At the DECKS shopping area in お台場 (Odaiba, Tokyo), they’re currently having a 「すいか祭り」 (“watermelon festival“) until 2010 July 19.
They’re selling all types of food, drinks and desserts made with スイカ (watermelon).
A great way to cool down from the summer heat in Tokyo!
Today I went to the 2010 「東京消防出初式」 (“Tokyo Fire Departements New Year Drill“).
チラシ (Flyer) for the 2010 「東京消防出初式」 (Tokyo Fire Dep't New Year Drills) show.
This is an event that takes place at the 「東京ビッグ・サイト」 (“Tokyo Big Sight“) near お台場 (Odaiba, Tokyo) on January 6 every year.
The "Tokyo Big Sight" venue.
Modern art near the "Tokyo Big Sight".
I mentioned this event in my “Festivals In Tokyo” page.
At this event, a number of firefighters from fire stations all over the Tokyo area come for a day of fire drills. It’s also a day to teach the public about fire and earthquake safety and to let people look and the fire trucks and fire-fighting equipment.
There are also hands-on things to try…such as practice fire extinguishers, trying on a firefighter’s uniform, and an earthquake simulator.
But the highlight of the event is definitely outside the venue.
First, the Tokyo Fire Department band plays and an official opening ceremony commences.
Then, there’s a parade of firefighters wearing various Japanese firefighter uniforms, rescue dogs, and all of the various fire trucks, fire cars, motorcycles, super-pump trucks, firefighting cranes, 救急車 (ambulances), super-ambulances…and in the water, the fire department boats, and in the sky, the fire department helicopters!
And then, some firefighters, dressed in traditional Japanese fire-fighters garb perform amazing aerobatics on traditional Japanese bamboo ladder. Long ago in Japan firemen had to be able to climb these ladders and hang on with their legs while they fought fires.
Japanese firemen still practice this skill for strength and dexterity.
And after that, another amazing show began.
Two buildings on either end of the court were set ablaze, “civilians” were in one of the buildings and needed rescue, an “earthquake” toppled telephone poles and cars, and other “civilians” were in need of rescue at sea!
Firetrucks, cars, motorcycles, cranes, ambulances, firefighters, rescue dogs all rushed to the scene with sirens wailing!
Rescue workers rescued the civilians from the burning building, rescue helicopters pulled people from the water, rescue dogs found “people” in the earthquake rubble!
Meanwhile, cranes lifted the telephone poles and the toppled truck!
And at the same time, hosemen fought the blaze in the burning buildings!
It was quite a show! So much action…I was swept up watching it and forgot to take many pictures!
In the closing ceremony, the fire boat and fire trucks sprayed water into the air and the ladder trucks all lifted a fireman each as high as their ladders went straight up…and then the firemen dropped streamers of flags down.
It was alot of fun to watch this event.
If you’re in Tokyo on January 6 in the future and you have a chance, I recommend checking out the 「東京消防出初式」 (“Tokyo Fire Departements New Year Drill“).
There were a number of news outlets there.
Here’s ANN News report on this event today:
And click here for information about the 2010 「東京消防出初式」 (“Tokyo Fire Departements New Year Drill“) from the 「東京ビッグ・サイト」 (“Tokyo Big Sight“) website (in Japanese only).
梅雨 (The rainy season) will be over soon in the Tokyo area and then the rest of summer will be filled with hot, humid, sunny days.
In Japan, 夏 (summer) means スイカ (watermelon), 祭 (festivals), 海 (the beach), 小鳥線香 (mosquito repellent coil)…
and 花火 (fireworks)!
宮島水中花火大会 in Hiroshima.
In the evenings of July and August (usually on the weekends), there are summer 花火大会 (fireworks shows) all over Japan.
If you go to a fireworks show in Japan,
– you should bring a picnic style food and drinks for yourself and your group…there’s no BBQ grilling done at fireworks shows in Japan,
– bring a plastic tarp sheet for your group to sit on…but, although many people do it, you’re not supposed to use the sheet to reserve a spot for yourself ahead of time,
– if you want to use 線香花火 (sparklers), don’t wave them around…it’s considered dangerous in Japan,
– you can wear 「ゆかた」 (summer kimono) or 「じんべい」 (Japanese traditional summer shorts / shirt outfit) if you want to,
– and Japanese people call out 「たまや！かぎや！」 (“Tamaya! Kagiya!“*) when the fireworks go up…you can yell that out too, if you want. (* Long ago, Tamaya and Kagiya were competing fireworks companies in Japan. Fireworks spectators began to call out their names to egg on their competition to make bigger and bigger displays. Today it remains popular to shout it out at fireworks shows.)
There are too many fireworks shows around Japan to list them all, even just in the Tokyo area there are too many to list.
But here’s a list of the main ones in the Tokyo area and the date of the summer 2009 shows (also you can click here to see a list of some of Tokyo’s Fireworks shows on my “Festivals in Tokyo“):
If you want any more information about these or other 花火大会 (Fireworks shows) in Japan (such as how to get there, the times of the shows, etc), please feel free to post a comment (click here), or contact me with this E-mail form, and I’ll help you as much as I can:
Today is the last day of a 三連休 (three-day weekend).
