New kid on the building

Shibuya station on a rainy day.

I noticed the posters on the building...

It's the top-ranking sumo wrestler, Asashoryu. He's advertising Fanta. Not just any Fanta, but zero-calorie Fanta. Yes, they are using a sumo wrestler to advertise diet drinks.

Japanese gym

I've been to the Kawasaki LaZona Konami gym a couple of times, so thought I'd describe a Japanese gym. (Obviously, different gyms will differ in their facilities.)

Wrist tag

When you go in, you are given a wrist tag. This is a waterproof electronic tag that you wear around your wrist. You use it to open and lock the lockers, activate various exercise machines, and make purchases. (I bought a swimsuit top from the front desk and had to pay via machine.)

Most of the machines have electronic interfaces that you can touch your tag to. Then it will record how much exercise you're doing, how much weight you lifted, etc. If you are a regular gym member, I believe you use the same tag every time, so you can see how you're doing over time.

The locker rooms

You take off your shoes before you enter the locker rooms! Welcome to Japan!

Your wrist tag will unlock a locker. The locker rooms have adjoining showers, and it's Japanese communal-style. That is, a huge room with lots of stalls (without doors), and big hot baths like a hot spring. So if you are shy about public nudity, you might not want to shower there, haha.

There's also an 'instant dry' machine where you can put your swimsuit, hit the button, and in ten seconds it'll be dry! (Sorry if this is run-of-the-mill gym technology but I've never seen such a thing and I'm easily impressed. ^_^)

Machine room

There are a variety of machines - various weights and resistance machines that target different muscles, and aerobic exercise machines. There's also a floor with mats where you can do stretches, benches for doing sit-ups, etc.

The cross trainers, exercise bikes and treadmills have screens on which you can do a quiz, watch TV, play a game, etc, while you exercise. My favourite option is where you choose a city of Japan. You then complete a walking or cycling 'tour' of the city - as you exercise, your character moves the appropriate number of metres along the map, and you walk past various monuments. Yesterday I did a walking tour of Sapporo and a cycling tour of Kyoto.

I also like this machine - I don't know what it's called, but you stand with both feet on the machine, and swing back and forth with your hips. You can do a 'dance' mode on the screen, where it gives you different instructions, and a final score (mine is always woeful, but at least it makes it easy to improve, hahaha).

The weights/resistance machines give you a running tally of how many times you lift/push the weights, and the total amount of weight lifted/pushed.

The pool

There's quite a large pool with different lanes for different speeds etc. You have to remove earrings and wear a swimming cap. (I'd never worn a swimming cap in my life. It's to stop hair getting in the water.)

There's also a couple of saunas, jacuzzis, and tanning rooms.

Cost

It's expensive!! But, the facilities are good (depending on your requirements). I don't have a membership; my friend said that a one-off visit can cost around ￥2500! But it's possible to buy special tickets with discounts. My friend found one that allowed us in for ￥1000 yen.

Miscellaneous

There are quite a few different exercise classes held, but I haven't tried any.

They have machines all over the place where you can check your blood pressure etc. There's also a cafe.

I've never been there at a busy time but I can imagine it being quite crowded.

Gokiburi

One of the joys about living in a heavily built-up metropolis is the wildlife. I am particularly blessed to be able to see some of it in my very own home. I'm talking about cockroaches.

Uggh, I hate them. They come out more actively in the rainy season and in summer - they like warm weather, garbage, and dark places, and they'll multiply when they find a dirty living area. My apartment is usually fairly clean (well, rather messy, but no mounds of unwashed dishes or rotting food), so I blame my neighbours.

Fortunately, there are various products available to kill them.

1: The direct method

If you see one and want its IMMEDIATE DEATH, bust out the bug spray. This is effective but not so good for preventing more cockroaches in the future.

2: Cockroach houses

These are little cardboard contraptions; basically can buy and assemble a little 'house', with a very sticky 'floor'. You put an attractant, which smells good to the cockroaches, on the 'floor', and then leave the house. In theory, cockroaches will be attracted to the house, come in, and then be unable to leave, as their feet stick to the ground. 

