Archive for 'Sendai,　Tokyo and　Japanese　culture' Category

“World Cosplay Summit 2014” in Nagoya

“World Cosplay Summit 2014” is  hosted by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other bodies Jul.26-Aug.3 in Nagoya. (http://www.worldcosplaysummit.jp/en/)

This WCS is the 12nd and this time representatives join the event from  22 countries or regions. The  event includes several programs such as a coaplay parade, cosplay championship, visitations of the representatives to city offices and MFA, anime-song festival, and so forth. Six representatves of the event from China, Mexico, and Finland officially visited Seiji Kihara, the vice-minister at MOFA in Tokyo giving presentations over attaractions of cosplay. Kihawa made a speech saying, pop culture has power to bind countries together and expect the representatives to support strengthening rapport with Japan. The Chinese representative said cosplay had a role to enhance cultural exchange.

 

Goeido being promoted to the ozeki rank

Goeido, a sekiwake-rank sumo wrestler, was promoted to the ozeki(one step higher rank from sekiwake and the second highest only to the yokozuna) by the Japan Sumo Association with the unanimous decision of its  members of the directors of board on Jul.30th. He will be an ozeki- wrestler from the next Grand Sumo sutumn tournament of Sep.14-28 at Ryogoku Kokugikan(National Sport Stadium) in Tokyo.

Goeido(Gotaro Sawai) was the first ozeki after Kakuryu’s promotion,who is currently a yokozuna-wrestler, in spring 2012 and the very first one in three years as a Japanese-born wrestler following  Kisenosato in 2011.   Goeido energetically keeps his postition as a sekiwake for 12 consecutive tournaments since 2007, which is the record-long after Showa era, after having started his career as a sumo wrestker in 2005. This year, he defeated two yokozuna, Hakuho and Kakuryu and the total score 12winning to 3 losses, which is quite excellent. He also says he would like to realize his Yamato Damashii(/the Japanese Spirit) in his new coming career. Currently all the three yokozuna-wrestkers are from Mongolia and a lot of people may expect him to regain a glory of the Japanese national sport.

Kanda Festival held on May 11- 15

Kanda Festival(/神田祭、Kanda-matsuri) was held on may 11th – 15th for the first time in four years.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanda_Matsuri) and (http://www.kandamyoujin.or.jp/kandamatsuri/)

This festival is for Kanda-myojin Shrine in Chiyoda-ward Tokyo, which is more than 1,300 years old. The festival itself has been held for more than hundreds of year as well. And  it is one of the three great festivals in Tokyo and also one of the three great ones of Japan as a whole. The festival has been held every other year but the plan was suspended in 2011 due to the East Japan Earthquake, so this time it was held for the first time in the past four years.

The festival consists of several events and the climax are Shinko-sai(/神幸祭, gods parade festival) and Mikoshi-miyairi(/神輿宮入, moving shrines entering in the shrine’s place ), and the first is a parade of about 300 people clad in period costumes walking about 30 km in the shrines area of Kanda,Otemachi, Nihonbashi,marunouchi,and Akihabara. The latter one is peopel carry about 80 moving shrines to walk down in the town and latter on all one them come back to Kanda-myojin  Shrine one after another.

Actually, I myself  visited the shrine on the 12th when Mikoshi-miyairi was held and watched the great situations of huge passions and excitements of so many people there. Japanese traditional festivals are really splendid and even young people love and happily support them well.

“Oneri”, walking parade of Kabuki stars in Ginza

On this March 27th, about 60 Kabuki stars joined a special event of  celebrating the grand opening of  the newly rebuilt Kabukiza (the main Kabuki theater in Higashi Ginza)planned to open on coming April 2nd in Ginza, Tokyo.

The event was called “Oneri”, which was a walking parade on the main street for about one hour 10:00-11:00. Tojuro Sakata, president of Japan Actors’ Association as well as a versed Kabuki actor made an opening speech, “A new chapter in the  history of the 400- year old  Kabuki  is about to me marked. We sincerely ask you to support Kabuki and the new Kabukiza. “. Junichi Sakomoto, president of Shochiku that facilitate kabuki shows gave a sign to start the parade and  banners were hung and  kabuki actors such as  Tokizo Nakamura, Ennosuke Ichikawa, Ebizo Ichikawa, Kankuro Nakamura, Schinosuke Nakamura, and other  popular Kabuki stars showed up, clad in traditional  Japanese clothing of  Montsuki-hakama,  and joined the parade, led by Japanese style acrobats.  They waved their hands to excited spectators of about 20,000 and walked about 400m there.

