Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Japan vs. the U.S.
I found this article, from the NY Times, quite interesting due to the fact that the two ways of behaving, "institutionally" and "individually," correspond directly to my understanding of the cultural expectations of Japan and the U.S. I often struggle with the conformity issues here in Japan (especially as a teacher in the schools where it is reinforced), but I also understand the desire to be a part of something which is not centered on me. I think this is one of the aims of Japanese identity.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tokyo Part II: Tsukuji Fish Market
We spent an early morning at the famous Tsukuji Fish Market while in Tokyo, and uncovered some incredible, some may say unsightly, sea food. Ben and I were both amazed by the complete absence of fish smell. It was all that fresh.It's important to have sharp knives when dealing with fish. Check out this kick-ass knife shop!
Not sure what these are...
Big frozen tuna.
BLOODY EELS. And I thought eels were unappetizing before.
Sea-slug varietals?
Octopi=chewy, springy, brightly colored.
We had the intention of sampling some of this super-fresh seafood for breakfast, but after our tour through the market, we just couldn't bring ourselves to do the healthy, Japanese, sashimi-for-breakfast thing. The fish bars looked great, but after much consideration, it was decided that raw fish before 11:00am was just not possible. We found some gooey chocolate croissants and coffee instead...
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tokyo
So, we recently spent about a week in Tokyo. Our first stop off the central trainline was Harajuku, a neighborhood famous for crazy youth fashion and a place for "cos-play" enthusiasts to show off to tourists. These kids were surrounded by camera toting Europeans, Australians, and Americans.
Then we followed a huge crowd of people, because we figured they must be going somewhere, through a wooded park, and ended up at Meiji jingu, a big shrine where everyone was making New Year's prayers and buying good luck charms and fortunes.
New Year's fortunes.
The next day, we went to Asakusa, present-day Tokyo's most historic neighborhood, and home of another New Year's attraction, Senso-ji Temple. Everyone was getting their prayers in and anointing themselves with incense burnt in a big cauldron in front of the temple. The place was surrounded with food tents, selling, let's see... okonomiyaki, takoyaki, grilled chicken, yakisoba, hot dogs, octopus, speared whole fishes, ice cream, beer, pickled stuff, and many other things.
Of course, Tokyo is only .00000001% temples and shrines. We walked five minutes from the temple, and saw this:
Then we followed a huge crowd of people, because we figured they must be going somewhere, through a wooded park, and ended up at Meiji jingu, a big shrine where everyone was making New Year's prayers and buying good luck charms and fortunes.
New Year's fortunes.
The next day, we went to Asakusa, present-day Tokyo's most historic neighborhood, and home of another New Year's attraction, Senso-ji Temple. Everyone was getting their prayers in and anointing themselves with incense burnt in a big cauldron in front of the temple. The place was surrounded with food tents, selling, let's see... okonomiyaki, takoyaki, grilled chicken, yakisoba, hot dogs, octopus, speared whole fishes, ice cream, beer, pickled stuff, and many other things.
Of course, Tokyo is only .00000001% temples and shrines. We walked five minutes from the temple, and saw this:
Monday, January 12, 2009
Adventures in Omuta
I have to be honest here and tell you that we don't really have adventures here in Omuta, and I'm mostly blogging because I feel guilty for not writing about our trip to Tokyo. In short, we had a great time in that big, modern, sci-fi-kind-of-city, but the photos aren't uploaded yet and I'm too lazy to do it now. After our long 3 weeks of no obligations, we go back to work tomorrow, in approximately 14 hours, and it's bumming me out. Traveling around Japan is way more fun than being stuck here.
Ben has the flu--not sure he'll make it to school tomorrow, but we'll see in the morning. While he was sleeping this afternoon, I took an exhilarating bike ride around town, feeling sharp snowflakes as they whipped at my face and smiling at the students giving me funny looks. I ran a few errands, hit a super sale at YouMe Town, and got stared at a bunch more. This evening, we're taking it easy. I took my dad's advice (from a year ago) and made Ben an onion- and garlic-heavy soup, trying to kill those bad germs.
