Now Reports

Ten Years of Now

This month Fukuoka Now celebrates a decade of serving Fukuoka’s small (but growing!) foreign population. Flip the pages for a flashback of some of our favorites from the last ten years. And for even more memories dig into the full archives on our website.

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Hot off the presses!
Copies of the first issue started appearing all over town on Christmas Day 1998, hand-delivered by the editor himself. The issue was a single sheet folded into a pocket-sized mag with a map, restaurant and shop reports and an events calendar. The cover starred Stephanie, former editor of FN’s forerunner ‘Metro’, raising a glass in a yatai.

FN takes you to the ball park
The June ’99 cover stars were just beginning their rise to fame: Hawks heavy hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka was in his 2nd year with the then-Daiei Hawks when he appeared on our cover with gaijin player Rodney Pedraza, who went on to be the closing pitcher when the Hawks won in ’99. Our “Bleacher Creature” event took 50 gaijin to a ball game.

FN makes room for a few friends
October saw the magazine’s first major structural change, with another fold adding four pages. The extra space created room for Kyushu Headline News and a ‘Snapshot’ page of community photos, both continuous features of the magazine ever since. Access our website for our unique archive of hundreds of Kyushu area news stories in English.

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Steamy hot spring issue
You wouldn’t know it was February! Issue 14 saw our first (and only) fully nude cover, with a feature on onsen. The shot of three unabashed ladies from Canada caused some controversy. However, we maintain this sans-towel shot reflects proper Japanese bathing etiquette. Towels are not permitted in traditional baths – so go nekkid!

Figure of fun
2000 also saw the introduction of cartoon mascot Nao-chu by designer Shinichi Hagihara. “Chu” was chosen as a gender-less term of affection. Nao-chu would remain a fixture for the next few years.

New logo – new look
A design change in mid-2000 brought in the logo which has lasted to this day. The center swirl mark represents the constant motion in the city and in FN.

What’s with that?
The reader-favorite feature “Dodesho”, (lit. “What’s with that?”) began its long and tempestuous history. Now a talento in Tokyo, Cyril Coppini wrote the first article celebrating Japan as a smoker’s paradise. “Tres bon, so cheap!” The following month, Chris Flynn fired back a rebuttal attacking Japan Tobacco and the government’s complacency on smoking. Rants Roll Out…

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Guess the gaijin!
A favorite cover from 2001 challenged readers to spot the “undercover gaijin” from a lineup of ladies. The feature highlighted the difficulties faced by foreigners living in Japan who happen to look Japanese. Most people couldn’t guess right: which do you think was the phony Nipponjin?

Gaijin guys!

The ‘Dodesho’ column played host to a battle of the sexes this year: uncompromising American Betsy wrote a controversial piece on why Japanese women should be wary of Western men. Two gems: “When a man asks you to come home with him, he doesn’t mean to San Francisco!”. “If you think you can find Prince Charming by kissing a frog, be prepared to kiss a lot of frog butt”.

Japanese chicks!
The following month outrageous, loud and proud American Barrett Hottinger volleyed back with ‘Why we love Japanese women’. His words: “They listen to us, or at least pretend to”, “They expect men to be men, but accept us as boys”, “Their limited communications skills can be a blessing”. Barrett’s Stars-and-Stripes hat, cigar and boxer shorts were to feature regularly over the next couple of years.

Fukuoka calling
Editor Nick Szasz got the chance to interview his longtime hero Joe Strummer (the Clash), shown here when he was in Fukuoka just a year before his death. Fukuoka Now has had the honor to feature numerous other visiting stars over the years, including Ron Carter, Joey Ramone and Ben Harper, etc.

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Now in Color!
We were happy in the two-color format, but advertisers wanted pizazz! Once the switch was made there was no going back and it certainly made the covers more attractive. The center map became a three-page fold-out. This year our feature on the Football World Cup in Japan and South Korea was alongside a report on “Robocup 2002”, a robotic Soccer tournament held in the Fukuoka Dome.

Quit Your Blubbering!
Courting controversy once more, FN published an essay in defense of whale hunting contributed by Icelandic reader Snjolfur Richard Sverisson. He even included a few recipes! Not sure why he chose to dress like a Viking for the cover, but it seemed funny at the time.

Covering City Hall
FN engages with local politics, interviewing the candidates in the local mayoral election and focusing on issues including crime, Island City, and the proposed new airport. Yamasaki won, crime continued to rise, Island City is sinking in the red, and the new airport is still “proposed.”

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Fukuoka’s gay scene
Intrepid Northern Irish reporter Colin filed FN’s first guide to Fukuoka’s gay scene. The report included info on bars, shops, events and a page of information for “gayjin” ladies too. An update is planned for early 2009. Writer wanted – contact us!

Virgin’ on success?

Nick gets a handshake with Richard Branson, in town for the opening of Japan’s first Virgin Cinema. “I was hoping some fortune would rub off on me”, says Nick, “but the cinema folded after a couple of years, and we’re still here! What does that tell you?”

