Japan vs Australia: part 3

Speaking of pedestrian crossings, I have to remind myself that in Australia, they are actually useful. Now at this point I'm not talking about pedestrian crossings with lights, but just the ones with white lines painted on the road. In Australia, cars will (theoretically) actually stop to let you cross here. That's its purpose. In Japan, I don't know what the point is, because you have to pause and wait for all traffic to pass anyway. I suppose if you're crossing at the crossing and a car does come, there's an infinitesimally greater probability of its noticing and stopping.

When I arrived in Japan, I thought 'wow, the apples are really big (and expensive)'. They were more of a light meal than a snack. When I got back to Australia, I thought 'geez, these apples are ridiculously small'.

Similarly, bread. Oh, it's good to have proper, decent-tasting wholemeal bread again - at a fraction of the price. But it does look rather sad and small compared to the huge Japanese loaves.

On the other hand, it's lovely to have a wide range of nice, non-processed cheeses.

While I was in Japan, I heard the news that smoking had been banned in pubs, and therefore everywhere. For some reason I thought this now meant smoking was actually banned everywhere. And every time I sat outside at some Japanese cafe, enjoying the beautiful autumn air right up until some jerk started blowing smoke in my face, I thought 'well, at least in Australia this won't happen'.

Wrong! Wrong! Still perfectly fine outside! This always bugged me, actually. Okay, I sort of believe smokers should have rights, smokers should ideally have a place where they could sit. But I love sitting outside when the weather is nice. I seek out every minute of outdoors I can. It's just not fair that smokers should render all outdoor seating areas unpleasant. I don't want to be forced into the sterile airconditioning.

The toilets in Australia - why is there always toilet paper on the ground? What do people DO? It's almost impossible to find any public toilet without paper all over the place. In Japan, with the exception of some toilets in minor train stations and parks, toilets are kept very clean.

Japan vs Australia: part 2

Here are more differences I noticed when I came back to Australia:

I had been telling people that public transport, though woeful here, is at least quite cheap. None of this 'pay extra if you go a few extra stops' business. But actually, public transport is NOT cheap any more. Just hopping a bus costs over $4, even if you're only taking it for five minutes.

I had occasionally resented things in Japan for closing so early, but to be fair, some things do here, too. At 5 or 5:30, all the shops and department stores are closing up. Even my local national park, where I'd like to sit in the sunny early evening, closes at 5.

As I thought, Australians try to wear as little as possible. Even when the air is actually quite chilly, if the sun is out, people will be out in it, in their t-shirts. If the temperature goes up a few degrees, it's out with the short shorts and tank tops. Quite a few people's normal casual gear here would rarely be seen in Japan except at the beach. And if you went to Japan in similar weather, in spring or autumn, wearing these clothes, people would constantly ask you if you were cold. In Japan, you dress for the seasons, and it tends to be mostly long sleeves for 3 seasons of the year.

A friend who visited Australia remarked to me that in Australia, 'the lights change really fast'. I had always thought the same thing about Japan. But coming back, I realised it's very true.
We have a different style.
In Japan, the green man shows for quite a long time, long enough to almost entirely cross the street. Then, when the man starts to flash, you have only a couple of seconds to make it the rest of the way. So if you're only a short way across, and it flashes, you'd better sprint!
In Australia, the green man sometimes shows for only a couple of seconds, then the flashing red man. However, from the point when the man starts to flash, it you've usually got enough time to cross the road in full. Basically, if you weren't crossing when the red man started to flash, you shouldn't start.
I guess both systems have their pros, but I have found that under the Japanese system, I am more likely to sprint, as I don't know when the green light started. (Mind you, I did use pedestrian crossings far more often in Japan than here in Oz.)

Japan vs Australia: part 1

I recently returned to Australia after two years in Japan. After many occasions of answering Japanese people's questions about Australia, it was nice to reacquaint myself with how Australia actually is. Sometimes I'd say things like 'well, we don't have much authentic Japanese food in my hometown', then I would pause and think - is that really true? Or I just didn't notice it? You lose touch.

Anyway, after coming back to Australia, here are some of the things that struck me:

Everyone was ordering their own meals again. The meals were usually too big to comfortably finish, and nobody shared.

People didn't automatically stand to the left of the escalator, and let people walk on the right. Actually, I first noticed this in Singapore, where I stopped en route to Australia. A couple of times I had to bite my tongue to stop myself telling my friend 'shouldn't you move over?'

It's true; the temperature really does go way up and down here. One week will be all 19s and 20s; the next, high 30s. In a single day - literally, in the span of two hours - it plunged from 38 degrees down to 18 degrees. In Yokohama, the weather didn't vary quite so wildly from one week to the next.

It is cold here! I wasn't just imagining it. And my friends weren't just being sad, not-used-to-really-cold-weather Australians, either. Okay, so the actual thermometer temperatures are slightly higher than in Japan. But buildings are really inadequately heated. I sat in a library, wearing a long-sleeved top, jacket, and coat. And I was so cold I had to leave. I went to a different library; same outfit; same problem. Even cafes weren't warm.

I can get cappuccinos everywhere!! I can get decaf coffee anywhere!! I can drink coffee anywhere, any time I want! I don't have to patronise Starbucks, and Starbucks alone, all the time! (And in fact, Starbucks went bust in this city after less than two years, due to its lack of popularity. So there actually are no Starbucks here. Mind you, I do now have a soft spot for it, but Starbucks Japan's coffee was much better than Starbucks Australia's..)

The bright side

Following up from my last post about excessive packaging, it does have its good points.

If you buy cakes or desserts from a food hall or cake shop, the staff will ask you how long until you get home. This is so they can work out how many packs of ice to give you. If you buy a piece of cake, it will come in a box, wrapped in a piece of cardboard so it doesn't touch the edges of the box, and nestled next to little packs of ice to keep the cake cold. This box will then usually be put in a plastic bag (etc etc). But the ice idea is really great.

