Transformational Akihabara has its finger on the pulse of pop culture

Tokyo’s Akihabara district is always transforming itself.

Once promoted as the nation’s largest shopping area for home electronics and computers, where vendors thrived in line with Japan’s postwar surge in prosperity, Akihabara — or “Akiba” for short — is now the center of the nation’s pop culture as well, as typified by pop idol music groups such as AKB48.

The groups regularly perform shows at a special “live house” in an entertainment complex called Pasela Resorts Akiba, where an outlet of major electronics vendor Ishimaru Denki once stood.

In stark contrast with the chilling cold outside, there was a fiery scene inside earlier this month as young men waving penlights cheered on their favorite idols as they danced to blasting music on a smoky stage bathed in colorful lights.

Indeed, the areas around what is now Akihabara, home to lower-ranking samurai warriors in the Edo Period, were prone to fires back then. “Fires and fights are common scenes of Edo,” an old saying goes.

After a fire swept through in 1869, the Meiji government built a shrine, later known as Akiba Shrine, to a fire-fighting god. A train station built in 1890 was named Akihabara.

Akihabara’s rise to the center of pop culture today, however, has its downsides.

The main street was the scene of a tragic killing spree in June 2008, when a truck driven by Tomohiro Kato plowed into a crowded intersection on a busy Sunday.

Kato, then 25 years old, got out of the vehicle and began stabbing pedestrians, killing seven and injuring 10 others.

Kato, whose death sentence is still pending at the Supreme Court, is said to have nurtured a grudge against his company and society and targeted Akihabara because young people flock there to have fun.

After the incident, the vehicle-free “pedestrians’ paradise” on Sundays was suspended, and didn’t resume until 2011. But the closed-off streets where visitors are free to stroll are becoming popular again, according to local merchants.

With the help of the nationwide “Cool Japan” campaign to promote anime, “cosplay” (large-scale costume parties) and other things peculiar to Japanese pop culture, Akihabara is drawing the attention not only of young people in Japan, but also overseas.

Local residents hope that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will provide a platform to promote Akihabara to the world.

Kampo: A Japanese Traditional Medicine

What are Kampo medicines?

Kampo medicines are herbal drugs made from natural ingredients of plant, animal, and mineral origin that are prepared according to classical Kampo theories. Kampo uses many familiar materials as medicinal ingredients; for example, "Keihi", commonly known as cinnamon, and "Borei", which is oyster shell. Several natural ingredients are mixed according to traditional formulae to draw out a synergistic effect from each other. In Japan today, Kampo drugs for medical use are prescribed by licensed medical doctors while some are available at pharmacies and drug stores without prescriptions.

History of Kampo in Japan

Kampo originally came to Japan from China in the fifth to sixth century. Based upon this traditional Chinese medicine, Japan has developed and systematized its own unique medicine through a long empirical tradition of study.

The name "Kampo" first came into use in the latter half of the sixteenth century to distinguish traditional medicine from newly acquired western medicine. Kampo means the medicine transmitted from Kan (the Chinese Han dynasty), while western medicine was called Rampo (medicine from Holland). Kampo was the mainstream of Japanese medicine at that time.

In the latter half of the nineteenth Century, Japan's government developed a new medical system centering on western medicine. As a result, Kampo fell into decline and it disappeared from center stage and was all but forgotten for a period of time. Nevertheless, its tradition survived and eventually interest in Kampo was renewed. Though there had been great advances in western medicine it was not a panacea for all illness and accordingly Kampo gained popularity as an effective complementary and alternative medicine. In 1967 Kampo extract medicines were included under public insurance coverage for the first time in Japan, triggering new progress in Kampo and its application in the framework of modern medicine. Since then Kampo medicines have become widely used for clinical therapies. Today they are not only used in primary care for common colds and other minor ailments but also as cutting-edge medicines for cancers, etc.

Production of Kampo

Traditionally, Kampo medicines are prepared by blending cut natural herbs and boiling them in water to infuse them. The resulting decoctions have distinct tastes and flavors. Today in Japan the traditional method of preparation is still practiced, but more widely used are ready-to-take Kampo extract granules or tablets produced from herbal extracts in pharmaceutical factories.
The production system for these Kampo medicines is supported by techniques of the highest level in the world, enabling stable supply of quality Kampo medicines with high concentrations of herbal extracts, while precisely following the authentic recipes in classical prescriptions.

Today Kampo medicines are available in a wide range of formulations such as fine granules, powders, tablets, capsules, and solutions, just like modern western medicines. These extract medicines, unlike old-style Kampo crude herb mixtures, are easy to carry around, can be taken anytime anywhere, and have a good shelf life.


Kampo now used together with western medicine

Western medicine focuses on individual organs or parts of the body. It seeks to target the sick parts of the body to identify and remove the cause of a sickness. The effect is direct and sharp. Today many diseases have become curable with this style of medicine and new discoveries continue to be made. Yet as powerful as western medicine is, it is not versatile enough to cure all types of sickness and there are limits to what it alone can do. Additionally, western medicine is known to produce many adverse side effects and sometimes cannot give patients relief when the exact source of a symptom cannot be identified.

In contrast, Kampo employs a symptom-oriented, holistic approach. It does not just focus on the condition of diseased parts but checks the condition of the entire body and mind. Then it seeks to produce a proper balance of all organ systems to recover health in patients. The effect is weaker and slower compared to western medicine, but Kampo is better in alleviating the symptoms suffered by patients. Accordingly, Kampo has attained a high level of patient satisfaction.

