I was quietly coming back from the automatic laudry with my freshly washed clothes when I met a Japanese woman pushing the wheel-chair of an old half-sleeping grandmother. The old woman suddenly woke up, pointed me and strongly shouted with hatred "Oni-san !",  which means "Devil !" in Japanese. The lady behind her glanced at me and became embarrased double when she saw that I was perfectly aware of the meaning of this word. With my blond hair, I embody the image that an old Japanese woman can have of the "red devils", the foreigners who arrived in Japan from the Netherlands in the old times : tall, red-face people with blond hair and dangerous fire guns.

道で、日本人のおばあさんは私に「鬼さん」と言ました。ちょっとショックしました。世界のどこでも、外国人はいつも鬼ですな。

You even find the red devils in the most famous Japanese tale, Momotaro. Momotaro decides to help the people from a village which is regularly visited by a red devil who steals food and scares the inhabitants. Momotaro catches the red devil and asks him why does he do what he does. But the red devil starts crying, answering that he has no choice : he's from the far country of the Netherlands and would like to get back home but he doesn't have his boat anymore and the people here call him devil so he has to steal his food to survive. It should have learnt to the Japanese people to look twice before calling someone devil but it didn't seem to work for the grand-mother I met on the street. Well, of course after that Momotaro finds the true nasty red devils and beat them so they have to leave with their boats ; maybe she remembers only this part...

It is the first time I face direct racism from a Japanese and it's a strange sensation, despite the comic of the insult and the fact that it was coming from a sick old woman. Usually the Japanese tend to compare me to Marie-Antoinette, not a devil... From an extreme to another !

Tokyo finally became a cold and windy place to live. But strangely, this month has been especially colourful, and magic is in the air. Let me present a sample of this November Fantasy.
現在、東京はとても寒くなったけど、面白くて明るいものが見られました。次の写真はこのすてきな十一月を見せています。

A meeting of Cellos - very fashionable Cellos


Delicious macarons - from my Latvian angels


A Chrismas Bicycle met with A*eyes

November is NOT grey.

「小公女セイラ」と言うドラマ知っていますか。この話が大好き。

I dreamt of it, Japan did it.
My childhood' favorite novel, A Little Princess by Frances Burnett, has been adapted into drama for TBS (every Saturday, 21:00). By the way, the European public generally discovered the story thanks to the Japanese TV which created an anime in the 80's called "Princesse Sarah" in the French version. Because of the prononciation, Sara became Seira for the Japanese title, Shokojo Seira.

Shokojo Seira

Why do I basically love the story ?
Because Sara is the best character ever, despite her young age. Her main gifts ? She's an amazing story-teller, and she's fluent in French. She believes that one can save himself from the misery by the power of imagination. She fights loneliness first and then poverty with nothing else but imagination. Of course, she is also a humanist, and she considers that all the girls, wealthy or not, gifted or not, are princesses, just as she is.  It was enough for me to be in love with this character.
In the old anime as well as the drama, the japanese seem to have a very genuine vision of the protagonist, but actually she has a very strong personnality. She dares to tell the truth in any circumstances and she is a deep rebel. Let's say that the Japanese interpretation didn't emphasize these points. For more information just read Burnett's book : A Little Princess, 1904.

What is extraordinary with the drama : the scene takes place in Europe (that's logic, the story of the novel refered to London), so the protagonists talk in euro currency (that's NOT London... and that's a bit too modern...). The school is very traditionnal, with maid suits for the servants and old-fashioned discipline, but the protagonists wear modern sportshoes. In the school, teachers and students are all Japanese, but some protagonists have a Western-style name. As a result, it's difficult to know where and when the story take place.
Another point is : male characters. In the novel, the only male character is Sara's father, who quickly disappears, and the three men of the Large Family - M. Carrisford, Ram Dass, the Father of the Large Family - who play a minor role at the end of the story. But for the largest part, it is a girly-girly-GIRLY atmosphere. In the drama, the old French teacher became an handsome young man - with an awful prononciation of the language of Moliere - and there is also a boy who helps in the kitchen (actually, the little maid Becky has been replaced by this guy, who lives under the roof next to Seira).

Even if the drama is far from my vision of the book, I enjoy it a lot first because of the actress, absolutly cute (she played in many drama including "15sai no haha", a 15 years old mother) and because the Director is perfectly mean, the girls are perfectly girly, Seira is an angel and me, I am an easy-going public.

Uniqlo, the fashion brand which doen't know the crisis, is also a nice buzz-maker. Actually, Uniqlock is not a very fresh news, but I havn't heard of it until our advertising courses...

The idea is simple : make people dance in Uniqlo simple clothes. You can watch the auditions and original video on their Youtube chain, uncluding a CM with the four dancers that the French public discovered on "C'est la vie", by Martin Solveig.

Uniqlo: Uniqlock Site 24/7 MODE

Uniqlo: Uniqlock Site HOURLY SPECIAL

 

I am afraid that I am purikura-addict. The following samples are just a small part of my collection.

The word "purikura" comes from "print-colors" and it is used to talk about the little photos you can take with your friends in Japan. It costs 400 yen (around 2,90 euros), you can choose the size and the number and share it with friends using the sissors available in any good purikura-hall. Usually the photo-cabins are gathered in a narrow, over-lighted and over-filled with loud J-pop music place forbidden to boys if they come without girls - it's unfare, but that's the rule.
In the cabin, you can stand with 4 persons. A girly voice encourages you to make funny faces in front of the camera and you have to hurry up adjusting your image in the frame because each shooting takes 5 seconds only. The more numerous you are, the more expert in time-management you need to be. For each pic, you can choose a background (once again, in the limit of 15 seconds for 4 or 5 shoots) and after the shooting you go behind the cabin to ad messages, symbols, drawing or whatever you want on your pics. It's printed very quicky and you can enter your mobile adress to receive it on your phone for free.

It is so funny to do that you can't imagine until you experience it. And the magic of purikura is : your skin always looks gorgeous, your eyes are amazing - the picture of dream that automatically makes you beautiful. I can't believe that it doesn't exist in France...