popular.  "I want to show that prostheses can be cool and sometimes even cute," said Yoko Sato, a 33-year-old, posing in a sassy red mini-dress that showed off a prosthetic leg painted with cherry blossoms and gilded Japanese fans.

Japan also has its own amputee football (soccer) league.  http://j-afa.com/wp/

The Japanese Amputee Football Association, based in Tokyo, was started in April 2010 by Henrique Matsumora Dias, a Brazilian-Japanese soccer player who used to play for the Brazilian national amputee team. Finding that Japan did not have a national amputee soccer team, he decided to create one.  Through his connections at South Senju's railroad foundation, a clinic in Tokyo for people with disabilities, he was able to gather other amputees interested in forming a team. 

The league now has teams all over Japan and plays worldwide.  In fact, Japan was scheduled to host the 2012 Football Amputee World Cup, but the 3/11 Tokushima earthquake and tsunami caused the event’s cancellation. 

ephotozine.com

The Japan Times

Wikipedia

The New York Times

Human Designs

This week, Japan and the world of design lost a true visionary - Kenji Ekuan.  You have almost certainly never heard of him, but his designs are part of Japan’s cultural identity.  Decades after he created Kikkoman's iconic soy sauce bottles with their red caps, he designed Japan's Komachi bullet train.  He died last weekend at the age of 85. 
 

A native of Hiroshima, Ekuan was 17 when the city was hit by an atomic bomb toward the end of World War II. In the blast, he lost his sister and father, who was a Buddhist priest. He later said the devastation motivated him to start building things.  "Faced with brutal nothingness, I felt a great nostalgia for something to touch, something to look at," he once said. "The existence of tangible things is important. It's evidence that we're here as human beings." 

Ekuan designed JAL airplane seats, Yamaha's VMAX motorcycles and the Narita Express train that ferries passengers to and from Tokyo's international airport.  He designed bicycles, audio gear, pianos for Yamaha and the logo for the Mini Stop convenience store.  His most famous design, the Kikkoman bottle, was a contract he won while still in his 20s. It took him three years and 100 prototypes to come up with a final design for his dispenser, which combined a gracefully curving form with an innovative, dripless spout. More than 300 million of the bottles have been sold.

For University, Ekuan studied at Geidai — Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music — in Ueno.  “There was no design department back then,” he explained. “I was studying traditional crafts, which provided a good base for under- standing a wide variety of techniques and also general aesthetics. Design to me has always meant making people happy. Happy in the sense of creating items that provide comfort, convenience, function, aesthetics and ethics. I used to do a lot of research, fieldwork, wanting to understand the psychology of human needs and response.”
 

At the end of his life, Ekuan became ill.  However, “he came into the office every day,” a co-worker reported. "He used a special green wheelchair that he had designed himself." "Ekuan was not a designer but also a philosopher. He always said, ‘Everything has a soul’. He never married but often said that he was married to design.” “Regardless of what the object of design is, humans need design,”Ekuan said in an interview in 2007. “For anything humans use in their day to day life, they need design and it is a clear and concrete proof of the fundamental human right to live.”

Sources:

npr.org

The Japan Times

The New York Times

The Independent.Uk

qz.com

Robot Vacation

It’s no secret that Japan is a nation of hard-working people plagued by an ever-shrinking population.  Maybe that’s why the Japanese government has plans to introduce legislation that would make it compulsory for employees to take at least five paid vacation days per year.  Requiring vacation might be the only way to make vacations happen; a 2013 survey by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare found that employees only took nine vacation days per year, even though they were entitled to an average of 18.5. A separate poll found that 1 out of every 6 workers didn't take any vacation days at all, according to the Japan Times.

But with Japan also facing a shortage of young workers, how can it afford to give more vacations as well?  Some companies think they have the answer - Robots.  

For example, Japan’s biggest bank is preparing to unveil robot employees with a human touch.  Nao, a 58-centimetre (1ft 11)-tall humanoid developed by the French company Aldebaran Robotics – a subsidiary of the Japanese telecoms and internet giant SoftBank - will begin work on a trial basis at one or two branches of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in April.  Equipped with a camera on his forehead, Nao is programmed to speak 19 languages. He analyzes customers’ emotions from their facial expressions and tone of voice, enabling him to greet customers and ask which services they need.

Beyond that, the operator of the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Nagasaki said its two-storey Henn na (strange) Hotel will be run almost entirely by robots, from its porters to room cleaners and front desk staff, when it opens this summer.  Guests at the futuristic hotel will be given the option of using facial recognition technology to open the door to their room instead of a key. About 10 human employees will work alongside their robotic colleagues.

The first building in the hotel will open with 72 rooms, followed by another 72-room building next year. A single room will be priced at 7,000 yen a night, or around $59. A twin room will set you back 9,000 yen, or $76.  "We will make the most efficient hotel in the world," company President Hideo Sawada said during a news conference, "In the future, we'd like to have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots.”  They have hopes of building 1,000 such hotels in the future.  

Sources:  

mic.com

The Japan Times

The Guardian 

Engaget

Surf and Sun and...Power?

Japan, as much as any nation on Earth, recognizes the need to innovate in order to supply its nation with power.  A tiny, isolated nation, fossil fuels are expensive for Japan and Japan’s people are wary of nuclear power.  But while nations like Germany have made great strides in solar power, in a nation like Japan where space is limited and land is at a premium, how can it find room for the large solar farms necessary to power its cities?

