Moving Back

This is it! Tomorrow we move back to Toronto.


The last couple of weeks have been spent feverishly organizing and packing but it all seems to be under control now. I am leaving the job in the hands of my capable and enthusiastic colleague Mike, and returning to my regular position in Toronto.

Our feelings about leaving are quite mixed. There are people and things here that we are very sad to be leaving. However, we are really looking forward to being closer to our families and our other friends. I am also eagerly looking forward to getting back to regular flying as soon as possible, before whatever skills I have disintegrate completely.

Over the past few months we were able to do some things that we had been meaning to do for a while. The highlight for me was visiting the Nagasaki Bio Park, where we enjoyed some serious quality time with the capybaras.































While in the Nagasaki area, we also visited the Dutch theme park (!) Huis Ten Bosch.





























We also finally went to Tokyo Disney Sea and Disney Land.

























We also attended the Tokyo sumo tournament in September.

Today we'll do a bit of last minute shopping and then join our friends for a farewell party. When we arrive in Toronto we'll be in a temporary furnished apartment for a few weeks; then we'll move into an apartment we have secured in our old neighbourhood. We are NOT looking forward to the weather. We are, however, looking forward very much to all of the seasonal festivities.

Plum Blossoms

Ohayo!

I can tell spring is coming because the plum trees are blooming. The past few months have whizzed by. We had a very nice visit with Dave and Alec in October. I spent December in Germany, consuming as much mushroom cream sauce and gluwein as possible. The highlight was visiting the town of Neanderthal, where there is (predictably) an early man museum. At this museum is a photo booth where I underwent a Neanderthal transformation (photographically - the one on the left is the original).

COMMUTING WITHOUT GROPING

After many months, I found a faster and better way to get to work! It turns out there is a train that takes me from my home station (Ebisu) to a convenient station on the monorail line (the Tokyo rail system is VERY COMPLEX, and it is not immediately obvious that some trains on the Saikyo line continue on the Rinkai line). The best thing about the new train is that during rush hour there is a "Women Only" car. It is marked with a big pink sign (on the train and on the platform). I guess it is a reaction to the problem of "chikan", or non-consensual groping on crowded trains. In addition to the absence of groping, the Women's Only car is pleasant in many other ways. It does not get as crowded as the regular cars (so the timing of my departure in the morning is not nearly as critical), and everyone generally looks and smells quite nice.

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SNOW MONKEY HOT TUBBING

In mid-January Ross and I went away for the weekend to the Nagano prefecture, to visit Jigukudani Monkey Park. This park is famous for its "snow monkeys" (macaques), who like to sit in natural hot spring pools (a pastime very popular in Japan, usually with humans). We stayed at the traditional inn next to the park. The place is a bit rustic, and is accessed via a 30-minute walk through the forest. Many monkeys visit the inn. They climb on top of it and soak in the hotel's outdoor hot spring bath. Ross and I were in the bath early in the morning, and two monkeys came over to hang out with us. They did not actually get IN the bath, but stayed on the edge. Later on, inside the inn, while I was brushing my teeth in front of the window, I was able to observe two monkeys cuddling on a ledge. When I returned with my camera, they were doing considerably more than cuddling, and I turned away in shame.

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BAR YAMAZAKI

During a visit with our operator in Sapporo, I was taken to "Bar Yamazaki", which is a refined drinking establishment in Japan's snowy north. Mr. Yamazaki recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and is famous for his hand cut silhouette portraits. My host had generously arranged for me to have my portrait done. While Mr. Yamazaki cut the portrait, a Canadian flag was placed in front of me and the Canadian national anthem was played over the sound system. I was very touched. The portrait is ok, but after the Neanderthal thing the bar is set pretty high.

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WIRU SUMISU

One day, walking home from Ebisu station after work, I saw a lot of people milling around Ebisu Garden Place (the entertainment / shopping centre near our apartment). There was a red carpet and lots of lights and cameras. I saw a figure working his way through the crowd. While I could only see the back of his head, I was able to deduce from the cries of "Wiru!" that it was Will Smith. It turned out he was in town to promote "7 Pounds". Rosario Dawson was also there. There was a little press conference and they talked about the movie a bit. There was a miniature Japanese translator.

