Archive for January, 2007
A few days after we arrived, we had lunch with Master Sushi Chef Shigeo Mori at his restaurant in Taito-ku. He’s the Chairman of the All Japan Sushi Association. Our inside connection was Masako Hamada, who works with Maria at Villanova - at her invitation he gave a presentation at Villanova (PDF) last spring. He also regularly gives presentations at US Cherry Blossom festivals. Masako is currently in Tokyo as well, so she brought us to his restaurant.
It probably won’t come as a surprise to hear me say it was some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. He also gave us a lesson on the proper technique for eating sushi. You’re supposed to turn the sushi on its side with your chopsticks, leaving it still on the geta (the wooden serving tray - this is also the word for the old style Japanese clogs, as the serving tray looks like the clogs). Then you dip just a corner in the soy sauce - mostly just the fish side but a little of the rice as well.
He told us some stories after lunch, but it was all in Japanese so I couldn’t follow most of it. Maria passed along that he was trained to be a kamikaze pilot in WWII, but a B-29 bombed his plane on the airfield, so (luckily for him), he never got off the ground.
I Googled him and found an interesting article describing one of his talks (PDF). Here’s a portion of it:
Mr. Mori also addressed the “sushi crisis” that came after General MacArthur’s ban. “Sushi masters went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and in 1947, a new regulation was put into effect,” he said. Customers were to bring single cups of rice to be cooked on the spot, and what could be more fresh and sanitary than just-cooked rice? From that came today’s tradition of ordering ten pieces of sushi - just the amount that one cup of rice can make.
Mr. Mori ended his talk by saying how pleased he is that Americans have taken to sushi with such fervor. “I will be forever grateful,” he said, laughing, “for the invention of the California roll.”
Kai in his school uniform, ready for his first day of school at Takanawa Yochien
Kai in his school uniform, ready for his first day of school at Takanawa Yochien
Kai started school on Tuesday. This was the day we’ve been worried about for months, as we had no idea how he’d react to such a different environment, where he didn’t even speak the language.
The night before he was bouncing off the walls with excitement. It turns out he loved his first day, and he’s loved every day since. He says he doesn’t mind that he can’t understand what the teacher says most of the time. Between miming and the little bit of English the teacher speaks, they seem to work things out. Also, there’s another American boy in the class, who started in December, so Kai has someone he can speak English with.
While Japanese schools in general are more rigorous than US schools, this isn’t the case with kindergarten. It’s mostly arts & crafts and playtime, and not much reading or math. Kai seems quite happy to not have to work as hard as he did at his school at home.
In one respect, however, the school is more rigorous, but it’s a burden that primarily falls on the parents. We were given a 16 page manual before Kai started, outlining a multitude of rules and expectations. From an American perspective, it’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a 19th century boarding school, not a current day public school. For example, for lunch he’s expected to bring a napkin of a very specific size with a ring in the corner, a cup of a particular shape and color, another sippy cup containing water but no straw of any kind, and so on. The only thing we’re not going along with is the expectation that he wear little gray shorts in the dead of winter. The teacher says it’ll toughen him up. Maria says it’s “a throwback to the old British tradition (i.e., making kids miserable).”
Kai is already holding Maria to the Japanese “supermom” standard - read this hilarious article to see what I’m talking about. After seeing how expertly prepared the other kids’ bento lunches were, Kai inspected Maria’s work the next morning, to see if it compared favorably. Fortunately, Maria passed 
Kai’s teacher is going to make a “home visit” to visit our apartment next week, which is something the teacher does with all the parents. Privacy expectations are also something that’s quite different in Japan.
Unfortunately, our neighborhood kindergarten was full, so he’s attending a school that’s about a 30 minute walk away, or about 20 minutes on buses (two different buses are involved, with a bit of a walk between them). So far the weather’s been good - I don’t look forward to that journey with Kai and Eidan on a day when it’s cold and rainy.
Kai is registered already for 1st grade, which starts in April, and fortunately that school is across the street from us (the Japanese go to school year-round, and the school year starts in April).
A coworker asked me why the Japanese stock market was closed on Monday. It was Coming of Age Day:
Japan has been marking Coming of Age day, celebrating the transition into adulthood of those who turned 20 last year. But in another sign of the country’s demographic difficulties, the number of youths being honoured is the smallest in nearly two decades…The celebrations take place at city halls, temples and other public venues like Tokyo Disneyland. Many of those taking part wear formal outfits, such as traditional kimonos, to mark the occasion.
We saw some 20 years old dressed up, but I didn’t have an opportunity to take pictures :-(. The article I linked to has some good pictures though.
