Sept - Oct the Japanese Issue

THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN…

October/November saw us spending 3 weeks in Japan.  Quite an experience, what an interesting country and people, so different to what we are used to.

The red dot on the map shows Atsugi which is where we were, quite close (just over an hour by train) from Tokyo and 45 mins from Yokohama.  Atsugi is a town known as a bedroom community for the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, and its economical claim to fame is a Nissan Design Centre and 2 Sony Technology Centres.  The population exceeded 200 000 in 2000 and I don’t think it has regressed at all.  Transport is mainly on trains, busses, bicycles and on foot.  That said, the traffic congestion is still ridiculous.  Nearly all cars are little square, half bread loaf shaped, easier to maneuver and park I guess.

High rise living

Space in the city is an utter premium, high rise living is the norm, no room for gardens or trees or anything natural to grow.  Parking is thus really difficult to find and really expensive when you can.  In fact I believe that you have to have a guaranteed parking space before you can purchase a car.  

High rise car parking garage

Car parkings are often found on top of buildings and they favour the automated parking garages here where you drive your car onto a platform then the automated parking system will move your car via hydraulic or mechanical lifts, the best of all is that they even have these for bicycles!!!!! 
I have witnessed police walking around, writing out and stapling little pink tickets to parked bicycles – apparently it could be for anything from parking in the wrong place to not having a permit to park or license for the bicycle.  
We walked past a bicycle parking on Saturday where there is a take a ticket on the way in and a little booth on the way out where you pay the attendant for the time parked, just like a car park.  Its also amazing to see allocated shaded parking areas at blocks of flats for bicycles and not cars, certainly takes up less space.  Bicycles also seem to enjoy the same power over the roads as a car, best you as a pedestrian look out for them at intersections coz they seem to have right of way

The Japanese are generally a short, slim bunch.  This can probably be attributed to the fact that they walk, run and cycle just about everywhere.  They will break out in a run at the drop of a hat and for no apparent reason – no matter the age.  It is fascinating to see elegantly dressed, well made up and coiffed ladies, in any form of footwear, high heeled boots, pointy and high heeled patent shoes and pumps and business suited men all cycling or jogging along pavements.  It was pointed out, and I have to agree, that the Japanese are not the happiest looking nation, they seem to have a continual a sense of urgency and purpose about them.  At the risk of generalizing I personally find that around 90% of Japanese women are absolutely beautiful and nearly as many men are not.  That said, I think Japanese children are the most gorgeous children ever (this is up to age 7 – 8).  Little boys with shaved hair on the sides of their heads and a long thatch of hair on top which many mothers are happy to plait or tie up in pony tails and the most gorgeous little girls.  At least as Japanese men age they become more distinguished.  

Friday 31 October was Halloween, quite a big thing in Japan, so cute to see all the little kiddies throughout the day, dressed in their Halloween outfits, in school groups, supervised by teachers, trick or treating shops in centres.  Saturday Halloween decorations were nowhere to be seen and all of a sudden the Christmas tree is up and Christmas decorations are all over in the shops.

They have what we consider some funny idiosyncrasies –

Patience is NOT a virtue, when you get in a lift MAKE SURE YOU PRESS THE CLOSE THE DOOR BUTTON, if you don’t someone will be sure to push you out of the way to get at the panel and do so.  After this happened we paid a bit more attention to elevator buttons and the close the door button is the most worn out one!!

Stay on the left hand side of escalators and stair cases, room for someone to run past you on the right, and someone Japanese generally will.

When you pay for anything, always check around for a bowl to put money into and to take change from, you should not put it directly into their hand or onto the counter.

Bowing is big – they bow at everyone and no one.  A nod can pass as an abbreviated bow.

They are very quiet, the children are very quiet, on a bus or train you can generally hear a pin drop.  When they do talk it is sudden, animated and rather startling.

They translate literally, the sayings on their clothes don’t make sense and the best was when I ordered iced coffee in a coffee shop – along came a glass of really good coffee with ice cubes and coffee cream on the side.

