TOKYO NOTICE BOARD

Plain Talk

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD APRIL 25. 2025

Tamaire is a beloved entertainment in Undo-kai by Hiroko

Many elementary and junior high schools in Tokyo hold their “undo-kai,” or the annual sports festival, in May. Today, May 5th, I was walking through Meiji Jingu Shrine and saw preschoolers’ sports meet on the lawn area. Unlike in Yoyogi Park adjacent to it, where people picnic, jog, play badminton, play musical instruments, dance and sing as they wish, these activities aren’t allowed in Meiji Jingu, because you’re supposed to be quiet in shrines. Today should be exceptional, I understood, because May 5th is a Children's Day.

A woman with a microphone led the event cheerfully, and children, divided into a red and a white team, were tossing small fabric balls of matching colors at a basket each. Called “tamaire,” or bean-bag toss, it’s one of the beloved games of undo-kai in Japan.

Typically, two teams compete, each playing in their own area at the same time. First they strew fist-size, bean-stuffed bags on the ground. A person stands at the center of each territory with a long pole held vertically, on one end of which an empty woven basket hangs in the air. A whistle is blown to indicate the beginning of the game, and players rush to collect the bean bags and toss them into the basket. Music is usually played during the game. After a minute or two, the whistle will be blown, the music turned off, and the game is over. Each basket will be lowered, and each pole holder toss bean bags in the basket one after another high up in the air, counting them out loud along with all players to see how many there are. The team that has more in the basket wins. This game is usually repeated two or three times to determine who finally won.

Iiiichi, niiiii, saaan, shiiiii.... the red and white teams counted the bags together, using this characteristically elongated vowels. The white team won this round, they cheered happily, and both teams started to prepare for the next round. I left there, so I don't know which won at the end. Anyway, kids and parents watching them play were both having fun.

I have seen a variation of this game elsewhere last year. Elementary school pupils played the game without music as adults and children watching cheered on. Then music came on suddenly, and the players stopped picking and tossing the bags, turned around to face the onlookers, and started dancing rhythmically. As the music suddenly stopped, they quickly turned back and resumed picking the bags and throwing them at the basket. Music came back on, kids dance, music off, kids back to the game... it was repeated a couple of times. Small kids dancing was cute. Undo-kai isn't just a sports event. It's an entertainment for visitors.

There are also other standard games such as tug-of-war and centipede race. If you happen on an undo-kai in Japan, you'll be surprised how it's different from that in your countries.

東京都内の多くの小中学校では、毎年5月に「運動会」（運動会）が開催されます。今日5月5日、明治神宮を歩いていると、芝生広場で未就学児の運動会が行われていました。隣接する代々木公園では、人々がピクニック、ジョギング、バドミントン、楽器の演奏、ダンス、歌などを自由に楽しむことができますが、明治神宮では神の聖地であるため静かに過ごす必要があり、これらの活動は禁止されています。5月5日はこどもの日なので、今日は特別だろう、と私は理解しました。

女性がマイクで元気よく司会を進行し、子どもたちが赤チームと白チームに分かれて、チームカラーの小さな布製ボールをかごに投げ入れていた。「タマイレ」またはお手玉投げと呼ばれ、日本の運動会で愛されているゲームの 1 つです。

通常2 つのチームが競い合い、それぞれが自分のエリアで同時にプレイします。まず、こぶし大の豆を詰めた袋をたくさん地面にばらまきます。長い棒を垂直に掲げた人が各陣地の中央に立ち、その一端にはカラの編みかごが空中にぶら下がっています。試合開始を告げるホイッスルが鳴ると、選手たちは急いで玉を集めてかごに放り込みます。ゲーム中にはたいてい音楽が流されます。1～2分後ホイッスルが鳴り、音楽が止まり、ゲームは終了します。それぞれのかごが下ろされ、竿持ちが次々とカゴの中のお玉を空中高く投げ、参加者全員で声を出して数を数えます。かごにより多く入っているチームが勝ちます。このゲームは通常 2～3回繰り返され、最終的にどちらが勝ったかが決まります。

