MetaFilter posts tagged with japan

But this time she brought visitors all the way from the US

MartinWisse — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 11:15:25 -0800

It was a phone call from an acquaintance in Tokyo who often travels to Oregon for business that started it all. He told me there were two people from Oregon roaming around the northeast with what sounded like an impossible mission: they were in possession of what appeared to be parts of Torii gates that had washed up in their state in 2013, presumably the result of the tsunami two years earlier, and they wanted to find out where the wreckage came from. "Can you help?" he asked.

For NHK Ebara Miki tells the story of how parts of Torii gates washed away with the 2011 tsunami were found in Oregon in 2013 and returned to their rightful place.

"Fill World With Gentleness"

brainwane — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 19:11:32 -0800

Hitoshi Yasui makes music as "chair house", and is currently working on the "Piano Ten Thousand Leaves Project" (Soundcloud). Each day, chair house improvises, records, and uploads an original piano composition. They're generally quiet and gentle pieces. He started the project in 2014, and aims to create 4,536 songs in total to match an 8th century anthology of Japanese poetry. If he stays on track, he will finish in mid-2026.

The Man With The Most Valuable Jewelry Collection You Never Knew Existed

nickyskye — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 13:04:32 -0800

"I choose for one reason: beauty. I select masterpieces." Surprisingly, even though he is a lifelong resident of Japan, the vast majority of his collection consists of jewels from the western world, from antiquity to the Renaissance and beyond. Previously.

"Is a whale a fish?" Illegal drugs in Japan in 2020

The genius who rejected Anno's budget proposal. — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 05:48:02 -0800

Japan likes to present itself as the only developed nation with effective drug prohibition, with lifetime cannabis use at 1.8%, compared to over 40% for the US and Canada. However, 2020 was an unusually tumultuous year for Japanese drug warriors. The most fascinating event has been a highly exceptional and irregular trial (still ongoing, link courtesy of archive.org as the site seems to be down) of one 青井硝子 (AOI Garasu, "Blue Glass", a pseudonym), that hinges on whether a "tea" (a simple water extraction of plant material that is not itself illegal, but contains a prohibited substance, DMT) can be considered an illegal "drug". Things took a turn for the strange when the defendant stood up in court and asked, "Is a whale a fish?". The outcome of those historic trials do not bode well for the defendent. (Beware, the first link uses an obsolete TLS version, but the warning is safe to ignore if you are only reading.) More background on AOI Glass, from 2017:

Glass, a graduate of Hirosaki University's Agriculture Biotechnology department, told me he initially began his research into ayahuasca as part of an effort to treat his friends' depression, after several acquaintances lost their jobs. "I started by smoking all the random grass seeds I found on the street for three years and writing down the effects. Also with random mushrooms and leaves," he explained. "Then I studied ayahuasca for one year. I studied all the elements that it contains and tried to recreate them from the seeds and herbs I had smoked and studied while also ejecting the elements that induce vomiting." From there, Glass says he began growing ingredients, testing his concoctions on himself twice a week for six months straight, tweaking the recipe along the way. After settling on a formula, Glass claims he had medical tests done on his blood, urine, and semen to ensure his recipe, served as a brewed tea, wouldn't inadvertently be poisoning people.

More blog posts about the trial here and here and here... (The author admits to some fictionalization of these accounts. I was unable to find official court transcripts.) The trial reveals how drug laws lead to unscientific absurdities. For instance, if acacia tea can be an illegal drug, why not orange juice?

It may surprise you to learn that common citrus trees like oranges and lemons are actually Schedule I substances, in the same legal category as heroin. I know it sounds absurd, but it is absolutely true. Recent analysis published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (Servillo et al. 2013) found that several citrus plants, including lemons and oranges, contain N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and 5-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (bufotenine). Both of these compounds are powerful hallucinogens and are designated as Schedule I substances under the federal Controlled Substances Act in the United States. Under that same law, "any material" containing "any quantity" of a Schedule I drug is itself legally equivalent to that drug. The upshot of this is that domestic citrus producers are in fact operating a massive drug manufacturing enterprise, legally speaking.

