Potpourri

Big winter issue ... tomorrow, because I'm too tired to finish it tonight. For now I'll just put up some random photos from the last few days.

I went to the subway museum the other day. It had some interesting displays on how they dig the tunnels and a little about the history of the subway (11 out of 12 of the subways were built after '45!). Other than that, it was kind of lame and not worth the trip to Chiba. However, it does have a fairly cool display of a few of the lines, with their relative depths adhered to. Unfortunately, my picture is rather dark, but you can see the little models of the people waiting for the trains.



A frog from Ueno. Is he throwing up or is that his tongue?


Also from Ueno. The young lovers ruin the picture.


Again, Ueno. When I first saw this display, it was during the day, and I thought it was modern art. Now I see it is more just sensational art or whatever. Cool, though.


A restaurant in Akihabara, with a maneki neko (the waving cat you see a lot in San Francisco, even at the Chinese and Korean restaurants). He is waving you in from danger and the rain and into good fortune, as he did a monk a long time ago (according to myth).



I just noticed today what this gumball machine near my dormitory holds: toilets! Cool, collect them all (as it says on the sign)! I got a toilet paper roll and a Western style toilet before I realized I'd just spent 2 bucks. I really want the Japanese style toilet (with attached turd), so I may try again tomorrow.

Last, pictures from nearby Ryogoku. Land of sumo. I've seen a lot of sumo lately, but not just in Ryogoku. Sorry, no pictures of real sumo.


This is one of a set of monuments to the yokozuna, or grand champion of sumo. Asa Shoryu, a Mongolian who currently holds the title, will have his handprint on the far right side of this particular pedestal when he eventually loses his title or retires.

Finally, a temple in Ryogoku. Well, the surrounding garden.

Things I'm looking forward to

I'm beginning to feel a small fire of panic as I consider leaving Tokyo, leaving Japan. So, to try to get my spirits up, here are some things I'm looking forward to in the US.

1. Good beer. Beer here sucks, in general. There is a small microbrewery movement that is growing here, but overall the market is owned by Sapporo, Kirin, Asahi, and Suntory. The best of these, in my opinion, is Suntory, but they still suck. Better than Budweiser. But I'm looking forward to a Pilsner Urquell (which you can buy here, but you have to really search for) or Widmer Hefeweizen. Yeah, I know, neither are really microbrews. Shut up.

2. Good coffee. The best I've had so far is Starbucks, and many of you probably know what I think about Starbucks. There is good coffee here, really good, but it costs 800-1000 yen. And I have no idea if it is organic, shade-grown like Kalani, my favorite. But, to be honest, I'll be happy just to go to Muddy Waters in SF or Z's in Lawrence.

3. I can get away from Christmas music. Oops, nope, darn. Well, at least the grocery stores don't have jingles about fish or kids singing about some crap looped over and over again, blasting loud. Give me muzak any day.

4. Rainbow Foods!!!!! Yay. My favorite grocery store on earth! There are organic food stores here, but they are tiny and expensive. Organic foods haven't quite caught on here and are primarily geared towards the expat crowd in Roppongi. And that's a million miles from where I am. And I can't get good coffee there. Though I did find a good, organic beer. Pretty cheap one, too. But hard to find.

5. Family and friends. But you knew that.

6. I can get a job. Hopefully.

It's hard to come up with much more. I love the US, but it has its problems. There are definitely things about the US I absolutely hate, though I won't go into them. More than anything, though, I just feel I haven't had enough time here.

But I won't go on. I'll be back soon.

It's official

I've given up, and am now planning to leave next Sunday. Not a big surprise, but I just wanted to put it down on (virtual) paper.

In any case, I'll be back, both because I want to and because I went to Mt. Fuji on Saturday.

It took about 2 hours, I think, to get there by car, and it was EXPENSIVE! There are stretches of road where the toll is $20, each way. and yet Takashi paid it without flinching. He paid for everything, as a matter of fact. He must be doing well. Thanks, Takashi, again!

