They’re grander than just kids knocking on doors asking for candies here. The video is from last year, this year’s Kawasaki’s Halloween’s Parade’s video is not up yet but a photo of the week in Metropolis showed variety and grand costumes better than it’s western counterparts ;)

There are three types of public phones you will see in Japan and they will ALL function similarly except for some small modification and improvements.

The green phone is the the most common public phone you will see in Japan. It takes coins and telephone cards and you can also make international calls with them. The grey phone is also very common, you can make international calls from this as well but it will only take certain service provider’s phone cards only. So be sure to check before you dial. Alternatively, bring a bucket of coins.

The orange phone is the newest public phone to grace the streets of Japan and they are also becoming quite common. It takes coins, phone cards and IC cards. You can make international calls with this ones too.

Oh, you might encounter a pink phone that accepts 10yen coins only too. Remember to take a picture of it because it will soon be extinct from general consumerism and stored in a museum soon.

The last petals of the sakura flowers would have gone by now with green leaves and beautiful sunshine, hopefully, where you are :)

This is my homage to the Sakura, and everything sakura. My photo pick of the week is the Sakura tree in its full bloom.

And if you miss the Sakura season so much, you can have imprints of sakuras on your table via your glass :P Just fill it in with cold water and set it on the table and you’ll have prints of the sakura flower outline. The glass design is a creation of Designer Hironao Tsuboi.

You can get the glass for ¥2,100 each from 100% Design. www.100per.com

Say your family is moving to Japan. You have two school going children, choosing the right school for your child may be a daunting thing when you’re in a culture that is different from your own. But fear not, the education system in Japan offers many choices for you.

I wouldn’t call this a guide, just an attempt to let you know about the choices your children have in Japan for schooling. There are basically two choices; Japanese Schools and International Schools.

Sending them to International schools would of course incur a higher school fee and a selection of curriculum (American, British, Internationa Baccalaureate, etc) for your child. And also the fact that your child will also be exposed to various cultures and ethnicity from other students. Of course, if you send your child to a Japanese school, s/he will be able to blend into and understand the japanese culture more.

After thinking abotu what school to send your child into, you should also take into consideration the location of the school. How far or how close it is should be a factor of deciding because a futher school would also mean more traveling time and if there should be an emergency, you need to ask yourself if you could get there in time. So, location, location, location.

You also have to remember that you need to do research on the schools you want your kids to be in because there are entrance exams and deadlines of applications.

Read more about the Japanese school structure here.

Korean heartthrob Jungi Lee(イージュンギ）, best known for his star-winning role in “The King and The Clown” (2005), the all-time number one box office hit in Korean cinema history, was interviewed several weeks ago by the Japanese magazine “Hanryupia” （韓流ぴあ） just months ahead of his scheduled Golden Week visit to Osaka and the movie premiere of his first Japan-Korea collaboration, “Virgin Snow”.

Having established himself as a big name in Korea thanks to the overwhelming success of “The King and The Clown”, Jungi Lee is now setting his sights on infiltrating the Japanese fan base. Becoming involved in Japan wasn’t an “especially thought out matter”, mentions Lee in the Hanryupia interview, but the hard work has been “a lot of fun”. Prior to starting work on creating publicity in Japan, Lee has mentioned among his interests Japanese dramas and Japanese actors, including Miki Nakatani.

On the possibility of his other recent film, “Fly Daddy” (interestingly enough a Korean film based off of a hit Japanese novel), being shown in Japanese theaters, Lee said that “…of course I would be happy. But even with the Korea’s own culturally distinct feelings being reflected in the film ‘Fly Daddy’ contrasted against what was brought out in the original Japanese novel, I think that the meaning of the film would still be well understood [by Japanese viewers]”. A second opinion on the film from the Korea Times can be found here.

Looking ahead to Lee’s most current accomplishment, Lee co-stars with Japanese actress Aoi Miyazaki (from the movie “Nana”) in the upcoming joint Japanese-Korean film “Virgin Snow” (初雪の恋, [’hatsu yuki no koi’, literally translating to ‘first snow’s love’]). The story is the encounter and afterward romance between a Korean college student (Lee) and a high school student (Miyazaki) that takes place in Kyoto. Throughout the story, the couple are seen overcoming the cultural and language differences that represent invisible “walls” between their countries.

The fact that such a high level of pop culture exchange exists between Korea and Japan (particularly adapting each other’s dramas and novels into cross-cultural productions) is an encouraging sign in light of the incredible historical friction that has existed. Japanese Prime Minister Abe particularly undid a great amount of recent progress with his March 1 statement that there was no actual “proof” that Korean and Chinese “comfort women” were in fact coerced into sexual slavery during the World War II Japanese occupation. Despite the reality of this heightened conflict, Japanese pop culture continues to flow in waves into Korea, and likewise with Korean pop culture coming into Japan.

