インフルエンザ

A 17-year-old male high school student in Yokohama has become the first suspected case in Japan of a person infected with the new strain of influenza A virus, H1N1.

The student had visited British Columbia in Canada, on a school trip. The boy is in hospital but his case is not thought to be serious.



"There is no need to panic. I ask people to take measures against ordinary influenza such as wearing masks and washing hands," advised Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe.

Panic was exactly what some schools and universities were doing before the announcement of the arrival of the virus in Japan. Some colleges had placed travel bans on students and teachers to areas where the virus has appeared including the USA, Canada and the UK.

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映画館　デート

Last time, we left Kenji and Naoko picking a movie - a slightly "off the wall" (kawatta) movie, and planning for some more off-the-wall action afterward.

The curtain has fallen, the movie is over. Listen as LH Kenji and LH Naoko review their date so far.

Kenji: 映画は十分変わっていたの。　Eiga wa juubun kawatte ita no?
Was the movie off the wall enough for you.

Naoko: まあまあ。Maa maa.
More or less.

Kenji: 寝たんじゃないの。かわいい鼾をちょっと聞こえた気がする。Netan ja nai no? Kawaii ibiki o chotto kikoeta ki ga suru.
You slept, right? I think I heard a cute little snore.

Naoko: うそ！　ちょっとうとうとしたかも、しかし鼾なんて！Uso! Chotto utouto shita kamo. Shikashi ibiki nan te!
Oh ! I might have drifted off a little. But "snoring," my ass.

Kenji: じゃあ、うしろのおばあちゃんだろう。Ja, ushiro no obaachan daro.
Oh well, must have been the old lady behind me.

Naoko: 逆にケンジがずっともじもじしたたのよ。なんで落ち着かないの？Gyaku ni Kenji ga zutto mojimoji shiteta no yo. Nande ochitsukanai no?
On the other hand, you were wriggling around the whole time. Why can't you relax?

Kenji: 別に。Betsu ni.
Don't know about that.

Naoko: 足を擦り付けたりして。。。Ashi o suritsuketari shite...
Rubbing your leg [against mine].

Kenji: 気に障ったの？Ki ni sawatta no?
Did it get on your nerves?

Naoko: 別に。Betsu ni.
I wouldn't say that.

Will Naoko's and Kenji's evening get any hotter? Stay tuned!

Glossary
maa maa: more or less; not great, but not the worst; tolerable
betsu ni: not really, "I wouldn't say that," "I don't know about that."
ibiki: snore
utouto suru: to drift off, nod off, drowse
zutto: the whole time, continuously
mojimoji suru: to wriggle, fidget
suritsukeru: to rub against, nuzzle
ki ni sawaru: annoy, get on ones nerves, rub the wrong way

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ゴールデンウィーク日本語

Japan's Golden Week is a series of national holidays that fall on or around the end of April and the first week of May.

Many Japanese companies give their employees up to 10 days off in a row. As a result, many go on holiday either within Japan or abroad.

Today we are going to look at vocabulary related to the holiday period.

First are the common terms for the week.

ゴールデンウィーク＝Golden Week

大型連休（Ogata renkyu）roughly means "big holiday in a row"

黄金週間（Ogon shukan）is "golden week" in Japanese

Next, let's look at the holidays themselves.

April 29: 昭和の日（しょうわのひ）＝ Showa no Hi. It is a day commemorating the reign of the Showa Emperor.

May 3: 憲法記念日（けんぽうきねんび）＝ Kenpo Kinen bi, or Constitution Memorial Day

May 4: みどりの日（Midori no hi)＝Green Day

May 5: こどもの日 （Kodomo no hi）＝Children's Day

To all, a wonderful and restful holiday.

© Japan Visitor.com


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ゴールデンウィーク

Today (Showa-no-hi) is the first public holiday of the so-called Golden Week holidays that fall at the end of April and the beginning of May.

