The batton has passed

From Tomoji to Henry. Engineering is a good profession.

Little did the Chinese know..

... that all that heavy handed one child policy stuff was completely unnecessary. All they needed were Japanese nursery style compulsory two hour daytime naps for children up to six. Very efficient.

Unknown office, Tokyo, November 2008

Japanese packed lunch mums for Obama

Photograph lifted from Kasumin. Go look at the links below.

A neglected demographic in the 2008 election were Japanese packed lunch obsessed housewives. Ridiculously ornate packed lunches are a thing among some absurdly underemployed Japanese mums. This photo is from the blog of the woman who helped popularise this fad (she herself seems to have made a profession out it, appearing on all sorts of shows and publishing numerous books). She explains her concept here. Here are some of her more recent creations.

This "bento mania", by the way, is a thoroughly bad thing. A. spent ages this morning hovering over G.'s packed lunch for a trip to the park with his nursery. She was thoroughly intimidated by what elaborations the other mums might come up with. Peanut butter and raisin sandwiches in brown bread and cling film never did me any harm!

True dedication

There are a lot of finely sharpened stilettos, all morning make-up jobs and architectural hairdos in Tokyo ... and that is just among the men. Sometimes, though, one is privileged to witness exceptional dedication to the art. Let's take a closer look at that photo.



I can only speculate what may have injured the ankle but the doctor's orders are clear to see:

Doctor: "That's a nasty sprain you have there. It should be mended in a week or so. But, in the meantime, I want you to use this." [Hands over NHS General issue crutch]

Girl: "Hey, thanks!"

Doctor: "Before you go, it would be a particularly good idea if you went out with those stiletto boots you were wearing at the time of the injury. You know, the ones with a total foot to ground surface area of less than the rubber plunger on the bottom of the crutch."

Girl: "Good thinking, Sensei! Toodle pip!"

She hobbled onto the train, a martyr to medical research.

I had to laugh at this...

I was looking for a site to explain Japanese address formats. I came across this helpful post. It was not exactly what I needed, but the way it introduced itself entertained me greatly. I suppose my reaction relates to my Ron`s Nihonjin observations (a project which I seem to have dropped, by the way):

Japanese addresses reflect the primacy of the group in Japan.
They proceed from the general (the prefecture, or Japan itself for mail to Japan) to the particular (the addressee).

I just love the pervasiveness of this foreigners` language of packaging up just about every experience in Japan in these crap descriptive ideologies. Even in addressing conventions, people can find evidence for this stuff (or, rather, they simply have to apply the ideology, which has no need for evidence and does not rely on it). I am sure some Japanese old choffer has written something like this, but that of course is only evidence that Japanese old choffer writers of the "Nihonjinron" school are notorious bullshitters. I just can't help thinking that, rather than reflecting "the primacy of the group in Japan", this might be rather better understood as simply another (the other?) logical way to order an address from which very little can be concluded.

Along my jogging route

We`ve just moved into Tokyo. The entire length of my new jogging route along the river Kanda has suddenly come out in a blaze of white:




This is the season of "hanami" (flower viewing) , when everybody goes out and has picnics under the cherry trees and many get unreasonably drunk on sake. Some parks have even gone alcohol free to try to protect the flowers from stumbling fellows. Not our nearest park though. Plenty of stumbling:



And a long line at the toilets, especially (for once) the men's one:

Some sites for mixed or expat families in Japan

A. and I are belatedly exploring ways of trying to get more linked into expat networks and wisdom about living over here. There is quite a flourishing scene:

Piqniq
Tokyo with Kids
Tokyo American Club

This one has an education section about international schooling:

Weekender

A neat idea

This is more cunning than a fur coat with a fox in it. There is a photocopying shop in Tokyo, near one of the big universities, which is offering completely free photocopying. No charge at all.

God you're slow! Advertising, dear boy, advertising. The back of every sheet has an ad on it. And if you are running a student targeted business, that is damn good selling: not just the sheets all over the lecture halls but the buzz among the students about the free lunch.

Must be like one of those happy hour bars though: packed and smelly. Think I might prefer to pay my money and have a clear run at photocopying the lecturer's textbook in its entirety.

