Three years ago I found myself in front of a class of 40 High School kids for the first time. I’d worked with children before (though they tended to throw things at me rather than sit silently staring.) This was a whole different situation. So I’ve written this slightly unconventional guide to ALTing so you can learn from my mistakes. This is a mix of practical tips and some more abstract ones that will hopefully help you get through the first few weeks more smoothly than I did

ALTing and the Art of Improv

If I was running an orientation for new ALTs, I’d replace almost all the talks with three days of improv classes. “Every situation is different,” is the realistic but often frustrating refrain heard at these orientations. Okay, so all your situations are going to be different. Then let’s learn how to improvise to suit any of them!

As I said, I have worked with kids before, but that experience didn’t give me as many ALTing skills as the Comedy Improvisation classes I took in college.

Mostly I’m talking about a mindset (though some improv games can also be adapted very neatly into English games too.) The most important one of these I think is the, “Yes, and…” mentality. In the classic improv game you have to accept what your partner says (yes). Then you add your own element to the story or performance (and…). It’s a practice in positivity and rolling with whatever comes your way.

When a Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) asks you to do something strange, (“Please talk about [random thing],”) reach for the “Yes, and…” When a kid says something a bit weird, cheeky, or even rude, just “Yes, and…” them.

Kid: “You became fat.”
Me: “Yes, and I’m practicing sumo.”

This attitude will help keep you from the nightmare situation of being flustered in front of class. It does take practice, but it is something you can learn. Personally I used “Yes, and…” almost everyday, even when I wasn’t speaking. I use a lot of gestures. Sometimes kids would imitate and mock me for them. I’d just do the gesture bigger and more ridiculous. It got a laugh and I kept control of the class, as well as of myself.

“Yes, and…” doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything. You can “No, but..” instead. The important thing is accepting that you’ve been told something and adding your own information.

Smile Until Your Face Falls Off

I suddenly became a much, much better ALT one gloomy day in October. I only had to change one thing – my face. After I arrived in August I had been walking around with a slightly terrified expression, like a dog confused by a lemon. Then one day I decided to smile. It wasn’t a particularly good day, I wasn’t smiling because I was happy. I simply decided to smile, no matter what happened.

Then suddenly it became a good day. Kids smiled back. Shy kids spoke up. Loud kids were loud in English. I felt like I’d discovered something magic. Those first few weeks my face actually hurt from perfecting my ALT face, but the benefits of smiling were amazing. Some of the changes were in the kids. They became more willing to talk to me, less sleepy in class, and discipline problems lessened. When my students wrote me letters, many of them wrote how they liked my smile.

The other changes were in myself. It was a positive feedback loop. I smiled – kids smiled – I was happy – I smiled more. I felt more confident, which made a huge difference in how I acted in class. Smiling is free. It is a simple thing, but it can make a big difference.

The ALT Voice

OK, so you’ve got your ALT face on. Now let’s work on your voice. That smile you’ve already got is affecting how your voice sounds. Try it. With a straight face say, “This is a weird experiment that Tofugu is making me do,” Then smile and try saying it again. Listen to how your voice changes. That smiley voice is part of developing an ALT voice.

Now slow it down and speak louder.

Really, really slow and really really loud.

Even slower! Even louder!

There you go. That’s your ALT voice. It took me weeks of confused students’ stares before a teacher took me aside and told me I was speaking too fast and too quietly. Three years later and my ALT voice makes kids sit up and listen. I once even used it to great effect on a drunk, semi-naked Russian man, but that’s a story for another time.

Don’t strain yourself. As an ALT your voice is your most important tool, so take care of it. Projecting your voice doesn’t mean you have to shout. Try to speak from your diaphragm. Doing some voice exercises will help you develop the endurance you’ll need to genki your way through six classes in a row and still be up for karaoke that night.

Games vs. Motivation

Games, games, games. How I hate games. Okay, that’s an over simplification but I do hate being a clown, not a teacher. This is a classroom, not a children’s birthday party. I’m talking specifically about Senior High School and maybe the upper years of Junior High School. Games will only get you so far in motivating older kids. What really motivates them is a feeling that they are learning something and are improving. You can have fun in class, but fun that teaches the students something relevant is best. If you are doing a game, try to make sure it’s linked to the material the students are studying. That can be harder than it sounds, especially if your JTE doesn’t cooperate and tell you what material the class is covering, but persevere if you can. You may have to remind some JTEs that you are an ALT and the T stands for teacher.

The other thing that motivates students is realism. Let me tell you the tale of the worst game I ever saw. A JTE had printed out vegetable pictures. Students had to walk around and ask each other “Please give me carrot,” or “Please give me potato.” To which the other students responded, “I give you carrot,” or “I give you potato,” as they handed over the cards.

“I give you carrot.” That’s not English! Have you ever said that? Has anyone ever said that? Of course the game ended with the kids getting bored and simply giving up and sitting down. I don’t blame them. What is the point of learning English like that?

When I was asked to make a similar activity I put as much realism into it as I could. To create a realistic setting, I divided the class into shoppers and shopkeepers. Each shopper had a different shopping list. Each shopkeeper had different goods to sell from their “shop”. The important thing was that, even though we were still in their classroom in Japan, we’d made that classroom as close to a realistic shopping experience as we could. The students responded with much more enthusiasm than if they’d been asked to say, “I give you carrot.”

Realia, or real items from your home country, are great for creating a true-to-life setting. Props are great tools too. Even a simple thing like using a book for a passport when doing an airport role-play can make a difference. I can’t overstate the power of hats either, especially with younger students. Students are often willing to suspend their disbelief if you give them something to hang it on.

A good rule to remember, and to tell your JTEs, is if it wouldn’t be interesting in Japanese, then it’s not going to be interesting in English. English doesn’t magically make something cool (despite what all the Engrish on T-shirts would have you think.)

Building Your ALT Kit Bag

Whether you are stationed at one school or 20, you can make your ALTing life easier by making yourself a kit bag. Grab it and go!

Shoes!

Comfortable indoor shoes! As you probably know, in most Japanese schools, people wear a different pair of shoes indoors. There are slippers provided for guests. Avoid these slippers at all costs. They only wish you pain, suffering, and broken ankles. Get your own pair of comfy shoes that you can easily jump around in. They don’t have to be smart, just something you can stand up and run around in all day. If you travel to different schools, consider getting a drawstring shoe bag. It looks more professional than a plastic bag and makes it easy to carry your shoes around.

English Posters

You can make any classroom an English room if you prepare some posters and take a few magnets. A lot of schools don’t have a dedicated English room, but you can still throw up some portable posters before the start of the class to create a good English learning environment. Mine include different ways to answer, “How are you?”, a poster about the benefit of mistakes, and a few useful classroom English phrases. As well as encouraging kids, making posters is a good way to spend your desk hours.

A Timer

A very useful tool for keeping students and yourself on track.

A Set of Laminated Pictures

Or other simple, flexible activity materials. I just went online and found about 40 interesting pictures. They have saved me many times from the dreaded “Please do an activity,” request that comes 5 minutes before a class.

Your Self-Introduction Materials

You never know when a school is going to surprise you with a class of students they have kept hidden for months.

Educate Yourself on Education

There is a debate to be had about employing ALTs who have no formal teaching qualifications. While that debate is interesting, the reality of the current situation is that many ALTs, private or JET, come to Japan with little teaching experience or pedagogical training. So if you are one of those ALTs, I’d really encourage you to do some research. It’s not the same as teacher training, but if you can familiarize yourself with teaching theory you’ll have a skeleton to build your teaching around.

One of the turning points for me as an ALT was working at a seminar run by Dr Olenka Bilash. She is a Canadian educator who works with the Hokkaido Board of Education to improve English teaching. Her website is a good place to go to understand some ways of thinking about education, particularly aspects which are often lacking in Japan, such as student output (“using it” and “proving it”) and how assessment should feed back into how children are taught. At that seminar, I saw that there were better ways of teaching English than the read-repeat-read-repeat I’d mostly seen in Japanese classrooms. Perhaps more importantly, I learned how to talk with JTEs about my ideas using terms they were familar with.

My interest was sparked and from there I began my own research into resources for teachers that went beyond print and play games. Once I had a better grasp of some of the theories behind education, I was able to design my own activities to suit my students. What I know can’t compare to a trained teacher, but even a little understanding is better than nothing. There are so many books and internet resources. Personally, I recommend Teach Like a Champion by Norman Atkins, as it has a lot of practical advice that really works.

Educate Yourself on English

Okay, so you’ve got your kit bag, you’ve spent those long hours at your desk studying up on educational theory, you are ready to go! Not quite. You need to do a bit of English study too.

“But I’m a native speaker/native speaker level,” I hear you say, “I’m crazy good at English.” Dear Tofugu reader, that is what I thought too, but I was wrong. I have a Masters in writing and I still get stumped by our bizzare language sometimes. While I might be able to function in English, that’s not the same as being able to teach it. I have done many a frantic Google search to remind myself which are transitive and which are intransitive verbs. You need know the vocabulary to talk about sentence constructions that you’ve probably been using since you learned how to talk. I was never taught those at school, especially some of the obscure ones used in Japan.

The good news is that almost all ALTs say that they’ve learned more about English since coming to Japan than they ever knew before. Don’t worry. You already speak the language. You just have to review the bits of English that we use to talk about English. You can get a head start by Googling some grammar guides and glancing at the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Even so, remember that no matter how prepared you are, some really archaic grammar patterns pop up in Japanese grammar books now and then. Unfortunately, Japanese Exams haven’t been updated for a while, so kids still have to learn these constructions, even if you feel like you’ve stepped out of a black and white movie when you say them. If you get stumped, don’t feel down. Learning English is an ongoing activity. You’ll never truly be finished, and I think that’s kind of cool.

Final Hints and Tricks

I’ve got three final things to share with you.

First is the best thing I learned at my orientation. If you see a JTE make a spelling or pronunciation mistake, don’t say, “Hey that’s wrong!” Instead use the wonderful variety of the English language to your advantage. The phrase, “Maybe that’s the American spelling. In Britain we write it like this…” has saved me many times, even when I knew that it was just flat out wrong. Swap American with British, Canadian or Australian etc. as you wish. You might be significantly better at English than the JTEs you work with, but by avoiding stepping on their toes you’ll make your own life easier in the long run.

Secondly, three words that changed my students’ participation rates massively: THINK, PAIR, SHARE. I got this from a presentation on ALTing given by the excellent teacher Rashidat Amanda Oumiya. First, write the words THINK, PAIR, SHARE on the board. Sometimes I illustrate them too. Then you give the students a question or discussion topic. Put a timer under THINK. They have 1 minute to think silently by themselves. Next move the timer under PAIR. Students practice saying their answer with their partner for 2 minutes or so. Finally, move the timer to under SHARE and ask for volunteers. Sometimes you’ll still have to pick out students if they are very shy, but even so, they’ll be more comfortable and prepared to answer. Basically, this is a framework to encourage reluctant Japanese students to volunteer by letting them know it is expected of them from the start of the activity. Moving the timer serves as an extra visual hint. Make sure you explain it clearly the first time and it can really help.

Finally, in Japan a correct answer is marked with a circle. A wrong answer is marked with a tick or line. Don’t do what I did and mark a whole batch of work with ticks and crosses before you find out!

Good luck brave, new ALTs! You will face challenges, especially if you are placed in a bad school, but ALTing can be quite rewarding. Don’t beat yourself up in those first few weeks if it’s tough. I’m sure you’ll find your own groove in no time! Just remember to smile!

Bonus Wallpapers!

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“Warunyan is cool, but Orochi is stronger!” a boy standing nearby shouted.

“I like Kyuubi!” another boy added as students gathered around the table.

My mind had stalled at Warunyan. Were my students speaking another language? What was Orochi? Who was Kyuubi? What was going on?!

Better than Pokemon

“What are you talking about?” I finally asked.

“They’re characters in Yo-Kai Watch (妖怪ウォッチ).” The answer offered little understanding. Yo-kai are Japanese ghosts. But what about the “watch”? Did it mean “to view”? Was it an actual wrist watch? Or did it have some other Japanese-English meaning? Was it an TV show? A game? The tables had turned, I became the student.

“It’s a game and anime,” one student explained.

“There’s a manga too,” a girl standing nearby added.

For years I prided myself on staying on top of the latest trends among students. Pokémon and Kamen Rider remained my student’s favorites year after year. But something new had crept into the picture. I had never heard of these characters. Had I finally fallen into the generation gap?

“You catch yo-kai. I have almost all of them.” a boy bragged.

“So it’s like Pokémon?” I asked.

“It’s better!” Nearby students nodded in agreement.