Golden Week sees a mass exodus from the cities as people may traditionally travel home, or take a short vacation either in Japan or overseas. The mass exit and return ("U-turn") is marked by long traffic jams and packed airports.

Some hotels, onsen spas and ryokan (tradition Japanese inns) may levy a small surcharge at this time.

The national holidays falling in the Golden Week period are Showa Day (April 29), Constitution Memorial Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4) and Children's Day (May 5). This year the holidays include April 29th and Monday May 4-Wednesday May 6 as Constitution Day (Kenpo kinenbi) falls on the Sunday, 3rd.



Japanese carp streamers or koinobori at this time of year especially on Children's Day or Boy's Day on May 5. The carp symbolize the virility and perseverance of the males of the household.

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清水谷公園




Shimizudani Park in Tokyo’s Chiyoda-ku is a green oasis that is all the more pleasant for not being overly manicured. It retains a wild, forested feel, but also features beautiful flower gardens and a pond with a waterfall. In front of the pond, taking pride of place, is the memorial to Toshimichi Okubo: a stone plinth in the center of the park.

It was here, on what is referred to as the Kioi Slope Incident (Kioizaka no Hen), that Home Minister, Toshimichi Okubo, one of the three great modernizing leaders of Japan (and great-great grandfather of the (less-than-great) present prime minister, Taro Aso), was assassinated, at age 47, by six disaffected former-samurai on May 14, 1878.

A monument was erected to Okubo’s memory in a valley adjoining land owned, in the Edo era (1603-1868), by the Kii and Ito clans. As there was a clear-water spring on Kii land that ran down into the valley, it was called “Clear Water Valley,” or Shimizudani. In 1889, the builder of the memorial donated the land to what was then Kojimachi Ward (now Chiyoda Ward), and it was opened as a park the next year.

Nearby the memorial to Toshimichi Okubo are two massive cubic stone fixtures that were part of old Edo’s water supply system, used in the Tamagawa River. There is a house-like structure, too, in the park called Kaikoen: a spacious private party and entertainment facility.

Shimizudani Park underwent renovations in 2001, but retains its natural, forested look and feel. In spite of being only 1 hectare (3 acres), the towering trees and winding pathways are almost enough to feel lost in. You certainly lose any sense of being in a city.



The New Otani Hotel is across the road from Shimizudani Park, to the west. The street is lined with high class boutiques and restaurants, and also makes for a pleasant stroll. Just north is the Tokyo accommodation for the members of the House of Councilors (which you will pass if coming from Kojimachi Station), and the Embassy of India.

Access to Shimizudani Park

Exit 2, Kojimachi Station: Yurakucho subway line. Walk till you see a Family Mart convenience store, and turn left just before it. Go straight for 200 meters, then down the steps.

Exit 9a, Nagatacho Station: Hanzomon subway line, Yurakucho subway line, Nanboku subway line. Turn left off the main Shinjuku-dori Street (AKA Kojimachi-dori Street), then at the bottom of the slope you will see the big Kioicho Building in front of you. Enter the compound and walk along the right of the Kiocho Building. There are steps down to the Park in the back right corner of the compound, open between 7.30am and 11.30 pm.

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AWARD-WINNING, INTERNATIONAL LITERARY SERIES RETURNS TO OSAKA ON MAY 24, 2009

Featuring four distinguished authors reading in English under the theme “Dazed & Confused: Stories of Uncertainty"

OSAKA, JAPAN, April 21, 2009—The internationally acclaimed and award-winning literary series Four Stories, which runs free events in Boston (USA), Osaka, and Tokyo, kicks off its next event in Umeda, Osaka, on May 24, 2009, with readings in English from the following distinguished authors:

• George Bishop, Jr., author whose first novel To My Daughter on Her Fifteenth Birthday will be published in early 2010 by Random House, and teacher at Toyo University in Tokyo with a University of Montana program
• Sally McLaren, Kyoto-based writer, editor, and media researcher
• Paul Morrison, widely published author, visiting scholar in American Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, and chair of the English & American Literature Department at Brandeis University
• Jane Singer, contributor to the Asahi International Herald Tribune, Kansai Time Out, and other English-language publications

Plus the Four Stories style of literary investigation: ask the best question; win a free drink!

