John Lennon Museum

Aya and I went to the John Lennon museum located in Saitama last weekend. It was really cool. The price to get in is not much, I think it cost us 1,300yen for the both of us and we got a discount because we were married, funny. Although most items in the museum have a Japanese explanation accompanying them, a great deal of them also have English which was really nice. Also, even though it was a Saturday, there were not many people in the museum and at times we were entirely alone.
The items in the museum and the set up itself is pretty cool. Room by room you go through the objects and stories of John’s life starting from his early years all the way to his death. I was very impressed with the amount of authentic objects in the museum from guitars to glasses, to art and signatures, to his report cards and diary. We were asked not to take pictures and I obeyed, mostly, one picture I could not resist and that is the one above, John’s report card!
The overall feeling of the museum was great, it really gave me the impression of actually understanding the years passing and progression from one thing to another. It gave me a much greater perspective on John’s life. I even learned that he visited Japan a number of times and kept a journal with pictures for learning Japanese, that was really cool. There were also many photos and objects from other personal moments and I felt the most moved when viewing objects from the 5 years when John took off to care for Sean.
If you are in the Tokyo area and are a Lennon fan I would highly recommend this place. If you are just a casual tourist I would still recommend it, but only if you have ample time to see other Tokyo places first.

Iide

I finally got around to climbing mount Iide (2105m). Last summer, myself and a group of friends got up the mustard to give it a try. Driving to the starting point Aya and I were separated from the rest of the group and we started up a different path. It was very difficult and after about an hour Aya said she couldn't take it anymore and we decided to turn around. Rightly so, it was about a 50 degree incline. Very difficult.
That was last year. This year I returned, alone, to claim the top. I had wanted to go with some friends, but everyone was busy. The weather was perfect and I finally had a day free so I decided to go it alone despite that hiking alone is not a good idea.
I started at 9am. After the first 15 minutes of flat trail the fun began. Much the same as last year, despite that this was a different path, the 50 degree incline was intimidating. I slogged on for about 2 hours before that ended and I reached the top of the first of many peaks and a "flat" area. Iide, in respect to other climbs I have done, was different in that way. After the first two hours the next 3 1/2 was a series of saddles between peaks. Sometimes the inclines would be so hard to pass that chains had been hammered in to the rock so you could hoist yourself up the rock face. In a couple of places the trail was only a couple of feet wide flanked by a precipitous drop that certainly would lead to death if you happened to mis-step. In the photo above there is a rock face that seems very slim, you have to hoist up a chain on the left side then walk the middle of that with 100m drops on either side. Scary. After 5 1/2 hours, exhausted, I reached the peak of Iide. Most people that climb take 2 days or more to do so, they stay in cabins along the way which provide water and shelter for the night. Those people are wise, I was not. I had it in mind to do it all in one day, so after reaching the top I promptly turned around and headed back.
Usually when I hike I figure a 3/2 ascent/descent time. If it takes 3 to go up it usually it will take 2 to go down as the descent requires more finesse and less raw power. However, because of the saddles this was not the case for Iide. It still took me 5 1/2 hours to descend and the last 2 hours were spent utterly alone and in the dark. The sun had gone down and all other hikers had long since gone to their cabins for the night. In addition I had somehow hurt my ankle near the top and was having the pain increase on the way down. So there I was, in the dark, hours from anybody, injured, descending the mountain. This is why you should not hike alone. However I always prepare a pack with essentials. I had a sleeping bag, rain jacket, 2 days of food, rope, water, cell phone, headlamp, etc.

To stave off paranoia and to hopefully frighten off any large animals like bears I started talking to myself out loud. I sang songs, rationalized my future, commented on the trail conditions, etc. Anything to remain loud and keep my mind off the solitude of the dark forest. Finally, 11 hours after starting, I reached the bottom. I thankfully peeled off my boots and headed home for some hot ramen and a cold beer. Iide was a great hike, in my opinion more challenging than Fuji, and I want to go again. However, next time I will take more than one day and I will bring along a buddy.

Fujikyu Highland Park

Fujikyu Highland park is one of the most intense roller coaster parks in the world. With Mt. Fuji in the background a stroll around the park is nicely backdropped, but we did more than stroll. Unfortunately we went on a saturday, lines were very long. We payed about 4,500 yen to enter with an open pass. We could ride anything all day, but the lines were such that we thought we could do 3 coasters at most. Our first target was Fujiyama, which was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened in 1996. It is also really fast, reaching speeds of 130kmh. To say it simply, it was really fun and very intense.
After that coaster we knew we had time for only one more, so we grabbed some lunch and stood in line for Eejanaika. This coaster has the Guinness World Record for the most number of inversions. It is what is called a 4th dimension coaster, meaning the seat is capable of 360 degree turning. Before getting on you must empty your pockets and take off your shoes. You are then strapped into a chair with legs dangling and drawn up the first embankment lying on your back. From there you are tossed and turned over the 14 inversions in a matter of about 2 minutes. It was really really intense and I have to say that i did not enjoy it as much because it was so intense. Fujiyama was good, but Eejanaika was just crazy. One other interesting note, I had my heart monitor watch with me and tested myself at different points along the rides. A normal resting rate for me is 65 beats per minute, 85 is a normal standing rate. I tested myself on both rides and results were close to the same. While in line my rate was 110, which is about the rate your heart would be at if you are taking a brisk walk. Once strapped in I was at 120, which is close to the same. On the ascent, right before the first drops it went to 140 which is the pace of a slow run. After the initial drops it went to 160 which is a normal jogging pace for a male of my age. Interesting to see how my body reacted.

