Interview series with Japan’s most renowned translator of foreign films and interpreter for Hollywood stars, Natsuko Toda

TJ: Do different directors have different requirements for translating the subtitles of their movies? Can you think of any unique requests you’ve had, such as maybe having to sit down with a director and going over the subtitling face-to-face?
Toda: No, they have no time and they don’t care about Japan so much. Of course, Japan is a big market, but they don’t pay attention to subtitling. For “The Color Purple,” Spielberg asked me to reflect African-American English from the South in the subtitles. However, this is impossible. If I use grammatically wrong expressions, the audience thinks it’s a subtitling mistake. Also, it makes no sense and the audience cannot understand the story. I explained this to him and he understood, but it was a rare case. I have never gone over subtitling face- to-face with a director.

JUDIT TOROK

A regular visitor to Tokyo, New York City-based Yoga Instructor and Interculturalist Judit Torok shares her techniques for alleviating big city stress.

Bad Excuses

Obviously, these are bad and almost humorous excuses for not joining a beginner’s Spanish class. After all, not speaking a language is precisely the right reason to start learning a foreign language. Taking an introductory class is a safe and fun way to begin a journey toward understanding other cultures as well as learning about ourselves. A determined language learner also develops qualities such as persistence, willingness to make mistakes and overcoming self-consciousness.

Good Design for the Quality of Everyday Life

Interview by Anthony Al-Jamie

Identified as one of the New York Five, Michael Graves is an American architect known for his contemporary building designs as well as his domestic products for such companies as Target, J.C. Penney, Disney, Philips and Black & Decker. Born in Indianapolis, he earned a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University and is the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus at Princeton University. His firm, Michael Graves & Associates, has offices in Princeton, New Jersey and New York City. Graves was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council. He has received numerous awards including the National Medal of Arts, the AIA Gold Medal, the AIA Topaz Medal and the Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. He is credited with broadening the role of the architect in society and raising public interest in good design as essential to the quality of everyday life.

I HAVE a vivid memory of how excited I was the first time I was going to fly. I can’t remember my exact age or even where we were going. But that feeling of joy, amazement and thrill remains so very vivid. My body seemed to have a life of its own back then. I could hardly stand still. For days I told people of my pending flight high up in the sky. I would even point up to make sure they got the point, so that they could see the shiny little plane way up there. I planned to make one of those cool white stripes behind the plane. I just didn’t know how. I didn’t ever get round to asking my dad, mom or the pilot about that. Nor about how they shrink the plane so that it gets so small in the sky.

Then the travel day came and it seemed so loud and busy. There was no time for my endless stream of questions and bursts of joy. At the airport, tons of people rushed back and forth with big bags and suitcases. They looked like ants running with their stuff back and forth. They seemed so focused, not at all approachable. And then there were the lines, the papers to check and those small books called passports. A lady put our luggage on a black belt so it would go on a journey of its own, or so I thought. Mom said we would get it back later.

Modern Design and Lifestyle Event Sees Record Attendance

Dwell on Design, America’s largest modern design event, was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 21 to 23, 2013. Organized by the editors of Dwell magazine, the three-day event brought together the best and brightest products, services and thought leaders in the world of modern design.

Over 200,000 square feet of exhibition floor was transformed into a state-of-the-art showcase of the modern lifestyle for the 30,758 people who attended, a 12% increase compared with 2012.

Tadao Ando

Self-Taught Architect

Tadao Ando, born in 1941, is a former boxer who became one of Japan’s most renowned architects. His projects, which can be found in Japan, the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Germany, France, and Italy, are known for having large expanses of unadorned architectural concrete walls combined with large windows and wooden or stone floors. He has received such awards as the Pritzker Prize, Gold Medal of Architecture from the French Academy of Architecture, Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects and Gold Medal of the Union Internationale des Architects. He is a visiting professor at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of California, Berkeley.

The following photos are from Grand Prize Winners of the Japan Tourism Agency’s 2012-2013 Share your WOW! Photo Contest. These were selected from over 38,000 entries from talented photographers from across the globe.

 For more information about the photographers, please see the Japan Tourism Agency’s website at www.japantravelinfo.com

The complete article is available in Issue #272. click here to order from Amazon

Tokyo Wins 2020 Summer Olympic Bid

THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) elected Tokyo as the 2020 host city at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 7, 2013. The IOC was deciding between Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo. The Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee promoted its delivery (by demonstrating that Tokyo will provide guaranteed quality and maximum benefits), celebration (by advocating that Tokyo will be a great host of a wonderful party) and innovation (by showing that Tokyo will use all the creativity of the world’s most forward-thinking city to benefit sport and the Games.) If you think numbers speak louder than words, than here are statistics that the Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee have compiled to support their bid to host the world’s leading international sporting event.

Try no matter what happens. Move forward without looking away

Life is like a Festival

I was born in Kishiwada, Osaka, a town surrounding the Kishiwada Castle. It is known for its Danjiri Matsuri Cart-Pulling Festival held the third weekend of September and attracting some 600,000 visitors. The 310-year-old festival has become exceedingly dangerous.

Since I was a kid, I’ve loved hearing the pipes, drums and the loud “So-rya, So-rya” chanting of the festival. I joined the float pullers between my fourth year of primary school and second year of high school. It was the big event of the year for me.

人生もまた祭りのようなもの。

私の生まれ育った大阪府岸和田市は、岸和田城を中心とす る城下町です。岸和田と言えば、毎年 9 月の第 3 土・日 曜日をメインに行われ、60 万人もの人が訪れる「だんじり祭」が有名。約 310 年の歴史と伝統を誇り、危険なまでに白 熱する祭りとして知られています。

私は子供の頃から祭りの笛や太鼓のお囃子、「ソーリャソーリャ」 という威勢のいい掛け声を聞くと何とも言えない高揚感で胸が踊 り、ウズウズしたものです。好きが嵩じて、小学4年から高校 2 年まで、年に一度の晴れ舞台 さながら山車の曳き手として一団に加わるまでとなりました。