Expo '70: Tower Of The Sun

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A Journey To The Tower Of The Sun

I had a vague idea to visit the sight of the 1970 Osaka World Expo while I was in Japan last month, but not much of plan before I went. On the express train it's almost a 2 hour journey from the in-laws place, so I took with me one of my favorite manga, 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. One the advantages of a month of holidays is the time to read and wander aimlessly. I was almost to the end of the series, so it was a good opportunity to finish the last two volumes.

There were posters advertising 40th Anniversary of the 1970 Osaka World Expo at the station when I arrived at Namba. After a quick bento I studied the station map and jumped on the subway to the North of the city and the monorail which connects Senri Chuo station with Expo Commemoration Park.

In Japanese Expo '70 is known as Ōsaka Banpaku (大阪万博). The theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." This was the first World's Fair held in Japan and one of the most well attended world fairs in history with almost a third of Japan's population visiting it over a 6 month period.

There are only a few remants of the expo remaining, including Tarō Okamoto's remarkable Tower of The Sun, which dominates Senri hill. As you approach from the west the tower is visible from a great distance. Okamoto was member of the Paris avant garde in the 1930's and had a deep fascination with the occult. Perhaps you can see this in the totemic style of the three external faces of the tower.





On the front you see the present flanked by red thunder. The golden disk at the top represents the future. On the back is the black sun of the past. The interior was once open to the public, who could rise to the full heigh of 70 metres on an elevator and moving staircases. In the centre of the tower was another artwork callled the tree of life, and in the basement another face, the sun of the underworld.

The park was planned by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, and the structures contained within represented the peak of human engineering acheivement at the time. Highlights included early mobile phone prototypes, local area networking and maglev train technology.

Take for example the United States pavilion - extraordinary for not only the technical and architecural innovation it embodied, but for the low cost of construction - made from only four materials for less than half a million dollars. The long span cable stiffened pneumatic dome, the first of it's kind, became the model for the majority of sports domes in existence today. All that is left of the United States' pavilion is a plaque commemorating the place where it stood and the hugely popular moon rook that it housed.

The expo is situated in time between the uncertain post war years and boom years of the later part of the century. Embued with an optimism for the future, Expo '70 undoubtably had a lot to do with inspiring Japan to become the advanced technological nation it is today.

A brisk walk around the park takes two hours and is well worth it, with a wide variety of gardens and sculptures along the way. In July it was 32 degrees celcius in the shade, so not too many people were around. Though I probably wasn't allowed, I took the opportunity to cool off in a stream in the middle of a secluded forest.

Through the forest runs an elevated observation pathway, which at it's furthest end stands a massive observation tower. The tower is onstructed entirely of wood and reminded me of the traditional architecture found within Japanese castles, only without an exterior facade.


AR大阪万博 by GORIMON, on Flickr

For many people I imagine a trip to the Expo '70 commemorative park is either to remember their first visit or some retro-futurism tourist jaunt. I wasn't there for an architectural tour or nature walk however, I was there to take a trip through the world imagined by Naoki Urasawa in his epic manga 20th Century Boys. It was a bit of of a manga geek trip, manga tabi if you will.

Expo 70 was a central to the story of 20th Century boys. First in 1970 as the ruse used by a young Fukube while he was writing the book of prophecy that would herald the bloody new years eve 2000 and he coming of a global government at the end of the world.

On that bloody new years eve, Kenji scaled the robot that was bringing death and destruction to Tokyo and came face to face with the tomodachi who stood on top of a gruesome replica of the Tower of The Sun.

The Tower of The Sun featured during the last stages as the place where the tomodachi plotted the assaination of the pope. The tomodachi then staged his own resurrection in front of the masses, becoming immortal in the process.

It was place that Kanna brought the people together for one final concert before the end of the world, and where Kenji roused the people of Tokyo to revolution.

Urawasa's epic work pulls together a whole host of post modern themes, bio-terrorism, mateship and betrayal, in a coming of age story that spans three generations. To wander around the park, which is dominated by the Tower of The Sun at the centre was to put myself in the picture. When you are culturally aware, the world seems an altogether different place.

Whatever your goals are for reaching fluency in Japanese, they must be accompanied by vision and imagination. You really need to be able to see yourself doing the the things you dream. And really, the book is much better than the movie.

