A 'slut walk' for Tokyo

... would be fine.

Recently, a new form of demonstration against sexual violence called 'slut walk' is spreading over the world. The first 'slut walk' was held in Toronto, Canada, on 3rd April 2011 and started when a police officer from the Police in Toronto - who spoke at a safety forum of the York University on crime prevention - recommended women 'not to dress like a slut' to prevent sexual violence and rape. Which means, it's the women's own fault if they get raped, because they dressed like sluts and their clothes were screaming something like 'yesyesyes'.

  It's a common 'excuse' used by many people (not only men) to say, that rape is a crime which mainly occurs in summer, because of the 'slutty' dress of women. That's not true.

'Slut Walk' in New Delhi (Image: DAPD)

International driver's licence for Japan

One week left...! I'm a little bit nervous, because there still are a lot of things to do in Austria before I can go to Japan.

Yesterday, I got my international driver's licence!
In Austria, there is no problem to get the IDL for Japan. It doesn't really need time either! My boyfriend made an IDL for Austria in Japan and it took him a week or so to get it and costed about 5,000 Yen, as far as I remember.
On the other side, in Austria it costs about 14,10 € (if you're member at ÖAMTC, Austrian automobile club; if not, it's about 24 €) and takes a few minutes. You can use the IDL one year minus one day and the woman at the counter was really friendly (as she is not Viennese but from Graz, I suppose >:D) and said, that Japan is a very interesting country and wished me good luck for my journey.

「日本人の知らない日本語」 Mangaka Hebizô and teacher Umino in Vienna - Part Two

Vienna Sightseeing with Hebizô and Umino
On the Saturday, a group of five students of Japanese Language Division of University of Vienna went for sightseeing with Hebizô and Umino.
First we met at their hotel and went to Schloß Schönbrunn. We really really had luck, because of the beautiful weather (only rainy days before...), but unfortunatelly there were so many people at Schloß Schönbrunn, who wanted to visit the castle (and not the park!). So we would have to wait for about 3 hours to get inside the castle. That plan was skipped and we took a little walk through the park and went to the Gloriette, were we had some ice cream. Yummy!
Hebizô and Umino are interested in flea markets and so we went to Naschmarkt, which was really really crowed! They were impressed by the flea market and the food market at Naschmarkt and we also visited Cha-no-Ma, a Japanese tea shop, and Nipponya, a Japanese supermarket. Already quite hungry, we were looking for a nice place for lunch...
but something embarrasing happend...

「日本人の知らない日本語」 Mangaka Hebizô and teacher Umino in Vienna - Part One

 The Comic Essay 「日本人の知らない日本語」 (Japanese that Japanese don't know) is created by the Japanese language teacher Umino and the mangaka (漫画家) Hebizô. Umino's experience as a Japanese language teacher for foreigners in Japan are the basic for the Comic Essay, which contains short and funny episodes with her students.
Currently, 2 Volumes of 日本人の知らない日本語 were released and teacher Umino and mangaka Hebizô traveled to Europe for some inspiration for the 3rd Volume. They visited Japanese language students in Belgium, Germany, Swiss - and Austria!
Here are my memories of the events with Hebizô and Umino ミ☆

「文化人形」 Bunka Doll - sweet memories from Taishô

Ever heard about a Bunka Doll (bunka ningyô, 文化人形)?

Bunka Dolls were famous between Taishô (1912-1926) and early Shôwa Period (1927-1937). The doll's body and clothes are completely made from fabrics. Japanese fabrics (chirimen, 縮緬）are used for the clothes, but they are Western style clothes. Sometimes, traditional Japanese clothes are combined with Western elements and so on. During Meiji (1868-1912) and Taishô (1912-1926) Period, a lot of Western style dolls came to Japan. According to this influence, the Western elements in the dolls' clothes are mainly bonnets and other headpieces.

Recently, Bunka Dolls became famous again. You can find several homepages with nice pictures of Bunka Dolls, or instructions for making them by yourself.

