Yuki's Web

Category: People 人

  • 忌野清志郎さん死去

    学生時代によく聴いていました。
    ご冥福をお祈りします。

  • The new age for change

    Congratulations, Barack, on your inauguration to become a new US President today, and on having a chance to create a new, powerful, cheerful and great era for the United States, and for the rest of the world!

    Barack, I want you to make the best efforts to create a more peaceful country not only for American citizens but also for the people of the other countries. I urge you to open the door so that we have easier access to the United States and so that foreigners who love America can have more chances to study at a school or to get a job there. And, as a netizen, I also hope you to make the internet world as free, exciting, and open to many people, Americans or foreign people, as in the era of Bill Clinton.

    May America keep being good friends with Japan, one of the strong allied countries.

  • What will Obama do for Japan?

    This afternoon media announced that Barack Obama had made history. He’s going to be the first Black US President in American history, as well as the President from the Democratic Party which has not sent the President for eight years.

    Whichever will become the next US President, Obama or McCain, as a Japanese citizen our big concern is whether the new President will treat us well or not. We are afraid that Japan’s national benefit might be somewhat impaired by the Democratic administration. Unlike Republicans, governors and congresspersons from the Democratic Party have treated Japan coldly in the past. We are anxious about the so-called “Japan passing” attitude coming up again. We’ll never forget that, when the former President Bill Clinton visited China in 1996, he “ignored” to see Japan and returned home without dropping in.

    Our national security is also an important issue. There are several countries of which we need to be cautious, including China and North Korea. The current President Bush, apart from his other policies, has been playing an important role together with Japan’s Prime Ministers to keep the Asia-Pacific area still safe and secured, with great influence over those countries. On the other hand, seeing that the Democrats will be dominant in American government and congress, we wonder how much the United States will help us to protect our country from those “dangerous” countries. How much will Obama Administration be cooperative to save abducted people out of North Korea?

    Nevertheless, however much we feel uneasy about Obama’s policies, Japan can’t live without the United States. We have no other options but to keep up with America’s way. All Japan has to do is to keep good relationships with the US, and, more than that, to make its best efforts not to be “ignored” by America and the other countries in the rest of the world.

  • US presidential election has begun / 米国大統領選

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    Now people are lining up to vote for America’s next presidential candidate in every state. If Barack Obama wins, he will be the first African-American US President. If John McCain wins, Sarah Palin will be the first female US Vice President.

    I can’t poll because I don’t have US citizenships, but it’s my big concern which will win the race, because Japan’s future depends a great deal on how the new President will handle the United States.

    The first polls will close in less than an hour. Hope no troubles will occur in the vote.

    いよいよ投票が始まりました。一番早い投票締め切りまであと1時間を切りましたが、トラブルなく開票が終わって欲しいものです。

    オバマが勝つかマケインが勝つか。今後の日本の命運が左右されてしまう選挙だけに、目が離せません。

  • Tetsuya Komuro arrested / 小室哲哉タイーホ

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    It’s fun to see successful people going to the dogs, all the more for people who have been haughty in wealth. This morning, one of the most charismatic musical producers in the 1990s music scene, Tetsuya Komuro, was arrested by Osaka local prosecution office, accused of being involved in fraud copyright business. The swindler deceived a company owner in Ashiya, Hyogo out of 500 million Yen of his money.

    Komuro has been one of Japan’s leading musicians and one of Japan’s renowned song producers since the end of 1980s. He was a leader of the musical band TM Network, and played key roles in various projects like “globe.” In 1990s, he sold more than 4 million copies of CDs for only 50 days. He became Japan’s fourth richest man in 1996 and 1997.

    In addition to producing songs, he played an important role to find and train young (female) singers including Tomomi Kahala, Ami Suzuki, Namie Amuro and TRF. He produced his songs to these singers and let them sing on stage. He sold millions of there CDs every time they released songs.

    However, not all these singers had enough musical talent. Some of them were just young and good-looking, not adequately trained for vocal music, and received his songs in exchange for sex. He sometimes became intimate with those girls. He married one of them, divorced her, married another, divorced her, repeatedly.
    His daily life got extraordinarily luxurious. He purchased a number of residences in Hawaii and LA. When he traveled abroad by airplane, he reserved all of first-class seats. When he stayed in a hotel, he reserved all rooms in a floor including suite rooms.

    I usually listen to American pop music instead of J-POPs, because Komuro’s songs are so dominant in Japanese music scene that most J-POP songs are sung by Komuro-related singers. All those songs sound similarly to me, and are boring.

    Komuro’s luxurious life didn’t last long. He divorced a woman who gave birth to a daughter from him and he had to pay 2 million Yen for them every month. At the same time, he failed his business in Hong Kong. He lost as much money as he had earned, and was deeply in debt. Eventually, the superstar ended in being a criminal.

    The lesson we must learn from him would be “Pride will have a fall.”