It's not only for cakes. A lot of larger supermarkets have an ice section. That is, after you've gone through the checkout with your purchases, you can help yourself to a free bag of ice, to tuck in with your perishables. Useful if you've got a long trip home, it's summer, etc. You can even get dry ice so that it doesn't fill the bag with water when it melts! How cool is this!

Recycling

In one particular area, the difference between Australia and Japan is stark. I am talking about the use of packaging.

If you have been to Japan, you will know what I mean.

In Australia, we are no longer provided with plastic bags at supermarkets or some department stores. If you forget to bring your green canvas bag, you might have to buy one at the supermarket, or else stagger back to your car clutching an armful of bread rolls, 2-litre bottles of milk, frozen dinners and tampons. Even before this new rule was implemented, if you bought fewer than three or four items, they would always ask you 'do you want a bag for those?' (with just a hint of accusation if you were considering saying 'yes').

In Japan, even if you are buying one very small item - even if you are already carrying half a dozen bags - they will usually put it in a bag by default, without even asking. Often, a plastic package will be wrapped in more plastic, and then put in a plastic carry bag. I was throwing away at least 20 plastic bags in an average week, in addition to the many plastic bags I re-used for carrying things, bin liners, etc.

I always found it strange, in a country that had such strict recycling laws, and where everyone was starting to talk about being eco-friendly.

(Incidentally, it made me laugh when I saw the 'washlet' - electronic, self-flushing toilets described as being 'eco-friendly'. Why? Because you save on water, because you can play a fake flushing sound while you do your business. What's the alternative? Continuously flushing the toilet while you pee?
At any rate, usually the so called 'automatic flush' is unable to determine when you've gotten off the bowl, and therefore the toilet flushes two or three times before you've actually finished. Waste of water and electricity. Mind you, I still like them, just don't try to tell me they're good for the environment.)

To be fair, some supermarkets do have little cardboard 'no plastic bag please' tags at the checkout - you just pop one on top of your groceries and they won't give you one. I am ashamed to confess how long I was in the country before I noticed these and realised what they were for.

Public baths

(I decided I'd continue to update this blog periodically. Some of the content will have been written previously. This one is from last winter.)

Boom, boom, boom, boom... I can feel the blood pounding in my head. My skin is bright pink all over and I'm overcome with languor. It's six degrees outside yet I can't feel the slightest hint of cold.

No, I'm not sick. I've just been to a sento, which is a Japanese public bath. Most websites or blogs about Japan have done the topic of public baths to death, but I'll do it again here... in the past, public baths used to be really common, but these days most families have baths in their own home, so they aren't as popular anymore.

Nonetheless, sento still exist, for the benefit of those without baths in their homes, or those who want to relax in a much larger bath, or go with a friend as a social activity. And of course, taking hot spring baths around the country are really, really popular holiday activities for many Japanese people.

There's a sento in my neighbourhood; for a long time I didn't know it was one, since it's surreptitiously hidden in a kind of bicycle-filled laneway. But oftentimes when I climb the stairs to my apartment, I have been able to smell a pleasant fresh smell of hot water and soap and shampoo. Finally I decided (after a bit of nervousness) to go and visit the bath for myself.

I've picked up enough about bathing etiquette in my time here to have some idea what to do. You bring your own towel and soap, go in and there are lockers for your shoes; then doors marked 'men' and 'women' (in Japanese). I went into the 'women' room and there was a sleepy-looking man sitting next to the door to collect everyone's 450 yen. He was clearly partitioned to be able to deal with both the men's and women's sides. The problem I had with this was that from his vantage point he could very obviously see the entire women's changing area. I've since read on Wikipedia that this is quite common.

Anyway, inside the changing area you put your clothes and towel in a basket, and any valuable items in a locker; the keys are attached to elastic you can loop around your wrist. Then you walk into the next room which is the bathing area.

In bigger or fancier sento, and in some onsen (hot spring baths), you may have multiple types of bath, a small garden, drinks machines, massage chairs, etc. In my small neighbourhood sento, there was none of that bling; just one big bath; one side of which had jacuzzi jets.

Before you go into a Japanese bath, though, you have to wash before you get in. You sit yourself on a plastic stool by one of the washing stations (with water taps and a shower spigot) and wash yourself by pouring water over yourself. You should be properly clean before getting in. Since the water is shared, you never use soap or other products in the bath itself. The bath's for relaxing in.

Anyway, not much else to say except that as famously advertised, these places are hot, and I'm speaking as one who loves hot springs. It was about 48 degrees, just a couple of degrees more than I find comfortable. Getting in was okay, and for the first two minutes it was lovely. The nights are really cold here at the moment, so it was perfect weather to try the sento for the first time. Then gradually my head started pounding. I managed to stay in for ten minutes; got out and doused myself with cold water; went back in and lasted three more. Kind of a poor effort really!

Hmm

I saw a young man wearing a black t-shirt which said 'SATAN AND DARKNESS'.

He was carrying a plastic Chip 'n' Dale bucket from Disneyland.

City Spotlight: Kawasaki (part 2)

Okay, so we covered the department stores in the last post. What else?

Left side

So, you're in Kawasaki station. If you head left from the ticket gates, you'll come toward Muza and LaZona.

Kawasaki Muza is Kawasaki's concert hall. Kawasaki prides itself on being a bit of a hub of entertainment, and has three movie theatres. Muza has a variety of concerts, including free shows; check their website for more info.

Muza

Near Muza is Nishi-guchi-dori, the street that runs back between Muza and LaZona. I recommend Inje, the Peruvian restaurant, and An An, a chain yakiniku restaurant with cheap drinks which is open all night, I think.

Right side

However, the other side of the station is of more interest generally. Once you go out, and across the taxi bay (you can go underground, through Azalea), you'll get to Kawasaki's restaurant and entertainment area.

