Saturday, November 23, 2013

Angora fur: Fashion to kill for!

Anette 11:30:00 AM

We say that clothes create people, and it is often thought that people who dress by the latest fashion are among the more successful members of our society. The fashion police is always ready to judge the ones that have not understood that pink is the color of the season, or that gladiator sandals are so two-thousand and late. We often forget that there is an ethical aspect of following our passion for new and shiny at all (or rather less) costs.
I watched the video below, and could not hold back my tears. It is absolutely gruesome, but by sharing it I hope that I can help raise awareness and that maybe some of you out there also will start questioning the way we treat captivated animals for the sake of fashion and cash.

In a time where most people are living wealthier lives than at any other point in our collective history we have a shared responsibility to also care for those who don't have a voice in our society. Animals are not commodities, but living beings.

I would like to end this post with a famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:

A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members

Thank you!
And remember, sharing is caring.

Monday, November 18, 2013

News

Japanese Freshness Burger's Liberation Wrapper: How to eat with an Ochobo

Anette 11:30:00 PM

Maybe you have already heard about the Japanese burger chain called "Freshness Burger" and their campaign to make women eat more of their burgers? If not, you should check out this video for a short introduction:

So, as introduced in the video it is apparently considered bad for Japanese women to open their mouth wide while they eat. Instead one is supposed to have a small cute mouth, referred to as an "ochobo". The Japanese burger chain tried to solve this issue by creating a "Liberation Wrapper" with the face of a pretty lady printed on it. As a gaijin living in Tokyo this was something I just had to see for myself.

Yesterday I went with my boyfriend Yuma to visit our closest Freshness Burger restaurant out of curiosity for their Liberation Wrapper, and of course to feel the "liberation" of being able to devour a huge hamburger without having to worry about appearance. To our big disappointment the lady behind the counter claimed that the Liberation Wrapper had only been a Halloween-gimmick, and that they didn't have any pretty burger wrappers left (I'm not sure if this is the case for all Freshness Burger restaurants, or just the one we visited).. Way to ruin my day, right?! So I had no choice but to draw my own pretty mouth on the wrapper to be able to really enjoy the taste of the hamburger without feeling ashamed of myself. The only minor problem is that I'm not really that good at drawing. Here is the result:

I created my own Liberation Wrapper to try and consume the hamburger with my dignity intact..

Ok, I have to admit that I'm not being totally serious here.. Who would have guessed.. Although it was a bit disappointing that I could not get my picture taken with the real Liberation Wrapper I have to admit that I don't see myself becoming a frequent customer at Freshness Burger either way. And I'm certainly not going to buy a burger just for the sake of a wrapper ever again.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Osaka

Kansai International Airport to Kyoto: Easy Access by Airport Shuttle

Anette 11:46:00 PM

Are you planning to visit Kyoto and worry about getting to the city from Kansai International Airport?
The definitely easiest way to get to Kyoto from the airport is to reserve a seat on the shared ride shuttle service called the Yasaka Kansai Airport Shuffle. I used their bus 3-4 times during the time I lived in Kyoto, and it always saves me the stress of getting to my destination in Kyoto (or finding lost family members who have arrived for a visit).
All you have to do is reserving a seat through their internet page. By providing the address you'll be staying at in Kyoto, the driver will take you all the way to your destination. You have to share the bus with other travelers as well (the limousine bus takes max 8 passengers), and might thus have to wait for a little while until the other passengers arrive at the designated area.

Note: The shuttle bus is only available to passengers on flights

scheduled to arrive before 9:00 pm.

When you arrive at KIX, go to the Yasaka Information Desk on the 1st floor of Terminal 1.

Once the bus arrives in Kyoto the passengers get dropped off according to their destination. It might thus take some additional time if the other passengers are bound for a closer address.

The price for one person is 3500* yen (1750/children under 12), and you can also receive some handy discounts if you:

Reserve online (200 yen off)
Order a roundtrip (200 yen off)
Group - 3 or more people (200 yen off)
Family - One parent + up to two children (Half price for children up to elementary school age)
Student - Middle school and up (500 yen off. Remember to bring student ID)
Seniors - 70 and up (500 yen off)

*You can bring one large suitcase for free, but have to pay 1000 for each additional bag.

