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 am back in Honolulu, so of course I had to visit my favorite mochi stand, Kansai Yamato. Every time I go I end up discovering something new, and this time it was the two plump manju pictured on the right. The purple one was sweet potato flavored with this paste in the middle. The white manju was of the standard kind, filled with red bean. Both were quite substantial snacks, big and filling so the two-pack is likely meant for sharing. As manju, I found them Read More
WIT Life #114: Sakura Square
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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.
My travels bring me to the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado, not exactly what you think of as a hotbed of Japanese influence. This is why I was surprised to catch a glimpse of hiragana during our city tour this past weekend. Little did I know, but not too far from our hotel was a location called Sakura Square. This plaza is overshadowed by the adjacent shopping area of Larimer Square, but nonetheless worth checking out for its small shrine and Japanese garden featuring a few bonzai trees.
An interesting piece of trivia is that Read More
WIT Life #113: Centenarian crisis
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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.
Recent news coming out of Japan has surrounded unsettling discoveries regarding its elderly population. Last week it was revealed that Tokyo’s oldest listed man, who if alive would have been 111 last month, likely died over 30 years ago. According to a report on CNN this morning, currently the whereabouts of about 30 Japanese centenarians are unknown. As discussed in this coverage from Bloomberg, “the disappearance of some of Japan’s oldest citizens is raising concern that some families are bilking the nation’s pension system even as others risk being deprived of payments for the same reason — poor record keeping.” This was a big issue back in 2007 when Read More
WIT Life #112: DC JET sendoff
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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.
Although my current business trip prevented me from attending the JET sendoff party in New York last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to catch the one here on my last night in DC. It was sponsored by the Embassy of Japan and held at the Ambassador’s Old Residence located on Embassy Row, and I was able to get an invite thanks to my friend Gina Anderson from JETAA DC (leftmost of the lovely group of JET alums on the right).
The event, scheduled from 6:30-8, was packed to the gills when I arrived a little before 7. After the walk over from my hotel I wanted nothing more than a cold beer, but Read More
WIT Life #111: Monozukuri
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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.
My travels (with a group of Pacific Islanders this time) prevent me from blogging as much as I want to, but I’d like to share an interesting article I just came across regarding the Japanese concept of monozukuri, courtesy of Rochelle Kopp’s Japan Intercultural Consulting site. Enjoy!
WIT Life #110: Japan Cuts comes to a close
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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 Friday wrapped up Japan Cuts, the two-week, 25-film festival at Japan Society. Thanks to JS’s wonderful volunteering system I was able to see nine of the films at the festival itself, and another two in the comfort of my home. The final night wrapped up the event with the two movies About Her Brother and Sweet Little Lies. I was really looking forward to the latter, but I found the pacing slow and the movie’s story less stimulating than I thought it would be.
About Her Brother is one of those ubiquitous sentimental Japanese movies, but it wasn’t too heavy on the sappiness. Tsurube Shofukutei plays Read More
WIT Life #109: Parade
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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.
At Japan Society on Friday night I saw what has been my favorite movie of the Japan Cuts festival so far, Parade. A special treat was the attendance of the director, Isao Yukisada, to introduce the movie and take questions after. He presented the movie as a “slice of the dark side of Tokyo,” and expressed his nervousness and excitement at having his work screened here in New York for the first time. The movie explores the relationships between four young people sharing an apartment in Tokyo, as they deal with their respective troubles as well as the danger of an assailant who has been attacking women in the area. The title refers to Read More
WIT Life #108: On the Road
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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.
Both films screened last night at Japan Society’s Japan Cuts festival were road movies. The first, Accidental Kidnapper, is reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World, but I found the second one, One Million Yen Girl, to be more distinctly Japanese. Both feature well-known leads who are easy on the eyes (Katsunori Takahashi and Aoi Yu, respectively) and are backed by strong supporting casts, including Takashi Sasano who makes an appearance in both as an advocate for the main character.
In Accidental Kidnapper he plays a convict who advises Takahashi how to carry out his kidnapping, and in the latter he is a coffee shop proprietor in a small mountain village. In my previous double header, the actor Eita also appeared in both movies; he shows great versatility as one of the main characters in The Foreign Duck, The Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker and has a bit part in Hanging Garden. Both he and Sasano are also in Read More
WIT Life #107: Japan Cuts continued
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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.
