What does the JLPT mean really?

Given recent circumstances which I won't get into here, I've been getting back to the basics, studying the 'ol Nihongoes. I feel like I've hit one of those linguistic plateaus over the past year or so and am thinking it might be about time to finally polish a certain spur that's sticking out in terms of the JLPT.

As many reading this know, the JLPT currently has 4 levels with 1 being the highest, although they are scheduled to redo the format on next year's test to have 5 levels (the jump from level 3 to 2 was too big for most people) and allow the highest level to measure higher levels of ability better. Up until last year it was only offered once a year (it's now twice a year for the top 2 levels), and worldwide only about a third of those who take the top level pass.

I last took the highest level of it (1Q) 2 years ago, which you currently need a 70% to pass. I got a 278/400, which is roughly 69.5%. Ouch. Given practical knowledge I've gained since then, I should have no problem with it and was planning on taking it again eventually, but was originally thinking that if they're going to change the format I might as well wait for that in 2010... now I'm thinking it might be useful to take it or some other test this year.

So why take the test, and why have I been putting it off? First off a little background - JLPT 1Q is a minimum requirement for entrance into undergrad programs at many Japanese universities, who basically think you need this level in order to be able to understand what's going on in your classes and participate. It is also looked upon favorably by the JET Program, who sees 2Q as the minimum Japanese ability for a CIR from western countries and 1Q as the minimum requirement for a Chinese CIR. Outside of this sphere you may get some recognition out of having it, say in translation circles, but for the most part Japanese people have never heard of it much less people anywhere else in the world. I've heard 1Q thrown around among translators as a bare minimum to get into the field, but the truth is that if they think you can do the job and you pass their trials then 1Q doesn't mean anything. So basically, this means that actually holding a JLPT certification is useful if you want to go to a Japanese school for 4 years or be a CIR - I have a degree already, and I've been a CIR.

The reason to take a test for me is really more about setting a personal goal. Living in the country and doing certain things in the language do raise your levels to a certain extent, but once you can do all the things you need to do comfortably you're learning will start to plateau off which is where I am. The only way to get off this plateau is to set a goal and stick to it, and studying for a test is a great way to force your hand. Sure it's something to put on your resume I guess, but since most people don't know what it is and will probably judge you more on your production ability anyway, I rule that one out.

So what about the reasons NOT to take the JLPT? Well there are a few I can think of, not least of which is the lack of practicality mentioned above. Another is the contrivance of it all - the two main deficiencies I see with the test are 1) it only tests passive knowledge, so no writing or speaking and 2) it's geared towards literary language in the higher levels and thus involves a bunch of stuff not normally needed in daily life, unless you read a lot of higher level stuff daily. 1) means that you can theoretically pass 1Q and not be able to write any kanji or hold a good conversation, which to me defeats the purpose of learning the language. 2) means that you pretty much have to study specifically for the test, again making it less practical to daily life.

There are also other testing options out there depending on where you are in the world and what you want to focus on, such as the Kanji Kentei for kanji nerds (only offered in Japan), BJT for those in the business world (formerly offered by JETRO and includes an interview test if you get far enough), and the little known nihongo kentei(offered to Japanese as well as foreigners) and J-Test(apparently geared towards Chinese), both of which go beyond JLPT levels.

Now given all this, is the JLPT for you? Think long and hard.

Red Bull Box Cart Race, Oct. 11, in Odaiba

A former co-worker pointed out an interesting marketing scheme that he ran across the other day in Harajuku. There's an area around Shibuya-Harajuku known as Cat Street - the description I found searching around was this:

明治通りの東側 原宿～渋谷の川を埋め立てた曲がりくねった道 　静かでおしゃれな店がちらほら
1.猫の出没が多い、2.猫の額のように狭い、3.「Black Cat」発祥地　など名前の由来に諸説有り

On the east side of Meiji-dori - the twisting path covering the river between Harajuku and Shibuya. It's quiet with a bunch of cool stores here and there. Guesses on how it got its name are: 1. there are lots of cats, 2. it's narrow like a cat's forehead (don't ask me to explain that one...), 3. gets it's name from famous stores like Black Cat, etc. in the area.

If you'd like to check it out for yourself, the easiest way to get there is to get off at Harajuku station and walk all the way to the bottom of Takeshita-dori. It's not the main street you hit, but sort of breaks off from there paralleling the main street on the far side away from the station. There's a bunch of weird fashion stores there and a few cafes/restaurants. Here's a list of stores there (link in Japanese).

Anyway, so lately on Cat Street, a bunch of the bikes that have been left there have started losing random parts, like you see on the right here. What's the deal you ask? Is there some random bum around making a bike part castle somewhere, or did the police forget to bring their truck when they came to confiscate bikes and just decide to take what they could?

Nope, none of the above - the parts have been "borrowed" with a promise to return them even. Here's the caption as it reads on that note you see attached:

タイヤ（シート）借りました。

自転車の持ち主へ
2009年10月11日（日）に開催される
RED BULL BOX CART RACE用に
あなたのタイヤ（シート）を借りました。
イベント後に必ずお返しします。

REDBULLBOXCARTRACE.JP

I borrowed your tire (seat).

