Random pictures (4)

Apparently Dilbert's pointy-haired boss has taken up dentistry.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

 This is exactly what it looks like - half a loaf of bread with icecream and syrup on the top.

Enjoy.

This ridiculous-looking creature is the mascot character of Nagoya's public transport system. (Don't you know that everything in Japan has a mascot character?) Nagoya seems to have a preponderance of ugly mascot creatures, but nothing is as bad as Nara's Sento-kun.

How to use shinkansen tickets

Every time I took a shinkansen, I seemed to do something wrong and would get 'beeped' by a ticket gate, requiring the assistance of various rail staff. I think I've finally figured it out, so I'll share the benefit of my experience with you. ^_^

To ride a shinkansen, you need two tickets. One of these connects you from one city zone to another city zone (eg, from Nagoya city zone to Tokyo city zone). Let's call this the 'city ticket'. The other has your seat reservation. Let's call this the 'seat ticket'.

[You can also get 'non-reserved' seats, which means you don't have a set seat but must sit in the non-reserved car. This is risky as you might not get a seat at all. The price difference between a reserved and non-reserved seat is pretty small, so if you know for sure which train you want to take, you might as well just buy a reserved ticket.]

You will use the city ticket when travelling between two cities, eg Nagoya and Tokyo. See, if you get a shinkansen ticket from Nagoya station to Shinagawa station (in Tokyo), what it actually means is you can travel from anywhere in Nagoya city to anywhere in Tokyo city (but you must use JR train lines).

You will use the seat ticket merely when entering and leaving the shinkansen gates.

Let me give you a concrete example.

You are travelling from Kanayama, in Nagoya, to Shibuya, in Tokyo. The shinkansen travels from Nagoya station to Shinagawa station.

1. When you go to JR Kanayama station, put in the 'city ticket' and go to Nagoya station.

2. Transfer to the shinkansen within Nagoya station (do not exit the main station), and put both shinkansen tickets in the ticket machine. (You can put them both in at the same time, one on top of the other.) Do not lose these, as the conductor will check them on the train, and you need both of them to exit.

3. When you get to Shinagawa, transfer to the JR lines (do not exit the main station). Put both shinkansen tickets in the machine. Now your 'seat ticket' will be eaten, as you have finished with the shinkansen. You will get your 'city ticket' back.

4. Go to Shibuya, and you can use your 'city ticket' to exit the final JR ticket gate at Shibuya station.

Where it gets (even more) complicated is if, for example, you are using a Suica card or travelling outside the designated city zones.

For example, let's imagine I'm going from Kanayama station (in Nagoya) to Kawasaki (which is near Tokyo, but not in the Tokyo city zone). Steps 1 - 3 above remain the same. However, once you get to step 4, the ticket gate won't let you out. This is because you've left the Tokyo city zone, and you have to
pay the fare from Tokyo to Kawasaki. To remedy that situation, at Kawasaki station, put your shinkansen 'city ticket' in the 'fare adjustment' machine, and you can pay the extra 150 yen.

This situation also applies if you are going somewhere within Tokyo city, but using the subway. Your shinkansen tickets will only cover JR lines. If you change from the JR line, you have to pay for your own ticket on the new line.

What if you're using a charge card?

Okay, let's imagine I'm going to use my Suica card and travel from Kawasaki back to Nagoya. At Kawasaki station, I would use only my Suica to enter Kawasaki station. Then at Shinagawa station, I would transfer to the shinkansen line, using my Suica AND two shinkansen tickets. The Suica would deduct the fare from Kawasaki to Shinagawa, while the two shinkansen tickets would register that you've entered Shinagawa station.

(If you have cumbersome luggage, it requires some sleight of hand to scan your Suica card and put your two shinkansen tickets in the machine simultaneously...)

I hope that makes sense, and covers the main situations. :)

City Spotlight: Akihabara (part 2)

Figurine shops

This is my biggest interest as I was fond of anime in the past, and anime figurines are not something you can readily find (at least in the same volume) in most stores in Japan or Australia.

In Japan, they are called 'figures'.

 A good-quality figure ^_^

There are quite a few figurine shops in Akihabara. Some sell other products, others specialise in figurines. Figurines range from the 100-yen kind - for example, the kind you get from gachapon machines - in little plastic bags, to large, expensive boxed products worth tens of thousands.

