As I mentioned in my post yesterday, today is the Japanese holiday 「勤労感謝の日」 (Labor Day).

And also, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, we went to the park together today. We enjoyed the time together outdoors in the nice weather by playing ball and having lunch.

It was a nice day.

A few photos I took in the park:

パンジー

Autumn leaves

The weather today in Tokyo was mostly sunny and 14°C. The weather was nice for the entire three-day weekend.

How about where you live? What did you do this weekend? How was the weather?

Kirin Beer is 120 years old.

To commemorate, they are selling beer in retro cans in all of their past designs.
The blue can from the 「明治時代」 (Meiji Period), white can from the 「大正時代」 (Taisho Period), gold can from the 「昭和時代」 (Showa Period), and the current silver can from the current 「平成時代」 (Heisei Period).

Of course, I have bought many of the current silver cans. I don’t save those once they’re empty…but I like to save special edition unique beer cans.

I already have the gold 「昭和時代」 (Showa Period) special Kirin Beer can.

I want the other two.

Re-issue special edition "Meiji Period" Kirin Beer can

Re-issue special edition "Taisho Period" Kirin Beer can

How about you? Do you save special-edition or unusual beer cans?

It’s a three-day weekend in Japan now.
Tomorrow is 「勤労感謝の日」 (“Labor Day“) in Japan. (Click here to see my short FAQ about this holiday.)

My daughters heard that the American TV series 「プリズン・ブレイク」 (“Prison Break“) is good.
The first four seasons are currently available for rental on DVD at stores in Japan.

So we rented the first four episodes of season one of this series.
We’re gonna watch it tonight.

I haven’t watched an American TV series in years. We watch normal Japanese TV shows.

Have you seen this American show? Is it good? (Don’t tell me how it ends ).

And then tomorrow, the five of us are gonna go to a nearby park, play catch and have a picnic lunch together.
My kids are teenagers now, so they spend alot of their free-time with their friends…but we try to enjoy time together as a family.

By no ways a complete list, but here is a timeline of some highlights of world history.

Japan-related dates are written in red.

• 1281: Mongolia was conquering most of Asia. As the Mongolian Navy was heading to Japan to invade, a giant typhoon sunk their entire fleet. Thus saving Japan.
  That typhoon was called 「神風」 (“Kamikaze“), which means “Divine Wind“, in Japan.The World War 2 Kamikaze pilots were named after this typhoon.
• 1346: The Black Plague started and eventually killed nearly half of Europe’s population.
• 1492: Christopher Columbus lands in America. But he believed he was in India and called the inhabitants “Indians“.
• 1603: 「江戸時代」 (The “Edo Period“) begins in Japan.
• 1680: The 将軍 (Shougun), Tsunayoshi, loved dogs and enacted a number of laws protecting dogs and making harming them a criminal offense.He is therefore often called “The Dog Shogun”.
• 1776: America declares it’s independence from England.
• 1789: French Revolution began.
• 1804: Napoleon became the Emperor of France.
• 1854: U.S. Naval Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open to trade with the West.At first Japan resisted and the island of Odaiba was built in Tokyo Bay to defend Japan from the American forces. But Perry’s fleet of black ships were too intimidating and Japan enacted law to allow trade with the West in general and America in particular.The resulting influx of American goods and culture sparked Japan’s “Westernization”.

An Ukiyoe portrait of Cmdr. Perry. His name is written as 「ぺルリ」 ("Peruri") because that's what it sounded like to the Japanese when Perry said his name with his American accent.

1995 January 17: 「阪神淡路大震災」 (Hanshin-awajidai-shinsai), (“The Kobe Earthquake“) destroyed the city of 神戸 (Kobe, Japan).

A collapsed overpass after the Kobe Earthquake; 1995 January.

I know that I left out many important dates. Feel free to write any that you can think of in the comments section of this post.

And did you witness any historic events?

When my kids were young, they used to love a popular Japanese cartoon called 「それいけ！アンパンマン」 (“Go! Anpanman“).

