If the Japanese government has its way, then we just might be treated to such an experience in about 6 years’ time! The news is that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the new Prime Minister of Japan, is pushing for Japan’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is holding a meeting in Copenhagen this week, and the Prime Minister’s spokesman announced that Hatoyama will be actively pushing for their bid.
The current contenders for the position of host for the 2016 Summer Olympics are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. The voting will be done on Friday by roundabouts 100 members of the IOC. As of now, not one of the cities has emerged as a clear favorite. As such, they are all doing their best to come up with the most attractive bid in an effort to get the votes from the IOC members.
So what’s Japan’s plan? The tagline is to host the “most compact, ecologically friendly, and athletes-focused†Olympics in history. It seems that the ecologically friendly aspect is the strongest point of Tokyo’s bid, with the Prime Minister promising to drastically cut back on the country’s carbon emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. It is a very bold move, but I think that if any nation can do it, it is Japan.
An interesting piece of news: royalty and presidents (or the wife, in President Obama’s case) are going to Copenhagen to further their countries’ cause, but it seems that Crown Prince Naruhito is not going.
Posted September 28th, 2009 by Maki | Comment (0)
I still like the Segway, I think, but one cannot help but take notice of this new mode of “transportation†which was unveiled recently in Japan. Honda, which we all know for their cars and the robot Asimo, is the entity behind the unicycle.
Dubbed the U3-X, the unicycle can move up to 6 kilometers per hour – that’s about 3.7 miles per hour. How does it work? Riders sit on the unicycle and use their weight to steer it in any direction. This is in fact one of the novel things about the U3-X – it is the “world’s first omni-directional driving wheel system.â€
The BBC tells us more about the U3-X:
The “Hot-Drive” system uses a series of small motor-controlled wheels connected together to form one large wheel.
This main wheel allows a rider to move forward and backward. The smaller wheels allow the device to move from side-to-side. A combination allows the device to move diagonally.
Honda is planning to showcase the U3-X at the Tokyo Motor Show 2009 on October 24, 2009.
If you don’t care much for the technical specs, let it suffice that you can move in any direction you wish to do so – much like moving on your feet. The target market for the unicycle is the elderly, although I can already see people below the age of 50 clamoring for it once it goes into mass production. While I said that I prefer the Segway, I wouldn’t mind having one of these, would you?
Posted September 27th, 2009 by Maki | Comment (1)
Japanese food has gained worldwide acclaim, and you will not be surprised to find restaurants serving Japanese cuisine in whatever country you visit. In the United States, it is no different. Perhaps the influence of Japanese cuisine is even more evident in this nation.
The news is that bento boxes are making huge waves all over the country. While it used to be that one would normally have to go to a Japanese restaurant to get a bento box, people now take great pains to make their own bento boxes and bring them to work to school as pack lunches!
So what are bento boxes exactly? Air and Angels provides a very nice description:
‘O-bento’ is what the Japanese call a packed meal, usually lunch. Bento boxes have internal dividers, and sometimes several stacked layers, so different kinds of food sit in their own little compartments. (This is nice if, like me, you don’t necessarily like to mix flavours!) The whole thing is usually wrapped together with chopsticks in a cloth or special bag, and the goal is to make the whole package as attractive as possible – from considering the colour combinations of the food and presenting and garnishing it as neatly and artfully as you can, to co-ordinating the box, chopsticks and wrapper, and any other items like paper napkins, knife and fork or spoon, drink flask or thermos.
It is easy to see why this is becoming a trend in the US. More than the cuteness factor, it serves a nutritional purpose – you can easily measure portions and control food intake when you have your food packed in a bento box.
Bento boxes do not always have to be cute. You can make them as plain as you want. You can even put non-Japanese food in there. As one obento enthusiast put it, anything that you present in a bento box looks nice. Of course, you have to make sure it’s edible too!
Posted September 13th, 2009 by Maki | Comment (1)
Remember that article I posted on the movie “The Cove?†It is a documentary about a practice in Japanese town, wherein fishermen annually catch dolphins. They then either sell the dolphins to aquariums and other similar establishments or slaughter them for meat. The documentary stars Ric O’Barry, erstwhile trainer of the TV series Flipper, which aired in the 1960s. Activists were quick to join O’Barry’s bandwagon, pushing the movie into the international limelight. As a result, the international community has created an outcry that no one can ignore.
The town of Taiji is an otherwise quiet town. Following the release of The Cove, however, its residents have experienced such intense scrutiny that it seems that they have no choice but to accept their “fame.†The international pressure on their tradition has reached such a point that the Taiji fisheries association has succumbed – even if only temporarily.
An unknown official of the organization has announced (anonymously, of course) that they will NOT be killing any of the dolphins in their first haul of the year. Instead, they will be picking out the best 50 of the lot and sell them to aquariums. The rest they will set free. He says, though, that they are still unsure as to what to do in the long term. On the one hand, the town’s residents “do not want any trouble.†On the other hand, they do not want to let go of tradition because of the pressure.
O’Barry and the rest of the people involved in the film are, naturally, elated at the news –even if it is not set in stone.
Posted September 10th, 2009 by Maki | Comment (1)
