News summary

A few items that were in the news recently:

• Takamiyama, the first foreign sumo wrestler in Japan (he was Hawaiian (he’s become a naturalized Japanese years ago, though)), will retire this June.He’s already retired from wrestling about 25 years ago, but he has his own sumo stable (a training ring and dormitory for a group of wrestlers) and he will turn 65 years old this June, so he’s planning to completely retire from sumo next month.
• 自由の女神像 (The Statue Of Liberty) in New York City had been off-limits to tourists since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks…but it has recently been reopened and now tourists can go all the way to the top again for the first time in nearly eight years.
• North Korea tested nuclear weapons on last Monday and Tuesday. As a result, the Peace Clock in 広島 (Hiroshima, Japan) that counts the number of days that there has been no nuclear testing in the world had to be reset back to “00001”.

• A police officer in France was arrested after he cut of the genitals of his cheating wife’s boyfriend with a box-cutter knife.
• A woman was caught shoplifting from a Wal-Mart store in America and in an attempt to escape, she threw her infant child at the store’s security guards. Almost killing the baby.

Ponyo

Do you know 宮崎駿 (Hayao Miyazaki)?

The Japanese master animation artist who made classic アニメ (anime (cartoons)) such as 「となりのトトロ」 (My Neighbor Totoro), 「もののけ姫」 (Princess Mononoke), 「千と千尋の神隠し」 (Spirited Away), 「ハウルの動く城」 (Howl’s Moving Castle) and many others.

I’m not a anime fan…but his movies are excellent!

He just brought his new movie, 「崖の上のポニョ」 (Ponyo On The Cliff), to the Venice International Film Festival.

After the movie’s screening, he received a standing ovation and he was mobbed by international fans.
Movie critics are giving the movie four or five stars.

As I said, I’m not an anime fan. So I won’t be going to a 映画館 (movie theater) to watch this…but when it’s shown on cable TV, I’ll watch it.

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I mentioned in this post that the Russian sumo wrestler, Wakanohou, was arrested for drug possession (which isn’t taken lightly in Japan).

Because of that, all of the other sumo wrestlers had to summit to drug testing…and two more Russian Sumo wrestlers failed the test.

The brothers, Roho and Hakurozan, submitted the tests that tested positive for marijuana…just like their Russian counterpart Wakanohou. They face the possibility of deportation…as well as a life ban from Sumo.

Photos

I went thru some of my photos and decided to post a bunch of them on my blog. Mostly as Slideshows.

For convenience, here’s a menu of the pictures, slideshows, and video on this post:

Turtle	Butterfly	Beetle
Cicada	Kawasaki Halloween	Kamakura Horseback Archery
Asakusa Horseback Archery	Asakusa New Years	Tokyo Disneyland
Park	Cherry Blossom Viewing	Ibaraki
Yokohama	Kameido-Tenjin	Harajuku / Shibuya
Ueno	Tokyo Tower	Tokyo Dome area
Tokyo Stn / Imperial Palace	University of Tokyo	Tobu Zoo
Ryogoku		Bottom of this post

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First are some of the small animals that have been living in our house recently.

Our ミドリ亀 (Red-eared slider turtle):

My YouTube video of our ミドリ亀 (Red-eared slider turtle):

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The アゲハ蝶 (Swallowtail Butterfly) (and his 蛹 (cocoon)).

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Here’s a slideshow of our カブト虫 (Rhino beetle) eating gelatin.

[rockyou id=121255942]

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A slideshow of our 蝉 (Cicada) emerging from it’s moult (outer shell).

[rockyou id=121304472]

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Here’s ハロウィーン (Halloween) at 川崎 (Kawasaki):

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And here’s a slideshow of the 流鏑馬 (Horseback Archery) at 鎌倉 (Kamakura):

[rockyou id=121313498]

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And the 流鏑馬 (Horseback Archery) at 浅草 (Asakusa):

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And here’s a slideshow of New Years at 浅草 (Asakusa):

[rockyou id=121314652]

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東京ディズニーランド (Tokyo Disneyland):

[rockyou id=121257747]

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A park near our house:

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花見 (Cherry Blossom Viewing):

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茨城県 (Ibaraki) is a countryside prefecture to the north of 東京都 (Tokyo):

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横浜 (Yokohama):

[rockyou id=121261159]

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亀戸天神 (Kameido-Tenjin Shrine):

[rockyou id=121269921]

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原宿 (Harajuku) and 渋谷 (Shibuya):

[rockyou id=121271108]

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These photos are from 上野 (Ueno):

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東京タワー (Tokyo Tower):

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The 東京ドーム (Tokyo Dome) area (including the amusement park and 小石川後楽園 (Koishikawa-kourakuen Japanese Gardens)). There happened to be a cosplay event on the day I took these photos:

[rockyou id=121316712]

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東京駅 (Tokyo Train Station) and the 皇居 (Imperial Palace):

[rockyou id=121320484]

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東京大学 (The University of Tokyo):

[rockyou id=121322650]

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東武動物公園 (Tobu-Doubutsukouen Zoo):

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両国 (Ryougoku), the area of Tokyo with the 国技館 (Sumo Arena):

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Please leave a comment of what you think of these photos!

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今週末

The 2008 Summer Olympics in 北京 (Beijing) have ended.
Did you watch the closing ceremony?

