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Well, it’s finally time for the April edition of the Japan Blog Matsuri, so gather around the glowing monitor, kids. I’ve been granted the hosting privileges this month. For this month, I chose the theme of tourism due to the timing of the matsuri. Surprisingly, we actually did get a couple of good articles and posts about tourism and Japan. By a few, I mean precisely 3. Golden Week proved to be a bigger attraction than writing about tourism in the end, which took not a soul by surprise. I hunted around for some extra stuff to round out the collection and pulled out a few good, but unrelated posts. In then end, I hope you all enjoy the collection of links that this round has brought. Let’s hit it.
1) First up, a bit of shameful shameless self promotion. I wrote a piece on Virtual Tourism. In it, I talk about technologies that make it possible for us to take trips through the internet in lieu of real world travel. It’s really cool to see the possibilities that are just around the corner. Take a look to see what I mean.
2) What Japan Thinks has some interesting tourism-related poll results. What is it that homeward bound Japanese folks harbor hankerings for? He lists the foods that they want to eat the most after returning from an overseas trip. I learn so many things from this site. As a brief aside, I noticed one thing that did not make the chart. 
3) Next up is Japanprobe, which also featured some culinary curiousities related to travel - only these were Shinzo Abe Omiyage. That’s right, folks, there is a market for omiyage bearing the likeness of Shinzo Abe, the new Prime Minister of Japan. Is it weird? Yes. Would you not buy some just to prove that it exists? I would. It probably tastes the same as all other omiyage, but the novelty is worth it. Find out where to get your hands on some.
4) Alex over at Victory Manual has written a post about the lines between Tourists, Hosts, Overstaying Your Welcome. It’s similar to a classic “dating” and “after the honeymoon” pattern. Are you a long term or short term visitor to Japan?
5) He said I could, so I am including this vlog entry from Clay(tonian) - our friendly neighborhood Hopeless Romantic. In it he goes over his Golden Week shenanigans (like encountering a ginormous statue at a temple) and translates part of a theme song for our enjoyment. It’s worth a watch - if you like it, check out his other vlog entries - I hear his YouTube subscriber count continues to climb.
6) Around the corner at Q-Taro, Roy talks touring car dealerships for free stuff. Learn about how to make car salesmen seem like Santa Claus thanks to Golden Week.
7) Japanprobe proves that Cool Tourism is easy to come by in Japan. The bulleted list on the post says it all. It includes an earthquake simulator, an onsen for man’s best four-legged friends (dogs, people, sheesh), and a capsule hotel.
Japundit wrote about Travel During GW, and linked us to the Kyodo News Agency’s coverage.
9) Japanprobe pulls off a hat trick this month thanks to a video about Otaku Tourism, a quickly growing industry in urban Japan. Lately this “subculture tourism” has been attracting more and more foreign tourists. ‘Tis a fire that Japan intends to feed.
10) Lastly, Jon at Life is Random has put together a nice entry serving the dual purposes of recording his own personal Golden Week escapades as well as providing some cool random facts about his Golden Week to the reader. He took his free time as an opportunity to play pachinko, for instance.
There you have it folks, a few stretches there, but I wanted to include a couple of buddies. (If you host you’re allowed to do that. I’m pretty sure.) I hope that this month’s was as good as last month’s - I’ve got to say that Bill did a nice job, even though his oyaji gag made me wince. For those who missed them, here are links to the first, second, and third Japan Blog Matsuris. That ought to do it for this month.
It was not what I expected, but I want to offer my thanks to those that I drafted as well as the few who actually submitted your entries. There is no word yet on a volunteer for next month. If you’re stoked about hosting the matsuri and you have an idea for a theme floating about in your head, please contact Ken Y-N and volunteer. If we can get more people to participate, we’ll have greater quality in the articles, and a tighter Japan-blogging community. I’ll retire from the soapbox now, and let you read in peace. Thanks for stopping by my site. Feel free to leave me links back to your sites in the comments. I’m always looking for new online haunts. That’s what this whole thing is about, after all.