Fuji

Mount Fuji is the largest mountain at Japan and the peak is 3,776 meters above sea level (12,388ft). Most people start from the 5th station which is at roughly the 2300 meter mark. Richard and I thought that climbing it from the 5th was kind of cheating since that brings you to about the half way point without you hiking, you ride a bus there. So we hiked from the bottom, the absolute bottom. We started from our hotel in Fujiyoshida, Riben minshuku. As we left at 530am the inn keeper told us to "gambatte!" (fight for it!) We took about 20 minutes on foot to get to Sengen Jinja (shrine) and started the trail from there. This is only one of four trails from the bottom to the top, but the most popular, which was hard to believe since we saw not a soul (except for a mountain goat) along the trail.

The altitude at Sengen Jinja is about 800 meters above sea level.
Denver, Colorado, is roughly 1 mile high, 1 mile is about 1,600 meters so the 5th station starts at about 1 1/2 miles high and the top of fuji is over 2 1/2 miles high, much much higher than Denver. If you have ever watched a football game played at Mile High stadium you will have seen the players sucking oxygen on the sidelines. As you go higher the air gets very thin.

The hike was difficult and to get to the 5th station took us about 5 hours. We saw no one on the trail from Sengen Jinja to the 5th station. What a shame! No one taking the traditional route, no one interested in climbing the whole mountian, perhaps on the other three trails fromt the bottom there were other people, but I doubt it since we were on the "popular" one.

We took a break at the 5th station, observed the circus of buses, tourists, ponies, and women in high heels with strollers, bought a hiking stick and quickly moved on. From the 5th on the trail was pretty packed with people. We were never far from anyone and a few times held up by people ahead of us. By the 7th station fatigue started to set in and by the 8th we were both plodding our way onward at turtle pace taking frequent but empty breaths. Along the way, at most stations, we took 5 minutes to have our hiking stick branded and perhaps to sit for a minute.

By the 8th station many of the people had stopped climbing. They were bedding down for the night, waiting to reach the peak an sunrise and/or recovering from the change in altitude. It was also at this point that we started to lose the finer points of speech as our minds became fuzzy from the oxygen deprivation. Luckily, neither of us suffered more than mental slowness. Some people get terribly sick. More than a few times I saw people sucking on cans of oxygen, trying to keep their bodies from rebelling.

At the 7th station, about 3 hours from the top, the wind picked up and it started to rain. We had both brought rain gear, but still felt the biting cold and by the 8th station I could no longer feel my fingers. The rain continued up until we reached the top after 11 hours of climbing with minimal breaks. Once at the top we went searching for our final stamp, only to be told the person had closed down 30 minutes before. Being cold, tired, and dejected we snapped a few pictures, got another coffee to warm our hands, and started our descent.
Almost immediatly Richard came alive again and the next 3 hours descending in darkness went fairly quickly. We reached the 5th station at around 9 and took a bus back to Fujiyoshida. We had briefly talked about descending the whole mountain too, but decided not to since at that point it would be a drop in the bucket as we estimated it would only take about 2 1/2 hours more and after 16 hours we didnt care.

When returned back to Fujiyoshida, stopped at a sushi place for a drink and some sushi, then returned to our room at the minshuku where we promptly fell asleep. I was so tired I didnt fully undress and woke in the middle of the night to finish the job. The next morning after we got up, the minshuku owner asked us how the climb went. When we told him what we had done he said, "yuusho!" (champions!) All in all it was an excellent time and an experience that will not be soon forgotten.

Indecent Proposal

While in Stanley I proposed to Aya. We had already been talking about getting married, we have a date and location set, have sent out invitations etc. but I had still not proposed, getting married was something we had just agreed upon. So 4 months ago I bought her ring and ever since have been trying to wait for a good moment to come along for me to propose, some nice location or specific event or something. I didn’t know, I just thought inspiration would hit me and I would think, ok, perfect timing, let’s do it Kevin, but that didn’t happen. It finally occurred to me that I had to make it happen and so determined that I would do it in Hong Kong come hell or highwater. I knew that we would be near the sea, which would be nice, so I waited until we were alone, which we were in Stanley.
After having lunch along the board walk I said, let’s take a walk by the seawall. So we did as I thought about how to start. Of course I had an idea of what I wanted to say, but I did not know how to begin. First things first I distracted her by pointing out a junk (ship) in the harbor and saying she should take a picture of it. Meanwhile I slipped the box out of my pocket and put the ring on my pinky finger so that I would have it ready. I then hid the ring as best as I could and tried to begin. But the words just didn’t come out and so Aya said, lets go. I told her I wanted to stay a bit longer and sat on a ledge by the sea wall. I thought perhaps if I just start it will come out alright. So as she turned to walk away I started to get on my knees and said, “Aya I…” and then the ring slipped out of my hand. I watched it make a few weak bounces on the boards of the board walk, praying that it would not fall into the space between the slats and trying my best to put my body into motion, but by the time I made any kind of move to recover the ring it had quietly slipped into the space between the boards. I was shocked to say the least. Aya, who had watched the ring fall between the crack, wasn’t so concerned, so I said, “the ring, the ring fell between the cracks! (frantically pointing)” and she said, “oh well, its ok” and I said, “no, no, not this ring (pointing to the ring on my finger) THE ring, the wedding ring!” At which point she came around to what was happening and we both fell to our knees peeking between the cracks searching for the ring. Luckily it had landed on a flat piece of concrete about 2ft below the surface of the board walk. As some relief crept in that we knew where the ring was we began to talk about how to get it out and how much of an idiot I was. Luckily, just as I was starting out towards the commercial area to find something a security guard was walking by and I flagged her down. I told her that we had lost a ring, she came to take a look, confirmed that I had in fact dropped the ring, and then said she was going for help. About 5 minutes later she returned with two other security guards and a number of thin long tools. The first she tried was a long wire with a hook on the end, which worked and she gave me back the ring which I heartily thanked her for. Meanwhile Aya and the other two security people were taking lots of pictures. Thanks for the memories.