In reflecting on Lee’s comments obout how Japanese viewers would react to the Korean-adapted “Fly Daddy”, I would add myself that after having lived and worked in both countries, there is a lot more in common culturally between Korea and Japan than what either country’s politicians would probably ever like to admit–even with the distinct differences that exist. Given that factor, it is no surprise to me personally that new up and coming Korean celebrities like Jungi Lee are looking across the sea to reach out to Japanese fans with cross-cultural collaborations like “Virgin Snow” or even cross-cultural adaptations like “Fly, Daddy”. Even though I’m not personally a fan of Jungi Lee (a little too girly for my tastes…), the fact that celebrities and artists like him are pushing for such cross-cultural exchange is nothing short of a great thing and I look forward to seeing how well he and Miyazaki pull off “Virgin Snow” in a couple of months.

“Virgin Snow” is slated for release during Golden Week (first week of May). The official website is here (Japanese). If anyone has any information on an English site, as always, please feel free to comment and pass on the info. :)

As the title suggest, the DaVinccian Lifestyle is a lifestyle aim at enriching people’s life and it is currently becoming a part of Japanese lifestyle. William Reed, training and coach, who trains his poeple on the DaVincian lifestyle aim to help people realise their dreams as well as targets in life by emulating the late Leonardo DaVinci’s principles in life. Reed currently has a bestseller’s book in the Japanese literary world and is collaborating with Michael J. Geld on a translated version of the book “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci”.

Books may motivate us, but what’s inside them can be easily forgotten. “The problem with some traditional methods of learning is that it doesn’t stick,” says Reed. “Learning has to do with [engaging] the whole body. In a crisis, our body is the first thing to respond.”

This interesting way of life is adhered by 7 principles:

Curiosità: An insatiably curious approach to life

Dimostrazione: A commitment to test knowledge through experience

Sensazione: The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to clarify experience

Sfumato: A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty

Arte/Scienza: The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination

Corporalità: The cultivation of ambidexterity, fitness and poise

Connessione: A recognition and appreciation of the connectedness of all things and phenomena.

Reed has created 6 programs to help participants experience and learn about these 7 principles that has created a genius like Leonardo DaVinci. Along with Gelb’s best seller, this lifestyle trend is fast becoming popular amongst the Japanese people.

Each one-day workshop costs ¥30,000 and will be held at the International House in Roppongi. Early reservations are recommended. 5-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-3470-4611. Nearest stn: Azabu-Juban. Face Drawing and Communication, Apr 15, 10am-6pm; Handwriting of a Genius, Apr 29, 10am-6pm; Shortcuts to DaVincian Drawing, May 20, 10am-6pm; Body Mapping, May 27, 10am-6pm. For dates and more information, see www.agili.jp or email William Reed at willreed@agili.jp.

Source: Metropolis

Picture courtesy of Ishii Yuriko

One aspect of train culture that visitors will either get used to very quickly or never get over (just ask some of my friends who visit) is the fact that people often bypass the etiquette of saying “excuse me” when squishing past people getting on or off a train. This would come across as rude to a lot of visitors, but at the same time it’s reasonable to figure that if you were to say “excuse me” to every single person just to get off, let’s say, the Chuo line at Shinjuku station during rush hour, (focus on the people crammed inside the train) you would never reach the doors in time before they closed. This isn’t to say that people never say “excuse me” at all, but there’s no reason to really consider it as being “rude” when they don’t.
This was actually an interesting point of reverse-culture shock for me during my first return back to the States from Japan about two years ago; there were occasions during rush hour in Boston where a fellow passenger would literally order me to step outside the train during passenger disembarking because I was being “rude” standing in the way. In Japan such a scenario is virtually impossible; I would simply either get pushed into or out of the train depending on the direction of the movement of the crowd. When it comes down to it–at least in Japan—everyone’s just too busy trying to get from point A to point B with the least amount of difficulty to be bothered with directly confronting anyone to get them to move out of the way. The best thing anyone can do in such a situation is just “go with the flow” and enjoy the fact that for a society so centered around manners, this is one code of etiquette that is okay to completely disregard.

Many Japanese youths are rushing to get parts of their body as human canvases to be inked these days. Tattoo parlours have been shrooming across Japan as well, with clients queuing up for their turn. It sure seems like Japan has finally accepted the centuries old sub-culture of tattoo and watch out, it is going mainstream.