Better than Pokémon?! Could it be true? Did this Yo-kai Watch dethrone the reigning king?

Back in the late 1990’s I played Pokémon Blue on an old spinach-screened Gameboy. I never imagined the series would still be relevant nearly twenty years later – or that I’d be writing about it.

But Pokémon grew into a media giant, bolstering its popularity with popular games, anime, movies and cards. In Japan its characters are inescapable – appearing on t-shirts, socks, shoes, on bentou boxes and in bentou boxes as food.

Thanks to Pokémon, I could start conversations with most students. We discussed Pikachu and listed our favorite Pokémon – mine is Bulbasaur (Fushigidane in Japanese) just for the love saying it. Pokémon became a key to my students’ world.

But the times changed and I lost step. If I wanted stay on-top, I needed to experience Yo-kai Watch for myself.

The World of Yo-kai Watch

If you’re familiar with Pokémon or similar series, you know what to expect. One day a boy named Keita ventures into the woods hunting for bugs but finds the yo-kai named Whisper instead. Whisper gives Keita a watch that enables him to see and summon yo-kai.

Thanks to the open premise, Keita gets into all sorts of adventures. At times he’s a spirit detective, investigating strange occurrences or helping and befriending yo-kai. Other times Keita uses yo-kai to help himself or friends. Of course yokai battle as well.

Unlike Pokémon, Yo-kai Watch is set in “real-life” Japan. Most conflicts take place at Keita’s home, school or around his neighborhood. This gives the series a definitive Japanese feel.

The yo-kai add to the franchise’s Japanese stylings. Yo-kai Watch’s art walks a squiggly line between Pokémon’s monsters and Ni no Kuni’s familiar’s. But unlike those series, most of the yo-kai carry a distinct Japanese style – inspired by Japan’s classic ghosts and monsters.

For example there’s Jinmenken the human-faced dog. Naruto and Digimon fans will recognize Kyuubi the nine-tailed fox. A kappa, red and blue oni, and the wall monster nurikabe also appear.

If it sounds like Yo-kai Watch follows the footsteps of similar franchises, that’s because it does. By emulating strategies utilized by its predecessors, Yo-kai Watch is taking the child market by storm.

Child-Empowerment

Like many series before it, Yo-kai Watch empowers children. From Momotaro to Tetsujin 28, Japan has a long, rich history of stories that depict powerful, confident children facing adult (not in that way!) or other-worldly responsibilities.

Child audiences relate to child heroes, as if they can be heroes themselves. Popular child-empowerment series include Pokémon, Digimon, Pretty Cure and Jewelpet. Although the child hero has a long history in Japan, more franchises embrace it’s marketing value than ever before. Yo-kai Watch is no exception.

The Anime Angle

As with Pokémon, Yo-kai Watch debuted with a game, but an anime tie-in soon followed. Animated series expose aduiences to the game’s universe, acting as a high-budget, high-quality infomercial. Yo-kai Watch is no exception with quality animation, a catchy bgm and jokes that had me laughing.

But Yo-kai Watch engages its audience in a way few of its predecessors have. Keita utilizes each yo-kai’s specific skill-sets to overcome conflicts, challenging child viewers to practice logical thinking and problem solving skills. The show is more engaging as a result.

The Game Angle

Anime and game combos deepen the audience’s connection to a series. Instead of passively watching a hero’s actions, children can literally act as the hero.

For example, Pokémon players catch their own Pokémon, battle Pokémasters and earn their own badges. A game provides players the power to forge their own paths, separate from the anime’s story.

The same is true of Yo-kai Watch. Although players take the role of Keita, they wander the neighborhood, catching and battling yo-kai themselves. Their choices determine their success in the game – either by “beating it” or completing their yo-kai collection.

The Lure of Collectables

Yo-kai Watch embraces another staple of its predecessors – collectables. From bugs, to baseball cards, to pogs, and Beanie Babies, kids love collecting things. And the toy market obliges, with consistent new offerings.

Pokémon took collecting to new heights. Children had to catch ’em all – both in the game and in the real world as toys and cards.

Yo-kai Watch takes a similar route. Fans can collect yo-kai in the game and in real life, as yo-kai medals that represent the franchise’s characters. Collectables add a physical experience to a game and anime.

Choice – The Ultimate Empowerment

Famed psychologist Edward L. Deci stated, “Individuals… are likely to enjoy, prefer, and persist at activities that provide them with opportunities to make choices, to control their own outcomes, and to determine their own fates” (Chua 44).

Choice sparks interest (enjoyment) and feelings of power and responsibility (control) in both children and adults. It’s no coincidence that many of today’s franchises exploit our preference for choice.

Yo-kai Watch is no exception. Which yo-kai will you level up? Which metal will you trade with your friend? How will you organize your collection? Where will you store it? Yo-kai Watch’s games and collectables empower and satisfy children with virtual and material acts of choice, possession, organization, and responsibility.

Yo-kai Watch Appeals to Both Sexes

While series like Kamen Rider and Jewelpet focus on a specific gender, Pokémon and Yo-kai Watch tap a larger share of the market by appealing to both sexes. How do they accomplish this?

First, Pokémon and Yo-kai Watch games allow players to choose their sex. Next, Pokémon and Yo-kai Watch’s characters designs appeal to both sexes, varying in style and color. There are cool, masculine creatures as well as cute, feminine ones. Finally Yo-kai Watch staged a unique manga strategy. According to Wikipedia there are separate shōnen (boy’s) and shōjo (girl’s) versions of the manga.

By following in Pokémon’s footsteps and utilizing a marketing strategy of its own, it’s no wonder Yo-kai Watch garnered cross-gender appeal. In fact, I have never seen a series that had so many boys and girls talking about it.

Yo-kai Come West

While Yo-kai Watch has yet to debut in the West, plans are in the works. “We think there’s a fair chance (of a western localization),” Siliconera.com reported, “since Level-5 filed a trademark for Yo-kai Watch in the USA.”

Marc Harrington, of Dentsu Entertainment USA commented, “Several American companies that keep their eye on Japanese content and ratings success have already expressed interest in the title.”

But how will it fare? Can Yo-kai Watch recreate Pokémon’s global success? Pokémon’s ambiguous setting and characters give it a broad appeal in the global market. Unlike Pokémon, Yo-kai Watch is definitively Japanese, which has lead to mixed results in the past.

But the times are changing. Due to availability and exposure, today’s Western audiences are more accustomed to Japanese media and culture. If Japan-centric Digimon could find success abroad, there’s no reason to believe Yo-kai Watch can’t. The only question is, to what degree?

I’ll Be Yo-kai Watch-ing

Becoming familiar with children’s interests creates a bridge to their world. As a teacher, parent or friend that connection can overcome age differences and forge strong relationships.

By familiarizing myself with Yo-kai Watch, a child marketing juggernaut, I’ve climbed out of the generation gap and rejoined my students’ conversations. Whisper has replaced Pikachu at our recess discussions and we now list our favorite yo-kai instead of Pokémon – mine is Kyuubi because it looks badass and is fun to say. I just hope Yo-kai Watch becomes a long-time success, so I can ride its popularity for decades to come.

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Sources

• Chua, Roy Y.J., and Sheena S. Iyengar. “EMPOWERMENT THROUGH CHOICE? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF CHOICE IN ORGANIZATIONS.” Research in Organizational Behavior: An Annual Series of Analytical Essays and Critical Reviews. v27. 2006. 41-79.
• Ishaan. “‘Several’ American Companies Interested In Yo-kai Watch Anime. Siliconera
• Level 5
• Spencer. “Yo-kai Watch Trademark From Level-5 Hints The 3DS Game Might Come Over.” Siliconera
• Wikipedia – Yo-kai Watch

Japanese history, like most national histories, tends to be a bit of a sausage fest–an emperor here, a samurai there, and some Buddhist monks thrown in for good measure. It’s my hope that this series will fill in some of those gender gaps and show you why the badassery of Japan’s womenfolk deserves to be recognized too! On top of that, individual biographies are one of my favorite ways to imagine and learn more deeply about Japanese history as it was lived–almost like my very own low-tech RPG.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce to you the one and only Tomoe Gozen, a 12th century warrior woman who slashed her way to samurai stardom, leaving severed heads and several manga series in her wake. Tomoe stands out as one of Japan’s extraordinarily rare woman warriors who engaged in offensive battle, known as onna musha. These women can be differentiated from the defensive female fighters known as onna bugeisha, a population that John’s already written about: Empress Jingu and the Mighty Onna Bugeisha. Although most representations of Tomoe depict her wielding a naginata, the traditional “woman’s weapon” of an onna bugeisha, her weapons of choice were actually the long sword and the bow and arrow.

But before we dig further into the nitty gritty details of Tomoe’s illustrious military career, let’s set the stage for slaughter.

Japan’s Civil War

Tomoe Gozen had the misfortune to live during a time of extraordinary political and social upheaval. The Genpei War laid waste to capital and countryside from 1180 until 1185, marking a dramatic end to the aristocratic Heian period (794-1185) and ushering in the age of the samurai. But what got everyone’s panties into such a bunch in the first place?

Well, Japan’s civil war was essentially an over-the-top family feud over control of the imperial throne, pitting the refined, aristocratic, Kyoto-based Taira clan against the rough, countrified, provincial-based Minamoto clan. The Taira had the upper hand until they were driven out of Kyoto by their alienated vassals in 1183. The Minamoto then proceeded to win key battles at Yashima and Dannoura, virtually wiped out the Taira in the wake of victory, and established Japan’s very first shogunate in Kamakura, where Minamoto descendants would rule from until 1333.

More than 800 years after the last battlefield casualty had fallen, the Genpei War continues to be fought within the Japanese cultural imagination. Numerous movies, novels, and video games have been based on the war, and the Taira and Minamoto fighting colors (red for the former, white for the latter) are not only emblematic of Japan (including the national flag) but also are used to divide people into competitive teams.

Look no further than the annual New Years’ singing competition NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, also known as “Red and White Song Battle” (above).

Concubine Today, Samurai Tomorrow

Needless to say, the Genpei War was a brutal and bloody affair. And it was in this inu eat inu world that Tomoe Gozen—against all odds—made a name for herself as a legendary warrior renowned for her beauty, physical strength, and martial skills.

Due to the contradictory nature of medieval sources and legends that accumulated over the years, Tomoe’s personal life remains an enigma. Her love life, however, is one of the few things we can be relatively certain about. She was definitely more than friends with Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka (otherwise known as Minamoto no Yoshinaka)–most likely she was one of his concubines but she’s also been described as one of his wives or “female attendants.”

Although details such as Tomoe’s birth and death date were and are contested, there is overwhelming consensus regarding her military career and her status as an exceptionally skilled and brave warrior.

Occupation: Badass

Tomoe was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with—equipped with strong bow and long sword, sheathed in armor, and charging on horseback to defend friends and vanquish foes. Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka was so impressed by her skill as an archer and her courage as a warrior that he appointed her as his leading commander (ippo no taisho) in the Genpei War.

Key instances of Tomoe’s badassery include:

• 6th month of 1181 at the Battle of Yokotagawara: Tomoe defeats and collects the heads of 7 mounted warriors (at a time and in a place when head collections were coveted like Oscar trophies).

• 5th month of 1183 at the Battle of Tonamiyama: Leads over 1,000 of Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka’s cavalry to victory.
• 1st month of 1184 at the Battle of Uchide no Hama: Leads 300 of Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka’s forces into an impossible battle against 6,000 Taira cavalry and emerges as one of only 5 Minamoto survivors.

Little did Tomoe know that her head-severing days were almost over—her military exploits came to a dramatic end with her unexpected retirement during the 1184 Battle of Awazu. By this point, the Minamoto had turned the tide against the Taira and were poised to take over the country. But just when you’d think the Minamoto clan would be joining in a big sweaty group hug, they ramped up the family drama with a knock-down drag-out fight for the right to be shogun.

Contestant number one was none other than Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka with Tomoe Gozen by his side, and the challenger was his cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo with the legendary Minamoto no Yoshitsune fighting on his behalf. It was a bad day for Camp Tomoe.

When Lord Kiso Yoshinaka’s forces dwindled to five, he commanded Tomoe to quit the field. Reluctant to desert the battle and reluctant to disobey him, Tomoe made a compromise—she would follow orders, but not before engaging in one final battle to impress her lord and lover, demonstrate her loyalty, and redeem her honor.

Ever the overachiever, Tomoe rode head on into a pack of 30 mounted Taira warriors, picked the worthiest opponent among them (famed strongman Onda no Hachiro), and promptly beheaded him. You know, as one does.