お疲れ様でした！
This is the LAST DAY you can submit entries for the Japan Blog Matsuri. Please refer to the original posting for instructions. Entries are encouraged, because this month looks pretty light so far. Tell your fast-typing friends. (Actually, tell everybody.) Remember, the point is to help us in the Japan blogosphere discover one another’s blogs. Please feel free to submit anything related to this month’s theme: TOURISM. 
It seems like many things are going digital as they gain importance. Banking, commerce, personal communications, and more have already taken the plunge. When it comes to seeing a corner of the world where you’ve not yet been there are already a few options available. Let’s take a look at the growing possibilities for virtual tourism.
Please get your entries in, everyone. Start writing and cranking out the matsuri love. I want to make this a great Japan Blog Matsuri! Here’s a link to the original post, and a quick and dirty breakdown for the link-through lazy.
Theme: Tourism
Deadline: Monday, May 7th (due to Golden Week holidays)
Submissions:
Remember, tangentially related things are fine. Creative angles are encouraged! Multiple entries are ok for this one, but don’t submit blogspam. 
It will be weeded out. Tell your Japan-related blogging friends about it and try to get everyone involved. The more the merrier, guys.
Get ready to party…another matsuri is coming! Another Japan Blog Matsuri, to be exact.
Let it be known that I am the designated host for the April edition of the Japan Blog Matsuri. Last month’s matsuri, hosted by Rising Sun of Nihon, was a great success, and is a really tough act to follow. I’ll do my best. Kudos to Bill Belew for the job he did. If you’re new to the concept, or just to this particular “blog carnival,” please refer to the matsuri’s explanation page at What Japan Thinks for rules, regulations, and general information.
The theme for this matsuri is … drum roll please … “Tourism!” Japan and tourism go together like Forrest Gump and Jenny (ok, ok, peas and carrots for you purists). I think it’s broad enough to leave you all kinds of wiggle room. I’d like to keep personal trip memories out of it unless there is some kind of commentary or content within such a post that makes it something a stranger would want to read. I hope that is understandable. I’m not trying to be mean, but we don’t want to have a list of “what I did over break” entries. There is plenty to talk about, so get writing about tourism and Japan if you’re game.
Due to Golden Week, I am extending the normal deadline. Please submit any tourism related articles and posts that you’d like to be considered by midnight on Monday, May 7th, 2007. 繰り返して、２００７年５月７日２３時５９分５９秒までに記事とポストなどを出して下さい。Everybody got that? Good. It is best if the articles and posts were written during the month of April in principle and spirit, however. We don’t want to steal from the next matsuri, now do we?
Please submit all articles and posts to me through the official submission page or the widget at What Japan Thinks. Alternatively, you can send them to me by email: deas (at) rocking in hakata (dot) com.
Encourage all of your friends to participate! Link them to this call for submissions, as well as to older examples for reference. It’s a great way to connect, discover new blogs, and interact with the greater English speaking Japan blogging community. Have fun, be safe, clean your room, and be home by 11.
Kids are in an interesting predicament in Japan. There is a low birthrate at present, in spite of the government’s New Angel Plan (PDF link to a JETRO special report from 2005, the first year of the population decline), which puts interesting pressure on the youth. Some people note that the “school refuser” culture is on the climb, leading to dropouts and truancy on a larger scale than was reported in earlier years. Some look at the situation as being a snowball effect, more and more compounded - Japan seems to be raising conspicuous consumers under the old ranks of conspicuous consumers from the golden years of the bubble economy. This leads to parasite children, “NEET” (Not in Employment, Education, or Training), and “FREETER” (from the English free or freelance and the German arbeiter) problems. If more people choose to continue to view children as an economic burden that threatens their purchasing power and standard of living, what will happen to Japanese society? I will address none of these questions. Ha ha. Sorry to psych you out. There is a flipside to the situation that I want to mumble about. There is obviously some guilt over not having children or losing them - those who have studied the modern instances of Jizo (Ksitigharba or Dizang, but the Japanese version) or the mizuko kuyo rituals since the latter half of the 20th century know what I mean. For the rest of you, I thought it would be fun to point out that Japan is following in Western footsteps as supermoms (and superdads) across the nation race to protect their children from all probable (and indeed, improbable) threats.