So I had the ring back in my hand and said to Aya, “Despite that I am and idiot…” which was the perfect start that I had been looking for. As we discussed the whole incident we both agreed that it was very much us, a perfect fit, and really the only way to go about it. Oh, and she said yes.

Nebuta Matsuri

Nebuta Mastsuri, in Aomori ken, is consider one of the three big festivals in the Tohoku region of Japan. When I first came to Japan I noticed in one of the English textbooks that the festival was mentioned and there was a picture of one of the floats. Since then I have wanted to go and got my chance last week. The drive was murder, 12 hours on a bus there and 8 hours back, with 5 hours in between to be at the festival. Despite that, I really enjoyed what I saw. The floats lived up to my expectations.
Nebuta refers to the stomping of the ground that dancers around the float do, but the orgins of the word mean root (ne) and to cover (buta) which refer to the loss of a warrior and the burial of his followers in old Japan. Usually the top of the float is a scene depicting a warrior and made of all paper, lit from the inside. They used to be smaller, built with a frame of bamboo, and lit with a candle from the inside, but now they have changed considerably. Floats are much larger, built with wire, and lit inside by light bulbs powered by a portable generator.
We, luckily, got a spot near the harbor and so were able to enjoy the procession of floats along the water front and the fireworks as well. One thing that really impressed me was that, despite that the waterfront was packed with people rows deep, everyone remained seated despite that most people had an obscured view that could be remedied if they stood. The only time people got up was to take a quick look or snapshot of a passing float and then to sit down again. If everyone had stood at the same time, the affect would be ruined and everyone would be back to square one. In America, everyone would stand, but in Japan, things are different.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a beautiful place full of history and clashing of cultures that often make a place a breeding ground for my most desired combination of things. We only had 2 days in the city which is a shame and I hope to some day return, maybe even to live there except for one thing which really put me off. The heat! Japan is hot, but Hong Kong was hotter. Each day we took refugee in some air conditioned building about every 2 hours just to cool down and not exhaust ourselves. I can’t imagine living there for an entire summer, but the rest of the year must be superb.
On the first of our two days we went to Macau. Macau was “discovered” by the Portuguese in the 16th century and remained under Portuguese administration until 1999! One of the first and last colonies in China it is steeped with historical buildings and contains not a World Heritage building but an area! Clearly there was too much for just one specific point and numerous monuments, temples, and other places were incorporated. We saw the ruins of the cathedral of St. Paul, A-ma temple, and the fortress. Unfortunately, we were so exhausted by the heat, the walking, and the travel of the previous day that we decided to wrap it up early and head back to Hong Kong. The remainder of that day we spent finding a sweet shop for Aya and then a bar with good beer for us boys. We bounced to a few good places, one of which was Ned Kelly’s. I had remembered reading about it before coming. It wasn’t such a bad place, Filled, but not full of people on this Saturday evening with a live band and some decent beers available. It was a nice way to wile away the final hours of our day.

The next day we were up and about early enough to catch a bus to Stanley. Stanley is not far from the city. We took a bus for maybe 45 minutes through winding streets leading up steep hills with suicide drops on one side and sheer cliffs on the other, all the while the double decker bus swinging wildly around the curving road. When we arrived in Stanley we were greeted by a massive tourist market. All of the shops had something to offer, but I would say only a few were unique. Most had the same array of scarves, paintings, ornaments, and other junk that you could find in most major markets. Only a few had other wares, but overall I liked the market. After browsing for a bit we had lunch by the boardwalk and then took a walk by the sea wall. I proposed to Aya by this sea wall, but I will save that for a different thread. Safe to say she said yes.

After Stanley we returned to the city proper and went to some of the other touristy markets, the jade market, shoe street, the lady’s market, etc. Which were all fun and good. We did find some neat stuff and I was pretty happy to be roaming around these markets. One thing I especially enjoyed was a fruit, meat, and vegetable market street just a few blocks from the main action. Nothing too unusual, but a lot of fruits and veggies that I could not identify. Really makes you think about how restricted our diets are no matter how hard we try to expand them. Our second day ended with the purchase of some jade and a Tsing-Tao for me to wash down the heat of the day. Overall good trip.

