Archive for March, 2007

Brief Hiatus, and the Tagata Jinja Hounen Matsuri

There’s a good chance I won’t blog again until sometime next week. This week and next week Kai is on a break from school, as he’s done with Kindergarten and 1st grade doesn’t start until April 9 (I usually blog during Eidan’s afternoon nap, but that’s harder to do when Kai sees that as his time for wrestling with me). Eidan’s been sick this past week with a cough that was keeping us all up at night, but I think he finally turned the corner today. And my mother and step-father arrive tomorrow for a 5 day visit. I have a growing backlog of cool stuff to write about, so I will do my best to start getting caught up next week.

In the meantime, if you’re not offended by pictures of “…a boisterous crowd of both Japanese and foreign visitors [witnessing] a 2.5m, approximately 300kg wooden phallus being carried on a mikoshi (portable shrine), by teams of 12 men…” then check out the Japan Visitor Blog’s post on the annual Japanese fertility festival, the Tagata Jinja Hounen Matsuri. It took place on March 15 and, to my regret, I didn’t know about it beforehand - otherwise I would have planned to go!

Political Campaign Season in Japan

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We spent the day today in the small town Kawagoe, but I’m too worn out now and don’t have the energy to write about it or part 2 of my Day Off. I’ll get to those soon, but tonight I’ll write about politics, which is actually much easier for me to do (go figure).

Japanese political campaigns are very different from the US’. On the face of it, the Japanese constitution’s guarantee of free speech is similar to the US’. I don’t know the legal history, but it seems that the definition of “speech” here is much more narrowly defined than it is in the US. During campaign season here, politicians spend a lot of time making speeches near major train stations, and in that environment they can say just about anything they want, just like politicians in the US. The reason they spend so much time out on the street is that they can’t advertise on TV. Ads for political parties are allowed, but not for individual campaigns. Even the party ads are very limited in what they can say - they can’t attack their opponents. So the end result is typically short, banal ads showing one of the party leaders saying something like “Go Japan!”

The campaign season also has a defined starting date - candidates can’t campaign before that date. In the current race for governor of Tokyo, it started a few days ago, on March 22, and it ends only 17 days later when the election is held, on April 8. (Tokyo prefecture is roughly equivalent to a state in the US. The governor is sometimes referred to in the Western press incorrectly as the mayor. Tokyo has no mayor, as the city was technically abolished in 1943 - each of the 23 wards that made up the city now has its own government, with its own mayor). Campaign posters can go up on privately owned buildings as the owner sees fit, but posters in public spaces have to go on boards that are put up by the city specifically for that purpose. The picture above shows Maria and Kai in front of one of these boards, with Maria expressing her opinion on the race.

She’s giving the incumbent governor, Ishihara, thumbs down. He’s famous in Japan as the co-author of The Japan That Can Say No - a collections of essays from the late 80s arguing for Japan to be more independent from the US and more assertive in foreign affairs. “Ishihara is generally described as one of Japan’s most prominent ‘right-wing’ politicians. He has also generated controversy due to his support for Japanese nationalism, frequent visits to Yasukuni Shrine [where several convicted war criminals from World War II are interred] and several displays of alleged racism, historical revisionism and sexism.” Asano, the challenger gets thumbs up. “Asano earned a reputation as a committed reformist when he was governor of Miyagi Prefecture, and has promised to bring the same qualities to the job of running the nation’s capital …Asano says his vision includes more transparent government and greater consideration of the needs of the socially disadvantaged.” Bloomberg has an excellent summary of the race and some of the issues involved. (I’d also like to point out that the only article published by CNN so far on the race is deplorable. Ishihara and Asano - far and away the two top candidates - get nothing more than a shared sentence near the beginning of the article, and then a few sentences at the end. Almost the entire article is about the goofy dark horse candidates, because y’know, all Americans really want to hear about Japan is how crazy those Japanese are.)

Ishihara has been popular, but his popularity has fallen recently into the low 40s. With multiple candidates in the race that still gives him an edge, but not much of one. Maria tells me Asano has been smart in his campaign so far, directly going after Ishihara’s nationalism, which is a key source of his popularity. Asano has been pushing the question: how can Ishihara expect to achieve his goal of a more independent and globally respected Japan, when his sometimes racially charged and historically distorted rhetoric does little more than make the world mad at him and not want to deal with him?

[tags]Japan, Tokyo, Japanese political campaigns, Tokyo governor, Ishihara, Asano[/tags]

Dad’s Day Off #2, Part 1: A Day in Fukagawa

Having a good day off calls for good planning, but not too much of it - you also need to leave room for serendipity. March 21st was the first day of Spring, which is a holiday here in Japan, and it was the first really warm, sunny day of the year. Maria had the day off from work, and she was kind enough to take the boys so I could run around on my own for the day. I made a plan to spend the day in Fukagawa - it’s a working class section of Tokyo that you won’t find in Lonely Planet or other tourist guide books (one sure indicator of it being off the beaten tourist path was that I didn’t see any non-Japanese faces all day). However, I did find a superb walking tour at the Tokyo Visitor’s Guide site. The page says to plan on a half day for it, but I decided to give it a full day, so I could take my time and branch off from the planned route if I wanted to.