We'll put Tokyo stuff up soon. Looks like Ben just drifted off again...
In the meantime, here's a picture of paper cranes from Nagasaki. Some of you may know that I have a thing for cranes, ever since reading a book about the atomic bombs and Japan in 4th grade. Funny how that stuff comes back to you after--what is it--20 years!?! I had completely forgotten that my origami craze originated with this until recently.
Ben has the flu--not sure he'll make it to school tomorrow, but we'll see in the morning. While he was sleeping this afternoon, I took an exhilarating bike ride around town, feeling sharp snowflakes as they whipped at my face and smiling at the students giving me funny looks. I ran a few errands, hit a super sale at YouMe Town, and got stared at a bunch more. This evening, we're taking it easy. I took my dad's advice (from a year ago) and made Ben an onion- and garlic-heavy soup, trying to kill those bad germs.
We'll put Tokyo stuff up soon. Looks like Ben just drifted off again...
In the meantime, here's a picture of paper cranes from Nagasaki. Some of you may know that I have a thing for cranes, ever since reading a book about the atomic bombs and Japan in 4th grade. Funny how that stuff comes back to you after--what is it--20 years!?! I had completely forgotten that my origami craze originated with this until recently.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Nagasaki and back
Early tomorrow morning Chrystal and I will be taking a train to Tokyo. We've got our fingers crossed--our seats aren't reserved, and if you don't act quickly and use your elbows, you can be left standing the whole trip. And it's a 6 hour trip. We're not too worried because we get on at the beginning of the line, and if the first one is jam-packed, we can get on the second. It is, however, probably one of the busiest travel days in Japan (everyone is going home after New Year's).
A few days ago, we traveled to Nagasaki, which is relatively close--it's on a mountainous peninsula on the other side of the Ariake Sea (our apartment is only a few hundred yards from this side of the sea).
Nagasaki has a fascinating history-it was the only place open to foreigners during Japan's 200 year long period of self-isolation. This openness consisted of a tiny little man-made island for the Dutch to stay on, and a larger, on-real-land Chinatown. After Japan opened its borders, there was an influx of English traders to Nagasaki, and a true European quarter developed. Nowadays Japanese tourists come to look at restored western-style houses, which are of course foreign and a little peculiar to them. We enjoyed the houses for their awesome view over the city and it's long, narrow bay.
For dinner the first night, we tried out a.... Russian restaurant we had heard about. It was founded by Chinese immigrants in the 60s who had come from the city of Harbin, close to the border with Russia. The food was delicious (borscht, peroshkis, lamb, fresh bread). Here's a picture of Chrystal's dinner:
Yum! Western food!
The next day we went to the Nagaski A-bomb site and museum. Where the bomb fell is now a bustling suburban community with no indication, beside the memorials and the museum, of what happened there 60 years ago. The museum is a graphic, depressing place: people who support nuclear arms might have a change of heart after visiting. It's noted for having a balanced account of what happened, with information on Japanese aggression in the 30s, and a voice given to the Korean victims of the bomb--some 13,000 (most of them in forced labor factories) were killed.
It was a sobering morning. This is where the bomb exploded, in midair above the city, near what was then the largest cathedral in Asia:
That sort of thing is hard to follow with anything else; there's no comfortable transition. We had lunch, read, and took a nap.
That night for dinner we had a traditional Nagaski dish: a seafood egg custard. It was odd, but pretty tasty. Vaguely like egg drop soup, but only vaguely.
The next day we walked along the city's temple row, which, along with old old temples, has 300 year old camphor trees. People were out tending to gravesites (the temples are on a steep hillside, and spread among them and above them is a large cemetery). I suppose they're not really "gravesites" as they don't bury people here, but kind of little shrines that hold the ashes of the deceased.
