2010 in review

Yesterday was 冬至 (Winter Solstice). In Japan, many people eat pumpkin and take a bath with Yuzu fruit to prevent catching a cold.

Click here to read a post I wrote with more detail about this Japanese tradition.

Today is a holiday in Japan. It’s 天皇誕生日 (the Emperor of Japan’s birthday). He’s 77 years old now.
This is one of the two days of the year that the public are invited into the Emperor’s Palace grounds to see him and listen to his speech.

Click here to read my FAQ about it.

Anyways, every year the Mitsukoshi Department Store in 銀座 (Ginza, Tokyo) has an exhibit of press photos of the biggest news stories of the year.

We often go to see it. And we went to this year’s exhibit today.

It was quite good, as usual. There were nearly 300 photos that showed many big events of this year…from the World Cup and the Olympics to the miners rescue in Chile.

2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada

Of course, there was photos of the closing of the Kabuki Theater in Tokyo.
Click here to read my post about this famous theater’s closing (with photo that I took).

The closing of the famous Kabuki Theater in Ginza, Tokyo.

If you’re in Tokyo you should check out this exhibit. It’s free of charge and runs until Sunday (2010 December 26).

All photos in this post are from the Mitsukoshi 2010 Press Photo Exhibit website.

Top news stories of 2010

It’s almost 2011. It seems that 2010 just flew by! But maybe it only feels that way because I’m getting older. 😉
What would you say were the biggest news stories of 2010?
Which stories were covered by the news media extensively where you live? Which stories affected you the most?

As for me, I think I’d say that 2010’s biggest headlines were:

• North Korea attacked South Korea in November 2010.
  I live in Japan and Korea is the nearest country to us. So if the Korean War were to restart, it could affect Japan.

  Norea Korea bombed South Korea, Nov. 2010

• Haiti Earthquake
  On 2010 January 12, a major earthquake struck the country of Haiti. Over 90,000 people died.
  Japan is an earthquake-prone country. I think they are the worst of the natural disasters since they can strike anytime without warning.

• Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
  In April 2010, a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused over 4 million barrels of oil to pollute the water and cause immense damage to the eco-system.
  I grew up on the Gulf coast of Florida.

Which news stories do you think were 2010’s biggest?

World Cup news

Japan won their first game in the 2010 World Cup (being played in South Africa now until 11 July, in case you didn’t know).

Japan defeated the African country of Cameroon with a score of 1-0 in the first soccer match for both countries’ teams in this years soccer World Cup.

The Japanese player Keisuke Honda was voted as the game’s MVP as he scored the only goal in the match.

Keisuke Honda (of Japan's "Samurai Blue" soccer team) scoring the only goal in Japan's match against Cameroon, 2010 June 14.

In other World Cup related news…
Islamic militants in the African nation of Somalia are apparently in charge of parts of that country and have imposed numerous, strict and outrageous laws…including making it a capital offense to watch the World Cup soccer matches on TV.

A group of the militants forced their way into private homes of people who were watching the Germany-Australia match.
The executed two of the soccer fans and arrested thirty others!

No country should oppress people like that.

車イスカーリング

The 2010 Paralympics games started on 2010 March 12 and will continue until March 21.
Are you watching them?

(Click here to see the 2010 Paralympics medal count so far.)

At the time I wrote this post, Japan has one medal so far.
Kuniko Obinata won bronze in the Women’s Slalom Alpine Skiing event.
おめでとうございます！ (Congratulations!)

I wrote a post last month about Japan’s oldest Paralympics athlete…the 75-year old 比田井隆 (Takashi Hidai).
He’s a member of Japan’s 車イスカーリング (Wheelchair Curling) team at the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.

(Click here to read it.)

So far in the Wheelchair Curling event, Japan won their match against Italy (9-6).
It was their first game of the Olympics and the Japan team was ecstatic, of course.

Mr. Hidai told the Japanese press after that match that he was “on top of the world!”

Takashi Hidai after Japan's Wheelchair Curling victory over Italy.

But their good luck didn’t continue for the next few matches.
The Japan team lost their games against Korea, Germany, and Canada. 😦

Today they’re scheduled to play Norway. And then Switzerland, America, Sweden and then Great Britain.

