South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker won gold at the Olympics in Tokyo on Friday, setting the tone for Uganda and Ethiopia following on the leader board. With more events still to unfold, there is still room for strong showings.



South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker brought home the continent’s first gold medal on Friday, in the process smashing the world record for the women’s 200m breaststroke, with a finishing time of 2:18.95.



The 24-year old became the first female South African swimmer to win gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in a quarter of a century, delivering a supreme performance to finish ahead of America’s Lilly King and Annie Lazor. Emotional at her victory, Schoenmaker was still in the water when she saw the scoreboards indicate she had set a new world record, and shrieked with delight before being congratulated by her rivals, and earning her second medal for the games so far after having won the silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke earlier in the week. Schoenmaker received a surprise congratulatory phone call from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday after her victory. Given the tumultuous few weeks the country has seen, the president had some supportive and unifying words for the swimmer, who was strongly celebrated back home.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="736" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GettyImages-1331501475-1024x736.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52007" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GettyImages-1331501475-1024x736.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GettyImages-1331501475-300x216.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GettyImages-1331501475-768x552.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GettyImages-1331501475-1536x1104.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GettyImages-1331501475-2048x1472.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>TOKYO, JAPAN &#8211; JULY 30: Gold Medalist Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa during the medal ceremony of the 200m Breaststroke final on day seven of the swimming competition of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 30, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



 “You have lifted the country,” said Ramaphosa in a recording of the clip released by the Presidency, “Thank you so much. It was just unbelievable. You have done this for the country and for yourself and we honour you &#8230; we are really delighted to have seen this unbelievable performance.&#8221; South Africa leads the continent’s medals at the games so far, which has seen Ethiopia’s Selemon Berega win gold for the men’s 10,000m, and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei set world records in three different events at the games so far. South Africa currently stands at one gold and two silver medals, Uganda with one silver and one bronze, and Ethiopia with one gold. With many of the athletics events still to come, there is still plenty of room for the teams to bring more success and glory to their countries.

Swimming – Olympics: Day 7

Making A Splash And More Glory

TOPLINE The organizers of the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday announced that it will ban the sale of alcohol at venues and stringent rules that spectators attending the games will have to follow as Tokyo enters its final month of preparation before the games begin on July 23.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the Tokyo games’ organizing committee, told reporters that the organizers have decided to ban the sale of alcohol at games venues following “experts’ advice” and added that event sponsor Asahi Breweries agreed with the decision.



<a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/06/23/national/tokyo-olympics-alcohol-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to</a>&nbsp;Japan Times, the games’ organizers had been considering a plan to allow the sale of alcohol with some restrictions but the initial plan provoked public outcry in the country.



Spectators coming to venues will be required to wear masks and face temperature checks—attendees who display high temperature or any other Covid symptoms will not be allowed to enter and received no refunds.



Because of Japan’s summer heat, spectators will be allowed to remove their masks at outdoor venues if they can ensure there is a two-meter gap between them and other spectators, Kyodo News&nbsp;<a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/06/3b3748b7440a-tokyo-marks-1-month-until-pandemic-hit-olympics.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



Inside the venue, spectators are barred from making direct contact with others, cheering loudly, giving high-fives, towel-waving or asking for autographs from athletes.



All attendees will be asked to retain their ticket stubs or ticketing data for at least two weeks after they attend an event as the organizers plan to post the seat number and date of attendance of any attendee who tests positive after the event.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



“The festive mood will have to be suppressed—that has become a major challenge,” Hashimoto told reporters&nbsp;<a href="https://sports.ndtv.com/olympics-2020/no-booze-no-autographs-tokyo-2020-unveils-fan-rules-with-a-month-to-go-2470267" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;AFP. “People can feel joy in their hearts, but they can&#8217;t be loud, and they have to avoid crowds. Those are the areas where we need to be creative, and we are putting in a lot of effort to come up with a new way of celebrating.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike did not make a public appearance on Wednesday as she has taken a break from official duties and is resting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/tokyo-governor-koike-taking-break-this-week-due-fatigue-nhk-2021-06-22/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">due to severe fatigue</a>. Citing sources Kyodo News reported she was admitted to hospital in the capital on Tuesday.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