After Awazu

Not long after Tomoe’s final triumph, Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka was fatally wounded, leaving Minamoto no Yoritomo uncontested in his role as head of the clan and ultimately as shogun of the country.

But what became of our heroine? Unfortunately no one knows for sure.

Some say she was captured by Minamoto no Yoritomo’s henchman Wada Yoshimori during the battle of Kyoto, forced to become his concubine, and then gave birth to the legendary strongman Asahina Saburo Yoshihide. Others say she became a Buddhist nun, reciting sutras on behalf of the late Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka’s soul until her death at the ripe old age of 91. Still others say she avenged Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka by killing his attackers, stealing back Yoshinaka’s head so no one else could defile it, and then walked out into the sea—head in hand—to drown. And sometimes elements from all three of these stories get put into a blender to churn out yet another whimsical and speculative tale.

Whatever the circumstances of her subsequent life and death, Tomoe has accumulated quite a reputation for herself over the last eight centuries, blurring history and myth in genres as divergent as kabuki and television, woodblock prints and manga. Let’s check out a few of her many reincarnations…

The “Warrior Worth A Thousand”

Before there were Netflix-equipped iPhones, there were itinerant biwa-playing blind priests. Not long after the Genpei War ended, these entertainers fashioned the raw material of recent history into the Heike monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), Japan’s greatest war epic (or gunkimono). Comparable in scope and influence to the West’s Iliad, the Heike monogatari recasts the Genpei War as a struggle between the Heike and the Genji clans (the Taira and Minamoto, respectively), emphasizing the tragic downfall of the Taira family as a metaphor for the Buddhist philosophy of the transitory nature of all things. These storytellers were priests, after all.

The Heike monogatari text’s definitive form was reached in the 14th century, and its celebrated opening lines can give you a pretty good sense of what it’s all about:

The sound of the Gion Shoja bells echoes the impermanence of all things, the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind. (Helen McCullough, The Tale of the Heike, page 23)

Now if that’s not epic, I don’t know what is. But let’s not forget who brought us here in the first place. Tomoe’s brief but unforgettable appearance in Chapter 4, “The Death of Lord Kiso,” is one of the most frequently studied passages in the entire Heike monogatari. She gets a pretty impressive introduction:

Kiso no Yoshinaka had brought with him from Shinano two female attendants, Tomoe and Yamabuki. Yamabuki had fallen ill and stayed in the capital. Of the two, Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors. Thus she was now one of the seven who remained after all the others had fled or perished. (Helen McCullough, The Tale of the Heike, page 191)

And when those remaining seven dwindled to five…

Even then, Tomoe remained alive.
“Quickly now,” Lord Kiso said to Tomoe. “You are a woman, so be off with you; go wherever you please. I intend to die in battle, or kill myself if I am wounded. It would be unseemly to let people say, ‘Lord Kiso kept a woman with him during his last battle.’
Reluctant to flee, Tomoe rode with the others until she could resist no longer. Then she pulled up. “Ah! If only I could find a worthy foe. I would fight a last battle for his lordship to watch.” She thought.
As she sat there, thirty riders came into view, led by Onda no Hachiro Moroshige, a man renowned in Musashi province for his great strength. Tomoe galloped into their midst, rode up alongside Moroshige, seized him in a powerful grip, pulled him down against the pommel of her saddle, held him motionless, twisted off his head, and threw it away. Afterward, she discarded helmet and armor and fled toward the eastern provinces. (Helen McCullough, The Tale of the Heike, page 192)

This “battlefield retreat” scene has been heavily debated. Why does Yoshinaka suddenly give the middle finger to Tomoe, his greatest ally? What’s up with that? Was it simply out of embarrassment about Tomoe’s gender, even though he never seemed to mind that before? Did he fear for her safety? Was he jealous of the possibility that she might die a more glorious death than him? Did he just want someone from his own army to survive, someone to pray for his soul to the gods and to sing his praises to the people?

All speculation aside, the Heike monogatari was an important first step towards imortalizing Tomoe as a legendary figure–but it certainly was not the last.

Tomoe Takes the Stage

What the heck happened to Tomoe after she fled to the “eastern provinces”? One 15th century Noh play offers a theory. Imaginatively titled “Tomoe,” this theatrical ghost story resurrects Tomoe Gozen as a grieving, resentful spirit bound to Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka’s shrine at Awazu. As it turns out, she’s pretty pissed that she wasn’t allowed to die with her master and has been stewing at this shrine ever since. The Buddhist monk who finds her prays for her soul, but there’s no telling how effective that was.

While Noh plays are generally more famous for their meditative calm than their action-packed fight scenes, Tomoe does show off some of her moves with a naginata in this scene (despite the fact that she actually used a sword and bow):

After this depressing role, Tomoe turned to live-action comedy. She stole the show as the lead in Onna shibaraku, a one-hour extravaganza that continues to be one of the most popular and frequently performed kabuki plays even though it first appeared in 1746. Onna shibaraku is parody of the original Shibaraku, a flamboyant and flashy tale of a samurai hero who thwarts an evil lord about to execute innocent nobles who oppose him. When the samurai hero swoops in to save the day, he halts the villain in his tracks by shouting “Shibaraku!” (“Wait a minute!”) and then proceeds to mow down the evil lord and his cronies.

Onna shibaraku replaces the original samurai hero with none other Tomoe Gozen. However, as a parody, the actor who plays her undercuts Tomoe’s achievements by behaving with exaggerated feminine helplessness and confusion, exploiting the presumption that a woman single-handedly defeating these men is laughably ridiculous. You can see for yourself in this scene:

Flash forward to the 21st century and Tomoe Gozen is unapologetically kicking ass and taking names. In August of 2013, Meijiza Theater staged “Tomoe Gozen: Legend of the Female Warrior,” a time-travel action-adventure epic. The basic premise? A modern 21st century woman suddenly finds herself transplanted into a 12th century war zone—and everyone is calling her Tomoe for some reason. All in all, it delivers a pretty contemporary message about the potential every woman has to be strong, independent…and to wear anachronistically revealing leather armor! Check out the trailer below:

From tortured Buddhist ghost to punch line of a parody to contemporary role model, Tomoe Gozen’s stage appearances have been numerous and varied, reflecting centuries of shifting values. The Noh theater’s “Tomoe” and Kabuki’s “Onna Shibaraku” continue to be periodically performed, and Meijiza Theater’s “Legend of the Woman Warrior” just might get a revival, but it’d be a gamble to book travel plans on their behalf. Luckily, there other more reliable venues where you can still catch a glimpse of Tomoe for yourself.

Tomoe Today

If you’re the festive type, don’t miss Tomoe’s annual appearance in Kyoto’s extravagant “Festival of the Ages” (Jidai Matsuri). One of Kyoto’s “Three Great Festivals,” the Jidai Matsuri happens every year on October 22nd. The jidai gyoretsu is no doubt the highlight of the festivities: a five-hour, two-kilometer pageant-parade featuring around 2,000 people dressed as historical figures from Japan’s earliest recorded times up through the Meiji period (until 1912). As you can imagine, important figures from the Genpei War era are well-represented and Tomoe rides among them in a curious combination of courtly make-up and warrior gear.

If crowds and costumes aren’t your thing, you might want to stop by one of the numerous graveyards that claim to be Tomoe’s final resting place. The two most worthwhile to visit in their own right are probably the ones located at Gichuji Temple in Shiga prefecture and Tokuonji Temple in Nagano prefecture.

Although its origins are obscure, Gichuji Temple claims to have been founded in the 12th century with the purpose of mourning Lord Kiso no Yoshinaka. Legend has it that Tomoe built a thatched hut near his grave, began holding memorial services there, and was buried on the site. There’s a stone bearing her name and the surrounding temple scenery is beautiful—after all, this was one of the famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho’s favorite stomping grounds and he’s also buried there by his request.

Tomoe’s Grave via Wikipedia

A statue of Tomoe stands guard next to Kiso no Yoshinaka at Tokuonji, the Kiso family temple. Here you’ll find a museum displaying all things Kiso, Yoshinaka’s mausoleum (a memorial more than a grave, because his body isn’t there), and another one of Tomoe’s graves overlooking a small shrine and a bronze statue of herself on horseback.

Tomoe Gozen and Kiso Yoshinaka statue via Wikimedia

But if you don’t want to leave the house at all, you can always lock yourself in your mother’s basement with a stack of Tomoe-related TV shows, manga, video games, and novels. Even not counting pop culture that deals more broadly with the Genpei War, there’s still plenty of Tomoe to go around.

How about Samurai Deeper Kyo, a manga series that ran from 1999 to 2006 and featured Saisei as the zombie-like reincarnation of Tomoe Gozen? Or maybe Tomoe ga yuku (“There Goes Tomoe”), the popular Bessatsu Shojo comic serial and short-lived anime following the misadventures of bad-girl biker Tomoe and her hidden love for stuntman Tokoro? You can immerse yourself in a fantastical murder mystery as Tomoe Gozen in the RPG video game Shin Megami Taisei: Persona 4. Or you can immerse yourself in a historical fantasy with American writer Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s Tomoe Gozen trilogy. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. After all this, you might be asking yourself…

What’s So Great About Tomoe Gozen?

By all accounts, Tomoe possessed exceptional military skills—in archery, swordsmanship, and horsemanship—that made her a valued warrior in her own time and a celebrated figure for future generations. Furthermore, according to cultural historian Professor Steven T. Brown, Tomoe Gozen’s name “has become synonymous with the image of the woman warrior in Japanese cultural history.”

Even if you’re not personally inclined toward slinging arrows and swinging swords (or even if you’re a pacifist like myself), it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer fact of Tomoe’s existence—that the patriarchal samurai class accepted this woman warrior into their ranks, and that she was able to make contributions in the very area that the male-dominated military establishment valued most. Her very rarity heightens her importance as a symbolic figure of female independence and achievement.

Bonus Trivia: Just One of Many Tomoe?

As it turns out, Tomoe might not have been such a rare specimen, after all. Recent archeological evidence has detected a staggering female presence in warrior grave sites, women otherwise unaccounted for in–and possibly deliberately excluded from–traditional historical texts. A headmound excavated from the site of the 1580 Battle of Senbon Matsubaru revealed that 35 of the 105 heads buried there were female. DNA testing on two other battlefield gravesites had similarly gender-stratified results. Only time (and shrunken heads) will tell if this pattern bears out more widely across place and time, so stay tuned…

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Impressions of Kamiyama

As we drove I soaked in the scenery – the turquoise Akuigawa River below us and the brilliant green mountains rising up before us. Kamiyama is a rugged but beautiful mountain town tucked away in western Tokushima Prefecture. Although an exodus to more convenient areas has Kamiyama’s population thinning, a budding community of artists call the town home. Our host is one of them.

I wondered – what does a tenugui artisan look like? A vision of a wise, bearded old man, trusted dog by his side, puffing from a pipe as he used ancient techniques to create breathtaking tenugui came to mind. Perhaps the fresh country air inspired my wild imagination, but when we arrived I found the image hadn’t strayed far from the truth.

The house sat tucked away between the river and mountains – off the main road but close enough to be convenient. Although he wasn’t old, our host greeted us with a bearded smile and handsome dog by his side. He gave off a relaxed, natural vibe – wearing earth toned clothes, sandals and with his long hair wrapped in a towel. He was much cooler and vibrant than the old man I imagined.

“Hi! I’m Takimoto Somesho, nice to meet you.”

Making Tenugui

After greeting us and introducing us to his dog, Takimoto-san invited us around back to show us his works-in-progress. There, two long sheets of white cloth hung stretched out horizontally over thin bamboo sticks. The long cloths would eventually be cut into six tenugui.

“Stretching it out,” Takimoto-san explained, “makes it easy to dye.” He lifted a small bucket filled with yellowish-brown liquid. “This is ume (梅 – plum) dye. With the tenugui stretched out, I apply it like this.” He took a thick brush from the pale and swept it back and forth over the cloth. Flipping the cloth over, he made sure to brush both sides. “I’ll repeat this process until it’s the color I want.”

A bucket of Takimoto-san’s all natural plum-tree dye.

Brushing one side…

…and then the other.

The rice paste allows Takimoto-san to draw designs on the cloth.

Indigo plants make Tokushima’s traditional blue dyes.

Takimoto-san poses with a work-in-progess.

He pointed to one end of the cloth that appeared darker than the rest. “I treated this end with baisen.” I scrambled for my dictionary but didn’t need it. “It sets the dye,” Takimoto-san explained. The English term – taken from french – is mordant.