Kyocera thinks it has the answer.  The Japanese firm has teamed up  Ciel et Terre (a French company that designs, finances, and operates photovoltaic installations), and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation in Chiba prefecture to build a floating solar farm designed to supply around 4,700 households.  The 13.4 MW floating solar power plant will operate on the Yamakura Dam reservoir.  Kyocera said the facility will be one of the world’s largest floating solar power plants.  It plans to start operation of 30 floating solar power plants nationwide during fiscal 2015, which ends in March 2016.

Around 50,000 Kyocera modules will be installed over a water surface area of 180,000m2, generating an estimated 15,635 megawatt hours per year, enough electricity to supply 4,700 typical households and offsetting around 7,800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.  In turn, the power will be sold to Tokyo Electric Power Co. for around ¥450 million/year ($78.7 million/year).  Although Japan is prone to natural disasters, the completely recyclable photovoltaic cells can withstand over 100 mph typhoons and are basically impervious to earthquakes, since they are based on water rather than land.  

Japan has millions of dollars in clean energy projects approved, and 96 percent of those are solar. The country already had a long history in the solar industry before the Fukushima disaster and the implementation of its clean energy incentive program. Japan is home to some of the largest solar panel makers in the world, including Panasonic, Sharp and Solar Frontier (part of Showa Shell). 

Sources:

http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com

The Japan Times

www.gigaom.com

www.news.nationalgeographic.com

The Myth of the Kirin

Americans love beer, and imported beers are sometimes the first experience Americans have of other cultures.  When it comes to Japan, there are two brands that one can find all over the US - Sapporo and Kirin.  Many Americans enjoy the “imported” taste of these “Japanese” beers.

Why the quotation marks? It turns out that if you bought Kirin beer here in the U.S. in the last few years, you were actually buying beer made by Anheuser-Busch in Williamsburg, Virginia, or in Los Angeles, California, and not Japan at all.  In a recent settlement in Miami, Anheuser-Busch agreed that consumers who bought Kirin will be entitled to a refund, up to $50 per household, consisting of 50 cents per six pack of 12-ounce bottles, $1 per 12 pack of 12-ounce bottles, or 10 cents per individual bottle or can, with proof of purchase.  They also agreed to stop using the word “Imported” on their bottles of Kirin and instead include a clear statement on their beers that the beer is brewed in the US.  

Kirin Beer sold in the U.S. hasn’t actually been brewed in Japan since 1996, when Anheuser-Busch took over brewing and distribution. In 2006, it also took over marketing the brand.  Anheuser-Busch claims that Kirin is still made under Kirin supervision and therefore is still authentic, although of course the ingredients are from a different source and certainly not from Japan. Like the Qilin, the mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creatures that “Kirin” is named for, Kirin’s image is as much built on a mixture of mythology and reality.  

Kirin itself did not begin in Japan either.  The Japan Brewery Company, Limited, the forerunner of Kirin Brewery, was established in 1885, taking over the assets of the Spring Valley Brewery, first founded in Yokohama in 1869 by Norwegian-American brewer.  The Japan Brewery was incorporated in Hong Kong and first began marketing Kirin Beer in 1888. The Kirin Brewery Company was established as a separate legal entity in February 1907, purchasing the assets of the assets of the Japan Brewery and expanding the business in an era of growing consumer demand. Kirin Brewery built on the traditions of the Japan Brewery retaining the use of malted grains and hops imported from Germany and employing German brewers to oversee production. 

Think you may be entitled to a refund?  You can check this website:

http://kirinbeersettlement.com

Sources:

law360.com

wikipedia

New Year's Meals

皆さん　ー　明けましておめでとうございます！

It’s the New Year, and with it comes all sorts of resolutions.  So why not resolve to eat more Japanese food?

A good place to start is with traditional New Years foods.  Japanese people eat a special selection of dishes during the New Year celebration called osechi-ryōri (御節料理 or お節料理), typically shortened to osechi. This consists of boiled seaweed (昆布 konbu), fish cakes (蒲鉾 kamaboko), mashed sweet potato with chestnut (栗きんとん kurikinton), simmered burdock root (金平牛蒡 kinpira gobō), and sweetened black soybeans (黒豆 kuromame).

In the earliest days, osechi consisted only of nimono, boiled vegetables with soy sauce and sugar or mirin. Over the generations, the variety of food included in osechi has increased. Today osechi may refer to anything prepared specially for the New Year, and some foreign dishes have been adopted as "Westernized osechi" (西洋お節 seiyō-osechi) or as "Chinese-style osechi" (中華風お節 chūkafū osechi). And while osechi was traditionally prepared at home, it is also sold ready-made in specialty stores, grocery stores, and even convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven.

Osechi ryori was originally a way for housewives (and their families) to survive the first several days of the New Year, when stores throughout Japan were closed. The foods that make up osechi can be prepared in advance and then sit out in a cool area for a few days without spoiling. Most often everything is placed in compartmentalized lacquer boxes that are stacked in layers.

Every dish has a special meaning, and eating the right foods can set your year up for all sorts of success.  Here are some examples:

