New year

Before anything else, happy new year! Feliz ano novo! 明けましておめでとうございます！ Glückliches neues Jahr! ¡Feliz año nuevo! 恭贺新禧! 새해 복 많이 받으세요! szczęśliwego nowego roku! Bonne année! с новым годом! Buon anno!

Etc.,etc...

Yeah... new year... Makes me think of all the new years I've spent. In Brazil, my routine used to be have dinner with family and watch the countdown at a relative's house or at home with my family. In Japan, every year was celebrated in a different way.

In 2005~06 I spent the reveillon with relatives in Japan and after took some pictures at Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto before returning to Himeji.

In 2007~08 I went to a friend's house to eat some nabe with a couple of close friends and we went to Manpukuji just a little after midnight. Even though we could stroll around and see the new year illumination, the temple closed shortly after we entered. During the first days of the year, I took some pictures at Daikakuji and Yasaka Jinja.

In 2008~09 I went with some friends to Osaka to watch the countdown at Umeda Sky Building followed by some clubbing. During the new year holidays I also met old friends from Himeji and went with them to Kiyomizudera.

What about this year?

With my thesis still pending, I couldn't do much. For the reveillon, I actually stayed home watching Kohaku Uta Gassen. For those who don't know, it is a traditional TV show for the night of December 31st in Japan. And this year it was the 60th edition of Kohaku.

It is basically a music show with appearance of many popular artists (not only singers. Comediants and others make small appearances during annoucements), some with special performances prepared for the occasion. But there's a "competition" between male singers (red team) and female singers (white team) performance. The competition aspect is actually left on the background during most of the show, though.

Another interesting aspect is that the artists invited for the event cover a wide variety of musical genres. From J-pop to enka, it is obviously a program aimed for people of all ages in a time that families are usually together. (Many Japanese return to their hometowns during new year vacations.) And there are also some "traditions" in Kouhaku as well that are interesting to watch. For me, the highlights were:

• Susan Boyle: Yes, NHK managed to bring what was probably one of the most popular names in entretainment in 2009. Her debut in the TV show Britain's Got Talent became one of the most viewed videos on the internet and spread like a virus. What made it so popular? I can only speculate, but it might have been the fact that even though one wouldn't expect much of Susan by her looks, she has an impressive voice that astonished everyone on stage. Why her? I was also asking myself the same question, but after hearing that the 2009 motto for Kohaku is the "power of music" (歌の力), nothing more appropriate than bringing someone whose life was completely changed thanks to a music performance. Her performance was great, but I felt that when she went on stage, with no other than Takuya Kimura, she wanted to be funny (like in her debut video comment to Simon) but couldn't make it.


• Michael Jackson Medley: In one of the special performances of the year, SMAP members did a homage to the "king of pop" with a medley of Michael Jackson's most popular songs. "Billie Jean", "Thriller", "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal" were musts; and including Jacksons 5 "ABC" was a nice addition. Last, of course, there was "Heal the World" with all the artists on stage. SMAP did a relatively good performance (including moonwalk and other of Michael's trademarks), although it still paled if compared to the original. SMAP are very popular in Japan, but it seems there was another reason why they were chosen to perform this number: they also have a TV show called SMAP X SMAP and Michael made a special appearance there once. Go YouTube it if you are curious enough.


• Kobayashi Sachiko costume: one of the "Kohaku traditions" is that Kobayashi Sachiko, a popular enka singer, will show up with an extravagant but beautiful costume when it's her turn to perform. This year was no different, and having a giant torso of herself holding her on the "statue"'s hands was a nice idea.


• Angela Aki's song: Angela Aki is one singer in Japan that, although I am not very familiar with her discography, I am often pleased with those I hear. Probably most people will know her by "Kiss me Good-bye", that is also Final Fantasy XII theme song, but in Kohaku she sang "Tegami ~Haikei Juugo no Kimi e~". That song was composed for the 75th NHK National School Music Contest in 2008 and has a nice message. Considering that 2009 was the year that more children commited suicide in Japan, this song comes in a good time.


• Saburo Kitajima's "Matsuri": well, this one is another tradition. "Matsuri" has been the last song of Kohaku for quite some time. And it quite appropriate to be so.


