Christmas in Japan

I'm slowly catching up, but here we've finally arrived at Christmas! This is going to be a pretty short post, as we did not do too many things to celebrate. Right before I had gone to Nara, our dorm building held a Secret Santa exchange. I made a jellyfish for who I was assigned and in return got a Fox Luigi key charm.

Ho-ho-ho, Merry Chicken

Come Christmas Eve, a couple of us headed out to karaoke. On the way we passed the KFC, and you may remember how I talked about how fried chicken is a traditional thing to eat for Christmas in Japan. Here's just a picture of just how crowded it was, as well as the Colonel dressed up in his Santa suit.

The other tradition is eating cake, and Christmas Cakes can range from being super expensive and nice (up to fifty dollars), to a little one for about ten. We ended up going to the bakery in the station's main shop area as well as a convenience store then heading on up to sing some Christmas songs. Actually we mostly ended up singing the usual song we do, but with Jingle Bells and Last Christmas thrown in.

Christmas Day was "treat yourself to pizza day" for me, since it's usually so expensive. It still was, but thankfully they had a small sale going that almost made it worth it. In Japan pizza's are small. A medium is about the same size as an American small and about as expensive as two large pizzas. If your wondering why, you might also wonder why sushi is so expensive in America. It's because it's a foreign food and considered the same we consider sushi (which I can buy for a dollar a plate).

New Year's posts are to come!
~Zenko~

Oh Deer!

While I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time in Nara and plan on visiting again, I thought it would still be a good idea to talk about my first trip there. Living where I do, it's not difficult to get too as it's equidistant from Kobe. My roommate had also wanted to visit to see the deer that Nara is famous for, because you can pet and feed them. Because people feed them though...

Beware the deer! They'll headbutt old ladies!

Look how disappointed he is!

Well if you have food, they will CHASE YOU AND TRY TO GET IT. Luckily we didn't have any food so we mostly just had disappointed deer. It was a bit fun watching them chase around other people though. The deer never had a problem with us, in fact we actually helped one cross the road. It was so sad that it couldn't jump the fence like the others had but he was just soooo old. Before we found any of the deer, though, we made it through a couple of temples and passed by several tea gardens. I was a bit surprised at the tea gardens, because I did not think that they were that popular in Nara.

As I said before, getting there wasn't difficult, it was just a little time consuming as we were not used to the special lines out that way. We actually ended up having to change stations from Keihan to JR by walking a half mile down the road. A lot of local commuters were already doing it and ran all the way down to the JR Line to transfer for their jobs. While we did make it onto JR, we discovered that it's a long enough ride that you have to get off at a terminal station and switch trains, otherwise you'll start heading back the way you came (which is exactly what happened to us). Getting back proved a lot easier, as all the trains were heading back towards Kyobashi terminal in Osaka. If that seems backwards to you, its how most of the trains work in Japan. It's pretty confusing actually.

In the middle of no where, where highschoolers still commute

 Until next post!
~Zenko~

Ro-Ro-Roppongi Hills!

The last day on our trip I actually separated from the group to go meet one of my friends that's been studying abroad here in Japan for a while. So while my friends went to Shinjuku to check out the sites from their favorite shows, I went to meet her in Roppongi. Getting there was an adventure, as instead of taking the normal JR Line I had to take the Tokyo Subway system. Just getting there started a running joke among us that the richer an area was, the nicer their train stations would be. Ikebukuro station, for instance, had no benches or waiting area for commuters. There weren't even any water fountains. When I passed through Roppongi and Ginza, though, there were benches aplenty! It was pretty different from the Keihan stations and Kansai JR stations we were used to, where there's always someplace to sit.

While we waited to head out, I asked the subway attendendant how to reach Roppongi, and she told me...but she told me much too high a fare and forgot to include transfers! I did make it to my stop, but only after changing trains twice. It's also interesting to note that the subways were actually nicer over all then the normal Osaka subway lines I've ridden. There's a lot more put into the display at the very least.
When I reached Roppongi the first thing I noticed was....just how rich it all was. It felt like I had just entered the Japanese version of Beverly Hills, and I really had.