Dear bike owner,
I have borrowed your tire (seat) for the Red Bull Box Cart Race being held on October 11th, 2009 (Sun.). I will return it after the event without fail.

Soo... it's just a marketing scheme then? Here's a video - they're still taking entries for anyone interested, so sign up!



Details on the event:

the 1st Japan Red Bull Box Cart Race
Date: Oct. 11, 2009, starts at 1pm
Place: Odaiba, Dream Bridge (夢の大橋)

If anyone's actually interested I could have a look at the rules for entry... I think it might be worth at least showing up for to watch. More than that though, the ad scheme is certainly attention grabbing.

Original link my co-worker came across is here (Japanese only).

Edit: pictures and my write-up on the event itself can be found here.

BIG trouble in little Tokyo!! *gasp*

Ok this is serious - everyone drop everything, because it's 2:34am and I am having a minor crisis here. I couldn't sleep and given my new vocational freedom don't have a set schedule per se, so decided to come out to the living room and pass the time on the 'ol pasocon (you'd never guess that came from English, would you?). I go into the kitchen to pour myself another Captain 'n Coke (yarr!!), and what laid before me?

A COCKROACH. And I'm not talking any cockroach, I'm talking a COCKROACH THE FRICKING SIZE OF TEXAS. I'm not referring to Texas-sized cockroaches, because we all know they like everything huge down there, no I'm talking the state of Texas, as in this thing could take on Godzilla and probably win, if he were not in fact a mythical creature. Yes I know it's paradoxical considering the state of Texas is geographically bigger than Japan, but this thing is seriously grotesquely huge... disposal is going to be a delicate situation that is going to be handled totally hush-hush on the DL as not to disturb the already-scared-to-death-of-bugs girlfriend.

For those of you taking notes at home, this is a reason that rent is cheaper on the first floor of buildings (at least in Japan) - bugs. Japan does not mess around when it comes to bugs, oh no. They thrive in the moist and humid environs and that goes double for us first floorers. I was lucky enough to know enough Japanese to get around before I got here the first time for my 1-year study abroad all those years ago, but the first new word that I learned coming off the plane and settling into my new digs at the dorm was "gokiburi" (cockroach).

And of course it doesn't stop there - I scooped up a Mothra-sized moth to shoo out the window the other night, and I've even been assaulted by bugs in my pants. I was also chased down the hall once by the worst of all the bugs I know in Japan: mukade. Those things just freak me out.

Ok, well I'm going to sip my drink and then go curl up in a corner and cry myself to sleep now (I kid).

My struggles with カビ

Ah yes spring, my favorite season is finally here! The sakura have bloomed, the birds are chirping, and the temperatures are just perfect for at least a month or two before the unbearable heat and humidity of the Japanese summer that will undoubtedly be accompanied by excessive amounts of AC blasting throughout the trains and stores across town.

It also means the return of an old nemesis: mold. Mold and Japan go hand in hand like... I dunno, two things that go together really well. Given my current choice of breakfast I'm gonna go with "like bananas and strawberry yogurt". Anyway, lots of mold in Japan.

My history with mold in Japan goes back to my first days here a few years back when I lived in an all tatami apartment. It was spacious and free so I wasn't complaining at all, but come spring I knew why people avoid tatami mats and go for western style rooms. I went away one weekend and left the windows open to air the place out, then came back and it half looked like I had a lawn in my apartment! You need to keep your place clean to avoid mold settling in, and this goes double for tatami mats. This was up in Tohoku as well, so I'm sure that having tatami rooms further south could only be worse.

So ok, lesson learned and I haven't lived in a tatami-based home since. Now this time around, I look in my closet the other day and what do I find? Mold, growing on some clothes! This place tends to gather condensation a bunch since it's on the 1st floor. And here I thought people avoided living on the 1st floor in Japan so people wouldn't look in their windows and/or steal their panties (girls only), but yes, the 1st floor is more likely to have bug and mold problems as well.

Now what do you do if you have mold? How do you avoid it? You need to be careful of any place where condensation might gather, such as closets, drawers, around the bathroom and washing machine, the kitchen and close to windows. In general, you need to keep the place clean, have good air flow and not allow hot air to settle if you can help it. Here are some tips that I found:

1. After you take a shower/bath, before you leave turn on the fan, then rinse the walls off first with hot water, then with cold water. This cools the place down and gives all the hot air a chance to get out.
2. Always turn the fan on in the kitchen when cooking or running hot water, and leave the fan on for a little afterwards too.
3. Leave things like beds and couches set off from the wall about 5cm or so as mold tends to gather in small crevices.
4. Buying a dehumidifier is the easiest for sure, but if you don't want to or can't afford it then there are these things you can buy at DIY shops to help handle humidity. I got a bunch to stick in drawers, some that you can hang in your closet, and bigger ones that you can just place on the floor anywhere that tends to get hot and/or moist. The closet ones were called ドライペット if you're interested, but that's just the brand.
5. If you have tatami mats, wipe them down regularly! First you go through with a damp cloth, then a dry one. I did it once every 2-3 weeks depending on need.
6. Clean things regularly (!!), and every now and then check areas you don't use or look every day such as drawers, spare futons, around windows, in the shoe storage areas, etc. Here's a diagram I found covering everything, although it's in Japanese.

