Netflix Japan

UPDATE:  Netflix announced last week that it will begin to block international users from gaining access to content across borders using VPNs.  How effective they will be depends on your VPN, but my Tunnel Bear connection already is being blocked.  BOOOOO!!!!

Original Post:

If you want to learn Japanese, you need to hear Japanese, and one of the most fun ways to do that is to watch Japanese TV and movies.  However, that can be harder than it needs to be, especially if you want to be brave and watch without subtitles.  We’ve talked before about how to watch Japanese TV from the US, but wouldn’t it be great if there were a Netflix for Japan?  

Guess what? There already is! And if you have a US Netflix account, then you already have a Japanese Netflix account, too!  

Some explanation first:  There are streaming services available in Japan, for people who are in Japan, but they only work in Japan.  For example, if you live in Japan, you can sign up for a Japanese Hulu account, and it streams Japanese TV and movies, as well as some US TV and movies, but it only works in Japan.  You can’t use your US Hulu account.  In the US, there are also streaming services like Crunchyroll that specialize in importing Japanese TV to the United States (mostly anime), but you only can watch what they import.  

However, last month, Netflix launched its streaming service in Japan.  The best part is that your same Netflix account works in Japan just like it does in England, Europe, or wherever you go.  That means that when you visit Japan, you can just log in to Netflix and start watching - BUT you will be watching Netflix’s Japanese site, not their US site.  That’s because in Japan, Netflix only has the rights to show content from their Japanese site to people logging into the site from Japan.  In the US, Netflix only has the rights to show content from their US site to people logging into the site from the US.  Your account is always the same, it’s just your location that’s different.  

How does that help you, the aspiring Japanese TV and movie viewer? The answer is DNS.  Netflix identifies where you are by your internet address, and you can change that using a VPN or an unblocker service.  There are many free, free/paid, and paid services that you can use to change your location on the internet without leaving the comfort of your couch or office.  For example, OpenVPN offers free IP addresses in Japan.  You can even use their iPad app, which will let you use a Japanese IP address to “appear Japanese” to Netflix or whatever service you like to use.  VPN Apps and services like TunnelBear offer free and paid accounts using your Mac, PC, phone or tablet to use Japanese IP addresses to “appear Japanese”.  Using these services, you can browse the internet just like you are in Japan - just remember, the internet looks a little different when you get there! (Google will be in Japanese, for starters).  

I tried TunnelBear and it worked great - their free account only gives you 500 MB of data per month, but if you tweet about them, they’ll give you 1.5 GB free per month.  They have a convenient app for iOs and Android and also an easy-to-use program for Mac and PC.  Either way, that’s enough to try their service and see if it works for you.  They have a convenient app for iOs and Android and also an easy-to-use program for Mac and PC.  Plenty of other similar companies exist too; Tunnelbear seems to be popular among Japanese TV viewers on Reddit.  

Interested in what Netflix Japan has to offer?  Here’s a list of their current offerings as of September 2015: 

http://netflixjapan.netflixable.com/2015/09/complete-alphabetical-list-thu-sep-3.html?m=1

Once you are “in”, feel free to watch Netflix just like you do at home.  You’ll see your Netflix account, but the TV and movies will be a little different.  Shows like GTO and Nodame Cantabile, Netflix original shows like Terrace House, and Japanese movies will appear alongside US and international content; on the other hand, some US content won’t be available. Click and enjoy!  Remember, though - you are Japanese now - no subtitles for you!  Netflix has no reason to offer English subtitles to Japanese tv and movies, but it does offer some English-language content dubbed or subtitled in Japanese.  But now you are really learning - so have fun!  

Typhoon Etau

Japan is suffering this week under the impact of Typhoon Etau, as terrible flooding has consumed homes, communities, and taken a number of lives. The flooding has already forced as many as 100,000 people to evacuate, and a total of 2.8 million have been advised to evacuate by the the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.  Japanese authorities are trying to grapple with the aftermath of massive flooding that hit the north-east of the country, killing several people and leaving many more stranded.  The death toll in the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi and Miyagi, to the north of Tokyo, rose to seven as of 6 p.m. on Sept. 13 after two bodies were found in Ibaraki and one in Tochigi the same day.  As of Sept. 12, 5,618 people fled their homes to take refuge in emergency shelters in the three prefectures.  About 4,700 buildings were reportedly inundated above floor level in the prefectures.

In parts of Tochigi prefecture, more than 50 centimeters (20 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours.  Parts of Joso, a community of 65,000 residents in Ibaraki prefecture, were washed away Thursday when a levee on the Kinugawa River gave way, flooding an area that spans 32 square kilometers after the worst rains in decades.  Roughly 2,000 troops, police and firefighters were deployed to rescue more than 100 people still trapped in water-logged buildings, the bulk of whom were patients and medical staff inside a flooded hospital.  

Search and rescue officials are still hoping to find many missing people.  In Ibaraki Prefecture, more than a dozen people remained unaccounted for as of Sept. 12.  However, they are working hard.  The number of missing in Joso dropped from 22 to 15 Saturday after police found more victims alive, including a pair of 8-year-old children

Sadly, many who are victims of this recent flood are also victims of the March 11 tsunami that ripped through central Japan several years ago.  This new flood appears to have undone some of the important work that has been done in the last 4 years. In Fukushima Prefecture, bags containing radioactive waste generated by decontamination work following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis have been swept away due to floods.  In the village of Iitate, the bags containing radioactive waste collected during the cleanup following the 2011 nuclear disaster were missing and some bags had leaked their contents.  The Environment Ministry said Sunday it was aware of 293 bags of radioactive waste that ended up in a river, of which 171 had been retrieved.

If you would like to help, there are many ways to assist.  

In Japan, several western expatriots have a Facebook page called “Foreign Volunteers Japan” which offers news, updates, and resources to help.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Foreignvolunteersjapan/

Peace Boat is a Japan-based international non-profit that is raising money as well:

https://www.facebook.com/PBVsaigai/

http://pbv.or.jp/donate/201509_suigai/english.html

Sources:

The Asahi Shinbun

The Japan Times

BBC News

Japan Today

NHK News

Thickly-sliced Kanji

For students of Japanese, there are two big challenges:  Kanji, and humor.  Kanji are difficult for Westerners because of the complexity and memorization. Of course, there is probably nothing more difficult to understand in a foreign language than humor. Put them together and you have a real challenge. But one American from Michigan has taken that challenge and turned it into fame. 

He calls himself “Atsugiri Jason.” (厚切りジェイソン) He’s one of the very few western comedians to perform in Japanese and not only succeed, but win competitions and achieve real popularity. In the last year, Atsugiri Jason, whose real name is Jason Danielson, has gone from simple IT professional to nationally-recognized comedian.  For Jason, who is only 28 years old and has only been living in Japan for 4 years, comedy wasn’t even what he intended to do when he arrived in Japan.

