VS Old Mac

He is just seven years old. He had never been sick in his life. He was very well untill the day. But...
My Macintosh was broken suddenly.

On the day, I had listened to music by my Mac.
In my house, there is no TV, no CD player and no Video player. So, Mac is the only one electorical equipment for fun in my house.
The Mac had played J-POP music very well as usual. I enjoyed it with reading a book.

A strange thing happened after a few songs play. Suddenly, I couldn't listen to the music.
I stopped reading a book, and checked a moniter.
I thought he stopped playing, but he had been still playing. But, I couldn't listen to the music. I clicked a volume controller. Then, I could listen to the music again.
I didn't understand why such a starange phenomena had happened, but I was satisfied that the trouble was fixed up. So, I started to read the book again.

However, the trouble was not fixed up in fact.
My Mac stopped working suddenly, and shut down by himself!
I couldn't understand what happened, so I tried to boot it up again, but he didn't make it.
I kocked at him a several times, but nothing happened.
I had no idea what I should do then. So, I decided to go to bed. I hoped that everything would go well on the next morning.

The next morning, everything was unchanged unfortunately.
My Mac was completely dead.
I called Mac office a few days later, and asked the staff for the possibility to make him alive again. The answer was miserable. Because my Mac is very old, they can't fix it now.
He is just seven years old, though....

Now, I can't check my e-mail and use Internet. No sound and no movie in my house. My house is very silent. I sometimes push some keys on my Mac, but he doesn't give me any reaction.

VS Octoberfest

What is Octoberfest? Although I didn't know anything about it but the name of a festival, I decided to go to watch it with Lance. I write my impresson of the festival at first. It was very interesting. I enjoyed it very much.

The event has been held in Akarenga-souko (Red Brick Warehouse) in Minatomirai area in Yokohama. It is German festival, and this year's one is 5th. We can enjoy great German beer, foods and music there.
I was very surprised that a lot of people was joining the event. When I and Lance arrived at the event area, all seats were occupied others. The air there had been filled with drunker's high. So, we had to drink beer as soon as we could after buying the ticket for the event.

If you have not drunk German beer yet, and want to try it, I can recommend you to drink Franziskaner (In Japanese, Furanchesukaana). It is a fruity white beer and very popular. Of course I enjoyed it at the night. Easy to drink. Fitted to any kind of food. I drunk it with a sausage and a salty bread.

A personally impressive thing in the event was that I could find out the wine for which I had serached for a long time. Pieroth blue is the name. A several years ago, a woman intimate to me told me that she met a German wine by chance in a local restaurant and the taste was great but she couldn't find it at any other bars and restaurants. Because she didn't memoraise the wine name exactly (She remenbered only that the name started with "Pi" and the bottle color was blue.), I couldn't find the wine then. That's why I was very happy when I met the wine in the event place. The intimacy of us had already gone, though.

The climax of the event was German music and Beer cheering. Lsitening to the powerful music by German band, someone danced, someone sang and everyone drunk beer, shouting "Cheers!". Almost over 500 people felt our unity there. I understood again that the power of beer can make our world peace. German is wise. Japanese also should give the people in the world the beer they made, not the oil they bought.

VS Myanmer

The demonstration in Myanmer seems to be shrinking now. The monks leading the movement are not on the road. The army government is too strong. Nobody can't damage it. This country will not be a democratic one forever. Unfortunately they have a lot of natural resources, and the best climate for farming. They wouldn't collapse naturally.

Even though Japanese journalist was killed by the shot of the army, Japanese government has not made a strong protest to Myanmer yet. Newspaper says Japanese government is afraid of losing the connection with the country with rich natural resources.

China is the most important country for Myanmer. That's why they can affect the army government's behavier to some extent. But, China's comment is this. "Both sides should be calm to solve problems." Ha ha.

Without any pressure from foreign countries, Myanmer government is going to be alive forever. If I am an activist for democracy in Myanmer, I will go out of the country soon. Because I don't think we have a good condition to change the country now. The country doesn't deserve our effort and life.

VS Castello di Brolio

Some days have passed since Japan's prime minister Abe quit his job suddenly. Now he is in a hospital. His previous job seemed to be too heavy for him. I can't understand why he quit his job more earlier. The timing for quiting was bad and late, as many say. If his decision was faster, he could come back to the politician's world soon. However, I think now his lifetime as a politician finished.