DMT is also found in trace quantities in human bodily fluids. This is not the first time Japan has tried to make the human body illegal. (previously) Some more background on the case, courtesy of Google Translate, by the same author as the above blog posts, including testimony from the college student whose hospitalization sparked the arrest:

"I used to just want to commit suicide, but now I don't think about it anymore." "I think there are quite a few people besides me who have been saved by drinking acacia tea."

The seventh court session is scheduled for February 16th, 2021. The defendant is asking people not to attend for COVID-19 reasons. Other developments in 2020: Seizures of liquid cannabis concentrates skyrocketed:

According to Tokyo Customs, the liquid marijuana seizure amount was roughly 400 grams for the whole of 2019, but it jumped to some 9 kilograms in the first half of 2020 and to 18 kilograms in the following five months through the end of November.

When Prime Minister 安倍晋三 (ABE Shinzō), whose First Lady, 昭恵 (Akie), is an outspoken advocate of a revival of traditional hemp culture, resigned in September due to ulcerative colitis, he was replaced by 菅義偉 (SUGA Yoshihide), an anti-cannabis hardliner.

"Hemp is a plant of which all of its parts can be used effectively," Ms. Abe is quoted as saying. "While it is not yet permitted in Japan, I think it can be put into great practical use for medical purposes as well."

In early December, the U.N. Commission for Narcotic Drugs narrowly passed a resolution removing Cannabis from Schedule Ⅳ of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (for drugs with little or no medical use, such as heroin), which is itself a stricter subset of Schedule Ⅰ (the most dangerous and addictive drugs, which may have medicinal use, such as cocaine). Japan joined Russia and China in opposing the resolution:

Japan stated that the non-medical use of the plant "might give rise to negative health and social impacts, especially among youth".

Here is the full statement from Japan. (Note, not those schedules, nor those schedules, but these schedules.) Its hand forced by the U.N., Japan is now in the precarious position of continuing their overall just-say-no-style 「ダメ。ゼッタイ。」 ("No, absolutely NO!" No machine translation for this PDF, but even if you can't read Japanese, enjoy the whimsical illustrations.) message, in spite of having lost the pretext that cannabis has no medicinal value. They apparently plan to square this particular circle by criminalizing ingestion of cannabis, ostensibly to detect diversion from legitimate medical supplies through drug testing, and have assembled a panel of experts to explore this avenue:

The health ministry attributes the growing youth abuse of marijuana to what it calls the misguided, but widespread, narrative on the internet that cannabis is "less harmful and addictive" than the likes of cigarettes and alcohol. ... Another possible reason why more youngsters are smoking pot is the dwindling availability of quasi-legal designer drugs dubbed "kiken (dangerous) drugs." Having once emerged as a popular alternative for marijuana, those legal highs have since become the target of an ever-intensifying police crackdown, which, in turn, is believed to have steered many young people back toward marijuana, the ministry says. ... "If we want to rectify the rampant abuse of marijuana among young people, this panel, going forward, needs to be able to present a more convincing, data-based argument to society about how harmful and terrifying marijuana is," another member pointed out.

(If you are really interested, this is the dossier handed out during the meeting (unfortunately in Japanese, but the source for the 1.8% figure above is the graph on page 6) and here are the machine translated meeting minutes, courtesy of Google Translate.) An aside: you could be forgiven for being surprised that Japan, with its well-deserved reputation for zero tolerance for drugs, would permit such a glaring loophole as not having laws against ingesting cannabis:

Lore has it that in enacting the law, legislators were concerned about the possibility of farmers mistakenly inhaling psychoactive substances of the crop during the cultivation process, and it was to avert their arrest that the personal consumption of marijuana wasn't criminalized, or so the popular theory goes.

According to panelist 松本俊彦 (MATSUMOTO Toshihiko), there may be a more sinister reason for criminalizing personal consumption:

In an interview with BuzzFeed Japan, one of the panel members, addiction expert Toshihiko Matsumoto, theorized that after use of so-called kiken (dangerous) drugs declined following tougher regulations several years ago, the health ministry division in charge of illegal drugs has had less work to do, and so is lobbying for tougher marijuana laws in order to get its budget allocation back.

