Archive for December, 2009

Christmas illuminations at Tobu World Square

Looking for a nice place to enjoy Christmas lights in Japan? Why not head to Tobu World Square, a park full of 1:25 scale replicas of 42 UNESCO World Heritage sites (populated by 140,000 mini people)? For the last few years, Tobu World Square has been opening its doors for special evening displays of X-mas illuminations. I visited it last year while on a trip to Kinugawa Onsen, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Here is a news feature about Tobu World Square’s Christmas lights. As it is a bit long, I’ve provided a short list of notable events in the video clip that you can skip to if you are impatient:

• A look at the buildings as they appear during the day (1:05)
• Miniature Prime Ministers are on display in front of the miniature Diet Building! Mini Hatoyama is wearing his lucky gold necktie. (2:30)
• Cleaning the statue of liberty (4:40)
• Making sure the thousands of miniature people are clean (5:15)
• A look at how they paint the mini people (6:00)

• Cleaning the World Trade Center [The model was built before the 9/11 terror attacks, but they've kept it where it is, apparently as a symbol of peace.] (0:15)
• A test of the completed illuminations (2:56)
• A closer look at the illuminated buildings (5:50)

If you want to visit Tobu World Square, be sure to print out a coupon before you go. General visitor info can be found here, and a page about the illuminations can be found here (Japanese). If I remember correctly, Tobu World Square operates special evening buses from Kinugawa Onsen station to the park during the duration of the illumination event.

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New carry-on luggage restrictions for flights in Japan

If you’re going to by traveling around in Japan, be aware of the new carry-on luggage restrictions for domestic flights:

Under the new restrictions, the dimensions for carry-on baggage on aircraft with 100 or more passenger seats can not exceed 55 centimeters in width, 40 centimeters in height and 25 centimeters in depth and the total of the lengths of the three sides cannot exceed 115 centimeters. On aircraft with up to 99 passenger seats, the dimensions cannot measure more than 45 centimeters in width, 35 centimeters in height and 20 centimeters in depth and the total of the three sides must be 100 centimeters or less. A surcharge of 10,000 yen each way will be applied for any oversized items on flights.

According to this news report, many musical instrument carrying cases to do not fit within the new size restrictions:

Takeshi Shinohara, a representative of the Musicians’ Unions of Japan, said the new rule will pose a problem for travelers seeking to carry on a violin or viola.

Previous limits weren’t strictly enforced, and employees at the gates and cabin crew members were allowed some discretion.

In most cases, violins were allowed to be carried on, Shinohara said.

If the unified rule is strictly applied, violins or violas will have to be checked in or not taken, unless the fee is paid.

“We don’t feel comfortable checking instruments into the cargo hold,” Shinohara said, noting musicians worry their instruments could be damaged.

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Michael Moore in Japan

American filmmaker Michael Moore was in Japan the other day to promote the release of “Capitalism: A Love Story.” As you can see from the above video clip, his arrival was not uneventful- the good folks at JAL somehow lost his luggage. What fantastic publicity for a struggling company!

The Japan Times has an article that includes some of Moore’s thoughts on Japanese politics:

While admitting that Japan is much better than his country in establishing a safety net for the poor, he warned that Japan has been becoming more like America.

“(In the) last 20 years, you (Japan) decided to change through a series of conservative prime ministers, including (an) Elvis impersonator (Junichiro Koizumi),” he said. “Now you are starting to get some of the problems we have. More crimes, unemployment.

“Your conservative government started to cut off (the) safety net, cut off money from health care, education, throw people out of work, make it harder for Japanese who don’t make as much money, punish them for being poor,” he said.

Moore also expressed regret that Japan agreed to deploy the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

“You gave him (former U.S. President George W. Bush) legitimacy,” he said, explaining that Bush may not have been able to start the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq if Japan, Britain and other countries hadn’t supported him.

Nevertheless, Moore voiced admiration for Japan in general. He also expressed hope that the Democratic Party of Japan-led government shifts away from the American way.

“My humble plea is to come off the (American way) road with the new prime minister and get back on the road to the country I admire,” he said.

For some photos of Moore wandering around the streets of Shibuya, check out this post at Shibuya246.

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Japanese government: Mikan prevent cold, cancer, skin problems, hypertension and fatigue

Some strongly worded health claims from an English language website about Japanese food maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries:

The most popular fruit in Japan, the Mandarins are known to have no pips and balance sweetness with tenderness. They are also very easy to peel with their delicate skin. They prevent cold, cancer, skin problems, hypertension and fatigue.

I’m guessing the cancer bit refers to these two small studies, which suggest that mandarin oranges might prevent liver cancer.

[hat tip to Fukumimi]

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Matsutake from Turkey

A report from “Mezamashi TV” about how the Turkish villagers have discovered there is a lot of money to be made in exporting matsutake mushrooms to Japan (English captions included):

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TBS staff crashes golf cart into crowd

A TBS employee lost control of a equipment-laden golf cart at the Kochi Kuroshio Country Club, plowing into a few people and causing some injuries:

Most media headlines have noted that the TBS crew was there because mega popular golfer Ryo Ishikawa was participating at a tournament at the course.

One version of the above video clip received over 24,000 views on YouTube Japan, putting it at the top of yesterday’s most-viewed ranking. A vlog expressing surprise at the stupidity of TBS was also high in the view rankings.

The 2channel sports navi blog has collected some of its favorite TBS-bashing comments from a 2ch.net thread about the incident. Included are several clever suggestions for how the letters “T B S” can spell out words and phrases describing reckless driving:

T　突然カートで
B　ぶつかる
S　傷害事件

T　東京
B　暴
S　走

T　当然
B　暴走
S　しますた

T　飛んで
B　ぶ～りん
S　スペシャル

Ｔ　天下一
Ｂ　暴走
Ｓ ＳＨＯＷ

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