Fuji really is amazing, and though the staggering sense of immensity and vague threat can't really be conveyed in dinky photographs, I did my best. I've seen photographs of Fuji so many times, and yet I was still moved when we came around the corner and first saw it. I can't imagine what it must have been like for those who had never seen it in photographs. No wonder they thought of it as a god.


We went up to the 5th station, where the road ends. Beyond there you have to climb, and it was far too cold to climb without special gear.
We then went down to a park we'd seen on the way - it had a very nice view of the peak,


and a shrine to Tengu rock. I don't know what the story is about this rock, but I'll find out. In any case, that mask is the mask of a tengu, the creature I dressed up as for Halloween.


I wanted to take some more pictures of the full peak before the sun went down because the haze had subsided by then, but we didn't make it. I took some night shots on long exposure.


When we got back to Tokyo, we went first to a yakitori izakaya. An izakaya, if I haven't explained before, is a wonderful invention - while you drink (heavily) you eat; similar to tapas, but more substantial and very Japanese. It's hard to meet people, as you usually just sit with friends, but these days I prefer that to American-style bars where everyone stands around.


Next, unable to call it quits early on such a great day, we went for karaoke.

Unlike every other time I've been karaoke, I actually was able to sing. I discovered a secret - I can't sing songs I "know" very well, but I'm fairly good at songs I've never heard before. I guess when I sing songs I know I'm not listening for the rhythm but trying to remember the words - when I don't know the song, I follow along without thinking. Pretty cool. We had an absurdly good time!

I ended up missing my last train, so I had to take a different train and walk for quite a ways, but it was worth it.It was maybe the best day I've had yet in Japan, and I've had some good days.

A most important pilgrimage

Having almost (not quite) given up on staying this time around, there is one thing I absolutely have to do before I leave next Sunday: see Mount Fuji. They say that if you see Mount Fuji, you will come back - and while I don't have any doubt I will be back, it's some insurance. Plus, it's perhaps the most important symbol of Japan there is, and while I have seen it from the air (on my trip to China many years ago), I have yet to see it from the ground.

I had planned on taking an expensive, long train ride, but my friend Takashi (the one with the necktie) suggested he rent a car, and tomorrow we are going! We won't try the mountain (it's very cold up there), but I will be happy to just see it. Very excited!

Over a thousand hits!

I looked at my hit counter for this blog and I was the 1000th hit. Unlike the 1000th death row inmate scheduled for execution who got clemency recently, though, I don't get any prizes.

But, then, I'm not on death row.

I've come around to the idea of going back. I still haven't completely given up hope of staying on this trip, but it looks pretty bleak. I'll send in a few more resumes to schools offering jobs next year, hopefully get some interviews, secretly waiting for the translation companies I contacted earlier this month will get back to me and offer me 500,000 yen a month to translate academic materials on Shinto or some such. Then I'll get on a plane Dec 11th.

I've gotten obsessed with the idea of staying here, without going back to the US, and have forgotten to have some fun. I've had a really great trip and I've learned a great deal about Japan, and, even more, about myself (that sounds cheesy, but for the first time in a while it is true). I've really been lucky to stay here as long as I have, and now not only do I have two degrees I can put in my resume, I can also say I lived and travelled in Japan for three months. Not bad. Ought to help me get back here someday, hopefully soon.

After the interview a couple of days I go, I went out, for the first time since Halloween, with these three guys: Takatoshi, on the left, Masa (who also visited Hiroshima when I was there), and Takashi on the right. It's thanks to Takashi that I know almost all of the people I know in Japan - I met him as a conversation partner two years ago, and have met 15-20 Japanese/Chinese/Thai friends through him.

Thanks Takashi!

By the way, the tie on the head is a stereotypical drunk salaryman (= Japanese style businessman) thing to do here in Japan. Takashi recently became a salaryman, so, well, he felt obligated I guess.