Perversely, the 'houses' I bought are emblazoned with cheery 'WELCOME!' messages. Welcome to your DEATH.

I put one in my cupboard and caught four of them. >_<

3: POISON the little sods

The third option is to buy these little round, plastic devices that contain an attractive-smelling (to a cockroach) poison. People emphatically tell me that these things WORK. I hope so. I bought some yesterday for the first time, and then came home to see TWO cockroaches, so I'm hoping this will get rid of them once and for all. 

Not only does the poison kill them, in theory they take some of it back to their nest, where they kill the whole family.

Japanese Pet Peeve: Japanese TV

I have two pet peeves about Japanese TV (apart from the most obvious, which is that I don't understand anything that's going on). Speficially, they relate to Japanese 'variety shows', which is what I call any loud, obnoxious show that has a bunch of generic-looking 'cute' people in a big room together, and lots of ugly visual clutter on the screen.

The first pet peeve is the way we can never see any story or piece of footage, without also seeing the 'cute' people reacting to them. Usually in the corner of the screen there is a little box with a person's face in it, looking horrified, laughing, or surprised.

You are not allowed to make up your own mind whether something is interesting or funny; the talents will very loudly interject throughout every segment with wild, overblown laughter or shocked 'ehhhhhhhh!'s. It's even less subtle than watching a cheesy 80s sitcom with a laugh track after every line of dialogue.

The second pet peeve is the portrayal of Japanese girls on TV. They're frightful. Now it's true that in Australia, most actresses are expected to be quite good-looking, well-made-up, and fashionable. But on Japanese TV, they look and sound like parodies of human beings. They have no personality - or rather, they all have the same personality. 

Most Japanese 'talent' girls are virtually indistinguishable - they all have the exact same squeaky 'ehhhh' voice, cutesy 'charming' attitude, over-treated hair, the exact same facial expressions when pretending to look shocked, etc.

Mind you, the men are just as bad, in a different way.

(By the way, I have the TV on right now. There are no fewer than FIVE 'cute people' at the bottom of the screen, reacting while they broadcast footage of fireworks from around Japan. BUT, they've been playing the same thing for at least twenty minutes. There's only so long you can enjoy watching five people gasp and say 'wooooah!' and 'sugoii!' at fireworks on TV. (In my case, my tolerance is about 3 seconds.))

Food Spotlight: Sushi and sashimi

As you probably know, sushi and sashimi are raw fish and seafood. Sushi is with rice, sashimi without. Sushi often comes on little pieces of rice, with a dab of wasabi between the fish and the rice. Sometimes the sushi will have a bit of nori (seaweed) wrapping it, or 'tying' it to the rice. 

You usually eat sashimi by dipping it into soy sauce, which many people add wasabi to. (I am not one of those people. To me, eating wasabi is about as enjoyable as snorting tabasco sauce.)

Some common types of sushi/sashimi are raw tuna, salmon, snapper, sea bream, etc, as well as raw shrimp, squid, fish eggs, sea urchin, octopus. Also tamagoyaki (pieces of omelette). 

You can also get makizushi - sushi rolls - which is the kind of sushi we most often see in delis etc in Australia. There are other variants too, like inarizushi (sushi wrapped in fried tofu), chirashizushi (sushi rice topped with a mix of various things - often has several different types of sushi, in small pieces, mixed in), sushi salads, etc. 

 

You can get sushi and sashimi in many places and forms. The fish section of any supermarket will usually have a decent selection of both; you can go to a sushi restaurant, you can order sushi from most izakayas and many Japanese restaurants, or you can go to a kaiten-zushi (sushi train) restaurant. Sushi often comes on a tray with a selection of several different kinds.

Me, failing to pick up some sushi. 

That picture was taken is in a restaurant in Tsukiji, the famous Tokyo fish market. It's the best place in Tokyo for fresh sushi.

I often talk about food with Japanese people. About 90% of them say their favourite food is sushi. It seems to be the most popular food in Japan. People always seem in the mood for it. If there's a gathering somewhere, there's a good chance sushi will be ordered at some point. I've had it at numerous parties and picnics, despite having never voluntarily ordered it myself. 