Note also that reservation online has to be done before 6:00 pm Japanese time the day before your flight.

For more information about the shuttle bus and reservation, click here.

Hotel Booking:

Hotels in Kyoto
Hotels in Osaka

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Osaka

All blogposts from Kyoto

All blogposts about hotels

All blogposts from Japan

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave me a comment or question below!
~Anette

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Mt. Fuji

Traveling Japan: Mt. Fuji and its Vicinity

Anette 5:24:00 PM

Earlier this year Mt. Fuji was included in UNESCO's World Heritage List, making it Japan's 17th site on the list. As result the old volcano has experienced increased popularity, and not surprisingly the number of climbers who want to reach the top of Mt. Fuji is also on a rise. But although the view from Mt. Fuji is supposed to be very nice (when I climbed Mt. Fuji last year the weather was so bad we could not see much besides the heavy clouds), it is perhaps even better to climb one of the nearby mountain to take a look at Mt. Fuji from afar.

Mt. Fuji seen from the camping area by lake Motosuko

Last weekend I went on a trip to the lake area around Mt. Fuji along with my BF Yuma and his parents for a two-day hiking/onsen/tourist-trip. Our first goal was to climb some of the small mountains surrounding Mt. Fuji in order to get a good view of the mountain. The area around Mt. Fuji is quite mountainous, and there are many routes to choose from. We had first planned to climb Ryugatake (龍ヶ岳), and we started out by the camping area by lake Motosuko (本栖湖) on the west side of the famous volcano. It is easy to find the track from there, and once you get to the sign that marks the entrance to the mountain trail you can follow the path all the way to the top.

Be aware of bears at Mt. Ryuugatake

Mt. Fuji seen from Mt. Ryuugaktake

At the summit of Mt. Ryuugatake

Apparently there are some legends behind the name Ryuugatake (Dragon Mountain) too. They all are quite similar, and build around the story that a dragon protected a village from Mt. Fuji's lava during an eruption. For more information about hiking Ryuugatake, see this page (Japanese only).

集合写真

After our day in the mountain we spent the evening at a traditional Japanese hotel (Ryokan) called Fuji Ginkei, situated by lake Kawaguchi (河口湖) with a nice view of Mt. Fuji. At the ryokan we were met with the utmost service, and after having gazed at Mt. Fuji from the hotel's outdoor hot bath (Rotenburo 露天風呂) it was time for Japanese style dinner. Traditional Japanese washoku (和食) food is another expected Japanese contribution to the World Heritage List, and unless you either can't stand raw fish or are generally skeptical to unusual food you're guaranteed to get a lot of satisfaction out of a full course washoku dinner. The staff really pay attention to the details, and every plate we got served looked like some sort of art.

The devil is in the detail.

Dinner time!

The view from our room. Unfortunately Mt. Fuji was all covered by clouds..

The next day it was quite cloudy so we could not get a proper view of Mt. Fuji from the hotel.. I've added this picture from Fuji Ginkei's homepage, depicting their outdoor onsen and Mt. Fuji:

Mt Fuji seen from Fuji Ginkei's outdoor onsen

There are several interesting places to visit in the area as well. We visited the Ichiku Kubota Art Museum, where in addition to exquisite kimonos you can enjoy the beautiful garden and various treasures collected by the artist himself from all around the world. Ichiku Kuboto became famous after having rediscovered the Tsujigahana dying technique that had been lost since the 17th century. His museum featured a large number of kimonos he has made through his life, but unfortunately visitors are not allowed to take photographs inside the museum. I've only snapped a couple of pictures of the garden.

The entrance to Ichiku Kubota Art Museum

A red tree seen from the museum's gate.

In the back of the museum there is a cafe where you can enjoy the view of the beautiful garden

A door inside the garden leading to..

