Taspo

Japan has many kinds of 自動販売機 (vending machines)….including cigarette vending machines.

I don’t smoke, so I have no use for these machines…but they’re a convenience for people who do smoke. But, an obvious problem with them is the fact that they make it easier for minors to buy cigarettes.

So, to address this problem, Japan introduced a smart card with IC this year.
This card is called “Taspo“. It stands for “Tobbaco Passport”

To use this card, people who want to buy cigarettes from vending machines would submit an application with a photo and proof that they are at least 20 years old (the legal smoking age in Japan). The card is free but only necessary when buying cigarettes from a machine…not necessary when purchasing them from a store.

Once the card is received in the mail, it can be used like the popular IC cards for Japan’s trains and buses (see my post about that card at the end of this post here). Cigarettes cannot be purchased from a vending machine in Japan without scanning this card on the machine’s reader now…this is meant to help prevent underage smoking (only the person whose name and photo is on the Taspo card can legally use it).

It can be charged with money so cigarettes can be purchased with the card alone–no need to put money into the vending machine–the cost of the cigarettes is deducted from the card’s charge automatically.

In theory, this should be successful and popular. But the Taspo Card may very well lead to the end of cigarette vending machines in Japan.
Most smokers here didn’t bother to apply for the card and just buy their cigarettes from a store now.

Here’s the Taspo Card scanner on a cigarette vending machine:

Do you smoke? Do they have cigarette 自動販売機 (vending machines) in your country? Or, if you live in Japan, do you use the Taspo?

Cell-phone Camera

I was looking at the pictures on my 携帯電話 (Cell-phone) camera.
I have over 600 photos on the phone’s memory disc that I’ve taken at various places (the disc still has alot of memory space left, too!)

So I made a slideshow of some of the photos:

[rockyou id=125385250]

歌舞伎座

Do you know the 歌舞伎座 (Kabuki Theater) in Tokyo? Have you ever been to this theater?

Of course, you know what 歌舞伎 (Kabuki) is…right?

A traditional Japanese performance that is mostly recognized by the white face paint that the actors wear (often decorated with designs in other colors…commonly black and red).

Well, the famous 歌舞伎座 (Kabuki Theater), which is in 銀座 (Ginza, Tokyo), is scheduled to be demolished in April 2010! This is because the building, which is a Tokyo landmark, is old and the government feels that it’s time for it to be rebuilt…for safety reasons.

Many people are petitioning the government to save the 歌舞伎座 (Kabuki Theater).

I have seen 歌舞伎 (Kabuki) years ago. I guess I need to go watch it again before 2010, so I can see inside the 歌舞伎座 (Kabuki Theater) one last time!

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And then…do you know 歌舞伎町 (Kabukicho, Tokyo)?

Despite the similar names, 歌舞伎町 (Kabukicho, Tokyo) has nothing to do with the 歌舞伎座 (Kabuki Theater) or 歌舞伎 (Kabuki) in general.

歌舞伎町 (Kabukicho) is the seedy section of 新宿 (Shinjuku, Tokyo).

It got the name 歌舞伎町 (Kabukicho) because after World War 2 the Tokyo government planned to build a large Kabuki theater there. But the plan was scrapped because the city didn’t have enough money in the budget back then.

The area grew into a famous red-light district  (actually the Governor of Tokyo is cleaning the area up alot now).

歌舞伎町 (Kabukicho) means Kabuki Town.

Empress Of Japan’s Birthday

Yesterday was the 74th birthday of the Empress of Japan.

As the Emperor and Empress always do on their birthdays, she released a birthday statement.
She said that she’s pleased by the healthy growth of her four grandchildren (ages 2, 6, 13 and 16…the three oldest are girls—which was cause for concern about the future heir to the throne…until Prince Hisahito was born in 2006).

The Empress made special mention of six-year old Princess Aiko starting 小学校 (Elementary School) this year.

She also said she hopes the lives of the survivors of last summer’s big earthquake in 岩手県 (Iwate, Japan) are back to normal soon.