Here's the original Japanese for a site I was looking off to make this list if you're interested. One thing I thought was interesting on the site was that it mentioned that because Japan has such a humid climate, the culture developed a bunch of fermented food products, such as miso, soy sauce and nihonshu (sake). If that's the case, I wonder why cheese never caught on here??? Sigh... I could make a whole other post about that one.

Japan and swine flu hyper reactions

Well here I am, back in Japan for a week now. Time back home sure seemed to fly!

So before we even landed in Narita, we got smacked with the most recent pandemic that has swept the nation of Japan: swine flu hysteria. Note that the pandemic is not swine flu itself, which has been widely shown to be only about as strong as the seasonal flu and only has a few hundred cases worldwide, but the hysteric hyper over reactions to it I've witnessed everywhere.

In the plane they gave everyone in the plane a health survey to fill out along with the standard customs and disembarkation papers, which is ok enough I guess, but then the real fun started when the plane touched down. We were made to wait in our seats 30 minutes for a quarantine inspector to make it to our plane, at which time the less-than-comfortable-or-attractive masks were summarily passed out to all passengers (note: none of the stewardesses were wearing masks at any time, even during the inspection, so I assume that they at least realize the folly in all of this). Then the inspector comes through with an industrial-sized mask and a heat-sensing camera to check us all out. He checked our surveys one by one then gives us this sheet saying they'll call to check on us later.

Another half hour later we're out of the plane, and after showing the paper to the new makeshift quarantine gate it's reentry as usual... except for another camera crew and yet another accompanied by news staff trying to interview people on their "scary" bouts with the flu abroad. I'm sure they were sitting there for a while trying to get someone that was actually scared about the flu so they could put it on tv and spread baseless fear across the country. Looking around, we weren't the only ones that had shed their masks before even leaving the airport, so I'm imagining that most all of the people coming from abroad are much more cool-headed about things since they have not been exposed to said Japanese media scare-mongering.

2 days later, my girlfriend and I both separately got calls from the quarantine center asking us if we had any signs of the flu or anything. After I told the lady no, she said to call her if anything arose and that she'd waste her time again in another 10 days to call me and the hundreds of others that flew in.

Since getting back I've seen various reactions of people, with a strong delineation between those that read news elsewhere and those that get all their information locally. One friend told me that someone in her office that went to Hong Kong over Golden Week was told not to come into work for 10 days, and that he would be forced to use his own vacation days to do so. He was understandably upset. While I do find this disturbing, as 病休 (sick leave) is basically only used in Japan (by Japanese, at least) if you wind up in a hospital overnight I was not entirely surprised. I've heard other direct accounts that even people that are sent abroad for business trips at certain companies are forced to take a voluntary leave of absense upon returning on their own time.

I also ran across this story over at Japan Probe about university rules for travel on Golden Week, etc. This in from Waseda:

日本大学は全学渡航禁止命令を出しました。日本国内で一人でもインフルエンザが確認された場合、全学休講となります。外出をなるべくひかえ人混みに行かないように注意。

Student travel is forbidden, and students are told to avoid going out - especially to crowded places. The e-mail states that if one single human infection is confirmed in Japan, the whole school will be shut down.

One case in the country, and the whole school shuts down. Forget international travel, they won't even allow national traveling, say to visit family? Geez, over-react much?

So you'd imagine from all this that there's been at least a few cases in Japan thus far, right? Well just the other day there was finally a bonafide case of swine flu in the news. 3 Japanese coming back from Canada contracted it, so the reaction was to quarantine them and about 50 others on the plane, putting them up in a hotel. The account of one of the guys stuck in the hotel were just incredulous to me:

A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official asked the man not to leave his the room, except for meals, to wear a sanitary mask and not to touch anything if he had to leave the room.

Hotel employees have been prohibited from entering the travelers’ rooms, so the man cannot get room service, he said.

He said he has to wash his clothes in the bathroom of his room. He puts used towels inside a plastic bag and leaves them outside the room to be picked up by a hotel employee, he added.

For lunch Saturday, he said he had curry rice in what appeared to be a conference room. In the room, about 15 round tables were set at intervals of about three meters apart, apparently to prevent quarantined people from coming into contact with each other and spreading the virus they may possibly be infected with, he said. He sits alone at a table to eat, he said.

For dinner that day, he said he had steak.

He was asked to take his temperature in the morning, afternoon and evening.

A doctor visited him Saturday evening and told him he showed no flu symptoms, he said.

The man said he was in an unfortunate situation, but quarantining him and the other travelers was the only way to prevent the virus from spreading.

A certain phrase comes to mind that I think sums up the whole situation rather nicely...

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
-FDR

Kanamara Matsuri - what's wrong with a (big pink) dong?

Oh yes, I went again - the yearly festival of the steel phallus, Kanamara Matsuri. There's just something about this kind of festival that sucks you in, a certain charm I guess you might say. This time I got to see most of what I wanted to: saw the peni-parade, bought a poon-pop, rode the wooden general... done, done and done! I was also rather amused by the fact that the people who volunteered to help out in directing traffic when the procession left the shrine for a one hour jaunt through town were none other than... ready for it? The local boy scouts! Go figure.