No dice

I went down to Ebina today, near the naval base in Yamato, to talk to the founder of the school. It was an interesting conversation, but no job offer. We talked for an hour and a half, mainly about Meiji Era (ie, late 19th, early 20th century) literature, as he had written his thesis on the same author I did an independent study of last semester. He recommended I go to New York for my Master's. But no job.

Now that it seems things are pretty much over, I have to say I've learned a lot from this trip. I should have waited, I think, until April when the new school year begins. I was a little too arrogant, I think, thinking that my knowledge of Japanese would land me a job as soon as I got off the plane. Now that I look back I realize I really am at the bottom of the barrel - being able to speak Japanese is fine, but schools don't usually care about that. They want qualifications and certifications. And there really is no chance, I don't think, to get a job in translation unless you have a connection or have a visa through some other means.

I may sign up for some interviews over the next few weeks for the next school year. I may not,I haven't decided. I'm really very disappointed at the moment, though in no way surprised.

Passing seasons

I went yesterday to my old neighborhood, Oji, to take a look at the changing leaves. In particular, I found the vine on the right to be astonishingly beautiful in real life. Unfortunately my camera's flash washed out the intensity of the colors, but hopefully you get some idea of the orderly progression from green to red.

I'm sure that if I go back to look at it again, say next week, it will be gone or all red and I won't find it. I took a picture, but as in this case, a picture often just doesn't convey the true beauty.

That epitomizes the Japanese esthetics of the floating world, where the Buddhist tenet of impermanence becomes not a cause of sorrow but of melancholic joy. I think it is unique as an esthetic, though probably everywhere that peculiar joy of passing beauty is recognized in art and literature.

As I was walking through these trees, I was reminded of words from the Lord of the Rings (which I'm reading again for the 15th or 20th time):

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater. FOTR, "Lothlorien"



There is a mysterious beauty still left in the world, and though terrible things happen, we would be very much mistaken not to take a moment to recognize that beauty.


That is the purpose of the Japanese tradition of cherry-blossom viewing in the spring and Japanese maple viewing in the fall. There are many other celebrations of the changing of the seasons, but these two are perhaps the best known. At these moments, you pause to consider, not the future, not the past, but the present. Not that everyone celebrates them as such, but there are those who do.


I have read before that because the Japanese island is so prone to earthquakes, floods, and typhoons, the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence took hold very strongly. However, in the the Edo period the Buddhist view, that impermanence should be recognized as such and avoided, changed to an appreciation of the intensity of feeling caused by the sorrow of loss and focused on developing this keen sense of sorrow rather than shunning it. You could say it was a justification for the merchants to indulge themselves in the pleasure districts with the passing beauty of young geisha, but that would deny the power of works by Saikaku, Hokusai, Hiroshige, and other authors and artists that followed in their footsteps.

With that, I'll leave you with these pictures. Tomorrow is my interview, so wish me luck! Hopefully this isn't the autumn of my visit to Japan.

Edo museum

Today I went to the Edo Tokyo Museum. The above picture is from the entrance, where you can cross a replica of the Edo-period Nihonbashi. It is the same width as the original, and half the length. Nihonbashi, though now a concrete bridge with nowhere near the glory of the former bridge, is still the point from which milestones are measured.

Even though it is only about a half a mile away from where I'm now staying, today I visited the museum for the first time. It is a pretty amazing place.

Edo is one of my favorite periods - though the shogunate was extremely repressive, it is the period most people think of when they think of Japan - Kabuki, geisha, kimono, samurai all flourished during the period. In addition, Edo was the largest city in the world at the time and still managed a fairly sustainable culture.

In any case, the Edo museum covered nearly every era of Tokyo, from prehistory to the mid 60's (I couldn't find any displays much later than a Subaru made in the 60's).

The most interesting to me is the Edo period, Tokyo under the shoguns. During this period the city grew from a "backwater" (that's what all the historians call it when they talk about Edo in the period before the Tokugawa shoguns) to about a million people. The period during which the samurai went from limitless power then fell to the merchants. During which Basho traveled deep into the north.