がんばれ！ (Good luck!)

Olympic tragedy

We’re watching the 2010 Winter Olympics live on TV right now.
It started this morning (Sunday) and it’s currently about 1PM here in Tokyo. So I guess the games are being played in the evening in Canada (Sunday, 1:00PM in Tokyo = Saturday, 8:00PM in Vancouver).

As of right now, Japan doesn’t have any medals yet.
Ten countries have at least one medal each so far.

2010 Olympic medal stats (as of 2010 Feb 14, 1:20PM, JST)

If you want to see an up-to-date listing of the medal statistics, check out the 2010 Olympics medals page.

But, I’m sure you’ve heard how the 2010 Olympics started in tragedy.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, who was a 21 year old athlete from the country of Georgia who was on his country’s luge team, died in a terrible accident before the beginning of the games’ opening ceremony.

He flew off the Olympic luge track at high speed and smashed into a metal pillar during a training run.

He was air-lifted to hospital unconscious but died at the hospital.

The Georgia team was going to pull-out of the 2010 Olympics because of this tragedy, but finally decided to continue.
They wore black armbands in remembrance of Nodar Kumaritashvili as they marched in the opening ceremony.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, R.I.P.

++++

On a different note, today is Valentine’s Day.
Click here to see the post I wrote that explains how this holiday is different in Japan compared to Western countries.

So, my youngest daughter made some homemade chocolate for me.
I took a couple pictures:

The box of chocolate that my daughter gave me.

The chocolates that my daughter made for me...they were delicious!

New Years Postcard Lottery

New Years is Japan’s biggest holiday.  The holiday has many traditions in Japan.
One of the traditions is sending 年賀状 (New Years postcards).

One the back of Japanese New Years postcards, in the lower right-hand corner, is a six-digit number.
Every year in late January, the Japan Post Office has a New Years Postcard Lottery.

Yesterday was this years drawing.

The winning numbers for the 2010 年賀状 (New Years Postcard) lottery:

★ First Place (TV, computer, travel, digital camera or an office set)
– 975424

★ Second Place (Wii, digital camera, DVD player, TV)
– 259668,
– 446722, or
– 630838

★ Third Place (brand name merchandise)
– any number with the last four digits as 0977

★ Fourth Place (postage stamps)
– any number with the last two digits as either 00 or 52

★ “C” Prize (JTB ¥5,000 gift certificate)
– any number with the last five digits as 27520

There is also a Summer postcard lottery in Japan.
And I wrote a post about the New Years Postcard Lottery last year.

Did you get 年賀状 (Japanese New Years postcards) this year?
Do any of you cards have a winning lottery number?
I have three winning cards…all for postage stamps.

Happy New Year 2010

明けましておめでとうございます！ (“Happy New Year!“)

It’s now 2010. The second decade of the 21st century!

2010 is the "Year Of The Tiger".

If you go to the Tokyo Tower by 2010 Jan 17 (8:00-10:00PM), you can see it lit up with "2010"

Every year on New Year’s Eve in Japan, many people watch 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) on TV.
It’s a music show with two teams of musicians (a “red” team and a “white” team…red and white are the colors or celebration) competing for points based on their live song performance.

Just before midnight, they countdown to the new year.

This show has been a New Year tradition in Japan for many years.

Last night we watched the show…as we usually do every year.
Here’s a clip of the show from yesterday.

And as I mentioned in an earlier post, Susan Boyle came to Japan to perform on this show last night. It was an excellent performance.
Here it is:

America also has a musical New Year countdown show that has been aired for many years. I used to watch it when I was a kid.
On this show, they show a illuminated ball descend a tower in New York City…the ball is timed to reach the bottom of the tower precisely at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

I haven’t seen this show since the mid-1980s…but I’m sure it’s still on the air every year.

As today is the start of a new decade, let’s look at Japan’s 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) from New Years Eve four decades ago (the year I was born)…

Here’s a clip from Japan’s 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) from New Year’s Eve 1969 → 1970:

I couldn’t find a clip from America’s “New Years Eve At Times Square” from the same time but here’s one from three decades ago (New Year’s Eve 1979 → 1980):

Time flies. TV and music (and life in general) is so different now!

