That idea and custom of  dispel evil with the beans were originally introduced from China maybe  in early days in Heian Period(794-1192).  Azuki sweet beans have  color of  red or purple, which were believed to have a magic power to repel evil.

On this date, Yoneura-sai(/粥占祭, a festival of  fortune-telling using azuki beans) is hosted at a lot of  Shinto shrines, where people put rice and azuki in a long bamboo tube and boil them to read outlooks of  timing of the prospective paddy harvests of the year as well.  In some areas,  people also host a festival of tug-of-war between a “land team” and a “sea team” to read if they can enjoy rich field harvests or rich fishey yields in the year.

The clinic is fully supporetd by Sanrio, and Hello Kitty is adopted as its official mascot. The clinic’s building is coverned with a lot of  Hello Kitty’s pictures and its other designs.   The clinic has a basic policy of “full of smiles with bright and pleasant atomosphere”, wiping away a generally negative image of scary and bad dental clinics, and had drastically remodelled since last November.

This is the very first clinic with Hello Kitty as its mascot in the world, and plans to host introductory tours on this Jan. 13,14,and 15th.

This year 2012 is a Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese zoidiac. And what is more, personally I am a “Toshi Otoko”(a man who was born in a year with the same Chinese zodiac sign as the current year) . One Chinese zodiac sign comes once in twelve years and now I experience being  my third time  Toshi Otoko in my life this year.

In general on the January 2nd (today) , the Imperial Palace  opens to the public for its visitors to offer congratulations to the emperor ,and the emperor and some imperial members will show up in front and wave to them.

The Grand prix was given to the word “Nadeshiko Japan”, the name of the winner of  FIFA Woman World Cup 2011.    The Top 10 are as follow;

Grand Prix-  ○ ”なでしこジャパン”(/Nadeshiko Japan)

○”絆”（/Kizuna,  bonds）, ○”スマホ”（/Sumaho, smartphone）,○”どじょう内閣”（/Dojoh Naikaku,  a loach cabinet）,○”どや顔”（/Doya Gao, a boastful facial expression）, ○”Kitaku-nanmin, a stranded commuter ”,○”こだまでしょうか？”（/Kodama de shouka?, Is that an echo ?）,○”３.１１”（/3.11）,○”風評被害”（/Fuhhyou Higai,  damages caused by rumor）,○”ラブ注入”（/love injection）

Some of the words are related to the earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11th, some are contemporary fads of young people, some are expressions used by a politician or a TV personality.

More than enrusiastic 800 people visited the J-FEST ,which was beyond the capacity of the venue in Moscow. At the cosplay event , 30 groups that had passed the preliminary contest out of 80 groups showed their Japanese popculture-related costumes. The winners were given tickets to take a travel to Japan, which made them quite happy and excited as they are interested in the anime and its related  cosplay culture’s “mecca” in Japan.

So far, that store chain has widely and successfully developed popular items and goods related to the anime work and prosperous as an online store chain. http://www.evastore.jp/pc/

The name of the new real store is “EVANGELION STORE TOKYO-01 ” , jointly operated by GroundWorks (http://gworks.biz/) and MOVIC (http://www.movic.jp/index.html), both of which operate the online store chain as well.

The location of the new store (1-8-23, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku,Tokyo) is in the quite popular and well-known area of  cosplay and subcultural fashions as well as a traditional Japanese culture where Meiji Shrine, one of the most popular Shinto shrines is located.  The area is popular the young and old or even foreign tourists with interesting harmonized atmosphere of  old and new aspects of Japanese culture.

This first real Evangelion Store is to be two-storied, whose first floor is featured with apparel an fashion sorts, and second floor is of  various kinds of Eva’s items expected to meet  requirements of  both ordinary fans and great lovers of the anime work series. The first floor also includes an event hall where various events of Eva series are to be hosted, such as some special events to promote the new anime movie “Evangelion new theatrical version:Q” which is planned to released in autumn 2012.

The management say they intend to enhance  more firsthand communications with fans and expect the fans to view and touch the items to feel the attractions more intensively. The store plans to host special presale events of related items  occasionally.