Spitting and smoking, anywhere, are quite the norm and hands don’t quite make it in front of yawning, sneezing or coughing mouths – perhaps that’s the reason for the masks?

Kevin at the entrance
to one of "the" alleys

There are people talking over speakers and recorded messages everywhere, on the streets, in the shops, all over.  The funny thing is that the music and voices are so child like.  Nights are very colourful and pretty noisy on the streets, most chain stores and some shops are open late and restaurants open so lots of bright lights and people.  
There are some shops and alleys you don’t want to go into, massage parlours and places with exotic names and suggestions, popular with Japanese men.

See the hours on the sign

Work hours here are rather radical, Kevin works 9am to 7pm (makes it a really long day) and generally leaves most people in the office at that time.  On the streets people are commuting from early in the morning.  I think this leads to a necessary ability to sleep at the drop of a hat, these people will sleep anywhere, in elevators, on trains and busses (standing or seated), in fact Kevin and I watched a guy at the table next to us in a restaurant eat three quarters of his dinner, his head lolled back and mouth fell open and true as Bob he was sleeping, woke up after about 10 minutes, finished his dinner and left, I was hysterical.  I have discovered twice that Japan actually has 25 hours in a day, that explains a lot.

Vending machine on deck of
Ship Museum

There is a great love for vending machines, there are vending machines everywhere, on street corners, in hotels, shopping centres, stations, shops…. And the fascinating thing is they are not even reasonably priced.

Eyesight in general does not seem to be very good, lots of people wear glasses, made so much more noticeable by the fact that most opticians only seem to have square brown glass frames available for men!!

Personal space does not seem to mean much here at all.  Hoards of people move around Japan, more during peak hours, making trains especially packed.  Waves and waves of people march up and down train platforms and just when you think there is absolutely no more room in a train carriage another 5 will shove their way in.  There are conductors on the platforms – wearing white gloves, and one of their jobs is to shove passengers into carriages to be able to close the doors.  Kevin was telling me there are women’s only trains because of this issue. If you are claustrophobic do not ride trains in peak hours here.

Meat here is odd.  Majority of beef has quite a bit of fat running through it, no matter the cut, wonder what they are feeding their cows?

Tattoos are not popular.  When we arrived there was a brochure advertising a spa close to the hotel, the only proviso being you may not attend if you have a tattoo, no matter how small.  In the same brochure was a wedding package including facial shaving for the bridal wedding party, how is it ok for women to grow beards but not for them to have body art – ha ha ha.

My first week was spent orientating myself and getting to grips with the consumer side of things here.  They have multi-storey shopping centres – probably something to do with space constraints.  I had great fun exploring them.

Food Market under the Station

There are also huge and awesome food markets, usually with two sections, one of general supermarket products and fresh foods and the other ready made food.  Shopping in English in Japan is definitely a challenge.  I only got a data card on the third day I was here, this allowed me to use Google translate, so for the first three days it was relying on gut feel, pictures and the odd English word, made for some interesting shopping – eg. Milk – white carton with picture of cows, success :-)

There are some very interesting looking vegetables in Japan, no idea what they are or what you do with them and no one to ask, but they look interesting anyway.  We also make a point of staying away from anything that is not necessarily recognizable – don’t like those kind of surprises. 

Curry at our favourite Indian restaurant

Dishes served displayed in
plastic outside most restaurants

Seeing that we are staying in a hotel, we are subject to a very little bar fridge, coffee mugs, green tea cups and saucers (which make perfect wasabi, ginger and soya sauce containers) four glasses and a kettle in our room.  This has necessitated purchasing two small plastic plates, cutlery and chop sticks and all the extras for eating sushi in.  The restaurants are initially interesting but you eventually realize they all sell the same type of food.  We have basically selected a couple of restaurants that we like to eat at – safe food – including a pucker Indian restaurant, and we bolster these meals with take away sushi and salads that we can eat in the room.

Eggs are big here, Kevin had warned me about this before I arrived, so first morning at the airport waiting for the bus we get breakfast.  I go the safe route – basket of toast, ordered by the picture as no engrish of course, should have a pat of butter and container of jam, safe bet ha ha.  It arrives and hidden in the corner of the basket is a cute little boiled egg – we missed the little bit of white hiding in the picture!!  SUPPLIES!!!

