WIT Life #69: Mainstream moe
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 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.
Interesting intersection of American pop culture and Japanese culture on two back-to-back episodes of 30 Rock last night. In the first one, James Franco (who manages to be amazing in everything he does) playing himself talks of his knowledge of “moe” before whipping out his very own body pillow girlfriend Kimiko. In a later scene the morning after he and Liz spend the night together, they both emerge in their pajamas, him holding Kimiko. This strange threesome freaks out Liz’s cousin who is staying at her place.
In the next episode, Frank refers to a high frequency sound used in Japan to chase away kids loitering in front of conbini, and then uses it on Jenna. I have never heard of this tactic being employed in Japan, anyone else?
WIT Life #68: The Role of Rice in Japan
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I recently came across this article from the end of last year in the Economist that discusses how deeply rice is embedded in Japanese society. Some aspects like the designation of Emperor Akihito as Japan’s “rice-farmer-in-chief” are humorous, and the in-depth look at the history of this crop that is so central to Japanese culture is fascinating. The author’s description of a rice-producing area of Niigata suffering from a rural exodus is vividly drawn, and interviews with some of the residents are eye opening. While reading the article I kept flashing back to my experience of doing Read More
WIT Life #67: Hard power
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her 
own observations.
Today’s NYT features an interesting editorial from Joseph Nye about the Okinawa base location issue threatening this year’s 50th anniversary of the US-Japan Security Treaty. This Harvard professor and former assistant secretary of defense coined the term “soft power,” but his article focuses on how he believes our hard power should be used in regard to this matter. Basically he is urging us to not throw the baby away with the bath water, and advocates a more patient and strategic approach in order to prevent “a second-order issue [from threatening] our long-term strategy for East Asia.” PM Hatoyama (who Nye describes as being “caught in a vice”) wants to push off resolving this issue until May, but we’ll see what the new year (decade!) brings.
In weather news, we are experiencing quite a cold winter and Read More
WIT LIfe #66: 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 Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
アケオメ！ I hope everyone had a super New Year’s celebration and that you are ready for 2010, aka the Year of the Tiger (toradoshi). Yesterday I had the chance to have some belated osechi ryouri and it was well worth the wait! Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo kicked off the new year with its first auction where appropriately enough torafugu (tiger blowfish) was being sold at prices of 10,000 yen each, cheaper than usual. Maguro (tuna), on the other hand, sold for almost 16.3 million yen (about $177,000) to a Hong Kong customer known as the “Sushi King.”
In other Tokyo news, an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal last week portrayed Read More
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her
own observations.
福袋 (or fukubukuro) are an essential part of the Japanese New Year’s celebration. These are grab bags (literally translated as “lucky bag”) given out at department stores that contain merchandise worth much more than what you pay for the bag itself. However, there is a bit of chance involved as some deals are better than others. Here are some new fukubukuro available through the end of 2009 that reflect political and social trends from the past year.
One is the Takashimaya 友愛 (yuai) fukubukuro playing off of Prime Minister Hatoyama’s fraternity theme. In this case the yuai refers to Read More
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with
her own observations.
One of my favorite things about Japan is the constant changing of flavors, often in accordance with the seasons. I love just wandering through conbini to see what new tastes have popped up for my favorite snacks/drinks. One product over there I follow religiously is Kit Kats, as you can often get flavors that are not available here in the States. This is why I was thrilled to receive an omiyage of ginger ale Kit Kats from a friend who had recently traveled to Japan.
Next to the customary phrase, “Have a break, have a Kit Kat” was a glass of ginger ale with lemon in it. With use of .3% lemon powder and ginger ale flavor, it promised to be something new. The aroma was Read More
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Last week I had the opportunity to hear a talk given by the Japanese sociologist Dr. Yuko Kawanishi. Dr. Kawanishi has written numerous articles and is often quoted by Western media on topics such as declining birth rate, education reform, mental health and depression, family relations, juvenile crime and youth culture. She did her undergraduate work at Doshisha University and got her PhD in Sociology from UCLA. Currently she is the recipient of an Abe Fellowship and a visiting scholar at Hunter College and Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.