Believe it or not, having a Cheech and Chong's is a sign of being rich.

There were tons of foreign places which meant, apart from being a hub for foreigners, it was a place where people with money were at. Because American food is regarded in the same way Americans regard sushi, the more there is in one place, the more money there generally is. It did mean, though, that I got to have Wendy's with bacon (real bacon!) on it for the first time in months. After I met up with my friend though (and got my mom something to add to her snowman collection at the Christmas store they had set up), I headed out to meet up with my group again in Shibuya, the publishing capital of Japan.

Hachiko: The dog that waited

Shibuya is famous for two reasons apart from that: the first is that it has the Hachiko Memorial set up for the dog that waited for his master until he died (his master had died from illness and taken the train out of Shibuya every morning; if your interested in the story Hachi: A Dog's Story is wrong but has the general idea behind it). The second is the Shibuya Scramble! It's a lot easier to see at night, but even during the day you can see hundreds of people cross about ten different crosswalks at the same time in the same place. You actually have to be really careful not to hit anyone as you do it.

After Shibuya it was time to head home, so we joined rush hour traffic (that resulted in us getting separated again) and headed to Tokyo station. From there it was just a brief walk to get to the night bus station and we were off. As for the night bus...it was actually one of the nicest buses you can get on and considering we paid about $20 it was a good deal. Unfortunately because it was a night bus I still only got about an hours worth of sleep (but made it to the second half of Space Odyssey 2001 before I fell asleep this time!).

See you in the next post!
~Zenko~

Pedestrian Para-Para Paradise!

Schoolwork has been keeping me a bit busy, but someday I plan on writing up a few posts in queue so none of my travelings get missed!

On our second day in Tokyo, Sunday, I made certain we went to the ultimate pilgramage for fans of Japanese Popular Culture: Akihabara. The reasoning for this is pretty simple: I like Japanese Popular Culture, and Pedestrian's Paradise finally reopened after three years. It was closed for so long as a result of the Akihabara Massacre, where I man ran down the road in a truck during a time in which the road is closed and thus everyone uses it. This aside, its a really interesting phenomenon. When the street isn't closed, cars advertising everything from computers to new video games drive up and down the street. When it is, though, the entire road becomes a giant sidewalk. Giving Akiba's (the shortened form) popularity, this is a pretty nice hing as otherwise the sidewalks become entirely too congested.

It's congested even with Pedestrian's Paradise

The group I was with had a ball going into the different anime goods stores and seeing just how different it is from Nipponbashi (DenDen Town) in Osaka. It's a lot bigger for one, and there is certainly a larger variety of goods. For instance, there are entire shops dedicated to selling the prizes you can receive from gacha machines (machines with capsules inside, much like the quarter machines at supermarkets in America). That in itself was not surprising, what was was the fact that it was two stories tall. In our wanderings we even found a store dedicated to selling tabletop games and accessories. There were even groups playing on the side room, and peeking in revealed something interesting. In America the demographics for these games are entirely male, and its rare to see a girl playing (I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I know several girls beside myself that do), but in Japan there was a fair mixture of male and females playing.

Fact: this store's mascot gained it's own anime. [DigiCharat]

One of the other events we were lucky enough to see was a self-built PC Expo, where people were showing off their new machines and even, for those who entered, having a competition. The one person we watched was showing off a low-spec computer that he had installed Windows 8 on, hoping it would work. It did, but immediately hit a fatal error, causing the audience to laugh along with him.