 

 

The 120th anniversary of pearl- cuturing technology

This year 2013, the pearl industry commemorates the 120th anniversary of  pearl-culturing technology. 

 

Koukichi Mikimoto, the founder of  MIKIMOTO (http://www.mikimoto.com/jp/) whose flagship store is located in Ginza Tokyo succeeded in culturing pearls as the first case in the world in 1893.  Since then Koukichi was called “The King of Pearl”.

On this 30th  MIKIMOTO released a special accessory with pearls and jewels called “MIKIMOTO Pearl Crown “DREAMS&PEARLS”- twelve pearls and dreams”.

the item can change its form between a “crown” and a” necklace” and  has a shape of  12 flower blossoms made of big natural pearls of 5 different types and 3400 diamonds.  The designers took more than 2 years to complete this breathtaking and splendid pearl treasure.

To tell the truth, I am a distant relative of koukichi Mikimoto and recently on 18th this month, I learned a basic concept of pearls  at a  lecture program for tour guides jointly hosted by JGA(Japan Guide Association), the oldest and biggest guide- interpreters organization, and  TASAKI, a major pearl and jewelry store company like MIKIMOTO.  (http://www.tasaki.co.jp/)

Therefore, I am so happy I learned ABC of the concept of pearls in this special year to pearl industry.

 

“Girls Award 2013 SPRING/SUMMER” on March.23, performers

“Girls Award 2013 SPRING/SUMMER”  is planned to be hosted on this March 23th at  the First Gymnasium of National Stadium in Yoyogi Tokyo, which I referred to in my previous post here. (http://girls-award.com/pc/index.php)  On Jan.30th, some of the names of  singers, musicians, and models who are to perform in the event were disclosed.

As singers, FTISLAND and  Tomomi Kahara who recently made her re-debut and others are going to perform at the show.

This Girls Award is the seventh of the same annual events of girls’ fashions and  on the same day or near dates, some other similar girls’ fashion events will be held as well, such as “Tokyo Girls Collection”, “Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week TOKYO 2013-14A/W”,and “VERSUS TOKYO”.

MomokuroZ’s new year’s resolution

“MomokuroZ”(Momoiro CloverZ), one of the top young female idol groups, declared their

new goal on the new year’s day.  

The  group’s first goal was to join and perform at Kohaku Utagassen, the Red and White singing contest on the new year’s eve , which MomokuroZ realized on Dec.31 2012. And now, the group has a new purpose that it will host live concerts at National Stadium (http://naash.go.jp/corp/english/activities/tabid/391/Default.aspx) in Yoyogi that is so closely located to NHK, the TV station where Kohaku is held.  That is how Momokuro has set out the “second chapter” of its activities of “dreams beyond Kohaku”. However, the stadium is currently under a renovation which is scheduled to complete in 2018, so the day to fulfill the group’s next dream has not been clearly set or predicted yet.

 

 

“TOKUSATSU-Special Effects Museum” of Hideaki Anno

Hideaki Anno(http://www.khara.co.jp/hideakianno/), a popular film director as well as an animator was  in charge of management of  a temporary art museum of “TOKUSATSU- Special Effects Museum”  wihich is a special exhibition at  Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in Koto-ward Tokyo Jul.10-Oct.8.   (http://www.ntv.co.jp/tokusatsu/english.html)

The venue has displays of a lot of and various items, data, and movies. Diorama of houses ,towns and other scenes used in Sci-fi movies, models of spaceships, robots, masks and figure dolls and other items of monsters, super heroes etc… were all around there which attracted  visitors some of whom were adults , some of  whom were children. As you walk by you could learn a lot of details about famour or popular  sci-fi , fantasy, or action types of TV shows  ,movies animation as well as a long history and general flows of that industry’s  developments for decades.  In addition, audio recording  guilding service was available. i myself visted there and it was so intresting that it took more than three hours to finish it.

Anno has joined prohects such as “Nausica of Vally of winds”, “Gundam”,”Evangelion” and other worldwide popular anime and works.His great career directly reflected to the exhibited items. In addition, His newest work which Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki joined was released and shown for the first time to the visitors. It is a 10-minute long special effects movie called “Kyoshinnhei Tokyo ni arawaru”(/ Giant soldiers of artificial creatures showed up in Tokyo )  and the colossal robot soldiers destroy Tokyo which was a description of The seven Days of Fire depicted a bit in Nausica, an anime of Miyazaki 28 years ago.   I visited there and saw the movie and found them qute good and interesting.

Though the temporary museum was already closed, as the event was so popular that now Anno and his staf are considering  of  hosting the same event in many venues nationwide as a moving art museum, which may attract even more people from now on.

