When to visit Nepal?

ネパール旅行は、いつがよい？

Nepal = Himalaya

the Rainy season in Nepal

We have the rainy season in June and July in Japan. The rain is not heavy usually in the rainy season but it rains just often and generally drizzle. In Nepal they also have the rainy season. It last from June to September usually.

No doctors in Nepali villages

お医者のいないネパールの村

April 25th will mark one-year-anniversary of Nepal

Today I attended the event held by NGO Japan Platform. That about the Nepal earthquake.

A professor of Sophia univ. made a keynote speech on Nepali situation after the quake.

She has been studied about Nepal.... kind of subculture... Her HP is here. Actually where I know about is just Kathmandu and Pokhara. Even I stayed in local houses with local people, my knowledge of Nepal is just about two cities. I don't know about villages.

Health Posts in village

Most of today's stories were new to me. Specially about the medical situation in villages was like in a fairy tale...

When villagers are sick, first they go to a shaman in their village. Of course, nothing recovers....
Then they walk to the health post where medically trained staff are assigned there. That may be like a nurse office in school?

Worshipping dogs in Nepal

ネパール　犬を祭ります

Tihar

As I wrote, Nepal is a country of dogs kind of. Even they have the festival for dogs. That is Tihar which is one the most celebrated festival in Nepal. It is a five-day-Hindu festival in November.

Cats and Dogs

犬と猫

Cats in Japan

I don't know whether taking this word to express the phenomenon is right or not but I will say...

Now keeping cats is a record-breaking hit ever in Japan. As you know, cats are living creatures so I don't like to treat them as objects and say "booming".

But the surveys show number of pet cats has been increasing in the past years.
That was not our reason but we owns two cats.

Dogs in Nepal

On the other hand, Nepal is a country of dogs.

sleeping dogs in a temple

Japanese regional mascot characters

ご当地キャラ

mascot characters

As you already know, Japan is a country of 'anime' and 'manga(cartoon)' . I don't know whether it affects this phenomenon or not, but recently Japanese regional mascot characters, called "Gotochi Kyara" are growing so popular.


Kumamoto 's character, Kumamon

They are commonly playing an important roll to attract customers in the regional communities and even out of them. I am live in Tokyo and often see these characters, who are not Tokyo's one, appear live at special events. "live" means someone wearing full-size character costumes to animate them.
They are created to vitalize their own regions and they are going above and beyond. There are various products to sale, decorated by them and contests to decide which character is the most popular.
http://kumamon-official.jp/blog

Kumamon refrains

The reason I am writing about "Gotochi Kyara"(regional mascot character) today is that I saw a news article about Kumamon. Kumamon is the Kumamoto prefecture's mascot character. It says that Kumamon is refraining from twittering because his priority currently should be supporting evacuated Kumamoto residences because of the quake.

It sounds like a high profile celebrityIt sounds like a high profile celebrity....

mascot characters

よく知られているように、日本はアニメや漫画大国です。この現象にそれが影響してるのかどうかわかりませんが、最近日本の地方のマスコットキャラクター(ご当地キャラ)がすごい人気になっています。
ご当地キャラは地域内または地域の外からの集客に重要な役割を担っています。東京在住のわたしも、他県のキャラクターの着ぐるみをよく見かけます。その地域の活性化のために創られるのですが、それ以上の働きをしてます。キャラクターのついた さまざまなグッツもあり、全国のキャラクターのうち、日本一を決める大会もあります。
http://kumamon-official.jp/blog

Kumamon refrains

今日、ご当地キャラクターについて書こうと思ったのは、くまモンについての記事を見かけたからです。くまモンは熊本県のマスコットです。記事によれば、くまモンは、地震で避難している方たちなどのサポートを最優先とし、ツイットを控えているそうです。

まるで芸能人みたいな・・。