Akage-no-An (Red-haired Anne)
31 July 2003, 21:38
Now, I’m a self-confessed “Anne of Green Gables” devotee. I’ve made the pilgrimage to Green Gables House in Prince Edward Island. I bought the soundtrack to the mini-series. Damit, I even rented “Anne of Green Gables - The Continuing Story” (although that may have had more to do with watching Cameron Daddo and Jonathan Crombie than anything else).
So I do understand the Japanese obsession with everything Anne. Apparently Anne became a symbol of hope for post-war stricken Japanese (the books were released in Japan in 1952) who had become orphaned in the 1940s.
Every year, thousands of Japanese take charter flights to PEI and dozens proclaim, “I do!” (or the Japanese equivalent) in the parlour of Cavendish House where Lucy Maud Montgomery got married almost a hundred years ago.
In 1979, Hayao Miyazaki (of “Spirited Away” fame) created the anime version of Akage no An. In 2001, the Japan-based Maple Leaf Theatre staged Anne of Green Gables in Tokyo. In a country that fiercely promotes it’s own culture (and rightly so) whilst traditionally placing foreign literature and film at an arm’s length, “Anne of Green Gables” is a bit of an anomaly, particularly considering that the books were an overnight sensation in 1952, not 8 years after WWII ended.
What cracks me up, then, is how far the Japanese take the mythology of this red-haired Canadian, even now. In Fukuoka for example, is the “Anne Academy” which teaches Japanese how to speak English with a PEI accent (which, much like the idiosyncratic Newfie dialect, can be difficult to understand, even for native English speakers).
In Okayama is the “School of Green Gables” where young Japanese women are taught to “behave” as Anne would. I guess this means they are instructed how to smash a writing tablet over a boy’s head, get their best friends drunk on “raspberry cordial”, talk back to poker-arsed adults and dye their hair blonde so it turns out green.
Come to think of it, I would really like to see all this in the modern Japanese woman!
Permanent Link | Comments [5]The Love Triangle
30 July 2003, 18:14
A guy, Takashi goes to a karaoke booth with a bunch of friends and meets a lovely lady, Yui. He displays the usual karaoke behaviour, donning his Hanshin Tigers (Japanese baseball team) jersey and parading around the booth singing the “I love Tigers” theme song, replacing “Tigers” with “Yui”. They hold hands. They talk about making “rub-u” after karaoke.
Sigh. True love is born.
Except Yui is wired, Takashi’s real girlfriend, Mayumi and his mother are in a studio next door watching the whole proceedings and Yui is being “controlled” by the host of the show, the girlfriend, mother and a few of Takashi’s male friends.
Things hot up in the karaoke booth, our unwitting philanderer whispers to Yui “I love only you” (roughly an hour after he says “Nice to meet you”) and they arrange to get the f!@#k out of there - literally. Mayumi steps out of the studio and up to the karaoke counter with her back to the elevator as Yui and Loverboy approach to pay. She turns around and….. shock! (Yes, genuine shock! It was kinda neat) - Sprung Muthaf
Then come the pathetic excuses - “It was only talk!”; “I didn’t mean any of it!” before Mayumi slaps him, kicks him a few times for good measure while he’s begging on the floor and leaves him to his mother who rails him as only a mother can; “I did NOT bring up my child to be like this!”
Cut to the aftermath scene in a tatami room - Takashi is begging forgiveness; the mother is disgracing his mock-sorry arse with her cutting epithets; the girlfriend is indifferent. Matt and I are yelling “Ditch the philandering bastard!” but, no surprises, they make him sing the Hanshin Tigers song with Mayumi’s name, and they get back together…
... Until the next time he steps into a karaoke booth…
“The Triangle” - Japan’s very special brand of reality TV - Asahi TV, Tuesday nights from 9pm
More cheese than hunny...
29 July 2003, 17:44
Cynics beware! Tokyo Disneyland is frikkin’ awesome!
It’s about as Japanese as cherry pie and hot dogs, except for the huge queues at rides. Japanese people seem to have the capacity to wait in line far longer than their western counterparts. Apparently waits over an hour are not unusual at the popular rides, although we only had to queue for 30 minutes which was about as long as we were prepared to wait before muttering “f!@#k this” and pissing off.
The “After 6 passport” is a sweet deal - 2,900 yen per person, all rides included, for between 6pm and 10pm. Tokyo Disneyland really comes alive at night, and hell! that’s even cheaper than Karaoke!
If you are not into cheese, Tokyo Disneyland won’t fill your balloon, but it’s more of the fine brie variety than your processed Kraft slices. The rides far exceeded even my lofty expectations and highlights included “Poohs Hunny Hunt” (Matt just liked the sound of it, dodgy bugger), “Splash Mountain”, “The Haunted Castle” (which, although not remotely frightening, was a visual feast of holograms and computer wizardry) and the vertigo inducing “Alice’s tea-cups”. Oh! And I can’t forget the chocolate-laden Mickey waffles and the pyrotechnic Disney Parade “Blazing Rhythms”, weaving its way through Fantasy Land (the parade that is, not my waffle).
It gets really packed though (unlike everything else in Tokyo, of course !@#$), even on a Monday night, and 4 hours doesn’t really allow you to see everything (an excuse to come back another time?). But it was good to return to my childhood for a few hours (natsukashiiiiii!) and convert Matt, a self-confessed cynic of all things amusement park, into a believer…
Webmaster's Party
28 July 2003, 21:15
Last night was the Webmaster’s Party at the Ruby Room in Shibuya. Matt and I weren’t quite sure what to expect, but a room full of computer nerds was up there. I was surprised that, although there were the usual geeky suspects, there were stacks of cool people as well - particularly good to meet Martine, another Aussie from Bris Vegas based out in inaka (Fuji-Yoshida) whose blog I’ve been reading for a few months (hey! gotta keep up with the competition!). Kudos to Damon for organising the event.
Matt is teaching me Fireworks and has been very understanding of my pursuit of web-mistressy, except for that one time I didn’t understand something and threw a tantie (it was a good one!) Guess there’s no chance of me ever being a true geek. Sniff…
Yanaka
28 July 2003, 05:26
A lot of Tokyo has succumbed to “modern” Japan but there are still pockets where you can stroll and see the spiritual side of Japan shaking hands with shitamachi (or downtown) everyday life. One of these places is Yanaka, the area just south of Nippori JR station.
If shrines, temples and cemeteries are your thing, then its a cool walk, but what interested me more were the scenes of Japan “everydayness” - old wooden houses silhouetted against a blue (crap! we saw the sun today!) sky, airing futons over the balcony, run-down izakayas hidden by piles of red Kirin crates - echoes of the night of debauchery just gone.
And you see the strangest things in the most unlikely places - as I wandered back to the station, I was met by a roadside shrine of Baikin-man, otherwise known as Bacteria Man, the arch enemy of Anpan Man (only in Japan could you have an animated hero made out of red bean paste). I know Japan loves its anime, but a religious homage to bacteria? Nippon Gold!
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