And she offered congratulations to the Japanese who earned Nobel Prizes this year…and well as to the Japanese Olympic athletes who won medals in this year’s Olympics.

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Also in the news, the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic had to auction off her memorabilia so that she could pay her nursing home fees.

She was a newborn baby with her parents and older brother on the Titanic when it sunk. She and her mother and brother were rescued but her father died in the ship’s sinking.

She’s 96 years old now.

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On Sunday, we went to a 健康祭 (Health Festival).

Here’s a video I took at the festival of some older people doing a traditional Japanese dance:

At the park that the festival was at, there were many バラ (roses) in bloom.

There were many ducks in the park’s pond. They must get fed by people often, because they kept rushing over to people.

Here’s a couple videos of them:

This was a very friendly cat that we saw near the park:

I like cats (and dogs too). But probably not as much as this man we saw:

On the way home, we stopped at this 八百屋 (Produce Store):

Next to the 八百屋 (Produce Store) was a small general store.

That’s a Japanese broom next to the door.

And here’s a close-up of a drink 自動販売機 (vending machine)…it sells Coca-Cola® hot and cold tea and coffee, as well as other drinks:

A とんぼ (dragonfly):

On the way home, we stopped by Daiso (you can see another post of mine in which I wrote a bit about Daiso here).

Here’s a short video I took inside Daiso:

Categories

I’m currently in the process of going through all of my posts on this blog and adding categories.

I should’ve done this from the start.

I’m only halfway finished now…but you can see a long list of catergories on the very bottom of this page. Clicking on one will lead to all of the posts on my blog that fit under that category. (The categories are also listed at the end of each blog post as “Filed under“.)

Before I finish, let me know (in a comment on this post) if this is helpful to you.

どうも。 (Thanks).

It’s Been 18 Years!

Today is October 17, 2008.
I came to Japan on October 17, 1990…eighteen years ago today! Almost half my life.

When I came to Japan in 1990, I was twenty years old and knew basically nothing about this country.
When I first stepped foot alone off of that airplane when it landed at 成田空港 (Narita Airport, just outside of Tokyo), and I suddenly couldn’t understand even one written or spoken word…the culture shock began.

The food, the fashion, the trains, the language, the general atmosphere…everything was so different from what I was used to at that time.

But it wasn’t long before I became accustomed to Japan and began to feel at home here.

Alot has changed in Tokyo during these past eighteen years. Some of the differences between Tokyo then and Tokyo now:

When I came to Japan in 1990, there were no IC Cards, like SUICA, for the trains and buses (see my post about SUICA here).

And signs in Japan, even at the train stations, didn’t have any English written on them. I couldn’t read Japanese back then, so I would have to ask the train station staff how much the fare was and how many stops to the station I wanted to go to.
Ironically, now the signs with the train station names are written in both Japanese and the English alphabet…but I don’t need the English anymore.

The train stations in Japan didn’t have elevators or escalators…only stairs. When our kids were small and we used strollers to take them out, I had to carry the strollers up and down the stairs everytime we’d change trains or exit or enter a train station!
Parents of babies today don’t realize how lucky they are…there are escalators and elevators all over Japan!

The automatic ticket gates at train stations (that you put your train ticket into) didn’t exist when I first came to Japan either.
The stations had attendants who sold the train tickets and attendants at the gates with hole-punchers to punch the train tickets of everyone entering the station…and they collected the tickets from the people when they exited the station.
If someone’s ticket wasn’t enough to cover the fare, they’d stop them and tell them how much was owed…they were able to do this even during Tokyo’s rush hour!

Of course, there were no 携帯電話 (cellular phones) back then…so there were payphones everywhere. And most everyone had a phone card in their wallet.
If an announcement came on at a train station that said the trains were delayed, everyone would rush over to a payphone and stand in line to use the phone to call their boss!

Payphones and phone cards were so popular that it was common to see people (often illegal immigrants) selling unofficial (illegal) phone cards at a discount.
Everyone has a 携帯電話 (cellular phone) now so payphones aren’t all over like they used to be and phone cards don’t sell as well as they used to.

