Have any comments about our feature Mazda sneezes and thousands catch a cold? Do you have anything to add? This is the place to do it.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Mamma Mia!
One of the biggest and most disturbing surprises I had over the winter holiday was how much I enjoyed watching Mamma Mia! I hate musicals, and I've always despised Abba. Yet there I was, bloody loving it. I'm sure loads of you have already seen it, but if you haven't, it's a great night out.
Mamma Mia! opens in Hiroshima Friday, Jan 30 at Wald 11, Takarazuka, Warner Mycal, TOHO Midorii, T-Joy Higashi-hiroshima and Al Park.
First casualty of Mazda'sreduced production due to economic slowdown
Transcript in English
The first company has gone bust as a result of reduced production at Mazda. Laden with 5 billion yen in debts, subcontracted parts manufacturer Takiguchi in Kure is filing for bankruptcy.
The company which is based in Naishiro in Kure was having its profits squeezed by the low prices the parts it produced were getting, but it was reduced orders as a result of the drastic reduction in production by Mazda, which killed hopes of recovery, that sealed its fate. The company will file for bankruptcy next month and is thought to be 5 billion yen in debt.
The company had letting people go since last November and on January 23 laid off the last 40 employees. They will receive no redundancy pay.
All they said was, "I'm sorry, we've gone bust". No redundancy, no payment of any kind, said one worker.
Before the war, Takiguchi was established as a designated factory of the Japanese navy. The current company was established in 1957, producing parts for Mazda cars and doing welding work. At it's peak in 1991 it employed over 100 people.
This is the first company to go bust since the car industry slow down began last autumn.
Japanese classes for unemployed foreign workers 1/28
Transcript in English
In Kaita, where large numbers of it's many non-Japanese residents are losing their jobs has set up Japanese classes for south american nikkei residents overcome language barriers.
The Kaita International Exchange Association set up classes at Kaita Higashi Community Center on short notice in response rising unemployment among foreign workers. The second class was held on January 28.
Students listened as volunteer teachers explain the use polite verb endings, the past tense and so on, and then spoke freely.
Nikkei residents who took part in the class said they wanted to learn basic Japanese to help get a job, and "to integrate fully into Japanese society."
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Hiroshima Mayor Akiba answers criticism of baseball site plan
Yesterday, Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Tadayoshi answered criticisms from local councilors over his plans for the redevelopment of the municipal baseball stadium site. Councilors are objecting that the plans, which center on an open public space surrounded by a wooded park, do not meet the needs of local residents, nor will bring in large numbers of visitors.
In the clip from RCC News below, Akiba says that there were similar objections to the building Central Park in New York, but that now it is something it is something that is hard to imagine not being there, and a place about which New Yorkers feel great pride.
The reporter says that Akiba believes that holding events such as the Food Festival and similar to Shimane's Furusato Fair in the new plaza will pull in a huge number of people.
The Mayor is then shown saying that he cannot imagine yatai style food stalls being set up in Peace memorial Park, but that events such as the Food Festival now held in Chuo-koen (Central Park) and similar events might be considered (I think here he is referring not to Peace Memorial Park, but to the proposed plaza on the baseball site, as there would be huge opposition from hibakusha groups to such events being held in the Memorial Park. Anyone like to chip in on this translation/interpretation? Anyone from City Hall reading?). He goes on to stress that the Food Festival pulls in 800,000 people in just two days.
As for opposition to the Orizuru Origami Peace Crane Hall, the reporter says Akiba stressed that the idea received a very favorable response from the many experts consulted by the planning committee and ends by saying that the mayor has no intention of changing the plans.
In the original clip this was followed by footage of two opposing councilors saying that they hope that in the time it takes for the plans to be approved and finalized the mayor will take on board some their suggestions.
I have to say, it's quite nice to be on the same side as the mayor for a change.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Hiroshima Carp visit Gokokujinja to wish for success in new season
The Hiroshima Carp made their annual visit to Gokoku-jinja Shrine today to wish for success in the new baseball season which starts in April. Below is a RCC News report with an English transcript below that. Towards the end of the short segment Brown makes some comments about the coming season in English. As always if you have any argument with the translation I'd be most grateful if you would post in the comments.
It seems that there is a lot of pressure on Brown to lead the Carp at least to the play offs this season. Here are links to recent articles in the Daily Yomiuri and Japan Times.
Manager Marty Brown and other members of the Carp organization visited a shrine in Hiroshima today to wish for success in the coming season.
Team owner Hajime Matsuda, Marty Brown who is going into his 4th year as manager, and 58 members of the team and coaching squad visited Gokoku-jinja Shrine today. Brown made the tamagushi sacred shinto branch offering and wished for a strong showing in the 2009-10 season
Last season the team fought hard to grab a play off spot, but failed to make it into what it is known as the "climax series" for the 11th year in a row. With the Carp starting the new season at a new home stadium fan expectations are high.