Playgrounds. Japanese playgrounds.
They have astonished me. I remember reading an opinion in an article for one of my classes in college which claimed that Japan was a child’s paradise. In some cases, that is true. The notion of a socially integrated upbringing, relying on teachers and other community members for disciplinary action and positive reinforcement creates plenty of individual wiggle room for kids. This means that you are more likely, in my humble and often inaccurate experience, to see a mom holding their screaming kid on the train, just letting the siren-like wails reverberate throughout the car. Every once in a while you’ll see a mom get fed up, pop their kid and reprimand them, but it’s not nearly as common as watching a mom cave to a temper tantrum on the street. Kids are babied a bit, in short.
Except on playgrounds. Until recently, that is.
I seriously wish that when I was growing up we could have played on some of the playgrounds that I have seen in Japan. (I found one guy who really was lucky enough. Jealous.) Sam and I gawked at the crazy stuff we saw while on our way to Yokohama’s Chinatown. I mean, look at this playground: awesome. Think back to being a kid - would that not have been the coolest hangout? YES. The answer is yes. Don’t lie to yourself. The Japanese have really darn cool playgrounds. The New York Times did a cool slideshow piece on some funky, more conceptually driven Japanese playgrounds. Admittedly, the really kitsch stuff fascinates me too, but my guess is that you are more likely to come across a cement and metal playground like the one I mentioned earlier from my day trip to Yokohama than you are one of a bunch of plastic animals. Ha ha. It seems that the world of playground design is headed to bright new (plastic-y, abstract) places. Keita Takahashi, the guy behind the popular Katamari Damacy game concept, has even said that it’s his dream to design playgrounds for kids. How cool would that be? He can feel free to design one for me…anytime.
Ah, you are wondering to yourselves, how can it be that these dangerous playgrounds show that children are becoming more prized? Because a horrible rash of safety complaints, mostly related to crime - not sanitation, which puzzles me - has broken out across Japan. The result is that some people are taking the extreme to the other end of the spectrum. Searching for Japan and playgrounds, I popped up mostly negative articles, commenting on the safety issues. Those are the very issues I wanted to share with you all in celebration for the lucky children who get to play on awesome playgrounds. But alas, now there is international sharing of safety checklists. Ugh. Why? There are people (even children) telling Japan that what they do during their recess time is dangerous. (If you read the comments from Mrs. Elzey’s class, you should know that I fully agree with Jay’s take on the situation, am confused by little Haley Littleton’s attempt to change the subject to sibling rivalry and infighting - a tricky tactic indeed for a young playground reformer, think David shouldn’t listen to his mom so much, don’t think that Kelsey understands how cool it is to “put each other in the air,” and feel for Ana and Brianna. They obviously want to give Japanese playgrounds a shot. Yeah, I know, random. Just thought I’d be thorough.) Turns out that I’m actually rather late to the table on this topic. Other bloggers have hit it before. What happened to Japan? Why did they suddenly put the airplane brakes on their super playgrounds? To the dismay of kids who like to jump in puddles, put weird junk in their mouths, and get scraped up once in a while, a new form of playground seems to be on the horizon: the unbelievably safe and clean playground. If I was a kid, I’d be upset. Well, more upset. I’m an adult and I’m upset for the kids who can’t do insane things anymore. Wussy parents have to go and ruin everything.
Sadly, it looks like Japan is going to start handling kids with kid gloves. It happens all the time in America, when some moron sues somebody for something ludicrous. The end result is jaw-dropping reduction in fun for everybody. Come on, Japan. Hold out. Preserve your cool playgrounds. Pretty please with cherries on top?
Exit question: What kind of playground would you rather play on?
This is a non-serious article written in haste for the previously mentioned Japan Blog Matsuri under the theme “Uniquely Japanese.”