You might also want to read other posts on this blog about manga:

• How reading manga can be good for your Japanese
• How to begin learning Japanese with manga
• How to put the fun back into Japanese now the JLPT is over

If you really want to get into to manga, but don't know where to start read my free guide to manga. It'll show you how to get over the initial hurdles of reading in Japanese.

Thanks for reading, I mean that. You are what make this blog such fabulous place to learn about Japanese language and culture. Thank you for the support and the ongoing conversation on places like Facebook and Twitter.

Catalonia & Portugal vs. Castile, 1640

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From Imperial Spain: 1469-1716, by J. H. Elliott (Penguin, 2002), 2nd ed., Kindle Loc. 5954-97:

Seeing that his authority was gone and that law and order were everywhere collapsing, the unfortunate Count of Santa Coloma begged the town councillors of Barcelona to close the city gates against the casual labourers who always flocked into the city at the beginning of June to hire themselves out for harvesting. But the councillors were either unable or unwilling to agree; the harvesters made their usual entry; and on Corpus day, 7 June 1640, they inevitably became involved in a brawl. The brawl soon acquired the dimensions of a riot, and within a few hours the mob was hounding down the royal ministers and sacking their houses. The viceroy himself had moved to the dockyards for safety, but a group of rioters forced its way in, and Santa Coloma was caught and struck down as he attempted to escape from his pursuers along the rocky beach.

The murder of Santa Coloma left such authority as remained in Catalonia in the hands of the Diputació and of the city councillors and aristocracy of Barcelona. Although they managed to shepherd the rebels out of Barcelona itself, it was impossible to maintain control over a movement which was spreading through the Principality, wreaking vengeance on all those of whom the rebels disapproved. Stunned as he was by the viceroy's murder, Olivares still seems to have hoped that the rebellion could be checked without recourse to arms, but the new viceroy, the Catalan Duke of Cardona, died on 22 July without being able to halt the drift to anarchy. Almost at the same moment the rebels gained control of the vital port of Tortosa. The loss of Tortosa made it finally clear that troops would have to be sent into Catalonia, in spite of the obvious risk of war in a province bordering on France; and Olivares pressed ahead with the formation of an army for use against the rebels.

The Conde Duque believed that the Catalans were still too loyal to call on the French for help, but he underestimated the determination and vigour of Claris, and the hatred of his Government and of Castile which his policies had inspired in every class of Catalan society. Some time before, Claris had already made tentative overtures to the French, and Richelieu, who had shown himself well aware of the possibilities of causing trouble both in Catalonia and Portugal, declared himself ready to offer help. During the autumn of 1640 Claris and Olivares stood face to face, Claris hoping to avoid the necessity of committing the Principality to an open break with Madrid, and Olivares equally hoping to avoid the necessity of using an army against the Catalans. ‘In the midst of all our troubles,’ wrote the Conde Duque to the Cardenal Infante in October, ‘the Catalan is the worst we have ever had, and my heart admits of no consolation that we are entering an action in which, if our army kills, it kills a vassal of His Majesty, and if they kill, they kill a vassal and a soldier…. Without reason or occasion they have thrown themselves into as complete a rebellion as Holland….’

But worse was to come. The revolt of the Catalans was bound to have its repercussions in Portugal, where there was a growing determination to cut the country's links with Castile. Uneasily aware that he could never be sure of Portugal as long as the Duke of Braganza and the higher Portuguese nobility remained at home, Olivares had ingeniously thought to kill two birds with one stone by ordering the Portuguese nobility to turn out with the army that was to be sent into Catalonia. This order meant that, if Portugal was ever to break free from Castile, it must act quickly before Braganza was out of the country. Plans for a revolution were laid in the autumn of 1640, probably with the connivance of Richelieu, who is believed to have sent funds to the conspirators in Lisbon. On 1 December, while the royal army under the command of the Marquis of los V̩lez was gingerly advancing into Catalonia, the Portuguese conspirators put their plan into action. The guards at the royal palace in Lisbon were overwhelmed, Miguel de Vasconcellos РOlivares's confidant and principal agent in the government of Portugal Рwas assassinated, and Princess Margaret was escorted to the frontier. Since there were virtually no Castilian troops in Portugal, there was nothing to prevent the rebels from taking over the country, and proclaiming the Duke of Braganza king as John IV.