Nadeshiko Sushi(http://www.nadeshico-sushi.com/) was visited by about 40 attendees to the party at that night, all of whom had bought a special ticket to join it in advance…including myself !     

Actually the party was so fun. We played games such as “wasabi Russian roulette” at which only some of  about 40 sushi nigiri contained a lot of spicy wasabi(/green horseradish paste). I happened to draw that doomed one…but the game was fun.

The sushi chefs of Nadeshiko Sushi are all female, whose backgrounds are quite unique respectively. For example, some chefs are foreigners such as a Chinese studying Japanese and huge fan of video games, some are returnees from English speaking countries and speaking impeccable English, some  are idols or voice actors,and so forth.

That variety of the characters of the chefs is one of the best attractions of this sushi restaurant.  If you speak Chinese or English, some chefs there are to be your best servers, and if you are interested in  video games such as “Monster Hunter”, then, you will be most welcome, for the restaurant perodically hosts Monster Hunter events  on weekend nights. You can enjoy  visiting there in your own favorite styles.

At the anniversary party on the 1st, one chef graduated from the restaurant and one ”apprentice” chef was promoted to a “full fledged” chef. So, a special ceremony to celebrate the two “leaving chef” and “new chef” was hosted by the owner, master, other chefs, and the attendees, which must be a memorable event for all the people there at that time.

Akihabara, the city where this special sushi restaurant is located, is the mecca of subculture of Japan or even the world today, such as manga, anime,games and so on. Nadeshiko Sushi is a symbol of a perfect harmony of old and pure traditional culture of Japan and up-to-date subculture. And in addition, this restaurant always welcomes not only Japanese but foreign customers who love sushi, Japanese cuisine, and old and new cultures here in Japan.

 The original Dragon Quest Ⅰwas released as a Nintendo Famicon(FC) games in 1986 and Ⅱwas in 1987,and Ⅲwas in 1988. And Those three games were also released as reprinted editions of Nintendo SuperFamicon(SFC) game softwares in 1993 (ⅠandⅡ) and 1996 (Ⅲ).  Most of the game series’ works have been reprinted in several game machines even other than SFC, such as MSX, PlayStation and so forth.  

This newest “Wii edition” of  Ⅰ,Ⅱ, andⅢ in token of the 25th anniversary includes  both the three games of the original FC editon’s design and those of the SFC edition’s design.  The  original FC editons of Ⅰand Ⅱ 24-25 years ago did not have the saving system of the game data and they had so-called “the Spell of Rebirth/魔法の呪文”(password) to resume playing the game  after a switch-off.  However, a player can choose either the password system or the game data saving system with this Wii editon. And You could use even an old, old password 25 years ago, which will stimulate the nostalgic emotion full of  zeal of the huge fans who led their childhoods in those days and now are adults.  　

The Wii edition will also include reprinted edition of  a set of guidebooks that totally sum up to 130 pages , and only for the first pressing ones- a “Small Medal/ちいさなメダル”（a special small token coin）in its real scale. 

Sayaka Akimoto

   Now, AKB48 has become the paramount top  young female idol group in Japan and has produced several spin-off groups, some of which I have referred to here. And now, the newest group of such is announced to debut from Avex http://avexnet.jp/index.html on coming April. 27th on this Feb.27th at the AKB48 Theater. The name of this ramified unit is “DiVA”, whose members are four members of AKB, namely, Sayaka Akimoto(/秋元才加), Ayaka Umeda(/梅田彩佳), Sae Miyazawa(/宮澤佐江), and Yuka Masuda(/増田有華) .

Ayaka Umeda

Sae Miyazawa

Yuka Masuda

As I wrote here before, Akimoto successfully finished the Tokyo Marathon 2011 http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2011/02/28/tokyo-marathon-2011-being-held/ ,and declared to come cack as captain of  Team K of AKB  (Umeda and Miyazawa are also members of team K ,while Masuda is a member of Team B). At  this re-inaugural announcement of hers , Akimoto notifed fans of  the “formal” debut of DiVA as well. This is because ,strictly speaking, DiVA kind of debuted last October singing “Nakeru Basho”(/泣ける場所, a place where I can cry) the coupling track of  “Beginner” , AKB’s 18th single CD. Yet this time with a new member of Miyazawa, the new DiVA is going to fully and formally debut.

