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

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.

Want to learn Japanese? Check this out!!

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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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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Right after a topic about Gundam, I'll introduce a new addiction for guys.
It's a game of Nintendo DS newly on sale in September called "Love Plus".
This game enables date simulation with virtual girls on the screen.
According to the adds of game players on the bulletin board and blogs, they say "I kissed the screen" "I can't switch it off anymore"...
Some buy 10 boxes of this game at a time, some go out with Love Plus...
Some wives are angry about their husbands' addiction to the virtual girls.
It's exactly "Me or her" situation...
Their husbands take the game into the bathroom, living room, even bed room!
Wives worry if their husbands do it when they're working during the day.
Weird....

Most of guys love Gundam, often crazily.
It's one of the most popular robot cartoons in Japan.
Once I heard a news that a guy who loves to collect Gundam figures set fire to his own house becaue his mother threw all his collection away since she was worried about his enthusiasm.
This explains how Gundam is popular among guys.
In July 2009, for the anniversary of 30th year, a huge Gundam robot appears in Tokyo, Odaiba.
It's height 18m, weight 35ton.
This event seems to rise guys' enthusiasm even more.

The most recent topic of news headline that has made a big fuss is 2 big celebries' arrest for using illegal drugs.
One of them is Noriko Sakai, a pretty actress who used to appear often in the popular TV drama series and now is a mother of a little son.
Her husband who introduced drug to his wife has been also arrested.
The other celebrity is Manabu Oshio, a handsome guy who also used to appear in the popular drama series and now is a father of a little son as well.
There have been many cases of celebrities' arrests of illegal drug uses so far.
This time, 2 celebrities were arrested at the same time.
This indicates that it's getting easier to get drugs in Japan.
Not only in the showbiz world, but in the ordinary world as well.
Sounds quite horrible.

The topic of "swine flue" is still hot in Japan.
It broke out in spring.
It was said it came from Mexico and was spreading rapidly over the world.
News broadcasted the topic everyday, and people suddenly started to put masks on so all the masks were sold out in drug stores.
I remember I also went to a drug store to buy it and it costed twice as much as usual price!
The first victim appeared in Kansai area, so Osaka station is filled with people wearing masks all over.
Then the pandemic seemed to settle down once, but it's appearing once again these days.
When the winter is coming, flue starts to spread every year.
So it's assumed that this winter will be horrible with swine flue or what is called "the flue of new type".
I wonder if this topic is as hot in overseas as in Japan.