FN classifieds entertain
Much to the editors’ chagrin, the classified ads in the back of each issue became the talk of the town. Here are a couple of classics: (see above)

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Getting intimate
FN aimed for a ‘close encounter’ with local movers-or-shakers, so we published cover shots of our interviewees without makeup, jewelry or even clothing. The result was some of the most arresting images and revealing interviews yet. Pictured here are Ippudo’s Kawahara-san, model Hazuki, and a Luc Besson look-like. (Just joking, Jean Christian Bouvier!)

Pachinko Punters
A 2004 feature on ‘Pachinko Pro’ Tom Bazin proved popular. This month FN hosted an event where Tom taught a pachinko masterclass for twenty foreigners from half-a-dozen countries with tips on how to pick a winning machine, how to keep track of your wins and losses, and most importantly when to quit. Ohhhh, just one more hour, I promise…

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Fukuoka shaken but not rattled
2005 was a year of upheaval -literally- with an earthquake stunning Fukuoka in March. Rebuilding work was swift and business was soon back to normal: this year FN was able celebrate some of the oldest-preserved traditions of Japan with an interview with one of the city’s few remaining geisha.

“Foreigner of the month”
The ‘Gekkan Gaijin’ feature threw the spotlight on foreigners in the community. Each month we introduced a foreigner with a unique hobby or job, like Mexican “Yakult Lady” saleswoman Maria. Allowed into shops and offices to sell beverages, Maria said the chance to chat to her customers meant she couldn’t wish for a better job.

Proving that FN appeals to readers of all stripes, clowns included, performers from Cirque de Soleil took time out to browse through FN while they were in Fukuoka in Summer 2005.

Features Galore
FN’s avid writers worked hard in 2005, with reports on Fukuoka’s daredevil mountain bikers along with guides to Japanese tea, the city’s museums and art galleries, urban hot springs, Fukuoka’s spiciest eateries, and hottest of all Fukuoka’s “love hotels”!

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Bargain Hunting
New in 2006: Our “Yatta!” series introduced readers to some of Fukuoka’s hidden bargains. With the addition of the French section, FN became a six-language magazine. The summer special on Japanese ice cream was drippy but delicious, and our guide to golf on-the-cheap proved that playing golf in Japan does not require a second mortgage.

Community Care
After the ’05 earthquake FN had recognized the need for English language Emergency Procedure information in the community, and a four-page guide appeared in the May ’05 issue. In 2006 the World Health Organization’s AIDS Awareness day provided another opportunity for the magazine to serve the community directly with promotion and advice in connection with the annual event. FN had the chance to show its continued support with features in ’07 and ’08.

Get the Festival Lowdown
This year our series of six ‘Kyushu Guides’ showcased a different Kyushu festival each month, complete with parades, parties and paper-mâche giants. These reports, as with all back-issue material, can be found online at www.fukuoka-now.com. Let our festival experts do the legwork!

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Guitar Hero
Jake Shimabukuro at Momochi for another Summer beach special, with the Yahoo! Dome in the background. Through the years there have been a few constants in Fukuoka Now: another year, another gratuitous beach shot. Except this time our eye-candy was not only male but a talented international Ukelele performer.

Spare change?
The collapse of the nationwide Nova school saw thousands of gaijin English teachers out of work, with this glum cover model reflecting their mood. FN stepped in with a survival guide for its large teaching readership. Even in today’s healthy teaching market there will be many who remember times of doing conjugations for spare change.

Talk the talk
Our regular feature on Hakata-Ben gave readers the chance to pick up useful phrases of Hakata’s uniquely expressive local dialect. You wouldn’t find many of these in the classroom! We’ve included two of our favorites from dialect expert Referee, and one of the original illustrations by cartoonist Miho Kitada.

Shabai (pictured)
English: weak, Japanese: yowai. Generally used from one man to another, to describe him as ‘weak’, (mentally, not physically), as in “dude, that was so weak!”. Warning: not to be used with those bigger and stronger than you, unless they’re a friend.

Shiketo
English: pathetic, Japanese: taikutsu, tsumaranai. This one runs the gamut from expressing jokey frustration to extreme disappointment, and is appropriate for both men and women. When you hear a joke you wish you hadn’t heard, just smile and murmur “shiketo…”

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Going Strong
Our tenth year has seen Fukuoka Now go from strength to strength, and we’re not slowing down now! The upcoming Fukuoka Now Map will help us provide the same great service to Fukuoka’s short-term visitors. And with projects underway to expand the magazine’s presence online and in the city, our next decade is set to be as eventful as the first.

A Decade of Now
In one of our favorite cover shots, Ach asks “how many fingers?” We can’t count them, nor the hundreds of people who have helped us put together these 120 issues, but we do thank them, as we thank our readers however long they’ve been with us. Many Happy Returns!

Big Bashes
2008 has been the year of parties, the chic With The Style playing host to events under the FN banner which attracted attendees from all walks of the gaijin community. Check out photos from the latest events in the online galleries at fukuoka-now.com, and see if you can spot your friends!

Originally published in Fukuoka Now magazine (fn120, December, 2008)

 

 

Category
Others
Fukuoka City
Published: Dec 1, 2008 / Last Updated: Jun 13, 2017

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