Say My Name

Only citizens get a vote so I was excluded.

Throughout the entire election period, candidates would drive along the road in vans shouting out their name. Their names were plastered everywhere, much more than slogans or manifestos, and I found out the reason.

In Japanese elections, you have to write the name of the person you want on the ballot paper!

It might not sound so difficult for a name like "Gordon Brown" but when it comes to Kanji it doesn't flood back so easily. Therefore, drilling your name into the voters' heads is a much more efficient (but hardly sensible) way of ensuring votes.

I'm not saying that our method is better, but I don't think having to remember every candidate's name is a fair system.

Couldn't Keep It Up

Sticking with the "big election", I see it made the TimesOnline head story that Abe's party lost direly. I don't think he'll be PM for much longer.


Looking at Shinzo Abe, he doesn't exactly exude charisma, does he?

Big Election

Today is the "big election" as the Japanese are referring to it.

Of course, laughing at their "l""r" pronunciation problem is beneath me. Chuckle.

That's When Good Neighbours Become...

Even cheesier.



Completely pointless, but this made me laugh. It's the new opening titles.

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

Walking through a random part of North East Tokyo yesterday afternoon for no apparent reason other than it was undiscovered when I saw a gathering in a side-street.

A few hundred people were sitting around chatting, playing games at stalls or drinking beer. It was too small a festival for it to be public so I wasn't sure what it was in aid of.

Doing my best impression of a lost confused foreigner a little Japanese lady thrust a piece of yellow card in my hand and smiled. On it were a few boxes with food names and a square with the word 'beer'. Every adult had one, and children had a blue card.



It turns out this was an annual local council sponsored event for residents of that district. The card meant I could go to each stall and get one plate/cup for free (and then the matching square on the card ticked off). Children's card were different as they also had one free go at each game stall. Out of nowhere, I had a beer in my hand and food in the other.

This must be what it is like to live in Ramsay Street!

It was such an unexpected surprise; one of those things you stumble upon and make you realise how much is going on around you that you didn't even know about.

Fancy A Pint

Yesterday, we went to Akihabara for one specific reason. Not to see the electronics. Not to see the maids. But for milk.

There's a little-known kiosk in Akihabara station, halfway down on the 5th platform*, which has gathered quite a cult following.

The Milk Stand - miruko stando - is the only one of its kind, with a sweet old lady selling numerous types of milk. It comes in a small glass bottle and drunk there; like a child friendly standing bar.

I'm not a fan of milk, so I went for the apple juice, which was chilled to perfection.

Weird and wonderful.

*starting to enter Harry Potter territory.

After The Storm

Yasukuni Shrine, for all its controversy with its buried Korean and Chinese prisoners of war, has a fantastic festival mid July each year since 1947. The thousands of lanterns are aligned the whole way from the Iron Gate to the Shrine, to comfort the souls of those who died while fighting in WWII. I'm not sure how true this is* but before men left for war, they would say to their family:

Please don't cry. Even if I die, you can meet me at Yasukuni Shrine... please see me off with a smile.

The lanterns each have sponsors and really create this glowing warmth while you are walking down past all the food and game stalls, including potatoes!

Oishii!

Halfway down is a statue on and around which, party-goers can dance to the beat of a drum. These are typical Obon dances, celebrated in August when the dead are meant to come back to Earth.

It's my favourite festival each year (last year was just as good) because it's very laid back, and looks beautiful.

At home, getting ready for the first day back at work after the extended weekend, we felt an aftershock, 12 hours after the original tremor. To me, this was just as strong and even more so because the apartment we live in is only 3 years old, and this is the first time for it to shake. I really have to learn what to do and have in an earthquake. That'll be my new project.

*because it sounds like only something that can be said retrospectively

Image Of The Week #52

This was outside my house all morning. A man was sitting inside it. Japanese don't wear shoes inside. Obviously, they take them off when entering balls too.

I have no idea.

(taken in Gotanda - 21st July, 2007)

Sendai

The calm before the storm (and the earthquake):


We left Tokyo Friday night by means of Shinkansen. Eki-ben are lunch-box style food found at all train stations. Each city/region/station has different varieties and this has become a big part of any trip for many citizens. For some baby-boomers, eating on the train is more exciting than where they are actually headed to. I chose chicken, which I suppose is fairly in par for a Friday night.

Japan's worst typhoon was set to hit this bank holiday weekend, and there were already reports of destruction in the South of the country. It wasn't supposed to reach the Northern parts of Honshu (the main Island) but the rain was going to be fierce all over.

It was nice to see Keiko's parents and, of course, Taffy. Mrs Terui's obsession with dressing him up had gone one step too far, sadly, with this pink number. He was already being accosted by other dogs thinking he was a girl, and this can't have been helping.

My mission had become clear - I needed to assert his masculinity.

As expected, the rain continued all through Saturday and Sunday so we didn't do too much. A brief interlude meant we could go on a drive to a nice park with a foot onsen.

The place had hydrangeas galore, and I even felt like a cool nature photographer, with this close up:

We ended with a brief stop in front of a cool waterfall in the countryside.