Nearby another cloth hung, stretched out in the sun. A glue like substance had been applied to it in lines and circles. “I make this from rice,” Takimoto-san explained. “I apply it to areas I don’t want the dye to take.”

“So it’s like a stencil on a silk screen?”

“Yes. If I apply it to both sides, the dye won’t color the covered areas. It’s a natural printing technique. But the technique can only be used with the brush-on method. Soaking cloths in dyes involves heat that would melt the rice paste. So it’s impossible to use in that situation. That’s why I use the brush.”

The Interview

After showing us his current projects, Mr. Takimoto graciously agreed to an interview to satisfy our tenugui curiosities.

Q: What spawned your interest in tenugui?

Tenugui and ancient, natural dyeing techniques are an important part of Japanese cultural heritage. They are particularly important to Tokushima which has a long, rich history of aizome (indigo dyeing). As time passes, these ancient techniques are being lost. Few masters still exist. I am proud of these techniques and take pride in preserving them.

Q: How did you learn dyeing techniques? Who taught you?

I apprenticed under a master in Kyoto. Kyoto is the center of Japanese kimono culture and therefore cloth dyeing techniques. Therefore it’s the most ideal place to study dyeing.

Q: How long have you been dyeing?

For six years.

Q: All your dyes are homemade. How do you make your dyes?

My dyes are all natural. There are no chemicals. I make dyes from plants and trees around here (Takimoto-san held his hands in the air and looked to the forest) . For example, this dye is made from the branches of ume (plum) trees (he pointed towards the bucket and brush).

Q: How long have you lived in Kamiyama?

For four years. I had great childhood memories of playing here, so I was happy to come back.

Q: Are there any benefits to living here in Kamiyama?

Yes. It’s a very natural environment. I like nature, it’s quiet and relaxing here. Since I make natural things, it’s very fitting.

The water here is pure and ideal for dyeing. There’s no chemicals or chlorine in it, like in the city. For smaller projects I can take water from here (he points towards a concrete irrigation feed). For bigger projects I can go to the Akui River (across the street).

I collect materials like branches and leaves to make natural dyes. For example, there are many ume (plum) trees around here. Another benefit is space. I have a lot of space to work in. I have space to grow indigo for dyeing too.

Q: Are there any difficulties or challenges in your work?

Yes. I’m at the mercy of nature. Natural conditions make the dyeing process hard to control. The weather and temperature affect the colors. A lot of times I have a specific image in mind, but the outcome is different. But that’s the challenge of working in nature, isn’t it?

Q: I read that in ancient times certain colors were difficult to create. Purple for instance. Is that true?

Yes. Purple and red are popular Indonesian dyes. But in ancient times they were difficult colors to create in Japan. Blue was also difficult to dye. That’s why Tokushima’s indigo dyeing techniques were so unique and valuable. Yellow and brown are the most common. But once you get the primary colors – yellow, blue and red – you can make any color.

Q: How long does it take to finish a tenugui?

Overall it takes about three days to dye a tenugui. As you saw today, I can work on several at a time. The two sheets of cloth will make six tenugui.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?

(Again he holds is arms up and smiles) Nature! And music, I play the drums. I play in a group called “Kamiyaman Band.” We will perform at the upcoming Earth Day festival.

Q: How do you make images on your tenugui?

I draw them by hand and sometimes touch them up on the computer. But all of my prints are by hand.

Q: I have read that there’s a tenugui resurgence – that they are gaining popularity again. Have you seen any evidence of this?

Yes. Especially among young people. Young people are interested in old fashioned designs. It’s a tenugui revival! There are also collectors. There’s one man that buys from me often – he’s crazy about tenugui!

There’s even a fundoshi (traditional Japanese underwear) revival. It’s very cool in the summer and can be used as a bathing suit. There’s even a fundoshi dance/research team. You should come see them on Earth Day!

Q: Who are your main customers?

I sell my products at exhibitions, to friends, and take special orders. Most of my sales are local – in Tokushima. I don’t have an internet shop.

Q: What makes tenugui special?

Tenugui dry very quickly. That’s their most useful trait. But they are also great for wrapping things and can be used in various fashions as headware. It’s the all-mighty cloth!

Q: What is your dream?

I want to preserve and master ancient natural dyeing techniques. To master dyeing I must master nature. By research and practice I’ll learn the best techniques and the best plants to use for the dyes.

I also want to create some techniques of my own. I am doing some research right now and hope to create new dyeing techniques. But that’s a secret.

BONUS! Mr. Takimoto addressed a few questions Tofugu readers posted after reading Tenugui: A Cloth Without Limits.

Q: What’s the difference between tenugui and furoshiki?

Furoshiki are square, tenugui are rectangle. Because of their square shape, furoshiki are better for wrapping things or used as table cloths. In fact, I even heard furoshiki used to be used as bath mats at onsen baths. That’s where the “furo” (風呂 – bath) and “shiki” (敷 – floor) come from. But tenugui dry fast and make better towels.

Q: Do cooks in Japan use tenugui as headware?

Some do. Sushiyasan (a product + 屋 (shop) + the honorific さん (Mr./Ms.) = the worker in said shop, in this case a sushi chef), udonya, sobaya, craftsmen and farmers often wear tenugui. Particularly craftsmen and farmers because tenugui can be worn in various ways, so it’s very convenient.

The Fruits of Takimoto-san’s Labor

Some finished products.

I’ll take that one!

We thanked Takimoto-san for inviting us to his home and workplace and taking the time to teach us about tenugui. “No problem. I’m happy to spread tenugui culture!” he replied as he waved good-bye.

As we drove home with a bounty of new tenugui by our sides, we discussed what we had learned. Takimoto-san impressed us all. His gorgeous handmade products represent a melding of artistry and craftsmanship achieved through years of hard work and discovery. If he has yet to master the art, his passion will surely earn him the title. Takimoto-san’s tenugui are truly “all-mighty cloths” – local products born from Japan’s cultural heritage. And it’s thanks to passionate people like Takimoto-san that Japan’s cultural heritage remains preserved for both current and future generations to admire and enjoy.

Special thanks to Takimoto Somesho for the tour and interview. And special thanks to my friends Emma and Hide for setting up the interview.

Although Takimoto-san does not have a webshop or blog, he and his products can be found on his Facebook: 染昌 (Somesho).

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Dear reader, I hope you have remained seated or are planning to sit again, because this second paragraph contains more shocking news. Nintendo has been commissioned by NPR to remake Pokemon Red/Blue with the Pokemon replaced with 150 talk show hosts like Diane Rehm, Terry Gross, and Garrison Keillor.

I hope you are now prepared to sit harder than ever, because I have more unsettling news. Nintendo has agreed to create an original game focusing on the adventures of Southwesty, the character mascot for the SXSW Music Festival.

Actually, I have a fourth news. Those previous three newses were all lies. But if they were true, it would make Nintendo seem a little desperate, right? Making games like that would indicate that Nintendo had fallen on hard times. Well, harder times.

But the point remains, games with such blatant advertising tie-ins always feel cheap and weird. Players can sense that something is being pushed on them, which is why, if you’ve got the mun-muns (that means money), you shy away from having in-game endorsements. Even worse would be making a game from the ground up that is centered around a promotion; for example, Nintendo presents, The Legend of L-Bo, the Barilla Macaroni Noodle.

So no, Nintendo is not doing any of these things. But the truth is, it did. Back when Nintendo was the undisputed champeen of the world (of video games), it made three games at the bidding of other companies. This is not the Nintendo with a struggling Wii U or Gamecube. This is the Nintendo that made game developers and consumers bow to them and offer burnt sacrifices of praise. The Ozymandias Nintendo in its prime made three shameless, pandering, promotional games.

These are three times Nintendo sold out.

KAETTEKITA MARIO BROS.

In 1983, Nintendo released a little game called Mario Bros. which introduced pipes, turtle-stomping, and Luigi. Mario and Luigi ran around on a fixed screen kicking enemies and collecting coins. Nothing too special, but it was hit in arcades and was eventually overshadowed by the legendary Super Mario Bros. in 1985.

But in 1988, Nintendo released Kaettekita Mario Bros. (Mario Bros. Returns) for the Famicom Disk System. And to what did the Mario Bros. return? The exact same game that was made in 1983. There were a few tweaks in the physics and graphics but, at its core, Kaettekita Mario Bros. was identical to Mario Bros. Aside from gameplay, there were a few key differences, namely shameless advertising.

Kaettekita Mario Bros. was sponsored by Nagatanien, which was the the large Japanese food manufacturer that made Mario Curry and Mario Furikake, at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-YmrdtvC8A

Before starting a game of Kaettekita Mario Bros., one of three advertisements would play. Mario and Luigi, sometimes joined by company’s CEO, would engage in silliness in front of large advertisements for Nagatanien foods. Surprisingly, only one of them is Mario-related.

But why would anyone pay for a then five-year-old game with advertisements? Because it was cheap and promised free crap.

Kaettekita Mario Bros. was only 400 yen as part of the Famicom Disk Writer service. You could take a Famicom Disk (which was a big yellow floppy disk) to your local merchant and pay a small fee to erase and replace it with a new game, some of which were exclusive to the Disk Writer Kiosks. Kaettekita Mario Bros. was one such game.

So let’s say you had Castlevania, for which you paid 2980 yen. You would take that very good game and pay more money to erase it and, in its place, get a mediocre game with advertisements. But wait, there’s more!

Kaettekita Mario Bros. featured a mode called Nagatanien World. If you could score 10o,000 points in this mode, the game would give up a code that you could send to Nagatanien in exchange for a deck of cards or a keychain. If you scored 20o,000 points, you would get a code to receive Super Mario Bros. 3, which had just been released a month earlier.

This at least makes slightly more sense. You were erasing an expensive game you owned and enduring hours of mediocrity with commercials, all in the hopes of receiving Super Mario Bros. 3.

But the question remains, why did Nintendo need Nagatanien to do this? I understand suckering kids out of 400 yen by making them slave away for the game of their dreams (In 1988, Super Mario Bros. 3 was probably the best game in existence). But why did Nintendo need to put Nagatanien advertising in the game?

ALL NIGHT NIPPON SUPER MARIO BROS.

All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. is only slightly less lazy than Kaettekita Mario Bros. and its origins and reasons for existence are a lot clearer.

All Night Nippon (ANN) is a talk radio show that has been airing in Japan six nights a week from 1:00am to 5:00am since 1967. So it’s pretty popular. As the Famicom (The Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System) grew in popularity, ANN started several segments in their show that highlighted and praised its games.

The only information I can find about the reason this game was made is that “a deal was struck”. Fujisankei, who owns ANN, asked Nintendo to make a special version of Super Mario Bros. for a giveaway celebrating All Night Nippon‘s 20th anniversary. But why did Nintendo agree? If Howard Stern starts talking up the Wii U and his parent company asks nicely, will Nintendo make a special Howard Stern version of The Legend of Zelda? I doubt it.

Somehow for some reason, a partnership between Nintendo and Fujisankei was formed and All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. was made. And to say it “was made” means that it was brought into existence. There wasn’t a whole lot of making involved in this title.

All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. is basically just Super Mario Bros. with a few cosmetic changes. The goombas and piranha plants are replaced with the pixelated head of ANN DJ Sunplaza Nakano, the characters you rescue from each castle are popular Japanese celebrities from the 80s, and the Fujisankei logo is strewn about here and there. Also the first world is changed from day to night, because All Night Nippon airs at night. That’s it.

The game is a basic hack, which couldn’t have taken Nintendo long to put together. It is unknown how many copies were given away, so existing copies are extremely rare and sell for nearly $1000.

But again, what made Nintendo do this favor for Fujisankei? What did Nintendo have to gain? Sure, they didn’t have to do much work, but why produce a strange, adulterated version of your game just because some DJs talked it up?

YUME KŌJŌ: DOKI DOKI PANIC!

Now, we finally get into the good stuff. The good, weird stuff.

Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic! (Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic!) is better known in the U.S. as Super Mario Bros. 2. You know, the one with the vegetables. This veggie-oriented game was not the Mario sequel that Japanese gamers received. The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was basically the original Super Mario Bros. designed to punish and frustrate. When it came time to bring a Mario sequel stateside, Nintendo of America sidestepped the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2. not wanting the Mario series to be known for frustration. Instead, they replaced the main characters of Doki Doki Panic! with Mario heroes and released it as Super Mario Bros. 2.

It would be fine enough if Doki Doki Panic! was an imaginative romp for its own sake. It’s actually a great game! But, it was made at the bidding of Fujisankei, our friends who commissioned All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. But Doki Doki Panic! wasn’t a mere remake or rom hack. It was a full-fledged original game baked from scratch. So why this level of effort? Were the main characters of Doki Doki Panic! stars of their own popular anime series? Were they incredibly popular media characters? The truth is much more shameful.

