Tokyo Dream Party Cosplay Convention

Posted on May 20, 2009 by tokyofox

Back in Golden Week myself and Gideon went to Odaiba to see the Dream Party which was a very nerdy event jam-packed with men queueing up round the block just to buy some geeky merchandise from a stall. This part was fairly dull and meant nothing to us apart from getting a few photos of the girls on hand to promote an array of their companies anime, comics, figurines and characters.

 

There was also some thing taking place on stage but listening to the ever-so girlie squeaky voices for more than a few minutes is more than most westerners can tolerate. Quite why so many Japanese girls speak in such voices is beyond me but then again I’m not Japanese am I so I can probably never understand the appeal.

Thankfully the day was saved by the cosplay event which on the whole took place outside until the rain changed from the tolerable drizzle to something a bit more heavy.

 

Japanese girls just love to get dressed up as opposed to Western women who usually need a bit more of an excuse (in my not-so-knowledgable opinion!) to get dolled up. This is of course very pleasing on the eye for most men and you have to admire their efforts in more ways than one but on the other hand they do sometimes dress completely over the top such as wearing heels to go to the beach.

 

That is taken to the extreme by these cosplay (the Japanese word for costume roleplay which is very Japanese concept) events where girls (and a handful of men too) dress up in costumes based on manga characters. This event was going on outside the Tokyo Big Sight and to be honest its difficult to know what to make of such a phenomenon. I have no doubt that those in the Western world think that men (up to the age of about 60) taking photos of naive young girls is just not right and I agree with that thinking myself to an extent especially when they are asking the girls to get into some sexually suggestive positions.

However, this is Japan where many many things are done differently and their thinking for all I know may just be that they (both cosplayer and photographer) think its cute and will maybe catapult the cosplayer to becoming a model. Anyway, I don’t want to get too heavy on what is a fun, colourful event with costumes galore (of which I knew absolutely none!) which one has to admire for the effort put into them.

            
Posted in Hentai, Japan Life, Quirky Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Terminator Exhibition In Tokyo

Posted on May 7, 2009 by tokyofox

As a fan of the whole Terminator franchise I just had to go to Odaiba and see the “Terminator Exhibition: Battle or Coexistence? Robots and Our Future” which is not exactly the most snappy of titles is it?! Most museums may be free back in the UK but not here in Tokyo where myself and Ethan had to cough up 1200 yen each to enter the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

Japan is of course famed for its development of pet and cleaning robots and this exhibition was based on the possibility of robots and humans co-existing (whether killing or protecting!) as portrayed by the Terminator series. Having read this blurb I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of Terminator-related things and I was half right but there was actually more than I imagined. Of course the whole thing was basically just a big promotion for next month’s new film and there was a mini-cinema zone playing the trailers.

One other zone featured the costumes and robots from the next film including the more black degraded robots (rather than shiny and silver) and the Mototerminator which as the name suggests is a cross between a motorbike and a terminator. The main zone featured exhibits, costumes, artwork and photos from all the movies as well as a model of Cameron (played by the gorgeous Summer Glau) who plays the terminator protecting John Connor in ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ TV series.

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I was told off three times for use of flash photography but given that they don’t eject you for such a thing I just had to make sure that it was a different staff member who spoke to me each time and as always in this country there were loads of workers present.

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Luckily we could sell our tickets outside to a mate and his friend at half price which made the exhibition more satisfying. It also did its job of whetting our appetite for the forthcoming ‘Terminator Salvation‘ (known as ‘Terminator 4‘ in Japan) film which is released in Japan on June 13th.

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You can read my review of ‘Terminator Salvation‘ here 

Click here to see Terminator Filming Locations in California

Posted in Films, Japan Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Golden Week 2009

Posted on May 2, 2009 by tokyofox

Golden Week 2006 – Okinawa

Golden Week 2007 – Philippines

Golden Week 2008 – Thailand

Golden Week 2009 – Tokyo!

Not such an exotic destination for this years holiday due to finances and other commitments. The first of my eight days off began on Wednesday when I met ex-Nova workmate Peter in Kagurazaka which is supposedly famous for its French restaurants (as well as Italian, Spanish and of course Japanese) amid its sloping main street.

The area used to be renowned for its geisha houses but no real sign of such thing today as we walked around the backstreets. I was first told about this place a couple of years back as being a nice elegant place in Tokyo away from the main tourist traps, and having kept a magazine article on the place I have to say that the place was quite disappointing for me not that I had any real high expectations. Luckily, it was a beautiful day and we ventured on to the very-crowded Yoyogi Park in Harajuku for a couple of beer cans followed by a load more beer later in an izakaya.

Posted in Japan Life | 1 Comment

Rain Fall

Posted on April 28, 2009 by tokyofox

To be frank I have very little interest in Japanese films. I’ve seen a few notable ones and they’re OK but most just don’t quite cut the mustard with me. However, there is one exception and that is ‘Rain Fall‘ which is based on Barry Eisler’s series of books which I have very much enjoyed reading.

