City Spotlight: Ikuta Park area (Kawasaki)

I know Kawasaki city well, and although I love it, I can tell you it's not exactly renowned for its beauty and nature. That said, if you get away from the city centre, you can find some pretty spots. One of the most natural areas in Kawasaki is Tama ward, and one of Kawasaki's best attractions is Ikuta Park.

The park is lush and green, covering a large area, with seasonal flowers and various attractions. You could do a lot of walking if you wanted to. In the park you can visit Nihon Minka-en and the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, among other things.

Nihon Minka-en, aka the 'Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum' is a collection of historic houses from various parts of Japan, brought to Kawasaki and carefully re-erected and preserved so that visitors can see the traditional architecture. Even if you're not interested in history, this park is quite pretty and atmospheric in its own right. When we went, they had volunteer staff in the houses, caring for the fires and chatting to visitors. It does have some signs and information in English - obviously not as much as in Japanese.

Taro Okamoto was a famous artist who did a lot of abstract pieces. His hometown was Kawasaki. At this museum you can see a lot of his works, both paintings and sculptures. I'm not a big art fan and I don't know much about it, but I enjoyed looking through this gallery and pondering the meaning of the various pieces. The museum is easy to spot, with the distinctive white sculpture behind the entrance.



There are other attractions in Ikuta Park, like a planetarium and science museum for youth, but having never been to these, I can't comment. If you want more info about opening hours etc, check out this page, which is part of the City of Kawasaki website - a good place to find info about Kawasaki and get tourist info.

The closest station is Mukogaoka-yuen station (Odakyu line, a 15-minute walk); the closest JR station is Noborito on the Nambu line (a 20 minute walk from the station, it takes about half an hour to get to Noborito from Kawasaki station).

(It strikes me that considering this blog is called 'Yokohama Vibe', I tend to post more about Kawasaki than Yokohama. My logic is that Kawasaki is so much less famous, and there's less info on the web about it, so this may be of more interest. Plus, since I lived near the 'border' of Kawasaki and Yokohama, I always spent a lot of time in both cities.)

Video game: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

Your life is falling apart and you're up against impossible odds.

Perhaps you're a teacher, passionate about making a difference, but your students blatantly ignore and ridicule you.
Perhaps you're an artist, with a looming deadline and no inspiration.
Perhaps you have to impress your ogreish mother-in-law and become a model Japanese lady.
Or it might be just that your city is under threat from a 20-foot-tall giant mouse.

Who do you turn to at such a time? Why, an all-male cheer squad, of course.

This is the ouendan (cheer squad): a team of three very manly men, built like tanks and ready to dance and shout to spur you on to victory. After all, every problem can be solved if you have enough willpower!

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and its sequel, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 are rhythm games for the Nintendo DS. These games are only available in Japanese, although an English spin-off game, 'Elite Beat Agents', has been made, with the same gameplay style.

In each stage you have to help a number of people in need by cheering them on to victory. You do this by hitting the right notes on the screen at the right time, in rhythm with some popular Japanese pop/rock hits.

Each person in need has their own little story, shown in manga (comic) panels before the stage. If you cheer them on well, they succeed in each step; if you cheer badly, they suffer setbacks and might even fail. The stories themselves are very funny and melodramatic. There's one stage where your hero, a violinist, is crippled by stomach cramps on the train and might miss his big concert. You have to *cheer on the medicine in his stomach* so they can overcome the gastrointestinal nasties!

The art is also funny; I especially like the 'determined face' of the characters in Ouendan 2.

If you have the chance to get one of these games, you can find online English translations of the manga panels for Ouendan 1 and Ouendan 2.

Example

As an example, one of my favourite stages has a talented doctor who leaves a lucrative position to go and help villagers on an island that has no doctor. The villagers are very excited, and mob him with their requests:
"I'm not sexy at all!"
"My daughter-in-law's food tastes bad!"
"My cat isn't speaking!"
"I can't connect to the Internet at all!"

The doctor protests that he's there to help the sick, but they demand cures for all their random problems. In desperation, the doctor calls for the Ouendan...

