アニ・ノート

At a press-conference for Formula 1 Grand Prix of Japan, while speaking in English, Takuma Sato produced an illustration to the name-order debate (emphasis mine):

Q: A quick one for Takuma to follow up that previous question: how long did it take you to get up to Mt Fuji?

Takuma Sato: I think that, depending on where you start it, you can almost climb half by car. If you start the climb from the bottom, it takes six hours or something. I think that Ukyo Katayama, my favourite Japanese driver, he’s almost jogging up to the top of the mountain before having breakfast — he goes up and down in three hours. I’m not quite as quick as Ukyo-san, but I did normal climbing, and I think I was average. I was quite small too — I was just a little boy.

As you can see, if honorifics are used, it’s impossible to stick to the normalized order, but otherwise it’s the desired way to speak.

JAXA reports that their lunar probe Kaguya carries an HDTV camera, provided by NHK. Mind boggles at the uniquely useless and spectacular public-private partnership.

I’m just back from a Bunraku, or a traditional puppet theater, performance in UC Berkeley. Promoter, Peter Grilli, mentioned in the pre-performance lecture that Bunraku started in 1650s as an art for the masses, as opposed to then pre-existing theater for highly educated, and turned into art for the elite now. The obvious extension is to imagine highly educated elitist otaku of 2350 who gather at select performances to watch a remake of Evangelion.

The performance itself was moving. Of course, typically for the Japanese, as Ana-sempai observed, the basic plot is that people fall in love and then they die (exactly like RahXephon and 08th MS Team). If the viewer is willing to play along, it is easy to abstract the puppeteers and get swept into the show, just like one abstracts plane space or a mobile suit.

Unfortunately, picture-taking was prohibited.

Was reading a funny article by Hinano and saw this:

I mean I know I get annoyed when people write articles that Russia is a refrigerator 365 days a year so everyone wears those wooly hats and dances the russian dance to keep warm.

I don’t get annoyed by this, but my reaction would be exactly like Sugiyama’s (who probably was annoyed). The retarded things embedded westerners write about Russia are fairly amazing to natives. It looks like being a bona fide scholar and teaching Russian culture only serves to add irony to the misconceptions. I would not be at all surprised if Japanese felt the same amusement.

On, and by the way, why is this “racism”? Where is the discrimination? Richardson shows exactly zero evidence of any racism. He wasn’t docked salary /stipend or reassigned somewhere to shut him up. Frankly, I’m sick of people who stick “racism” into every hole they can find.

UPDATE: J.P. Meyer also has something to say about it. I’m amazed the most at the “J-List e-mails”. Could it be that the foremost source of J-porn on the Net started the same way as Craigslist?

The article at IGN says:

This 150-seat movie theater will be the main attraction within a multi-boutique commercial building called The J-Pop Center (for Japanese Pop culture) that will also house a bookstore, cafe and several hip fashion boutiques originated in Tokyo. The complex will be a popular destination for the local Bay Area community as well as tourists to experience the kawaii or “cute and cool” J-Pop culture, which has become increasingly popular across North America in the wake of the momentum behind anime and manga.

So far so good, but:

“VIZ Pictures is committed to delivering a bright and positive message about Japanese pop culture and bringing some of the best examples to a mainstream audience,” says Seiji Horibuchi, President and CEO of VIZ Pictures. “The launch of the J-Pop Center will be the focal point of our mission and offer tourists an exotic, fun and fresh look at what is hip in Japan. The theater will introduce some of the most entertaining Japanese movies, many of which are based on popular novels, manga, and anime, as well as help to establish J-Pop as an exciting new movie category with domestic audiences.”

Looks like lovers of anime are going to be shafted, at least initially. I suppose we always can outvote paleo-orientophiles with our money if we get serious about it, so stay tuned.

The article is not talking about it, but this theater is a continuation of efforts to save the decaying commercial heart of the SF Japantown, and follows upon the purchase of the mall by Vivre Hospitality.

I’m reserving a hotel for my imminent trip to TAF through a quaintest website ever. To begin with, it has messages such as this:

Thank you very much for your inquiry. We estimate as below. Please check and reserve after mature consideration.

No SSL, but then it does not take a credit card either. Nothing prevents a prankster from reserving all rooms in all hotels in the association… Like I said, quaint.

Orbitz suggested me the same Shinagawa Prince where J. Greely stayed for a low price of $164. Looking through the Internet, Ueno should be a superior location.

A timely reminder that Japanese produce cartoons other than anime is Usavich. For some reason they remind me about Mikanseijins (ミカン星人).

UPDATE: I’ve beaten Iwa ni Hana to the press (by less than a day), but they have screenshots.

Thought that Danny Choo might have gone to TAF in the past and so I visited his website, unreadable as always. While scrolling in futile attempts to find a search box, I came across a post with a leader picture which looked familiar. But of course…

As it turns out, the Glico Man is famous Osaka landmark.

I am bending the full power of this fully armed and operational battle station… er… I mean, the full power of the Internet to scout my way across Tokyo. Google Maps, naturally, feature prominently; I was able to find my hotel’s building by matching photos on its website with the satellite images (CIA move over). Also, I watch Youtube videos of various locations I have to cross, mostly trains and train stations.

Among those was a video of Yurikamome Line which has nothing but the soundtrack of announcements, made, as we know, by bona fide seiyū. The wikipedia article contains a convenient list.

If I understand correctly, most of the announcements have to do with exits leading to restrooms. Not only that, but restrooms come in three types: “joshtoire” / 女トイレ for ladys, “danshtoire” / 男トイレ for men, and “daredemotoire” / 誰でもトイレ, which I suppose are unisex. It could be funny to see foreigners select wrong entrance, but since Odaiba is such a touristy area, I expect lots of English signage… unfortunately.

I see observations like this quite often:

Japan is a very cash-based society, and there are no such things as using personal checks to pay for goods.

Everyone says that. Nonetheless, I keep seeing things like these:

The example above is from Rocket Girls, but I saw them in Bamboo Blade, Chobits, etc. Apparently, they have no checks, but they have registers.