While we were there, we were also interviewed by a cable program. They asked us some questions such as "who do you think has been the most influential Japanese celebrity in your country this year." You weren't allowed to name celebrities, and it seemed like a lot of people had named AKB48 as there weren't really interested in hearing about the group. Even though I agreed the idol group is slowly making its way abroad, I answered Kyary Pamyu Pamyu who gained internet fame quickly in the US for her music video to PonPonPon! I also answered Hatsune Miku, despite her being a virtual idol, as she recently had several concerts in the US as well. They were really interested in that for some reason.

My friends were also interviewed.

After Akihabara we continued our nerd tour and headed to Harajuku, not for fashion but for the Evangelion Store. This is a store dedicated entirely to the show Neon Genesis Evangelion, and its popularity was astounding. The fact that there were wedding bands and motorcycles designed around the show is really amazing, and goes to show that even those outside of otaku interests can appreciate it.

The Eva Store was extra Christmasy for December.

Before we headed to dinner, we decided to try and find the female version of Akihabara in Ikebukuro, known as Maiden Road (Otome Michi). We got to the area, finding the forerunner Animate store in the area, but never made it to what is really considered the district. It was still a pretty fun walk, but we were all really hungry and headed back to the district our hotel was in, and had dinner at a little "TexMex" bar. And boy, does Japan do TexMex in an interesting way. For instance, despite being an "American" bar, we still managed to order takoyaki. These weren't ordinary takoyaki either, but Russian Takoyaki: one contained pure wasabi. We had just finished telling someone it wasn't spicy when my friend hit upon it and instantly changed her mind. We also had a version of the everything but the kitchen sink burger: it was stacked to reach our heads from the table and a little ridiculous (okay, a lot ridiculous).

Until next time!

SERIOUSLY HUGE

~Zenko~

Let's Explore Tokyo!

Side Hall at the temple we were at

Surprisingly, it was our first day in Tokyo and our trip to Daiba that was the nerdiest trip we had and not the one to Akihabara. But before we got there we decided to head to Tokyo Tower, even though it was quite cold and rainy. We let one of our friends lead the way and she took us by an old Tokugawa Buddhist temple that had been converted from a Shinto shrine (like so many were during the Tokugawa reign). You might be wondering how I know, and there were actually a few hints to let you know. If you wash your hands before you enter the temple, it was most likely a shrine before hand. I knew the date of the temple and who built it by the crest on the very top entrance. I did not take a clear picture, but fairly often you can find a crest along one of the posts or above the entrance, which will let you know what family sponsored it.

Main Hall and Tokyo Tower

The main hall was huge, but when most knew we were exactly where we needed to be by the looming modern buildings behind it. And by modern buildings I mostly mean Tokyo Tower. We didn't stay too long at the temple mostly because there was a ceremony going on and we didn't want to be too much of a bother to those who were participating in it (I seriously walk into almost every ceremony in Japan, it's strange). So we headed off to Tokyo Tower fairly quickly. It isn't too far of a walk from where we were at, and because of the rain the streets weren't terribly crowded either. Unfortunately, because of the weather, we also could not see much from the observation deck either (on a clear day you can see Mt Fuji). It was really weird seeing almost everything under fog, especially in Tokyo. All of the larger skyscrapers, even from the second first observation deck, were pretty small. Riding the elevators up are an adventure as well, because they add in a light show and a Disney-esque announcer. As interesting as an experience as that was, our real aim that day was to make it to the life-size Gundam model, and though it took us awhile, we were able to find it. But first we had to have some childhood memories brought up.

Hey Digimon Hey Digimon!

Daiba: one of the key locations for Digimon throughout its seasons. Me and another friend are big fans of it, so we had a ball pointing out all the different locations. Actually it was kind of scary, being able to find so many of them. But that had largely to do with the skill of the animation team to reproduce the island so faithfully. Even with modernization and the new monorail, the locations were still really obvious. It was probably pretty amusing for the other fairly regular residents and even the tourists there for the Gundam and voice actress group, to see us running around so excited to see all the different sites.

Based on the original Gundam.