The heroes of Doki Doki Panic! were the mascots of a festival called Yume Kōjō 87, a carnival held by Fuji TV to promote its fall lineup of shows. Granted, it was a big carnival, but its sole purpose was to promote a television station, and it only lasted from July 18 through August 30, 1987, a mere month and twelve days.

One of the themes of Yume Kōjō 87 was Rio De Janeiro’s Carnival, thus a great deal of mask imagery was used in the promotion and the festival itself. There’s a good deal of flying masks in the commercial above, and below are some stationary, non-flying masks printed on Yume Kōjō 87 phone cards.

So it’s no coincidence that many of the elements and enemies from Doki Doki Panic! ended up being mask related. The mushrooms, turtle shells, and stage exits in the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2 were all originally masks. Likewise, many of the enemies that hop about and try to murder you wear masks.

The shyguy in particular has become a mainstay of the Mario series. So, if you’re slurping up shyguys in the new Yoshi’s Island for 3DS, you can thank Yume Kōjō 87 for inspiring their expressionless, Michael Myers face.

But I digress.  Doki Doki Panic! is a full-length game that Nintendo poured its sweat into. Shigeru Miyamoto, Koji Kondo, and most of the original Mario team worked on this game. All this talent and hard work was expended to promote promotional characters. These characters aren’t even good enough to have their own show. They were created to promote other, better shows! Doki Doki Panic! is a promotion of a promotion. I’m not sure you can go much lower than that, unless you consider the commercials that promoted Doki Doki Panic!

Sell Out Nevermore! Well, Maybe Just One More…

So, why did Nintendo, in its mightiest form, kowtow to these other companies? Nintendo was at its bossiest back then, so why let itself get bossed around? Maybe because it was only the biggest chipmunk in Chippy-Nut Kingdom.

Nintendo may have been at the top of the video game world, but back in the late 80s, video games were still a burgeoning children’s novelty. And the burgeoning children’s novelty industry does not trump the food, radio, or television industries. Nintendo was certainly doing well for itself, but it had only recently found incredible prosperity. After 100 years of humbly manufacturing playing cards, it abruptly exploded to an unprecedented level of success, a level inhabited by companies much larger and more sophisticated than itself.

When you suddenly find yourself among the big dogs, you’re probably going to try and make those big dogs your friends. Especially if you’re a chipmunk.

So, in retrospect, it makes sense that Nintendo would do weird, sell-outy favors to make friends. But in the present and recent past, Nintendo has not been known to do favors or work with hardly anyone it couldn’t bully. Even in the difficult days of the N64 and Gamecube, Nintendo mostly kept to itself, not willing to put Cheetos in a Kirby game for a little extra cash. So it sold out a little in the beginning, but it certainly wouldn’t do anything like that again.

Whoops! I spoke too soon.

It seems that, in an effort to boost the appeal of its IP and the Wii U, Nintendo did a cross-promotion with Mercedes-Benz.  Mario Kart 8 and the Mercedes-Benz GLA SUV were both released the same day in Japan, so Mario appeared in a commercial for the GLA and the GLA appears in Mario Kart 8 a downloadable bonus vehicle.

Maybe this could be seen as more of a コラボレーション (collaboration) the way Japan loves to do, ie. SOMETHING X SOMETHING. But whatever you call it, it’s still promotion. Is Nintendo selling out yet again? Maybe not. Selling out implies that things are going well and the entity is using that success to make a shameless money or power grab. Nintendo is an established and mature company, but it isn’t having the happiest stroll through money town. It may need to team up with other companies now more than ever. Though the little chipmunk is now rather large, even giant chipmunks may need help from big dogs every now and then.

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Sources

• http://themushroomkingdom.net/games/romb
• http://www.videogameden.com/fds.htm?dok
• http://themushroomkingdom.net/games/annsmb
• http://www.mariowiki.com/Kaette_Kita_Mario_Bros.
• http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2013/12/do...
• http://www.geocities.co.jp/Milkyway-Vega/1971...
• http://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0408/what/
• http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B3%E3...
• http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AA%E3...

The reason for this is that the Japanese public knows that the government is broke and national debt has already reached ridiculous levels. Action has to be taken or something will give way in the long term. But then, perhaps things are not as bad as they seem at first glance – Japan has not and probably will not have a public financial meltdown as was seen in Europe a few years back.

The Bad News First

Ministry of Finance, Japan

First things first: We have to look at the numbers.

Japan’s gross national debt has reached 214% of GDP as of 2012. This is the largest government debt as a percentage of GDP in the world. The second highest was Zimbabwe with 202.7% in 2012.*

Our Friends the Hondas: Imagine Japan as a family with the last name Honda. The Hondas will have to work for more than 2 years without spending anything (even on food) to clear their debt.**

Japan will borrow 41.2 trillion yen of the 95.9 trillion yen it will spend this year. This makes the bond dependency ratio 43%. This is after the tax increase as of April 2014.

Our Friends the Hondas: This year the Honda family will spend $95,900 this year, but mom and dad only earn $52,800 from their jobs. The other $41,200 they borrow from the bank. This is after a pay increase for dad in April this year.

Japan will spend 23.3 trillion yen of its 95.9 trillion yen this year on debt reservicing.

Our Friends the Hondas: Out of the $95,900 they will spend this year, the Honda family will have to pay $23,300 – or around a quarter – for their outstanding loans.

The amount of government debt per person in Japan is US$100,000 - in America it is $58,000 per person.

In short:

• Japan has a ton of loans to pay off.
• At the moment, it’s only earning half of what it spends.
• The outstanding loans are already impacting government spending.

But Maybe It’s Not so Bad

Some silver lining perhaps?

Despite these difficulties, Japan has not yet gone into full debt meltdown, at least for the moment. These are the reasons Japan has avoided the fate of Western Europe, courtesy of an economics lecture I attended.

Japanese debt is owned internally

Or, the Japanese government owes money to the investment firms and retirement funds within Japan. This means that:

1. The owners of the debt, being Japanese, are less likely to pull their money out of Japan and self-destruct their own country. This is in stark contrast to foreign investors pulling money out of Western Europe.
2. Since the debt has to be repaid in the longterm, the money will still technically be inside Japan. If it’s invested or spent somewhere, and not hiding under someone’s pillow, the money will still be circulating.

You can always raise the taxes more

Japanese taxes are still low compared to European standards. After all, even after the VAT tax raise, it’s still only 8%. Technically, if the government is really short of cash, it can raise the taxes more without reaching “ridiculous” rates.

The Japanese government still has quite a lot of assets

This is especially true in the post office system. The government can sell this and other things if it really goes broke. But this is a “solution” in the same way that Greece selling off historical buildings is a solution.

Low interest rates

But in the long run…

Something has to give. While the situation isn’t yet at a breaking point, it does not mean that this direction is sustainable.

For one, it’s clear that more debt right now means less spending in the future. Debt reservicing (repayment of current debt + interest) is already more than 20% of the overall budget, as noted above. So no matter how low the interest rates, what Japan spends today will be what it does not spend tomorrow.

Furthermore, Japan’s population is shrinking and rapidly graying. What this means is that Japan will have less people to pay off the current amount of debt, and fewer of those people will be actively producing. Unless specific retiree-oriented taxes are put in place, income tax receipts are likely to decrease.

In addition, Japan already spends about one third of its budget in social security (or welfare, in other words). With more elderly people, welfare and healthcare costs are expected to increase – meaning the government will have to spend more to maintain the same level of welfare.

Finally, the more debt Japan accumulates, the more likely the chance of a loss in confidence and a future financial crisis will become.

So, What Can Be Done?

Japan’s Parliament Building

As many countries in Western Europe have discovered, there really isn’t any easy solution to the situation. Here’s some possible solutions that Japan may employ, all with their own drawbacks:

Public spending is fundamentally the difference between spending and earning. Thus, logically speaking, the Japanese government is probably going to have to solve the problem through increasing earnings and/or decreasing spending.

So, on the spending side:

1.  Austerity

Ie. slashing government spending on public works, officials’ pay, welfare etc.

Drawback: The number of angry people in Western Europe speaks volumes about the dangers of this approach. Money that the government does not spend is money taken out of the economy – recession is a real risk when the government cuts spending.

In short: Angry voters. The economy may tank.

2.  Allowing Inflation

If inflation occurs and the value of money drops, the value of Japan’s existing debt similarly drops too. Thus, in real terms, the government has to pay less.

Drawback: Higher inflation often comes with higher interest rates. Thus, this doesn’t really help if Japan has to continue issuing new bonds (making new debt), which will be at the higher interest rate. Also, the amount of inflation that Japan can allow without causing uncertainty is limited.

In short: Japan would need to stop borrowing first before this has an effect. Plus, it will have a limited effect.

On the income side:

3.  Raise taxes

Drawback: Raise income and consumption tax and people spend less – and get angry. Raise corporation tax and you may make businesses unprofitable – and angry. Again recession becomes a problem.

In short: Angry voters. The economy may tank.

4.  Somehow make the economy grow.

This will automatically lead to the government earning more in tax. The government, through free trade and loosening some regulations, is probably aiming for this right now.

Drawback: This one is no east task. If it was, Japan would not have been in a rut for 20 long years and counting. Some concrete measures, such as deregulation also have their own drawbacks – free trade may, for example, damage the health of Japan’s agriculture – while others are hard to implement, such as having more women enter the workforce.

In short: Probably wishful thinking. Concrete actions also come with their own pain.

No Pain, No Gain

As you can see, Japan is probably in for some pain in the long run. Perhaps by some miracle the pain will be avoided, but for now this looks like more than a “when” than an “if”.

In any case, Japan is unlikely to go into full austerity mode (if ever) until 2020 because of the Tokyo Olympics. In the best scenario envisioned by the government, by the time 2020 rolls by, Japan will have all its growth engines kicked in and blazing forward – this would allow them to withdraw government spending and allow growth to continue.

But of course, that’s the best case scenario, which is not guaranteed. We’ll have to see how Japan advances from now on and dutifully pay our taxes in the meantime.

Extra Reading

• Quartz article suggesting growth as the way out
• The Economist on Japanese debt
• Forbes:A Japanese Crisis Nears

Notes

* There are other measures of debt such as Net Government Debt in which Japan still fares very badly, but doesn’t end up at the very bottom.

** To compare, other country’s national debt: Greece – 161.3%, USA – 72.5%

***Comparison for 10 year bonds (the lower it is the cheaper to borrow):
Japan – lowest on list at 0.61%, USA – 2.65%, Greece – 6.46%

Sources

• http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt
• http://www.mof.go.jp/english/budget/budget/fy2014/01.pdf
• http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-government-debt-per-person-countries

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This may be because when you put “suicide” and “Japan” in the same sentence and you’ll probably going to get two sensationalist images: 1) The kamikaze fighter and 2) Disemboweling samurai. This article is here to help debunk some of those myths.

#1: Japan is not the most suicidal country in the world

Myth: That Japan is the suicide capital of the world

It may have been but it isn’t right now.

Wikipedia notes that because of problems with reporting, not to mention the difference in the years which statistics were reported, it may not be fair to compare suicide statistics across countries directly. That being said though, when addressing the above myth statistics are all we have to rely on.

Number of suicides per 100,000 people per country

Here’s some data that I tidied up from Wikipedia as you can see, Japan is rather far from being the top in terms of proportionate suicides with around one quarter the suicide rate of Greenland.

Even if you remove Greenland and consider it a part of Denmark, it’s still one third less than Lithuania. And while the numbers are still high, it would still it would be 8th place not the first.

The data may be distorted in various ways but this is more than ample grounds to doubt whether Japan really is the most suicidal country in the world. Plus, based on the data I found here the last time that Japan was at the top of the suicide tables for current OECD countries was back in the 1960s.

And poor Greenlanders!

#2: Actually Suicide Rates have been falling for quite a few years.

Myth: Suicide rates in Japan just keep getting worse and worse!

Every year the same sort of headlines come out: “Japan’s suicides top 30,000 people!” “Suicide in Japan is a huge problem!” … etc. While these headlines are technically true, they’re being sensationalist because the real story just isn’t as interesting. The fact is, Japan’s suicide rates have seen an overall decrease since the early 2000s, both in the total number of suicides as well as suicide rate. Japan’s suicide rates peaked in the late 1990s to early 2000s with the total number of people committing suicide crossing 30,000 people for the first time in history in 1998 and peaking in 2003 with 34,427 people (or about a hundred a day) committing suicide.

