There is no doubt that Walt Disney was the first person to popularize animated cartoons throughout the world. But today, the quality of Japanese animation is also world-famous and many Japanese cartoones are exported. There are some animated cartoons such as "Pokemon" which were big successes on US TV. The first Japanese animator to become famous overseas was Tezuka Osamu. He produced many popular cartoon series for TV like "Tetsuwan Atom" which was first broadcast in 1962. It is known by the name "Astro Boy" in US. Hayao Miyazaki, who directed numerous animated movies, such as "Princess Mononoke", enhanced the quality of animation in general, and it began attracting adult audiences.
The image above is early "Tetsuwan Atom". Animation at that time was black and white.

*Name of "Tetsuwan Atom"
In Japan : Tetsuwan Atom
In US : Astro Boy
In English : Mighty Atom

Tetsuwan Atom was remade by the color in 1980. When I was a child, I saw Tetsuwan Atom of this color on TV.

He is Tezuka Osamu. He is a pioneer of animation in Japan. He was born in 1928 in Osaka in Japan, and died in 1989. His cartoon gave big courage and hope to people in poor Japan of postwar days.

The cartoon might be bad for the education, but the cartoon might be good. Especially, the cartoon telecasted on TV takes the social responsibility. Such a cartoon easily influences people, and a good cartoon has a good influence. Especially, the child is influenced easily. But the cartoon in recent years satirizes the society in real, and it is harm for child sometimes. I hope that the cartoon like Mr. Tezuka is born in the future.

Pachinko, a kind of vertical pinball game, is one of the most popular pastimes in Japan. By controlling a manual or electric-spring flipper, a player launches steel balls to the top of the pachinko panel. If a falling ball enters a target hole, the machine dispenses five to fifteen balls. The accumulated balls can be exchanged for prizes such as cigarettes or sweets. Moreover, the prizes can be cashed outside the shop. Altough the numbers are decreasing now, there are about 12000 pachinko parlors in Japan and their total annual income is over 20 trillion yen.

*If you want to make many money in pachinko, your budget is over 10,000 yen. My budget was 40,000 yen always though I often did pachinko when I was a university student. However, it is impossible to win always. 40,000 yen will disappear in one hour if failing. On the other hand, 40,000 yen will become 100,000 yen in several hours. This is gambling. The traveler with a little money should never do pachinko!

This is a panel of pachinko. The kind of the panel is a lot, and people plays with a favorite panel. The display is interesting because the latest pachinko is electronic.

This is one of pachinko parlor. A lot of pachinko parlors are in the city, and a lot of women also are playing. The player can do pachinko comfortably because the latest pachinko parlor has a coffee shop and a small restaurant too. However, the noise in the inside of a parlor is extremely large. So, there is a player who has the earplug.