• Ayaka's last performance before "break": that one got me by surprise. I didn't know that Ayaka annouced that she was diagnosed with Graves' disease and that would put her career on hold after 2009. As she was invited to Kohaku, it became her last performance. Although it wasn't that long before her debut, I am familiar with some of her songs, many of which I like a lot; for example "Mikazuki", "I Believe", "Anata to" (with Kobukuro) and "Okaeri". "Why" is another song that more people outside Japan may know since it's the Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core theme song.

Well, to avoid saying that staying in front of TV was everything I did for new year, as it's tradition since I came to Kyoto, we had a dinner with my host family and other "foster international students". Good opportunity to eat like there's no tomorrow and enjoy a more family-like atmosphere. This year someone brought a mochi-making machine. Didn't even know that such a machine existed! And it works nice!

Also, for the first time I decided to take an omikuji (some sort of fortune paper). Yes, in all previous years I went to shrines but never participated in the rituals. My luck for 2010 according to it is "regular" (平). Reading it further, the general message was that I may get what I want if I put effort into it...

Obvious? Meaningless? Maybe, but I prefer to think of it as confirming my usual view about luck:

「俺の運命は俺が決める」, or "My destiny is up to me to decide."

Time for the new

Last post of 2009; time to show the kanji of the year.

The winner was...

新

The reading is shin and it means new, fresh (atarashii, arata).

The main reasons that led this kanji to the top were:

• New government: After basically 50 years of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) rule, the power shifted to the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) in a landslide election. With the new Obama government, a new age for the Japan-US relationship is also in sight.
• New sports records: Ichiro, a Japanese baseball player in the US (and very popular in both places - especially Japan - as far as I know), set new records in the MLB and in Japan. Also, new records were established in many other fields, with special mention to Usain Bolt's athletics records.
• New influenza: The H1N1/09 flu (a.k.a swine flu) is known in Japan as 新型インフルエンザ, or new-type influenza. I don't think I need to mention the flu outbreak this year that didn't spare Japan... neither Brazil.
• Introduction of new systems: Japan saw this year the implementation of many new systems this year. Among which the lay judge system, the eco-point system and a highway discount system.
• Coming of a new age: From the movement towards a more environmentally friendly society to the changes in the structure of the economic system after the global crisis, there's a feeling that a new age is coming. And people have hopes for what's to come.

So, the feeling of change last year (when the kanji of the year was 変) now changed into optimism for what's to come.

About my "new" meaning, it will probably be delayed until March. That's when I graduate and start a new life, wherever and whatever it will be. I hope for the best, but I also need to double my efforts to get there.

For that, the first step is get done with the thesis that is giving me so many headaches lately.

Back to research...

Osaka Hikari Renaissance

End of the year, and that brings light festivals with it.

The first one I've been in Japan was probably the Kobe Luminarie. Actually, that festival has a special meaning since it was first held on the same year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

Since then, I returned to Japan, went to the Kobe Luminarie again, to some light festivals in Kyoto...

... but there was one in Kansai I was still missing: Osaka Hikari Renaissance.

That event is a bit more recent, and it is "held in hopes that the warm lights will give the city more energy and as a chance for a newer movement toward a international metropolitan Osaka" (quoted from their website). It became more popular (at least to people in Kyoto) from 2008, when a new Keihan line made it a lot easier to go there and to move around the area.

So, on December 18th, the weather was surprisingly fine. Considering I wanted to go there and I managed to get some time off on that nice day, I decided to go there check it out and Fang joined the last-minute short trip to Osaka.

Since there were different attractions in different areas, it was not awfully crowded, especially for a Friday night. Still, I wouldn't want to go there on the 24th night.

Probably the main highlight is a 10 minutes-long show with lights projected on the facade of the Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library along with music. It was the most impressive thing, and also the most crowded.


Near there, there was also the Nakanoshima Illumination Street. There were some shows there where the lights change according to the background music. Still, I think I prefer when they are still. It enhances the dream-like effect, especially because the lights are based on white and blue colors (during the shows red and green are also used).

The Osaka City Hall also had some illumination, with a cafe and some performances inside. We listened to an orchestra of mostly young people all dressed in Santa outfits. I couldn't find out the name of the group, though.