Before, tattoos were considered the mark of the Yakuza. Anyone who had one is assumed to be part of the Japanese mafia. In short, Japanese in general, have an aversion towards tattooing and view it as a very undesirable activity. Onsens used to forbid tattoo wearers to enter their vicinity. Now this is funny, if people with tattoos are presumed to be with the yakuzas, wouldn’t these onsen allow them entrance in the jiffy? I don’t know, i just thought offending a fellow mafiozo could cause serious retributions like your hands and legs chopped off and your onsen polluted with pee. I watch too much gangster movies…:)

But yakuzas aside, tattoos are definitely gaining popularity with the Japanese crowd these days. You see mainstream artists getting themselves inked with unicorns (Ayumi Hamasaki) and what not. It’s fashionable, and most importantly it’s art! The human body is a wonderful canvas.

“These days, the types of people getting tattoos is changing,” said Jun Matsui, a tattooist based in Tokyo and Brazil. But don’t presume that the subculture has been accepted just yet. Tattooists and tattoo lovers in Japan have struggled for centuries with disparagement and criticism, and it may not be as easy as it looks to dislodge the taboo.

Centuries old alright. Tattoos in Japan was served as a marking for criminals since the Edo period, to warn people that these people were criminals. And that is how the connection of tattoos to the yakuza came about. Apart from that, the tattoo was also restricted to yujo or legal prostitutes, geishas and their clients. Sometimes the geisha is forced by her lovers to get a tattoo. This can prove to be problematic for her other clients. The geisha had to remove it with fire and herbs - sometimes the geisha wounds up have to reapply it. Ouch.

This article on tattoos can be found in Metropolis. It’s a great read about tattooing and the traditions of tattooing in Japan.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Japanese paradox—i.e. the de facto dichotomy between “Japanese people” and “everyone else”—is that it’s virtually impossible to pick up on it when you first set foot in the country. Japanese culture is as much centralized around service as it is on its geographic isolation from the rest of the world, which is why a lot of tourists come away from the country with glowing praises of how nice everyone was to them and about the unprecedented hospitality they received. Not to mention that like any other average citizen of any country, Japanese people want to give off a positive impression to the world.

Now, the tourists that visit Japan for the first time are indeed going to so see a lot the same things my Japanese friend saw afresh coming back from Canada—the homogeneity of appearance, the flashy cell phones, the swarming crowds, the exhausted faces. What they aren’t going to see are the real Japanese people behind the daily charade of politeness and simple smiles. I’ll be the first to admit that I bought into it the first time coming here as an exchange student a couple of years ago; when I returned to the States a few months later, I thought that Americans in comparison were clearly the rudest, most insensitive people on God’s green earth.

It’s amazing how things change, however, when your status in a foreign country switches from exchange “student/tourist” to “long-term resident”. What you find out when you spend enough time in any country is a simple, unchanging truth: people are people, and the Japanese are no exception. I don’t mean to criticize, but the Japanese are not nearly as warm as they would make out to be at face value.

If anything, Japan is the one I country I know of where it is possible to tell someone to “f— off” completely in formal, polite dialogue. The genius aspect of such a phenomenon is that because the message was conveyed through the use of polite language, it is impossible for the receiver of such words to legitimately get angry because the person who said it “technically” wasn’t being rude. That is why there really aren’t any particularly juicy swear words in Japanese like there are in other languages like English; offense in Japanese is always conveyed subtly. In other words, just because someone is really polite to you here doesn’t mean that that person actually likes you at all. It’s “how” they are polite to you that really matters.

One of the largest advantages of learning another language is that it gives you a great deal of insight into a culture that you wouldn’t necessarily get from a textbook or a periodical. In other words you know you’re making headway with a language when you realize that you are beginning to understand how and why native speakers of the language act in certain ways.

Take for example the subtlety of communication within the Japanese context. People never say what they mean and part of learning Japanese is accustoming yourself to reading between the lines. When you ask a Japanese person to do something together—let’s say go out for some coffee on Wednesday night, you’ll rarely receive a flat-out “no”. What you will get oftentimes—if the response is meant to be negative—is a hesitant answer, following somewhere along the lines of “well…I’m not exactly able to…”, or “I do have such-and-such to do on that day but…”. If you interpret such phrases literally, technically they are not sending across the clear message that “no, I can’t hang out with you that night”. However, when you interpret it under the context of subtlety in Japanese culture, it does come across clearly as a “no”.

Another example is when I ask Japanese people I know if they like karaoke (most of them don’t…their loss). If it turns out that they do, they’re very clear in their response and generally enthusiastically so. However, if they don’t—and especially if they already know that I do love karaoke—they will often make their answers really ambiguous. Oftentimes they make it look like just simply saying “no, I don’t like karaoke” is the most painful thing they could possibly do. But the whole point here is that once you understand the principle of “maybe” almost always meaning “no” in Japanese, you’ve also begun to understand the polite, passive aggressive, and “never-say-what-you-mean” aspects of Japanese culture.