Saturday evening, I went to the public pool with Mr and Mrs Terui. Most people looked at me as if they'd never seen a foreigner before, and some were brave enough to talk to me: "American?", "Nice long strokes" etc, although the second was definitely grounded on sarcasm.

We had nice food, although it took some encouragement to eat a grasshopper. Very crunchy, but honestly it wasn't bad. It wasn't good either, but it was covered in so much sugar, that it was just sweet. If I hadn't known, it would've been just like a hard toffee. Still, Mrs Terui swallowed one but a leg stuck in her throat. Think I'll stick with jacket potatoes.


I also managed to get to pet shop, where I completed my mission. For as much as dressing up dogs is dumb, if it has to be done, it might as well be done in style:



Taffy's new favourite game was humping his favourite toy, 'Love-chan':




Sunday night, we all went to karaoke. I found out this was the first time Mr and Mrs Terui have sung together during their 26 years together. It was a lot of fun, and Mrs Terui was so excited she was writing down songs for next time. She's been on the phone quite a few times asking when we can go again!

The bad weather was actually a good chance to relax. Saturday night I slept for 12 hours and felt so refreshed come Sunday. I also read a whole book - jPod - sent by Dad (thank you!) which I haven't done for a long time. However...

Monday morning, I was eating breakfast at about 11am when the whole room shook. It was quite clearly a strong earthquake but it was only a few minutes later on the News when I realised how serious it was. I think 10 people died, and to imagine how strong it must've been for roads to be demolished and houses to collapse is quite scary.

The rain eventually stopped by the time we arrived home, and we dropped our stuff at home before heading to the festival...

Image Of The Week #51

(Yasukuni Lantern Festival - 16th July, 2007)

Earthquake

Just arrived home from Sendai safe and sound. We were on the other coast (East) to where the epicentre was (on the West coast and a little bit more North) when it happened this morning. I felt it shake the room, and it lasted for about 10 seconds, but it was only a 3 where we were. However it was over double this magnitude in Niigata - 6.8, which is on the serious level - leaving houses and temples collapsed and over 5 people dead.

The train was fine for us, but in the other direction, everything was delayed. Tokyo station was, as you could expect, chaos.

The televisions have been so fast to report everything; it took less than a minute to start showing it. From what I've seen, there are huge cracks in the road, landslides everywhere and trains derailed.

The strange thing is, Japan was devoured by its biggest typhoon over Saturday and Sunday, so everyone was expecting that to be the cause of major damage. The floods everywhere added to the landslides.

Plagiarism Never Pays

Naughty (sued) Avril. Listen for the chorus, it's pretty obvious that it's no coincidence. Bit random, but I found out that The Rubinoos had a song relatedly titled "Go Go Tokyo". T-O-K-Y-O!

Image Of The Week #50

Found in a pharmacy:

(taken in Odaiba - 1st July, 2007)

"It makes your bath time happy". I bet it does.

Tanabata

Working at NOVA was great for the quiet weekdays off. However, it was around the Summer Festival season last year that I missed many events that fell on the weekend or public holidays; which I had to work on. Now I don't have that problem.

Tanabata, meaning Seven Evenings, is a lovely festival that falls on the 7th of the 7th annually* and celebrates the meeting of two lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi. Stemming from China, legend has it that the Milky Way divides them and they can only reunite once a year. From Wikipedia:

Orihime (織姫, Weaving Princess) the daughter of the Tenkou (天工, Sky King) wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the River of Heaven (天の川 Amanogawa). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, she was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tenkou arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星, Cow Herder of the Stars) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa.

When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and were shortly married. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tenkou and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tenkou separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa River and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tenkou was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving.

The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. If it rains, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait till next year.

To celebrate this, Hiratsuka City - South of Yokohama - sets up a big event. I've never seen such a massive festival before. The usual teens in their summer dresses were out and about. There was even a fight, and look at my friend on the right overlooking the proceedings - very traditional I think not.

I was slowly shuffling forward at parts because it was so crowded. The area was spread over about 6 intercrossing gridded roads with decorations overhanging them. These streamers are made of plastic or paper and hang down so that you walk through them. They are either sponsored by shops, have famous characters/celebrities on them, or are simply traditional.



There was also the usual festival food, including baked potatoes in plastic tubs. Which makes me wonder, especially considering their popularity, why Japan doesn't have these sized potatoes the whole year round?


Another feature is that festival-goers write wishes onto pieces of paper or bamboo and hang them up. Back in the Edo period, girls wishes would revolve around better sewing ability and boys for neater handwriting.



These beetles are Summer pets for children. Gross. But they're popular, and even Keiko had two when she was young. Kids were fishing to win them.



It also made me realise that I love being taller in comparison here - photos are a lot easier to take, as is the view.


As the sun came down, and more people came out to see the proceedings - there must've been a good 100,000 or so - the decorations lit up. Very cool. I wish photos could show the sheer massiveness of the display.



Famously, Sendai (Keiko's home) celebrates Tanabata in August. And that brings my entry full circle; next week there is a Bank Holiday Monday (Marine Day), so we're going to Sendai for an extended weekend. Bless my normal working shift.

*this year being extra special 7/7/07.