Everyone's A Fruit And Nut-Case

Setsubun went ahead. Just. We braved it through the ever-freezing blizzard and trudged through the sludge to Housenji Temple.



Worrying images of about 50,000 or so temple-goers (the usual annual turn-out) were soon put to rest this year as a whole 10 or so other people made it down there. In fairness, by the main event, about 2/300 turned up. The Pirate parade didn't happen - the Fire Department put a damper on things by deeming it too unsafe to march around in the thawing snow. They did, however, pose for pictures inside one of the prayer rooms.

I've got to stop at this point and say that they're hardly yours or my idea of a pirate; the Johnny Depp guyliner and parrot in tow. Rather another case of being lost in translation, with pirate substituting monk. Strange monks still, so good enough for me. And I give credit to the 30-ish men, woman and children in the Year of the Rat (this year turning either 12, 24, 36, 48 or 60, and 72? 84?) who donned their costumes.

The event then began as we crowded around outside to see the Pirates march to their seating places in time for a strange ceremony. The shoes looked hard enough to walk in without a slippery ground.

The ceremony was a mix of every religion I've encountered and others. A shofar? Buddhist chants? Burning rituals?

The end result - somewhere between The Temple of Doom sacrifice and what I can only imagine to be (blasphemous as this is) the Japanese version of... The Lodge.

The chanting and the subsequent burning of the tree and charms went on for about 10 minutes. We were sheltered under umbrellas and the Pirates under a tent. I felt sorry for the organisers who crouched uncovered the whole duration.

Then we moved in a line and were handed out small cups of sake, followed by two mikan each -size-wise between a satsuma and an orange. Delicious, fruity, healthy and free!

After that, the crowd gathered in front of the main temple where the bean-throwing ceremony happened. It was a free-for-all, children and adults with bags open scrambling for the peanuts and mikan that the Pirates threw.

Yes, you read that right, they threw oranges at us. I was worried about my camera but I felt in on the action, and luckily it wasn't damaged. My head took the brunt of an orange (not what I expected would be an accident that I'd be on the receiving end of when I woke up this morning). Accident number 2: an old man went to pick up some nuts from the ground and decided he'd prop himself on his umbrella by digging it into my foot.

The faces of Western tourists who stumbled upon the place by accident were a real picture; holding oranges that had been thrown at them.

After that, we lined up to be given more mikan - and took home 23 in total! No scurvy for me. Maybe they were right about the Pirate theme after all.

Tonight, I will eat the customary food - ehou-maki, long sushi rolls . And eat my age in beans. Maybe I should do it in mikan - there're enough. Great day! Can't believe I can still be shocked by the Japanese after being here this long.

Happy Snowy Setsubun!

My favourite festival of the year (I can't believe it's been that long already!) is today. So don't forget to throw some beans and shout "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" ("monster's out, luck in").

It's customary for the person who was born in the current zodiac year to throw beans at the temple. As it's my year I thought it might be fun to go to one of the big areas in Tokyo to do this. One place today - Nakano-Sakaue - has a procession of 100 men born in the year of the rat, dressed up as pirates. That I want to see. Why wasn't I invited to join in?!

However, the snow fell quite hard last night and it's still going - we put clothes outside last night for drying and they froze. Maybe it'll be too bad to go down to the temple, but I'll stick pictures up if we do.

Happy bean-throwing!

A Tourist In Hong Kong - Thursday

One of the best days I had in Hong Kong wasn't technically in Hong Kong. On Thursday, I ventured over to the other of the two territories of China, Macau. Or Macao, both spellings seem to be accepted.

I wanted to get a whole day there, as there is a lot to see when you consider the old town (an ex-Portuguese colony in late 1880s) as well as the casino area, so I set off incredibly early to the China Ferry Terminal on Kowloon side. I was expecting a few boats and a small queue, but it was just like an airport on water, the security and number of passport controls were overwhelming.

I boarded the 8:30 boat, the earlier ones had sold out, and sailed over. It took about an hour to get there. It was foggy, which was a good excuse to sleepy.

Macau is a fascinating place, a real hybrid of old and new, and a mix of nationalities. The place was filled with tourists (mostly Japanese) but there were some residents, their preferred method of transport was scooters.


The main square was my idea of Portugal, not that I've been there. The ceramic tiling on the ground at Largo de Senado looked impressive, as did the style of houses.



The main tourist site was St Paul's Ruins, originally built in 1602, the front facade was the only side still standing. It was quite spectacular from up high on the fortress next to it.