The Four Stories experience: like a 19th-Century salon, only 150 years later - same socializing, same witty banter, corsets optional.

Venue:
6-8pm (venue opens @ 5)
Portugalia Bar & Grill
Nishi-Tenma 4-12-11, Umeda, Osaka
(Just north of the American Consulate)
06-6362-6668

Admittance free and open to the public.

More information, plus free MP3s and pictures from past events, @ fourstories.org

Four Stories in the Japanese Press: The International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun (1/23/09): Four Stories is spotlighted in the article “Writing about Japan: Join the Crowd (and have fun)” as an integral part of Japan’s English-language literary scene; The Japan Times (6/22/07): Four Stories is headlined on the front page of the Japan Times' national section, which reports, "'Four Stories has helped make Osaka the new Kyoto'....Slater and Four Stories have shown that Osaka's image among some foreign literary critics as a cultural desert is no longer entirely accurate”; Kansai Scene (6/1/07): Four Stories Japan is "re-energizing the reading movement " in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe: Being a Broad magazine (1/1/08) : spotlights Four Stories founder Tracy Slater and the literary series, writing, "The expat community is grateful" for Four Stories.

Four Stories in the US Press: Improper Bostonian’s Best of Boston (8/1/08): “Best Literary Series”; Boston Globe (10/1/06) :"Four Stories is the city's hippest reading series" (3/19/06) "Everybody knows about Four Stories, everybody raves about Four Stories, and Four Stories is…the place to be”

CONTACT INFORMATION
Tracy Slater, Founder, Four Stories
fourstories.org
Japan: 080-5302-3907; Boston: 617-544-3907

Download MP3s of past Four Stories readings

Signup for Four Stories mailing list

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草薙剛

The big domestic news of the week was the arrest for public indecency of mega-star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi on Thursday. The 34-year-old SMAP member's indiscretions made news both in Japan and overseas.



The seemingly clean cut pop star and actor was found by police drunk, naked and screaming in Hinokicho Park near Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi, not far from Kusanagi's luxury apartment.

In traditional fashion, Kusanagi apologized to his Japanese and Asian fans in a press conference on Friday for "his weakness." Kusanagi, who speaks fluent Korean, is a huge star not just in Japan but also in Korea as well as being popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Various corporate sponsors including Toyota have dropped the penitent star, who is known to like a drink, from their commercials.

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今週の日本

A Workers’ Paradise Found Off Japan’s Coast

NY Times

Japanese whisky leaves traditionalists on the rocks

Guardian

Dalai Lama: China riot ruling political

Washington Post

Japan's curry murderess Masumi Hayashi is sentenced to hang

Times on Line

Convicted man's DNA doesn't match

Asahi

Harpon entendeur…

Libération

GDP outlook to be revised to 3% contraction

Japan Times

Japan reports rare trade deficit

BBC

Tsuchida takes 3rd straight Boston wheelchair win

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Last week's Japan news


Japan Statistics

IMF estimated rate of economic growth for 2009 (first estimate January 2009, second estimate April 2009):

World: 0.5% (January), -1.3% (April)

USA: -1.6% (January), -2.8% (April)
Euro zone: -2.0% (January), -4.2% (April)
Japan: -2.6% (January), -6.2% (April)
China: 6.7% (January), 6.5% (April)
India: 5.1% (January), 4.5% (April)

Source: IMF

World: 0.5% (January), -1.3% (April)

Japan's Air Defense Forces scrambled jets fewer times in fiscal 2008 than in the previous year. Japanese jets were scrambled 237 times in 2008. which was 70 times less than in 2007.