Marty Brown then makes some comments about the coming season in English, which are subtitled in Japanese.
The Carp now get ready to head to spring training in Okinawa on Saturday.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Last 4 pro games at Shiminkyujo in March
Four of the Hiroshima Carp's pre-season warm up games will be played at the Shiminkyujyo Municipal Stadium; the final pro games to be played at the downtown stadium before the action shifts to the new stadium with the start of the new season in April.
Click on the links below for game times and ticket details
- Hiroshima Carp vs Rakuten Eagles, March 7
- Hiroshima Carp vs Chiba Lotte Marines, March 8
- Hiroshima Carp vs Yakult Swallows, March 14
- Hiroshima Carp vs Hanshin Tigers, March 22
New movies Jan 24: Broken English, In The Shadow Of The Moon, Revolutinary Road, Daremo mamotte kurenai
Broken English
At Wald 11
Read reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
Revolutionary Road
At Wald 11, TOHO Midorii and T-Joy Higashi-Hiroshima.
Read reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
In The Shadow Of The Moon
At TOHO Midorii
Read reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
だも守ってくれない (daremo mamotte kurenai)
At Wald 11, Takarazuka, Warner Mycal, TOHO Midorii, T-Joy Higashi-Hiroshima.
Quantum of Solace gets it's general release just about everywhere and the part one of the Che biopic is on for another week before part two opens next weekend.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Plans for new Miyajima Aquarium unveiled
Hatsukaichi City government has unveiled its plans for the revamped Miyajima Aquarium due to open in August 2011. The planned facility will feature a 350 ton tank which will allow the viewing of circling sharks and rays from below. The proposal, with a projected construction and maintenance cost of more than 50.5 billion yen for over 15 years was, made by a group of private companies which will form a special purpose corporation (特別目的会社) should it be approved by Hatsukaichi City councillors. According to a Chugoku Shinbun report the group this price tag was about 8 billion yen cheaper than the projected costs of Hatsukaichi City running the project themselves.
Full details of the plan in Japanese here (pdf).
New Reviews: Dec-January 2009
Round 1
"sports and game fun!" 
nahoko - Fri Jan 2009
Everyone from a child to adults can enjoy Round 1 (especially good in winter, cold or rainy days). The most popular is the bowling- which you can book out for a party if you like.
Cusco Cafe
"wonderfull food"
Anonymity Personified.2008
Very goood service, I love the Paella. The best pizza in Hiroshima. Price are good,the staff speaks English, Spanish... I highly recomment :)
"tasty"
max - Wed Jan 2009
I`ve been in maniy restaurants and that one is special, great paella, pizza.I higtly recomment cusco cafe
Mac Bar
"warm"
Mona - Sun Jan 2009
I live in Hiroshima from 1990-1993. Although back then, MAC was a tiny, dingy place, it was the warmest, friendliest place it town. Yuri and Mac have been lifesavers for many a lonely gaijin. I still have my MAC sweatshirt, and wish I could go there tonight!
Dotour Coffee
"Are you kidding" 
Anonymity Personified.Wed Dec 2008
I am giving this place two stars because the service is outstanding. However, the coffee and food they serve is nasty. Please don't go to this place. Great service but horrible food!
Barcos
"Best nightclub in Hiroshima"
Anonymity Personified.2008
A must go place in Hiroshima, music is great, staff is friendly, prices are good. I really enjoy my night there.I higtly recomment it. Full of lovely girls :)
Ryokan Sansui
"Great service, great facilities, great location!!!"
Milen - 2008
I stayed in Sansui Ryokan for only one night, but I liked it so much so when I go back to Hiroshima next year I will stay at the same place. It was clean, comfortable, great service, the location was really great, and just great memories. Sansui is a family business ryokan and the lady that owns that place also works there is very nice and friendly. She spoke a pretty good English compared to the other Japanese I met :-) In the evening I was chatting with some other tourists in the common lobby, and she gave us to drink some great French Cognac. We took many pictures and had so much fun with her.
Zucchini
"If it delivered what it promised it would be great. It doesn't and it isn't" 
Anonymity Personified.Fri Dec 2008
Put quite simply: unfriendly service, poor quality food, high prices. Pretentious. Two visits with the same outcome.
Porta Porte
"Incompetent"
b - Mon Dec 2008
Awful beyond belief. Couldn't even get a simple salad right. Old, unripe small slice of what must have once been a tomato in my "salad". Rude service. Tasteless pizza double price of a good Mario's. Change in owner? Avoid.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Final plans for use Hiroshima's municipal baseball stadium site?
Here is a clip from an RCC News report on the Hiroshima city government's plans for the site of Shimin Kyujyo municipal baseball stadium. A simple transcript of the content is below the video. You can read the full 35 page proposal here (pdf) and our round up of the main points and some comment in GetHiroshima here.
