Teaser

Every time I go on major hiking trips in Japan something goes wrong and a fiasco unfolds. Stand by for the upcoming story, "One Headlight On the Invisible Trail."

Empty Spaces

There are places in Japan known for being rural, and Akita Prefecture is one of them. Being a midwest girl, when I think rural I think sprawling farmland. And in my mind there can't be a country that doesn't have a little of that hidden away somewhere. This trip, however, is finally convincing me that this is impossible in Japan. Everywhere you go there will be either cities or mountains. The fields are squeezed in between railroad tracks and foothills like misplaced puzzle pieces. Even in the most rural places, the landscape is crowded.

So much water

Last time I was on a ferry in Japan, I was heading back from a week of hiking in Kyushu. This time I'm going 19 hours north to Akita for a week long hike/tour of the northern part of the main island.

It's really nothing exciting being on a boat that long. I planned my day around the hours that the bath (that's basically a hot tub in Japan, even on a boat) were open.

The Letter of the Law

I ride up to the corner just as the crosswalk light turns red. I'm standing behind two high school aged boys in altered school uniforms talking with mafia-I'm-really-cool accents.

Saggy Pants: Ah man, we should have freakin crossed.
Spikey Hair: I tried, yo, but that hot chick almost hit me with her bike.
Saggy Pants: Alright, next time there aren't any cars, I'm going.
Spikey Hair: Hold on, dude! There are cops right there.
Saggy Pants: (looking over his shoulder) Naw, they can't see us.
Spikey Hair: They can so. Lookin right through the window at us.
Saggy Pants: Well crap.
Spikey Hair: I guess it ain't worth it.
Saggy Pants: No, we can't risk it.

And they wait patiently until the light turns green.

Fashion Police: the newest Japanese ministry

"Is a Salaryman Without a Suit Like Sushi Without the Rice?" (NYTimes)

Do you want to stop global warming? Have an interest in fashion?

Starting in June the Japanese government introduces "Cool Biz," the new look for salarymen and the first step toward reducing green house emissions in Japan.

Prime Minister Koizumi says, "The government will take the lead in prevention of global warming," he said. "From this summer, government is planning to start no necktie, no jacket."

The salarymen are not happy.

High Class to No Class

I had an hour and a half before my bus left. So I continued my "I am sophistacted" day and sat down at one of the upscale restaurants in the Tokyo Station area for a little wine and dessert. I dined on a exquisite apricot tart and a glass of the recommended white wine while enjoying the spring evening on the patio.

And then I returned to normalcy. Or extreme boredom. I spent the next hour exploring one of the nearby "restaurants and shopping" buildings. Riding the escalator to the seven floor, I happened upon a bathroom. And because I am a connesouir of the best sort of places to find good bathrooms (department stores are the best so far), I went in. Evaluation: clean, but nothing special. However, they had western style toilets. By default, this means there was the little options bar on the side. I had never used any of the options. So I did. I pushed all the buttons.
-Flushing Sound
-Spray
-Bidet
-Dry
-Powerful Deoderizer
-Stop
I even changed the water temperature. I could have changed the seat temperature too, but my bottom was toasty at the current setting.

And so now I know. I suggest that if you travel in Japan you should try these buttons. And even if you don't have fun playing with the options, you at least walk out with a clean butt.

Lifestyles of the wannabe rich and famous

I took a little trip to Tokyo yesterday to see an opera.

Doesn't that sound rich and sophisticated? I thought it just sounded crazy, but a few of my Japanese friends said it had a very oshare (oh shah ray: similar to bling-bling, or fancy) ring to it.

Thanks to connections from Boston, I was invited to watch the New York City Opera Company's production of Madama Butterfly as a guest of the company. They are on a mini tour in Japan for the Aichi Exhibition, peforming Madama Butterfly and Little Women in Tokyo and Nagoya. My friend's father is an employee (the man in charge of all the people who don't sing) and he graciously allowed me and my friend to come see the Dress Rehearsal, and afterwards, to meander back stage. We got to meet the adorable little boy who played Sorrow, Butterfly's son, and we snuck a look at the makeup-coated tenor who, like most tenors, was finicky and didn't sing full voice.

