Fukuoka-Busan: The gateposts of the Asia Gateway

IT’S A CURIOUS PHENOMENON that the farther people are from Japan and South Korea, the more likely they are to think folks in the two countries get along like dogs and monkeys, as the Japanese say about dogs and cats. If the articles and snide asides that the print media offer as infotainment are to be believed, it’s taken as a given in the West that the Koreans and Japanese can’t stand each other, and it’s mostly Japan’s fault.

But that’s not the picture that emerges in the part of the world where the two countries are closest to each other. It’s a mere three-hour boat ride or 50-minute flight across the Korean Strait separating Kyushu and the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula. Here in Kyushu, it’s no big deal to eat a leisurely breakfast while listening to a Busan radio station, and then follow that with a leisurely lunch in Busan. In fact, I’ve done it myself.

It’s not as if I’m a trend-setter, either. That trip has become an everyday occurrence for people in both countries. The sister cities of Fukuoka City and Busan know better than anyone that their bread is buttered on both sides, and they’ve been working together to whip up more tempting treats.

That’s why the two cities have embarked on their Asia Gateway campaign for encouraging people in both regions to drop by and set a spell, and in the process drop as much money as they can afford. They took the next step in the campaign today when they launched the joint Asia Gateway website. Their concept for the overall tone of the site is that the two cities are actually “neighboring towns” where people regularly travel back and forth, rather than cities in foreign countries that people visit occasionally for business or pleasure.

Considering the state of modern transportation and the real people I’ve seen traveling across the strait, that’s no exaggeration. For starters, young single women in both countries think nothing of hopping on the boat for a weekend cross-strait shopping expedition.

The website is jointly managed by the Nishinippon Shimbun and the Busan Ilbo newspapers. The homepage is in both languages, and from there visitors can access the separate Japanese- and Korean-language content. The section created in Fukuoka for Koreans contains videos of local attractions popular with Koreans, as well as blogs. There’s also a map of the Tenjin district in Fukuoka City, Kyushu’s largest commercial area, translations into Korean of Nishinippon Shimbun articles, and information on the Kurokawa Hot Springs in Kumamoto, another destination popular with Korean tourists.

The ties between the two areas aren’t PR dreamed up by the respective Chambers of Commerce. Coming soon to the site is an interview with a bi-strait married couple. The husband is Japanese and lives in Fukuoka City, while his wife is Korean and lives in Busan. Now that’s my idea of bisexuality!

Later this month, Busan plans to add more information in Japanese about their tourist attractions and Korean-style fortunetelling.

But you don’t need yuk hak to get a glimpse of the future in this part of the world, and now you’ve got more to go on than the English-language press. Just take a look at the Asia Gateway website and see for yourself.

Afterwords: The interview with the married couple is already supposed to be up there, but I couldn’t find it. Perhaps in the next day or so.

…to fold, divine

WHAT DO paper and the gods have in common? In Japan, more than you might think. To begin with, the two words are homonyms in Japanese: kami and, well, kami. For another, the Japanese often use paper objects in religious ceremonies. And starting this Saturday, those people lucky enough to be wintering in Tokyo this year can see those objects in the Paper and Gods Exhibit at the Paper Museum. Of course it’s called Kami and Kami in Japanese!

The museum will display paper products associated in some way with religious worship. Most of the exhibits are of cut paper used for ceremonies in which people communicate with the divine, such as Shinto festivals, weddings, and funerals. These include gohei, a staff with paper strips at Shinto shrines into which the spirit of the divine(s) descend at the invitation of the priests; katashiro, paper images used in Shinto ceremonies used to remove defilements from the human spirit, and treasure ships used as good luck talismans.

The exhibit will last until 8 March and will set you back only 300 yen, which is pocket change. How’s that for a deal–you don’t even have to spend your paper money at the Paper Museum. During the exhibit’s run, the museum will also conduct a papermaking class on Saturdays.

Just think—it’s a shame the Japanese don’t use human hair in religious ceremonies, or they could have called it the kami kami kami exhibit and gotten Boy George to sing the theme song.

And you betcha I added the Paper Museum to the links on the right sidebar!

Japanese castle explorer

Daniel writes in to say that his Kyushu castle website, which I posted about some time ago, has been replaced by a new site called Japanese Castle Explorer. There’s a nice interactive feature for all the castles covered, so take a look and see what you think.

I’d love to have a similar feature for festivals, but that costs money. If you’ve figured out an inexpensive way to do it, Dan, let me know!

National Diet Library photo exhibit

THE NATIONAL DIET LIBRARY is now presenting an e-exhibit of photos from the Meiji and Taisho eras (1868-1925) selected from its archives. Here’s the best part: the explanatory material is in both Japanese and English. The photographs are of sites in the Kansai region, which includes Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

If you’re a sucker for historical photos, now’s your chance! You’ll find the English version here.

There’s also a permanent link to the National Diet Library on the right sidebar.

