Some news

• Air India flight 307 left 成田空港 (Narita Airport in Chiba (near Tokyo)) for India on Sunday, 21 September 2008 but had to return to Narita because parts of the engine fell off…and struck two parked cars near the airport.One piece of debris sliced through the wind-shield of a car like butter. Luckily noone was hurt.
• The American Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, U.S.S. George Washington, is scheduled to arrive in Japan tomorrow to commence being homeported in 横須賀 (Yokosuka (south of Tokyo)).A large number of protesters are expected to greet the ship because many Japanese are against having a nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ship even visit Japan, not to mention being stationed here.

  

• On Monday, 22 September 2008 (two days after his 68th birthday), 麻生太郎 (Tarou ASOU) was chosen to be the new Prime Minister of Japan.

  

  (My post about the former Prime Minister, 福田康夫 (Yasuo FUKUDA), resigning on Sept 1st is here).

DAIGO

DAIGO is a new celebrity in Japan. (His official blog is here (Japanese only)).
His grandfather was a former Prime Minister of Japan (竹下登 (Takeshita Noboru)).

DAIGO is the singer of a rock band called “Breakerz“, and he often appears on TV and says funny things and does his trademark pose.

Also, his band’s song appears in the Japan showings of the Hollywood movie “Wanted” and DAIGO dubs in Japanese for the lines of James McAvoy in that movie.

Recently, James McAvoy was in Tokyo to promote the movie “Wanted“, and he met DAIGO.
James McAvoy is 29 years old and DAIGO is 30. When James was told DAIGO’s age, he said “I thought he was nineteen!”

Here’s a picture of DAIGO and James McAvoy promoting “Wanted” in Tokyo. They are both doing DAIGO’s trademark pose:

Last week, we found out that DAIGO would be appearing at a shopping mall on the outskirts of Tokyo on September 21 (yesterday).

So we went there yesterday to see him. And it seemed that every other person in Tokyo had the same idea!
It was really crowded!

Here’s the crowd that gathered to see him:

All the girls in the crowd starting screaming once he appeared. Like a rock concert!

We got there too late to get a good spot…we could only hear him. We couldn’t see him past the crowd. But we didn’t really mind…we still had a good time at the mall.

Here are four videos I took (only the immense crowd can be seen):

After DAIGO finished and left, the crowd disappeared and the shopping mall was much more normal:

***

At the mall, we went to many stores of course…one of them was the game center (arcade).

Here’s a short video I took in there. At the end of the video, you can see a UFO catcher (crane game) with ice cream in it:

“Star Wars Celebration Japan” (post #2)

Yesterday I went to the 幕張メッセ (Makuhari Messe Convention Hall) in 千葉県 (Chiba Prefecture) for the Star Wars Celebration Japan.

Star Wars Celebration Japan poster.

This event was to mark the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the first Star Wars movie in Japan in 1978.

Last week, I wrote a post about this convention.

You can read that post here.

I didn’t have tickets for the “Star Wars Celebration Japan“…but I wanted to take some photos outside the venue for my friend who is a big Star Wars fan, but was unable to attend this event.

But, there wasn’t much outside the venue to photograph (inside the venue was a different story, I’m sure).

Anyways, here are the photos I took of the 2008 Star Wars Celebration Japan:

Darth Vader	Stormtrooper and a fan.
Stormtrooper with more fans	Another shot of him

And I took four videos and uploaded them to my YouTube Page.

Like I mentioned though, there wasn’t alot for me to film since I wasn’t able to go inside the venue.

That said, here are my videos of the Star Wars Celebration Japan:

*****

After I left there, I met up with my wife and daughters and we went to watch the movie 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 (千年呪い歌)」 (Ge-Ge-Ge-No-Kitarou (1000 Year Cursed Song)).

「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 movie poster

It was a pretty good movie. I liked the first 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (Ge-Ge-Ge-No-Kitarou ) movie better though…but this sequel was still good.

One main difference between 映画館 (movie theaters) in Japan and those in America is that it’s perfectly acceptable to bring your own food and drinks into the theaters in Japan (rather than being forced to buy something at their snack counter).

(Another difference is the things that are sold at the counters in the theaters….in movie theaters in Japan, the snack counters sell programs and souvenirs for the movie, as well as sandwiches and beer (in addition to popcorn and cola)).

Anyways, we bought our food at a supermarket near the theater and carried it in.

We had 寿司 (sushi) and beer (the kids didn’t drink beer, of course! They had お茶 (Japanese green tea)).

寿司 (Sushi) in a supermarket

Star Wars Celebration

Next weekend (Friday, July 19 – Monday, July 21 (July 21 is a holiday in Japan (Click here for my FAQ about it)), is the Star Wars Celebration in 千葉県 (Chiba prefecture), Japan.

It’s being held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of the Star Wars movie in Japan.

For this event, Pepsi Cola is giving away small bear toys designed to look like Star Wars characters with purchases of their “NEX Zero Calorie” cola. These bears are made by Be@rbrick.

I’m not much of a cola drinker…especially “zero calorie” cola, but I bought a few bottles just so I could have the Star Wars souvenirs. They might become valuable one day!

I got the Yoda one (even though it’s the ugliest one), as well as Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and a Stormtrooper (because I’ve always liked the villains!).

It turns out, though, that the only ones that are exclusive to Japan are “Wicket” and “Paploo“.

I’ve never heard of these characters (I like the Star Wars movies…but I’m not a huge fan), but I’m gonna try to get them both (since they’re “Japan only”)!

My friend from high school is a huge Star Wars fan and wants to come to Japan to attend this event. If he does come to Japan, then I’ll go to the Star Wars Celebration with him…otherwise it’s unlikely that I’ll go.