Headlines

Just a few stories that were in the news that got my attention:

★ In 1985, many of the biggest pop stars in America, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen, recorded a song together titled “We Are The World“.

The aim of the song was to raise money to help Africa. In fact, the group of singers were collectively known as “USA For Africa“.

And now, twenty-five years after the song was recorded, the producer of the song, Quincy Jones, has assembled another group of today’s most popular singers in America to sing a remake of the song.

This time the song is being used to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti…and the song is being called “We Are The World 25 For Haiti“.

★ Asashoryu, the sumo champion is Japan has retired.

Asashoryu is from Mongolia

He’s a great sumo wrestler and earned the rank of 「横綱」 (Yokozuna…”Grand Champion”)…but he’s constantly gotten into trouble both inside and out of the ring.

His latest scandal was when he recently went out drinking and seriously injured a man when he went into a drunken rampage.

★ The annual 「札幌雪まつり」 (“Sapporo Snow Festival“) in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan starts today and goes until 2010 February 11.

I went to this festival in 1992 and I can tell you the huge, elaborate snow sculptures are amazing! If you have a chance, you should go see this festival.

節分

Yesterday was 節分 (Setsubun).

Click here to read a post I wrote last week about it.

On this holiday (the first day of Spring in the old Lunar calendar), people (usually children) throw soy beans at someone dressed as the 鬼 (demon) (usually the father) while shouting 「鬼は外！福は内！」 (“Bad luck out! Fortune in!”).

Setsubun demon masks.

Also, many temples and shrines have festivals on 節分 (Setsubun) that often include sumo wrestlers and other celebrities throwing beans at the crowd.

Tokyo’s 増上寺 (Zoujyouji Temple) is one of the most popular places at 節分 (Setsubun).

Setsubun 2009 at Zoujyouji

This year’s celebrities at 増上寺 (Zoujyouji Temple) included Chadha, the Indian singer of Japanese Enka music and Tamao Nakamura, an actress.

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Tomorrow, the world famous annual 札幌雪祭 (Sapporo Snow Festival) begins and goes for one week.

2009 札幌雪まつり

I went to this festival in 1992. It was great! I’d like to go again one day.

A highlight of the festival are the big, elaborate snow sculptures.

Click here to visit the 札幌雪祭 (Sapporo Snow Festival) website in 日本語…or click here to visit the English version.

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横浜中華街 (Yokohama Chinatown) is having various 春節 (Chinese New Year) events until February 28.

You should check it out if you have a chance…even though the best parts (lion dance, dragon dance, etc) were on January 26, the date of Chinese New Year this year…there are still parades are other things scheduled various days this month.
Click here to visit the official 横浜中華街 (Yokohama Chinatown) website’s 春節 (Chinese New Year) page. (Japanese only).

I wrote a post about Chinese New Year (click here to see it) and I mention in that post about the difference between the Chinese dragon dance and the Japanese one.

At New Years time, both China and Japan also have lion dances…but, just like the Chinese and Japanese dragons are quite different, so are the Chinese and Japanese lions.

The Chinese one:

Chinese Lion dance

The Japanese one looks and moves quite different. In Japan, it’s called 「獅子舞」 (Shishimai):

Japanese "Shishimai" Lion Dance

Tanabata

Today is 七夕 (Tanabata).

I mentioned Tanabata in a earlier blog post here.

And I wrote a short FAQ entry about it here.

Tanabata is usually translated into English as “Star Festival“…but the two Japanese Kanji characters that make up the word “Tanabata” literally mean “Seven evenings”.

It’s kinda difficult to explain how this name came about, but the holiday is celebrated on 7th of July (7/7).

In Japan, it is popular for holidays to fall on dates that are the same number for the day and month.

March 3 (3/3), May 5 (5/5), July 7 (7/7), and October 10 (10/10) are all holidays in Japan.

Our Tanabata wish is that our kids do well in school and have happy, healthy lives!

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Also, the leaders of the G-8 countries (Japan, America, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Russia) are in 北海道 (Hokkaido), Japan for the beginning of the G-8 Summit.

By the way, about fifteen years ago, my wife and I took a short vacation in Hokkaido and stayed in the same town that the G-8 summit was at in Toyako, Hokkaido.

It’s a very nice place. I recommend visiting there if you ever have a chance.

I have been to Hokkaido one other time. I went to Sapporo in February 1991 for the annual 雪祭 (Snow Festival). That’s a great festival!