Loose socks

Loose socks are a thing among Japanese school girls. This Wikipedia article explains them well. The idea is that you wear very long, very loose socks with your shortened school skirt. They have been around for ages but I hadn`t realised just how long they could be.

The picture above is of loose socks being sold in a mall near here. The longest ones there are 150 cm long! That is taller than a lot of the girls themselves. Either they are catering to a niche market of gargantuan Japanese schoolgirls (scary) or there are a lot of folds in them there loose socks.

Earthquake!

Very odd reading this from where I am sitting. Like the world had been turned on its head. I was trying to work out if I knew anybody who might have been effected.

The Map Museum, Tokyo

For anyone venturing out in search of the Map Museum in Tokyo, take food
and warm clothing. It seems to have a liminal sort of existence, only
definitely existing in the world of maps (Time Out, Tokyo, p. 62). I
existed mainly in the world of irony as I wandered about the Kudan
district this weekend holding my map in front of me asking all and
sundry whether they knew where the Map Museum was. Eventually, I walked
through one museum doorway and asked the receptionists (in Japanese):

Me: "Do you know where the Map Museum is?"

Receptionist 1: "The Cheese Museum?"

Me: "No, the Map Museum, as in one of these things." (Waves map desperately)

Receptionist 1: "The Map Museum. Uh, no. We do old art and stuff here." (Calls to friend) "Do you know a Map Museum?

Receptionist 2: "Uh?"

Receptionist 1: "What's the address you've got there?"

Me: "2-1-36 Kudan Minami"

Receptionist 1: "2-1-36..."

Receptionist 2: "2-1-36..."

Receptionist 1: "No."

Receptionist 2: "Hey, 2-1-36. That's us, isn't it?”

Receptionist 1: "Yeah, you're right! Weird! We're not the Map Museum are we?

Receptionist 2 (Suddenly uncertain):"Don't think so."

Ginza stroll

There is something funny about that picture. At the weekends they shut off all the traffic on Ginza's Chuo Dori, Tokyo's main upscale shopping street. It is wonderfully liberating. Suddenly the city feels less dangerous and unpleasant. Young children are running helter skelter down the street. There is laughter and chat. It feels really transgressive walking down the middle of the street as if you owned it

Makes you realise how locked down by the combustion engine major cities are, how walking humans are peripheral, subsisting at the edges of the main business of the city.

They have been doing this since the 1960s in Tokyo. It was the inititiative of Ryokichi Minobe, a man who in this single act dwarfed the achievements of the risible and offensive Shintaro Ishihara, who was reelected last weekend.

Aoba

The "Kouyou" or Autumn leaves are spectacular in Japan but there is another, slightly less violent riot of colour in the spring. "Kouyou" means "red leaves". Aoba means "green leaves".

Religious observance

Somewhat relieved to report that my two-year old son`s religious fanaticism seems to be on the wane. For the last few months he has been insisting on stopping at the temple on the way to and from the nursery, walking right up into the gateway, pressing his hands together, bowing and doing his "namu namu namu namu" (praying) mumble mumble mumble "o-rikosan desu" ("I am a good boy"). Think he must have learned it on a nursery trip or from his O-baasan or something. He was quite punctilious. If we walked past without doing our observances, we would have to retrace our steps to assuage the divine. If Dad didn`t do his "namu namus" he was roundly told off and put straight.

Anyway, over the last couple of days, we seem to have become a bit lax in our devotions, little more than a "namu"mumble mumble "...riko...", as we run past the temple. Have to admit to a slight lifting of the heart as we pass. Quite frankly, it is a damn sight more British (and more Japanese) to keep this organised spirituality thing in its place. I wasn`t sure I fancied having a 3-year-old religious zealot in the household. Not sure the Buddha fancied it either.

Sakura

The blossoms have been out for a few days now. They really are spectacular. You think you know what they are all about and then, every year, they surprise you with their beauty.