Gin-ryu-gai is a partly undercover pedestrian street. It has a lot of drugstores and karaoke places (why that combination, I'm not quite sure). Off Gin-ryu-gai are lots of side streets which are full of restaurants. After dark, some of them become a bit dodgy; Kawasaki is famous for having a kind of red light district, hostess clubs, that kind of thing.

Entrance to Gin-ryu-gai

My picks in this area are... I forget the street name. On Gin-ryu-gai, take the side street where there is a First Kitchen on the corner, walk for about three minutes, and on your right will be an Indian restaurant called Tandoor, and almost next door, an Italian restaurant called Mona Lisa. They are my recommendations, though honestly, I like everything. ^_^

If you are coming from the station, go right on Gin-ryu-gai, and across the road you'll come across La Citadella, which is also near Saikaya department store. This is a small 'Italian town', which is decked out to look Italian, and hosts some quite good Italian restaurants. It's a good place to sit outside; there are a few restaurants with outdoor terraces, and a movie theatre, CineCitta. Club Citta and a few bars are also in the vicinity.

La Citadella

There's also a public fountain which goes off rather dramatically at one-hour intervals (on the weekends, there's often live music there, and I amuse myself by imagining if the scheduled fountain suddenly went off while they were playing ^_^).

Near the entrance to La Citadella are a bunch of pachinko parlours (bleagh), but in that area there is also a cat cafe. (This cat cafe has 30 or more cats you can look at and play with.) You may see the cafe staff advertising it around Citadella's entrance. I've been there about six times. ^^;;;

Oh yes, there's a library near Kawasaki station too. If you leave the station but turn left before you go into Azalea - you will see the RiverK building (pronounced, bizarrely 'ribaark') - it's a very tall and nice-looking building, with escalators that are partly outdoors. If you take the elevator to the 4th floor, you will find the library. ^_^

City Spotlight: Kawasaki (department stores)

Kawasaki is the city between Tokyo and Yokohama. The business and social heart of the city is located around JR Kawasaki station, so in this post, when I say 'Kawasaki', I mean that area. I'll start with the department stores.

JR Kawasaki station is surrounded by many department stores (Keikyuu Kawasaki station is also nearby).

LaZona Kawasaki Plaza is the biggest, coolest and most popular department store. It's connected to the station building itself. It has a big open-air courtyard and is a nice place to sit outside on a fine day. It has a movie theatre, game centre, gym (Konami), BIC Camera, big discount store (Daiso), lots of restaurants, a good supermarket, food hall and food court. It has a big Maruzen bookstore, which has a reasonable English selection.

You'll often see people lining up at a small bakery/cafe in the courtyard - they are buying dojima rolls, which are sponge roll cakes. For some reason they have attained 'fame' status and so there is usually a line of people buying them.

I don't like buying clothes here - they are mostly expensive, except at Uniqlo - but I often go to LaZona for the food, or the ambience. The food court has a few good choices, my favourite being the Thai. I also like the Diner, which is on the fourth floor, and has outdoor seating - it has the best burgers I've tried in Kawasaki.

Kawasaki BE is also part of the station building, on the other side from LaZona. Again, I rarely go here except for food. There is a Krispy Kreme. The basement floor has a food hall; I like the Italian store 'Plates', which has a 'fill your own tray' lunch bento deal, and I always love Beard Papa's cream puffs. ^_^

Azalea is a big underground mall. It is not very atmospheric, but it is very useful on rainy days and when navigating about, as it is rather sprawling. There is a big taxi area in front of the station which you cannot walk across, so you can use Azalea to walk from the station to Citadella, or More's, or one of the many bus stops.

Azalea has, I think, the most reasonably-priced range of clothes, if you are looking to buy clothes. I also like the tempura and soba restaurant (?a chain, I think) and Cafe La Mille, which has very overpriced drinks, but does sell scones with jam and cream, which I occasionally crave. ^_^

Kawasaki Le-Front is a little outside the station - if you go out Kawasaki BE, it's on the right. It's one of those somewhat annoyingly designed department stores, which is very tall with not that many stores on each floor, so that you are constantly going up and down escalators. (Kawasaki More's and Dice are the same style.)

Le-Front has a decent 100-yen store, and a big Yodobashi Camera, and another Konami sports gym. I sometimes go to Subway here... oh, on the second floor, there's a small Italian restaurant with outdoor seating, and some other spaces where you can sit outside. (The weather is super nice at the moment, so I am all about outdoor seating ^_^).

Saikaya, near Le-Front, is in my opinion the least interesting of all the department stores. Even the restaurant floor and food hall are not great. Saikaya does sell some luxury and brand-name goods, if that floats your boat. It doesn't float mine.

Kawasaki More's is another tall, thin department store, across the taxi bay from Kawasaki station. It's not very interesting, but it does have a decent-sized Book Off and a large, obnoxious game centre. If you go to the basement area that connects to Azalea, you can see the World's Shortest Escalator. I'm not kidding. There's even a Guinness Records certificate on the wall.

In the summer months, More's has a rooftop beer garden. You can't see much view, as the roof is heavily enclosed in thick protective fences. But it's still nice to enjoy the open air and all-you-can-drink. ^_^

Kawasaki Dice is another tall, thin department store, near Keikyuu Kawasaki station. There's an electronics store, a fairly big Aoi bookstore (they also have some English books), and, well, I haven't spent much time here...

Kikoku suru

In a little while, I will be leaving Japan. At that point, I will probably discontinue this blog (sorry to all two readers of it, ha ha ha). So in the meantime, if there is anything you would like me to blog about, or any information you would like about Yokohama/Kanagawa/Tokyo etc, please feel free to request it in the comments. ^_^

Kumon: my thoughts

I am currently studying Japanese at Kumon.

