News in Japanese

I get most of the news from Japanese TV news programs and Japanese online news.

It’s more accurate and up-to-the-minute for domestic (Japan) news than the English-language media in Japan…and they help improve my Japanese language ability (both written and spoken).

Do you ever watch the Japanese news on TV or read it online or in a Japanese 新聞 (newspaper)?

Here’s a story about a big fire that broke out last night in Tokyo. Have you heard about it? Can you read this:

(I got this article online at at this site.)

Here it is again with ふりがな (hold your mouse over the kanji to see the readings):

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民家火災で２人死亡、品川 ８棟全半焼

炎を上げて燃える東京都品川区西大井の火災現場＝２３日午前３時３分ごろ（提供写真）

２３日午前２時４０分ごろ、東京都品川区西大井、片山定さん（７５）方から出火、隣の民家などに燃え移り計８棟が全半焼した。片山さん方から男女の遺体が見つかり、警視庁大井署は片山さんと母栄子さん（９０）とみて確認を進めている。

同署などによると、片山さん方は木造２階建てで全焼。片山さんの息子の会社員晃男さん（４２）は２階でテレビを見ていて火災に気付き、逃げて無事だった。片山さん方は３人暮らしで、２遺体は１階で見つかった。

ほかに近所の女性が足にやけどをした。

片山さん方の向かいに住む自営業深沢百合子さん（３０）は「大声が聞こえて外を見たら家が真っ赤になっていた。息子さんが『中に２人いる』と叫んでいた」と話した。

現場はＪＲ西大井駅から南西に約５００メートルの住宅街。

2009年08月23日日曜日

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This is my English translation:

Fire in Shinagawa burns 8 homes and kills 2 people

Taken at the scene of the blaze in Nishi-Oi, Shinagawa, Tokyo on (Aug) 23rd at about 3:03AM (freelance photo)

On (August) 23rd at about 2:40AM, in Nishi-Oi, Shinagawa, Tokyo, a fire broke out in the home of Jyo Katayama (age 75). The fire spread to the neighboring homes and destroyed a total of eight homes.
The corpses of a man and woman were found in the house and the Ooi Police Department confirmed that they are the bodies of Mr. Katayama and his 90 year old mother Eiko.

According to the same police station, Mr. Katayama’s wooden 2-story house completely burned down.
Mr. Katayama’s son, Akio (42 year-old office worker), who was on the second-floor watching TV when the fire broke out escaped unharmed.
The three members of the Katayama family lived together and the two bodies were found on the first floor.

A female neighbor burned her leg.

The neighbor who lives across from the Katayama family, Yuriko Fukazawa (age 30, self-employed), said “I heard shouting and when I looked outside I saw the house was bright red. Their son was yelling ‘There are two people inside!’.”

The scene was on a residential street about 500 meters south-west of JR Nishi-Ooi Station.

Sunday, 2009 August 23

A few News items

A few stories from the recent news that I found interesting…

• A アシカ (sea lion) named 「ななみ」 (“Nanami”) at a zoo in 愛媛県 (Ehime, Japan) was unable to compete for food with the other sea lions in her pen. So she began leaping over three meters (9 feet) and holding onto the wall to eat fish held by the zoo’s visitors.

  She has become a very popular attraction.

  

  (Photo from the Japan Times).

• There was an explosion in a warehouse in 東京都渋谷区 (Shibuya, Tokyo) last Wednesday. It was initially reported that the owner of the place escaped the burning building…but his wife and mother died inside the building.

  It was reported yesterday that the man didn’t escape on his own. He was rescued from the building by a famous Iranian celebrity* who happened to be nearby. (*His name is Rahim Arvanaghi, commonly known as “Randy Muscle“, and he’s famous in Japan).

  He ran into the burning building and pulled the man out. But he was unable to save the man’s wife or mother.

• The 2009 edition of the Michelin Restaurant Guide will be out soon. And once again, Tokyo has more four and five star restaurants than any other city in the world.

  As I mention in this post, Tokyo had the most stars in the 2008 edition as well.

  Tokyo is the capital where there are the most restaurants, more than 160,000, and also excellent cuisine.

  Jean-Luc Naret, Michelin director

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.