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Hatoyama Resigns!

Three months shy of his first anniversary as Japan's Prime Minister, Hatoyama resigned over the handling of the US base relocation in Okinawa.

Read More Here.

Kitano Takeshi at Fondation Cartier, Paris

Work of Japanese artist, comedian, and filmmaker Kitano Takeshi is currently featured at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, running through September 12, 2010.

Full NY Times Article.
La Fondation Cartier.
Kitano Takeshi Website.
Kitano Takeshi Wikipedia
Kitano Takeshi IMDB


Photo credit (for bottom-most picture): Jacky Naegelen/Reuters.

Only in Japan

I was standing in front of the Shinagawa Station, waiting for a bus not too far from the traffic light. The light has just turned red when a white Toyota Prius sped to run past it. Immediately I could hear the high pitch of a whistle, and at the same time, I saw a policeman running fast to catch the offender. The Toyota Prius stopped, opened its window, and was directed to the side to be cited.

"Only in Japan," I had titled this entry, because the driver was honest enough to stop after violating that traffic law. Elsewhere in the world, with a police equipped only with two legs, the car would have sped off like a space shuttle breaking out into space.

Only in Japan, too, that perhaps the police was quite fit. Sure, Krispy Kreme Donuts might have invaded Tokyo a few years ago and managed to stay in business with eternally long queue, but I had yet to see an obese police officer in the years that I lived here. It sure is comforting to see your law enforcement officer so fit as not to have a heart attack when he has to run fast and hard like that.

Wow!

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has won the elections in a major landslide, taking 302 of the 480 seats, leaving the main opposition party (and the de-facto party since 1955) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with just 112 seats (the rest of the seats going to smaller parties). DP leader Hatoyama Yukio (pictured) is slated to become the next Prime Minister as Aso Taro had stepped down in defeat.



[Bloompy has been away, true, and has yet to come up with a replacement blog now that he lives away from Japan; perhaps this one should continue to cover things Tokyo and Japan.]

Of Course There's a Difference

Do you see this picture? Cute how JAL (Japan Airlines) differentiates wheelchair users between those flying Economy and those flying First/Business Class.

iPhone Calling

It may be milder and underwhelming compared to the American counterpart, but the anticipation for the first iPhone sale in Tokyo is enough to get Apple enthusiasts to start lining up for one when it becomes available tomorrow, July 11. Pictured above is the first of the line at the Omotesando-dori Softbank, and the guy proudly announced his number-one-ness on a nearby board. Hiroyuki Sano, the first guy in queue and who came from Nagoya, had been camping there since Monday night (and it is now Thursday night).

At the eve of this launching, the line stretches only half a block, but Omotesando-dori, known as the "Champs Elysees of Tokyo" has a wide sidewalk, providing these people with ample amount of space. And Japan being Japan, it seems that perhaps Softbank had provided security by posting officers every few feet. Luckily for them, the weather tonight was excellent for a Tokyo summer: breezy with hardly any hint of humidity; best of all, it was not raining. Two different groups of TV crews were seen interviewing some people in the queue.

I did wonder how popular iPhone will be in Japan as this country (along with Korea) is way far ahead of everybody else in terms of phones with great features and usability, although none of them matches Apple's sleek design and level of status symbol.

Sayonara Sale

Wow, what a surprise. When we moved here in 2004, we had way too many things from the US, so we started paring down our belongings. We asked around to see if there was such a thing as Goodwill to whom we could donate them, but a colleague said that it was rather rare to find such an institution in Japan as Japanese tended to take care of themselves and not rely on anyone else's charity. We then called up our friends to see who wanted what, and after they had their picks, we simply left a whole lot of other things by the alternate door to our complex. We left for dinner and was surprised that an hour later back home, we found many things had disappeared; people had taken most away. We simply put the remaining in the dumpster.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when we decided not to bring our entire belongings and opted to do the traditionaSayonara Sale, a sort of garage sale staged by departing expatriates. I took pictures, posted them in an online site, advertised for the sale at the free weekly English magazine Metropolis, and within a day, calls started calling. It was a feeding frenzy, with people wanting to secure certain items, mainly the big ones, such as furniture. Each advertising renewal puts another fresh jolt to the bidding. It was fun to see the process. Had we known how wildly popular this was, we would have done this years ago when we wanted to get rid of some things.


Click HERE to go to the Sayonara Sale site.

Bloompy Sad

I was taking a sabbatical, thinking about how to make the blog more relevant and interesting, when word got out that a relocation might be in order. That got me sad as I love living in Tokyo, being in Japan and in Asia. With the moving deadline now becoming real, I am absorbing anything I can in my remaining time here, a time which I will remember as one of the best times of our lives.

Between the last entry and today's, many things had taken place, most of which were family matters that included sickness and death. Sorry for the absence.

But, as I had mentioned above, I was in the middle of thinking about revamping this site, so perhaps with the move, I can have a new start, a new life again.

A Monk in Ginza

Looking for alms in the richest shopping district in Tokyo, Japan.

Abe Resigns (Finally!)

A year marked by scandals among his ministers was enough to erode his public support. Written off by fellow politicians and the media, his days were numbered, and finally, today, Abe Shinzo resigned from his post as the Prime Minister of Japan.