I looked into a lot of different Japanese schools around Kanagawa and Tokyo. However, all of them seemed rather expensive, or were for much longer courses than I wanted to take. Also, I'm slightly ambivalent about taking a group class, where I can't control how fast or slow I progress.

I wanted a school where I could study at my own pace, where I could miss a class without it being a big problem, and where I could study for a short time. I didn't want anything too expensive, and ideally I wanted to study kanji in a more structured way.

(I have been studying kanji with a textbook and flashcards, but it's been slow going; I haven't been remembering them terribly well, and I can write almost none of them. I don't think I am a very 'visual' person.)

So I joined Kumon. Now, Kumon is actually like a cram school for Japanese kids. The branch I go to is a very homey and functional kind of place; basic and cluttered up with lots of books and pigeonholes and blackboards, with rather dated equipment, and loads of educational posters on the walls, and classroom desks with little stools. In short, it looks like a place where real study is done. When I go there, there are young children of various ages studying maths and English and Japanese.

Kumon's style is that you pay a monthly fee; this allows you to get worksheets and a CD, and you work through the worksheets at your own pace. I go in twice a week to the school itself, where I do some worksheets by myself and sometimes practice 'ondoku' (reading aloud) to the teacher. Then I do some more worksheets at home.

Basically, you will be responsible for yourself; it's not interactive. You will share your teacher with lots of other students; the teacher does not really 'teach' you, but is there to correct your sheets, point out your mistakes, and hear your reading.

The style is quite repetitious; each series of worksheets have a lot of the same sentences and words you will read and write over and over again. The worksheets come in batches of 10, each one taking about 30-40 minutes (for me, at the moment), which I think is a good thing; I like having a set, clearly defined piece of work to tackle. Having my teacher check off my progress booklet by booklet is more motivating for me than just having a textbook to slowly work through.

The level I am doing is rather low for me in terms of grammar, but my main intention is to practice reading and writing, to gain some new vocabulary, and to reinforce and strengthen my basic grammar. As a result, the worksheets are currently not difficult for me in terms of content, but they take a while to plug through. To be honest, I'm not sure if I could totally 'get' the grammar if it were introduced at a level I didn't already understand. My mind doesn't work well in terms of subjects and topics and predicates and whatnot.

In addition, I'm not sure if I would want to continue this style of study for a long time; I might get bored with it after a while. And I am supplementing the Kumon lessons with language exchange and private lessons, so I can get more advanced grammar and conversation practice.

I'm finding this study is a very good thing for me right now. The problem with my previous kanji study was that I wasn't reading or writing enough of it to properly remember them. Also, my reading and writing has been a lot slower than it should be; I can already feel myself improving as I concentrate on it. I can write a number of kanji now.

Lately I've been proud of myself for being able to go to karaoke and read the Japanese lyrics fast enough to sing the songs. Before, if I wanted to sing a Japanese song, I would have to memorise the whole song before going in. Now, if the song is not fast, I can sing it. Hopefully after a little more Kumon training, I will be able to sing the fast ones too. ^_-

[Edit, after finishing at Kumon: Okay, so I completed my month. How was it?

The first three weeks were good and I finished a lot of worksheets. I found that as I got closer to the end - and therefore knew I wouldn't be continuing it - my motivation dropped off a lot and I just couldn't make myself do those booklets. I think I enjoyed them a lot at first, because I had a lot of free time and I really wanted to progress as much as possible. But after a while, the repetitious style got a bit wearisome.

I think if I had continued doing them, it would have been ideal kanji practice. I'd continue reading and writing the same kanji again and again throughout my studies, thus securing them more and more firmly in my own mind. And several months later, I can still remember how to write some kanji that I couldn't write before Kumon. I can imagine that if I'd studied Kumon for several months*, I would have quite a solid foundation of a decent number of kanji.

*(Mind you, if I were studying over several months, it would probably be much more part-time and less concentrated. And if I was only doing, say, one or two worksheets a week, it would be harder to remember words and kanji between times, I think.)

Autumn

It's autumn.

Seasons here have their associated images, foods and activities. I mentioned summer's symbols in this post.

Some autumnal paraphernalia include:

• grapes - many varieties
• mushrooms - yum yum yum ^_^
• moon-viewing (though I don't actually know anybody who does this, McDonald's has brought out their 'Tsukimi burger' - 'tsukimi' meaning 'moon viewing' - which has a big round fried egg on it)
• chestnuts (often called 'marron' - the French name - in Japan - coffee shops will bring out a few 'marron'-related products)
• maple leaves
• obviously, autumn foliage (the changing leaves are called 'kouyou' in Japan; in late autumn it's common to go to nice parks or countryside places to see the kouyou)

A number of shops are now decorated with autumn leaves; others are already busting out the Hallowe'en decor. (Hallowe'en is not widely celebrated, but it is widely used in decorating.)

It's interesting how as soon as we hit August 31, the weather suddenly changed. It was just a calendar date, but suddenly, bang, it didn't *feel* like summer any more. All through July and August, I went about without a jacket, neither day nor night. But now you never know when a cool spell will hit, or when it will suddenly start raining, or when the night will come in with a slight chill in the air.

A Day in: Kawasaki

Today I go to Kawasaki. This is the city between Tokyo and Yokohama. Though if you were travelling by road, you probably wouldn't have any perception of one city 'ending' and the next 'beginning'.

I start on Nishi-guchi-dori, and to a Peruvian restaurant for lunch. The staff are Peruvian. I always think it's kind of cool when I can communicate with Peruvian, or Chinese, or Korean people, in a shared second language.

I get a lunch set - meat dish, soup, and iced coffee - for a cool 700 yen. I'm beginning to really like Japanese iced coffee.

(See, in Japan, the 'standard' drinks are iced coffee, hot coffee, iced tea and hot tea. If you get a set meal anywhere, these are your most common, basic choices. All four are served black. So for example, in Australia, 'iced coffee' is a rather sickly sweet, very milky drink. 'Iced tea' is usually a flavoured, slightly fruity drink. But in Japan it's as though you simply took regular black coffee or black tea and served it cold, with ice.

