• Date: Saturday Sept 13th, 2008
• Time: 6-9pm registration from 6:00 to 6:30pm
• Drinks will be served between 6:30pm-8:50pm.
• Place: Nagoya Tsurumai City Public Hall, 1-1-3 Tsurumai (very close to JR Nagoya Station)
• PREPAY FEE: Men 2500, Women 2000. Price includes 1 free drink and some food!!
• 40 couples only! 40 men and 40 women! Reserve and prepay to join!
• AT THE DOOR: Men 3000 yen, women 2500 yen. Price includes 1 free drink and some food!!
• Dress code: Anything (Casual, etc)
• Reservations:PrePaid spots are Guaranteed! Only 40 men and 40 women. Reserve and prepay to secure your spot.

Nagoya Speed Dating is a great way to meet new people in the Aichi, Gifu and Mie Areas! At Nagoya Speed Dating, you will receive a number, an assigned table, and a personalized Speeding Ticket form. When the host says to start you will have between 3 to 5 minutes to talk to the person at your table. When the time is up the host will give you a signal. At that time the men will change tables and the women will remain seated. All you have to do is mark your speeding ticket with a yes or a no for each person. At the end of the event, the tickets will be analyzed and Nagoya Speed Dating will notify you of your matches. After that you will also receive contact info for the people you have matched with. Nagoya Speed Dating is a safe, easy, and fun way to meet new people. Come check out Nagoya Speed Dating!

Contact: 080-3648-1666(Japanese) 080-5469-6317(English)

Get off at Tsurumai Station (JR Chuo Line[South Exit] or Subway Tsurumai Line[Exit #4])

Nagoya Tsurumai City Public Hall, 1-1-3 Tsurumai (very close to JR Nagoya Station)

Train Directions

From Nagoya Station from Nagoya Station take the JR Chuo-Honsen Line and get off at the second station (Tsurumai). From Tsurumai Station, Get off at South Exit From Sakae/Fushimi Area, catch the Tsurumai Subway Line at Fushimi Station(bound for Akaike) and get off at the third (3rd) stop - Tsurumai. From Tsurumai Station, Get off at Exit #4

Tsurumai

JR Tsurumai Station

Chuo-Honsen Line（Chuo Line）

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サンフランシスコにある日本

ライス

A variegated vocabulary develops around food staples in any language. In meat-eating Western countries, for example, we have cows, bulls, beef, calves, veal; or pig, swine, pork, ham, bacon – all of which basically refer to the same food sources. Japan is the same when it comes to its own staple, rice.

The rice plant, i.e., rice when still growing in the ground, or even in its harvested state before threshing, is called ine. Due to the particularly warm temperatures this summer, and the lack of typhoons, ine production has been particularly high this year.

Once rice has been threshed and you are left with just the grains, it become kome, or, with the usually honorific o- in front of it, o-kome. Because ine production was so high this year, the price of kome is set to fall.

Once the o-kome has been put in the suihanki, or rice cooker, and gently boiled till soft, it is now go-han, and ready to eat. The go- is also honorific, but, unlike kome, where the o- is sometimes left off, you never hear the word han, only go-han – except when it is incorporated in other words like the above suihanki (sui=to cook, esp. grain, pulses, etc., such as rice or beans + han=rice + ki=device) or sekihan (seki=red, han=rice), red rice used for auspicious occasions.

Han is the Chinese reading of the character. One of the native Japanese readings is meshi, which also has the extending meaning of “food”. Therefore, while yakimeshi means “fried rice”, meshi by itself means “a meal”. Asameshi (asa=morning + meshi=meal) means breakfast. As an idiom, asameshi mae (asa=morning + meshi=meal + mae=before) i.e., “before breakfast,” means “a piece of cake” or “easy as pie” in English.

Another, somewhat less common, alternative pronunciation of the han character is manma or mama. Interestingly, manma not only means cooked rice, but is the word used to describe baby talk; and the other pronunciation mama appears in the word mamagoto (mama=rice, goto=affair, business, thing) which means “playing house"!