The Japanese go to school year round, and work extremely hard, but they have a lot more holidays than the US to make up for it.
As the article mentions, Japan is struggling with a significant population decline. This is also the case with many European countries, which are trying to address the ensuing economic problems by opening up to immigration, which in turn has spawned a good deal of cultural and societal friction for them. The Japanese don’t allow much immigration - instead, I think, they plan to eventually replace their workers with robots.
I would divide my experiences this past week with the Japanese language into 3 different categories: reading the Japanese used for native expressions (written with Kanji and Hiragana), reading the Japanese used for foreign words (written with Katakana) and conversing in Japanese.
Reading Kanji: We didn’t get to studying Kanji in my Japanese class, as there was plenty to learn as it was, so I wasn’t expecting to read Kanji when I got here. There are approximately 2,000 standard Kanji characters used for native Japanese words (and many more less commonly used ones). I can read the phonetic Hiragana characters that are sprinkled in sentences, but the primary meaning of a sentence is usually embedded in the Kanji, so knowing the Hiragana usually doesn’t get me very far. This led to a comical, miserable failure our first night in the apartment. Maria had to go out to tend to some things related to her job, and before leaving she was kind enough to pick up some prepared food for me and the boys for dinner. All I I had to do was heat things up. I struggled with deciphering the Kanji buttons on the microwave (and hitting them in random combinations) for about 5 minutes before giving up. It was a combination convection unit and I couldn’t get anything besides the convection part working. So I thought I’d try the gas range. No luck there either - I tried everything I could think of but couldn’t get a fire going. By this time Eidan was getting very fussy so I needed to give him a bottle. But I had to warm it up somehow. With only three buttons, I was able to figure out the rice cooker! It took a while, but I heated up some water in there and stuck his bottle in it to warm up. While I was busy with all that Kai had crawled into bed and fallen asleep with no dinner (as he hardly got any sleep on New Year’s Eve), and after Eidan finally got to drink his lukewarm bottle, he fell right to sleep too. (I felt a bit better when I learned later the range wasn’t working because the gas was shut off, since the apartment had been empty).
Reading Katakana: this has gone really well. There are a lot of foreign words that have been incorporated into Japanese, and being able to read them has been a big help. I was able to order Kai a ハッピセット at McDonald’s (ha-ppi se-tto - in Japan a happy meal is a “happy set”), myself a ココア (ko-ko-a - a hot cocoa) at a coffee shop, find a トイレ (to-i-re - toilet), and so on. The only thing that drives me crazy is trying to tell the difference between ソ (so) and ン (n). Print is often stylized and the difference can be subtle.
Conversing in Japanese: it turns out my pronunciation of Japanese is superior to my vocabulary. This means I’ll say a simple phrase to a waiter or clerk, and I guess I say it well enough that it sounds to them like I know what I’m doing, so they dive into speaking normal Japanese to me, and I get lost very quickly. But so far everyone I’ve encountered has been very nice, and they don’t mind getting through the transaction with a combination of miming, my limited Japanese, and their limited English. But even my limited knowledge has come in very handy. For example, in our apartment building, I was getting in the elevator and I was followed by another resident who had his hands full carrying two large packages. He said to me “rokkai onegai shimasu” and I knew to push the 6th floor button for him. One thing I’ve had to learn quickly is the general use counters, mainly for ordering food. For example, if you want two of something, you use futatsu, not ni (koocha o futatsu kudasai). Another important phrase I’ve learned is “Sumimasen, Machigaimashita.” (Sorry, I made a mistake). I had gone into a handicapped bathroom to change Eidan’s diaper (as that’s where the changing table was also located), and Kai used to the toilet. We couldn’t figure out how to flush the darn thing. I ended up hitting a green button, which turned out to be the emergency help button (living in the US, I would’ve expected such a button to be red). A voice came over an intercom, presumably asking me what the problem was, and I didn’t know how to answer. Saying sumimasen and shitsuree shimashita over and over didn’t get him to go away, so I slinked away with the boys. (And it turns out, to flush the toilet, there’s a square panel that you need to wave your hand over).
A contingent of Japanese Brazilians at the Imperial Palace on the second day of the new year
A contingent of Japanese Brazilians at the Imperial Palace on the second day of the new year
In my post from the early morning of the 1st, I mentioned Maria headed out with the boys about 1AM, since they couldn’t sleep, since it was the middle of the day by their body clocks. The first few pictures below are from their late night wanderings in the outskirts of Roppongi. Even though they couldn’t sleep, they were exhausted - you can see it in their eyes. The bamboo arrangement next to Kai in one of the pictures is called Kadomatsu, which is a traditional Japanese New Year’s decoration placed in entryways.
