Japan's Monster Tourist Boom (I)

choi

Miki Tanikawa, Japan's Monster Tourist Boom; As international visitors pour into Japan, the country's service industry gets creative. US News & World Report, Mar 4, 2016.
http://www.usnews.com/news/best- ... onster-tourist-boom

Note:
(a) "The country received a record 19.7 million visitors in 2015, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, a government-funded body that promotes international tourism. * * * Chinese tourists made up the biggest share of international visitors in 2015, representing more than a quarter of the visitors. Koreans were the next largest group."

2015 Foreign Visitors & Japanese Departures. Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) 国際観光振興機構, undated
https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/ttp/sta/PDF/E2015.pdf
(Foreign Visitors to Japan by Nationality for 2015: China (4,993,800; +107.3% year on year) > South Korea (4,002,100; +45.3%) > Taiwan (3,677,100; +29.9%) > Hng Kong (1,524,300; +64.6%) > Thailand (796,700; +21.2%))

Data for USA and Australia are incomplete. Otherwise, USA will surpassed Thailand and Australia will be neck and neckk with Thailand.

(b) "Tourists drawn to the dark arts of ninjutsu 忍術 [where 'jutsu' is Chinese pronunciation] can visit places such as the Igaryu Ninja Museum in Mie prefecture on Japan's main island of Honshu. The museum, which aims to give tourists a sense of how the assassins lived, trained and took out their targets, showcases such inventions as a floor piece that slips open to supply a resident with a sword to fight off a sudden intruder."
(i) Ninja Museum of Igaryu  伊賀流忍者博物館
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Museum_of_Igaryu
(in Iga, Mie Prefecture 三重県 伊賀市 [city is named after ancient Iga Province 伊賀国])

The outside appearance of the museum and "floor piece that slips open" can be seen in
http://www.iganinja.jp/museum.html
(ii)
(A) Iga Ueno Castle  伊賀上野城
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iga_Ueno_Castle
(also known as "Hakuhō" or "White Phoenix Castle"/ Immediately alongside the castle is the Iga-ryū Ninja Museum)

Built in 1585 (but not . So named due to its location in "三重県伊賀市上野 丸之内（上野公園）."  ja.wikipedia.org  (Tokyo also has 上野公園, in its neighborhood of Ueno 上野.  In fact 上野 is also a neighborhood of 三重県伊賀市. For the defition of 丸之内, see (iii). Tokyo and Iga, among other places, both have a neighborhood called 丸之内.)
(B) Iga Ueno Castle. Japan National Tourism Organization, undated
www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/spot/castles/igauenojo.html
("Iga Ueno Castle (Iga Ueno-jō) was built in the latter half of the 16th century by TSUTSUI Sadatsugu 筒井 定次 [who was 豊臣秀吉の家臣 and 豊臣 promoted him as 伊賀守護], who governed this region. It was subsequently restored by the daimyō 大名 [feudal lord] TŌDŌ Takatora 藤堂 高虎 [who had been also 豊臣の家臣 but two year after 豊臣 died, 徳川家康 came after 豊臣’s son in 1600. 藤堂 defected to 徳川. 豊臣’s son was trounced and committed suicide. 徳川 rewarded 藤堂], an expert on castle building, who was the governor in the beginning of the 17th century. The five-tiered donjon [a variant of English noun dungeon] collapsed in a hurricane in 1612, however, as it neared completion, and thus it became a castle without a donjon. The existing three-tiered donjon [木造] was built in 1935 and is an exhibition room displaying cultural exhibits”)

The "tō" and "dō" are Chinese pronunciations for kanji 藤 and 堂, respectively.
(iii) 丸之内
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/丸之内
(日本城郭の内部または本丸の内部)

my translation: inside the castle wall [Japan never had a walled CITY] or inside honmaru 本丸  (For the layout of Japanese castles in general, see next posting.)

choi

(c) "Tokyo's Robot Restaurant, which features a cabaret and dance show involving high-tech robots, animation suits and fantasy characters on moving platforms"

I watched a few video clips and was not impressed. Most entertainers are women (that is right, humans). And slightly larger-than-life robots are not doing sophisticated moves, but I am unsure whether they are robots or human actors in suits.

(d) "Other themed restaurants popular with foreign tourists in or near Tokyo include a Ninja-themed restaurant called Ninja Akasaka and Kaiju Sakaba, a bar based on the monsters from the 'Ultraman' TV series."
(i) Ninja Akasaka
http://www.ninjaakasaka.com/

has no Japanese name, but Akasaka 赤坂 ("Red Slope") is a Tokyo neighborhood (and where the restaurant is located).
(ii) Kaijū Sakaba 怪獣 酒場
http://kaiju-sakaba.com/

Japanese English dictionary:
* sakaba 酒場 【さかば】 (n): "bar; bar-room"
(iii) Ultraman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraman
(1966-1967)

(e) "More tourists, of course, translates into more economic benefits. Foreign tourists spent a total of 3.47 trillion yen in 2015, up about 72 percent from 2014.  'Every eight tourists visiting Japan spend what an average Japan resident spends in a year,' says Mika Kubota, a senior consultant with JNTO. That means continuing visitor spending could more than make up for the country’s projected economic squeeze tied to its rapidly falling population, she says."

Currently enrolled in the PhD program of School of Journalism in University of Texas at Austin, the writer is not a native English speaker. And "Every eight tourists" is grammatically erroneous.
(f) "The Fuji-Shizuoka Airport near Mount Fuji, for example, has started to promote itself as a gateway to Japan."

There is a typo. Shizuoka Airport 静岡空港 (located in Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県) is also known as Mt Fuji Shizuoka Airport 富士山静岡空港, according to both en.wikipedi.org and ja.wikipedi.org.