When Jason, an American, came to Japan, he already spoke Japanese. He had first come to Japan in 2005 to work as a research intern on a voice recognition project in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.  When he returned in 2011, he already loved Japanese comedy, including the show エンタの神様  – Gods of Entertainment. 

In Japan, while working full time, he decided to pursue his own comedy career. He enrolled in the Watanabe Comedy School towards the end of 2013. A year later, shortly after graduation, he appeared on TV Asahi’s December 29, 2014 broadcast of famous comedian Ariyoshi’s TV show 速報!有吉のお笑い大統領選挙  (Ariyoshi’s Comedian Presidential Election), and blew everyone away.  The TV special pitted a total of 28 comedic groups, 18 already established and 10 still up-and-coming, against each other to battle it out for the ultimate title of Comedic President. 

 
His skits revolve around learning Japanese kanji, and the difficulties in understanding their meaning. Usually in his act, Jason begins by appearing to be a typical, American “nice guy.” He explains that although he has been living in Japan for four years, he is still actively studying the Japanese language. Kanji in particular presents a constant challenge to him, especially when he tries to analyze the origins of them or break them down into smaller components for ease of memorization. Sometimes, breaking Kanji down doesn’t always make things easier for him – and that’s when he begins the core of his act.

Here’s an example:  

https://youtu.be/fk-Gn3w2gt0

(Click on the “closed caption” button if you would like English subtitles)

For example, he writes the kanji for “big” (大), a relatively simple character, on the board. He then adds a single mark to change the meaning to “fat/gain weight” (太) suggesting that this character is easy to remember because people who carry those few extra kilos/pounds around are often big. Then he writes the character for “dog” (犬)…and then suddenly shouts, “WHY, JAPANESE PEOPLE [in English]!!?? The dogs that are popular in Japan are this small! They’re not big at all!”

Or, in a fit of apparent frustration/exasperation/irritation, he violently scribbles the incredibly complex kanji 憂鬱, which means “depression.” “It takes too many strokes to write!” he yells. “Just learning it will send anyone into a depression!!”

The audiences seem to love it, and he’s already appeared on numerous television shows and at events.  He’s currently being managed by Watanabe Entertainment, an entertainment conglomerate based in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.

As for his name, he currently lives in Atsugi and the term “atsugiri” contains “Atsugi.” Also, his chest is thick and the Japanese phrase for “thick-sliced bacon” (“atsugiri-bēkon”) has a similar ring to it.

In February 2015, he made it as a finalist (as the first foreigner ever) on the R-1 Grand Prix (a major National comedy competition). He even appeared on an episode of エンタの神様, the show that originally got him interested in Japanese comedy. Since then, he’s appeared on at least 2 dozen shows, as well as an episode of “Death Note” that aired last month, in August of 2015, on Nippon TV.  

Whatever the future holds, Jason plans to stay in Japan.  His wife is Japanese and he has two daughters born in Japan.  He still works full time at a Japanese IT company, managing the operations of its U.S. office from Japan.  

Do you enjoy watching his comedy?  You can follow him on Twitter at @atsugirijason

Or, check out his profile at Watanabe Entertainment.

http://www.watanabepro.co.jp/mypage/40000169/

Sources:

The Japan Times
Rocketnews24
japaneselevelup.com

Wikipedia.jp

Nothing Little About It

Just a few weeks after Japan and the United States faced off in the Women’s World Cup, today (Sunday) at 3 pm it’s another epic contest between the U.S. and Japan - and this one is at our national pastime, baseball. Japan and the U.S. will face one another at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  

Advancing past Venezuela, the Tokyo team got down to its last strike in the bottom of the sixth inning before rallying to tie the game, and then overcame a two-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth inning to win the game 5-4 on Wednesday.  Saturday, the International and U.S. Championship games were played at the 2015 Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The first game included Mexico vs. Japan and the score was 0-0 at the end of play. The game went into overtime and during the bottom of the seventh inning, Japan had the bases loaded, with one out when they scored the winning run. The final score was 1-0 Japan. 

Tokyo will face the team from Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, who defeated the Pearland, Texas team on Saturday. This is the 69th annual Little League Baseball World Series, played by children who are generally 11-12 years old. Each year the LLWS games brings tens of thousands of families, fans, and players from around the world to watch 10 day of games. Each year, the LLWS starts with sixteen teams that include eight United States (US) and eight international teams. It’s double elimination, so each team will play at least three games at the LLWS, and the final game is a consolation game. 

Japan has won three of the past five series championships. This year, Japan is being represented by the Tokyo Kitasuna team, which won the 2012 series. 

How do they do it? A quick look at their neighbor, the Musashi Fuchu team, the winner of the 2013 and 2003 world series, tells the story of hard work and dedication. The team practices eight to 10 hours every Saturday and Sunday. Each morning is devoted just to fielding practice. The kids field endless bunts and turn one double play after another.
 

The team works on technique to perfection, and does not believe in “star” players. Their tenacity is valuable on the field. Team captain and second baseman Dai Okada remembers feeling a bit dwarfed by his opponents in Williamsport. "The American players were physically so big," he recalls. "The pitcher we played against in the final game was 6-foot-4. The one in the first game was 6-foot-5. We thought they must have been coaches, not players."

The Japanese players don't have a lot of power hitters. So instead of swinging for the fences, they focus on getting runners on base and advancing them with bunts, stolen bases, sacrifice flies and even squeeze plays. Players call it the "small ball" strategy.  Every practice session is a family affair. Parents make lunch and drinks for the kids and coaches. Everyone takes responsibility for meticulously grooming the infield, in the same focused and respectful way karate practitioners clean the straw mats in their dojo, or training hall.

Much like American teams, Japanese teams are not afraid to bring on talent from abroad. Bessie Noll is an american who played baseball while living with her parents in Japan and played for the Musashi Fuchu team. Speaking to NPR, she described what it was like to sacrifice six years' worth of weekends and social life to play baseball. Although she found it a lonely, trying experience, being the only foreigner — and the only girl — on the team, it gave her a unique and irreplaceable experience. Noll is now a mechanical engineering major at Stanford and plays for the university's softball team. 
 

Win or lose, the Japanese and American teams will at least get a chance for some well-derserved rest after the game. Even when a team loses at the LLWS games, they are able to return to their suite-like surroundings at The Grove in South Williamsport and they get to live like rock stars for about ten days. Amenities of The Grove include: a large swimming pool, video games, a room full of ping pong tables, and new friends who have come from all over the world. No parents are allowed! The Little League World Series (LLWS) games air live on ESPN and ABC and the games can also be viewed on the ESPN website. 