How about ten years ago?
New Years Eve 1999 ushered in the year 2000 (the start of the 21st century). Remember the “Y2K scare” at that time?
Well here’s a clip that shows highlights of the New Years celebrations from that evening (1999 → 2000) from around the world:

Almost 2010

In Japan, it’s almost midnight on 2009 December 31.
In about ten minutes the year 2010 will start in Japan.

Click here and you see the current time in Tokyo on my main website.

Last year, I wrote about 大晦日 (New Year’s Eve) in Japan and some of the customs in Japan…including 年越しそば (New Year noodles), which we ate today as we always do, and the 「紅白歌合戦」 (Red And White Music Battle) TV show that we’re watching now.
Click here to read my New Year’s Eve post from last year.

Since the year 2009 will be over in a matter of minutes (at least on this side of the world), how about a list of new words that entered the English language in 2009 and new words that entered the Japanese language this past year too?

New English-language words for 2009 (according to the Oxford Dictionary (since I don’t live in an English-speaking country, these were all new (and interesting) to me):

Intexticated – Distracting by sending text-messages via cell-phone while driving.

Paywall – Part of a website that is only available to paying subscribers.

Sexting – Sending explicit photos and/or text via cell-phone email.

Funemployed – Unemployed people taking advantage of their free-time to pursue interesting activities.

Choice Mom – A woman who chooses to be a single mother.

And the 2009 English-language “Word Of The Year”…Unfriend – To remove someone from your list of “Facebook friends”.

Are these words common in America (or other countries)?

And the new Japanese-language words in 2009:

「歴女」 (Rekijo) – (Eng. “History Women”) – Japanese women who are interested in Japanese history. It’s a new trend. They enjoy visiting historic spots in Japan such as graves of famous Samurai and other historic landmarks.

「ファスト・ファッション」 – (Eng. “Fast fashion”) – Due to the bad economy, cheap retail fashion stores such as “Uniqlo” and “Forever 21” have seen an increase in business.

「派遣切り」 (Haken-giri) – (Eng. “Temp Staff Cutbacks”) – It used to be that temporary staff of large companies could almost count on becoming permanent staff one day, but the economy has caused many companies to lay-off their temporary workers.

「政権交代」 (Seiken-Koutai) – (Eng. “Regime Change”) – The Liberal Democratic Party has won every Prime Minister election for decades…but this year Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party Of Japan became the Prime Minister.

「新型インフルエンザ」 (Shingata-influenza) – (Eng. “New Flu”) – The Swine Flu is called New Flu in Japan.

Big America

McDonalds Japan will be offering four new versions of their “Quarter Pounder” burger starting next month.
Only one of the new burgers will be available at a time though.

All four of the new burgers are known as “Big America burgers. And individually they are: “Texas Burger“, “New York Burger“, “California Burger“, and “Hawaiian Burger“.

The first of the four that will be available is the “Texas Burger“. It will be available starting on 2010 January 15.
It has bacon and BBQ sauce.

Next will be the “New York Burger“. It will go on sale in early February 2010.
It’ll be like a BLT meets a Quarter Pounder“…bacon, lettuce and tomato on the burger.

Then in late February 2010, the “California Burger” will be the one available.
It’ll have Monterrey Jack cheese.

And finally, in March 2010, the “Hawaiian Burger” will be on the menu.
It’ll have a egg and is called a Hawaiian Loco-moco style burger.

On the McDonalds Japan website, visitors an click a button if they intend to try all four of the Big America burgers. When I checked the site, it said that “105,423 people will try all four burgers“.

To me, none of them sound all that special. I don’t think I’ll buy any of them.
How about you? Which of them sounds good to you? Would you try all four?

Are these burgers available at McDonalds in your country…or is it only in Japan?

+++

Anyways, the Xmas decorations went down yesterday in Japan and were replaced with the traditional Japanese New Years decorations.

New Years is Japan’s biggest holiday.

Here’s a New Years window display at a store that my family and I went to today.

And while we were out, we passed a little league baseball game near the river: