shin nen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu

Today's title means Happy New Years and is what is said when you first meet someone after the day. You say "yoi otoshi wo" before New Years. The New Year is getting a bit old but since I haven't written I thought I should start out with this.

Actually, today is seijin no hi - Coming of Age Day. As I've explained before, this is a day to celebrate young people turning 20. Since David is now 20, we should offer congratulations to him so "omedetou gozaimasu".

Have a great New Year...

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Where is Waldo Today?

Here we are at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Did you know that there are beavers in East Texas? The Texas beavers don't build dens like some other North American beavers - their dens are dug into the side of the creek. But they do have flat tails (I'm not referring to nutria here).

Anyway, they had a special exhibition on Egypt at the museum and they gave us 3D glasses to view it. See the photo behind Yebisu for an idea of how silly this was.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays and yoi otoshi wo (happy New Year). My New Year's card posted below has the same greeting in kanji on the card. The title of that posting is the greeting written in hiragana.

New Years is probably the most important holiday in Japan. At the end of the year, everyone cleans their house good inside and out. Special food is prepared that has a good "shelf life" so that everyone can enjoy the feast but not spend time cooking. New Year's eve is a time to get together with family and friends and maybe watch the holiday specials on TV.

The local temple will ring the bell 108 times to get rid of old sins before midnight. After midnight they will ring it 108 more times to ward them off in the New Year. Lots of people go the temple for food, a little ame-sake, prayer, and a good luck charm.

May you have a healthy, prosperous, and happy year in 2006...

よいおとしを

I'm not the Only One having Trouble

I read an article today in The Japan Times about how outraged (actually I don't see many outraged people here) Japanese have been complaining that the schools are not teaching children kanji and proper use of honorific Japanese. This is a little bit like English speaking parents complaining that their children aren't learning penmanship, spelling, or good manners anymore.

The problem apparently with kanji is that most children can READ it but they have trouble WRITING it on grade level. Apparently their parents aren't much better. The secretaries will look it up on their phones or the word processor before writing sometimes.

There are TV shows now being aired which capitalize on the poor state of affairs. On an episode of "Quiz! Nihongo-O!" only 17 of 30 contestants could produce the kanji for nose which is learned in the third grade. The Japanese word for nose is hana (also means flower but has a different kanji). Here is the kanji for snout:

　鼻

Hmmm....

More on Kanji

Let me address the use of kanji Vs. phonetic alphabets again. Kanji uses a symbol to represent a single idea, object, etc. Phonetic alphabets represent sound only. So let's make some comparisons:

Symbols Required: Phonetic alphabets are the clear winner here if you think less is more. Kanji has around 2000 characters in common use and Chinese even more.

Language Specificity: You might think that phonetic alphabets are the winner here too but not so quick please. While it is possible to write Japanese in the Roman alphabet, you would have no idea what you are reading unless you know Japanese. If you know Kanji, you would also be able to read Chinese to a fair degree also without knowing any Chinese at all.

Ease in Learning: I think this is a no-brainer. Phonetic alphabets are quicker to learn because of the fewer number of symbols.

Speed in Reading: The jury is out on this for me. Intuitively to a Western mind the phonetic alphabet would be quicker to process. This seems wildly counter intuitive to anyone brought up on Kanji. They believe the symbol is processed immediately and can be linked together in a speed reading style. Also, consider this: The Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are basically symbols representing the idea of numbers (e.g. one, two, three, four, etc.). Which of the following is easier to process:

• 14,597.6
• Fourteen thousand, five hundred and ninety seven point six

Note also in the above example that with Arabic numbers it is readable in any language while in the second example it makes sense only in English.

I dunno, but I am getting too old to learn a couple of thousand new characters to represent my feeble thoughts...

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You can eat the whole thing...

According to Ikeda san, there are 3 fish where you can eat the internals: the ankou (lantern fish), tara (cod), and the fugu (blow fish). Of course you can't eat the ovaries or the liver of fugu because they are highly poisonous. That ankou is an ugly critter isn't he? Anyway, I have partaken of the internals of all three. The liver of the ankou is the most unusual tasting although certain parts of the cod aren't far behind. Fugu is very mild. Anyway, I just thought you might like to know...

Title Needed for Empress's Husband

Here is an update for those of you who were following the recent royal wedding to a commoner and the lack of a male heir to the throne. Sorry I wasn't able to provide any personal anecdotes on the wedding.

*** FLASH ***

The Japanese government is planning a bill to allow a female on the throne. Part of the bill includes an official title for the reigning empress's husband.

Japan has had eight female monarchs in the past who ruled between the sixth and 18th centuries but they were either unmarried or had been widowed. Accordingly, no title for the husband was required.

Current law which went into effect in 1947 is being revamped because it allows only male heirs who have emperors on their fathers' sides to become emperor. Female Imperial members have to leave the household if they marry commoners.

*** END FLASH ***

The new bill will put a lot of minds at rest I'm sure. This might also allow the husband to quit his current job with the Tokyo municipal government.

Nihongo wa muzukashii desu

Japanese is difficult (the title of today's blog) and is challenging my rusty mind. My grammar is getting better and I can make compound sentences now. I may have told you in the past that all Japanese take English in school but most are not very comfortable speaking it. More and more, I find that my Japanese may be better than the English of the person I am talking to when I am away from the office. I can have trivial conversations with people even.

I have also started trying to pick up some kanji again. One of the interesting things about kanji is that they can mean different things when combined. And some kanji are formed of "radicals" which have base meaning but form new words when combined. Here are some examples:

Separate Kanji

Fire + Mountain = Volcano
Fire + Flower = Fireworks
Study + Alive = Student
Big + Study = University

Radicals in the same Kanji

Woman + Child = Love
Power + Rice Field = Man
Tree + Tree + Tree = Woods

Some of the meanings sharing the same character are also revealing:

Day = Sun
Private = Me

People who read kanji "think" differently than when reading words. When you read kanji you see pictures and then fill in the grammar around it for detail. When you read an alphabetic language you read the detailed grammar and words, then form a picture. At least that is the way I figure it. There are a lot of things about Japanese that are linked to the written language so having some reading skills aids understanding the culture.

I only have about 1900 more kanji characters to go and I will have partially mastered it. At this rate it should only take another 40 years or so...

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A Winter Haiku

The Monkey Carvings at Nikko

はつ　しぐれ
さる　も　こみの　を
ほしげ　なり

In first winter rain
Monkeys look like
they also want coats

Basho

Late Autumn in Tokyo

The Temple from my Balcony

The Steps are a Symbol for Success in Life

"On the front side of Atago jinja (OTOKOZAKA) the steps are long and steep. They are famous for success in life and for the legend of the junioru samura MAGAKI HEIKUROU who dared to ride his horse up the steps and succeeded in delivering a plum gift to his lord. The Shogun praised him as a great rider in Japan. Everybody knows these steps are a symbol for success in life. They are called SHUSSE no ISHIDAN."

The painting is located in the shrine next to where I live. The description is taken from a sign outside the shrine.

Sumo in a Taxi 1

How many sumo can you get in a Volkswagon? I am not sure, but I don't think you can get much more than 3 into a Japanese taxi.

These guys had finished for the day and were heading home. We watched the 3rd day of the tournament in Fukuoka which is on the island of Kyushu in Southern Japan.

I was worried about whether the big guy in front was going to make in in or not.

Sumo in a Taxi 2

Well he finally made it. I hope he got out OK.

Atomic Dome

This is the Atomic Dome in Hiroshima which was just below the the atomic bomb when it went off. I have seen pictures of it many times but it is of course so powerful to see it. You can't help but want to avoid war after being here.

Carp Castle

Here we are at "Carp Castle" in Hiroshima for which the mighty Carp baseball team is named. The castle is in an area that had many fish. It is near a river that along with moats helped form it's defenses. Although I looked, I couldn't see any carp on the day I was there.


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More on Food

Here is an update on unusual things I was able to eat last week:

1. Fugu - Poisonous Blow Fish: The guy I was traveling with to Fukuoka insisted we eat fugu since it is a delicacy in his home town. We had it as sashimi and then in a delicate soup and finally fried as tempura. Quite good - I had never had a full course fugu meal like this.
2. Ebi - Still Wriggling Shrimp: In Korea we had a live shrimp that was quickly peeled, deheaded, and handed to you while it was still wriggling. It's OK but they are better boiled in Zatarain's. The shrimp were a local, rare delicacy that were said to cost $10 each.
3. Geso - Still Wriggling Octopus Legs: We had these in Korea also. I had heard about them in a book on Japan but the Japanese guy I was with knew nothing about them. They are cut off still wriggling and dipped in a sauce. If you are lucky, they will try to stick to the top of your mouth with one of their suction cups. Really. They taste like any other raw octopus to me except for the suction.

