Hakusan Park's Sakura Blossoms

On Tuesday, Shanna and I checked out the sakura blossoms at night in Hakusan Park. Took some pictures, ate some yummy festival food, and enjoyed the crowds!

Here's the reflection of the trees lit up in the pond.

Funny Pooh-chan stand selling only Stitch products. Boring job, ne?

The goodness of candy covered strawberries and grapes. Plus, the cute kids hanging around the stand as well.

I've had a weird last couple of days.

Monday I got flowers (red carnations) from one of my third graders at Ryokawa and then Tuesday I got ACTUAL flour from a group of 2nd graders who went shopping at an international grocery store in Tokyo. They wanted to get me something from America, so they got Gold Medal Flour. Yeah, so...hmmm!?! I guess it's the thought that counts more than the gift! Any-who, my Kyoto-sensei just peeked over my shoulder and saw me up-dating this blog....had to explain the pictures....gotta look busy and NOT on the computer now! Later all!

NANA

Nana is now one of my favorite movies!!!

I remember when it came out in theaters last September here in Japan, but Japanese + Johanna = Lost Cause. NOW, it's subtitled and you can download it all over.

It's a movie about love, loss, and most of all friendship.

Two girls of the same age, same name meet at the same time in the same train. They find the same apartment without knowing it, move in together - thus starting the marvelous adventure. Nana (meaning 7 in Japanese) Osaka - she’s strong, independent, and proud- is the lead singer to a band starting out again in Tokyo, the love of her life left to form another more popular band, Trapnest. Nana Kotatsu (eventually nicknamed Hachi...8 in Japanese) -she's loving, loyal, and supportive- moves to Toyko to join her boyfriend, but ends up helping her roommate in the music business. It's a cute movie to watch b/c both girls change themselves and each other. They each have their own weakness, but together, they more than make up for what the other lacks.

Watch it, you'll enjoy it! :)
Or read more about it here:
http://trinityblood.net/animagik9/konosono/?p=294

THE YAKUZA FASHION GUIDE

Always good to stay in style no matter what the profession!

1. This yakuza fashion guide comes from the Nihon Yakuza Chizu (Japan Yakuza Map), a quarterly publication aimed at young males who are interested in the world of organized crime. It has detailed information about all of the 24 major gangs in Japan, explaining their history and leadership, and even includes addresses and pictures of their headquarters in case any of the readers might want to sign up. There are quotations from famous yakuza throughout history, and of course, an eight page full-color photo spread on yakuza fashion.

2. Ya-kore 2002 Haru: Yakuza collection for spring 2002. Yakuza have a saying: "Shiro nara shiro. Kuro nara kuro." It means, if you wear white, wear all white from your hat to your shoes. If you wear black, wear all black." Although the loud suit with white belt and matching shoes "Herb Tarlek look" of the 80's and '90's has died a merciful death, it has been replaced by the equally tacky, "Attention K-Mart shoppers" sensibility seen here. Yaks love faux-designer brands like Castelbajac, Valentini, and Valenza. Bags should be made from the skin of an animal such as crocodile, snake, or ostrich--the more endangered the better.

3. Yakuza are said to be the only group in Japanese society that uses keitai's (mobile phones) more than school girls. Whether they're calling in another ten reinforcements to help beat up an elderly shop-keeper who's a few days behind in his payments, checking results at the track, or reporting to the oyabun (boss), the cell phone is an essential tool and fashion accessory. Daily conversations of three or four hours with gang bosses are very common and yakuza higher-ups are said to carry as many as five or six at one time, preferring phones that take pre-paid phone cards because they are more difficult to trace.

4. Yakuza fashion is changing. In the 1990's punch-perms and colourful fashions were de rigueur, but the trend seems to have died just before the turn of the millenium. Yakuza decided that they stood out too much and were getting a lot of negative publicity in the press so they toned down their image. The Osaka kumicho (boss) of the Yamaguchi-gumi has issued an edict that gang members are to dress plainly so that they do not stand out from the general population. Young people are supposed to dress like college students or street kids and the older men are supposed to look like a salariman. Yakuza no longer wear their gang pins in public and gang leaders who once favoured expensive, antique Zippo lighters are now using the 100 yen variety. Some yakuza, particularly the low ranking ones, still dress like the models in the picture, but enjoy the tackiness while you can because in a few years you probably won't be able to see it anymore.

Thank you Quirky Japan Homepage: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/

Natto: Friend of Foe!?!