Gobo Kobumaki (昆布巻) – Burdock root wrapped in kombu, tied with kanpyo (a kind of gourd) and simmered in niboshi dashi. Burdock is a very long root that symbolizes the Japanese ideal of a life, long and stable. This preparation also represents joy, as “kobu” sounds like “yorokobu” which means joyful.
Renkon no Nitsuke (レンコンの煮付け) – Lotus root cut like chrysanthemums then fried and simmered in a sweet soy sauce. The many holes in it allow us to look through to the year ahead.
Kikuka Kabu (菊花蕪) – This is a whole baby turnip cut to look like a chrysanthemum flower that’s then pickled in vinegar, salt and sugar with some chili pepper in the middle. The chrysanthemum is the symbol of the emperor and is used to mark joyous occasions.
Pirikara Konnyaku (ピリ辛コンニャク)- Konnyaku (yam jelly) simmered in a sweet and spicy sauce.
Nimono (煮物) – Fresh baby taro, carrots carved like plum blossoms, and shiitake mushrooms simmered in a katsuo/kombu dashi. The shape of the carrots in this dish is symbolic in that every plum flower bears one fruit, making this another wish for fertility.
Kuri Kinton (栗金飩) – Sweetened and mashed Japanese sweet potatoes with sweet chestnuts. The characters for kinton literally mean “group of gold”, so with the golden color of this sweet, it represents a wish for wealth and financial success in the new year.
Ebi no Shioyaki (エビの塩焼き) – giant shrimp - the shape of the shrimp is similar to that of an older person and represents longevity.
Kazunoko (数の子) – Herring roe seasoned in katsuo/kombu dashi and soy sauce. These crunchy roe sacs each contain thousands of eggs and symbolize a wish for fertility.
Kamaboko (蒲鉾) – The quintessential pink and white Japanese fishcakes are traditionally sliced and layered in alternating rows of pink and white. While it’s a stretch to say that pink and red are the same color, the bands of “red” and white kamaboko are supposed to symbolize the rising sun. 
Datemaki (伊達巻) – These sweet golden rounds of egg and hanpen (fishcake), have a ribbed outer surface mimicking the shining sun, a wish for sunny days ahead.
Kuromame (黒豆) – Large black soybeans simmered with sugar and soy sauce. Aside from being full of nutrients, this dish also symbolizes good health, as “mame” which means bean, sounds like another word that means hard work and good health.
Ikura (イクラ) – Seasoned salmon roe. In addition to being an auspicious shade of red, the eggs represent fertility.

Here’s a great list of the types of foods and their meanings.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/01/03/【japanese-culture】the-meaning-behind-osechi-ryori-traditional-new-years-food-in-japan/

Sources:  wikipedia

http://norecipes.com/osechi-ryori-japanese-new-years-food/#ixzz3NbeFxlHP

Kanji of the Year

While you are studying final exams, you should throw one more Kanji into your flashcard deck - 税 pronounced zei or mitsugi, meaning “tax” in English.  You might not think you need it, but in Japan it was voted the Kanji of the Year and presented this week at Kiyomizudera in Kyoto and chosen by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society as the single character deemed most evocative of the events of the last 12 months.

The twentieth Kanji of the Year took a total of 8,679 votes, or 5.18% of the total 167,613. The reasons for its selection are clear: on April 1 this year the government raised Japan’s consumption tax for the first time in 17 years, bringing it from 5% to 8%. Meant to bolster funding for the country’s future social security needs, this tax hike impacted Japanese wallets and brought about drastic swings in the economy as a whole, with consumers front-loading major appliance, vehicle, and home purchases ahead of April 1 and curtailing spending after the higher rate went into effect. Two straight quarters of negative growth thereafter convinced Prime Minister Abe Shinzō to put off the next planned rate hike, from 8% to 10%, until the spring of 2017.

Last year, after tens of thousands of votes were counted, 輪 pronounced rin or wa and meaning “ring” was selected to represent the nations various achievements of 2013 such as winning the bid for the Olympic games and having Mt. Fuji designated as a World Heritage Site.  This year, the “tax" symbol received the most votes of any other out of the 167,613 votes cast. The runners up included 熱 (netsu) meaning “heat” or “fever” possibly in reference to the Ebola outbreak, and 嘘 (uso) which means “lie” probably aimed at the disgraced scientists involved in the STAP cell scandal over the first half of the year. Needless to say, it would seem people in Japan didn’t have many fond memories of 2014.

In an event held on Friday, Seihan Mori, the head priest at the world-famous Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, drew the character with a large calligraphy brush, whose bristles were the size of a bowling pin, on a huge piece of “washi” (Japanese paper).You can watch the unveiling here:

http://youtu.be/6vPrxlY4_jg

What was your Kanji of the year?

Read and Ye Shall Find

It’s time to make your Christmas or holiday gift lists.  If you are looking for a new way to enhance your Japanese studies, reading books in Japanese is one of the best methods.  Still, it’s hard to find books in Japanese at the airport Hudson News bookstore.  But if you start a Japanese Kindle or iBookstore account, you can start downloading free and cheap Japanese books immediately.  

Recently, both Amazon Japan and iTunes Japan have made their bookstores even better tools for studying and learning Japanese by adding English dictionaries to their iOs applications. (Disclaimer:  I’m not sure and haven’t tried to see if this works in Android - if it does, please let me know!).  To start with, you need to have an Amazon Japan account or a Japanese iTunes account.  

You can make a Japanese iTunes account from anywhere, you just need to buy a Japanese iTunes gift card.

You can buy them online, and don’t even have to receive the physical card to get started - you just need the code off the back of the card.

Lots of places online sell the cards, such as Jlist and JBox.com

Here are some useful guides:

http://www.deliciousjapanese.com/2013/08/20/how-to-create-a-japanese-itunes-account/

http://nihongoperapera.com/store/itunes-japan-registration-guide-no-cc.html

Now is a great time to buy - the dollar is very strong against the Yen!

Once you get an account, you can download Japanese books from the Japanese iBooks store.  

If you want to carry them around, find an old iPhone or tablet you aren’t using anymore and switch it to the Japanese iTunes store using your new account. 

Here’s the cool thing - now you can read Japanese books, and just click on the word for the English definition!  

