Current Nippon Events
Since Japanese news doesn't really get overseas (just like how most international news never gets here), I thought I would share some with you. These are the things the news people constantly talk about and beat to death like a dead horse, as forementioned. Seriously, I don't know how many news programs they have a day, but they all talk about the same thing just with different announcers.
First up we have the Kobe Airport opening. It opened yesterday in Kobe. Why it's a big deal, is that a much bigger Kansai Airport lies just 40 km (25 miles) to the east. And at 510 billion yen (about 2 and half billion dollars), that is a big investment for having two airports almost right by each other. Also it's an artificial island which causes envronmental concerns. I don't really know why, but supposedly it does. I don't even know why Japanese people are so finicky about saving the environment. They use so much plastic to inidividually wrap everything and insulation here is non-existant. But people still blast their a/c or heat.
Here is a picture to give you an idea how close the two are. Kobe is on the top of the bay, and Kansai Airport (located in Osaka) in on the bottom right. Kansai airport is the big artificial island.
The second bit of news is that the crown princess is preggers. This is a big deal since they need a male sucessor to the throne. And since obviously woman can't uphold the throne, they are hoping this next kid will be a boy. As a westerner, the obvious solution to the problem is to let a woman accsend to the throne. But years of tradition (see: sexism) won't let that happen. Aside from the point that it's completley ridiculous that woman aren't allowed to be empress, what do these people do anyway. You never hear about them on the news and no one ever sees them. I know you hear about all the royal families in europe. Charles, lizzy and all them get regular press time. But it seems here, they are puppets to uphold a imperial lineage that no longer means anything really. I suppose since America has never had royalty of the sorts (just spoiled congressmen), I can't really appreciate people having a luxorious lifestyle going around calling each other crown princess and your highness and making rules about who can and cannot be them, all payed by the tax payer.
First up we have the Kobe Airport opening. It opened yesterday in Kobe. Why it's a big deal, is that a much bigger Kansai Airport lies just 40 km (25 miles) to the east. And at 510 billion yen (about 2 and half billion dollars), that is a big investment for having two airports almost right by each other. Also it's an artificial island which causes envronmental concerns. I don't really know why, but supposedly it does. I don't even know why Japanese people are so finicky about saving the environment. They use so much plastic to inidividually wrap everything and insulation here is non-existant. But people still blast their a/c or heat.
Here is a picture to give you an idea how close the two are. Kobe is on the top of the bay, and Kansai Airport (located in Osaka) in on the bottom right. Kansai airport is the big artificial island.
The second bit of news is that the crown princess is preggers. This is a big deal since they need a male sucessor to the throne. And since obviously woman can't uphold the throne, they are hoping this next kid will be a boy. As a westerner, the obvious solution to the problem is to let a woman accsend to the throne. But years of tradition (see: sexism) won't let that happen. Aside from the point that it's completley ridiculous that woman aren't allowed to be empress, what do these people do anyway. You never hear about them on the news and no one ever sees them. I know you hear about all the royal families in europe. Charles, lizzy and all them get regular press time. But it seems here, they are puppets to uphold a imperial lineage that no longer means anything really. I suppose since America has never had royalty of the sorts (just spoiled congressmen), I can't really appreciate people having a luxorious lifestyle going around calling each other crown princess and your highness and making rules about who can and cannot be them, all payed by the tax payer.
posted by Scot @ 12:39
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