They revolve around one principle character; John Rain, a Japanese-American cynical, conscientious assassin with a liking for whisky and jazz music. The first two books (there are six in total) are set in Tokyo which was obviously appealing to me and though not as likeable or exciting as the Bourne series they were thrillers which kept me hooked and wanting more including a film adaptation.

That has now happened and features Gary Oldman but sadly for me the film is predominantly in Japanese and so there is no need to provide English subtitles. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if it gets released overseas at a later date. I now know how those Japanese people with a strong interest in Hollywood films and American TV shows feel when they can’t watch them until they finally get subtitled!

 
Posted in Books, Films | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

We Are The Champions!!

Posted on April 22, 2009 by tokyofox

I raced home from work last Monday night (April 13th) to catch the end of Leicester versus Leeds United on Sky which was streamed live on live footy doctor. It culminated with a fantastic finale which, coupled with Peterborough’s defeat later that night, effectively ensured promotion for the Foxes.

The 20 minutes action I saw was surprisingly of very good quality but it wasn’t until last weekend that the League One title and promotion was ensured after a 2-0 win at Southend. I took the cowards option and avoided the first half by going running and it paid its dividends as we scored both goals within 15 minutes of me logging on to the internet on my return.

To celebrate(?) I have been doing a gap-fill listening exercise in some of my classes of the Queen song “We are the champions‘ (everything these days can relate to something I do in class it seems!) which is based around the students filling in the gaps with the relevant preposition and particle words such as after, on, to, through, of and so on.

I’m certainly no fan of Queen but the aforementioned song does have a little place in my heart as it blared out of the sound system in May 1996 after our last minute extra time winner in the Play Off Final. The irony of the situation was that we weren’t champions and in fact finished 6th in that season but we sure felt like champions on that day having won at the home of football in such dramatic fashion.

Posted in English Teaching, Leicester City, Music, Sport | Tagged , | 2 Comments

TF Film Review: Slumdog Millionnaire (2008)

Posted on April 15, 2009 by tokyofox

I’d never even heard of ‘Slumdog Millionnaire‘ before it won a load of Academy Awards a few months ago. It’s not even came out in Japan yet but I did manage to watch it a couple of weeks ago on the internet and was glad to see that it did live up to its hype. I really enjoyed it and it was interesting to see the slums of India; a country which I visited back in June 2007.

‘Who wants to be a millionnaire?‘ is shown in the same format in many countries around the world including Japan and I often use the theme tune in lessons as well as saying “final answer?” which is said in English on the Japanese version and is well known and gets a cheap laugh every time. Of course most people don’t realise that the programme originates from the UK.

Watching the films scenes on the quiz show set reminded me of my own experiences on the Australian version of Millionnaire back in 2001. No, I wasn’t a contestant but I was an audience member and along with my friends Richard and Jo we were directly behind the presenter and appeared on screen each time his face was shown which was most amusing to me at the time.

It was a celebrity episode (not that I knew the majority of the Aussie celebrities – basically there was no-one on there from Neighbours or Home & Away!) and so they filmed two episodes in one day which was so tiring by the end of it. Its difficult to clap with enthusiasm after a certain amount of time plus we had to move to the back for the latter episode to make it look like it was live with a different audience as eagle-eyed viewers do notice these things.

I even fluked all the ‘ask the audience’ questions right but then again I even managed to go on a bit of a run the first time I saw the Japanese one which was made even more difficult by the fact that I couldn’t understand nor read the questions and multi-choice answers!

Tokyo Fox Rating 9/10

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The Police Are Off-Beat!

Posted on April 7, 2009 by tokyofox

Walking home last last week having missed the last train I was stopped by a policeman. Drunk and disorderly I wasn’t. Instead I was stopped for the terrible crime of crossing a deserted minor road (no it wasn’t Letsby Avenue!) when the green man wasn’t flashing.

Before he even said anything I knew he was gonna tell me off for taking the five steps it took to cross a road that one would otherwise have to wait three minutes to cross. He started muttering something about “aka shingo” (red light) which I refused to react to in Japanese as that can sometimes make things worse and they are more likely to just give up if they can’t communicate with you.

Instead, I just said “no cars” in English and pointed to the road but he just continued to come out with the same words in Japanese. Not wanting to waste any more time I decided to swallow my pride, said “gomen” (Sorry) and just walked off. He never stopped me but it is just one example of how most police have nothing better to do in Japan.

Now I don’t know if its illegal to j-walk in this country (maybe it is) as the Japanese tend to stick to all rules. Nothing wrong with that but the circumstances in which I was stopped seemed a bit extreme given the time and place. Its not as if I was crossing a busy road whilst dodging cars!

The police in this relatively safe country only really seem to give directions and stop cyclists to make sure their bike has been registered under the users name (a law in Japan) which is no doubt a better situation than having them chasing and shooting criminals in the streets! On the other hand, ask them to catch the person who killed a foreign teacher working in Japan and they seem so reluctant to do it!

Posted in Japan Life | 1 Comment

I’ve Got A New Phone!