The Ouendan cheer him on. The first step has the doctor cure an old man's baldness; next, he doctors a sick horse (by tickling it?!), then, a microwave oven, and finally more baldness. The outcome of each of these sub-stages depends on how well you hit, drag and spin the rhythm markers. If you miss too many, the doctor's willpower drains and he may fail to impress the villagers. If you really miss too many, the stage will end entirely and the doctor gets kicked off the island.

Music

The music is great! Most of the songs on the games are covers of popular hits, and I recommend tracking down the originals. If you like Japanese music, it's a good way to discover some new groups.

My favourite tunes from Ouendan 1 are: Linda Linda (The Blue Hearts), Kokoro Odoru (Nobodyknows+), Guts da ze! (the Ulfuls), Shanghai Honey (Orange Range) and One Night Carnival (Kishidan).

From Ouendan 2: Vista (Going Under Ground), Julia ni shoshin (The Checkers), Kibun Joujou (Mihimaru GT), Rirura riruha (Kaela Kimura), Shonen Heart (Home Made Kazoku).

My opinions

I recommend this game; it's good fun and not too difficult (though once you've finished normal difficulty, you can unlock Hard and Very Hard mode, with new characters). I think Ouendan 1 has more heart - the situations are slightly more realistic - and the stages are slightly more fun to play, but Ouendan 2 is wackier and funnier. Also, Ouendan 2 has bonus stages you can unlock with enough points, which makes it more motivating to get good scores and progress as far as you can.

[The next stuff is no longer game review, but about my progress.)

I finished both games on Very Hard mode (rare for me), though I don't think I unlocked 'Hidden Mode' (where you can increase the difficulty by removing the rings from the rhythm markers). I don't remember, because recently I reset both games so I could play them again. (You can reset a game by holding down the A B X Y L R buttons simultaneously when the game is starting up again.) Right now I'm about 3/4 through 'Very Hard' mode on both games.

I think Hard and Very Hard are more fun in that you feel like you're really blasting, jamming along to the song. It's harder to get a good score in Easy and Normal modes, since I feel like I have to wait so long between each beat, and I can't race through like with the harder modes. But now the problem is how fast the motivation meter runs down. If you muff up any combination, you basically fail the stage.

In particular 'Samurai Blue' is driving me nuts. The stage itself would be quite fun - it's very satisfying landing constant blasts of 300s. In some ways, Samurai Blue is worse on Normal and Hard modes - so many markers filling the screen that it's actually hard to see them all clearly - but on Very Hard you have to land *so many* perfect combos, it's hard to sustain. I always stumble on the third or fourth screen. Oh well, I'll beat it soon. ^_^

Other levels I don't like are the other bonus stages - the monkey one is boring, the boy one has a dull song *and* lots of sliders, which I don't like. I don't like the ice skating level. It's supposed to be emotional but it's not as good as the 'emotional' stage on Ouendan 1. It's also the first stage I got an 'S' (perfect score) on, mainly because on Very Hard mode, if you miss even *one* marker on that ice skating stage, you're pretty well guaranteed to fail.

For playing, I like the fast songs like Bambina and Shanghai Honey, with lots of individual notes and not many sliders. My favourite stories are the doctor one, the werewolf one, the teacher one...

Anyway, I'm going back to my game. I'm gonna stop alien robots from taking over the city. Wish me luck. ^_^

To Narita

One of the tedious things about living in Yokohama is international travel. Yokohama doesn't have its own airport. To travel abroad, you have to go all the way to Narita (well, unless you're taking one of Haneda's very limited range of international flights).

There are many possible ways to get to Narita from Yokohama. None are ideal, so it becomes a balance of time, money, and how many train transfers you're willing to take.

For this post I'll assume you can go through Yokohama station. Of course, it's possible to live in Yokohama and be nowhere near Yokohama station, so there may be more (or less) convenient options for you depending on where in Yokohama you are. Most likely you will not live right at Yokohama station, so be prepared to add time and money to all these recommendations.

If you go to Hyperdia and plug in your station and Narita, you can see all the choices. These choices differ depending on what times you put in - some of the best options have to be timed correctly. You have to realise that some of the trains run infrequently, so if you miss the specific train Hyperdia recommended, you might be stuck somewhere for a while. Remember also that if you have masses of luggage, it takes longer to change train lines.

Another complicating factor is that Hyperdia tends to try to recommend the fastest options. This means it will recommend a path with three train transfers over a path with one, if you can save five minutes. That might be okay for regular commuting, but for getting to the airport with luggage... it may be more convenient to spend an extra five or ten minutes and avoid changing lines.

