Japan

Places I've been in Japan

2006-11-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

This map shows interesting places I've been and/or lived in Japan. They're not all in Tokyo, so be sure to zoom out too.

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Mikoshi in the Japantown Parade

2006-04-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Japantown to help carry the Mikoshi in the Sakura Matsuri parade. My friend Kiyomi and her family help to organize it every year, so she got a bunch of friends together to help carry it. A mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine that is used at festivals to give the god of the shrine a tour around the neighborhood. This is very common in Japan, and there are even places where they have dueling mikoshi, where they batter the neighboring shrines mikoshi into submission, or at least attempt to.

There were two mikoshi in this year’s parade, and we helped carry the large Taru Mikoshi, or barrel shrine. It's called that because the mikoshi is made up of a large pyramid of sake barrels on top of a wooden platform. There was definitely a sake theme to the event, with everyone wearing happi coats provided by sake companies, and plenty of drinking to go around.

We got there at 10 AM to get dressed in Happi coats and little white shorts. I chose the Japanese style, so I had to ask for help to figure out which way they went on. They then wound a big white cloth around my stomach for support. Apparently the Mikoshi is very heavy and you need it. For some reason they don't think to wind cloth around your shoulder, though, which is where everyone gets bruised and raw. We also wore little tabi shoes and sake company happi coats, which is ironic since I don't drink.

Just as we finished getting dressed, a group of about 50 pilots-in-training from JAL showed up. Apparently they have a training facility up in Napa where they spend 2 years learning how to fly. Who knew? I guess it's a pretty nice perk to be able to visit someplace like Napa Valley during your training. Anyway, they all got matching JAL happi coats. Since they were fresh off the boat, or plane, I guess, they were among the most enthusiastic participants, with innumerable cheers.

We hung around for a couple of hours and ate lunch before meeting up to carry the mikoshi. First, everyone warmed up with some sake, and then Japanese style calisthenics with much shout-counting in Japanese. We practiced lifting and shaking the mikoshi, which really is quite heavy. It's amazing no one ever drops it, but I guess that's why they had over 100 people to hold it. Of course, a lot of people dropped out as the march went on. They also didn't let really tall people carry it, because they would be crushed down to the height of normal people and get injured.

The whole parade is fairly long, but since the mikoshi is so heavy, we started out 4 blocks from the finish. We watched the whole parade go by and cheered everyone on. The mikoshi leaders kept running out into the parade to offer sake to those of age, and especially those of significantly more than sufficient age, each of whose drink was heartily cheered by the JAL contingent.

When the last of the parade had passed by, the mikoshi leaders stripped down to their fundoshi (the Japanese loincloths that Sumo players wear), climbed on top of the sake barrels, and we were underway. The leaders use a whistle to tell everyone when to raise, lower, and shake the mikoshi. Once we got the shrine moving and out onto the street I realized that the mikoshi was a lot heavier than we had thought. We bounced our way down the street until we reached the first intersection and put the mikoshi down on stands to rest.

You can see some pictures of the SF Taru Mikoshi at http://flickr.com/photos/tags/tarumikoshi/. In one of the ones from 2006 you can even see a tuft of my hair peeking out from behind the woman in the yellow happi coat.

One of the hardest parts about moving the mikoshi is that since everyone is packed in so tight holding it up, you have to step in unison otherwise everyone is stepping all over everyone else. I'm not sure if it was my fault or not, but my left tabi shoe got unfastened every single block.

I didn't see any of the crowd because I was too busy lifting and chanting "seiyo" (no idea what that means) to notice anything. Some of the other mikoshi people were filling pots with water and splashing them all over us. The march was a blur of water, shuffling feet, and the omnipresent crushing weight of the mikoshi on my shoulder. I folded up a small towel to cushion my shoulder (since my shoulder blades or something stick out like little vestigial horns), but it didn't really help. As I write this tonight my shoulder is still red and sore.

When we got down to the last block, which seemed like it took forever, we started spinning the mikoshi around and bouncing it up and down. It didn't seem like anyone had much energy left to bounce it around, especially since we shed carriers as we reached the end of the march.

After that, we set the mikoshi down at the end of the parade (4 blocks has never seemed that long!) and went to the hot springs to shower off, followed by bento and lot’s of drinking. Lot's of Japanese people living here in the US seemed to come out of the woodwork for this festival, including a large contingent from Sunnyvale, of all places. Several people commented that while the parade was very different from festivals in Japan, it was nice to see some of their crazy customs here in a foreign land.

4/25 Update: My shoulder is no longer red, but now it has turned a nice greenish yellow shade. Apparently I have an enormous bruise covering the entire top of my shoulder. It's huge.

4/28 Update: The greenish yellow has faded, and now I am only left with some rough skin where the mikoshi sat on my shoulder.

Japanese Music in SF

2006-03-31T22:31:00.000-08:00

I went to see a Japanese music show in SF last night. There were a bunch of bands from Tokyo there, although they are more accurately from Chiba (The Daly City of Tokyo). I missed some of the opening bands, but I managed to catch the last 3 (out of 5).

The first band was the Stance Punks (http://stancepunks.com/htdocs), who are actually somewhat famous since they wrote the theme song to Naruto (a famous anime). They were the spitting image of a punk show, and it was great. Enormous spiked hair, lead singer with a suit and skinny tie, and tons of energy. I don't think I've ever seen as much sweat fly off a person as when the singer shook his head. It looked like a waterfall, but going up instead of down. Simply amazing. They put on an awesome show, although I felt bad that we didn't greet them with a mosh-pit worthy of a good punk band. There were so many different kinds of bands in the show that I don't think there were enough people there interested in moshing. Oh well. I hope they didn't think too badly of us.

The next band was Pez (http://www.worldapart.co.jp/pez/eng), which was a 5 piece jazz group. They were a lot of fun, and their keyboardist was really getting into it with his dark glasses at night look.

The headliners, and the real reason everyone came to the show, was Tsushimamire (http://www.gakki.ne.jp/~mamire), a bouncy girl rock metal band. I'd actually seem them before, around the time last year when my friend Tomo came out and did a live painting in SF, and they are great. They are very happy and sincere Japanese girls, and they come out in their little dresses and look very very Japanese. And then they begin to rock. They have so much energy and they put on a great show. The crowds love them.

They play a mix of happy bounce rock, combined with the occasional death metal cookie monster vocals, with a smattering of ska thrown in for good measure. There are some mp3's on their site if you're interested in actually understanding what I'm talking about, instead of just nodding and pretending that you understood because it's easier than asking me to describe it better.

Since this was the second time I've heard them, I was finally able to understand some of the lyrics. Especially the ones with English parts! I still can't understand any Japanese hip-hop, though. I tried translating some Gagle, but it turned out to be super hard and full of weird words, kind of like the Beastie Boys, except more samurai.

Tsushimamire has some interesting lyrics, including a song about pickled plums, and one about a homeless man who listened to their first concert on the street. My favorite, though, is ochassuka, or Tea Time Ska, which alternates fluffy japanese with ska and the aforementioned cookie monster death metal growls. You really have to listen to appreciate it.

If you ever get a chance to see Tsushimamire, I highly highly recommend that you go. It's an experience not to be missed, along with such notorious San Francisco acts as Captured by Robots (android jazzercise s/m metal) and ArnoCorps (Schwarzenegger themed band - www.myspace.com/arnocorps). You won't be dissapointed!