To your iced tea or coffee you can then add milk and sugar. These are also different to Australian milk and sugar; the milk comes in tiny, super-concentrated little cups, and the sugar comes as 'gum syrup', which is liquid sugar. This is better for dissolving into a cold drink.)

The restaurant is almost empty when I enter, but soon starts to fill up. Groups of businessmen come in, and soon there is a mass of white shirts. I am the only woman in the shop.

After lunch, I walk behind LaZona. I'm going to try to walk towards Kamata, and the Tama River. The sun is bright and hot overhead. I'm a little hot in my t-shirt and 3/4 pants. All the other women I see are wearing long pants, and mostly, long shirts. The lady in front of me is carrying an umbrella. I wish I'd had the foresight to put on sunscreen.

I come upon a recycled goods shop - not a common occurrence, in my experience. I go in and think 'eh, the 100 yen store is better'. There is an electric ear cleaner which looks like a hair dryer. I remember a recent conversation I had with three Japanese friends.

'I clean my ears once a week,' said the first.

'Ehhhh,' said the second, shocked. 'I'm three days in a week. How about you?'

The third said, 'I clean mine every day'.

They were very surprised to learn that I don't even own a mimikaki (ear-cleaning brush).

I finally circumnavigate LaZona. It comprises a big area. Around the building is grass. It's not every day I see grass, so I feel happy. Unfortunately, all the grass has been fenced off with ugly green traffic cones and tape. Keep off the grass.

I start to pass buildings I have never seen before. One building has a large flower display inside, with a water feature. At first I think I am seeing the reflection of the park outside, but no, it's inside. It seems a very elegant building. There is a McDonald's in it. It seems out of place.

I think it will be straightforward walking to the Tama, but I have a sad reputation for getting lost. When I see the Keihin-Tohoku line flying past, it reassures me that I'm going the right way.

I reach the Tama River. This is the river that is the border of two cities. On my side is Kawasaki; on the opposite banks it is Tokyo. There is a kind of homeless people's shanty town set up along the banks.

The Tama River is not a beautiful river. But it's such a perfect, sunny day today that it can't help but look nice. I sit for a while and study some Japanese. People are fishing in the river. A bunch of very noisy children play in an apartment block behind me.

Eventually I get up. I'd like to find a bathroom. There's nothing. I decide to just keep walking, and I walk and walk, and find myself on Daishi dori, so I decide to walk to Kawasaki Daishi park. It's a bit of a trek. I pass two shrines, two train stations, and Kawasaki Keiba racing track.

I would be enjoying the walk more, but it is rather warm, and my route is unrelieved by a single modicum of shade. I am going to be burnt. I am going to be very burnt.

When I finally get to Daishi park, 45 minutes later, I am relieved to get to a bathroom. I am less relieved to see it's in the middle of being cleaned. This seems to happen a lot. I am too hot and lazy to walk to the next one, so I sit down and wait. It's being cleaned with more zeal than finesse - the elderly cleaner is literally hosing the stalls down and blasting water all over the ground.

25 minutes later, and he still, unbelievably, hasn't finished. He goes to his bicycle and takes a roll of toilet paper. I lose patience and go to Daishi shrine instead.

I sit by Turtle Pond. I don't know its real name. But there are willows, and lilies, and gentle fountains. It is a very serene place. I try to count the turtles. I try twice, and each time, I get confused around the 80 mark. I listen to Porno Graffitti's 'Heart' and feel very relaxed.

Lights

In Australia, if you are at a pedestrian crossing, and the little green 'walk' picture changes to a flashing sign, it usually means that, even if you only just started crossing, you should have ample time to finish.

In Japan, if the little green 'walk' picture starts flashing, it means: RUN! RUN!!

Contacts

Every day, to get to work, I pass a gauntlet of people handing out various ads, packs of tissues, leaflets, etc. Mostly I ignore them as they kind of glumly, half-heartedly try to thrust things in my face.

Today I was walking and I heard a chirpy male voice: 'HOW aBOUT some CONtacts?" I paused, slightly bemused, and the guy did a twirl and handed me a flier, with a flourish.

I took it and he said "thank you! I love you!"

I kept walking and glanced back and he grinned and waved at me.

As it happens, I don't need contact lenses, but at least he had some panache. ^_^

(Note: My execrable Mac is having serious problems, so it's possible I will not be updating for a little while...)

Celebrity

Last night I went to LaZona Kawasaki and the place was packed with people. Kuraki Mai was there doing an appearance and singing some songs. It's pretty cool that they have famous singers give free performances, but I can't say I thought a lot of her voice. She's not bad, but no better than all the amateur musicians encamped around the station.

After all this time in Japan, I am passably familiar with Japanese musicians and bands, but still know virtually no comedians, actors or other 'talent'. This is because I rather like Japanese music, but have a great abhorrence of Japanese TV.

You know you're not in Australia any more...

"Why is there Jack Daniels in the electronics store?!"

Video game: The World Ends With You

My thoughts on a DS game.

I wasn't all that struck by 'The World Ends With You'. The coolest thing about it was that it was set in Shibuya - and I started playing it one night after being in the real Shibuya! But the gameplay irritated me for two main reasons.

First, it felt too restrictive. I always felt like there was always a very specific thing I had to do for every task. It would give you the illusion of giving you the freedom to run around and explore and solve puzzles, but actually you'd be restricted to a few screens with few real options to try out.

The second was the battle mode. I know it's innovative, having two characters fighting on separate screens of the DS at the same time. But it's distracting! The battles move too fast to really get 'used' to the controls and become more skillful. By the time I realise 'control' has passed to Shiki, the key combinations have flown past and it's back to Neku, who's probably getting beaten up since I took my eye off him for one second.