I've mentioned the festival to any number of people, foreigner and Japanese, and people seem to be split in their opinions. Just now I had my camera on me and showed a Japanese friend pictures, and he was just shocked that such a thing happened in his country. When I told him that it's been around for a few hundred years and has tradition, he said that that makes it even worse - strange stuff like that shouldn't be what Japan is known for, but strange festivals and traditions like that exist and make Japan look weird. Oh and did I mention that this guy is a total perv who has no problem with guys cheating on their girlfriends or the various red light district options available in Japan and much of Asia for that matter?

Now sure Kanamara and festivals like it are rather known abroad, even if it's just as "that Japanese penis festival", but so what if they do? And conversely, most Japanese people don't know about it or avoid these kinds of festivals, but why shouldn't they know about it and participate in it?

There's nothing perverted about sex or penises, and I personally am certainly not shackled by that "traditional" western concept. I say "traditional" because prostitution is known as the oldest industry in the world. That, and half the world owns a penis, and everyone has sex... or at least everyone but the Pope and maybe some extreme introverts. None of us would be here if it wasn't for sex, so celebrate it!

There are fertility festivals and shrines elsewhere in the country, but Kanamara and the shrine at Kawasaki Daishi are devoted to prevention of stds - they contribute a bunch of the proceeds to HIV research apparently, and it says people on the grounds pass out condoms but I certainly didn't see them. Anyway, certainly a worthy cause. My question is, why is this something to be ashamed of, and why shouldn't the whole country be aware of and perfectly fine with the fact that these kinds of things go on in Japan?

Your country celebrates the penis Japan, now raise that penis-pop with pride! Be true to your traditions and show the rest of the world that sex is nothing to be ashamed of.



For more pictures of Kanamara visit my Flickr page.

Hanami Tour 2009

I have been fairly delinquent from my posting duties here in the past month, but as I have found a small pocket of free time here, I felt the need to update the gobs of pictures I've taken over the past few weeks and decompress it all a bit.

So here's part one: hanami recap! All the photos can be found in the normal places - Facebook and Flickr. I'll try to give a brief overview of the places I went, along with a little taste for each location. If you're in Tokyo this'll give you an idea of places to check out next year, if not then it'll show you what you're missing out on.


Yoyogi Park (代々木公園)

So the first of my hanami outings was the always entertaining Yoyogi Park just outside of Harajuku. If you're in Tokyo and you want to hanami, this is the place to party for sure. Some people might try and throw you off and tell you Ueno is THE place but they're wrong... or they don't like their music turned up to 11. Yoyogi was nuts from about noon til I left at 9-10pm, and there was even DJs set up in the woods from 5 or 6pm. It was cold and the sakura weren't in full bloom yet, but that's not what we were there for.

One thing I was wondering about myself before this year was how you actually get your spot staked out in the park - well here's the answer: show early. I showed up at 9am and probably would've been fine given the less than spectacular weather and all, but just to be safe we had someone who lived close show up at 7am with our tarp, and he came through with a great spot right underneath an already blooming tree. We didn't have to bribe any squatters or stay overnight, just had to be early enough - here's the morning crew.

If you don't know already, to get there get off at Harajuku station and walk past Meiji Shrine.


Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社)

After that blur, I was ready to just relax, so our next trip takes us to Yasukuni Shrine for some night shots outside of Kudanshita. While the shrine itself may be shrouded in controversy most of the time, I didn't even get to go inside as I showed up well after the shrine itself closed. In the area leading up to the shrine though they have a small "sakura festival" with a bunch of little stands to get food and drinks. It was ok, but there are better places to see if you're looking for yozakura viewing sites. Here's a couple more shots.

To get to Yasukuni, get off at Kudanshita station and walk up the hill. It's across from the Budokan.






Shinjuku Gyoen (新宿御苑)

Next up was Shinjuku Gyoen, which has a wonderful garden area that would be worth seeing even without sakura, and even with the stupid 200 yen entrance fee. Don't get me wrong though, as with any park this is the best time to be there - even with the crowds.

I would say that whereas Yoyogi is the most random and fun park I've been to in Tokyo without rival, but Shinjuku Gyoen is the best upkept one - they put that 200 yen to work and it shows. It may be rivaled in that department by Rikugien, which I did not make it out in time for... there's always next year.

To get to Gyoen, the fastest way is to get off at Shinjuku San-chome and walk towards Yotsuya - it's around 1-chome. Here's a couple more shots.





Aoyama Cemetery (青山霊園)

Moving along, the next stop on our tour was Aoyama Reien, also known as Aoyama Cemetery. A co-worker mentioned this place and how he always saw a whole bunch of foreigners in there taking pictures, and now I know why. It's pretty much a straight stretch of about 1-2km that is just sakura pink as far as you can see. The cemetery itself is known for being home to many of the foreigners who played crucial parts in the industrialization of Japan back in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Fairly interesting. It apparently also holds the grave of the dog Hachiko, which most people know as a statue at Shibuya station.

This one's a little harder to get to - the fastest is probably to get off at Gaienmae on the Ginza line and walk about 8 mins., but we just took a taxi as we were pressed for time.