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ランの館

Just a short walk south of the IdcN Museum are the Orchid Gardens - an urban garden dedicated to the orchid.



The Orchard Gardens are a pleasant retreat in the center of Nagoya and consist of both interior and exterior European-style garden space.

The main, pleasantly cool main atrium displays over 250 species of orchid as well as other flowers. The ceiling was modeled on the Crystal Palace erected in London's Hyde Park for the first World Expo of 1851.

Outside are some fine lawns in a British-style garden, a small lake with lotus flowers and an Asian garden built around a Balinese-style arbor.

The Orchid Gardens includes a flower shop on the first floor and the second floor has a noted restaurant. The air-conditioning system for the building is ecologically run using an in-house sewage treatment center.



Access

Orchid Gardens
4-1 Osu 4-chome
Naka-ku
Nagoya
460-0011
Tel: 052 243 0511
Hours: 10am-8-pm; closed Wednesday
Price: 700 yen; 200 yen for the over 65's

Nearest subway station is Kamimaezu on the Tsurumai and Meijo Lines of the Nagoya subway.


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Garden Nagoya orchid

日本のマスコミから見る北京オリンピック

An American friend and his Chinese wife long resident in Japan have decided that Thailand would be the best place to watch the Olympics. Having seen tv coverage of different Olympic games in the US, Japan, and China, they roll their eyes at the thought of any more "USA USA USA" chanting (US), crying athletes and heartfelt disappointment (Japan), and lots and lots of ping pong (China). Thailand is, to put not too fine a point on it, not dominant in any sport. As a result, you get a wide selection of events and little nationalistic commentary. And great food.

The Japanese media was negative throughout the Beijing games. It wasn't just the usual suspects--the center-right Yomiuri Shinbun, farther right Sankei Shinbun, and the silly sports dailies--but even the center-left Asahi Shinbun.

While Japanese athletes for the most part disappointed, the local media stewed about China.

The lead headline in the Asahi on the day after the closing ceremony was "Gold: China 51, Japan 9." Farther below in a sub-heading was, "Human Rights and the Environment: No Changes." And, in a bit of a stretch, there was a prominent story about the men's marathon winner, Samuel Wanjiru.

The Kenya native was recruited to and spent his high school years in Sendai, under the tutelage of a Japanese coach and team.

The headline read "Japan Bred--Wanjiru Wins Marathon."

After graduating, he moved on to Toyota Jidosha to continue his training in Japan. However, prior to the Beijing games, he returned to Kenya to train--because as was widely reported in the English-language press he felt he had a better shot at the gold if he used less severe training methods.

In the post-race interview with Japanese tv, he replied that the main lesson he had learned in Japan was gaman. This translates as "patience" or "perserverance." What it really means though is the capacity to endure, to overcome terrible adversity. It is a much prized quality in Japan.

Perhaps that is exactly what the American-Chinese couple lack when the Japanese announcers are screaming or weeping or fuming about an event that happens to feature an athlete from Japan.

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国際デザインセンターデザインミュージアム

Located in the Nadya Park building in Sakae, the International Design Center showcases modern design from the early 20th century onwards.



Many of the exhibits are housed in revolving "Collection Towers" - press the button to see a variety of industrial and commercial design standards appear - telephones, vacuum cleaners, radios and a number of American Art Deco classics.



There are also a number of interactive computer consoles outlining the history of design and an interesting display of iconic posters.



The museum has explanations in both Japanese and English. There is a small bar and shop selling upmarket design products and wines from around the world.

IdcN Design Museum
Nadya Park Design Center Bldg. 4F
3-18-1 Sakae
Naka-ku
Nagoya
460-0008
Tel: 052 265 2106
www: idcn
Hours: Open 11am-8pm; closed Tuesdays

Access: A short walk west from Yaba-cho Station on the Meijo Line (Exit 5 or 6) or south from Sakae Station on the Meijo and Higashiyama lines of the Nagoya subway.

