As for me … here are some movies that I’ve had the misfortune of enduring:

Lost In Translation
2001
The Shining
Forrest Gump
サンシャイン 2057 (Sunshine 2057)

Have you seen any of those?
What did you think of them?

What are some movies you hated?

Have you ever read “The Diary of Anne Frank” (アンネの日記) ?

She received the diary as a present from her parents on her thirteenth birthday.
She began writing in it immediately and continued for two years until she and her family were captured by Nazis in early August 1944 when she was fifteen.

Her father was the only member of her family to survive the hard-labor concentration camp.
He had her diary published after the war when a family friend, who had kept Anne’s diary safe, returned it to him.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” wasn’t immediately successful in Europe, and  it was mildly successful at first in America…but it was an immediate bestseller in Japan!

In her diary, Anne wrote:

“I want to be useful to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”

and:

“Will I ever be able to write something great?“

She definitely wrote “something great”…and she’ll go on living forever!

- Anne Frank, RIP
June 12th 1929 – March ?, 1945

The scheduled dates are:

★ Saturday, October 19, 2013 – Chiba, Japan

☆ Monday, October 21, 2013 – Osaka, Japan

★ Wednesday, October 23, 2013 – Tokyo, Japan (still unconfirmed)

☆ Thursday, October 24, 2013 – Tokyo, Japan (still unconfirmed)

Here is the チラシ (flyer) for the KISS Monster Japan Tour 2013:

And when major world-famous musicians are scheduled to play in Japan, there is usually an ad or article about it in the newspapers here.
KISS’s upcoming tour is mentioned in today’s paper:

It says “Seven years since their last Japan tour, the American hard rock band KISS”

]]> http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/kiss-monster-tour-japan/feed/ 7 tokyo5 Kiss-w690.jpg flyer http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/yamanote-50/ http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/yamanote-50/#comments Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:01:57 +0000 tokyo5 http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/?p=7224 ]]> The JR 山手線 (Yamanote Line ) is probably the most famous train line in Tokyo.

It’s a one-hour loop around 29* stations in the heart of the city. (* a new station is planned to be added soon).

Every train and subway line in Tokyo has a unique color to make them easy to identify.  These colors are used on train and subway maps, on platform signs and the trains themselves are painted those colors (either a solid color or, more commonly nowadays, two-tone silver and the “line color”).

The Yamanote Line‘s color is lime-green.

For the past thirty years or so, the Yamanote Line has been using “205 series” trains. Older model trains have been phased out of use many years ago.

But, this year only, the Yamanote Line has re-introduced the older “103 series” trains back into service.

This is because the 103 series trains were first used on the Yamanote Line in 1963…fifty years ago.   So, the older model trains can be ridden until December 2013!

Here are some photos that I took last weekend of the special 50th anniversary 103-series Yamanote Line trains:

These special 50th anniversary trains are painted solid lime-green just like they used to be years ago (as opposed to the current silver and lime-green).

If you’re in Tokyo, you can ride this train until December 2013.

It says “50th anniversary of the birth of the green Yamanote Line 103 series train”.

(By the way, if you were in Tokyo four years ago, you may remember the only time that some Yamanote Line trains were brown instead of green. Click here to read a post about it.)

Have you ever tried any of the numerous Kit-Kat flavors in Japan?

* (edit. Maybe this would be a better translation of the name.)

And did you know that those trees were a gift to America from Japan about sixty years ago?

Well…did you know that both Japan and America crown a Cherry Blossom Queen every year?
It isn’t a beauty contest type of competition. Each state in America and each prefecture in Japan enters a young woman into the competition based on community service that she has done.

And then the country’s Cherry Blossom Queen is chosen by a random draw.

Every year the U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen comes to Japan and meets the Japanese Prime Minister along with the current Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen.

Last year, the 2012 U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen was an African-American woman for the first time.
She made headlines in Japan!

The 2013 U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen, Mary Anne Morgan, just came to Tokyo and met Japanese Prime Minister Abe and 2013 Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen, Chiori Kobayashi yesterday.

Today, they said that 梅雨 (rainy season) has officially started in Japan today.

It is starting early this year! Normally rainy season begins in mid-June (I wrote a post about it four years ago. Click here to read it.)

It’s raining in many parts of Japan today…but, thankfully, not in Tokyo.
It is forecast to rain in Tokyo tomorrow though.

Are you in Japan? Are you planning to come soon? Have you ever experienced a rainy season in Japan before?

Do you know what this is?

Please take a guess in the comment section.

I’ll give the answer soon.

(edit. I just gave the answer in the comment section (and two visitors knew the answer too).
This is a chain of stores in Japan called 「ドンキホーテ」 (“Don Quixote”). Commonly referred to as 「ドンキ」 (“Donki”).)

The Sky Tree opened to visitors on 2012 May 22nd…one year ago today.

I went up to the observation deck in the Tokyo Sky Tree on a clear day last January. I wrote a post about it with some photos that I took of the view.
(Click here to read it.)

Today is the first anniversary of the Tokyo Sky Tree‘s grand opening…but two days ago (Monday, 2013 May 2oth), another milestone was reached for the tower: Tokyo Sky Tree welcomed the 6.34 millionth visitor.

6.34 million visitors is a key number for the Sky Tree because the tower stands 634 meters tall. Officially the world’s tallest tower.

The height of 634 meters wasn’t chosen arbitrarily. In Japanese 6-3-4 can be pronounced 「ムサシ」 (mu-sa-shi)…and the Tokyo Sky Tree stands near an area that is referred to as 「武蔵の国」 (Musashi Region).

What do you think about giant skyscrapers and towers? What is the tallest one you’ve visited? Are there any near where you live?

I know that song was popular but, honestly, I never liked it.

You may not be aware of a much better charity song for African children that was recorded 28 years ago today by some of the biggest names in 80s heavy metal.

On 1985 May 20th, members of Dio, Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Twisted Sister, Dokken, Queensryche, Quiet Riot, Rough Cutt, Motley Crue, and more got together and called themselves Hear ‘N Aid to record the song “(We Are) Stars “!

“(We Are) Stars“, twenty-eight years old today, is the heavy metal answer to We Are The World.
And it’s much better!

Check it out: