Posted July 17th, 2010 in Japan | 4 Comments »
It’s been a rather stressful three weeks… I was trying to sell my car privately, and all the games between buyers and me were… crazy (><) I mean, I understand that they want to buy the car cheaper, but I want to sell it more expensive.
Although my car had no major problem I had to accept the negotiation and reduce the price, but I think it’s fare. If I were looking to buy an used car, I would also want to make sure if nothing is wrong with the car.
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And, there is something else happened around me recently. I will write about it some other time
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The storm has gone, and I feel the sunny days are back. The forecast says that we are having another cold morning starting from this Sunday, but I always thought the mornings are always cold in winter. My hometown, Shiga had a strong rain for the last few days, and I contacted my dad to see if everything was ok.
It must be hot and humid over there. Normally the rainy season in Japan is around June, but this year things started slower than usual.
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While staying in Perth I sometimes forget that summer is the rainy season in Japan. In Perth, we hardly get any rain in summer.
I haven’t been back to Japan in summer for 7 years now. It’s because I’ve been avoiding this season, as I don’t like the humid climate. Almost every shops and buildings are air conditioned, but because of the temperature difference on outside and inside the buildings many people get summer cold in Japan this time of the year.
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There are things that I miss about Japan’s summer, such as fireworks, summer festivals, summer food and dessert, going swimming (well, I can do it here in Perth)… Fireworks is the biggest event in summer.
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Many people wear yukata on this day and gather around the shore to enjoy the beautiful sky entertainment and the delicious food from the stalls.
Summer festivals are held at many places across Japan, almost at every suburb. In my town, we have a small festival at the beginning of August every year, and we enjoy the food, games (eg: kingyo-sukui = goldfish scooping), and bon fire and dancing! I have a friend who is learning Yosakoi dance, and she is always excited about this festival each year. Just let you know, Yosakoi is not like other dancing you see on tv (hip-hop, jazz, etc) The style of Yosakoi dance is highly energetic, combining traditional Japanese dance movements with modern music.
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I used to go to the festivals in the neighboring towns (just 10 minutes by bicycle) too, and they have different theme and sometimes karaoke. But, there are always delicious food (I love stall food) and that’s the biggest reason I enjoy the festivals so much.
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Posted June 17th, 2010 in Ume's Interests | No Comments »
The first bagel was baked by a Jewish baker in Vienna, Austria in 1683, and since then bagels have become a popular bread product in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom - especially in cities with large Jewish populations. As each country has different ways of making bagels, Japan also.
A “Bagel” is dense, hard bread which is boiled then baked in hot oven. Japan follows this method too, but they add something extra. Although most normal bakeries sell only standard bagels such as plain, cinnamon raisin etc, but bagel speciality shops sell varieties of bagels in different flavours. Some shops twist the dough to add more tough texture (so it’s not a ring-shape), some shops cover the bagel with mochi (mochi bagel), and some shops don’t shape the dough (it looks like a bun).
Of course there are normal-looking bagels too.
Please try Japanese bagels if you have a chance to go to Japan!
By the way, I heard that Malaysian bagels are deep-fried.. Is it true? I think it’s a donut, not a bagel :p
(photos from http://sysouer.exblog.jp/ and google search)
Posted May 30th, 2010 in Ume's Interests | No Comments »
Using technology originally developed for ASIMO the robot, Honda produced a personal mobility device U3-X. Housed within the large wheel are a series of smaller wheels that can rotate independently, allowing the awkwardly perched user to go forward, backward, side-to-side or diagonally.
I always get overwhelmed by Japanese technology… I mean, there are similar products such as Segway and Winglet, but Honda keens to point out that this U3-X is portable (less than 10 kg) and easy to use, with fold away footrests and seat cushions.
Segway
Honda U3-X
Maybe we will see elderlies using this compact U3-X around the house in near future
(Youtube)
Posted May 20th, 2010 in Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »
It sounds like I’ve been watching Japanese cartoon at home almost everyday, as I’ve just wrote about Tales of Earthsea, but I do enjoy watching cartoon quite often. I rented this Ghibli film “Pom Poko” (1994) just recently and I must say I did enjoyed the whole story.
Well, I’ve already watched this film few times in the past, but watching it again here in Perth reminded me of all the feelings about Japan and made me to rethink about the cohabitation of humans and animals.
The story is about tanuki, Japanese raccoon dogs, trying to survive the late 1960s. A gigantic and ongoing suburban development near Tokyo, Japan, threatens a group of wild tanuki. As the development is cutting into their forest habitat, tanuki had to think what they should do to protect their land from humans.
In this film, you can enjoy listening to lots of old Japanese songs including antagata-dokosa (a traditional warabe uta of Kumamoto prefecture) , and the appearance of famous Japanese monsters and mythological creatures. In Japanese folklore tanuki has supernatural shape-shifting powers to trick humans. In this film tanuki transform themselves into Japanese monsters and mythological creatures to scare people: such as rokurokubi, noppera-bo and fujin raijin.
The film ends on something of a bittersweet note for the tanuki. Throughout the film there is a lot of comedy as well as ecological messages. The film reminds me of old Japan, especially the time I was a kid. Japan has changed a lot, I think. No one would believe that I was climbing on trees, catching zarigani (crawfish), fighting with wild monkeys and playing with beautiful medaka (killifish) just 10 years ago near my house!
(Pom Poko Characters )
Posted May 13th, 2010 in Ume's Interests | 6 Comments »
The other day I rented a DVD of Tales of Earthsea (Japanese name ”ゲド戦記” Ged’s War Chronicles) from one of the video shop, and I quite enjoyed it. It is a Japanese anime film which was first released in Japan by Studio Ghibli on July 29, 2006 and is set to be released on August 13, 2010 in the US by Walt Disney Pictures.
This film is loosely based on a combination of plots and characters from the books written by JRR Tolkien (who also is an author of famous books such as Lord of the Ring) (wiki) and is directed by Goro Miyazaki, the eldest son of Hayao Miyazaki.
I love the drawing of the film: colors, images etc. I love all Ghibli anime. And I enjoyed watching this Tales of Earthsea by knowing that this film is directed by a son of Hayako Miyazaki as his first work as a film director. (and he also drew this poster shown above)
“Nausicca”, “LAPUTA”, “Grave of the Fireflies“, ”Totoro”, “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, “Porco Posso”, “Only Yesterday”, “Pom Poko”, “Whisper of the Heart”, “Princess Mononoke”, “Spirited Away”, “The Cat Returns”, “Howl’s Moving Castle” etc…
Which one is your favorite?
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