Archive for December, 2010

Old Japanese Trains Find New Life in Other Countries

A pretty cool report from NTV’s “Bankisha” about where Japan sends its retired trains:

The first part of the report shows how old trains are sometimes purchased by other train lines within Japan. One example are former Odakyu Romance Car trains being used in Nagano.

However, when cars get too old to be of much use in Japan, they are usually either scrapped or sent abroad. Destination countries include Malaysia, Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Argentina. Buyers find that Japanese trains are high quality machines that are safe and rarely break down.

Visits to a few of the countries reveal that many of the trains have been left in their original condition. Some are easily recognizable by their colors, and Japanese writing is easily visible in their interiors. Safety messages are left in their original Japanese.

This train in the Philippines has kept its original Japanese paint job, which seems to have deteriorated quite a bit. Its Filipino owners even let the “Shimonoseki” destination signs in place.

This train to Tokyo was filmed in Indonesia. It used to run on JR’s Musashino line.

As the above shot of a Japanese train being used in Indonesia demonstrates, the new owners of the train don’t seem to be too concerned about serious safety regulations. If the train is full, people just cling to the top or outside of the train cars.

A Japanese reporter who rode on one of the super-crowded Indonesian trains found it scary just to watch people clinging to the outside of the train and jumping off when they reached their stops. It was also very hot inside the train, and he ended up getting really sweaty.

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French Winemaker Overwhelmed by Manga-fueled Boom

Jean-Pierre Amoreau, the owner of the estate in France that produces Château Le Puy wine, has experienced a huge boom in demand for his product after the Japanese manga series “The Drops of God” [Les Gouttes de Dieu / 神の雫] featured it as one of the world’s finest wines:

The comics, which recount the quest of a young man to inherit his wine critic father’s vast collection, see him attempt to identify the 13 wines chosen by his father in his will. They are all real-life vintages – such as the 1994 Château Lafleur and 1999 Château Palmer – and the wines have experienced a surge in sales after being featured in the books.

“The effect has been enormous and rather impressive,” said a spokeswoman for Glénat, the publishing house that has printed the translated volumes since 2008, adding that some of the winemakers chosen had seen their Asian exports double or even triple.

She said: “The authors did not expect this phenomenon. They were quite surprised that they were able to influence the French market like this, as the choices are based on their personal tastes.”

The upturn in sales seen by Château le Puy in March, after the broadcast of a spin-off television show, is likely to pale in comparison with what lies in wait for the lucky wine chosen as the 13th and final vintage of the original manga series – not due to be published for several years.

Amoreau had 150 orders for his 2003 vintage the day after the cartoon’s finale was shown, and even received Japanese fans who had travelled from Paris to buy some.

According to French News Online, Mr. Amoreau is not trying to make a crazy profit by raising the prices on his wine to meet the new demand. He tried his best to make the wine available at an affordable price to his long-term customers:

…on March 11, 2009, the day of the release in Japan of the cartoon series episode that showed his Château Le Puy 2003 as a wine “apostle”, a cru or classified vineyard enshrined in the cartoon’s storyline, the notoriety of what he calls a “simple appellation” exploded and the winemaker was forced to suspend sales worldwide.

“On that day we suddenly received around 200 orders from Japan and when we asked our local agent what was happening he discovered a huge buzz had been generated by the series. We immediately stopped all sales around the world to avoid speculation.”

“Pascal, my son, and I had a brief discussion and decided that it would be healthier for our reputation and our wine if we stopped sales to avoid price speculation. We asked our agents in Japan, Canada and elsewhere to remove the bottles from shelves,” says Jean-Pierre Amoreaux. “We wanted to ensure this wine was available to the customers who have helped us make a living for the past 50 years. Soon after this the price returned to its normal level of around 19.90 euros”.

A BBC News video report about this story can be viewed here.

Note: The articles quoted in this post use the word “cartoon” to describe the TV show, when in fact they should be mentioning that the spin-off was a live-action television show.