    今朝、小室哲哉が大阪地検特捜部に逮捕されちゃいました。容疑は芦屋市内の会社社長に自分の楽曲の著作権を売ると偽って5億円を騙し取った詐欺容疑とのことです。90年代のミュージックシーンを彩った時代の寵児が、思いもよらぬ転落ぶりです。

    まあ邦楽はほとんど小室系の曲ばっかで、どれもこれも同じようなのばっかしだし、歌うほうも大して歌唱力もないのに顔だけで小室のお手つきになって歌ってるだけなので、つまんないので私は邦楽は聴かず洋楽しか聴かないのですが、まあ小室も華原朋美を自殺未遂に追いやったり女に手を出しまくったり飛行機のファーストクラスを全席借り切ったりと調子に乗って成金みたいな真似を繰り返し、とうとうヤキが回ったといったところでしょうか。

    ホリエモンといい小室といい、「驕れる者は久しからず」ということか。

  • A loss of a classmate / 同期が亡くなりました

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    This afternoon I got an email notifying me of the death of a classmate who studied together at our laboratory when we were university students. According to the email, last Sunday he suddenly had a stroke related to type I diabetes he had been suffered from, and passed away. He was as old as I.

    It is my first time that I lose a classmate with whom I shared the same memories at school. It is surprising and regrettable.

    I can’t attend his funeral and say good-bye to him because the funeral hall is too far from where I live, but instead I sent a telegram of condolence with the other classmates and I’ll keep his memory in mind for life.

    大学の研究室が一緒だった同じ学年の子が亡くなったという知らせを受けました。

    もともと学生の頃から持病があって、この前の日曜日にその持病の発作を起こし、そのまま亡くなったんだそうです。

    有名人の訃報はちょくちょくここのブログにも書いてましたが、知っている人の、それも同じ年の人が亡くなるというのは、初めてのことです。

    今夜がお通夜で明日が告別式とのことですが、場所が和歌山なので、東京から駆けつけるわけにもいかず、とりあえず研究室の同期一同で弔電を打ってもらうことにしましたが、それにしても、身近にいて思い出も共有したことのある人を失うというのは、たとえ最近はあまり交流がなかったにしても、悲しいものです。
    これからだんだん年が過ぎていくと、こうして仲間を一人失い、また一人失い、という経験が増えていくんでしょうね。

    ともあれ、ご冥福をお祈りします。

  • Anime festival / ねりたんアニメプロジェクト

    日本文が後ろに続きます。

    Neritan_Anime_Project.jpgThe town of Nerima, Tokyo, where I live for seven years, is home to Japanese animation, or anime. Nerima has had one of the biggest anime studios, Toei Animation Company, as well as more than 90 intensive anime-related companies since Japan’s first anime film was aired in 1958. World’s famous animes such as Dragon Ball series, One Piece, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Sailor Moon series, has been created in this place.

    The Nerima Ward government hosted today an anime festival, Neritan Anime Project in Oizumi, around Oizumi Gakuen station of Seibu Railway, to which Toei Animation Company is close. Leiji Matsumoto, one of Japan’s famous manga-anime artists and a resident of the Oizumi neighborhood, was invited to the festival. One of his works, the Galaxy Express 999, was a great anime series popular among many Japanese kids in 1980s. For those of you who don’t know this manga, the story of it is set in a space-faring, high-tech future, where mechanized people with “machine bodies” are pushing humanity towards irrelevance and extinction. A street urchin, Tetsuro, wants an indestructible machine body, giving him the ability to live forever. While machine bodies are expensive, they are supposedly given away for free on the planet Andromeda, the end of the line for the space train Galaxy Express 999. He meets up with a beautiful woman, Maetel, who is the spitting image of his dead mother. Maetel offers him passage on 999 if he will be her traveling companion. Tetsuro agrees. Another notable character is the strict, mysterious alien conductor, that sometimes gets involved in Tetsuro and Maetel’s adventures. (See Wikipedia) The Galaxy Express 999 was first published in 1978, so this year is the 30th anniversary.

    Today Matsumoto was appointed a “one-day station master” of Oizumi Gakuen station. He settled near the station when he was 25 years old, and created the wonderful manga and anime works in Oizumi. The ward government and the Seibu Railway company granted such a honorary position on him for his long-year contribution to this neighborhood.

    Leiji Matsumoto making a speech

    He said through his speech, that his habitation in the Oizumi neighborhood was destiny. When he came to Tokyo from his birthplace, Fukuoka, he just “happened to” start living there. One day when he walked around his house he found a former resident of Tomitaro Makino, a Japan’s well-known botanist. At that time he began his manga artist career through his first work focusing on entomology. Matsumoto felt as if he had been lead to live near Makino, as a person working with wildlife.

