1.On #EndOfSummer
The theme for the August 30th episode of Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu on NHK E-Tele was #EndOfSummer.
We featured social media posts from travelers saying bittersweet goodbyes to their vacations, proud parents of kids excited to return to school, and romantics waxing poetic about hints of fall in the air. As our resident English teacher Torikai Kumiko-sensei explained, unlike Japanese, there is no concept of kigo (seasonal words) in the English language. Nonetheless, the changing of the seasons is a phenomenon that seems to make us all introspective and sentimental. (In parts of California, where I grew up, it’s clear summer weather practically all year long.)
This episode was our first in three weeks, so the cast and production staff spent some time catching up before the taping. Torikai-sensei talked about how she went swimming in the ocean, our co-host Hide-san spoke about good times spent playing with his kids, and resident commentator Furuta Daisuke-san recounted his trip to NYC to cover the LGBTQ Pride March. As for me, my number one memory this summer is, without a doubt, the interview I got to do with director Quentin Tarantino.
Above all else, though, the biggest news of the summer related to our show is certainly the fact that our MC, Ryoga Haruhi-san, got married. Haruhi-san, congrats, and I wish you everlasting happiness!
2.American Summer Blockbusters
From an astronomical perspective, summer begins with the summer solstice and ends with the autumnal equinox. However, from a movie industry perspective, summer begins at the end of May with Memorial Day and ends with Labor Day in the beginning of September. It is around these two holidays that major studios will release their biggest blockbusters.
The concept of a blockbuster was born with the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, which hit theaters on June 20th, 1975. (Side note, in Japan, Jaws was released on December 6th of the same year.) Until then, the go-to American summer pastimes had been going to the beach or going to the pool; the success of the promotional campaign around Jaws meant that Americans would be lining up outside of air-conditioned cinemas forevermore. What’s more, Jaws provided unmatched thrills, and moviegoers were enticed to return to the theater again and again to see the same movie two or three times. Then, on May 25th, 1977, George Lucas’ Star Wars (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) hit theaters, and a massively successful merchandizing effort would make the genre of summer blockbusters integral to movie studios’ bottom lines.
Growing up in California—which borders the ocean—going to the movie theater was a favorite pastime of many—my family included. On Memorial Day weekend, my parents, my younger sister, and I would welcome the arrival of summer at the local multiplex; on Labor Day weekend we would say goodbye to summer at the local multiplex.
In recent years, however, there’s been a disturbing trend. Traditionally, the first blockbuster of the summer had been released on Memorial Day weekend, but industry competition has increasingly driven that date earlier and earlier. In 2019, the movie everybody knew would be the summer’s biggest hit, Avengers: Endgame, was released at the end of April. What did that mean? Did Avengers: Endgame qualify as a summer movie? The internet reached no consensus. With box office receipts in decline and internet streaming on the rise, perhaps this trend can’t be helped.
As for 2019’s final summer blockbuster, my money’s on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which hit theaters in Japan on August 30th. (In the U.S., the film was released in July.)
3.Back to School
When in comes to end-of-summer traditions, the quintessentially American one is back-to-school shopping, when parents buy their kids all the school supplies they’ll need to survive the school year ahead. Most American schoolkids can be divided into two camps: those who ask their parents for cool clothes, and those who ask for cool stationery. (Kids with well-to-do parents got both.) Now, which was I?
There is a large Japanese population in Silicon Valley, where I was born and raised, and growing up there was no shortage of Japanese stores. The biggest Japanese supermarket in the area was Mitsuwa Marketplace, which was adjacent to Kinokuniya Bookstore. (The former is run by a U.S.-based company, while the latter is a famous bookstore chain in Japan as well.) Japan is known for many things, but for a young kid in school, it’s especially known as the producer of the best stationery in the world—quality, functionality, product lineup, etc. Naturally, I would always have my mom buy me No. 2 pencils and mechanical pencils (which provided a smooth writing experience no American pencil could rival), as well as Mono erasers (it never ceased to amaze me how bad American erasers were at erasing).
Back-to-school shopping should be a blast for kid, but in recent years the tradition has come to take on new meaning; America is not what is used to be. This summer, with the ongoing and unending succession of school shootings, bulletproof backpacks for children have apparently become a thing. Manufacturers are selling bulletproof shields for about 130 dollars each (about 14,000 yen), which has stirred debate among parents and guardians, but overall the shields are in high demand.
Under ordinary circumstances, students should be dreading returning to school because they want to keep playing, or because they still haven’t even started on their summer homework. In America today, however, going to school now means coming to terms with the fact that you may be walking into the next school shooting tragedy. It is unacceptable that kids today may be dreading going back to school for fear of being shot. The #EndOfSummer has become the #EndOfInnocence.
4.My Wardrobe for This Episode
Black button-down shirt ordered at Shibuya Seibu
Gray trousers by Brooks Brothers
Black “Reims" loafers by Paraboot
