Hot Tea Month

January is National Hot Tea Month in the U.S.

—Mellow Monk

Go to the Mellow Monk tea page
Bookmark this blog
Subscribe to the blog feed (RSS)

"Bus Man" and "Train Man"

The film Napoleon Dynamite bypassed Japan's theatrical circuit and got a straight-to-video release instead, a fact with which this critic takes issue.

The film's title in Japan is Basu Otoko, or "Bus Man." I suspect the title is a play on "Train Man" (Densha Otoko 電車男), a popular Japanese TV series, whose titular character is also a nerd like Napoleon.

In the series, Train Man gets his nickname from a woman he rescues from the unwanted advances of a lecherous drunk on a crowded subway train. (Not having seen Napoleon Dynamite, I have no idea how the bus fits in, but the Japanese distrubutors of the film obviously sought to tap into the popularity of "Train Man" by coming up with a similar title.)

The rest of the story concerns Train Man's bashful attempts to woo the young lady. For advice on how to approach her, he turns to his network of fellow otaku (nerds). As word of Train Man's brave endeavor spreads, he becomes something of a hero to the otaku community, who shower Train Man with emails and text messages of hints and encouragement.

"Train Man" is also one of the first shows to introduce Japan's TV viewers to otaku slang and the various abbreviations used by young people when text-messaging each other via cellphone. (For various reasons, text messaging is now far more popular in Japan than computer-based email.)

Incidentally, "Train Man" began as a book, which was is actually based on a true story.

—Mellow Monk

Go to the Mellow Monk tea page
Bookmark this blog
Subscribe to the blog feed (RSS)

A town's cash-for-babies program

This story has been around for a while, but it was reported by ABC or CBS news (can't remember which) on TV last night:

To combat its shrinking population, the town of Yamatsuri in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture is offering women who already have two children an incentive of almost $10,000 to have another child.

According to this article, Yamatsuri's program was based on one introduced 10 years ago by another town, Nishikata, in Tochigi Prefecture.

As I've pointed out in a previous post, declining birth rates are a serious issue in Japan. Just last year, the country's population actually began shrinking.

(Incidentally, the name "Yamatsuri" literally means "arrow festival." A Web search failed to turn up anything about the name's origins. Perhaps it goes back to some ancient festival that was held there, but many place names in Japan are so old that their origin is lost in antiquity.)

—Mellow Monk

Go to the Mellow Monk tea page
Bookmark this blog
Subscribe to the blog feed (RSS)