This cartoon is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most characters. A new one is constantly being introduced by the 90-year old artist!
I wrote a post about the world record. Click here to read it.

Anpanman’s artist, Yanase Takashi, grew up in the city of Kochi, Japan.
Last month, the city decided to honor Mr. Yanase and the characters he created that have become a part of Japanese culture by renaming a street “Yanase Takashi Road” and placing large, stone statues on the street of the cartoon’s six main characters.

Well, late last Sunday, someone destroyed the statue of the cartoon’s main “villain”, 「バイキンマン」 (“Baikinman“).

Baikinman has two antennae on his head. But some cut off one of the statue’s antennae. In Japan, vandalism isn’t very common.

Here’s what the statue used to look like:

And this is what the vandal did to it:

Last November 12 was the Emperor of Japan’s 20th anniversary on the throne (I mentioned it on this post).

A special ceremony was held to mark the occasion. The Emperor gave a speech at the ceremony…he said, among other things, that he hopes that the younger generations won’t forget the horrors of WW2 and repeat the mistakes.

The Japanese Emperor & Empress at the ceremony to mark the Emperor's 20th anniversary on the throne.

And U.S. President Obama was in Tokyo yesterday and today. He met with Japan’s Prime Minister and also with the Emperor of Japan.

U.S. President Obama meeting the Emperor of Japan.

If you’re in Japan this weekend, you may notice children who are three, five and seven years old dressed in kimono and visiting shrines with their families.

That’s because it’s now the time of the 「七五三」 (“7-5-3 Festival“).

As I wrote on my main website’s FAQ page, on or around November 15, girls aged 3 and 7 and boys aged 5 are dressed up (girls in kimono, boys in kimono or suit) and go to a shrine with their families for blessings for a long healthy life.
Afterwards, they are given special candies and are often brought by their parents to a photo studio to have their portrait taken.

And also, Quintin Tarantino and Brad Pitt were in Tokyo together recently to promote their new movie “Inglourious Basterds“.

Brad Pitt and Quintin Tarintino promoting "Inglourious Basterds" in Tokyo.

This movie will premiere in Tokyo on 20 November…the same time that the new TV commercial for the Japanese cell-phone company “Softbank” will air.
Quintin Tarintino will appear in this new commercial.

Last year, Brad Pitt was in the Tv commercials for Softbank…but then Softbank began making a commercial “series” that showed the adventures of the “White Family“.

The father in the “White Family” is a dog! The son is an African-American. The wife and daughter are regular Japanese though.

They’re kinda funny commercials.

And now in the newest Softbank commercial, Quintin Tarintino will play the White Family’s uncle, “Tara-chan“!

Still from the new "Softbank" commercial featuring Quintin Tarntino.

Have you read the interviews I did with a number of interesting people?
They’re on the “Interviews” page of my main website (Click here to visit it).

Well, I just added an interview that I did with Victor Stabin to that page.

Do you know who Victor Stabin is?

He’s the artist who designed the album cover for KISS’s 1980 release titled “Unmasked“.

His artwork is very fascinating.

I have not listened to KISS “Unmasked” since Jesus was in diapers.

Victor Stabin

Victor Stabin’s interview with me is very interesting…Check it out.

My “Interviews” page: Click here
My interview with Victor Stabin: Click here.

A few of the major news headlines in Japan right now:

• Tatsuya Ichihashi, who was a fugitive in Japan accused of murdering a British English-language teacher named Lindsay Hawker near Tokyo in 2007, was finally arrested today in Osaka.

  He has had plastic surgery done in an obvious attempt to alter his appearance to try to remain on the lam.

  The father of Lindsay Hawker was interviewed via telephone in England by the Japanese television news media and he expressed his relief that his daughter’s accused murderer has finally been captured after over two years.

• U.S. President Obama is due to make an official visit to Tokyo this Friday and Saturday.

  Before his visit, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki invited him to visit their cities…as they are the only cities to have been hit with atomic bombs by the United States.

