Int'l convention TECHNO-OCEAN in Kobe Nov. 9-12
TECHNO-OCEAN, an international convention on marine science and technology, will be held at the Kobe International Exhibition Hall and at the International Conference Center Kobe Nov. 9-12. This year's TECHNO-OCEAN, the 10th of its kind, will be combined with OCEANS, one of the world's largest marine-related international conventions held in the United States, as OCEANS TECHNO-OCEAN '04 (honorary co-chairs: Tatsuo Yada, Kobe City Mayor , and Naochika Namba, chairman of the Consortium of Japanese Organizers), under the theme of 'Bridges Across the Oceans.'At the opening session, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., will deliver a keynote speech outlining his view on the Global Observation Program. A total of 384 papers will be submitted to 112 working groups by 30 countries. Other events include a tutorial by leading marine scientists and a technical visit to the world-class 3D full-scale earthquake testing facility being built in Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture. The secretariat estimates the number of participants at 15,000.
For inquiries, please contact Kobe Convention and Visitors Association (Tel: 078-303-7516) URL http://www.oceans-technoocean2004.com/
Fukui chamber to create web site for solving complaints
The Fukui Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI, president: Mikio Emori, chairman of Nikka Chemical Co., Ltd.) has created a web site 'The Complaint and Claim Exhibition' to enable local companies to know the complaints and claims customers have and provide hints for developing new commodities. The chamber said that since 2003, the number of complaints and claims has come to around 9300.Companies can browse the site for 60 days by paying 1,050 yen and vote for information they find useful for the development of new commodities, while each information provider will be paid 100 yen by the FCCI as remuneration each time he receives one vote. Information provided on the site can be retrieved by item, such as electric appliance, clothing and sundry goods, by the age or occupation of applicants or by free word, so that companies can easily grasp the need of customers. The site also enables companies to write comments to provide customers with information on their commodities and technologies. FCCI recently held an exhibition in Fukui Prefecture, where 30 products developed and commercialized on the basis of complaints and claims were displayed. The web site will be open until December 20 and complaints can be received until October 22.
For inquiries, please contact Consulting Div., FCCI (Tel: 0776-33-8284) URL http://www.kujou906.com/
World's first SD memory card with IC card capabilities
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (head office: Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture) announced it has developed the world's first SD (Secure Digital) memory card 'SmartSD Card' with IC card built-in. The new card, which combines SD memory card with the function of IC card, promises a wide variety of applications. Those include identification when a person enters or leaves a room, prevention of leakage of confidential information, transmission of pictures to cellphones, and management of accounting in music distribution service.The new card uses nonvolatile FeRAM (ferroelectric RAM), which enables high-speed data writing, 5,000 times faster than conventional flash memory cards. The large-capacity flash memory in the smartSD Card can be used as an extra storage area for the smart card module and the stored data is protected by cipher technology.
Matsushita will position the new card as the key parts of network equipment and will strive to create business opportunities such as music distribution service. Sample shipments will start in December 2004 and commercial shipments are expected to follow in the fall of 2005.
For inquiries, please contact SDSolution Group, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Tel: 06-6906-2714) URL http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/topics.html
Cosmos Prize Memorial Lectures in Tokyo and Osaka
The Expo '90 Foundation will hold lecture meetings and symposiums in Tokyo on Oct. 25 and in Osaka on Oct. 28 to commemorate the awarding of the International Cosmos Prize for 2004 by inviting a recipient Julia Carabias Lillo, professor of botany at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Carabias, 50, will give lectures under the theme of 'Global Change and Challenge for Sustainable Development for the 21st Century.' Simultaneous translation will be provided.The awarding ceremony for the prize will be held in Osaka on Oct. 30 with some 500 guests attending. Carabias will receive a citation, a medal and a money prize 40 million yen.
For inquiries, please contact International Cosmos Prize Committee (Tel: 06-6915-4513) URL http://www.expo-cosmos.or.jp/menu.html
Uji City to conduct tourism campaign with new bank note
In time with the issuance, scheduled for Nov. 1, of a new 10,000-yen Bank of Japan note, the municipal office, the tourist association and the chamber of commerce and industry of Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, will jointly conduct a campaign 'Uji City: the tale of new 10,000-yen note'to attract tourists to the city. The new note bears on its front the likeness of Yukichi Fukuzawa, a famous educator of the Meiji era, and on the opposite side a picture of the Ho-oh-zo, Phoenix Statue, (a national treasure) of the World Cultural Heritage site Byodoin temple in the city.The tourist association and the chamber of commerce are calling on local hotels, souvenir shops and other facilities to join the campaign and plan to make a sale of commodities or services they can offer at the price of 10,000 yen. The campaign will be placed on a website they are now preparing.
The new 10,000-yen bank note is the third Uji City-related note or coin to be issued by the monetary authority, the first being the 10-yen coin bearing the Ho-oh-zo and the second being 2,000-yen note bearing a picture of the handscrolls of the Tale of Genji.
HISTORIC KANSAI:The world is replete with tales of the vindictiveness of women who lost love
Junzo TanakaEven in Japan, there are various legends about tragedies resulting from women's unrequited love, though Japanese women are said to be gentle and timid.
Dojoji is a Buddhist temple of the Tendai sect in Kawabe Town, Hidaka County, Wakayama Prefecture, built in the eighth century. Most Japanese people know Dojoji since it is the stage of a horrific tale of a young woman who killed a young Buddhist monk because of unrequited love. Lately, the Dojoji tale is in the limelight and the temple is drawing a large number of visitors.
