The most unexpected family in Japan

Hi. Time flies! I was shocked when I saw the date of my previous post. It's been one year!

Well, I'm back here to introduce you SHIRATO family, who should be the most popular family in Japan at the moment. The family appears in the commercial of SOFTBANK, a mobile telephone corporation.

The family members are father, mother, a son and a daughter. Mother seems to be a housewife, the son seems to be a business man, and the daughter is a worker of SOFTBANK. Father is a highschool teacher and he seems to have a strong leadership, both at work and at home, but actually, slightly henpecked by his wife. He often gets in trouble because he ate his wife's snack secretly or went out on a journey by himself. He's always caught by call from his wife.

What's so special about this family? Please check out the CM gallery. You can watch movies by clicking gray buttons. You'll find something is strange with male members in the family. The daughter meets her unclein aquarium. Well, the sort of mixed up happens in Japanimation but I don't think of another popular case in living-action film. My family like this series very much and especially, the father is very popular.

By the way, we have other popular families in Japan. Please check out the following animations.

Sazae-san
Chibi Maruko-chan
Kureyon Shin-chan

The family in each animation represents Japanese families. Sazae-san is the oldest but those family animation still continues and never ends. So, we still watch stories every week. Sazae-san is on TV for decades. I believe most Japanese, in any generations, can tell any or all of the titles. By watching those, you'll see the transformation of Japanese family.

Hi! I'm here anyway.

Hi! It seems like I have more and more suspicious comments here. Instead of closing up my blog, I've moved it to the new Blogger. I hope it will work.

How have you been doing? While my absence here, I started teaching Japanese to a German couple. It's been very interesting. I think I should talk about it sometime and so, I should try to come back here! Hope to talk to you soon!

This time, it's monsters!

Hi, I'm getting slower but I'm back!

I saw commercial on YOUKAI DAISENSOU which is a movie and the title means "the war of Japanese monsters". Then I wondered if any of them are known by foreigners. We have many kinds of YOUKAIs. For the good explanation, please visit wikipedia.

(for movie) http://yokai-movie.com/index.html
(for explanation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youkai

In my image, YOUKAI is different from ghosts and they don't really appears in horror movies because they can be people's friends though they look scary. They are scary but they can be funny. That way, YOUKAI is close to the Monster like the one in Monsters. inc. We have this very famous classic animation on YOUKAI by Shigeru Mizuki, "GE GE GE NO KITAROU". The main character is a YOUKAI boy and his name is KITAROU. You can see what he looks like visiting this page.

http://www002.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kitaro/

You can see more YOUKAI pictures which may attract or scare you from old times here. (You can see pictures by clicking the links in the left frame.)

http://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~hiko/youkai.htm

Now, I'm wondering if we, Japanese, share those YOUKAI with some people in other countries. Maybe, in Asian countries, they have some similar kind of monsters??? Those monsters in Western countries look very different from ours, those like the Dracula, the wolf man, Frankenstein, big foot, etc. I think YOUKAI must be very interesting characters to foreigners, too, and I hope you'll be able to watch "YOUKAI DAI SENSOU" in your countries, too!

Summer is horror season in Japan. Let's cool down!

Hello! I was away for a long time because I was pretty busy! I'm working daytime and I take care of my 4-year-old daughter. It seems like I'm getting more work. Moreover, I registered for one course at Barnes and Noble university. What am I doing???

Well, another Saturday is coming. Thank God! Do you often watch movies? I want to watch "Ring 2" but I don't know if I can find time. I can't watch it with my daughter. It's too scary! I love those Japanese horrors and especially "Ring." It's very scary and the main character SADAKO looks like very right kind of typical Japanese ghost. A lady with long straight hair covering her face and wearing white long dress. We say usually no legs. I was wondering how Hollywood would describe the feeling of this typical Japanese ghost but they converted it very well into western style. Watching two "Ring"s, both Japanese version and the Hollywood version, would help to study our cultural differences, I guess. "JUON" is another popular movie but it seems like just scary scary. "Ring" story has other dimentions when it goes on to "Rasen" and "Roop." "Ring" itself is well written but you should watch or read, I should say, all of the stories. Even in Japan, they haven't made "Roop" movie yet because probably it'd be very difficult. But I do hope they will make it sometime! Hollywood should make other two so that we could share the Ring world!

KEITAI/portable phone is everywhere!

