Spring has come. Yes, it’s 桜(Sakura; cherry blossom) season.
夜桜(Yozakura) means “to see SAKURA at night”.
at TOSHIBA General Hospital.
at Omori Station.
I visited there with my colleagues.
In front of 共立女子大学(Kyoritsu Women’s University), 神保町(Jimbōchō station).
There are lights embedded on the ground. Pretty scaring Sakura 
You know, massive earthquake hit Japan last week, 11th March. I found many cracks on the walls of my office.
Fortunately, I have no problem. My friends and family are also quite well.
But many people are still suffering, especially people living in Tohoku area(東北地方). They were damaged by Tsunami, and lost evertything(house, money…,etc.).
Please consider supporting the emergency relief donation.
Donate List:
http://www1.networkforgood.org/help-survivors-pacific-quake-tsunami
Thanks,
Last week, it snowed heavily in Tokyo…
In tokyo, light snow is not unusual. But such heavy snow! Awesome!
ブルーインパルス (Blue Impulse) is the aerobatic flight team of the 航空自衛隊(Japan Air Self-Defense Force).
Iruma Airbase holds airshow every year in November, so I went to see them last month….
You can visit there by 西武池袋線(Seibu Ikebukuro Line), at 稲荷山公園駅(Inariyama-kōen station). It takes about 45 minutes from 新宿(Shinjuku) station.
my friend, camera girl
Fantastic!
What color is a postbox in your country? In Japan, it’s red.
The postbox in Japan is usually cuboid, but you can sometimes see such a pillar box which is old-fashioned.
In addition, you can see blue one in this picture.
It’s for express letters. But many Japanese don’t know even the existence of the blue one.
We mostly go to the post office to send an express letter, don’t use postbox. From post office, it seems to be delivered earlier, huh?
When you take on escalator in Japan, you can see polite people in a row.
They stand on the left side, nobody stands on the right side. No exception! Everybody seems to be shipshape.
In Japan, people leave one side on escalator for those in a hurry. So, you should know “Stand on the left, walk on the right” in Tokyo.
Curiously, in Tokyo, they stand on the left side. On the other hand, in Osaka, they stand on the right side. Maybe you think “This is a diffrence of customary between Kanto(関東) and Kansai(関西)”. But this idea is WRONG.
In Kyoto(Of course, Kyoto is placed in Kansai), the open side is inconstant. Some people stand on the left, other people stand on the right in Kyoto. Maybe they stand on a whim.
“Lipovitan D” is an energy drink manufactured by Taisho Seiyaku.
All Japanese are familiar with this drink as its TV commercial. Two muscle guys try physical challenge, such as climbing mountain.
They shout “ファイト! 一発! (Fight! Ippatsu!)” — this is a catch frase of Lipovitan D. “Ippatsu!” is very diffcult to translate in English… it means “Let’s go!” or “Now!” or “Come on!”.
When you come to Japan, buy Lipovitan D and try to say “Fight! Ippatsu!”.
A definitive stamp for postcards in Japan is 50 yen, a mandarin duck.
This stamp has interesting perforation. Center one is not circle, but ellipse. This perforation comes in just these days(from about January, 2010), so you can see both normal perforation and ellipse perforation now.
Stamps of Mandarin duck appeared in 2007. Previous definitive stamps(50 yen) was Mejiro.
In Japanese, メジロ(Mejiro) means “the white eye”. Yes, their eyes have white fringe.
I prefer this Mejiro rather than current mandarin duck. This Mejiro is pretty simple and fancy, isn’t it?
When you come to Japan, you may encounter serious problem — separating garbage.
This document shows how to separate your garbage in Yokohama-City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Yokohama has strict policy, so you must separate:
(1) Burnable Garbage
(2) Dry-cell Batteries
(3) Spray Cans
(4) Non-burnable Garbage
(5) Plastic containers/Package
(6) Cans, Bottles and Plastic PET Bottles
(7) Small Metal Items
(8) Recycle paper
(9) Used Cloth
(10) Large Garbage
(see: How to Put Out Your Garbage and Recyclables – Yokohama)
Can you believe it? I can’t distinguish between (4) and (5) yet.
They say that items of (4) has “プラ” mark, such as below:
Japan, what a diligent country!
Of course, I don’t mean about skating, but about anime and manga.
Japanese Otaku *loves* anime and manga figures. Yes, I also hava some figures.
This figure is “Alisa Southerncross” from Sgt. Frog.
At figure shops in Akihabara, You can see a number of figures tidily displayed in glass case — It’s really grand view.
I’ll post articles about Akihabara in another time.
Photos of Japanese lifestyle, culture, landscape.
