Author Archive

Tsukiji Fishmarket postponed relocation

Tsukiji, the world famous fish market in Tokyo was to be relocated to Toyosu on Nov.7 2016, but now Yuriko Koike, the new Tokyo Governer delared the plan being postponed on Oct.31.

The reasons of  this postponement  are  environmental conditions, costs, and questionable points in the plan. according to Koike. Now the relocation time will be in Feburuary 2017 ,but sources have not been solved and the real moving time has not been decided yet. Meantime, people can enjoy visiting the world’s biggest fish and other foods market in the central part in Tokyo.

Glass Mask going to be an “comedy” anime

 “Glass Mask”(/garasu-no kamen) is a popular manga work for girls  created by Suzue Miuchi describing dreams, efforts, suffering, and competitions of a girl who is eager to become an actor. Now, this nationally popular manga is going to be filmed as a comedy anime on TV from the comng October. (http://www.hakusensha.co.jp/glass/)

Originally, this manga work is a quite “serious” cartoon of  a life of the girl who wants to be an actor describing her complicated  human relationships with other people, such as her master, friends, rivals and so forth. And it has been filmed as an serious anime and TV dramas a few times so far, but this time in token of 40th anniversary of this manga work, it is to be a comedy anime to describe school lives of  young people as a kind of satire of cynicism of society.

 

Pokemon Pikapika Festival in Odaiba

“Pokemon Pikapika Festival” is being held at Decks Tokyo Bay in odaiba,Tokyo Jul.12-Aug.31st. (http://www.pokemon-movie.jp/decks/)

This festival is held as a tie-up between Pokemon and decks Tokyo in token of Decks’ 20th anniversary.  At the venue there is Illusion Dome where visitors can take a walk and see projected Pokemons’ images and footages at 360 degree. Visitors also can enjoy some special games and facilities, and meals at the restaurant and other attractions.

 

Louvre No.9 exhibition in Roppongi

A special exhibition of “Louvre No,9” is being held Jul.22-Sep.25th at Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo. (http://manga-9art.com/)

“No,9” means “the ninth category of art” in the French society and implies French style cartoons called “bande dessinée” influenced by Japanese Manga and subculture of the kind. In other words,  bande dessinée might be called “the hybrid between traditional French paintings and the Japanese cartoon culture”. For example, Katsuhiro Ohtomo, the creator of “Akira”, one of popular manga works worldwide is said to have given huge influence on the generation of  bande dessinée now.

 

Olympic medals of 41 achieving record-high for Japan at Rio

The total number of medals won by the Japanese athletes at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games  Aug.5-21nd was 41, including 12 gold medals, 8 silver, and 21 bronze ones, which reached the record-hjgh for Japan ever.

*Gold; four for Wrestling, three for Judo, two for Swimming races, two for Gymnastics,and one for Badminton.*Silver; three for Wrestling, one for Judo, two for Swimming races, one for Table tennis, and one for Track-and-field competitions. *Bronze; eight for Judo, three for Swimming races, one for Gymnastics, one for Badminton,two for Table tennis,one for Track-and-field competitions, two for Synchronized swimming, one for Weightlifting,  one for Canoe slalom, and one for Tennis.

 

The First female Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike

There was an election of Tokyo Metropilitan Govenor on Jul.31, and Yuriko Koike has been chosen as the 20th Tokyo Govenor. She is the very first female Tokyo Govenor in the history of Tokyo Metropolice of 70 years (or about 150 year history since the very first year of the modernization of Japan as  Edo Metropolice, Tokyo City,and Tokyo Prefecture).

Originally,she was a TV castor and an interpreter of Arabic language, and conducted a lot of  coverages and interviews with people in the international community. And she served as a Diet member and Minister of  Environment, Minister of National Defense and other cabinet member’s posts for years. Now she is a proponent of the “Non-pole” movement,which is clearing streets of electric poles and put electric wires underground in order to enhance scenic attractions of streets and improve secure and comfortable environments in society. In addition,  she made remarks in which she expressed her eagerness of preparing and organizing upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. Therefore, some positive changes in tourism- related environments in Tokyo area and circumstances of hosting the huge international sport events in four years may take place from now on.