Akimoto and Miyazawa are called “The Twin Towers” of AKB, as both of them are quite tall. The two girls were also members of  “Chocolove from AKB48″, the first spin-off group of AKB.  Umeda was the Image Girl of  Tokyo Tower 2010 and Masuda, who often performs as an actor in movies and plays as well, had debuted as a solo ” ani-son singer” with “Stargazer”, the theme song of  an fantasy action anime, “Ikkitousen XTREME XECUTOR~Yume Rokkei~”(/一騎当千　XTREME XECUTOR　～ユメ六景～).     

Umeda notifed Miyazawa’s joining the group, Akimoto tells they are striving for becoming musicians showing different tastes from those of AKB , Masuda tells  they are determined to try to do  anything not to get fans bored as all of the four members have distinct characters respectively, and Miyazawa, being absent from the announcement, sent a message to the fans, saying  they hope the new group to be a good rival of AKB.

Hayabusa travels at 300 km/h which is the fastest of  all the bullet train lines in Japan (the same velocity with that of  N700 series of Sanyo Shinkansen line) and travels between Tokyo Station in Tokyo and  Shin- Aomori Station (/新青森駅, New Aomori Station) in Aomori Pref. , one of the prefectures in Tohoku, the Northeast Region of Japan  (the distance is totally 713.7 km)in 3 hous and 10 minutes.  It takes two round trips a day and is planned to start travelng  faster at 320 km/h  at the least by the end of  2012.     

The grand opening ceremony was hosted by JR east Japan, the company of the line at Tokyo Station on the 5th with presence and celebration by its chairperson Mutsutake Otsuka(/大塚陸毅).   The first train bound for Tokyo departed Shin- Aomori at 6:10am and the first bound for Shin- Aomori departed Tokyo Station at 8:20am.   All of  the first day’s  tickets were sold out just in 40 seconds after having started selling,which has proven its great popularity.

The most notable feature of this new model may be that it is equipped with the first class seats named “Glan Class”  for the first time in the Japanese bullet train lines’  history. The Glan Class contains only 18 seats equipped with the first car  which has a special appearance of a rather flat and smooth shape in order to reduce possible noise a fast trains tend to make.  Glan Class seats are all spacious and covered with deluxe leather. A passenger of Glan Class is provided with a free lunch box and free beverage services.  

A ticket of  an economy seat costs ￥16,870 (≒$205,€146),and, a Glan Class costs ￥26,360(≒$320,€229) between  Tokyo and Shin-Aomori.   The Tohoku Shinkansen line ,which just  fully opened on Dec.04 2010, now has a new model and services drawing  huge attentions and popularity of people.  A lot of travel agencies have various new tour plans to Aomori or other Tohoku Region using the bullet train line, expecting  carrying so many interested tourists and visitors. I hope this new situation propels

The name  of the new version is “3DS”.  The most prominent characteristic is that you can recognize and enjoy vivid 3d images with the naked eye (only the dedicated soft wares of 3DS ).  You can use the soft wares for the current DS series machines as well. 

There are currently 4 types of  machines in the DS series, namely, DS, DS lite, DSi, and DSiLL, whose total number of sales has reached some 130 million sets in total in the world market  2004-March 2010. The “3DS” will be the official newest succession machine of the current ones and will be equipped with good functions, such as 3D picture camera system, ”Surechigai Tsuushin” (/すれ違い通信, “passing-by” correspondence service), “Itsunomanika Tsuushin”(/いつの間にか通信, “before anyone knows it” Correspondence service ), which some TV stations issuing and renewing information on special services via the correspondence system on daily basis, and others.   

The pre-determined price of  3DS  is  ￥25,000 (about  $300,  €218) . And the information on the further details of the product is going to be announced at “E3 2011″ (Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011) hosted by ESA http://www.theesa.com/  in  the coming June 2011 in Los Angeles USA.

Takashi Murakami( http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/artists/list/C4/ ) is well-known for his works, many of whose motifs are from manga and anime works. 

The contrast of  the traditional art and beauty of the European taste and the contemporary Japanese art of subculture taste may be intriguing, though that concept provoked controversies.