Japanese Pensions

A "pension" is a type of small, Western-style hotel in Japan, almost always with the breakfast and evening meal included in the price. Probably the best way to give a feel for the pension world is to list a few of the names of pensions from my accommodation guide: Resort Pension in Limelight, Pension Star Party, Pension Yodel, Pension YesNo, Pension Hakuba Symphony, Pension Tent Keeper, Funny Inn, Country Inn Camp, Pension Good Chat, Farm Inn Pension Fruity, Pension Planetarium, Pension Boo, Pension Despatch, Pension Marine Mates, Pension Sunny Salad... oh, and, of course, the incomparably named Pension Old Age.

Starting to get the idea? The thing about pensions is that they are expected to be very individual and very expressive of their owners' personalities. This, of course, can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the personality.

A. tried to warn me, on our way to the "Costa del Sol" pension in Izu, that this was the very highest risk type of accommodation in Japan. A "hotel" is a clinical place. A "ryokan" is a fairly predictable traditional Japanese experience. A "minshuku" is basically analogous to a small English B and B. A "love hotel" is a flight of fancy, but it is a kitsch, postmodern, impersonal, tongue-very-firmly-in-cheek sort of fancy.

A "pension" is also a flight of fancy but it is the real thing. This is someone's dream. You hold their heart in your hand as you check in. The tongue is often nowhere near the cheek.

"Your stereotype of the pension owner is someone who worked as a salaryman and got very into something. There is always some individual enthusiasm that they are sharing with you. The story is always so and so got into such and such in a REALLY BIG WAY and decided to live his dream and start a pension devoted to his passion," Aya said.

So, for instance, at Country Inn Camp, the owner got into making things out of wood in A REALLY BIG WAY and now shares with his visitors the wonder of making robots out of wood. Over at Pension Star Party, the owner got into viewing the stars in A REALLY BIG WAY and now you can - no, probably you have to - use the pension's telescope and share the beauty of the heavens. At Pension Sunny Salad, the owner got into fortune telling in A REALLY BIG WAY and ...

"The nightmare is of some pension where the owner is into playing his guitar and everyone has to sing in the bar with him after the food," Aya warned.

Obviously, if you are lucky, it can be a wonderful experience but I think my trepidation as we descended the hill to the "Costa Del Sol" pension was understandable. Read on for more on our experiences at the "Costa Del Sol".

Costa Del Sol, Izu

What a wonderful place! It is right in front of the sea in a small fishing village called Ihama at the bottom of a narrow winding road. You fall asleep listening to the crashing of the waves.



As the name suggests, the couple who own the Costa del Sol are into things Latin in a REALLY BIG WAY. Their's is a very infectious enthusiasm. They have picked a spot just out of Ihama and this little bit of the Mediterranean contrasts delightfully with the traditional, slightly run down Japanese fishing village three minutes walk down the road (totally unpretentious. There was a slightly Irish feel to the rusting corregated iron roofs and old cars left to rot in the undergrowth). The owners lived in Mexico for five years when they were younger and go back to Southern Europe or Latin America every year. They cook really nice, plain Spanish or Mexican food. The crab and seafood stew we had was tasty. But the real uniqueness of the Costa Del Sol is in the art of Livio de Marchi, an internationally famous artist/woodcarver and a personal friend of the owners. From the moment you drive through the gate made to look like spectacles and park beside the bath house made of books there are surprises at every corner.



Album of photos Livio de Marchi's work at the Costa del Sol, Izu
Album of photos of the Costa del Sol and Ihama

WWII POWs in Asia

"They existed on only half a normal PoW diet; men were routinely forced to kneel and beg their captors for food. Nearly 9,000 of them died of malnutrition or disease. The last remnants of 'Operation Nipoff', as it was malignly known, didn't get home until as late as 1948." More

A different angle. The book.

Via Marmott`s Hole.

The Reynolds Collection on the Great Kanto Earthquake

Brown University's Dana and Vera Reynolds collection on the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake is a great resource, making available some excellent images of the disaster on the web. One caveat: I would urge anybody using it to be a bit careful of the captioning of some of the photographs. I am almost certain, for instance, that the photograph below is not, as the collection says: "One of a series of photographs taken during a boat trip around Yokohama Bay. Sheltered barges with large bags of relief supplies are visible."

