Kashiwazaki Hannabi 2010

Well, in Japan at the moment is a pretty horrible heatwave. I was joined by my mate from England, Ian, and we had a very hot and sweaty week in Tokyo. However, it was a lot of fun, and we discovered something very interesting. For anyone visiting Tokyo in July (take an ice pack), a good thing to do is to head to Disney the day after the public vacation on July 19th. That is when many people head to Disney, and then soon after, the schools close. This means, in between, Disney is quiet! My friend and I headed down on the 20th, and it was dead! Well, as dead as Tokyo Disney can be!

However, what I really wanted my friend to see was Kashiwazaki's Gion festival. 3 days of dancing, omikoshi, and fun!

The first day sees many of the local schools despatch their marching bands for a demonstration. However, the community fun begins in the evening, when many of the community groups join in a mass dance parade thing which processes round the streets of Kashiwazaki. School groups, kids groups, sports teams, companies, and district teams.

There are 3 different types of dance which everyone joins in all at once. To start with, a relatively simple one, which I can do. Unfortunately, there are another two, which are fiendishly complicated, and I cant!

Day 1

So, first of all, a few shots from the community dance thing!

The common costume was the Yukata. Kind of looks like a kimono, without consisting of huge quantities of silk! There is also a traditional hat to be worn!

Local employers will sponsor groups of employees to enter. These guys wearing the natty yellow and white yukata are all employees of TEPCO, the guys running the power station near by. Not so easy to see here, but the red symbol on the shoulder is the corporate logo!

Local sports groups will also take part. The baseball club...

And a local girls volleyball team!

Just because this has quite a long history, does not mean you have to be traditional and formal. If you want, you can always slap on a set of bunny ears! Another nice touch was that quite a few of the kids groups added extra twist steps or jumps in the dance routine! All in all, a lot of fun!

Day 2

On the Sunday, we see the omikoshi of Kashiwazaki being dusted off from various shrines round Kashiwazaki and hauled out to be carried with pride and waved around! These will be joined by other symbols of good luck, which consist of big piles of sake barrels (sorry! Empty!) which usually have a couple of cute local girls hanging off. Their job is to exort the carriers of the sake to greater efforts. Interestingly, when the girls are up there, they drop a shoulder of the happi jacket off at least one of their shoulder. Thus exposing naked flesh! A big thing in Japan! Some go so far as to show off 2 shoulders! Shock!

Amongst all this are the kids groups. Some carry their own omikoshi, others pull a community float, etc. In all, you have hundreds of groups displaying something and lots of dancing, and noise, and music, and good-natured chaos!

It is worth noting, the omikoshi are carried by residents of the community in which the shrine is placed. This means that some guys (its usually guys. Sorry girls! I have seen some girls carry the thing, but only the tall ones! Shorter ladies just take up space without actually being able to balance it on their shoulder!) end up carrying the thing over many years. This results in them developing a weird looking growth of fluid, scar tissue, and padded skin growing on one shoulder!

And again, some more pics for your delectation! 

First of all, a pile of empty sake barrels. Sake is important in Japan. You want to bless something? Break open a barrel of Sake! Can think of worse ways!

A bunch of kids carrying an omikoshi! Though the adults are on hand to help out! These things are heavy, expensive, and there is no glue involved!

The Sunset Riders, a local line dancing group linked up with a kids yosakoi group to dance round the whole thing!

These girls come from the best yosakoi group in Kashiwazaki. Truly amazing! They work really hard, and hold down day jobs!

Possibly the largest omikoshi in the parade that I got to see.

Every year, local communities will create their own float! Stitch usually makes an appearance. HE is a hugely popular character in Japan!

Even Paul the World Cup squid made an appearance!

A whale. Complete with working blowhole, and it blows bubbles. As whales tend to do...

I like this one. A bunch of kids hauling an omikoshi made out of recycled plastic bottles!

Dont ask. I have no idea who he is. All I know, is that this guy is scary!

Day 3

Finally, moving on to the last day. Stupidly, I agreed to wake up early on the Monday morning in order to help out a mate of mine head to the beach with a huge blue sheet to try to reserve a spot. This was something of an experience. 

Heading to the beach at 6:30 in the morning, we ended up joining a reasonable queue to wait for the city to open the beach. Once they did, cue the huge scramble to bag the best spots. Luckily for us, we managed to reserve something in one of the prime locations! So quite happy about that!

Anyhoo. Once the sheet was down, it was back to the apartment to finish off my sleep. Then, later, we headed in to do a bit of shopping, loading up on snacks and drinks, and headed back to the beach for one of the biggest shows Kashiwazaki has laid on! This year saw the inclusion of not one, but two Phoenix fireworks. These are the biggest in the world, and get to be transported on their own truck. And made in Niigata, too!

There has been plenty of other neat stuff, too. The local fisherman community sponsor a nice line of fish-shaped fireworks, TEPCO had some very lovely chains suspended on parachutes, and the finale was as spectacular as always. I am also including some videos, which do feature a little bit of shouting. In my defence, when I made these, I was a little drunk...

