石田太郎 (Taro Ishida), a Japanese actor who also did voice dubbing for many Japanese releases of Hollywood movies. He was the “voice” of Gene Hackman in most of Hackman’s movies in Japan. He was also the Japanese voice of the late Peter Falk’s TV detective character “Columbo“.
Mr. Ishida died this past weekend.
Taro Ishida, 1944 Mar 16 – 2013 Sept 21, R.I.P.
Today is 「空の日」 (“Sky Day”) in Japan.
To commemorate the first manned flight in Japan on 1910 September 20th by Hino Kumazo…just a few years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
Eiji Toyoda, former president of Toyota Corp., died today at the age of exactly 100.
The Toyota company started in the early 1930’s by Eiji Toyoda’s father and the company’s name was originally “Toyoda” but was changed a few years later to the current トヨタ (Toyota) because it’s sounds nicer in spoken Japanese and looks nicer in written Japanese.
Eiji Toyoda, R.I.P., 1913 September 13 – 2013 September 17
It’s a three-day-weekend in Japan.
Today is 敬老の日 (Respect For Elders Day).
Even though today is a holiday, we’re staying indoors … and if you’re in the Tokyo area, you should too!
Because a big typhoon is currently hitting eastern Japan!
Trains have stopped, bridges are closed, houses and cars have been torn up, some parts of Kanagawa had a black-out, Kyoto and the city of 小浜 (Obama) have been flooded.
(Speaking of the Japanese city with the same name as the U.S. president, I wrote a post here:
https://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/obama/ )
The latest Wolverine movie is titled 「ウルヴァリン Samurai 」in Japan.
I just found out that it’s simply titled “The Wolverine” in America.
Have you seen it?
It’s set in Japan.
And, unlike many other Hollywood movies that “take place in Japan”, this one was actually filmed here.
I just watched this movie in the theater with my oldest daughter.
We saw many famous Tokyo landmarks in the film.
Have you watched it?
It’s very entertaining!
When I first came to Japan, there was no Halloween here.
But it’s become more and more popular in Japan over the years.
It’s different from Halloween in America though. Japanese kids don’t knock on their neighbors doors to “trick ‘r treat” for candy.
There are Halloween parades and some shopping malls let kids “trick ‘r treat” from store to store.
One of the most popular Halloween event in Tokyo is Tokyo Disneyland’s Halloween theme.
It starts in September and goes til October 31st (Tokyo Disney’s X-mas theme starts right after).
The Japanese anime “Akira” predicted over 30 years ago that the 2020 Olympics would be hosted by Tokyo!
http://junkee.com/akira-predicted-the-2020-tokyo-olympic-games-way-back-in-1982
Today is the championship game in the “18U Baseball World Cup”.
It’s called “18U” because it’s for players aged eighteen and under.
This championship match will be played in Taichung, Taipei at 7PM (Japan time (JST)) on Sunday, September 8th (2013).
It’s Japan vs USA.
Are you going to watch?
Tokyo has been chosen to host the 2020 Summer Olympics!
The last time Tokyo hosted the Olympics was in 1964.
That Olympics was considered a big success. And a lot of changes were made to the city prior to the Games then.
I look forward to seeing what changes are made to Tokyo again now that we will be hosting the Olympics again in seven years.
Have you ever lived in a city that hosted the Olmpics?
What were the pros? And the cons?
Would you consider hosting the Olympics are benefit to the city?
Are you gonna come to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics?
On Saturday (2013 September 7th), the IOC (International Olympic Committee) will decide which city will host the 2020 Olympics.
Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul are the three candidate cities.
If Tokyo is chosen, the famous 「新宿ゴールデン街」 (“Shinjuku Golden-gai“) might torn down and renovated.
If it does, that would be unfortunate. Golden-gai is a unique, well-known section of downtown Tokyo that consists of hundreds of very small restaurants and bars all with a small section of back alleys.
Very “Tokyo”.
Tokyo Five 
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