Star Wars director pays respect to Tokyo

Today is 2015 December 18th…the day that the latest Star Wars movie premieres in Japan.

Poster in a train station in Tokyo advertising the new Star Wars movie.

Star Wars has a lot of inspirations from Japanese movies and Japanese culture.
For instance, click here to see some photos my daughter took of Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and lightsabers done up to more closely resemble the samurai and katana swords that they were modeled after.

Well, members of the cast and crew of the latest Star Wars movie were recently in Tokyo to promote the movie.
Actor John Boyega (who plays the new character “Finn“) expressed how excited he was to visit and shop in Tokyo:

Tweet by actor John Boyega on his last day in Tokyo.

And, it turns out, that there is a planet in the new Star Wars movie named in honor of Tokyo.

Tokyo is director J.J. Abrams “favorite city” and he named a planet in Star Wars “Takodana” after the 高田馬場 (Takadanobaba) college-town area of Tokyo.

He was quoted in an interview about it:

“There’s a planet in this movie called Takodana and I named (it) after the first time I came to Tokyo (and) we stayed in a hostel in Takadanobaba. So it was a nod to my favorite city.”

— J.J. Abrams

Near Tokyo’s 高田馬場駅 (Takadanobaba train station)

Letterboxd

I like movies very much. I watch movies often. I thought twitter would be a useful place to ask others for recommendations for good movies to watch…and I could also write my opinion of movies I’ve seen to help other people choose a good movie.

But twitter user @kuma told me about a site called “Letterboxd“.

Why don’t you visit their site and join?  It’s free and it’s easy.  And, if you like movies at all, it’s fun!

You can rate movies with a ☆ star ranking. And you can write a review or summary, if you want to.  You can also search for a movie that you’re thinking about watching and see other people’s rating of it.

Another thing that I like about Letterboxd if that it’s a good way to keep a diary of the movies you’ve watched.  I’ve only just started using their site, so I don’t anywhere near all of the movies I’ve seen listed…but click here to see my Letterboxd page.

If you join, “follow” me on the site…and also write a comment on this post and tell your page URL.

Big Bird came to Japan

I didn’t know that there was a Sesame Street special that had Big Bird visit Japan.

He and his dog got seperated from their tour group in Tokyo which led to a number of cultural misunderstandings … such as Big Bird thinking people were telling him that they were from the U.S. state of Ohio when they greeted him with “Ohayo” (‘good morning’)… until he was helped by a mysterious woman who turned out to be “Kaguya-hime” (a famous Japanese folktale “Bamboo Princess”) and she helps him and his dog get back to Sesame Street in America.

Here’s the special on YouTube:

Greenery Day or Star Wars Day

It is now “Golden Week” in Japan.

April 29th was “Showa Day”. It’s called that because it was the late Showa-era Emperor’s birthday, and celebrated as such until he died 26 years ago.

May 3rd (yesterday) was “Constitution Day”. The day Japan’s post-WWII constitution was adapted.

Today, May 4th is “Greenery Day”. The day to appreciate nature.

Originally after the Showa Emperor died,  April 29th was Greenery Day because that Emperor loved nature, and May 4th was “Residents Holiday”… but it was changed about twelve years ago.

Tomorrow, May 5th is “Children’s Day”.

This year, because today is a Sunday and therefore today’s holiday is kinda ‘lost’ since it’s already a day off for most people… Tuesday, May 6th is also a day off. It’s “Greenery Day observed”.

Collectively, this holiday period is known as “Golden Week”.

Also, the new upcoming Star Wars movie (Episode VII), with the most famous faces from the first three Star Wars movies returning in their 60s or 70s will be in theaters in Japan and other countries in December 2015.

It seems that Star Wars fans around the world call May 4th (today) “Star Wars Day” because the date, May the Fourth, sounds like the well-known quote from Star Wars, “May The Force (Be With You)”.

Fellow KISS fan here in Japan, “Naokiss “, found an ad in today’s newspaper for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII that explained that today is 「スターウォーズの日」(Star Wars Day):

 

2014 Godzilla trailer

Here’s the new trailer for the upcoming 2014 U.S./Japan collaboration “Godzilla” movie:

Japan in January

Japan is beautiful in January … and every other month!

Groundhog Day

In America, it’s Groundhog Day

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?

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was the Thanksgiving Day holiday in America.

I like Thanksgiving. And I like my daughters to know about their U.S. heritage.

So, lucky for me, my wife is an excellent cook!

She makes a wonderful, American-style Thanksgiving dinner for us every year!

In honor of the holiday, everyone should watch one of the greatest comedy movies ever … 「 大災難P.T.A. 」(“Planes, Trains and Automobiles”) !

It’s a man’s crazy adventure to get home to his family for Thanksgiving.

Have you ever watched this movie before?

Godzilla 2014

In 1998, Hollywood made a 「ゴジラ」 (“Godzilla“) movie.

Or, I should say, they tried to make a Godzilla movie.  It wasn’t very good. Most people, especially die-hard Godzilla fans disliked that movie.

So, it was a bit of a surprise when another Hollywood studio announced that they will release another big-budget “Hollywood” Godzilla movie.

But, they assure us, this one will be a “true” Godzilla film. It’s going to more like the Japanese Godzilla movies.  In fact, it isn’t going to be entirely made by an American studio…the Hollywood studio “Warner Bros.” and the Japanese studio “Toho” (who made the original Godzilla movies) have collaborated to make the upcoming Godzilla movie that is scheduled for release in 2014.

The movie flyer even has the name 「ゴジラ」 written in Japanese