イイイチ、ニイイイ、サーン、シイイ……この特徴的な間延びした数え方で、両チームは一緒に玉を数えました。このラウンドは白チームが勝利し、歓声が上がり、両チームとも次のラウンドに向けて準備を始めました。私はそこで離れたので、最後にどちらが勝ったかはわかりません。とにかく、子供たちも彼らのプレーを見ている保護者たちも楽しんでいました。

私は昨年、このゲームのバリエーションを他の場所で見たことがあります。観戦する大人や子供が声援を送る中、小学生らが音楽なしで玉入れをやっていた。すると突然音楽がかかり、生徒たちは玉を投げるのをやめ、見物人の方に向き直り、リズミカルに踊り始めました。音楽が突然止むと、彼らはくるりと向きを変え再び玉を拾ってかごに投げました。また音楽が流れ、子供たちが踊り、音楽が途絶え、子供たちがゲームに戻る...それが数回繰り返されました。小さな子供達のダンスは可愛かったです。運動会は単なる運動会ではありません。来場者向けのエンターテイメントです。

他にも綱引きやムカデ競争など運動会らしい定番イベントがあります。日本で運動会を見かけたら、ぜひ覗いてみてください。自分の国の運動会とずいぶん違って驚くことと思います。

Plain Talk

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD TNB Throwback MAY 31. 2019

If the Kids Are United by Jeremy Moorhead

Pity the poor millennials, they are the latest in a long, long line of much maligned youth. Before them, came the Generation known as X, who also were much tutted and ridiculed by their predecessors. Who really should have known better, coming from the Baby boomer era.

Wind back the clock to the birth of jazz, oft-described as the devil’s music, followed by the perceived immorality of rock and roll, the flower power generation, the raw scream of punk, the get down of hip hop and the alleged hedonism of house and techno. All seen as corrupting to the teens and young adults. All frightening and incomprehensible to their betters. Why do adults fear youth culture so much?

There is no end to mature commentators, harking back to the good old days, when things were much simpler and more uncomplicated. When the kids behaved and were tolerated, barely. The vitriol towards the young seems to stem from their own lost youth. What the commentariat are really saying is that they want their own glory days again. That their formative years were somehow more dignified and respectable than the latest bunch.

It’s wistful nonsense, of course. As far back as ancient Greece, according to more learned scholars, it was remarked on that “the children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise”.

We need to look beyond the unfair stereotypes of youth being disorganized with finite attention spans, fingers glued to their cellphones and no interest in politics. The truth is, young people are organized, savvy and have a healthy interest in politics and current affairs. All you have to do is engage with them. From the survivors of high school mass shootings in the USA to the clued-up kids in Northern Ireland post Good Friday Agreement (now in jeopardy post-Brexit) to demonstrators in Okinawa. Whether you agree with their stance or not, you can’t accuse them of being feckless or lazy.

You may not like or understand their music. It may sound like a racket, a drone and not what you grew up with. That’s the point. We’re not supposed to understand or like it. Every generation has their own soundtrack. But don’t take this old fogey’s word, talk to your kids. They may surprise you.

かわいそうなミレニアル世代(1980年前後から2005年頃にかけて生まれた世代)、延々と続く蔑まれる若者の中でもっとも最近の世代だ。彼らの前は、ジェネレーションX(1960年代初頭/半ばから1970年代に生まれた世代)が存在した。彼らもまた、昔若者だった人々に舌打ちされ、あざわらわれた。ベビーブーマー時代からもたらされていることを、誰もわかっちゃいない。

ジャズが生まれた時代まで戻ろう。悪魔の音楽と繰り返し表現されたが、その後、不品行なロックンロール、フラワーパワー(ヒッピー)世代、生の叫びのパンク, ダンスで楽しむヒップホップ、快楽主義的ハウス・テクノが続いた。すべてそれらは若者や青年を堕落させるものと見なされた。眉をひそめ、理解できず苦しんだ。なぜ大人は若者文化を怖がるのだろう。分別のある大人の解説者は後を絶たず、物事が単純で複雑でなかった昔のよい時代に話題を戻す。子供達が行儀よく、かろうじて大目に見られた頃の時代に。若者への批評は、大人である彼らの失われた青春時代が原因であるようだ。コメンテーターが本当に言いたい事は自分たちのよりよき時代に戻りたいことだ。彼らの人格形成期は、最近の連中よりなぜか堂々として威厳のある。