Now, people's interest is Post-Abe. LDP have to choose their new leader as soon as possible. Mr.Fukuda seems to be No.1 candidate, for his matured character. It might be only the reaction to young Abe. I doubt his leadership, but he must be the only one choice for LDP .

Last weekend, I went to Ristorante Real, an Italian wine restaurant in Yokohama, with someone, without thinking about Japan's politics at all. The restaurant was the place to which I wanted to go someday. My desire was achived at last.
It is located near the east exit of Yokohama station. Many original restaurants are around there. Some call the area Ura-Yokohama. I like the area.

My target in the Italian restaurant on the day was red wine made in Toscana. I needed an deep energetic impact on my heart by Rosso the day. I heard from my best wine adviser that Toscana's Rosso is great and gorgeous. So, I selected it.
However, the restaurant has many varieties of wine. Even in Toscana wine, there are over 30 or 40 types of wine. That's why I asked for the restaurant owner's advice, and I ordered Castello di Brolio(2001). The taste was strong enough, but it was easy to drink. I enjoyed it with some baked seafoods and a roasted duck. I think the restaurant's food is perfect for wine.

My wine life started with Australian wine last summer. And, now I am walking on the road of Italian wine, even though I am nearly on the start line. I heard that the concept of the new world wine like Australian's and that of European traditional wine like Italian's are diffrent. I can't explain it correctly, but my image to Austraian wine is "Nature", on the other hand, Itarian wine is "Culture". So, if you want to talk about cultural topics with some with drinking wine, Italian wine might be better. Of course, on the day, I talked about cultural topics like Science Fiction, in the restaurant. Next time, I have to talk about Opera or something in order to get back my lost scores.

VS Teaching

Japanese workers have many trainings after they start to work. On the Job Training (OJT) is the basic style for their training. Senior workers become trainers or teachers, and new workers learn a lot from them.
This summer, suddenly, I was asked to be a teacher for new workers by my company. I have to prepare for their training in the next month, so I am very busy now. Even though today is Sunday, I worked whole the day to prepare for it.
Fortunately I had gotten a lot of teaching technique in Kid's English Teaching Class. I think the basic technique to teach children English can be used even in Adult's Working Class. That's why this prepareation for the training is a very interesting work for me. It's a good chance for me to judge my teaching man's potentiality.
I think teaching is a very creative work. When I prepare for the training, I need to create something for it. How to explain what I know is sometimes very difficult. I have to create the explanation for it.
Unfortunately, creativity cannot happen in my office. It can happen only in a relaxing mood. So, recently, I am working even in my home! Of course, with alcohol. I know I can be the most creative, in my house and with drinking something cool. However I have a problem. The more I become creative, the more I become sleepy, for the alcohol. The balance between creativity and alcohol is difficult.
This week, I will join the new wirker's training as a teacher.
I hope the students are nice to understand well what I say and even what I don't say.

VS Oriental Magic

I don't know the reason why, but I have a strong neckache from last weekend. When I get up in the morning, I can't stand up smoothly due to the neckache. And, my neck-movability is very bad now. So, it's a very taugh work even to drive a car.
I thought this situation is very dangerous, and went to a hospital. X-ray check told me that I don't have any bone problem. This problem seems to come from my muscle around my neck. It became too hard for some reasons, so the strong pain occured.
Now I am getting some medcines, so the situation is getting better. I will be okey in a few days.

It just happened I went to an Acupuncture school for business yesterday. This school is planning to make a new school library, so I have helped them.
The school staffs are professional. They realised my neck problem soon, and they asked me to go to their doctor's room, almost without talking about our business matter.
They asked me to take my shirt off, and I was enforced to take an acupanture treat. It was my first time to experience such a treat, so I was very nervous then to be honest.
I told the doctor that it was my first time, so she stuck some needles into my neck very softly.
She asked me, "It's getting better?"
I thought that if I said "NO" I would get more needles. So, I told her "Good!".

I heard from the school staff that they call acupanture Oriental Magic, not Oriental Medicine. It is the reason why, too many wonders are left in it to call it medcine. So, even for them, it's a kind of magic.
After the treat, my neck-movability became better certainly. Human body is interesting.

