Japan My Love - Japanese culture, tv, news, trend, food

TV broadcasting has been "analog" so far in Japan.
But July 24th 2011, it will be changed.
All TV broadcasting will be "digital terrestrial", and current analog TV won't be available after that.
So people will have to buy a new one for new broadcasting.
Good points of digital terrestrial TV broadcasting is
- high quality of picture
- hight quality of sound
- useful service for elderies and handicapped people can be available.
- useful information for each area can be offered.

Digital terrestrial TV broadcasting is adopted in 20 countries like US, UK, Germany, Italy...
In 2011 TV sales should go up for sure.

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"The red and white singing contest" in 2009 got a special guest from UK.
Her name is Susan Boyle.
She suddenly became famous worldwide since she joined the popular audition TV program in UK.
Her name often appears in news headlines here in Japan as well.
She sang "I dreamed a dream" in "The red and white singing contest".
Over 40% of Japanese citizens watch this program on New Year's Eve.
Her beautiful voice attracted the audience in front of the TV.
Susan is getting many offers from Japanese media after she appeared in this national famous TV program.
She's getting popularity also here in Japan!
According to the news, Susan looks forward to visit Japan again.

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I dreamed a dream

Japanese people go to shrines to pray for the happiness of the new year on New Year's Day.
This visit is called "Hatsumoude" or "Hatsumode".
They throw coins into an offertory box.
5(=pronounced as "go") yen coins has a meaning "good luck of meeting new people" since "goen" means "chance of meeting" in Japanese language.
So people who are looking for partners usually throw 5 yen coins.
There's a rope hanging from the ceiling which has a bell stuck to the upper end of the rope.
People pull it to ring the bell after they throw coins, and they clap hands 2-3 times and join palms together and close eyes for minutes to pray.
This action is not special for New Year's Day.
We usually do this whenever we see an offertory box in shrines and temples.

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In ancient time, Miko was a virgin who served God.
At that time various services were conducted to calm God.
Miko was the one who conducted them.
Miko's role was to be the body God descended to, and Miko spoke for the God.
Nowadays Miko is a woman who works for a shrine.
Miko sometimes dances at divine ceremonies.
There also are many Miko girls who work temporarily at shrine as part-time job.
They especially work there when shrines are quite busy like New Year's Day.
People visit shrines on New Year's Day to pray for happiness of the new year.
Many goods like charms are sold there, and part-time Miko usually works as a cashier.
They're in traditional costume and look very cute.

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There is a young American guy who sensationally made a hit in enka world in Japan.
His name is Jero(Jerome Charles White, Jr.).
He's from Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh.
His father is an African-American and his mother is half-American half-Japanese.
His grandmother is a Japanese, and he's been familiar with enka since childhood.
He tried to practice enka for his grandmother, then he gradually got absorbed in enka himself.
He came to Japan for the first time when he was 15.
He studied abroad in Japan for 3 months while he was in University of Pittsburgh and he decided to become an enka singer at this time.
After graduation in 2003, he came to Japan again and worked as an English teacher in Wakayama prefecture, then he changed his job as a computer engineer in Osaka prefecture.
While he was working, he tried to join singing contests.
In 2005 he won the first prize at Karaoke contest and was recruited as a potential singer by Victor Entertainment, and he passed an audition.
Judges say "He's polite, and sings well whatever song is requested."
He was trained for 2 years, and finally made his debut with his first song "Umiyuki".
In 2008 he joined "The red and white singing contest" which is the national most famous TV program of a year, which proves a participant to be a well-known singer in Japan.

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Uwasa no onna


Umiyuki


Showa Karesusuki (duet)

We eat buckwheat noodles called "soba" in Japanese at midnight on New Year's Eve.
This is called "Toshikoshi soba" which means "soba to welcome the new year".
This special soba has some hidden meanings.
1. live happily for long since soba is thin and long.
2. throw all bad luck of the old year away since soba is easily snapped.
3. live like soba since buckwheat stands up in the sun even after it's exposed to a storm.
If you don't finish this soba, then it's said that you wouldn't have a luck of money in the new year.
It's also said that you have to finish this soba by 12 o'clock at night.
Otherwise it's said you'll bring on bad luck to the new year.

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We watch "The red and white singing contest" on New Year's eve.
It's the competition between teams of male and female singers, but on the other hand, there's an invisible costume competition between 2 singers.
One is a female singer called "Sachiko Kobayashi".
She's an enka singer.
Her costume has been the special-feature of this TV program for many years.
The other singer is called "Kenichi Mikawa".
He is a male enka singer, but his way of talking is completely middle aged lady.
We don't know if he's a gay or not...(mysterious...)
His costume is also the special-feature of this program.
Many people look forward to watch their costumes every year.