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今週の日本

Japan seeks arrest of three Sea Shepherd campaigners.

NY Times

Japan's trade surplus shrinks 87% in July.

Washington Post

79-year-old woman knifes two people at Shibuya Station.

Japan Times

HSBC accused over "cultural insensitivity" after white sumo ad.

Guardian

Young Briton held in Japan on suspicion of shaking newborn son to death.

Guardian

Japan's baseball pros humbled by US minor leaguers in Beijing.

Daily Yomiuri

Hideki Matsui returns to Yankees.

Yahoo! Sports


Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

There are an estimated 273,740 taxis nationwide, according to a 2006 survey. Sendai had 3,003 taxis as of March 2007.

Source: Construction & Transport Ministry

Japan's university graduation rate from its 725 universities fell to 84.6% last year compared with a global average of 70%.

Source: Daily Yomiuri

Of 16,801 successful doctorate graduates in 2007, only 4,146 found employment.

Source: Education Science & Technology Ministry

On average 150kg per person of food is thrown away each year in Japan, which has a rate of only 40% of food sufficiency.

Source: Josei Jishin

An estimated 30 trillion yen in 10,000 yen notes are held by households nationwide.

Source: Bank of Japan

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オリンピック野球

Oh dear! In the eagerly awaited Olympic baseball match-up between Japan and arch-rivals South Korea, it was the Koreans who advanced to the gold medal game leaving Japan and their team of highly-paid pros with the prospect of either the bronze medal or going home with nothing.

Interest in the game was high and the score (6-2 to South Korea) was posted at the entrance to the elevators in this office building so that workers could keep up with the score as they sneaked out for a smoke or a drink from the vending machines.



Ironically, it was the South Korean slugger, Lee Seung Yeop, who plies his trade in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants, who sealed the match with a two-run homer.

Japan's women showed the men how to do it by winning the softball gold beating the USA in the final game.


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タイの中の日本

As in the rest of South East Asia, the Japanese economic, financial and cultural presence in Thailand is huge.

Bangkok has virtually a Japanese restaurant on every street, billboards advertising the latest Japanese products abound, Japanese supermarkets and bookshops appear in most shopping malls, many of which were built using Japanese capital.



Japan is Thailand's biggest trading partner accounting for 20% of the country's imports and just under 12% of its exports. Over 1,200 Japanese firms are registered at the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok and Japan provides over 35% of all direct financial investment in the country. A large Japanese government loan helped finance the building of Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport.



On a more personal level there is even a Japanese-only street in the red-light district of Patpong off Silom Road in the capital, where the whores speak fluent Japanese and service no other nationality. Indeed Japanese make up the largest number of foreign visitors to the country with around 1.2 million Japanese tourists visiting Thailand annually - Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai being the preferred destinations.



The two countries' royal families supposedly enjoy cordial relationships and the history of interchange between Japan and Thailand goes back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when there was a Japanese settlement at the Thai capital of Ayudhaya (present-day Ayutthaya) and samurai served in the Thai King's army before the closed-door policy of sakoku shut off the valuable "red seal" trade between the two Asian neighbors.

Though never a colony, during World War II Thailand became a vitual satellite of Tokyo and it was to aid the Japanese war effort in Burma against the British and Indian armies that the infamous "Death Railway" was built. The original Bridge over the River Kwai can still be seen in Kanchanaburi in western Thailand with the small JEATH War Museum recreating a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

Besides the numerous Thai commercial sex workers who are trafficked to fuel Japan's sex industry, the next few years should see a small number of Thai nurses allowed in to the country to provide care for Japan's legions of old people.

Links

Japanese Embassy in Bangkok
Japanese Chamber of Commerce


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おネエMANS

O-né Mans is a program that airs every Tuesday on Nippon Television Network at 7pm. “A convergence of charismatic characters from every walk of life, all of whom employ camp language with consummate skill” is how the program is introduced on the station’s website.