過ぎ去ったことを思い焦がれてもしかたがない。さらに昔にさかのぼり古代ギリシャでは、物知りの学者によると、「子供達はぜいたく品が大好きだ。子供達は悪しき習慣があり指導的立場の権威者に軽蔑の念を抱かせる。年長者に対して失礼な態度をとり、訓練所でべちゃくちゃとおしゃべりするのが大好きだ。」

集中力が限られており、携帯電話を片時も話さず、政治に興味がない典型的な若者から先へと視野を広げる必要がある。実際のところ、若者はきちんとしており、分別もあり、政治や時事問題にも健全な興味を時っている。大人がすべき事は彼らと関わりをもつことだ。USAの高校での銃乱射で生き残った生徒からイギリスとアイルランドの間で結ばれた聖金曜日協定で紛争した若者、あるいは沖縄のデモ隊と。彼らのスタンスに同意できる、できないにかかわらず、弱い、無能だとは責めることはできない。

彼らの音楽が好きでないかもしれないし理解しないかもしれない。ラケット、ドローンのような音のようで、慣れ親しんできたものではないかもしれない。それが大事だ。理解しなくていいし、好きにならなくていい。どの世代もその時代の音がある。子供達に話しかけよという時代遅れの言葉を真に受けてはいけない。びっくりさせられるかもしれないから。

Unfinished business

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD MAY 17. 2019

Farewell to a Japan Jazz Icon by David Gregory

The messages from all over Japan read aloud during the service helped us realize how widely Koyama-san touched lives and how many like us were feeling something newly missing from our worlds. But, although wonderful and sometimes saddening us, they did not trigger crying. That happened next.

Those first few notes of the "'Round About Midnight" Miles Davis version, the cut Koyama-san always used to open Jazz Tonight, performed by a live piano and trumpet duo up front near the coffin, did it: Instant recognition, recollections, sighs around the room, eyes closed, arms crossed, heads dropped back or down, and tears, at least for me. How many times had we heard, after Miles breathed his somber opening, Koyama-san's low, raspy voice welcoming us into the studio with, "Minna-san, gokigen ikaga desho-ka everybody, how are you feeling?"?and never thought that someday we would hear him ask about us no more?

Koyama-san's widow, whom, like him, had never known me, stood alone at the coffin head and bowed in silence to everyone in turn after they placed flowers around his body as the duo continued with another slow number, the trumpet sounding so strong and crisp and unusual in a memorial service hall. After we placed our flowers, she responded to my hand on her shoulder, a touch just meant to console her, by immediately turning and reaching for me?a total stranger?burying her head in my chest, and breaking down. She needed that hug that everybody sometimes needs. She let go after her respite when she was ready to face the coffin and everyone else again, and returned to her position. Going to Kashiwa in a snowstorm was worth it just for those few moments when I could do something for her.

So our Kashiwa day was both sad and good. But, why did I even want to go a funeral for a man whom I only knew by voice, and who, although linked to jazz, was not even a musician?

Koyama-san and his Jazz Tonight program I listened to since at least the early 2000s. For more than sixteen years, while my life in Japan has been filled with huge uncertainties, he has been here Saturday nights on the radio, reliable, keeping me connected to the world's music and opening my ears to music from Japan I would not know without him. Listening to him always made me feel good, no matter what had happened in my life during the week or what was coming up in the weeks ahead. Koyama-san and Jazz Tonight were my respite. How well can I replace that comfort?

Koyama-san, thank you for helping this foreigner feel good in Japan. Please rest well in jazz heaven.

NHK Radio, thank you for giving Koyama-san a way to connect with us. Please encourage other DJs to continue doing what he did so well.

To Koyama-san's surviving family members: Please care well for yourselves now, and thank you for supporting and sharing Kiyoshi with us.

The Smallest Box by David Gregory

She came over to my table and asked if I remembered her.
“That’s my boyfriend over there.”
Their table hugged a pillar blocking the sunny Tokyo Bay view enjoyed by the other customers that afternoon in Chiba’s AquaRink ice skating facility café.
“Maybe we will marry next year.”

On my way out, I stopped to congratulate the potential groom to be. What I later heard happened with Hiromi and Hiroshi that night at another place also close to the bay sounded so too good to be true that I visited that place to confirm it really happened. It did.

