Archive for April, 2009

Old execution site now used as a children’s playground

A playground for children in Nagoya has a sign identifying it as the location where Christians were once executed for their beliefs:

Former Kirishitan execution site and burial ground for people who had no living relatives

In 1661, during the era of the Edo Shogunate’s “Prohibition of Kirishitan (Christianity) Policy”, the second-generation lord of the Owari feudal Clan, Mitsutomo Tokugawa began to carry out mass arrests of Kirishitan (Christians) and in 1664 executed over 200 arrestees at the Senbonmatsubara execution ground, formerly located here.
However, just one year later, Mitsutomo Tokugawa moved the execution ground to Kawarakeno and erected the Seiryo Hermitage (existing Eikoku Temple) in its place, to pray to Buddha for the repose of the souls of those executed.
Additionally,more than 1,400 people who died leaving no living relatives behind were buried here during the period 1860-1871.

For more details, check out Coming Anarchy’s post about “dark spots for fun.”

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

How are you spending your free money?

The Yomiuri reports on a survey asking Japanese people what they will be buying with their 12,000 yen flat-sum cash benefits from the national government’

Following dining out, which accounted for 28 percent of responses, were “paying living expenses,” accounting for 22 percent, and “travel,” also picked by 22 percent.

Of the people who chose “dining out,” more than 50 percent said they intended to visit yakiniku or sushi restaurants. As for the preferred travel destination, hot springs, South Korea and Hokkaido were the top three answers, respectively. Of the 12 percent of people who picked “home electrical appliances” as the object of their planned spending, 23 percent said they would buy a flat-screen TV.

Fifty-four percent of the respondents said they wanted live it up such as by “ordering kalbi [choice beef cuts, at a yakiniku restaurant],” “drinking real beer instead of low-malt beer,” “letting children eat as much sushi as they like” and “buying a TV one size bigger than planned.”

If many people are actually spending it instead of putting it into savings accounts, I guess it might have some positive economic impact?

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Group protests against media treatment of foreign criminals

This video, which is currently the most-viewed in today’s News category on YouTube Japan, shows a group of protesters marching through Warabi City and shouting stuff about foreign criminals and the media:

They seem to have a problem with foreign criminals and visa overstayers, and are not happy with the sympathetic coverage the Japanese media gave to the Calderon family. The Calderon family has lived in Warabi for many years, and its citizens and city government showed considerable support for them, so the demonstration was held there.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Pokemon Center in Tokyo: More popular than Asakusa?

Tokyo MX reports on a ranking of locations in Japan that foreign tourists like to visit:

The top two results, Tsukiji fish market and Tokyo Disneyland, are what Japanese people might expect to find on such a ranking list. The third-ranked location, the Pokemon Center Tokyo, is apparently unexpected.

For one British family shown in the report, their trip to the Pokemon Center was the “main event” of their visit to Japan [is it just me, or do their accents sound totally un-British?]. The Pokemon Center, which sells a variety of Pokemon products that can only be found in Japan, has several English-speaking staff members to assist foreign shoppers.

The Pokemon Center outranked Asakusa and Kinkakuji. More foreign tourists are coming to Japan to experience its anime culture than to visit its ancient shrines and temples!

At the end of the report, one news anchor says he had actually thought Pokemon meant “Pocket Monkeys.” His 5-year-old grandson recently taught him that it was actually “Pocket Monsters.”

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Japanese Peeping Tom

Some good ol’ fashioned Bakatono comedy from Ken Shimura:

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Record profits for Uniqlo

Uniqlo rolled out its new line of UT brand t-shirts yesterday, many of which feature neat anime and video game designs. While many other companies are suffering in the bad economy, Uniqlo has recorded record profits:

Thanks to strong Uniqlo sales nationwide, the company logged record group revenue of 357.4 billion yen for the sixth-month period, up 13 percent from a year earlier. It also posted record operating profits of 69.8 billion yen, up 28.7 percent year on year.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)