I walked around a bit more, away from the tourist sites, to get a better feel of the area. Very strange that the main language was Chinese, but road signs were all Spanish sounding names. Also, shops/buses would accept the Macanese Pataca or the Hong Kong Dollar as there was only a small variance between the exchange rate.

I walked to the bottom of the main island - Macau is spread over three islands - and took a circular bus (about 10p) for an hour journey to the middle island. This is where the Cotai Strip is. Not technically a strip yet as most of the casinos are still being built. The road is more like a building site. However, a few are up and running, including the largest casino in the world, the Venetian Macau. Outside was extreme, with gondolas and a Colosseum-shaped hotel.

Inside, was grandiose. I haven't been to Las Vegas, but I could imagine from this. The tables spread on and on (no photos allowed, sorry). Apparently, as this casino having the largest floor-space in the world, Macau now makes more money in gambling than Las Vegas. This can be easily believed for two reasons - it is the most popular tourist destination in Asia for the Japanese (the number one in the World for them being Paris...), and it is illegal to gamble in Hong Kong (except horse-racing) so many residents come over here for fun.

Sadly, inside the actual casino wasn't as energetic as I imagine Las Vegas to be, or what I witnessed in Monte Carlo; tourists in casual clothes betting tuppence (I took a smart shirt to put on on top of my t-shirt).

I couldn't understand what was going on at most of the tables so I went to a slot machine. First I asked for some change at the counter, and decided I would have a limit of £30. I'm hardly a gambler so I didn't feel the temptation to spend any more. I found my 'lucky' machine (about 20p a spin, big spender, hey!) and sat down, not understanding how it worked. I put some money in and pressed the button. A few cherries span past but nothing lined up. I tried twice more to no avail. On my fourth go, the machine started ringing and the money in the cashpot started rising. People gathered around and a staff came over to congratulate me. I had no idea how much I won, but the money kept on building. In the end, it was just over £100. Not bad at all for four plays!

Now, £100 is not going to change my life in any major way, so should I stop there? Would I regret not playing on to see how much I could win, or would I regret losing any of it? I chose to stop there. Told you I wasn't much of a gambler. And that's how my planned afternoon in the casino lasted a whole 10 minutes.

I walked around the family-friendly shopping area which was built like Venice with canals and gondoliers, but I soon grew tired of it.

I took a free shuttle bus back to the ferry port and left mid-afternoon. It was a brilliant day but I burnt out too early. I would say Macau is worth going to, and you don't need more than a day, especially if you take your time and don't rush around like me.

Back in Hong Kong, I felt lucky with my winnings and decided to go back to Sha Tin and buy the laptop. After all, laptops are cheap here and they have the same connection as UK plugs, which made more sense than buying one in Japan.

Recipe For Disaster

At New Year, I gave Keiko's parents some souvenirs from England. The usual: fudge, tea etc. I also gave Mrs Terui a tea-towel featuring sights around Bournemouth.

It was quite a while later that I received a rather confused question:

Keiko's mum had spent a long time trying to work out how you use the towel to make tea!

She had tried wrapping it round the kettle, she had tried using it as a place mat on which to pour tea into the cups. I hate to think how much time she spent trying to make a nice cup of tea for us all, whilst incorporating the tea towel.

I felt rather bad after that explaining the towel is nothing more than just a dishcloth. Seemed rather anticlimatic.

2007 - Iconic?

I've been trying to watch all the Oscar nominated movies before the awards. It hasn't been so easy because, to be frank, it's been a terrible year on the whole. Or maybe my tastes suck. No Country, Juno, Michael Clayton were all a borefest, yet they're the top-runners. I haven't seen There Will Be Blood yet. I did see Atonement which was fantastic - deserves prizes, and I went to the cinema to see Sweeney Todd yesterday after Oli's recommendation - really great (why isn't Helena Bonham Carter up there instead of Depp?).

Out of a year of bad movies, here is my top 3 (with a close runner-up):

Hairspray

3. Sunshine

2. Atonement

1. Bourne Ultimatum

The point of this entry was that Toho Cinemas in Japan has been running a really nice trailer to celebrate its 10th Anniversary. It shows an icon for one of the blockbusters for each of the past 10 years. Can you name all the movies (some are easy, some are difficult):

What picture/movie would best represent 2007? I have no idea.

Heath Ledger - 1979-2008

Too depressed...

A Grand Day Out

I went to a major shopping area in North-West Tokyo, on a whim. Ikebukuro (which translates as Pond Bag - don't ask) is an average urban retail area, but a change of scene. Of course, something out of the ordinary happened. It always does.