Some of Ichiku Kubota's kimonos (take from the museums web page)

Another place that might be interesting to stop by for a short visit, is the small shrine called Tainai-jinja (胎内神社). From the outside it doesn't look like there is anything special about it, but when you enter you find that there is a hidden grotto in the back of the shrine's main building. The name Tainai actually means "interior of womb"...

Although Tainai jinja looks like an ordinary shrine, that is not totally the case..

A hidden pathway in the back of the shrine

A statue inside the "womb" grotto

Be prepared to have minimal space to move..

No place to be if you have claustrophobia..

I wouldn't recommend this place if you are afraid of being stuck underground.. But if you can cope with it, then this might be quite a unique experience to add to your list of adventures. It is not a very famous place, so there is not that information available. Place and description can however be found here.

My last picture from the trip. Mt. Fuji and the pretty red leaves..

All in all Mt. Fuji makes a great travel destination even if you don't intend to climb it. There are many places to visit in the area, and I personally think seeing Mt. Fuji from afar in itself is a must for anyone visiting Japan.

I would also like to add that I had a fantastic weekend with Yuma and his parents, and I'm lucky that I have such wonderful people in my life. Hopefully we'll get to spend some quality time together again in the near future.

Recommended Hotels close to Mt. Fuji

More Mt. Fuji Hotels

Hotel Kaneyamaen

Fuji Royal Hotel Kawaguchiko

Kawaguchiko Country Cottage Ban

This page contains affiliate links, and if you follow a link and make a hotel reservation through these links you help support this blog without any additional cost to you. Thank you so much for your kind support!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Rakuten

Press Conference with Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten CEO)

Anette 11:50:00 PM

Mikitani-san at FCCJ

A little while ago the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) held a professional luncheon with Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten (and my future boss). I got the chance to ask him a question about how to improve the conditions for working women in Japan, and it seems like it was included in their video below (first question):

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Rakuten
All post about working in Japan

Working at Rakuten - Introduction Training (研修) Summary!

The Rakuten Introduction Training

The Rakuten Café
in Shibuya

The Rakuten Group Noukai (納会)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

News

Japanese Mascots (ゆるキャラ): The Unpopular Hyakuman-san

Anette 4:40:00 PM

In recent years, the use of mascots in public context has gained increasing popularity in Japan. As a result, the number of mascots has skyrocketed, and any Japanese prefecture with a little self-respect naturally has a mascot of its own. Mascots are better known as "Yuru-Kyara " (ゆるキャラ) in Japanese , which can be translated into "loose characters". These characters are often made by the government to represent the prefecture externally, and are for instance used for marketing various products from the prefecture. The Japanese mascots participate in a wide variety of events on behalf of their prefecture, such as the annual Japanese sports festival, or through acting on TV as sumo wrestlers. And the mascots can become quite valuable for the places they represent. The mascot Kumamon from Kumamoto was named Japan's most popular mascot in an online survey in 2011, and in 2012 Kumamon artifacts were sold for more than 29 billion yen.

But even if yuru-kyara is a very popular phenomenon in Japan, it is still not all mascots who achieve glory. The latest example of this is Ishikawa-ken's new mascot with the appealing (?) name Hyakuman-san (百万さん, Mr. One Million). The Japanese morning show みのもんたの朝ズバッ! ( Mino Monta no Asa Zuba ! on TBS ) introduced the new mascot on their show last week , and announced that the mascot had created a fuzz in Ishikawa because a large number of citizens thought it looked ugly. Hyakuman-san looks like some kind of fancy gold colored daruma doll, decorated with flowers and with a large mustache. But it seems like a flowery and goldish mustache man does not quite do the trick in a country where everything is supposed to be sweet (“kawaii”) and innocent. Nevertheless, there have been examples before where unpopular yuru-kyara eventually has gained acceptance by the people. A good example is Nara's mascot, the controversial Buddha-deer Sento-kun. Sento-kun was also the center of ridicule for a long time, but despite criticism from various groups it seems like he is here to stay. Although Hyakuman-san seems to be rather a failure so far, perhaps also this yuru-kyara can manage to capture the hearts of the Japanese people eventually..