The news of the Portuguese Revolution, which took a week to reach Madrid, forced Olivares and his colleagues to undertake an urgent reappraisal of their policies. Simultaneous revolts in the east and west of the Spanish peninsula threatened the Monarchy with total disaster. Peace was essential: peace with the Dutch, peace with the Catalans. But although the Conde Duque now offered favourable terms to the Catalans, and the upper classes in Catalonia seemed predisposed to accept them as the army of los Vélez moved closer and closer to Barcelona, the populace was in no mood for surrender. It rioted in Barcelona on 24 December, hunting down ‘traitors’ with a savagery surpassing that of Corpus; and Claris, faced on one side with the fury of the mob, and on the other with the advancing Castilian army, took the only course open to him. On 16 January 1641 he announced that Catalonia had become an independent republic under French protection. Then on 23 January, finding that the French were not satisfied with this, he withdrew his plans for a republican system of government, and formally declared the allegiance of Catalonia to the King of France, ‘as in the time of Charlemagne, with a contract to observe our constitutions’. The French were now prepared to give the Catalans full military support; the French agent, Duplessis Besançon, hastily organized the defence of Barcelona, and on 26 January a combined French and Catalan force met the army of los Vélez on the hill of Montjuich outside the walls of Barcelona, Los Vélez unaccountably gave the order to retreat, and the last chance of bringing the revolt of the Catalans to a speedy end was lost.

Spain's Era of Desengaño: ‘Queremos comer sin trabajar’

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From Imperial Spain: 1469-1716, by J. H. Elliott (Penguin, 2002), 2nd ed., Kindle Loc. 5112-5153:

The great plague of 1599–1600 wiped out at a single blow much of the population increase of the sixteenth century, and opened a new era in Castilian demographic history: an era of stagnation, and perhaps of demographic decline.

The economic consequences of the plague were to be seen in the labour crisis with which the new century opened, and can be traced in the 30 per cent increase in salaries in the three years that followed it. González de Cellorigo, an official in the chancellery of Valladolid who published in 1600, under the shadow of the plague, a brilliant treatise on the problems of the Spanish economy, accurately prophesied its effects: ‘Henceforth we can only expect that everything requiring human industry and labour will be very expensive… because of the shortage of people for tillage and for all the types of manufactures that the kingdom needs.’ The acute labour shortage, and the consequent upswing of salaries, were, as González de Cellorigo appreciated, irreparable disasters for the Castilian economy, since they destroyed the possibility that the years of peace might be used to build up Castilian industry to a point at which it would again be able to compete with foreign industries in the home and overseas markets.

But the most serious long-term consequences of the plague may have been psychological rather than economic. Already, before it was struck by the plague, Castile was weary and depressed. The failures in France and the Netherlands, the sack of Cadiz by the English, and the King's request for a national donativo in 1596 as bankruptcy struck, completed the disillusionment that had begun with the defeat of the Invincible Armada. Then, to crown it all, came the plague. The unbroken succession of disasters threw Castile off balance. The ideals which had buoyed it up during the long years of struggle were shattered beyond repair. The country felt itself betrayed – betrayed perhaps by a God who had inexplicably withdrawn His favour from His chosen people. Desolate and plague-stricken, the Castile of 1600 was a country that had suddenly lost its sense of national purpose.

Castilians reacted to the moment of disillusionment in different ways. Optimism had gone, to be replaced by bitterness and cynicism, or else by the resignation of defeat. The new mood of fatalism and disillusionment naturally tended to reinforce certain latent tendencies that had already been encouraged by the unusual circumstances of the sixteenth century. During that century, events had conspired to disparage in the national estimation the more prosaic virtues of hard work and consistent effort. The mines of Potosí brought to the country untold wealth; if money was short today, it would be abundant again tomorrow when the treasure fleet reached Seville. Why plan, why save, why work? Around the corner would be the miracle – or perhaps the disaster. Prices might rise, savings be lost, the crops fail. There seemed little point in demeaning oneself with manual labour, when, as so often happened, the idle prospered and the toilers were left without reward. The events of the turn of the century could only increase this sense of insecurity and strengthen an already widespread fatalism. It was fatalism that characterized the outlook of the pícaro, and the seventeenth century was essentially the age of the pícaro, living on his wits – hungry today, well fed tomorrow, and never soiling his hands with honest work. ‘Queremos comer sin trabajar’: we want to eat without working. The words could be applied to Castilians in many walks of life, from the townsman living comfortably on his annuities to the vagabond without a blanca in his purse.