After weeks of speculation, the organizers Monday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/06/21/domestic-spectators-can-attend-tokyo-olympics-attendance-to-be-capped-at-10000/?sh=2b784d306950">announced</a>&nbsp;that domestic fans will be allowed to attend events at the Tokyo Olympics, but venues will have a spectator limit of 10,000 or up to 50% of capacity to minimize the risk of spreading Covid-19. The decision came as Tokyo and several other Japanese regions exited their Covid state of emergency. However, the Japanese capital is expected to remain under a quasi-emergency state until July 11. The cap on attendance at the Olympic events mirrors the rules laid out by the Japanese government for all other large events like music concerts and local sports—although the serving of alcohol is allowed at these other events. Following the announcement, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide told reporters that if a new state of emergency is declared during the games due to the pandemic, the event may then have to take place behind closed doors. Suga’s sentiment was echoed by Koike, who said the organizers will revisit the decision and consider going forward without any spectators should there be a “major dramatic change in the infection situation.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tokyo-2020-tokyo-olympics-olympic-games-coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-b0c7951989b4b0b61ddde7f8ec9c8429" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tokyo shapes up to be No-Fun Olympics with many rules, tests</a>&nbsp;(Associated Press)



<a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/06/23/national/tokyo-olympics-alcohol-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tokyo Games organizers backtrack, banning alcohol at Olympic venues</a>&nbsp;(Japan Times)



<a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/06/e6ab72f27ed6-feature-tokyo-olympic-chief-pins-hopes-on-smooth-opening-in-1-months-time.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tokyo Olympic chief pins hopes on smooth opening in 1 month&#8217;s time</a> (Kyodo News)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Venue Tour

No Alcohol, No Autographs, No Cheers: Tokyo Olympics Organizers Unveil Rules For Spectators

Every time she visits, the Princess of Africa is blown away by the love, respect and order she finds in Japan. 

FORBES AFRICA meets singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and humanitarian Yvonne Chaka Chaka, fondly called the ‘Princess of Africa’, in her home office in the wealthy suburb of Bryanston in the north of Johannesburg in South Africa.
Framed pictures of her travels and accolades as a musician and humanitarian adorn the walls.
On her desk are a stack of magazines, some of them in Japanese.
One of the covers has Chaka Chaka posing with a mic in one hand, the other held out.
The cover line reads: ‘We love Japan. Hold my hand and we will walk together’.
<blockquote>“I love the Japanese so much and they really love me back,” says Chaka Chaka glancing at the magazine. And she has traveled to Japan too many times to count.</blockquote>
But nothing beats the first time she visited the country.
Ten years ago, she was invited to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).
Traveling from the City of Gold, Johannesburg, to high-tech Tokyo, she could immediately tell she had entered brand-new territory.
The language, the food, the cultures were so different.
“Japan is just too nice. There are so many people but it is so clean,” says Chaka Chaka.
“I remember my first time when one of the organizations that we worked with, wanted me to go to a place called Kamaishi, where there was an earthquake and I agreed and said that’s fine,” she says.
Little did she know it was going to be a trip she would never forget. She traveled with her humanitarian advisor.
“They said we were going on a train. Ah I was so angry. I said, ‘what! I don’t get in a train’.”
Chaka Chaka prefers road travel but she nevertheless obliged.
“So we got to the station and I saw people with suitcases and I don’t like carrying suitcases. So we did and we got onto the platform and it’s just packed and packed.
“The station there is like the airport, it’s massive but with more people on the trains. It’s like hundreds of platforms and ‘I’m like, I don’t want to be here’.”
They were about to board the Shinkansen, Japan’s high-speed railway, which is a bullet train. 
To her surprise, it exceeded her expectations.
“We got into the train and the order!” she now exclaims.
“There’s so much order it hurts.”
“When the train comes, it stops right here and people queue, there’s no chaos.”
Chaka Chaka watched in awe as everyone waited in a line.
“Arigato gozaimasu [thank you],” she hears some of the staff say to the passengers and bow in respect.
“You know that bending, it shows the love and respect. Everything is just respect, order, cleanliness and meticulous. The Japanese are so meticulous and there’s a lot that we can learn,” says the singer.
During her trip, she also visited Kumamoto which is a city on the Japanese island of Kyushu. They were just recovering from heavy rainfall that had caused floods and landslides.