So here are some options.

Narita Express

The most expensive and therefore a fast and convenient option. You can take the Limited Express Narita Express straight from Yokohama station to Narita. Since you have to get special reserved tickets, though, it costs around 4400 yen and takes around 90 minutes.

You can also go to Tokyo or Shibuya and then take the Narita Express from there, which will save you about 600 yen but take perhaps ten minutes longer.

The trains mostly run every half hour, but sometimes only once an hour. You can see a timetable here.

Limousine bus

This is what I usually take when I have lots of luggage or I have an 'early' flight (and if you are living in Yokohama, you'll probably have to leave your house at 6:30am for a 10:30am flight).

The limousine bus is not really cheap - 3500 yen - but it's the most convenient and probably the fastest option. It doesn't show up on Hyperdia, since it's not a train, but you can look at their website. The buses run every 10-20 minutes, you can buy tickets on-site without an advance booking, it's straightforward, there's someone to help you get your luggage on and off, and they drop you off *right* outside the departures hall.

Also, unless the traffic is terrible, this really is a fast option. They estimate 90 minutes from Yokohama, but it can be even quicker if you're lucky. Every time I have taken it, it has taken less than 90 minutes. Limousine buses also go from other locations in Yokohama, like Shin-Yokohama or Tama Plaza, which may be more convenient for you if you're not near Yokohama station.

The limousine bus is the option I recommend to visitors coming *to* Yokohama if they're in Japan for the first time. Even for me, taking a train from Narita can be confusing. All these expresses and rapids and limited expresses; different train lines; you plan to take a particular train but it doesn't leave for 35 minutes; you're looking at your timetable and thinking 'hmm, this train's name seems to be slightly different to the one I need to take; will it be faster or go somewhere else entirely?' I have become pretty comfortable taking trains in Japan, but I still don't like dealing with Narita.

Keisei line

This is a good option if you want to save some money and don't mind its taking longer. I sometimes do this coming *back* from Narita, since I'm less likely to be in a hurry.

You can take the Keisei Line Limited Express from Nippori or Funabashi (Nippori is more convenient with transfers, as you can take the Keihin-Tohoku line all the way from Yokohama to Nippori. This doesn't show on Hyperdia, because the 'faster' way to Nippori is to take the Keikyu line and transfer, but it's actually only about 6 minutes more if you stay on the Keihin-Tohoku line the entire time).

It costs around 1500 yen and takes around two hours.

There's also something called the Keisei Skyliner, which you can also catch from Nippori or Ueno, to the airport. Price is similar to the Keisei Limited Express - about 200 yen more - and it has fewer stops. Check out the website for more info. Frankly, these Keisei trains have always confused me. -_-

Sobu line??

I took this train once, ages ago. I can't even remember what it was, maybe the 'Airport Narita' service? I remember once I was at Yokohama station; I had planned my route already when I happened to see a train advertised as a 'rapid' train for Narita airport. It wasn't a fancy limited express requiring a reserved seat. Bonus! I thought. A cheap option to Narita, and no transfers. Why didn't it appear on Hyperdia? Stupid website.

I got on and the train took FOREVER. 'Rapid' train was a misleading name. We seemed to stop at every whistle-stop in Chiba prefecture. It took about 40 minutes longer than any option on Hyperdia. That's why it hadn't appeared on there. The moral is, don't just jump on any old train purporting to go to Narita. Decide in advance how you're going to get there.

Driving

If you have a friend or a car, lucky you. ^_^ If you are taking a short trip, and there's more than one of you, it might actually be cheaper to drive to Narita and leave your car there for a few days (bearing in mind highway tolls etc). My friend did it when we went to Seoul for three days. She claims it's not that expensive.

Movie: Darling wa gaikokujin

[Includes minor spoilers for the movie, but if you've read any of the comic, they won't really be spoilers anyway]

Darling wa gaikokujin (My darling is a foreigner) was originally a comic series by Saori Ogura. It was about the daily life of living with her boyfriend Tony, with lots of cute anecdotes and tales of minor cultural clashes. (It's available in English, if you are interested. I recommend it. ^_^)

I first heard of this series when they started playing snippets of it on the JR train screens to entertain commuters. I couldn't understand much of it, but it still entertained me much more than did the commercials for eikaiwa, canned coffee and sinus medicine.

The movie is pretty well based on the comics - a number of jokes, incidents and lines from the comics are in there, and sometimes they add in little scenes using art from the comics. Since the comics didn't really have a story, they had to create a storyline from the movie, moving from the start of Saori and Tony's courtship, to their relationship ups and downs, including her father's opposition to their relationship.

There are a few factual differences from the comic; for example, in the comic, Tony never meets Saori's father, her family already know she's dating a foreigner, etc.

The main difference I didn't like was that in the movie, both characters were much more passive and non-confrontational. They spent a lot of time not communicating, in order that their relationship 'problems' could grow out of proportion and threaten their future together. There were many, many scenes of sad music with one of the characters gazing pensively into the middle distance. From the comic, I got the impression that both characters would have no hesitation being assertive to deal with misunderstandings and disagreements.

How about the depiction of gaikokujin in the movie? Hmm... not much to say, since Tony is the only one with more than five minutes' screen time. There are a few gaijin; one is obnoxious and fancies himself a bit of a Charisma Man, one is nicer and helps Saori a little, and one is Tony himself, who is lovely. I guess it's nice to have a portrayal of a foreigner who is kind and speaks very good Japanese.

Actually, cultural differences are not really an important feature of this movie. There are lots of little scenes - Saori telling Tony how to eat fish with daikon-oroshi, Tony frequently struggling to remember some obscure Japanese phrase - but the real 'misunderstandings' (which are so small as to barely warrant the term) are personal rather than cultural. So late in the movie, where Saori is angsting, 'maybe we can't work out... because he's a foreigner, and we're too different...' it strikes a false note, since there was never anything to suggest that was a reason for their problems.

Is this a good movie? Hmmm... it's not bad. You might enjoy it if you are interested in the comic and want to see the big-screen portrayal of Saori and Tony. The first part, which is lighter and more humorous, was quite enjoyable. Other than that, it seems like a pretty generic and slow-paced movie.

A Day in: Kawasaki city

I did a day in Kawasaki previously; this one is more centered around the JR train station.

Today I went back to Kawasaki for the first time in several months. I've been back in Australia for that time, so I noticed new things, and revisited old favourites.

***

My hotel, in common with many Japanese hotels, has a rather early breakfast time. 6:30-9:00. I think this is because the hotels are catering to business travellers. Tourists probably don't come to Kawasaki very often.

I wake up at 10:30.

It's cold today. Everyone is a mass of black puffy winter coats. The cherry blossom trees, which brighten the otherwise drab streets, are suspended in mid-bloom. They'll probably be at their peak by the end of the week.

I hope to pick up a plastic bag or two during the day, since I don't have any spares. In Australia we now have strict plastic bag rationing, and I've received perhaps five plastic bags in as many months. I kept each one carefully, like a precious commodity, for re-use.

I go to get breakfast at Subway. I notice there is a new store called 'Womb'. This is possibly the worst name for a store I've yet seen (and I include 'Junoesque Bagel' in that). I decide not to enter the Womb, instead going to the 100 yen shop in the Marui OIOI building.

I love 100 yen shops. In Australia, we have discount stores, but the stuff is usually a) more than 100 yen, and b) visibly crap. You expect it to break into pieces the moment you get it out of the store. In Japan, some of the stuff in 100 yen stores is tacky, but a lot of it is quite decent. You could easily furnish an apartment with all the little bits and pieces - plates, cups, towels, storage containers, bins - from one of these stores. I once took a visiting friend here and she bought over 5000 yen worth of Japanese souvenirs!! If you're on a budget, I recommend them. ^_^

Coffee at Starbucks - there are five Starbucks in Kawasaki; today I go to the one in Kawasaki BE. It's on the second floor so you can look down on the street and watch people smoking.

The basement floor of Kawasaki BE has a food hall. The Italian store is gone. I'm sorry about that, but not surprised. It always seemed to be empty. Now it's become another generic Japanese bento store.