  Hiroshima and Nagasaki have invited every U.S. President since the end of WW2 to visit their cities…but due to the potential of an uproar in America if they did visit, every President has declined the invitation (former Presidents have paid the cities a visit, but never a sitting President)….until now.

  U.S. President Obama told the Japanese media that he will make an official visit to those cities while he’s in office. He said he won’t be able to visit them on this trip due to a tight schedule, but he will visit them on another trip to Japan before his Presidency ends.

• The U.S. military in Okinawa has arrested a U.S. solider on hit-and-run charges. The soldier hit an Okinawan man and left him to bleed to death in the street.

  The Okinawan public and government want the U.S. military to hand the soldier over to Japanese authorities to be tried in Japanese court.

  This case comes at a time when the people of Okinawa are trying to get some of the U.S. military bases in Okinawa moved off their island and relocated either to mainland Japan or a U.S. territory such as Guam or Hawaii.

• Also, it has been discovered that members of the U.S. military stationed in Japan have been abusing a privilege that official U.S. military vehicles have.
  An agreement that the U.S. military has with Japan is that official U.S. military vehicles traveling off of their bases on Japanese toll-highways on official military business can use special passes and travel without paying any of the tolls…the taxpayers in Japan (includes me) pay their toll-fares.

  Well, it seems that the U.S. military has been giving the passes to any members of the military who want to take a personal trip around Japan on their personal free time.

The new KISS album “Sonic Boom” is excellent!

If you haven’t bought it yet…I highly recommend getting it.

This album is currently at #16 in Billboard magazine’s “Rock Album” ranking…and #8 in their “Hard Rock Album” ranking.

And it peaked at #1 in both of those categories!

Number one selling album!! I don’t think KISS has ranked that high since the late ’70s!

Also, KISS has been eligible to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame since 1999*.

(* to be eligible, a band’s first album must be at least twenty-five years old. KISS debuted in 1974).

But they’ve always been passed over every year since they became eligible…that is, until now.

KISS have been nominated to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next year (in 2010).

In March 2010, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame will vote to see which of the twelve nominees will be inducted.

The nominees for 2010 are:

• KISS
• ABBA
• The Chantels
• Jimmy Cliff
• Genesis
• The Hollies
• LL Cool J
• Darlene Love
• Laura Nyro
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Stooges
• Donna Summer

Who do you think should be chosen?

In my opinion, besides KISS only two other acts might be worthy!

I wrote about the new broadcast tower being built in Tokyo called the 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“) last summer. (Click here to read that post. I compare the new tower to the original 「東京タワー」 (Tokyo Tower) in that post).

A promo ad showing what the skyline will look like in 2011 with the completed tower.

The 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“) is scheduled to be completed in late 2011 and stand 611 meters tall (making it the tallest structure in Japan, and one of the world’s tallest). The tower’s observatory will be open to the public in the spring of 2012.

Once this tower is completed it will stand out in Tokyo’s skyline. Far above the current 「東京タワー」 (Tokyo Tower), which is 333 meters tall. The 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“) will replace the 「東京タワー」 (Tokyo Tower) as the Tokyo area’s broadcast tower and at that point all TV broadcasts will be digital (because all analog waves will be used for cellular phone service).

The "Tokyo Sky Tree" will tower above all else.

The construction of the 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“) began last year. Right now, it stands at 191 meters (less than 30% complete).

Here’s a recent photo of the tower’s construction:

"Tokyo Sky Tree", autumn 2009

Unlike the 「東京タワー」 (Tokyo Tower), which stands in Tokyo’s upscale 港区 (Minato Ward)…the 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“) is being built in the blue-collar, 下町 (down-town) area of 浅草 (Asakusa).

It will stand very close to the Asahi Beer headquarters. So, that probably explains why Asahi Beer sold their beer last summer in commemorative 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“) cans.

Asahi Beer's commemorative "Tokyo Sky Tree" can

Here’s a promotional video for the 「東京スカイツリー」 (“Tokyo Sky Tree“):