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J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie opens in Hiroshima tonight. It has been getting lots of buzz and there are a lot of people - especially around the Internet - raving about it, but it's the live-action remake of Blood: The Last Vampire (Japanese title Rasuto buraddo)that also opens tonight that I'd really like to check out.
A British adaptation of a Japanese anime (by Mamoru Oshii and Hiroyuki Kitakubo), produced by the people behind Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon starring a Korean actress (Jeon Ji-hyun); you really can't get much more global than that!
Admittedly I am a sucker for schoolgirls slashing vampires with swords, but it looks pretty cool and, it has to be said, although she may lack the humor, Saya could probably kick Buffy's a$$.
Both Blood: The Last Vampire and Star Trek open Friday, May 29 at Wald 11, TOHO Midorii and 109 Cinemas.
Opening Saturday, May 30 are Confessions Of A Shopaholic (with an impressive 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the Japanese films Rookies (live action adaptation of Masanori Morita baseball manga/trailer below) and Oto na ri.
After last week's Black Lizard Salon Cinema continues its Showa Fukusaku Kinji season with 1969's Black Rose Mansion; described by one reviewer on the imdb as "Hammer meets Kabuki". It's 91 minutes long, costs only ¥800 and is showing daily at 17:25 May 30 - 5 June.
Since the beginning of this season, Sanfrecce Hiroshima have been offering pitch side seats [芝かぶりシート/shibakaburi-shiito] to fan club members. Due to their popularity the club has decided to open them up to the general public from its June 7 Yamazaki-Nabisco Cup game against Albirex Niigata. There are 30 seats available to the general public and as you have to apply "before the Wednesday that falls about 10 days before the game" (!) you'll have to apply by tomorrow, May 27, for the Niigata game.
The seats offer a great view and you have a great chance of getting on TV, but at ¥6000 for adults and ¥3000 for under 18s, they ain't cheap. Of course there are lots of special rules to make the experience far less pleasant than it should be:
No food or drink (though a water tank and paper cups will be provided)
No photography or taking video
No right to demand that your image be removed from any video or photographs of the game that might be used for promotional purposes
No high heels
No wearing the shirts of the visitor team or waving any placards or anything to support them
No leaving the game until it has finished
No babies or people in wheelchairs
No umbrellas, bring your own rain gear
No disobeying any instructions match officials may give you
You have to be able to get to the B6 entrance to Big Arch stadium at least one hour before kick off so you can be safely on your bench (from which you cannot leave until the game is over) in time to give the players a "high touch" as they come out onto the pitch.
If that hasn't sucked all the fun out of the idea you can apply by sending an email to shibakaburi@sanfrecce.co.jp with the date of the game and opponent, number of tickets (max group of 4), name, sex and ages of the applicants and the address (including postal code) of the person making the application. You can also send a postcard to 〒733-0036 広島県広島市西区観音新町4-10-2 広島西飛行場ターミナルビル１Ｆ, or fax 082-233-3251.
Lucky applicants will receive a notification that includes a reservation number which they should take one of the designated ticket outlets to pay for their ticket before the stipulated date.
You can find all these details and more, in Japanese, at the Sanfrecce website.
This is a republication of a photo essay by Rebecca Schmidt which first appeared on GetHiroshima.com in 2006 submitted to the May 2009 Japansoc.org Blog Matsuri hosted by The Nihon Sun on the theme of My Favorite Place in Japan. We've decided to give the theme a local twist and introduce our favorite place in Hiroshima. Ever since I arrived in Hiroshima, Mitaki Temple has occupied a special place in the hearts of many international residents. The place oozes atmosphere, an atmosphere that changes with the seasons, the weather, and, with one's own moods. It is also one place in which even post-Kyoto temple weary tourists are never disappointed.
So, without further ado, I leave you in the hands of Rebecca.
Mitaki-dera - 3 Waterfalls Temple
The first time I visited Mitaki-dera was many years ago, when I accompanied a friend to the temple in the west of Hiroshima city. As we got off the train at Mitaki Station and walked up the mountain past the cemeteries and tea houses, I had no idea what awaited me. I thought this was just another trip to just another local temple.