A lot of figurine shops will have the best, most expensive (or mass-produced) figurines in boxes. Mid-range figurines will be in glass cases - you may need to ask an the attendant to get them. Cheaper figurines will be in small plastic bags, though even some of the cheaper figurines can look quite decent. They usually fall in the 100 - 1500 yen range, these cheap ones.

The characters are often grouped roughly according to category (eg, 'girl's anime', 'Gundams', etc). The stores usually have a haphazard feel to them, where you find yourself taking your time looking through lots of characters to find ones you want.

Some figurines are designed to stand up on their own; some are keychains or phone straps; some have moveable parts; many have to be 'built' by the buyer (as simple as sticking the legs into the torso).

My 'cheap' Cammy. With detachable arms and hair. ^_^

Another type of figurine store is one where individual people can get a case, and sell their own figurines, via the store, to the public. You'll recognise these stores by their randomness; each glass case can have quite an eclectic mix of characters, seemingly unrelated. Although you can find some unique items here, you may be able to find the same figures in other stores for cheaper prices.

My personal favourite store is Kotobukiya - right near Akihabara station - it sells a variety of video game and anime merchandise, Akihabara souvenirs, and the upstairs section has a decent variety of figurines. ^_^

Finding things

Be aware that while this is otaku (geek) heaven, it *is* Japan. There may be manga stores with several floors of different manga and doujinshi (fan-made manga), but it will, naturally, be in Japanese. There may be video game stores with masses of cheap titles, but they will all be in Japanese and localised for Japanese consoles. Personally, I have seen almost no English material in Akihabara.

Another thing is that although there is a lot of character merchandise around, obviously, the most popular or most recent shows and games have the most merchandise. Also, although at first glance there seems to be a dazzling variety, a lot of shops actually have the same items and same characters.

You will be in luck if you like Gundam, Evangelion, One Piece, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy 7, Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto... apart from the opportunity to make figurines of sexy or cute female characters, 'guy's anime' are definitely more popular.

I remember that when I was a kid, I liked 'Fushigi Yuugi' and 'Magic Knight Rayearth'. I thought they were pretty famous/popular in their time (more than 10 years ago), but I couldn't find one figurine or item for any of the characters in any shop. Not that I was particularly looking, but I always recognise characters I know. Now I wonder if it's partly because these were anime popular with girls, so there is less call for them with male customers of the shops.

Not family friendly

There's also a good deal of weird stuff around. I do not go to Akiba to seek out naked animated characters, but it's impossible to avoid them. There are a lot of female characters with grotesquely swollen breasts (every time I see them I think, 'ouch, that's gotta be causing some back problems'). There are also many cutesy, sometimes alarmingly young-looking girls with flushed, coy, 'oh, don't touch me there!' expressions. (If you have seen them, you'll know what I'm talking about. Anime mouse pads make a lot of use of this, as do figurines and posters. I will not provide links to examples. -_-)

Occasionally you'll accidentally wander into some place and feel ashamed to be in there. Since the more valuable merchandise in Akiba is in glass cases, to be bought on request, I wonder how anyone could deal with the shame of actually asking for one of these items. -_-

On other occasions you'll find yourself in a shop, and there's nothing openly graphic in there, but you feel a vague sense of uneasiness. I found myself in a shop containing nothing but merchandise with cute young girl characters - nothing unseemly, just generic cute characters I didn't know, but looking like any children's comic - yet the shop was full of adult men.

Anyway, I don't want to give the impression that all of Akiba is grotty, but I wouldn't recommend taking your children shopping in this area.

City Spotlight: Akihabara (part 1)

Akihabara ('Akiba' for short) is an area of Tokyo which is a nerd mecca. If you have any interest in electronics, video games, anime, manga or collectable figurines, I recommend checking it out. If you don't, then there isn't really that much for you here. If you want an area with some geeky stuff but a variety of other stores and entertainment, try Ikebukuro instead.

In line with geek interests, Akiba's shops lean very much toward cute or sexy female characters, and also giant robots like Gundam. Akiba also caters to fans of real people, especially cute young girl groups such as AKB48, but most of what you see are anime, manga or game characters. As you might expect, this is an area that attracts a lot more guys than girls.