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“Families were staying in makeshift houses and parents brought their kids to a place where I was talking. And it was so amazing. These kids were like three-year-olds and four-year-olds and they would leave their shoes and you would see hundreds of shoes packed nicely,” she says.
“They are taught from such a young age… and they don’t take what’s not theirs.”
“I had the chance to sit with the advisor of the prime minister and I was asking them, ‘how do you get things so much in order?’ And they said, ‘you know, we teach kids from school. When children finish at school they clean the classes’.”
The famous African was also impressed by the recycling bins available throughout the towns, a bin for every kind of waste.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/travel/2018/09/28/executive-travel-wajes-south-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Executive Travel: Waje’s South Africa</a>
“That one is for paper, that one is for bottles and that one is for this… And I was feeling so bad because I had finished and I threw in a bottle of water in the wrong bin,” she recalls, laughing.
“There’s a lot we can learn from just loving ourselves, respecting ourselves, respecting time and respecting culture. The Japanese still abide by their culture, you know. I mean they wear their kimonos with love,” she says.
She also had the chance to wear her own kimono, which she enjoyed.
That first trip gave her so much insight she frequently visited Japan.
The one place she often visits is Kamaishi to support children affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that tore the city apart.
She has even been given the title of ambassador to Kamaishi City.
Her last visit in March was to Masaka, a central region in Japan, where she was with a Japanese NGO for children called Ashinaga. Her next trip will be in March next year and she is already looking forward to it.
As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Chaka Chaka has the opportunity to travel to numerous countries, but it’s clearly the land of the rising sun that has marked many a new dawn for the Princess of Africa.

