Month: September 2007

Google magazines Vs Yahoo Japan magazines

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date September 6, 2007
3 Comments on Google magazines Vs Yahoo Japan magazines

Yahoo Japan is the number 1 search engine here in Japan. Google was pretty unknown until they released many localized services, for example Google Maps for Japan is really good and people is starting to use it. In Japan you can easily recognize when something is successful when it jumps to the “analog world”. In the old times there where many magazines about Yahoo, since last year there are also magazines about Google services and many books on sale.

Yahoo japan

By the way, yesterday I stopped by a bookstore and there were books about the iPhone! Is not even released in Japan and they are already trying to sell “Best tricks for your iPhone” kind of books.

JapaneseCulture

Japanese Sleeping

Japanese have an special ability to fall asleep anywhere at anytime. Since I came to Japan I’m keeping a collection pictures showing Japanese people sleeping. Look at the first picture where four people in a row are sleeping! When I took this picture, almost everyone in my wagon was enjoying a siesta.

dormido

Durmiendo

Awa Odori

The pictures from the previous post were taken at “Awa Odori” 阿波踊り festival in Koenji (Tokyo) two weeks ago. It is a “matsuri” original from Tokushima (Shikoku), but it is also celebrated in Tokyo since the fifties.

I went with Roy who is very experienced, he is being attending Awa Odori during more than 15 years! He explained me all the different dancing styles (There is a dance called “the stupid dance”), why Awa Odori is different from other “matsuris”, and I also learned that 江戸っ子連 (Edokko-ren) is the best dancing group.

About the origin of Awa Odori, it seems that 500 years ago, a daimyo (feudal lord) from the Awa province organized a big party to celebrate a new castle’s inauguration. After drinking lots of sake, people started playing music, danced and ended up “making up” new dancing styles and songs that ended up becoming a tradition till our days.

Roy also helped me to get the BEST shooting point! I took more than 400 pics, here are some of the best ones. Look at the geta the girls are wearing, and how do they dance only using the first half of the shoe.

awaodori 2007 matsuri