Dr. Kawanishi spoke mainly about her new book entitled “Mental Health Challenges Facing Contemporary Japanese Society: The ‘Lonely People.” It addresses the question of mental malaise in its many forms in contemporary Japanese society, focusing on three main areas: work, family and youth. These include Read More
Roland Kelts column in Daily Yomiuri: Our hybrid future is here
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Violinist Diana Yukawa
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Here’s the latest SOFT POWER/HARD TRUTHS column in the Daily Yomiuri by Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, this one about hybrid people, hybrid music and hybridization as a trend.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20091218TDY11001.htm
Diana Yukawa age 8
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WIT Life #62: Otaku analysis
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with h
er own observations.
Thanks to Rochelle Kopp at Japan Intercultural Consulting, I was alerted to an article posted to the website Boing Boing by Lisa Katayama, writer and commentator on modern Japanese society. In a previous post this summer, I had discussed Katayama’s New York Times magazine article about the subcategory of otaku men and women who indulge in real relationships with imaginary characters. This time around she focuses on not taking the weirdness of Japan too seriously. As an example, she cites the strange story last month of a Japanese man wedding an anime game character which received much attention.
This morning I was surprised to find the topic of otaku also taken up by Read More
WIT Life #61: 今年の漢字
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Yesterday at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu Temple the official announcement of 今年の漢字 (kotoshi no kanji), or the Kanji of the Year, took place. This is an annual contest run by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society that had a record number of applications from all over the country this year, 161,365. Coming off of last yea
r’s
selection of 変 (hen) or change, this year’s winner by 14,093 ballots was 新 (shin) or new. Among the reasons why this character was picked were the new political administration and the new strain of the flu.
This morning’s news interviewed both young and seasoned prominent political figures regarding what their picks would have been. One was Read More
Roland Kelts article in PaperSky–in Japanese–on hybridization and travel
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Here’s a column by Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, in the Japanese-language travel magazine, PaperSky (http://www.paper-sky.com/blog/). It’s a “mediation on hybridization and travel” and includes photos of the Tokyo, Sydney and NYC skylines.
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
政権交代 (seiken koutai) or “change of government,” was announced to be the winner of Japan’s 2009 Buzzword Award on December 1 (Incidentally, last year the title was won by 「アラフォー」 or “around 40 years old”). This phrase of course refers to the rise to power by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), overturning over 50 years of Liberal Democratic Party rule. Other contenders for the buzzword title were 新型インフルエンザ (shingata influenza) or “new flu” and 草食男子 (soushoku danshi) or “herbivorous men.”
Since the change in administration, Hatoyama has been dealing with 3Ks. However, this is not referring to the typical usage regarding undesirable 3K jobs that are kitsui (difficult), kitanai (dirty) and kiken (dangerous). Hatoyama’s very own 3 K’s are kenkin (contribution), keizai (economics), and kichi (military base).
The first K is in regard to a donation scandal plaguing the new Prime Minister. Prosecutors have traced Read More
Video: Roland Kelts keynote speech at U of Missouri
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Here are two videos of Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, from a keynote speech he gave at the University of Missouri in St. Louis back in October.
In the first, he talks about the connection between manga and anime and traditional Japanese line-based aesthetics–or what Takashi Murakami now calls “Superflat”:
And in the second video, he discusses the fundamental differences between American visual iconography and Japanese sensibilities, with a reference to Pokemon in America and McDonald’s in Japan:
WIT Life #59: Winter culinary trends
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Believe it or not we will be greeting the new year in about a month, and today’s news took a look at what is being forecast for お正月 (oshougatsu) 2010. Similar to last year, it is expected that in light of the dismal economic climate there will be a tendency toward 巣篭り (sugomori), literally nesting or staying close to home as opposed to going abroad or visiting one’s family. Compared to last year, there has been 30% increased sales of two-person servings of osechi ryouri. According to an osechi salesperson at a department store, this goes along with Read More
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
As we get ready to prepare our turkeys, stuff ourselves silly and max out on football, yesterday Japan celebrated their own day of appreciation with 勤労感謝の日(kinrou kansha no hi) or Labor Thanksgiving Day. More than anything else this gave Japanese citizens a three day weekend to relax and enjoy. The keyword for how this long weekend was spent was 「安・近・感」 (an/kin/kan), meaning “cheap, close and feeling.” The first two words are self-explanatory, and the last one refers to the experience, such as getting a sense of the season.
For Tokyoites, this meant to going to places like Read More
