MetaFilter posts tagged with japan

Basking in the warm glow of the television.

DoctorFedora — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:42:31 -0800

Sure, we all know that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is broadcast every year in the US as a Christmas tradition, and that Sweden basically closes every year from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. on December 24th to watch Donald Duck, but what about other countries? Germany joins the party by showing an obscure British comedy sketch called "Dinner for One" (YouTube link) every year for New Year's Eve, famous enough that the phrase "The same procedure as last year?" will get you the response "The same procedure as every year, James," and that the parody "Dinner für Brot" ("Dinner for Bread" — YouTube links in German) was created with puppets, based on the original sketch. Japan takes an approach less akin to Sweden and Germany's tradition of airing the same program year after year, instead opting for something more along the lines of the US's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, called Kouhaku Uta Gassen ("Red and White Song Battle" — Wikipedia link), featuring two teams of competing musicans, divided by sex. The show is by invitation only, and is such a cultural touchstone that when Jero, the African-American enka singer (Wikipedia link), was invited to perform at 2008's edition, there was hardly a dry eye in the audience when he talked about promising his late grandmother that he'd one day be famous enough to perform on Kouhaku. And of course, in the United States, who could forget the annual broadcasts of such traditions as It's a Wonderful Life, the Christmas Episode,, Frosty the Snowman (and its rather more poorly regarded '90s sequel, Frosty Returns), and, naturally, 1984's A Christmas Story, based on the novel by Jean Shepherd. A distinctly American cultural touchstone, it's been adapted from In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash (Amazon link) into not only a movie, but also into numerous stage musicals and a 30–second reenactment by animated bunnies. The annual 24–hour marathon of a dozen nonstop showings of the movie for Christmas on TNT (and now TBS) has become famous, but this year it's got competition from one of the Swaziest movies ever made. (Previously, and previouslier)

Lantern Slides

vronsky — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:40:02 -0800

Gertrude Bass Warner Lantern Slides::Rice Festival::Japanese Child::Sumo::Bride and Groom::Dressing Hair::Tengu Dancing

"Samurai spirit-a!"

mrducts — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:45:13 -0800

Quentin Tarantino is the latest American celebrity to be featured in a TV commercial for SoftBank Mobile Corp, a Japanese telecommunications and media company. Tarantino stars as “Uncle Tara-chan” in the bizarre and very popular “White family” commercial series. The Whites consist of the "Mom", the daughter “Me” (a Softbank shop saleswoman played by popular singer/actress Aya Ueto), the "Older Brother" (played by African American actor Dante Carter), and the father, Otosan, who happens to be a white Hokkaido-ken dog named Kaikun.

Baseball Bromides (Japanese baseball cards)

OmieWise — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:09:05 -0800

Besuboru Bromides (Japanese Baseball Cards) from the collection of John Gall, as featured at A Journey Round My Skull. Here is an earlier essay by Gall about Japanese baseball cards.

The Super-Kamiokande

Chan — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:50:30 -0800

Hi-res pictures of the Super-Kamiokande, a neutrino detector in Japan. The Super-Kamiokande, also known as the Super-K, is used to detect neutrinos, electrically neutral particles that are able to pass through matter. Effectively, it's a giant pool with walls made of phototubes used to detect Cherenkov radiation emitted by the interaction between neutrinos and electrons in the water. But even if you didn't understand any of that, it's still shiny and neat to look at.

