I played at Dai Fuji Golf Club today. Is this the course in Lost in Translation?

Posted from my mobile phone

Who is that guy* giving the finger to a virgin? Well, it is not just another painting, it is young Leonardo da Vinci’s first masterpiece. A senator in Florence, where it is usually displayed, even chained himself to the museum gates to protest that it would be flown to Tokyo. Ladies, and gentlemen, minna-san, it has arrived. Annunciation is encased behind a bulletproof crystal window shielding it from the outside world, and its steel case is designed to survive an earthquake. Tokyo National Museum has more information.

Dan Brown’s novel and the movie The da Vinci Code were so successful in Japan that there was even a digital exhibition called The Da Vinci Code Museum in Roppongi Hills, central Tokyo, where visitors could view a life-sized projected image of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper and other works.
(more…)

Ryuku, the Shinigami from the Death Note series, is being featured at the Tsutaya in Shibuya. There is a large scale model in place that has been attracting crowds of people who are stopping to take photos. Be warned though, the model and crowds make it a little difficult to walk around the first floor of the store.

Link

PASMO service has just started. It is a rechargeable magnetic (one touch) smart card train pass that works for all trains (JR and private), and buses. A similar card existed for JR only called SUICA, while the private lines and subways used a disposable card called PASSNET. This card you throw away when the debits have been used. And then the bus system also had a similar disposable card only for buses. So in the Tokyo area you had to carry around 3 cards all the time to use various transportation services.

I will tell the advantages and disadvantages of this PASMO.
advantages : I think these are main advantages.
We can do “touch and go” like SUICA in private, subway, bus too.
(This is nice! I must alway be nervous to suceed in putting such a thin card into a thin slot.)

We can use only one card, no need to have one for each line.
(This is nice too! because I have SUICA, train pass, PASSNET and bus card. If I don’t have them all, I need to buy ticket everytime, I can’t be bothered.)

When I go throgh the exit, if my remaining PASMO credits are not enough, my PASMO will be recharged automatically from my credit card (pre-registration is necessary)

Some private company will give you points for your use of PASMO. If you accumulate a certain number of points, you will be given various advantages. (I like this too. I use Odakyo, I can collect points and use them in stores, department stores and PASMO too )

And there were many inconveniences relating to these older systems as well. The transfer from a PASSNET line to a SUICA (such as in Shinjuku) can be very confusing for some people and it holds up the line. Basically you have to first put your PASSNET through the reader slot, and then swipe your SUICA across the magnetic pad. Many people, especially old people, people not from Tokyo, and some foreigners had troubles with this. Also, if your SUICA ran out before you could exit, you could recharge it inside the station before exiting, but for PASSNET, if your card runs out, there is usually no way to get another card inside the station, and exit (some stations sell PASSNET cards at their kiosks). So you had to line up in a long line at the adjustment machine and pay your total fare, then buy a new PASSNET once you’ve exited.
So although these systems (SUICA, PASSNET, and all Kanto area bus card) were a great improvement over the old system of every train line using different ticket systems, they still had inconveniences. The great thing about PASMO is that it combines all these together. We can use PASSMO on every major train (including JR, private, and subway) and bus. And after the introduction of PASMO, we can also use SUICA anywhere the PASMO card is accepted.

disadvantages : I have to be careful too.
You must be charged more than you used.
If you started at A station of X line, then transfered through Z line in the middle without going through exit, then go back to the final destination is B station in X line, then you will be charged a full A to B of X line. JR tends to be more expensive than private and lines, so this is a problem for many people. (めんどくさい）

Auto charge service won’t be available for bus, so bus user need to be careful.

You can not carry both a SUICA and a PASMO in the same pass case together (actually you don’t need it), if you do it, you got error. You need to choose Penguin or Robot. :-p

If you have kids, PASMO would be inconvenient because PASMO is available for only one person.

The name “PASMO” is a kind of funny commbination of the English word “pass” and the Japanese word “mo” (meaning “also”). The logo on the card has a picture of a train and then the word “mo”, the a picture of a bus and the word “mo”, then finally the word pasmo. So we can kind of get a feeling of its “all inclusiveness” from the name. Bus mo, train mo, pasmo. :-)

As expected, the nail that stuck out has been well & truly hammered back in.
Former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie was today sentenced to an unprecedented 2 1/2 years in prison for securities fraud. Hardly a surprise in a country where courts convict 99.9% of all the suspects brought before them.
It’s difficult to feel sorry for someone who most probably committed a crime that resulted in many individual investors losing their savings, but we all know why Horie ended up in court; he dared take on old Japan Inc.

I found this BBC Interview interesting. Mainichi are covering it.

NHK and the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives are hosting the Nippon no Shoku Festival at NHK’s Shibuya broadcasting center on March 17-18 from 10am-4pm. The event offers opportunities to explore Japan’s regional food culture, especially for families with small children. Should be a load of fun if the weather is nice.

A variety of cooking styles and cuisines from all over Japan will be showcased. There will also be a booth that allows guests to experience farming chores, such as polishing rice and milking cows.

Introducing Domo-kun, NHK’s mascot, also used to scare viewers to pay their fees.

Update: I took a couple of photos today of the event and posted on my blog. Yoroshiku!

Has the Cherry Blossom arrived? I’m probably wrong, but this looks suspiciously like Sakura…

I’m not the only one waiting

Posted from my mobile phone

Rat Curry at a Tokyo train Station

34% of Japanese couples “Sexless“. I liked this quote from that article:

I think we have to make a connection between the increasing sexless rate and declining birthrates.

Yeah, I seem to remember reading once about a link between sex and childbirth…

Whale Revenge: In apparent revenge for the recent attempts by Japan to reverse the Whale-catching ban and the fighting between Japanese fisherman and Greenpeace, a fisherman was killed by a whale. Unfortunately this fisherman was definitely one of the good guys, trying to save the whale.

This might explain why it always takes so long to taxi at Narita. Oliver at TokyoAhead points us to Google Earth photos that apparently show the contorsions that had to be done in building Narita airport due to Land-owners who refused to sell up.
The difficulties that the Japanese Government encountered in appropriating land for Narita and the effect on the airport, in terms of construction delays and shortened runways, were major reasons for the construction of Kansai and Chubu airports on reclaimed land. You can read more about the controversy surrounding the airport on AsiaCable and at Wikipedia.

On Sunday, there was a demonstration in Shibuya, Tokyo for workers’ rights, organized by the National Union of General Workers Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus, Kanagawa City Union, Zentoitsu Workers’ Union and Tokyo Occupational Safety and Wealth Center. The focus was on job security for foreigners living in Japan. About 300 people showed up, which is pretty impressive (especially since the weather was terrible).

(Photo: The Japan Times)