Moving on to the West Area, we could still see a sand statue from The Sand Museum Tottori City (sic) and some other illumination settings (including an interesting one made of pet bottles) before going back to Kyoto.


Check my Picasa album for more pictures.

Speech contest

As Caruso pointed out in his blog, people who are Japanese descendents or study Japanese become familiar with speech contests at some point. In part because Japanese seem to like speech contests as a way to show language proficiency.

Following his indications too, I decided to check a National Portuguese speech contest for Japanese university students at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. After joining some Japanese speech contests in Brazil, I wondered how it would feel to hear speeches from people who are actually making efforts to learn a language I'm well familiar with.

And also to see some Japanese who chose to study Portuguese. It is not a common choice. Most Japanese, when they choose a foreign language, opt for English. If not, Chinese, French, German, Spanish... Even Korean and Italian seems to be more popular. As an example, Kyoto University offers all those language courses at basic level at least, but there's no Portuguese.

Interestingly enough, disconsidering the Japanese accent there was a mixture of Portugal Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, but the latter was predominant. Also, the students I've talked to decided to study Portuguese mainly because of something related to Brazil.

The big prizes were scholarships to Portugal, though...

With stakes as high as these, just the speech wasn't enough. There was even a small interview (with a jury that included the embassadors of Portugal and Brazil) after the speeches to determine the winners.

Still, some speeches were great. The one that won the contest had as background the movie "Se Eu Fosse Voce" (If I Were You). It was clever how the plot of the movie (a couple who end up changing bodies by accident) was linked to how we should try to understand other people thinking how would it be if we were on their shoes. And from there to different cultures.

Another speech I liked a lot and with a similar message had pollen allergy as the trigger. The same way the body rejects strange bodies through reactions such as allergy, people do towards what is "different". This one I liked most because of the energy of the speaker, although the final message was also nice.

Anyway, this could go on for some time. I'll stop here.

It was an interesting experience. Now I might have an idea on how Japanese people feel when they listen to speeches from foreign students in Japanese.

And that came in handy for a speech contest in Japanese I participated.

No, not anything as big as that Portuguese speech contest. It was a speech contest organized by the Kyoto Association of Host Families (KAHF). Also, as expected, I wasn't one of the top three, although everyone who did a speech got a prize.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience giving a speech in Japanese in Japan. Probably still the language among the three I can say I am able to speak that I feel most unconfortable using.

Among speeches mentioning Japanese culture, social challenges and life with their host family, the three winners had in common the naturality while speaking. In a relaxed way, their speech was delivered smoothly with words that the jury knew (there were some with a bit of technical language).

The winner spoke about her life with her host family, remembering through a recently arrived student how most of us are when arriving, and mentioning the warmth their family had always given to their "foster children".

One that I found most interesting, including for academic reasons, was about how Japan is noisy. There is always some sound wherever you go in urban environments. And many announcements. Escalators tell you to watch your step, trucks warn people about left or right turns. The speaker himself was once tricked by an ambulance with its siren on and telling it was turning to the left, thinking it was a disaster annoucement (one car in the middle of the night with siren on and yelling something... comprehensible mistake).

There are actually some lines of research about sound directivity to prevent an annoucement to spread to undesired directions. It still has a long way to go, though.

Interview for internet radio

Other day I got a message from a friend asking if I couldn't give a short interview for an internet radio broadcast. One of the segments involves short interviews with international students from different countries, and they were looking for a Brazilian because Rio was chosen as the host for the 2016 Olympic Games.

(And they had never interviewed a Brazilian until then...)

Well, considering good part of the contents were around subjects I am not that familiar with, I may have done a good job. What were those contents? Carnival in Rio (I've never been to Rio and don't like carnival that much), soccer (no idea who are the current "top players", although I do know the groups for the next World Cup), movies like City of God (I read the book and like it, but the film is a vague memory... and I've never watched all of it)...

All that makes me wonder: am I a Brazilian without first-hand knowledge of the mainstream culture of the country?

You can listen to the interview here. Click in "世界の留学生 (Foreign Students)", then in "ゲストー覧表" in the box below. Last, look for your "victim" and enjoy.