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SINGSTAR CHANGED MY LIFE

I cannot express my gratitude to SONY enough. They have given me the gift of song, through the magic of a Playstation game called Singstar. As many of you are aware, I am a very bad singer. I know everybody says this, even (bizarrely) people who are actually good singers and have contemplated singing as a career. I, however, am the real deal. For example, in Grade 4, I was the ONLY PERSON IN MY GRADE who did not pass the audition for the school choir. My handicap has been painful for me. I have always considered my inability to sing as a great tragedy in my life.

When we moved to Japan I knew of the cultural importance of karaoke, and knew that my participation in it would be required at some point. Ross and I visited a karaoke box place in Toronto's Korea-town before we left, just so I could find some songs I could manage without making a complete idiot of myself. A couple of months after my arrival in Tokyo, my colleagues and I went out with the senior management of one of our operators, and the evening predictably ended with karaoke. (ASIDE: I know many of you associate karaoke in Asia with moral depravity. I must correct your impression. Karaoke in Japan is good clean fun. It takes place in small rooms with groups of friends or colleagues, free of any sordidness.) To be a good sport, I played along. My attempts at singing were met with condescending remarks such as, "Good effort", and, "It is very difficult to sing a whole song".

A few months later, Playstation and Singstar entered our home. I quickly became an addict. Suddenly I had a tool to practise singing, with an objective assessment of my performance. I found songs in my (very limited) range and practiced them until my scores became somewhat decent. Now my singing life is completely changed. At a more recent operator visit, the evening (again, predictably) ended in karaoke. This time my performance was a success, with my hosts cheering me and clapping along. I cannot fully express my amazement at this development.

Here are a few assorted photos. One is a statue of a stylized pig bum from a pork restaurant in Kagoshima. The dentist poster is for Sarah and Simali. I don't know what the deal is with those people dressed as cheese.

HOLY MOLEY - One Year Already

Ohayo!

I know it has been a long time since my last update, but to be fair, in the past 4 months I have spent only 6 weeks in Japan! (The rest of the time was split mainly between Croatia and Canada.)

It was so nice to return to Tokyo last week. SO NICE. I breezed through Immigration at Narita (with my Japanese visa I do not have to stand in line with the other foreigners!) to find my suitcase already on the baggage carousel. By the time I bought my ticket for the bus, it had been only twenty minutes since I had disembarked from the plane. TWENTY MINUTES! Can you imagine? Needless to say, I am very happy to be back in the land of heated toilet seats and excessively polite customer service personnel.

Work-wise, I hit the ground running with a visit to our charming one-airplane operator. As promised during my previous visit, a beach barbeque had been arranged. We ate on folding benches (owned by the airline, specifically for beach barbeques) and enjoyed grilled beef,fish, walnuts and garlic bread.

While chatting with the pilot who had taken me on my observation flights, I discovered that he was a retired 747 captain who used to fly the Prime Minister and the Emperor and Empress around in the Japanese version of Air Force One. He had a fond memory of eating lobster in Halifax.

The weather in Tokyo is now perfect. Because it is so nice, October is the most popular month for weddings. August, however, was another story. It was so hot and humid. SO HUMID. The paper in our office printer came out all curled up; clothes took forever to air-dry, and I finally understood why all the packaged food comes with little pouches of desiccant. I could not bring myself to jog in the mornings. Even at 5 a.m. it was 28 degrees, with 90% humidity!

Despite the discomfort, we managed to get out and do some fun things. One of the highlights was a Major League baseball game between the Tokyo Giants and the Yokohama Baystars. I was delighted to discover that in addition to being able to buy beer from the brightly-dressed women with keg backpacks, one could also purchase whisky at one's seat. The sellers had coolers with cups and ice and water to accommodate all preferences.

One night we had dinner at "Nefertiti Tokyo", an awesome Egyptian restaurant in our neighbourhood. We ate reclining on pillows and rugs, in a little private enclave surrounded by curtains. Along with the meal we enjoyed a performance by a belly dancer. After the meal we enjoyed some sheesha. Very nice.

There were many summer festivals involving food, music and dance. We attended a couple, and observed many Japanese people wearing "yukata", the traditional Japanese summer garment (like a kimono, but lighter and more casual). I bought a couple for my nephews, who were forced to wear them for my gratification.

This week we are looking forward to the arrival of our friends Dave and Alec. I can't wait to show them my favourite things in Tokyo: Sunday rockabilly dancers at the park, Rodeo Night, the Japanese Beatles tribute band at the Cavern Club, Cats LiviN, etc. Good times!

I composed a haiku in honour of my time in Croatia:

Five weeks in Zagreb

I'm glad I could remember

how to fly a plane

Tokyo Haiku

Ohayo!