It was in this atmosphere of desengaño, of national disillusionment, that Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote, of which the first part appeared in 1605 and the second in 1614. Here, among many other parables, was the parable of a nation which had set out on its crusade only to learn that it was tilting at windmills. In the end was the desengaño, for ultimately the reality would always break in on the illusion. The events of the 1590s had suddenly brought home to more thoughtful Castilians the harsh truth about their native land – its poverty in the midst of riches, its power that had shown itself impotent. Brought face to face with the terrible paradoxes of the Castile of Philip III, a host of public-spirited figures – such men as González de Cellorigo and Sancho de Moncada – set themselves to analyse the ills of an ailing society. It is these men, known as arbitristas (projectors), who give the Castilian crisis of the turn of the century its special character. For this was not only a time of crisis, but a time also of the awareness of crisis – of a bitter realization that things had gone wrong. It was under the influence of the arbitristas that early seventeenth-century Castile surrendered itself to an orgy of national introspection, desperately attempting to discover at what point reality had been exchanged for illusion. But the arbitristas – as their name suggested – were by no means content merely to analyse. They must also find the answer. That an answer existed they had no doubt; for just as Sancho Panza had in him something of Don Quixote, so also even the most pessimistic arbitrista was still something of an optimist at heart. As a result, the Government of Philip III found itself bombarded with advice – with innumerable projects, both sensible and fantastic, for the restoration of Castile.

Just symmetry, it's introduction.

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Symmetryprice: ¥230($1.99)developer: gravity loves timeiTunes“Symmertry” make symmetric photo as app name says.After loading photo, symmetry processing starts automatically. Flicking to right (bottom) will move left (top) source image to its direction. It's very simple. Clicking bottom right axis rotating button or flicking vertical (horizontal) quickly changes processing axis.Tutorial and further information is developer's website "gravity loves time".Clicking multiply axis button bellow, Symmetry reproduces new process with using latest symmetry image. With using this reproducing process, you can make fantastic image like kaleidoscope.Simple symmetric photo made by this app may not be charming because duplicaded image tone is even in large part of photo, but strong composition is useful. I suggest re-touching with Photogene, ColorSplash or other your favorite image effect application after saving symmetric photo like below.Application interface is clear, stable and response is quick. These are important for image processing tool. If I request something for Symmetry, supporting undo, saving session and blured edge composition.Anyway, ¥230($1.99) is reasonable price for this small nifty application.

It's my URL! ServersMan

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ServersManprice: FREEdeveloper: FreeBit Co., Ltd.size: 3.3MBiTunesHow do you use web-server if you can bring to anywhere? ServersMan is tiny web-server hosts web site an WebDAV storage on iPhone.After activate your account, node name is set as reach-able URL to iPhone... The phrase before is not impressive then I'd want say again “URL on MY iPhone”. At first launch, I've got excited like the time to write first HTML tags.Activated ServersMan is stand alone web server ( in correct meaning, domain name is solved by developer FreeBit based on IPv6 technology named "Emotion Link"). The public_html directory hosts web contents to Internet after set "Public Web Access" on.Factory set HTML shows location data, images and audio files which you set to publish. ServersMan have function to host images captured by iPhone's camera on the fly. Setting "Save Same File Name" to on, latest image will shown in same URL as pseudo camera streaming. This interesting function is same with audio file. ServersMan have recording function and save on same file also.At the same time of launching ServersMan, Web DAV storage server works, and user can mount storage on computer's desktop with logging in. Mounted storage contains following directories. Node named directory contains editable html, images and other files hosted to WWW via ServersMan. You can edit html file on ServersMan application also.If you want send files to iPhone, it is able to move files to MyStorage directory via WebDAV. Uploaded files appears on ServersMan to edit or preview. Opposite side transfer is able with using ServersMan's "WebGadget" menu. With using WebGadget, iPhone's photo album images and recorded files are able to be hosted to WWW and WebDAV.Server transportation speed is rely on network where iPhone connected. Wi-Fi gives enough response and 3G network is not too slow.Current version has wrong path to get user id, sent e-mail from ServersMan expire after application is shut down. Then other computer is necessary in order to read pass-code to enter ServersMan activation text box.ServersMan has many weak-points. It is the most terrible battery eater ever I know. Even if I charging iPhone, ServersMan will eat battery out in 30 minutes. User interface is not clear. Web engineer can understand how it works but workflow is not streamlined. I think ServersMan's largest weak-point is html set by developer. Poor design html is not worth to publish from iPhone.ServersMan is not something special at this time, but the things opened by this tiny web server and iPhone seems to bring us harvestfull future, even if ServrsMan is not exist at there.I'm going to enjoy to think how ServersMan's concept work in future with modifying html on iPhone.