Yvonne-Chaka-Chaka-2_KM

Executive Travel: Yvonne Chaka Chaka’s Japan

Nigerian automobile entrepreneur Cosmas Maduka is unassuming and soft-spoken. His hallmark is a ‘Jesus is Lord’ brooch that he wears and has over the years become synonymous with his style. Maduka is President and Chairman of Coscharis Group, franchise holders of over eight automobile brands and one of the largest distributors of spare car parts in Nigeria.
The company also has interests in real estate, banking, technology, medical equipment, petrochemicals, elevators and agriculture. On average, the company sells more than 400 cars per month with prices around N150 million ($420,000) for the top end of its luxury fleet, which includes Rolls-Royce, BMW, Jaguar, Range Rover and Ford.
But the man who also holds the number two position in the ICT market in Nigeria through his brand, Coscharis Technologies Limited, and its pool of partners which includes HP, Microsoft and Lenovo, had to overcome some extreme difficulties to become the success story he is today.
Maduka lost his father at the age of four and had to fend for himself and his family selling bean cake (a local delicacy) on the streets. By the time he was seven, he was already working as an apprentice and continued for seven years without pay with the shop floor he was trading on doubling as his bed at night.
Today, with those dark days firmly behind him and an estimated net worth of $500 million, Maduka spends most of his time on the road, or in the air, building new partnerships for his various entrepreneurial pursuits. We chatted with him as he waited in the business class lounge at Murtala Muhammed International airport in Lagos for a flight to Bangkok, about what it is like to travel the globe and how certain cultures resonate with him more than others.
Life in Nigeria seems to be a constant whirlwind for you and your family. Where is your favorite destination to get away?
My favorite getaway location is Japan and there are a number of reasons. I have learned a lot of things from the Japanese and I see them as an inspiration. I went to Japan for the first time in 1979 and I was so impressed by the culture and courtesy of the people. It was strange for me to witness, even at the tollgate, that men who collect money from passengers, on behalf of the government, bow to as many vehicles as they collect money from. It was a big surprise for me because this was not their personal money but the level of dedication was amazing. That courtesy is seen everywhere you go, from the airport to the restaurant and that embodies the type of person I am. From the early 80s, I used to go to Japan for business and even after that, I would spend some more time moving around to see more of the culture and their way of life influenced me as a person and Coscharis as well.
What is it about their culture that has influenced the way you run your business?
If the Japanese are not happy about their boss, they actually over-deliver instead of other places where most people will cut back on their output or even go on strike or protest. I have never heard that employees in Japan have gone on strike even when they are angry. They are efficient with time and they always keep to their promise; that is why in my organization, I always under-promise and over-deliver.
What is your favorite airline to travel on?
It used to be KLM in the early days but, in the last 10 years, I travel with Emirates.
What is your favorite city to stay in?
I am mostly in three cities in Japan – Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.
What is your favorite hotel?
I usually stay at the Hotel Plaza Osaka and Imperial Hotel Tokyo. I look for a decent and clean hotel. I want to stay in a place where there is no smoking and the staff is warm and pleasant. The cleanliness in Japan is also very impressive.
What are your favorite activities in Japan?
I usually go to Japan for work but I have also been there on holiday with the family and sometimes I combine the two. I go to work in the morning and during the evening we go out for dinner. If I am in Tokyo, I like to take a walk after dinner around the ‘emperor park’. The park is very large and beautiful and it is around the castle where the emperor lived. I also visited Disneyland Tokyo with the family during one vacation and have also seen the famous Mt. Fuji which is an active volcano, as well as other rural areas. I have been to Kyoto where there is a lot of beautiful scenery and mountain areas to explore. I like to go during the springtime when you see the beautiful cherry blossoms. It is a really amazing sight and many people travel all over the world to watch this spectacle.
How much do you spend on your travels?
Japan is quite expensive. First class tickets to Tokyo are on average about $6,000. The country has efficient train systems, both the local and express trains, which can help you save some money on your travel. You will hardly find a hotel for $100; so on average you are looking at $200 a night unless you want to go very far out of the city. Depending on where you eat, the prices also vary. Most five-star hotels are averaging about $80 to $100.
What is your biggest takeaway from the Japanese culture?
I will be honest and admit that there is no way I will have my success story without the Japanese. Meeting the Japanese transformed my way of thinking. I started setting up my office model the way I see them set up their office model. I drew inspiration from them in many aspects of my business. I learned integrity from them. It is a way of living for them. Respect for time is paramount. If a Japanese man gives you an appointment for 10AM, by 9.30AM, he is in a restaurant next door to your office. They don’t come 15 minutes before or 10 minutes after. Once it is 10AM, they knock on your door. If he comes two minutes late, he apologizes for almost 10 minutes for being late because it is simply not accepted in the culture. They helped me learn the value of making a promise and keeping it and that has completely transformed the way I do business.
<h1>The Cost:</h1>
First-class air ticket from Lagos: $6,000
Hotel room per night: $200
Meal at a five-star hotel: From $80 to $100

