Thursday September 18, 2008 at 17:36
JPY5mn to spend on a cellphone? Wait for December.
Via Keitai Watch comes news that Vertu, Nokia’s luxury cellphone brand, is to launch in Japan in December. The bottom line is three models, in stainless steel (JPY1.6 mn), yellow gold (JPY4.5 mn) and white gold (JPY5 mn).
I suppose there are people with that kind of cash hiding in the cracks in their sofas in any economic climate, but it doesn’t sit well with my old-fashioned sense of value, which for that money says “iPhone and stonkingly good wristwatch” rather than “screamingly nouveau riche black-and-gold cellphone”. I wonder if the kind of people who these phones would appeal to aesthetically are likely to have free cash sloshing around at the moment, also. I sense the ones with the loot may be older and more inclined to go for more traditional baubles.
JapanSoc
Thursday September 18, 2008 at 15:08
We tire of your attentions, Mr. Michelin
After the success of its Tokyo guide, Michelin is apparently doing the groundwork for a Kyoto version. They’re not having much luck. A feature of Kyoto’s leisure industry that rapidly becomes apparent when you scratch the surface is that a significant number of the high-end restaurants and ryokan won’t let you in without an introduction from an existing customer; combined with their view of hospitality as being about service and surroundings as well as the food on the plate, they contrast with Michelin’s (quite understandably) objective approach.
The choicest quote in the Asahi article linked to comes from the owner of one venerable place, who says “I don’t think many of the older establishments are bothered about the ratings a foreign tire company might give us.”
Many restaurants that have been unknowingly infiltrated by the guide’s anonymous reviewers are, so the Asahi claims, refusing to give permission for it to feature them; even where they are, they’re refusing to allow its photographers to shoot interiors or dishes.
I don’t think Michelin has a god-given right to do a black-ship job on Kyoto simply so that tourists (whether from Japan or elsewhere) can get their feet under (or crossed in front of) the table of some of these ancient eateries; for one thing, unless the latter were to reverse their policy of requiring introductions the guide would serve as little more than a photoessay about places that remained inaccessible. And changing that policy would involve a considerable shift in culture. As the article notes, most of the old places would rather coexist than squabble over stars. Change will probably come, and Michelin battering at the door may nudge it a little nearer; but there’s no need to let them crowbar the shoji open just because they want to.
Besides, there are already plenty of good places to eat in Kyoto that don’t require a colossal budget or the nod from an initiate to enter. (And given that many are little nooks with counter seating only, you might even get lucky chatting to the folk next to you when it comes to recommendations or introductions—you never know.) In any case, a lot of Kyoto’s attraction is off the beaten track, the interesting stuff hidden down the alleys and backstreets that isn’t well covered by the guidebooks.
JapanSoc
Thursday September 18, 2008 at 13:29
JAF, not JFK
Was curious to see what the acronyms in this article about last night’s Hanshin game meant. Given the amount of glowing prose devoted to pitcher Scott Atchison, who was up fourth after three previous teammates got beaten to a pulp and rescued the Tigers from an impending pummeling with some very tight, controlled pitching, I started wondering if the article’s writer was comparing him with JAF, the Japan Auto Federation — in that he’d turned up in the metaphorical tow-truck to mend their punctured pitching — rather than being a visionary leader who came in at the start and showed the way, a JFK.
The truth, of course, is far more prosaic; Japanese writers, political commentators and probably homeless drunks under bridges like to assign three-letter acronyms to groups of three people who are related in some way; in this case, by being pitchers on the team. I don’t know who the J is, but the A is Atchison and the F is Furukawa; JFK refers to the previous combo, of whom the K, Kubota, is in hospital/prison/rehab/diapers and therefore unavailable.
If reading the above gives you the sense that I neither know very much about baseball or bother to watch it much, I would have to say that impression was entirely justified :)
JapanSoc
Wednesday September 17, 2008 at 13:02
Wednesday September 17, 2008 at 12:50
Toshimi Matsuda
Matsuda-san is a photographer I ran into by chance last night in a local place I hang out at. I didn’t get a card from him but was interested in his photos (he showed me a copy of his collection, Between the Lights), which focus on black-and-white shots taken at twilight or nighttime in remote locations like the east coast of Scotland.
His site requests no reposting of photos so I’ll stick with a link, but worth clicking through for a look.
JapanSoc
Wednesday September 17, 2008 at 12:20
Heartbreak riders
The young leader of a motorcycle gang uses the phrase 失恋暴走 to describe a 20-bike zigzag through Kochi the other night to commemorate a romantic breakup. I’m not sure if he coined it or it’s an accepted phenomenon among motorbike gangs to get 20 of your mates out for a buzz when you break up with your girlfriend. But I love the phrase; it smacks of the yankii obsession with kanji, of course, but also feels a bit old-fashioned, noble even. It also sounds ready-made for the title of a Shiina Ringo b-sides album.
How to translate it, though? 暴走 is a bit of a pain. “Breakup Burnout” is my best idea so far (beats “heartbreak hijinx”, my first thought), though it sounds more like a third-rate combo of Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed than I’d like.
JapanSoc
Monday September 08, 2008 at 14:59
Thank [deity of choice] for flat-rate data
Softbank Mobile’s customer account website does, if not by design, put the frighteners on you at first glance. The account usage page shows just raw data with no discounts factored in; hence, my usage since about August 26 amounts (due in large part to data) to about JPY160,000. Thankfully the all-you-can-eat data plan knocks that back to about JPY6,000; but it’s a hell of a shock the first time you see it.
Also, instructive for an upcoming US trip; mental note to switch off all automated data updates while I’m over there.
JapanSoc
Friday September 05, 2008 at 17:03
Thursday September 04, 2008 at 15:28
Not like you
Outgoing PM Fukuda’s sharp (for him) rebuke to a journalist at his valedictory press conference has the usual corners of the Japanese web ablaze. 2channeru has threads dedicated to it, blog posts abound, and Google has tens of thousands of related hits. All well and good.
What didn’t click with me at first was what the exchange really meant. The reporter used the word ひとごと to describe the tone of the press conference, implying that Fukuda seemed detached or uninvolved. Fukuda responded by saying 自分のことは客観的に見ることができるんです。あなたとは違うんです — literally, “I’m able to look at myself objectively. I’m not like you.” (or perhaps “Unlike you, it seems.”)
Initially ひとごと and 客観的 seemed on such different semantic playing fields that the thrust of Fukuda’s reply escaped me, but I guess what he intends is to say “I’m not being aloof, I’m being objective”.
Incidentally, the Asahi also reports that Fukuda’s “I’m not like you” is already being pegged as a likely candidate for 2008’s 流行語大勝 (buzzword/phrase of the year). I can’t help feeling it’ll have been a poor year indeed for pithy phrases if that one takes the top spot.
JapanSoc
Tuesday September 02, 2008 at 16:53
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