Posted on March 31, 2009 by tokyofox

Finally moved into the modern age a couple of weeks ago by swapping my phone for something a bit more modern. When I bought my old one four years ago it was the very latest phone on the market but in an ever-changing market it wasn’t long before it became dated.

In the present day that phone was considered ancient and the network carrier changed name from Vodafone to Softbank ages ago so it was high time I traded it in. The old one had a TV function on it which I rarely used (as mentioned in a previous post, Japanese TV is not so interesting to non-Japanese people) so I didn’t bother getting such a feature on the new lighter model.

The Japanese are aboslutely obsessed with their mobiles and the trains, for example, are full of people playing with their phones. While I do a bit of that myself I only really ever use the e-mailing function (the equivalent of text messaging in the western world) while occasionally having a dabble with the camera and inevitably a few calls have to be made.

As a result I changed to a cheaper plan which will hopefully save me a bit of money in the credit crunch era. I thought it would be fairly simple to change my phone for they actually sent me a letter saying I could change it for free as the old model was so out-of-date.

As always though in Japan, it took an age to do this while we went through the lengthy process of confirming all details to an almost-tedious extent. The guy was of course nice enough and as much as I love the service in this country I do sometimes wonder why it takes them so long to ‘make the sale’ as it gets tiring listening to them go through every possible detail and then repeat the process again to confirm. Maybe I am being a bit harsh but I don’t know why some of these transactions take around an hour.

 
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Kung Fu Panda Special Lesson

Posted on March 21, 2009 by tokyofox

Kung Fu Panda was the surprise hit of last year for me as I originally thought it was some horrible cutesy cr*p aimed at the Japanese market. I saw it on the plane last summer when I went to Malaysia and again when I went to Laos via Bangkok as I was so tired that I fell asleep with 20 minutes left the first time I watched it.

While at home at Christmas I bought a cheap Kung Fu Panda annual in the sales which inspired me to use some of the material inside it as part of my special Kung Fu Panda lesson recently. Having photocopied many pictures of Po (the star of the film), and a maze, word-search and ‘cut out’ mask I went about constructing a special fun-packed animal lesson loosely based around some of the units in the kids books.

      

I never do craft work in kids lessons as I have always been of the opinion that in regular lessons it is bit of a cop-out when they are there to learn, practice and produce English via a wide variety of activities and games. However, I guess there’s a time and place for craft work and as a couple of my groups were ahead of pacing I decided to allow them to make a panda poster one week (using the target language of the recent units) and then a mask the following one which was worn while playing the ‘fishing for animals’ magnet game (see pictures to get the idea!)

 

On top of that I also incorporated some of my personal items into the lesson such as any random animal photos I have (i.e. me holding a crocodile, me and Gromit the dog, swimming with fish, riding an elephant, Jaws, an Okinawan buffalo, my ‘Pringles’ duck impression and so on), my frog ‘croaking’ guiro-type thing, my Aussie magnets, coasters and cork hat.

Special ‘Fu Juice’ was on the menu in one of the lessons which was basically just a bottle of green tea with a new label on it. The kids were fooled up until they tasted it! I also shared out some cheap animal biscuits which had the written English word on them which was a chance to re-enforce their phonics and not just me trying to buy popularity!! Overall, the students seemed to enjoy these special themed lessons and I will now keep an eye out to see how I can shoehorn other such film related things into my lessons.

Posted in English Teaching, Films | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Terrible Terebi

Posted on March 13, 2009 by tokyofox

Terebi is the butchered up way in which the Japanese say television and having been subjected to such viewing over the years I have to say that TV programmes in this country are among the world’s most dumbed down television.

It seems that a large percentage of Japanese TV features a studio audience on a garish-coloured set going crazy about some ‘tarento‘ (talent or celebrity) eating what looks like fairly average food (surprising given the fine nature of Japanese cuisine) and inevitably squealing out the word “oishii” (delicious). Is there really no other way to describe it? It would appear not and on top of that it doesn’t even tell you much, if anything about the taste of the food.

If that spectacle isn’t enough to test ones patience, then bright, flashing kanji captions appear willy-nilly throughout often accompanied by unnecessary sound effects. Furthermore, so many shows constantly feature a little box in the corner where the reactions of Japanese celebrities’ faces can be seen.

Sure, there’s a time and place for this kind of thing but its almost constant throughout the Japanese TV network. I think I remember reading somewhere recently that Japanese need to feel the empathy the audience is feeling to enjoy the television event whereas westerners can make up their own reactions to such things. Not sure if thats correct but there’s probably an element of truth in it.

With all this dire tripe served up on Japanese TV I am so glad that I have cable TV which is far from perfect but its an improvement. I guess though, that as time progresses, that TV will be viewed less and less with the internet taking over. I already watch more on internet sites like YouTube and project free-tv and with football being streamed live on sites like iraqgoals there will be very little, if no room in my life for Japanese terebi. I won’t miss it!

Posted in Japan Life, Quirky Japan, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments