Today is 2010 October 17.
I came to Japan on 1990 October 17. Twenty years ago.
I was 20 years old when I came to Tokyo…so I’ve now lived half of my life here. Starting tomorrow, I will have been in Japan for “most of my life”.
Time goes by so fast.
In 2008 on this date I wrote a post that compared some of the differences between Japan in 1990 and Japan today.
Click here to read it.
Today is also the anniversary of the day that Yoshihiro Hattori was shot to death in America because he went to the wrong house by mistake on his way to a Halloween party.
Last year I wrote a post on the seventeenth anniversary of his death.
Click here to read a bit about his story in the post I wrote last year.
I can’t believe I’ve already been in Japan for twenty years. October 1990 doesn’t seem that long ago.
Unless that is, you look at I list of the music and movies that were released in 1990!
I checked on Wikipedia…and twenty years seems much longer now that I realized that in 1990 Macaulay Culkin was a cute kid and “Home Alone” was a new movie!
The top-ten movies of 1990 were:
1. “Ghost“…This movie was pretty good, I think.
2. “Home Alone“…This was one funny…but all the sequels (some with different actors in the lead role) were ridiculous.
3. “Pretty Woman”
4. “Dances With Wolves”
5. “Total Recall“…I like action and suspense movies, but this one was mediocre.
6. “Back To The Future Part III“…This is an excellent trilogy. Of course the first one was the best, but the two sequels were good too.
7. “Die Hard 2: Die Harder“…The four “Die Hard” movies are among my all-time favorites—and I recently heard that they’ll will be making “Part 5” soon. I hope so!
8. “Presumed Innocent“…Harrison Ford is a great actor who has starred in many excellent films!
9. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles“…I knew about this comic book because in the liner notes of the excellent 1986 “Master Of Puppets” album by the heavy metal band Metallica it has in the “Thank you” list, among other things, “sushi, Absolut Vodka, Alka Seltzer, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles“.
Metallica is cool, this movie isn’t.
As a sidenote, there’s a similar story with the metal band Anthrax. On their 1987 “Among The Living” album there is a song titled “I Am The Law“. In the album’s liner notes it says that the song is inspired by the “Judge Dredd” comics. In 1995, Sylvester Stallone starred in a terrible movie adaptation of this comic series.
But I digress. Back to the list.
10. “Kindergarten Cop”
I was going to include a list of the music albums that were released in October 1990, too. But I’ve either never heard of most of the bands on that list or they’re albums by bands that I can’t tolerate.
There were a couple good albums released the time I came to Japan in October 1990:
“No Prayer For The Dying” by Iron Maiden
And the “Led Zeppelin box set“.
Tokyo Five 
I dont know if I ever asked you this but what made you decide to move and live permanently in Japan 🙂 I always hear the typical things about Japan’s expensive living, did it ever not turn you off and wish to pack up, go back home? At 20 years of age, that is very young to have left home and moved not out of the city but out of the country, very admirable i must say 🙂 so i hope you dont mind my questions 🙂 1990 sure had some classic movies but that Kevin Costner movie was pretty much forgettable for me hehe i do love all the Die Hard movies tho, who doesnt eh!
Congratulations 🙂
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>what made you decide to move and live permanently in Japan?
The job that I had at the time offered me a chance to work at their Japan branch for two years.
I couldn’t pass up a chance to see such an exotic foreign country for free.
I decided to immigrate here permanently because I began to feel at home here.
>1990 sure had some classic movies
Yes, for example, “Back To The Future III” came out in 1990. It was a great movie, but Part 1 was better.
>i do love all the Die Hard movies
As I wrote in this post, the “Die Hard” series are some of my all-time favorites! I can’t wait for part 5!
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>I was there 57 years ago but did go back in 1966 and 1967.
You should visit again.
>I cannot imagine the changes.
Yes. I’ve been here twenty years and Japan has changed a lot in that time…so I can imagine how different Japan is today from when you were here!
>I was stationed just a mile or so south of the train station in Hiyoshi.
I see. In Yokohama. Just south of Tokyo.
How did you like Japan?
>I don’t suppose much remains the same.
That train station is still in use…albeit it’s been modernized though.
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You’ve been there 20 years. Congratulations. I was there 57 years ago but did go back in 1966 and 1967. I cannot imagine the changes. I was stationed just a mile or so south of the train station in Hiyoshi. Used to spend time with Keio University students discussing life. We were on the old Tsunashima-Hiyoshi road. I don’t suppose much remains the same.
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congratulations on your 20th anniversary! That’s quite an accomplishment.
Some of those movies are my favorites of all time — Ghost, Dancing with Wolves, and Pretty Woman.
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Thanks.
Yeah, it seems a number of classic movies were released in 1990. So I guess it’s the 20th anniversary of those movies already.
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Well this was a blast to the past. I never would have guessed that those movies are all from the same year.
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Those movies all seem so old now. I can’t believe I came to Japan when they were new movies (and albums)!
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