Natto is a made by fermenting soy beans and has been eaten in Japan for hundreds of years. Famous for its bad smell and stickiness, it is very much an acquired taste. No one knows exactly where natto came from, but the most popular story about its origin involves a famous general named Minamoto no Yoshiie, who lived from 1041-1108. While camping in northern Japan, probably in Miyagi prefecture, Yoshiie’s army was attacked, and hurriedly packed the beans they were cooking for their horses into straw sacks called tawara. Straw contains large amounts of the bacterium that ferments beans, bacillus subtilis, and when the tawara were opened several days later, they found that the beans had fermented. The soldiers apparently tasted the beans and enjoyed them, and a culinary tradition was born. There are other stories about natto originating in China or during the Yayoi Period (300 BCE to 300 CE), but the Minamoto theory is the most appealing for two reasons. One, there is more evidence for it, and two, it give foreigners a chance to inform natto lovers that the food they are eating originates in rotten horse feed. The horse connection is also the answer to the question of why people in western Japan don’t like natto. There is an almost perfect correspondence between the main type of livestock raised in a prefecture and whether or not its people eat natto. Basically, in prefectures where horses were raised in the past, people eat a lot of natto, and in places that raised more cows, they don’t. This is because prefectures that raised horses produced a lot more soy beans (the dregs of which were used for horse feed) than places that raised cows. Hokkaido, Tohoku (northern Japan), and the area around Tokyo were horse raising areas and people, but as soon as you hit Osaka, consumption falls off rapidly until you get to Kyushu were, once again, people used to raise horses and people can’t seem to get enough natto.

Just in case you wanted to know...

The 'MOS' in 'MOS burger stands for 'Mountain, Ocean, Sun'. According to the official MOS Burger web site, the mountain, ocean, and sun in the name symbolize the company's "infinite love" of both humankind and nature. MOS Burger's love of people and nature is "Grand and noble like a mountain", "Possessed of a spirit as deep and wide as the ocean", and filled with a "passion that, like the heat of the sun, never burns out." And you thought you were just getting a hamburger. Shame!

If you can read Japanese, check out the MOS Burger Home Page at:

 http://www.mos.co.jp/united/index.htm

p.s.

When McDonald’s came to Japan in 1971, they were worried that people would have trouble pronouncing the initial ‘R’ in Ronald’s name so they changed it to Donald.

PREFECTURAL PECULIARITIES

Niigata-ken – After Okinawa, Niigata is the least educated prefecture in Japan. A mere five percent of Niigatans go to college or university, and when you compare this number with the 63.2% of people from Nagano (whose citizens are the best educated in Japan), who have gone on to post-secondary education, it becomes obvious that this prefecture has some educational catching-up to do. A gamblers’ paradise, Niigata is famous for its love of horse racing and pachinko. Maybe gambling debts are the reason that they also have the highest suicide rate in the country.

Doesn't reflect to well on us ALT's , ne??? And it's just plain depressing! :(

FYI-

Q. Why do people line up for hours in front of new pachinko parlors?

A. The reason is that when pachinko parlors open up, they often set the machines to pay out more often in hopes of attracting more customers and creating a favorable buzz in the pachinko community. Serious players, or 'pachipro' also have systems for determining which machines are more likely to pay out. In order to get into the parlor quickly and have first choice of the machines, people have to line up hours in advance of the opening.

Well...At least we're not:

Saitama-ken – Saitama is the New Jersey of Japan and is widely known as ‘Dasaitama’ (Ugly Saitama). And it isn’t only the prefecture that’s known for its ugliness - the people are too. If you see someone with no fashion sense in Tokyo, popular wisdom has it that they probably live in Saitama. It’s okay to make fun of Dasaitama though, because even the people who live there hate it. When its residents participated in a survey on ‘whether or not you like the prefecture you live in’, Saitama ranked 55th out of 56, and when asked ‘Is your prefecture comfortable to live in’, they came in dead last. On the positive side, Saitama also has one of the lowest rates of deaths from seijinbyo (lifestyle-related illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and high-blood pressure) in Japan.

OR

Aichi-ken – Aichi in general, and Nagoya in particular are known for producing the thriftiest people in Japan. Their savings accounts are inevitably among the largest in the country, and the people are known for their extreme economization measures, such as taking flowers home as ‘omiyage’ from funerals. That's just wrong!

To see how other Prefectures rank in, check out this site:
http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/

Happy Belated Birthdays!!!

Happy Belated birthdays Steph and Grace!

Steph had her 24th back in late March and Grace her 23rd in early April.

Mmm...that cake was good! So nice of SHAME to give us FREE cake AND Champagne - Nice!!!


This one's for you Beth - Happy Finger Hearts!!!


The fun Irish/San Fran one on the right (You're fun too Ash, only from New Z) had her birthday early April as well.

Happy Belated Birthday Siobhan!!!

CHEERS ALL!!!!