For me personally, the things I especially like doing at Akiba are: getting kebabs from the kebab men outside the station, looking at figurines, looking at the wacky gifts and souvenirs, going in the retro video game stores, and having a coffee at Starbucks or Excelsior.

You can also buy anime or game music, specialised electronic parts, computers and computer equipment - there are a couple of big-name generic electronics 'department stores' as well as lots of smaller shops.

Location

Akihabara is in Tokyo; it's north of Tokyo station, not far from Ueno. It's on the JR Yamanote, Keihin-Tohoku and Sobu lines, as well as Tokyo Metro's Hibiya line and the Tsukuba Express.

Akiba's main street

If you take the Electric Town exit, you'll come to a main street lined with gingko trees. This has some of the major electronics stores as well as other geeky shops. There's also a cluster of shops immediately around the station. If you cross the main road you'll find another cluster of streets with other electronics and hobby shops.

If you take the opposite Showa-dori exit, there's a big Yodobashi Camera store.

Peculiarities

One specialty of Akihabara is the 'maid cafes'. These are cafes where the waitresses are dressed as cute maids, and act a little cutesy... well, that's it, really. Some of them are really just like normal cafes, but the waitresses wear French maid's costumes. I visited a maid cafe in Akihabara once; there was nothing untoward about it, and it had a mixture of male and female guests. Others, I have heard, may involve more interactivity or quirks like maids playing children's games with the customers or giving massages or something.

Ad for a maid cafe. You can often see maid girls on the street trying to attract customers.

Another feature of Akiba is that it has quite a few weird and wacky gift and souvenir shops. There are some souvenirs and snacks you can't readily find in 'ordinary' Japanese souvenir shops. You can buy canned oden. (Why would you want any oden at all?) You can get cookies with maids on them. You can buy snacks with the Prime Minister on them. You can buy cans of bread with anime characters on them. (Yes, canned bread. Yes, it really does sound disgusting, doesn't it?)

I will continue with more geekiness in the next post. ^_^

Karaoke recommendations

While on the subject of karaoke, if you're looking for some Japanese songs to learn/sing, here are some of my favourites. I chose ones that I thought were popular and well-known, fun to sing, and not too fast to read. Mind you, if you are a total beginner at reading Japanese, they will still be too fast.

If you don't like singing karaoke, I still recommend giving these songs a listen. ^_^

I have included the Japanese song title and artist. I tried to put it here as you'd find it on a karaoke selector. For example, 'Kiseki' is usually written in hiragana.

Male artists

Ue o muite arukou (I look up as I walk), Sakamoto Kyuu

上を向いて歩こう, 坂本 九

Apparently this song was actually released in Western countries under the name 'Sukiyaki', but good luck finding that on karaoke selectors. This song is an oldie and very well-known, has a pleasant melody, is not too long, and is at a tempo convenient for reading.

I don't know why they called it 'sukiyaki'. If you didn't know, this is a nostalgic sort of song about loneliness and the passing seasons, while 'sukiyaki' is a hotpot dish. I heard this title was chosen just because 'sukiyaki' sounded recognisably Japanese to the Western ear. It's a bit like releasing the Beatles 'Yesterday' in Japan, only calling it 'Hamburger'. 

Linda Linda, The Blue Hearts

リンダリンダ, ザ・ブルーハーツ (often 'The Blue Hearts' is written in romaji))

This song has repetition - one good thing - a very easy chorus (can you sing 'Linda Linda' over and over again? I thought so) and if you have Japanese friends with you, you can possibly get them all shouting along and jumping up and down on the seats (if they are anything like my friends anyway ^^;;).

I think the words are easy to remember, so give it a go. ^_^

I also like The Blue Hearts' 'Train Train' - another good 'group song' that everyone shouts along to - but it has more lyrics, and *way* too fast for me!

Ashita ga aru sa (There's always tomorrow), the Ulfuls

明日があるさ, ウルフルズ

This song has been done by a few groups, I believe, but my version of choice is the Ulfuls. They're great. ^_^ Actually, this was first done by Kyu Sakamoto, who did 'Ue o muite arukou' mentioned above. This is a fun, catchy song, and has a repeating chorus that's easy to join in with.