VS Feast

Atsugi is now in a very feastive mood. Its annual feastival, Ayu Matsuri, started with the pre-night live by Creazy ken Band yesterday. Tonight we will have a big firework show near Sagami river. Last year, I missed it for the travel to Australia, so I can't miss it this year. I will watch the show in my friend's house, eating food and drinking wine. It's nice. Some brave watchers have already been near the river from around noon, to keep a good space to watch the firework, even though it's over 30 degrees today. They are taugh.
All night drinking is the manner hear after the firework show. All bars and pubs will be full tonight. Atsugi is the city for a feast. Endless drinking and "fooding" deserves this city.

VS Voting Day

Today is the voting day in Japan. I've not decided to vote for who even now. But, I've already decided to vote against the ruling parties. I don't have any reason to keep my country unchanged.
Not only I but also many Japanese think so too. From the newspaper's analysis, it seems to be clear that the ruling parties will lose. And, the point at this moment is how many seats in Diet they will lose. If the lost seats are too many, Prime minister Abe can't keep his position. I think he shouldn't keep it. Maybe, the position is too heavy for him. When he started to work as Prime minister, he was seen a strong young leader. But, now, he looks like an immatured man. And, in addition, his thinking smells an old man's one, at least for me. He wouldn't be fresh at all.
It might be better for him to be our country's leader again someday after experiencing many things. Ont the day he will be older physically, but many experiences will make him fresher mentally. I am looking forward to the result of this election.

VS Egyptian Child Book

In Tokyo International Book Fair, I could know many interesting books from foreign countries. Egyptian books were one of them. I couldn't totally understand what is written for my no-understanding of the language, but I could enjoy the covers and the illustlations enough well.

As other foreign pulisher's booths did so, Egyptian booth displayed a lot of child books. Because, like me, most Japanese can't understand their language, so the books with many illustlations are easier for us to understand. In addition, the market of "child" books are growing in Japan, even though the market of books itself are shrinking now. It is nice that Japanese can afford their children's education.

From the view point of the worker in Japanese publishing world, Egyptian child book have to be changed more for Japanese customers. A huge numbers of child books are published everyday in Japan. The competition is hard. The story, the illustlation and the material of the books are very sophisticated. In Japanese public library, it takes the longest time for librarians to sellect child books.
If Egyptian publishers want to make a success in Japan, they had better know this super-hard competitive situation.

In a picture book, the main character is a soldier. He battles, beats his enemy, and helps people. The story looked simple.
Like a police officer and a nurse, it might be natural for Egyptian to read the story of a soldier in a child book. However, my impression was embarrassment when I found the book. I am not sure whether this feeling is only Japanese one or not, but most Japanese, I think, think it is bad to describe a soldier or an army beautiful, in the books for kids. So, in my life, I have never watched Japanese child book to describe a soldier.
I don't know this thinking will be alive in the future in Japan, but at this point, such a book is impossible to sell in Japanese market. If I have a chance, I will give this advice to them.

VS Iranian

Last weekend, I went to Tokyo International Book Fair in Odaiba. It is one of the biggest events for publishing companies and book lovers in Japan. It is a wonder that I've never been to the fair even though I am working for book-sales. So, I had been looking forward to joining it.
A huge numbers of publishers had their own booths to display their publications. Watching many new books itself seemed to be exciting for heavy readers. All booths were very crowded. People could buy the books on cheap prices. They could get special discounts in the fair. They looked happy.

Most booths were Japanese publishers' ones. But, new players in publishing business also joined this event. Google was the representative of them. Their booth was bigger than other old media companies, and they showed us some new ways for publishing. By chance on the day, I read an article in a newspaper that Google entered into an alliance with Keio University to digitize a large numbers of books. We don't know if they are our friend or enemy, but their project can not be ignored by all players in the publishing world.

All booths were interesting, but my purpose was to watch the booths of foreign companies. I could enjoy watching many books from other countries there.
It was surprising for me that Iranian companies' booths were the most there. I had no idea of Iranian books, so everything in thier booths were new for me. Unfortunately most Japanese including me can't read their words.
That's why the main books displayed there were art books or visual books. Pictures can be understood by anyone. The quality of each books were high, so I could enjoy watching them.

I had the chance to talk with the staff in Iranian booth. He is an Iranian student studying in Japanese university. I wanted to know the publishing world in Iran more, so I gave him some questions.

I: How many publishers are there in Iran?
He: Mmm, many. It's countless.
I: Ok. How many bookstores are there in Iran?
He: Mmm, many. It's also countless.