Sources:

The Japan News

Examiner.com

NPR.org

Biker Crackdown

The bicycle is to Japan what the automobile is to the United States - an iconic mode of transport. If you visit Japan, you should definitely rent or borrow a bicycle and take advantage - Japan is one of the most bicycle-friendly places on earth.  According to the National Police Agency, there were 71.551 million bicycles in Japan in 2013, compared with 27.643 million in 1970.  But take care - Japan is trying to be as serious about bicycle safety as they are about their bicycles.  

As of June 2015, a set of 14 laws have been passed nationwide to enforce safe and correct use of bicycles.  Under the new law, any cyclist who is caught riding through a red light or violating other traffic regulations more than twice in a period of three years will be required to take a safety course before being allowed back on the streets. The course lasts for three hours, and costs 5,700 yen. If you fail to attend, there’s another fine and you’ll receive another summons to attend school.  

Keep in mind that the laws apply to everyone aged 14 and older, and the two-strike policy is cumulative all over Japan. So if you get caught breaking one of the rules somewhere in Tokyo, and then you get caught again a few months later in another prefecture, that’s your two strikes right there. Already, Osaka Police have cited someone.  The man, a resident of Osaka’s Taisho Ward, was given traffic tickets on July 9 and again on July 15 near an intersection in the city’s Nishi Ward for riding a bicycle without a front brake, a violation of the traffic law, Osaka police said.

Here is a simple list of what NOT to do, or else:

1. Ignoring Traffic Signals

2. Riding in Prohibited Areas
3. Riding Unsafely on Footpaths/Riding on Undesignated Pedestrian Roads
4. Riding in the Wrong Lane

5. Obstructing Pedestrians

6. Crossing through Active Railroad Crossings
7. Ignoring Intersection Safety

8. Obstructing an Intersection
9. Riding Unsafely in Roundabouts/Rotaries
10. Not Obeying Stop Signs
11. Not Stopping at Crosswalks
12. Riding a Bike with Poor Brakes

13. Riding Under the Influence

14. Not Riding Safely


Japanese cyclists are already taking the rules to heart.  Accidents have dropped significantly this year, even before the law took effect.  They are even changing their time-honored habits, like riding while holding an umbrella. Consumer demand for ponchos has surged in recent months in line with the revised traffic law.  At a Loft store in Osaka that sells some 200 poncho varieties, sales in July rose by 8.4 times over the previous year. The most popular poncho cost about ¥4,000.

Sources:

The Japan Times

Rocketnews24

Japan Today

He who saves one life, saves the world

This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Asia. This war claimed millions of lives and destroyed families, cities, and cultures. For all the pain and suffering it wrought, however, it revealed some extraordinary heroes. One of those was a simple Japanese government bureaucrat named Chiune Sugihara.

In March 1939, Japanese Consul-General Chiune Sugihara was sent to Lithuania to open a consulate service. Lithuania was strategically situated between Germany and the Soviet Union. After Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany and a wave of Jewish refugees streamed into Lithuania. They brought with them chilling tales of German atrocities against the Jewish population. 

When Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, all foreign diplomats were asked to leave Lithuania by the end of August. But as he was packing his belongings, Sugihara was informed that a Jewish delegation was waiting in front of his consulate, asking to see him. Outside, he saw a crowd of hundreds of Jewish refugees, standing outside the Consulate, all desperately hoping for visas.  They were headed by Zerach Warhaftig – a Jewish refugee who was to become years later a minister in the government of the State of Israel. They desperately needed transit visas to leave Lithuania, across the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union would not permit them to escape, but with a Japanese visa, they could travel across Russia to Vladivostok, and from there escape to free territory.  

Consul Sugihara wanted to help, but had no authority to issue visas without permission from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo. He wired his government three times begging to issue these visas and save the refugees, and all three times he was denied.  So he made a choice. Chiune Sugihara decided that he would stay as long as he could, issuing transit visas in direct violation of his orders, to save as many lives as possible.  He requested and obtained permission to stay in Lithuania for one more month.  For 29 days, from July 31 to August 28, he sat for endless hours composing transit visas. Hour after hour, day after day, he wrote and signed - 300 visas a day all written entirely by hand.

Hundreds of applicants became thousands. Day and night, desperate people lined up outside the Consulate begging for visas; when some of them attempted to climb the compound wall, Sugihara came out to calm them, promising not to abandon them. And he did not: when he was forced to close the Consulate and leave Lithuania, Sugihara continued writing visas on his way to the train station, in his car, and in his hotel. After boarding the train, he kept signing visas as fast as he could, handing them down from his window. Even while pulling out of the station, Sugihara was seen throwing visas to refugees running alongside the speeding train. Because many passports had been left unstamped, Sugihara also tossed his visa stamp into the crowd, so that it could be used to save even more refugees. 

Within a brief span of time before the consulate was closed down and Sugihara had to leave Kaunas, he provided approximately 3,500 individual and family transit visas, allowing roughly 6,000 people to escape. He had also enlisted the help of some of the Jews to stamp the passports; with no knowledge of Japanese, some of the stamps were put in upside down. All the while, Sugihara was receiving dispatches from Tokyo warning him against issuing visas without due process. 

From Lithuania, the Japanese government sent Sugihara to open a consulate in Koenigsberg (today Kaliningrad) and then to Bucharest. At the end of the war, the Soviets imprisoned Sugihara, his wife Yukiko, and their son in an internment camp in Rumania for 18 months. Upon his return to his country in 1946, due to his insubordination, Sugihara was dismissed from the Japanese Foreign Service. With no way to make a living, Sugihara lived in poverty and was forced to take a job selling light bulbs door-to-door. Eventually, he worked as a part-time translator and interpreter, before returning to Moscow to accept a managerial position with a Japanese trading company. Sugihara worked there for over 15 years in complete obscurity, visiting his family in Japan only once or twice a year. 

The Nazis had invaded Lithuania in June 1941, killing countless Jewish refugees and other innocent civilians.  For the next 25 years, Sugihara never knew whether any of his visas had actually saved anyone.  Ashamed of his dismissal, Sugihara never mentioned his wartime deeds to anyone, and the world knew little of him until almost 30 years later, in 1968, when he was located by Joshua Nishri, the Economic Attache to the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo and one of his survivors.  The next year, Sugihara visited Israel and was greeted by the Israeli Government, which included another one of his survivors: Zerach Warheftig, the Israeli Minister of Religion, and the man who had first brought the refugees to Sugihara in the summer of 1940. 

In 1985, after gathering testimonials from all over the world, Sugihara was granted Israel`s highest honor. He was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Israel`s Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. The ceremony was held at the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo, but Sugihara was too sick to attend, so his wife Yukiko and his son Hiroki accepted the honor on his behalf.  Chiune Sugihara died the following year, on July 31,1986. Only when a large Jewish delegation from around the world, including the Israeli ambassador to Japan, showed up at his funeral, did his neighbors find out what he had done.  He had never said anything to anyone. 