 
Left & above: 3 cute Bunka Dolls from Chizuru no ningyô no heya 


Underneath: 3 other cute Bunka Dolls from Bunka Ningyô - Natsukashii Araka

Here you can find a Japanese "do it yourself" tutorial for Bunka Dolls with pictures: Bunka ningyô no tsukurikata

You fell in love with that cute Japanese Bunka Dolls?
On Yahoo!Auction, you can find some by  Bunka Ningyô - Natsukashii Araka -->Just follow this link! The auction starts at 3,000 Yen.
If you insert "文化人形" at the Yahoo!Auctions page, you can find a lot! Not only the dolls itself, but also the fabrics for the clothes are found there.

But there are also some online shops, which sell Bunka Dolls！

AKA HIME - Bunka Dolls, dresses, accessoires and other stuff for Bunka Dolls. A doll costs about 12,000 Yen (!)
Yokohama Doll Shop - Online shop for dolls, also sells Bunka Dolls, mainly in red dresses. Price about 4,000 Yen
Heart's Shop - Retro shop for Bunka dolls. Sells dolls in different sizes, prices are about 2,000 Yen

All pictures taken from  Chizuru no ningyô no heya and Bunka Ningyô - Natsukashii Araka

「花見」 Watch the cherry blossoms blooming

Hanami (花見, lit. "watching flowers") is a very known tradition in Japan.

In the end of March and the beginning of April, Japans cherry trees (sakura, 桜) begin to bloom and visitors - Japanese and Non-Japanese - will make a picknick unter the beautiful pink and white blossoms with their co-workers, friends or families and beloved ones.

This 'picknick under cherry blossoms' is very famous and recently the term Hanami is also know outside of Japan.

How to do a Hanami? This is quite simple!

Usually Japanese go for a Hanami on a Sunday, because most of them have their day off. The most favourite location for Hanami is a public Park, like Yoyogi Park or Ueno Park in Tôkyô. Ueno Park is really popular and you hardly find free seats under the cherry trees. Yoyogi Park is very popular among young people, because the park is located next to the fashion-district Harajuku and on the bridge Meiji jingu-mae cosplayers and otaku from Japan and all over the world come together.

Very typical for a Japanese Hanami are the blue sheets (available in different sizes at any 100-Yen Shop). Groups of five to ten people or more sit on them under the pink or white cherry blossoms and enjoy a picknick together. Mostly with a lot (and I really mean a lot!) of alcohol, like (Japanese) beer or sake (Japanese rice wine, お酒).

「抹茶」 Japanese Green Tea

Ever tried Japanese Green Tea - matcha 抹茶?

Matcha is powdered Green Tea and can be used in various delicious ways. Originally, Matcha is used for the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, the tea's colour is an intensive green and Matcha has a slightly bitter taste. Within the Japanese tea ceremony, Matcha is served together with typical Japanese sweets (和菓子, wagashi).

However, the Japanese food industry invented also other products with Matcha, like Matcha chocolate, cakes, cookies or even drinks. 

A 'Matcha Frappuchino' is available at Japanese Starbucks stores, and also other coffee shops in Japan offer drinks like  'Matcha Latte' (frozen, iced or hot). 

A note on: The costumes of Eiko Ishioka

Eiko Ishioka

Eiko Ishioka is a Japanese costume designer, born on July 12 1939 in Tôkyô. 

She is very famous for her designs and in 1992 Ishioka won an Academy Award for her costume design in Bram Stoker's Dracula. (Indeed, Mina's red dress is very famous)

(Some of) her designs for movies:

Mishima: A life in four chapters (1985)

Closet Land (1991)

Dracula (1992)

The Cell (2000)

The Fall (2006)

Teresa, el cuerpo de Cristo (2007)

Stage costumes:

Madamma Butterfly (1988)

The Ring of the Nibelung (1997)

Cirque du Solei: Varekai (2002)

and more...