Cosmas Maduka’s Japan

Across the globe, more nuclear power units are under construction today than at any other time in the last 25 years. This is happening despite the 2011 crisis in Japan at Fukushima. It is important to note the Fukushima crisis and resulting problems was not a result of a nuclear disaster, but rather a tsunami that laid waste to large parts of Japan and killed around 20,000 people.
At the start of 2015 there were 436 operating nuclear reactors across the globe. By year-end this had increased to 439, despite the closure of seven units during the year. The countries driving nuclear construction are largely in Asia, with China, at last count, building 30 new reactors to add to their fleet.
In South Africa, it’s clear that the government is intent on pressing ahead with a new nuclear build program. The Integrated Resource Plan calls for 9,600MW of nuclear power and this still seems to be the target for the new build. One reason seemingly being that since nuclear is an expensive and complicated industry; it would simply be more cost effective over the long term to invest in a fleet of reactors that can be supported by an underlying industry. If this should transpire, it will certainly lead to a boom in jobs across many sectors of industry.
The environment is another reason nuclear power is punted as an option for South Africa. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, countries reached an agreement to hold the average global temperature increases to less than 2 degrees Celsius, compared to preindustrial levels. The targets agreed upon will require significant reductions in the global greenhouse gas emissions and one of the major areas targeted for reduction of carbon dioxide outputs would be energy generation. The bulk of the globe’s electricity is still generated by fossil fuels, with nuclear power supplying roughly 10% of global electricity. The use of nuclear power is recognized as being a means to achieve climate change targets.
Another serious question around South Africa’s energy future is the planned decommissioning of old power plants. By 2030, Eskom, by law, must close down 14,800MW of existing capacity, while Eskom’s new mega build projects will only add 10,932MW over the same period. These older plants are currently supplying a large part of South Africa’s baseload electricity. The country can ill afford to lose such a big part of its capacity and there is still no clear plan as to what will replace this baseload capacity. The role of renewables is limited; the availability of power output from renewable energy is still not comparable to that of fossil fuel or nuclear plants. Add into the mix the environmental considerations and there is only one option to replace old baseload with new baseload – nuclear.
The major constraint to a new nuclear build in South Africa is funding. Accurate estimates of what a 9,600MW fleet could cost are largely unavailable; they range between $45.4 billion and $68 billion. The only thing we know for sure is that is going to be very expensive. There are other concerns over safety, waste and the ability to run a corruption free and timeous build process.
However, there are also some benefits. The country cannot ignore the environmental issues and the need for a reliable baseload power system that can allow the economy to grow. The South African economy may be moving away from mining but there is no need to ignore the potential in the future of mining, as well as in added beneficiation. Reaching this potential would require a lot of electricity and of course, the more the economy grows, the greater the need for electricity.
Where will the first new plant be built? The Eastern Cape province still seems the most likely area. When will the first new reactor be built? The current economic downturn has given the country some breathing room and the pressure is off for now, but there can be little doubt that new construction could start within the next two years. Following that, the full fleet of 9,600MW could follow over the following 20 years. In addition, given government’s appetite for nuclear power, I would not be surprised if South Africa sees more than 9,600MW of nuclear power by 2050.
Is that a good thing? Time will tell.
&nbsp;
James-Brent Styan authored a book on the energy crisis called Blackout, The Eskom Crisis. It was published in 2015. He writes in his personal capacity.

