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Kamakura seems to be gone, and the panda puff pastry place where one could also purchase panda puppets, appears to have been replaced by a takeout hamburger restaurant).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):