Personally, I do my best to avoid sushi where possible. That's why after all this time, I still can't recognise all the different fish. I'm happy to eat fish sashimi without wasabi, but some of the others...! Raw octopus is very difficult to chew, and as for sea urchin, I think it takes a special kind of person to appreciate it (read: a person without a gag reflex).

(...Actually, I wrote that as a joke, but according to Wikipedia, up to 1/3 of people don't have a gag reflex. And my impression is that about a third of foreigners who try sea urchin, like it. I could be onto something here.)

Fish and seafood in general are very popular in Japan, and being an island nation, there are a lot of places, near coasts, which are famous for various types of seafood, especially raw seafood. I think it's fair to say that sushi is really the most Japanese of dishes.

City Spotlight: Yokohama China Town (Chukagai)

This is Japan's largest China Town. It's full of bright, gaudy, ornate gates and temples, Chinese restaurants, and loads of shops.

This is a good place to buy tie-died hippie clothes, truckloads of cheap souvenir tat, and overpriced Chinese food. It's probably very good - I've enjoyed what I've had - but I would usually expect Chinese restaurants in a China Town to be quite cheap. Instead they sell probably the most expensive Chinese food I've seen in Japan. I guess it may be more authentic?...

You can also see Japan's most over-merchandised character in - wait for it - a panda suit!!

On a less snarky note, it's also a place to walk around while munching on a nikuman (Chinese steamed bun) or eating an icecream, or some hot chestnuts. You can buy various Chinese ingredients, tea, and cooking tools here. I always go here to buy jasmine tea; they're the cheapest and best tea bags I've found. Fortune tellers also do quite a trade here.

This place can be a little sleepy and quiet on weekdays, but on weekends it comes to life. You can also go and be traumatised by the paintings on the walls of Ishikawacho station.

Nothing I can say, Total Eclipse of the Sun

Today was the famous solar eclipse, the longest eclipse of this century. From the Kanagawa region we were expected to be able to see about a 60% eclipse, with the peak viewing time around 11:10am.

If you're wondering what a partial solar eclipse looks like under heavy, obscuring cloud, here's a picture. 

Basically, it looks like a whole lot of anti-climax. 

At 11:10, I couldn't even tell where the sun *was* in the sky. However, at around 11:35, there was a brief snatch where only light clouds were passing in front of the sun. The eclipse could clearly be seen, though it was impossible to look at for more than a half-second at a time (and it would have been unwise to try).

Taking such quick peeks, at first it was difficult to tell if the dark smudges were really an eclipse, or just cloud. Eventually I was able to see it. The sun doesn't look at all bright in these photos, but it really was. All the while I was firing off photos, hoping at least one of them would have a clear eclipse visible...

Yay! ^_^

Moments later, the sun was completely obscured again. Most of the people I talked to today didn't get to see it at all.

3D painting

Yesterday I was walking from Osanbashi to Akarenga (along the waterfront in Yokohama harbour) and came across this painting on the ground.

From this angle it didn't look like anything, but from the knot of people gathered at the other end, I figured it must be trick art. So I went to take a look.

It's not quite as spectacularly 3D as the paintings you can see on the Internet (see  '3D sidewalk paintings' on Google Images), but still pretty cool.

If you like this sort of thing, you should definitely check out the Trick Art museum in Takao, west of Tokyo. Don't forget your camera!

City Spotlight: Motomachi

Motomachi is a street/area in Yokohama, near Chukagai (Chinatown). At one end of the main street is JR Ishikawacho station; at the other, Motomachi-Chukagai station.

Motomachi is a nice place to talk a walk, though there's not much actually there. On weekdays it tends to be a favourite haunt of old ladies walking little dogs with coats. If you like spending too much a lot of money on designer goods, you might enjoy the shopping. My own recommendations are the import food stores, the bookstore (which has quite a decent English selection, for a small store), and some eateries.

