September 2011
16 posts
9 tags
Iwaki's Hawaian Resort reopening !
Everybody’s seen 「Hula Girl」? If not, you should. The story revolves around a Japanese Hula Dance Company and the opening of a hawaian resort.
This is a true story, and the 「Spa Resort Hawaians」, located in Iwaki city, prefecture of Fukushima, was damaged by the Big Tohoku Earthquake.
A part of the resort will reopen on October the 1st ! (It will open in its totality on next...
7 tags
Harvest time
A few weeks ago we admired the harvest moon. That’s this time of the year again, and the Emperor harvested the different rice varieties planted in the paddy fields inside the Imperial Palace.
This rice is used later in the year (in November) for Niinamesai, the festival when the Emperor offers the newly-harvested rice to gods.
The Imperial Agency said that despite the heat wave(s)...
7 tags
First snow over Mount Fuji
This morning, the first* lasting snow was observed on Mount Fuji (it may have snowed before, but this time, the snow settled on the mountain).
The heavy rains due to Typhoon 15 also made the “phantom pond” appear ! Also known as the red pond, it forms in the valley next to Fujikawaguchi lake when the water level of the lake rises. It is a small pond of 40 meters width, but...
5 tags
The era of bicycle has begun
A lot changed after the Big Tohoku Earthquake, and not only in the striken prefectures. People changed.
In urban areas, the number of persons commuting to work by bicycle considerably increased. The fact that bicycle was good for health and for environment had been finding its way into people’s mind for a few years, but the Earthquake decided a lot of people to change their habits....
9 tags
Beware of the bears !
After “beware of the wild boars” last week, here is another article about Japan’s dangerous wildlife.
Temporary dwelling have been built on numerous areas after the Big Tohoku Earthquake. Those dwellings are generally built far from the coast, in the montaneous parts of the different prefectures, but people living in them formerly lived on the coast.
Thus, they are not...
5 tags
Japan's counter plan against haka
Mwahahahaha, they did it !
A few days ago, the Japanese rugby team’s captain declared they needed a counter plan to cope with the emotional distress they would probably feel after the New-Zelanders haka before today’s match. He said “We may wear our track suit during the haka, then taking them off would give us a few minutes to recover before the match begins”.
...
7 tags
Mito komon can't be cancelled !
And I’m glad I’m not the only one who think it’s nonsense.
A few weeks ago, it was a real shock when TBS announced they’ll cancel the long running drama Mito Kōmon at the end of the year. It’s older than me ! It’s been on T.V. every Monday evening since 1969 ! Cancelling it would be like cancelling Sazae-san… Moreover, NHK already cancelled...
8 tags
The second smallest mountain in Japan disappeared
Yes, mountains can disappear.
As we all know thanks to Hugh Grant, in Great Brintain, hills and mountains are distincted by their height. This is not the case in France. Nor is it in Japan.
The rule may be summarized like this : “what you call a hill is a hill. What you call a mountain is a mountain”. Thus, the smallest mountain in Japan is 4,53 meters high. Visit it if...
4 tags
Guess who won US Open ?
やっぱり Kunieda Shingo !
It’s been the fourth time ! It seems he had a dolour in the right elbow, but it did not prevent him from winning… as always.
6-2, 6-0. And two hours later he was on the doubles finale. But this time he lost.
Devinez qui a gagné Flushing Meadows ?
やっぱり Kunieda Shingo !
Ça fait quatre fois ! Il semble qu’il ait eu...
5 tags
Nine at one blow
This is what a car looks like after an encounter with nine wild boars.
This morning at about one o’clock, driving on a motorway in Gifu prefecture, a man had the surprise to suddenly see nine wild boars (apparently a parent and its children) running toward his direction on the road. Sadly he was unable to avoid them and the nine ones died in the accident.
A friend of mine (who is...
3 tags
It’s been six months since the Big Tohoku Earthquake today.
Six months and we’re still looking for 4086 persons. The searches and the identification of corpses already found make this number decrease every day, but it is pretty evident we’ll never manage to reach zero.
There have been memorial services all over the striken areas and all over Japan today.
Internet...
5 tags
Say no to dr... to television !
That’s easy, 90,000 Japanese households did so.
Analog broadcasting came to an end in July and by the end of August, the NHK had received 90,000 files for contract cancellation.
Owning a television receptor in Japan equals having a contract with the NHK, meaning you have to pay a fee of about 15,000 yens a year.
On July, every analog T.V. set in japan became useless and it seems...
6 tags
The Health Minister hates smokers.
That’s not what ＊I＊ say, that’s what the Financial Affairs Minister says. In fact, he said she hated tobacco, but you know how journalists are…
The new government has just been created, but Health Minister Komiyama Yoko does not stay idle. She may be right, considering the life span of Japanese governments lately : better get the job done now if you want to have time to...
8 tags
Explosive river
… and I am not talking about River Song.
This is your daily meteorological bulletin, live from Typhoon 12. Well, after devastating Kinki, Typhoon 12 became an extratropical cyclone over the Japan Sea (an extratropical cyclone is less than a typhoon). A lot of rain is still awaited in Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate till Tuesday evening, because of the combined actions of this cyclone and...
3 tags
Typhoon number 12
Ok, I suppose everybody out there knows there is a typhoon striking Japan.
Typhoon number 12 has already made 27 casualties and 54 persons are missing. 1800 mm of rain have fallen on Nara since August the 30th, rivers are overflowing, hills are landsliding, houses are being washed away, the waves reach 6 meters on the shore. Bridges even collapsed.
The government opened an emergency...
4 tags
あついですね～
What is the sentence you hear the most in Japan during summer ?
Easy ! 「Atsui desu ne ～」
It means “it’s hot, isn’t it ?”, and you may hear this every five minutes, sometimes from the same person*.
It’s hot. It’s a fact. It’s summer. Everybody knows it. It’s not really meant to communicate, it’s just a sort of...
