Letters from DAIBA TOKYO - フジテレビ

For the other half of the sky

Mar 12, 2010

Dear Friends,

Last Saturday, my wife and I went to a pastry shop in my neighborhood. When I buy important things, I always ask her to accompany me because I believe women excel men in shopping.

In Japan, Valentine’s Day is observed by women who present chocolate or sweets gifts to men as an expression of love. The nature of the gift depends largely on the category of relationship between the giver and recipient. Chocolates, for example, would be classified as honmei-choko (true love chocolate) or giri-choko (obligation chocolate). Honmei derives from a horse-racing term that means the probable winner or an odds-on favorite, and is humorously used to describe a serious relationship. Women give giri-choko (obligation chocolate) with no promise of love to co-workers or classmates. It is somehow a kind of duty or social courtesy. It is widely believed that this custom started with confectioners’ sales campaigns.

This coming Sunday, March 14, is White Day, when men follow the custom of reciprocating the Valentine’s Day chocolates or other gifts they received a month earlier. This is indeed a “Made in Japan” custom, and introduced by confectioners as a marketing tactic in the late 70s. Why is it called “white”? Because white is the color of purity, and the cabal of confectioners hoped to evoke images of pure, sweet teen love. White is also the color of sugar, the main ingredient of chocolate.

I have purchased some sweets as White Day gifts taking my wife’s advice.

Did I want to buy reciprocal gifts being overwhelmed by the commercialism of White Day sales or obsessed with a sense of duty? No, I didn’t. I purchased them because I want to present them to women. It is with much pleasure that I see their smiling faces when I hand them over. I’ll be more than happy.

John Lennon murmurs in the opening of Woman, “For the other half of the sky.”

The phrase “the other half of the sky” comes from a quote by the leader of the Communist Party of China, Mao Tse-tung. Chairman Mao remarked, “Women hold up half of the sky (sky implies the world, I presume).” I believe men’s life is in women’s hands and women hold us close to their hearts. Women cocoon men in floaty bliss.

Traditionally, popular White Day gifts are cookies, marshmallows, white chocolate, jewelry (!), and white lingerie (!). In Japan, there is a horrifying custom called sanbai gaeshi (literally, thrice the return). It is said that many women have the expectation that the reciprocal gift should be three times the cost of the Valentine’s gift. I want to regard it as a marketing tactic by some industries, but it is deliriously happy for me to do so…with my mixed emotions.

My wife gave me chocolate a month earlier. I don’t think she threw a sprat to catch a whale (There is an expression “fish with shrimp for a sea bream” in Japanese) because March 14 falls on our wedding anniversary. Double celebration over a nice meal.

Talk to you later,

Tak

Posted by.Tak | Individual | Comment (0)

Marathon Man

Mar 3, 2010

Dear Friends,

When I woke up last Sunday, it was still raining. I felt sorry for the people gathered around the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Shivering with cold, they stood at the starting line of the Tokyo Marathon. The Tokyo Marathon transformed the elite male marathon into a citizens’ marathon, which opened to general runners of both sexes in 2007. Fuji Television is a co-organizer of this event. We broadcast it on odd-numbered years. This year’s broadcaster was Nippon Television Network Corporation.

As a former marathon runner, I cheered on the sidelines, looking for participants from Fuji TV.

35,000 runners hit the road on February 28th. Many people may wonder why so many people are fascinated with marathon. Here, I share my thoughts with you. Running a marathon might be analogous to life.

In a Marathon;

*You must use the right equipment.

*You must look ahead, but not too far ahead.

*Coming in first or last doesn’t matter. Finishing does. Success or failure is not measured by the time on the clock.

*You are not alone. Many have run before you and many will run after you. There are many “someones” along the way who you don’t know that will hand you water, isotonic drinks, bananas, or a word of encouragement that will insure your success.

*Others have inspired you, and whether you know it or not, you are inspiring others.

*It is never too late to begin, and you are never too old to start.

*You are your own worst enemy.

*The end isn’t the end…it’s only the beginning.

Having said all that, life is a marathon indeed. On the highway of your life, you can’t always be in the fast lane. As with endurance running, life requires the same thing from us that a marathon does; to endure to the end, without quitting before the finish line, and without cutting corners. And while there always are lots of obstacles during the progress, we must therefore plan, prepare for them, and then tackle them with the goal in mind. This is life.

