Nagoya To Sendai Ferry

太平洋フェリー

One way to beat the intense summer heat in and around Nagoya is to escape northwards on the Taiheiyo Ferry to Sendai and Tomakomai in Hokkaido.

It's 770km from Nagoya to Sendai and a further 560km to Tomakomai putting some serious distance between you and the pizza oven that the Chubu area becomes in August and September.

The Nagoya-Sendai leg of the journey lasts 21 hours, 40 minutes overnight and it's a further night on the ship for the remaining 15 hours, 20 minutes from Sendai to Tomakomai on the west coast of Hokkaido.

Ships leave Nagoya at 7pm arriving in Sendai at 4.40pm the next day. For the return journey the ferry leaves Sendai at 12.50pm arriving in Nagoya at 10.30am the next day.

The ferry continues from Sendai to Tomakomai after a three hour break at 7.40pm arriving in Hokkaido at 11am the next day. Ships leave Tomakomai at 7pm arriving in Sendai at 10am the next day.

The ferries are spacious with both cabins and cheaper open style rooms where people sleep in an alloted space and are provided with a blanket and pillow.

The cabins come with TV and bunk beds and sleep up to four people. Larger suites and semi-suites are also available. The cheapest fare is 7,000 yen for Nagoya-Sendai in the open style accommodation.

The ferry also carries cars, motorcycles and bicycles for an extra cost.

Facilities include a restaurant, vending machines, games room and Japanese-style baths.

Taiheiyo Ferry (in Japanese)


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Japan This Week 5 September 2010

今週の日本

New Dissent in Japan Is Loudly Anti-Foreign

New York Times

Signature Blends at Tokyo Bars

New York Times

日报:中国GDP超越日本是“统计假象”

Caijing

Cove star stages protest over Japanese dolphin hunt

Guardian

Japan endures hottest summer on record

Washington Post

Zapatero, Moratinos y Sebastián visitan la fábrica de GS-Yuasa en Japón.

El Pais

Japan conspicuously absent from Forbes' top small, midsize Asia firms

Japan Times

Ichiro Ozawa confirms Japan leadership bid

BBC

Venise, le sens du vide

Libération

NHK to resume live broadcasts of sumo

Yahoo Sports

Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence

Japan Focus

Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

The Asahi Shinbun recently conducted a poll on competition. To the question, "Do you like competition?" 43% replied yes, 57% said no.

For a second question - "What is necessary to win a competition" - the top four answers given were:

Effort
Luck
Talent
Strong Will

Source: Asahi Shinbun

The heat has killed 158 since May in what is the hottest summer since records began being kept, in 1898.

Another 46,728 people were treated for heatstroke.

Source: Daily Yomiuri


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Record High Temperatures in Nagoya

名古屋

Temperatures continue to be very high throughout Japan. I recorded a temperature of 50.5 degrees Centigrade outside my house today.

Forecasts are for the area of high pressure over the Japanese archipelago to continue to bring searing heat for the next week.

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Vip Kumamoto Tour

熊本

JAPAN FOR YOU EXCLUSIVE!

VIP Tour to Kumamoto on Kyushu Island

11 Day/9 Night Land Package

October 8 – 18, 2010

Experience Kumamoto, the Heart of Japan, with this Exclusive KIE Group Tour!

VIP Access in Kumamoto, as well as highlights in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto

KIE is the only Japanese travel agency using Kumamoto expert Ken Takenaga,
as your personal tour guide!

Mr. Takenaga is the official North American representative of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu. Mr. Takenaga is based in New York, but born and raised on Kyushu, with advanced cultural historical knowledge. His expertise not only focuses on Kyushu and Kyoto, but also Japanese Buddhism and literature.

Born in Kumamoto Prefecture (the focus of this program), he has already accompanied a multitude of groups ranging from university professors to journalists to tourists. His personal contacts in Kyushu allow our travelers unique and personal experiences - with most taking place in exclusive private settings to which only KIE has access.

See the Japan For You website for further details

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Foreigners with Permanent Residency Able to Vote in DPJ Presidential Election

民衆党総選挙外国人参政権

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)'s presidential election is scheduled to take place on Sept. 14, and, thanks to a provision in the party's constitution, permanent foreign residents who have registered as members or supporters of the DPJ will be able to vote.