Japan Navigator

WHILE SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING ELSE on Google, I stumbled across the Japan Navigator website, written by a foreigner who seems to be based in Kyoto. He focuses on art, business, travel, culture, and food, and makes excellent choices in subject matter. Two of his posts in particular that I would like to have written myself are this one, called “Graves in Kyoto’s Shopping Arcades”, and this one, called “The Shogun’s Mausoleum in Shiba”. That building, reputed to be one of the finest examples of traditional Japanese architecture, no longer exists, but the post reproduces photographs from the 19th century!

Pay the site a visit if you have the time.

P.S.: A (herring)bone to pick–are one-third of all Japanese television shows really “devoted to food”? I don’t know about that…

Japan-related websites added

IN ADDITION to the website for the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, I’ve also added links on the right sidebar to the sites for the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, University Libraries in Japan, the National Institute of Informatics, the National Astronomical Institute of Japan, and the Oriental Library.

Knock yourself out!

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records

I ADDED A LINK to the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records to the right sidebar. Here is how they describe themselves:

JACAR is a digital database of Japan’s historical records testifying to its pre-war relations with the Asian countries. It is an ongoing project archiving official documents of the Cabinet, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Army and Navy, dating from the Meiji era through 1945. In an effort to share the facts of history, images of the original documents are made public through this site on an unprecedented scale.

I haven’t looked at the information in detail, so I don’t know if they have an ideological bias, but the site itself seems as if it could be very useful.

And that led to me to the site for the National Institute of Defense Studies, which I’ve also added to the links. Here is their mission statement:

The National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), as the main policy research arm of the Ministry of Defense(MOD), is dedicated to strategic studies of policy relevance. It also functions as a war college-level educational institution for senior uniformed officers of the Self Defense Forces (SDF) and civilian officials of the MOD, and other branches of the government. In addition, The NIDS serves as the nation’s sole military history research center.

There should be plenty of interest there, too.

Iaido: Cutting to the quick

MANY PEOPLE OUTSIDE JAPAN have become aware of the martial art of kendo, in which the participants use bamboo sticks as sword substitutes in a competition that resembles a fencing match.

Yet few people even in Japan know of the martial art of iaido, which uses real swords. Even the most basic acts can be dangerous:

Intense scrutiny is also paid to the drawing and sheathing of the swords — “it’s easy to lose a thumb if you do that wrong” — and to the spiritual aspects of the samurai code.

This article in the English-language Mainichi profiles iaido master Yuta Kurosawa. Here’s the English website for his dojo, Butokuin. I’ve added the link to the column at right.

UPDATE: Reader Tomojiro passed along a link in English for koryu, or the older martial arts. Read more about them here; I recommend the Ryu Guide page. I’ve also added this link to the right sidebar.

Ramen research

THERE’S NO TELLING what little treasures you’ll find when you look around on the English-language versions of Japanese websites. That’s why I keep adding sites to the list on the right.

For example, those of you who just can’t get enough ramen in your life and prefer Asian junk food to Western junk food might enjoy the website of the Japan Instant Food Industry Association, which will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about instant ramen, plus a few other things besides.

Accessing this website (which is also on the right sidebar) will enable you to discover the history of instant ramen starting from 1958, definitions of noodles and noodle categories, instant ramen ingredients, safety regulations, and the materials used to make the cups in which the soup is sold and eaten.

Want more? They’ve got it, including descriptions of how the noodles, soup, and condiments are made.

For the really hardcore ramen devotees, they also offer a file of statistical information, including the amount of flour used annually in Japan to make instant ramen, the length of one noodle, the length of all the noodles in one package, and the number of noodles in one package.

The last page on the site provides handy hints on how to diversify instant ramen meals, including recipes for ramen cabbage rolls, quail eggs in ramen, clams with milk ramen, crab, spinach and egg ramen, and other delights.

If that’s not enough, you can always slide on over to Worldramen.net, also on the right sidebar. The previous site gives you the industry’s perspective, but here you get the noodle gourmand’s view.

Down here in Kyushu, ramen means the variety made with pork broth (tonkotsu), and for the outlook in Fukuoka, take a look at this feature article in the magazine Fukuoka Now. You’re sure to enjoy it because I wrote it! (Note: neither of the two people in the photo are me.)

This is just a small sample of the discoveries that await the intrepid Internet explorer. And no, I don’t mean the browser!

Of course, if you’re above ramen culture and the riff-raff that eats it, you can always use the sidebar to access the Hagakure in English!

To say ‘Dying without attaining one’s aim is a foolish sacrifice of life’ is a flippant attitude of sophisticates in the Kyoto-Osaka area. In such a case, it is difficult to judge rightly. No one longs for death. We speculate on what we like. But if we live without attaining our aim, we are cowards. This is an important point.

From measuring the length of ramen noodles to examining the meaning of life and death…whatever your taste in websites, we got ‘em!

N.B.: The above photo is a still from the film Tampopo, which is about a ramen shop, among other things. You should make a point to watch it if you get the chance. Or even better, make your own chance!

HDR Japan

HDR JAPAN is the website of John Burgreen, the Art Director of Okinawa Living Magazine, which is a free English-language publication distributed in Okinawa. The photography shown on the site is excellent, and there is an abundance of information about Okinawa from a variety of perspectives. It also has a section featuring headline news about Japan, as well as discussion forums for site visitors.

The site is attractively done, and well worth a visit. You can find it here.