The last time I ran 42.195 km was the Los Angeles Marathon in 2005. All the runners who completed the marathon received commemorative medals at the finish line.

This was a tangible reward for me. There may be no visible reward in life sometime. But I’ll run. I feel like running a marathon, but at any rate, I need permission from my wife. This is life.

Talk to you later,

Tak

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Hiroshima，Mon Amour

Feb 22, 2010

Dear Friends,

The 82nd Academy Awards are two weeks away. Following the example of Oscar champ “Titanic,” the 3D mega-hit “Avatar” tied for the lead at the Awards with nine nominations and is a front runner to win Best Picture on March 7th. As “Avatar” continued to make box office history both domestically and internationally, director James Cameron has purchased the rights to a new book about the aftermath of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks. It will be one of his future projects.

The news report said Cameron has optioned a nonfiction book “The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back” with his own money. The book written by Charles Pellegrino, who has served as a scientific consultant on Avatar project, weaves together eyewitness accounts of the Japanese civilians and American pilots who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand. According to the book, 30 people are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki – where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb.

In the past nine years I’ve been approached by an American film producer on his feature film project of Hiroshima atomic bombing. He used to work closely with James Cameron as a co-founder of a digital production studio. During my tenure in our Los Angeles Office I also had a chance to share some perceptions with a UCLA professor emeritus of pediatrics on an atomic bomb documentary that he was working on. This 94-year-old Japanese American was the lead physician of the U.S. Atomic Bomb Medical Team assigned to Nagasaki to survey the effects of the bomb. All is connected with where I am from – “Hiroshima.”

In the spirit of various nuclear concerns including Obama’s Prague speech and the possibility for his visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I returned to my hometown this month to see my father. We went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. As a high school and junior high school student I had been there in all seasons, but it was my first visit ever with my father. He seemed to have his own aim to visit.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park opened in 1954 on a site near the hypocenter of the atomic bomb blast. It is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack (August 6th, 1945). It contains the Memorial Cenotaph, the Peace Flame, the Children’s Peace Monument, the Cenotaph for Korean Victims, and so on.

The Atomic-Bomb Dome is the skeletal ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall, which is the building closest to the hypocenter of the atomic bomb that remained at least partially standing.

There are over 50 memorials and monuments in the park and surrounding green zone. My father was looking for one of them, roving the chilly ground. After inquiring at the tourist information office, we found ourselves standing in front of the Hiroshima Second Middle School A-Bomb Memorial Monument. When the bomb struck, students of the Hiroshima Second Middle School (currently Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Kanon High School) were trapped inside the collapsed buildings. They were under the student mobilization program and large numbers of them fell victim to the bomb. This monument was erected in 1961 to comfort their spirits. I was not aware of its existence and it was the first time for my father to visit it. The names of those students and teachers are inscribed on the back of the monument. My father went to this middle school as a 5th grader (aged 17) but was not there on August 6th. That is why I am here. My father found one of his classmates’ names inscribed and muttered to himself, “He was good at Judo. Ni-Dan (black belt, 2nd rank).”

My 10-year-old son has visited this park but never stepped in the Peace Memorial Museum, which contains graphic pictures and displays of the bombing. Recently he said he wanted to visit the Peace Memorial Museum in the upcoming spring break. From grandfather to father, from father to son. There is so much more that I should hear from you, father and that I should relay to you, my son.

Back to Cameron’s project. While in Japan last December promoting “Avatar,” he visited Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the last survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yamaguchi died at the age of 93 last month. It is unknown if Cameron’s project is to make an epic documentary or a Hollywood feature, but the clock is ticking. Which is faster, the completion of Cameron’s work or a U.S. President’s visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in our lifetime? In any case, we will pass on the harrowing experience to the future generations. The torch should be passed.

Talk to you later,

Tak

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On the Tube

Feb 10, 2010

Dear Friends,

With the countdown to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics continuing, I have been thinking that the Olympics seen on Japanese television are fundamentally Japan’s Olympics. Japan’s media will focus almost exclusively on the events that feature Japanese athletes. I think this is what we should expect as “Olympic nationalism.” As the Beijing Summer Olympics are still fresh in our minds, the Olympics seen by Americans and Chinese were basically nationalist versions of the same global events. Even small countries are not immune to Olympic nationalism. This kind of controversial issue aside, February always reminds me of two televised experiences.