I was soon proven wrong. Mitaki is hardly an average temple. My first sight of the four bronze monk statues standing just behind the small pond stunned me, while the numerous jizos lining the paths charmed me. We continued hiking all the way up through the temple paths and up the mountain through the bamboo forests and to the top of Soko-yama. I thought it was one of the most beautiful and spiritual places I had ever been. As the years have passed, these sentiments have only grown deeper.
A refreshing refuge from the hectic city below any time of year, Mitaki becomes a breathtaking paradise in autumn.The paths wind under a glowing canopy of red and yellow. The crisp autumn sunlight shines through, illuminating the autumn hues and beautifully accenting the many statues. The collection of jizo, kannon, and other butsuzou statues in Mitaki are a visual treasure. Each one unique and in constant transition as people place their gifts at the base and replace their hats and clothing over the months and years. After years of frequent visits, I am still discovering new statues and never tire of seeing the same ones as their expressions change with the light and seasons. It is, however, in Autumn when they all seem to truly come alive.
Mitaki is unique in other ways. Many of the statues and artifacts have been brought in from other places around Japan as well as South East Asia. The famous pagoda was a gift from Wakayama after the war to solace the lost souls of Hiroshima. You won't find too many Ganesh statues in Japanese temples, but there is a small one here, at the base of the third waterfall as it flows from under the main temple. There are other South East Asian statues and artifacts at the top of the stairs, but even more unusual, is the stone Christian Cross on the upper path linking the pond to the bell. And just past the bell, one will find a memorial to all those who lost their lives not just during the atomic bomb blast, but also at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland during World War II. Close to there, there is a stone with a song about Mitaki engraved in it.
Wandering up the path under the canopy of momiji, you might be tempted to just look up. However, there is a lot below to entice you as well. On the right side of the path, you’ll find the juroku rakan or "16 statues of high ranking monks" hanging out on the side of the hill. Each one, posing a different position and expression, is certainly worth pausing to admire. As you wander up the pathway, you'll find the tea house and garden where the second fall flows down from the mountain. Only open a few times a year for tea ceremony, November is one of those times when you might get to go in if you time it right. Finally at the top of the hill is the main temple, a treasure all in itself. Surrounded by jizo and numerous older images of Buddah, butsuzou statues. The third waterfall is up the stairs behind the temple, just where you can partake of the fresh mountain stream water.
Finally, don't forget to get a peek of the great city viewscape of Hiroshima just a few minutes up the stairs before the main temple. Don’t be surprised to find people picnicking up there. Many more visual treasures await your discovery as you wander the pathways of Mitaki-dera and the mountain behind. Wake up and get there early for the best light and you could very well find yourself there for the whole day.
The following are a few of my own "visual treasures" I have had great joy in discovering through my many journeys up and around Mitaki.
GetHiroshima.com is currently undergoing an upgrade, but you access the original article in the Google cache here as well as a guide to hiking Soko-yama, the mountain behind Mitaki Temple, here.
In something of a coup the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art is thefirst gallery in Asia to host this traveling exhibition which surveys the work to date of Martin Creed, one of Britain's most provocative artists.
The 40 year old artist who gave up painting things in favor of making things is most (in)famous perhaps for inspiring cries from critics and public alike, "Art? I could do that!" with his Turner Prize winning Work No 160 (The Lights Going On And Off).
Among his many other works there are more than a few have caused consternation; Work No 88, a sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball, Work No 79, Some Blu-tack kneaded, rolled into a ball, and depressed against a wall< and films of people vomiting, having sex and defecating (not all at once though). My favorite is last year's Work No 850 which had runners hurtling along the halls of Tate Britain every 30 seconds (video below). Creed also makes music, or perhaps, art in musical form.
This exhibition includes past works and some commissioned especially for Hiroshima, and on May 29 the Hiroshima Philharmonic will perform Work No 955 at Koseinenkin Hall. You can read a review of this, Creed's first orchestral piece, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra last autumn here
Although quite exciting, I do find this kind of art quite befuddling. I do, however, enjoy the way Creed talks about what it is he does and his process. You can find a video of an interview with him here and a transcript of another on the coming exhibition here.