As of today it is estimated that more than 80.000 descendants owe their existance to Sugihara.

Sources:

Wikipedia

Jewish Virtual Library

YadVashem.org
Jewish Post

Echoes From The Past

Next weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two and the surrender of Japan.  On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito of Japan took to the airwaves to announce to the people of Japan that the war was over.  Although the memory of his words still echoes today, the speech itself was considered lost to history - until this week, when the Imperial Household Agency released an enhanced, digital version of the original recording ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end.  The 4 1/2 minute speech is now available for anyone to hear.  Here’s a link:  http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002320849

(The video also contains an English-Language transcript.)

The language of the speech itself is quite unusual.  The Emperor’s words were carefully chosen, but are also extremely difficult to understand for most Japanese listeners, owing not only to the poor quality of the transmission, but also to the sophisticated language that the Emperor chose for his speech.  In the speech the Emperor, also known as Emperor Showa, announced the nation's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded Japan's unconditional surrender, pledging "to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is unsufferable”.  The speech was recorded on August 14 at the Imperial Palace and the emperor's announcement was broadcast at noon the following day. The speech marked the first time most Japanese heard the emperor's voice.  However, if you listen, you will hear vocabulary and manners of speech that are quite uncommon in everyday Japanese.  

The speech itself was dramatic, to be sure, but it almost never happened. Amid fear of violent protest by army officials refusing to end the war, the recording of Emperor Hirohito's announcement was made secretly. NHK technicians were quietly called in for the recording. At almost midnight, Emperor Hirohito appeared in his formal military uniform, and read the statement into the microphone, twice, deep in a bunker on the grounds of the Imperial Palace.  However, meanwhile a group of young army officers stormed into the palace in a failed attempt to steal the records and block the surrender speech.  Nevertheless, palace officials desperately protected the records, which were safely delivered to NHK for radio transmission the next day. 

Along with the recording, the Imperial Household Agency also released never-before-seen photos of the bunker itself, deep in the ground near the Imperial Palace.  The bunker is now dilapidated and has fallen into disrepair.  However, the room where the Emperor read his historic words remains.  

The drama of the last two days of the war, leading to Emperor Hirohito's radio address was made into a film, "Japan's Longest Day," in 1967. That film, a classic, included Chishū Ryū as Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki, Toshirō Mifune as War Minister Korechika Anami, Takashi Shimura as Information Bureau Director Hiroshi Shimomura and Sō Yamamura as Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai.  A remake called “The Emperor in August” hit Japanese theaters this weekend. The film chronicles the last 2 days of the war, and the efforts of Emperor Hirohito to end the war.  Here’s a trailer:

https://youtu.be/RwbJ7l9hNf8

Sources:

The Japan Times

The Japan News

Asahi Shinbun

Wikipedia

Live from Tokyo, it's Saturday Night!

Learning Japanese is fun, but one of the toughest forms of Japanese to master is comedy. But that hasn’t stopped America’s longest-running variety show, Saturday Night Live, from giving it a try.  For decades, SNL has tried out Japanese-language comedy, with various results.  

SNL started big with the brilliant John Belushi, whose total lack of Japanese can be overlooked in light of his insane, larger-than-life version of a movie-samurai

https://screen.yahoo.com/samurai-delicatessen-000000556.html

In the 1990’s, SNL ran a Japanese-style game show parody w/ Mike Myers and Chris Farley (and a young Alec Baldwin).  

Mike Myers’ and Alec Baldwin’s Japanese accents are better than many I’ve heard from beginner American students!

https://screen.yahoo.com/japanese-game-show-000000729.html

In the 2000’s, SNL’s Japanese-language version of “The Office” is astoundingly spot-on, probably because Steve Carrell was on hand to help out.

While not exactly fluent, the actors demonstrate some entirely recognizable Japanese pronunciation. Enjoy!

https://screen.yahoo.com/snl-digital-short-japanese-office-000000218.html

On the other hand, there is some deliberately terrible Japanese available on this parody of a college J-Pop talk show, which ran in the 2010’s - here, the Americans are the target of the jokes.  

https://screen.yahoo.com/j-pop-talk-show-samurai-000000798.html

But if American versions of Japan are too silly to handle, why not try some truly Japanese SNL?

SNL Japan only ran for one season in Japan, but it had some famous hosts and ran almost identically to the American format.  

That’s because it was produced by Lorne Michaels himself, whose production company launched the show back in 2011.  

However, it was only 45 minutes long, only ran once a month, and aired at 11 pm. 

The opening credits were spot-on, thanks in part to Don Pardo’s participation. 

https://youtu.be/RY8BRfnNkhc

They even had their own version of weekend update.

https://youtu.be/HtKKMI5fRnQ

(subtitles included)

You Can(Not) Board

Japan is a dream-come-true for many otaku, and this week Japan decided to give anime otaku a special gift.  JR West is dressing up one of its super-fast bullet trains to look like a mecha from the anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion.  The launch of the train will also celebrate the 40 years since the completion of the Sanyo Shinkansen line.  The line opened 40 years ago while Neon Genesis Evangelion premiered on Japanese television 20 years ago. The two are coming together for the Shinkansen Evangelion Project. 

The Eva Unit-01 is getting a sleek remodel as the "500 TYPE EVA, " a bullet train that will run on Japan Railways' Sanyo Shinkansen Line.  Anime director Hideaki Anno and original mecha designer Ikuto Yamashitaare working directly on the project, which kicks off this fall and is expected to last through March 2017.   The "500 Type EVA," as it's now called, will get a purple paint job to match the Evangelion Unit-01 seen in the show, in addition to a new matching interior that will be stocked with special tie-in memorabilia and travel products for riders to buy.   The train will operate for two years, from Fall 2015 to March 2017. During that time, it will make two trips a day, running between Hakata and Shin-Osaka.

Anno, a train fan himself, expressed his enthusiasm during the project's announcement:  "The 500-kei is my favorite bullet train car; it's got the coolnessof a fast ball and it's like a dream super express [Super expressis a designation for Japanese trains that don't stop very much]. That this car gets to collaborate with 'Evangelion' is a great honor and I have the utmost thanks.
Yamashita also remarked why the 500-kei train was a perfect match.  Among the bullet trains, I think the 500-kei is a cool car that surpasses the others. I didn't think this kind of car that carries our dreams would appear, even in this Linear era [Linear is another kind of train]. So I think it's good that they used 'Eva' coloring with the original design to make the 500-kei look like it came from the future.”

Of course, if you aren’t an anime fan, you can still enjoy a taste of the future if you arrive at Haneda airport this year.  The airport is beginning to introduce robots who will carry passenger’s luggage while inside the terminal.  The airport is also introducing cybernetic exoskeletons for employees, in order to reduce injury and enhance strength and endurance.  The name of the company introducing these devices?  

