MIYUKI NAKAJIMA & JOE HISAISI got Shiji Award in Japan.

Shijiaward is an honorable emblem which is sent to people who made great contribution to Japanese or international art or sports.  It’s not a big sureprise that Joe and Miyuki are selected time year. They are admired by nation as life long musician who made all Japanese be brave to live with their wonderful music. One strange thing for this prize is that HAYAO MIYZAKI or TAKEHI KITANO have never been selected with all their shining career and respect by nation of Japan.

MIYUKI NAKAJIMA started her career more than about 30years ago through YAMAHA popular song contest. Her song was JIDAI ( or AGE in English ). She wrote and sang it then and this song is still a big song for the Japanese. More or less, Jidai lives in the heart of Japanese mind.

JOE HISAISHI is already world wide famous composer. His contribution to Japanese or international music is beyond description. Studio Ghibli could not achive such high popularity and perfectionism without his music.  Takeshi Kitano needed Joe’s music for realizing the pure beauty of story. Many songs by Joe Hisaishi are still in the heart of us. 

Joe Hisaishi picks up Nausicaa of the valley of the wind as his best work ever. He says ” Listening to it now, the work is rough. But If I try it now, maybe I can’t produce it now,  it’s a fact that my career started with that work with Director, Miyazaki.”

Below are the videos of MIYUKI and JOE

 As far as we are in Japan, we don’t notice the number of Chinese or Korean ( South Korean) travelers in Japan. Of course, we understand the difference by looks or fashion, or language. But we don’t think they are special because they have been traveling in Japan since the Asian history began.

However, when we travel abroad, it’s sure that the biggest traveler numbers we see with our eyes  is Chinese or Korean wherever we go.  In America, Europe, Asia, or Oceania, we always hear Chinese speaking people and Korea speaking people in the airports or on the main shopping streets of the world.

Some decades ago, Asian travelers of largest number we could see was Japanese. Now Japanese still like traveling,  moreover,  Korean and Chinese go traveling more than the Japanese.  And Korean and Chinese like immigrating in the other world.  So the numbers of their nation we see in the world are larger than the travelers numbers.

On the contrary, Japanese don’t immigrate much. In Brazil or in Hawaii, we see the Japanese ancestors, but it’s a historical aspect of Japan. In the modern times, more immigrants and travelers from China and Korea ( especially South Korea ) live and walk in many parts of the world.

Apparently this tendency will be clear in the future, especially Chinese travelers and immigrants will be staying the biggest number for a long long time in the future as the Chinese people’s income grows.

Probably in the near future, Chinese and Korean ( South Korean ) will live most of the major parts of the world. The reason for their outbound travel enthusiasm especially for South Korea is not clear.  China has large number of population over 1 billion people,  so it’s rather natural that Chinese travelers prevail on this planet. But South Korea has only 48 million people and the number of travelers we see in the world is not so different from Chinese  numbers if we judge from our impression we receive in the world travel spots. What makes South Korean travel abroad or get out of their own country with tremendous enthusiasm ?

Anyways, India, Indonesia, Malaysia or there are more Asian countries, but the 2 countries outnumber the others as far as we see Asian travelers with our eyes.

Today, there was a very rare rugby match, New Zealand vs Australia, at Tokyo Olympic Stadium.  The game was very interesting with a lot of present of 45,000 people.  New Zealand won.

This is a top rugby game of the world. I don’t know why this game was held in Japan instead of NZ or AUS.  Such a popular game should be a profitable game for either country, so I wonder why.

Anyway,  for Japanese fans, it’s very exciting to have experience to see such a top level game.

In Japanese rugby games, most popular game is a college game, Waseda University vs Meiji University.  This game gathers more than 50,000 present every year.  This game is certainly popular, while so, it’s a college game and the watchers are mostly students or graduates of both universities. This doesn’t simply show rugby popularity in Japan.

When I was a student, I loved rugby very much.  To my joy, at that time Frence National Team came to Japan for some test matches. Blanco, the strong fullback player,  was playing in the team, which made me excited to see. 

But the present people then were only 15,000 or so.  Japanese team also had a good standoff player,  Yuji Matsuo.  So the number of present was a little disappointing.

Compared to that time, the fans numbers are absolutely increasing.  Today’s fans really got excited to see 2 teams play although it’s not  a Japanese team game.