Depending on where you shop, prices are quite reasonable.  Chilean and Australian wines seem to be the most popular and obviously the better the more costly.  Wine in restaurants is ridiculous, R48.00 on average for 125ml of red wine.  Have decided that beer with dinner is the way to go, better deal by far.  We found a sushi bar on Sunday night that has sushi starting at R10 per plate of two pieces, bargain, but no English descriptions, need to be careful of what you order, I ended up with something horridly sticky and smelly instead of the yummy salmon it looked like in the picture :-( will stick to what I know from here on.

Armed with my new data card (yay, could use google translate, what a disappointment, not the most accurate application I have encountered) I was finally mobile and on Friday I caught the bus to Kevins work for sushi lunch and back.  Quite a feat considering navigation was via numbers – bus number and stop number, thank goodness for google maps and Kevin who has done this enough now to know.  I found myself comparing symbols to try to differentiate between stops, works, but you need a bit of time to do so.  Feel like I am playing those match up games you play with cards when you are a kid.

The restaurant we went to was unreal.  The longest sushi train I have ever seen, it goes round and round the restaurant.  Green tea, as much as you like, is provided free.  There is a touch screen that you use to order your sushi and it comes past on the belt, raised on a red bowl so that you know it is an order and don’t whip someone else’s food off the train.  The screen notifies you as your food is arriving, we worked out there are sensors in the plate and the red bowl, very clever.

I was wandering around the “OK Food Store” when I heard a voice saying “excuse me are you lost” and there was this lovely Malaysian lady who told me I looked like a lost tourist, probably :-).  Anyway, she took me on a guided tour of the shop, pointed out where everything was, what it is and what was in it and the best prices, she spent about an hour making sure I was on the right track, so lovely.  One of the recommendations she had was Sake – pointed out the one her husband insists on drinking, award winning, etc.  Well we got brave enough to buy a small bottle to try, on Friday night, 

Mohan and us - Kamesh has very little
furniture so we sat on the floor

And ate on the floor too
good curry though!!

needless to say we were nearly late for lunch at Kamesh, Kevin’s work colleague, on Saturday, as we slept very late.  Note to self, Sake might not taste like much but is not to be underestimated in any way.  We were treated to a lovely curry lunch by two of Kevins Indian work colleagues.  Afterwards we headed for Yodobashi, my introduction to train travel – more symbols and numbers and Japanese.  Yodobashi is an electronics/photographic etc. shop, many storeys high, their prices are unreal, so much cheaper than we can get stuff, only you obviously have to be careful as everything is in Japanese – they even make Japanese computers!

On our return we were wandering through the station and found a statue of something we have been trying to figure out.  Everywhere we found pictures of a little pig chef with a fish on its head and had no idea what it was.  The statue explains it, seems it is the Atsugi monument, a pig chef – representing their like for pork and a fish on its head – representing their enjoyment of fish – huge!





The Japanese are really innovative and certainly know how to make the most use of little space.  Well, the smallest space is usually the toilet/bathroom and they have a couple of innovations in this area that are 

brilliant.  In public bathrooms, when you find a toilet cubicle bigger than something a 7 year old dwarf fits into, you will generally find a toddler seat in the corner, somewhere to park the kid while you do the necessary – brilliant, as long as you don’t forget it.  Almost all toilet seats are heated, public as well as hotels, etc.  Toilet seats have a control attached that plays flushing sounds –

still haven’t figured out why – sprays water and in case you are not sure where it should go there is a picture of a bum, some even have built in aerosol spray.

My best has to be the cistern that has a built in water spout, as you flush water exits the cistern into the toilet and at the same time water fills the cistern from the top through the spout, stopping when the cistern is full, gives you quite a while to wash your hands.  Another brilliant idea is the built in blow drier for hands, in the sink, so soap, wash, dry all in one.