I like the dual-combat idea in theory, but in practice I just can't get the hang of it. And battles usually seem to be a random thrashing of the DS screen, requiring more luck than skill. And I don't like having to control Neku's movements AND attacks with the DS stylus. I'd like to control his movements with the keypad, and his attacks with the stylus. Anyway, just my gripes. That's why I gave up on this game quite quickly.

I would probably be more forgiving of the controls if the game's story had gripped me just a little more. Actually it's made by the same people who did Final Fantasy, and it kind of shows. The main character is that typical closed-off 'I don't need friends', loner 'cool' guy. But even despite my small experience with RPGs, he is too stereotypical to be interesting. When he says 'I don't need anyone,' despite having just seen otherwise, I just feel irritated, rather than intrigued. Like 'oh yeah, you're so original...'

The other thing I don't like about the storytelling is the lack of filling in details. I noticed this with Final Fantasy 8, the only other Square Enix game I played. Extremely strange or puzzling events would happen, yet none of the characters would properly discuss or question them. Here, I kept wanting Neku to say: 'okay, so, Shiki, could you tell me all about this 'Game', tell me everything you know about it. How did we get involved? Who are these 'Reapers'? How did all of this start?' But he never does, and it's irritating.

Food Spotlight: Alcohol

This is not a comprehensive description of all types of alcohol available in Japan. Rather, I just wanted to mention shochu. Shochu is a liquor; it can be distilled from starchy things like sweet potatoes or barley. There are many varieties of shochu and some like to drink shochu straight, on the rocks, etc.

Shochu is also used as a base for flavoured, fruity soda drinks called 'sawas'; much as we have Vodka Cruisers (vodka) and Bacardi Breezers (bacardi) in Australia. You can get many different flavours of sawa, depending on where you are. As I don't like to drink too much wine or beer, the lemon, grapefruit and ume sawas are my standard orders when I go out.

Sometimes when you order a lemon or grapefruit sawa, they will come *with* the lemon or grapefruit and a juice squeezer so you can squeeze your own drink. Ume (sour plum) sawas often come with an actual umeboshi (pickled plum) floating in them.

A DIY grapefruit sawa (with shabu-shabu in the background ^_^)

If you want a stronger variant, I recommend umeshu. This is liqueur made from sour plums. The taste is both sour and sweet, but doesn't taste too strongly of alcohol (compared with the taste of, say, wine). Umeshu is often made with shochu. I recommend it on the rocks. Right now I am lucky to have a big bottle of well-matured umeshu that one of my friends made herself. ^_^

(Incidentally, there is currently an 'ume soda' flavoured Kit Kat on sale. I love ume, so I bought one but alas, it was inedible, and into the bin it went.)

A Day At: the Hakone Open-Air Museum

Recently I went to Hakone and went to the Hakone Open-Air Museum. I enjoyed it very much. 

The Open-Air Museum has a lot of sculptures and artworks, well, in the open air. There's also a Picasso gallery, and several other indoor exhibits. The mountainous scenery around is quite beautiful - so green! - and if the weather is nice, it's a grand place to stroll about. I spent a very leisurely four hours there.

So immediately after going in, it was straight to the cafe for a cappuccino. This is always the first order of every outing I have. ^_^ From the cafe I could see lots of green mountain scenery, and some seats that looked like fried eggs.

Cake followed the cappuccino, and then I went out. The weather was perfect - a hot summer's day, but as I was in the mountains, it was a little cooler. I pottered around past lots of different sculptures; a giant crying head, a series of coloured squares making a rainbow that kids were playing on; an underground tunnel. The whole area had the kind of whimsical, 'wander where you will' feel that I got from the Ghibli museum in Mitaka. There was a koi pond where you could feed the fish. 

My favourite part was a children's play area, the 'forest of net'. This was a child's heaven - a massive contraption of nets and hanging bouncy swings and soft spongy ground. The area was full of children's laughter. I sat and watched for a while. Those kids were having the time of their lives.

The whole 'museum' was very child-friendly, with lots of things for kids to play on, and many small children were running around excitedly.

I continued walking down and saw the Picasso exhibits. I went to the gift shop and bought some souvenirs. I was just thinking I should find a nice place to sit down - I'd been walking for a while, and was getting footsore - when I came upon a hot spring foot bath. The very thing! I sat in it for almost half an hour. Bizarrely, the bath had lemons and oranges floating in it. Like, whole lemons and oranges. It gave the bath a faint citrus flavour, and the kids something to kick...

After this, I went up a stained glass tower - so beautiful! - and enjoyed the panorama from the top.

I meandered my way back up toward the entrance - looking at other sculptures, including this massive series of interconnecting tunnels and tubes that was, of course, full of children playing - and looked at the exhibits near the entrance. I had lunch and walked around the park some more.

One room near the entrance was full of people making decorative plates out of clay. I mean, each person had lots of different colours of clay, and were shaping pictures onto plates. If I'd had more time I would have loved to try it. I was impressed by how good everyone was - even quite young children were making really good pictures.

I'd really recommend this place if the weather is nice.

To go there, take the Hakone Tozan line from Hakone Yumoto up to Gora. Just before Gora, get off at the stop 'Chokoku no mori'. You can't miss it, as you will see the sculptures from the train as you pull into the station.

Typhoon

Today we had a wee bit of a typhoon. It wasn't too bad here in Kanagawa, but I did see rather a lot of broken umbrellas strewn along the streets. Also, some department store buildings took down their flags or set up sandbags to protect displays from blowing loose. 

Most amusing to me was the Marui building in Kawasaki, which had gone from this...

...to this:

City Spotlight: Hakone

Hakone is not a city, but an area. The most common way to come in is to arrive at Hakone-Yumoto station (I usually take the Shonan Shinjuku line from Yokohama station and change trains at Odawara. It takes just over an hour, depending on connections). From Hakone-Yumoto, you can take buses or trains to explore the region.