Now that we feel so naturalized over here, writing about mundane daily experiences seems self-indulgent and tedious.

So now I turn to haiku, which seems merely self-indulgent.

Rush Hour

You pushy people

other times are so polite

Train mob crushing me...

Day trip to Mishima

We ate lots of eel

and saw the fireflies at night

then took the train home

Sundays at Zest Cantina


Mechanical bull

springs alive to buck and toss

It's Rodeo Night!



























Managing Visitors' Expectations of Seeing Mt. Fuji


Haze obscures the sky

With all this humidity

you'll never see it

This one is Ross's contribution (he found my original composition to be offensive):


The Cavern Club


Japanese Beatles

John is perfect, and Ringo's

lucky to be there

Spring in Tokyo

Ohayo!

I have been away for much of the past two months, but fortunately I was around enough to observe some fascinating Japanese culture.

On "St. Valentine's Day" in Japan, women give men chocolate. The chocolate giving is not restricted to those linked romantically; it extends to coworkers and casual acquaintances. Chocolate given to those in whom you have no romantic interest is called "giri choco" (meaning "obligation chocolate"). Men are supposed to reciprocate a month later on "White Day" (Obviously this was all made up by a confectionary company). On White Day the traditional gift is marshmallows, white chocolate or cookies. Apparently, the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift. I was not strict about that this year, but next year I'm putting the hammer down.

At the end of February Ross and I had a nice trip to Hong Kong to obtain our Japanese visas. Upon our return to Japan, we had to go to our local ward office to apply for our Alien Registration Certificates. Ross's first official act as a registered alien was to obtain a membership at our local DVD rental place.

In March I had a two-week trip to Toronto. On the way I stopped in Vancouver to meet my nephew Ruben (who is quite charming). The trip to Toronto was satisfying professionally and socially but meteorologically it was awful.

I returned to find Tokyo in the early stages of CHERRY BLOSSOM SEASON. You may know that the cherry blossoms are a really big hairy deal here. There are tons of cherry trees planted allover the place and the effect when they are all in bloom and everything else is still brown and drab is quite stunning. The act of viewing cherry blossoms (known as sakura) is called hanami. People meet for hanami parties where they spread blue tarps (why are they blue? I don't know. It's the same colour tarp as homeless people use to build shelters. They must be distributed by the government) under the trees and they look at the blossoms and drink.

Our good friends Maureen and Jay came to visit in late March. We had a lovely time, but were frustrated by the ever-changing retail landscape of the Tokyo area (Snoopy Town in Harajuku closed; the rabbit cafe in Kamakura seems to be gone, and the panda puff pastry place where one could also purchase panda puppets, appears to have been replaced by a takeout hamburger restaurant). During their visit we discovered a Japanese cultural phenomenon that at once delighted and frightened me.

Rockabilly Guys at Yoyogi Park

On Sunday afternoons some men dress up in 1950's style black leather and pointy boots, with their hair engineered into outrageous pompadours. They go to Yoyogi Park and set up very large speakers. They play rockabilly music. They dance. They all dance around facing eachother in a circle and take turns doing fancy moves in the middle. There is another group of jive-type dancers (with women in poodle skirts) but they suck. The black leather dudes have it going on. Nearby in Harajuku are the teenagers dressed up in weird costumes. Sundays are quite the freak show in Tokyo! In any other country this would probably all be quite disturbing but here, for some reason, it is charming.

At the beginning of April I went to Sydney for a week and a bit. It was satisfying professionally and socially, and gastronomically it was awesome. I returned to Tokyo to find the cherry blossoms almost all gone, and Nick and Jodie living in our apartment. Visiting with them was really fun. I had "violet sweet potato" ice cream. The highlight of the visit for me, however, was Rodeo Night at Zest Cantina.

Zest is the neighbourhood Mexican restaurant that Ross and I go to Friday nights. For many months now we have noticed an apparently defunct mechanical bull. We assumed that like the other Western artefacts and posters in the restaurant, it was just for show. However, last time we were there with friends someone asked about it and the waitress told us it was for RODEO NIGHT, which takes place every Sunday at 9:30 PM. Rodeo Night, it turns out, is awesome. The tables are moved away from the mechanical bull, and crash mats are placed all around. Volunteers sign up to ride the bull. Their names are called one by one. The two (Japanese) cowboy hosts lead the patrons in a count down before each ride: "Three, two, one, LODEO!" Then the mechanical bull goes nuts. It is freaking HILARIOUS.