Cyberdyne. 

That is not made up.  This company building robots in Japan is called Cyberdyne.  It’s exoskeleton is called HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb). 

Because Japan, that’s why.  

Sources:

Anime News Network

IGN.com

ZDNet

The Turtle That Never Was

If you’ve already purchased your tickets for the 2020 Olympics so that you can see Zaha Hadid’s award-winning design for the Tokyo National Stadium, I have bad news. Prime Minister Abe announced this week that he’s cancelled the contract and the plans for the stadium and starting again from scratch.  He cited cost as the primary factor: Hadid’s 80,000 seat stadium would cost the country 252 billion yen (US $2 billion), double the original estimate.  

The announcement was a bit of a surprise; until the announcement, Abe and the Tokyo 2020 committee headed by Yoshiro Mori had publicly expressed support for Hadid’s design, despite the torrent of criticism since it was unveiled in 2012.  It was a truly hated design, however.  Hadid’s trademark complex, neofuturistic structure was planned to be built in Tokyo’s historic district near the Meiji Shrine, the site of the old stadium that has been demolished. The building’s futuristic appearance was discordant with the site’s context and blatantly disregarded the 15-meter construction height limit in the historic area. In 2013, a group of renowned architects gathered to protest the stadium’s design in a symposium called “Re-thinking the New National Olympic Stadium in the historical context of Gaien.” They garnered 32,000 signatures in support of their petition opposing its construction.

Meanwhile, on the internet, legions of creative, Photoshop-savvy critics also piped in via social media, likening the design of the stadium to a bicycle helmet, a toilet seat, and a Roomba vacuum cleaner.  In 2014, in a rare show of acquiescence, the architect modified the plans to include lighter and more cost-effective materials but not necessarily to downsize the structure. At the time, the Japan Sports Council had already sliced the budget for the stadium in half, from over $3 billion to 169 billion yen (about $1.3 billion). Later in the year, Hadid slammed the Japanese architects protesting the stadium, suggesting that they were both sore losers and xenophobic in their stance against an Iraqi-British architect building in Japan. The architects, in turn, described the design in various and derogatory terms, including as "like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away."

The new stadium will have to be designed and built in less than five years—and the World Cup of rugby, which was supposed to take place in the stadium in 2019, will have to find some other venue.  A new competition will be announced before the end of this year.

Sources:

Quartz.com

Wired

Gizmodo

The New York Times

Local Hero

Last week, over 3000 mourners said goodbye to a local hero in Wakayama, a beloved friend who saved a local railway and transformed a forgotten town into a popular tourist destination.  On June 22, Tama, the stationmaster cat of Kishi Station, died at the age of 16 (about 80 in human years.).  Mourners joined the ceremony from all over Japan, as they said goodbye to a little cat that saved a railroad.  In one of several portraits decorating the altar, Tama posed in a stationmaster's hat and a dark blue cape. Sake, as well as watermelon, apples, cabbage and other fruits and vegetables were presented to the cat. A stand outside the station was heaped with bouquets, canned tuna and other gifts left by thousands of Tama fans who came to pray from around the country.

Tama was born on April 29, 1999, at Kishi Station. Her mother was a tabby cat that lived at the station on the Kishigawa Line, which at the time was operated by Nankai Electric Railway Co.  Before she took over her duties from the last human station master in 2006, the nine-mile-long, heavily indebted Kishigawa line line was losing 500m yen ($4m) a year and at one point only 5,000 passengers a day were using it.  Finally, in 2006, the company got rid of the human stationmaster at Kishi Station - leaving Tama, the stray cat.  Tampa took her duties to heart, and loyally kept watch over the station, much to the delight of locals.  

Tama was named honorary stationmaster in 2007, and could always be found in her custom-made stationmaster's hat, waiting at the ticket gate to welcome passengers.  Tourists started pouring into the area to see her wearing the uniform cap. She inspired T-shirts and stuffed animals. She even got her cartoon-likeness on a train.  In spring 2009, the Wakayama Electric Railway introduced a new "Tama Densha" (たま電車 Tama train) train on the line which was customized with cartoon depictions of Tama. In August 2010, the station building at Kishi was rebuilt with a new structure resembling a cat's face. Both the "Tama Densha" refurbishment and station rebuilding projects were overseen by industrial designer Eiji Mitooka.

She was such a hit with visitors, estimates indicate that she pumped at least 1.1 billion yen ($9 million) into the local economy in just her first year on the job.  In her first year on the job passenger numbers rose 10% to 2.1m.  The railway continued to promote her during her term - literally. After rising to the position of ultra-stationmaster, she went on to become a vice president of the rail firm in 2013. On Sunday, she was given a new title: honourable eternal stationmaster.

Wakayama Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka was among those in attendance for Tama’s funeral, which was held by Wakayama Electric Railway Co. Throngs of Tama fans and media reporters from home and abroad were also present.  He said Tama will be remembered as “the permanent honorary stationmaster” and asked Tama to “continue to protect local public transportation around the world, including Wakayama Electric Railway, as ‘Tama-daimyojin.’ ”  The railway is considering building a statue in her honor.  

Her successor is fellow calico cat Nitama, who until now has been an apprentice stationmaster.
 

Sources:  

The Asahi Shinbun

Wikipedia

The Japan Times

The Washington Post

Deutsche Well 

Harder to Read than Japanese

Learning Japanese can be quite a challenge for Westerners.  To start with, one has to learn three different writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.  But if you get frustrated, remember that the Japanese have still another writing system: Manyogana.  Manyogana (万葉仮名) is an old system of writing that uses kanji purely for their phonetic values.  For example, 波 was read phonetically as ハ, rather than semantically as meaning "waves". ア derives from the left radical of 阿, while あ derives from a cursive form of 安.  Manyogana was initially used to record poetry, as in the Man'yōshū (万葉集), compiled sometime before 759, whence the writing system derives its name. Later, both Katakana and Hiragana are derived from Manyogana, as scholars and Buddhist monks began to separately adapt Manyogana to their own purposes.  

Scholars believe that Manyogana was created sometime during the Nara period.  The earliest known example dates back to the year 471.  By the end of the 8th century, 970 kanji were in use to represent the 90 sound combinations of Japanese.  There is considerable debate and no clear answer to the origins of this writing system. Many scholars believe that it came from Paekche, the ancient kingdom of Korea. This legend about the ancient Korean kingdom appears in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, Japan's two oldest chronicles.  

Of course, due to the large number of words and concepts entering Japan from Chinese which had no native equivalent, many words entered Japanese directly, with a pronunciation similar to the original Chinese. That’s where we get onyomi (音読み), the Chinese reading, and this vocabulary as a whole is referred to as Kango (漢語) in Japanese.  Meanwhile, kunyomi (訓読み) readings were used when native Japanese already had an existing word.  Since Manyogana used entirely Chinese characters, however, it is very difficult to know whether a character was written for its meaning or simply its phonetic value.  For example, 見手 would be read as “みて” or see. while 荒足  (fierce, rough, violent + leg) would be “あらし” or storm.  

