WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Last night I attended the shinnenkai for New York’s very own Battenkai, or group for Kyushu people (Batten comes from Kyushu-ben and means but, and kai means gathering). There are several kenjinkai or prefectural groups here in the city, but Kyushu has this joint group instead of individual ones for each prefecture. I have been attending their events since two summers ago, and it is always a diverse mix of people. You can find accountants, jazz singers, lawyers, graphic designers and karate instructors, all of whom have interesting stories to share.
Battenkai gatherings always include some form of entertainment, and last night’s was no exception. It featured several different acts to welcome the new year. First we were regaled by a beautiful shamisen performance by Read More
WIT Life #146: 明けましておめでとうございます！
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
A big akemashite omedetou gozaimasu to everyone! 今年もよろしくお願いいたします。 I hope everyone had a good end to the year and that you are feeling ready for the Year of the Rabbit that we have now entered. I spent the night of 元旦 (gantan) or New Year’s Day with co-workers from the Japanese restaurant that I used to waitress at, and we enjoyed osechi ryouri in lacquer boxes and bowls of ozouni as we watched 紅白歌合戦 (kouhaku uta gassen) or the Red and White Singing Contest. The white or men’s team won for the 6th consecutive year with a healthy margin of over 50,000 votes.
Aside from the usual vapid J-Pop and classic enka, I was really struck by singer Kana Uemura’s トイレの神様 (toire no kamisama), or The Toilet Goddess. This acoustic ballad is a whopping almost ten minutes long, and it tells the story of Read More
WIT Life #145: Manga studies
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Coming off of yesterday’s post, I was surprised to find an article about manga and animation in this morning’s New York Times. It discusses how over the last decade, various programs that have evolved for formally studying these arts are attracting international students. The courses are offered only in Japanese which presents a bit of a challenge, but dedicated students see them as the key to advancing “their careers in animation, design, computer graphics and the business of promoting them.” The Japanese animation companies interviewed in the article said Read More
WIT Life #144: Manga restrictions and contemporary art challenges
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas celebration, whether it was with a strawberry shortcake or more traditional fare. Soon it will be time to get ready for Oshougatsu‘s toshikoshi soba and osechi ryouri! If you want to enjoy these holiday foods but not have to prepare them yourself, there are places around the city that will be offering free toshikoshi soba samples on New Year’s Eve (Village Yokocho is one), and osechi ryouri is being sold at Japanese supermarkets and by catering companies. I don’t know whether they are still accepting orders, but if you are interested it is worth checking o
ut!
In other news, two articles in last week’s Wall Street Journal talked about aspects of Tokyo’s art and pop culture scenes. One discussed how the city government is attempting to restrict sales of manga with “extreme” depictions of sex. This ordinance originated with conservative governor Shintaro Ishihara, but has been openly opposed by Prime Minster Naoto Kan. Motivating Kan’s critical stance is the fact that several manga artists and 10 major publishers have said that they will boycott the huge Tokyo International Anime Fair scheduled to take place in March. On his blog he wrote, “Upbringing of youth is an important matter. But at the same time, it’s also important to Read More
WIT Life #143: SoHo Host Club
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I knew that there were a few hostess clubs floating around the city, but I was not aware of the existence of any host clubs. That is until I attended the Winter Solstice Wonderland event last night hosted by none other than New York’s very own SoHo Host Club! I have never visited a host club in Japan, so was not sure what to expect, but this group is inspired by the Japanese anime Ouran High School Host Club. The six hosts present ranged in age from 18-31, and all were dressed in suits and looked quite dapper.
The host taking care of our table was 25-year old Salvatore Torres, and he impressively remembered all of our individual tea selections and kept our cups filled. Evidently in the original anime most social events revolve around tea and sweets, but the event last night was Read More
WIT Life #142: Fair Play Committee
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I don’t make a habit of reading the obituaries, but one in yesterday’s NYT caught my eye as it was entitled, “Frank Emi, Defiant World War II Internee, Dies at 94.” It told about the life of this Japanese- American who was imprisoned during the war and refused to serve when drafted in 1944. He was being held at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in the northwest Wyoming desert, and he and six other internees there formed the Fair Play Committee in response to this order. Their rally cry was “No more shikata ga nai,” which had been the prevalent attitude until that point.
This committee stated that they would serve only when their rights as American citizens were fully restored. They tried to take their case to court, but these resisters were criticized by Read More
WIT Life #141: 今年の漢字
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
The end of the year is upon is, which means that it is time for 今年の漢字 (kotoshi no kanji) or the kanji of the year. It is selected by popular ballot and is supposed to represent the events of 2009. The announcement was made this weekend at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu Temple, and the winner with 14,537 votes was 暑 (sho) or hot. According to Daily Sun, the reason this character was chosen was due to average temperatures this summer hitting historical highs (and many people getting heat stroke as a result) and for the 33 Chilean miners who survived the mine’s hot conditions.