All of us except Kai finally got some sleep, but he was so wound up, the lack of sleep didn’t slow him down. Our destination that morning was the Meiji shrine, for Hatsumode:
New Years is perhaps the most important holiday that is celebrated in Japan, with three days of festivities celebrated across the country. Hatsumode, or “First Worship of the Year” is an essential part of the celebration. Hatsumode is the first shrine or temple visit of the new year. Even people who do not hold Buddhist or Shinto beliefs will visit a shrine or temple during the first three days of the New Year in order to pray for a safe and happy year. People will make offerings of money, draw omikuji paper fortunes, and buy special good-luck charms and amulets (omamori) to ensure good health, success in business or school, finding a marriage partner, and so forth…It is said that nearly 70 million people in Japan visit shrines and temples over the three day New Years Holiday every year. This number may seem too large to believe, but each year Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu [shrine] alone receives 3.6 million visitors…
The photo below of the large area covered in white sheets at the shrine is where people throw coins for good luck. The picture of Maria buying an arrow for Kai is to bring him health and safety (you can also get ones for financial success, etc.) The one of small pieces of paper attached to wires is where people put unwelcome omikuji (fortunes) that they received. These are burned by staff at the shrine, to help lessen the chances of the bad fortune coming true.
The photos starting with the one of the two vans are from the next day, when we visited the grounds of the Imperial Palace to see the Emperor and the royal family wave for a few minutes to the thousands of people who poured in for this rare public appearance. The vans in the photo are owned by Japanese nationalists, who clearly stood out from the rest of the crowd (to me many of them looked like gangsters, with dark suits, sunglasses, and slicked back hair). There were many vans like these around, with nationalist slogans printed on them, in the old style right to left format.
It was a long walk to get to the palace, and there were police everywhere. We were lucky to be traveling with Eidan in his stroller, as we were personally escorted by a series of guards (we were passed from one to another as we passed various stations) along a path separate from the rest of the crowd.
I think the video of the crowd when the Emperor appeared speaks for itself. The photo with folks waving Brazilian flags was a contingent of Japanese Brazilians who were standing right behind us (Brazil has the largest population of Japanese living outside of Japan).
 The outskirts of Roppongi Hills on New Year’s Eve |
 Kai and Eidan, up in the middle of the night on New Year’s Eve |
 Kai and Kadomatsu, a traditional Japanese New Year’s decoration |
 Sake at Meiji Shrine |
 Kai and Maria, at the entrance gate to Meiji Shrine |
 On the walkway to Meiji Shrine |
 Approaching the Meiji shrine main building |
 Fortune seekers tossing their 5 yen coins for good luck in the new year |
 Kai getting his health and happiness arrow for the new year |
 Unwanted omikuji (fortunes) - these are burned by the shrine staff |
 Vans with nationalist slogans outside the grounds of the Imperial Palace |
 Approaching the Imperial Palace |
 On one of the bridges leading to Imperial Palace, looking at the other bridge |
 Video - The crowd goes wild for the royal family |
 The royal family waves to the crowd |
Kai and Eidan mugging for the camera, at a hotel in Boston
Kai and Eidan mugging for the camera, at a hotel in Boston
In my last post I promised pictures of our time in San Francisco, and here they are. I’ve included some pictures from Boston too. After spending Christmas in Newport with my family, we headed up to Boston the day before our flight to San Francisco, to visit with my aunt and grandfather. The Melrose library had a display for the month of December of my grandfather’s paintings. In the pictures below you’ll see some of them - there were many others as well.
The Japanese garden you see in the pictures is not in Tokyo, it’s in our previous home town, San Mateo. The garden was created when San Mateo became a sister city with Toyonaka, Japan.
The biography of my grandfather has already come down from the Melrose public library site, now that the display of his paintings has ended. So I thought I should save a copy:
Dr. Alfonso Mandrachia Artist Display
Local Talent on Display! Long time resident of Melrose, Dr. Alfonso Mandrachia, MD will display his art work during the months of November & December in the library’s main lobby.
Dr. A.C. Mandrachia was born on July 15, 1913 in Chelsea, MA and raised in Everett, MA. A graduate of Tufts University and Middlesex University, he served as a U. S. Army medical officer in Europe during World War II, awarded both a Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. After his discharge as a Major, he established his medical practice in Everett. Dr. Mandrachia had a long career as a family practitioner, during which he served as chief of the medical staff at Whidden Memorial Hospital (Everett), and company physician at General Electric in Everett and Automatic Radio in Melrose. Dr. Mandrachia and his wife, Eloise (d. 1989), moved to Melrose in 1954, and raised four children.