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Kim Jong-un’s Mother: Born in Japan

The Asahi has an article up about the life of Ko Young-hee, the mother of North Korea’s next leader. It tells the story of her father, Ko Tae Mun, leaving Jeju in the pre-war years and coming to live in the Tsuruhashi area of Osaka. She was born in that area in 1953.

In the 1950′s, Ko Tae Mun created a wrestling association and tried to become a successful pro wrestler. The association and his career flopped, so he took his family to North Korea in 1961. At the request of Great Leader Kim Il-sung, he became the head of the DPRK’s judo association, training North Korean athletes how to beat evil foreigners in international sporting competitions. Ko’s daughter was able to join a prominent dance troupe, through which she was given the opportunity to meet and become a consort of Kim Jong-il.

The North Korean government is in the process of creating a mythical story about the birth and childhood of Kim Jong-un. There is no place in such a story for a mother who was born in Japan, and a grandfather who was a failed professional wrestler. It seems that the propaganda machine will do its best to cover-up those embarrassing details:

What could be included in the legend is the fact that Ko Tae Mun was born in Jeju. In 1948, islanders clashed with the right-wing South Korean authorities. The conflict resulted in numerous fatalities, and some islanders fled to Japan.

In around 2003, a TV drama about the incident was broadcast in North Korea. That was at a time when Ko Young Hee’s political influence was growing.

A former high-ranking Chongryon official said a legend about Kim Jong Un could be created along the following story line:

“Ko Tae Mun carried on the will of Jeju islanders who fought bravely under the guidance of Kim Il Sung. After fleeing to Japan, he returned to North Korea to be embraced by the greatness of Kim. Ko gave up his life to serve as a soldier for Kim. Kim Jong Un would be an individual who carried on the great revolutionary bloodline from Jeju.”

Tsuruhashi would have no place within that legend.

A source in the Korean community in Japan said, “Ko Tae Mun’s relatives still live in Osaka. They are not involved with Chongryon. Even if you talked to them, they will tell you nothing. They have been told to keep quiet by North Korea.”

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Monkeys Enjoy Hot Bath in Hokkaido

Every winter, Hakodate’s Municipal Tropical Botanical Garden gives its monkeys a treat by providing them with a hot spring in which to bathe. Here are a couple news reports showing the monkeys relaxing now that they’ve turned on the hot water for this winter:

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Vehicle Modding in Japan

AOL’s Translogic blog visits Japan and films a segment about cool customized scooters and cars:

“We travel to Japan for a look at some of the most innovative, interesting and insane forms of transportation in the world. First up: modding culture. The Japanese don’t just modify their cars for performance and style, they trick out their scooters and cargo vans as well!”

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Japan’s 2022 World Cup Bid: 3D Holograms?

The Japanese delegation is in Zurich today, trying to convince FIFA that Japan should host the 2022 World Cup. They are hoping to win people over with a promise of live 3D holographic broadcasts of soccer matches. People around the world would be able to visit stadiums and experience something very much like watching an actual game in person:

Japan promised a high tech marvel in its final pitch to host the 2022 World Cup on Wednesday by paving 400 stadiums around the world with 3D flat screens to show life size matches thousands of miles away.

“I have to admit that the idea of this blows my mind away,” admitted Japan 2022 bid committee chief executive Kohzo Tashima.

“Three hundred and sixty million people could have a full stadium experience of matches; that’s over 100 times the number of spectators at the 1994 World Cup in the United States,” he told FIFA’s executive committee.

Backed by Sony chairman Howard Stringer, Japanese officials mirrored the promise of an electronics revolution for the next generation that would eliminate language problems in Japan by providing tiny real-time interpretation machines and constant connection to palm sized screens.

Here is a promotional video created by Japan. If you only want to see the part about 3D Full Court Vision, skip ahead about 4 minutes:

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