While all particles and most words are represented phonetically (多太 tada, 安佐 asa), other words, such as umi (海) and funekaji (船梶) are rendered semantically.  Plus, the sounds mo (母, 毛) and shi (之, 思) are written with multiple characters. Scholars believe that originally, Japanese had more sounds in common use than today and that those sounds disappeared over the course of the next 1500 years.  Meanwhile, in China, the mainland continued to use characters exclusively and never developed a separate, phonetic writing system. You can see the Manyogana method used even today in Mandarin Chinese.  For example, when Chinese newspapers print English names, “Peter” is phonetically written   Bi3-de2 and “George” is written  Qiao2-zhi4.  

Once you’ve got Manyogana under your belt, don’t get too excited.  You’ll still also need to learn hentaigana 変体仮名 - a complete system of alternate, non-standard Hiragana that were in use until about 100 years ago.  Places like soba shops and martial arts schools still use them sometimes…but that’s a topic for another day.  

Think you are able to read Manyogana?  Why not give it a try - there is a quiz on the Internet to test your reading skills - just match the Hiragana to its original Chinese character. Here’s the link

http://www.sporcle.com/games/Alcas/hiragana-manyogana-kanji-matchup

Sources:

Japanese.stackexchange.com

scriptsource.com

cjvlang.com

Wikipedia

Japanese a Click Away

A while back I shared how to download Japanese-language books from the US and the Japanese Amazon Kindle stores.  Now this language-learning/language-enjoying resource has become even more powerful, with the addition of a Japanese-English dictionary!  Now, while you are reading, just click on the word you don’t know, and you get a live translation right there on your screen!  

Reading in Japanese is a terrific way to learn and enjoy Japanese.  The Kindle is a convenient tool that you can use on your computer, smartphone, tablet, or similar device.  Many of its books are free or offer free samples.  If you want to try it out, here’s out to do it.

First, get a Japanese-language book for your Kindle or Kindle App.  It’s a snap from the Amazon store here in the U.S.  Here’s a link to the 40,000+ Japanese-language ebooks available.  

http://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n:283155,p_n_feature_browse-bin:618073011,p_n_feature_nine_browse-bin:3291443011

Many of them are free, or offer free samples.

Plus, with a little determination, you can even buy books from the Amazon Kindle store for Japan, which has hundreds of thousands of ebooks in Japanese.  The Amazon store in Japan has the rights to publish many books that it cannot publish in the United States, due to agreements with publishers.  I’ve written about how to do it before, but here are some good guides:

http://nihonjon.com/how-to-download-japanese-books-for-kindle/?doing_wp_cron=1434224375.0273840427398681640625

and

http://computer-help-please.blogspot.com/2014/09/buy-kindle-books-from-amazon-japan.html

Next, download your book.  

Finally - open it up and start reading.  If you hit a word that you don’t know, just put your finger on it/select it.  You’ll get the default dictionary first - but you’ll see a list of dictionaries to download (for free!) and one of them is Japanese-English.   Once you download that dictionary, you are ready to go!  Even if you don’t have internet access while you are reading, you can use the dictionary.  If you do have internet access, it will even offer you a Wikipedia entry and a Google Translation of the phrase in addition!  

Give it a shot - it’s totally free and totally fun! 

Edo on Film

Admittedly, our mental images of old Japan are often romanticized.  While our ideas are usually based on movies, television, or fantastic art works, it is almost impossible for us to reach back and see the past as it really was.  However, this week in London, some of the only photographic images of Edo Period Japan in existence are going on display, offering a rare glimpse into that world.  The photographs are the works of Felice Beato, who brought photography to Japan only a couple of decades after its invention.  

Beato is one of the most important figures in the history of photography.  His photos of the Crimean War, the 1857 Indian Rebellion and the Opium War are some of the earliest war photographs in existence, and his photographs from Asia and the Middle East brought images of another world back to Europeans and Americans who had never seen the other side of their planet.  For over fifty years into the early twentieth century, Beato's photographs of Asia constituted the standard imagery of travel diaries, illustrated newspapers, and other published accounts, and thus helped shape "Western" notions of several Asian societies.  

In 1863, Beato moved to Yokohama, where he quickly gained unprecedented access to the inner world of Japanese society.  By traveling with diplomatic delegations or obtaining special access permits, he was even allowed to photograph samurai, and collected photos from Tokyo to Nagasaki.  By 1868 Beato had readied two volumes of photographs, "Native Types", containing 100 portraits and genre works, and "Views of Japan", containing 98 landscapes and cityscapes.  Many of the photographs in Beato's albums were hand-coloured, a technique that in his studio successfully applied the refined skills of Japanese watercolourists and woodblock printmakers to European photography. 

Beato’s photography was notable, not just for its beauty, but for there respect he showed to his subjects.  Beato not only brought images of Japan to the West, he also gave birth to photography in Japan.  His students, such as Kusakabe Kimbei, became renowned and successful photographers on their own.  He remained in Japan until 1884, when he traveled to Sudan, and then Burma and elsewhere throughout the world.  

Here are some examples of his amazing photos:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3092617/Courtesans-samurai-tender-family-scenes-Stunning-colour-photos-Edo-era-Japan-dating-1863-display.html

If you would like to purchase or download some of his photos, you can go to the Getty Museum website:

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1931/felice-beato-english-born-italy-1832-1909/

Sources:

The Daily Mail

Wikipedia

Japan's Universe

After any trip to Japan, one of the first things that probably strikes most people upon their return to the United States is how diverse our nation is.  Everywhere you look, there are people who can trace their origins to places all over the world.  Japan, on the other hand, is a nation where one’s family registry (or koseki, 戸籍) must have a Japanese-born head of household.  Japan, however, is also a nation that is trying to adapt to the modern world.  This year, Japan took a big step in that direction by selecting Ariana Miyamoto to represent Japan at the Miss Universe competition.  

Ariana is a Japanese woman who was born in Nagasaki and has lived in Japan her entire life.  However, her ethnic origin is mixed - her mother was Japanese and her father was an African-American man from Arkansas.  While celebrities who are "hafu (or haafu)” are becoming increasingly popular in Japan, her selection has been somewhat controversial.  Many bi-racial children still face prejudice growing up, and Miyamoto was no exception.  Though Miyamoto was bullied while growing up in the port town of Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture, she revealed that it was a bi-racial friend’s suicide that ultimately convinced her to enter the Miss Universe Japan contest.  Today, despite prejudice against her, she looks to Naomi Campbell as a hero and example, since she also faced racial prejudice when she began her career.  