Photo credit: Hanai Toru for Reuters

Shinjuku Over the Years

glumbert.com - Tokyo Skyline Time-Lapse

Tokyo Skyline Time-Lapse

Snow Cone & the Seven Dwarfs

A chance meeting with a passing stranger on Omotesando-dori got Bloompy to turn around to follow him and his entourage of seven. Do not miss minute 5:00, when the youngest of the clan struggled to step over a leash. All dachshunds owners had seen their pups experience this at one point or another.



If you cannot see the video on this site, click HERE to view it on YouTube.

Bathing the Bunnies

Two Dachshunds (Ptolemy and Galla) attempted to bathe Two Bunnies (Furball and Cottontail).



If you have trouble watching it in this Blog, click HERE.

In Memory of the Victims of Hiroshima Bombings

We pause to respect the victims of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing.

To read an article in relation to today's news, please click HERE or HERE.

Picture Credit: Toru Hanai for the IHT

Not Just Your Dogs Drinking from the Toilet Bowl

The Mainichi Shimbun reported from Higashihiroshima (East Hiroshima) that plumbing blunder at the Hiroshima University Higashihiroshima Campus had resulted in students drinking water that was designated for flushing toilets. They traced the problem to 1993, when the gymnasium's renovation was completed. They attributed the problem to incorrect fitting between pipes for high quality drinking water and low grade toilet flushing water. Recently, 80 students got very ill with symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting. It is a surprise that the outbreak had not occurred much earlier.

Read the full news HERE.

The Grass is Always Greener . . .

Some Americans and Europeans prefer to say their vows in Bali, in Phuket, or in Kyoto, so why not the Japanese bride and groom ditching their shrines and temples in favor of the churches in the West? An article by Doreen Carvajal (read it HERE) in the International Herald Tribune talks about the phenomenon of these fantasy weddings in Paris. Especially now that the whole world has seen the weddings of Cruise-Holmes (in a castle in Italy) and Longoria-Parker (in a chateau in France), some would like to realize the same dream of doing it abroad.

Even here in Tokyo, during one of my strolls in Omotesando back roads and small alleys, I ran across a huge church with disproportional front yard. At first I really thought it was a worship church, but upon closer inspection, I realized it was a church solely used for the purpose of wedding ceremonies. These ceremonies came in packages, like any wedding ceremonies, but this one caters to those who want the ultimate western wedding experience.

Not too far from this church, on Omotesando-dori itself, stood L'Anniversaire, a multi-story store that catered exclusively to weddings, with each floor focusing on one aspect of the wedding: jewelries, bridal gowns, make-up, and topped with the ceremonial place.

Photo credit: David Brabyn for the IHT

Gorgeous George

Ocean 13 is coming to Tokyo, and so is its major star, George Clooney, pictured here at a press conference. Watch the trailer HERE.

The Japanese Election Results

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of the current prime minister Abe Shinzo suffered a major setback in the Upper House from Sunday's (yesterday's) election, which took away the majority from their hands and delivered it into the opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Ozawa Ichiro, a coalition of moderates, former socialists and conservatives. In the past, the DPJ (founded in 1996) could not muster the votes to overcome the ever powerful LDP, whose strongholds of power extended beyond big cities and into rural areas. This time around, the disenchanted voters gave their voice to the opposition after a major government bungling of national pension records and a series of scandals and corruptions.

Unlike past prime ministers who had resigned in the face of such loss, Abe defiantly decided to stay the course as prime minister. Japanese law spelled out the Lower House of the Parliament as the one choosing the prime minister. The LDP has the majority in the Lower House, which is considered to be stronger and more influential than the Upper House. Inheriting the parliamentary majorities from his most popular predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, Abe passed through legislations laws that concerned patriotism in schools and the plan to elevate Japanese military and to revise the pacifist Constitution. The recent loss will surely hold his future plans in check as the majority Upper House will be able to deny him the easy route.

Abe's recent campaign with trademark soundbytes of making Japan into a "beautiful country" has been mocked by some opposition and even his own fellow LDP politicans. He has been viewed as out of touch with the rest of the country, forgetting about the bread and butter issues, the basic needs of the people. His main theme put the emphasis on revising the pacifist Constitution, but with recent tides against him, he appeared to want to appease the mass by switching it to the economy, which came too little too late. The opposition, meanwhile, had made economy the main issue in the first place, and voters obviously rewarded DPJ's effort and handed them the Upper House.


(Photo credit: Sasaki Ko for the New York Times.)

In Memoriam: Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner

We take a break from Tokyo to pay tribute to the woman with the most memorable mascara-run in the world, the former wife and partner of once founder PTL (Praise the Lord / People That Love) Church, Jim Bakker. Tammy Faye Messner (she was currently married to Roe Messner) died today, at 65 years of age, weighing only 65 lbs. The colon cancer that she got had spread to the lungs. The progressive disease has made it difficult for her to swallow food, hence the dramatic weight loss.

According to CNN, Tammy Faye Messner has also been known as one of the few evangelical Christians who had the support of the gay community. She was one of the first televangelists to reach out to those with AIDS when it was a little-known and much-feared disease. In return, she told King in July, "When I went -- when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that."

The documentary on her life, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" is available for viewing at Hulu.com
http://www.hulu.com/watch/232459/the-eyes-of-tammy-faye

Click HERE for more information on Tammy Faye's life.