The exhibition is held   this Sep. 14th – Dec. 12th at Versailles   palace in France.

And the other one is that Hakuho（/白鵬）, a Japanese sumo wrestler from Mongolia, achieved his eighth undeated championship at the final day of  this fall tournament on this Sep. 26th at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo,which is the record equaling the record high of  Futabayama(/双葉山)　and Taiho (/大鵬)　so many years ago.  Hakuho also marked  a four- consecutive undefeated championships at this fall tournament ,which is the record high since people started the current 15-day match system in 1949.  The number of his consecutive  wins of 62 is so close the record high of  69 by Futabayama.  He was given and directly handed the huge winner’s cup of the tournament by Naoto Kan(/菅直人), the current prime minister at the ceremony on the 26th. A prime minister directly handing the cup the the winner is quite a rare situation as usually such act is done through a proxy.

 Those two newest  world records high related to “Japan” in a way  make a clear and interesting contrast. As for Ichiro’s success, “baseball”  is not a unique sport in Japan but was invented in US and still today US is the mecca  of  baseball culture. Still Japan won the first and the second World Baseball Classic in 2008 and 2009 in a row and it has proven its “the greatest baseball kingdom” in a way. http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/index.jsp 

Baseball was first introduced to Japan in 1871 just after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and loved primarily by college students and was begun to be called “yakyuu” in Japanese which means “field ball”, named so by Kanae Chuuman(/中馬庚), a Tokyo University student in 1894.  Since then that sport seems to have been refined with the Japanese taste of  Bushido or Japanese chivalry, where people tend to make much of  “team spirit” or “comradery” unlike the traditional western way where concepts of a simple collection of individual acts and feats  are rather dominant.

Ichiro had earned a lot of experiences in Orix Buffaloes, a Japanese pro baseball team for about 10years before he established shiny records in MLB of US. Therefore, he seems to have acquired a “hybrid” baseball style from the two different ideas as a happy chemical compound or fusion which  has given him such a great blessing.

We have  The Baseball Hall of  Fame and Museum (/野球体育博物館, Yakyuu Taiiku Hakubutsukan)  in the next door to Tokyo Dome http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/, the home ground of Yomiuri Giants in Suidobashi in Bunkyo-ward Tokyo. http://english.baseball-museum.or.jp/index.html. You can learn a lot of information on the history of baseball in Japan including the famed , such as Shiki Masaoka(/正岡子規), a well-known poet more than a hundred years ago in the Meiji era  who really loved and promoted baseball in Japan.

On the other hand, Sumo is a traditional sport unique to Japan, which is thought to have thousands of years of history, and even Kojiki(/古事記), the oldest Japanese mythological record. That is why sumo used to be a sacred ceremony done in sanctuaries, such as Shinto shrines, and the wrestlers enojoyed  positions of a higher class of samurai warriors  until the end of the Edo era in 1868.  You can learn the history of sumo wrestling at Sumo Shashin Shiryoukan(/相撲写真資料館, a sumo photo museum) in Ryogoku in Sumida-ward Tokyo, next to Ryogoku Kokugikan. http://www.techno-city.sumida.tokyo.jp/3m/detail/mu021-s-01.html        　

In the present-day Japanese society, we have  had so many sumo wrestlers who are foreigners coming from various countries, not just Mongolia but US, Bulgaria, Argentina, Tonga, Taiwan, Brazil , and so forth, and about one third of all the Makuuchi Rikishi (top-division sumo wrestlers). Actually, all the current Yokozuna (/横綱, the highest rank  sumo wrestlers) are forigners including Hakuho.

Now, sumo, some thousand years old  native sport  of  the indigenous Japanese religion symbolizing the “Japanese Spirit” has become quite an international sport where any potentially excellent athlete can be given an equal opportunity to become professional or even the top, regardless of nationalities, races, and tribes. And  baseball, which is a foreign sport whose hisitory in Japan is just 130 years long, now allows many athletes from Japan to be top ones of the world. 