According to a legend, a young handsome trainee Buddhist monk named Anchin was on a pilgrimage to sacred mountains in the Kumano area, Wakayama Prefecture. He was allowed to stay overnight in the house of a village headman, whose daughter Kiyohime fell in love with Anchin at first sight and she tried to seduce him. Anchin rejected her advances and fled. Kiyohime chased him while her figure transformed into an angry serpent. Anchin ran into Dojoji Temple and hid himself in a huge bell. Kiyohime coiled herself around the bell and scorched it with flames from her mouth. Anchin was burned to death inside the bell and Kiyohime later drowned herself in the Hidaka River.
The Anchin-Kiyohime tale has been taken up in various Japanese performing arts such as Joruri recitation, Kabuki play and Bunraku (puppet theater) as well as in modern plays and motion pictures. The tragedy has become one of the most representative tragic love stories in Japan.
In the ancient and middle-age days, noblemen in the capital of Kyoto as well as ordinary people from all over the country made pilgrimage to sacred Kumano mountains in Kishu, which would later become Wakayama Prefecture. Worshippers followed a narrow mountain road to reach the Kumano mountains. The mountain road and the Kumano mountains were registered as the UNESCO's World Heritage list this year under the official name of 'Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range and the Cultural Landscapes that Surround Them.' The Dojoji temple bell, now belonging to Myomanji Temple in Kyoto, is currently loaned to Dojoji for the first time in 420 years and displayed to the general public. This, together with the Kumano mountains' designation as World Heritage, has aroused wide interest in the Dojoji tale.
There are various legends about the bell. One theory goes like this:
Dojoji Temple was founded in 701 but its first bell was lost in a fire in 926. The second bell was presented to the temple in 1359, but tycoon Toyotomi Hideyoshi who ruled the country in the late 16th century confiscated it in 1585 and presented it to Myomanji Temple in Kyoto. The bell had never returned to Dojoji since then. However, the bell was loaned to the Dojoji this autumn through negotiations between the two temples. Currently, the Dojoji bell is placed in the center of the main hall of Dojoji for the first time in 420 years. It will remain there until November 27 before it will return to Kyoto.
Standing 1.2 meters and weighing 250 kilograms, the bell is not so large as imagined from the Dojoji tale and seems rather slender. Not a few visitors make money offerings to the bell perhaps because they feel sympathy to the bell, which is the symbol of Kiyohime's lost love. Monks at the temple say that an increasing number of tourists worship at the site where Kiyohime and Anchin are said to be buried together.
It might be interesting to study Japanese people's unsophisticated religious outlook if you join tourists to visit Dojoji.
Kansai in Focus: Vegetable stands at roadside stations attracting drivers
Roadside parking stations set up along national highways all over the country 12 years ago are becoming increasingly popular among car drivers. The parking stations, called 'Michi-no-Eki'(roadside stations), are particularly crowded in the Kansai region in autumn because tasty vegetables and fruits, such as chestnuts, persimmons, mushrooms and beans, produced in the region are sold there during the season. Many families driving on highways over the weekend drop in at the stations to buy fresh vegetables and fruits. Local farmers, for their part, are making steady efforts to attract customers through publicity campaigns.The establishment of 'Michi-no-Eki' parking stations along national highways started in 1993. As of last August, there were a total of 755 such stations all over the country, 104 of them in the seven prefectures of Kansai- Fukui, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama. More stations are scheduled to open in the region soon. Any public or private organization can establish a 'Michi-no-Eki' station along a national highway after submitting registration applications to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Large parking lot
Each station has a large parking lot, a rest room, shops, vending stands and a restaurant or a coffee shop, so that drivers can take a rest, take a meal and shop for local products. Particularly popular are fresh vegetables and fruits offered at low prices.
Behind the growing popularity of the vegetable and fruit stands of 'Michi-no-Eki' is the current boom of natural and healthy foods. In autumn, when various vegetables and fruits are harvested, the stands are crowded with drivers who drop in at Michi-no-Eki.
For example, the Kusatsu station, which opened in the suburbs of Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, in 2003 and officially registered as Michi-no-Eki in the spring of last year, is crowded with people on holidays, with its parking lot with a capacity of 50 cars usually full. The Kusatsu station is conveniently located on the shore of Lake Biwa and close to the prefectural museum.
Most drivers dropping in at the station buy chestnuts, pears, persimmons, vegetables or flowers. Vegetables, packed in a vinyl bag, are priced only 150 yen. The centerpiece commodity is locally produced Omi rice, which is refined on the spot free of charge. Customers can choose from 15 brands. Last year, 2,500 bales (each bale contains 60 kilograms) sold and an average of 200 bales have sold each month so far this year. 'Omi rice offered at our stand sells well because it is tasty and low-priced. New rice harvested this autumn is selling better than last year,' one vendor says. Vegetables sold at the stand are directly brought from local farmers. A bunch of autumnal flowers is priced 150-300 yen.
Direct sale
The Nagomi station in Kyoto's Wachi Town along National Highway 27 and the Kyoto Shin-Koetsu-Mura station in Kyoto's Sonobe Town are also popular because of vegetable and fruit stands, where locally produced chestnuts, black beans, sweet potatoes and yuzu oranges, among others, are available. Steamed rice mixed with boiled chestnuts and pressed sushi topped by vinegared mackerel sold at souvenir shops are also drawing a large number of customers. Vegetables sold at the Kyoto Shin-Koetsu-Mura station are from several designated local farmers, while the Nagomi station has contracts with several times more farmers. At the Nagomi station, housewives of local farmers sometimes directly sell their products for themselves. The station exhibits pictures of the local farmers supplying vegetables in order to make suppliers familiar with customers.
The Tore-Tore Center, a Michi-no-Eki station in Maizuru City, Kyoto Prefecture, sell farm products in a basket to which face photographs of producing farmers are attached. It seems that the Michi-no-Eki stations in the Kansai region have won the hearts of drivers with its low-priced and fresh products and heartwarming publicity campaigns. (K)