Cool places in Tokyo

2006-03-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

http://saisyokukan.com : A super yummy vegetarian fake-meat restaurant run by a nice Taiwanese lady. They have great vegetarian "chicken" karaage. Ikebukuro 2-73-4

Cafe Eight : A great chinese fertility restaurant. Giant genitalia all over the walls. Plus they have a little shrine in the back with several golden penii. You pick the one that matches your shape and get a fortune from it. Nishi-Azabu 3-2-13, Court Annex 2F

Homeless

2006-02-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me yesterday if there are homeless people in Japan. Japan is widely seen as the land of the middle class, and although that perception is slowly changing within Japan, it is still basically valid. However, there are definitely homeless people in Japan, especially in Tokyo.

Homeless people in Japan act very different than in the States, however. As far as I know, there is no panhandling (at least, I've never been asked for change - although that could just be because people assume I don't speak Japanese). It may also be related to the fact that there is no tipping in Japan, as they are both things you do with your leftover change.

The other major difference is the cleanliness and presentability of the homeless. With most of the homeless in Japan, you often are hard-pressed to identify them as such. They are usually dressed in decent clothes and look like they are fairly in control of their lives (i.e. not completely strung out on drugs). While I don't have any hard data, I get the feeling that people in Japan are homeless for often quite different reasons than in the US. There is definitely a significant percentage of the homeless who were involved in Japan's business / manufacturing world, but for whatever reason, were not able to make it in that life. That is, some of the homeless were definitely former Salarymen who couldn't deal with the stresses of the job, rather than people who lost it because of drug or alcohol use. Given the strict penalties for drug use in Japan, I think it is less prevalent than here in the States.

Japanese homeless encampments are also completely different than in the states. The most common way to see the homeless in Japan is when they sleep at night in the downtown districts such as Shinjuku. Every night large numbers of homeless set up for the night outside businesses that have closed down. They lay down their bedding and surround it with cardboard boxes so that all you can see on the outside is an 8x2x2 foot cardboard box with nothing unsightly protruding from it. I will upload a picture later when I can figure out how to download it off my cell phone. This neatness may be part of the reason why shop owners don't complain about homeless people sleeping outside their business. I am sure that the Japanese homeless are also very conscientious about packing up and removing their belongings before the start of business the next day.

The other places where you often see homeless encampments are in public parks and alongside riverbanks by train lines. In these cases the homeless may not really be considered homeless, as they seem to live a more nomadic life. They construct tidy tents out of blue plastic tarps that are actually around the same size as many Japanese apartments. Some even have stoves and cell phones in their houses.

I haven't actually spoken with any of the Japanese homeless, but friends who have said that they seem completely normal, other than the fact that they live outside of traditional Japanese society. Given Japan's much stronger social system, it seems as if the traditional Japanese propriety extends out into the world of the homeless.

The song of the Yaki-imo man

2006-01-22T03:52:00.001-08:00

Tonight I heard the lilting song of the Yaki-imo driver as he steered his little truck with a wood-fired grill through the snow-lined alleys, so I ran outside for a toasty treat. Although his song reminds me of a haunting chinese melody, the lyrics consist solely of the emotional phrase "grilled sweet potato". As the wizened old man handed me the same wrapped in newspaper, I could barely make out the price he requested through his semi-toothy grin.

Mobile vendors in Japan often drive through back-alleys singing songs about such mundane topics as vegetables, recycling, and a kerosene truck whose song sounds suspiciously like a US ice cream truck. Even though it can be hard to make out the words, you can learn which tunes are used for a particular thing, as all the vendors for something will sing the same song.

Short Legs

2006-01-18T01:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ate lunch at a tiny Chinese style restaurant near where I live. It was one of those places with just a kitchen and a bar/counter with space for about 10 people. They have a little riser box underneath the counter to rest your feet on, and, would you believe it, the space between the box and the counter was so small I couldn't even get my legs in! I could kind of do it if I angled my legs to the side, put them in, and then twisted them upright, but that was with my heels sticking out and feeling like there was a piano on my thighs. I had to push my stool back so that I was sticking out into what little space there was behind me and bend forward to reach the counter. And I'm only 5'10"!

Question for the day: There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in Japan run by Japanese people, yet you don't really find Chinese restaurants in America (okay, in California) run by white people. Why is that?

Back To Japan

2006-01-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

Before I came back to Japan, people kept asking me if I was excited to be going back. Turns out I was too busy to be excited. In fact, by the time I stepped out of the airport, I still hadn't mentally prepared myself to be going to Japan. Kind of late, now that I think about it. I was pretty blase for a while before I finally turned the corner.

After having gotten setup in a guesthouse in Nakano, I was walking through a cramped alley crowded with tiny Japanese houses when I realized one of the things I really enjoy about Japan. Even though Nakano is inside Tokyo city limits, and only 20 minutes by train to my office, it still feels like a neighborhood. The main drag in Nakano is clustered with tiny family-owned restaurants and shops. In fact, the biggest grocery store is about half the size of a supermarket in the states. The narrow streets twist and turn through residential neighborhoods only to emerge at public transportation and convenient shops.

Of course, Japanese neighborhoods aren't all charm and atmosphere. The streets are (as mentioned above) cramped (but now as a negative) and the houses are tiny. During wintertime the lack of central heating and proper insulation, even in new houses, only serves to make you miserable for no good reason. The Japanese addressing system (what we would call street addresses) is complicated and un-intuitive. Since the streets have grown organically, street names are not used. Rather, a complicated system of wards, sections, and house numbers are used. Houses are numbered within a geographic area, such as a square block, although Japanese streets are rarely square, or blocks the same length.

Nonetheless, all this falls away in comparison to the suburbs and strip malls of America. While it may be inconvenient at times, it's really much more the kind of place you'd like to make a home. Friendly neighborhood grocers are a thing of the past in the states, and you'd certainly never hear the grilled sweet potato song being sung by trucks plying the neighborhood. In fact, even though there are no giant chain stores (only small chain stores), you can find most everything you need within walking distance. Although your local motorcycle repair shop might not have all the parts you need, it can certainly get them for you, and they more than make up for it in location.

The last place I lived in Japan was Azabu-juuban, which is foreigner central, as well as home to more embassies than you can shake a stick at (although the Ultra-Rightists certainly try). Every Saturday in Azabu was interrupted by propaganda trucks blaring their messages through enormous loudspeakers. Here in Nakano, all you hear are the gentle tap-tap of the fire wardens tapping two sticks together at night to remind people to be careful with fire.

Pounding Mochi

2005-12-30T03:07:00.000-08:00

One of the traditional New Year's activities in Japan is making and eating mochi. Most people in the city no longer make mochi themselves, but I had the opportunity to visit my friend Tomo's home in the mountains of Gifu, about an hours train ride from Nagoya. Tomo does live painting in Tokyo and I have one of his beautiful paintings in my apartment in SF.

After warnings that we would have to start work on the mochi very early in the morning, we finally got started around 10 am. Actually, Ojiichan (grandfather) was outside steaming the rice before anyone else got involved. They use a special kind of mochi rice and steam it in a wood fired steamer until it's soft.

Ojiichan steaming rice the old fashioned way.

After the rice is ready it's transferred to a large stone bowl for pounding. At this point it's just rice, so you can't really pound it. The first step is to mush it up using a giant wooden hammer. Then you can pound it slowly until it turns into a paste, taking care not to hit it too hard and spray rice everywhere.

Pounding mochi is a two-person operation. One person pounds the mochi with a giant wooden hammer and the other one wets and repositions the mochi between each stroke. Obviously this requires some careful timing and lots of semi-meaningful grunts are employed for communication (un, yosh(i), etc...).

Both jobs are fairly difficult to get right. Without the exact right amount of water, the mochi gets too wet or too dry to pound correctly. And, needless to say, without the right timing things could get rather ugly rather quickly.

