Video filmed, reported and produced by Tyler Sipe and Jun Stinson for The Washington Post

Okinawans were promised by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama that Japan would remove an American Marine base from their island. After reversing stance and deciding against removing the military base on Okinawa, the public hit the streets to express their rage. His betrayal split his ruling coalition and helped trigger his resignation.

Part of a larger video project that can be viewed here.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/studio-ghibli-to-make-games/

Published in nytimes.com

TOKYO – Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio that wowed American filmgoers with “My Neighbor Totoro” and the Oscar-winning “Spirited Away,” plans to bring its quirky sensibility and style to video games.

Ghibli’s “Ninokuni,” a joint project with the game developer Level-5 of Professor Layton fame, will have its debut on the Nintendo DS handheld console in December and on Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine next year.

Industry insiders predict it will be a hit in Japan, where Ghibli’s “Spirited Away” still reigns as the country’s biggest grossing film of all time. The film won an American Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002.

But the game franchise will need a strong distributor to be viable in the United States, said Ryan Winterhalter, a writer for 1up.com, a gamer site. Once dominant, Japan’s game-making industry has slumped in recent years, losing market share to American rivals like Electronic Arts, which makes the Madden Football game.

Level-5 hopes to change that with the help of some classic Ghibli storytelling. Ninokuni stars a child character named Oliver, illustrated in the dreamy, quasi-historical style of Ghibli animation films.

The game comes with a 352-page book of magic spells that players use to help Oliver cast against enemies on a mission to bring his dead mother back to life.

Level-5’s president, Akihiro Hino, said Ninokuni was designed to appeal to a wide age range, a feature of many Ghibli anime films.

The game, including the magic book, will sell for about $75 in Japan.

Nihonmachi: Exploring California’s Japantowns

In 1940 there were 43 Japantowns across California. Dozens more dotted the west coast. But overnight, many of these Japanese-American communities disappeared. Their citizens were sent to internment camps in remote places throughout the American west.

Today, only three Japantowns remain in the entire country. They are in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose.

San Jose Japantown, Jackson Street Corridor:

This project was published on the Wall Street Journal Web site.
Links to More NUMMI Information:
KQED has devoted a blog containing recent news about the pending NUMMI closure.
http://blogs.kqed.org/shiftinggears/category/nummi/
The official NUMMI Web site:
http://www.nummi.com/
U.C. Berkeley Professor Harley Shaiken’s Blue Ribbon study on the impact of the NUMMI plant closure.
http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/press/20100310_nummi.html

East Bay  African-Americans described the electric atmosphere days before the historic presidential election of Barack Obama.

By Tyler Sipe –

Lured by retailers, the shopping faithful waited in long lines on Thanksgiving and Black Friday in order to get their hand on heavily discounted hot ticket items. At the Target in Fremont, consumers were plentiful, but spendthrift, making officials cautiously optimistic about the holiday shopping season.

A line of about 300 shoppers snakes around the Fremont Target on Black Friday.

Jennifer and Jay Cruz were the first in line at Target, arriving at 2:30 am.

Electronics were the most popular items for Target customers on Black Friday.

By Tyler Sipe –
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) Tour Coordinator Sara Rogers provides tours for several hundred people a week at the 5.3 million square foot facility located in Fremont. NUMMI is a joint-venture plant between General Motors and Toyota. About 4800 employees produce three vehicles, including the Toyota Corolla, the Toyota Tacoma and GM’s Pontiac Vibe.

Sara Rogers has worked at Fremont New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. for the past 10 years.

Photos and Story by Tyler Sipe

The local thrift store industry typically says Christmas comes in October, when sales are buoyed by Halloween.

But area thrift stores have seen a mixed bag of tricks and treats as a result of the nation’s economic woes.

Two Fremont stores, locally owned Jack’s Army Navy Surplus and the national organization Society of St. Vincent De Paul, both said sales have declined compared to 2007.

Thrift Town employee Leah Bautista sorts and prices toys and books.

However, California based Thrift Town said sales have been strong, following a national trend among thrift retailers of brisk growth during a slumping economy.

Kim Peterson, manager of the Thrift Town in Fremont, said the number of walk-ins visiting the 12,740 square foot store increased by about 95 percent during the 4 pm to 8 pm hour during the third quarter of this year.

Out of the 15 Thrift Town stores, the Fremont location was recognized for having the largest sales growth during the second quarter ending in June. The store also reported sales growth in the third quarter of 9.3 percent from 2008 to 2007.

“We’re getting a lot of new faces,” Peterson said. “We’re seeing more diverse groups of people, not just those on a fixed budget.

“We’re seeing a lot of BMW’s, Mercedes’ and Lexus’ parked outside, too.”

Wendy Steinmetz, vice president of marketing, said the Roseville company had its fifth best weekly performance in its’ 37-year history from Oct. 12-18.

Steinmetz said the company, which has stores in four states, had third quarter growth of 3 percent from the same time last year. The four Thrift Town locations in the Bay Area performed even better, with sales climbing 8 percent during the third quarter compared to 2007.

“A lot of new people are checking us out with the bad economy,” Steinmetz said. “And we are hoping our Halloween customers and our new customers will see a lot of value and decide to do more Christmas shopping at Thrift Town.”

Thrift Town’s improved sales performance follows national trends.

The nation’s two largest charitable resale organizations, The Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries International, reported year-to-date sales increases of 6 percent to 15 percent, as cited by the Associated Press.

The AP also cited a national industry survey of 200 thrift stores, with nearly two-thirds reporting increased sales over last year. The average sales increase of the stores was about 35 percent.

However, Jack Luttiell, owner of Jack’s Army Navy Thrift Store in Fremont, said his thrift store business has been hit hard by the economy.

Luttiell said he blames the sales and customer decline on the high cost of gasoline.

“I make about $14,000 during October,” said Luttiell, who has owned the thrift store for 18 years. “This Halloween (season) I’ve made only a couple thousand dollars in sales.”

Katherine Miller, director of development and communications for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County, said the organizations four Bay Area stores have seen a decrease in business from the same time last year.

Miller said that in the past 15 years, St. Vincent de Paul has decreased the number of East Bay store locations from eight to four. She cited increased competition from new thrift store vendors and discount retailers like Wal-Mart and IKEA.

“We’ve realized that there is a lot of opportunity for us with the bad economy,” Miller said. “We’re focusing on new ways of increasing our revenue opportunities, including expanding the sale of electronic and technology devices.”

Miller said an additional challenge is the decrease in number of donations.

Thrift Town’s Steinmetz agreed, stating people are holding onto their belongings longer because of the economic downturn.

Washington High School English Teacher Ray Anderson said he shops at Thrift Town five days a week, picking through the racks finding rare and vintage items to sell on the online auction site E-Bay.

Anderson said he’s been an avid thrift store shopper for the past six years, but in the past three months, the quality and quantity of goods has been harder to find.

Washington High School teacher Ray Anderson shops at Thrift Town five days a week, looking for items to sell on the auction Web site E-Bay.

As a result, he has cut his spending at Thrift Town from $100 a week to about $50 a week.

“Today, everybody and their grandmother seems to be shopping at thrift stores,” Anderson said. “It’s much more difficult these days. You’ve got to hop on it.”

Oakland resident Marc Anthony, 43, who was shopping at Thrift Town for dress clothes, said he began thrift store shopping over the summer after his employer cut his full time job to 20 hours a week.

“I have to dress like I have money,” said Anthony, who works as a retail sales manager. “But I have two homes, can’t pay my car insurance or car tickets and am having trouble putting food on the table for my wife and two kids.

“So the thrift store is the best bang for my buck.”