Hiroshi had reserved for the course menu that night at OCEAN TABLE, next to Chiba Port, on the second floor, where tables sat by the huge windows facing Chiba Port Tower and Tokyo Bay. No view-blocking pillars there. And they had a wait, even with their reservation, because it was Christmas Eve, which in Japan matters much more than the following day; the Eve is the year’s couples’ night out, and single women without dates that night can feel their whole year was wasted.

Hiroshi had changed into a suit after skating, and had urged Hiromi, against her protests about overdressing, into a plaid one-piece, raising expectations. They had never come to a place this nice, one requiring reservations. Saizeriya was more their speed: fast faux-Italian, cheap, and everywhere.
The unexpected wait made Hiroshi antsy. He relaxed and all was perfect after they were seated.

They talked. They ate the Christmas Dinner courses. They ignored the soft Christmas background music. They admired the gleaming, golden Christmas Tree rising from the first-floor buffet area through the open center space across from their table. They could see outside the sparkling flashes and half the tree in Port Tower’s Christmas Illumination, and beyond, the lights from the ships on and facilities around Tokyo Bay, appearing almost twinkling. Perfect—but not for Hiromi.

She went to the toilet. Still he had not asked. The day was done. The reservation system only allowed them two hours there. They had been together all day. He had remembered her birthday-just by coincidence, also that day-with a necklace at AquaRink. Nice, but was that all? He had pestered her since early December about what Christmas present she wanted until she had finally exploded with, “Nothing! Don’t you know I just want a proposal?!” And had added she wanted it to be a surprise. Here he had the perfect chance, and he was wasting it.

She could try enjoying what was left of the evening. Dessert was next. At least here was better than Saizeriya….She was still stuck when she returned to the table, and had no chance to do or say anything, anyway. It was his toilet turn.

Their desserts came. Hiromi sat and waited and pondered the future. Outside, the tower stood alone against the dark sky and Tokyo Bay’s inky darkness.

Their desserts waited. Maybe his tooth was bothering him again. Maybe he was just tolerating it to make the night go well. Maybe for her. Maybe she should go to check on him. Wait-maybe she just heard his voice across the room.

No, only Santa Claus, posing for photographs with diners at the far table. He then started circling the room, giving a small present from his big sack at each table. She could check after he was done.

Hiroshi still had not returned to his seat when Santa reached their table. He handed Hiromi a big, red stocking, by far the room’s largest gift, accompanied by a squeaky, “Atari! You’re a lucky one!” Yeah. She set it aside and Santa moved on. What was he still doing in the toilet?

Santa finished his round, returned to Hiromi, and pointed at her unopened stocking with squeaky, “Un! Un!” grunts. The other diners had opened their presents. She forced a smile and said she was waiting for her boyfriend to return. “Un! Un!”

When Hiromi still resisted, Santa took the stocking in his white-gloved hands and opened it himself. Out first came a big, pink box, heart shaped. He opened that and pulled out another heart-shaped box, and then, from inside that, another heart-shaped box. Another smaller, heart-shaped box followed. He removed from that an even smaller heart-shaped box, and thrust it to Hiromi with one more squeaky, “Un!”

Still gone. Well, he’d miss it. Hiromi obeyed Santa this time and opened it, the smallest box in the room …and her mind and face went blank.

After that frozen moment passed, Hiromi looked at Santa. The second shock hit, and more followed. Santa Claus had ripped off his gloves, furry hat, sunglasses, and huge, flowing beard. He took the box from her?she was still speechless?dropped onto one knee, held the open box out and up to her in both stretching hands, and said in a voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, “Hiromi-san, boku-to kekkon shite kudasai! Hiromi, please marry me!”

Outside, to anybody looking, Port Tower’s Christmas Illumination still flashed, and the lights on and around Tokyo Bay still appeared almost twinkling. Inside OCEAN TABLE, on the second floor, everything was happening so fast that Hiromi just did not know which was more difficult to believe: Hiroshi and the ring he first tried slipping onto the finger on her right hand, the one he had taken in his before she held out her left hand, or the following PAN! and PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN! PAN! and PAN! PAN! and PAN! explosions ripping and ribbons shooting around the room as diners at the floor’s other tables popped the party crackers they had found with the notes in their presents from Santa Claus.

