Looking back 2013. Top 5 Japanese news 2013.

Japanese news in 2013!

There were lots of things happened in 2013. Here is the top ５ Japanese news talked about the most in 2013 according to Yomiurishinbun.

1. Tokyo the Olympics/Paralympics, 2020.

I am very looking forward to experiencing the Olympics here in Tokyo. “Omotenashi” is one of the most popular phrase in 2013. It is used to describe Japanese culture when Japan presented for the olympics by “Christel Takigawa”.

2. Mt.Fuji is registered as one of the World Heritage.

This news was the most important for me since I am from a foot of Mt.Fuji. Not only Mt.Fuji itself, but East Fuji 5 lakes are also registered as the World Heritage as a part of Mt.Fuji. I am so proud of my home town as always.
The picture below is from my room.

3. Rakuten won the world series

Rakuten (the largest EC site in Japan) baseball team won their first Japanese world series. The EC mall had a “winning sale”: all items are 77% off. Really?? well, some of it. The reality is that almost all the shops raised “regular price”. This is such a ripoff.

4. Shigeo Nagashima and Hideki Matsui received a national honor award

Two great baseball players in Japanese baseball history, Shigeo Nagashima and Hideki Matsui, were awarded “a natinal honor award 国民栄誉賞(kokumin eiyoshou)”. Both Mr. Nagashima and Matsui are from Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo) which is the most famous and popular baseball team in Japan. Hideki Matsui is known as a major league player, and won World Series MVP in 2009 when he played in NY Yankees. Shigeo Nagashima has held a manager position twice in his manager career. Moreover, he is assigned his position as ” a lifetime honor manager” by the team. In 2004, he had a stroke, but escaped death.

5. 35 death, avalanche of earth and rocks in Izu-Oshima.

Japan has been recovering from the great disaster “The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku” known as 3.11. Another disaster occurred in October, 2013. A continuous huge typhoons especially No.26 caused avalanche of earth and rocks in Izu-Oshima killed 35 people.

In 2013, many good news were selected in top 5, but still bad news, especially natural disasters. Japan is facing natural disasters everyday such as earthquake, typhoon, and their secondary disasters. Recently there is an anxiety of another huge earthquake in Tokyo; however, this is our fate to face these natural disasters.
I hope there will be only good news in 2014 for everyone.