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.

Happy New Year!

Ohayo!

I AM AN AUNT! My nephew is called Ruben. He lives in Vancouver. He is small and pink.

In December we had our SECOND visitors! Ross's sister and her husband came to visit. There was lots of shopping and eating and of course, karaoke. Good times.

Christmas was a bit of a strange non-event. After all the build up (decorations, trees, "Christmas illumination" displays, carols, salespeople wearing Santa hats or reindeer antlers), Christmas was basically just a regular day and then IMMEDIATELY on the 26th all the decorations came down. Then the New Year decorations went up: modest bouquets of pine and bamboo and oranges.

On December 27th my colleagues and I were invited to join one of our operators on their traditional end of year visit to the JCAB (Japanese Civil Aviation Board). The idea is to ask for continued good relations in the coming year and to forget the troubles that happened in the previous year (which would be very convenient for us). It turned out we crashed the most amazing office party I have ever seen. At the regional office there were foods from all over Japan. Mini gas burners had been set up to grill meat. There were pots of fish soup and huge plates of sashimi, scallops and raw oysters. There was wine, beer and sake. It was right in their office so there were desks with piles of paper all around. Nobody spoke much English so it was all a bit bewildering for me. But I think it went well (someone commented that we were very brave to visit, and that Boeing and Airbus have never visited the end of year party!).

During the week of the New Year holiday (when many restaurants and bars were closed- for the whole week!) Ross and I did some sightseeing. We went up the Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills to visit the contemporary art gallery and to see the 53rd floor view of Tokyo. We also went to a town on the coast south of Tokyo called Kamakura. We visited some temples and shrines and saw a big Buddha statue. There were MANY people there as it is a New Year tradition to visit temples and shrines. Happily this meant that there were many street food stalls so I was able to enjoy tako yaki (octopus balls). Then we watched the surfers and kite fliers at the beach and had dinner at a Hawaiian burger restaurant.

On New Year's Eve Ross and I enjoyed dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant (one of the few that were open) and then at midnight went to check out the local shrine action. There were around 20 people milling about our small local shrine (conveniently located next to a 24-hour Denny's) and then at midnight someone started banging a drum. Then everyone lined up to ring the temple bell. The drum was cool but the bell was a bit tinny and disappointing. But the net effect was quite charming.

Twice in the past month we have visited notable pet-friendly restaurants. The first was dog-friendly The Great Burger in Harajuku. There were water bowls for dogs at the front door and a nice bulldog wearing a Santa hat on a bar stool. The ladies in the booth behind us had a collection of tiny dogs wearing nice clothes. The dogs were carried out in a combination of fancy bags and a stroller.

The second place was a RABBIT-friendly cafe in Kamakura. We were the only customers without a rabbit. In addition to eating pancakes branded with a little picture of a rabbit, we could buy rabbit things and watch the resident rabbit. It was very nice.

Now we have our THIRD visitor (if you count Allie and Ben as one), Ross's father. He has just completed his teaching season in northern China and is currently enjoying the creature comforts of Tokyo (deep bath, unlimited hot water, good bakeries, mild weather).

Tokyo Mystery #1: The Moss Scooter

Since we arrived at the beginning of October, there has been an abandoned scooter outside the Westin hotel next door. It seems to have been tagged but has not moved for months. There is even moss growing on the seat. Whose scooter is it? Why is it still there? Why is there moss growing on the seat? I don't know.