This is a model of Nihonbashi at the time. The models were perhaps the best part - they showed a huge area, with a large number of little figures respresenting a cross section of commoners' lives in Edo at the time.

This is the same model, the street leading to Nihonbashi. You can see the amazing number of figures, each detailed and different from the others, lining the streets.



This is a model of the area near where I'm staying, where the museum is located. It is called Ryogoku, and is home to the National Sumo stadium. This is, I believe, from the other side of the Sumida River (not the side I am staying on). I wish there was that kind of boat traffic here today.



Here's a map of the city at the end of the Shogunate. It is a huge map on the floor; you can walk on it and find your favorite areas for comparison to today.

Last, these two are more to show the amount of detail and work that went into the museum. The first is, well, a boat (I didn't check what the significance was!). The next is a scene from a Kabuki play.




The museum is huge, with a number of areas you can't take pictures of. What interested me especially was the block print section, where they show the books designed with images and text to tell a story or portray some news item: these are the precursors of manga, the comic-books here in Japan.

There was also a huge section once Edo became Tokyo, the eastern capital. It was interesting as well, but it is a lot like displays on other countries from the Industrial Revolution to the present, except for one very large difference - WWII is from the axis side. There is very little talk of Japan's part in the war, perhaps because Tokyo isn't Japan. But there was a large display of the damage done to the city by Allied fire bombing. It was horrendous, and unconscionable. Far more damage was done in one raid on Tokyo than in Hiroshima. And most of the casualties were innocents. The Greatest War, huh? (I am not, by the way, condoning in any way the activities of the Japanese).

He stole my line

I was thinking of doing a guide to areas surrounding the stations on the Yamanote line if I were able to stay in Tokyo for longer. I'd use it as a way to maybe get a job as a travel writer or something.

This guy did something very similar, but for the whole railway system! It's very informative, though, and I wish I had it before I came, rather than a couple of weeks before I leave.

http://s-ohtsuki.com/Index-Top-Railway-Eng.htm

Hima

The title means "free time," and I've got a lot of it. So I read.

Here's something I found pretty exciting.

Fuel cell motorcycles

It's not so much the motorcycle part, it's the whole idea of fuel cells. I'm not a fan of the way the highway system cuts apart the ecosystem, but if we're going to keep traveling at high speeds, this seems like the way to go. And they could become a regular thing in the next couple of years!

Strange days

Yesterday was a weird day. I first noticed something was different when I rode the train to a bookstore near the imperial palace - the train's announcements of the stations was uncharacteristically off by one station, and the bookstore, along with an underground passage connected to it, was closed, unannounced. I wandered around for about 15 minutes to make sure I hadn't missed anything, then decided to go to the Shinjuku branch of the bookstore.

This went fine, but, whereas the trains on the eastern side of the city had been eerily empty, Shinjuku station and its surroundings were incredibly packed for a weekday afternoon. I wrote it off as I wasn't sure I had ever been to Shinjuku on a weekday afternoon. Still, the streets, normally packed with cars, were now packed with people (you may be getting the idea it was a holiday, as I did).

I was happy to find my store was open, though extraordinarily packed. I found a book I was looking for, then went to Starbuck's to get a coffee and read the book (I normally hate Starbuck's but it is the best coffee I've found in Japan so far). Again, extremely packed.

I left, then found a Victoria sporting goods store which was having a sale. I decided to go in, as there are few things I like shopping for more than camping equipment.

As I was shopping, I heard Ric Springfield's "I wish I had Jesse's girl," which I found just absolutely hysterical! Here I am, in Japan, shopping for a camp espresso maker, and I hear a song that has tortured me since kindergarten playing on the radio. I couldn't help but laugh, loudly. I hated that I couldn't explain my laughter to the other customers or... someone.