Since the head of the hammer is very long (approximately a foot and a half) it's very easy to twist the head of the hammer, producing a weak hit. The technique used is somewhat different from what you might expect from using a sledgehammer or similar sized smashing tool. In order to get a good stroke, you raise the hammer overhead and then pull with the lower hand, rather than pushing with the top hand. Once you get the hang of it, it works very well, although it's still a lot of work.

Me pounding mochi with my friend Tomo in the background in the blue shirt.

Although making mochi is certainly a whole-family affair, the master of ceremonies was definitely Tomo's father. He was involved in every aspect of the process, from pounding to drying to eventually cutting the mochi into squares for later use. Where he really shined, however, was in the pounding.

Seemingly tireless, you could definitely tell the difference between when he was pounding and one of us foreigners or city-slicker Japanese were trying our hand at it. When struck correctly, the mochi makes a satisfying "pok" sound that is difficult to describe, other than that it is the sound of a very large wooden hammer smashing solidly into a very squishy mass of rice paste. Of course, if you knew what that sounded like, you'd most likely know what pounding mochi sounds like.

After pounding, the mochi is transferred indoors where it is layed out in large wooden boards for drying.

Tomo's parents taking the mochi indoors.

After drying, the mochi is cut up into 2x3 inch squares for later use. Of course, a large part of the reason for making mochi during New Years is to eat it during the holiday. In the middle of making mochi, we took a break and rolled balls of mochi in various toppings, such as red bean paste, sweet peanut powder, and daikon and ginger.

The next day we enjoyed hot soup with a big sticky mass of mochi at the bottom. On the following, we grilled mochi squares over a kerosene heater, dipped them in soy sauce, melted cheese on them, and wrapped them in nori (seaweed). I think this was my favorite mochi, although the peanut mochi was delicious as well.

In the states, frozen mochi with ice cream inside is quite popular, and the Dim Sum restaurants in San Francisco seem to have invented a new dish. They use the traditional Dim Sum egg custard mix, wrap it in mochi, and then pan-fry it. It's delicious. I can't decide if it's better than the agedashi mochi (lightly breaded mochi with a sublte soy dipping sauce) that we often get after Japanese class at Tanpopo in Japan town.

However, mochi is not all fun and games. It's quite serious business in Japan. In fact, since it's sooo sticky some of the more aged indulgents wind up choking on it every year. Apparently the solution, however unpleasant, is to use a vacuum cleaner.

It's also a lot of work, even though there were 3 generations of Saitos there as well as 3 gaijin and another 4 or 5 Japanese friends. When it was all said and done, Tomo admitted that he had invited lots of friends over for New Year's at his house partially so that there wouldn't be quite as much work making mochi. I didn't mind, though. It was very nice to experience a more traditional way of life than I'm used to.

Harajuku Style

2005-08-19T00:38:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about Japan is the youth culture. There's a famous area in Tokyo called Harajuku where the crazy fashion kids hang out. They really go all out with whatever they're doing, whether its recycled clothing, vampire, or Elegant Goth Lolita (a very common one). A lot of high school students come in from the suburbs on the weekends and hang out in Harajuku on the bridge next to Yoyogi park. If you've seen any photos of these kinds of people, odds are they were on that bridge.

The kids in this photo have done themselves up in crazy patchwork kimonos. When I first took this photo I thought I had messed it up because it was blurry. I didn't think any of the kids even noticed me, but one of them had his Japan Photo Radar on. I swear it's impossible to take a photo of Japanese youngsters without them flashing a little peace sign. These kids are actually in Shinjuku, though.

Culture Shock

2005-07-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm experiencing a lot of culture shock after moving back from Japan. Surprisingly, the answer is no. I definitely experienced culture shock after moving back from China, but I don't seem to have any problems coming home from Japan.

I came straight back to work in the States, although I did wait almost 20 hours after getting off the plane. I think doing the exact same work in both Japan and the States certainly helped with cuture shock, as did having a large group of friends to come back to. I also went right back into Japanese class at Soko Gakuen, a small non-profit Japanese language school near Japantown, which, I'm sure, helps with the biggest difference between Japan and America: the language.

I really miss speaking Japanese all the time. I enjoy learning foreign languages and living in Japan was a great chance to immerse myself in another culture and language. Japanese is so different from English, and it was actually a lot of fun to be polite for a change. I've gotten to the point where I can converse with people in Japanese with a fairly normal conversation flow, which is a far cry from where I was when I arrived in Tokyo.

Coming back, and still attuned to the rhythms of Tokyo, I realize that there are a lot more Japanese people in San Francisco than I had thought. I always thought they were pushed out by all the Chinese and moved down South towards Palo Alto, but they're still here. There are also a lot of students from Japan, which is great for practicing my Japanese and learning more about the culture.

I met a lot of great people in Tokyo, and I miss them as well. Tokyo's a really vibrant city and it's chock full of interesting people pursuing what they love. Whether it be live painting or motorcycle stunting, everyone is very friendly and open. It's a great city, and I would like to live there for real someday, without a set departure date. I will most likely go back for a couple of months this winter just to visit, and then hopefully again at some point in the future.

I highly recomend living abroad to everyone who hasn't done it yet. It really opens your eyes to how different the world is and is a great way to expand your horizons. There's nothing like the challenge of everyday life in another country, and the little joys of mastering some interaction or discovering something new and exciting about your host culture. I really thrive on learning, especially on learning about a new culture, and I definitely see myself living abroad again.

And no, I don't know where, and I don't know what language I'll study next once I master Japanese (hah!), or more likely get comfortable enough with it to want a new challenge.

A Japanese Wedding

2005-06-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a Japanese style wedding. The ceremony was held at a Shinto shrine in downtown Tokyo and was, to say the least, very different from your standard Western wedding. The bride, Cassidy, and groom, Mitsu, were dressed in traditional outfits, with the groom wearing a dark colored traditional male kimono similar to what the Samurai used to wear, and the bride wearing a very formal black kimono with red flowers on it. Her kimono was so intricate that throughout the entire wedding she had someone by her side to properly arrange the various folds of cloth, especially when she needed to walk.

The ceremony began with two female shrine attendants (acolytes?) leading the bride, groom, and family members into the shrine accompanied by the deep bass of the main temple drum. I believe that normally family members only are allowed to witness the ceremony, but since the bride was Canadian American we were allowed to sit in the lower level of the shrine and watch from a distance. The priest began by purifying the participants by waving a wand with jagged paper strips tied to it over their heads. Then they were led into the inner sanctum of the shrine and seated in two rows with the bride and groom between them. Each time the bride had to stand or sit, one of the shrine assistants helped arrange the folds of her kimono so that she could actually walk or sit.

The ceremony was accompanied by musicians playing traditional Japanese instruments, including the shamisen, a long three stringed instrument that is very representative of Japan. There were many rounds of standing and bowing by all involved, some sort of blessing with tree branches, and then finally ceremonial rounds of tea or sake for the family.

After the ceremony, the family was led to the shrine's attached photo studio (I believe they may have done this before) for formal posed photographs. After a while, the guests were invited in as well for a group photograph. The amount of choreographing necessary for this photo was amazing. Just when we thought it was time for a photograph, the photographer's assistant kept coming up and adjusting the shoes of the family members. After some minor shuffling of the guests in back and one collar adjustment, we were ready to have the assistant come up several times to make sure the bride had her hands, feet, torso, and face in proper alignment, not to mention the folds of the kimono. After this, they hustled the bride and groom out into the temple grounds for some posed photographs.

