For Relaxing Times, Make It Suntory Time

Above, a Suntory whiskey advertisement at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While doing something else, it dawned on me that next year will mark 20 years since the release of the Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson movie, Lost In Translation. 

Filmed in Japan and directed by Sofia Coppola, here's a summary of the film from Rotten Tomatoes:

A lonely, aging movie star named Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and a conflicted newlywed, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), meet in Tokyo. Bob is there to film a Japanese whiskey commercial; Charlotte is accompanying her celebrity-photographer husband. Strangers in a foreign land, the two find escape, distraction and understanding amidst the bright Tokyo lights after a chance meeting in the quiet lull of the hotel bar. They form a bond that is as unlikely as it is heartfelt and meaningful.

Lost In Translation was released on September 9, 2003.

It is interesting that many people don't "get" the movie, yet it scored a 95% on the Tomatometer and 85% Audience Score at Rotten Tomatoes.

I enjoyed the movie after seeing it two years after my first visit to Japan in 2001 and before my second with G-TOUR in 2004. In fact, some of the locations used in the movie were visited by G-TOUR. I enjoyed seeing the sights and sounds of Japan as well as the soundtrack. 

Since next year marks 20 years since the movie's release, I guess I'll have more to say about it then.

Why the photo of a Suntory whiskey advertisement at top? The Bill Murray character was in Japan to make commercials for Suntory Whiskey with the catch line, "For relaxing times, make it Suntory time!"

A Guide To The Best ‘Lost In Translation’ Spots In Tokyo

Above, Q-Front and Shibuya Scramble. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The movie Lost In Translation was released about a year or two after my first trip to Japan and just before the first G-TOUR in 2004.

In commemoration of the release of Lost In Translation, Gaijinpot.com has a guide to the best Lost In Translation spots in Tokyo.

It begins with:

It has been a decade and a half now since the year Lost in Translation, the romantic comedy-drama starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, first hit theaters. More than any other film, this is the one that foreigners coming to Tokyo for the first time seem to most associate with the city. 

Up-to-date with the most recent info as of January 2018, we take a comprehensive look here at the real-life locations featured in the film: from famous landmarks like the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel in Shinjuku to spots that take some more tracking down like the exact karaoke box in Shibuya where Murray and Johansson’s characters sang songs with their Japanese friends.

To read the guide, go here. 

Japan's Tissue Pack Marketing

Above, examples of tissue packs I received in Japan. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

At the end of Lost In Translation, following the final goodbye embrace between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson, some women can be seen handing out tissue packs to people as Johansson walks away from the camera.

Ever wondered why this form of advertising/marketing is popular in Japan? GaijinPot will answer that question for you in a new article they posted yesterday.

Over the years, I have accumulated a sizable number of these tissue packs (four examples are pictured above) and they have occasionally come in handy. Fortunately for me, I haven't had many head colds during the past few years.

It is recommended that visitors to Japan graciously accept these tissue packs as many public restrooms in Japan don't have toilet paper or paper towels (or so I have been told, as I have never run into this).

GaijinPot begins with:

Tissue pack marketing, when part-time workers on the sidewalk hand out packets of pocket tissues with a small advertisement on the bottom of the plastic wrapping, is a type of guerrilla marketing popular in Japan. 

The premise is simple. The pack of tissues is given to potential customers, who place it in their bag or pocket. By the time they have used the entire pack, the potential customer have inadvertently glanced at the advertisement a couple of times. The same person might just throw away a leaflet without reading it, since the leaflet offers nothing of immediate value. 

 To read more, go here.

Kyoto's Heian-Jingu Shrine

Above, the Tahei-Kaku lake and bridge at Heian-Jingu.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One of the stops we made during the 2004 G-Tour was in Kyoto's Heian-Jingu Shrine.

Heien-Jingu Shrine was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1,100th anniversary of moving of the capital to the city of Heian.

One of the things I remember most about it was the Tahei-Kaku Lake in the garden area filled with carp and water turtles that our tour group fed along with noisy cicadas all over the place.

The shrine was featured in Lost In Translation (2003).  It is here that Scarlett Johannson walked across a pond on stepping stones.

Happy Traveling Kyoto has an interesting write-up on the Heian-Jingu Shrine along with photographs.

To view it, go here.

NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building

Above, a view of the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building from Harajuku, Tokyo.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I first took notice of this building in the Bill Murray/Scarlett Johansson feature, Lost In Translation (2003) and wondered what building it was.

It is the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo.

According to Wikipedia, construction of the building started in 1997 and completed in 2000.

More from Wikipedia:

The NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building (NTTドコモ代々木ビル NTT Docomo Yoyogi Biru^?) is a skyscraper located in the Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan. At 240 metres (790 ft) tall, it is the third tallest building in Tokyo. After the installation of a clock in 2002, the building became the tallest clock tower in the world,^[1][2] but was surpassed in 2011 by the Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower in Saudi Arabia.

The NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building is owned by the NTT Docomo group. Despite the building's name, it is not the head office for the company, whose headquarters are located in the top floors of the Sannō Park Tower. The building houses some offices, but is mainly used to house technical equipment (switching equipment, etc.) for the company's cellular telephone service.

Above, a view of Harajuku Station with the NTT Docomo Yoyogi
Building looming in the background.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.