The Koreans also encourage you to drink way too much alcohol too. I should have taken pictures.

Wood & Pecker

It must be early November because they are starting to put the Christmas decorations up in Yokohama. I took this picture at the escalator going into the train station today. We don't have Thanksgiving so it really isn't possible to use that as a cue to put up the decorations or start the Christmas advertisements.

Actually, there are very few Christians in Japan (less than 2%) - so why are we decorating at all? Because it is a holiday and a chance to sell merchandise of course!

This brings me to the central theme of today's blog. Japan is a very interesting dichotomy. On the one hand it is very Japanesey (less than 2% foreigners) and very traditional. On the other hand it has assimilated all sorts of things from other cultures including writing (China), words (a huge proportion of English words as well as Chinese), technology, arts, holidays, you name it.

I took the title of today's blog off of a store window I saw as I was walking through Yokohama: "Wood & Pecker" - take a look at the pictures behind Yebisu if you don't believe me. The store was an upscale clothing shop. Now I am guessing that the person that named it had an understanding of English and a sense of humor but with the Japanese you never can tell. English, especially in advertising, is rampant and frequently nonsensical. It is as if words were pulled randomly from a dictionary (but this one has both comic and sexual innuendo that is almost impossible to think is random).

Anyway, the "Wood & Pecker" had a Christmas tree in the window. Then I started noticing Christmas decorations everywhere. I guess I'd better start shopping. By the way, the Chinese zodiac animal for next year is the dog so all sorts of calendars and doo-dads with dogs are starting to show up. Just when I was getting used to the chicken - out with the chicken and in with the dog!

And now for something entirely different. I have to put in a plug for Google Earth. This is the coolest Web Software I have ever used. If you like maps and geography you have to try it. The resolution in some places is astounding. Here is the link: http://earth.google.com/

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Ochazuke

What is it? Ochazuke is green tea over rice with some flavoring such as dried plum, seaweed, or salmon. Personally, I like the plum. For those who like recipes, make Japanese sticky rice and buy a packet of the instant mix. Pour packet over hot rice and add some hot water. Eat. I made this bowl myself. Yummy. I took the picture with my cell phone.

For various reasons I have been thinking about travel lately. It has gotten to be a real hassle. If you travel too much the sense of adventure is lost and it does that.

I was at the airport the other day and saw something I haven't seen in a long time. There was a tearful family saying goodbye to a loved one and clogging up the entrance. Of course you used to see this all the time before travel became so commonplace and they put up the metal detectors and screened people out of the concourse. Now I travel half way around the world like it was a trip to Walmart and leave an email to tell people where I went instead of a note on the counter.

I was reminded of this when I took the first helicopter trip out to the Diana Platform a few years ago. I got up early and drove down to Galveston, way too early for anybody in my family to get up. We had a couple of 100 workers from the fabrication yard who were going out for a one month tour. I was amazed - tearful families and it was 5:30 in the morning. They had never seen their father leave for any time before.

In Qatar we are building a camp for 20,000 workers who will be there for a year at a time. The workers will be coming from India, Pakistan, Phillipines, etc. Many will have never left their home. There will probably be some more tears at the airport.

Momiji Chizu

It is definitely autumn and the weather is really getting nice. This map shows the colors of the maple trees in Japan (red is full color, yellow is turning, you can guess green). It is from the Yahoo! Japan weather site. In the Tokyo area, the weather is in the 50s at night and 70s in the day. There has been rain but since I returned from Qatar it has been sunny and nice.

Too much work and travel leaves me with little to write about. I did learn an interesting thing about the pre-made meals you can buy in the 7-11. Don't buy the ones that come in an aluminum bowl. The bowl is aluminum because you have to heat it up over the stove! This is of course too much cooking so be forewarned.

I was talking to someone in Doha the other day about men cooking for themselves alone. He said he had never heard of "eating over the sink". I wondered where this guy had been all his life? What did he think garbage disposals were made for if not a method of avoiding cleaning dishes?

Anyway, enjoy the autumn. This is one of the nicest times of the year.

Autumn Haiku

It is time for another haiku since the weather is changing. This is another one by Basho.