The production was great. The set was very modern; there was nothing more than huge Japanese style doors, some stairs, and a kimono rack. The music was great. However, thanks to a friend who is studying the use of Eastern music influence on Western music and my own experience in Japan, I was looking out for "mistakes." Here's my list:
-The monk was dressed as an oni (demon), complete with the crown and long hair. He was accompanied by cymbals with a Chinese flair.
-The obis on the kimonos all matched. This is not how it is done.
-There were several times when the servant was praying to the ancestors, but "the ancestors" were little red Chinese warrior statues. What?! And she would call out "Izanami, Izanagi!" which are the names of the two mythological figures who created the Japanese islands, but are never invoked in personal worship.
-The suitor was wearing a Chinese wrobe, complete with Chinese style mustache and beard. He was also accompanied by obviously Chinese sounding music.

Really, Puccini probably didn't know any better, and you can't blame the Americans too much for having no idea about Japanese customs. Other than these little points, the music was great and it was wonderful to be able to learn about the behind the scenes stuff of an opera. Like, did you know that most of the actors don't set foot on the set until a few days before the show?

So, thank you to Mr. my friend's dad for the opportunity to see this production, and for paying for dinner afterwards. We really appreciated it.

Hisashiburi, Kishi Sensei!  

Place Your Bets

Everyone says it's a small world. Here we say it's a smaller world when you're a foreigner in Japan. Today I tell you that the world has shrunk to the size of a peanut.

I was shopping this afternoon when two foreign girls joined me at the rack of bad English t-shirts. A few minutes later a Japanese woman came up to them and started speaking in English. I glanced over and almost died. Holy crap, it was my high school Japanese teacher!

Kishi-sensei had brought fifteen Academy students on a ten day tour of Japan for their May Term. They were in Kyoto for two days, and shopping in Teramachi for one hour, and I ran in to them. Seriously, somebody calculate the probability. Of course, I was invited to introduce myself to the group and tell them what I have been doing for the past five years since graduating. Looking over the bunch of them, I remembered how dorky Academy kids are. I was reminded of the stupidity of youth that would make two of them buy Japanese swords and one the Zen "stick of compassion." I was incredibly envious that they got such a good May term option.

At any rate, my day was made by this incredible happening. And thanks to the magic of the Japanese cell phone, I have pictures to prove it.

Fresh fish, Fried chicken

How many people think that sushi is the staple of the Japanese diet? How many people think that Japanese food is simple and healthy? You are all wrong. While the main Japanese food served in foreign countries does happen to be sushi or noodles, there are a whole bunch of other wonderful things to eat in Japan. And most of them are fried.

Walk into a grocery store, and head to the back corner. You will find a wonderful selection of prepared foods, kind of like a deli. However, 75% of them will be fried. Croquettes, tenderloins, fried chicken, fried tofu, tempura...

Are you surprised? Did you not realize that there are so many fried foods in Japan that you could eat a different one every day for at least a month? The amazing thing is despite the massive intakes of oil, high cholestoral and heart disease are not a big problem here. Perhaps it is the popularity of tofu or sesame seeds (both having lately been discovered as the best foods ever, health wise), or perhaps it is because the image of insanely skinny people is so ingrained that you are hard put to find a college student who doesn't count their calories.

Either way, while the Japanese can manage their fried food ingestion, I am slightly worried for my caucasian heart. I cannot resist the croquettes. Or the tenderloins. Or the fried tofu. In fact, I just bought all three for lunch.

Perspectives

The reason I haven't posted anything for the past couple of days is that nothing interesting has been happening. Normal days filled with homework, TV, eating, sleeping, and riding my bike. Yes, there was a small festival yesterday, and yes, I paid large amounts of money for a train ticket today, but these are really not exciting to me.

And then I realized as I was walking down the street that the things I see here as totally normal probably look completely strange to visitors. I have been trying to think lately where I am going to take my first-time-to-Japan visiting friends when they come, and it is so difficult. What was it like when I first came here almost three years ago? What did I think was completely unbelievable, incredibly weird, and just downright wrong? I have forgotten. I have integrated myself into the society. I have grown immune to the idea of crazy hairstyles, Japanese drivers, bike traffic, and bowing. Japan is not a scary country, Japan is a second home.

Who knew it would actually be good for something?

When I was in grade school I, like a good percentage of Indiana children, participated in 4-H. I don't remember pledging "my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living," but I do remember baking cookies, organizing collections, wrapping gifts, and sewing skirts. I especially remember the sewing. It's not that I was good at it. It was that my grandmother was good at it, and I spent hours at her house laying out the pattern, hemming, and stitching up the ugliest skirt I have ever seen. I won Honorable Mention for it.