Reynolds Collection original

Before I go on with this, can I just say what a wonderful image it is. If it were of post-earthquake Yokohama, it might be telling a tragic story. If it is of somewhere else, it may be telling us all sorts of other things about families, men, work and child rearing. Or maybe just another story of a particular family? Take another look at it. It is not just a picture of two tough watermen at work. There are two children on the deck (you can zoom in if you follow the link to the Reynolds original). A previous photo of the same boat shows a third man, who must be out of shot at the front of the boat in this one, but there is no mummy. Was there no mummy? Did the earthquake account for her and leave these men alone? Or is this an illustration of "new man as boatman" in some other harbour?

The earthquake theory is more romantic and tragic but, as I say, I would actually be very surprised if this was a post-earthquake image of Yokohama. There seems to be no damage on the street in the background whereas, in fact, almost all of Yokohama's waterfront was completely destroyed in the holocaust. I am not an expert on Yokohama`s architecture but I have half a suspicion that the street in the background may be a bit Shanghai-ish. I have discussed a number of the Yokohama boat images in the Reynolds collection with an expert on Japanese traditional boats and he felt the rowing styles depicted and some of the boats seemed more typical of China. I have sent a query to the collection and I think they will be looking into it.

Anyway, that is not my main point. My research into the Kanto earthquake has made me look at numerous horrific images of human suffering in the disaster. Actually, human suffering is not the right description. The images are not of human suffering but of people reduced to garbage. If they were of real suffering caused by the earthquake we could not bear them but there is something about images of piles of human shaped ash that is neutered, demeaning, powerless. The Reynolds Collection houses some such images, most of which seem not to have been taken by the Reynolds but bought as postcards during their visit. This is by no means the most horrific image but I warn you it is pretty horrible: a black and white picture purporting to be of dead Yoshiwara prostitutes in Tokyo. I think it is right for Brown University to make such images available on the web but it is a difficult moral issue. When is it right to show a stranger dead? When they bought these images, the Reynolds were doing something that was controversial even at the time:

The Japan Weekly Chronicle
November 8 1923, page 638

"A pedlar name Kaibara Shotaro (39) of Kawanishi-dori, 4-chome, Kobe, sold a lot of prohibited picture cards connected with the great disaster in Tokyo and Yokohama aboard the St. Albans on the afternoon of the 25th ultimo while the ship was alongside No. 2 pier and he was arrested by the Water Police on that charge. The cards are said to have shown the scenes of the holocaust at the Honjo Military Clothing Depot and the corpses of the Yoshiwara brothel girls. Seeing that these pictures were published in the Japanese newspapers circulating millions, it seems absurd to prosecute pedlars at this time of day."

The Chronicle, perhaps the most respected English language journal in Japan at the time, was commenting on the hypocrisy of the Japanese authorities but this short news article does raise the fact that the distribution of such images was seen for various reasons as problematic by some Japanese contemporaries.

However, perhaps the most shocking image in the collection is this one:

Reynolds Collection original

It is captioned, "Two men from Taiyo Maru, (one older in white and a younger in darker suit, hats off, younger man holding wine bottle) bridge in background, standing lamppost/electrical pole." The Taiyo Maru was the liner the Reynolds arrived on and they seem to have been part of the same landing party.

I think there must be moral questions about a group from a liner landing themselves, with a bottle of wine for refreshment, in the aftermath of some other people's apocalypse. I understand why the men would want to have witnessed what happened (though I am sure I would not have taken the wine. Let's hope it was just a wine bottle with water in it) but I would also understand a local feeling great anger at that white suited gentleman. Here is some contemporary reaction to such disaster tourists, from the Japan Chronicle again:

The Japan Weekly Chronicle
September 13 1923, page 354
"A little straight talk is sometimes refreshing. The Metropolitan Police Board have warned visitors to the capital as follows:
1. The longer you stay in Tokyo the more you will embarrass the citizens, so please get away as early as you can.
2. Your special attention is called to the undesirability of roaming about in the debris out of curiosity, and bothering the citizens in their work of removing their belongings.
That is the way to talk. The citizens of Tokyo are too polite, even in their distress, to say "For goodness sake get out!" So the police are saying it for them.