I Did It! by David Gregory

She had been here before. But, those were tour-guided or hand-held visits. After living most of her life in white-bread suburban USA, driving everywhere, shopping in giant malls and supermarkets, and needing only one currency and one language, my mother ventured out on her own, within and beyond Chiba, during one trip to Japan. From her notes, here are Dorothy's...

ADVENTURES IN JAPAN
Grocery Shopping in Neighborhood―Walk five blocks...buy only one bag...walk five blocks back. Survived it!

Shopping in City Center―Walk six blocks to bus stop. Ride bus fifteen minutes. Arrive at stores. Walk around. Look. Decide: cookies.

Buying: “Ikura desu-ka how much?” Hmm. “Kakimasu kudasai write please.”

Paying options: give large bill, let clerk figure change, or open change purse, let clerk take out correct amount. Decide to just give some cash.

Clerk shakes her head (“NO! MORE!”), then counts out correct amount needed from register and shows me. I mimic her action from my change purse. Smiles! Deep bows with many, “Arigato gozaimasu thank you very much!”-es.
(My error: thought there was decimal point in Yen price....)

Open cookies, expecting pirouettes with chocolate centers. Instead, peanut butter waffle rolls, no chocolate. No wonder, now I see peanut sketch on package. “Shoganai can’t be changed,” I did it to myself. It could have been worse!
~~~
Travelling to Visit Friend’s Family on Other Side of Chiba―Walk ten blocks to train. Purchase ticket. Electronic lady on ticket machine screen says, “Arigato gozaimasu” and bows. Ride train twenty minutes, watching for correct stop, get off, walk seven blocks to house. I did it myself!

Visiting Hisae Overnight―My Japanese study partner in USA returned to Japan, now lives on other side of Tokyo Bay.

Take large purse and large tote bag with jacket, nightie, toothbrush, cosmetics. Walk six blocks to bus stop. Ride bus to train station. Ride train eighty minutes to Yokohama. Find correct exit from station. EASY. Did not even look at note in pocket explaining route and Japanese signs. And, look! Hisae and three-year old Kei are waiting! “Hello!” they say! Many hugs!

I did it!

Then, still more travel: train together fifteen minutes, short taxi uphill to lovely apartment, sunny and bright.

Returning to Chiba, just reverse process. Next time, we can meet at a station halfway in between. I can do it.
I can do it!

Book Review

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD MAY 11 2018

Cherry Blossoms in the Time of Earthquakes and Tsunami by Rey Ventura
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014,
291 pp, USD34.00 www.ateneo.edu/ateneopress

Reviewed by Randy Swank

video maker and scriptwriter Rey Ventura won the 2015 National Book Award for his third collection of essays, Cherry Blossoms in the Time of Earthquakes and Tsunami, but for some strange twist of fate you will find very little information on this book. You can’t even buy it on Amazon. This is a shame because Cherry Blossoms... is a beautiful, insightful and thought-provoking book.

These 11 essays, some of them autobiographical, see Ventura travelling back and forth between the Philippines and Japan, his adopted country, often portraying the many ways Filipino lives have been shaped and affected by their rich quasi-neighbor. Like in "A Suitable Donor," where the young men who live in the Manila slum of Banseco tell of how they came to "donate" a kidney or another organ to help a rich person in need － often from Japan.

Cherry Blossoms in the Time of Earthquakes and Tsunami
by Rey Ventura
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014, 291 pp, USD34.00 www.ateneo.edu/ateneopress

In "Miniskirts and Stilettos" we meet Ginto, a young lady who comes to Japan dreaming of making it big as a singer and entertainer but has to deal instead with a much darker reality; while "Mr. Suzuki Tries Again" and "Into the Snow Country" are tragicomic tales of arranged marriages where the dreams and expectations of bride-starved farmers from Japan's Deep North clash with those of young Filipino women who want to escape their poverty and go into marriage "as a girl goes into a convent." Ventura tells these stories with a great eye for detail and manages to find a ray of light even in the darkest corners, or poetry in the midst of a nuclear disaster.

The book's first essay is called "The Slow Boat to Manila" and indeed, slowness is the first word that comes to mind when considering Ventura's approach to writing. Everything Ventura does is slow. He is no magazine reporter after all, and will spend days or even months getting to know a person he wants to write about. That's the kind of personal commitment and deep connection with his subject that one feels when reading his essays.