O-né in Japanese means “big sister”. In Japanese gay parlance, “o-né” means “camp queen”. And O-né Mans is a program featuring 9 camp queens from “all walks of life” camping it up for the TV audience.

“Men, but not men, more feminine than women” is the next line in the website’s introductory blurb. “These are the charismatic genii of the ultra-future,” gushes the next.

But read a little further on, and you will find that “all walks of life” refers to the worlds of fashion, webmastership, hairdesign, showbiz, flower design, gym training, nursing, and cooking. God forbid that anyone deemed to bear authority in Japan, such as lawyers, priests, politicians, doctors, bankers, accountants, etc. should get a look in. And God further forbid that the camp cast be let loose on TV audiences by anyone but a “normal,” i.e. straight, MC.

In a sense, gay men could be said to be empowered by O-né Mans, attested to by their “charisma” alone keeping the program afloat. But in another sense, the program is a statement of how gay men are straitjacketed in what heterosexual Japan believes gay ought to mean. These are not men who love men – they are genderless freaks: “men but not men, more feminine than women”. Being gay is not about sexuality – it is about “employing camp language with consummate skill,” the implication being that if you are not a camp queen with the gift of the gab, you cannot properly call yourself gay. And while gay men are depicted as being in “all walks of life,” as noted above, they are notably absent from the walks of life where decisions are made about people’s fate.

Check out the O-né Mans website (Japanese only.)


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日本語のことわざ

The dog days of summer are upon us, and a few idioms are just what we need to keep us going.

序の口（じょのくち、jo no kuchi）= This is an expression from the world of sumo. It means "just the beginning." The origin of this expression is the sumo rankings that come out prior to each tournament. The rankings go from "jo no kuchi" all the way up to "yokozuna," which is the grand champion. Thus, "jo no kuchi" is the lowest rank in the top level of sumo--just the start.

You can use it when you are beginning a project or in more casual circumstances.

机上の空論（きじょうのくうろん、kijo no kuron）= something that sounds good in theory--but ain't gonna work or is not practical. "Kijo" is on the desk, "kuron" means an empty discussion.

一長一短（いっちょういったん、iccho ittan）= having both good and bad points.

Here is one for August: 優柔不断（ゆうじゅうふだん、yuju fudan）= indecisive. Nothing like putting something off until the weather cools a bit.

Our last expression this week is a perennial favorite.

以心伝心（いしんでんしん、ishin denshin）= tacit communication. It means something understood, without having to say anything. Japanese often use and love this expression.


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渋谷駅のさる

A monkey caused panic today at Tokyo's Shibuya Station as it evaded capture by police armed with nets and sped off in the direction of Yoyogi Park.



There have been a number of simian sightings in the capital of late and as usual the Japanese police did not get their man.


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京都KYOUEN

The Kyoto Kyouen development at Sanjo Keihan Station in downtown Kyoto is a pleasant shopping and dining development that has replaced the site where east bound trams were once turned around, and the old bus station.



The low-rise development has a traditional theme and incorporates traditional wooden buildings, dry stone Zen gardens and water features.



There are a number of shops selling traditional Kyoto crafts as well as a Spanish, Italian and Korean-style restaurants and Japanese eateries.

Access

Kyoto Kyouen
137 Daikoku-cho
Higashi-gawa
Sanjo-kudaru
Yamato-oji-dori
Higashiyama-ku
Kyoto
605-0008

Exits 3, 4, and 5 of Sanjo Station on the Keihan Line and Exit 2 of Sanjo Keihan Station on the Tozai subway line.


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山口サビエル記念聖堂



The Yamaguchi Xavier Memorial Church was completed in 1998. Located on a hilltop overlooking central Yamaguchi City, the striking modern design replaced an earlier church built in 1958 that mysteriously burned down in 1991.


The church is open to visitors from 09:00am to 17:30pm daily, and there is a Mass on Sundays from 09:30 -10:30.

There is also a Christian Museum located below the church that is open daily except Wednesdays. Admission 300yen.