Megurogawa (目黒川)

I rode by this river literally hundreds of times last year when I was riding the Toyoko Line into Tokyo for work and always thought it looked like a nice spot, but I had no idea what a great way to end the night this would be. I've seen pictures during the day which looked very nice, but the real charm of this location is that it is one of the better spots to check out the sakura at night. We got there right about at dusk and stayed for quite a while to take it all in.

The place is a 1-2km stretch with paths along both sides of the river, going basically between Naka-meguro station on the Toyoko Line and Ikejiri Ohashi station on the Denentoshi Line - starting at either end is ok, the Naka-meguro end is more packed and the Ikejiri end is almost dead, but it's quite a walk from one end to the other. This one definitely ranks high on my list and is definitely worth another visit.






Chidori ga Fuchi (千鳥ヶ淵)

I definitely saved the best for last here - this is the best place to view sakura I've seen in Tokyo yet (not to be confused with hanamis... this place is better without liquid enhancements). It's basically right outside the Imperial Palace, where a plethora of sakura trees line the northern side of the moat. During the day you can rent boats to ride right into the trees hanging down into the water, and the view at night is just phenomenal. If you want to see the sakura in all their glory and can only go to one spot in Tokyo, make it this one.

The only downside - I just wished I would've realized it was there earlier! The best area is right around the corner from the Budokan and Yasukuni Shrine, across from Kudanshita station again.






There are still a few places worth seeing that I didn't stop by - Ueno is definitely worth seeing again (this time with a camera), and I am definitely checking out Rokugien next year... if I don't just decide to do like a friend of mine did this year and head down to Kyoto.

Ok, well there were also some sakura down in Kawasaki Daishi this past weekend, but I was there to see other things - things which I shall save for next post. :P

To Work or WBC, and Fake Swingers

Everyone at work seems totally distracted, and I don't think it's because the two owners (also brothers) had an escalated altercation that broke into fisticuffs last night (true story).

No, I would have to say that it's because about half the people currently in the office are closely huddled in front of the tv by the entrance watching the World Baseball Classic. They told me that yesterday Japan beat the US in the semis, but personally I could care less... I'm more interested in the NCAA tournament, even if my team's already out. If you don't care about either I won't hold it against you. As much as I'd like to ignore it, I guess it really is true that Japanese love their baseball, and even more so than they do soccer.

This brings to mind something only tangentially related but that has always struck me as funny - the fake swing. Whether it be a fake golf swing or a bat swing, you will see people doing practice swings all over the place here, from the office to the train platform. Don't believe me? Well there's even a poster about it. This guy has an umbrella, but you'll see it more often than not totally empty-handed, and in addition to the baseball/golf swing you may see a budding pitcher practicing his curve ball depending on who you watch.

What prompts this you might ask? A trip to any school sports club will provide the answer. I first ran into this back as an exchange student when a friend joined the tennis club - he told me that for beginners they actually have you just swing at air 100 times to practice your form before you're "ready" to step up and hit a ball! Who knows how long it'll take you hitting a ball before you're ready to actually take on an opponent, maybe years.

You may be thinking that this happens in baseball practices all over the world, and indeed my capoeira instructor harps about form when we practice as well. But if you think this and you haven't seen Japanese people practice then you don't know what I'm talking about - they can just practice swinging for hours without playing a real match or scrimmage, which to me is like making a cake and then not eating it. They are obsessed with proper form and will take it to the utmost extreme. I don't know if their desire for perfection before they even get started is admirable or masochistic, but at times I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. It'd certainly take all the fun out of sports to me. I guess it's better than having them read a book about how to hit a ball, but I still think the best way to practice hitting a ball is to... hit a ball. With someone, preferably in a situation somewhat gamelike. Call me a purist. :P

Heading home!

Ok well I haven't made any official announcements on here yet, so for those of you that don't know I'll be back home next month for 3 whole weeks! The dates are April 14th to May 4th, so mark your calendars and stop by to say hi.

It's so great getting home to see people... although I must admit that I think a month or so of 'home' is about all I could take before I'm ready to come running back to Japan.

English Company Names in Japan

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Cherry Blossoms: Millenium Edition

Ok this is the real deal: Japanese people do not mess around when it comes to the sakura. Every year I am continuously impressed with the fantastic weather coverage of the sakura blooming schedule online, and this year is no exception. I checked online for the peak blooming time around the country (which is always meticulously followed and documented), and found the next latest and greatest in superfluously detailed applications to more than fulfill your sakura quotient - the Sakura Simulator 2009 shown above.

The Sakura Simulator gives you a visual representation of not only when peak blossom is anywhere in the country with a quick search, but also what the country or any area you select will look like on on any day from now through May, which is when the last of the sakura up in Hokkaido will be done. As you can see above, March 29th will be a beautiful day to be in Japan... or atleast the half of it up through about Tochigi or so.

My plans this year are to have the obligatory hanami in Yoyogi at least once, hit up the Kanamara festival again, and check out some night blossoms over at Yasukuni Shrine. I love this time of year in Japan!!!

More PS1 gamers than PS3 gamers?