Guess who was in the main shopping mall?

Why, Shaun the Sheep, of course. Duh!

Now if only they had Feathers McGraw - he is a legend.

The Missing Link, Or Is It?

Big news on the evolution front - the tiktaalik might be a step closer to understanding how human bone structure originated. Richard Dawkins seems impressed so it's ok by me.

I'll be fair and give the creationists time to air their views as well. Here is a video that 'conclusively' proves evolution is... bananas.

Image Of The Week #70

If you must go fishing, at least choose a great setting.

(taken in Enoshima - 4th January, 2008)

Beautiful

Last weekend, I went back to Enoshima for the umpteenth time. It's my favourite place outside Tokyo, and this is a great season as Fuji is at its clearest. I walked the whole island and then had that dilemma that it's a trek to go back around. This time, there was a small motorboat service and we made it onto the last sailing, at 4:30. It was a great time to go, as the captain didnt go directly to the land but went around the whole island to the docks. As he said "a full service trip". In Japanese, of course. As we sailed (do you sail in a motor boat?) past Fuji, the sun set.



Truly beautiful.

How's Your Mouse?

Last entry about rats, I promise. This is a good luck charm Keiko's parents bought for me because it's my year:

Kanji Of The Year

At the end of every year in Japan, some people choose a character that sums up the past twelve months. In 2006, it was inochi 命 (life), mainly for the fact that a boy was born into the Royal Family after generations of girls. A somewhat positive symbol.

2007 was less optimistic. Itsuwaru 偽 means 'fake' - following the deception of the food companies (Fujiya), sumo corruption and, of course, Nova.

I wonder what 2008 will bring.

*the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation

Things I'll Never Understand About Girls

One of the most baffling mysteries of modern-day socio-biological and gender-dividing topics is that of women's magazines. Men look at pictures of scantily-clad females in their own magazines. Yet so do women in a surely complex/disorder-enducing comparison to airbrushed celebrities. Take, for example, Keiko's favourite monthly "Glitter" which comes with:


Wha..Ermm..Why?

I guess this could take an ethological route by discussing why the male of the species is the 'pretty' one with exceptions, most notably of humans. But it won't. Intelligence is overrated anyway. (According to Glitter*)

I was going to leave it at that, but then I had a quick flick through and hit the jackpot. Japanese magazines and advertisements love to announce headings in English. Of course, no-one bothered with the spell-checker. Here are some of my favourites:



Just one?

Here are my joint favourites (both headings at the top). I was giddy with excitement at my utter confusion and then racing imagination; after all, it is the Year of the Rat.


*The calendar reminds us, monthly, to "choose nice clothes and do make-up and go out. You will have shining days and enjoy your life".

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Have a great, two thousand and eight!

Year Of The Rat

子　

(ね・ねずみ) (ne/nezumi) is the chinese character for Rat/Mouse.

As the New Years rotate in a series of 12 animals, this one is special to me, as it's mine! On first thoughts, being a mouse doesn't sound so grand when compared to others (such as a dragon) and who wants to be known as "a rat", but it's not so bad on further investigation. From Wikipedia:

Being the first sign of the Chinese zodiac, rats are leaders, pioneers and conquerors. They are charming, passionate, charismatic, practical and hardworking. Rat people are endowed with great leadership skills and are perhaps the most organized and systematic of the twelve signs. Intelligent and cunning at the same time, rats are highly ambitious and strong-willed people who are keen and unapologetic promoters of their own agendas, which often include money and power. They adapt to various environments easily. Rats are usually highly exclusive and selective when choosing friends and so often have only a few very close friends whom they trust.

Behind the smiles and charm, rats can be terribly obstinate and controlling, insisting on having things their way no matter what the cost. These people tend to have immense control of their emotions, which they may use as a tool to manipulate and exploit others, both emotionally and mentally. Rats are masters of mind games and can be very dangerous, calculative and downright cruel if the need arises. Quick-tempered and aggressive, they will not think twice about exacting revenge on those that hurt them in any way.

The most interesting part about typical professions: espionage, psychiatry, psychology, writing, politics, law, engineering, accounting, detective, actor, and pathology. For all the jobs in the world that don't interest me, I'd be content with the majority of them!

The other point about being a rat is when considering the old Chinese fable about the race all twelve animals compete in. Although it may be small and fall behind, it slyly rides on the cow's head, to jump ahead at the last minute and win.

Apart from that, Disneylands all over are going to have a field day with the marketing on this one!