(original here, courtesy of Google translate, plus two more) Meanwhile, in September, actor 伊勢谷友介 (ISEYA Yūsuke) was arrested for cannabis possession, putting his upcoming film, "Rurouni Kenshin: The Final", in jeopardy, and sparking criticism of extralegal punishment and "shunning" of drug defendants. Among the critics is Osaka lawyer 亀石倫子 (KAMEISHI Michiko), who started a petition in favor of harm reduction rather than increasingly harsher drug policy, which at the time of this writing has collected over 9000 signatures:

Severe punishment does not make anyone happy. Transform drug policy into harm reduction! We oppose the strengthening of drug crackdowns on cannabis and the creation of "cannabis use crimes"!

Still here? As a bonus, enjoy this lovely video of 鈴木勉 (SUZUKI Tsutomu), chairperson of the aforementioned cannabis law panel, explaining how cannabis is bad because if you use it and raise your arms, you won't be able to lower them again. (Yes, you read that right. Notice that comments are disabled, for reasons that should be obvious.) Previously about DMT: 1, 2, 3, 4 Previously about ayahuasca: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Take Care of Yourself

May Kasahara — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:02:12 -0800

A train station in Japan's Fukuoka Prefecture posted public service messages about the country's current Covid-19-related state of emergency using a typographical style reminiscent of legendary anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Japanese social media users have noticed and have been having some fun with it.

Next: DisneySpace?

adrianhon — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 05:11:06 -0800

Tokyo DisneySea is considered by enthusiasts as perhaps the best theme park in the world. Opened in 2001, it includes a "Mediterranean Harbor", a "Mysterious Island" (complete with volcano), an "Arabian Coast", an "American Waterfront" and a forthcoming "Fantasy Springs". With no expense spared by owner The Oriental Land Company which uniquely operates Tokyo Disney Resort under licence from Disney, fans have waxed rhapsodical over the sheer scale and quality and immersion of the park (eps 75-77 of The Golden Horseshoe Review podcast). Episode 4 of The Imagineering Story (Disney+) examines the creation of the park. Many of the ideas in Tokyo DisneySea originated from plans to build Port Disney in Long Beach, California, including Disney's short-lived lease of the real RMS Queen Mary, which eventually became the S. S. Columbia in the Tokyo resort. If you're thinking of visiting DisneySea, check out TDR Explorer, one of the best English-language guides! (h/t bowtiesarecool).

New Kanji on the Block

adrianhon — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 10:12:53 -0800

Highlights of Japan's new Kanji of the Year include ingenious neologisms for social distance, laptop, web conference (incorporating a "Z" for Zoom), and sign language, presented by Eileen Cheng-yin Chow. Contest website.

Food Nostalgia

mumimor — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 07:33:17 -0800

The '90s Issue of Taste The 1990's were in some ways the best decade of the 20th century. It had its wars and tragedies, but the Cold War had ended, the music was great, and there was still hope for a better future. And the food was becoming more and more interesting. Reading Ruth Reichl's descriptions of the 40 best restaurants in LA (+ some) one is reminded how the former French dominance of fine dining was being replaced by an interest in other chefs and cuisines from all over the world. Though Starbucks was founded in 1971, it's grand expansion happened during the 90's, not only spreading across the globe, but also inspiring local copycats in places where people weren't already walking around in the streets with grande lattes. As Reichl writes in her article, Japanese food had been well-known in the US for a couple of decades, but the 1990's were when it spread to Europe, with popular restaurants making sushi accessible to a wider public. Part of the popularity of Japanese food was that it was seen as healthy. Another food tradition taken up by nutritionists was the Mediterranean diet. Specially Italian food found a renaissance, but with a new emphasis on the authentic regional Italian recipes and products rather than the modified food Italian immigrants have created wherever they settled down. Not only did the Cold War end, but airfare became cheaper, and people traveled to faraway destinations, where they learnt about other ways of cooking. Many people in Japan became fond of Italian food. And many Europeans and Australians embraced Thai, Vietnamese and Goan cuisine after backpacking there during their gap years.