The Good, Bad…  And expensive

Japan’s surprise last-minute defeat of the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup last year was glorious. South Africans were a bit put out but soon recovered, and that game is now legendary around the world for Japan’s courage, skill and daring.
In Japan, only 900,000 people watched the game live. That jumped to an astonishing 25 million for the team’s next match, and by the end of their pool games, a quarter of the country’s 126-million population had watched a game.
Now the island country prepares for a sterner test: hosting the World Cup in 2019.
“You ask what are my concerns?” the CEO of Japan Rugby 2019, Akira Shimazu responds over a cup of hot, green tea at his stadium office in Tokyo. “They are many.”
His gaze is direct as he ticks them off on his fingers.
“This is the first rugby cup in Asia. The first in a non-traditional rugby country.”
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“We were told by World Rugby that the England World Cup was record-breaking and ground-breaking (‘it broke the ground’ says the translator) and we must do better. But it is difficult for us to have the same style and do it the same way. We have a unique Japanese way to do things.”
“Then we are far away, very far away from England, Europe and South Africa. People must travel far.”
A shortish, squat man, built like a brick outhouse, Shimazu’s expression does not change much. But his eyes light up when I ask if he is optimistic. Sepp Blatter, I tell him, always maintained South Africa’s Football World Cup would be ‘the best ever’ despite many doubters.
“You know Invictus?” he asks. I nod. Everyone in Japan mentions the movie based on John Carlin’s book. The man responsible for the success of Japan’s Rugby World Cup says, “Our cup will be Invictus 2. Yes, Invictus 2!”
Shimazu is flanked by two of his lieutenants for the tournament. They don’t say much, it being the Japanese way to allow only the CEO to speak in a meeting until he invites them to contribute. All three are hugely optimistic, while aware of the many problems.
I am in Japan with two objectives: to see if Japan is ready and keen on rugby, and to see what problems tourists from Africa might face.
Tokyo’s brilliant new international stadium will not be ready on time because of cost overruns, so the final will be played in nearby Yokohama, about a 45-minute drive from Tokyo.
This is a city that’s keen on tourism, keen to host the Springboks, keen to host the media center, as they did for the Football World Cup in Tokyo.
Kozue Nakayama has a fancy title of Director General, Culture and Tourism Bureau, City of Yokahama. She assures me the city is taking the rugby very seriously.
“The final game will be at our Nissan Stadium. We are the city with the best relations with Africa,” she says proudly. “We will have to prepare all our signs in English, for the rugby and the 2020 Olympics the following year. And we have a program to teach all our taxi drivers to speak English by 2019.”
Her English is excellent. Seems ambitious to teach all the taxi drivers, but this is a city that decided all schools in its precinct must study at least one African country.
So what is like for visitors to Japan from Africa?
This is the third-biggest economy in the world, a first-world country where things work, where stuff is expensive, where a language barrier exists and where food is different.
It is also the most polite society on the planet, people are incredibly helpful, trains run on time, and nobody dreams of answering a cellphone on the train as it may disturb others.
I ask young South Africans studying for Master’s degrees, courtesy of the Japanese government, to tell me of their difficulties and experiences.
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“This place has the most amazing food,” says Patrick Leslie, doing a Master’s in Business Economics. “Appointments to companies here are lifelong commitments, by both sides. The whole culture is based on trust. And on ‘how can we help each other?’ which is great to experience.”
“You certainly don’t need a car, just hop in a taxi or bus or train, it will take you home. And it is always safe.”
Randall Reddy, studying a Master’s in Civil Engineering (Mechatronic train dynamic systems) at the University of Tokyo to go with his Master’s in Mechanical Material Sciences, says Japan is all about networking.
“They use resources well, don’t waste them. It is not about fast cars, it is about living well.
And the food is fantastic – I have put on five kilograms. You don’t have to give up red meat, there’s a lot of it. You end up with a great variety of food. Nor does it have to be expensive.”
Leslie chips in: “More restaurants now have English menus, and by the rugby in 2019 and the Olympics in 2020 they will all have.”
So what should I tell people at home?
“Tell them come see the Boks take the World Cup back&#8230; Tokyo no longer makes the top 10 most expensive cities. It’s not cheap, but not too bad. Japan has not had inflation for 20 years. You can find bargains everywhere. And no tipping.”
Sushi in Japan is a very different experience from sushi outside the country, yet the essence is the same. At a restaurant the chef will talk to you about the fish he serves you, one piece at a time. He chooses it, you do not, he puts on wasabi and soy, you do not – only the Americans ask for extra wasabi, one chef tells me conspiratorially. And once that happens, the chef will stop chatting to them.
At a very small (8 seats) restaurant in the earthquake area of Ishinomaki, where the tsunami took away his original restaurant, I ask the chef if he knows about rugby.
“Yes,” he says seriously. Then looks at me, and adds: “We beat you!” with a roar of laughter.
To give you a small taste of the exaggerated Japanese politeness you encounter everywhere, all the time, my guide on the Shinkansen train, traversing Japan at about 300km/h, explains to me in a normal voice in the First Class compartment how to eat eels.
The train manager came next to us, then, to my surprise, knelt on both of his knees in the corridor next to our seats, as if to royalty.
A man of about 45, he apologized profusely, bowed deeply while kneeling until his head almost touched the floor, then lifted his arms and placed one hand over the other in a T-shape. The horizontal top hand then pushed the vertical bottom hand down a little, then a little more.
This was his way of asking us to be a bit quieter, as we may disturb passengers by talking instead of whispering. Profuse apologies for asking us to be quiet. Extraordinary.
In a hotel lobby, if you ask for anything, the person will often run to get it. Run, not walk.
Of course cheap hotels are a bit different. You can get a four-sleeper for about 10,000 yen ($90) in Tokyo, but beds are right up against each other, really four duvets on a floor with a communal shower. But neat, tidy, clean.
So will Africans flock to Japan to support Kenya or South Africa or Namibia? Should they?
The first answer is hopefully they will, and the second a resounding “Yes!”
The 2019 World Cup may be the next Invictus and it may not be. Whatever happens, Japan is ready.

