KISS ads in Japan

Canon, the Japanese camera company has a camera called “Kiss“.
They used to have TV and print ads that featured kids dressed in make-up similar to that of the American rock band KISS.

I have a few of the ちらし (flyers), of course.

I didn’t know that the Canon “Kiss” camera is called different names in different countries until I read it on bartman905‘s blog.

I shouldn’t be surprised though. I know American movies often have different titles in Japan, and sometimes Japanese products have different names in America…for example, the Nissan “Fairlady” car is called the Nissan “300ZX” in the U.S.

Anyways, here’s the TV commercial for the Canon “Kiss” camera that used to be on TV here in Japan all the time:

Here’s another one:

And another:

Another TV commercial I remember well was about ten years ago for the 日経エンタテインメント (Nikkei Entertainment magazine):

That one was filmed at a real Anna Miller’s cake shop in Tokyo. The shop stayed open for business during the filming…so the customers were shocked when they walked in the shop and KISS was sitting at a table filming a TV commercial. I wish I went by there that day!

I remember all of these commercials well.

ウォーキング大会

Every year at this time, our town has a ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally).

It’s organized by the local 小学校 (Elementary Schools) PTAs and it’s open to everyone in the town to meet and walk around the river for a morning of socializing and exercise. It’s especially popular with the elderly and the children who attend the 小学校 (Elementary Schools) and their families.

I’m on the PTA of my youngest daughter’s 小学校 (Elementary School).
She’s in sixth grade at 小学校 (Elementary School)…this April she’ll begin 中学校 (Junior High). (And my oldest will begin 高等学校 (High School)).

Since I’m on the PTA, I helped with the ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally).
I’ve joined this ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally) a couple times before…but this was the first time I joined it as part of the organizers.

There are two courses. A 3 meter course and a 5 meter course. My daughter’s school’s PTA helped with the shorter 3 meter course. So, that’s the course I did. My daughter and her friends walked the 5 meter course.

The event started at 10:00. The start-point was at an Elementary School near the river (not my daughter’s school).
I and the other PTA members got there at 9:30 to set-up and welcome people when they came. At 10:00, the school principal gave a welcome speech and then the gym coach led us in warm-up exercise…then the people doing the 5 meter course left first. The rest of us waited about ten minutes to give them a head-start so that we could all finish around the same time.

We began our walk at about 10:30 and finished at about 11:30. It was a very relaxed pace because, as I said, there were many elderly people and young children. It was enjoyable.

I walked at the rear of the group to make sure everyone was fine. I, as well as the other PTA members, wore a PTA armband.
An old woman walked next to me and told me all about a trip she took to America many years ago.

Once we all got back to the 小学校 (Elementary School), we were handed a ticket with a number on it for a lottery-type game.
There were twenty prizes and random numbers were drawn and called out by the 校長先生 (school principal). People with winning numbers on their ticket were given a prize.
I didn’t win anything…but my daughter won a box of cookies.

Next year I won’t be on the PTA anymore…but I may join in the ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally) again.

阪神淡路大震災

Fourteen years ago today, on Tuesday, January 17, 1995 at 午前５時４６分 (5:46AM JST), the 阪神淡路大震災 (Kobe Earthquake) struck the Western Japan city of 兵庫県神戸市 (Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan).

It registered as a 震度７ (Level 7 on the Japanese Shindo scale*). I hope I never experience a major earthquake like that! (The small earthquakes are bad enough).

(* Japan uses the 震度 (Shindo earthquake scale) (震度７ (Level 7) is the highest) rather than the Richter Scale).