Japan got the world cup country right in 2019, or 10 years later.  We hope there would be more rugby fans in Japan then, and like today, I want to see them to get excited at good play scenes no matter which team is playing in front of them.

Tokyo Motor Show is now being held. The officials announced that the total number of present went over 300,000 in the middle of the duration.

But this number is far below the expectation.  1 million people are expected all through the duration but it seems impossible this time although the last several shows collected more people with ease.

This unfavourable result is of course because of the recession of the world economy. At the same time, Japanese car market is not such big any more compared to some new market in Asia, China, India or Indonesia.

Japan was long believed the best market in the world because of single ethnic group with common sense and knowledge.  That integrated market character was a very good target for major companies as they can reach the people through one concept of advertisement.  For the makers, it was easier to let the people feel like they wanted to buy.

Now the one concept goes wrong because all the people don’t want to buy anything.

Still the Japanese motor companies technology is high and we expect the leading role for the world.  If we pick up the worst point from the present situation of the industry, Japanese companies are losing their own market and they need to go out of Japan to keep the present sales.

 Rakugo is a traditional form of Japanese entertainment.  It’s a kind of comical play on the stage but exactly speaking, it’s not a comedian’s play. Rakugo is played by one person on the stage and the person who plays Rakugo acts as two person’s role or sometimes more than that. And the story is made by the Rakugo player and he always tries hard to make people laugh from the stage.

Rakugo started more than 2 hundred years ago in Japan and probably the basic style of Rakugo was roughly formed before that. Since then, people enjoyed the stories told by rakugo player and the stories often become the traditional Japanese tales.

Rakugo is a kind of mental and intelligent game of Japanese people.

Rakugoka means a person who plays Rakugo on stage for public people.  One of the most famous and respected Rakugoka, Sanyutei Enraku, died of cancer today, at 76 years old.

I still remember my father went to see and listen to his rakugo more than 20 years ago when Enraku came to our small town. My father had no special hobbies but for him, it was an important occasion to see him on stage. 

Of course I knew Enraku, and all of the Japanese people must know him as an outstanding rakugoka in Japan even though recent people don’t enjoy rakugo so often as my father’s generation.

It’s maybe difficult for non-Japanese people to understand how he is missed in Japan. But if I say it7s almost same thing as Mr. Akira Kurosawa dies, you might understand how we Japanese respect him.

Without doubt, Akira Kurosawa is far famous than Enraku in the world. Enraku probably had few fans in the world except Japan.  It’s not fair to compare with Akira Kurosawa who made international impact on film industry.

But for the minds of Japanese, Enraku’s talks will never disappear as Kurosawa’s movies will never do. Enraku made us happy when he talked on the stage as a Rakugoka and his rich story with much intelligence was good exercise of our mind and it was also a pleasant stimulation to our dull head.

We love you forever, Enraku san.  Rest in peace.

 Today, again we got a news of UNIQLO in Japan.  It seems that UNIQLO made a record high in the sales last year.

Some years ago, UNIQLO became out of fashion because too many people wear the brand and they easily notice who wear UNIQLO with a single sight.

Peeple don’t like it because UNILQO is thought to be an economy fashion rather than a rich brand fashion, so if they are notice using UNIQLO, it was a little bit of shame partly becasuse it’s a cheap fashion, and partly because so many people wear the same ones.

But now, UNIQLO is not such a shame for younger people too.  Rather than that, UNIQLO made a kind of super cost performance wear status in Japan.

Also the recent recession makes UNIQLO walk on the royal road of marketing as it’s cheap, good, and fashionable.  Nothing wrong with it if they understand it’s value.

Some years ago, as stated above, UNIQLO was not the main stream of the fashion because it’s a kind of escape fashion to survive, but now, it is becoming the main stream fashion among young to mid age of Japanese.

I live in 3 countries alternately. USA, New Zealand, and Japan. Among these countries, generally thinking the cheapest living cost country is thought to be New Zealand. In a sense, it’s true.

In New Zealand, monthly totlal spending is really small. But if I compare each item price one by one,  the lowest price country woul be Japan.