Hello! Did you buy anything lately? I bought a new portable phone, we call KEITAI. Actually, I didn't BUY it because I earned points for using my old KEITAI over four years. So, I didn't have to pay for it at all! I was very happy! In Japan, we have those three KEITAI companies, docomo, vodafone and au. It seems to be docomo is the top seller but other two still have popularity because making call to the phone of the same company makes the bill smaller. Thus, friends invite friends. Mine is vodafone. KEITAI is wide used in Japan but at first, it seemed to be for the young like highschool students. Highschool students or those in early twnties still seem to be the experts. They have it for communicating with friends and fun. Those like 20s or 30s have KEITAI usually for a business tool in addition to those basic communication tool. And, I'm not really the expert because I'm more used to the computers. KEITAI doesn't have keyboard and using thumb input system makes me tired. I think I'll buy a special keyboard for KEITAI sometime.

People in any generation can find some reason to have KEITAI because they have so many features. Main feature of mine is TV/FM radio. Others like web access, e-mail, camera, schedule, alarm clock, games, etc are very basic function. The new model can even record the TV program. Other kind of models make it possible to enjoy TV call, e-books, international calls, even Karaoke! This is about vodafone and I'm sure other models which belong to docomo and au have more to enjoy. Actually, docomo seems to have the best features, even involving money transaction.

KEITAI has more and more possibilities but to me, it's basically for the emergency communication. The reason why I chose the one with TV/FM is that we had too many big earthquakes last year. They THINK bigger ones are supposed to come sometime in five years or so. I hope not! I'll talk about it another chance. Anyway, KEITAI works in many ways. Many parents let their children have KEITAI because it has GPS/Global Positioning System function so that they can find children in some case. It's a shame but that's true there are more and more crimes that involve children in Japan. It works to find eleders with dementia, too.

When think about KEITAI, we have so many to talk about it. If you come to Japan, you'll find people reading or typing emails on KEITAI, or others with earphones listening music from KEITAI everywhere. Do you have KEITAI? I see they do have KEITAI in Korea when watching Korean dramas. Also, I do remember, in Hong Kong. They were advanced. When the time we didn't have KEITAI in Japan yet, I saw a TV program which picked up some topics from other countries. They showed people using KEITAI in Hong Kong. People suddenly stoped on the street to answer the call and talk. That scene seemed very strange to us at that time, and I saw people in the TV studio were laughing. Time changed so quickly, the same scene is not funny at all now.

Thank you for the commens, time is up. I'll be back tomorrow to answer!

Japan Air Lines would be dangerous?

Hi! Do you know Japan Airlines? We used to have this only one Airlines company in Japan and the symbol mark of clane is well known. I don't know why but they have been having too many troubles recently. One airplane dropped two tires of the front wheel when landing the other day. It sounds like a joke.

The Japanese used to be known as the perfectionist. Have you ever seen "Last Samurai"? If so, do you remember KATSUMOTO (Ken Watanabe) said "perfect" when he's dying? Workers used to have good pride. Maybe it's like meister in Germany. They're proud of their skills. To those persons, making money were not really the first thing. Trying to be perfect requires to be strict to oneself, self discipline. If all workers are like that, we can trust their products and services. That way, Japan had growth of economy, I think. After many years, people became greedy but don't want to work hard. That causes serious fraying here and there. We often find well known companies, which we used to trust like JAL, were even trying to cheat people. It's a shame and very sad. Nowadays, it seems like we have to think who or which company we can really trust.

There's this well known phrase in Japan. "If everyone crosses against the red light, then there's nothing to be afraid of" Japanese are easily carried away by others. That seems to be never changed.

Mr. Jenkins goes back home

I haven't been back for a while because I was busy. I'd like to share some topics you might be interested in.

Mr. Jenkins, 65-year-old, goes back to the US

This topic involves political things like relationship between Japan and North Korea. It's well known in Japan that there are some Japanese people kidnapped and taken to North Korea. (South Korea seem to have more victims.) It's been a critical issue when thinking about Japan-North Korea relationship. Mr. Jenkins once belonged to the US miritary but he escaped and went to North Korea believing it'd be good to live. Actually, it was not. There, he married to one Japanese women and she is one of the five returnees to Japan from North Korea. So, far, only this five people were succeed to return like twenty-year later. All others seem to still captured and we're not sure how many are still there alive. He and his wife has a strong tie and his wife wanted to rescue him and her two daughters from North Korea, since she was by herself when she returned to Japan. She didn't expect his mother to be still alive until she found the fact, she thought she must let him see his mother again. Her mother, who was kidnapped with her daughter, is still missing. She still has this deep sadness. With her effort, he's finally seeing his 91-year-old mother soon. Though, most Japanese people seem to send hearty cheers to him, there are still some US veterans who opposed to him because he is a deserter.

You can check out this topic at CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/06/13/jenkins.homevisit/index.html

I wanted write about the soccer game of Japan and North Korea, I have to stop here for now. I'll be back! MATANE!