The 25 TIFF held Oct.20-28

The 25th TIFF(Tokyo International Film Festival) was held this Oct.20-28 at Roppongo Hills and other movie theaters in Tokyo. (http://2012.tiff-jp.net/en/)

15 film works contested in the event and invited actors, directors, and other related people walked on the “Green Carpet”, which is the symbol of the selected top level movies of the world today, to the venue.

The Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix (the top award) went to a French movie ,”The Other Son” and the Award for Best Director was given to its director, Lorraine Levy.  This French work describing  conflicts and serious human relationships and emotions of Israeli and Palestinian is the very first one that is created by a female director in TIFF’s history.

Atsuko Maeda, a young female actor who graduated from AKB48 in this August, served as a special ambassador for this film festival.

IMF/WBG Annual Meetings in Tokyo

IMF(International Monetary Fund) and WBG(World bank Group) Annual meetings were held in Tokyo  for the first time in 48 years Oct.9-14.(http://www.imf-wb.2012tokyo.mof.go.jp/en/index.html)

Japan hosted such meetings 48 years ago which was the very same year that Japan  hosted Tokyo Olympics, which was a remarkable symbolic event of Japan’s successful recovery form the economic recession due to the post war aftermaths of WW2. Now, the Japan’s economic, political, and social positions and international community’s situations have drastically changed as well. This time the second  time’s phases have shown the historic exaltation of the country.

There were four venues of the event, namely, TIF(Tokyo International Forum),IM(Imperial Hotel),Hotel Okura, and  TCCI (Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry), all of which are located in the very center of this capital of Japan .    Totally official participants were from 187 countries and registered visitors and participants , their dependents amounted to about 20,000.   Top economic leaders of the world got together and Tokyo soaked in the heat and excitement of  the great festivity.  On the 12th, the plenary and official banquet hosted by Noda, the prime minister of Japan were held.

There were about 20 official hotels designated as official accommodation for the participants and dependents and  special hospitality programs were prepared which provided them with  various short trips such as on-day visit to Yokohama,  visiting Tsukiji  Fish Market,  Tokyo Sky Tree just built in this year, shopping at depachika (basement floors in  department stores ),cultural experience tour such as a tea ceremony,  learning how to wear kimono, and so forth. A lot of  participants and other registered visitors enjoyed those short tours or traditional Japanese cultural experiencing events.

The local host of the Annual Meetings were MOF (Minister of Finance) and Bank of Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Government ,and so many people including volunteer staffers,  pro tour guides, escorts and others attended the visitors from all over the world.  The hosts, the government, and  others say more than 10 billion yen  revenue can be expected from this greatly worldwide financial series of events.  We hope this has influenced  betterment of Japanese economy, tourism, and society as a whole.

Tokyo Station renovated and re-open

Tokyo Station, located in Chiyoda-ward near the Imperial Palace and some of national governmental organizations offices, and one of  the symbols of Tokyo and Japan, re-opened  on this Oct,1st after a big renovating construction of a few years. http://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2012/20120403.pdf

    

The original building of the station was built in 1914 and parts of it were destroyed in the air-raids in WW2. The damaged parts were left untouched for several decades but finally they were repaired completely and the building has restored its original style and structure for the first time in 67 years this time.

The central part of the building had lost its dome- shape roof in the raid until it regained the shape upon the completion of the reparation. And some North and South dome parts have remodelled to have their original beautiful design and decorations inside, which a lot of people visit and take photos of every day since the reopening.

The huge underground  malls and streets have been much more widened so that they can receive even more visitors with better conveniences.

The central part now has a new facilty of  “Travel Service Center” (http://www.mapple.net/sp_spot/201210_1/cnt_05.html )  , a information center of travel related matters, tickets trades, luggage lockers, and so forth  being available in 4 languages of  Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. The walls are partially made of the originally- used very old bricks of the buildng.

 

Before the Grand Opening, there held a special eve festival of “Tokyo Station Vision”, a huge projection mapping show on Sep.22-23. The station building became a huge “screen”  on which artistic movies were played, most of which implied historical backgrounds of of the station.

In addition, the building includes a hotel named Tokyo Station Hotel in its central parts. http://www.thetokyostationhotel.jp/  The hotel was also renovated radically and  royal suite room which cost more than 800,000 yen just for one night is fully booked for more than several months since the reopening. the minimum charge for a basic guest room is about 30,000. The hotel remodelled its basement floors and restaurants arcade as well.

These restaurants, hotel rooms, mall stores and shops are quite popular which receive a lot of  customers everyday these days.