Tokyo Fab
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD APRIL 25, 2025

Havriinbayar 2025

Japan's largest Mongolian festival “Havriinbayar 2025” will be held at Hikarigaoka Park again this year! For two days, you can fully enjoy Mongolian culture, traditions, music, cuisine, sports, and more. This year, we will again welcome you with a variety of performances, workshops, and delicious Mongolian cuisine. This is a special event that will make you feel as if you have traveled to Mongolia.
The Mongolian College of Havriinbayar 2025 will be held on May 4 from 1:00 pm to 6:05 pm in the Audio Visual Room of the Hikarigaoka Library. This is a rare opportunity to hear a variety of talks on tourism, economics, culture, lifestyle, education, and more. There is no charge to attend and the program will be available online. Please feel free to attend.

May 4th & 5th @ Hikarigaoka Park (Hikarigaoka Sta. on Oedo Line)

http://harumatsuri.net/

Sichuan Festa 2025

"Szechuan Fest" is a popular gourmet event where visitors can enjoy authentic Szechuan cuisine prepared by famous restaurants. The main dish is “mapo doufu” (bean curd tofu), which is one of the most familiar and beloveds among Japanese people, and various other Szechuan dishes will be served. At Nakano Central Park, the venue of the event, 14 Chinese restaurants carefully selected by “Szechuan Fest” will gather, including those that have participated in the event since its inception. The restaurants include “Sawada Restaurant” by a Michelin star chef, ‘Ajibo’ popular for its unusual mapo tofu using lamb, and “Szechuan Cuisine PinPin xiang” that uses carefully selected Szechuan spices to create authentic dishes. The restaurant will sell a variety of unique bean curd dishes that are sure to please those who love spicy food. A Chinese flea market will be held in the adjacent Shiki no Mori Park. Chinese goods, Chinese dresses, and accessories will be on sale.

May 11th & 12th @ Hikarigaoka Park (Hikarigaoka Sta. on Oedo Line)

https://www.tokyo-harusai.com/

Have You Been To...

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD APRIL 25, 2025

Lake Goshiki [Machiniwasaka, Fukushima]

Goshiki-numa in Urabandai, at the foot of Mt. Bandai, offers lakes and marshes of mysterious colors such as blue, green, and red in a quiet forest, and should be visited in conjunction with trekking up Mt.
As the name "Goshiki-numa" implies, the water in Goshiki-numa has different and vivid colors. The lakes and marshes shining quietly in the deep forest look like something out of a picture book.

Cape Kamui [Shakotan Peninsula]

Cape Kamui is a cape jutting out into the Sea of Japan in the northwestern part of the Shakotan Peninsula. It is famous for its spectacular view of the clear blue sea, nicknamed "Shakotan blue." A walk along the "Chalenka Trail" will take you to the tip of Cape Kamui. The path is narrow and has some ups and downs, but it is not so hard because the Shakotan blue in front of you will relieve your fatigue.

Niyodogawa River [Tosa, Kochi]

Although not as well known as the Shimanto River, it is said to be the cleanest river in Japan in terms of water quality. The beauty of the river is as if blue ink had been melted directly into the water. The transparency of the river is so high that even the stones at the bottom of the deep river can be clearly seen if there are no waves. In shallow areas, the river is so clear that you cannot even tell if there is water or not.

Tsunoshima Bridge [Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi]

The Tsunoshima Bridge is 1,780 meters long, making it the second longest free bridge over a remote island in Japan. It is a structure that attracts people not only for its convenience of transportation connecting the two sides of the river, but also for the beauty of its form. There is a small hill in front of the bridge that crosses to Kakunoshima Island, and the scenery from there is just simply divine.

Tokyo Voice Column

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD TNB Throwback: NOV 27. 2015

Raising a child in Japan by Yashadi Panditharathne

Japan, though it belongs to Asian category, sometimes I don't see a difference in Japan and a European country. I live in the heart of Japan, Tokyo, which is far different than other villages out here.