The top ten countries for medals:

1. 中華人民共和国 (China) – 51 gold (100 total)
2. アメリカ合衆国 (USA) – 36 gold (110 total)
3. ロシア連邦 (Russia) – 23 gold (72 total)
4. グレート・ブリテンおよび北アイルランド連合王国 (Great Britain) – 19 gold (47 total)
5. ドイツ連邦共和国 (Germany) – 16 gold (41 total)
6. オーストラリア (Australia) – 14 gold (46 total)
7. 大韓民国 (South Korea) – 13 gold (31 total)
8. 日本国 (Japan) – 9 gold (25 total)
9. イタリア共和国 (Italy) – 8 gold (28 total)
10. フランス共和国 (France) – 7 gold (40 total)

Speaking of sports, a Russian 相撲 (Sumo) wrestler in Japan named 若ノ鵬 (Wakanohou) was recently arrested for possession of marijuana and dismissed from the Sumo Federation.

Japan has very strict drug laws. If he is convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and / or deportation.

What a stupid mistake.

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Last Saturday (2008/8/23), lightning struck the 醍醐寺 (Daigoji Temple) in 京都 (Kyoto, Japan), which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, causing a fire which destroyed part of the centuries old cultural asset.

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Also on Saturday we took our oldest daughter to an exhibition of Tokyo high schools and colleges to help us decide which one should attend next school year which begins in April in Japan.
She’ll be starting high school (10th grade).

Here’s a picture I took of the event. It was pretty crowded:

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From there, we went to the 米国空軍有効祭 (U.S. Air Force Friendship Festival) at the U.S. Air Force base in western Tokyo.

This is the only time that the U.S. military bases are open to the public. Actually, going on the U.S. bases is almost like going to America. The food, clothes, and the way everyone speaks loudly (and in English) are all very American. It’s kinda a culture shock for me (and of course, my family)…I guess I’m not used to America anymore.

It was a little bit rainy the day of this year’s festival, so it wasn’t so fun (but it wasn’t hot, so that was nice). We went to this festival three years ago…it was nice sunny weather on that day (although quite hot).

I couldn’t get any nice pictures from this weekend’s festival at the U.S. Air Force base because of the weather…but here are a couple pictures from the event when we went in 2005. They had a sky-diving show and let the public look inside the aircraft:

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And yesterday (Sunday), I volunteered to help set up and run a booth at a local summer festival near our house.

It was still raining (and it’s still raining today 😦 ) but a fairly large number of people still turned up. I helped run the drinks and かき氷 (flavored shaved ice) booth.

The weather was pretty cool, so not many people wanted shaved ice…but we sold alot of drinks. Especially beer!

It was a 盆踊り (Bon dancing) festival…but I was surprised that so many people still did the dancing despite the weather.

I was busy helping out so I didn’t bring my camera. But I took a picture with the cell-phone. It didn’t turn out so good because it was rainy and evening.

It was fun.

Tokyo Sky Tree

東京タワー (Tokyo Tower), built in 1958, is 333 meters tall. Taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France that it was modeled after.

At the time, it dominated the Tokyo skyline. And was used as a transmission tower for Tokyo’s radio and TV stations…as well as, a popular tourist attraction.

The tower’s fifty years old this year and it’s still used as a transmission tower today (and a tourist draw, as well)…but Tokyo now has many buildings that dwarf the Tokyo Tower…and obstruct the radio and TV waves.

So, the government decided to build a taller transmission / observation tower, to be completed by December 2011 and stand at nearly 634 meters tall (2080 feet).

It will be built at 隅田川 (Sumida River), near 浅草 (Asakusa). And it will be the world’s tallest tower.

This is what it’s expected to look like:

I think it’s an awesome sight. But I really like huge towers, skyscrapers and bridges!

The only thing I don’t like about it is it’s name…

Before a final name was decided upon, it was temporarily referred to as 新東京タワー (New Tokyo Tower). That was bad enough…but the official name for the new tower is: 東京スカイツリー (Tokyo Sky Tree)!

What an unfortunate name.

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Did you know that Japan’s Sumo Wrestlers went to America?

For the first time in 27 years, the top-ranking Sumo Wrestlers held matches in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

It was reported in the Japanese news that it was very popular with the American public.

Is 相撲 (Sumo) catching on in America?

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On Saturday, a new subway line will start running in Tokyo.

The 副都心線 (Fukutoshin Line) will connect Ikebukuro to Shibuya and eventually expand to go from Saitama to Yokohama.

The name of the line translates to something like “Nearly downtown”. That’s my own translation…not an official title. 副都心線 (Fukutoshin Line) is just a name of a train line, not a normal everyday expression—so it’s hard to translate.

Sumo Festival

Yesterday we decided to take our kids to the amusement park at Tokyo Dome City, but on the way we decided to stop at the 国技館 (Sumo Arena) because there was a festival there today.

One of the most popular booths at the festival was the one that had a few sumo wrestlers serving Chanko.

Chanko is Sumo wrestlers’ staple food. It’s kinda like a big soup / stew. It’s quite tasty…and filling!

Here’s a movie I took of the Sumo wrestlers serving Chanko:

From the festival, we took the train to the Tokyo Dome. My kids rode the roller coasters, water flume ride, etc while my wife and I watched (and I took pictures of them).

After that, we had dinner at an 居酒屋 (Izakaya…a Japanese “blue collar” type restaurant). “Izakaya” is a great dining experience…but not so easy to explain—come to Japan and try one.