The election is between current Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Ichiro Ozawa, who is the most powerful politician in Japan.

The DPJ is the majority party, and therefore the winner of the Party election will become the prime minister. This means in effect that the 900,000 permanent foreign residents in Japan may have some sway in the outcome of the election.

Not all of those are eligible to vote - you have to be 18 or older and either a registered party member or a "supporter" - so it statistically unlikely that foreigners will cast the deciding vote. (Moreover, as noted above, those who have yet to register with the DPJ as either a member or supporter will not be eligible to vote in the upcoming election.)

The right wing in Japan is predictably up in arms about this turn of events. Both the Sankei Shinbun and Yomiuri Shinbun have editorialized about the dangers of foreigners influencing the choice of the prime minister. The majority of Japan's permanent foreign residents are Koreans, who make up more than 500,000 of the total.

The opposition Liberal Democratic Party does permit all party members to participate in its party elections - but limits membership to Japanese nationals.

The DPJ's constitution however states that anybody aged 18 or older can become "party members or supporters, including Japanese living abroad and permanent foreign residents of Japan" - and all are eligible to vote in the DPJ election.

To join the Party as a member costs 6,000 for one year; supporters pay only 2,000 yen. Both have voting rights.

It is possible to register online. Doing so now will allow you to vote in the next election - not on September 14th. Elections are generally held every two years.

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The Reports of the Adventures of Squid-Sensei

スクイッド先生

"Sensei" is an honorific stuck on the end of Japanese names the same way "san" is, and is used to address a teacher, e.g. Squid-sensei.

Darryl Knickrehm is an American independent film maker in Japan who has, like almost anyone not transferred to Japan by a company, taught English in Japan - in his case, in Kobe. So he knows what life is like as "Dariru-sensei," a life prone to the naive misunderstandings, prejudices, quirks and well-meaning but embarrassing questions and observations - not to mention frequent reluctance and apathy - of the typical English conversation student in Japan.

Knickrehm has taken the panoply of odd experiences - his own and others' - and turned them into cartoon art in the form of "The Reports of the Adventures of Squid-Sensei."

There are few English-language rags in Japan that don't have some sort of satirical say on the country through a typical, routinely English-teaching, foreigner, and which inevitably all sound like jokes told one time too many. To be honest, I was expecting more of the same when Knickrehm approached JapanVisitor with his work.

However, I was (admittedly somewhat reluctantly) tickled by The Reports of the Adventures of Squid-Sensei. There aren't that many episodes yet, but perhaps it's the claimed "Totally honest, 103% true accounts of life teaching English in Japan"-ness about it that helps give some life and odd-colored (sometimes off-colored) sparkle to material that in lesser hands could easily end up as lame. The cartoonist implicitly trusts his material. He leaves life in the eikaiwa (English conversation) classroom almost unembellished, letting it speak for itself.

Squid Sensei is a genuinely freaky looking English teaching squid with a decidedly phallic mien who exudes the imperfectly subdued tension of having to make a living and getting unspeakably bored and frustrated by his job. For me the most refreshing thing about him - in that I've simply never seen it in the genre before - is that he cusses, admittedly in graphic symbols, but refreshingly - and right in front of the students. That alone made me laugh. That's three out of ten already. (Plus one more for looking so old sci-fi freaky.)

The remaining six points could well be earned by the dry slapstick of the scenarios, the great drawing (that, significantly, is lavished only on Squid-Sensei himself - the students remain, perhaps significantly, replaceable virtual stick figures), and the take-it-or-leave-it tone that has nevertheless has signs of craft behind it and a genuine desire to be heard.

Check out the The Reports of the Adventures of Squid-Sensei website.

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Resonance 2010

Resonance 2010 is a music/dance/art experience directed by Kaoru Watanabe, former artistic director of the famed Kodo Drummers.

Resonance will be doing two shows in Kyoto at the excellent art space UrBANGUILD on Sept 3 and 4.

Please see the link here and press release for full details in English.

Resonance can offer a 1,000yen discount off the cost of entry (2,000yen entry instead of the regular 3,000yen) to JapanVisitor readers.

Just send an e-mail to yakimonos [at] earthlink [dot] net

This show is an incredible mix of East and West performed by some really astounding talent that appeals to both Japanese and foreign audiences.


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