Waiting

So, after what seems like an eternity of waiting , I had a phone call from Lars (one of the recruiters for AEON) who informed me that my Certificate of Eligibilty had returned from Japan.

What this means for the uniniated, is that I can now travel up to the Japanese embassy in London and get my VISA put into my passport!!!!

This makes my return to Japan official!!!

In the mean time I have been busy fitting study into every night. Even if it is just 10 minutes where I will refresh a line of Hiragana, or an hour spent learning from my Minna No Nihongo textbooks, this has become part of my routine.

But the dream is becoming a reality. April 4th approaches. Closer and closer, like the whisper of a long coveted promise.

The Security Robot

Everyone recognises the iconic image above. Paul Verhoevan's distopian classic, about a cop killed in the line of duty then re-assembled as the ultimate cop/cyborg remains, in my eyes, a Science-fiction classic.

Combine the idea of the security-bot with the Japanese love and fascination of anything robotic, and you arrive at the T-34.

Although not as cool, or human-looking as Murphy, the T-34 moves at 6mph on small wheels and is controlled in real time via a series of images sent to a mobile phone. However, you are more likely to laugh than scream in terror at the sight of this dinky machine.

http://www.techdigest.tv/2009/01/video_tmsuk_t-3.html

But how can this R2D2 of security robots defend himself, or detain potential criminals ? Well, the T-34 is equipped with a Net throwing device that can entrap the unsuspecting bad-guy. TAKE THAT!!!

Today is....

During my previous time in Japan, I discovered that the Japanese have many National "days". Whereas the UK, has to deal with the relatively dull No-Smoking Day, the Japanese celebrate days such as "Ocean Day" and tomorrow (January 11th) is "Salt Day".

Yes, you read correctly, tomorrow is Salt Day in Japan. Named as such from back in the 1500's, when a Japanese warlord heard his enemy was low on salt and magnanimously sent him some, salt in those days being a valuable commodity.

Below is a list of some of the "Days" that litter the Japanese calender...

Jan. 7th - Nail Clipping Day

Jan. 15 — Strawberry Day. Like many special calendar days, Strawberry Day was derived by playing with Japanese sounds. Strawberry growers chose the 15th day of the first month to celebrate their favorite fruit because the Japanese word for strawberry, ichigo, can also represent the numbers one and five. Days that follow with similar word/sound links are designated with an asterisk

Feb. 1 — Odor Day. Sponsored by companies that wish for an odor-free world.

Feb. 20 - Allergy Day.

March 3 — Ear Day.

March 8 — International Wives Day. Note that there is no "International Husbands Day."

March 9 — This is a trifecta of holidays, with Escalator Day, Barbie Doll Day and Thank You Day all celebrated at once.

March. 15 - Shoe Day.

April 4 — Yoyo Day.

April 10 — Wife Day.

April 11 — Guts Pose Day. "Guts pose" is a Japanese-English term that refers to a gesture of victory.

April 15 — Helicopter Day.

May 3 — Garbage Day

June 1 — Gum Day.

June 4 — Bug Day
.
June 17 — Belt Day.

Aug. 7 — Nose Day

Oct. 18 — Frozen Food Day.

Nov. 1 — Dog Day. Meanwhile, Cat Day is Feb. 22.

Nov. 3 — Godzilla Day. Godzilla has earned this honor for all the times he's outright flattened Japan. Oddly, this is also Japanese Culture Day.

Nov. 8 — Cutting Tool Day. Cheese Day, is dead ahead, on Nov. 11.

Nov. 10 — Toilet Day.

The entire calendar — in Japanese — is at www.jidousha-shunjuhsha.co.jp/calendar.html

Taken from Japan Times (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090110td.html)

Tokyo Punch

I stumbled across this by accident. Here is a series of animated adventures about a British Gaijin called Howard who comes to the city of Tokyo Punch on a working holiday. Cue a series of mishaps and cultural misadventures.However Howard is a slug and the Japanese have been replaced by ants (see what they did there..or rather Monolith studios, a French company working out of Tokyo).

Below are some links the site and an episode from Youtube.

http://tokyopunch.com/

http://uk.youtube.com/user/cyberfred123

The £70,000 Tuna.