If you catch any translation errors and misinterpretations, please post in the comments.
What to do with the site of the Municipal Baseball stadium?
The Hiroshima city government has been considering what to do with site since early 2005, and today announced its final plans.
According to the plans, a public plaza will be built, a surrounding wooded area and a origami peace crane display hall. On the eastern side of the site near where SOGO department store is located will be a theater, next to which, it is planned the Chamber of Commerce building will be moved from its current location.
A reporter in the baseball stadium describes how the ground on which he is standing will become the plaza, and in the area under where the scoreboard is now located will be the origami peace crane hall.
Back to the stadium graphic: In response to calls from local citizen's groups approximately a portion of the right outfield stands holding about 3000 seats will be preserved.
Reporter on the ground: Shows the right outfield stand to be preserved and says, while work proceeds on construction of the theater and other fun facilities, the infield stand will also remain. The design will ensure that the position of homeplate and the baseball diamond are clear. The benches used by players will also be incorporated into the design.
Reporter shows the plans to passers by.
A middle aged man says, "It looks like a place everyone can enjoy and relax in. I think a plaza is a pretty good idea."
A young woman says, "Rather than just a public plaza, I think it would be more popular if there were more fun things to do on the site."
Another woman says, It's in a great location and personally think something everyone can enjoy is great."
Another man, "Personally I think it would be best preserved as it is, I'm sure that plenty of uses, such as High School baseball games could be found for it."
Cuts to a city council committee meeting where they debate whether a city forest can pull in 1,500,000 people and whether a hall to display peace cranes is really necessary. LDP councilor Nakamoto Hiromu is shown saying that he doesn't think Hiroshima residents want a little forest, peace crane hall and nice riverside area (I could personally do without the peace crane hall, but I wonder if the people he represents in Minami-ku really think that).
The Hiroshima-city government stress that they have had much input from the business community and that the plan is the fruit of years of careful consideration; appealing to councilors to bear in mind the potential for events in the plaza to inject energy into the city.
Head of the Hiroshima kaseika committee (which is overseeing the project), Hamamoto, says he does not wish to put off the finalization of the proposal any longer and says that there is opportunity for the views of councilors with doubts to be taken into account once we enter the new financial year with the budget approved.
The report the reiterates that although the city government seems prepared to take councilors' views into account going forward, it is set on having the plans officially approved as planned this month. It concludes by saying that the money will come under the new 2009 budget and that work is not expected to begin until after autumn this year.
Martin Luther King Day in Hiroshima?
This week a few posts have popped into the GetHiroshima Twitter feed saying how cool it is that Martin Luther King Day is "celebrated" in Hiroshima. It's also popped up on the web, and it seems that the source is the Martin Luther King Day Wikipedia entry, which states
One place where this day is observed as important is in the Japanese city of Hiroshima under mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, who holds a special banquet at the mayor's office as an act of unifying his city's call for peace with King's message of human rights.citing this source from 2005.
Anyone know if this is an annual one that is ongoing and who attends it?
Friday, January 16, 2009
Review of Hiroshima manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
as well as in Japanese and was recently adapted for the screen
. If interested I recommend buying both versions for comparison and study.
Winter festival fun
Though generally bright, it gets pretty cold after the New Year frolicking. There is, however, some festive fun to be had with a few traditional and also "traditional" events handily peppering the weeks until the sakura buds begin to appear.
Tondo festivals are more or less done, but new year commemorations continue at Shukkei-en garden on Jan 18 with the Obuku Tea Ceremony and the Momote archery festival over on Miyajima on Jan 20. The stores are stocking demon masks and long sushi rolls, which means that setsubun is on the way, with big commemorations at Gokokujinja in town and at Daishoin on Miyajima.
That nicely takes us up to the oyster festivals up and down the coast throughout February. Hundreds, if not thousands, gather at these festivals to score cheap oyster dishes, but I have to confess I have yet to brave the cold and check one out for myself. Maybe if the kids are misbehaving I'll drag them down to one or two this year. Cold mornings on non-descript seafronts not your thing, how about some hothouse action at the Orchid Festival at the Botanical Gardens which takes us back to Shukkei-en for the welcoming of those early harbingers of spring, the ume plum blossoms.
If you know of any other winter events worth checking out, or have particular recommendations of oyster festivals etc, please share in the comments below.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Heiwa Beer reviewed
One of the Good Beer and Country Boys was in Hiroshima over the hols and sampled two local ji-biiru brews, Heiwa Beer and Kure Beer. You can read DH's review of Heiwa Beer here. He also includes some details of the food available in the Heiwa Koubou Ebisu no Utage restaurant above the brewery (click here for Google Map). You can find a list of other restaurants that serve Heiwa Beer in Japanese here. Or, why not get some shipped to your door?
DH promises to have a review of Kure Beer and brewery up soon.
Friday, January 02, 2009
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