Impressive tool doesn't go behind Photoshop

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re:NancyKPHprice: FREE!developer: gravity loves timeiTunesPicturely effect app is popularity in AppStore. Today, cool stuff is shipped, “re:NancyKPH - woodcut/rubber plate print-” is impressive wood cut picture effect application.This strange name is from Japanese pop rubber print artist "Nancy Seki". Her likeness portrait prints are graved on eraser rubber and printed. She died but you can see her impressive prints on Google image. Application re:NancyKPH make picture like her print from photos on iPhone.re:NancyKPH name is built as Nancy + K(o -"ko" means small) + S(eki) and (Hirax --read below) means in literal "dedicated small app for Nancy Seki and Hirax".Developer gravity loves time serves well designed web site for re:NancyKPH and tutorial page "re:NacyKPH Tutorial".Launching re:NancyKPH, Tutorial baby picture is shown and automatically process works.Tapping screen shows menu button bar at bottom. Picture effect is able to be adjusted with tapping second left button. 3 sliders shown (pity! slider meaning is not shown. If the parameter names are shown below of sliders...). When you tap slider controls, parameter names appears on control panel. From top "Smooth", "Bold Edge", "Threshold" and "Paint". Effects don't work in real-time. Update button below panel shows effects after set parameters.Only I want developer make to implement on this cool app is real-time processing though it's not too slow. After set outline of your print, setting color from second right button shows ink color setting panel.This cool processing is based on Japanese famous geek engineer Hirax's one of huge archive. His humorous, informative and filled of deep wisdom blog impress many programmers in Japan. His blog “Dekirukana?(Can I do it?)” since 1998 is filled with fascinate toys for image processing engineers and programers. It's jewel box for our Japanese engineer.Developer gravity loves time seems to decide this cool app's price to be free from his respect to Nancy Seki and hirax.I'll keep in use NancyKPH for printing wood cut impressive picture on my hand.

protest culture 2011 (movie set in the year 1963) 'Kokurikozaka kara'

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cross-posting from H-JAPAN on August 17, 2011 by Peter Cave @manchester.ac.uk
Subject: The Supposedly Docile Japanese Public and 'Kokurikozaka kara'
 
As a coda to this interesting discussion on 'the supposedly docile Japanese public', last Saturday I went to see the latest Studio Ghibli film, 'Kokurikozaka kara'. An NHK Special programme about the making of this film a week or two ago described it as a story about first love. It is that, but it's a lot more. It's a fascinating tale about high school students at a private Yokohama high school in 1963, who engage in lively debates and engage in constructive opposition to plans to demolish a historical building where they hold their bungei-bu activities. The film portrays their behaviour in an entirely favourable way. I have no idea whether it bears any resemblance to the reality of high school students in the early 1960s, or whether it's more Miyazaki Hayao's ideal of what they should have been (or a mixture of the two) - this is the time between Anpo and the Gakusei Funso of the late 60s, of course, so perhaps 1963 allows Miyazaki to subtly associate the story with that period and yet not directly link it to its most controversial episodes. For me, the film had a strong resonance with the current protests and debate over nuclear power, the implicit messages being, 'Think for yourself!' 'Don't just accept what the authorities do!' and 'Take action!' ...