Gonna need a bigger boat

Artw — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:41:08 -0800

JAWS - The Manga! part 1 - part 2

Painting From History

netbros — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:45:18 -0800

Tomokazu Matsuyama was born in Japan. He moved to the US when he was around ten years old, not speaking any English, and being overwhelmed by the culture shock of 1980s Los Angeles. His artistic work is a reflection of this upbringing. Matsuyama’s paintings envision traditional Japanese imagery through the lens of American pop art, creating a unique and beautiful hybrid. He strives to portray this global melee through a conscious “appropriation” of all of his influences: cultural, artistic, and personal. Matsuyama’s unconflicted and positively ebullient works do not ask, “What am I?,” but assert, “I am everybody.” (via) Matsu's work is a more conscious and introspective response to the tensions of bi-cultural experience. An upbringing split between Japan and America spurred the questions of national and individual identity that figure prominently in the style and subject matter of his paintings — attempting to parse the “natural chaos” of our social environment, Matsuyama pushes viewers to confront their conceptions of cultural homogeneity, which seems to contradict notions of Japaneseness. Discerningly appropriating influences from modern art and Japanese art from the Edo and Meiji eras, Matsuyama’s paintings are an aesthetically exciting and culturally fascinating facet, which portrays the lifestyle of this time.

Doing the robot

empath — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:05:26 -0800

Please enjoy a video of a robot breakdancing. (bonus video of robot dancing)

Animated Stereoviews of Meiji Japan

BuddhaInABucket — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:40:35 -0800

Animated Stereoviews of Meiji Japan via japansociety on twitter

Hiroshi Watanabe

vronsky — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:01:04 -0800

Hiroshi Watanabe -- Love Point::Suo Sarumawashi::Ideology in Paradise::"I see angels every day"::Kabuki Players::Japanese Studies::Northern Places::Species Among Us

Pants Pankuro: Toilet training in Japan

PeterMcDermott — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:05:49 -0800

Toilet training isn't quite so easy in Japan. There's squat toilets and western style to consider. Then there are the talking toilets, and toilets that act as electronic bidets. It's no wonder then, that Japanese kids need more than a few hints from mum to master lavatorial etiquette. Meet Pants Pankuro and his friends, in their efforts to master the strange world of the Japanese toilet. Mind you, Pants doesn't have the market all to himself. He's got opposition in the form of Shimajiru, but for my money, the tiger's work just isn't a patch on that of Mr. Pankuro.

Not a Halloween Post.

gman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:46:13 -0800

The Maskatorium: hundreds of masks collected from around the world over the past 20 years.

Anatomy of Japanese folk monsters

brundlefly — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:12:01 -0800

Yōkai Daizukai is an illustrated guide to yōkai authored by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki. Via NOTCOT.org, via Sprayblog. Previously, the anatomy of kaiju.

Oldest Family Run Business

somnambulist — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:47:03 -0800

So how long have you been running your business? The Houshi Onsen in Komatsu, Japan. About a 2.5 hour train ride north from Kyoto is the Houshi Onsen complex was founded in 718. The legend states that the god of Mount Hakusan visited a Buddhist priest and told him to uncover an underground hot spring in a nearby village. He found the hot spring and asked his disciple, a woodcutter’s son named Gengoro Sasakiri, to build and operate a spa on the site. His family has run a hotel in Komatsu ever since. The structure houses 450 people in 100 rooms. For generations, Houshi proprietors have borne the name Zengoro Houshi. The current proprietor is the 46th Zengoro!

The Three Human Bombs

XMLicious — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:19:53 -0800

The scene was the siege of Shanghai, the year 1932. It was more than half a year since the Mukden Incident had provided a pretext for Japan to invade Manchuria and begin moving down through Northern China. Three Imperial Japanese soldiers from an engineering division died in a bomb blast that took out a section of the Chinese fortifications, allowing Japanese forces to surge through the breach and advance. The fallen soldiers became known as the "Three Human Bombs" (Bakudan Sanyushi / 爆弾三勇士). Memorials were built and murals were painted and the Three Human Bombs were remembered as gallant and selfless heroes who gave their lives for the greater good of Japan, lauded on stage, in film, and in song. A military medal was created to award heroism in honor of the three. Problem is, it was all a lie. The story of the Three Human Bombs was one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of the early twentieth century.