That Which Dwells Within Us

The other day I was at my with my Japanese language tutor and we were reading a story about vending machines in Japan. Part of the story focused on the benefits of the vending machines while the other part focused on the detriment. Detriments included things like using electricity, hiring someone to stock the machine, etc, but there was one unusual thing that at first I thought I had misread. It said that vending machines are limiting face to face contact among people. While I thought this was true, I also thought… so what? Is that a problem? Apparently in Japan it is.

After a little inquiry my teacher told me that she had recently had a “student” who had been coming by lately. He was what is called a hikikomori 引き籠もり,. Which translates as someone who pulls away, or a shut in. These people exist in other countries; usually they are people who have some sort of social, physical, or mental disorder or impairment that makes it difficult for them to function outside of a confined or familiar environment that they consider safe. Japan is a leader among the world for this sort of person and China, Taiwan, and South Korea are also seeing rising numbers of hikikomori recently. Some factors that are said to contribute to it is a lack of a right of passage, which would lead to youths becoming adults and also perhaps because of the rigid systems of social ranking in Japan and other countries. Many students in Japan face enormous pressure to test well for universities and highschools and many of those who graduate find slim job prospects, which may also encourage their disallusionment.
My teacher’s student had gone to school as a normal adolescent would, but upon graduating entered his home, rarely to emerge for the past 9 years. As of lately he had expressed a desire to come back into society and so my Japanese teacher, who is also a psychologist, agreed to meet with him to start some rehabilitation.

Apparently in Japan this is very common. I did a little research and asked a few people I know about hikikomori and all of them knew someone at some point in their lives who was or is a hikikomori. By some statistics this involves about 20% of adolescent males (1% of the total population). In fact I know there is at least one at my middle school, and a couple at my elementary schools, although the most serious cases are those that carry on beyond school. At this point you may be thinking, ok, so that is a little strange, but surely its not so bad. At some point these people must emerge from their rooms to go to the bathroom, eat, shop, work, etc. The suprising truth is… not really. Some are known to have stayed in their rooms for periods measuring in years. Many needs such as food and other shopping can be done over the internet or is done by the persons mother, who then brings it to their room. Going to the bathroom may only be done at times the person feels safe, like at night. Which brings me back to the original article I was reading about vending machines.

It seems that a negative side affect of vending machines, which are growing in number in Japan, is that it enables people to remain hikikomori. It also seems that a considerable amount of business occurs at night, which creates a conundrum for owners who don’t want their machines using electricity all night long, but also have a small, but growing costumer base for late night use.

While I recognize that some of these individuals really are disturbed and really do need to be catious about social interactions, the majority are being enabled by their parents and society who has taken a passive role in allowing them to isolate themselves. I can make this argument because when you compare the statistics for urban or middle class families with hikikomori children to those of lower class or rural families the difference is noticeable. People are choosing to become withdrawn from society for petty reasons and their loved ones are allowing them to do it. Despite all that I love about Japan, this is one thing I do not.

Going Grey

Japan has a big population problems. Standing now at 127 million, the Japanese population is expected to be less than 100 million by 2050. There are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost is a negative population growth at -.14 Coupled with a very low rate of immigration that equals decline.
The second is the tendancy for Japanese to marry late, and therefore have children later or not at all.
This however creates big problems as the population becomes the most top heavy in the world. Creating a large base of elderly with a small amount of young. Now it is estimated that every retired person is supported by 7 working people, by 2050 that will be 2. The future for Japan, looks grey.

Ritual

A month ago Aya’s grandfather died, which while a sad event was a cultural treasure trove for me. Now considered a member or the family, I was asked to come to the wake and the funeral. Both events had some similarities with western styles and some new things for me. I would like to share those things that are most interesting, briefly touching on the similarities, while telling a bit more about the differences.

I met Aya’s grandfather one time in the summer or 08’. At that time he didn’t talk and barely stirred, which I was assured was his normal state at that stage of his life, age 90. I didn’t think too much about him even though he lived quite close to me, until this past week when Aya and I went to a movie. It was a Friday and first you have to understand that going to a movie involves an hour drive. So Aya picked me up and as we started out she told me her grandfather had become quite ill and was in the hospital. After chatting a little we decided to keep going, After 1hr he was gone. So upon having reached the movie theater we turned around and drove back. Aya went to spend time with her family while I just went home.
I am not sure what the family did that first night, but probably just consoling each other getting plans ready.



The next day, Saturday, Aya asked me if I would come to the wake, which would be Sunday evening. Of course I said yes, but when I asked her what it would be like she was vague. It must also have been Saturday when the body was prepared encoffinment, which if you have seen the new Japanese movie Departures, you will know what that entails. If you haven’t seen that movie, I recommend you do, its very good and available in most countries since it received an academy award.

On with the story; I missed the encoffinment, because I didn’t know that it was happening, but I made it for the wake Sunday night. I was a bit confused as the word for wake in Japanese is 通夜, which means “through the night” . I was unsure of what to expect. All of the next 24 hours occurs in the same building except for a 2 hour period, so assume all events are in the same place. The building used was 2 stories, and seemed somewhat like a conference hall with dining room, lobby, café’ area, and one room with tatami mats, closets, bathroom, shower and couches. The tatami room was like a Japanese hotel room.