At the Japan Cuts film festival last night, I was able to attend both movies which were screened. The first was The Foreign Duck, The Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker and the one that followed was Hanging Garden. As a special treat, the director of the latter, Toshiaki Toyoda (who also directed Blood of Rebirth which was screened twice at the festival last week) was on hand to offer an introduction to his film and a Q&A session after. The director of the former, Yoshihiro Nakamura, also did Golden Slumber so it was interesting to be able to compare the two.
Director Nakamura clearly places great importance on music in his movies, to the point where is almost a secondary character. This is true in Golden Slumber which focuses on the title’s Beatles song, and in Foreign Duck it is Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind. In both cases, the songs and their lyrics are 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.
Last week was the start of the Japan Cuts film festival at Japan Society, where this year 24 films will be featured. This is the largest lineup ever and includes a wide variety of films. The Japan Society allows those who offer to volunteer at the festival the chance to stay and view the movie for free! I have decided to take advantage of this opportunity, and plan to help out during a couple of days of the festival. Stay tuned for reviews of the many movies I will have the chance to sample!
However, my first time at the festival was as a customer last Friday for the screening of the conspiracy theory comedy Golden Slumber. The plot of Read More
WIT Life #105: Samurai in New York
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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 had the chance to preview the Samurai in New York: The First Japanese Delegation, 1860 exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. There was a reception to celebrate its opening hosted by Ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya and those affiliated with the museum. In his opening remarks, he detailed how descendants of members of the original 70-plus person delegation were in attendance. One was a woman who currently makes her home in New York, and another was a Buddhist monk who had traveled from Japan. It was a wonderful tribute to the original delegation to have these representatives present.
The exhibit itself, though limited in scope, contains some interesting artifacts. Evidently they had been Read More
WIT Life #104: Of sales tax and soccer
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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 hot issue in Japan right now is PM Naoto Kan’s proposal of doubling the current sales tax of 5% (Coverage from earlier this week in the WSJ can be found here). According to projections, an increase of this amount could lead to an additional 165,000 yen ($1829) from each household annually. Kan has emphasized that he anticipates this being implemented over the next two to three years, but his willingness to even touch this kind of financial reform differs greatly from his DPJ predecessor Yukio Hatoyama (who had promised not to alter the sales tax for four years).
Response to this announcement have been mixed. Surprisingly, a survey carried out by Yomiuri Shimbun found that Read More
WIT Life #103: The Cove
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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.
An article in today’s Times discusses the reaction of right wingers in Japan to The Cove, a documentary about dolphin hunting in a place called Taiji. This group, 右翼 or uyoku, are said to number about 10,000 throughout the country and have been responsible for various acts of violence such as torching the houses of politicians whose views they don’t agree with (i.e. regarding visits to Yasukuni Shrine). This time they are protesting outside theaters attempting to show this film, insisting that it will “poison Japan’s soul.” However, there is significant interest in this doc as evidenced by the turnout of over 700 people for a one-time screening in Tokyo last week, where about 100 had to be turned away due to lack of space.
Quoted in the article is the documentary filmmaker and author Tatsuya Mori, who I Read More
WIT Life #102: Learning Disabilities in Japan
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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 was very excited to hear from one of my closest college friends that her husband would be having a business trip in Japan. Not only was I happy for him, a fellow classmate as well, to be able experience Japan, but also because of his line of work. Pictured at right, Jonathan Mooney grew up with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia and didn’t learn to read until he was 12. However, he is now an amazing author and public speaker. He has his own non-profit based in California and often travels both domestically and internationally to share his experiences and help children like himself and their families.
Jon has spoken in China before, but this was his first time going to Japan upon the invitation of a professor from Osaka. He will be giving a presentation in Read More
WIT Life #101: Empire State Turns Japanese!
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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.
In a previous post about the recent Japan Day in Central Park, I mentioned the introduction of a samurai procession. 
This was one aspect of celebrating this year’s 150’s anniversary of the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States and its enthusiastic reception in New York City on June 16, 1860. According to a press release from the Japanese Consulate of New York, “the visit by a group of over 70 samurai was one of the greatest spectacles the city had ever seen: an estimated half-a-million New Yorkers jammed the streets to watch the Japanese parade up Broadway and two weeks of grand balls, celebrations, and non-stop press reports welcomed the visitors from across the sea.” The samurai brought with them instruments of ratification for the 日米修好通商条約 (Nichibei shuukou tsuushou jouyaku) or U.S.-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce.
Another exciting promotional event commemorating this historical occasion is Read More