For Amazon, it’s similar - but there’s a catch!  Amazon Japan will only sell you Japanese digital downloads if it thinks that you are living in Japan - so you have to provide a Japanese address.  It doesn’t have to be your real address; you can find a friend or a friendly address. You might even have to use a VPN from time to time.  Here’s a guide:

http://nihonjon.com/how-to-download-japanese-books-for-kindle/

Once you get an account, you can download Japanese books from the Japanese Kindle store.  

If you want to carry them around, find an old phone or tablet you aren’t using anymore and switch it to the Japanese Kindle store using your new account. 

Here’s the cool thing - now you can read Japanese books, and just click on the word for the English definition!  

Anyone try this with Rakuten or Yahoo?  I’d love to hear about it. 

Chicken and Waffles in Japan...almost

On tuesday, Japan’s Nikkei Index hit 7 year high, but the Yen hit a seven year low, at 116 yen to the dollar.  There are many possible explanations, but the most likely is that with Thanksgiving fast approaching, the Japanese are scrambling to make their Christmas KFC orders.  That’s why it is big news that KFC has launched a brand new “Colonel’s Cafe” in Kobe, offering a whole new way to enjoy one of the most successful foreign brands in Japan.

On November 28, the Forest Rokka shopping center near Kobe’s JR station will open a new KFC Cafe that is meant to serve the busy commuter who is looking for a quick cup of coffee and a little friend chicken in a relaxed atmosphere (aren’t we all?).  The restaurant will also feature pancakes, salads and desserts.  And before you say “well, I can get a cup of coffee at McDonalds,” let me point out that the “Colonel’s Cafe” serves your choice of one of their “aging blend” of coffees, including Guatemalan, Mexican, or Gayo, in a french press.  Plus you can enjoy your choice of Ceylon, Darjeeling, or Earl Grey tea lafter letting it steep in a pot to your preferred strength, while sampling the coffee jelly or cheesecake or mont blanc dessert you select from the showcase.  

Waffles are strangely absent from the menu, given the restaurant’s well-known forte.   But here’s the rest of the menu, http://japan.kfc.co.jp/news/news141112kfc.html

Citizen Kawauchi

Last weekend’s New York City Marathon was a big success, but with all the attention paid to the 1st 10 finishers, you might have missed the #11 finisher, Japan’s Yuki Kawauchi.  While Masato Imai finished #7 with a strong 2:14:36, Kawauchi’s time of 2:16:41 is, in some ways, even more inspiring.  While his speed is extraordinary (he finished the Seoul marathon in 2:08:14), his background is even more amazing.  

That’s because Kawauchi, the so-called “citizen runner,” has turned the running world on its head.  Despite his astounding skill, he is not a professional runner at all; instead he is a full-time Saitama government clerk, who runs only on his spare time.  An enthusiastic runner during his university years, Kawauchi was brushed off by corporate teams upon graduation because they felt he didn’t have the talent for professional running.  Instead, he has been training around his 40-hour-per-week job and racing on the weekends. Yet he entered his first marathon in 2009, finishing in a respectable 2:19. Encouraged, Kawauchi entered another marathon a month later and bettered his time by a minute.  Then, in 2012, he entered nine marathons, winning five of them, and six half-marathons, coming in first in three. He also set the course record at a 50k ultramarathon. So far in 2013, he’s run at least 15 races of half-marathon distance or longer, including his marathon best of 2:08:15. On June 16, he came in first in yet another 50k. At the finish line, according to Japan Running News, he collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital.

Conventional strategies dictate a two-month buildup in training for a marathon and about a month of recovery, making four 26.2 mile races per year a full schedule for a top runner. Elite marathoners may race just once or twice a year to ensure they’re both fit and rested enough to give a supreme effort. In 2010 and 2011, by contrast, Kawauchi raced nearly every weekend at distances from half-marathon to marathon, even completing a 50k ultramarathon. That calendar notwithstanding, he progressed from impressive citizen runner to impossible-to-ignore elite performer, crossing the line in 2:08:37 at the internationally competitive 2011 Tokyo Marathon. He came in third, first Japanese, beating the many professional runners in the field.

The personal cost to Kawauchi is great.  Corporate runners receive a salary, as well as gear, coaching, health care, travel, and entry fees. Kawauchi pays all his expenses himself, expenses that he estimates at $12,500 a year.  He routinely rejects sponsorships, free gym memberships, and all sorts of perks that are routine for professional runners, for as a government worker, he is not allowed to accept gratuities. Professional runners resent his cult status.  

However, despite his unpopularity in the professional running community, the Japanese public love him.  At a 30k race in Japan this February, 180,000 spectators packed the course—30,000 more than the previous year—a fact the race organizer credited to Kawauchi’s appearance.  That doesn’t mean that Kawauchi is any easier on himself; when he beat all the professional runners at the Fukuoka Marathon with a 2:09 time that still did not qualify him for the London Olympics, he declared that he would run the Tokyo Marathon two weeks later in 2:07.  When he finished in 2:12, he called his time “disgraceful,” and shaved his head in shame.  Prior to the October 3rd Asian Games marathon (one month ago—unthinkably close for any other runner), Kawauchi said if he didn't win gold, he would remove himself from contention for the 2015 World Championship team. In a teeth-gritted sprint finish, Kawauchi placed third, four seconds out of first. True to his word, he said he would not run any of the selection races for the World Championships and would not attempt another world-level berth until he's improved his marathon time.

Kawauchi’s devotion is extraordinary.  The organizers of the 2013 Egyptian Marathon agreed to pay his travel expenses, but Kawauchi missed his flight after arriving at the airport without his passport. He decided to pay 800,000 yen (US$9,000) for a replacement flight – an amount that equated to a quarter of his yearly salary. The decision paid off as he reached the starting line for the marathon and won with a time of 2:12:24 – the fastest ever for a race in Egypt. Then, less than three weeks later he ran at the Beppu-Ōita Marathon and he reached the top of the Japanese rankings by winning the race in a personal best of 2:08:15 hours.  