Shūji Terayama

vronsky — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:08:11 -0800

Three short films from avant-garde director Shūji Terayama -- The Cage ll Emperor Tomato Ketchup (NSFW) ll Labyrinth Tale + this 6 min. clip from Pastoral: To Die in the Country

Vintage Japanese Matchbox Labels

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:21:17 -0800

Japanese Matchbox Labels is a fine collection (flickr set) of wonderful vintage eye candy from the Japan of the 1920s through the 1940s. And while I'm here, let me just tack on another flickr set: Vintage Japan Graphics. Altogether different from the matchbook stuff, but fun. And BTW, if the main link looks familiar to you, and you're thinking "DOUBLE!", it's probably this FPP from 2006 posted by jonson (I miss jonson), from the same flickr user, maraid.

Immigration or Robots?

Extopalopaketle — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:50:53 -0800

Japan is facing a demographic crisis that will shrink the population dramatically. The Japanese aren't having babies, and the country won't accept immigrants to help bolster the population. Japan: Robot Nation looks at a uniquely Japanese solution. Cheat: Robots come in at the 15 minute mark.

U900

vronsky — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:02:27 -0800

Usagino U (ukulele, lead vocal) and Kumano 900 (ukulele, pianica, theremin, bongos) play American surf rock in Japan -- Isogabamaware ll Diamond Head ll Crazy G

Lunar Jamming

Korou — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:28:13 -0800

Moon Music: moonbell generates sounds based on lunar topography. (via) Topographical data is from Japan's recent KAGUYA explorer. Here's a short guide for the generator.

Japan's Media Environment

armage — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:21:13 -0800

Japan -- Media Environment Open; State Looms Large (August 2009, PDF) A detailed, 67-page overview and analysis of Japan's traditional and new media environment published by the Open Source Center, an office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Japan's New Day

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:03:41 -0800

Japan's opposition party, The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), is projected to win a landslide victory tomorrow, ending the 52-year reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Furthermore, according to a survey conducted by the popular Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the DPJ could win a two-thirds majority, enabling them to roll legislation through the Diet unabated. Despite the projections, the two parties are still battling hard. Washington is following these elections very closely, because of the man who could be the next prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama. In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Hatoyama criticizes US economic and foreign policy, and says that while "the Japan-U.S. security pact will continue to be the cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy", that "we must continue to build frameworks for stable economic cooperation and security across the [East Asian] region", including the development of a single pan-Asian currency. In addition, Hatoyama has been vocal about his opposition to public officials visiting Yasukuni Jinja, a Shinto shrine honoring fallen Japanese soldiers, including numerous war criminals - a move that could smooth relations with China and Korea. Gerald Curtis, a Japanese politics expert who teaches at Columbia University, sums up the sea change within the Japanese electorate thusly: "The DPJ will almost certainly win the majority — without a coalition partner. This is a huge, huge change. ... The public was waiting for a chance to show their dissatisfaction, which is why they had no election, because [Shinzo] Abe, [Yasuo] Fukuda and Aso knew that they would lose. So, they put it off until the very last moment. And lo and behold, they're going to lose."

Hand-built bullet trains, made-to-order

armage — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:08:51 -0800

Yamashita Kogyosho (jp) is a small manufacturer of about 30 people based in Kudamatsu, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan. Like many small urban factories (so-called "machikoba"), they specialize in precision metalwork under contract to major corporations. But Yamashita Kogyosho is special: they create the noses for bullet trains. By hand. (relevant scenes begin at 2:54 in the video above) Kiyoto Yamashita, the founder, began by hammering out the nose cones for the original 0 Series Shinkansen in 1963 for Hitachi. Yamashita Kogyosho craftsmen have since created the noses for the N700 Series and 500 Series Shinkansen, the Taiwan High Speed 700T Train, and the 500 kmh experimental maglev train, among others. Today, the man in charge of actually crafting these nose cones is Jiro Kunimura. Using sheets of aluminum only a few millimeters thick, it takes him approximately three or four weeks to complete one 15 meter-long nose, and he and his team can produce up to 20 per year. Yamashita and his company were recognized in 2007 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with the Monodzukuri Nippon Grand Award, which recognizes unique contributions to Japanese manufacturing. Monodzukuri (or monozukuri) literally means "the making of things," but in Japan refers to an entire way of thinking about manufacturing and the economy. However, the company's chief concern isn't orders -- they have enough for the next three years -- but rather passing on these unique skills to the next generation. It takes ten years to master the technique and only constant practice makes perfect. Interested? They're recruiting.