Everyday I observe people, and it fascinates me all the time. As a typical Asian I feel that children parent relationship in Japan is quite poor when compared with other countries. For example in Asian countries like India , Srilanka even after marraige parents still worry and care as before about their children, whereas in westernized countries like USA, UK its quite different, Where parents let the child to live by their own but still the communication is more direct. Japanese shows a reflection from both where the affection is not often showed neither the communication is satisfactory. I have observed many parents in parks, restaurants, trains who give less attention to their children. Mom gives more intentness to the pet and the mobile than her own 2 year old child, although remarkably I have also seen exceptional scenarios like Dad carrying the child alone, taking care, giving kisses and showing love.

Japanese parents raise their children much more independent with less conversations. Where in our countries even after 20+ you can see parent still feed their children. In our countries the bond will be forever. For parents their child would be the same even after getting old. But this makes the child dependent, where in every situation child goes to the parent seeking for help and the ability of making self decisions gets impoverished.

So according to my point of view as a girl born and raised in an Asian country like Srilanka, raising a child independently is a requirement so that they can face the ups and downs in life by their own. We all came to this world alone and in the final day we will have to go alone too. Its a journey of us where we have to ride by our own. Hence Japan is one of the best countries, technology wise and educational wise where you can give your child the best for them to get build up by their own and to get highlighted in the world. And no matter where you live, your culture, your beliefs will be still on goin to future generation, because home is the foundation for all.

日本はアジア圏にあるが、時々、ヨーロッパの国々との違いがわからない。私は日本の中心、東京在住だが、そこは日本の村とはまるでちがう。

日々人間観察をしており、いつも驚かされる。典型的アジア人である私は日本の親子関係は他の国と比べて薄いと感じる。インドやスリランカのようなアジアの国々では結婚後も結婚前同様自分の子供達を心配する。一方アメリカやイギリスのような欧米の国々では、親は子供の自立を促すが密接な親子のコミュニケーションをとる。日本はふたつの文化圏の考え方がみてとれる。親子べったりでもないしコミュニケーションもほどほどだ。公園、レストラン、電車で多くの親を観察するが、子供の自由にさせている。母親は自分の２歳の子供より携帯やペットの方に関心がある一方、子供を抱いたり、世話をしたり、キスをして愛情をそそぐ父親のすばらしい光景を目にする。

日本人の親は会話は少なめで子供が自立するよう育てる。母国では２０歳を過ぎても子供の生活の面倒を見る。母国では親子の絆は永遠で、子供が成長しても親にとっては子供だ。従って子供は親にたより、子供の自活を阻害する。

さてスリランカというアジアの国で生まれ育った女性として、子供が山あり谷ありの人生に立ち向かい、独り立ちできるように育てる事が大切だと思う。ひとりぽっちでこの世に生まれ、ひとりぼっちで死んでいくのだから、人生とは自分で切り開いていく旅だ。従って子供を育て世に送り出すには、産業、教育的にも一流である日本では、ベストな環境をあたえることができる。どこで生活していようとも、あなたの文化、心情は未来へと受け継がれていくだろう。なぜなら家庭こそが人にとっての拠り所なのだから。

MUSEUM -What's Going on?-

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD MARCH 14. 2025

Hilma af Klint: The Beyond

This exhibition is the first major retrospective in Asia of Hilma af Klint (1862－1944), a pioneer of abstract painting. The painter from Sweden has been reevaluated in recent years as a creator of abstract paintings that preceded her contemporaries, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. For many years, her oeuvre of more than 1,000 works was known only to a very few people. As late as in the 1980s, several exhibitions began to introduce her works, and by the turn of the 21st century, her presence became international all at once. Her 2018 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, attracted more than 600,000 visitors, the largest attendance in the museum’s history. *As of 2019
Including The Ten Largest (1907), a set of ten paintings over three meters high, all 140 works in this exhibition will travel to Japan for the first time. Centering on her representative accomplishment, The Paintings for the Temple (1906－15), the exhibition will provide an overview of af Klint’s career in five chapters, while introducing materials left by the artist and diverse sources of her inspiration, including the esotericism and the women’s movements of her time.

The Ten Largest, Group IV, No. 3, Youth,
1907
By courtesy of
The Hilma af Klint Foundation

Hilma af Klint（1862－1944）
Hilma af Klint grew up in a wealthy Swedish family, graduated with honors from the Royal Academy of Art and worked as a professional painter. At the same time, she was devoted to esotericism and, through her experience of se´ances, created abstract expressions that differed from academic painting. She is considered an extremely important figure in the history of modern art for her pioneering nature of expression and meticulous systematization.

Period: － June 15, 2025
Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo