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Sachiko Kobayashi





Kenichi Mikawa

Japanese New Year's Day is just as same as Western's Christmas.
Most people spend time together with their family on this day.
On New Year's Day, we say "Congratulations!" to eath other.
And we eat traditional food like Osechi, Mochi.
Osechi is a special cuisine for New Year that consists of many kinds of ingredients.
Each ingredient has its own meaning, for example Kazunoko means "having many kids".
We also eat mochi on this day.
Mochi is Japanese traditional food called "rice cake" in English.
We decorate "Kagami-mochi" to pray God for family's prosperity.
On New Year's Eve, we watch "The red and white singing contest" on TV.
This program ends at midnight.
So many people celebrate the new year with the ending of this program.

Osechi


Kagami-mochi


Kazunoko


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Each PC maker released small sized & cheap laptop PC one after another since its pioneer "Eee PC" made a mega hit in PC market.
Eee PC is produced by ASUS which is a Taiwanese company.
It was an unprecedented product which made a big topic in the market.
The size is very small(7 inch - 9 inch) and its cheap price gave a shock over the market.(about \50000 = $500)
Because of the price, the performance of this PC was not so excellent at first.
Some geeks enjoyed remodeling it for higher-performance.
After the debut of this sensational PC, many of rival companies like HP, Dell, IBM, NEC...made the same kind of PC.
They have been evolved with more excellent spec and functionality these days.
We're looking forward to the debut of more "sensational" PC in the future.

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A website called "bijin tokei + binan tokei" (http://www.bijint.com/) is making a big topic.
The translation is:
bijin => beautiful lady
binan => beautiful guy
tokei => clock
In this site good-looking ladies and guys tell you what time it is now.
They hold boards on which current time is written by hand-writing.
It's updated every minute automatically.
That means 1440 pictures are shown in a day.
Every picture is taken on a street.
But there is an exception.
A female pop singer “Rina Aiuchi” appears in this website temporarily.
(The picture on the right is her.)
She’s advertising her CD on the board.
This website offers a "gadget" that can be used for homepages and blogs.
There's a rumor that they are developing an application of this clock for iPhone.
So iPhone users should check it out!

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In Germany Japanese tourists who have to pay the penalty for free ride of train are increasing.
That's because of the difference of ticket system of train.
In Japan, we have to put a ticket into the automated ticket gate to reach the platform.
But in Germany you can go to the platform without a ticket.
Beside there is no sign saying "you have to put a ticket into the machine to have date and time on it before getting on a train".
So many Japanese tourists tend to think trains are free in Germany.
There sometimes comes station staff on a train, and if the staff finds a tourst without a ticket or ticket without a stamp, then the penalty is inevitable.
There are "fake" staff these days that take penalty from the tourists.
"Genuine" ones have identity cards and they give receipts after taking penalty.
Be careful.

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Starbucks Cofee Japan announced that they gives a discount of 50 yen(about 50 US cents) to anyone who brings his/her own cup to drink coffee with.
We can also buy cups in Starbucks.
This is for saving of natural resoures.

This kind of movement called "ecology" is spreading over Japan.
At supermarkets many people bring their own bags and use them instead of using plastic bags given by supermarkets.
At some supermarkets we even have to pay for the plastic bag if we want it.

Hopefully this ecology will spread more and more to reach the world, and we can keep the beautiful nature of the earth for the future.

Here's How To Speak Japanese Like A Diplomat!

Love Plus is a game of Nintendo DS released in September 2009.
It's a romance simulation game in which you can enjoy relationship with virtual girls.
For only 2 months it made a mega hit, 150000 are sold.
This game is so well-made that guys tend to be stuck in the virtual world.
You can go out on a date with a girl, walk hand in hand, even kiss her!
A news that a Japanese guy got married with a virtual girl made a topic in American site "Boing Boing" recently.
Also Love Plus causes a trouble on a married couple.
A wife of a 29 year-old husband working as a software engineer left home with a letter and a divorce notice left on a table.
The reason is when they had a quarrel the husband said
"I preffer the virtual girl to welcome me when I get home".
The husband visited the wife and apologized and they made up with each other after all.
How much influence games have on people is now unpredictable...