Then, on my way back to my dormitory I found this guy.
This is one of the main thoroughfares in Shinjuku that I mentioned earlier, and by now I knew that something was going on. In any case, he is juggling an axe, a chainsaw and a torch. He was quite a showman.


At the station I found this guy, playing Christmas tunes on a Theremin (is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" a Christmas tune? Well, anyway, he also played "White Christmas," and his sign says something about Kurisumasu). If you don't know what a Theremin is, it is an electric instrument that uses hand movements to create Star Trek-style eerie, spacey sounds. This guy was pretty good, though he missed a few notes.

I figured out, finally, that yesterday was the Japanese Labor day. So there you go.

Happy Thanksgiving! Nothing's happening here (which is fine with me), but all you Americans, enjoy yourself.

A response!

I just got a(n encouraging) response for the first time!
I had kind of given up hope of finding any work online, but today found a job teaching that really sounds great. It's in Kanagawa, the prefecture south of here - the prefecture where the sister city of Lawrence is, by the way. While not ideal, it's comfortably close to Tokyo - about an hour by train.

In any case, I really poured my heart into my cover letter, tried to make my self sound appealing while being honest to myself about my abilities.

Anyway, I just now received a response (it's 11 pm here) asking me to come see them next week some time. I wonder a little that they've responded, since they seem to need someone soon and it would take some time to process the application for a visa, but at least it's some hope. Finally, after nearly two months of searching, a bite!

I should really hate this place

I should hate Tokyo. It's way too big. Before I came to Japan, I'd thought about working on an organic farm in the middle of nowhere. I was sick of living in the city, sick of grey instead of green. So I still have a hard time understanding why I like a place where so many people live.



Where the "city hall" is one of the largest skyscrapers in the city and one of the best places to take pictures of the city, in addition to being purposefully Gothic:


Where you are being watched all the time:


I should hate Tokyo. But I don't. Honestly, I haven't spent much time in the rural areas of Japan, but for the moment I am pretty happy here in this ridiculous place.

Out in the boonies

Yesterday I took a long train ride, just for kicks, to the "outskirts" of Tokyo, in a place called Minamioosawa (South Big Swamp). I'd hoped to get there a couple of hours before sunset so I called follow a route in my guidebook. Lately though, I've been getting up at noon, and that means I've only got a few hours before the sun goes down. Because of the way this place is laid out, it takes at least an hour to get up, eat, shower, then get out of here; thus, I very rarely get to see much sun.

I ended up waiting too long to leave, spent about a half an hour getting to Shinjuku, on the west side of the city, and then spent another half hour figuring out the train system out into the boonies. Finally, I took about an hour long trip to Minamioosawa. By the time I got there, it was something like 4 (and the sun sets around 4:30). So basically I got there, walked around for a half an hour or so, and turned back. Of the 4 hours I spent on the trip, only that half hour was I outside a train or train station!

It sucked, and I felt robbed. But I was glad to see something new, and while the area wasn't exactly untouched forest, it had its merits. Someday I'll probably make another venture out there, but I will try to get up around 7 am or so...


I thought I could get away from all the pre Christmas silliness here, but I was wrong (I don't really dislike this stuff - though I do hate Christmas music):

Quiet lately

Sorry for the lack of updates. Honestly, things have been pretty dull, and I've kind of been down. But I've been traveling around, checking out the new neighborhood and watching the leaves change.

It's been a long time since I've watched leaves change. I forgot how fast they come and go. One moment they are green, then all of the sudden they are red or yellow, or purple maybe. Most of the time I've been viewing the leaves at a park nearby, a good place to do some exercise (something I've started doing lately).



It's a huge park, with two parts joined by the large bridge in the second picture.

It's becoming that time of the year again... Christmas is an imported holiday, as you may know, so there's not much point to it other than to consume.



You might notice there are some interesting lights on the ground... those are actually small lights built into the concrete. They change over time into blue, red, purple, and then back again. kind of cool. Cooler than the deer.

