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Fushimi-inari Grand Shrine began multilingual guide services

I wrote about the large monitor-vision PR clips of Fushimi-inari Grand Shrine in Kyoto on my previous post. And that big  Shinto shrine of the most popular tourists’ destination among foreign tourists in Japan also began a new service for foreign visitors there this year. That new service is a”multilingual audioguide”.

This service comes in four languages of Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.  This is available when you prepare your own smartphone  or similar correspondence devices and  download  special guiding application software at one of nine spots in the shrine’s precinct where you can get a QR code  for this app. And a wifi service availablity is necessary on the premises.

Number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2015 marked record high

The number of total foreigners that visited Japan in 2015  was about 19.74 million and marked the record-high in history of Japan, announced by Japan National Tourism Organization on this Jan.19th. This number is an increase by 47% compared to that of 2014, which was 13.41 million.  This increase might mainly be caused by  relaxation of visa systems, duty free systems, improvements of lcc services, and alleviations of political tenses with some Asian countries. The No.1 natinal is Chinese in this statistic.

The total revenue from inbound industry in 2015 was also the record-high with 3.4771 trillion yen, which exceeded the last highest number of 2.0208 trillion yen of the previous year.

Fushimi-inari Grand Shrine’s big monitor-vision

Fushimi-inari Grand -Shrine in Kyoto is the No.1 popular tourists’ destination among foreign visitors in Japan. The shrine ,which is the head shrine of all Inari-shrines of about 30,000 nationwide, is also the most popular destination for a Hatsumode, the first visit to a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple in a year, with about 2.7 million visitors for  new year holidays. This shrine set a large monitor-vision sysytem in its precinct  for its public relations clips.

This big screen clip service was conducted  Dec.31.2015-Jan.4. 2016.

The foreigen tourists’ number exceed 19 million

Keiichi Ishii, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport. and Tourism (MILT) declared that the total number of foreigners visiting Japan thsi year as of Dec.19 has exceeded 19,000,000  on Dec.22nd. (http://www.mlit.go.jp/en/index.html)

The number 19 million is already higher than the total number of the visitors in the year 2014 which was 13,41 million and reflects the rapid ongoing growth of the number of foreigners in Japan. This year 2015, the total number in the first half of year was 9,14 million and the verocy seems accelerating.

The sources of the growth are something like the week Yen rate,  relaxiations of  visa systems, the expansions of  objects of duty free items for foreign tourists, and so forth. The Japanese government  now has decided to increase the total budgets for tourism related arrangements from this year’s 10,390 million yen to 24,550 million yen (+14580 million yen).  This abrupt and huge increase implies the huge expectation of the government of the growing inbound markets and revenues created by the related industries.

 

The Word(s) of The Year 2015

The Word of The Year 2015 hosted by U-CAN was announced on Dec.1st and two words were chosen.  One of them is “Triple Three” and the other is “baku-gai”(/ explosive shopping).

 

The first one is a great titles of a baseball player who has achieved “a batting average of 300 or higher, 30 or more home runs, and 30 or more base stealings in the same   single  season”.  To achieve this is so difficult that only eight players have achieved this title during the 80 years of the Japanese pro-baseball history and the last one was made in 2002. However, this year two players have achieved the remarkable title for the first time in 13 years, namely Yuki Yanagida of Doftbank Hawks and Tetsuhito Yamada of Yakult Swallows.

 

And the second word “baku-gai” or “explosive shopping” is a nickname of the current phenomenon of  huge or even binge shopping done by Chinese tourists in Japan.  This year the number of  Chinese tourists visiting Japan has increased so rapidly and a lot of them enjoy shopping at comodity stores, electric appliance stores, restaurants and so forth. At the award’s ceremony of the Word of The Year,  Luo Yiwen from China, the president of LAOX, one of the major home appliance  store chains popular among foreign visitors including Chinese “explosve shopping customers” received the award on behalf of the the baku-gai phenomenon. The store chain prepares a various services for those customers, such as providiing chinese speaking staffers. The situation is expected to maintain and satisfy even more foriegn tourists to Japan.

 

The Kanji (Chinese character) of the year

At Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto, “The Kanji of The Year” was released. The kanji or the Chinese character of this year is  “安”(Ang, meaning safe, secure, or stable ).  The kanji of the year is chosen according to the result of public advertisements and announced by the mastermonk of the temple.He drew the kanji in the traditional calligraphical manner on the white paper.

 

 

This character being chosen might be reflected by people’s wishes for  safety, security, stability, peace in society.

Imerial Palace Inui Street temprorarily open

The “Inui-dori “(Inui Street) in the Imperial Palace in Chyoda-ward, Tokyo was temporarily open to the public Dec.5-9th. (http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/event/inui.html)

Totally, 202,820 people visited the street  on the five open days with 28,000-45,000 visitors each single day.  The Imperial Palace in Chiyoda-ward is now  a quite popular tourist destination visited by tourists including  foreigners, even though the open area are limited. The popularity might increase even more from now on.