    When it comes to destiny, I happened to begin reading his Galaxy Express 999 comic books just two weeks ago as well as Emma, when I did not know about this festival. I think that perhaps it is also destiny that I read this comic these days and come to the festival today.

    Anime is now not only a maniac hobby by otakus, geeks or nerds, but is one of Japan’s important industries today. As Japan’s economy has been in recession for many decades and its technology is becoming less cost-effective, anime industry may be a great messiah for the future Japanese people.

    Some of the pictures are uploaded on Flickr.

    私の住んでいる練馬区はアニメの発祥の地とのことで、日本初のアニメ映画が1958年に出て以来ずっと、有名な東映アニメーションをはじめ、90社以上のアニメ関連会社が集積した場所だそうです。ドラゴンボール、ワンピース、ニンジャタートルズ、セーラームーンなどはここで制作されています。

    練馬区主催で、「ねりたんアニメプロジェクト in 大泉」というのが今日、大泉在住の漫画家・松本零士氏を招いて西武線の大泉学園の駅近くで行われています。松本零士氏は「銀河鉄道999」で有名な漫画家で、「銀河鉄道999」は80年代の子供ならこの漫画を知らない人はいないというぐらい有名な作品です。若い人たちのために説明すると、「銀河鉄道999」は高度技術文明が栄え、「機械の身体」を持った人々が人間性を失っていっている未来の宇宙を舞台にした作品で、星野鉄郎という少年が不滅の機械の身体を手に入れることで永遠の命を求めていますが、機械の身体は高価で、ただ惑星アンドロメダに行けばそれをタダで手に入れられるといわれています。惑星アンドロメダは銀河鉄道999の終着駅であり、そのため鉄郎は銀河鉄道に乗りたいと思っています。鉄郎は、亡き母の面影を残した美しい女性メーテルと出会います。メーテルは、鉄郎にもし自分と一緒に来てくれるなら999のパスをあげると言い、鉄郎は同意して、999での旅が始まります。999では、鉄郎とメーテルの旅にかかわる厳格で不思議な車掌さんを交え、物語が展開していきます。

    「銀河鉄道999」の初出は1978年で、今年がちょうど30周年にあたります。

    式典では松本氏が西武鉄道から大泉学園の一日駅長に任命され、「銀河鉄道999」の「車掌さん」が名誉駅長に任命されました。

    Leiji Matsumoto making a speech

    任命式のあと松本氏がスピーチをし、自分が大泉に住む事になったのは運命だと語りました。福岡から上京時、ほんとに「たまたま」この地に住み始めたそうですが、ある日近くを散歩していると、牧野庭園（植物学者・牧野富太郎の邸宅跡）を見つけ、ちょうどそのとき処女作である昆虫をテーマにした漫画を描いていたところで、同じ生物を取り扱うということで、牧野富太郎が自分をここに呼んでくれたんじゃないかと感じたということです。

    運命ということなら、私も「たまたま」銀河鉄道999の原作をほんの2週間ほど前から「エマ」といっしょに読み始めていたところなのでした。読み始めた頃はこんなイベントをやることなどつゆ知らず。きっと銀河鉄道999を読んだのも、このイベントに出たのも、運命といえるかもしれません。

    アニメは今やヲタのマニアックな趣味にとどまらず、今日の日本の重要な産業の一つとなっています。日本経済が長らく停滞し、日本のテクノロジーも稼げなくなってきている今、アニメが将来の日本人にとっての大きな救世主となるのかもしれません。

    関連する写真をFlickrにアップロードしました。

  • 女子マラソン日本代表決定

    野口みずき、土佐礼子、中村友梨香の3人で決定しましたね。
    アテネ五輪の代表選考のときのようにもめることもなく、順当な線だと思います。
    まあ、ワタシ的には中村選手の健闘を祈りたいところです。

  • 名古屋国際女子マラソン

    いや～県西OGの活躍が止まりませんね～。さきほどの名古屋国際女子マラソンですが、Qこと高橋尚子選手、坂本直子選手、弘山晴美選手など錚々たる選手たちがガチンコ勝負ということで、私と同じ高校出身の坂本選手の健闘を楽しみに見ていたんですが、まあQはどうでもいいので早期に脱落しても「ふ～ん」という感じでしたが、途中で坂本選手がスパートをかけ始め、「おっ？」と期待。それがすぐに失速し、ちょっとがっかりしていたところ、坂本選手と同じ県立西宮高校の後輩の中村友梨香選手が前に出て、そのままトップでゴールという、誰も予想つかない展開で幕を閉じました。勝ち時計は大阪国際女子マラソンの森本友選手よりは少し遅いものの、かろうじて2時間26分を切りました。タイム面では森本選手に劣るものの、森本選手は2位。こちらは優勝。しかも強豪をガチで打ち破っての優勝です。初マラソンというキャリア面でのリスクファクターを差し引いても、オリンピックの代表はほぼ確定といったところでしょう。

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