This year’s year-long, weekly NHK Taiga Drama TV series will start airing tonight on Jan. 6. Titled “Yae no Sakura,” it’s about a woman warrior named Yae Niijima (1845-1932) from Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. Aizu-Wakamatsu is famous for Tsuruga Castle (photo) and as the site of a Boshin War battle between pro-Emperor forces and pro-shogun forces who lost. Yae was on the latter side. After the war, she fought for equality for women and mastered English well enough to write one of Kyoto’s earliest guidebooks in English. (I wonder if a copy is still available.)
Her husband Joseph Hardy Neesima or Jo Niijima had studied in the US and founded a Christian school which became the prestigious Doshisha University in Kyoto. Yae will be played by actress Haruka Ayase. I remember her in the TV series “JIN,” about a brain surgeon who went back in time to the Edo Period. She was quite good (for a former bikini idol).
Everyone hopes that this Taiga Drama series will help bring back tourists to Fukushima. Aizu-Wakamatsu is one of Japan’s best provincial tourist cities, right up there with Sapporo, Sendai, Kanazawa, Matsue, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kochi, Kagoshima, and Naha. It has many attractions and historical sites within a small area. The tourist infrastructure is well developed and I liked the convenient tourist shuttle bus stopping at the major sights. I highly recommend a visit to Aizu. More about the drama: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fd20130104r1.html
Congratulations to Tokyo Sky Tree and people in Sumida and Taito Wards for today’s official opening of Japan/Tokyo’s mega tourist attraction of the century. It’s going to be very difficult to top that (literally even) anytime soon.
Since I live in eastern Tokyo, I obviously have great interest in the Sky Tree. But it’s not only because I can see it from my bedroom window. It’s also because the tower is very inspiring and confidence-building to the Japanese. It produces national pride in many positive ways, not to mention economic benefits.
The indigo-white tower is actually very Japanese, from its structural design based on Japanese pagodas, to the elevators with an interior design based on Sumida Ward’s four seasons. The Solamachi shopping complex also integrates traditional shitamachi concepts.
Tokyo Skytree is a symbol of Japanese pride in their heritage, culture, and traditions co-existing with modern elements. I salute the designers/builders of Tokyo Skytree for showcasing Japan’s traditional beauty and elegance in such outstanding ways.
They expect 5.4 million visitors to go up the Sky Tree and 32 million visitors to the entire complex during the first year. Compare these staggering figures with the 7 million tourists who visit Hawaii in a year (20 percent or about 1.27 million are Japanese) and Tokyo Disneyland’s 25.35 million visitors last fiscal year (2011/12). From now on, a visit to Tokyo won’t be a visit to Tokyo without seeing Tokyo Sky Tree.
We in Tokyo were very fortunate to have fleeting breaks in the clouds during the annular eclipse this morning at around 7:34 am. It was a very cloudy sky when the eclipse began, but most of us shot or saw the ring. The photos look dark, but the sky was actually quite bright throughout the eclipse even during the 5-min. ring. I thought the sky would be almost dark, but it was still bright. I live about 1.5 km from the shadow’s center, so I had the maximum 5-min. window to shoot the ring.
The eclipse was broadcast live by a few TV stations and one place monitored the reaction of zoo animals. They were pretty normal, after all, the sky remained quite bright throughout. I feel sorry for those who didn’t because of the clouds. People on Mt. Fuji missed it since the mountain was completely fogged over. People on a ferry going from Kyushu also missed it. (The clouds were thicker toward the ocean in the south.) A few men proposed marriage or gave a wedding ring to their fiance when the ring appeared. Around 15 people in Japan, including a few kids, needed medical attention for their eyes after viewing the eclipse.
In Japanese, annular solar eclipse is called kinkan nisshoku (金環日食), literally “devoured sun with golden ring.” Last time this occurred in Tokyo was 173 years ago in 1839. The next annular eclipse in Japan will be in Hokkaido in 2030. The next annular eclipse in Tokyo/Nagoya/Osaka like today will be 300 years from now.