HB cafe (Happy Birthday cafe) is a cute little cafe near Ishikawa-cho station; it's one street over from the main Motomachi shopping street. It has good burgers, and quite nice cakes, muffins, coffee, etc. Most of all, I love their cookies. ^_^

Hara donuts - this photo is the only time I've seen the store without a small queue of people outside. My hairdresser told me this place is kind of famous, but nobody else I've talked to has heard of it... hahaha... 

Anyway, these donuts are organic and supposedly somewhat healthier than average donuts, though they still leave your fingers greasy when you eat them. They are a little bit cakey and less sweet than some other donuts. Every time I go to Motomachi I buy a couple; the white chocolate ones are my favourite. ^_^

Pompadour is a decent place to have a nice sandwich and a cappuccino. I used to study Japanese here, before I discovered HB. It's a (chain) bakery but also has a small cafe section.

Motomachi is very near China Town, Yamashita Park, Minato no Mieru Oka Park (Harbour View Park), and the Yamate foreign houses, cemetery, etc. You might like to include it in your trip if you're visiting some of those places.

Summer...??

In Australia, the seasons are very straightforward. On December 1, summer starts, on March 1, autumn, June 1, winter, September 1, spring.

In Japan it seems to be a more fluid thing.

I asked several Japanese people when summer started; they seemed to agree 'after the rainy season'. And the rainy season finishes when the Meteorological Department officially declares it so. This is generally in mid-July (this year, it was last Monday or Tuesday - July 13 or 14), and people generally agreed that summer finished around the end of August.

So the actual feeling of 'this is high summer' is about 1 1/2 months. And since Japan likes its seasonal things, this pocket of time is famous for several things:

eating watermelon and cold noodles (maybe not at the same time ^_^)

watching fireworks shows

many festivals

fans - a lot of stores etc give out free promotional fans, so you see quite a few people carrying them

wearing yukata (light summer kimono)

eating eel (which supposedly gives you energy against the summer heat)

In fact, there is even an eel DAY when everyone is supposed to eat eel for stamina. This day is called 'doyo no ushinohi' and it's a nice little coup for the eel restaurants. Apparently, eel day was yesterday, and I was oblivious... I did notice a lot of packages of eel in the supermarket though.

I love summer. It's also the season of random beer gardens opening around the place. Big thumbs up from me. ^_^

Useful Websites

Here are some useful websites for people new to Yokohama or the Greater Tokyo area.

Metropolis is a free English-language magazine. You can pick up a hard copy from various stores and restaurants around Greater Tokyo. I think this mag is best for telling you about upcoming events - concerts, art shows, clubs, etc. It also has a classifieds section...

Hyperdia is a simple tool for checking train routes. Just plug in your start point and end point, and when you want to travel, and it will give you all the possible routes to get there, with prices and times. Make sure you spell the names correctly, and all as one word (no hyphens etc).

Japanese-English dictionary. I sometimes can't find words in here... but it's still quite a decent dictionary. 

Denshi Jisho is another Japanese-English dictionary; it is really good because you can search by kanji, or romaji... also, if you use the Denshi Jisho bookmarklet, you can select Japanese text on a page, click the bookmark, and it will automatically tell you the translation.

YOKE (Yokohama Association for International Communications and Exchange). This is published by the city of Yokohama and has useful information for residents, as well as announcements of random events in the city.

Japan Times is one of the main English-language newspapers here.

Japan Probe is a blog with interesting, often random snippets and videos of news from the Japanese media; especially 'human interest' or novelty stories.

Diddlefinger (I've linked to Kanagawa prefecture on there.) Maps of Japan; can get detailed, street-level maps. ^_^

Lloyds TSB, which is a financial service that lets you send money back to your home country. People have told me this is the most cost-effective way to send funds. I use it myself.

Japan Guide is a great site for travel information and cultural information about all of Japan.There's info about upcoming events and seasons too. ^_^ It also has some large forums, including friend and language exchange partner forums.

Gaijin Pot has info for foreigners, job postings, and message boards, which are especially useful for info in living in Japan.