Ok, I don't play video games half as much as I used to, but I saw this poll over at WhatJapanThinks and just saw it as a sign of colossal fail on the part of Sony in the gaming world.

The poll showed a number of interesting things - 1st, as usual Xbox is basically non-existent in Japan, but this time around Nintendo is totally pwning Sony, selling twice as many Wiis as the PS3. After following up the PS2 which dominated Nintendo's Gamecube, that's a huge turnaround in Nintendo's favor. This round was Sony's to lose, and they apparently did so with gusto.

What shocked me about the poll though was the numbers of people playing older systems - people still using PS1 and even SNES still outnumber those who have bought a PS3! Two words: you fail. The public has spoken, and the average person apparently doesn't care if games get any prettier. Nintendo was right - a more interactive gaming experience is more attractive than graphics ever could be... to the common public at least. Real gamers'll buy new stuff no matter what just to get the newest games, but then I haven't put myself in that category for years now. I still play SNES games (on an emulator), and the last system I bought myself was a handheld: Nintendo DSi. The last home system I bought myself... PS2 maybe? Had a Gamecube c.o. a friend who knows who he is but didn't buy it myself, and I've thought of buying a Wii but just don't feel like spending the money.

Now of course these are numbers for Japan only and have nothing to do with the US or anywhere else, but still interesting. I'd also be interested to see a heads up of home consoles against handhelds, or even just a similar poll on handhelds that you could compare to this home console one.

For another fact you may not know, the former president of Nintendo was the richest man in Japan last year at 7.8billion USD on the strength of Wii sales, but thanks to the shit economy has been downgraded to be worth a mere 4.5billion and 3rd richest.

The exporting of Japanese culture

In doing some researching for my job (for the moment), I've noticed what to me at least is a disturbing although not entirely startling trend.

It started with nihonshu, which you probably know as sake. Looking at the market and export numbers it's gained quite a bit of popularity abroad lately, especially in the US as a trendy drink that's more "cultured." It's caught on easier in the US than Europe since the latter is more strongly dominated by wine culture, but is still seeing more and more growth in larger cities around the world such as NYC, London, Seoul and Shanghai. France is pretty slow to catch onto this because they are still firmly ensconced in their own culture of cheese and wine apparently. Export figures have steadily risen on the strength of the market in the US doubling in the past 5 years and tripling over the past 10.

Contrast this with nihonshu sales in Japan, which have fallen steadily over the same periods. The younger Japanese sees nihonshu as too old school and out of fashion, and even the older folks are starting to shift more towards drinking shochu, the other indigineous drink of Japan. It has Chinese/Korean roots and is actually marketed as soju (Korean name) in the US, but local production of shochu in Japan is high and rising, while at the same time more and more people are leaving the nihonshu up on the shelf.

The most important names in discussions of sake these days also probably aren't what you'd expect. Some discussions I ran across of sake have foreign expert John Gauntner as the big hope for Japanese sake brewers to stay afloat - the thought is that for domestic sales to pick back up, the only way is to go international and show young Japanese how much the rest of the world loves nihonshu, meaning that it's ok for them to like it again too (translation: foreign = cool in Japan). There's also Philip Harper, a Briton who has become the first foreign sake brew master... the fate of sake may progressively be less and less in the hands of Japanese.

Then again today I was looking up numbers on bonsai - you know, the little trees that Mr. Miyagi made in Karate Kid. Like shochu this too finds its roots outside of Japan (China in this case), but Japanese made noticeable adjustments that set them apart from their original counterparts. Anyway, apparently producers of bonsai and related products in Chiba were really hurting as local interest waned, but then about 5 years ago exports out to Hong Kong and China especially but also the EU really started picking up. Exports doubled in 2007 and have grown over tenfold since the beginning of 2005. Yet again, exports step in to fill the local void in the market for a Japanese cultural staple.

I guess I could also throw sumo in there as well, in which foreigners seem to grab quite a bit of the news lately... a European won the Emperor's Cup for the first time last year, and the whole sport is a flutter after a slew of wrestlers get caught smoking marijuana (2 of the 3 I remember caught were foreign). I don't see how there could be sumo without foreigners now or anytime in the near future.

So what's it all come down to? Japanese culture isn't popular enough in Japan, so exporting it looks to be it's only hope for survival. Will it take the rest of the world to show Japan that its culture is actually worth preserving? I hope not, but if so I'll do my part. Heightened appreciation for traditional Japanese culture is good, I just wish there was more of it amongst Japanese as well.

Yes We Can!! A Last Action Hero... that we can believe in!

Ok, this one's long overdue...

I've been waiting to post this one for about a month now! Apparently the page got so much traffic that the owner had to take it down for a while, but it's back online now so enjoy. Yes, it's that damn good that the site got slashdotted.

Some people will apparently make action figures of just about anyone, including the first black POTUS. I just love that term... POTUS. Sounds so much better than President and crams all that information into 2 succinct syllables.

Anyway I don't want to steal this guy's thunder, so head on over and check the fun this guy had with Obama: Last Action POTUS. Samuel Jackson move over, and Darth Vader prepare to meet your maker. You will not be disappointed, I guarantee.

Valentine's Day in retrospect

Ok I'm going to recommend that my dad leave the room on this one given his history with the subject matter. You gone now? Don't worry, we'll wait.