The wake was held in a large conference room, the body at the front in a balsa casket, top open for viewing, and surrounded one all sides by many flower arrangements with small signs indicating who they were from. On one side of the aisle were family, on the other close friends. At an appointed time a Buddhist priest entered, sat, and chanted (when I asked later what he said, no one knew, they said it was very old Japanese and very hard to understand). After about 20 minutes the priest rose and turned to sit facing the crowd. He then made a brief speech about the grandfathe’s life. After his speech attendees approached the casket, burned a small amount of incense, said a prayer and then went back to their seats. As there were about 25 family members and 30 other people, this did not take very long. After which we all went to the room next door which contained a dinner and drinks. We all toasted his life, had dinner and drinks, and the crowd thinned out until just the close family remained. After which time the family, and the casket, where brought downstairs to the tatami room. Here the casket was set on an altar near the couches and candles and incense where lit. The family then prepared more food and drink and talked. The closest family stayed there for the night, sleeping on the tatami near the body, using the bathrooms and showers in the morning to freshen up. Hence, throught the night. I went home, to return the next day.

When I returned the next day at 11am the body had been returned the to large room it had been in the previous night. The exception was that this time there where about twice as many guests as the night before, perhaps nearing 100. The arrangement was the same, except that all chairs were filled. The same Buddhist priest came in, gave what I took to be the same chant and things basically proceeded in the same way.


Once it was only family remaining the employees clipped the flowers off of all the arrangements and gave them to the family in baskets. These flowers were then put into the coffin around the body by the family. This was also the last chance for people to touch him or say goodbye to him and was the only time that I saw any weeping during the entire thing. After the flowers had been put in an employee retrieved the lid, driving a nail into each corner and one into the head. The one he drove into the head he did not fully drive in. He drove it in half way, then the family shuffled past, each taking a stone block, and using it to give the nail a couple of final taps, the last person using the hammer to fully drive it in.
After this the men of the family carried the coffin to a waiting hearse outside the building and the body was transported to a cremation center. The family followed in a bus.

Once we reached the cremation center the body was unloaded and put onto a sled which was wheeled to the front of the incinerator. Here we said a final prayer and the body was slid inside and the doors closed. Then we waited for 2 hours as the body was burned. During this time we had drinks and food and just talked a bit. After two hours we all went to a room and here is the most interesting part for me.

When we entered the room the sled was in the middle with small long tables on each side with pairs of chopsticks laid on them. The close family stood on one side while the rest of the family shuffled past on the other side. The sled in the middle was still very hot and contained the ashes and bones. Family on one side passes bones to family on the other to put into trays and then people switched. Here, people were passing from chopsticks to chopsticks which is why, during meals, it is very rude to use pass things chopsticks to chopsticks. After the most of everything had been collected an employee came in and swept up the rest of the remains taking that and the trays and putting them into the urn. It was odd, but as he put in the bones he would say things like, "this is the finger and that is a piece of the skull. etc"

After the urn was packed we returned to the first building where the guests were waiting. we had another dinner and after 2 hours most people cleared out. The the urn and the close family went back to the grandparents house where the urn, gifts and burning incense have been on display for the last month. In about a week there will be an internment ceremony at the family crypt. I will be sure to write about that later.

Hiking

This Golden Week I again did not have a lot of money to spend, so again I took to the roads around Fukushima and looked for places to hike. This year I took my friend Jon with me and Richard joined us for the third day.
We tried for 3 peaks in 3 days, but the third and tallest was too snow covered to reach the top. We did get to the tops of Adatara and Ogunigoya, but failed to summit Azuma. I am now suffering mountain withdrawl and I am going to hike the hills behind my house tomorrow. This was Golden Week.

Over the next few months I am setting my sights on higher yet, Iide and Fuji. Both mountains I have not done yet and both far higher than those that I have. It will be fun.

A Most Important Guest

I have been to many places to visit people that I know and a few times I have been able to return the favor and host someone. This time around I got the honor of having my mother visit me, which of course means very much to me. I was very excited to have her see my world. She has been following my travels through my blog and of course from our own private correspondence for a while and I have wanted her to share with me for some time, so this was really cool. My mother was really resilient too. Despite all the walking everyday and all the weird food I was putting in front of her she never really slowed down or refused to try anything, except for the raw horse meat  I think she was a very good traveler, inquisitive and respectful, open and ambitious.

We went to three places; Tokyo, Kyoto, and Aizu. In Tokyo we saw many things such as Ueno Park, Akihabara, Tokyo Disney, Odaiba, Meiji Shrine, Sousuji, Edo Museum and lots of other things. For all the large and wonderful things we saw, I think my mom was impressed most with the school kids’ uniforms, especially the girls with hats.
In Kyoto we went to Kinkakuji, Toji, and Fushiinimari-taisya Shrine. Again, many great things to see and do, but I think the most impressive thing was the Shinto ceremony going on at Taisya Shrine. Of course we also got to meet up with Brian and Cynthia, which is always fun and Brian can coax a smile out of anybody.