It's a cold day so I get some celery potage (=soup) and some fruit - gotta keep up the immune system. As I wander the vendors section, I look at all the items - ume (pickled plums), thick slabs of kimchi (spicy Korean pickled cabbage), miso paste, mochi products - and think that when I first came to Japan, I could identify hardly anything in this food hall. While my knowledge has improved, there are still plenty of things which I couldn't confidently identify as animal, vegetable or mineral.

I feel like eating a nikuman (Chinese steamed bun), but in this hall, the only choice is a collagen steamed bun. Mmm, collagen. Thanks but no thanks. On to LaZona. The lady asks me if I'm planning to eat my nikuman straight away. Yes, I say. She puts it in a plastic sleeve and puts that in a plastic bag. I can't help wondering what she would have given me if I'd said 'no'.

I go to Uniqlo. This is the place for simple, reasonably-priced clothes. I notice their jeans come in three styles: 'skinny', 'slim', and 'super skinny'. It's good to have a choice.

More wandering around. There's a little bakery near Daiso with very tempting pain au chocolat. I get one. I do a quick inventory of the supermarket. For the first time, I notice an attractive feature of Japanese supermarkets - they don't trap you, but you can freely enter and leave. In Australia, if you enter a supermarket, there's no way out if you don't buy anything. You have to sidle carefully past people in the checkouts.

I go to the library. I am fond of this library. It strikes me, though, that I am about the only customer under the age of 60. There are not enough seats for the people wanting to sit and read. I sit on the ground next to the foreign book section.

In Australia, most libraries are now quite jazzed-up and refurbished; fancy seating, big windows and new architecture, loads of computers with free Internet use, video games for kids to play, free classes for mothers with small children - a hub of community life. This library is much lower-key; a little shabby. There are hardly any computers. I don't care though. Free books!!

I go underground through Azalea. It's a nice way to avoid the Great Outdoors, in which it is now raining. I take the world's shortest escalator through More's. I go to a pharmacy. While I'm waiting in line, I amuse myself by counting the number of different collagen-based products on the shelves nearby. I'm up to 16 when it's my turn.

I have dinner - delicious gapao (Thai food) - in LaZona. I buy my breakfast for tomorrow. I walk back through the night.

I am back in my hotel, with seven new plastic bags. I feel very rich.

Let's poo energetically

I must point you toward this post today on Japan Probe.

I can't decide what my favourite part of this clip is:
-the happy poo song?
-the narrator saying 'it's an event to teach children to eat genki and poo genki'*
-the announcers at the end, instead of heaping the segment with ridicule, solemnly agree that it's a useful thing for kids

*Genki can be translated 'healthily', but it so often means 'cheerful' or 'energetic' that I prefer to think of it this way. Let's poo cheerfully and energetically!

I am a little disappointed that the poo song dance didn't have more appropriate actions (or should that be 'less appropriate?'), but oh well.

However, this doesn't really surprise me. I've heard of people who are asked by their doctor - even if they're going in for a cold - how their bowel movements are. And I've heard of children in elementary school who are actually asked 'have you done a poo?' or to monitor their own BMs before a class trip.

Even in the short life of this blog, this is the second poo-related post. (Here's the first.)

I don't know if any other culture has the same preoccupation with BMs?

For more toilet fun, see this YouTube video of how to use the bathroom.

Teaching English for the first time (part 1)

As I mentioned in my recent post about eikaiwa, a lot of teachers come to teach English for the first time, without previous teaching experience. Generally the company provides training, but what if you need to teach outside of your school's methodology? What if you have to design your own lesson for the first time? What if you get a new job using a different teaching style, but you don't get training in it?

I'll give some tips for people who find themselves having to teach for the first time.

I have moved most of this post into my new blog, ESL Ideas - so click here for my other ideas.

It's not just grammar

If you teach at an eikaiwa, generally the lessons have a particular grammar or functional language goal. However, English lessons need not be only about these things. What about teaching skills? That is, reading, writing, speaking, listening.

For example, your students can probably read English better than they can speak it. But a lot of students read slowly, word-by-word. Can they skim-read a page to find a piece of information they need? Can they take a quick look at an article and get the gist of it without having to reach for the dictionary every second word?

Eikaiwa usually have a lot of focus on speaking practice, but how about some practice in simply communicating your meaning effectively? Where students are allowed to make mistakes without being corrected every time, just for fluency's sake?

I have written more on teaching English for the first time... see the next post for lesson planning ideas.