Great Picture Book of Everything

bq — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 15:02:10 -0800

A Great Wave of Hokusai Drawings Resurfaced at the British Museum IN 1829, WHEN THE CELEBRATED Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai was almost 70 years old, he created more than 100 drawings of a dazzling array of subjects: playful cats, serene landscapes, even severed heads. Hokusai's fame continued to grow after his death in 1849, and the suite of small, elaborate drawings was last purchased a century later, at a Paris auction in 1948. Then it disappeared from the public eye. Now, a total of 103 drawings have resurfaced. (...) The British Museum is planning to exhibit the newly acquired drawings in the future. In the meantime, anyone can view all 103 works online, in high-resolution images made freely accessible on the museum's website. (previously)

How old, ambient Japanese music became a smash hit on YouTube

cgc373 — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:18:12 -0800

Seven out of 50 video clusters the researchers identified are deemed "situational" music. This designation doesn't operate under the standard concept of genres but rather the context in which the music takes place. This includes relaxation music like "Ambient/Chillout," "Sounds of Nature," and the ASMR-affiliated "Hair Dryer Sound." The paper concludes that situational music, sometimes deemed trivial by musicologists, is growing in popularity. They also found a cluster of "Ethiopia/South Sudan Music," suggesting the context of a local scene comparable to '80s Japanese ambient music. 2800 words from Catherine Sinow on YouTubecore for Ars Technica.

Bear Dogs to the Rescue

Ufez Jones — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 08:10:52 -0800

Japan's Karelian Bear Dogs help save lives, reduce injuries and educate both people and bears. Thousands of black bears roam Japan's forests, sometimes causing problems for humans and for themselves. That's where a group of highly trained Karelian Bear Dogs comes in. Part of the Picchio Wildlife Research Center's bear conservation team, they're responsible for the safe relocation and redirection of dozens of burly bruins each year. Plus, they're super-charming! (SLtheBark)

Kimetsu no Yaiba anime sets Japanese box office record despite pandemic

p3t3 — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 05:08:26 -0800

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃) went from manga to anime to feature film in just a few short years as it quickly gained a large following in Japan. Since the second feature film, 鬼滅の刃無限列車編 (Kimetsu no Yaiba: Infinity Train) was released domestically on October 16, despite the ongoing COVID threat, it already set a box office record by reaching the ¥10 billion mark twice as fast as any other movie. While the box office record may be partially attributed to the lack of competition during the pandemic (some theaters are using multiple screens for showings every 30 minutes), it is still a massively popular phenomenon right now. It will be interesting to see how it fares internationally as it is darker and bloodier than your typical Ghibli favorites.

A Pilgrimage to Eighty-Eight Places

jabah — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 20:58:09 -0800

88Kasyo Junrei (八十八ヶ所巡礼) is a three-piece Japanese rock band. The band's name refers to a Buddhist pilgrimage that involves visiting eighty-eight temples on the island of Shikoku. Their music videos can be spellbinding but also kind of weird. Their songs deal with afterlife disorientation, the tenuousness of sanity, and, apparently, demons living in a Kowloon arcade. The band has a mascot, o-henro-san, who graces their album covers and appears in one rather trippy video. 88Kasyo Junrei is: The intensely stylish Margaret Hiroi on bass and vocals The usually half-naked Kenzo on drums The glammer-bedecked Katzuya Shimizu on guitar More tunes: 攻撃的国民的音楽 ("Agressive National Music") 金土日 ("Friday, Saturday, Sunday") 脳の王国 ("Kingdom of the Mind")

Who hasn't wanted to live in an abandoned school?

Long Way To Go — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 18:19:10 -0800

Take a few minutes to watch this guy living his best life in an abandoned school in Japan (SLYT).

Gotta Collect 'Em All!

carter — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 06:50:46 -0800

Poké Lids are Japanese utility covers with colorful mouldings of Pokémon characters. They are often in lesser known regions of Japan. Link goes to to browsable map; scroll down for possibly addictive merch.

Socially distanced haunted house

bile and syntax — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 13:45:56 -0800

For all of you missing Halloween's spooky festivities, Kowagarasetai has you covered with a drive-in haunted house, where zombies will (safely!) attack your car for a set time period. They also offer a screaming casket for all of your screaming casket needs.

Bread Making

Going To Maine — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 21:54:13 -0800

A sixteen-minute video of Japanese bakers making different varieties of Shokupan

Perfect aleatoric pan flute music

Going To Maine — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 12:01:03 -0800

From Nagasaki Biopark in 2014, "Beaver baby wants to swim and worried family"

"There was another reason to be so anxious."