My mother said of the three places she liked Aizu the best. I’m not really sure why, but I think its just because she got to meet Aya’s parents and because she got to see what day to day life is like for me. We went to school, aikido practice, and went to the castle grounds to view some cherry blossoms.
It was sad to see her go in some ways. I think it’s really ok though, because she will be back some day and then I can show her even more.

Japanese; The Language

I have been asked many times, “Is Japanese hard to learn?” I guess that it really depends on what your native language is. If it is Chinese or Turkish then maybe it won’t be so hard. Some of the sentence structure is the same in Turkish and obviously Chinese also uses kanji (however not in the same way). Personally as a native English speaking adult with almost no prior exposure to Japanese or its grammatical structure it is one of the hardest languages in the world for me to learn. Among a ranking of the 63 languages used in diplomacy Japanese was #2, second only to Hungarian. It out ranked Cantonese, Arabic, Persian, Serbian, Hebrew… you get the idea. I was surprised to find this information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardest_language) but not entirely. Japanese is hard! I have been studying since the moment I hit the ground here some 18 months ago. Currently I have about a C ranking at level 3, which is just conversational level! Its not that I don’t study, I do, I study for about 8hours a week, not to mention being surrounded by the language. To reach level 3, 60% proficiency at the very least, takes 600 hours of study. You do the math. Why is Japanese so difficult? Well, let me tell you! There is some very difficult grammar, but first let’s start from the start.

There are three “alphabets”, the first is very well known, and that is kanji. The second is hiragana. The third is Katakana. Kanji is an alphabet of ideographs while hiragana and Katakana are an alphabet of syllabary much like our own Roman alphabet. This appears like this　ひり仮名. Hiragana is used like our Roman alphabet to represent phonetics. Kanji can be written in hiragana, all kanji have a reading or sound that can be represented by hiragana. Many of the articles of Japanese such as question marks, conjunctions, verb stems, etc. appear in hiragana. Sometimes roman letters and numbers are used, romaji, which makes everything….well, here is an example sentence containing all 4. ラドクリフ、マラソン五輪代表に1万m出場にも含み. The green (first) part is in katakana, the red (second) in kanji, the blue (particles and last) in hiragana and the black (1,m) is romaji.


Kanji appears like this 今日 or this 京　or this 興. Those kanji in order mean today, capitol, and interest. I chose them because they also all have the same phonetic sound, kyou. This is very common, that many words have the exact same sound. Yes, we have it in English too, but it occurs much more in Japanese. You just have to know context to understand when speaking. Each has its own stroke order, meaning that you start with one mark and follow a path to the last mark to make the kanji. The second example has 8 strokes; one small mark on the top, then the horizontal line, then the left side of the box, then the top and right side in one stroke, then the bottom(left to right), then the stem going down in the middle, then the right under dash and finally the left under dash. This in itself is hard enough to learn. Stroke order sucks! These days with the use of personal computers Japanese themselves are starting to forget how to write the kanji because software is built to recognize what they want, eliminating the need to write kanji by hand. There are also multiply readings for the same kanji. For instance,欠. This kanji is pronounced ketsu…or..ka…or keru…or ke ….or ku. It depends on where it is with other kanji. If it is like this, 欠陥, it is pronounced as ke, if it is like this, 欠ける, it is pronounced ka, etc. I think you are starting to get the point if you are beginning to think to yourself, this makes no sense. You are right, there are no real rules for kanji, and you just have to know. There is however one thing that you can latch on to that will keep you sane as you learn these kanji. Symbols within a kanji DO mean something, they are ideograms after all. Take for instance 松 matsu　板 ita　, and根 ne. These three kanji all have one thing in common, can you see it? It’s the radical to the left that somewhat looks like a tree. In Japanese tree is 木 and you know what; those three kanji, with the tree radical in it mean pine tree, board, and root, all things that relate to a tree.

Now, on to hiragana. Let’s take a kanji I have already used, 京. This kanji, if you remember, is pronounced kyou. It is the symbol for capitol. You can easily see that in place names like Kyoto　京都　and Tokyo 東京. Kyoto is the former capitol of Japan while Tokyo is the current. Kanji all can be written in hiragana, however, not all hiragana can be written in kanji. There are even a few words that exist only in hiragana, but not in Kanji, like こけしwhich is the word for a wooden doll.
Usually hiragana is used to group nouns and verbs, giving direction to objects and movements. For example, 飲む, is the verb for drink, however if you want to give it context you have to use hiragana with the kanji. 飲みます、　飲んだ、飲んでいる、 which mean I will drink, I have drunk, and I am drinking. The kanji remains the same, but the hiragana changes. It can also be used to mark a question, with か. For example, 飲みますか, means “will (implied person/s) drink”? And of course there are particles like と、に、で、etc. that work as and, in/to/for, and by.