In Japan, there are 5000 publishers and 20000 bookstores.
I wanted to compare Japan with Iran, in order to understand the situation of publishing in Iran. But, I couldn't know anything due to his unclear answer. Maybe, he was not familier with it. So, I gave him another question.

I: The bookstore in Iran is so same as in Japan?
He: Mmm, a little diffrent. Like Akihabara for electorical equipments in Japan, we have a big town for books.

His answer made me surprised.
Certainly I know there are big towns for books in the world, like Frankfurt in German, or Kanda-Jinboucho in Tokyo. But, the book town in Iran was utterly out of my image. Why?
I thought publishing business can flourish only under the freedom of speech. That's why I couldn't imagine that Iranian have a big publishing economy in their country. Their religious thinking looks very strict, so I had thought that they couldn't express their free thinking. My image of Iranian publicing was very poor.

However, from the Iranian student's words, I knew they have a very rich publishing society. I felt the respect for the country soon. Some people see the country very dangerous. But, now I can say they are very intellectual. So, I think we can understand each other by communication, even if their government is making atomic bombs.

Unfortunately Iranian doesn't have the route to sell their books in Japan. Their great history and nature deserve to be shown here. I would get my new mission in my job.

VS Punk Rock

Punk Rock is one of the farest things from my life, but I went to listen to it tonight. A punk rock party was held at Club 24 West, in Yokohama. The place was very small, and it doesn't have the stage for bands. But, we can listen to their play very close to them. So, I could enjoy to feel tonight's bands' energy very much.

My and my friends' purpose to go there was to watch the performance of our friend's band, Herts The Turks. This time was the last one that we can watch, because they will leave Japan soon after the live. So, we couldn't lose the last chance to listen to their play.

Before their play, some Japanese bands played. They were very powerful, and the listeners were also powerful. They ran, jumped, kicked and tackled each others on the floor. I didn't think they were dancing then, but it might be a genre of dancing.
Anyway, their energetic performance made the floor warmed up very much. So, the play of Herts The Turks was very hot from the beginning. Everybody enjoyed it very much. This time was the second time that I listened to their play. Compared with the last time, I thoguht their performance became better. The combination of Turkish female vocal and British male vocal became more beautiful.
I heard that they will go to England after leaving Japan. Their combination is going to become better and better.

After the live, my ears were strange for a while. The too noisy place seemed to damage my listening capability. However, the damage was also comfortable for me. This feeling might be the charms of Punk Rock.

VS Translation

From the beginning of this year, I have tried to read a science book "Warped Passages" in English. But I don't finish reading it, and I almost give up reading it. It's too difficult for me. The theme of the book is the extra-dimension of space which is the newest theory in applied physics. I could understand the theory roughly in the book, but it's hard to read the descriptions for physics in English, for my lack of the knowledge and vocabulary of physics, which is the subject I hated in my high-school days.

However, it was very happy that this book was translated into Japanese at last. Because I heard that it might be impossible to translate the book into Japanese, I became excited when I knew the Japanese version. Of course, I ordered it soon. Now I'm waiting for the book coming.

Japanese is lucky. We have a very strong translation culture. Thet's why we can get new information soon, and understand even difficult knowledge easily. This translation culture can become obstraction of our English study, though. Anyway, once I will read it in Japanese, and next I will try it in English again.

From 5th in this month, the 14th Tokyo International Book Fair is going to be held. For book-sales business, it is one of some big events. The Book Fair gives Japanese and foreign publishing companies good business chances. The deal of the right to translate good books is the main topic. The coming last volume of HARRY POTTER must be the most expensive right.

VS Optimism and Pessimism

Last day's discussion class was interesting. We discussed about the future of newspaper in this internet eara. The theme itself was exciting, but, before the discussion, we talked about Optimism and Pessimism. "Are you optimist? Or pessimist?" was the question. It was the warming-up talk for the class.
Some students said "I am an optimist." Some were pessimists. I was on an optimist side.
Basically I think my future life is rosy. I think I am convinced of my opinion, idea and future vision any time. So, I must be an optimist, basically. But I am not sure whether it's good or bad. My teacher Sudhan's opinion was interesting. He had been an optimist for a long time, but he is now thinking that an pessimist can be better for his/her life. Because a pessimist can become happier than an optimist if something small but good happens. An optimist tends to have a big expectation, so he/she couldn't be satisfied with such a small happiness. I can understand his opinion well.