The island, as tiny as it was, made it surprisingly difficult to find the giant robot that we wanted. You would think that it would be pretty easy to find, all things considered, but it wasn't until we did some further on the fly google searching and navigating that we were able to get there. When you get there...its really obvious. Even more so considering its in the middle of a major shopping area. It was even more exciting than usual to be there as they were holding their Christmas extravaganza show. We waited until about six o'clock for it to start, and it was worth it getting to see the Gundam move, the Christmas edition of the video and feeling everyone get just as excited as I was about it.

Regardless if you follow the series or not, much like Evangelion, is really popular in Japan and almost everyone knows it to some extent. At the very least, they're able to recognize it and how awesome having a semi-working giant robot is. Because it was getting late and we were getting tired, we headed back not too long after seeing the show. Next time will be day three of our trip when we went to Akihabara and (briefly) Harajuku.

~Zenko~

To the Northern Capital!

At the beginning of December my group of friends and I decided to go to Tokyo before most of them left for home, only three of us being extension students. So of course, we had to go there in a way that was unique to Japan: the shinkansen (aka bullet train). We took the slowest of the three that there are, heading out on the Kodomo line, which was also the cheapest option, Shinkansen tickets being quite expensive. It's a pretty nice train ride even on the slowest (meaning, mostly, that it stops at every station between Kyoto and Tokyo).

Basically, I ate this.

I noticed in most of my independent travel on trains, that each Shinkansen station, especially on the Todaiji Line, has a bento stand nearby, so that you can grab a lunch or dinner before your long trip. Because I was not feeling, I bought one of the cheaper ones. It had a little octopus in, that was a little fun to eat because it looked like a lot of pretty stereotypical octopii you see in anime. When I reread the label I learned that it was actually composed of dishes that "Go Great with Beer!" which basically means it was full of starch and spice, and was alright with my stomach.
Also a little disheartening was the fact that because we traveled at night, we did not get to see Mt. Fuji at all. I was hoping on a second trip out during the day to see it, but unfortunately because it was the holidays and no express trains were running I only made it about twelve or sixteen stations after Nagoya on my way to Yokohama and had to turn back, otherwise I would never have made it home it time. I might talk about these variety of trips another time, but the point is I still have not made it to see Mt. Fuji.
When we did make it to Tokyo, we braced ourselves for the massive amounts of people, as just pulling into the station we were baffled by how many buildings there were and how tall they were. Compared to the smaller department stores and offices we were used to in Hirakata, Kyoto, and Osaka, these were massive. When we got off the train we were not surprised, and when we made it out of the gates to the Shinkansen, we were left a little baffled as to how to get to the train we needed for Ikebukuro. In fact, just getting out of the gates proved a problem, and met us with our first surprise in Tokyo: someone giving us directions in English. Usually we ask in Japanese, or are told something in Japanese and go right along with the directions we were given. This was a bit new though, and somewhat surprising even though we were used to speaking English with each other. Once we did make it out of the gates, our friend, in the middle of her panic attack from the crowds, managed to get us on the right platform and off we went to Ikebukuro!
Rather than stay at a hotel, which can get to be pretty expensive, we stayed at a ryokan, or traditional Japanese hotel. It was significantly cheaper, but also probably significantly colder, the heater not doing too much at times. This is largely because Japanese buildings are built to let in the cool breezes in summer, but in winter that makes things a little difficult. Trains have the same weird problem, but that mostly has to do with whether the train's heat is on or not, and if it is, it is pretty minimal. The trains in Tokyo though, were also pretty odd for us to take, even though we stayed on the loop line. When we got on, despite it being rush hour and the train being packed to the brim (and I mean the brim), I noticed that they had two televisions mounted above the doors. One flashed travel info and stations, as well as estimated times, in English and Japanese. The other was there...just to advertise and offer trivia questions. It turns out this is a pretty common thing on more frequented JR lines, but I was still surprised.
When we finally made it to Ikebukuro, we followed the instructions that had been emailed to me, and made out way past karaoke bars we had never heard of, and of course some familiar faces as well, the first one greeting us right off the bat was Colonel Sanders! We were glad to see they had no shortage of 7-11's or Family Mart's either, and in a sketchy back ally we had even found a Lawson Mart (it was sketchy because it was such an old part of Ikebukuro, we couldn't find our ryokan, and it was rainy and dark). After we came around a different corner and passed a couple more hotels, we found our ryokan relaxing in a pretty subtle middle of the alley location. Despite this it's still a pretty nice ryokan for what your paying, so should you ever be in Tokyo I definitely recommend staying at Kimi Ryokan. They don't do meals like super traditional ryokan, but they do have Japanese style rooms, which is nice (though I'm pretty used to it, as that's how the Seminar House rooms are set up).
Because we did so many things in Tokyo, I'll have to spread it out through several posts, but even the first night was quite an adventure!
~Zenko~