Although people have criticized her for not being “Japanese-enough,” she is no stranger to Japanese culture and even has a 5th degree mastery of Japanese calligraphy.  Miyamoto is standing tall and proud to lead Japan into the 21st century.  Literally quite tall, at 5’6” feet tall, she told CNN “In school people used to throw rubbish at me,” she said. “They also used racial slurs.”  She has had to endure attacks on Twitter and elsewhere.  Meanwhile, FujiTV faced criticism earlier this year when a musical group posed in blackface for a promotional photo shoot.  Still, last year, NHK chose to feature a bi-racial couple as the theme for their popular morning drama program.  “Massan", the story of a Japanese man and a Scottish woman who married and settled in Japan, was the first time that NHK's Asadora series has featured a non-Japanese actor in a lead role.  

Miyamoto may be the new face of modern Japan.  For example, Marie Nakagawa represented Japan on “Asia’s Next Top Model;” Nakagawa was born and raised in Tokyo to her Japanese mother and her Senegalese-French father.  In fact, there are 20,000 bi-racial children born in Japan every year, and about 3.3% of marriages in Japan are between a Japanese national and a foreign national.  Megumi Nishikura, whose film, “Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan,” explores the lives of multiracial Japanese citizens.  If you are interested, here’s a trailer for her film:

https://youtu.be/6j_wQQZY-OE

Sources:

The Japan Times

Wikipedia.

Washington Post

Independent UK

Kotaku

Rocketnews24

Nepal in Need

Nepal is still reeling from a devastating 7.8M earthquake that struck on April 25th. Over 8,000 people have died and the quake destroyed homes and priceless historical landmarks throughout the nation.  The quake, which triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, was felt all over Asia and killed over a hundred people in India and China as well.  The world has struggled to respond and an international relief effort is underway to try to relieve Nepal in this terrible time.  Japan has responded as well, offering almost $10 million in aid and about 100 relief workers to assist in the effort.  Of course, Japan suffered a similar quake just a few years ago, in March of 2011.  Japan is hoping to share some of its experience with Nepal.  

For example, Shigeru Ban, an architect in Japan, is hoping to offer his expertise to Nepalese survivors whose homes have been destroyed.  In the short term, Ban’s firm and his relief organization Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) will distribute simple tents—supplemented with plastic sheets donated by contractors to serve as wall partitions—and assemble them onsite as temporary shelter and medical aid stations.  From there, he will work with local Nepalese students and businesses to develop more permanent structures so that people can rebuild their lives.  Ban has been designing emergency structures since the early 1990s, first deploying shelters in Rwanda in 1994 after civil unrest and genocide, and the next year in Kobe, Japan after a devestating earthquake. He has since deployed emergency shelters all over the world, using simple materials including corrugated plastic and paper tubes, with projects in Turkey, India, Sri Lanka, China, Haiti, Japan, and New Zealand. 

Ban’s goal is to provide low-cost but dignified housing for people in need.  Ban’s is temporarily earthquake-relief housing in Onagawa, Japan, for instance, was built from paper tubes and shipping containers for affordable and quick installation. The low-cost and recyclable structures are well designed to give refugees a sense of dignity in addition to shelter.

Japan has even sent a rescue dog that is already famous in Japan - Yumenosuke.  A stray dog that was scheduled to be put down, he was rescued by a relief organization and put to work in Hiroshima after a massive mudslide, where he saved four people trapped under debris.  The dog has now joined a team from Israel and search and rescue teams from Fairfax, Virginia and elsewhere to find survivors.  

The quake that devastated Nepal was part of global seismic activity that was felt in Japan as well.  In fact, the day before the quake, seismic disturbances brought a new land mass into existence off the coast of Hokkaido.  The new land mass has now risen over 50 feet above the water, is nearly 1,000 feet long, and nearly 30 feet wide.    

If you would like to donate to the Nepal relief effort, there are many organizations that could use your help.

Here is a link to Shigeru Ban’s organization:

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works/2015_nepal_earthquake/index.html

And here is a link to the American Red Cross:

https://www.redcross.org/donate

Sources:

Wikipedia

quora.com

The Japan Times

Architectural Record

Inhabitat.com

Faster and Faster Than a Speeding Bullet Train

There are few icons of Japan more recognizable than its Shinkansen bullet train.  Japan introduced the 新幹線 (new trunk line) train in 1964 and since then has remained a leader in the implementation of high-speed rail, ferrying 150 million passengers a year. 

As the United States is still taking baby-steps in the direction of high-speed rail, however, Japan is still shattering records.  Typical of Japan’s focus on the future, the train may not be due to begin ferrying passengers between Tokyo and Osaka for another 30 years, but Japan’s magnetic levitation (maglev) train is already conducting testing along a special section of test track in Yamanashi Prefecture. 

Operator JR Central said the train reached 375 miles per hour in a test run on Tuesday, surpassing its previous record of 361 mph set in 2003. The train traveled for just over a mile at a speed exceeding 373 mph.  The Maglev Test Line, near Mount Fuji about 50 miles west of Tokyo, is developing technology for use on a future 250-mile link under the mountains that will reduce travel time between Tokyo and Osaka to just over an hour. The current minimum by bullet train is nearly three hours.  The high-speed track will stretch from Tokyo to Nagoya by 2027, and from Tokyo to Osaka by 2045. The infrastructure won’t come cheap: just the first section of track is expected to cost $100 billion.

The magnetic levitation bullet train was carrying 29 technicians during the test run, but passengers who travel on the line when it opens in 2027 won’t experience quite the same speeds. When it officially opens for business, the train is expected to operate at a maximum speed of 505Kph (313 mph). Last year, 100 train enthusiasts from the public took a similar test run on the maglev line at speeds of 500 km/h. The Japanese government gave the construction of the train line the go ahead in October 2014. 

By contrast, the fastest train in the United States, Amtrak's Acela Express, is only capable of 241 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), though it rarely stays at that speed very long.  The maglev trains, begun as a project of Japan Airlines and the national railways with government support, have undergone decades of testing.  The maglev hovers 10 centimetres (four inches) above the tracks and is propelled by electrically charged magnets.  Construction of the Tokyo-Osaka link began in 2014.  

Want to see the train in action?  Check out this clip:

https://youtu.be/q4Hkw6kk3PA

Sources:

The Chicago Tribune

Rocket News 24

Wired UK

Gizmag

Quartz

Yahoo News

Wikipedia

No true goodbyes

Japanese can be a difficult language - the US State Department calls it one of the 3 hardest in the world.  But there are words so familiar that plenty of Americans know them.  Some of them are foods like “Sushi", some of them are notorious, like “Tsunami", and some are the basics, like “Sayonara."  