This year had the most cumulative votes ever with 285,406, and the 2nd and 3rd place picks were Read More
WIT Life #140: Hibakusha Stories
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
This week I had the unique opportunity to work as a volunteer interpreter for a project called Hibakusha Stories. Hibakusha (被爆者) is the official designation for atomic bomb victims, and this is the second time this organization has invited them to come to America to tell about their experiences. The program involves visits to NYC high schools, where groups of students gather to hear what these amazing survivors have to say. I had the honor of working with a beautiful woman from Hiroshima, 72-year old Toshiko Tanaka
, who was generous enough to share her story.
Toshiko was almost 7 when the bomb was dropped and managed to make her way home. Her own mother didn’t recognize her, and she was in a coma for a week but somehow miraculously survived. Besides burns throughout her body, she experienced Read More
WIT Life #139: 60′s Japan film festival
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
On Friday night I attended a free screening of the movie Yearning, which was being shown as part of the Japanese Cinema 1960’s film series at Asia Society. This organization is co-sponsoring the event along with Japan Foundation, and they have been offering complimentary tickets to the five films that were being shown over a span of a little over a month. You had to sign up ahead of time by indicating which film you wanted tickets for and officially you could only pick one, but when I went there was a stand-by line so if you go early on the day of the show you are likely to get in even without tickets.
Although Yearning was the English title of the movie, it came from the Japanese title of 乱れる (midareru), literally meaning Read More
WIT Life #138: Kaikai and Kiki Thanksgiving Parade Debut
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! And for those of you are who are on the Japanese calender, I hope you had a relaxing 勤労感謝の日（kinrou kansha no hi or Labor Thanksgiving Day) this past Tuesday. Though there is no turkey or cranberry sauce on this Japanese holiday, it resembles our Thanksgiving in that it is an occasion to commemorate labor and production and give one another thanks.
This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has a new addition from Japan, balloons of artist Takashi Murakami’s Kiki and Kaikai creations. They are following in the footsteps of Read More
WIT Life #137: Tokyo Sky Tree
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Very interesting article in yesterday’s NYT about how efforts are being made to reduce the presence of yakuza in various business transactions. The story focuses on the recent construction project of Tokyo Sky Tree, a communications tower. This is a huge change as traditionally yakuza have been an integral part of this industry, often seeking “protection money” from developers. Developers might also call on the yakuza to give an extra push to people unwilling to give up their land. I liked Jake Adelstein‘s quote calling the yakuza “Goldman Sachs with guns.” Check out the adjoining picture to see a comparison between Tokyo Tower and the “new Tokyo Tower,” what Sky Tree was called before decided on its official name. Other candidates were Tokyo Edo Tower, Mirai (Future) Tree, Yume Miyagura (Dreamwatching Tower), Rising East Tower and Rising Tower. It is due to be completed next year.
WIT Life #136: Asian affairs
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
By now President Obama has returned from his longest overseas trip since taking office, where he made stops in India, Indonesia, Korea and Japan. In Japan he took part in the Asian-Pacific Economic Consortium (APEC) held in Yokohama, pictured here with Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his wife Nobuko this weekend.
However, for Japan the focus of the event was relations with China in light of renewed tensions between the two countries due to the leak of a video of a September collision between Japanese coast guard vessels and a Chinese fishing boat. The footage was taken near Read More
WIT Life #135: Marathon mania
Events, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WIT Life #135: Marathon mania
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
We are in the heart of marathon season, a favorite time of year for runners such as myself. I have to admit that I love the sport enough to attempt to do two marathons in a row, the Marine Corps Marathon in DC last weekend and the NYC Marathon this weekend. It will be a first but hopefully my body is up to the challenge!
The running culture has always been huge in Japan, and with the establishment of the Tokyo Marathon in 2007 the number of runners further swelled. Although I have gotten into the marathon every year since its start (and run all but one), most of my Japanese friends Read More
WIT Life #134: Versatile veggies
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Last night I was happy to be able to attend an event at Japan Society called Field to Table: The Role of Vegetables in the Japanese Diet. The featured speakers were Japanese food culture expert Elizabeth Andoh and Masato Nishihara, executive chef at Kajitsu, the only restaurant in NYC to feature 精進料理 (shouijn ryouri), a vegetarian cuisine introduced to Japan from China in the 13th century by Zen monks who had returned from studying Buddhism there.
I had met both of the speakers before, Elizabeth when I lived in Tokyo where she resides, and Nishihara-san when I interpreted for him at a food event last year. They offered their expertise regarding Read More
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Many readers probably caught yesterday’s NYT cover story with the headline “Japan Goes from Dynamic to Disheartened.” This article (“Coping with Decline”) is the first in a series called The Great Deflation which will “examine the effects on Japanese society of two decades of economic stagnation and declining prices.” Throughout the article all those quoted mention a “lack of vigor/vitality” (I assume this was a translation of 元気がない (genki ga nai)). Read More