The graph below shows the change since then. (Data from Japan National Police Agency)

As you can see, stuff is improving with constant decreases from 2009 onwards. Maybe it’s because Japan’s economy has stagnated instead of worsening like in the 1990s. Or maybe it’s because the government measures (the Basic Law on Suicide Prevention and many other policies that were enacted in 2006-2007) are working. It’s hard to know for sure, but certainly something right is happening.

#3: Tokyo isn’t the most suicidal part of Japan

Myth: Suicides are mainly caused by city stress and overwork, thus Tokyo (especially from the view of Kansai people) is probably going to be the most miserable and suicidal place within Japan.

Tokyo prefecture’s suicide rates are actually below average. Let’s take a look at this table (Statistics for 2013 from the Japanese Cabinet Office).

Points to note:

1. The prefecture with the highest suicide rate is Miyagi – possibly due to the effects of devastation from the 2011 earthquake.
2. The top 5 (actually top 10 but not shown to save space) prefectures with the highest suicide rates are generally rural outside the immediate Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka areas. Yamanashi (which borders Tokyo) is at No. 10 but it generally isn’t considered heavily urbanized nor a part of the Tokyo Megapolis.
3. The prefectures with the highest number of suicides is Tokyo – but then Tokyo has the highest population of any prefecture. When considering it’s proportional suicide rate it’s less than the national average.
4. Osaka is less suicidal than Tokyo – that’s at least one thing the Kansai people have gotten correct.

So we can see that actually, instead of the stereotype about happy people living in rural villages, there’s something else going on. In fact, it seems like the stereotypes are flip flopped from what they should be. As for why it’s opposite from what most people expect? Let’s take a look at Myth #4.

#4: Age and economics explain the pattern.

The above discrepancy between prefectures is explained by how most rural prefectures have more elderly people and worse economies compared to the big cities.

This site and this site point out the strong links between older age, unemployment and suicide. These, at least to me, are probably somewhat similar to the rest of the world too.

Economics: The Japanese wikipedia notes that there is a strong negative correlation between available job openings and suicides, and a strong positive correlation between the number of bankruptcies of small companies and suicides. The economies of rural Japan are generally worse than those of the main cities, so more people are likely to commit suicide as they are more likely to face economic problems.

Age: Age matters because of two reasons. Economic problems such as unemployment or bankruptcy and familial problems such as divorce are more likely to happen to people above 40. The higher the age of the population, the larger the number of people in this “danger zone”. Plus, the main cause of suicide for those aged 60 and over becomes health problems too.

Since young people tend to leave for the major cities for work, the people in rural prefectures tend to be older. This means a proportionally higher number of people in danger of suicide.

_#5: Throwing oneself in front of a trains is a choice not often taken.

And thank goodness! As if the Chuo-sen and Yamanote-sen aren’t delayed often enough!

Now, different countries have different patterns for suicide. The WHO notes that, for example, the USA has a disproportionate rate of suicide with firearms. Other more agricultural countries have high rates of suicide by using pesticide.

These are the most common ways for suicides in Japan. Data is from the Center for Suicide Prevention.

As you can see, by far the most used method of suicide is hanging, with some variation between the genders further down. “Tobikomi” coincidentally comes in at 6th for both genders.

“Tobikomi” literally means “to jump in” so this naturally includes trains. However, this also includes jumping in front of road traffic so when you total things up, committing suicide by jumping in front of a train is highly uncommon.

By the way, according to this article there have apparently been cases of the train companies (in this case JR Kyushu and JR East) taking the families of those who committed suicide to court for damages and lost income. This has most likely reduced the number of people committing suicide in this way, because many people would not want to bring attention and financial grief to their families due to their method of suicide.

Extra: Suicide websites

Aokigahara in Yamanashi – one of the most well known suicide spots in Japan

While doing research for this article I did come across many websites with some information on how to commit suicide. I didn’t manage to find any of the infamous “suicide pact” websites, so maybe they were taken down? But the websites that I did fine kind of boggled my mind.

Take for example this website (in Japanese). The title of the website is literally “The Encyclopedia of Suicide Methods” and it has suicide methods ranked according to criteria on how troublesome it is, how painful it is, how ugly it will be for bystanders and how “impactful” it will be. The description of suicide by jumping from a tall building goes like this:

What I really want you to know is that the minimum height needed is 20m … and another thing that I want you to know is that the ground should be concrete. If it is concrete, it seems that death will be possible in almost all cases … To prevent someone from discovering you immediately and sending you to hospital, somewhere secluded is preferable. Also, do not commit suicide where there are people around. It is not good to involve others and cause trouble for others.

But what boggles my mind is that despite doing all the detail, the website claims that its goal is to “let people know about suicide methods, and not to promote suicide”. The top page of the website also has a long philosophical explanation about how one must think about death to appreciate the wonder of living and stuff like that. But I don’t think I’m the only one here thinking that recommending the heights and floors of the locations to commit suicide is “thinking about death” in order to enjoy life.

This wasn’t the only website that I found boggled my mind. Another here advertises fortune-telling services. After a much less detailed description (compared to the previous site) it says: “before you give up everything, why not reset your future with a fortune telling”.

But it was this website which boggled my mind the most. While this website has lots on information on suicide prevention (hotline numbers, where to get help etc), at the same time it has also information about “how to hang yourself without pain” or “how to freeze yourself to death in Hokkaido” as well as a form to declare one’s intent of suicide.

The webmaster says in a part of his website:

I came with the understanding that “suicides in and of themselves are not bad”. Among all the people who are living, I thought that there ought to be people who “would rather be dead” and that these people ought to have a right to know some “painless ways of suicide”.

He also says that while the website was only about introducing suicide methods at first, he later added the information about prevention so that some people would be able to come to terms with and deal with their problems without killing themselves.

On That Pleasant Note…

Apologies for the morbid topic but I felt that this is a topic that had too many semi-factual stereotypes and myths around it.

I also thought about writing about the cultural / historical background and why Japan is (with reason) called a suicide-tolerant country. But maybe that’s for the next article.

So while Japan does have some issues with suicide, it’s not quite the “suicide-happy” country that many people make it out to be. In fact, it’s been improving, slowly but surely (actually, somewhat quickly if you take a look at those graphs earlier in the article). I hope that I could get you to change your mind a little bit, if you believed in any of these myths too. So what do you think?

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Q. You have four places of business (the egg vending machine, raw egg on rice restaurant, your personal farmer’s market shop, and cake shop), but which place did you come up with first?

The vending machine and the veggie shop (personal farmer’s market) were first, then the raw egg on rice restaurant, and finally the cake shop.

Q. How did you come up with the vending machine (and the direct store)?

About 40 years ago, there were 18-20 chicken farmers around this area and we were selling our eggs to Osaka and Kyoto together by splitting the transportation costs. However, as other big farmers got ever larger, small farmers like us were getting pushed out. About 20 years ago, I was the only chicken and rice farmer left here. Although I didn’t have benefit of a larger scale farm and production, I did have a very unique quality to my eggs. Yet, I still had to decrease employment costs, so I decided to start the vending machine and the direct sales store in 1996. They both went well and the sales of my eggs increased.

Q. Why did you open the tamago-kake-gohan (raw egg and rice) restaurant afterward?

Actually there is a long story to that one. Although the eggs started selling well, selling rice wasn’t that easy since there are so many rice farmers in Japan. If I became a member of J.A. (short for Japan Agricultural Cooperatives), I could obtain some money right away, but I didn’t want my rice to just be one the many kinds of rice that J.A. sold at the same price because I found my rice to be different. My rice field is located on top of a mountain, so we use only the fresh water that comes from the mountain. It is very clean, pure water, so it makes rice taste better, but it is also so cold that we can’t harvest a lot of rice compared to rice fields with access to warmer water. Furthermore, I had to deal with boars and deer eating my rice crops. If my rice was sold at the same price in J.A., it wouldn’t be fair. So, I decided to sell my rice by myself, though I also had to take the risk of not getting any money until the rice was actually sold. Moreover, every year I also needed to adjust my rice stock until the following harvest. Every Fall, around September and October, new rice is harvested, so the rice harvested the previous year gets price dropped.

Yet, I couldn’t sell it very successfully if it was only available in the direct sale shop, so I thought, “I can’t sell uncooked rice, but what if I make delicious cooked rice?” My cooked rice is delicious but I realized that the people I sell the rice to aren’t able to taste it the same way that I do. They bring the uncooked rice back to their home towns and put their own city water in their rice cookers. Because of this, they miss the chance to taste the BEST tasting rice that I cook by using the perfect amount of mountain water.

The first item I started was not tamago kake gohan (raw-egg-on-rice), but onigiri (rice balls). My goal was to let people know how tasty the rice was by itself, so I made very simple onigiri and seasoned them with a little bit of salt. Unfortunately, those simple onigiri didn’t become that popular. People still bought rice balls, but only if they were seasoned with a lot of ingredients. That killed the taste of the rice itself. I wasn’t satisfied with the result.

I was actually thinking of making a raw-egg-on-rice restaurant for a long time, alongside the rice ball business, since I have chicken farms and a rice field. However, whoever I consulted with laughed at me because they thought that nobody would come all the way out to the middle of a mountain for such a simple meal that everybody can just make themselves. So, I didn’t even try it out until the huge typhoon (Typhoon #26) struck our region on October 21, 2004.

The river was broken and many places were flooded. Some tourists got stuck on a bus and they had to evacuate to the roof and waited there all night for rescue. In the mountain area, we had a lot of debris scattered everywhere because of the strong flowing water and my farms were damaged. So after the catastrophe, the government subsidized grants to aid farmers. It didn’t cover everything to start a new raw-egg-on-rice business, but I thought I could at least try out my idea if I combined this money and my savings. I was really wanting to do this business, so I finally decided to do it, and I opened the restaurant on March 21, 2006.

Luckily, the raw-egg-on-rice boom had just started at that time so my restaurant was interviewed by many media companies, and a lot of people came out to try my raw-egg-on-rice dish. They thought it was tasty and word spread amongst the people until eventually, and thankfully, it became a popular restaurant that people are now lining up for. I’ve never advertised my restaurant because I thought it would be better for the knowledge of it to spread by word of mouth. I guess I was right about that.

Q: What is the secret of the deliciousness?

As for the eggs, they are all fresh and delivered right from the chicken farm. The name of our eggs is “クリタマ (Kuritama)” because they are produced in Tantouchou-Kurio. We raised the baby chickens from the Goto hatchery in Gifu Prefecture since my father started the chicken farm in 1956. When they grow, they become brown chickens called Gotou-momiji (momiji means Japanese maple leaves). We don’t use any antibiotics in their feed (Some people use antibiotics to make the chickens grow faster). As feed, we mix 20 kinds of special feed, such as Super PHF corn, which are not GMO’s and are made with very little fertilizer. They don’t get fumigated after being harvested, either. We also use fish powder without antioxidants. Those chickens produce delicious eggs on our tranquil mountain farm.

The rice we make is called “夢ごこち (Yumegokochi)”, which means enchantment. It is not organic, but I’m using as little chemical fertilizer as possible. I also use organic fertilizer, which is made from fermented chicken manure. Thus, chicken and rice farming is a great combination! Yumegokochi was invented by the Plant Research Institute as a rice with low amylose and low protein. Only a few places are allowed to make it, so it is a niche market rice with low volume and high prices, being sold to people in the know. It has a great stickiness and the amylose is lower than the king of rice “Koshihikari” by about 2%. It also has a feature which is that it stays soft and tasty even when it gets cold. So you can make rice balls and take it to your work as lunch without losing its deliciousness.

First we use a rice cooker for 1升(shou) / 1800 cc, which is an old Japanese unit of measurement for liquid, on a gas stove. I was told the best way to cook rice is not to cook it at half capacity, or at full capacity, but at 80% capacity each time. Yet, this typically only serves 8 people, so it was too little after the restaurant became popular. Six months after its opening, we decided to double the amount, which is 80% of 2升 (3600 cc). It can still serve 15 to 16 people at a time, but I didn’t want to increase the amount any more because it might ruin the taste of the rice. And of course we use the delicious pure water from the mountain to cook the rice.

Q. Why are there so many bears here?

Because our restaurant is named Tan-Kuma! Tan comes from the name of this region, Tajima. Kuma, which means bear, got attached because bears come down to our place before winter when they are preparing to hibernate. One day, while on the phone with my friend who I was talking to trying to come up with a name for the restaurant, I looked out the window to see a bear taking some acorns and persimmons from the yard. I told him that and he said “scary”, but surprisingly he told me that I should be happy about it. I asked him why and he told me that the bear is the biggest land mammal in Japan, so if a bear is there, that shows you how much nature remains at your place. I was amazed at what he said so I named my restaurant Tankuma – a shorter form of Tajima-no-kuma (Tajima’s bear). I wished for a meaning that suggests that people can come to eat delicious food produced in a place with a lot of nature, so much nature, in fact, that you might even see a bear.

