Posted in Japan on Mar 16th, 2008
In Japan, Valentine’s Day is observed by members of the female gender who present chocolate gifts (either store-bought or handmade), usually to a member of the male gender, as an expression of love. The handmade chocolate is usually preferred by the receiver, because it is a sign that the receiving male is the girl’s “only one”.
On White Day, the converse happens: males who received a “honmei-choco” chocolate of love or “Giri-choco“ chocolate of courtesy on Valentine’s Day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts, usually more expensive. Sometimes the term sanbai gaeshi (literally, “thrice the return”) is used to describe the generally recited rule that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine’s gift.
The shops were buzzing Friday night with last minute shoppers, myself included, the last thing you want to do is arrive home. or wherever else you may need to go, empty handed.
By the way, the tardiness of my posting this week was due to a Wordpress problem preventing me writing posts, it seems Apache was blocking my IP after to many queries were sent to the server … all seems to be fixed now so i have a bit of cacthing up to do.
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Posted in Japan, Technology on Mar 11th, 2008
A little over a month ago i started a 2nd competition, this time giving away a Canon IXY Digital L4 Camera to one lucky recipient.
The purpose of the competition was to help launch Japan Singles and i can say in the first month it’s going very nicely with over 220 people signing up in February alone, i hope these numbers continue in the months to come.
The competition has been run and won and with the help or random.org i’m happy to announce the winner.
The winner is Ludovico / Matthew from Blog About Your Blog, who i will contact directly and ask what colour Canon Camera they’d like.
Thanks to all for your participation and i’m sure there’ll be more competitions run in the future.
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Posted in JR Yamanote Line on Mar 9th, 2008
The 2nd stop for me of the 29 Stops on the Yamanote Line is Ebisu, it’s 3 stations from home so an easy one to get too. Prior to today i’d only been out to Ebisu once and that was for an afternoon at the Ebisu Beer Hall with the other members of the language school i was attending.
Ebisu, formally Yebisu before the ‘ye’ was dropped for just an ‘e’ also happens to be a popular beer in Japan and it was actually the beer that named the town and the railway station, not the other way around as many would imagine.
As a place Ebisu would best be described as a quiet place located in the Shibuya ward. Ebisu is conveniently situated next to Shibuya and Roppongi so it’s only a matter of heading on the Yamanote Line or Hibiya Line for a few stops to get into the thick of it. Having said that, there is no shortage of bars and restaurants all with their own individual style which can keep you occupied for many a lazy evening.
Ebisu’s main tourist attraction tends to be centered around the newer Yebisu Garden Place and the Westin hotel area. Accessible from the Ebisu Station East Exit via the “Yebisu Skywalk” covered moving walkway, it features the headquarters of Sapporo Breweries, The Beer Museum Yebisu and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
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Posted in Photo Hunt on Mar 8th, 2008
This weeks theme in The Photo Hunt is Different or Kotonatta (ことなった) in Japanese.
Ultraman (ウルトラマン, Urutoraman) is a fictional character featured in tokusatsu, or “special effects” television programs. Ultraman made his debut in the tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero TV series, Ultraman, a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q. The show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions and was broadcast on TBS.
Here’s a photo i took of Ultraman last year, he looks decidely different in the comics than he does in real life.
To distinguish him from subsequent Ultra Warriors, Ultraman is referred to as the original Ultraman (初代ウルトラマン, Shodai Urutoraman), the first Ultraman, Ultraman Hayata (a reference to his host’s surname) or as simply Man.
Although Ultraman is the first series to feature an Ultra-being, this is actually the second Ultra Series. Ultra Q was the first. A major pop culture phenomenon in Japan, the show has spawned dozens of imitators as well as numerous sequels and remakes, which continue to be popular today.
Ultraman as he appears on Television.
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Posted in Japan on Mar 6th, 2008
It’s been a while since i’ve written about a something like this, the last time was on the subject of Honne and Tatemae.
One thing i’ve noticed since moving to Japan and something Japanese girls themselves have mentioned to me is the level of maturity, or lack thereof, in Japanese girls. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, not by any stretch, truth be known that’s actually what many Japanese men and also many Gaijin love about Japanese Girls.
The fact the Japanese have a hard and fast word for it, to me, means it’s a known behaviour and certainly a behaviour that has it’s place in Japanese society. Also firstly let me say, my thoughts on this subject have NO connection whatsoever to the 2 Japanese Friends i was out with last night should they happen to read this!
Amae exists in many facets of Japaese society, the love for Anime and Cosplay are visible examples of this.
Amae (甘え) is a Japanese word coined from the verb amaeru by Takeo Doi to serve as a noun, which he then used as a keyword to unlock, analytically, the behavior of a person attempting to induce an authority figure, such as a parent, spouse, teacher or boss, to take care of him. The verb itself is rarely used of oneself, but rather is applied descriptively to the behaviour of other people.
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