I have just found out that I have another nephew (begat by Ross's sister this time). When it rains, it pours! Woo hoo!



This is Ruben (begat by my sister):

Year of the Rat

Ohayo!

Hey - I just felt an earthquake. The ground wobbled back and forth a bit. Stefan (who is currently visiting from Toronto) felt it too so I know it was real. Cool!

In Japan they don't really celebrate Chinese New Year, but they do seem to observe the animal zodiac. They take some liberties though- instead of rats on everything (cards, fabrics, posters) there are also cute mice and gerbils.

Hakone

While Ross's Dad was here in early January we went on a day trip to the Hakone region. It allegedly offers stupendous views of Mt. Fuji but we were not able to enjoy this aspect of the region as we were enveloped in cloud for most of the day. But it was still fun. We completed the classic "Hakone circuit", characterized by its insane variety of modes of transportation.

We took the train from Tokyo (the trip took around an hour and a half). Then we switched to the Tozan mountain railway. This is allegedly the world's steepest train line. The bends are so sharp that there are three switchbacks where the train goes forward into a siding and then reverses out to continue its ascent. At the Tozan railway terminus we switched to a funicular that took us further up the mountain. After the funicular we transferred to the cable car "Hakone Ropeway", which is apparently Japan's longest cable car route (4.3 km). This is where we really entered cloud.

Halfway along the cable car route we got out (at a proper station) to walk through Owakudani, an area with smelly sulphur hot springs. We bought some eggs that had been boiled in the hot spring. The sulphur turned their shells black. There was a large gift shop selling many souvenirs featuring Hello Kitty dressed as a black egg.

After the cable car ride we hopped on a boat done up as a Spanish galleon to cross Lake Ashinoko (which on clear days offers a stunning view of Mt. Fuji reflected in the lake). Then we caught a bus back to the station to catch the train back to Tokyo. In summary: train - steep mountain train - funicular - cable car - Spanish galleon - bus - train.

Work

I have been having lots of fun visiting our operators. While my colleagues have to deal with the sometimes cranky maintenance management personnel, I get to hang out with the cool pilots and flight operations engineering dudes. I visited an airline which has ONE plane. The airport on their island was built just for this ONE plane. Apparently this island does not get many foreign visitors (it is one of the less-developed parts of Japan) so my visit caused a small sensation (or at least I felt that way because of all the attention). In addition to meeting with the pilots and going on some observation flights, I had the chance to have a hot spring bath at my traditional Japanese hotel and to visit a temple with the Chief Pilot in his cool Mini (apparently there are three Minis on the island and they are all for racing).

Snow

It has snowed here in Tokyo a couple of times over the past few weeks. Last Sunday it snowed big, heavy wet snow all day. There was deep slush on the ground. We stayed local, shuffling between our brunch place, the Tokyo National Museum of Photography and the Ebisu Beer Museum, which are all thankfully within a three-minute walk of our apartment.

As it hardly ever snows, there is no sanding or salting of the streets. Instead, the buses and trucks put chains on their tires!

Other Things that Happened in January and early February

Our apartment building put on a traditional rice-cake (moshi) making display. The concierge said they like to have something special every year "for the children and the foreigners". I had the chance to pound the rice with the big mallet. Woo hoo!

Ross and I visited Namjatown, a food themepark in a mall. It was pretty weird. Highlights included the "Gyoza Stadium" where there were many stalls selling the best of Japan's Chinese-style dumplings. Then we went to "Ice Cream City" where I had a "sea salt and vanilla" soft serve cone while Ross had a crepe with some kind of black sesame component.

There were various other attractions in Namjatown. I visisted "Hell's Toilet", which is like a haunted house except you sit on a (non-functioning) toilet wearing headphones listening to what is presumably a ghost story (it was in Japanese). At various times little jets of air would blow on me and scary things would pop down in front. Even though I had no idea what the story was about it was quite effective. Next time we go I want to do the "Pig-riding shooting game".

Yesterday we went to see a table tennis tournament. It featured Japan's Top 12 players (men and women). It was a revelation. I had no idea that table tennis could be so athletic and serious.

Over the next few weeks I have to travel a bit for work and Ross and I get to go to Hong Kong for a few days to get our Japanese visas (!). Then I'll be back in Toronto for the first two weeks of March. Hopefully I will see many of you!

(I ate some of this octopus. It was fully dead but still freaky.)

These characters are called "Kapibarasan". We love them.