That project workbook and the hours with my grandma's sewing machine paid off today as I began my first sewing project since 7th grade - I'm making a yukata, a summer kimono. It was my friend Mayo's idea. She's helping my friend Katie and I make yukata for the Gion Matsuri so that we too can join in on the traditional feeling of an old Kyoto festival. My cloth is a light red sprinkled with small white sakura and accented by some other maroon flower. I think it's going to look great. Now, if only I could find geta big enough to fit my enormous feet...

Accomplishment

There's something about drunk Japanese guys practicing their English that makes me smile.

The Truth Comes Out

Today was one of those days that made me wonder what I have been doing with the last five years of my life. Specifically, I wonder what happened to my brain. Back in the day I could memorize words and remember them for more than three days. I could read something and fully comprehend and synthesize it with other information. Not any more, it seems. I have been studying the belief in vengeful spirits in premodern Japan for a little over two years now. And yet, when the topic came up in class today and no one knew anything about it, I could barely state the basics coherently. Is it because I haven't learned anything? No, I think not. I believe it is because I have lost the ability to retain information. The words I read in Japanese make sense as I read them, but I can in no way repeat those words to a curious audience. I can't even tell you the word for "political victim," which is probably the most important concept in this research.

And so, today I fully embarrassed myself and exposed the truth about my learning ablilities. That is, I have none. That I am decently good at pretending I am smart is evident in my receipt of the Fulbright, but I couldn't fool the graduate school admissions offices or people who know what they're talking about. From now on I will probably just be that foreign girl who sits in class pretending like she understands what's going on.

There are no noise pollution laws in Japan

Every morning at 8am the "we collect your paper, cardboard, and old newspapers" truck comes around. Every morning it drives back and forth, up and down the winding streets of my neighborhood for hours. How do I know? Because it plays a song. Thirty seconds of a whistling tune, a chorus of "give us your paper!" and a woman politely introducing this extremely convenient service. Thirty seconds repeated for two hours. The dogs bark, I cry, and it never stops. Not once have I ever seen (or heard) it pause.

I have learned to deal with this every morning, but it is now 4:50pm and I hear it just down the street. If it passes my house someone had better restrain me, because if a brick thrown to knock out that speaker is the only thing that restores to me my peaceful afternoon, then so be it.

Double Take

I'm riding my bike down the street in the rain.

I pass a KFC. A woman is standing outside yelling at a man in a cream-colored suit.

Turning the corner, I almost run over a small child and blind her mother with my umbrella.

I readjust my rain parasol to try to provide maximum coverage of my legs while keeping my backpack less than soaked. I give up on dry knees.

My mind wanders back to the Kentucky Fried Chicken scene I had just witnessed.

The woman was standing outside shouting into her cellphone while staring exasperatedly at a full size plastic statue of the Colonel.

I should have known. Who else besides the Colonel wears a cream colored suit?

Just testing

Blogger recognizes that this computer at school is Japanese, and therefore puts all my menus, etc, in Japanese. I'm wondering if I can post in Japanese, then. Here's a try.

今日の日本語の単語： TODAY'S JAPANESE VOCAB

こんにちは - konnichiwa = hello
おはいようございます - ohaiyo gozaimasu = good morning
ありがとうございます - arigato gozaimasu = thank you
すみません - sumimasen = excuse me

If you can't see the characters, go to View, Encoding, Japanese. Unicode might work too.

Self-Imposed Segregation

I was counting down the minutes to the end of my class today, when I realized something - the girls and boys were seated on opposite sides of the room. There was no intermingling. Even the teacher was seated on the boys' side. I remembered a friend of mine saying that the same thing happened in all her larger classes here. It was the first time for me, but I have to say that I am not surprised. The more I talk to Japanese girls the more I realize that there is very little interaction between the sexes in the everyday life of a college student. The girls are afraid of not being attractive enough, and the boys are afraid they'll say something stupid, so no one talks. Hence, we have the popularity of group blind dates and drinking parties. Thank goodness for alcohol to break down the barriers, or the population in this country would be shrinking faster than it already is.

The Truth Hurts

It's a sad fact, but the best matcha (green tea) dessert in Japan is the Matcha Cream Frappuccino at Starbuck's.