The whole photography affair was quite regimented, and they wouldn't allow time for guests to take photos, or for the bride and groom to take photos with their friends. Apparently this is actually quite common in Japan, as the wedding planners and associated riff-raff have very set ideas of what a wedding should be, and are quite unable to deviate from those ideas. Obviously, this is quite the opposite of what happens in America, where the bride's and/or mother-in-law's every wish is catered to. Cassidy actually had to fight long and hard for several things that she thought were important in her wedding, such as the photos with friends. In fact, she only won this battle by refusing to move on to the next photograph until she had had time to pose with her friends.

A similar battle apparently occurred over the wedding cake. The reception was held at a Wedding Village, and they were insistent that each guest should be served an individual cake, rather than having the cake cut and served at the event. Apparently Cassidy really dug in her heels for this one, but once the staff agreed to cake cutting ceremony, they went all out. The MC ushered all the guests outside where he explained the unusual proceedings in Japanese for those not familiar with the cake cutting. Then, when the bride and groom were ready, the event coordinator cued the cheesy 80's music and waved his white napkin in front of the couple as if it were the start of a 50's drag race. They cut the cake, he whisked the knife away from them and provided them with spoons, and then explained the feeding each other ritual. The actual serving of the cake was quite as amazing, with the server cutting and plating the cake with all the flair and flourish of a Benihana chef. Well, she never actually flipped a piece of cake into the air and caught it in her hat, but the overall effect was quite similar.

The rest of the reception was similarly orchestrated and polished, from the synchronized popping of champagne bottles for the first toast, to the smooth transitions between the numerous speeches and artistic performances (the happy couple apparently have quite a few talented friends). The first speeches were from the bride and groom's immediate superiors at work, and the English speeches were quite interesting. I have the distinct feeling that the Japanese speeches had an entirely different tone. Cassidy's principal at the school where she teaches expressed his undying love for her and wished that he could be 10 years younger so that he could compete with Mitsu for the love of a beautiful Western woman. The foreign crowd was in stitches, but I'm not sure the Japanese people understood exactly what was going on. One of the groom's friend's speeches fit into the typical mold of Western wedding speeches about embarrassing drunken shenanigans. He went on for around 5 minutes in English about Mitsu's apparently frequent tendency to get drunk and fall asleep on the toilet in a bar, but his Japanese speech was quite different, taking about 30 seconds, and merely stating that he had met Mitsu in Australia and practiced English with Cassidy.

The rest of the reception was an amazing mix of Japanese and foreign culture, with performances of traditional Japanese dance, the didgeridoo, and a medley of songs from a quite accomplished American singer who had toured Europe. It really was a beautiful wedding, and everyone was crying at the end. I'm sure that Cassidy and Mitsu can look forward to a long and happy life together.

Fry it yourself!

2005-06-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

Of course, when Japanese people don't eat healthy, they really don't eat healthy. I went to an all-you-can-fry restaurant last night. There's basically a big buffet bar of meat and veggies on sticks which you take back to your table, dip in batter, bread, and deep fry at your own personal deep fryer set in the middle of your table. In case that's not enough food for you, there's also salad, fried rice, dim sum, curry, and oden (stuff in hot soup), as well as ice cream, deserts, and Hawaiian shave ice.

Frying yourself is such a blast. They even have do-it-yourself mochi (pounded sticky rice flour) donuts that you can make at your table. I decided to go the extra mile and fry things that weren't meant to be fried, like dim sum and ice-cream, although the latter was a big failure. Deep-fried gyoza and shaomai are delicious.

Needless to say, after an hour and a half I could barely walk and was useless for the rest of the evening.

I think this kind of restaurant would go over well in the states.

Update: Where to fry it yourself if you're visiting Japan

http://www.kushi-ya.com/
Picture guide of how to eat: http://www.kushi-ya.com/tsukaikata.html

Kinda pricey, but worth it. 90 minutes is about $22, plus $10 for all you can drink alchohol or $5 for all you can drink soda. Online coupon you can print out for $5 off: http://www.kushi-ya.com/coupon.html

Here’s a page with the list of restaurants in Tokyo:
http://www.fujiofood.com/search/dsp_shop.php?brand=2&area=13
and Kyoto:
http://www.fujiofood.com/search/dsp_shop.php?brand=2&area=26

You can print them out and ask a taxi driver or something.

Enjoy!

Eating Healthy

2005-06-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

All jokes about weird food in Japan (see funny Japanese food post), eating in Japan has been good for me. Tokyo is quite an international city, and I can enjoy everything I eat in San Francisco (Indonesian, Indian, Italian, and other types of food that don't start with I), with the notable, and quite lamentable, exception of good Mexican food.

The food here is also quite a bit healthier, both in terms of the kind of food, and the portion sizes. In fact, some of you may not recognize me when I get back to the states, because I've lost about 20 pounds since I got here. In the states I always find myself finishing up the last bit of food that I don't really need, but it's definitely possible to get a reasonably sized meal here. The emphasis on fresh fish over red meat is also a nice change, concerns about mercury poisoning aside. I don't quite understand how I've lost so much weight, since I snack like crazy in Japan, and not on healthy food. I'm hungry a lot of the time here, maybe because I'm used to more protein (and chocolate milk).

The Japanese people also do eat a lot of fat, from fried foods to buckets of beer to meat with giant chunks of fat hanging off it, yet still they remain slim. How do they do it?

I've never been a large guy, but for the last 5 years or so I upgraded my status from skinny to unremarkable. I think I'm back to skinny again. At least it makes breakdancing easier.

It should be interesting to see what happens when I get back to America.

I'm a Batman fight sound in Japanese!

2005-05-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

I just learned today that I'm a Batman fight sound in Japanese. You know, those words that flashed on the screen in the campy 70's Batman TV show like Zap! Bonk! Bam!

I was hanging out at a highway rest stop after some spirited riding last night when I came across a poster warning something about fender benders. It showed two cars crashing into each other with the word Don! flashed in between them just like in the TV show. I'm not entirely sure what the poster was about, but I'm going to guess it was something like "Watch out for other cars! it sucks to hit them!".

Don is actually a pretty good name in Japanese for a couple of reasons. It's the onomatopoeic sound of drums (e.q. don doko don), and apparently fender benders. It's also a word that Japanese people can more or less pronounce, since they have it in their language. It's part of donburi, which is a very common word that means bowl of rice. As in tempura donburi, or tendon for short. All of which makes it great fun to spell my name in Japanese as rice bowl (丼).

Here's a japanese sound effects definition page for more details.

don = BIG impact
don = sometimes added to a scene for dramatic effect,to show that something astonishing or important has happened
dondon = continuous action

The Black Buses

2005-05-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

Most days of the week, my peaceful Japanese style home is invaded by Japanese style noise pollution of the worst kind. I'm not sure why we call them black buses, since they're not black, but we do. They actually come in a variety of colors, but all of them have steel mesh over the windows and giant speakers on top blaring martial music or someone yelling in Japanese at the top of their lungs. They're rightist propaganda buses and they love to come by my house, since I live directly in between the Chinese and Korean consulates. There's still a lot of militarist sentiment in Japan and they're upset about what Japan has turned into since the last war. One of their favorite targets is foreigners, especially the Chinese and Koreans, with whom the Japanese are currently involved in border disputes. Thankfully the police don't let them get very close, but they're still an amazingly loud nuisance, especially on weekends. Because of this, there are cops on every corner of my street with portable barricades in case the black buses try to get near the consulates. The minute the police at the two main intersections at either end of my street hear the music, they swing into action, pulling a portable barricade across most of the street while a similarly armored police bus pulls out from hiding nearby and blocks of the rest of the street. They play this game of cat and mouse all day long, with the black buses driving by in a seemingly endless cycle of rightist rage. I can't believe they don't have noise pollution laws in Japan, but that must be the case, since the cops never do anything about the buses. It may also be a question of a feared political backlash from the ultra-nationalists (uyoku) who run the buses.