That approach worked out perfectly, as there were two things I didn’t anticipate: one was that Fukagawa has a number of Buddhist temples with graveyards attached to them (I really like exploring graveyards), and the other was that the first day of Spring is when everyone comes out to clean their family haka, put fresh flowers on them, and burn incense. Japanese are typically cremated when they die. Their names are then inscribed on the family haka, which is a stone monument, and the ashes are placed inside along with the rest of the deceased family members.

I started at the Fukagawa Edo Museum, which provides an authentic re-creation of a roughly 1 block area of Fukagawa as it was during the Edo period (which is after Japan opened to the West for trade but before industrialization). It’s really wonderfully done - you can go inside all the buildings and get a close look at all the fine details of the interiors. There are also some humorous touches, such as a small statue of a peeing dog, and if you look closely, you can find a statue of a cat hiding inside a basket.

From there I headed to Kiyosumi Teien Gardens, but I was intrigued by a temple I saw along the way so I stopped in for a look. The place was bustling with activity and filled with smoke from incense, as folks were out to clean their family haka, bring flowers, and offer prayers. I’m usually fairly conservative with my picture taking, but over the course of the day I ended up filling my digital camera, mostly with pictures of interesting haka at this temple and others (like I said, I have a thing for graveyards).

After getting my fill of the graveyard, I grabbed a conbini (convenience store) lunch, so I could enjoy a picnic for one in the Kiyosumi Teien Gardens. Unlike the US, you can actually get halfway decent food from the convenience stores here. The Garden was quite simply one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. In addition to the amazing landscaping, it was filled with interesting ducks, birds, turtles, and fish. What struck me most though was the boulders. Normally I wouldn’t comment on rocks, but these were specially selected and hauled in from all over Japan when the garden was built, and their shapes and patterns were really fascinating.

While I was in the park a couple old ladies struck up a conversation with me. They didn’t speak any English, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could understand and communicate (of course, they were doing their best to speak simply to me). Usually when I’m out Maria is with me, and there’s a natural tendency for her to do the talking and for folks to address her instead of me, since she speaks Japanese, and you can’t tell from looking at her that she’s not from here. So I don’t have these kinds of encounters very often. I was able to tell them I was from America, and they asked if I was sleepy (I guess they thought I just stepped off a plane). I told them that I arrived in January and that I was here with my wife, who was working here until June (but I broke that information down into 3 simple Japanese sentences, as that’s where I’m at with my grammar). After that things broke down, as I couldn’t understand their next set of questions. So we said goodbye to each other, but I was happy to have made it that far.

So that’s the story up through lunchtime. I’ll write about the second half of the day - when I witnessed a car being blessed by a monk - in my next post.

[tags]Tokyo, Fukagawa, Fukagawa Edo Museum, Kiyosumi Teien Gardens, haka, Japanese graveyards[/tags]

Shopping at Jusco

Jusco is a department store chain with a presence in many parts of Asia. A Jusco store has the size and layout of a Macy’s, but a Wal-Mart like focus on everyday goods, with a grocery store thrown in. We go to our local Jusco about twice a month to stock up on essentials. It’s not near a major train station, and like many in Tokyo we don’t have a car, so we use their free shuttle bus, which stops just a block away from our apartment. As an American, shopping there is a bit eerie, as it’s 90% just like a US department store, but then you’re thrown off by the other 10%, which is really different.

Take, for example, this picture, of a young man in his underwear hawking beer coupons and beer mugs to kids. In the US he’d get arrested and the company would undoubtedly be sued for half a dozen different things, but here it’s no big deal. But it was unusual for someone to take a picture - after I snapped this one he got into a boxing stance and facetiously offered to fight me - I declined ;-).

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The next picture shows a man who’s there to sell you your very own personal hyperbaric oxygen chamber, just like Michael Jackson’s! Many Japanese are very big on, if not obsessed with, purity and cleanliness, so there’s a bigger market for this kind of thing here than there would be in the US.

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Then there’s Japlish, aka Engrish: the Japanese typically use English as a fashion accessory, not giving much thought to whether the spelling is correct or even if the words make any sense. For example, at Jusco we bought Kai a shirt that has a cartoon drawing of a military tank on it, surrounded by random English phrases such as “Donkey Lick” and “Forest Bath.” We got Eidan a shirt with a picture of a hot air balloon on it, and it says “Zepperrin.” We also bought a box of tissues that says “always to by the side” - what I think they’re trying for is “always by your side.” See these pictures from our 2004 Japan trip for some other examples (and if you want even more, there’s engrish.com). But every now and then I’ll come across some Japlish that actually makes sense and is very funny. But the humor is ironic, and I doubt the person who wrote it is aware of how it sounds to a native speaker. This picture of trash cans for sale at Jusco is a good example. They read, “would you like to review what your life should be…?” I almost bought one.