Here are some selected pictures of her designs and you can easily find them on google ;P 

The Cell

Mina's dress in 'Dracula'

There are also different photobooks of Eiko Ishioka's designs, but they are quite expensive. You can search for them on Amazon. (Prices around $180 and $235+..)

I personally like Ishioka's work, because it has something of a 'gothic touch' and is really interesting. ;P I like the combination of Western dress (especially Victorian and Gothic style) and Japanese/Asian dress. Ishioka seems to like the colour red and uses it quite a lot. I think red x white or red x black is great for the eye. 

However, Ishioka isn't alone, other Japanese fashion and costume designers seem to have an interest in old western clothes and gothic style... For instance, Yohji Yamamoto, who loves the colour black, or Issey Miyake, Hanae Mori ... ;P

I just named the most famous Japanese designer, but there are lot more of great fashion designers in the land of the rising sun. Maybe next I'm, I'll give a note on the other designers, too. ;P

Going to the cinema in Japan: Ticket

Some (hopefully) useful tips how you can enjoy a great afternoon or evening at a Japanese cinema ;P

Going to the cinema in Japan: Getting the ticket

Of Course the first thing you need is the ticket. The cinema ticket in Japan is quite expensive, about 1,800 Yen per Person. Normally there are no discounts for university or high school students in Japan, but some cinemas do offer university students discounts! ^^ The most inexpensive ticket is about 1,000 Yen - for ladies only available at the so called 'ladies day'. In the majority of Japanese cinemas, wednesday is 'ladies day'. Depending on the cinema, 'ladies day' could be at another day.

I want to intodruce the ticket shop Daikokuya and two big cinemas in Tôkyô, Shinjuku (Piccadilly and Wald9). 

「HACHI 約束の犬」 Hachiko: A dog's story

During my exchange year in Tôkyô, I heard that Richard Gere is a fan of the dog Hachikô and plans to make a movie about the dog's story. In August 2009, I could watch his new movie 'Hachiko: A dog's story' (Japanese title: HACHI 約束の犬) in Japan. So I'd like to intodruce that movie...

「HACHI 約束の犬」 Hachiko: A dog's story

Directed by: Lasse Hallström

Produced by: Richard Gere, Bill Johnson, Vicki Shigekuni Wong

Starring: Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Sarah Roemer, Eric Avari, Jason Alexander

Country: United States

Language: English

Release (Japan): 8th August 2009

Release (US): 18th December 2009 


Japanese Homepage 

「外人だから」 Being a foreigner in your own country...

This time, I won't write about youth and subculture in the classic sense, but about another cultural phenomenom which appears among (young) Japanese people. Even non-Japanese speakers know the word 'gaijin' (外人), short for gaikokujin (外国人) and it's very often used with a 'slightly' negative connotation. 

As Japanese are so used to that word and the majority of non-Japanese speaking foreigners in Japan always uses that word to describe themselves, most people ignore the negative meaning of 'gaijin'. I personally, do dislike the word 'gaijin' and always use 'gaikokujin' instead. It is much more polite. 

Another version of the 'g-word' is 'gaijin-san', with the word 'san' for mister/miss. Miss Gaijin isn't much more polite than gaijin alone, but many young Japanese don't get it.

Gothic Lolita : Princesses d'aujour'hui

Today I found something interesting. As I'm writing my master paper about the gothic & lolita fashion style, I'm very interested in any kind of gothic & lolita related stuff. Because it's about the original Japanese fashion style, I'm not really allowed to write something about the gothic & lolita culture outside of Japan - except for the introduction!

I'm quite surprised how many oversea people are fans of the gothic & lolita fashion style. Especially in France and Paris, there seems to be a huge scene! (At least, the famous label BTSSB opened the first oversea shop in Paris)

So, the interesting thing I found is a book called

Gothic Lolita : Princesses d'aujour'hui. 

As I can't read French very well, I just can guess... a very cute illustration book about a Gothic Lolita living in France. I really wonder why there are so many fans of Gothic & Lolita fashion outside, they also published an English version of the Gothic & Lolita Bible!