Castle lovers

Very interesting that more and more people, not only old people but young women, are visiting castles these days. A new trend now in Japan is Sengoku Busho which means gennerals of Sengoku period. Sengoku period is the warring state period in 16th century in Japan. Dramas and games about this period and generals have been popular regardless of age or sex.

One of reasons is Taiga Drama made by NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Japanese Broadcasting coporation). This is long-term historical fiction drama and has long history since 1963.
Actually, it has a lot of impact on Japanese.

Castles are beautiful as artistic buildings and guardens along with are also the highlight. Many people have Hanami party at castle gardends.

Evrey time I go back to my hometown, I visit the nearest castle where I frequently visited during my school days.

Somehow, this place heals me...

then I realize I am very Japanese...

Mobile Phones for teens

As the same with other developed countries, the mobile phones situation in Japan has been changing every day. According to a research done by Benesse Corporation about mobile phones among teenagers, over 93% of high school kids have their own and 29% of elementary school kids have phones either with family or of their own. The percentage increase age by age, but number of holders increase differently based on sex. At age 10, only about 30% have phones among both boys and girls; however, at age13 (only after 3 years) the percentage jumps up to 49% for girls, but stays 31% for boys. Then at age 16, 94% of girls and 87% of boys and at age 18, both of sexes reach as high as 93%. What is more, the manners among teenagers are different from that of adults.
The research reports that 80% of teen users enjoy phones either taking pictures or movies and downloading music and playing games when adults use phones for communication both private and business. Elementary schoolchildren use phones often when they need to call family, whereas junior high schoolchildren use them mainly to exchange e-mails with friends. Again, girls exchange e-mails more often than boys and junior high schoolchildren use e-mail function than high schoolchildren. They answer e-mail right after they receive them. They do not mind if a person who is in front of you starts answering or writing a reply by his/her phone.

“They consider face to face communication and communication by phone is equal. Therefore, some attitudes which are not acceptable to elders are natural among teenagers,” says Akira Sakai, a professor of Otsuma Women’s University. Though there is a difference between junior high schoolchildren and high schoolchildren, both of them obviously have different perspective from elders.

I understand that mobile phones are so popular that it is hard for kids not to look at or hope to own under peer pressure. However, time of school days never comes back. They have their job such as study and student clubs to get themselves into shape and learn teamwork and harmony.　It is not too bad to use or own mobile phones. Yes it is useful and has a lot of information. Nevertheless, they have things to do before having their own phones. Schooldays should be the basis for living a normal life as a member of society. I would allow my daughter to have one when she has certain knowledge and keeps a good standard in school (no absence, study hard, and make good friends).
Some schools ban to bring mobile phones; however, since most of high schoolchildren have their own phone, schools need to teach and educate on advantages and disadvantage of mobile phones. Teaching at home is a must. Sakai commented regarding this research, “It is very interesting that sense of teenagers today; we need to look into minorities who feel discomfort and doubt on some attitudes, and then take those into topics to discuss in the school education”.

Cakes before flowers? Early Cherry Blossoms

It is a spring time!
Most Japanese love "Hanami". Hanami means viewing and enjoy the beauty of flowers, but we usually say it as viewing cherry blossoms in springs. People gather with friends and co-workers to enjoy food and drinks under the trees, even at night (Yozakura). Some parks put small lamps that illuminate cherry blossoms.
"Hamani" seemed to start about 1,200 years ago in imperial court, and then became popular in the Edo period. The cherry blossom is at their best only for two weeks, poems would be written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life of Samurai, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.
We have the cherry-blossom forecast to inform when the cherry blossoms will come out everyday. Since Japan is slender island from north to south, the forecast starts usually from the middle of March to the end of April.
However, the time of cherry blossom seems to come gradually early every year. .
The cherry-blossom front has already arrived at Iwate today, but it is kind of too early for Iwate; we usually hear the news of cherry blossoms at the end of April.It must be because of the global warming... It is over 20°C today.
It is so nice to have early cherry party and shorter winter, still it is not good.
Am I strange to care about global warming while enjoying early cherry blossoms?
I do not want the earth to have a life like cherry trees. No way.

Space Travel

Koich Wakata, Japanese spaceman who is working now in space, updated his official blog on 20th and published today.
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/koichiwakata_blog/archive/2009/03/24

He in those pictures looked excited and doing his job.

I am solely "the arts" person, and I feel dizzy when I see numbers and symbols of science.

So space is like too far away...
But if, by any chance, I can go to space travel, I want to see the blue earth which floats in space...

Favorite Baseball Comic

Ever since I was a junior high school student, I have liked "Touch".

This is very famous baseball comic in Japan and popular in all ages.　This has comedy, romance and sports spirit.

Main characters are twin brothers and one girl, who are living next to each other since they are babies.

Touch (manga), http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Touch_(manga)&oldid=277845734 (last visited Mar. 18, 2009).

