Claude Monet art exhibit in Tokyo

I’m not an expert on art by any means.

My tastes might be considered “low brow”.
I listen to heavy metal music, my favorite TV shows aren’t really educational or anything, and I don’t see the appeal of “over-rated” movies such as “Lost In Translation“, “Forrest Gump” and “The Lord Of The Rings“…those movies were all boring to me.
The movies I like are more exciting.

And I don’t feel comfortable eating in “four star” fancy restaurants…I prefer a simple 「居酒屋」 (Japanese izakaya “blue collar” type restaurant).

Even though I may be a “simple man” I can appreciate art sometimes.
I have never attended an opera or even a musical on stage, but I have watched 歌舞伎 (Kabuki) plays and sometimes I go to art exhibits at museums.

I have seen a number of 浮世絵 (Ukiyoe Japanese woodblock prints) exhibits…and yesterday, my wife and I went to 渋谷 (Shibuya, Tokyo) to see the 「モネとジヴェルニーの画家たち」 (“Claude Monet and the Giverny Artists”) exhibit.

It’s at the “Bunkamura Museum” in Shibuya, Tokyo until 2011 February 17th.

I learned that Claude Monet moved to a tiny French village called Giverny and painted the natural views that he saw there. And his work inspired many artists from other countries, but the vast majority were Americans, to go to Giverny and set up an “artist colony” there to learn from Monet.

Also, Monet was inspired by Japanese art (other famous Western artists, including Vincent Van Gogh, were too) and he had a collection of Japanese Ukiyoe prints.

Monet's painting of his wife in Japanese kimono.

Monet's painting of his garden in Giverny, France.

Monet's painting of a hay stack.

 

Are you interested in art? Monet? Ukiyoe?
How about your taste in food, movies, music, etc?

Even after over twenty years

I have been living in Japan for most of my life.
I came here when I was twenty years old…and that was over twenty years ago now.

I think Japan is the most beautiful country in the world and Tokyo is the best city.

I wanted to show some scenes that I see regularly in Japan and I may have started taking for granted but they are a part of what makes Japan so special.

Rather than go through the photos in my camera’s memory cards, I decided to be a bit lazy and see what I could find online.
I found a website called Getty Images that has many stock photos…some of them of Japan.
The people who take these photos must have cameras that are much nicer than mine because they took some really nice photos.

I use photos that I took myself in most of my blog posts, but the following photos are from Getty Images.

Every January, when the "Tokyo Stock Exchange" reopens after the New Years holidays, the female staff wear kimono.

A"bird's eye view" of Tokyo

A traditional Japanese breakfast.

A Japanese garden.

The symbol of Japan: 富士山 (Mount Fuji).

Tokyo's "Rainbow Bridge".

Japanese "Green Tea".

The Shibuya area of Tokyo

The Shinjuku area of Tokyo.

新幹線 (Bullet trains)

Tokyo Tower

By the way, today is the seventh day of the New Year.
On this day it is Japanese custom to eat 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“) for breakfast.
I will have it for breakfast today as I usually do on January 7th.

Click here to see my post that explains this tradition in more detail.

Big America 2

Last January, McDonalds in Japan began offering, for a limited time, four new burgers at different times that were collectively known as the “Big America” burgers.

First they offered the Texas Burger, then the New York Burger, followed by the California Burger and finally they offered the Hawaiian Burger.

Click here to read my post about the McDonalds Japan “Big America” burgers campaign.

Of those four I thought that the “New York Burger” and the “California Burger” were the best and the “Texas Burger” was the worst!

I guess most people felt differently though because it seems that the “Texas Burger” was the most popular of the four. I don’t understand why…I thought it wasn’t good at all.

Anyways, now a year after the original “Big America” campaign, McDonalds Japan will begin the “Big America 2” burgers campaign next week.

The first burger will be the “Texas 2 Burger” because of the popularity of the original Texas Burger.
The “Texas 2 Burger” will become available on 2011 January 7th until late-January. And it says that the recipe has been changed a bit…hence the name “Texas 2“.

After that, from late-January until mid-February, the new “Idaho Burger” will go on sale. As the U.S. state of Idaho is mostly famous for it’s potatoes, this burger will have a potato hash-brown on it!

From mid-February until mid-March, the “Miami Burger” will be available and it will have nacho chips on it!

Then, beginning in mid-March the “Manhattan Burger” will be on the menu. It will be designed to be like a NY deli sandwich with pastrami beef and mozzarella cheese.

I still think that the Texas Burger doesn’t look good…even if they “updated the taste”. The Miami Burger (even though I think nachos on a burger is a strange idea) and the Manhattan Burger look the best to me.

Which do you think looks good? Will you be trying any of these?

Upcoming movies in 2011

あけましておめでとうございます！ (“Happy New Year!)
2011 is　「うさぎ年」 (“the Year of the Rabbit”).

