UNESCO registered 33 Japanese events as Intangible cultural heritage

UNESCO registered 33 Japanese events as intangible cultural heritage. This registration was confirmed on November 30.

The 33 Japanese events were classified as "Yama (mountain), Hoko (spear), Yatai (traditional portable shop).

Yatai

These events are for the good of the local community. The characteristic point of this events are "Dashi (see below picture). As you see, this is so complicated that people need to use one year to make it. Because of that, "Dashi" have amounts of dignities.

"Dashi"

The registered 33 events are spread around Japan. The places you can check from this site's map. One of the most nearest from Tokyo is "Kawagoe Hikawa Matsuri". This event usually take place on third Sunday on October and the previous day. If you have a plan to visit Tokyo around that period, it is one good idea to see the event. You can feel the traditional Japanese culture so much in there. 

The sequel to "Code Geass" will be produced

"Code Geass", one of the famous and funniest anime in Japan, will continue. This seemed to announced surprisingly in it's 10th anniversary event.

"Code Geass" is classified as a Robot animation. The hero's rebellion to the world is depicted. The detail data you can read in the Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Geass

One of the biggest appealing point of this anime is hero Lelouch's character. He sometimes choose harsh choices for his rebellion. But he actually be very kind and always undergo mental conflicts. This anime shows this confliction effectively. Of course the battles with Robots are worth to see. The tactics of the battles are exhilarating.

People who haven't seen this anime had better not see the other similar article and see the series first, since new press usually contained one of the important secret in this anime. Anyway, please see this famous anime and look forward to see the proceeding.

The number of 24 hr shops is decreasing in Japan

Currently, you can buy everything even in the midnight in Japan. Convenience store is the most extreme one. But this situation become changing.

McDonald, the world-famous burger shop and which start 24 hour opening in 2006, has been decreasing 24 hr shops recently. Royal Host, the popular family restaurant, announced to stop opening 24 hour before January 2017. Yoshinoya, gyudon chain store, also decrease 24 hr stores.

Compared to the other countries, much more 24 hr shops are there in Japan. It is said this is because Japan is a safe place. But the 24 hr shops sometimes become place for homeless and delinquent youths. Actually, about 80% of the burglary in convenience stores are taken place between 0am to 5am from the police department data. In addition 24 hr shops concerns that the employees for the midnight are lacking.

But, why there are still many convenience stores though there are many problems? There is no clear answer for this questions. From my survey, there are two big reasons. One reason is that this system simply earn profits. Regardless of their electric bill and employees' fee, the company still get profit as the cost is not so large because of the cheap salaries. The other reason is their brand images. 24 hr shops, especially convenience stores, sells products a bit higher price than the other shops such as supermarkets. So, convenience stores with not opening 24 hours means they lost their big feature.

The apparent changes are happened other than convenience stores. But "Zensyoren", the commercial committee, pressed they intended to reduce 24 hr shops. I feel so many shops still open in the midnight and there are more disadvantages than advantages. So, this current trend seems good. 

Japanese anime movie "Your Name" became 3rd at the box office in Japanese films

Japanese anime movie "Your Name" became 3rd at the box office. It was announced on Nov 28.

Your Name's box office is now 19.5 billion yen. This score is followed by "Spirited Away", 30.8 billion yen, and "Howl's Moving Castle", 19.6 billion yen. The 4th is "Princess Mononoke", 19.3 billion yen. The top three movies were made by "Studio Ghibli" so far.

Your Name is highly evaluated in its story and beautiful picture. Makoto Shinkai, the supervisor of this film, is famous of its nostalgic and beautiful anime films. His past movies, "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" and "5 Centimeters Per Second", also show his beautiful world.

This film is SF tasted. In this film one boy and one girl sometimes are exchanged with each other. The detail story line you can see in Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Name)
Anyway, this story is so exhilarating.

Compared to the past Shinkai's films, this film's character's looks are very good. In the past Shinkai's films, I had a bit feeling that something is wrong in the character's looks. In that point, Your Name is stunning. I assume this is one big reasons for this surprising success.