Therefore, such “A Japanese traditional sport being open to the world” and “A Foreign sport being open to Japanese to be even the best tops ” make and show a clear contrast of  the Japanese aspects. However, the contrast also definitely describes in common the great openness, depth, diversity, and future possibilities of “the Japanese and the Japanese sports and culture” widely both domestically and internationally.

Dave-san,Tomoko-san, and the pro tour guides ( Photo: David Boyer, 2010, www.bippies.com)

 ”Dave-san”(that is how I call Mr.David Boyer) and Tomoko-san(Ms.Ogawara) are my friends, with whom I went to Kamakura  for a one- day sightseeing there last November at Dave-san’s last visit to Japan as I wrote here. http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2010/01/14/one-day-in-kamakura-with-great-nigaoe-artists-part-1/

I met Dave-san at Yurakucho Station near Ginza and showed him around Ginza area for a walking tour.  He was took an interest in the Ginza street and its fancy stores and refined scenery there and took a lot of photos of them.  At the intersection of  the 4th block of Ginza, the most expensive land or block in whole of  Japan, he took a photo of himself with his photography book of travel of  his journeys to Japan. This book “Japan: A  Carttonist’s Journey -Vol.1.10″ is available at the website here via the Internet. http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1517766  The book is full of  beautiful photos that  he took of  daily life of people, streets, parks, and scenes in many places in Japan with his intriguing  comments over his impressions of Japan and things he has come across there. 

Dave-san holding his first book of travel at the most expensive corner in Japan(the intersection of the 4th block in Ginza) (Photo: David Boyer, 2010, www.bippies.com)

Dave-san playing the Shakuhachi flute for us

 Tomoko-san kindly drew nigaoe for every member of us , all of which were quite amazingly looked like the each subject and splendid.

Tomoko-san drawing Nigaoe pictures for us

She also explained her activities of promoting Nigaoe culture internationally. She is drawing up the “Artists’ Sheets” recruiting her nigaoe artists supporters from all over the world to set up a good international network of  realizing prevalence of Nigaoe culture in the international community.I personally helped fer form such artists’ sheets with translations.

Tomoko-san showing and explaining her "Artists Sheets" to us (photos: David Boyer,2010, www.bippies.com)

We all exchanged information, ideas, and opinions about how we can and should develop and promote Japanese tourism, inbound industry, and our characteristic culture appealing potential foreign visitors and tourists to Japan. Dave-san emphasized the significance of  the soul of “Hospitality” and considerations for people you meet.

Dave-san explaining about the importance of "Hospitality" and his personal experience of looking after tourists in US

He also taught us about the over 14 American dialects. To understand those geographical, topographical,  demographic, and other traits of the places, occasions, and people including the incoming visitors should be kept in mind in order for tour guides to do the best, Dave-san said.   According to him, for example, most of customers to a Chinese restaurant  tend to take an interest in  just ordering “fried rice or white rice”, though such a facility is decorated with variety of beautiful oriental arts.  This could be said to a Japanese  restaurant as well where a foreign customer tends to think there is only one kind of ”miso soup” may exist, despite in the reality there are various types of  miso soups featured by each prefectural or regional characters and propensities.

  Therefore,  tour guides should give short interesting tips about a cultural aspect that one can understand quickly.  Japanese can be good teachers of  Japanese  culture to foreign visitors. He also stated the concept of “fun” is a very important element when it comes to taking care of  guests.   Our modern life tends to be very quick and whirlwind  like a merry-go-round ,but the concept of relaxation is an acute factor in the hospitality business.

Dave-san talking about the merry-go-round like cycles

Dave-san and Tomoko-san explaining the Nigaoe culture

Tomoko-san drawing nigaoe, explaing how to do so to the members

the tour guides members

the tour guides members listening to Dave-san and Tomoko-san

Dave-san talking to the members

 We were able to make a very good and intriguing opportunity of  an international and cultural communications.  After the meeting, Dave-san and I did a “Ginza Walking Tour” again. I think  there a lot of  chances and room for developing “Nigaoe” as a new aspect of  a”Japanese” culture which will attract anyone worldwide.   

Dave-san, intereted in watches including Japanese ones, on one of the main streets in Ginza

Dave-san enjoying a piece of a pinapple at a fruit store in front of Yurakucho station