Interested in training like Kawauchi?  Here’s how he manages to work a 40 hour a week job and still be a championship runner: "I work out once a day, in the morning. I work from 12:45 to 9:15 pm in the office of an adult continuing education school, accepting fees, answering the phone.” "I run about 140K [86 miles] per week. Monday and Tuesday are just jogging. On Wednesday I do intervals or a tempo run. The intervals might be 10 x 1,000m in about three minutes or just under. I’ll also do interval workouts like 20 x 400m, and that’ll be at a slightly faster pace. Thursday and Friday are just jogging, and if I don’t have a race on Sunday, I’ll do something serious on Saturday like a long tempo run. When I do have a race on Sunday, Saturday will be relatively easy."

World of Pepsi

Japan is at the forefront of technological innovations all the time, and perhaps no moreso than in global Pepsi technology.  If you rush to Japan soon, you’ll be able to get the newest creation, Strawberry Milk Pepsi.  Suntory calls it "Pink Cola.” It joins the ranks of other limited-time only Pepsi flavors released in Japan, like Ice Cucumber Pepsi, Salty Watermelon Pepsi, and Red Bean Pepsi, among others.  Set to be released on December 9, this is the second time that Japan has seen pink Pepsi, it having been released once before in 2011.  

The reason why there are so many flavors is that food and drink makers in Japan continually roll out a variety of new tastes, some of which are offbeat, in hopes of grabbing consumers’ attention.  Some of these variations include “Red Pepsi,” so-called because of its spicy flavor, “Gold Pepsi” which was ginger-flavored, “Pepsi Ice Cucumber,” “Pepsi Blue Hawaii,” which tasted like pineapple and lemon (and was blue, for some reason), “Pepsi White,” a yogurt flavored drink, “Pepsi Azuki” (like Azuki beans), “Pepsi Shiso” (like the herb shiso), “Pepsi Baobab” (which comes from the Baobab tree, sort of like ginger ale), “Pepsi Strong Shot,” which had extra caffeine (and whose highly carbonated container even had a warning label that recommended waiting 15 seconds after opening the can to take a sip), “Pepsi Salty Watermelon,” “Pepsi Caribbean Gold,” which featured a white sapote flavor, even “Pepsi Mont Blanc,” with a creamy chestnut flavor.  Pepsi’s zero-calorie version in Japan was called Pepsi Nex, and its unsweetened version was called “Pepsi Dry.”  Pepsi Dry with lemon was called “Pepsi Black.”  Pepsi’s energy drink was just called “Pepsi Energy Cola.”  

All of these Pepsi flavors are certainly special, but none so special as “Pepsi Special.”  Pepsi Special was a drink so special that the drink was actually designated as a "food for specified health uses". This means the product is regulated by the Japanese government and has its seal of approval. Pepsi Special actually contained an indigestible form of dextrin, which is used as a dietary fiber supplement and makes it difficult for the body to absorb fat while eating. 

Of course, if you are a fan of the regular, everyday taste of Pepsi, you could also track down a pack of Pepsi Shuwa Shuwa, a special flavor of cheetos in Japan that are pepsi flavored.  They even “fizz” a little when you eat them!

Kuidaore

Japan is an ancient culture but one that is never afraid of something new.  That is why this week, Japan said goodbye to an icon of Osaka, a man that thousands of people took photos with every day, who powered down for the final time last Sunday.  This change will bring a new image to Dotonbori street, which traces its history back to 1612, when a local entrepreneur, Yasui Dōton, began expanding the tiny Umezu River, which ran east to west, hoping to increase commerce in the region by connecting the two branches of the Yokobori River, which ran north to south, with a canal.

The Glico Running Man, a mascot for the Osaka-based sweet company has been a feature on Dotonbori street since 1935. The recently retired sign was the fifth generation, installed 16 years ago. It features the classic running man figure plus famous local landmarks: Osaka castle, Osaka aquarium, Kyocera Dome and Tsutenkaku tower. In its place, confectionery maker Ezaki Glico Co. installed a new giant electronic billboard featuring the company's signature image of a runner with his hands in the air on Oct. 23, 2014. The sixth Glico runner billboard since 1935, it measures 20 meters high and 10.38 meters wide and employs around 140,000 energy-efficient light emitting diodes.  Using this technology, images of popular locations in Japan and the world can be projected behind the runner.

The image is a powerful symbol of Japan’s leadership and future, especially in light of its recent Nobel Prize win for efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.  But Glico itself is also a symbol of the type of economics that have held Japan back for the last few years.  Glico’s equity relationships to companies far removed from its chocolate and chewing gum business have long protected its management, and thwarted shareholders’ demands for a corporate overhaul.  According to regulatory filings, Glico’s cross-shareholdings include mutual stakes in companies as diverse as Duskin, a cleaning services company; Toppan Printing, which puts out books; and the TV network Tokyo Broadcasting System. Glico even has a cross-shareholding relationship with House Foods, a rival in the snacks business, as well as its main lenders.

Those relationships came in handy for Glico’s beleaguered management in 2008, when Steel Partners, an American hedge fund led by the billionaire Warren G. Lichtenstein, tried to force Glico to overhaul management, and accept an outside board member.  Glico’s allies rallied to the rescue, approving a poison-pill measure that effectively shut down Steel Partners’ efforts. By the end of the year, the hedge fund had dumped its roughly $175 million stake in Glico; foreign observers cried foul.  For all the efforts to put an end to such practices in Japan, recent filings show they remain prevalent — especially between companies, like Glico, with a history of being targeted by activist investors. And it is unclear how effectively the government can pressure companies to disentangle their shareholdings. 