Next up, Katakana. Katakana is used to spell out foreign words. Why the language needs an entirely new alphabet, which matches the sounds of hiragana letter by letter is beyond me. That’s right; every letter in katakana has a counterpart in hiragana. かヵ　きキ　くク　けヶ　こコ, those are all hiragana (left side) by katakana (right side) and they all have the same sounds, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. I absolutely hate Katakana because I see no point in it. Some people have told me it is used for words that never existed before, but that is BS. The Japanese have a kanji for baseball and often will use a katakana word rather than a hiragana one. The only upside is that I am supposed to be able to easily identify Katakana words, since they are foreign. However this is not true, first of all because the sound comes out all chopped up, like パソコン、this is supposed to be personal computer, but it comes out like pasocon. There are also lots of katakana words that aren’t English, but are in other languages like アルバイト, arbaito, which comes from the German word to work. In Japanese it means part time job. There are words that aren’t in any language at all, but are made up, like クーラー/kura which means air conditioner. They just made it up! Then assigned it to their foreign words alphabet, which matches their alphabet exactly! Why?! Why Japan!? WHY!!??

Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana, and Romaji might be enough to make your head spin, but then there is keigo. Keigo is the honorific system of addressing people. There are three levels to this, two of which are used to address someone who is not present and one to address someone who is. For example: 知る(しる) to know comes out as　知っています・しっています（teenier-go) and thenご存知になる・ごぞんじになる、ご存知でいらっしゃる・ごぞんじでいらっしゃる(sonkei-go)、 and then存知あげる・ぞんじあげる（kenjo-go). Yes, that’s right, four levels of addressing people.

When I think about all of this I want to give up, yell at someone, and go home. I don’t though, I just take it one day at a time and plod ahead with my blinders on. Paying no attention to the madness that surrounds me.

Gasoline

My car gets a little over 40 miles per gallon. Yes, that’s right, eat that America! A big reason for this is that my car is what is called a Kei Car, or Yellow Plate. If you don’t know what that is, here is a useful link
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Keicar
But they can basically be described with this, “Kei-Cars, or keijidōsha, are small passenger cars as well as trucks. They are mainly sold in Japan, because there are some tax and insurance relaxations and an exemption from the usual requirement of certification of park space that one has adequate parking space at his or her home or has contract with a parking spot.”
Now that is all fine and good, but there is also a thing in Japan called Shaken, it’s a bi-annual check up to ensure the road worthiness and environmental standard of your auto. Shaken is really expensive! I paid 750 dollars in shaken on a car that might be worth 2000 dollars and that was getting away reasonably. They replaced a 15 dollar belt and assured me everything else was in order. Thanks a heap.
Everybody hates shaken time. This does two things; First it encourages the cars on Japanese roads to be more environmentally friendly and generally newer, Second it encourages Japan to sell cars to other nations before they are past their usable point or to drive them into a remote place and leave them there. To me this is the twisting of the knife. The point of shaken is to keep environmentally friendly cars on the road and heavy polluters off. The point, however, is totally benign if the car is just driven somewhere else in the world or left to rot its fluids into nature. But I digress.
While mileage on Japanese cars is great gas here in Japan is not exactly cheap. I can cheer about miles per gallon, but weep about gas prices. Currently prices near me are at about 112 yen per liter for regular. If you take the conversion rates of yen to dollars and the conversions of liters to gallons you get about 4.75 dollars per gallon of regular gasoline here at the local station. For entertainment sake lets say my car gets 43 miles to a gallon, which may actually be correct. That means that I get 8.42 miles per dollar of gasoline. How does your car stack up?

Culture Clash: Social Security

I have gotten my first Culture Clash request from my uncle Hans. He proposed a number of questions and I hope to answer all of them in what I write below, but as always if you are still wondering about something then let me know and I will do my best to answer!

Because of recent failures in the American economy questions have sprung up all over the world as to how it is affecting other countries. Here in Japan the economy has been affected, “The government has noted a jump in layoffs in many industries, especially heavily export-dependent sectors including the automobile and electronics industries, while voluntary retirement among regular workers also is rising.” (Daily Yomiuri)
However in relation to the US dollar and other currencies the Yen has remained strong. The reason for this is that Japan has been averting risk. Instead of taking bold moves that might dramatically strengthen or weaken the Yen it has taken very small steps in a negative or weakening direction. Japan’s economy has gotten weaker, but compared to the US the progression hasn’t been nearly as fast. However the outlook is bearish and no one expects quick recovery on either side of the ocean.
On a side note I wanted to say something else. The Federal Reserve in America, that institution that prints our money and raises and lowers interest rates, they are not government owned. It is quasi public, meaning that while it is a government institution it is not government owned. Personally I see this as creating a conflict of interest between the public and private investors.

Now on to public healthcare and welfare in Japan. Japan does have social welfare. Japan also has public assistance programs benefiting about 1% of the population. About 33% of recipients are elderly people, 45% were households with sick or disabled members, and 14% are fatherless families, and 8% are in other categories.
For instance, fatherless mothers get about 40,000 yen a month per child and depending on where they live might receive other assistance like housing. From what I have seen there aren’t too many people who abuse this, like in other countries, and end up with many children and no job. Japan’s population is actually on a sharp decline, which brings up a whole host of other social security problems.
An elderly person’s pension is dependable one where or how long they or their relative/spouse worked. A retired person’s main pension usually comes from the company they worked for. The Japanese government pension system provides benefits to insured persons or their survivors, when they retire from their working-lives, become handicapped, or die. A character of Japanese public pension system is the universal coverage of Japanese population by social insurance pay-as-you-go scheme. The pension from the government is about 50,000 yen per month. Which is not a lot, my rent is about 55,000 yen a month. I have seen some TV programs about this, but couldn’t get anymore than that some people were upset that the payment was so low.
As for people who “just don’t want to work” there are a few categories that they may fit into. In Japan there are people called NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). As far as I can gather there is no government support for these people in the form of payment, but the government does provide counseling and training to them if requested.