この　みち　や
ゆく　ひと　なし　に
あき　の　くれ

Along this road
There are no travelers
Night fall in autumn

This time, I encourage my readers to publish their interpretation in the comments section.

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Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and the secretaries gave me flowers and brought in everything to make maki sushi for lunch. (We ate the cake a little later in the day after the sushi had settled). Gave me flowers - is this a great place or what?

Thanks for the phone calls, cards, and emails. I am thinking of you too....

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Where is Waldo Now?

Here is a hint - look at the sign. I haven't been spending much time in Japan lately. Always on the move.

We had a good time visiting Dave - enjoyed the football game, enjoyed the concert, enjoyed Hollywood, enjoyed Catalina Island, just enjoyed being together.

I am back in Japan and the weather is starting to cool off but is still very nice - shirt sleeves to sweater weather.

Hope you are enjoying things too :-)

Where is Waldo?

OK, it has been pointed out that I haven't been blogging lately. It is true. I have been doing two things - travel (work related) and work (work related). Guess where Waldo was most recently from the picture. I wasn't actually working here, but on my way to Massa. Massa is the town on the coast just below the place where Michelangelo used to get his marble.

Anyway, this blog space is about Japan and I have recently proved something which I had previously though I had disproved: Socks can disappear during clothes washing in Japan - it is not just an American phenomenon or one related to having kids around. I have recently lost about 4 socks after going nearly two years without losing a single one. I don't know if the gremlin followed me here or if they live here and just hadn't noticed me before now. Very strange.

Anyway, I am now trying to figure out if they are eaten by the washer or the dryer. I always assumed the dryer but that was just an assumption. Hopefully I will find something more exciting to write about soon...

A View of Two Cities

Since I have been traveling it doesn’t seem like there has been much time for things Japanese. I missed my Japanese lesson last week so I have been studying on my own again.

Here is a view of Doha from the Ritz Carlton. The Ritz is way out on the edge of town and there isn’t much around it. Doha is a very modern city and the nicest thing about it is the weather. And the weather in the winter is really very nice. Right now it is hot, but I am used to hot, and with air conditioning these days…

This is a view of Paris from the Sofitel, in La Defense. This is a “new” area of Paris, at least for recent development. To be honest, I don’t like these new areas in cities like Paris and London. They don’t have as much character. You could almost be anywhere. Some of the new areas around Japan give me the same feeling.

But we got out one evening and had dinner in a nice place right outside the Opera. Hard to beat that. Take care...

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GIANT SNOWMAN

What is this giant snowman doing in Ginza near the Yurakucho train station in the middle of the summer? Why is his nose shaped liked Hokaido, the most Northern of the big Japanese islands? I don't know.

Today I decided I had eaten enough eel and whale and decided to just eat plain old Japanese working man's food - ramen, gyoza, and a beer. You can find Ramen Shops all over the city. Of course, like a lot of things Japanese, it isn't really Japanese at all.

Ramen came from China, and gyoza are chinese fried dumplings. Beer was introduced by a German who came by way of the United States. But they have been completely adopted and are now part of the culture.

It is interesting here in that way. Originally a lot of the culture came from Korea and China. Then eventually from the west. In between the country was shut off and isolated during the Edo period. The theory of some is that Japanese ways were institutionalized during that period, and even now are the foundation of what it is to be Japanese. But things are changing rapidly here like everywhere.

I'm trying to keep up...

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せみ (Cicadas)

静けさや
岩にしみ入る
せみの声

shizuke sa ya
iwa ni shimi iru
semi no koe

How quiet
rock absorbs
Cicada’s voice

Basho

I have written a little about Basho and Haiku before, and also the cicadas. There are so many they can be deafening at times, even in central Tokyo. Before coming here, I don't remember hearing them like that since I was a child.

I think it is because we treat our lawns with fertilizers and cinch bug killer and stuff. Not good for a bug that lives underground for years before it comes out to do it's thing (and probably not us either). Except for eating whale, maybe I am starting to turn a little green myself.

But let's concentrate on the poem. The translation is mine (kind of). It is not far off of a word for word translation, with some small changes to accomodate English structure. I've seen others that attempt to give a better sense of the feeling or cadence of the original. I like mine but clearly it is best in Japanese.

