Archive for 'Celebrities' Category

The First JAPAN Incentive Travel Awards

JNTO (http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/) lauchned a new prize system to promote inbound tourism, called “JAPAN  Incentive Travel Awards” on Dec.21st. And three travel agents have been conferred the first awards and ceremony was held at the International Meeting Expo 2016 on Dec.7th(http://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/ime/2016/eng/index.html) .

The grand prix was given to a tour of 6500 participants visiting Hokkaido hosted by LionTravel in Taiwan(http://www.liontravel.com/). The planning award was given to “Chaumet – Hurry up for sales” hosted by  teamtravel premium GmbH in Germany. That tour included 55 participants visiting spots related to jewelry using ipad services in Tokyo in style of a rally competition. And the Contribution award was given to “Millennium Achievers Tour” hosted by JTB Australia Pty Ltd. including 25 participants visiting Tokyo,Okayama,Kagawa, enjoying cultural activities of each local areas.

 

 

“The Art of Zen~from mind to form” at

An special exhibition about Zen Buddhism was held at Tokyo National Museum in Ueno park  in Tokyo Oct.18-Nov. 27 (http://zen.exhn.jp/en/).

This exhibition is “The Art of Zen~ from mind to form” ,commemorating some historical zen monks birth anniverssaries. Zen Buddhisim is one denomination of  Mahayana  Buddhis which prevailed 6~12 centuries in China and introduced in Japan in 12 century. The  essential idea is purifying your spirit to find out simple and fundamental yourself through meditations. The concept was welcomed and accepted by Japanese especially Samurai warriers in the Kamura Period (1192-1333)  mainly due to the similarity between Zen and  the warriers’ Bushiod or Japanese chivalry. So, Zen has given huge influences on generatiosn and developments of Japanese culture and art, such as tea ceremony, pottery, Indian ink paintings,  dry landscape gardens and so forth.

 

 

Tokyo Metro hosted a mystery rally event of quiz concerning Zen in collaboration with the exhibition at its subway stations during the same period.

Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival 2016 in Tokyo

A talk show event related to Japanese culture is being held Nov.24-27 at Tokyo Taiikukan(Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnagium) in Tokyo. (http://fes16.moshimoshi-nippon.jp/about.php)(http://www.tef.or.jp/tmg/en_index.jsp)

At the event, various celebrities, officials of big businesses, artisits and so forth give lectures and discussions of how people should promote Japanese art, culture and young peoples’ potential to the world.

The exhibition of the art related to traditional Japanese poems and poetry

An exhibition about the art related to the world of the traditional Japanese poems ,”Waka” and  poetry is being held at the Iwami Art Museum in Grand Toi in Masuda city, Shimane  pref., in the Sanin region in southest part facing the Sea of Japan Sep.21-Nov.7.(http://www.grandtoit.jp/museum/exhibition/2016/09/post-122.html)

 

Hitomaro, Kakinomoto, a famous poet in the 7th century lived in the Masuda area where the Grand Toi is located. His poems, statues, pictures are set or shown in some spots in the area, and pictures and other art works describing the contents of  his pand others’ poems are exhibited at the event.  I took a travel to Shimane and stayed in Masuda for a while and visited that exhibition there  last month. I felt, especially paintings created in the Muromachi Period (1336~1588)  were colorful and beautiful. 

The venue facility, Grand Toi is a quite fancy culture facility and  the art museum and theater are in the building. The city as a whole seemed historical with mountains, rivers, old battlefields and Iwami Airport, Tsuwano, a popular historical town are close. In addition, two of the four well-known landscape gardens designed by Sesshu, one of the most famous Japanese paintings painter in the 15th century were all there. I visited the two gardens and staffers told me those tourists’ destinations are becoming popular among international visitors to Japan as well. I found the area very interesting with traditional Japanese atmoshere with good historical occurences.

Tokyo Game Show 2016

Tokyo Game Show 2016 was held Sep.15-18 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. (http://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2016/)

At this TGS 2016, the number of the paticipant businesses made the record high of 617 and the event was full of lively energy and passion of the new games and visitors. And, there held the special live concert of “PSN meets Secret Artist” ,at which  EGOIST, a popular “fictitious singer” from  an anime work, sang songs.

 

Rio Paralympics

Rio Paralympics were held Sep.7-18 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the Japanese team’s athletes won eight silver and 11 bronze medals. (http://www.jsad.or.jp/paralympic/rio/index.html)

 

At the closing ceremony,  the position of the host of the event was handed over from Rio to Tokyo in the Flag Handover Ceremony, which lasted for eight minutes with the theme of “Tokyo 2020 Positive Switch”.  Musicians and fashion models performed there.

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

The Tokyo Olympics’ emblem selected

The new official emblem design of theupcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020 have been chosen and released on April 25th.

The design is based on Kumi-ichimatsu-mon, a traditional Japanese art design of  checkered pattern which became popular and prevalent im the Edo period about 300 hundred years ago. The adopted design was created by an designer Asao Tokoro.

The design consists of  various shaped tetragons each of which represents a deffirent culture, nation, people and the total shape represents the diversity and unity of those defferent things and beings. The color is deep blue and the design is thought to be usable for various items and goods such as posters and shirts.