After the class, I thought I have to modify my thinking a little, even though I told that I am an optimist. Because, for love, I can easily move from an optimist side to a pessimist side. And, actually at this moment, I am moving at random between both sides.
Afetr meeting an ideal woman three months ago, my mental conditon has been unstable. Now I can't concentrate on anything honestly. My performance of working is very low, and my English study has been stopped. Sometimes I have even physical ache around my heart( I am afraid that I can die soon.), so my performance of surfing is also bad! I can say I'm facing an mental and phisical crisis now. Very tiny things between us influence on me. Even though I was an optimist yesterday, I suddenly become a pessimist today. At the moment that I am a pessimist, I tend to drink alcohol very much. On the other hand, when I am an optimist, I can't stop drinking because it's my real happy hour. So, recently the quantity of daily drinking is becoming bigger and bigger. My liver must be damaged very much.
To make my mental and physical condition peaceful, I am thinking that I hurry to get any judgements. I should ask the woman at least in a month if we can have a special relationship or not. But, the only thing I don't know is the timing. Should I ask her it in my optimist mood or pessimist mood? And, the only thing I am sure of is that I will use alcohol power for myself.
(Mmmm, this article would be too private.)

VS Manifests

Now many Japanese politicians are busy to preare for the coming election for the House of Councilors in July. We can find easily the politicians making a speech on the street recently. My friend reported me that he saw an ex-prime minister eating ramen in an local city ramen restaurant. I think he comes to the city to make a speech for the election.

I am often checking the manifests of each political parties on a newpaper or the parties' home page. It is interesting for me to read their future vision of our society. As you can easily understand, thier vision is made beautiful. We wouldn't trust it at all, though. But, anyway, thier vision must influence on our society more or less. So, we should know them fully.

When recently reading the biggest two parties in Japan, LDP and DP, I thought, to be honest, our future vision is very poor. Certainly they are talking about many issues Japanese are interested in. For example, the pension problem is a big issue. Now Japanese pension system have to be designed totally again, due to the bad management by the government. Some people have the risk to lose their pension in the future.
Event though I know the pension problem is important for our life, I am not interested in it so much.

The problem of the people kidnapped by North Korea seems to be a big issue in Japan. To solve this issue is treated as the important issue for our future especially in LDP's manifesto. But, I can't have, unfortunately, the same sympathy with the issue.

What am I unsatisfied with?
For me, their manifestos look very domestic. They are looking only at the issues the voter are interseted in. It is okey to get their vote, but I think Japanese future vision at this moment should be more international.
As I wrote it in this blog before, Japan should have their own immigrant policy. Even though Japanse government is thinking that Free Trade Agreement is an important economic policy, they don't think the physical moving of foreigners is the key of the success of the policy.
It is very surprising for me that there is not the word "foreinger" in their manifests. The existence of foreign people seems to be out of our future.

Now the number of foreirners coming to Japan for sightseeing is growing. Last year the number was the biggest. The percentage of international marriage in Japan is also growing. Now 5% of all marriages in Japan is the combination of Japanese and foreigner. So, I can't understand why Japanese big political parties don't have general policy for foreigners.
At the end of July, can I vote for anyone? I am not sure now.

VS Rain

At last rainny season has started in Japan. The ministry of weather mis-forcast the beginning as usual, though. They thought it would come earlier.

For a book-sales man( maybe for everyone), this season is very annoying. Rain is a big enemy for books. So, I don't want to go out from my office. I tend to stay in my office now. It's more confortable. My business performance might be bad now.
But also for my cliants, this season seems to be bad. They are losing any motivation to work. Today, I met a professer for business. He is old. He doesn't want to do anything this tiring season. When I visited him, he gave me a cup of coffee soon without talking about business. At the moment, only he wanted to do was just to be relaxed with someone. It was the same thing I wanted to do then. we talked about something which is totally not important for a long time, and I said good-bye to him, and I went home. I can say business is impossible now.
How about taking a holiday in a rainny day, like farmers. They wouldn't work in a rainny day and a windy day. I think they are very rational.
I want to propose this new working rule for our society.

VS Yokohama Stadium

The game arrangement of professional baseball changed a little in Japan last year. Japan has two diffrent leagues, and the games were basically produced in a same league. The team A belonging to the league X didn't fight against the team B belonging to the league Y. But, from last year, A vs B has been possible in the early summer season. We can watch more varieties of games now.