 

Introducing Japan through paper cutouts in China

A Japanese artist’s paper cutout works’ exhibition is currently being held at a gallery in Shanghai China Nov.25- Dec.6th. The host is Shu Kubo, a well-known paper-cutting artist.(http://www.shu-kubo.com/)   He was a cultural coordinater of  Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2009.

 

 

The event has been facilitated by  the Japan Culture Communication Center of  Shanghai University of Science and Technology. And the Japanese consul-general in Shanghai and other influential people in China and Japan were invited to the opening ceremony of the event.  72 paper-cutting works are exhibited at the event, which depict  Japanese scenery, landscapes, parts of culture and so forth to represent and convey images, atmosphere,and concepts of Japan to enhance and expand understanding those attractions to Chinese people. Actually, the art of paper-cutting was first introduced to Japan from China about 1,200 years ago and developed in a unique way in Japan since then. So, this art is expected to work  as a “bridge” to bind the two nations together, strengthening goodwill and rapport there. Kubo says, the power of this art will work for those purposes  so well.

 

 

 

 

“Good Meat Day”

November 29th  is the “Good Meat Day” which is a designated (not as an official) day for meat.   This is because “29/11” can be pronounced as “ii niku”  which means “good meat” in Japanese. This event day ‘s concept was establied by the Yoriyoki MiyazakiBeef Council (Miyazaki council of strategies for producing better quality MiyazakiBeef) to promote the brand meat goods consumption produced in Miyazaki.(http://www.miyazakigyu.jp/en/)

One year ago in 2014,  a young female idol group, Chubbiness,who had debuted on November 29th 2013, was apoointed as the “Ambassador of  the Good Meat Day” and carried out plans to promote meat consumption of such as beef steak.(http://avex.jp/chubbiness/)

Santa Run in Osaka

A special charity  event of  runing  called “Santa Run” was held  in the Osaka Castle Park  in Osaka City on Nov,29th.(http://osakacastlepark.jp/)   Abou 10,000 runners joined the event and every runner run being clad in a Santa Clause costume.

The revenue from this event will be donated to medical facilities to help  about 800 children suffering diseases.

Tokyo Motor Show 2015

The 44th Tokyo Motor Show  was held  Oct,29-Nov.8 at Tokyo Bigsight.( http://www.tokyo-motorshow.com/en/)

A lot of new type cars  were shown and attracted visitors.

“Movie Campus”, the 12th Movie Week of Agency for Cultural Affairs Symposium

The special symposium, “Movie Campus” of  “the 12th Movie Week  of Agency for Cultural Affairs”  is to be held at Kaguraza in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo on this Oct.24th. (http://bunka-cho-filmweek.jp/symposium.html)(http://www.walkerplus.com/event/ar0313e123255/)  (http://www.bunka.go.jp/english/)

The Week is Oct.22-25 at the above avenue. At the event well-known movie directors and personalities particiate in panel discussions and “Gamera vs. Barugon”(1966, Daiei),an old special effect Japanese monsters movie will be run.

 

Hiyoridai Big Bridge finally completed 49 years since the launch

Hiyoridai Big Bridge was finally completed 49 years after the lauch of its project on this Oct.17th.

The bridge is 290m long and connects Yashirominami and Hiyoridai in Tashiro-ku, Sendai City, Miyagi pref. for the traffic convenineces to the area of  Yagiyama Dobutsu Koen station (Yagiyama Zoo station) .  The city mayor Okuyama says, “The bridge finished upon the grand opening of the Tozai Line, and we expect people to use the service for long from now on.”.  Some citizens passed the bridge in the opening ceremoy and took a walk there.

 

 

Jidai Matsuri in Kyoto

“Jidai Matsuri”(/ the Festival of Ages) was held on this Oct.22 in Kyoto.  (https://www.kyokanko.or.jp/jidai/)

This  is one of the three greatest festivals of Kyoto held annually and about 2,000 people clad in costumes to represent people from various eras in Kyoto histroy paraded  on the big street of 4.5 km from Kyoto Imperial Palace to Heian Shrine. The festival started in 1895 dedicated to Heian Shrine where Emperor Kanmu  who established Kyoto as an ancient capital in 794 and Emperor Koumei who was the last emperor to reside in Kyoto are enshrined. The festival’s participants represent the changing ages when Kyot owas the capital of Japan.

Super Kabuki “One Piece”

“One Piece”, one of the most famour and popular Japanese manga is now dramatized as “Super Kabuki” play. (http://www.kabuki-bito.jp/theaters/shinbashi/2015/10/ii_1.html)

The play is performed at Shinbashi Enbujou, one of the major kabuki theaters in Tokyo Oct. 7- Nov.25. “Kabuki” is a traditional stage performance of Japan with more than 400 year history and most of its subjects have been tradtional stories or period dramas. However, these days, modern stories or even manga, anime works have become the plots. Thus happy fusion of old traditional arts and modern or contemporary culture are enhancing the both and attractions seem to be even progressing.  For example, parents and children or grandparentens and  their grand children  go see the work together, as  the older generations are fans of kabuki,while  the younger generations are fans of One Piece or other manga works. Thus cultural fusion also work   to  connect different generations and broadens the cultural zones.