2014 New Years Postcard lottery

Every year in late January the Japan Post Office announces the winning numbers of the 年賀ハガキお年玉 (New Years Postcard lottery).

I’ve written blog posts about it. Click here to read one that explains about it.

There used to be nine winning number combinations years ago…then it was reduced to seven winning number combinations. This year, there are only four winning combinations.

First place: if you have a postcard with the last five digits being 97085, you’ve won ¥10,000.

Second place: if the last four digits are 2344, you win your choice from a selection of various prizes. Mainly foods, drinks and kitchen supplies.

Third place: if the last two digits on any of your postcards are either 72 or 74, you win a sheet of two postage stamps with this year’s Chinese horoscope character (the horse).

“Year of the Horse” stamps for 2014.

Every year I only win the postage stamps, if anything at all. Later today I’m going to check my postcards…hopefully I’ll have a first-place winner this year!

How about you? Did you win?

Sazae-san’s father, RIP

永井一郎 (Ichiro Nagai), the Japanese voice actor who was the voice of Namihei Isono on the long-running Japanese cartoon 「サザエさん」 (“Sazae-san“), as well as Yoda in the Japanese-dubbed version of “Star Wars” and many other well-known characters has died yesterday at the age of 82.

Sazae-san’s father, Namihei Isono. Mr. Nagai was the “voice” of this character for 45 years.

永井一郎 (Ichiro Nagai), 1931 May 10th – 2014 January 27th, R.I.P.

Kit-Kat Store

In Japan, there are many flavors of Kit-Kat.

I wrote a post about many of them. (Click here to read it.)

Last Friday, the world’s first Kit-Kat Store, a store that sells different flavors of Kit-Kat chocolate bars exclusively, opened in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

19 Years Ago …

Today (2014 January 17th) is the nineteenth anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake which struck Kobe, Japan on 1995 January 17th.

I wrote a post about it five years ago.

It was the first of two major earthquakes that have struck Japan since I’ve been here … hopefully there won’t be another!

KISS Charity T-shirt

KISS and Hard Rock Cafe have a collaboration T-shirt and pin to help the City Of Hope charity.

Here’s the YouTube video to promote it:

Tragedy averted!

An eleven-year-old Japanese girl went out alone at about 4PM last Saturday to walk her dog. Her dog returned home alone about forty-minutes later.
Of course her parents were worried sick and called the police when they couldn’t find her after two hours of searching.
The search for the child has been on the TV news since then.

But finally good news…the girl had been lost but she showed up safe at a 交番 (police “box”) about 20km from her house early this morning!

A Japanese 交番 (police box).

Change

This great song is a collaboration between 吉田兄弟 (the Yoshida brothers) and Monkey Majik!

The Simpsons meet Japan’s Studio Ghibli

It seems that an upcoming episode of the American TV show “The Simpsons” will have the characters in the worlds of Japan’s Studio Ghibli!

Studio Ghibli is the creators of the excellent Japanese anime movies such as “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Spirited Away”, etc.

I would like to see that Simpsons episode!

Here’s a preview for it:

How many characters / movies from Studio Ghibli can you spot?

All You Need Is Kill

I’ve written a post before about some of the numerous Hollywood that were either inspired by Japan or were actual remakes of Japanese movies.

(Click here to read it.)

Well, recently Hollywood has made more Japan-inspired films.

For example…

– Japanese title: ウルヴァリン SAMURAI (Wolverine Samurai) / U.S. title: “The Wolverine”

「ウルヴァリン　SAMURAI」 (“The Wolverine”)

–  “47 Ronin”

47 Ronin

– Japanese title: ゴジラ (Gojira) / U.S. title: “Godzilla”

ゴジラ

And now, I’ve heard that Tom Cruise is in a new movie called Edge Of Tomorrow which is an adaptation of the Japanese novel 「オール ユー ニード イズ キル」　(All You Need Is Kill).

Edge Of Tomorrow

「オール ユー ニード イズ キル」(“All You Need Is Kill”)….the Japanese novel that Edge Of Tomorrow is a remake of.

New Year Fire Drill

Every year on January 6th, the Tokyo Fire Department has 出初式 (New Year Fire Drill).

Tomorrow is 2014 January 6th, so it will take place tomorrow.

It’s a great event! You should see it if you have a chance!

I have been to this event a couple of times … I wrote a post with photos and video four years ago:

Click here to see it.