Yukata girls in Hakone-Yumoto

Hakone has two main highlights: views of Mt Fuji, and hot springs. The hot springs are a popular getaway for Tokyo people. I recommend actually staying overnight at a ryokan that has hot springs. See my post on ryokan.

First, Mt Fuji. Now, I speak from bitter experience here: you cannot see Mt Fuji from Hakone-Yumoto; you will need to travel a good 45 minutes or more to see it. Some of the best views are from Lake Ashi (take a bus to Moto-Hakone/Hakone-machi), or on the ropeway going from Sounzan.

Mt Fuji from the ropeway

The other tip is, Mt Fuji is usually not very visible. If seeing it is important to you, be sure to choose the clearest day possible; the cooler months of the year are better for this. If it's summer, even on a fairly clear day, don't get your hopes too high. You're better off going, hoping just to see some pretty nature and scenery; that way you won't be too disappointed. ^_^ 

The Hakone 'recommended course'

I took the Hakone 'recommended course' on a very clear, sunny winter's day. It was lovely, and I recommend it. This is the only time I've ever been able to take good pictures of Mt Fuji. Be aware that you will spend a lot of time travelling - each leg of the trip takes a while - but the journey itself is the point.

View of Mt Fuji from Lake Ashi.

On this course you will start and finish at Hakone-Yumoto - bus to Hakone-machi, take a boat across Lake Ashi, take a ropeway up the mountain, take a cable car to Gora, and the Hakone Tozan train back to Hakone-Yumoto. Or you can do it in reverse.

Some highlights of this journey are the boat ride across the lake - the scenery is really nice - the views of Mt Fuji, and visiting Owakudani. This is on the ropeway route. It's called 'hell valley' because it's full of sulfurous vents spewing smoke - very cool. You can also eat black eggs boiled in the hot springs, which are supposed to add 7 years to your life. Sadly, when I went, they were sold out.

Owakudani

If you're going to take this course, you should buy a 'Hakone Free Pass', which lets you ride the various trains, cable car, ropeway, boat and bus without having to buy separate tickets for each. Also, it will save you money, especially if you are going to travel for two days, as each leg on its own is quite expensive. Be sure you take the correct form of transport though. For example, there are two companies that run boats across Lake Ashi; only one of them is valid with the Free Pass.

Also from my own experience, I can warn you: if you're coming from Tokyo or Yokohama, it will be a lengthy trip; you should come early and be aware of the timetables. Basically, everything closes Excessively Early. You should plan to have completed your route by 5pm or earlier, as many of the forms of transportation etc stop running at 4:30-ish.

Other highlights

If you have time to try other activities in Hakone, I also recommend the Hakone Open-Air museum (on the Hakone Tozan line, get out at Chokoku no mori). I really loved it. I'll write a separate post about this place. 

I also really enjoyed Yunessun, which is like a hot springs 'theme park'. It has lots of 'specialty' hot spring baths, like green tea or coffee baths. There's a small hot spring waterslide, and many other pools. You can bath in a salt bath that makes you float like the Dead Sea, or let tiny 'doctor fish' nibble the dead skin off your feet. Also, unlike normal hot spring baths, you wear a swimsuit, so men and women can enjoy it together. To get there, take a bus from Hakone-Yumoto and get out at the stop 'Kowakien'.

Election day

Today is an election day in Japan, and thank goodness for that. What this means for me personally is that I may be able to walk down the street without some obnoxious truck blasting political rhetoric from megaphones. They really are a pain in the ass. It may be immature of me, but I always make a point of ostentatiously putting my fingers in my ears and glaring at the offending truck.

If it's not trucks, it's people standing around outside department stores and train stations, again with megaphone, trying to hand out fliers. Congratulations, you have just made everyone hate you instantly.

Unlike Australia, voting is optional here. As far as I can tell, only one person I know will be voting. Everyone else has expressed a resounding lack of interest in or enthusiasm for any political party.

Bon appetit

Google Translate is a boon for translating Japanese pages into English. However, of course, there are limits to what a machine can do.

I translated a page from a hotel. The Japanese read: (...) キャンセル扱いとさせていただきます - 'we will cancel the service'. 'sasete itadakimasu' is a very polite way to say 'we will do (something)'.

As you may know 'itadakimasu', on its own, is also an expression that Japanese people use when they start to eat. Just before eating the first bite, it's common to say 'itadakimasu!', which means something like 'thanks for the food', or 'bon appetit', or 'well, I'm going to start!'

So Google Translate translated this sentence as 'Bon appetit we will be cancelled'. I was amused. ^_^

DVDs

This is a rather random observation, but it suddenly occurred to me: on all the occasions I have rented a DVD in Japan, I have been able to watch the entire movie without any glitches, sudden pauses, or scenes skipping.

Whereas, every time *without exception* in Australia, there would be some kind of glitch; half a scene would skip as the DVD player made a disturbing grinding sound; sometimes DVDS would be wholly unplayable and I would take them back to the store with a complaint.

I don't know the reason for this. A better quality DVD player? (My Japanese one is much cheaper than my Australian one was...) The DVD store uses better technology to 'clean' their DVDs? The store is quick to replace any DVD with the slightest whiff of imperfection? Japanese people are less violent with DVDS and so there are fewer scratches? Who knows?

It is a nice change.

Vile Kit Kats

You can get regular Kit Kats here, but they also have these seasonal monstrosities.

Sakura-flavoured Kit Kats. They are supposed to taste like cherry blossoms, but really just taste like chemicals. Even my friend, who loves offal and natto and chicken cartilage, couldn't eat one. HORRIBLE.

So, if you didn't know, Japan is big on seasonal things. Often, these are obviously linked to the seasons themselves - in spring, everything is cherry blossom-flavoured, and there are cherry blossom decorations everywhere. Sometimes, they are just 'short time only' meal deals and menu items.