Shibuya's Host Clubs

Shibuya's Crossing
(Hichiko Exit)
Every three minutes complete anarchy ensues at the world's busiest intersection. We observed it all from the 2nd floor Starbucks as well as joined the crowd below!

What is Shibuya like ?

The style being referred to as "Shibuya-ke" had origins in the early 90's, during Japan's era of economic excess, also known as the 'Bubble Period.' Music and culture tastes turned to America and Europe for inspiration. Culture imported from around the world was bought up with all of the excess income floating around Tokyo. From this spawned Shibuya-ke, originally associated only with a group of musicians, which somehow turned into a fashion mentality and now has perhaps contributed to it's current popularity.
There's the famous Shibuya scramble, an octagonal intersection right out from the Hachiko exit of Shibuya Station, as well as the Hachiko Dog statue and two giant TV's mounted on skyscrapers that blast music videos and commercials all day and make you feel like you've been sucked into a Japanese TV.
Despite being a major node on the JR Yamanote line, it is also a cultural playground for Japanese businessmen, high schoolers, musicians and foreigners alike. It is newer than Shinjuku and yet more confusing to navigate through.



Newest crave in Japan - Host Clubs! Why in Shibuya? Well....it's the place of night clubs, sex clubs, and love hotels: the place to find it, buy it, and get it on. Why not host clubs too!?!


In a twist on traditional adult entertainment venues, Japan's growing band of 'host clubs' are nightspots where male hosts serve well-heeled female customers. The women pay by the hour to be flattered and flirted with, and they also pay for all the alcohol, which is consumed in copious quantities. It’s a light-hearted look at a growing social phenomenon in Japan – the increasing numbers of independent single women and a divorce rate that’s doubled in the past decade. In the last two years, one hundred new host clubs have opened in Tokyo alone. They cater for a new class known as “parasite singles” – working women still living at home and with money and time to burn.



















Now let me just say - Beth and I didn't go to any Host Clubs but it was mighty interesting watching these guys work the streets and try to get ladies to go into their club. Seriously we had to have sit in that Starbucks for over an hour! The guys would only look for certain women in the crowd and Beth and I were having fun trying to pick the girls before the guys did.
Sooner of later all the guys got nick-names : Slick-back, Boot boy, Sunglasses, and my favorite Fur guy. Nice!

http://www.iias.nl/iias/show/id=56141/framenoid=42832

Feeling Nostalgic

Where are they now???

I know it`s only been like 2 weeks since they've graduated....but I actually miss those punks. Today is my first visit back to my Monday (Ryokawa) JHS and when I walked into the 3rd grade classroom and saw my 2nd graders sitting there....I got a little sad. Then when I walked around the room I kept getting flashbacks of the students who sat there before and got all nostalgic.

Awww! :(

Funny read for a Sunday Afternoon!

Hunt for karate legend goes cold
Three Singaporeans on a mission to find a karate legend have been found huddled in an abandoned car on a north Japanese mountainside, local media reports say.
One of the Singaporeans told police in Hirosaki his dying father had told his group to seek the master.
Thirteen people had set out from Singapore but one group became lost on the slopes of Mount Iwaki.
One member told TV Asahi: "Japan looked so small on the map that we thought we would find him straight away."

Light clothing
Japanese media said the group included the wife of the man who made the dying wish.
The 13 had split into three groups, with another four resting at a hotel.
The three men who got lost telephoned for help from a mobile phone.
Police said they were wearing only light clothing on the mountain, which is 1,600 metres (5,249 feet) high.
"Neither police nor local people know of anyone running karate classes in this area," the Reuters news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4883608.stm

Congratulations Mandy and Scott

April 8, 2006A long time friend is getting married tomorrow in Maui - Hawaii.

Mandy - What a Happy day!!!
I wish you and Scott the best from
the bottom of my heart!!!
They'll have a small (family only) wedding on the beach. My best friend Dawn and her other sister Hillary are her Maid-of-Honors and I know her parents (Allen and Rose Ann) are very excited and proud of their wonderful daughter.

The wedding day details....

Colors: white, black, olive green
Wedding attire: Classic, elegant, cocktail attire
Flowers: Crimson roses wrapped in satin ribbon for bride's bouquet and white calla lilies wrapped in white satin ribbon for bridesmaids

KAT-TUN

Kamenashi Kazuya, 亀梨和也, (born February 23, 1986)
Akanishi Jin, 赤西仁, (born July 4, 1984)
Taguchi Junnosuke, 田口淳之介, (born November 29, 1985)
Tanaka Koki, 田中聖, (born November 5, 1985)
Ueda Tatsuya, 上田竜也, (born October 4, 1983)
Nakamaru Yuichi, 中丸雄一, (born September 4, 1983)

The group's name is an acronym formed by the members' surname initials.