The Japan Times has reported that, on Jan 6th, in the famous Tukiji Fish Market, Tokyo that the most expensive Bluefin Tuna of the year was sold at auction for a staggering 9.6 Million Yen.
Basically this translates as buying a Tuna for roughly £68,581! Which is a hell of a lot of John West Tuna flakes.

This was the first auction of the year at Tukiji, and the fish weighed around 128 KGs and was caught in the waters off Oma. Tuna caught here are considered a delicacy and in 2001 an Oma Tuna sold for a whopping 20.2 Million Yen or £144,306!!!!

But who would buy such a fish ?

Apparently the £70,000 Tuna of 2009 was purchased by a a Hong Kong sushi bar owner in cooperation with an upscale sushi restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. The Hong Kong restaurateur also paid the highest price at last year's first auction at Tsukiji.

"Many countries are now reducing their tuna catch due partly to catch controls.
In November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas agreed to cut the Atlantic bluefin tuna catch quota for 2009 by about 20 percent from the 2008 level to 22,000 tons, setting Japan's fishing quota at 1,870 tons for 2009, down from 2,345 tons for 2008. Japan's quota for 2010 is 1,697 tons."

JAPAN TIMES.

Links below for more information on the Tukiji Fish Market.

http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/youkoso/about_e.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukiji_fish_market

The New HooverVille

Here is a sad tale from Japan, but one I fear that will become prevelent in the coming days. I have taken the whole article from the Associated Press rather than paraphrase it.

TOKYO (AP) — A tent village set up in a Tokyo park for the country's growing number of jobless filled up so fast that it was moved Saturday to a government building to accommodate the overflow.
The government offered a ministry hall late Friday, responding to a request from volunteers, to house more than 250 unemployed and homeless people after the first comers quickly filled the tents, according to the shelter's Japanese-language Web site.
The homeless can stay in the building through Monday, and job counseling and other efforts are under way to place the people in other locations, it said.
The tent village that volunteers and unions opened on New Year's Eve highlights the serious social costs of the global recession for the world's second largest economy.
The government estimates 85,000 part-time workers will lose their jobs between October and March. Another 3,300 permanent employees are expected to become jobless over the same period.
Temporary workers have been the first to be fired in the latest wave of cutbacks as Japan's exports and company investments crashed after the U.S. financial crisis.
Temporary jobs at manufacturing were illegal before 2004, but today top companies, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc., routinely rely on temporary staffing to adjust production to gyrating overseas demand.
Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Kazuo Shii, who visited the village, said the government needs to do more to help the unemployed.
"It is unforgivable that Japan's major companies have thrown so many workers out on the streets at the end of the year," he said.
For decades Japan promised lifetime employment at major companies, and government welfare programs for the jobless are still limited.
The tent village has also drawn some who have been needy for years.
Shigeru Kobayashi, 65, who has been unemployed four years, lives in the park.
"People talked about a recovery, but it never got good anyway," he said with a grin. "I'm unemployed. All I have is heart."
Tamotsu Chiba, 55, a theater producer and volunteer at the tent village, said he found the energy of the volunteers encouraging.
"There are so many different kinds of people here. This has given me a feeling of hope about Japan," he said.

By YURI KAGEYAMA

Tokyo Lost

I have just bought a book (with a handy Christmas voucher) that seems to be the proverbial Bee's Knees on finding your way around and living in Tokyo. I know I will be based in Ichikawa city, Chiba, but Tokyo is such a sprawling, fascination metropolis that I thought a guide on the city (who isn't Rie) would be handy. "TOKYO -The Complete Resident's Guide" seems to have all the information a resourceful Gaijin like me needs.

However here are some links to websites for those of you thinking of visiting Tokyo.

http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/

This is the official city website. Useful for municipal information, and a solid place to start.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/tokyo

Lonely Planet are a travel institution and their guide on Tokyo is as well presented as you'd expect.

http://www.planettokyo.com/

Not one of the "Big Fish", but still quirky enough to hold the travellers interest. It even provides some basic Japanese and the site is easy to negotiate.