Speaking of the Ulfuls, I also enjoy their Guts da ze!, Banzai! Suki de yokatta and Eenen, the first two of which are particularly well-known, but all are more difficult to sing than Ashita ga aru sa. ^_^

Kiseki (Miracle), GreEEeeEEEEen

きせき, GReeeeN

I can't remember how many 'e's in Greeeeeeeen so I added a few for good measure. ^_^ Okay, it's four. This song is SO popular and a really good Jpop song. It's not high on my list of personal favourites - I find the melody a bit monotonous to sing for an entire song, and I don't know it well, and the speed is just slightly challenging for me. If you're not too slow at reading Japanese, it should be okay.

Speaking of GReeeeN, their song 'Michi' is one of my favourite Japanese songs at the moment. I heard of this song when a friend sang it at karaoke. See, karaoke is good. I found out about lots of new songs from it. ^_^

Female artists

The male songs I listed above are also comfortable for a girl's range, in my opinion.

Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara (As though enveloped by kindness)

やさしさに包まれたなら

As a girl, I love this song; it fits my range so nicely, and it's a really pretty, mellow song, very sweet and uplifting to sing. This is the 'theme song' for the famous Ghibli movie 'Majou no takkyubin', in English 'Kiki's Delivery Service'.

It has been done by various artists; the movie version by Arai Yumi (荒井 由実).

Rirura riruha (Real life, real heart), Kimura Kaela

リルラリルハ、 木村カエラ

Kaela Kimura is popular at the moment, and this song is bright and fun to sing. I heard of it through the Ouendan games. Linda Linda is also in Ouendan.

English songs

If you are wondering about English songs that are popular at karaoke, I have heard a lot of: 'Take me home country roads' (I never heard this song before I came to Japan), 'I was made to love you' (a Queen song I had never heard of before I came to Japan), many Beatles songs, the Titanic song... 

In my group, 'Under the Bridge', 'Livin on a Prayer' and 'Sweet Child o Mine' also seem to get a lot of currency, but I don't know if that's indicative of Japan as a whole, ha ha ha.

Karaoke kanji guide

If you should find yourself doing karaoke with a Japanese-only monitor, here are some handy kanji. (I apologise that this is a bit vague and incomplete. Truthfully, I can't read all the words myself - and on some monitors the actual words differ - but no matter what karaoke selector I use, I can recognise the key screens, and here is how. ^^;)

When you turn it on, you'll usually have to select an option to go to the song catalogue, and then you'll be presented with a few options.

歌手名 means 'singer'. Search by artist.
曲名 is the other main choice and means 'song'. Search by song title.
新曲 is another common option, it means 'new songs'.

Let's imagine you chose to search by song title. You'll be presented with a screen full of Japanese characters. If you want to sing a song with a Japanese title, all well and good.

The four buttons at the bottom are 'return', 'change to English characters', 'delete last character' and 'search'.

At the bottom of the screen will be a <=> button with the character for 'English' (英), which will take you to the English alphabet. You can change back by pressing the かな button.

When you are inputting your song title, usually you cannot enter spaces, so just type the title in as one word. If you make a mistake, look for the button at the bottom with '１字' in it, it will delete a character.

The search button is usually in the bottom right, will likely say 探す (さがす), or 'search'. Once you've pressed this, you'll get the search results. 次 (next) and 前 (previous) will take you forward or back a page.

If you change your mind at any point, usually in the bottom left corner is a button saying 戻る (もどる), 'return' or 'back'.

Once you've selected a song (the select button's usually in the bottom right of the screen), it'll show you the song and its first line, so you can confirm that's the song you wanted.

On this screen you can see the song info, including the song number (if you were entering the number from the song book, rather than typing in the song name). At the bottom, the button at the left is もどる (back) and on the right is the 'select' button.

You can also fiddle with the key, which I don't recommend, as you tend to waste half the song messing about with it. You'll know you've successfully input your song, as on the karaoke screen, the song you entered will briefly flash on the top of the screen.

Should you become disheartened while singing your piece, there'll be a button on the monitor, red in colour, including the kanji for stop (止), which cancels the current song.

Oh, one other tip, usually the first song will deafen you. You have to change the volume on the machine under the TV itself. Avoid the dials with sharps or flats # on them, they change the key. Volume is 音, there may also be labels for music and マイク (mic).

Some karaoke selectors may differ from this layout, but most of the ones I've tried have followed it. Oh yeah, and karaoke rooms also have books of songs, so you can also find the 'foreign songs' section and enter the relevant number of the tune you wanna sing.