Still, the falling Yen is bringing hopes that consumers will engage in a Kuidaore of Japanese products.  Kuidaore (食い倒れ) is a Japanese word meaning roughly “to ruin oneself by extravagance in food.” It is sometimes romanised as cuidaore, and is part of a larger proverb: "Dress (in kimonos) till you drop in Kyoto, eat till you drop in Osaka" (京の着倒れ、大阪の食い倒れ). The word is associated with Dōtonbori, and is often used in tourist guides and advertisements. It can be seen in the names of several locations in Dōtonbori, such as the mascot Kuidaore Taro.  

Magnetic Future

Hello Everyone!

こんにちは、みなさん!

Tomorrow, Japanese Table will meet at Qdoba at 6:30.  Hope everyone can make it!
明日、6時半にQdobaで、Japanese Tableがありますので、よろしくお願いします。

Elliott

Japanese Counter of the Week:

In Japanese, counter words or counters (josūshi 助数詞) are used along with numbers to count things, actions, and events. 

ぎょう gyō    行    Lines of text

Japanese Fact of the Week:

This month is the 50th anniversary of the Shinkansen, or bullet train, in Japan.  At 10am on October 1st, 1964, with less than a week and a half to go before the start of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the two inaugural Hikari Super Express Shinkansen, or “bullet trains,” arrived at their destinations, Tokyo and Osaka.  Now, with the 2020 Olympics in sight, Japan has determined to amaze the world again by launching the world’s fastest train - the maglev, or Chuo (“central”) Shinkansen, which will connect Tokyo to Nagoya by 2027 and is being built 40m underground. The train uses magnetic levitation to float to its destination at blazing speeds.  

The new train is called JR Tokai and will be used on the 180 mile stretch of track between Tokyo and Nagoya. Existing bullet trains traveling between those two locations achieve speeds of 200mph and complete the journey in 100 minutes. However, with the introduction of JR Tokai the speed of the train will increase to 300mph and the same journey completed in just 40 minutes. The next leg of the journey, an extension to Osaka, would be completed by 2045. In August, JR Tokai announced it was expecting construction of the Nagoya route from Shinagawa Station in Tokyo to require about ¥5.5 trillion. Extending it to Osaka is estimated to cost ¥9 trillion.

Building an expensive new transit project that will be extremely expensive but won’t be complete until Japan’s commuting population has fallen by almost a third seems like a strange investment.  However, although Japan Rail is digging deep into Japan to build its new train, the real purpose of the project is focused outwards; Japan wants to export this technology to other nations.  JR Tokai would like to build a maglev line that could cover the roughly 60-km stretch between Washington and Baltimore in just 15 minutes. New York would then be linked by extending the line another 300 km.

The technology involved is truly cutting-edge. The principle uses the strong magnetic force generated when superconducting magnets are cooled down to minus 269 degrees Celsius (minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit).  A similar idea was being worked on in Germany, but that effort was abandoned when difficulty was encountered in keeping the running train stable.  The system was previously referred to as "MLU", after the names of several test vehicles and for having a U-shaped maglev track.  The MLX01 (X meaning experimental) is one of the latest designs of a series of Maglev trains in development in Japan since the 1970s.

The physical effort involved in building the tunnels will be massive, as well.  Some 86 percent of the 286-km stretch from Shinagawa to Nagoya will be either underground or in mountain tunnels. The route runs through mountains in Mizunami, Gifu Prefecture, that have 20 to 30 uranium deposits scattered beneath the area.  It is one of the largest uranium concentrations in the nation, and digging 100 to 200 meters deep could result in the extraction of radioactive soil containing radioactive substances.  The tunnel in this area will run around 100 meters underground. JR Tokai said it has selected a route that avoids the deposits by using information from the agency. In the 3-km interval in the city of Mizunami, JR Tokai will be checking uranium concentrations in air, slush water and soil during the construction process.  In Yamanashi Prefecture, around 6 million cu. meters of soil are expected to be excavated for the tunnel and underground route. Of this, three-quarters will likely be used to build roads.

Still, despite the long road ahead, Japan is hoping to honor the Olympic legacy of its high-speed trains in 2020.  JR Central is considering opening a maglev demonstration service from a new station in Kōfu by the 2020 Summer Olympics so that tourists can ride on the experimental track through the Yamanashi mountains

Silence

Most Americans first experience Japan through the eyes of film, which makes films about Japan such an important part of our understanding of Japan.  Next year, America’s most celebrated living director, Martin Scorcese, is set to release his own story about Japan.  Best of all, the story is based on a beloved novel and it stars Ken Watanabe (渡辺 謙), one of the finest living Japanese actors.    

Silence (沈黙, “Chinmoku") is a 1966 novel of historical fiction by Japanese Catholic author Shūsaku Endō. It is the story of a Jesuit missionary sent to 17th century Japan, who endures persecution in the time of Kakure Kirishitan ("Hidden Christians") that followed the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion. The recipient of the 1966 Tanizaki Prize, it was written partly in the form of a letter by its central character; Half of the book is the written journal of the missionary Rodrigues, while the other half of the book is written either in the third person, or in the letters of others associated with the narrative. The book was strongly influenced by Endō's experience of religious discrimination in Japan as a Catholic, as well as his experience of racism in France, and his debilitating struggle with tuberculosis.  The novel relates the trials of Christians and the increasing hardship suffered by Rodrigues.