Because of the shop’s name, my friend, who is also the husband of one of our staff members, named Zigen-san, started making those wooden bears for us. He is a chainsaw artist. You can see his work on his website.

Q. What about the bear bathroom?

The monumental bear bathroom hasn’t been there since the beginning. It was made when we built the cake shop in 2010. I created such a toilet because I wanted people to take pictures with it. Everyone takes pictures in front of the restaurant and posts it on their blog or social media sites, but it looks too normal and boring. I thought nobody would usually want to take a photo in front of a toilet, so it would be funny if I made a special toilet that people would want to take pictures in front of. It ended up costing about 3,700,000 yen (~$37,000) and I actually regretted it a little bit afterwards. (chuckle)

Q: Do foreign customers come here too?

It’s extremely rare. Our staff can’t speak English, either.

Q: Do you have any other new egg business in mind?

Actually no. Now I’m thinking of how to properly pass the baton (the business) on to my daughter and her family. I have to work hard to decrease our debt as much as possible.

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Author’s Note: Tamago-kake-gohan is also called “卵ぶっかけ御飯” (Tamago-bukkake-gohan), “卵ご飯” (Tamago-gohan), “卵掛け御飯” (Tamago-gake-gohan), “卵かっか” (Tamago-Kakka), “卵かけ” (Tamago-kake), “たまご飯” (Tamagohan), “たまつる” (Tamatsuru), “ぼっかけご飯” (Bokkake-gohan), “T.K.G.” (Tamago-Kake-Gohan) , and several other variants depending on region and personal preference. Tamago-kake-gohan is the most common usage, but if your prefer another one, feel free to use it.

Editor’s Note: Sorry for all the puns, their egg-istance is due to how egg-cited they made me.

History Of Tamago-kake-gohan

Since ancient times the main meat consumed by the Japanese people has been fish, because of the Buddhist commandment against killing animals. Although the consumption of chicken was a little bit higher than the consumption of other land-animals, the egg was not considered to be food for a long time. In Shintoism, the egg is regarded as an offering to the Gods, and people believed that they would be punished if they ate eggs.

During the Edo Period (1603-1868), people began keeping chickens as pets (what is this, Portland, OR?). Shortly after, eggs began to become a regular part of some diets because they quickly came to realize that unfertilized eggs didn’t hatch. One result of this new knowledge was that they could stop considering an egg as a creature under heaven. Because of that, people eventually lost the belief that eating an egg was a sin, so the act of doing so was no longer taboo. They then moved on from having chickens as pets to having chickens for the sole purpose of egg production and collection. Because eggs were considered a luxury and were a very expensive food item for a long time, nobody ever dreamed about using eggs for such a simple dish like tamago-kake-gohan.

The first person to make tamago-kake-gohan is said to be Ginko Kishida (1833-1905), who was considered a pioneer in various things. For example, not only was he Japan’s first war reporter, but he was also the creator of line dancing. In addition to this, Ginko was a close friend of James Curtis Hepburn, who made the Hepburn Romanization System. Ginko also helped him to make the Japanese-English dictionary, which, in case you haven’t heard of it, is called “和英語林集成” (Wa-eigo-Rinshuusei). My favorite accomplishment of Ginko’s was his invention of tamago-kake-gohan, which he did during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). He was amazed at how tasty it was and recommended it to everyone he knew. His affection for his tamago-kake-gohan did not go unnoticed and it was introduced to the public in a magazine. That issue wrote about how he puts 3-4 eggs on top of cooked rice for breakfast.

The Special Soy Sauce Only For Tamago-Kake-Gohan

Because of Ginko, tamago-kake-gohan gradually spread among the Japanese populace, but for a long time all it really could become was a popular comfort food eaten in people’s homes. It wasn’t until a special soy sauce made strictly for tamago-kake-gohan was made (in the early 2000s) that it really became a big hit. It sounds like some guy just got really lucky and made a lot of money because he was struck with an idea for a unique take on soy sauce, but the fact is that it only became a hit after a lot of work and effort on his part.

This special soy sauce was first produced by a group formed out of a public-private partnership, which was a joint venture between local government and private investors from a small mountain village named Yoshida, Iishi-gun, in Shimane Prefecture. Today, this village is now Yoshida Town Unnan City in Shimane prefecture. The town used to be famous and prosperous for its “Tatara Iron Manufacturing” plant, but they started having trouble as the manufacturing of steel blast furnaces came to Japan. Despite this, they didn’t give up and started making firewood, charcoal, and timber from nearby forests. But, due to energy revolutions of the time, jobs had to be cut again. Sadly, more and more people had to leave in order to get a job. The population was around 5,000 in 1955, but it dropped to 2,800 in 1980.

Some people living there were aware of the decreasing population, so they became very determined to increase it. They knew the biggest reason why young people were not settling down in the village was because there weren’t enough jobs to go around, so they decided to create job opportunities. They considered how they could improve upon something that was already a part of their community. They knew that they had tasty rice and wonderful vegetables, so at first they tried making pickles and nishime (which includes vegetables such as carrots, taro, konnyaku, etc). In order to achieve their goal, local government and residents had to combine efforts and work together.

The people had to convince every resident in the village that they had to do something to save the village and asked them for help. For 50,000 yen, you could get a single share of the company. They understood that was a great deal of money for poor villagers, but they ended up raising more money than they had expected because village groups, companies, and villagers (everyone, young and old alike) were resolute in their desire to make their community stronger and better. Thus, a public-private partnership company, named Yoshida Furusato Mura Co., Ltd., was established in April of 1985.

A very long time passed until they stumbled upon their idea for their tamago-kake-gohan soy sauce. It began when a chicken farmer made the request: “Could you make something that we can sell with our eggs?” Just like that, the soy sauce venture got underway in March, 2001. The initial conception of how this sauce was going to taste was very difficult to come by as they had no other sauces to build off of or compare to. They had numerous meetings, made an infinite amount of samples, and conducted countless taste tests with rice until, finally, the first specialty soy sauce, named おたまはん (Otamahan) was born a year later in May, 2002.

Tamago-kake-gohan Boom

Thanks to the unique concept, great taste, cute name, and assurances that only all-natural ingredients and very little fertilizer was used, it built itself a nice reputation. They started selling it with rice out of Yoshida Town and the success became evident soon after sales began. It wasn’t long before they had a 4-month back order.

Today, there are more than 50 kinds of Tamago-kake-gohan soy sauces sold in Japan, and there is a vast number of popular restaurants that only serve tamago-kake-gohan. That should help to give you an idea of how popular this dish (and this soy sauce) has become.

The people of the Yoshida Town community were reminded of the importance of tamago-kake-gohan to the Japanese by witnessing the boom they basically created. So, they made a “Tamago-kake-gohan Symposium Committee.” When Yoshida Town held the first “Japanese Tamago-Kake-Gohan Symposium” for three days in October of 2005, around 2,500 people came from all over Japan. That’s a lot of people for a village with a population of around 2,300. And, the people attending weren’t just ordinary folks like you and me. There were many TV and radio stations attending as well, and the news about the symposium was reported all over Japan, which helped popularize Tamago-kake-gohan even more.

Safety And Nutrients

Eggs contain many nutrients and a good amount of protein. Though the bioavailability of cooked eggs is 91% (compared to 51% in raw eggs), other nutrients become denatured when exposed to high heat, so raw eggs have some special benefits as well, maximizing what the body can intake and process.

However, raw egg yolks are also known as a medium for Salmonella. Although Japanese egg farmers provide eggs that have been very well washed, as they expect Japanese people may consume them raw, the number of people getting salmonella poisoning in Japan has increased since the 90s. So be careful, everyone! I wonder if this is just in line with the increased popularity of tamago-kake-gohan or something else?

Salmonella is found in chicken intestines and it sometimes attaches itself to egg shells via chicken poop (there’s only one hole in a chicken, and it all comes out that one hole). Most Japanese eggs get sterilized at GP Center, which is a factory for grading eggs and packing them, but you shouldn’t eat an egg raw if it has a crack in its shell. Moreover, even if there is no crack in the egg shell, you shouldn’t eat a raw egg that has been left for a long time after cracking it open. If you want to eat raw eggs, please make sure to get fresh ones!

Tamago-Kake-Gohan Products

Following the tamago-kake-gohan boom, various products for tamago-kake-gohan were made. For example, there is a tamago-kake-gohan stirring rod which acts like a whisk to mix raw egg to a smoother consistency and also a tamago-kake-gohan T-shirt to express your love of tamago-kake-gohan.

Although it is such a simple recipe, there is a tamago-kake-gohan recipe book which boasts one recipe for each day of the year. The book has also become an app. Following the release of the book, they also made a catchy 365 day tamago-kake-gohan song that you can listen to on the app or you can buy the CD from here , if you like (there are some sound samples here, as well).

End Of A Boom?

Since the typical food boom usually only lasts for a couple years, some people say that the tamago-kake-gohan boom quickly reached its end, too. However, others point out that it has been a “staple” meal for Japanese people and will continue to be so in the future. I agree with the latter opinion. Regardless of whether it was a boom or not, I like tamago-kake-gohan and I will have it every time I come back to Japan.

In fact, I recently visited a famous tamago-kake-gohan place and wrote about it for Tofugu’s Travel Section. I was impressed to see such a long line of people waiting to eat such a simple meal, especially because the restaurant is located in such an inconvenient place. I was so impressed that I asked to do an interview with the president of the restaurant and he agreed (so we’ll post that up tomorrow!). Not to spoil it for you or anything, but he had the idea for tamago-kake-gohan long before the boom started and his road to success is such an interesting one. So, be sure to stay up all night hitting the refresh button on your browser so that you can find out how he took the simplicity of tamago-kake-gohan and made it into his life.

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The first Godzilla suit ever made was 220 pounds and the first Godzilla suit performer, Haruo Nakajima was said to have drained a cup of sweat after a day of acting.

Son of Godzilla feels a lot like those Ewok Star Wars movies to me, but you gotta love the suit and the child acting.

The Godzilla VS The Sea Monster set looks amazing. A giant pool, some wires, and a lot of tall boots.

An ape, a giant lizard, and a Shinto priest walk into a bar…

This particular Godzilla apparently had a drinking problem.

Nothing says Christmas more than Godzilla with a ton of shopping bags.

This makes me the most jealous man in the world right now.

Little Godzilla is all tuckered out after a day of smushing buildings.

Godzilla, the greatest power forward this world has ever seen.

What’s going on in the bottom right of this photo?

I hope there isn’t a person inside of that suit, still.

Oh sure, people say that Gamera was a friend to the children, but the original true friend was Godzilla.

I like to imagine the joke that the person inside the Godzilla suit said right before this photo was taken.

That guy is looking inside of Rodan’s… ahem.

Aww, look at that little guy.

The world’s greatest crossover.

Ahhh! Your neck! Your neck!!

Time for a poooolll parrtttyyy!

When Godzilla jumped the shark.

I want a trailer, a massage, and a bottle of saké, this instant!

This is not right.

It’s amazing the things they did to make things fly.

Never, ever, put your fingers in there.

Date night, part two.

All that work, only to have it crushed. Gloriously crushed.

So much skin to peel off.

Ahhh yesss. This one is developing well.

“A little more stomping, and quit looking at the camera.”

So many monsters!

Now that Tokyo’s destroyed, it’s time for Godzilla to take a little vacation.

Selfie!

In its free time, Godzilla would teach orphans how to read.

When you get inside a Godzilla suit, you have to learn how to walk all over again.

Original Godzilla suit, handmade by this guy.

What do you mean you don’t want to knock down the castle?

“You’ve got yourself a deal, friend. This littler Godzilla is all yours.”

I can’t imagine what it’s like to wear one of these underwater.

And last but not least, I leave you with quite possibly the greatest photo ever taken.

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Maybe shōchū is responsible for Kumamon’s red cheeks.

Most Westerners have heard of sake, even if they have never tried it. Japanese beer brands like Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo are also well known. However, relatively few Western people have ever tried shōchū or even know what it is. Even for those who have spent time in Japan, shōchū is often overlooked. Admittedly, it is an acquired taste for many, but that could be said of any liquor not disguised in a cocktail dress. Shōchū is a versatile drink, as I hope to show here. I encourage others to experiment and give it a chance, because I think there’s a shōchū out there for everyone. So sit back, relax, and have a cup, while I act as your guide through its history, making, types, and some of the myriad methods of enjoying this beautiful beverage.