The Fireworks Display festival at Sumida River

The popular annual summer event of the fireworks display festival at one of the main rivers of Tokyo, Sumida River was held Jul.30th.

Totally, various fireworks of  20,000 were displayed with various colors and types, some of which were related to sports such as upcoming Olympic games. There were no panic or any accident and visitors there enjoyed the huge summer event.

 

National Museum of Western Art being designated as a World Cultural Heritage Site

Tha National Museum of Western Art (NMWA) in Ueno Park in Taito-kum Tokyo was designated as a World Vultural Heritage Site at the UNESCO’s committee in Turkey on Jul.17th.(http://www.nmwa.go.jp/en/)

NMWS was establish in 1959 and designed by Le Corbusier ,a Swiss architect who was said to be “the grand master of 20 century’s modern architecture”.

NMWA  contains various western art works especially modern or 20 centurys masterpieces and the basic collections are of “Matsukata Collections”. KOjiro Matuskata was a influential business person running major businesses in Meji -early Showa era and collected more than 10 thousand works mainly fron Europe, but some of them were lost in condusions of wars. Still France gave back some of his lost art properties and thus the museum was able to start with old collections. This time, NMWA has become the “first” buildings to be registered as a heritage site, “first” jointly registerated site of more trhan one country (transborder site) ,and “first” such a site in the area of central area of Tokyo (in the scope of the 23 wards of the city). For those remarkable points, the museum is expected to draw attention of a lot of tourists even more from now on.

Dragon Quest 30th anniversary

“Dragon Quest”, the nationwide or even worldwide famousrole playing game series is now celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

The first game of Dragon Quest or in “Dorakue”(its Japanese abbreviation),”DQ1” was released in 1986. Since then 10 main games and some spinoff works have been released. And some cartoon ,animation, toy products also have been released and now almost every Japanese knows the game series.

“Dragon Quest Museum”, the special related exhibition to show the history and concept of Dragon Quest will be held  Jul.24- Sep.11  at Hikarie Hall in Shibuya Hikarie in Shibuya,Tokyo. (https://dqmuseum.jp/)  As a relevant event, the game’s theme music is played as a train melody at the Toyoko lines’ platforms in Shibuya station Jul.5-Sep.12.

International Tokyo Toy Show 2016

The International Tokyo Toy Show 2016 was held at Tokyo Bigsight Jun.9-12. This was the 55th of the event series.(http://www.toys.or.jp/toyshow/2016_files/company_html/name_a.html) 

The first two days were for business meetings and stage shows and the latter days were for open for public and lay visitors and shows, such as concerts and release of new information about new toy products or TV anime programs.

 

About 30 toy related businesses,such as toy manufacturers, animation studios, amusement parks, and so forth  particiated in the show preparing booths to promote their products and activities.  And totally about 160,000 people visited this event.

no need for booking in advance of the Imeprial Palace tour course visit

A  tour course in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo has changed its policy and now you don’t have to book prior to the date in advance anymore. The Imperial  Household Agency declared and actually started this new policy since this June 25th. (http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html)

Now you can make a on-the-day booking for the tour and the palace started hosting such a tour even on Saturdays (the tour used to be available on only weekdays). In addition, the number and capacity of the tour has increased; a current-day registration is available twice a day for the both of the two tours.  One is for the tour in the morning (starts at 10:00am) and the other is for one in the afternoon (starts at 1:30pm). The capacity for current-day registration is 300 people, while that for advance registration is 200 people.  One tour takes about 75 minutes.   It is supposed  this new policy is arranged in order to increase foreign visitors to the palace as a part of promotion of  inbound tourism . Actually,  about 60% of the visitors to the palace are foreigners. So, the government is pareparing for starting  recoreded  guiding services coming in various languages as well.