Dr. Mandrachia began painting in the early 1960s, but his most prolific period was in the 1980s. Working exclusively in oils, he found inspiration primarily in landscapes, but was also intrigued by the human figure. His work reflects the styles of various periods, from classical to impressionist. Now in his 90s, Dr. Mandrachia enjoys following politics, the Red Sox and the stock market, writing poetry, solving crossword puzzles, and reading.
We arrived in Tokyo yesterday evening (which was already New Year’s Eve here), and we’re staying at the International House. When we told Kai the name of the place, he excitedly said, “great, we can have pancakes for breakfast!” He was disappointed when we had to explain it wasn’t that International House. We’re here just for one night, as our apartment lease doesn’t start until the 1st.
We were too tired when we arrived to go out for any New Year’s Eve festivities, so we all slept from about 8PM to 1AM, and then the boys got up, as it was mid-afternoon by their body clocks (and mine and Maria’s too, but as parents of two boys who have never been great sleepers, we have mastered the art of sleeping anytime, anywhere). Maria took them out for a stroll for a couple of hours, and they ran into a lot of late night revelers. Maria says Eidan and Kai received many shouts of “cho kawaii” (they’re so cute!). I got up when they came back so Maria could go to sleep. It’s now almost 7AM - Kai’s watching a movie and I got Eidan back to sleep in his stroller about an hour ago.
The 10 hour flight from San Francisco went much better than we expected, as Eidan slept for the first 3 hours (thank you, makers of Benadryl) and for the last 2 hours. Kai spent his time watching videos on Maria’s laptop, and playing card games with us. I can now confidently challenge anyone to a game of Go Fish.
Tokyo’s Narita airport is a marvel of efficiency. In less than an hour after we got off the plane, we loaded up our free luggage carts, got through Immigration (apparently New Year’s Eve is not a busy travel day), got about 60,000 yen from the ATM (roughly $600 - with the low crime rates, it’s common for folks to carry lots of cash in Japan), dropped off our half dozen pieces of luggage with the takkyubin (and scheduled the delivery to our apartment for the next afternoon), bought our bus tickets for getting to the hotel, and boarded the bus exactly on time (you can expect just about any type of service in Japan to be exactly on time). There’s also train service from the airport, but for where we were headed, the bus was easier.
I’ve only had one encounter so far with someone trying to speak Japanese to me, but unfortunately I wasn’t up to it - partly because I was exhausted and partly because I didn’t know all the necessary words. It was the bus attendant unloading our bags and asking me for the luggage receipts. Maria was still on the bus with Kai, and I wanted to tell him my wife had the receipts and would be off the bus in a moment. The main thing I got stuck on was how to indicate possession: I know how to say something like “my wife’s bag,” but in this case I didn’t want to say “my wife’s receipts” - I just wanted to say she was holding them (I also didn’t know the word for receipt, but I was going to try “tiketo,” on the chance that ticket may be an English word that’s been adopted into Japanese). After I have a chance to ask Maria about this I’ll post the proper Japanese. I’m sure I have many, many more such encounters ahead of me, and I’ll learn something from each one.
We had a great 48 hour stay in the Bay Area before we flew to Tokyo. Edward threw a party for us at his amazing house in the hills of Woodside, and many of our old friends were there. I’ll post some pictures soon. We also spent some time in our old town, San Mateo, which has somehow managed to become even more densely packed with new buildings since we left 3 years ago (I’m mainly thinking of the Bay Meadows racetrack property, which used to be mostly grass, and is now filled with a multitude of office buildings and condos that press right up against highway 101). One great addition though is a pho restaurant on 3rd Ave. We stopped there for lunch, as I’ve heard you can’t get good pho in Tokyo, so that bowl will have to last me for a while. Fortunately, it was good 
The only night that was really tough was our stay at a hotel near Logan Airport, for our 6AM flight to San Francisco. Eidan decided to stay up the entire night. Around midnight I gave up trying to get him to sleep in the room, so I thought I’d try to put him to sleep by taking him for a stroll in the rectangular, endless loop hotel hallway. I gave up after about half an hour, and we spent the rest of the night chasing each other in the hotel lobby. He finally fell asleep at 4:30, just a minute before we had to get on the shuttle bus to the airport :-(. The upside is he slept for most of the flight. The downside is I didn’t, and I went for 40 hours straight with no sleep. I actually held up really well, probably because I was excited to be back in California for a little while.
Today our plan is to meet up with Maria’s friend Atsuko, and we’ll take in some of the New Year’s Day sights, as New Year’s is much bigger holiday here than in the US. Then we’ll move into our apartment this afternoon.