A few other changes I’ve seen are many banks have merged and changed names, イトーヨーカドー (Ito-Yokado stores) changed the logo on their signs, Halloween is becoming more popular (read my post about Halloween here), and the number of foreign visitors to Japan has increased alot.

Everything in Japan is just normal to me now. It has become home.

草鹿式

As I mentioned in an earlier post (here), we just finished a three-day weekend because yesterday was a holiday. (It was 体育の日 (Sports Day)…(see my short FAQ about it here)).

We went to two festivals. One was on Sunday (at this post) and the other one was yesterday.

The event that we went to yesterday wasn’t really a festival but more of a ceremony.
It was the 草鹿式 (Archery Ceremony) at 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine).

The literal translation of 草鹿式 would be “Grass deer ceremony“. This is because the archers, wearing traditional outfits and speaking in traditional 日本語 (Japanese), shoot arrows at a stuffed deer. Not a real deer…a fake one.
The arrows don’t have arrowheads so that they can use the target deer every year.

Like 相撲 (Sumo), this event has alot of ritual and tradition that is done before each shooting.

It was fun to watch…not as exciting as 流鏑馬 (Horseback Archery), but still fun. (Click here and here to read my posts about 流鏑馬 (Horseback Archery)).

Here are a few photos I took:

Here are some videos:

Because 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine) is where all who have died fighting for Japan are enshrined, it attracts Japan’s right-wing extremists.

But they are a minority. Most visitors to 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine) are just like visitors to war memorials in other countries…only there to honor the sacrifice and the memories of soldiers who died in battle. (See an earlier post I wrote about 靖国神社 (Yasukuni Shrine) here).

After we left there, we went to the nearby 昭和館 (Showa-kan).

The 昭和時代 (Showa Period) in Japan was when the current Emperor’s father was alive and was Emperor. The 昭和館 (Showa-kan) is a museum that focuses on how life in Japan was during and just after World War 2.

I couldn’t take any pictures inside but it was very interesting. Japan has changed alot since then and there were many hardships back then. But some things, like the food that Japanese people eat, is still quite the same.

The museum’s website is here (日本語 (Japanese) only).

Over the years I have seen many American celebrites do television commercials in Japan. (Kinda like in that overrated movie “Lost In Translation“. (I thought that was a painfully boring movie…but some people, it seems, liked it alot. C’est La Vie. Did you like it?)).

Tommy Lee Jones has been making humorous commercials for Boss Coffee for awhile now.

Most of the American celebrities just say a few lines in English or they may say a couple words of Japanese…but they usually slaughter the language if they do. Tommy Lee Jones speaks Japanese pretty good in his commercials though.

From there, we walked past the 日本武道館 (Nippon Budokan Arena). Along the walk, I took these pictures:

On the way home, we stopped for a break at the Lotteria Fast Food Restaurant. We ate dinner at home, but just took a “coffee break”. They sell Japanese style snacks…Green Tea Shake, and An-bean and mochi pastries. So we had one each.

区民祭り

Every October we go to our local 区民祭 (Residents Festival). And when my kids were in the sixth grade, they were each in the festival’s marching band parade.

This year, my youngest daughter is in the sixth grade.

The 区民祭 (Residents Festival) was today and we just got home from it. My youngest daughter played the trombone in the parade.

This will be the last time any of my kids participate in this festival’s marching band. Of course we videotaped her in the parade (just as we did when her older sisters played in the parade).

Every ward in Japan has a local 区民祭 (Residents Festival) and they’re all a bit different (we’ve been to many of them…not just our local one).
A few things that they all have in common is the booths that sell food and drinks that are staples of Japanese festivals…but they also sell local specialties. They also have stages with local clubs and bands performing. And the local merchants and clubs have booths in which people can buy their wares…and in some cases, make something to take home–for free (for example, the local carpenters help kids make bookcases or stools to keep for free).