I've seen this trend with cream puffs. I am very fond of Beard Papa's cream puffs, which smell marvellous, and which I buy every couple of weeks. Every month or so they seem to have a new specialty; we progressed from strawberry, to cherry, to matcha, mango yoghurt, to some other yoghurt, to melon cream. In my opinion, they should have stuck with strawberry, because none of the others have come close.

Anyway, as for Kit Kats... I stopped trying the new flavours because they are uniformly disastrous. But today I saw one that made me laugh: 'sports drink flavoured Kit Kat'.

Sports drink flavoured?!!!! Does anyone buy sports drinks because they really really love the flavour? To me, that is not at all a selling point!

Japanese Pet Peeve: Recycling

Recycling is a good thing.

That said, please look at this document published by the City of Yokohama. (Scroll part-way down to get to the English section.)

This is how we are expected to dispose of our garbage.

!!!!

Japanese Pet Peeve: Little Dogs Who Think They're People

If you go to any public park, you'll soon realise: Japan is full of ugly dogs.

I don't know if it's because the dog aesthetic is different, so that people think they actually look cute. Or I don't know if it's a case of taking pity on the animals that only a mother could love.

Of course, there is logic in choosing small, rat-like dogs; in a city where space is at a premium, little dogs can be kept in apartments. 

Anyway, a dog is not to be blamed for its looks. What does bother me more is dogs in coats. I heard that coats can diminish a dog's ability to regulate its own body temperature. If there is a good reason for it to wear a coat (it has some rare sickness, or it's prone to running away and you want to be able to easily identify it), okay. But it seems to be more about cute accessorising. The dog clothes I've seen cost more than *my* clothes.

For the record, if you put an ugly dog in an overpriced coat, it doesn't become cute. It just becomes ugly and stupid-looking.

Then we come to the subject of dog-walking. Often in Japan, when the owner takes their little darling for a 'walk', the only one getting exercise is the owner.

I can't count the number of times I've seen people walking while carrying their dogs. Okay, so this is understandable in a big crowd, but let me go one step further: I've also, frequently, seen people pushing a child's pram or stroller with a dog inside.  It's not like their child has gotten out so the dog temporarily jumped in; no, it's the dog's pram. 

That's right, the dog is not to exert itself. Why take it with you at all?!

Ryokan

Whether you're living in Japan or coming for a trip, one thing I'd definitely recommend is a stay in a ryokan - traditional Japanese inn. They're often not especially cheap, but they give you a memorable experience. ^_^

I've stayed at ryokan five times now. ^_^ The best one was on Miyajima, where you could just walk out your door and see cute little shops, and nature, and deer, and the ocean. ^_^

So, a ryokan is like a hotel, but they are often smaller and have more personalised service. In some, you take off your shoes before you even enter the ryokan proper; you'll walk around inside the ryokan wearing slippers. But when you enter your room - which has tatami flooring - you should remove all slippers and footwear (socks are okay). Tatami feels nice underfoot. ^_^

Once you reach your room, the landlady will pour you some tea (or you can pour yourself some tea), and you can sit at the table and enjoy it. I like their chairs with floor cushions. 

Your room will come with yukata - a casual 'kimono' which in this situation is more like a bathrobe. You can wear it around the ryokan, and I always change into it right away, because it makes me feel more relaxed and comfortable. You can wear it to bed. Also, yukata are a blessing for taking communal baths, as they're easy to slip on and off.

Many ryokan provide meals, and these are often big feasts which would cost you a fortune anywhere. They come with many little dishes, and various things cooking at different times. Every ryokan dinner I've had included rice, miso soup, pickles and sashimi; I've also had little shabu-shabu (hot pot), dried fish, steak, tempura, broiled fish, croquettes, and countless things I can't even describe.

This is pickles, shabu shabu meat, tofu, sashimi and sashimi sauce.

If you get a Japanese-style breakfast, it will always include miso soup and rice, and usually natto, a raw (or semi-raw) egg, dried seaweed, fish, pickles, tofu, and so on.

You'll sleep on a futon, which will either be in the room when you check in, or will be put out for you after dinner.

Unlike regular hotels, most ryokan charge per person rather than for a room. So if you have four people in a room, it will cost the same per person as if you had two people in a room.

Two things especially you should know about ryokan:

You may have to follow more of a 'schedule' than in a regular hotel. 

You should be aware of Japanese bathing etiquette.

It's common to provide a ryokan with a reasonably accurate check-in time, and then nominate a dinner and breakfast time. Some ryokan have set meal times. (You can stay at many ryokan without meals, but the kind of food you can get at a ryokan is quite special and I recommend it ^_^). Once you have a meal time, you should be there at that time because they will have prepared it all ready to serve.

Breakfast, in particular, I often find rather earlier than is comfortable for me. I usually eat at 10 or 11am, so to get up at 8am for a huge feast can be a bit more than I feel up to.

As for bathing... you may have an ensuite bathroom, or be able to use a private bath room (with a nice big bath ^_^). But, in many ryokan, there is a large communal bath or hot spring bath you can use. This is very nice and relaxing, but you should be aware of Japanese bathing etiquette. ^_^

What you do is: leave your shoes at the entrance, take off all your clothes and put them in a basket. Leave your big towel in that basket too. Take your hand towel and go into the bathing area. Then wash yourself with the shower etc, while sitting down. Use soap. Rinse well. You can also wash your hair. 

Once you're clean - with no soap or shampoo on you - you can go into the bath itself. Tie your hair back first (if you have long hair that might get in the bath). In short, don't make the bath messy by getting soap or hair in it.

After you're done, wipe yourself a bit with the hand towel, so you don't drip all over the floor of the change room, then go back out and get dressed.

If you are interested in staying in a ryokan, I recommend Japanese Guest Houses as a good starting point. ^_^