(Click here to read why Friday was a holiday).
As I mentioned in an earlier post (Click here to read it), we paid a visit to our family grave on Friday…then we went to the 「アンパンマンとやなせたかし展」 (”Anpanman & Takashi Yanase Exhibit“) at the 日本橋三越本店 (Mitsukoshi Dep’t Store head store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo).
Here are some photos I took:
Advertisement for the exhibit near the store
"Roll-panna chan" has a split personality. She can turn on her friends.
Some of the main "good guys"
They've become bugs!
「カキクケコちゃん」って！ Funny name!
「だいこんやくしゃ」 His name sounds like "Radish-actor"...but it means "Bad actor"
The "Hamburger Kid"
After we left the exhibit
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Yesterday the weather was really nice in Tokyo. Clear sky, comfortable temperature…perfect weather. So we walked around downtown and stopped in a few stores to get my kids some things that they need for the new school year.
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Yesterday’s weather was perfect…but today’s rainy and very windy. And a bit cold.
It’s too bad because today’s the Tokyo Marathon!
It started at 9:05AM this morning in 新宿 (Shinjuku, Tokyo) and is still going as I type this.
I’m watching it live on TV. It’s scheduled to end at 4:30PM.
The finish line is in お台場 (Odaiba, Tokyo). As of 3:20PM (when I writing this), about 26,000 runners have crossed the finish line…there are still about 9,000 people running it.
It’s too bad they didn’t hold the marathon yesterday when the weather was so much better!
Anyways, I mentioned the Tokyo Marathon in a post a few days ago. (Click here to read it.)
At the beginning of the marathon all 35000 people were crowded together
Just some random thoughts and observations, and some photos of various places around Tokyo.
First, when we visited Florida a few years ago, I went to the 7-11 convenience store to buy a six-pack of beer late one evening. But when I went to open the beer cooler, it was locked. The cashier told me that it’s illegal to sell alcohol in Florida after 1:00AM!
I was surprised by that. In Japan, alcohol can be bought at anytime day or night at 7-11 and elsewhere. There are even beer vending machines in Japan.
I looked at the internet and it seems that Florida’s laws are fairly liberal when compared to other states in America (In America, states make their own laws. Unlike other countries, like Japan, that have only federal laws).
For example, in Mississippi, not only are there hours of the day that you can’t buy alcohol…it also isn’t to be sold on Sundays and Christmas!
Missouri seems to be one of the strictest. In that state, alcohol isn’t sold after midnight or 1AM (depending on the day), public intoxication is illegal, and drinking outdoors is, as well.
I guess I have been living in Japan for a long time, because that all seems medieval to me.
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Speaking of 7-11 in America, they are quite different from the ones in Japan.
In Japan’s 7-11 stores, there are no “Slurpees” or “Big Gulp” drinks, nor nachos or aspirin or gasoline (there’s no “Slurpee”, “Big Gulps” or nachos because those don’t appeal to Japanese tastes…but 7-11 Japan doesn’t sell medicine or gas because, in Japan, medicine can only sold by licensed pharmacists and gasoline at petrol stands).
But at Japanese convenience stores, you can pay your bills, mail packages, buy DVDs, toothpastes, underwear, boxed lunches, ice cream, spaghetti, おにぎり (rice balls), squid, beer, whiskey, おでん (Japanese boiled “hot-pot” food), and more.
7-11, by the way, has over 34,000 stores worldwide. 6,200 of them are in America…but Japan has the most—over 12,000 Seven-Eleven stores are in Japan!
The Japanese department stores chain, Ito-Yokado bought the controlling shares of 7-11 stocks years ago.
Ito-Yokado‘s logo is a white dove and it used to be used above all of their stores. But since most of their profits come from the 7-11 stores, they decided to emphasize the 7-11 name. So now all of their department stores have a “7 & i Holdings” sign above the stores (“7” for “7-11” and “i” for “Ito-Yokado”).
Not only does Ito-Yokado own the 7-11 worldwide chain, they also own the “Denny’s” family restaurant chain.
Here’s the “old” Ito-Yokado sign (I took a photo of it a few years ago when I heard that they were changing the signs nationwide):
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Mariah Carey was on TV here recently because she came to Tokyo to promote a new CD.
I’m not a fan of her music so I don’t know much about her, but she seems right weird!
She was doing an interview on a popular morning talk show that I like to watch…and her young husband tagged along and they were snuggling the whole time.
Then the next day, she threw the opening pitch at the Tokyo Dome for a Tokyo Giants baseball game.
She wore stiletto heels on the field and rather than throw the ball…she dropped it right it front of herself.
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Did you hear about the homeless woman in 福岡 (Fukuoka, Japan) who was living in a single man’s closet for a year?
In Japanese homes, there’s a small storage space above closets that many people seldom open, and that’s where this woman was living.
She got into his house and stayed in the closet when the homeowner was home, but whenever he’d leave, she’d get out and take a shower and eat his food.
He found her because he installed a security camera in his house when he noticed food missing.
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Anyways…
here are a few pictures I took around Tokyo:
Tokyo Five 
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