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Each TV station launches new drama series every 3 months.
They compete for "good rating".
So they try to make various kinds of dramas casting popular celebrities to get attention of audience.
However it seems a bit hard these days to make a mega-hit since the audience are tired of stereotypical stories.
This winter, one drama is making a record of high rating.
Its title is "JIN".
It's originally from a comic book series.
The brief summary of the story is like this:
The main character called Jin is a brain surgeon.
His girlfriend is in the vegetative state because of the sergery that Jin performed for her.
One day he operated on a critical patient.
After the operation the patient tried to run away from the hospital and Jin run after him.
They fell down the stairs.
Jin found himself lying in a unknown place when he was conscious again.
He was sent in the ancient time.
He started to save ill people and created still unknown medicine at this time.
But he was caught in a dilemma wondering if he really should do it or not because it might change the history.
He met many people, one of them is the historical important figure.
And he met a prostitute who looks exactly the same as his girlfriend...
The story continues and the higher rating is expected.

(MAIN CAST)
Takao Osawa

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It's the pecial TV program on New Year's Eve.
Red means women, and white means men.
So this contest is female singers VS male singers.
They sing the hit songs in the year.
The program starts at around 7 pm and ends at midnight.
At the ending of the program, the winner(red or white) is chosen by the votes from judges in front of the stage and audience.
The judges are celebrities from many fields like showbiz, sports etc...
Right after this program's finished, the New Year comes.
Most of Japanese citizens used to watch this program on New Year's Eve.
Less people watch it these days, but it's still the main program on New Year's Eve.

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"Winter Sonata" is something ladies, especially middle-aged ladies, used to be crazy about before.
It's a TV drama series that was on NHK channel before.
In Japanese it's translated as "Fuyuno Sonata".
As I already wrote, Japanese people like to abbreviate words, especially name of popular thing or person.
So "Winter Sonata" is usually called "Fuyu Sona".
This drama has made 2 Korean names quite famililar in Japan.
One name is Bae YongJoon, Korean actor who is known as a guy wearing glasses.
The other is Choi Jiwoo, Korean actress who is called "the queen of tear".
(She cries a lot in the drama)
Ladies started to call Bae YongJoon "Yon sama", and it spread all over Japan.
"Sama" is a suffix in Japanese language, and it's used when you call someone you respect or worship.
Winter Sonata is a love story that is called "pure" romance.
Brief summary of its story is, a high school boy acted by Bae YongJoon fell in love with a calssmate girl acted by Choi Jiwoo.
They were happy together, but one day the girl was informed that the boy died in car accident.
Then 10 years passed and the girl was engaged but still didn't forget the boy.
One day a guy who looks exactly the same as the boy appeared.
The story became complicated after the guy appeared!
If you're interested in what was happening next, just get the DVD and watch it!

Here's How To Speak Japanese Like A Diplomat!

NHK means "Nihon Housou Kyoku".
Nihon means "Japan", Housou Kyoku means "TV station".
It's the only TV station controlled by the government.
NHK channel doesn't have any commercials.
Popular foreign dramas like "ER" "The X-File" "Ally McBeal" "Friends"...were broadcasted on NHK channels.
NHK also offers many language lesson programs.
The picture is the character of NHK called "Do-mo kun".

Japanese people, especially young people tend to abbreviate words.
They abbreviate anything if possible.
Let me give examples...

America jin(=American) => Amejin
Kimura Takuya(=name of a pop star) => Kimutaku
Power Point => Powapo
Around thirty(=30 years old) => Arasaa
(* In Japanese language, thirty is pronounced as saaty)
Netscape Navigation => Neske

Jidaigeki is a drama(often on TV) of the old times.
Actors and actresses dress up in Japanese traditional costumes called "Kimono" when they act in Jidaigeki.
Their way of talking is also from the old times in the drama.
What's inevitable in Jidaigeki is a sword fight.
In Jidaigeki, innocent people are often killed in the first half of the story, and the villain is killed by the hero in the last half.
Its story is not so complicated as modern romance dramas.
Usually Jidaigeki tends to be loved by elder people, but not always.
Sometimes young popular actors and actresses act in Jidaigeki and young people watch it.
NHK(Japanese government-controlled TV station) makes one-year-long Jidaigeki series every year, and it's an hour to be the main cast in that drama for actors and actresses.
Many pop stars(even singers) act in that Jidaigeki.

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Konkatsu is mixed words of "Kekkon" and "Katsudo".
Kekkon means "marriage", and Katsudo means "hunting".
We often use "Shukatsu" that means "job hunting", but this "Konkatsu" word appeared recently and it's getting popular and often heard on TV, in manazines and news.
There are many Konkatsu parties all over Japan, and ladies and gentlemen who hope to get married join those parties.
They are generally in their late 20s or 30s and some are 40s.
This word "Konkatsu" even became the theme of a TV drama.