Yamaguchi-shi, Kameyama-cho 4-1B
Tel. 083-920-1549

The city also has a Xavier Memorial Park with a monument to the Catholic Missionary.

Francisco de Xavier, the first Christian missionary to visit Japan arrived in Kagoshima in 1549. He made a brief, unsuccessful visit to Yamaguchi City in 1550, but returned in 1551 and this time succeeded in gaining the support and patronage of the local Lord, and stayed for 6 months achieving 500 converts in that time.

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京都のお店の前のシャッター

While wandering around Kyoto one recent evening, I found two steel shutters that caught my eye. On the left is the universally recognized Coke bottle, on the right an ad for a local tea drink.

In my hometown, Philadelphia, both would be covered in graffiti. And filthy. And multi-padlocked.

These shutters were clean, in every sense of the word. The rendering of the Coke bottle, in particular, was sharp and eye-catching.

Moreover, there did not appear to be any lock holding the shutters fast.

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今週の日本

As its work force ages, Japan needs and fears Chinese labor.

NY Times

Mobage-town: Japan's biggest mobile-only social network.

Washington Post

Big business in death.

Japan Times

The alternatives to bombing Hiroshima were not morally superior.

Guardian

PM's plan for secular war memorial shelved.

Daily Yomiuri

Yoshida dominant in winning 55kg wrestling gold.

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Japan Statistics

Osaka's official homeless population is 7700.

Source: BBC

There are 60,000-70,000 Filipina dancers in Japan; a third are undocumented.

Source: Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation

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栗林公園

Ritsurin Park in Takamatsu is one of Japan's finest and largest strolling gardens.

Constructed over a period of a hundred years in the Edo Period, the garden combines the traditional features of most Japanese gardens of its type: 'borrowed scenery,' lakes, bridges, tea pavilions and mini-mountains.



Built for the enjoyment of the successive ruling lords of the area, the garden was designed to be appreciated in all seasons of the year.

After the fall of the feudal system, the park has been open to the public since 1875.



As for the varied flora of the park, there are plum and cherry blossoms in spring, irises and lotuses in summer, maples in autumn and camellias in winter.

My own favorites are these ancient cycads presented to the Matsudaira family (then the rulers of Takamatsu) by the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma domain. Satsuma at the time held the trading rights to the then independent Ryukyu Islands, which now make up modern-day Okinawa Prefecture. The plants are now over 300 years old and are protected by the prefecture.

Access

Ritsurin Koen
Tel: 087 833 7411

Take a bus from JR Takamatsu Station.

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国際　ゲイ　ホームページ



I met the guys behind JguyUSguy, Japan’s most popular site for gay foreigners living in Japan, foreigners into Japanese guys, and Japanese guys into foreigners, back in the late 90s. I was trying to get a club night started in Osaka – where I lived at the time – called Traffik, and contacted JguyUSguy by mail about promoting it.

It was a modest success, and I ran it – as the main DJ - three times. But club owner fees and the difficulty of doing a club night pretty much singlehanded put paid to it before too long. Fun while it lasted though.

Anyway, I contacted the site for support. JguyUSguy is such an institution in gay Japan that I was surprised and flattered to get mail back from one of the two webmasters – the US guy – not only offering the full support of JguyUSguy for Traffik, but about getting together sometime. Since that time we have been good friends, and, thanks to his introduction, I now have translation work that forms a large part of my income.

As highly polished and professional in nature as it is, JguyUSguy is, surprisingly, not the webmaster’s bread and butter, but a (Herculean) labor of (true) love. It has been fairy godmother to no end of international liaisons, and a valuable and necessary forum of cross cultural dialog. I say “necessary”, because of anywhere, Japan must be a place where Western ways of doing things can be so out of place, in spite of its Western-style living accouterments, that English-speaking guys really need a place where they can hook up to question, probe, get feedback, get advice, impart opinions – and plain howl.

About a year ago the webmaster introduced a membership system whereby parts of the site are accessible only to those who sign up for a modest annual fee. I know how much time he puts into the site – how much time he has put into the site over the years – for no tangible return but the satisfaction of knowing that the magic that brought him and his man together can be, and is being, transmitted to others.