Here are a couple videos of booths selling food:

And here’s a huge pot of a delicious soup that was being sold:

And a video of it:

Do you know 太鼓 (Japanese Taiko giant drum)?
There was a 太鼓 (Japanese Taiko giant drum) show:

And three videos of the 太鼓 (Japanese Taiko giant drum) show:

There was a booth selling 盆栽 (Bonsai trees) too.
The least expensive one was ¥10,000 (about US$90):

They even had pony rides for the little kids. Here’s the pony on his break:

As it is every year…it was a good time!

Three Day Weekend

昨日 (Yesterday) was 十月十日 (October 10). Until a few years ago, that day used to be 体育の日 (Sports Day). But, along with a few other 祝日 (holidays), it’s been changed to the closest 月曜日 (Monday).

Therefore, this 月曜日 (Monday) (十月十三日 (October 13)) is 体育の日 (Sports Day). So, 今日 (today) is the first day of a 三連休 (three-day weekend).

(You can see my short FAQ post about 体育の日 (Sports Day) here.)

There are many 秋祭 (Autumn Festivals) around 日本 (Japan) this weekend and next. We plan to go to a couple of them.

Today (土曜日 (Saturday)), though, we’re just staying home because our daughters need to study for exams that they’ll will have at school on 火曜日 (Tuesday).

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I’m part of “Generation X” (born in the late 1960s – late ’70s). I was in Elementary school in the 1970s and a teenager in the 1980s.
I can remember (vaguely) the election of the US President Jimmy Carter. More vividly I remember when Rubik’s Cube®, Sony Walkman® (that played cassettes), MTV®, “Nightmare On Elm Street“, and Pac-Man® were big.

Growing up I loved Star Wars, The Incredible Hulk (TV show), Knight Rider (I’ve seen an episode of that old show recently…I can’t believe I liked it as a kid!), Evel Knievel, The Fonz, and heavy metal music (some of my favorites were (and still are): KISS (see my post here), Judas Priest, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, and Scorpions).

Recognize any of those? Some things on that list were from the ’70s (until I was ten years old) and others were from the ’80s (when I was eleven years old til high school).

(BTW, all of the band logos above are copyright© of their respective owners. And I got the images from the Hard Rock Hideout website).

My three kids were born between 1993 and 1996. Their generation doesn’t remember a pre-internet or pre-cell phone world. They were too young to understand the “9/11” attacks when they occurred.

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Anyways…what was popular with you when you were growing up? (Write about it in the comments section!)

Skinny-dipper in Tokyo?

Yesterday, a British citizen (who resides in Spain) was visiting the 皇居 (Imperial Palace) in Tokyo.

Supposedly, the group went to the palace guards to tell them, in English, that they accidentally dropped their bag into palace moat. They weren’t satisfied with the guards’ reaction (who probably didn’t understand them)…so the middle-aged British man stripped completely and jumped into the moat!

His crazy antics immediately drew a large crowd who began taking his picture with their 携帯電話 (cell-phones).

The police dispatched numerous officers to apprehend him. Some were in a boat (see photo above (by the way, I didn’t take that photo. It was from the Associated Press™)), and some were on the ground surrounding the moat.

The tourist began throwing rocks at the officers in the boat. Then he climbed out of the moat and found a construction barrier-pole and used to to try to hit the police officers. One officer rushed him and pushed him back into the moat.

The British man then swam to the other side and scaled the stone wall (knocking out one of the stones in the process).

After his climbed out again, the police arrested him.

Quite a crazy story! I’ve never heard of anyone swimming in the Imperial moat before…especially without clothes!

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Anyways, as I said at the end of this post, my daughters’ 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) died recently.
Well, my second daughter’s teacher gave her one of his beetles. It’s not the same kind…this one is even bigger! It’s a ゾウカブト虫 (Elephant Beetle).

It’s only in the 幼虫 (larvae) stage right now. It should change into an adult beetle next Summer.

The Elephant Beetle is from South America and some parts of the southern U.S.A. and looks quite different from the 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that we usually get.

Here’s a picture of him in his larvae stage (the larvae of the 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that we usually get is much smaller):

He’s a big bug…but still just a baby!