If you look, you can see fish! Unfortunately, I went to get some yakisoba, so missed the start, and sprinted back to get my camera. Which then decided to think for me and slow down! Aargh! This is the best of the few I managed to get!

This may not look so spectacular, but these are actually strings of red and green firework lights suspended on parachutes. They took forever to drift down, and where really impressive! These where released just after a whole bunch of large golden fireworks, and where left in the aftermath. These came from TEPCO, running the power station. Just trying to be a good neighbour!

The last of the pictures. From here, its videos. These two are the Phoenix fireworks. Really big! After this, the displays saw the fireworks come thick and fast, so I switched to video.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these pics and videos. And I hope that any of you that read this who live in Japan, please, think about heading to Kashiwazaki. It is a small town. But we do have excellent seafood, some great little bars, some nice parks, amazing scenery surrounding us, the best rice (and sake) in Japan, and one heck of a 3 day festival, with a breathtaking finale!

Democracy Japan style!

OK, here we go again! It is election time here in Japan! Though it is for the "Sangiin," or the House of Councillors. The upper house. Equivalent to Britain's 'House of Lords.' However, unlike the House of Lords, the House of Councillors is fully elected.

At the moment, no one party controls the House of Councillors. Its 242 seats are split with the Democratic Party of Japan having the largest block, at 109, with the Liberal Democratic Party next, at 82. 

However, the House is controlled by the Democratic Party of Japan as they have entered into a coalition agreement with 2 smaller parties to get them over the 121 seats they needed to push things through. They are in coalition with the People's Democratic Party, and New Party Nippon. 

These parties also joined the DPJ in coalition when the DPJ swept the previous government from power in the Lower House elections of 2009. However, the DPJ does have enough seats that they dont need a coalition. Also, the People's Democratic Party left the coalition in 2010 on the back of a failure by the DPJ and its leader, Yukio Hatoyama to relocate the US base in Okinawa out of the prefecture, or even out of Japan.

So. Should we be excited by this election? Er, well... It is full of old grey men like usual. However, the DPJ have managed to inject a little glamour with the use of one of the ministers sitting in the government. A lady who is not in the Upper House, but is out campaigning on the DPJ's behalf. The lady is Renho. She goes by a single name now...

Something she picked up from an early career in modelling, and later as a TV presenter!

Still, what about the policies? Well, there are many which are getting the public interested, such as Prime Minister Kan's recent suggestion that there should be a debate over raising consumption tax (VAT) from its current 5% to 10%. This really has exorcized the Japanese. Though recently, in Britain, the same tax was raised from 17% to 20%!

Another issue that has begun to raise its head has been the national debt. In Japan, the debt amounts to just over 200% of the Japan's GDP. However, the government has been able to raise the debt so high, since 94% of the government bonds are held by the Japanese themselves, investing their savings. However ,the debt will reach a choking point!

However, two issues seem to have really got quite a few groups going. 1 issue actually, is all about the rights of a married woman. As it is, in Japan, if my girlfriend and I get married, she will have to take my family name. It is not just tradition, but the law. However, it is worth noting that there is a small bit of turnabout. If the family only has girls, then the oldest girl gets married, then in order to keep the family name going through history, he has to change his name to hers. However, if he is the oldest in his family, then he gazumps her.

The DPJ came to office with a pledge to look at the law, and write into law that women, should they want to, could opt to keep their first family name. It is a kind of opt-in thing. If they do nothing, then their name is changed to that of the husband. Unless they apply to keep their first name.

Another issue, is the right of permanent residents to vote in local elections. This has aroused many nationalist Japanese to protest. 

They do not want foreigners given the vote, as they see it as diluting Japanese culture and nationality. They insist on foreigners naturalising first.

I can understand that. Except Japan is famous for making the naturalisation process as opaque as humanly possible. If you want a Japanese passport, then you have a serious amount of hurdles to jump through!

From my point of view. If they dont want to change the naturalisation process, then they should allow foreigners to vote in local elections. This is not going to impact on the direction of the nation like a national election, it is only concerned with garbage collection, the local school where my child would go to, etc. I pay tax, I should have the right to have a say in how it is spent.

It is not something unusual. Many countries already do something like this.

For example, in the UK, if you are legally resident in Britain, and hold a British, Irish, or Commonwealth passport, you can vote in national elections. If you are legally resident for 5 years, you have the right to vote in local and EU elections only. If you are from the EU, you gain that right as soon as you arrive in Britain, and get yourself on the local register.

Going back to the Japanese voter issue. If they want permanent residents to go through naturalisation, they need to use a carrot, occasionally, rather than keep hitting us with a stick. If they want to keep the barrier to naturalisation high, then a few incentives would help. One would be rights to vote in local elections. Almost as a reward. "Well done for applying to stay in Japan permanently! Here is a local vote! Want more? Then you have to do more!" The next step of course, to gain our full rights, is to naturalise!