Will African Fans Flood Japan?

She ships out hundreds of jackets every year from Sweden to Japan. Yet, Taran Tarr, unbelievably,  has chosen to run an international cosplay clothing company from her home in a remote mining town 80 kilometers west of Johannesburg.
“I live in Carletonville in the middle of nowhere. When my friends come here they say they have gone into the twilight zone. The town looks like it is set 20 years into the past. I had to ask how I could promote my stuff.  I had to figure out how to promote myself without having to go to Johannesburg constantly,” says Tarr.
Number 5 Beryl Street is a small house. With a rusty gate and low concrete walls, this is the headquarters of BlakBunni cosplay. When Tarr opens the door you would be shocked. Her living room is more mountains of material and sewing machines than lounge and TV. Here, Tarr, along with three ladies including her mother, make character hoodies and cosplay outfits.
In this front-room factory, everywhere is a busy needle. Tarr’s most popular item is her Toothless hoodie, based on the Dragon from How To Train Your Dragon that sells for $150 on Etsy.com.
“It’s like my bread and butter; I make about five or six a month.”
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After school, the 28-year-old Tarr chased a career many in a town of miners and engineers could never dream of – a fashion designer.
“I tried to get a job as a fashion designer, but apparently, I was not contemporary enough for the industry… It had to work. I had to make it work, because I couldn’t find a job anywhere else,” she says.
Tarr tried her hand at modeling before she moved back home to sew Matric dance dresses and the occasional cosplay outfit. She took a risk and asked her friends at a comic book store, based in Johannesburg, if they could put her hoodies on their shelves.
“That’s kind of where it started. It was just me sewing at the time and it was really tough to meet demand. Back then I could only do two hoodies a week.”
Getting the business off the ground in Carletonville took time, says Tarr. She went in with what she calls a bad business partner and struggled to make more than R1,000 ($80) a month. Social media changed everything.
“I struggled to find inspiration for two years, I didn’t want to do anything. So I got rid of the bad people around me and I started learning how to promote my stuff on social media. Things then exploded. I started getting tons of commissions, I started making more hoodies. I could employ the ladies. In two years, I have grown so much. I am now making R10,000 ($800) a month,” says Tarr.
Because 80% of the outfits Tarr makes sell overseas, sizes are a problem.
“It took a long time for me to learn to make things for people you never see. It’s pretty blind. So I usually ask for photos of the people in tight clothes and for the measurements online so that I have an idea of them. I build a 3D image of them in my mind.”
Orders on the BlakBunni book can be stranger than fiction. Tarr once had an order come in from New York for a full body leather suit for the opening of Persona 5.
“I usually don’t do body suits because they are so difficult. It wasn’t even a spandex one, it was leather. And I am never going to see this person.”
The cosplay business also has hard knocks.
“Last year I was in tears most days because the post office was on a solid six-month strike. The amount of people I had to refund because stuff got lost in the post was incredible. I am sure I lost R10,000 ($800) in refunds.”
Tarr has become more than the fashion designer she wanted to be. Her pieces might not be on the runways of Paris, but they will be carried on the backs of geeks from Japan to Mexico. It is stranger than fiction; you couldn’t have made it up.

Tag: Japan

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