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! This is the New Year's greeting you give when January 1st has officially arrived. Before that there's a standard Happy New Year's greeting for December. On December 31st, the only Japanese student in our dorm prepared us the traditional soba for the new year.You eat these buckwheat noodles with tempura shrimp, chopped scallion, thinly sliced fish sausage and hard boiled egg (I skipped out on the egg). The length of the noodle is supposed to, just like on Chinese New Year, represent a desire for longevity.  On New Year's day he also made us two styles of zoni, which is a soup that has mochi (rice cakes similar in consistency to marshmallow) in it. There's a bit of caution that you need when eating it, actually, as many elderly and children choke on it every year (as of 12-1, the casualty rate was at 7 injuries, 1 death). The way you prepare it is different among the prefectures, and I ate a style meant for adults from the Mie prefecture and one meant for kids. The one for adults is essentially miso soup, but with the mochi instead of tofu and with spinach added. The kids one was surprisingly chicken soup with mochi.
Another big tradition to do on New Year's day is to go to your local shrine (or any shrine really, I guess) and pray for good fortune throughout the year. At the bigger shrines they served food off to the side to warm you up after the long wait to pray, and offer up fortune telling for the year. We went to the local shinto shrine in our neighborhood, even though we weren't really sure what kami (god) is enshrined there. I once asked a teacher, the head of the study abroad office here, actually, and he said he had no idea.
The New Year's decorations went up a little after Christmas, and traditionally when the New Year's holidays are over on January 6th, you take them to a shrine to get burned and purified as they take in all your bad luck. One decoration is two stacked mochi with a mikan (mandarin orange/clementine) on top. The second is a wreath made out of straw with sacred paper chains tied on and topped by, you guessed it, another mikan. Depending on the zodiac year that's being entered, there is also a slight variation in them, as this year was year of the snake, some had a snake on them as well.
It's also customary to send out New Year's greetings cards, which I'll be doing late to people in America. When I went to a stationary store it was actually really intimidating trying to pick one. It was also somewhat surprising to see that, yes, Hallmark is even in on the greeting card business in Japan. I think the one card I wanted and decided against was too big for the envelope and I couldn't understand how to fold it into the envelope. There are all different types, as well. The more expensive cards you had to take to the counter and were about 8 dollars for one. There are envelope cards meant to be mailed as letters, and postcard ones that you write your greeting on the front of. There were stickers featuring snakes to decorate your cards with as well as seal your envelope, and stamps of all sorts (even Pokemon) to help bring in the new year. The only thing I got stuck on was how you were meant to get that ink color that they displayed as a sample. New Year's money is also customary, where relatives give you a little bit of money for hopes in the New Year and as a gift for making it through the last year into another one.
When I read the newspaper for the first day of the new year, I was also surprised to see an article on the specific types of sake for every occasion, and stating that while drinking on New Years is not customary, there is a specific type that should be consumed.
I hope everyone had a happy New Year, and wish you luck in 2013!
~Zenko~