Sunday we went to explore Sea Paradise in Yokohama.  There are outside exhibits housing dolphins, beluga whales, I think a minkie whale, penguins, seals and sea lions, giving ad hoc shows throughout the day.  They also have an area of cordoned off squares housing various schools of fish.  

Kids pay to get a fishing rod, catch fish, take them in a plastic bag to the kitchen where they are battered and deep fried and handed back – teaching sustainable fishing seemingly.  Very popular past time anyway.  There is a water park with fun rides but we avoided that, too cold and too old :-) 




The exhibition centre had an underwater tunnel in a dolphin pool, there were 4 dolphins swimming around, two playing with floating buoys and two divers cleaning the sides of the pool.  At the end of the tunnel was a large cylinder in which a huge sun fish swims round and round. 

In the Aquarium is another underwater tunnel, under the seals and a funnel through which they swim, fun to see them come up through the floor and swim out the top, they seem to enjoy it too.

There was also an escalator that went upward, inside a huge tank of mixed fish and sharks and rays, pretty weird experience.  They also had polar bears and lots of unusual sea life in many different tanks and areas, I was a little sad at the sizes of the area they were confined to but I guess I will always feel like that.

The top floor of the Aquarium was where we watched the last show of the day, 35 minutes and it was really good.  The huge tank is home to a captive whale shark and the show takes place around it, the only time they seemed to need to keep its attention was when the beluga whales and trainers did their show.  The dolphins were well trained and performed so well, the sea lion was precious, even a pelican that marched in and out.  The beluga’s were really impressive, their interaction with the trainers is great, pushing them with their heads, being ridden and swimming kaleidoscope style.  Loved it!!

Erevator this way ha ha

An interesting fact was that this park was extremely well attended by Japanese families, we were very conspicuous because we were non Japanese and because I had two cameras.  Many people had cell phones and tablets, but we saw very very few actual cameras!!  One of the best signs I have seen yet was at the park, we always laugh at direct translations, they don’t improve.

There was a park off to the side and it was great to watch a band and what I would call drummies practicing – they put in serious amounts of practice, even in the rain.

On Monday, public holiday, we headed to Tokyo to the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda.  The Palace is off limits to the public as the Emperor still resides there, but the gardens are open to all and are beautiful.  Well manicured flower beds and shaped pines.  The wall around the garden is still as impressive as it was when it kept people out of the city and the guard houses while deserted are still well kept.  They had lovely big koi fish in a fish pond with a small waterfall and bridge, so nice to be able to spend a day outdoors and out of the city, enjoying nature. 
 

Wednesday and Kevin had business at Nissan in Yokohama so I popped on the train with him and went exploring.  Started out with a little boat trip on a water taxi to Yamashita Park – not really a park, more like a long area of well manicured gardens.  





By accident I discovered the Hikawa Maru, a Passenger/Cargo ship that used to work the route between Japan and Canada until the 1960’s, becoming a museum in 1961.  It has been reconditioned twice but to as close to original as possible.  Very interesting. 

Design your own logo

Next stop on the walk back 
to town was the Cupnoodles Museum, a museum about the origin and progress of instant noodles.  The best part was the do it yourself cup of noodles, I got a cup, sat at a table with a selection of felt pens, 

Choose 3 fillings and 1 sauce

had to put the date on the cup and draw my own design on it, then to the counter where dry noodles go into the cup, then I got to pick the flavor of sauce and 4 ingredients then it gets sealed and shrink wrapped and voila – my own personal cup of noodles, so proud of myself :-) What fun.

We went to a “seafood” restaurant down the road that claimed to have English menu with pictures – dingy little restaurant much like we found in deepest darkest Mozambique.  The pictures indecipherable and the English – badly translated.  We did eventually manage tuna sashimi and prawn and shrimp croquettes which in fairness were very nice and fresh but been there done that.  As far as funny foods, we avoided a restaurant that was advertising horse meat ramen the other night and there is a restaurant down the road that has puffer fish swimming in a tank in the window, seemingly a delicacy even though they are poisonous.  We are trying to work out a plan to be able to release them.  We also boycott any restaurants that have sharkfin on their menu.