If you have any interest in Japanese guys, whether you live in Japan or not, I would urge to surf JguyUSguy - if you haven’t already yet - and see the wealth of community resources on offer, and just feel the warmth – the heat, even. Enjoy!

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お盆休み

It’s O-Bon season in Japan. This is the time of year when souls of the dead are said to return to the family home, and, traditionally, people return to the family home to pray for those souls’ repose.

And, sure enough, Tokyo is pretty deserted this week, especially today. My cycle ride to work this morning was a rather eerie experience, what with the almost silent streets that, being almost free of cars and trucks, seemed much wider and longer.

The Japanese word for holiday/break is yasumi. It is therefore very easy to ask people about whether and when they'll be off by asking, for example:
“Ashita (tomorrow) wa (marking the subject “ashita”) yasumi (holiday) desu ka (question tag)?”

Ashita wa yasumi desu ka.
(Is tomorrow a holiday?/Are you on holiday tomorrow?)

Or, instead of tomorrow, asatte (the day after tomorrow), or raishuu (next week).

Another, more sophisticated, way of expressing the idea of a holiday or break is the Chinese reading of the character for yasumi, which is kyuu. It can be used as a shorthand for yasumi, but only in conjunction with another character.

For example, the Chinese character for “facility” or “hall” is pronounced kan. You’ll see it at the end of words like toshokan (library), or taiikukan (gymnasium), or eigakan (cinema). Therefore, if you want to ask if a facility is going to be closed, you can use the word kyuukan. "Ashita wa kyuukan desu ka?" (Will this place be closed tomorrow?)

The Chinese reading of the Japanese word tsuzuku,“to continue,” is ren. So the shorthand renkyuu expresses “continuing holidays," or, in more normal English, “consecutive holidays”. O-bon, being four days - August 13 to 16 - is a renkyuu.


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マンホールの蓋

We love Japanese manholes and it seems our visitors like them too from the feedback we have had.

Here are some more Japanese manholes from the island of Shikoku including manholes from Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Konpira-san and Tokushima.










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たばこ

Japan remains very much a smoker's paradise with low prices (aound 300 yen for a standard pack of 20), weakly worded health warnings on cigarette packets and no sign on the political horizon of a European-style blanket smoking ban in workplaces, bars and restaurants. There is just not the official will for that sort of drastic anti-smoking measure in Japan at the moment.



However, restrictions on tobacco use are increasing. Most urban areas have no-smoking zones outside major train stations and in various busy thoroughfares. These are particularly strict in Tokyo, where weed-addicted office workers huddle into cramped spaces reserved for smoking, surrounded by vending machines, ash trays and occasionally smoke extractors.

Long gone are the days of cigarette smoke being sucked in to Tokyo's subway stations from over-flowing ashtrays at station entrances. The on-street smoking bans around places such as Tokyo and Shibuya Stations are also in response to incidents of lit cigarettes burning young children in the face as smokers bustle through the packed crowds with burning fags in their hands.



Another sign of the times is the introduction of the TASPO ID card to reduce underage smoking at the nation's millions of vending machines.

Only available to people over 20, with proof of identification, a TASPO Smart Card is now necessary to purchase tobacco products from vending machines. Take up of the cards has been low and after the scheme's subsequent introduction there have been calls from smokers' groups to allow vending machines to once again dispense tobacco between 11pm-6am. At the moment cigarette machines automatically close during the night.



Smoking has also been banned in most of the nation's taxis and is only allowed in certain smoking areas on train station platforms and in designated smoking carriages on trains and the Shinkansen bullet train.

In 2005 the smoking rate among Japanese men declined to 45.8% with the rate among women rising to to 13.8% according to a JT survey.

Related Links

Japan Tobacco (JT) - the world's 3rd largest tobacco company
Smoke Free Japan - has a few links to smoke-free bars and restaurants (not currently updated)


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