Of course, numerous other vehicles employ the same tactics for everything from selling fruit off the back of a truck, to picking up used appliances for recycling/resale.

Addendum:

Although I could swear I've seen other colors of buses screaming propaganda at me, today I walked to the end of the block to see what all the fuss was about when I heard the shouting, and these were indeed black buses. There were about 6 or 7 of them lined up at the entrance to the street in front of the barricade, ranging from relatively unimposing minivans, to A-team style vans and smaller buses with metal grating on the windows and armor welded over the wheels, to the plush black tour bus, presumably for VIPs. They ranted and raved at the barricade for about 15 minutes before pulling away, a procedure, which, due to the size and number of the buses, actually took quite a while.

I couldn't tell if they were annoyed at us being there taking photos or not, since my Japanese isn't really that good. I'm pretty sure that said something about people taking photos when we walked up, and then started yelling about gaikoku (foreign countries) instead of their previous rant about Kankoku (Korea). I've actually heard of one German ex-pat getting into an altercation with them, but nothing of the sort happened when we went to look. Of course, that could be due to the massive police presence, but who knows.

Asakusa Sanja Festival

2005-05-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Asakusa temple in Tokyo to see the massive 3-day Asakusa Sanja Matsuri (festival).

Festivals in Japan are unlike any religious gathering I've ever seen in the states. I walked out of the subway station into a closed off street thronging with people. As you get closer to the main site of the festival, there's a mass of humanity that beckons you to come and watch as well. Wading through the crowd you start to notice little babies perched on their fathers' shoulders all decked out in the mainstay of traditional Japanese summer wear, the yukata (a bit looser and less fancy than kimonos), as well as crowds of people in happi coats and straw sandals. Walking farther in you may see a young man apparently clad only in a t-shirt over his sumo-style loincloth (or mawashi) and a scarf tied around his head with his mother holding the back of his t-shirt down so he isn't too indecent. Festivals are also one of the few places you can see Yakuza style full body tattoos, as they are verboten the rest of the year.

The reason for all this lack of clothing becomes clear as you approach the centerpiece of the Sanja Matsuri, the mikoshi. Mikoshi are portable shrines that are paraded around the neighborhood in order to bring blessing to the surrounding areas. The mikoshi can weigh up to a ton, and are carried on the shoulders of tens of men and women, often clad in nothing but traditional shirts and loincloths. The crowd packs around the carriers, vying for a closer look at the shrines, perhaps hoping that some blessings will be shaken off onto them. And shaken is the operative word, as the group surges backwards and forwards through the sea of humanity, bouncing the shrine up and down and tilting it side to side. Some other festivals are so vigorous that the shrines are smashed against each other in an attempt to destroy the neighboring temples' shrine. But this isn't one of those festivals, and the mikoshi merely sway through the crowd to the chants of the carriers and cheers of the onlookers.

Walking past the mikoshi and into the main temple you are greeted by an entirely different throng of people clambering to get up the temple steps to give offerings and prayers at the altar. When you enter any temple in Japan, there are several things you must do while you're there. The first is to wash your hands and mouth with water from the temple spring in order to purify yourself for entrance into the temple. The giant bronze incense burner at Asakusa is particularly famous for its powers to increase intelligence, so everyone brushes the smoke through their hair to partake of its power. Then people head up the main temple steps and try to make their way through the crowd up to the offering box. Failing that, many people will simply lob their coins over the heads of other worshipers and make their prayers from a distance.

Finally, and most important to some, is the requisite stop at the festival food and game tents. The summer in Japan is a non-stop season of festivals, and there are food vendors who travel around to each of the festivals. The tents include traditional Japanese favorites such as yakisoba (fried noodles) and okonomiyaki (vegetable pancakes), as well as area specialties such as steamed potatoes crispy fried and then split open and slathered with butter.

The games are mostly slight variations on carnival games we're all familiar with, such as catching goldfish to take home with you and watch perish through your negligence. The Japanese version has an interesting catch in that the scoop you are given to catch the fish with is made out of very thin paper stretched tight over a metal loop. It is almost impossible to catch fish with this implement, as the slightest movement of the catcher or catchee will tear the paper. There is a similar game with baby turtles, but the scoop is a thin crispy cookie cup, similar to a soft-serve ice cream cone.

In addition to the full suit tattoos carrying the mikoshi, there are definite underworld influences among the festival vendors, such as rows of curiously ordered burn marks on the forearm of one young man running the turtle fishing game. The underworld and the temple life seem to blend rather harmoniously, however, as the yakuza can be among the more traditional denizens of Japan. They may see themselves as carrying on the Samurai way, and generally keep their actions to themselves, rarely bothering the general public.

Japanese festivals permeate the life of modern Japan, from big city Tokyo to backwater burgs, but there is a sense that the spiritual aspects of the festivals have fallen out of favor with many Japanese. This probably has to do with the curious Japanese mixture of Buddhism, the native animist Shintoism, and Christianity. Many Japanese people will have a Western style wedding, a Shinto funeral, and visit Buddhist temples at festivals throughout the year. Given this pluralism, it's no surprise that each religions' influence is waning. The festivals also seem to maintain their popularity as a release from the strict codes of social conduct that most Japanese find they must adhere to. This certainly lends itself to the thriving, chanting, bouncing, teeming phenomenon that is matsuri.

Hakuba - Japanese Alps

2005-03-27T06:25:00.000-08:00

I went snowboarding in the Japanese Alps for the last two weekends. Hakuba (white horse) is a town in Nagano prefecture at the base of the Japanese Alps, which is an amazing mountain range. Growing up in California, I'm used to a slow and gradual climb up to Lake Tahoe, where the resorts start about about 6000 ft (2000m) and go up to about 10000 ft (3000m). Taking the bus to Hakuba, instead of my usual 2 hours of climbing through the foothills, we climbed for about 20 minutes at the end of the trip. The resorts here start at about 800m and climb up to 1600m.

The mountains seem to come from out of nowhere and burst out of the unnaturally flat farmland. Looking around on the mountain top you can see 3000m peaks knifing up into the sky, and looking down you are surrounded by snow-covered farmland with perfectly straight lines between the different plots of land. The land is so flat it must have been leveled by farmers over the centuries.

Both weekends we stayed at the (Hakuba Alps Backpackers Hostel, which is a pair of nice places near the Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba 47 resorts run by a Kiwi / Japanese husband and wife named Troy and Sakiko. They converted a children's playhouse / nursery school with a windmill into their first hostel, which is now the quiet one. They recently opened a second hostel with a night club in the basement and they hold big parties there every weekend, it seems. They are great people, and have really interesting guests. I highly recommend these places.

The first weekend I spent in Hakuba we arrived a bit late in the afternoon, so Troy helped get us set up with our rental equipment at "Spicy Rentals" (I kid you not), and we hit the slopes. One of the neat things about Japanese resorts is that they give you a chip instead of a ticket. You put it inside your jacket somewhere and then wave it at the automated lift line gate, just like an automatic tollgate in your car. When you're done with it at the end of the day, you put it in a vending machine, and it gives you back your deposit.