Wobbuffet — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 08:41:35 -0800

Miyamoto Yuriko, "The Breast" (1935): "The streetcar struggle had begun in September, and this day care participated in support activities, so ever since the veteran Sawazaki Kin was hauled off, plainclothesmen from the precinct were coming by at unexpected times. She'd be no match if they barged in with some sort of pretext like Tried knocking but nobody answered so we thought maybe there was a burglar in here." Miyamoto's "The Family of Koiwai" [PDF] is a similar example of Japanese proletarian literature. After writing a feminist I-novel (defined; excerpts [PDFs]) about her first marriage, Miyamoto began a relationship with Yuasa Yoshiko, lived with her in the USSR, and wrote non-fiction like "Soviet 'Workers' Clubs,'" "The State of Moscow: Christmas There," and "Crossing the New Siberia." Then she joined the outlawed Japanese Communist Party (history), married its future leader, and wrote novels about his release from prison at the end of the war (excerpts [PDF]).

Won't You Be My Neighbor Totoro?

adrianhon — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 06:15:51 -0800

Studio Ghibli, the beloved animation film studio, is opening a theme park near Nagoya, Japan in Fall 2022. Not to be confused with the existing Ghibli Museum, the park will feature five lands including Springtime of Life Hill (Howl's Moving Castle), Dondoko Forest Area (My Neighbor Totoro), Ghibli Large Warehouse Area (with a dining area inspired by Spirited Away), Mononok's Village Area, and Witches' Valley Area (Kiki's Delivery Service).

RIP Kansai Yamamoto, fashion designer

Multicellular Exothermic — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 19:19:58 -0800

[BBC] Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, known for styling musician David Bowie, has died at the age of 76, his family said. Yamamoto designed some of Bowie's most famous outfits including those of the singer's alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The designer had been diagnosed with leukaemia and died last Tuesday, his daughter said in a statement on Monday. Yamamoto was known for his colourful creations and incorporating traditional Japanese designs into fashion. "In my eyes, my father was not only the eclectic and energetic soul that the world knew him as, but someone who was also thoughtful, kind-hearted and affectionate," his daughter Yamamoto Mirai said. "He valued communication and showered me with love throughout my entire life," she added. Independent Rolling Stone NY Times

Everyday life in Tokyo, 1913-1915

Foci for Analysis — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 07:56:35 -0800

Footage has been colorized, set to sound and in 60 fps. Original source.

Kurosawa Mode

adrianhon — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 14:03:18 -0800

Ghost of Tsushima, an open-world adventure where you play a samurai during the first Mongol invasion of Japan, launched today [Eurogamer, Polygon, Guardian reviews]. One of the last major PS4 exclusives, it's been praised for its beautiful art but criticised for rote game design. Unusually, the game features Kurosawa Mode, a black-and-white filter "inspired by the movies of legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa."

'what could Terrace House have done ...?'

cendawanita — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 05:52:29 -0800

The biggest lie we ever told ourselves about the Japanese reality show was that it wasn't like all the other ones. - 'When I first pitched this piece, I wanted to know what it would take for Terrace House to return to television. Not because I wanted the show to continue, but because I wanted to know: what could Terrace House have done that might have prevented Hana's death? [...] It is, to be clear, an absolutely futile and perhaps even offensive suggestion that, in a different world, things would be different. I also pitched the story weeks before Kyoko began speaking to the press, fighting to defend her daughter's legacy and seek justice for her death. But I began digging, looking for so-called solutions to the mental health ramifications of sudden fame imposed by reality TV.' Farah Hasnain, the Pakistani-American translator who's been posting English translations of Kimura's mother's interviews on twitter and quoted in this piece, also just posted a short video why she's doing this. Previously (the thread was just closed).

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

ChuraChura — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 11:14:22 -0800

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyō) is a thousand-plus-year-old Japanese folkloric tradition, in which a series of demons parades — or explodes — into the ordinary human world. Kyōsai's version was one of the artist's most popular volumes, offering "a spectacular visual encyclopedia of supernatural creatures of premodern Japanese folklore." Narratively, it paves the way for the fantastic parade with two woodblocks: the first depicts a group of adults and children gathered around a coal fire to hear ghosts stories, the second a man (probably Kyōsai) setting down his calligraphy brush and extinguishing the lamp in preparation for the night in which the demons will appear.