Finally, Tokyo tower. I went by there today. I decided not to spend the 8 bucks to ride to the top as it wasn't exactly clear, and I'm cheap. But it is 333 meters, for those interested. A few meters taller than the Eiffel Tower, of which it is obviously an imitation. I didn't think it was very interesting until I saw it up close - it is quite a building.

Last days at "The Prince"

No, not the Tokyo Prince Hotel. The area I'm staying in at the moment is called Oji, "the prince." Even with all that has happened, I'll miss this place. Though I'd never heard of it before I discovered this guest house on the internet, it seems to be one of the greener areas of Tokyo. In fact, I've been to quite a few parks in the neighborhood and they are quite beautiful. I will miss this area, and would consider living here again if it weren't in this crummy, dirty, poorly maintained gaijin house.

Today I wandered west, and while I intended to take a break from creating my Japanese resume (takes a lot of effort!), I ended up spending about 3-4 hours checking out the local sights. I only have one good picture, as it's pretty difficult to get a good picture under the shadow of the trees. There were several waterfalls in this particular park, though this was probably the best.



I did a lot of thinking under the shadow of those trees, and while I don't know what the outcome of those thoughts will be, I feel more relaxed than I have in a while.

Jimbocho, Ueno, and the Last Samurai

Just so you know, Jimbocho, the book district, has nothing to do with The Last Samurai, but I like the district, so I took a picture and thought I should include it.


On the far right are the complete works of Izumi Kyoka. For only 18,000 Yen!

The next couple of photos do have something to do with the movie.

I went to Ueno Park, in northeastern Tokyo, yesterday. Ueno is a symbol of the amibivalence of Japan concerning its modernization and westernization. Under the new Meiji imperial administration in Tokyo, Ueno became the first public park in Japan and it is synonymous with the defeat, in 1868, of the final stand in Tokyo against the restoration of the Emperor to power. And yet, the statue in the picture above, located in Ueno, commemorates these loyalists to the Shogun.


Even more evocative of the lingering misgivings about the destruction of the samurai class and headlong pursuit of Western industry and military strategy is the nearby statue of Saigo Takamori, the figure upon which The Last Samurai is loosely based.

Takamori was, at first, a supporter of the Meiji Restoration, but with the threat of the destruction of the samurai class, Takamori turned against Meiji and was involved in the Satsuma rebellion, depicted in very exaggerated terms in The Last Samurai. He, like the Ken Watanabe character, knew he was overwhelmingly outgunned, but the rebellion, as we see in the movie, made its point. He committed suicide soon after the rebellion failed.

In this society that celebrates the ritual suicide of 47 samurai who avenged their lord and then killed themselves despite a reprieve, the samurai-class opposition to the new emperor romantically embodies the dignified past in Japan. For those tiring of the coorporate cultural here that separates men from their families and is slowly destroying the natural and cultural history of Japan, they represent an escape, an answer sometimes. Most of my male friends worship these figures of what is called the Bakumatsu period or the end of the shogunate. I don't think any of them particularly care for the shogunate; it is the character of these men who fought against the emperor newly restored to power that they are interested in. It is a dignity that the generation before them don't seem to have, working in cubicles for profits rather than on the field of battle for their lord and the title of "samurai" itself.

It is, of course, far more complicated than this. But I have been struck by this interest in the past. I suppose it is like cowboys, but my interest in cowboys didn't last past 10, whereas many of my friends are in their mid-twenties. Ah, well, I'll leave it at that. Maybe some day when I know more I'll return to it.

Just a couple of more pictures that I forgot to add the other day.
The first is the picture of what looks like an apartment complex. I'm guessing it is a capsule hotel, where you can sleep in an 8 by 5 by 5 capsule for very cheap. Very Blade Runner, I thought. Or Terry Gilliam's Brazil. You probably pay extra for the windows - other capsule hotels don't have such luxuries because they are often a place to stay for businessmen on work-related trips.



Last, faces on the sidewalk.