The film covers the story of the introduction and eventual persecution of Christianity in feudal Japan.  In 1549, when St. Francis Xavier and two companions first set foot in Japan, the nation was Buddhist; yet they were permitted to preach and teach, and the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries in that country converted half a million people with the message of the Christian Gospel.  Christian churches were visible throughout the land which had once held only Buddhist temples.  Large numbers of laypeople joined their effort as catechists, and a local seminary was established to prepare native-born Christian men for the priesthood.  But in the seventeenth century, the government reversed its policy of tolerance, and Christianity was banned.  Japanese military officials violently rooted out Christians for persecution and execution. 

The book has already inspired a film, an opera, and a symphony. Masahiro Shinoda directed the 1971 film Chinmoku, an adaptation from the novel. Composer and poet Teizo Matsumura wrote the libretto and music for an opera with the same title, which was premiered at the New National Theatre in Tokyo in 2000. The novel also inspired Scottish composer James MacMillan’s Symphony no. 3 “Silence", composed in 2002.  

Then, in 2007, Martin Scorsese announced his intention to direct an adaptation of the book. He has reportedly been attempting to make the film for over 25 years, since first reading the book in 1989.  The film will star Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Issei Ogata and Ken Watanabe.  The film is currently in production and has been shooting in Taiwan.  

The movie is set to be released in November of 2015.  

Dengue Fever

If you are gearing up for a trip to Tokyo soon, you might want to pack one more thing in your suitcase - mosquito repellant.  For the first time since 1945, Japan is suffering under an outbreak of Dengue Fever.  The number of locally acquired dengue fever cases reported in Japan is now up to 144, as of Friday. The first locally transmitted case in 70 years was reported in a teenage girl from Saitama Prefecture one month ago.  

Due to the spread of the disease, Tokyo authorities have been undertaking disinfection works, closing the popular Yoyogi Park and Shinjuku Central Park. Restrictions have also been placed on visits to Aoyama Park, Sotobori Park and Meiji Jingu Gaien Park. Now the health ministry says a case of dengue fever is now suspected in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, relatively far from the suspected epicenter of a recent outbreak of the disease. 

Japan is not alone - the fever is spreading around Asia, and on Friday in China, medical authorities in heavily-populated Guangdong Province reported a spike in infections, from 6,083 to 8,273, in just two days.  This year's outbreak is 14 times greater than last year, a result, medical authorities say, of heavy rains across southern China. With larger amounts of standing water, the breeding ground for the disease-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, insect numbers have exploded.  

Spread by mosquitoes, dengue is one of the leading causes of death in the tropics.  The dengue virus is transmitted by tiger mosquitoes — whose habitat in Japan ranges as far north as Tohoku. If they bite infected people, the virus multiplies inside them and gets transmitted to other people when the mosquitoes bite them. Also known as "breakbone disease" for the extreme joint pain it induces, pain behind the eyes, rashes, easy bruising, and headaches are hallmarks of infection. A more extreme variant of the virus, dengue hemmorhagic fever, causes vomiting of blood and is often fatal. Every year, around 50 to 100 million dengue infections are registered all over the world with a mortality rate of around 2.5 percent.  

There is no immunization or specific treatment for dengue fever. Fortunately, there is hope:  the Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda is developing a vaccine against dengue fever that is expected to be marketed in 2017.  The vaccine, still in an experimental phase, uses a live weakened virus of the mosquito-borne disease and is the work of the US company Inviragen which was acquired by Takeda in 2013.  French pharmaceutical company Sanofi is also developing a vaccine against dengue which is already in its final stage of testing with an estimated release date of 2015.  

In addition, a low-priced device that can collect up to 500 mosquitoes in three hours has been developed by a former university professor in Nagoya that only costs 3,000 yen.  The black, triangular-shaped device measures about 40 cm long and is made from waterproof plastic cardboard. To a mosquito, the shape of the device resembles a crouched dog or cat.  It has a replaceable adhesive sheet attached to its surface that emits a smell similar to animals or human beings, drawing and trapping mosquitoes.  Since the summer people have already purchased 500 of the item.  Most experts believe that the only way to successfully stop this disease is to control mosquito populations and reduce the amount of people exposed to and bitten by tiger mosquitos.  

Ig Nobel Achievements

Japan is a world leader in scientific research and has many awards to show for it.  Perhaps that’s why it’s a frequent winner of the coveted and prestigious Ig Nobel Prize. 

That’s right, the Ig Nobel Prize.  Unlike it’s less-well-known cousin, the Nobel Prize, the Ig Nobel prize honors achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.  The awards are sometimes veiled criticism (or gentle satire), but are also used to point out that even the most absurd-sounding avenues of research can yield useful knowledge.  Japan is a regular winner, and this year was no exception.  Japanese researchers have finally unlocked the secret behind why and how we slip on banana peels.  

A Japanese team, led by Prof. Kiyoshi Mabuchi of Kitasato University in Kanagawa prefecture, rubbed shoe soles over a variety of fruits and directly on linoleum flooring. They found that the friction between a shoe and a banana peel was one-sixth the level of the friction when the shoe touched the floor directly. Banana-peel friction was about half the level of a two-millimeter-thick apple peel.  The paper, “Frictional Coefficient Under Banana Skin,” was published in a journal of the Japanese Society of Tribologists called Tribology Online. (Tribology is the science of rubbing surfaces.)

