This video is stupendously good fun - all the tunes you hear at all the stations on the Yamanote line in Tokyo in a groovy retro gamer stylee.

Ninja Train, originally uploaded by [douglas japonicus].

In case anyone still had any doubts about whether pirates or ninjas were better, the little town of Iga Ueno in Mie prefecture puts forward its argument - the Ninja Festa 2008. JapaniCan describes it thus -

Wearing loaned ninja clothes, you can have an experience of learning ninja skills at ninja schools.

And you even get free travel on the Iga Tetsudo (see picture) if you’re dressed up like a ninja. Sweet.

Beat that pirates.

The Ninja Festa 2008 started on April 1st and runs until May 6th. Break out dem shurikens.

You can also see a rather mad video by going to the Iga City website here.

(WARNING: contains mind melting images of dogs dressed as ninja.)

… but this commercial really appeals to me. Well, except for the giant furry pink bear. The less said about that, the better.

I’ve been filling in for someone on a Friday recently. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse to be honest – takes me an hour to get there, owing to the vagaries of Yokohama’s rail network. (Most of the train lines run west to east. Hardly any run south to north.) The day after I finish up here, I figure out quite by accident, that I could have taken the bus instead.

Such is life.

The place I’ve been working is Nagatsuta – a weird no-man’s land of apartment buildings and little else, save for a train station that lets the JR Yokohama line hook up with the Den-en-toshi line. I detest the Yokohama line, and I’m not sure why. There’s just something about stepping on to the carriages, lit by a weird bulb that seems to make everything glow yellow – a fact which doesn’t improve the look of the offensively green seat covers – that makes me feel instantaneously depressed. The heat is always a few notches to the uncomfortable side of ‘flame grill’ as well, something which never rubs me up the right way.

The Den-en-toshi line, on the other hand, is all right by me. The name translates into ‘The Garden City’ which just makes me remember my mum talking about where she grew up in ‘Derry. Can’t really go wrong with that. Some of the trains on the line are old, but they’re workhorses – the Yokohama line seems to have delusions of grandeur, a fashion victim who survived the 80’s, threads intact, dignity in tatters. The older Den-en-toshi trains look like they’d scrub up fine for a party. The newer ones have flashy whizz bang monitors, running commercials and route information side by side.

Shame it only takes 5 minutes from Nagatsuta to Fujigaoka.

Fujigaoka is Fujinomori all over again. The clouds have gathered and are throwing some raindrops into the wind, getting a feel for it, seeing how they’re going to play things later on. It’s not bad enough for an umbrella yet, although unlike Fujinomori, I actually have one with me this time.

Outside the station, I have a look at the map. Then I have a look about. There’s not much of note around the station. Some shops and a supermarket named ‘Mother’s Garden’. I head to the left of here, figuring I can take a short cut to the park I saw on the map, and walk past a bar that I could have sworn called me a taig, only, when I stop and peer at the sign from a better angle, it looks like Taigi. I give it the benefit of the doubt and head on.

The rain hasn’t broken yet, and there are plenty of cherry blossoms to coo and ah over. There’s also a sign advising people not to practice Dance Dance Revolution in the water :

But the star draw has to be the cat, perched atop a tiny row of railings in the pond, who is on the prowl for some fish; his bravery disappears almost as fast as he does when he sees me.

There’s not much doing in the park, and the rain is holding off. I’m supposed to be meeting the wife for dinner, and that’s not for another hour. I figure I could just double back and head to the next station down the line, Aobadai.

I’m a good portion of the way there when I see the squirrels. They who control Fujinomori were sending me a signal. They know where I am. They may also know what I am doing. It’s lucky I don’t have any interest in golf.

That wouldn’t be the only sign that spoke volumes that day. Oh no.

Opposite Aobadai station is a Wendy’s hamburger joint. The building it’s part of is quite big, and on the top floor is a beauty salon. The sign for this establishment merely said “Beauty Brains FANNY”.

Must do some pretty in-depth aesthetic treatments.

Fujis remaining : 23
More pics at Flickr: Fujigaoka.

Don’t know what the 52 Fujis is about? Check this out.

Owing to staff shortages, Mount Fuji will be closed to climbers this summer - but only on Sundays. The authorities have been having trouble finding people willing to spend the whole season on the mountain, and so have decided to restrict access on Sundays. This effectively means that those who want to do a weekend climb have to be off the mountain by midnight on Saturday, although the most detailed news report I found made no mention of penalties. Perhaps they’ll leave you stranded up there…

I’m also not sure if this means the Self Defence Forces will have to find somewhere else to train as well, although to be honest, no-one really cares about them. Especially North Korea.

(more info here.)

Japan is internationally renowned for its love of cute. This is oft exaggerated, but isn’t entirely without merit. What is often missed is the side effect of this obsession, whereby nearly every business, organization, event - or indeed, just about anything - irrespective of size or purpose, seeks to get itself a mascot.

The Aichi expo had these guys -

The Japanese police have this guy -

Hikone Castle has this guy -

The Japanese military settled, famously, on this guy (the one on the left, who won’t be fingerprinted on coming to Japan) -

Nara, one of Japan’s most popular tourist destinations, site of the ancient capital, and famous for deers and temples, didn’t have a mascot. This oversight needed correcting, obviously, so the city government contracted themselves a nifty looking logo that they thought would sum up the charms of their city as cutely as possible.

This is what they got -

According to Yahoo news, there have been a few complaints that it isn’t cute enough. I’m inclined to agree.

source - Yahoo news (only Japanese)