Admission
Adult: ¥1030 (¥820)
College Students: ¥770 (¥610)
Children: ¥510 (¥400)
Prices in () for advance tickets (Ticketopia P-code 688-628) and groups of 30+.
Open until 19:00 on Saturdays in July and August.
Closed Mondays except final day (July 20).
1968 movie adaptation of Edogawa Ranpo story, adapted for the screen by Mishima Yukio (who also plays a small part) and directed by Fukusaku Kinji playing at Salon Cinema May 23-May 29 daily at 16:50. There are NO English subtitles, but with a teaser like the one from sarudama.com below and a discount entry price of ¥800 should be worth a punt.
Japan's number one detective must match wits, winks and breathless philosophy with the notorious Black Lizard, the sultry, diabolical drag queen intent on stealing the humongous Star of Egypt while adding to her collection of human stuffed dolls! Read the rest of this review at sarudama.com
Yesterday was the annual airing out of the Atomic Bomb Victims list housed under the cenotaph in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Known as kaze tooshi [風通し] the 93 volumes containing the names of 258,310 listed A-bomb Victims are spread out in front of the cenotaph to be aired out before the onset of the rainy season. Starting at precisely 8:15 am, the time at which the bomb exploded on August 6 1945, 12 city officials began to lay out the books, turing each page to make sure that their condition had not deteriorated over the past year.
After being bathed in the spring sunshine, all except the most recent volume were returned to the cenotaph. Approximately 5300 more names, those of survivors who have passed away and vistims who have been newly identified since last August, will be added to the latest volume which will join the others at the memorial ceremony on August 6 this year.
Chugoku Shinbun reports that a shachiburi or Jellynose Fish that usually lives at depths of 150-500m has been caught off the coast of the island of Kurahashi. The 80cm translucent light purple specimen with a gelatinous head was snared last month from a depth of 50m by a 73 year old fisherman. Usually found in only southern Japanese waters and the East China Sea, it is only the 3rd time this species has been found in the Seto Inland Sea.
Experts say that the fish was likely brought to the Seto Inland Sea on the kurushio or Black Stream (which flows from east coast of Taiwan and flows northeastward past Japan) along the Bungo Channel.
Here's one I missed in our May cinema round up, but luckily Yokogawa Cinema has extended its run. Shane Meadows's This Is England has picked up plenty of props and a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I can't wait for the '80s revival to peter out, as it brings back so many memories of just how horrible the country I grew up in was during the Thatcher years. By all accounts, Meadows does a great job of recreating the time, too a bloody good soundtrack too.
Playing at 16:40 and 18:40 tonight and at 14:40 and 16:40 May 16 - May 22 at Yokogawa Cinema.
On the last day of the flower festival, it was super hot and muggy most of the day, but then the sky opened up and many of us were impressed by the lightening and thunder but then caught in a downpour for the last few hours. We did have to smile at the few entrepreneurs who started going around selling convenience store umbrellas for a small profit.
Okay, so it was crowded and busy- but for many of us who caught some curb space for the parade, we were treated to a great display of costumery and dance in the many varied peformances.
I'm afraid I couldn't catch the names of any of the dancing troupes, but the amount of effort and enthusiasm that most of them put into it was impressive- worth sticking around for.
Even if you are not a die-hard dance fan, or even a fan of the flower festival in general, isn't it is nice to know that there are so many people in Hiroshima taking part, being active, performing and having fun in this event every year.
A lot of businesses in Hiroshima seem to be struggling, but there were many more stalls and vendors this year than any other it seemed and the atmosphere was quite lively and fun. So, if like many of us, you can't afford (or be bothered) to travel outside the city, hope to see you there next year.
The Flower Festival starts today. Check GetHiroshima Events and our Twitter feed (to the right) for updates. See something cool, eat something tasty? Add a comment here and we'll repost it.