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Too Funny

[mpiphoto=173,left,scale,300] This is another one of those Kai and Eidan videos where there really isn’t any commentary I can add that would do it justice, so just watch and enjoy.

…Actually, one thing to point out is you can get an idea of how small our Tokyo apartment is. The boys share the bedroom and Maria and I have a “semi-double” bed in the living room, which is open to the small dining area and kitchen. Yes, that’s Maria in the background, doing her best to sleep through the boys’ breakfast time antics.

Do Not Mix the Heroes and the Monsters

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This is a silly picture, but I like it a lot. It’s from the Ultraman store in Yaesu Chikagai - the vast underground shopping mall attached to Tokyo station (it’s funny that the Japanese borrow from English to describe an above ground “shoppingu moru,” but if it’s underground, they have their own specific word, “chikagai”). You’re looking at 2 bins of Ultraman finger puppets (and you can see Eidan’s hands in there too) - one contains heroes and the other contains monsters. The sign reads “hīrō to kaijū wo mazenaide ne,” which means “do not mix the heroes and the monsters, ok?” with Ultraman and a monster adding “onegai” - “please.”

The verb is mazeru, “to mix.” Thanks to the class I’m taking I recognized the “nai” form, which is the informal, negative form (kids are usually addressed with informal language). I needed Maria to explain the “de” at the end - it makes the verb a command. Then “ne” is there to soften it a bit. The word bubble underneath saying “please” provides an additional, humorous contrast to the command.

Ultraman originated in Japan, and I can’t get over the fact that they put “ultra” in his name, as that’s a word that is really hard to pronounce in the Japanese syllabary. His name comes out as ウルトラマン - Urutoraman. His logo always has the ル (ru) and ト(to) in slightly smaller print, to suggest that those syllables should be de-emphasized, but still, it’s not a word that lends itself well to Japanese at all.

[tags]Ultraman, Tokyo, Tokyo Station, underground shopping mall, Yaesu chikagai[/tags]

Kai’s Birthday at Tokyo Disneyland

Kai had a blast at Disneyland, and Maria and I enjoyed it too. Maria and I also enjoyed being able to do it as a day-trip: no airplane tickets to Florida or California to buy, and no hotel reservations to make. There was just the 320 yen (about $3) round trip fare for the 40 minute train ride to Urayasu, and the Disneyland tickets. This being Japan, the land of convenience, you can get Disneyland tickets at any major JR (Japan Rail) station.

From what I can remember of visiting the Florida Disney World when I was a kid (in 1982!), the Tokyo Disney has all the same attractions. I thought the Enchanted Tiki Room, which I had never seen before, was bizarre and really dated. I discovered why after I looked it up on Wikipedia: it was part of Disney’s contract with Dole in 1963 that it could never be altered. My favorite attraction was Star Tours - you’re put in a big flight simulator (one capable of delivering roller coaster-like twists and dives), supposedly for a quiet tourist trip to Endor, but you quickly discover your pilot is incompetent, as he almost crashes the ship during take off. Then he gets you caught up in a battle around the Death Star. For some reason I found it even more comical in Japanese, with the host robot profusely apologizing each time we had a near-death experience, “gomen nasai, gomen nasai!” I explained to Kai before we got on the ride that it was all pretend and just for fun, and he was doing fine until the Star Destroyers appeared on the screen, when he sought some reassurance - “this is all pretend, right Daddy?”

The Westernland section of the park is distinctly American, with the Mark Twain Riverboat and old West style town. The one concession they made for the local Japanese population was the food: we had lunch in a Disney-ified frontier era restaurant, and ate good ‘ol American…curry and tonkatsu. Something else that was distinctly un-American about the food was the prices - they were not extortionary. I’ve gotten used to paying exorbitant sums for mediocre food when trapped in any kind of stadium or theme park in the US, but here the prices were shockingly reasonable.

There were only a couple things that didn’t work out. One was the weather - the day started out cold and only got colder. I brought Eidan home around 3, as it was getting too cold for him, but Kai and Maria stuck it out all the way through the nighttime fireworks show. The other thing was the lines. We thought we were being smart coming on a weekday, but some of the rides still had waits of over an hour, so we ended up skipping some of the more popular attractions.

We plan to come back when the weather is warmer. We learned we can get “fastpass” tickets ahead of time for the popular rides, which allow you to show up at a designated time and not have to wait. Also, there’s the DisneySea Park, a separate park adjacent to Disneyland - it looks like fun, and it’s the only one in the world (my guess is that in the US, Disney decided to not try competing with Sea World).