Closed: Mondays (except 3/31& 5/5), 5/7
Hours: 10am - 5pm / -8pm on Fridays and Saturdays (last admission 30 minutes before? closing)
Admission: Adults ￥2,300 (￥2,100) College & University Students ￥1,200 (￥1,000) High School Students ￥700 (￥500)

For more information, please visit

https://www.momat.go.jp/en

The heretical genius - Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), a painter who died at the age of 25. This British genius continued to create highly refined works, consisting of precise line drawings and bold black and white color planes, by candlelight. This Exhibition will feature approximately 220 pieces of Beardsley's art, including his breakthrough work Morte d'Arthur (1893-94) by Malory, Salome (1894) by Wilde, which is also well known in Japan, and his later masterpiece Mademoiselle de Maupin (1898) by Gautier, as well as illustrations and rare hand-drawn sketches from his early to later years, as well as colored posters and contemporary decorations.
Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) died at a young age, but left behind more than 1,000 works. To help his impoverished family, he worked as a clerk from the age of 16, while studying painting on his own and immersing himself in his creative endeavors while fighting the progression of pulmonary tuberculosis. It wasn't long before he started receiving job offers.
Even after achieving success as a painter, Beardsley did not belong to any particular school of painting, and continued to maintain his own unique style of painting, drawing the thick curtains closed and working by candlelight, even during the day.

Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt,
1893 (original), 1907 (print),
line block/Japanese vellum,
34.4 x 27.2 cm (paper size)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This chapter recreates part of the creative environment in Beardsley's London home, which he acquired at the height of his career but then sold in the aftermath of the Wilde scandal.
Additionally, we will be showcasing some excellent examples of the "obscene pictures" he produced as a quick source of income to earn a living and which he hoped to dispose of towards the end of his life, namely those included in "Lysistrata" (1896).

Period: February 15 (Sat) - May 11 (Sun), 2025
Venue: Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum,Tokyo
Closed: Mondays (Except 2/24, 3/31, 4/28, and 5/5)
Hours: 10:00-18:00 / - 20:00 on Fridays (except for national holidays), the last weekday of the session, the second Wednesday of each month, and April 5th) (last admission 30 minutes before? closing)
Admission: General ￥2,300 / university student ￥1,300 / high school student ￥1,000

https://mimt.jp/

Strange but True

TOKYO NOTICE BOARD APRIL 25. 2025

Best Pals!

Heartwarming footage of two dogs and a pair of dumpling-sized guinea pigs' forming an unusual bond over a bowl of salad has taken over the internet. Eight-year-old Wilbur the Basset Hound and his two guinea pig sisters, Market Price and Rumpadump, have been happily sharing lettuce for the past four years, but they didn’t expect another canine friend, Shrimp, would soon join the odd snack party. The jolly rescue dog quickly integrated into the family and joined the rest for regularly healthy treats, despite being a creature of very different size to the guinea pigs － she weighs 75 pounds. Sweet Shrimp has learned to wait for her little counterparts to eat first, despite her habits of gobbling food up while living on the streets.

Got Ya!�

Having caught his son leaving the house, a dad got to work to ensure he knew the rule-breaking hadn't gone unnoticed on his return. The dad knew the window his son would have to use to get back into the home after his adventure, and he set up Ring doorbell cameras in the room that could detect motion, linking them to an Amazon Alexa. When they sensed movement, Alexa was programmed to wait 15 seconds before turning on the Wi-Fi bulbs in the lamps and reading out a pre-programmed message to his unsuspecting son. Footage from the cameras show his son silently climbing back in through the window, followed by a long procession of friends, triggering the trap and turning the lights on once they were all inside. The smart speaker then says: "Next time just say you want to go out so you don't need to climb through a window with all your friends. I hope you had fun, were safe, and didn't cr** your pants when I started talking. I may go viral on TikTok with this. Thanks for the content."

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