Previous winners include a prize in 2012, when Japanese researchers determined the enzyme that causes people to cry when they cut onions.  In 2011, Japan also won a prize for a silent smoke alarm that releases a mist of pungent wasabi oil that will wake up people nearby in case of fire or a related emergency.  This alarm is no joke - useful for the hearing impaired, since April of 2009, several Japanese manufacturers have brought silent wasabi smoke and fire alarms to the retail market, recommending them for use in hospitals, nursing homes, hotels and private homes.

Past Japanese winners include Ig Nobel prizes for:

Biodiversity – Presented for discovering the fossils of dinosaurs, horses, dragons, and more than one thousand other extinct "mini-species", each of which is less than 0.25 mm in length.  (1996)

Biology – Presented for measuring people's brainwave patterns while they chewed different flavors of gum.  (1997)

Economics – Presented for diverting millions of man-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets.  (1997)

Chemistry – Presented for an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands’ underwear.  (1999).

Peace – Presented for promoting peace and harmony between the species by inventing Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device.  (2002)

Peace – Presented for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.  (2004).  

Nutrition – Presented to Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting) (2005).  

Linguistics — Presented for determining that rats sometimes can't distinguish between recordings of Japanese and Dutch played backward.  (2007).

Biology — Presented for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.  (2009).

Transportation Planning — Presented for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks.  (2009)

Apparently there is another award that is called the "Nobel Prize", and Japan does pretty well at that too, of course.  Japan has won 18 Nobel prizes: 15 in the scientific fields of chemistry, physics and medicine (including seven in chemistry), two in literature and one “Nobel Peace Prize,” whatever that is.    

Black Burgers

Burger King’s slogan used to be “Have It Your Way” here in the U.S., and maybe it’s just something that never crossed out minds, but in Japan this week Burger King announced that “your way” now includes a burger that is as black as night.  Here it is:

The beef, coated in black pepper, sits on buns made of bamboo charcoal. It’s topped with an onion and garlic sauce made of squid ink. Even the cheese is black, made from bamboo charcoal as well.  The Kuro Burger comes in either Pearl or Diamond versions. The latter comes topped with slices of lettuce, tomato, and onions.

Now, you might be thinking - I’ve already had a black burger at Burger King in Japan.  But you are probably confusing this burger with last year’s Ninja Burger, which featured a prominent “tongue” that stuck out at the customers, as well as wide-size hash browns, onions, lettuce, mayonnaise, and a blackish brown Chaliapin sauce.  

But in fact, the Kuro burger itself debuted in 2012 and was apparently rather successful.  And before you object to squid ink in your food, you should know that Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian cuisines all make not-uncommon use of squid ink in cooking, and squid ink pasta in particular is very highly regarded, often when paired with seafood and cream-based sauces.

Of course, if you are more of a chicken person, head into KFC this week, where they are offering a contest to win a free fried chicken keyboard and mouse!

Pantomime Conflagration

This week, Japan found itself agin in the throws of worldwide controversy, inflaming nationalists and foreigners alike in a divisive struggle over identity.  This terrible struggle, of course, centers around nothing less fundamental than:  Hello Kitty.  

This week, Japanese officials with Sanrio, which, while not an official government agency, speaks with a voice equal to that of many nations, clarified that Hello Kitty is NOT, in fact, a cat at all.  Not only is she not a cat, she has her own cat that is a pet.  In an interview with an anthropologist at the University of Hawaii, Sanrio explained that Hello Kitty is actually named Kitty White and she is a little girl from Great Britain.  Hello Kitty has a pet cat named Charmmy Kitty and a pet hamster named Sugar.  She is a Scorpio. She loves apple pie. And she is the daughter of George and Mary White.  She is around 5 apples high and 3 apples wide and her birthday is November 1.  

Suddenly, however, with the revelation that Hello Kitty was not a cat, Sanrio faced worldwide uproar.  People everywhere were outraged to learn that their beloved icon was girl in cat’s clothing.  The news even threatened to overshadow Japan’s summit with the Indian Prime Minister (probably, at least I assume it did).  Struggling to repair the damage from this revelation, a Sanrio spokesman first ventured:  “It is difficult to answer that question, but our answer is that Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat –- a character.”  Sanrio clarified that Hello Kitty is a gijinka (擬人化), a personification.  In their defense, Sanrio has never actually described Hello Kitty as a “human.”  Her website describes her as 明るくて、優しい女のコ  (akarukute, yasashii onna no ko).  So, “girl,” but not “human girl.”  In Japan, it's very common for cats to be referred to as "girl" or "boy," instead of by the Japanese gender markers designated for animals ("osu" or 雄 for "male" animals and "mesu" or 雌 for female animals). 

Hello Kitty (ハローキティ) was born on the side of a purse in 1974 and arrived in the United States in 1976.  Hello Kitty was designed by Yuko Shimizu.  At first, she didn't even have a name. The coin purse simply read, "Hello!” In Japan at that time, the character was known as "the white cat with no name" (名前のない白い子猫).  But it wasn’t long before she became a worldwide phenomenon. Her image graces everything from fire extinguishers to blood-mobiles to martial arts armor.  Her popularity has never waned; She adorns an airplane in Taiwan and she is currently orbiting earth on the Hodoyoshi-3 satellite.  Bank of America offers a Hello Kitty bank account, including Hello Kitty checks and credit cards.  This fall, she is the subject of a retrospective of Kitty art, merch and fashion at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, an exhibition opening in mid-October. Two weeks later, the first ever Hello Kitty Con, will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was doing $7 billion a year, all without any advertising.  

Perhaps this controversy ignited the passions of fans worldwide because it tapped into an inner fear of most humans that the world is not what it appears to be.  Or perhaps it was another instance of the battle between the artist and the viewer over who really “owns” art.  Or, it is possible, that people have too much time on their hands.