Typically like all other Johnny's group, KAT-TUN not only sing and dance but the members also act and star in commercials. They are one of the most popular talent idols group in Tokyo at the moment and they finally debuted March 22, 2006. Yayy!!
















Members
Kamenashi Kazuya is affectionately called Kame and is one of the two most popular members of KAT-TUN. Although the youngest member of KAT-TUN, he is considered the group's 'unofficial leader'. He works extremely hard, and is supposed to be really talented in baseball. Being good in public speaking, he is often appointed as the main speaker whenever KAT-TUN does their MC in TV shows or concerts. Kame usually leads KAT-TUN's participation in the musicals as he is the one most often actively seeking the spotlight. With Jin, he is the main vocalist of the group. He starred in Gokusen 2 with Jin and as a result, earned an award for best male supporting actor.

Akanishi Jin has some affectionate nicknames from fans. Jin is one of them, but there is also Bakanishi (baka literally means stupid; because he often acts childishly). With Kame, he is one of the two most famous KAT-TUN members. He plays the guitar, has a fabulous voice, and writes many songs for himself and KAT-TUN ("Care", "Hesitate", "Love or Like, "Murasaki""). He starred in Gokusen 2 with Kame, Anego, and a dorama special called Kurisumasu Nankka Daikkirai (I Hate Christmas).

Taguchi Junnosuke is known as Junno. This tallest member of KAT-TUN is currently addicted to tap dancing. His trademarks are the acrobatic stunts he performs in their shows, despite being the tallest of them all, and also his smile, which has been described as 'invincible'. In 2004, Junno injured his knee and has had to take a few months' break from group activities after surgery. Junno is left-handed.

Tanaka Koki naturally gets called Koki. His role in the group is as the main rapper. He writes most of the rap lyrics in their recent original songs and has started to write his own solo rap songs. However, it is also a fact that even his most die-hard fans are usually hard-pressed to distinguish what he is mumbling during performances. His style is hip-hop, and he likes to protray a cuddly personality that is at odds with his image. Koki pairs up with Nakamaru most of the time and they have a comedic unit called TaNaka (TAnaka - NAKAmaru).

Ueda Tatsuya, the appointed and official leader of the group, is one of KAT-TUN's most 'striking' members because he tends to change his image a lot he has been criticized for being "fake" in terms of personality. He is called by the rest of KAT-TUN as Tat-chan. He is learning the English and French language (just like Gackt does - he's a big fan of Gackt, to the point that he was obsessed with looking exactly like Gackt for a long period of time), and prefers songwriting to acting even if he only has a total of two songs to his name. His solo song Love in Snow in their Kaizokuban concert was originally made by him, both lyrics and music. So far, he is the only member of KAT-TUN who still doesn't have a drama.

Nakamaru Yuichi, or Maru, the oldest member, is very funny. He proves that by being in the TaNaka comedy unit with Koki. Maru's trademark skill is his human beatbox (sound of beats he creates with his mouth) that gets incorporated in KAT-TUN's songs a lot. Because of this skill, he seems to be gaining more popularity recently. He is sometimes called Nakama.






***Excuse me if I'm impartial to some in the group. A girl's gotta have her favorites! :P
To see more of KAT-TUN, check out these websites:
http://www.j-storm.co.jp/J-OneRecords/page_top.html
http://junnosuke-taguchi.com/milk_white.html
http://jweb85.blog48.fc2.com/

OR...EVEN BETTER-

Check out this videos of KAT-TUN in the flesh !!!

Commercials (FUNNY!)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sUFG0h6JdpU&search=kat%20tun%20haha


Acting
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fhWU6qJ1fsk&search=kat%20tun%20haha
(Poor Kame's being picked on since he's the youngest in the bunch)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q14SciofMDc&search=kat%20tun%20haha
(My Boy Jun's in this one too)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pmgtum4Hb7k&search=kat%20tun%20vocal%20lesson
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2PcPRXCxGKk&search=kat%20tun%20vocal%20lesson
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a_ynUtZ02YM&search=kat%20tun%20haha
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XEzoL-my8S8&search=kat%20tun%20vocal%20lesson

Performing
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NL88P--h_sY&search=kat%20tun%20haha
(If you're gonna watch this clip, YOU HAVE TO WATCH AND READ THE LYRICS TO HA-HA, I swear....that was the first time I remember watching this on TV and actually STOPPING what I was doing b/c I heard the lyrics and was like WHAT??? - I loved them from that moment on)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eDL3UBs5BDQ&search=kat%20tun%20debut