As I see it the system here works pretty well. Like everywhere else there are people who abuse it, but it seems to me that in Japan that happens less. Japanese society has giri, a sense of social obligations and amae, the concept of dependance. Both of these largely influence how people view themselves and the society they live in, but to explain these concepts further I will write another blog later.

Fragile

We are so small. There is something that I thought about as I crossed the Sea of Japan to Korea. In recent years there has been much talk of global warming. While global warming is a real threat I want people to think of this too. We are fragile. We ride around in our planes trains and automobiles. We make our own little bubbles in which we exist and matter. Often we believe that we are strong, but we are not. Our planet is strong. It will kill us. Our planet is so much larger than us. If we continues to abuse it as we have been, continue to grow and consume, our world will destroy us as only nature can.

DMZ

There were two things on my agenda for South Korea. First, see the liger at Everland Amusement park. Second, go to the DMZ. The DMZ is quite an interesting place. Its one of the most heavily fortified places on earth. Not to mention that North Korea has the 5th largest standing army on earth at over one million soldiers. This line, or area rather, was created in 1953 after what is known in America as the Korean War. This line runs approximately 155 miles and 2.5 miles wide, across the Korean Peninsula at roughly the 38th parallel, which was the boundary between North and South Korea before the war. This split the country, and many families, in two.
Numerous incursions have occurred over the years as North Korean soldiers have infiltrated the southern side. In fact since the boundary was made in 1953 about 500 soldiers have been killed at this line, including 50 Americans.
Another very interesting thing was four tunnels that the north had built going under the DMZ. These were first discovered in the early seventies and one by one more were found. There are now 4 known tunnels. I visited tunnel number three and got to walk through a part of it. It’s small. I had to wear a helmet and walk in a crouch the whole time. Of course Aya and our guide had no trouble. As our guide explained, most North Korean men would be 150cm tall or less and there was no need to make the tunnel bigger.
Although the line itself isn’t funny, the bravado shown here is. The North Koreans set up fake towns to make the north look populated. In one place, when the south put up a flag pole they put up a bigger one directly across the line. I’m not sure about the South Korean side, but I am sure there have been some taunts.

Although relations between the two has seemed to get better in recent years. The North has even opened up for some trade with the south and allowed tours to be conducted in the North.

Liger

One of the most exciting things in going to South Korea was getting to see a real Liger. I was unaware that this animal existed until the movie Napoleon Dynamite came out a few years ago. When reading up on South Korea I found a small note that there was a liger at the Everland amusement park. So of course Aya and I went.
Ligers have been around since the 19th century. The breed between a male lion and a female tiger produces this beautiful creature. There is also a tigon, which is the breed between a male tiger and a female lion. Both of these unions have occurred in the wild, but they are extremely rare in that setting. Although fertility goes down, but ligers are fertile and can produce offspring. There are cubs at Noah’s Ark Zoo in Germany.
But the coolest fact about Ligers is that they are some of the biggest cats on earth. In fact the largest cat in the world is a liger named Hercules who lives at a zoo in Miami. He is 10 feet long and over 1100 pounds. There is another Liger called Sinbad that is reported to now be the same size and weight, although Hercules is the official record holder. Here is a video from National Geographic on Sinbad and Ligers. Please note that in this video Sinbad is only 900 pounds and is now larger. http://www.doobybrain.com/2007/12/15/sinbad-the-900-pound-liger/

Fun Fact

Japan’s fish consumption per capita per year is 152lbs; which means a little less than a half pound of fish per day per person. To put that in perspective, the US consumes about 46lbs per person a year!

The Mountains that Surround Me

The snows in the mountains started about a month ago now and it is a reminder to me of how beautiful they can be. The picture with the apples trees in the foreground is three steps out my front door. Where I live is in a basin surrounded on all sides by mountains. In the southern end of the basin, where I am located, the mountains are high, but the northern end has the highest mountains of the area as you can see from the pictures above of snow capped mountains. Green rolling “hills” surround where I live while Mt. Iide and Mt Bandai punctuate the northern boundary of the Aizu Basin.
Japan has a very extensive range of mountains as it should being the work of millions of years of volcanic activity and plate shifting. Almost everywhere in Japan is mountainous and Japan’s most famous Mountain, Fuji, is in fact a volcano. It is also the highest peak in Japan at 3776m. While the mountains near me are lower, Iide at 2105m and Bandai at 1819m, most of the mountains in the Japanese Alps are near the 3000m mark. To give some perspective to this lets look at some of the other more famous mountains in the United States. The highest mountain in the Appalachians is Mount Mitchell at 2037m. On the west coast the tallest is Mt. Hood standing at 3429m. Timms Hill, 595m is the highest point in Wisconsin.
I love these mountains because it made Aizu a special place by cutting it off from the rest of japan so thoroughly and it has developed a lot of its own culture because of that.