But even though almost everyone knows this simple word and its basic meaning (“Goodbye”), do you know it’s true meaning and its history?  Most people think that it means “Farewell,” and even most Japanese people nowadays avoid saying it because of its air of finality.  But it turns out that originally, the phrase implied the hope of return.  

The phrase used to be a much longer phrase.  To learn its origins, let’s break the word up into two parts.  First, ”さよう” is a truncated version of ”そのよう”、which means “so” or "that way.”  Next, ”なら” is short for “ならば” meaning “if”.  So the whole phrase “さようならば“ means “if that” or “if so.”  The Kanji "然様なら” or "佐様なら” are also pronounced “さよう” and are also translated as “like that” or “so that.”  But what is that supposed to mean?  Well, that phrase is essentially short for “well, if that’s all, I really must go,” or "そうならなければならないなら.”  But that’s not the end of the story.  

It turns out that in olden times, after you would say “well then, if that is all...”, you would follow with a wish that you would return by saying “かえります.”  In total, the phrase was “左様ならば” followed by "帰ります” or “さようならば、かえります”.  Ironically, then, “sayonara” was part of a goodbye that held the hope of return.  However, slowly people first dropped the “帰ります” and later dropped the “ば”, and thus we are left with “Sayonara”.

That story also should help you understand why some people say goodbye by saying “それじゃあ”。Sound familiar now?  When saying that, a person is saying “if it’s that”, only this time, more casually.

Of course, if you are just starting out with Japanese, you are probably just having trouble remembering to put the “う” sound in when you spell ”さようなら.”  But you aren’t alone - plenty of Japanese people make this mistake too!  It doesn’t help that when they anglicized the word ”さようなら”, the Japanese spelled it “Sayonara” which is literally written “サヨナラ.” For example, here’s the sign Japan posted for the departing athletes at the 1964 Olympics.

Nowadays, many Japanese people spell the word ”さよなら.”  Which just means that even today, this word, just like all of Japan, is still changing!  

** Special thanks to the Japanese Table’s founder, John Berryman, for turning me on to this topic.  :)

Sources:

The Ricoh Communications Club

http://www.rcc.ricoh-japan.co.jp/ 

Japanesepod101.com

Wikipedia.jp

Terminal 3

Narita airport is the gateway to Japan for nearly all American visitors, so if you’ve been there, you probably already know Terminal 1 or Terminal 2.  Terminal 1 is home to airlines like Delta, Virgin, and ANA, and Terminal 2 is home to JAL, American, and other well-known airlines.  But starting April 8, 2015, Narita opened a brand new Terminal, devoted to low-cost carriers: Narita Terminal 3. 

Located 500 meters north of Terminal 2, the new terminal incorporates several cost-cutting measures, including using decals instead of lighted directional signs and using outdoor gates and airstairs instead of jet bridges, which are intended to reduce facility costs for airlines and their passengers by around 40% on international flights and 15% on domestic flights. Jetstar Japan, Vanilla Air and three other low-cost carriers use the terminal. The terminal also includes a 24-hour food court, which is the largest airport food court in Japan, and an Islamic prayer room. It was built at a cost of 15 billion yen and covers 66,000 square meters of floor space.

Narita currently hosts operations by four Japanese and nine international Low-cost carriers, whose share of the Narita market has exploded from 13% in 2013 to 20% in 2014.  Still,  LCCs account for about 7 percent of the country’s total air passengers, far lower than the 50 percent they account for in Southeast Asia and 30 percent in North America. This leaves a great deal of room for expansion.

The entire terminal is built around the concept of “low-cost.”  To start with, for Terminal 3, the Narita Airport operator is to collect 1,020 yen (S$11.49) per passenger for use of the facility and 520 yen for security services from international flight passengers. The charges are about 40 per cent lower than the charges for Terminals 1 and 2.   To save money without sacrificing style, the designer Muji supplied the over 100 benches as well as other furnishings. Muji chairs and tables fill the food court, while familiar names still appear as well - FaSoLa will still operate the duty-free shops and convenience stores.  

Perhaps most striking, however, is Muji’s design for the passenger walkways.  Completed well in advance of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the new terminal has been designed around an indoor running track. a color-coded circuit, which links the entirety of the scheme.  The color-coded walkways not only help travelers find their way, but also provide a comfortable walking experience throughout the terminal’s interior.  In this design, there are no moving walkways or illuminated signs, but instead a system of red and blue running lanes - blue pathways for departures and red for arrivals.

Here are some cool pictures, and at the end a video about the project that highlights the running track.  (Japanese, with English subtitles.)

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/narita-airport-terminal-3-running-track-party-muji-nikken-04-10-2015/

The new terminal also houses the largest duty-free shop at the airport. Boasting 680 square meters of floor space, the shop sells products from sweets and clothing to household electric appliances.

Japan’s aviation stakeholders are hoping that the new terminal will serve as an additional gateway for foreign tourists coming to a country that has set a target of attracting 20 million visitors a year by 2020.

Sources:

Wikipedia

Moodie Report

AsiaOne

The Japan News

The Asahi Shinbun

Designboom

Odors of April

April Fools Day is a long-standing tradition in the United States, but only recently has come to Japan.  In Japanese, April Fools’s Day is called 4月馬鹿 (Shigatsu Baka or, literally, April Fool) or エイプリルフール (Eipuriru Fuuru or April Fool), or also エープリルフール (Eepuriru Fuuru). Japan has quickly joined the fun, however, and this year all sorts of companies had their own April Fool’s pranks. Coca-Cola introduced coke bottles as business cards, Volvo introduced smartphone airbags, Taito promoted a hot-springs arcade, and Audi even released a concept car with its own rice cooker and tatami-mat seats for the busy executive who still wants a traditional Japanese meal.  Kirin created a smart beer mug and Red Bull created an ad for red-eye drops.  

However, this year, Burger King Japan’s big news was no joke:  on April 1, you had your chance to buy a limited-edition “Flame Grilled” Burger King fragrance, with the distinctive odor of a Whopper Sandwich.  At a cost of 5,000 Yen (about $41 USD), you could get your own bottle, along with a complimentary Whopper.  The fragrance went on sale at 10:30 a.m. in Burger King restaurants all over Japan.  

If you are madly clicking on a travel website to get tickets to Japan A.S.A.P., give it up:  the fragrance sold out in the first day, which also happens to be “Whopper Day,” according to Burger King Japan.  Still, for the disappointed, Burger King Japan is still selling a "Whopper Pass," which is the same price (5,000 Yen) for thirty days of Whopper meal deals, which are priced at 840 yen (US$6.93) each. 

What does the perfume smell like?  Sam Byford of “The Verge” found that it evoked the smell of cigars, describing it as "something like the burnt-rubber skidmarks left by a box-fresh-MacBook-carrying courier scooter after it crashed into a bacon salt factory."

Sources:

Forbes

The Verge

Kotaku