The XI Winter Olympics were held from February 3 to February 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. I was a 6th grader, going to a cram school for junior high school exams. On Sunday, February 6, the cram school teacher told us, “Let’s take a break and watch television.” We knew it. It was the day of the long-waited event for a gold medal. Prior to the Sapporo Olympics, Japan had never won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. The Japanese ski-jumping team, nicknamed the “Hinomaru Hikotai” (Hinomaru Squadron / Hinomaru means the Rising Sun Flag) dominated the winners podium. The host country shone in Sapporo when three Japanese athletes, led by Yukio Kasaya, swept the ski-jumping 70-meter (now the normal hill) event for gold (Kasaya), silver (Akitsugu Konno), and bronze (Seiji Aochi). The boys and girls in the 6th grade gave boisterous applause to the tube.

A few days later, the Japanese were glued to the tube again. The incident that horrified Japan occurred on Saturday, February 19. It was called the Asama Sanso (Asama Lodge) incident, which was a hostage crisis and police sieged in a mountain lodge near Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture, Japan.

The incident began when five members of the Rengo Sekigun aka. the United Red Army (URA), following a bloody purge that left 14 members of the far-left militia group plus one bystander dead, broke out in a holiday lodge below Mount Asama, taking the wife of the lodge-keeper as a hostage. A standoff between police and the URA radicals took place, lasting ten days. My elementary school teacher turned on the television on lunch breaks, saying “Watch this. Something big is going to change in Japan.” We kept watching television even though we had no knowledge about the leftist student movement at this time. The broadcast media gave us frequent reports and updates.

The police rescue operation on the final day of the standoff was the first marathon live broadcast in Japan, lasting 10 hours and 40 minutes. On Monday, February 28, the police stormed the lodge. Two police officers were killed in the assault, but the hostage was rescued and the URA radicals were taken into custody. A few years later, I learned that this incident contributed to a decline in popularity of leftist movements in Japan. And after joining Fuji TV, I learned that Fuji TV’s camera crew did an exclusive live coverage when the five radicals were taken in.

These two televised experiences made me realize the power of television as a medium. I wanted to thank my two teachers for letting me watch television.

Talk to you later,

Tak

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Mask

Feb 1, 2010

Dear Friends,

Why do the Japanese wear surgical masks in public? There are a few reasons.

1. They are sick and don’t want their evil germs to infect others. (How thoughtful!)

2. They are not sick but don’t want to catch any evil germs from others.

3. They haven’t brushed their teeth.

4. They want to avoid people to recognize them. (Could be notable by disguise.)

5. They want to hide growing a beard until they show off a full beard. (weird reason…)

And yet, putting a mask on is still effective to survive the H1N1 influenza.

At this time of the year, it is annoying for me to go out. The pollen season has come again! Itchy eyes, runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing… These symptoms cause me to lose concentration. Allergic rhinitis triggered by the pollen of specific plants is commonly known as “hay fever.” Hay fever in Japan is mainly caused by cedar pollen. It is said that about 15 percent of Japanese suffer from hay fever. This is indeed a national affliction.

The pollen which causes hay fever varies between individuals and from region to region. It is said that more people have started suffering from hay fever in the last 20 years because the cedars planted in the mountains around Japan after World War Ⅱ have been neglected, are overgrown, and create more pollen. In addition to individual sensitivity and geographic differences, the amount of pollen in the air can be a factor in whether hay fever symptoms develop. Hot, dry, windy days are more likely to increase the amount of pollen in the air than cool, damp, rainy days when most pollen is washed to the ground. At this time of the year, I never miss weather forecasts on TV. Pollen forecasts on TV are a major part of the weather forecasts. I will find out how bad the day will be and make decisions about what I should avoid doing.

Research shows that the amount of airborne pollen is related to the previous summer. A cool summer with lots of rain will produce only small amounts of pollen this year. I’m relieved.

Why do the Japanese wear surgical masks in public? Because they have hay fever and don’t want the evil pollen to affect them. In addition to wearing a mask, I myself wear specially-shaped glasses (like swimming goggles) to protect my eyes from pollen.

Talk to you later,

Tak

Posted by.Tak | Individual | Comment (1)

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