Alternatively, they need to make the naturalisation process easier. If they refuse to allow us any rights, then make the process for becoming full Japanese clearer and more straight-forward. Currently, the rules are in place, but immigration officers are notorious for using their own interpretation too freely. Such as changing the number of years from 5, to 7, to 10. Some even claimed you need proof of a relationship with a Japanese woman (If you are a man). Marriage would be best, but a declaration of love MAY suffice...

Still, this issue is likely to roll on. The DPJ is known for being more liberal, and each time these issues rise up, they gain more momentum before succumbing. One day, one day...

Still, the election is interesting in itself. If the DPJ can gain seats, then it would be possible for them to jettison their coalition partners, and govern as they want. Rather than as they have to now, paying attention to the needs of their much smaller partners.

However, this scenario is unlikely to play out. Hatoyama's failure to relocate the US base, and recent financial scandals look like they have dented the DPJ's chances, that whilst there is a strong possibility to gain seats, they will not be able to gain enough for an outright majority. Indeed, it is possible that their partners lose seats, to the point that the current coalition can no longer command a majority. 

It is going to be interesting to see how it all pans out. But I cant wait! At least, as a non-permanent foreigner who has pretty much no say in this, I will be happy to see it finish. It will mark an end to those blasted loud speaker trucks!

PS

I was doing a little digging, and to be honest, I am impressed with Minshuto (DPJ), they have developed a brilliant English-language website, as well as launching "MNN" Minshuto News Network on Youtube. Their news network, in English! Music is a little "VHS-1980's" but the fact that they actually HAVE this is a huge bag of points on their side!

The Goal that was/not part 2!

Now, recently, I read that the referee in the England v Germany game gave an interview, in which he said that whilst he was in an excellent position, Lampards shot travelled too fast for him to track properly, and he needed assistance from the linesman.

OK, now, last time I looked, but Lampards goal was not exactly a screamer, more of a wonderful lob, which are not known as hard shots...



Nope. Not really a hard shot to track.

And of course, its not as though ref's routinely miss these. After all, at the last World Cup, Zidane bagged a penalty which bounced down off the crossbar, and barely made it over the line.

Now, the ref, Larrionda.

He has previous for this, ruling a perfectly good goal out when Brazil scored in a game against Colombia. He then went on to admit his mistake, and then go on to voice his opposition to video technology, preferring to leave things in the hands of the guy in the middle.

Sorry, but in games of this magnitude, refs at this world cup have basically handed those who want technology in the game, a huge assist! There have been a number of major decisions that referees have screwed up and led to increasing calls for rules to be changed to allow corrective action to be taken. Such as punishing divers, rescinding cards, etc. Technology, however, should really be brought in for the goal line. 

Games at the World Cup take on such significance, that ref's are proving more and more incapable of NOT playing a role in deciding the outcome of the game. It should be left to the players, but through refs bad judgement, it is increasingly out of the players hands.

I am not saying England would have gone on to win, but in that game, after the first goal, England where on the rise. Now, if the goal should have been allowed to stand, where would the game have gone? We will never know!

After the game, on the Monday, Espinosa, the linesman, denied making a mistake (Er. It was a goal. You saw it. You didnt call it. Thats a mistake) and chalks it up as "one of those things in Football." Again, we cant have "one of those things" any more. The World Cup is far too big now!

Unfortunately for the linesman, a recent interview has even had his WIFE laying in to him. In an interview carried in the Sun, apparently, she was screaming at the TV that he was wrong, and after he returned to Uruguay, he had hardly spoken as he was really depressed.

During the game itself, at half time, apparently the ref asked him 4 times if it was a goal, which Espinosa denied. Saying he was sure it wasnt. Then was shown a replay, to which he dropped his head, and declared "Oh my God."

Something else this raises. If the ref is very convinced that he saw a goal, so he has to clarify 4 TIMES with his linesman that he has an opposite opinion, surely he can be confident enough to give it as a goal!

One thing this whole debacle has done, has been to drag an apology out of FIFA. Hopefully action will be taken. I know they have their list of elite referees. However, technology needs to be used. The game is progressing beyond the capabilities of a single man in the middle. Certainly at the top echelons of the game. A 4th set of eyes above the game, maybe. After all, the officials are all miked up and able to talk to each other instantaneously. Goal line technology has the be brought in. So much hangs on a game, that the ref needs help. We are not talking about taking it away from him, but a system which will alert him to a goal. If he sees a foul, he can just ignore the system, and rule it out!

With regards offsides, then a 4th official up in the stadium may help, miked up with the rest of them. Things like diving, well, it is tough for the ref to do something about it, unless he sees it clearly. However, allow the manager of a team a chance to lodge a protest about a carding incident, or diving, the ref then sits down, with a panel, and give the ref the power the ability to rescind yellow and red cards. also, we need FIFA to step up and hammer those that cheat to get decisions their way!