We only got a couple of hours in that day, but that was no problem because there was a local festival on the slopes at night. They closed the lifts at about 5, so we headed in for some nice hot ramen to warm us up. Just as we were finishing dinner, they started a Taiko (Japanese drum) performance right outside the window. After the taiko, they reopened the slopes for free night skiing, which was great! They dug holes in the side of the snow wall next to the lift line and put candles inside them, which made the whole wall appear to glow from the inside.

At the end of the night we started to see a line of glowing lights snake it's way down the mountain towards the base lodge. After a little while we could see that it was people skiing with lit torches, but we couldn't see the best part until they got closer. As they approached, we saw a skier carrying a glowing ball leading a Chinese dragon dancing down the slopes! The dragon, which was made up of about 15 individual skiers, made its way down to the waiting crowd, where it proceeded to slowly wrap itself into an intricate knot. The finale was a beautiful fireworks show over the mountainside.

It was at this point that we noticed that the girl next to us was wearing the strangest bunny hat. Instead of big floppy ears, it was a stuffed bunny tied around her head, and it had the saddest look on its face, as if it wished it could be bounding through the meadows rather than spending the rest of it's days tied down to some girls head. I tried to surreptitiously take a photo, but I couldn't get a good shot, whereupon my friend Toru showed me that you don't really need to worry about that kind of thing in Japan. He simply asked her if he could take a photo, and she instantly popped into smiling peace sign mode. Japanese girls are truly gifted at instantaneous photo posing. I believe it may actually be impossible to take a photo of one without her somehow managing to slip a cute little peace sign in.

The snow at Hakuba is amazing, even though it's at a fairly low altitude. Great dry powder and beautiful sunny days. In the trees and ravines between the runs lives a very strange animal called a kamoshika. It looks like a cross between a pig or a bear and a goat or a deer. They have fat round torsos covered in long puffy fur, short deer like legs, and little horns on top. Several of us riding off-piste spotted one or two, and you can even see them from the lifts sometime. We were all a little confused as to what to call them. The most common guess was some kind of bear. Apparently they're actually members of the goat antelope family. I'm not sure if that's goats and antelopes, or goat-antelopes. The latter seems more likely, looking at them. Take a look at some kamoshika pictures and learn more about them.

On the second weekend I went up to Hakuba, the wind was incredibly strong. They had to close the upper half of the mountain several times due to wind conditions. At one point, walking down an ice covered road, the wind was strong enough to push me about 10 feet down the road. Thankfully there were no cars coming. The wind caused the occasional snow whiteout while we were driving around town.

In typical Japanese snowboard trip style, we went to the onsen (Japanese hot spa) to relax both weekends. The wind on the second weekend made the rotenburo (outdoor bath) really spectacular. A good rotenburo is a great way to get in touch with nature. There's nothing like soaking in hot water while looking at a snow covered mountain or a beautiful ravine. On that night, however, Mother Nature was in a fierce mood, which made for a unique experience. The rotenburo was protected by a little bamboo fence which the snow had piled up against, and the wind was whipping tendrils of snow over our heads. Unfortunately, it also whipped all the heat from the water. Most people soaked a towel in hot water and put it on their head so their hair didn't freeze. In the end, I went back inside to enjoy the comforts of a glass-encased view and much hotter water.

One of the reasons why I like living abroad is that it forces you to give up control over parts of your life. In America, if I plan to do something, I can be reasonably sure that it will happen. In a country where you barely speak the language, you can be pretty sure your plans will be forcibly changed on a regular basis. Letting go of control is not something I'm good at, so this can be quite a challenge. Just going with the flow can also lead you to some very interesting experiences that you would have otherwise never come across.

For instance, coming home tired from work, I set my alarm on my Japanese cell phone wrong, and missed my bus to Hakuba in the morning. I ran off to the bus station to see if I could catch a later bus (at about 10 am), but it turns out the next bus was 3:30 in the afternoon, which didn't really work for me. I called up Sakiko, the owner of the hostel, and she told me how to catch a train to Hakuba. I got there late in the afternoon, and snowboarded for an hour using an old board and pair of boots that they had lying around (Sorels style, circa my 1994 snowboard boots). Thankfully the next day they loaned me a pair of Salomon boots they had lying around that just happened to be the same size and model that I have in America. All in all, I spent an extra $80 to get there and missed most of an afternoon of snowboarding, but I got several extra hours of sleep and got to experience riding a train through the middle of a snow field with incredible mountains towering overhead and not a single building in sight, passing remote railway stations on the edges of lakes with only a platform and a tiny roof overhead.

Another thing this trip reminded me about is the importance of attitude. I've always felt that attitude is the single-most important make-or-break aspect of a trip.

One of the best snowboard trips I went to was in Vermont and it rained like crazy all day long. They were giving out trash bags to the few hardy fools who still wanted to go out on the mountain, but basically everyone deserted the mountain. However, we went out with a group of about 20 people, and just had a blast! Since it was raining, it wasn't that cold, and the snow was soft, so we spent the afternoon goofing around, kicking up rooster tails, sliding face first down the mountain, and just general silliness. Most everyone else left the mountain and probably felt that they had wasted their day, but we wound up having an amazing time, and came home with a great story to tell.

I forgot this today, and almost let it ruin my trip. The weather turned very warm (the Japanese snowboarding season really only lasts till the beginning of April), and the snow was wet and heavy. My rental board felt like it had glue on the bottom of it, and I could hardly get enough speed up to try any tricks in the park. I felt like this was the worst snowboarding trip I had ever been on, and I just kept psyching myself out and making myself feel worse and worse. Then, just when I had decided to go to a different part of the mountain, they closed all the upper lifts due to high winds. After taking a bus to the neighboring resort, it turned out that all of their lifts were closed too, and none of my favorite areas were accessible. At that point, I decided to simply let go, and enjoy what was left of my day, and wound up having an amazing run down the mountain on a trail I would normally never take. After goofing around for an hour or two, we caught the last bus back
to the other resort with about 10 seconds to spare, if that, and a potentially catastrophic day was turned into a great day of riding. Even though the good snowboarding only lasted for an hour, it was enough to save the entire day.

Indoor Snowboarding

2005-03-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about Japan is the way that they borrow something from another culture and craft it into something uniquely theirs.

While I'm sure that many of the snowboarders back in America will not agree with me, indoor snowboarding is one of those things that I love about Japan. After riding in the mountains for 10 years, I was ready for a change of pace. And snowboarding inside a giant building in Japan is definitely something different.

In all fairness, this is not for everyone. Some people just love to escape into the wilderness and breathe in the fresh mountain air. Not me. I've always been more interested in what I can do in a place, rather than where it is or what it looks like. For snowboarding, this means that even though I go to the mountains all the time, I'm a park boy at heart. Instead of looking to battle the forces of nature, I look at man-made obstacles and see all the possibilities. Unfortunately, I can rarely realize those same possibilities due to a meager supply of talent.

And this, my friends, is where indoor snowboarding comes in. As they say, practice makes perfect, and inside a 3 story building is a great place to practice, because you certainly aren't enjoying the scenery. Indoors they can control the environment much easier, so you don't have to worry about coming down a run and finding that your favorite jump has turned to slush or people have scraped away all the snow on the landing, as so often happens in the mountains. Once you don't have to worry about the jump conditions changing, you're free to concentrate on whatever trick you're working on. The jump faces are hard packed so they're basically identical every time you ride them.

The runs are also much shorter (i.e. one jump), and this allows you to try the same jump over and over again in quick succession. While you're walking up the moving escalator on the side, ignoring the automated warnings in Japanese to mind your step, you can think about what you just did, and what you want to do next time, and then do it! There's no 15 minute wait where you lose focus or forget what you were trying to do. Just one jump after another, until you're plumb tuckered out. Which, indoors, is a couple of hours rather than a full day.