Ok now let's get down to business.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and in Japan as with I believe Korea and who knows where else, Valentine's Day is celebrated by women giving chocolate amongst other things to men, which is traditionally reciprocated a month later on White Day (I prefer to celebrate Pi Day myself).

As such, I received a ridiculously delicious and addictive present which I must share with the rest of the world - are you ready for this? Potato Chip Chocolate by a company called Royce'.

I simply cannot stop eating these things... just writing about them and looking at that picture makes me want more. Imagine the crunchy, salty goodness of a fine potato in chip form mated with the sweet and creamy disposition of chocolate. It's an Odd Couple match made in heaven! If you'd like to try your own I can give you a link to Royce's homepage, but alas it's all in Japanese. Anyone domestic to Japan by all means order your own.

Elsewhere in the Japanese Valentine's Day world, I found this link at Japan Probe showing off some interesting candy:

That's right, Ultraman chocolate. I think the big thing is that since these are chocolates geared towards guys, who don't get as much joy out of chocolate for chocolate's sake like girls do, there has to be another element to it.... I wouldn't be surprised if alcoholic chocolates like those Jack Daniel's ones I've heard of sell well.

There was also a roundup of various asundry V-day Japan statistics on another site I check.

I dunno, to me it just seems simpler to have it go both ways on the same day instead of delaying it a whole month. Just seems like the confectionary and card companies trying to cash in. I have heard that giving of chocolates and whatnot do offer enough stimulus to start some relationships since some people are too shy to approach someone otherwise.

Oh God, here comes the yakiimo guy again...

Rio for the Olympics in 2016!!

If you live in Tokyo, there is no mistaking that they are making a bid to host the Olympic Games in 2016 - there are signs about it everywhere with this fruity looking rainbow ribbon thingy as seen above. The nationalistic right-wing mayor of Tokyo has been fighting for this forever... since they failed to get the nomination in 2012 at least. Their competition this time around? Madrid, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro.

Up until recently, I was rather indifferent to the whole issue and wished Tokyo best of luck - I mean why not, right? Well I'll tell you why not. You see, there's this park in downtown Tokyo - the biggest one, actually - known as Yoyogi Park. This place is amazing, and you can find just about anything going on there during the warmer months of the year, from bands, drum circles and performances to people practicing all manner of hobbies from capoeira and juggling to... stand up comedy and fake sword fighting choreography. You can find people playing all sorts of sports, and it is a premiere spot for hanami in the Spring as well as host to any number of cultural festivals throughout the Summer. This place is like my haven - a place of solace to protect me from going mad when I'm feeling stressed from living in this uber-urban concrete environment that is Tokyo. It's got it all, and I'm not even going into the full details of this place by far. Here's some videos I found of a guy walking through Yoyogi on a typical Sunday - check them out.

What does this have to do with the Olympics? Well I'll tell you what. They're talking about ruining this park to make way for new Olympic facilities!! Concreting over even a section of this party would be a travesty - I don't care what they build or how much added traffic and revenue this place gets, sacrificing this park is not worth it and I can't believe they'd even consider it... oh wait, this is Ishihara we're talking about, so yes I can.

So in short, to all this I say Rio for the Olympics in 2016!! I'll be rooting for you all the way as I think S. America is ready to host the Olympics. Sorry Chicago, but they've already been in the US enough times to give Brazil a shot and I'd like another excuse to go down there... besides capoeira, Carnival and the World Cup 2014 that is. Maybe next time.

By the way, BBC seems to agree with me that Rio is the right choice - there's a precedent for World Cup hosters to follow up with the Olympics as well: Mexico '68/'70, Germany '72/'74, and Atlanta '94/'96.

Canada: welcome to the EU

I'm having a hell of a time trying to get hits on the board for this new website at work... the people who normally handle search engine optimization (SEO) have only done so for Japanese pages and aren't exactly fluent in what changes are needed for an English website. Most of their knowledge carries over, but it still means I need to put in some effort that they can't... sigh.

So anyway skip forward to me talking to this one SEO person about our google analytics account - she tells me we got a hit from someone in Europe for some reason, which I thought was odd since I had just checked it and the only hit I saw outside of Africa and Japan was in Canada. She pulls up the map, and sure enough I had to explain to her that it was in fact Canada and not Europe.

How the hell does someone make a mistake like that you ask? Well let me just show you the Japanese version of the world map and let you figure it out:
They put themselves in the center of the map, making them just as arrogant as the Europeans, and putting Europe where a Eurocentric mind might expect to find Canada. I guess it's one of those things that you usually just take for granted, but it does tell you a little about how you view the world. You can really mess with kids by showing them different maps of the world and how Japan isn't at the center of them. By the way, I think the kings of map manipulation for the purposes of self-gratification are still the Aussies...

Ugh... potatoes

Ok, so it's Sunday afternoon and I was out late last night - my old roommate is moving to Sweden to be with my other old roommate, so we had a whole bunch of beer and sake in a huge karaoke marathon... after this and last week, I'm done with karaoke until at least Spring.