We go from the ground to the mountain, baby! Without walking!

wintersweet — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:29:37 -0800

The funicular railway is a kind of cable-based railway that gives me great joy because of its peculiar shape and its uselessness for doing anything other than what it does. A funicular carriage is generally stairstepped or terraced, so you can't repurpose these cars for other uses. They generally work in a particular way, too, as pairs: one goes up the mountain, one comes down the mountain! Maybe this kind of glee is why they seem to be especially popular in Japan today, where they can be taken to many popular sightseeing areas--but a fair number of funicular railway riders are probably there for the journey, not the destination. You can go on a pilgrimage to the numinous group of peaks called Kōyasan (here's a video of the trip there) via the Kōyasan Cable, which even accepts payment by smart card. You can take the Mitake Tozan Mountain Railway not too far from Tokyo and do some fine hiking in the Chichibu Tama Kai National Park (video trip). In the famous sightseeing region of Hakone, you can start your journey on the modern-looking Hakone Tozan Cable Car, defying the generally old-fashioned vibe (you complete your trip up to Lake Ashi on a ropeway, and once you get to the lake you can hop on a replica of the HMS Victory or 17th-century French warship Soleil Royal no I am not even kidding). Then there's the Kintetsu Ikoma Cable Line. The dog car, named Bull, and the cat car, named Mike, are on the Hōzanji line to the Buddhist temple Hōzanji. (Another Flickr user notes that some people use these trains as part of their normal commute.) The music-themed Do-Re-Mi car and the cake-themed Sweet car go to the amusement park Skyland Ikoma on the Ikoma line. Compared to these four, the two cars on Hōzanji Line 2 look positively normal. There are probably a couple dozen funiculars in Japan, so...more where those came from! (They even have cool looking tickets--more here.) In the videos above you can see the "passing track" style, where a single track is used for most of the course but there's a kind of "mouth" area where the two cars pass each other on two tracks. Other systems may use parallel tracks. For zillions more strangely hypnotic Japanese funicular railway videos, see this Youtube search results page. (Yes, those katakana spell "cable car", basically. Although they're two somewhat different things in English, they're the same thing in Japanese. There's a note about this on the Japanese Wikipedia entry, and another link is provided for San Francisco cable car seekers.) There's not enough space to address funiculars all over the world, but I'll add a few general notes: The name comes from Latin for "rope." Many of the now-closed ones in the US (where they're often called inclines or incline railroads) and elsewhere were used to get into mines, but they've also been used to move ships. The steepest passenger railway in the world, the Katoomba Scenic Railway in Blue Mountains, Australia, is a funicular railway, as is supposedly-the-shortest and supposedly-soon-to-return-to-operation, Angels Flight in Los Angeles, USA. There's also a funicular that may be the oldest railway in the world, the Reiszug in Austria, which dates to the 1500s and is now run by motor--a lot older than this 1920s one from Japan! They're found in many other places in the world. There are many in South America (most notably Valparaiso, Chile), some in other parts of Asia (though not Korea for some reason, as far as I can tell), and particularly in Switzerland, Italy, and other hilly and mountainous areas of Europe, where Michel has blogged his photos for you. Apparently they were pretty popular in the Soviet Union, too. For details on how they operate, you can read the nitty-gritty of funicular function at the Sweden-based funiculars.net. You may even know a song about funiculars! The 1880 song "Funiculì, Funiculà," is about the opening of the funicular on Mount Vesuvius (no, really!) which had to be shut down in 1944 after repeated eruptions caused problems. And yes, that's where the headline on this post comes from. Here, for no apparent reason, is a children's chorus, Luciano Pavarotti, and Aqua (yes, THAT Aqua) performing "Funiculì, Funiculà."

Everyone needs a hug.

Liver — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:30:47 -0800

In which a chimpanzee is shown reacting to sleight-of-hand on a Japanese television show. [SLYT. Overuse of sound effects.]