***********************

Foreign movies (usually “Hollywood” releases) usually premiere in Japan long after they’ve been shown in their home country (usually America).

This is because, I’ve heard, first the movie must be either subtitled or dubbed into the Japanese language…but sometimes the distributors wait to see how the movie does in it’s home country to help determine if it would be worth the cost to show it here.

Here are a few of the many Hollywood movies that are scheduled to be shown in theaters here in Japan in 2011:

– 「アンストッパブル」 (“Unstoppable”)

Stars Denzel Washington in a true story about a runaway train.
It was released in America in November 2010…and is scheduled it show in theaters in Tokyo on 2011 January 7th.

– 「ソーシャル・ネットワーク」 (“The Social Network”)

The story of how Mark Zuckerberg started the internet phenomenom called “Facebook“.
The U.S. release was in October 2010. It will show in Japan on 2011 January 15th.

– 「グリーン・ホーネット」 (“The Green Hornet”)

The story of a masked crimefighter called The Green Hornet and his partner Kato (who was played by Bruce Lee in the 1960’s TV series).

Bruce Lee as "Kato" in the 1960's U.S. TV series "The Green Hornet"

Sometimes American movies are released at the same time (or close to it) in both the U.S. and Japan.
“The Green Hornet” is one such movie. It is scheduled to be shown in the U.S. on 2011 January 14th and in Tokyo on 2011 January 22nd.

– 「トゥルー・グリット」 (“True Grit”)

Stars Jeff Bridges in the role made famous by John Wayne in the 1969 original movie adaptation of this story of a drunken U.S. Marshal in the 19th century “Wild West” who is hired by a fourteen year old girl to track the killer of her father.

The U.S. release of this film was in late December 2010 but won’t hit theaters in Tokyo until March 2011.

Have you seen any of these films? Do you recommend them?
I think “True Grit” looks the best. I’m looking forward to it.

The “Japanese Schindler”

Today is the last day of the first decade of the 21st century. And New Years is Japan’s biggest holiday. But this post is unrelated to that. Click here if you’d like to read an post I wrote about New Years in Japan.

This post is about a man who risked his career and even his life to help save thousands of Jews from Nazis in Europe during World War II.

杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune),
1900 Jan 1 - 1986 July 31.

His name is 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune) and he’s often called the “Japanese Schindler” because his courageous actions were similar to the German Oskar Schindler whose story was made famous by the movie titled “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg.

杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune) was a diplomat for Japan in Lithuania during the war.

While stationed there he issued thousands of visas to Jews to enter Japan and transit to America, Canada or other countries.
He issued the visas without proper approval from Tokyo and without even requiring proper application paperwork from the people he gave them to.

If he was discovered by the Japanese government he would have be striped of his diplomatic credentials, removed from office and probably prosecuted.
If he was discovered by the Nazis, his fate would surely have been much worse.

When asked why he risked so much, he replied:

It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.

— 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune)

There are monuments dedicated to 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune) in America, Europe and Japan.

 

Monument to 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune) in "Little Tokyo", Los Angeles, California, USA.

Wonka bar

Do you know Roald Dahl?
He was a great author of classic children’s books such as “Matilda“, “James And The Giant Peach“, and “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory“, many of which have been into excellent movies.

When I was a kid I read his book “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory” and I saw the 1970’s film adaptation starring Gene Wilder that was titled “Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory“.

 

「夢のチョコレート工場」 ("Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory")

The better movie version of this story was the one made by director Tim Burton and starred Johnny Depp.
This version was titled the same as the book and more closely followed the storyline.

 

「チャーリーとチョコレート工場」 ("Charlie And The Chocolate Factory")

In the story, Charlie finds one of the limited number of “Wonka Chocolate Bars” with a “Gold Ticket”.

Similarly, I learned that most of the “Wonka Chocolate Bars” sold in Japan have the same English-language labels as the ones sold in other countries…but there are harder-to-find “Wonka Chocolate Bars” with labels with the name written in Japanese カタカナ (Katakana) characters.

Well, I saw some in a store yesterday and, even though I don’t eat chocolate often, I bought one.

It says 「ウォンか」 which means "Wonka".

I haven’t opened it yet. I’m going to give it to my kids but I’ll probably try a piece of it.
Have you ever tried a “Wonka Bar”? Is it good?

How is X-mas celebrated in your country?

Christmas isn’t nearly as big of a holiday in Japan as it is in western countries.
In Japan, New Years is the biggest holiday.

In Japan, Xmas is a regular workday and many people don’t even bother to celebrate it at all.
Generally speaking, X-mas Eve is considered a romantic evening for couples to go on a date…often to a place with X-mas Illumination, and either on X-mas Eve or X-mas Day families eat a Christmas dinner (often of Kentucky Fried Chicken).
Champagne and “Christmas cake” are popular parts of a X-mas dinner in Japan too.