The seasonality comes from the cicada (semi). They come in August at the hottest time of the year. The noise, or voice (koe) as Basho more elegantly calls it, is deafening just like the season. But if you sit still like the rock (iwa) and clear your mind it soaks into you and disappears. All is quiet (shizuke).

This is my interpretation based on what Ikeda-san tried to teach me. But that is enough about poetry and the arts for a while. I think I need to eat some eel and drink a beer or something. The heat is getting to me.

The Eel Cafe

The best thing to eat in the summer heat to maintain your strength is freshwater eel - unagi. You see, eel has proteins and a fat content that is just right for offsetting the heat according to my Japanese friends. Last week my friend Hatta-san, who was visiting from Paris, and I went to eat eel in Shinbashi. I have eaten eel plenty of times, but Hatta-san promised we'd have something different.

The menu was all eel. We started with cold eel that tasted kind of like kippered eel to me. Then there was eel gizzards of some kind on a little skewer cooked over a grill. I have had these before and while edible, are not not my favorite. Next we had something new - eel spines deep fried.

I read a Japanese ghost story of sorts one time about the spines. Eels can live a long time out of water and are sometimes still alive when cleaned. The story is that the spines still wiggle when they are thrown into a bucket after the eel is filleted. For some reason this story popped in my head while eating. Anyway, the spines taste like crunchy somethings and compliment beer well. I think they would be good with tobasco sauce.

This brings to mind the duck hunting grounds that the shogun used to have at Hamarikyu Garden which isn't too far from me. There is a memorial to soothe the souls of the wild ducks that were caught there. You can see the garden in the panaramic view of Tokyo Bay behind Yebisu. Interesting, ne? Back to eels.

After that there was boiled eel grilled with brown sauce and regular old grilled eel. This is pretty standard fare but I thought it was particularly good at this shop. The lady who owns the shop also owns a sushi shop next door where they serve fugu in the winter. I will probably go back on my own which could be a little dicey considering the menu and that she doesn't speak any English.

The other food item I learned about this week was shiroitama with zenzai - a desert. The interesting thing about this for me was that I figured out what it was from the Japanese description. A white ball made from pounded rice (mochi) with soy bean paste. Delicious. And I knew what I was getting without a word of English. My Japanese is getting better but it is still bad.

Reading my blog is probably enough to turn you into a vegetarian. But not me - it's going to stay hot a few more weeks - I'd better try and find a good supply of eel till things cool down...

I must be living right

Tokyo Bay

This is the view of the Sumida River at Hamamatsucho where it enters Tokyo Bay from the East side of La Tour Shiodome. The fireworks will start in about 45 minutes and we will have one of the best views in the city. You can see the boats gathering in the harbor - maybe that is a better spot and I should be out there. Please read on...

Fireworks over Tokyo

はなび

I think maybe I am starting to repeat myself. Didn't I write about the fireworks last year? Anyway, this is the 2005 summer edition of fireworks over Tokyo. Once again the girls were wearing yukata, the crowds were there, and everyone was having fun. It might have been a bit cooler because there was a light rain and summer lightning just before the fireworks.

I wish I had a piece of watermelon to eat but otherwise it was perfect. By the way, watermelon and picnics are very much a part of hanabi (flower fire) watching. Hope you got to get out and enjoy the weekend also.

Who is that Masked Man?

Oh! Its ひょとこ (Hyotoko)

Here is an update on the “one eyed dude who looks like he just ate a pickle” in the mask display that I posted earlier. After Stuart asked about him, I found this mask of the same fellow in Asakusa and purchased it for him.

I’ll let you guess the story of the guy who is behind the mask. But what is the story of the mask itself? Japanese traditional theater is famous for the masks and costumes that are worn. This mask is from Kyogen theater, a comic theater form. The fellow’s name is Hyotoko, athough he also goes by "The Whistler".

Only a few of the Japanese people I spoke to really know anything about him, but they all knew his name. My secretary described him as a guy seen at old time festivals in a Hapi coat and doing a funny dance like a clown to make people laugh. Another said that it was worn by drunk people at the office party.

Note the red cheeks – he does look like he has been having fun. And he always has his lips pursed like he is whistling or putting out a lot of effort.

Actually, he is from a famous story which of course is a love story. He is paired with Okame, who was originally portrayed as idealized feminine beauty. Anyway, I won’t ruin the ending by giving anymore away. Just do a web search and you will probably find more.

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