The main sources of the scramblings were Russian (193) and Chinese (31) fighter planes.

Source: Kyodo News

Law schools in Japan plan on a 18% cut in enrollment beginning in the 2010 and 2011 academic year.

That will mean a cut in the national intake of 5,765 students down to 4,700.

Source: Daily Yomiuri

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東京　オリンピック　２０１６年



Just since last week, various colors of banners have appeared on the streets of Tokyo advertising the metropolis's bid for the 2016 Olympics. They feature the Tokyo 2016 Olympic and Paraolympic Bid logo, designed by Kenji Ekuan, Director of the Japan Design Foundation.

Most prominent on the design is the knot (musubi) in mizuhiki style – mizuhiki being a traditional technique used to create knots from multi-color dyed strips of mulberry-bark washi (Japanese-style paper). Mizuhiki-style knots were originally used to decorate the packaging on gifts to the Imperial household, and the technique spread, being used also to create decorations.

The knot (musubi) itself is a symbol of unity and binding commitment.

Between the words "Tokyo" and “2016” is a rising sun symbol, and under the words “Candidate City,” the Olympic rings. (Note that the mizuhiki uses the same five colors as the Olympic rings.)

Finally, the timing of the banners being put up throughout Tokyo was clearly in order to coincide with the IOC Evaluation Commission Visit – Tokyo 2016, of 16-19 April 2009. Perhaps it helped, because IOC Evaluation Commission Chair, Nawal El Moutawakel, said she was “most impressed by what Tokyo could offer to the Olympic Games” and described Japan’s capital as “a dynamic city, where sport plays such a key part in people’s lives.”

Check out the impressive Tokyo Olympic 2016 website created by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

© Japan Visitor.com



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市橋達也

The search for Ichihashi Tatsuya, the prime suspect in the murder of 22-year-old English teacher, Lindsay Ann Hawker, continues but with no further leads in the case.

The naked body of Ms Hawker, who worked for the former Nova English conversation school franchise, was found buried in a bathtub of sand on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa, near Tokyo. Ms Hawker is thought to have been killed on March 25, 2007.



It comes as no real surprise that the Japanese police have been unable to locate Ichihashi. Murder inquiries in Japan are not pursued vigorously after the initial 3 months of a case. Adding to the police's embarrassment in this investigation is the fact that Ichihashi managed to escape in his stockinged feet from no less than 9 policemen, who called at his apartment to question the suspect. Other unsolved high profile murder cases include the suspect in the stabbing death of a Chuo University teacher earlier this year.



Hawker and Ichihashi met for an English conversation class on Sunday March 25 in a cafe near Gyotoku subway station not far from Ms Hawker's home and were captured on CCTV ordering drinks. Ichihashi and Hawker were at the cafe from around 9am-9.45am before leaving, apparently for Ichihashi's condominium.

New wanted posters issued on the first anniversary of Lindsay's murder appear at police boxes (koban) around the country and on Tokyo subway stations, showing Ichihashi with dyed orange hair and made up as a woman wearing a wig. The blurb on the poster mentions Ichihashi's distinctively thick eyebrows.

Translations from the Japanese press on the Lindsay Ann Hawker case

The Hawker family have set up a Lindsay Anne Hawker webpage to help track down her killer.

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Nagoya Friends Black & White Party Apr. 25th, 2009

• Date: Saturday April 25, 2009
• Time: 18:15 - 20:45
• Drinks will be served between 6:30pm-8:40pm.
• Place: Nagoya Tsurumai City Public Hall, 1-1-3 Tsurumai (very close to JR Nagoya Station)
• Fee: 3000 Yen Gentlemen, 2500 Yen Ladies 1st 15 foreigners 2000 yen each!
• Dress code: Anything (Casual, etc)
• Reservations: Not necessary but recommended and appreciated. Just show up to the party!
• Over 25,000 Yen worth of exciting prize giveaways each month!
• Black & White theme with special prize giveaway!!!