In fact, indoor snowboarding is such good practice that I was able to nail 2 tricks I'd been working on for a couple of years in the space of a few months. Granted, I was going once or twice a week after work, but I'm still happy with the results. After struggling with 360's for a couple of years, I finally learned to do them in all directions: frontside, backside, regular, and switch. I also learned to nail a solid boardslide on some decent sized rails (5 meters).

I usually went to Snova 246 in mizonokuchi, near where I was staying at the time. They have a 3 story building with a slope about the size of 2 or 3 basketball courts. One side has a halfpipe, and the other side has a slope, and a 4 meter kicker to practice jumps on. They also have a quarterpipe at the bottom, and they regularly add fun boxes and rails into the mix. There's a moving walkway going up the side where you can relax until it's your turn to climb onto the top of the jump platform and drop onto the slope. There are a couple of 12 year old kids there who come 5 or 6 times a week. I was so jealous, and they are going to be so good when they get older.

Now, I will admit that when I went to Hakuba after 3 months of indoor snowboarding, I really enjoyed it, but being able to actually land my favorite tricks consistently made it that much better. I was a little bit nervous as to whether or not the skills I'd learned indoors would translate to outdoors, so I was very pleased to find out that I was able to step up to the more varied conditions outdoors and still be able to fly through the air the way I wanted to.

One of the things that I really enjoy about snowboarding, and all of my other sports for that matter, is flow. When you really connect with the board and it feels like a part of your body, all your turns are effortless and you float over the snow. This level of flow is an amazing feeling, but it only gets better when you can add obstacles to your path and perform tricks while maintaining that same flow. It's one thing to be able to feel at peace with the mountain as you glide down the slopes, and it's entirely another to feel at peace with a 30 foot jump or a rainbow rail.

There's a natural beauty in motion and I love the feeling of willing my body into a complicated maneuver and having it flow effortlessly into a perfect landing.

White Day

2005-03-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

Today is White Day, a very unique Japanese holiday. The Japanese have taken Valentine`s Day and turned it completely around. Of course, they`ve kept the basic formula of candy and romance, but in the other direction. On Saint Valentine`s Day, girls buy chocolate for the men in their lives. It:s not all romance, though. In fact, women are supposed to give chocolate to almost all of the men in their lives. This brings us to giri choco, or obligation chocolate, which women buy for their bosses and male coworkers. Apparently, Saint Valentine`s Day was introduced to Japan in the late 50`s by a chocolate company that saw a good way to make money.

Feeling left out in the cold, other candy companies decided to create White Day, where men give gifts in return. Legend has it that White Day was created by a marshmallow company, hence the name, but nowadays if a man gives a woman marshmallows it means he doesn`t actually like here. Men are supposed to give women candy, or accessories, such as a nice purse, if they like her enough. In keeping with the tradition of making money, men are supposed to spend between one and a half times to ten times as much as the woman spent on them. The Japanese seem to be very big on rules and proscribed methods of behavior. It certainly makes it easy to decide what to do if there`s exactly one correct thing to do. I`m not sure, however, how everyone keeps track of exactly how much things cost so that they now how much to spend.

Of course, not all Japanese celebrate Saint Valentine`s Day and White Day exactly the same. In my office the women banded together to give a group gift to all the men in the office, and the men did likewise for White Day.

Tatami & Shoji

2005-03-11T23:00:00.000-08:00

I just moved into a new place in the middle of Tokyo. It's a room in a big gaijin (foreigner) guesthouse, so we share all the common areas.

I have a traditional japanese room (peace room in Japanese), with tatami mats and shoji sliding doors. Tatami mats are the thick straw mats about 1m x 2m that cover the floor (my room is 10 of them; that's how they measure things here). Shoji screens are the sliding doors with a thin wooden grid across them (each square is about 6 inches wide), covered in rice paper. They slide to the side and open up to an indoor porch looking out into a garden with trees and semi-artistically placed rocks. (it's a rental, so you only get semi). It's really nice, but the tatami and shoji aren't very good for keeping the room warm, and the room is a little bit too big for the AC unit to keep up.

I like it, though. It's nice to live in someplace more traditional, instead of a giant faceless apartment building (also common here).

The house next door is deserted, apparently because one of the Aum cult families used to live there (the Aum Shinrikyo cult was responsible for the Sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subways in 1995, killing 12 people and injuring 6000), so no Japanese want to live in the house now. Kind of spooky, and quite a contrast to my "peace room".

These kinds of gaijin houses are quite popular with short term foreigners, because the Japanese housing market is awash with rules and regulations. For instance, in order to rent an apartment, you need to have a Japanese guarantor who can be financially responsible for your rent. Most of the hassle is actually just the way they do leases, rather than any particular rules. Unlike the states, almost all leases have identical lengths and terms. In order to rent an apartment, you have to commit to a 2 year lease, put down two months of "key money" (shikikin - similar to a deposit, although you probably won't get any back), pay one month's rent for the rental agency fee, pay the first month's rent, and pay one month's rent as a "gift" to the landlord. Since housing is very expensive in Tokyo, this can be quite a bundle, especially when you're just moving into the country.

Given how much hassle renting involves, plus the fact that gaijin guesthouses come furnished, it's no wonder they're so popular here.

Snow in Tokyo

2005-03-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

It snowed today in Tokyo. I love taking the train into work when it snows, because the scenery is just beautiful. Many of the suburbs around Tokyo consist of 2 or 3 story modern-traditional houses and apartments. They all have traditional Japanese tile roofs, which look beautiful in the snow. From the passing train you can look down on the jumble of narrow, twisting alleyways and snow covered roofs and even see the occasional Japanese temple.

The houses are packed together tightly with low walls around them, but everyone still tries to find space to plant a tree or two in their yard. Since space around Tokyo is so scarce, there are a lot of odd shaped lots with small houses at strange angles to the surrounding walls. The combination of alleys, angled walls, random trees, and tile roofs gives the cities a very old and organic look.

At work yesterday, everyone told me to go home early because a big snow storm was expected and the trains might stop running. Of course, we only go a couple of inches of snow, but I think they just wanted to use the snow as an excuse to leave work early.

During lunch I was able to walk over to the Imperial Palace (only a block from the office) and see the giant stone moat walls and traditional guard houses covered in a light dusting of snow. It's really amazing to be able to watch koi and swans swimming in the water and see trees as far as the eye can see behind the ancient stonework, and then turn around and see nothing but enormous modern glass and steel skyscrapers. Tokyo is definitely a city of interesting contrasts.

Sumo Practice

2005-02-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

My brother and I went to a Sumo Stable to watch the early morning Sumo practice today. We made the trek to the Sumo side of town and got to Tokitsukaze Beya at about 8:30 when the lower ranking Sumo were just starting their practice.

The Sumo dojo didn't look anything like I expected on the outside. I barely managed to find it because it was just a door in a large apartment building. There was a little note in English outside the door saying to use the intercom to watch practice, and a tiny sign in Japanese only with the name of the dojo (something something wind).

I'd been warned to be super polite at the Sumo dojos, so I pressed the little intercom button and waited. For 5 minutes. We could hear some movement inside, but we just waited to be polite. Eventually I pressed it again, and they said we could come inside.

After some confusion about where to sit (in the back) and what to sit on (the normal cushions, not the fancy ones), we settled down to watch. After all of my worrying about formality, I looked down and saw that my brother had a big hole in his sock. Of course, most people in America don't think about the condition of their socks when going out, but it's obviously more important in Japan where you take your shoes off in anyone's house, and many restaurants. There was one other visitor there; a large Japanese man who obviously had something to do with Sumo, unlike us, so he was sitting up front.