 

a “new” Tsukiji fish market opening in October

As I wrote in my previous post, some main functions of the Tsukiji Market are going to be relocated to Toyosu in Tokyo, however, a new fish market at the current Tsukiji market area is going to be open on this October 15th. (http://www.tsukiji.or.jp/english/index.html)

The new fish market at Tsukiji will include about 60 intermediate wholesale shops that will keep their business there along with the current outer market with about 400 shops even after the coming relocation as above mentined. Now the Tsukiji market has carried out a new project of promoting its own traditional concepts and business skills called “Tsuki-Waza/ Tsukiji’s crafts and techniques” being created and practiced by the shops there. They host seminars to promote those traditions and techniques as cultural assets of the market  as a part of  comemmorating the upcoming 100th anniversary of the market area.

Tsukiji market opening time being changed

Tsukiji market,one of the biggest food markets in the world, is nowadays worldwide famous as the central market of Tokyo dealing fish, vegetables, commodities, and having cafe, restaurants, and stuff.  The management of the market  declared the market’s opening time for lay visitors to the fish, fruit and vegetable market sections to change. Currently, the opening time is 9:00am and is going to be 10:00am on and from the coming July 1st.

However, the opening time of other facility sections and corners, such as restraurants, sourvenir shops, and others will remain  the same as the current one of 9:00am.   Some main functions od the market are going to rerelocated to Toyosu this November, so, visiting some sections at the market at Tsukiji is highly advised  before the relocation.

US President Obama visiting Hiroshima

Barak Obama, the current US president visited Hiroshima, the very place that the first atomic bomb exploded in human history on May 27th during the period of  the G7 Summit held in Ise-Shima as I write in the previous post here.  He now has become the very first incumbent US president that visited the historic damaged area in the history after 71 years have passed since the end of WW2.

 Obama visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park where Peace Memorial Museum and the “Genbaku Dome”, the only remainig building that was damaged by the atomic bomb  and is disgnated as a World Cultural Heritage Site of Unesco as a “negative asset of the human kind”.(http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html)   (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/775)  At historic site, Obama gave a quite historic remark referring to  his utmost condolences to all the victims of the WW2 and the importance of realizing and sustaining world peace giving up nuclear thoroughly.  He also donated bouquet for the souls of the victims there. PM Abe joined the ceremony  together with Obama at the park. The park and items there are naturally so popular and famous that a lot of people including foreign tourists visit there. Actually, I have been there many times taking my customers who are foreign tourists as a tour guide.  All those customers  seemed interested in the site.  A lot of people worldwide are interested in the tragic history of the war, the importance of world  peace. I hope this park area which has  laready been a populat tourists’ desination will be even more popular and well-known with the US president’s historic and impressive visit to the place.

G7 Summit held in Ise-Shima

G7 Summit was held on May 26th and 27th in Ise-Shima area in Mie pref.(http://www.mofa.go.jp/index.html)

The top politicians of the seven countries got together at 10:45 at the entrance to the Ise Shrine, where Amaterasu, the goddess of  the sun who is believed to be the highest deity and an ancestor to the Japanese emperors in the Japanese mythology is enshrined.  And the top dogs of the states together planted trees in token of the paramount meeting of powers.

The venue of the meeting Ise-Shima has been a very popular tourists’ destination over hundreds of years as a holy area related to the imperial house. Some say Ise-Shima is the spiritual home to the Japanese, and actually a lot of Japanese visit the area for sightseeing or for their religious faith. And main venue of the Summit is in Kashimajima Island that is a small island area known as one mecca of pearl industry of Japan. Some of my relatives live on that island running pearl processing business. All those areas are quite beautiful  and  worth visiting.  The Summit was held for the two  days and the politicians discussed the world economy and how they can improve inbalance and disparities and other issues among zones and countries in the world. We hope a lot of  people even from outside of Japan come to Ise-Shima to enjoy  the beautiful scenery, the historical atmosphere and human industry there.