I have discovered the Atsugi Central Park, or as we call it, the ball park.  There is a square of huge concrete balls, placed around a small pond housing a couple of gold fish.  The balls have water emitting from the top, running down the sides, a great place for pigeons and other birds to bath and drink from.  This has become my quiet place.  It is the size of two blocks, in the centre of the city and the only small bits of grass and trees for miles.  


Even the play park attached is tar floored, poor kids that fall on that.  Sitting in the park is like watching a Japanese movie, it is a favorite play place for various Nursery Schools, the different age classes being determined by different colour hats.  The really little ones are transported by cart, they look like little bottles in a crate, so damn cute.  So many people pass through this park it is never boring.

I have also taken to walking up and down the river, gives me a bit of exercise and has prolific bird life and is quiet and pretty.  I managed to get some really awesome photos of a hawk, one of the company of goliath herons, oyster catchers, king fishers, white herons, fishermen and model aircraft fliers that call it home.  There is also a real squatters camp, an old kombi which seems to serve as a bedroom with a hut built on made of sheeting and plastic.  Next to that a shelter of old umbrellas and plastic.  Guess there are squatters all over the world.

On Sunday Kevin and I took a trip to Hakone.  An hour by train this is a beautiful tourist attraction.  All recommendations were to spend the night there as there is too much to do in one day – correct, but we only had one day so we made the best of it, we will definitely stay over night next time.  We arrived and had breakfast next to a river, clouds topping all the mountains around complimenting the Autumn colours but making it really chilly.  


We caught a bus down to the Lake then walked the Ancient Cedar Avenue, well we thought we did, seems we might have done the bicycle path but when we found the Cedar Avenue we decided ours was better.  We walked up a really steep staircase to a lookout point, from where, on a good day, you can apparently see Mt Fuji, well unfortunately all we saw was cloud, but such a beautiful view of the Lake and surrounding area.  




Down to the Lake and we caught the pirate ship Victory, which carried us all the way across the Lake to Togendai-Ko.  



We stopped here for a quick lunch and cold beer, sausages and chips were a safe choice and we got to eat them watching the other pirate boats arriving and leaving.  


Then it was off to the Rope Car, basically what we would call cable car, what a lovely trip, could see for miles.  At the end we could see the steam coming through the ground where the hot springs flow underneath, really weird.  A train trip took us back to where we started and off we went back home, tired but grinning, we had had a fabulous day and look forward to coming back – we had planned to do the ship and cable car on this trip and will explore all the other interesting things…. next time.

I had my one and only tremor this week, was sitting in the room when suddenly everything started jiggling and shaking, it was only a baby one, 4.9, but my first quake ever – neat.

Lastly the washing machine.  Kevin discovered small washing machines in Japan, just the right thing for a catamaran.  We went with the view of purchasing a top loader, ended up with a 4kg capacity twin tub.  The salesman spoke not one word of English made this an interesting transaction.  They were all astonished that we wanted to take a washing machine back to South Africa.  Then it was the turn of the bus to the airport co-ordinator, he nearly had a melt down when he saw the size of the box we wanted to put in the luggage hold, and the bus wasn’t even half full!  


Then at the airport we had to repack our suitcases 3 times, wouldn’t let Kevin have his laptop bag and cabin suitcase as carry-on luggage, eventually we got the weights and bags right even though Kevin was now wearing all his jerseys and carrying books in his pocket and we had donated our new trolley to the ground steward to avoid paying for excess baggage.  Then the box only just fitted through the scanner at the oversized luggage counter, but eventually it was all headed for South Africa and we could stop sweating, though that might have been the extra clothing. 

They made us open the box in South African customs but were happy with a glance and a half hearted attempt at looking through two of the suitcases, fortunately they didn’t find the extra bottle of whiskey we had managed to shove in.  Well, now we have a washing machine on our boat, woo hoo, so beyond happy. 

Hopefully this has not bored you all to death, Japan is a very interesting country and has a very different culture to us.  I am not convinced it is a culture I really want to adopt so am not sure how long I could stay there, but definitely look forward to future trips there with Kevin next year.