In Japan today, based on a deepened understanding of their respective strengths, western medicine and Kampo are being used together in clinical treatment, where the most effective ways to combine their advantages are being explored. This "combination" therapy has contributed to enhanced patient quality of life.

Kampo medicines have taken firm root in Japan and currently more than eighty percent of doctors prescribe Kampo medicines, which are also widely available at pharmacies and drugstores.


Kampo for further development of medicine

In Japan, Kampo medicines both for clinical use and over-the-counter sales are contributing to public health and are expected to evolve even further. Currently, Japan is the only country where clinical doctors are permitted to prescribe both western types of medicines and Kampo medicines at the same time and where both are covered by the same public insurance system. Therefore the application of Kampo medicines and their contribution to clinical treatments in Japan are very worthy of attention, to fully appreciate the great future potential of Kampo for opening a new path for modern medicine.

Olympics Medal 1964

Medals were designed by. Mr. Yusaku Kamekura. On the reverse side of the medals are the letters of  "XVIII OLYMPIAD TOKYO 1964" with the game designation in English of each of the 20 sports (e.g. ATHLETICS).

Medals were of 60 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick. The gold medal is a pure silver mould strongly gilded with 6 grams of fine gold, the silver medal is made of pure silver, and the bronze medal is of bronze. The medals were provided with a ring plated with gold, silver or copper respectively, and a coloured box coated with Japanese black lacquer.

The medals were cast at the Japanese Mint. Some of the surplus medals were presented to public museums and for exhibition purposes, while the remainder were melted down.

Tokyo will be the host country for the 2020 Olympics. Also, the Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has accepted a request to become head of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic organizing committee.

Tokyo 2020 Candidate City Poster.

The walk of life in Japan

These mountain paths date back to the 10th century and link the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, Tanabe and Wakayama to the three grand shrines of Kumano. These three grand shrines - Kumano Hongu Taisha, Kumano Hayatama Taisha and Kumano Nachi Taisha - started out as popular pilgrimage destinations for the imperial family and aristocrats, before gaining popularity with commoners during the 15th century.


In 2004, Unesco declared the Kumano Kodo along with its sacred sites and shrines to be World Heritage sites - making this only one of two pilgrimage routes to achieve this status, the other being the more famous Camino de Santiago in Europe.

Many sections of the ancient mountain paths have been restored and with comfortable traditional guesthouses along the way (known as ryokan and minshuku) it is now possible to undertake your own pilgrimage and walk your way into a small part of Japan's history.

The beauty in undertaking this pilgrimage is threefold - you get to see amazing mountain scenery and actually have the time to appreciate it; you get to immerse yourself in the traditional Japanese way of life, including how they sleep, eat and bathe; and you get to take part in something much bigger than yourself, a sense of achievement that comes from successfully completing your pilgrimage, whatever your motives, as others did so many hundreds of years ago.

We started our adventure by taking the train from Kyoto to Tanabe. Near the train station there is an excellent tourist information office where they will answer any of your questions (in perfect English) and have many maps and brochures on the Kumano Kodo. We stopped here to have lunch before catching a local bus to our pilgrimage starting point, Takajiri.

Our four-and-a-half-day pilgrimage took us 70km along the Nakahechi route, through remote mountain paths and forests, past innumerable oji shrines and, most importantly, to two of the Kumano grand shrines - Hongu Taisha and Nachi Taisha.

The pilgrimage does test your fitness and endurance, with many long, lung-cleansing inclines followed by steep and slippery, joint-jolting declines. The scenery throughout the whole trail is breathtaking - from pristine mountain vistas, to misty wooded forests, to bamboo groves and lush river valleys.

We stayed in five quaint little villages along the Nakahechi route, where our hosts were always welcoming and very helpful, even if they didn't speak much English. Our dinner each evening was a gastronomical delight, each meal cooked freshly by our hosts and consisting of pickles, noodle soups, fried fish, tempura seafood and vegetables, sashimi and sticky rice. We washed down all this wonderful food with delicious local sake.

Each guesthouse had a lovely traditional communal Japanese onsen for bathing. An onsen is a hot spring bath, which the Japanese believe to have healing properties. Whether it does or not, soaking in a lovely hot bath is the perfect end to a tough day of hiking and a great remedy for aching muscles.

Each night we stayed in tatami mat rooms and pulled our futon mattresses out of the closet to convert our living room to a bedroom. We would leave the window open to enjoy the cool mountain breeze throughout the night, and slept the wonderful deep sleep of those who have earned it.

Our pilgrimage came to an end at the grand shine of Nachi Taisha, in a lovely little tourist town called Nachi-san and which is also home to the sacred Nachi-taki waterfall. Here we had a communal dinner with other pilgrims and shared stories of our experiences on the Kumano Kodo. We all agreed; it had been a tough but highly rewarding experience.

Japan's Dark Souls Cafe

You've played Dark Souls the game. And next January in Tokyo, you can patron Dark Souls the cafe!

From Software, the game's creator, says the goal is to recreate the game's mood in the form of an eatery. And on January 6, Australian themed bar OZ Cafe in Tokyo's Nishi-Azabu will be reborn as Dark Souls Cafe. Currently, there are no photos of the completed cafe.

This is part of a promotion for the upcoming Dark Souls II, which will be released this March. Starting January 6, the Dark Souls Cafe will be opened for a limited time only and serve Dark Souls themed food and drink.