The Japan Post Office has issued commemorative stamps for the centennial of the Washington, DC cherry blossoms. The sheet of ten 80-yen stamps is selling for 800 yen at all post offices in Japan. Notice that it shows five varieties of cherry blossoms (五色桜). That’s what was sent from Adachi Ward, Tokyo in 1912. http://www.post.japanpost.jp/kitte_hagaki/stamp/tokusyu/2011/h240327_t.html
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Philbert Ono -
April 10, 2012 at 10:07 pm
During March 22-25, 2012 in Yurakucho Lumine, they had a giant vase of cherry blossoms from all 47 prefectures. The “plant hunter” gathered all the cherry tree branches and either refrigerated them or heated them to have them all bloom at the same time. The giant vase was written with handwritten messages. Each sakura branch was tagged with the name of the prefecture where it came from. The flowers were at Yurakucho Mullion’s Lumine Passage, a shopping complex. A large crowd constantly surrounded the early sakura.
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Philbert Ono -
March 28, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Actor Nishida Toshiyuki and Fukushima Prefectural Governor Sato Yuhei hold a talk show.
Fukushima Prefecture held a PR fair (がんばろうふくしま！大交流フェア) at Tokyo International Forum on March 20, 2012 to promote itself. Lots of stage entertainment, food booths, mascot characters, and talk shows. Famous actor and Fukushima-native Nishida Toshiyuki and Fukushima Governor Sato Yuhei also appeared together. Enjoyed it. My video below:
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Philbert Ono -
March 20, 2012 at 10:43 pm
On March 18, 2012, Sunday, To mark the 700th anniversary of Asakusa Sanja Matsuri Festival in 2012, a boat procession was held on Sumida River on March 18, 2012 (浅草三社祭斎行700年祭 舟渡御). The last time they did this was in 1958. The three portable shrines were first carried from Asakusa Shrine to neighboring Sensoji temple on March 17 where it stayed overnight. On the 18th, they were carried outside and a procession around Asakusa was held in 1312. The procession included Asakusa geisha and White Heron Dancers. They reached the pier on Sumida River at 12:30 pm and boarded the boats. They cruised all the way to Ryogoku and back.
A large crowd turned out along the river to watch this unusual event. The Sanja Matsuri originated as a boat procession on the river since it celebrates the three people who found the Kannon statue in the river and started worshipping it in Asakusa.
When an earthquake in Japan is reported overseas, the problem is that they only report the magnitude of the epicenter (usually offshore). They don’t usually report the magnitude in the populated areas. This is actually more important than the epicenter’s magnitude (unless the epicenter is under a populated area). A magnitude 6+ quake was reported today. That’s very strong, but it was only magnitude 3 in Tokyo. If it were magnitude 6 in Tokyo, we might be in rubble. To find out the intensity of the affected prefectures, check this: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_singendo_index.html
Click on the time when the quake occurred, then you can see a map of the prefectures which were affected and their color-coded intensity. Magnitude 4 or lower is minor. Here’s the map of the one we got tonight at 9:06 pm: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/3/20120314210927484-142105.html
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Philbert Ono -
March 14, 2012 at 11:01 pm
When an earthquake in Japan is reported overseas, the problem is that they only report the magnitude of the epicenter (usually offshore). They don’t usually report the magnitude in the populated areas. This is actually more important than the epicenter’s magnitude (unless the epicenter is under a populated area). A magnitude 6+ quake was reported today. That’s very strong, but it was only magnitude 3 in Tokyo. If it were magnitude 6 in Tokyo, we might be in rubble. To find out the intensity of the affected prefectures, check this: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_singendo_index.html
Click on the time when the quake occurred, then you can see a map of the prefectures which were affected and their color-coded intensity. Magnitude 4 or lower is minor. Here’s the map of the one we got tonight at 9:06 pm: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/3/20120314210927484-142105.html
To PHOTOGUIDE.JP Japan Blog! This blog keeps track of site updates and my impressions of Japan. Japan Blog was revamped in June 2010 so all the links to older blog posts have changed. If you're looking for something, use the search box above. My other blogs: PhotoGuide Japan NewsZONE (Photography in Japan) and Shiga News (Shiga Prefecture). About Me here.