[tags]Tokyo, Disneyland[/tags]

Asakusa Jinta Playing the US

If I were living in Tokyo but was single with no kids, my website would probably be a lot like Japan Live. The author posts regularly about bands he sees in Tokyo. He recently wrote about the “hardcore marching brass” band Asakusa Jinta:

This septet takes old Japanese popular music, mixes in rock, rockabilly and a teaspoon of punk, and cooks up a sound that is both nostalgic and brand new. The ‘jinta’ in their name refers to brass bands that were active in the Meiji and Taisho eras (that is, 1868 to 1926), and horns and saxes, in addition to an accordion and a pumped-up double bass, are key ingredients in their songs. Their music sounds like modernized versions of old Japanese movie music (you can sample some of their tunes here).

Most Japanese bands borrow from western music styles like rock, blues and hip hop, but very few tap into Japan’s own home-grown musical traditions. Asakusa Jinta does, and succeeds brilliantly.

I haven’t heard their music beyond what’s on their MySpace profile, but they sound like an awful lot of fun.

I just came across the Japan Live site, so I’m writing this post now because Asakusa Jinta are starting a US tour. Relevant locations for friends who read this blog are: Boston, March 10; Philly, March 12 (or possibly the 13th - I saw two different dates posted); and San Francisco, March 19. Details are on their MySpace page. If I’m lucky they’ll play in Tokyo again before we head back to the US.

Day Trip to Zushi

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Starting in the back, going clockwise: Maria’s aunt Hiroko, her husband Masuda-san, Hiroko’s daughter Makiko holding Eidan, Maria holding Kai, Hiroko’s daughter Akiko holding her daughter Karin, Maria’s aunt-in-law Masako holding Makiko’s son Tatsuki

Last Sunday we visited Maria’s relatives in Zushi, which is about a one hour train ride south of Tokyo. Maria’s grandparents owned a large piece of property there until sometime after World War II, where they raised 8 children (Maria’s father Tony was the oldest). Most of the property was split up and sold a long time ago, but Maria’s aunt Hiroko (Tony’s youngest sibling) still has a house there (where she lives with her husband, and daughter Akiko), and one of Maria’s uncles who recently passed away was next door (his wife Masako still lives there).

We spent the day at Hiroko’s house and at the nearby beach. It was a sunny day in the mid-60s - an amazingly warm day for early March and a great opportunity to spend some time at the beach. Hiroko’s other daughter Makiko came to visit, along with her son. As you can see in the pictures, the boys especially took to playing Makiko.

Everyone was impressed with the lunch Maria made - something most of them never had before - chili! (we brought a bunch of Shelby’s Texas Chili Mix with us from the US).

Akiko is the one I know best. That probably has something to do with the fact that she’s the only one who speaks English ;-). She visited us when we lived in California, and we saw her on our two previous Japan trips as well. She’s a certified Japanese teacher - it’s too bad Zushi is so far away, as I could do with some lessons!

Our trip to Japan in 2004 started in Zushi. It was great to visit again - especially for Kai and Eidan, who got to play in the sand and spend some time with their Japanese cousins.

[tags]Zushi[/tags]

Eidan Sends His Love

Eidan sends his love

I haven’t posted many pictures of Eidan since we arrived in Tokyo, so I figured I better post some before his grandparents start to complain .

He turned 19 months old yesterday, and I’m happy to report he’s as rambunctious as ever. Almost all his teeth are in, and he’s finally taking an interest in talking. Especially over the past few days, he’s been trying to repeat what he hears us say. Unlike Kai at this age, Eidan’s diction isn’t very good, but that’s ok, because it’s also very cute. We particularly enjoy listening to him as he sings along with the Miffy theme song - he sings it as “Mippy” (as evidence that I’m watching too much children’s TV, I’d also like to point out that the Miffy theme song is way more cute in Japanese than it is in English). His favorite phrase is “bye, bye.” He shouts it at the bus when we get off, and says it at just about every opportunity - to store clerks, people in elevators, etc.

His personality is quite a contrast to Kai’s: at this age Kai was all about talking, looking at books, drawing, and not touching anything that might make him dirty. Eidan is all about running, throwing, and getting as dirty as possible. His interest in books only extends to how far he can throw them. He’s definitely more hot-tempered than Kai was at this age (he’ll sometimes drop to the ground and bang his head on the floor when he doesn’t get his way), but also more affectionate.

Spring is arriving early here in Tokyo, and not a moment too soon as far as I’m concerned. Eidan is happiest (and therefore easiest to manage) when he has lots of room to run around, and being outside is much more practical when the weather’s warm. It’s likely you’ll be seeing a lot more pictures of Eidan in a variety of Tokyo parks over the next few months .