History

It is thought that shōchū originated when distillation methods made their way to Japan via China, Southeast Asia, and Ryukyu to southern Kyushu. In fact, from its beginnings, Kyushu and more specifically Satsuma (modern day Kagoshima) was the area most strongly associated with shōchū. In 1410, the lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Motohisa, offered something called nanbanshu (“southern barbarian alcohol”) to the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi. It’s thought that this nanbanshu was something along the lines of a rice shōchū from Thailand.

However, the earliest known appearance of the characters for shōchū was graffiti written by construction workers on a board in the roof of the Kōriyama Hachiman Shrine in Ōkuchi, Kagoshima. It dates from a 1559 renovation of the shrine, and in addition to its importance to the history of shōchū, it shows that people have been complaining about their bosses for a long time. It reads, “The high priest was so stingy he never once gave us shōchū to drink. How annoying!”

The first written mention of the word shōchū.

It seems that the first types of shōchū were based on rice or other grains. Around the beginning of the 17th century, the sweet potato was brought from China to Ryukyu. Europeans had brought it from its native South America to China not long before. It was introduced from there to Satsuma, where it quickly spread over the domain, and then to the rest of Japan. It was around that time that people began using the tasty taters to make shōchū, but rice-based shōchū remained far more popular until the Meiji period.

The man who deserves a lot of the credit for making sweet potato shōchū synonymous with Kagoshima was the daimyo of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira. By the time he took his office in 1851, a lot of the strict rules the Tokugawa shogunate had put in place had begun to break down and Western powers were encroaching upon Japan. Nariakira himself was open to all sorts of learning, including Western science, though he too feared for Japan’s future sovereignty.

Shimazu Nariakira

He encouraged the modernization of military power, including the replacement of barrel loaded firearms with those which used ammunition detonated by percussion caps. The triggering explosive in those caps was mercury fulminate (“Breaking Bad” fans may recall that Walter White used this very same chemical to get himself out of a sticky situation).

One of its ingredients is ethanol, and for Nariakira the most ready source of ethanol was shōchū. To begin with, rice shōchū was used but, because the people relied on rice as their staple crop, Nariakira ordered research into using sweet potato shōchū instead. He thought that if sweet potato shōchū could become a special product of Satsuma it would be good, not only for military and industrial purposes, but profitable for his people as well. In his time, it wasn’t clear what results they would achieve, but during the Meiji period sweet potato shōchū successfully supplanted rice shōchū in Kagoshima.

Production

Now that you have some background, let’s look at how shōchū is actually made. As the chart below indicates, water, yeast, and mold called kōji (Aspergillius oryzae) are combined and left to ferment for a few days, creating a mash called moromi. There are different types of kōji, and they contribute different flavors. For Okinawan awamori, black kōji is used, but the rest of Japan generally uses white kōji.

When the moromi is ready, the rice and sweet potato (or whatever the main flavor contributor is to be) is crushed and mixed into the moromi. That secondary moromi is left to ferment for another week or so. Then it is moved to stills for distillation. Distillation increases the purity and alcohol level, but some shōchū has water added after the fact to achieve the desired alcohol content. If water isn’t added it’s called genshu.

Types

• Kome shōchū: Made from rice and being a bit milder in flavor makes it a good choice for beginners. There are some great examples from Kumamoto, including the hi no kuni manyū pictured at the beginning of the article.
• Imo shōchū: Made from sweet potatoes. Kagoshima is well known for this type. With its strong aroma and flavor, it may not be the best choice for a first timer, but it’s my personal favorite. It’s also the best candidate for drinking warm.
• Mugi shōchū: Made from barley. It tends to be fairly mild and is also a good beginner’s choice.
• Kokutō shōchū: Made from brown sugar. This type isn’t that common, but well worth a try if you can find it. It generally comes from the Amami Islands.
• Soba shōchū: Made from buckwheat. This type is only about forty years old. It’s the only one on this list that I’ve never tried myself, but it’s reported to be quite mild.
• Awamori: Made from long-grain Thai rice. This is Okinawa’s equivalent of shōchū. Although it’s generally 25-30% alcohol, it can be much stronger.
• Chūhai: A fruity, shōchū based cocktail. They can be hand mixed, or bought in a can for a very reasonable price (the canned ones don’t always use shōchū).

Ways to Drink

Not only are there many types of shōchū, but there are a number of ways to drink it as well. Give them all a try because each adds its own little something to the experience.

• Neat: The simplest method of consumption and it allows you to get a general idea of the shōchū’s flavor. However, for many shōchū is an acquired taste and some shōchū may be a little too harsh for beginners to enjoy straight.
• On the Rocks: A little ice is nice, especially in the summer. The downside is that some of the subtle flavors may not come out as much.
• Cut with Water (mizuwari): It may sound a little odd to intentionally water down one’s drink, but this is a common way to drink shōchū. The water rounds the edges a bit, so beginners might enjoy this way or on the rocks. A good ratio of water to shōchū is 4:6 or 5:5.
• With Warm Water (oyuwari): Drinking alcohol warm isn’t that common in the West, but it’s great for shōchū. If you’re doing this at home, the ideal water temperature should be about 158 F/70 C. You don’t want it too hot. Pour the water into your cup first, then the shōchū. The specific gravity of shōchū is heavier so it will sink and the two will naturally mix. The ideal ratio of hot water to shōchū is 4:6 for weaker shōchū or 5:5 for stuff that’s at least 25%. This method creates a nice aroma and brings out flavors you don’t get otherwise.
• Warm: A traditional way to drink shōchū, but not as widely available, particularly in more modern establishments. Shōchū in a little black pot (kuro joka) is heated either on a charcoal stove or in water. When vapor begins to come out of the pot’s spout it’s ready to drink. Don’t overheat it, and don’t heat in a microwave.

Warm or cold, rice or sweet potato, in a cup or used to make ammo, shōchū has remained a versatile and fascinating drink for hundreds of years. I hope you’re inspired to give it a try. Until next time . . .Kanpai!

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Sources

• Haraguchi, Izumi, et. al., Kagoshima-ken no rekishi. Tokyo: Yamakawa Shuppansha, 1999.
• http://www.satsuma.co.jp/english/index.html

The Origin Of That “Beach Eggplant” Smell

When he won the bottle of Japanese rose perfume, my other family members and I thought it was just another useless item. We had only heard the name of the perfume, Hamanasu, which can be divided into two parts:

Hama: Beach
Nasu: Eggplant

Naturally, we questioned who would ever make a “Beach Eggplant” perfume? What the heck does that smell like? But, my otousan (father) didn’t do as badly as we had thought. It did not have an “eggplant with salty sea wind” smell as the name might have suggested. In fact, it was delightfully mild, fresh, and had a pleasant rose fragrance.

I’m digressing a little bit, but if you realized that I’ve just mentioned both nasubi and nasu as meaning eggplant, you’re very observant. The original word for eggplant in Japanese is nasubi. In former times women of the court started calling them onasu, and later on some people started omitting the “o”. That’s why eggplant in Japanese can be nasubi, onasu, or even nasu.

Origin Of Hamanasu

Now that we have discussed the terminology, let me also explain why the “Japanese Rose” started getting called Hamanasu. According to Gogenyurai Dictionary there are two stories for its origin:

The first story suggests that the word emerged as a result of a combination of appearance and mispronunciation. It describes the plant’s red fruit as similar to a nashi, which means “pear” in Japanese, in both appearance and taste. Hamanasu grew on beaches around Tohoku (North-Eastern part of Japan) and it was in this area that people used to pronounce “shi” as “su”. What was originally named “Hamanashi” later became known as “Hamanasu” and that’s how it stands today.

Alternatively, the second story proposes that its fruit more resembled a nasu (eggplant) than a nashi (pear), which is the reason why it simply became known as a “beach eggplant.” Eggplants in the Edo period were much more round than the slightly elongated shape commonly seen today, so this confusion is more believable when you think about it that way. In fact, even tomatoes were called “red eggplants” in those days. The second claim of this story is that the name “Hamanasu” was also found written in documents that were older than the documents that contained references to “Hamanashi”.

I’m not sure which story is the correct one, but they both seem pretty plausible. Either way, they give you some insight into Japanese, dialects, and the history of what eggplants looked like, all interesting bits of knowledge that your future self can use.

A Magical Healing Flower

As its English name suggests, the Japanese Rose is a species of rose that grows on the coast, often on sand dunes. The flowers are burgundy, dark pink to white, 6-9cm across, and have somewhat wrinkled petals shaped like an egg or heart that give off a pleasantly sweet scent. The flowering occurs in Spring and 2-3cm in diameter hips grow in the late summer and early fall. They often bear fruit and flowers at the same time.

The fruit is rich in vitamin-C as well as a decent amount of polyphenol, and hydrolyzable tannin. Recent studies have confirmed its various effects. It’s good not only for relaxation, but also for recovery from exhaustion, heatstroke (good if you spend a lot of time on the beach), lowering blood pressure, aiding with sleep disorders, increasing bifidobacterials, decreasing HIV proliferation, and lots lots more (the list gets a bit scientific from here on out, but you get the picture).

Since there are so many good things built into this flower, its petals have been used in herbal teas for centuries. There is a document from the Edo period showing that the Ainu people were using them to treat hydropsy. Hydropsy is the condition where abnormally large volumes of fluid come to rest in the circulatory system or in tissues between the body’s cells. Primarily this results from a vitamin-C deficiency.

Hydropsy was a severe problem for Japanese soldiers who guarded Souyamisaki, Rishiri Island, and Karafuto (Sakhalin) in Northern Hokkaido during the Edo period. Soldiers were dispatched to such places by the Japanese government since the Russian army conducted surprise raids on villages in Hokkaido and Karafuto. Although they never fought against each other (Russian soldiers were quick to withdraw due to the Napoleonic Wars), many Japanese soldiers did have to fight hydropsy because they didn’t have sufficient access to fruits and vegetables. Many people died as a result to this ailment, and at the time hamanasu tea was used to treat this condition.

Symbolic Flower

Although I did not know a lot about hamanasu before, this flower is actually quite famous, especially amongst the Northern Japanese people. It’s even used as a symbol for many places in Northern Japan. In 1978, it was chosen as the symbolic flower of Hokkaido prefecture due to its pureness, natural strength, beautiful and vivid color, beauty, and the promotion of long-life.  The following cities, towns, and villages are currently using Hamanasu as their official symbolic flower.

• Ishikari City, Monbetsu City, Wakkanai City, Urahoro City, Esashi Town, Oumu Town, Okushiri Town, Okoppe Town, Suttsu Town, Shari Town, Shibetsu Town, and Teshio Town in Hokkaido prefecture.
• Noda Village in Iwate prefecture.
• Aomori City, Ajigasawa Town, Ooma Town, Kazamaura Village, and Noheji Town in Aomori prefecture.
• Souma City in Fukushima prefecture.
• Kashima City in Ibaraki prefecture.
• Murakami City and Seirou Town in Niigata prefecture.
• Kahoku City and Uchinada Town in Ishikawa prefecture.
• Takahama Town in Fukui prefecture.

On top of that, it is also used as symbolic the flower for the Crown Princess of Japan, Masako-sama, and the famous singer from Hokkaido named Chiharu Matsuyama has his song “Hamanasu” too.

There is also a night express train called Hamanasu running between Aomori and Sapporo.

So, the symbol of the Hamanasu continues to go strong, even if most people don’t really know what it is. Have you seen this symbol around anywhere?

Hamanasu Products

Since Hamanasu has a lot of good effects, there are not only perfume and tea but also various products of it now. Let’s look at the list.

Hamanasu Low-malt beer draft with beauty and health promotion effects. It also has a romantic ruby color.

Hamanasu jelly for beauty and Hamanasu candies with the salt of Tsugaru Strait that are good for heatstroke.

http://cgi.daily-tohoku.co.jp/cgi-bin/news/2013/02/27/new1302272301.htm

Hamanasu herbal tea, soap, jam and paste. They are trying to make Hamanasu juice now too.

Hamanasu Soft Cream.

Hamanasu Aroma bath essence.

The list continues on, including hamanasu jelly confit, hamanasu incense, and more. I’m sure there’s others I haven’t founds as well. Although not many wild Hamansu are growing on the beach anymore, you may still see these items if you travel to the North of Japan and they would be great, extraordinary souvenirs with an interesting history. Personally I’d like to try the pinky cute draft beer. Doesn’t it sound great that I am able to not only enjoy drinking beer but also be able to get a beauty and health effect too? I think it’s awesome! I’ll definitely try them out when I go to Hokkaido next time.

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