Fresh and Delicious

A new cafe/diner has opened in Sakuragicho, right outside the station. Its name is Bubby's Pies. This is a great place (I recommend their whisky apple pie ^_^) and fills a gap in the market. There really wasn't any nice cafe or restaurant right near the station; it's the only non-Starbucks within a mile to sell decent, reasonably priced cappuccinos, and it has outdoor seating.

(Though lately it seems like it's windy every weekend. The weather would be perfect for sitting outdoors, except that it'd whisk your paper cup right off the table.)

The restaurant is decorated with a real American, 'mom's home cooking' vibe, all very homey, and lots of English signage. The menu included good ol'-fashioned home cookin', like Michigan sour cherry pie and chicken pot pie. Even on a Monday, the cafe was quite busy, with lots of housewives and old people.

So when I was sitting down, I got quite a shock to look up and see the big sign:
FUCKIN FRESH AND DELICIOUS

At first I thought I hadn't read it correctly, but no. It definitely said Fuckin Fresh and Delicious.

What the?!!

I wished there were another foreigner in that cafe so I could share the joke, but there were only Japanese people. Welcome to our family restaurant.

Fuma no Kojirooo!

A while ago I watched this hilarious drama called Fuma no Kojiro. The thing is, I'm fairly sure it wasn't *meant* to be hilarious. I can't decide what was funnier - the acting, or the special effects. 

See, the story seems to be about two rival groups of ninjas who have special powers. There is one scene where a character slams a stick into the ground. In the next shot we see a group of people standing nearby, suddenly being jolted into the air (because the stick was slammed *so* forcefully it made the whole Earth move). But what it looks like is that someone is *pretending* to do special effects and has been copying and pasting the people into a different location using MS Paint.

In another scene, the hero whisks his girlfriend off from where they are sitting by the harbour - and because he's a super ninja, he can fly, and it looks like someone has put a still frame shot of a cityscape on the screen and moved a little man-shaped silhouette across it - and suddenly they are at the top of a tower, and it's sunset, and it's so romantic you can't help but think 'wth?!'

I just can't describe how funny this show is, you would have to see it for yourself. It's like that soap opera that was so dramatised that I could never work out if it was a parody of soap operas. For a while I couldn't work out whether this was supposed to be a parody or not. When main characters died, I almost cried with laughter at the melodramatic acting. 

Now that I've seen more Japanese TV, I must sadly conclude that it's not a parody; nor was its comedy intentional.

Gundam; Type, Shiokaze!

Odaiba is my favourite place in Tokyo. It's got parks, harbour views, nice places to eat, and is generally full of people relaxing and enjoying themselves.

It's also now home to a giant, 18m-high killing machine of Pure Awesomeness.

The Gundam in Shiokaze Park has been garnering quite a lot of media attention and public interest. It was assembled piece by piece and then revealed to the general public. I went there last weekend.

I'm not even a fan of Gundam, but I have to say - Very Cool!

There was some kind of eco fair happening at the same time, so lots of food stalls, etc. Around the circumference of the statue itself was a mass of people taking photos. Although admission is currently free, you could also pay ￥1500 for the privilege of lining up to stand on a platform and get your photo taken in front of it. I guess it made for a much better shot - a lot of people were waiting in that line! - though you could get your photo taken in front of it for free on the ground...

They say that, like so many things in Japan, this Gundam is a seasonal, 'short time only' deal, and will be taken down after summer. I really think they should leave it there permanently; it'd be a good tourist draw. 

So if you want to go see a real, live Gundam, and hear loads of Japanese people saying 'sugoi!!' (wow!!), you should get in quick!

I went during the afternoon, so the light is better from behind.

Welcome! ^_^

Welcome to the blog! This blog will have a mishmash of random observations about Japan, info about places around Tokyo and Kanagawa, and accounts of my own experiences here. If you enjoy this blog, I hope you'll continue to follow it. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. ^_^

I'm an Australian girl living in Yokohama. I've been in Japan for over 1 1/2 years, and I'm loving it to bits. ^_^

I've kept other blogs in the past, and I'll be bringing in some of the stuff I wrote on those blogs. If it's date-relevant material, I'll post the 'true' date at the bottom.