The construction project  cost  50 billion yen in total and such a huge budget was covered  by  clever idea of  selling  the “air rights” of the JR East, the owner of the building and the land  to surrounding buildings an their owners. Those other owners were able to  construct much higher buildings than they had originally planned in return.  All those drastically remodelled facilities in the Tokyo Station “complex” are expected to work as a quite useful and effective institutions to collect a lot of visitors and tourists. Actually, since the grand opening, so many people keep visiting  the restored new heart  of  tourism and commerce in the very central area of Tokyo and Japan.

Tokyo Sky Tree Grand Open today !

Tokyo Sky Tree , the newest popular tourists’ destination of Japan at the moment finally hosted its Grand Opening  and started its operation today May 22nd 2012.http://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/en/

 

Lucky 9,000 winners of the admission tickets of the obsevatories and other visitors visited the highestand newest tower in Japan.  Only one out of 335 applicants won the ticket to the First Obsevatory(350m high) for the entry there in daytime of the 22nd.

All the tickets to the First Observatory(/天望デッキ, Tenbou Deck) up to those for  Jul.10th can be purchased by advance reservation only.  The reserved tickets prices are;  Adult: 2,500 yen, Junior or Senior high school student: 2,000 yen, Elementary pupil: 1,400 yen, and  Infant: 1,100. From the Jul.11th and on, current- day tickets will be available and the prices will be;  Adult:2,000 yen,  Junior or Senior Student: 1,500 yen, Elementary Pupil:900 yen, and Infant: 600 yen. (1$≒80 yen, 1€≒102 yen)  In order to go up to the Second Obsevatory(/天望回廊, Tenbou Kairou) , surcharges are necessary (Adult:1,000 yen, Junior or Senior Student:800 yen, Elementary Pupil:500 yen, and Infant:300 yen).

It was, unfortunately, raining today 22nd, and as  strong winds began to blow in the evening, the elevator between the two observatories suspended its operation temporarily at around 17:30 and the Second Obsevatory closed at 19:30, which had orginally been planned to keep open until 22:00. Still, the illumination service started at 7:00 as originally planned.

The Tokyo Sky Tree started its history with huge enthusiasm and popularity supporeted by  people, and is expected to function as a new symbol of Japan.

The Spring Imperial Garden Party

The Spring Imperial Garden Party was hosted by the imperial couple of Japan at the Akasaka Palace in Tokyo on this April 19th.  

1956 people in total who have made remarkable feats to society were invited to the party, such as Satoshi Furukawa, an astronaut who completed tasks at International Space Station, a sumo stable master Hanaregoma who is an ex president of Nihon Sumo Kyokai (Japan Sumo Association),  Yoshihiro Murai, the governor of  Miyagi prefecture which is a damaged area  of the huge disaster last year, and others.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new style Ginza-line train car “Series 1000” started operation

A new train cars “Series 1000” of Ginza-line started operation on this April 11th.(http://www.tokyometro.jp/series1000/index.html)

A grand launching ceremony of the new car series was hosted at Asakusa station  on that day, where Emi Takei, a young popular female actor, clad in a station staff uniform, was in charge of  emcee who conducted  ribbon-cutting, giving bouquet flowers, and so forth. Takei is the image character

of “We are the Tokyo Navigator” the promotion campaign of Tokyo Metro.

The cars structure and the color of lemon yellow resemble the original cars’ appearances of Ginza-line when it started its operation 85 years ago. This time the first train of the new series cars departed the station at 12:11pm.  

The new series cars are operated as “Photo gallery Trains” whose cabins are decorated with old photos describing 85-year history of the line, the clock tower of the main building of Wako in Ginza 80 years ago, and others up to this April 30th.

Reconstruction Agency inaugurated

Reconstruction Agency(/Fukkoucho, 復興庁)  came into being to boost the rebuilding activities from the aftermath of 3.11 disaster on this Feb.10th. http://www.reconstruction.go.jp/ The agency’s duration is planned to be 10 years and will be over at the end of March 2021.  The post of  the first  Reconstruction Minister was assumed by Tatsuo Hirano, an ex- Minister of State for Disaster Management.

The agency is directly controlled by Prime Minister and the Minister of  Reconstruction is in charge of  managing the total operations to assist the Prime Minister.  The agency ‘s  “Main Office” is in Tokyo,  a “Reconstruction Bureau” and a “Branch Office” is set in  Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima respectively,and an “Office” is set in Hachinohe City Aomori and Mito City Ibaraki respectively. The above prefectures and cities are all damaged areas of the 3.11.  The agency is in charge of  planning reconstruction strategies, approving the budgets for rebuildings, disgnating Reconstruction Special Zones, and so forth. Read the rest of this entry »