The room had a large tatami mat area for visitors and then the floor dropped down about 2 feet to a dirt floor with a large Sumo circle (doyo) in the middle. It's pretty amazing to see something (dirt) that you normally only see outside given such a place of prominence in a fancy Japanese room.

Since we had arrived fairly early, the lower ranked Sumo wrestlers (rikishi) were still practicing. We were surprised at how skinny some of them were. In fact, one of the wrestlers who consistently won his bouts was one of the skinniest there! His size showed up in the pushing practice at the end where wrestlers had to push another wrestler across the ring, sliding him on the dirt.

Lower ranking wrestlers in a practice bout.

The wrestler in the back left is practicing his Sumo slaps by hitting a big wooden pole. This went on for the whole practice (with various different Sumo) creating a hypnotic counterpoint to the bouts.

Sumo stomp!

It's amazing how flexible some of those big guys are.

The wrestlers enter the ring and then wait until they are both ready for the bout. They crouch down at their respective lines, and as soon as all 4 hands are touching the ground, they start. Putting their hands down to start the match is a waiting game. Usually one wrestler will put their hands down first, and then other one will put one down and then lightly touch the last hand to the ground before they slam into each other. Once they start the match, they will try to push each other out of the ring, or cause their opponent to fall down or touch the surface of the ring with any part of their body other than their feet. They will often slap their opponent to try to unbalance them, or grab their loincloth to hoist them off their feet.

Here's some video of one of the more impressive bouts between the higher level Sumo. One of them got pushed out of the ring so hard he slammed against the wall. You can tell they are higher ranking because they are wearing white loincloths, and they each have a lower ranking wrestler holding their towel. The higher ranked wrestlers are the only ones allowed to scatter salt to purify the ring before they make their entrance.

It was very impressive to watch the higher ranked Sumos in practice bouts with the lower ranked wrestlers. It really showed you how much skill is involved, rather than just sheer bulk. In 45 minutes of practice, we only saw one lower ranked wrestler beat a higher ranked wrestler, and the winner was actually one of the smaller wrestlers!

After the practice, we headed over to the Sumo museum, located in the basement of the Sumo Stadium. It was all in Japanese, but we did get to look at pictures of all the champions (yokozuna) over the years. Their size has definitely increased (picture the Hawaiian born Akebono), but there was one really skinny champion from the 70's (I think) who was actually from Colorado!

We then wandered around the neighborhood, which is packed with Sumo beya and Sumo Chanko Nabe restaurants. Chanko Nabe is Sumo soup and we picked a restaurant at random and went in to sample the soup. Chanko Nabe is mostly vegetables and tofu, with some chicken (plain and ground) tossed in for protein. Of course, the serving sizes are huge. My brother and I barely managed to finish off one bowl between the two of us. The bring the broth to a boil in a big iron pot on your table, and then you add the vegetables and meat to the broth as you're ready for more food.

After retirement, many Sumo start Chanko Nabe restaurants, and this one was no exception. There was a trophy wall filled with old pictures of a Sumo wrestler. During our lunch, a little Japanese girl came back from school and played with us for a while. Apparently she was the granddaughter of the Sumo who started the restaurant (as we were informed by another patron).

Sumo Chanko Nabe Girl

She came in and bounced all over the restaurant, whereupon the waitresses urged her to practice her English with us, so she came over and said hello. After that, she switched back to Japanese. She spent a lot of her time sitting on just her butt and bouncing up and down. She was mostly interested if we could do the same trick. She also liked to squat like a frog and jump high in the air and made me take video of her doing it. She was a bundle of energy, and a great way to end our trip to Sumo town.

Info on Tokitsukaze beya.

Tokitsukaze-beya, Ryogoku 3-15-4, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 130-0026
東京都墨田区両国３丁目１５－４時津風部屋
Yahoo map
03-5600-2561

For other stables, see the Quirky Japan site.

Onsen & Sento

2005-02-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Onsen are Japanese hot springs, and they're all over the country, especially in scenic spots. But that's not quite enough in Japan, so they also have sento, which are public baths (not naturally heated hotsprings). Sento are literally everywhere. Since Japanese homes and apartments are so small, many people don't have their own bath, so they come to sentos to relax.

Both are relatively inexpensive ($3 - 5) and are a great way to wind down the day. Most onsen and sento are segregated by sex (although little kids go wherever) and are entirely clothing free.

Nikko:

I took my brother to his first Onsen while we were visiting Nikko. It was definitely cold enough there to need it. We walked off the main road for about 5 minutes through snow covered fields and over a roaring river. We had no idea if we were going the right way or not until we crested a rise and saw the baseball field and parking lot full of cars. Apparently there was another entrance.

The routine at an Onsen is to change out of your clothes in the dressing room and then go into the main room. There you find an empty shower, which is basically just a half height shower nozzle, sit down on the little stool and wash yourself off before you enter the baths. You fill a little bucket with hot water and douse yourself with it to get started. It's actually quite relaxing to bathe yourself using a bucket. After you're done washing, you fold your little modesty towel and put it on your head. That way it doesn't get wet in the baths.

Good Onsen have a rotenburo, or outdoor bath, where you can soak in the hot springs while looking at the scenic mountains (or river, etc...). Onsen have a variety of baths, including bubbly and non, hot and cold, and they usually have a sauna as well.

The next weekend we tried a Sento, or public bath, in Kyoto while we were staying there. The sento works in much the same way, except they're usually not quite as fancy. This one had herbal baths, and a TV in the sauna. The real shocker was that out of the three identical looking baths in the middle of the room, one had an electric current flowing through it! I discovered this when I sat down in the next bath and draped my arm over the edge. At first I couldn't figure it out because the current was very subtle.

It was a lot of fun watching a young Japanese guy get into the bath without knowing it was an electric shock bath. You can't feel the current in the middle of the bath, but when you move your arms over to the edge, the hairs start to stand on end. If you get close enough, it's like those automatic muscle exercising systems that Bruce Lee used to use.

Eventually I worked my courage up enough to try the electric bath. It's amazing how strong the current is. When I put my arms 4 or 5 inches away, the muscles would spasm and my arms would shoot out straight. Yet I saw old men sitting with their backs against the electric plate, albeit grimacing much of the time.

The electric baths are a very strange experience, and definitely not for everyone.

Onsen, and Sento, however, are a crucial part of any Japanese experience.

Funny Japanese Things

2005-01-31T02:52:00.000-08:00

Here's an ongoing list of some of the funny food and other products that I've run across here in Japan:

Men's Spray - Super Hard
Who knew Viagra came in a can!?

CalorieMate Food Block
Only $2 for an entire meal!

Pocari Sweat (energy drink)

Calpis (pronounced the way a Japanese person might say Cow Piss in Japanese (karu pisu) - a milky soda)

Kit Kat Soda
Not really soda, but they sell it in a vending machine and it looks like a soda can. It's really a bottle with kit kat inside. Quite shocking if you were expecting something liquid. For some reason they don't have candy vending machinese here in Japan. They only sell candy at conbini (convenience stores). Kit Kat in Japan also come in Green Tea and Passion Fruit flavors!

Crunky Chocolate - for all you from the "Dirty South"(Tm). Now also available in Crunky Mango Chocolate; kind of a weird mangoey, crunch popcorny white chocolate.

Delicious egg pizza
Various toppings, including egg, mayo, and squid

A Chinese Fertility restaurant
And, yes, the other side of the bell is what you think it is.

And, just for kicks, who doesn't love a good dog drinking beer sign? His shirt says beer, by the way (Biiru).