Japanese X-mas cake (from "Fujiya")

To give you an idea of how X-mas is spent in Japan, some statistics from a poll taken by monitoring group conducting a poll of Japanese people (the respondents were a ratio of 50:50 male:female and between the ages of 20-60):

• How do you spend Christmas?
  – Relax at home 45%
  – Nothing special 19%
  – Party at home 17%
  – Go on a date 10%
  – Go drinking 5%
  – Take a trip 4%

• Who do you spend X-mas with?
  – Family 64%
  – Boyfriend / girlfriend 11%
  – Undecided 11%
  – Alone 8%
  – Friends 5%
  – Other 1%

• What will you eat on X-mas? (multiple answers OK)
  – Christmas cake 61%
  – Roast chicken 53%
  – Fried chicken 47%
  – Pizza 39%
  – Salad 35%
  – Sushi 25%

• What will you drink on X-mas? (multiple answers OK)
  – Beer 44%
  – Champagne 43%
  – Wine 36%
  – Other 29%

How important is Christmas in your country? What is your country’s biggest holiday?
How is X-mas celebrated in your country?

Some photos

Here are a few photos I took around Tokyo yesterday.

Public mailboxes in Japan are orange and have two slots. One for domestic mail and one for international.
But in late December, they’re changed…they become one slot for 「年賀状」 (New Years Postcards) and the other slot for all other mail.

Click here to read a post I wrote that explains a lot about New Years in Japan…including 「年賀状」 (New Years Postcards).

 

Until early January, the left slot is for 「年賀状」 (New Years Postcards) and the one on the right is for other mail.

 

「年賀郵便」 (New Year's mail)

Yesterday was 「天皇誕生日」 (the Emperor of Japan’s birthday). It’s a national holiday in Japan.
On Japanese national holidays many buildings such as post offices and 交番 (Police Boxes) display the 「日の丸」 (Japanese flag). It can also be seen on the front of city buses and along streets.

 

Putting the flag away in the evening.

 

「パンダ・クロース」 ("Panda Claus")

This panda reminded me of a sign I saw last March in Ueno about the panda that the zoo will be getting.
Click here to read my post about it.

Also, I have a few posts about the many different flavors of Kit-Kat in Japan.
Click here to see the most extensive post.

Well, I saw a store in 東京駅 (Tokyo train station) that sold many of the flavors.

This store sold many flavors, including 「わさび」 (Wasabi), 「いちみ」 (Chili), Strawberry Cheesecake, and the store's recommendation: Blueberry Cheesecake.

Pizza Burger

I wrote a post about how, for many people in Japan, “Christmas dinner” = Kentucky Fried Chicken.

It’s been that way for years.

And I also wrote another post about how McDonalds in Japan is offering a special chicken meal set for Christmas this year in attempt to take some of the lucrative X-mas chicken-dinner market from Kentucky Fried Chicken of Japan.

Well, it seems that Burger King Japan has decided to jump on the bandwagon.

But rather than try to compete directly with Kentucky Fried Chicken (which would probably be a futile attempt since if Japanese people don’t prepare their own X-mas dinner they almost inevitably have chicken from KFC), Burger King Japan is offering a “NY Pizza Burger Set” as their holiday set.

The huge Pizza Burger (which meant to shared by six or so people) can be ordered 単品 (singularly, without the “set”) for ¥1,680. Or a single burger “slice” can be bought for ¥320.

But the entire “Holiday Set” can be purchased until 2010 December 30th for ¥2,980.

This set comes with one Pizza Burger (serves six), a salad, an order of “BK Chicken Tenders”, an order of “BK Cheese Bits”, and an order of onion rings.

2010’s Top Baby Names

My daughters were born in the early – mid ’90s, so it’s not really relevant to me but it’s still interesting to see how the most popular names people chose for their babies changes over time.

The most popular names of my generation are no longer popular with today’s parents.

When I was born, the top five boys names for American babies were:
Michael, David, James, John and Robert.
The top five girls names in America that year were:
Lisa, Michelle, Jennifer, Kimberly and Melissa.

At the same time, the top five boys names in Japan back then were:
Makoto, Hiroshi, Osamu, Naoki and Tetsuya.
For Japanese baby girls, it was:
Akemi, Mayumi, Yumiko, Keiko and Kumiko (names ending with ～子 (-ko) used to very popular for girls in Japan…now, not so much).

These days, I guess those names are considered “old-fashioned” in both America and Japan.

In America, the top five boys names for babies born in 2010 were:
Aiden, Liam, Noah, Jackson and Ethan.
For American baby girls:
Sophia, Charlotte, Ava, Addison and Olivia.

This year (2010), the most popular baby names for boys in Japan were:
Ren, Hiroto, Souta, Yuuma and Sora.
For Japanese baby girls in 2010:
Yua, Yui, Aoi, Hina and Riko.