So, I went to Yokohama Stadium yesterday, to watch the game, Softbank howks vs Yokohama baysters. To be honest, I am not the fan of both teams, but I could enjoy the game very much. I sat on the seat of Softbank side. Unfortunately the day was not for Softbank. The picher of Yokohama was good the day, so Softbank couldn't get scores at all.
Even though our side couldn't have the chance to win the game, the fans had been excited through the game.
Japanese baseball fans are funny. Some of them don't watch the game. They are very busy for singing songs for each players, and dancing on their seats. Compared with Major league, the fan's watching style is very diffrent. I had thought Major league style was good for a long time, but yesterday I thought Japanese style is also okey. For loseing team's fans, the existence of another excitement is very good.

The location of Yokohama stadium is good. There is China town near it. The old-modern bars around Kannai station closest to the stadium are nice. In additon, the open-air stadium is very comfortable. Now, most stadiums in Japan are Dome-type. They are actually convenient even in a rainy day, but we can't watch the sky and feel breeze. I could find again the goodness of the old style stadium yesterday.

VS Human Death

Although I had many happy things recently in my daily life, I write down an unhappy thing here. Because it was the most impressive thing for me last week.

A man I know a little committed suicide in his company midnight. Before his death, he emailed his colleagues to apologize to them, because his sudden death would make them shocked.
One of his colleagues reported soon the email to his boss. The boss went to the company soon midnight with the man's family, to search for him.
The man was found by the boss in a warehouse at 3:30 am. He hanged himself in the cold place.
Soon after that, the police came to the place, and checked the hanged body for a while. To check it carefully, anyone couldn't move it. So, the body had to be hanged for a while even after it was found out.
While the police was checking it, the dead man's family stayed in a room far from the warehouse. Because it must be very shocking for the family to watch the man hanged. But, the boss who found the body was beside the police to check it together.

I heard that the dead man had a mental illness. It might be the reason why he commited suicide, but nobody know the real reason of his death. Some said that his bad working position killed him, and his suicide in his working place meaned his protest.(Actually his working position was bad. He had nothing to do in his company.) Some said the only one place left for him was his company, so he chose it as his death place.(He seemed to have no friend.) The rumors or interpretions changed, depending on the talkers.

I had the chance to talk with the boss for my business a few days after the incident. I thought he had heavy shock in his mind, before meeting him. But, he told me that he was not shocked even though the incident was a very sad thing.
He said to me, "A person will die someday. So, we have to think about human's death anytime. It must be sad for a person to commit suicide, but it is his/her choice. Before the suicide, he/she must think about it seriously. So, the only thing we can do is to respect and accept his/her decision. Don't you think so?"

When facing a human death, we tend to ask why? But the boss didn't care for it. He thinks the asking is meaningless. For me, his thinking was very impressive.
Afetr talking about his death for a while, we started to talk about our business soon.
Some might think the boss's thinking is cold. But I didn't. He told me that, when he found the body, he wouldn't scared with it. Watching the dead man's face, he thought the man looked relieved from something.
His impression might be too beautiful, without thinking about the dead man's mental crisis. But it's not my point to agree and disagree with him. The most impressive thing for me was that he always prepares for human death including his own death. Because I think I wouldn't die, his viewpoint of death and live was unique for me.

VS Science Fiction

At the end of this August, the world-wide biggest Science Fiction convention, Worldcon, is going to be held in Yokohama.
This convention has a long history in SF fan's community. The first one was held in New York in 1939. This year's one is 65th.
In the history, all conventions had been held in USA or Europe. This summer's one in Yokohama is the first time in Japan, and in Asia. Some Japanese SF lovers had invited the convention to Japan for a long time, and the dream will become true. That's why, it will be a very memorial one. Japanese SF fans must be excited in this summer.

My company is planning to have a booth in the convention, cooporating with some publishers. Maybe, we will try to introduce many Japanese SF works (for example, novels, mangas, movies and so on.) to foreigners coming to join the convention. I am looking forward to it.
Japanese SF is not famous in the world because of the language barrier, but I think the quality is not low. So, I think it is a meaningful job to join the convention, and to display great works of Japanese SF for the people who don't know them.