Steam ships and tea cups

I spent the day with my advisor today, a four foot tall Japanese grandma whose expertise in Japanese history is hard put to be matched by anyone. We were supposed to get together to discuss my research and how things were going. But as usual, she talked about something and something else, and another thing, and we said maybe two sentences about my research. This is fine with me, because 1. her research doesn't exactly match mine, 2. she has so many random interesting facts in her head.

For example, there was a monk name Kisen who lived on a mountain in Uji, and his name became associated with the tea from that area. When the Commador Perry opened the ports of Japan after the period of Isolation, he came on steam ships, called "kisen" in Japanese. There was a phrase, then about "kisenjo" or the "steam rising." And so there became a way of drinking tea that was a metaphor for the ships coming in to the port. Something to do with 4 ships, and 4 cups, and letting the steam rise. Nifty, eh?

A Bit Too Much Reality

The US has too much reality TV. Japan has too many reality video and arcade games. I went to my favorite "All-You-Can-Play" game center last night for bowling with my friends, but afterwards we stayed and learned how to dance, fish, play the drums, drive a train, ride a horse, play shamisen, box, swordfight, drive a bulldozer, skateboard, snowboard, play the maracas, ride a bike, hang glide, play the tambarin, play the guitar, play ping pong, shoot guns, play golf, and my favorite, walk a dog. All without leaving the comfort of our own video screen.

At long last

I have done it.
I have bought myself a website.
I have put pictures on that website.
Well, I have put pictures from China on it, at least.
Little by little, I will put other pictures there too.
Enjoy.

Raise Your Toe

Japanese traditional theatre is what most foreigners* would call boring. The form most often described in this way in Noh. Noh is known for it's repetitive music, slow and overly exaggerated movement, and simplicity (almost non-existance) of plot. To make matters worse, it is most often not performed individually, but as a set of three or four plays presented all afternoon. Luckily, some time ago, the Japanese realized that even the most enthusiastic fan needs a break from slow, seriousness. Hence, there is Kyogen. Kyogen is a form of Noh - the same style of music, the same bright costumes, and similar exaggerated dance. However, it also incorporates the comedic, and sometimes the hilarious. These satirical glimpses of Japanese religion, old court custums, and lifestyle are often inserted between the Noh plays to break up the monotony of the afternoon.

And sometimes, they are performed just by themselves. Like the most famous of kyogen styles, Mibu Kyogen, performed once a year at Mibudera Temple in Kyoto. Mibudera is famous for a lot of things, and this is just one of them. Its kyogen is particularly interesting because it has no words. None. Five one hour long plays done completely in pantomime with accompanying flute and drums, and the occasional foot stomp. And despite the lack of words and close resemblence to Noh drama, these plays are good. For example, the one that I particularly liked was about a bet between the Bodhisattva Jizo and the King of the Underworld, Yama. Jizo bet that one of his protectees, a hungry ghost, could beat one of Yama's little demon underlings in a sumo match. What followed was a hilarious stomping battle of quivering ghosts and fist-shaking demons. Who knew that wordless Noh could be so entertaining? Of course, part of the fun was just trying to figure out what the finger pointing, gesturing, and foot stomping really meant.

*Lots of Japanese find it really boring too. I don't mind it so much, but I know plenty of people who won't go again unless their life depends on it.

Rainy day visitor 

Golden Week

Friday was the start of what is called Golden Week in Japan, a week of four national holidays, and consequently, one of the busiest travel times of the year. I was curious about what the holidays actually were, so I looked them up. Here's what I found (courtesy of www.japan-guide.com):

Apr. 29 : Midori no Hi
I used to think this was just Green Day, as a direct translation would go. But actually, it is Greenery Day. It used to be the birthday of the Showa emperor, who died in the year 1989. After his death, it was turned into a day for environment and nature, since the emperor loved plants and nature. Starting in 2007, the day will be renamed Showa Day, and Midori no Hi will be moved to May 4th.

May 3: Kenpo Kinenbi (Constitution Day)
On this day in 1947, the new postwar constitution was put into effect.

May 4: Kokumin no Kyujitsu ("Between Day")
I think the US should do something like this. According to Japanese law, a day which falls between two national holidays is also declared a national holiday, unless the "between day" is a Sunday, in which case it will be just a regular Sunday. From 2007, Greenery Day, currently celebrated on April 29, will be moved to May 4.

May 5: Kodomo no Hi (Children's Day)
The Boy's Festival (Tango no Sekku) is celebrated on this day. Families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both symbolizing strength, power and success in life.