The unpopular Hyakuman-san (百万さん)

Here is a picture of Hyakuman-san. What do you think? Is he really as ugly as some people say?

(For those of you who can read Japanese, here is an article about Hyakuman-san featured in j-town)

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Kanazawa

All blogposts from Japan

Love hidden gems? Check out Onsen with Hansen — a channel where I uncover some of Japan’s most fascinating traditional ryokan inns.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Youtube

The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari..

Anette 8:33:00 AM

Must-see motivational video:

Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

"Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work." TED.com

"The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think this is somebody who is greedy, think this is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love"

In a world where we are pretty much driven by the capitalistic hunger for consumption it is good to take a brake once in a while and remembering the things that really makes us happy. Hope you enjoy the video!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Nagano

Hiking in Kamikōchi - The Japanese Alps: Mt. Yake (焼岳)

Anette 12:50:00 PM

Getting closer to the mountain

Although Japan might be most known for its major metropolitan areas like Tokyo there are also mountainous areas such as the so-called Japanese Alps on the main island Honshū. I've already visited the Japanese alps once this year, as Yuma and I climbed Mt. Chōgatake (蝶ヶ岳) in July. This time our goal was the summit of Mt. Yake (/Yakedake 焼岳), which actually is an active volcano and listed as one of Japan's 100 most famous mountains (百名山). We left Tokyo early Saturday morning with the bus from Shinjuku, and reached Nagano's Matsumoto city at 9 am. This time Yuma's father also joined us for the hike from Matsumoto, and together we took a taxi to the trail entrance and began the hike (although I would recommend taking the train from Matsumoto rather than a taxi. You can't go all the way to Kamikochi by train, but taking the taxi form Matsumoto takes about an hour and is thus sliiightly expensive..).

Autumn is on its way here in Japan, and as we walked through the green forest we could see a gradual increase in trees with red leaves. This phenomenon is known as kōyō (紅葉) in Japanese, a word that literarily means "red leaves". In October and November, the leaves of among others the blood maples turn red, and this time of the year is therefore widely regarded the kōyō-season in Japan.

Love hidden gems? Check out Onsen with Hansen — a channel where I uncover some of Japan’s most fascinating traditional ryokan inns.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Norway abroad

Japan Hardanger Club (日本ハルダンゲルクラブ) Performance at the Norwegian Embassy

Anette 12:09:00 PM

Yesterday we arranged a welcome concert at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo for seven mayors from Hardanger in Norway who are visiting Japan on a short business/promotion trip, and on that occasion members of the Japan Hardanger Club held a great Hardanger fiddle performance in the Arctic Hall. I’ve uploaded a short video of one of their songs for those who might be interested.

Representatives from Japan Hardanger Club led by Rio Yamase and seven Norwegian majors at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo

For more information about Japan Hardanger Club, please check out their homepage.

Related blogposts

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Norway abroad

Norway in Japan: Arne & Carlos Knitting Event

Anette 11:45:00 PM

We are arranging a wide variety of events at the embassy, and some of the events are about promoting Norwegian culture to a Japanese audience. Today the embassy held a promotion event for Arne and Carlos, who are famous in Norway and abroad for their fancy knitting designs. As a trainee at the embassy I've been helping out at the event with some simple task such as welcoming the guests at the gate:)

Arne & Carlos have just published a new book about knitting which also has been translated to Japanese.

For their promotion event at the embassy we welcomed among others visitors from various media such as the Japanese Vogue. The interest has been great in Japan, and apparently Arne & Carlos will have to increase the number of printed books already due to the popularity of the book.

Arne and Carlos presented many of the designs from their new book.

Arne and Carlos is also promoting knitting in other countries. The prince of Wales has recently been trying to promote wool as an environmental friendly material, and Arne and Carlos will be participating in his "wool week" later this month. The two of them are traveling the world promoting their cute knitting patterns, and will be visiting various countries until mid-December. Perhaps they'll come to your country too ;)