From my junior high school days to my high school days, I loved to read SF novels very much.
SF is a wide category. Some think Fantasy like Harry Potter series is SF. Some think Space Opera like Star Wars is SF. For me, Hard SF was real SF. It was like a science book. The detail of the description in such a book is very realistic, but not real in fact. Star Treck series on TV might be a good example to explain my preference. The logic or discription of space travel in the work was of course a lie, but looked realistic. Great SF has a great lie, and we know it must be a lie, but we can believe it might be true. Or, we are willing to be cheated. What the truth is isn't a problem. The problem is what we can think is the truth. I learned the important philosophy of our life from SF.

Many novelists, movie producers and artists will join the convention. So, it is cultural and academic to some extent. But, I am guessing the convention will be like Halloween party. SF fans must like to wear very maniac costumes. I think thier mentality is similar to manga or animation freaks. So, many people will come to the convention in strange wears. I have to find a cool costume for the party.
The costume of Super Justice in "Dai Nipponjin" might be a good idea. (What's Super Justice? To know it, please watch the starange movie. It's unfortune it has no English subtitle, though...)

VS Dai Nipponjin

Caution! The writing below is related to a new movie now on screen. If you will go to watch it, please read this blog after that. I don't want to give you any bias for the movie.

* * * * * * *

I went to watch the new movie, Dai Nipponjin (Big Japanese), directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japanese famous comedian. This work is his first movie. I was looking forward to it.
This movie didn't give us the advertisement. So, we couldn't get any information about it until it comes to the screen. Thus, our expectation became big.

It's difficult to say the genre of this work, but it is a kind of Hero movie. The image of Hero in this movie is very diffrent from our typical image, though.
This movie is filled with the Hitoshi Matsumoto's worship or respect for Hero character. It might be close to Taratino's maniac perspective. But, the expression style is utterly diffrent. Hitoshi Matsumoto's backborn is not movie but TV comedy. He prefers very cheap expressin very much.
So, watching this movie in a theater, everybody must think they are in front of television in their house.

The best part of this movie is conversation. The nuance of the conversation is great. To understand it, we have to master Japanese language. Fortunately I've already mastered it, so I could enjoy the conversation in this movie very mush. Some parts are very abstract and summarized too much. Even Japanese can't explain the exact meaning, but can laugh at it. Language is very interesting.

Like all jokes in the world, we have to have cultural resources to understand many laughing points in this movie. A lot of old Japanese comedy jokes are inserted into this movie. Many jokes look to have a special meanings in this movie, but they don't have it at all. But, we naturally think they mean something special. The tactics of Hitoshi Matsumoto is very magical.

But, to be honest, I think this movie is incomplete. Its basic idea is very good and interesting. But, the story is not organized well enough. I think this movie can be shorter. If it is more compact, it could be a greater work. When I finished watching it, the reaction of other audiences were disapointment. The lady next to me said "I'm sleepy."
I was not sleepy, but I could understand her feeling.

However, this movie is certainly very challanging. It has a great impact on the method of expression in movies. I think the blood of Japanese comedy was mixed with the world movie, in this work. So, I am looking forward to watching a second work by Hitoshi Matsumoto soon.

VS Under Construction

Typhoon season is coming in Japan. Two typhoons had already been born this month around Japan. They were weak, and their life time were short, but they had great power certainly. So, they could make good waves on the sea. I think you can understand why all surfers are looking forward to the typhoon season.

Now the water tenparature on the sea is very comfortable. On Enoshima beach, there are many people coming to swim or to get suntan. Of course, a lot of surfers are there too.
We can find many surf-school students there now. The sea is filled with a lot of surfing biginners now. Needless to say, their surfing is terrible. Even keeping their balance on the surf board might be very difficult for them. I was so too. Surf instructer is pushing the tail of the surf-board of the students, because they can't paddle well enough. Then they try to stand up on the board, but they drop into the water soon. And, they try again. The loop of push-stand-drop looks endless. However, they look happy. So, I think they will not give up surfing, like me.

On Enoshima beach, now, the rest houses on the beach (uminoie) are under construction. From July 1st, the beach will be open for the people coming to swim.
Of course, even now, the beach is open for them. But, the beach is used mainly for surfers. It's uncomfortable and dangerous for them. So, from July 1st to August 31th, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the beach is monopolized by normal swimmers. Surfer's activity is limited.
The rest houses are for the monopolizing swimmers. They searve food, drink and the rest space. Some houses are open for 24 hours. They are used like dance halls! Enoshima beach is unsleeping in summer.