As this film still be currently showing. Your Name seems to become second at the box very soon. You can feel the atmosphere of this film in the below movie announcement. I want you to see and feel it.

Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skater, marked over 300 points in GP series

Yuzuru Hanyu, the last Olympic champion and the last all 3 years GP final champion, make a great record again. In the NHK international competition, he marked 301.47, which is the highest score in this season. And he qualifies for the GP final from this result.


He chose "Let's go Crazy" by Prince and The Revolution for the short program and he got 103.89 points. In the succeeding free program, he chose "Hope & Legacy" by Joe Hisaishi and got 197.58 points.


Surprisingly, he is still 21 years old. It is usually said that the peak age of figure skate is early twenties. So, he has a lot of chances to mark more new records.


Hanyu is famous of his elegant skating style. The refined skating looks so beautiful even me as a beginner. In addition, from his sweet mask he has a lot of female fun. Many people will keep eye on his GP final's performance.

Shohei Otani, Japanese baseball player, made a completely new record

Shohei Otani, on of the best Japanese baseball player, made a completely new record yesterday. He got, surprisingly, both an award of the best pitcher and an award of the best designated hitter in Japan League.


The distinctive feature of his baseball is to play both as a pitcher and batter. There is no other player who play both of them in Japan. As you imagine, this is so difficult. But, he played very well both of them this year. So amazing!


In pitching, he threw very fast straight ball (Max: 165km/h). In addition, he usually use fast folk ball and sider. In batting, he is good at long hits and he also runs very fast to the first base.


Media broadcasts he is so stoic baseball player. He seems to use almost all time for baseball. Even he gots 100 million yen for salary, he said only 10,000 yen per month. And no scandal causes now.


Recently, the major league try to get him. There is no people who play both pitching and batting. If he go to the major league, some criticism said it is difficult to continue his style in the United States. But, I want for him to continue his style even in the United States.

HAL, robot suits, introduced to buses in the Haneda airport

Japan took first step to the future. Haneda airport, one of the big airport in Japan, decided to use robot suits for relieving loads for people to lift heavy baggages. They start to use 10 suits on the bus station in Haneda airport.

What is HAL?

HAL is a robot suit which supports human movements and produced by Cyberdine, a venture company from the Tsukuba university . This suit read electrical signals from human, understand what movement he/she wants, and support him or her. From this mechanism, this robot supports heavily-loaded movements or be used for rehabilitation. You can see HAL's movement in the below video.





This decision was made because they could prove this robot's validity in the test phase. Cyberdine published they will broaden their service to Narita airport which is also one of the big airport in Japan. The future with robots might become closer.

Nisshin group published "borsch" taste cup noodle is produced next month

Nisshin group, famous company of their good taste cup noodles, published they will provide a new taste cup noodle. The new taste is, surprisingly, "borsch".

This will be on sale after December 5. If this produces, Nisshin cup noodle will have around 17 tastes.


Actually, Touyoususan, a company which provided cup noodles also, provided the "borsch" taste cup noodle. But this didn't become popular. Some people said this was not "borsch". From this fact, I assume it becomes a main issue whether Nisshin can represent "borsch" in a cup noodle.


If you visit Japan, it may be fun to focus on cup noodles.

Strange Kendo match by two experts attracts many people's attention

Kendo is Japanese traditional sports. This is like a fencing and people have one or two swords and protect themselves by armours during the match. Each person try to attack opponent's fatal spots, head, lists, sides, or neck. If you want to watch the match, this video is good.

Kendo match : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmCL67BdV34

the match of Kendo

As you imagine, players usually move actively and try to attack many times. But, it seems this is not always applicable to the experts. 

The notable match took place on November 23. In this match, each player hardly move before the match ends. Even they are the masters.

From I, have few experience of Kendo, this match seems funny. But some people highly praised this match. I assume it is difficult to understand Kendo even for Japanese.