The reason for the New Zealand low cost living is that there are not many products I want to buy.  For example, in New Zealand,any kind of items are simillar. Furnitures, cars, cosmetics, clothes, and foods are all the same wherever we go. New Zealand has small number of population, so there is not more demand for consumer’s products. Stores are also all the same chain stores, so we can find the same store names wherever we go like Farmers, Countdown, Freedom furnitures, Warehouse, etc.. If we live in NZ at most for a year, maybe we would not be able to see dramatically new products at stores. It means we, especially from Japan, lose our mind to buy anything because nothing is new.

But in Japan, every day we see new products if we stopover our neighbour stores. They change the dispay often and the items are always rotating. Of course standard items are always there, but brandnew items are always born. Also the biggest difference is the variation of items. If we try to buy anything in Japan, probably we can find our own favourite product because the variation is really wide. But in NZ, we need to compromise some common items because the variation is limited.

Living cost in Japan is really high compared to NZ, but the biggest reason for that is the existence of attractive product numbers. If the number is limited, we can’t spend money because we don’t want to buy. But in Japan or in the USA,  the numbers of variation and numbers of products are more than 10 times larger than NZ stores sell.  We buy more in Japan because there are products and services we want to buy. That’s why the living cost in Japan is high.

However, foods, cars, houses, and anything in Japan are mostly cheaper than NZ’s.

I don’t always think the more products we have, the better life we can lead. So each country has good and bad.

I almost lost shopping desire at this age, so even if I live in Japan, I don’t have to spend more money. If I was in Japan when I was far younger, I would always need to find where pawn shops are.

Yoko Ono is, probably, the most famous Japanese woman in the world. That’s because she used to be the wife of John Lennon. Actually she worked for her own art works but that didn’t make her famous. The reason for her recognition is after all John Lennon.

This is a Beatles fan’s opinion, and not about Japanese woman but about Yoko Ono, the wife of John Lennon.

I don’t like her. When I heard how Yoko treated the people of Liverpool at the death of John, I was not dissapointed but was angry. Yoko didn’t allow the friends of John or relatives of John in Liverpool including previsou wife, Sincer, to attend the funeral or she didn’t contact any of them. Those friends and relatives in Liverpool could not say a word of Goodbye to John. They don’t know yet where John was burried or where his grave is.

Yoko doesn’t have right to erase the history of John. Yoko has privilage to foster the momory with John, just like that, people in Liverpool have the same right to share the memory with John. In addition, if Yoko deletes John’s Liverpool hisotry, it absolutely means she will delete John’s past too. Crazy !

I’m a huge fan of John and the Beatles. I can’t say anything about John’s choice of his wife, Yoko. It’s alright.  But as a human, what Yoko does to John’s Liverpool memory is just out of moral, just a humanity problem.

I don’t want to remember she is a  Japanese.

When we were students of high school or college, one of our dreams were going to America and learn many things there. But for us , studying abroad was too expensive.  That wa just a dream for us.
 Now many go to the USA and the other countries for studying. That is not rare to experience foreign countries while young.
 But we thing international troubles are many now.  Maybe there are more troubles than the time we just dreamed.  People know the other world now, but troubles are many. How can we reduce the trouble ?
 Indeed, the more different people meet, the more troubles happen. People say ” we go abroad for international understanding”.
 But the truth is that more people exchange cause more troubles.  I don’t know how to cope with it.

Seattle Mariners is a famous American Baseball team in Japan because there are some good players from Japan. Of course the top player is Ichiro. Next famous player is maybe Jojima, the Catcher from Daiei Hawks, which is now Softbank Hawks.

Jojima recently announced that he would come back to Japanese baseball as he wants to stay with his family more.

Then some Japanese baseball team got excited with expectation to get him as a new member. The previous his team, Softbank Hawks sent the top director, Sadaharu Oh, who is more famous as the Japanese lifetime home-run king, to persuade Jojima to be as a new member of Hawks.

Also the popular baseball team in Osaka, Hansin Tigers, seems to send the top director, Senichi Hoshino, who is also famous in Japan as passionate manager in his career, to talk with Jojima for smooth conversion from America to Hansin Tigers.

He was raised by Sadaharu Oh since he was young, so it’s natural for him to come back to Softbank Hawks.  No detailed report is now arrived from Japanese media about Jojima’s intention.

He is certainly a good player, it’s nice for us to be able to see his play again. Hansin Tigers has more nationwide TV network, so if he chooses this team, he would be more popular in Japan.

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