I am reading it now, I do not know how many times I have read it.

I realize that my perspective toward this story change. When I read it in junior high, I just read as a love story and that's it. I liked the drawing. When I read it in 20's, I was reading it as I recalled my memory in the past and considered it only as a fiction that was nothing to do with my life.

Then now, I can see a lot more than I did in the past; feeling of each character and sensitive relationship among characters. Brotherhood, friendship, love, dream...etc...

As my husband has a younger brother whose personality is very different from his, I see some common point in the character of twin brothers. I am trying to catch and understand how the elder figure is like.

I could see the heart of brothers and the girl. They like and treasure each other. Their caring hearts are beautiful. Basically, it is comedy, so not always love and romance. It has seriousness sometimes like a spice.

If you have time, give it a try.

Trip to Sendai

Blue and clear sky, warm temperature and sunny Sunday, yesterday was a just perfect to day for drive.

My husband took us to Sendai.

Sendai is 2.5-hour drive away (on superhighway) from Morioka.

It is a biggest city in Tohoku area(North East Japan).

He took us to Aoba castle where Masamune Date lived.

See Wikipedia, Aoba Castle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoba_Castle (optional description here) (as of Mar. 16, 2009, 05:37 GMT).

I did not know a lot about its history, however, the view from a outlook point was very nice.

She was shrieking and squealing with laughter:D We enjoyed the sun and view.

After that, we wet to eat "Go Around Sushi". Sushi is one of my favorite food!

My daughter was happy to see sushi running on belt conveyor and eat seaweed roll

I liked nigiri of a big scallop, chihiro shrimp and sea bream.

We enjoyed this short one day trip:)

Highway Revolusion

Japanese superhighways cost a lot.
Unlike the U.S., it costs a lot of money to drive on superhighways in Japan. For instance, if you drive from Tokyo to Nagoya, it would cost around $80 plus gas fee.
Because of this, we cannot travel far by car.

A new superhighway system will start in Japan; it discounts the expressway toll and it would start from 28th of this month. This only charges 1,000 yen per a ordinal car with ETC(Electronic Toll Collection) as long as you drive on a superhighway.
This is definitely a good news for me whose hometown and relatives are miles away.

Although it limits only weekends and official holidays, it makes a big difference.

This is one of additional economic policies that the government have been working on. However, it is not an easy process to make all toll stations to activate according to the policy within a month. No wonder today's news say the system will be carried out step by step, and be done by the start of "Golden Week".

Originally I was planning to visit my hometown with my daughter by Shinkansen (a supreme express) in the end of April, but because of this new system, my husband might join us.

I feel my relatives and families are getting closer.

This will really change our weekends and vacations!
Now I need a better and comfortable car...

Morioka Cold Noodle

Do you eat cold noodle in winter?

Yes, I do!

Last Saturday, my husband took me to a Restaurant whose Cold Noodle is very famous.

This Cold Noodle is called "Reimen" （冷麺）in Japanese.
We sometimes go and eat at this restaurant and also enjoy grilled slices of meat.

Last week, the restaurant held "Noodle Festival". It is not an event outside, but they serve noodles and grilled meat dishes cheaper.

This cold noodle which is put in the soup is very “elastic”. This really makes people addicted. Some people are hesitated to eat for the first time, but once they slurp up one line of the noodle they can never forget its elasticity. Then they somehow come to eat Rei-men from time to time.

The soup is so delicious! It is little sweet and you can put KIMCHI to make it spicy. This matches this noodle amazingly.

It has boiled eggs and pear on top. They serve water melon instead of pear in summer.

Fruit in noodle!?

Yeah, believe me, this is exquisite!

Mobile phones in Japan 1

I used to stay in the US for business around a year. I had moble phone to communicate, but the pohone was only for verbal communication.

No mailing function was avairable.

That was almost 8 years ago.

I settled Japan returning from the US, I started using Japanese mobile phones.

Japanese phones are very originative and stylish, though they are not that popular in the world.
The industry has been developing ever since it was released to our daily lives.
We have three major carriers, Docomo, Au and Softbank. They have improved and developed their original services and monthly fee options.

According to a survey, Docomo customers are satisfied with its good quality of talking condition and a large area of it.
The popular I-Phones are sold only at Softbank, though they are not working in full scale. The functions are limited. Softbank is also famous for a reasonable monthly fee. The cheapest basic fee is 980 yen (about $10) per month.
Au has stylish phones and famous for good quality in music play.

There are camera phones and TV phones.
Camera phone takes with 5.1 mega pixels. It takes very good quality pictures and ones with 8.1 megapixels are available at shores from this fall.
Another has so called “One-Seg (1 Seg)” function. You can watch TV with good view on your phone.

Three carriers are quite competitive to attract users with better equipment and services. That is why; Japanese phone service and quality have gotten better and better.
Of course, it is still improving and getting better.