Here is a view from a temple on the hillside:
Old houses are nestled up against the cemetery:
And here is a view from a shrine at the top of the hill, where, once a year, there is a festival of "the fox and the vixen" in which two people in canine costume do acrobatics on the top of bamboo poles. I love the fox shrines.
Finally, here is Chrystal in front of Nagasaki's oft-photographed "Spectacles Bridge." The Japanese love photo ops; there were dozens of people on the other side of the bridge taking pictures. The bridge looks like a pair of glasses, sorta, when the river's reflection.
On our way back to beautiful Omuta, we took a dinky little local train out onto the Shimabara peninsula, where there is a huge trouble-making volcano, Unzen-dake. A few hundred years ago it blew its top and created a tsunami in our very own Ariake sea which killed thousands and thousands of people. In the early 90s it erupted and spit out a big lava flow that hope to hike to sometime.
From Shimabara, we took a ferry back to our neck of the woods, but not before checking out a typically awesome samurai castle:
A few days ago, we traveled to Nagasaki, which is relatively close--it's on a mountainous peninsula on the other side of the Ariake Sea (our apartment is only a few hundred yards from this side of the sea).
Nagasaki has a fascinating history-it was the only place open to foreigners during Japan's 200 year long period of self-isolation. This openness consisted of a tiny little man-made island for the Dutch to stay on, and a larger, on-real-land Chinatown. After Japan opened its borders, there was an influx of English traders to Nagasaki, and a true European quarter developed. Nowadays Japanese tourists come to look at restored western-style houses, which are of course foreign and a little peculiar to them. We enjoyed the houses for their awesome view over the city and it's long, narrow bay.
For dinner the first night, we tried out a.... Russian restaurant we had heard about. It was founded by Chinese immigrants in the 60s who had come from the city of Harbin, close to the border with Russia. The food was delicious (borscht, peroshkis, lamb, fresh bread). Here's a picture of Chrystal's dinner:
Yum! Western food!
The next day we went to the Nagaski A-bomb site and museum. Where the bomb fell is now a bustling suburban community with no indication, beside the memorials and the museum, of what happened there 60 years ago. The museum is a graphic, depressing place: people who support nuclear arms might have a change of heart after visiting. It's noted for having a balanced account of what happened, with information on Japanese aggression in the 30s, and a voice given to the Korean victims of the bomb--some 13,000 (most of them in forced labor factories) were killed.
It was a sobering morning. This is where the bomb exploded, in midair above the city, near what was then the largest cathedral in Asia:
That sort of thing is hard to follow with anything else; there's no comfortable transition. We had lunch, read, and took a nap.
That night for dinner we had a traditional Nagaski dish: a seafood egg custard. It was odd, but pretty tasty. Vaguely like egg drop soup, but only vaguely.
The next day we walked along the city's temple row, which, along with old old temples, has 300 year old camphor trees. People were out tending to gravesites (the temples are on a steep hillside, and spread among them and above them is a large cemetery). I suppose they're not really "gravesites" as they don't bury people here, but kind of little shrines that hold the ashes of the deceased.
Here is a view from a temple on the hillside:
Old houses are nestled up against the cemetery:
And here is a view from a shrine at the top of the hill, where, once a year, there is a festival of "the fox and the vixen" in which two people in canine costume do acrobatics on the top of bamboo poles. I love the fox shrines.
Finally, here is Chrystal in front of Nagasaki's oft-photographed "Spectacles Bridge." The Japanese love photo ops; there were dozens of people on the other side of the bridge taking pictures. The bridge looks like a pair of glasses, sorta, when the river's reflection.
On our way back to beautiful Omuta, we took a dinky little local train out onto the Shimabara peninsula, where there is a huge trouble-making volcano, Unzen-dake. A few hundred years ago it blew its top and created a tsunami in our very own Ariake sea which killed thousands and thousands of people. In the early 90s it erupted and spit out a big lava flow that hope to hike to sometime.
From Shimabara, we took a ferry back to our neck of the woods, but not before checking out a typically awesome samurai castle:
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