So yeah, anyway too much sake makes Doug's head hurt in the morning, and there's this guy outside singing about potatoes on a loudspeaker... ugh. He's trying to sell yakiimo out of his car, which I have no problem with, but instead of sensibly just going to a park or somewhere where people would normal gather like all his normal street vendor friends do, he feels it necessary to roll through my neighborhood and advertise by singing off pitch about how delicious his stone-grilled sweet potatoes are. What is this guy, the ice cream man? I simply cannot see people running out of their homes to line up for their very own sweet, sweet potatoey goodness. Geez.

There are entirely too many people in this country driving around with loudspeakers attached to their cars. First you have the notorious black vans of the uyoku and your standard political campaigners, then I've heard drivebys of people selling kerosine for heaters in the winter or collectors for big garbage items the standard people won't take, and now sweet potatoes.

Some of it really is ridiculous and unnecessary, but then again when is a loudspeaker attached to a car that's not police or fire department-related ever really necessary? I think "frickin sharks with lasers attached to their heads" are more practical than a black van with a loudspeaker - every bit as superfluous but at least more fun. As far as the political messaging goes, there's this stupid rule that you can't have any political messages or debates or anything on tv, including commercials, so these guys feel that the only way they can get their point across is to drive around with a mic and pollute the air with their bombast. It's like the 1950's out here or something. And who actually listens to these guys anyway? I can't imagine anyone hearing some old guy ranting on on his loudspeaker about... whatever and thinking "you know, he's right!"

For a country that screams up and down about how you shouldn't bother other people, this is rather paradoxically obnoxious behavior if you ask me.

What the hell?

Sometimes when you're bored or just feeling random, it can be fun to just type random things into that search bar on Google and search away. I once spent an afternoon laughing myself giddy after a lovely search of the word 'ugly', both the web and images. Warning: if you turn off the mod filters you can get some really bizarre shit showing up in those images depending on your search.

Another good search is ninjas, which for reference:

1. are mammals.
2. fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.

Anyway, for whatever reason, yesterday I typed in "what the hell" just to see what'd pop up. What the hell I figured. I never really thought about it before, but checking out the first link a bit was sort of interesting. There's this guy that's all worked up about hell being an invention of the Roman Catholic Church along with the idea of Purgatory. To him, "hell" is simply a mistranslation of a handful of terms, and points out a number of hellish facts that kept me interested for a bit. I find it interesting that so much stuff seems to be coming out of the woodwork to try to disspell all the mystique surrounding the Bible and Biblical times, and even historical documentation of the church in the years soon after - I like hearing about what early Christians did, and how Christianity has evolved over the centuries.

So hey if you're bored then go to hell! Where the hell is hell? I dunno, apparently some valley out close to Jeruselem or something.

Rent-a-Friend services?

You would think that after a few years living here I would run out of stuff to be shocked at, but Japan is just an endless source of shock and awe. I was reading about the "rent-a-friend" culture developing in Japan over on the BBC the other day, and it goes much further than I ever knew about, so I figured I'd share my thoughts.

First, the story. It starts off with cat and dog cafes, where people who can't afford or handle actually owning a pet go to enjoy their pet time in hour-sized helpings. They even let you take a dog out for the afternoon and go to the park or whatever. This is old news to me, so we'll just move on to the juicier parts.

Next, we have the Campus Cafe, a new and cheaper alternative to the many hostess clubs and snack bars that have been around forever, but are apparently being hit hard by the recession. Now the Campus Cafe does fulfill every Japanese guy's dream of talking to girls that are way too young for them, but my faint hope when seeing the recession remark is that maybe this'll help J-guys sort out that they can just go out and talk to girls without having to pay crazy amounts of money just for them to sit down, and that doing so is actually more productive. Just to clarify, most all hostess club visits involve no chance of actually having a non-professional outing with the girls or even sex, thus it to me is pointless. It's basically paying $50+ (and that + can go waaay up) an hour to be teased by hot women that you can never have, and these places have regular customers. This to me is more futile than prostitution even - it's like mental prostitution. Sure maybe you can't get a girl to go home with you, but who can't even get a girl to talk to them?

They saved the craziest part for the end: the so-called Hagemashi-tai. This place rents relatives. Yes, you heard that right, relatives. Need people to fill the seats at that wedding or funeral? No problem. Got a dead-beat dad and need a replacement to help talk to the neighbors or take your kid to the park or go to that PTA conference? We gotcha there too. They even have a story of a blind guy that calls them up to rent-a-dad for a day to talk about his issues.

Ok, now I can understand that there are certain people out there that have difficulties talking to people and making friends - there are socially inept people the world over. And that sucks when you don't even have family there to back you up, so I feel for them there. But some of the stuff they describe towards the end just seems to underline something that's always been missing in Japan, and that's that they are seriously lacking in mental health support. They aren't very good at reacting to or even recognizing mental disorders either - sort of goes along with the "if we ignore it maybe it'll go away" mentality. Psychologists? Fuggetaboutit.

Call a rent-a-friend if that makes you more comfortable, but if you're having a rough time of life and need to talk about your problems, and your friends and family can't help out then that's when you turn to professional help. Basically though, with rent-a-friend you're just paying for a shrink without the professional training.

Anyway, again here's the full article if you're interested.