The match can see from the below link. You may experience the depth of the Kendo.

Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=w9tDsW7lEn4

Japanese Ministry of the Environment invites "moe-kyara" for public image character

Japanese Ministry of the Environment now invites "moe-kyara" for public character. There will be two high school girl characters. These characters are for promoting "COOL CHOICE". They are gathering character ideas in CrowdWorks. The total reward is 600,000 yen.

What is "moe-kyara"?

"moe-kyara" is a particular type of girl character (sometimes boys lol) who looks very cute. "moe-kyara" usually indicated very cute characters in the Japanese Anime. But recently, the increasing number of companies have been using "moe-kyara" for promoting some project or company itself.

The example of "moe-kyara" 

What is "COOL CHOICE"?

COOL CHOICE is the project for preventing global warming. Ministry of Environment calls people should take choice for environment in every life, for example, setting the temperature of the air conditioner to 28 degree. They provide many approaches in their site.

Even "moe-kyara" becomes common in promotions, it seems interesting that government invites the characters idea and will use them. The choosed character will be worth to see. 

The University of Tokyo will supply 30,000 yen per month for girls living alone

The University of Tokyo, one of the top university in Japan, decide to supply 30,000 yen per month for girls living alone from 2017. The most reason is the university want to increase the ratio of the girl students.


The target people are whose commuting times are over 90 minutes and there is no limitation in parent's salary. In addition, university intends to develop safe apartments around the campus.


This decision has an background that the ratio of the girl students are very low, around 20% now. Compared to other countries' top university, this score is very low. For example, Harvard University has 47% female students.


The University of Tokyo took other approach before. They conducted the school orientation for the female high school students, but this didn't change the score. Thus, they try to take other approach now. This approach aims to reduce the parent's concerns of girls living alone.


As you can imagine, this causes arguments. The main issue is the equality of the sexes. But, from my survey it seems some people support this approach. There are many reasons for people to support this approach. I pick up some reasons.

• Suppose the boy and girl has same academic ability in local countries. Parents usually urge boys to go to top university even if this is a financial burden on the family, but not so much for girls. Thus, this money supplements are needed.
• Usually, girls need more money for living for security issues.

There are also many comments opposing this approach.

• If this is only for boys, a lot of criticism would happen.
• Since the university of Tokyo is conducted by government, this approach is not precise.

And, some people suspects this doesn't increase the ratio of the female students since they think the main reason is not a financial issue.

Many discussions are happened, but I hope this increases the ratio of the female.

A live-action film was created based on Japanese famous anime "Hyouka"

Japanese famous anime "Hyouka" will become a live-action film.

Official-site(Anime): http://www.kotenbu.com/


Hyouka is the anime of mysteries in a high school. One of the attractive points of this anime is hero and heroine's character. The main boy is always listless to the circumstance, but the heroine always take interests in her surroundings. This pair's contradicting characters are fun to watch.

Heroine's images: https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2133531713224699701


In a live-action film, "Kento Yamaguchi", Japanese actor will take part of the hero, and "Arisu Hirose" will take part of the heroine. For me "Kento Yamaguchi"'s image seems to fit. But their ages are over 20, I concern this may have bad influence on this film, as the characters ages are around 16 years old.


This film will out on the screen in 2017. I am looking forward to hearing new reports.

The earthquake stuck at Fukushima (2016,11,22)

A middle-sized earthquake of magnitude 7.4 stuck in Fukushima offshore. From the past experience of the big earthquake in 2011, the atmosphere came strained temporally.

from http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ys030602/9575818.html

From this earthquake, a lot of trains stop or delay now. In addition, some other transportation also stops.

But, infrastructure such as water, gas, and electricity mostly aren't affected. And, the nuclear power plants in Fukushima have no problem now.

It seems there is not big issue now, but if it happens, I will report in this blog.

Reference  

http://typhoon.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/emergency/detail/00000005079106.html

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ys030602/9575818.html