Cats and Curiosities

Hello everyone! Pending a shift to more normal hours on my part, I will probably continue to post blog updates in the small hours of the morning. I've been shuffling through some old pictures, and thought that I might start tonight's entry off by discussing the Japanese “cat cafe”. Many Japanese live in apartments, and of those apartments many do not permit the residents to keep animals. To fill this need, many people turn to cat cafes where they can sip a beverage of their choice while luring the feline inmates over with tidbits of dried fish. 
 
In Sanjo we paid about $11 (each) to spend half an hour with the cats armed with a tin of fish flakes. The experience was nice enough, though it didn't quite live up to expectations. The cats at this particular cafe didn't really suffer to be petted unless they were straining to reach a tidbit held in the other hand. Still, it was fun to interact with animals for the first time in months and the cafe had a variety of cat breeds that I hadn't been able to get a close look at before.

 Cat in a box.

 "I am less interested in the camera than in the bit of fish in your other hand."

Nikki managed to pick one of the cats up, but the cat wasn't particularly interested in staying there.






Next, I've gathered quite a collection of photographs of things that range from droll to incredibly strange. Once again, I'll let the pictures do most of the explaining!

 The green bell peppers I buy always have a little creature on them made from the vegetables in question. This one is reminiscent of Alistair.

 I think this stuffed animal is meant to be a capybara. But I'm not entirely sure.

 "This is a nice hot deli from Pizza Hut. It makes you smile and be happy! Enjoy the deli while its hot. Try with pizza! You will surely say, 'Great!'"

 I've never met such a forthright garbage can before!

 The earnest question this sign posed made me smile.

Woe unto him who does not enjoy the style of his socks!

 This has got to be the most philosophical trash can I've ever seen. It also seems to be a little dark humored to be asking someone about the direction of their life while they're throwing something away.

 This is the tower at the World's Fair grounds in Osaka. To me it looks vaguely like a penguin .

Most takoyaki shops have banners like this. Never before have I seen an octopus so happy to sell me his...balls.

 The stickers read, from left to right: "I am ready for cattle mutilation." "I have janky switch in my brain." and "I become an ogre if I go berserk."

...


And now you know how internet memes like this get started!

I'm not sure who made this...but I believe “very demotivational” (http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/) was involved.

That's all from me tonight...er...this morning. Please post your comments! I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks of my findings!

Antiquity...and hungry deer.

Tonight I returned to my apartment feeling cold and a little footsore. However, with a camera full of pictures and a head full of tales it felt safer to get it all down before I went to sleep. Firstly, it snowed a little here in Kyoto the day after Christmas, but it was too warm to stick. When I first came here someone said that it never got terribly cold, though it was very windy. For the most part this is true, although the wind definitely makes up for the lack of sub-zero weather.

Keeping the cold and wind in mind, I bundled up in my scarf and my new hat (resplendant with pompom), and traveled with my friend Nikki down to Nara. Nara is famous for being the first capital city of Japan in addition to having famous temples, more history than you can shake a stick at, and...deer. 

(The bucks all had their antlers sawed off and rounded. I found out why quickly enough.)

 (While they were born a long time ago, there were still some deer that were clearly still babies).
 
The deer were definitely my favorite part, although they were pretty pushy. Most of the deer have been taught to “bow” for treats (which you can buy for 150 yen pretty much anywhere) which consists of bobbing their head up and down. This is most similar to the head bobbing I do in the office when I need to use the printer, so I decided this behavior was bow-worthy enough to get treats. The does and fawns are well-behaved enough, but the bucks had a tendency to head-butt to get your attention. It wasn't hard, and thank god that their horns had been sawed off, but after a couple blows I was starting to get bruised. Fortunately, Nikki (being more assertive than I), found that firmly shoving away the pushy deer got them to behave quickly. Especially when they saw the well-behaved deer getting all the treats. 

(Like all wild pokemon, deer know four different attacks. “Bite” “Take-down” “Double Kick” and “Headbutt.” These attacks are super effective against little girls and old women.)

After being thoroughly accosted by deer, Nikki and I went to go see the Todaiji temple. This Buddhist temple is both the largest wooden building in the world, and holds the largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world. I took many pictures, so it is probably easiest to just caption them to give you a run-down of what we saw.

There are deer up until the inner temple grounds.  On of the deer grabbed my ticket, so I had to wrestle with it to get the ticket back. This caused great amusement for the other visitors ^^; Thanks to my latent deer-handling abilities, however, I got my ticket back in one piece.

 The last/main gate to see the Todaiji grounds. Please note that you can buy tickets here, and do not need to bother with a joint ticket to also see the museum, unless you really want to.

 This building "The Great Buddha Hall" or "Daibutsu-den" is really huge. It is, after all, the largest wooden structure in the world. It has also been burned down twice in various wars. You can see models of the earlier temple buildings/grounds in the back part of the current hall.

Please do not confuse the "Daibutsu-den" with "Dobutsu-en". On is a sacred icon and world heritage site, and the other is a zoo.

 I had heard that you aren't allowed to take pictures inside of the temple itself. Surprisingly, this was not true. I stopped after a couple of photos though. If you want to see the 6 or so other statues and the miniature replicas of the old temple grounds (still a good 20-feet wide in small scale) I suggest you look them up online or plan a trip to Nara itself!

One of the enormous wooden pillars that supports the building has a hole cut in it that visitors are supposed to squeeze through if they want to be blessed with enlightenment in their next life. Nikki managed it, though after she barely made it I decided it was best not to try myself. Enlightenment aside, I suspect that the temple monks needed some form of entertainment for themselves when the tourists started showing up.


We also visited two museums, the Todaiji Museum and the Nara National Museum. If you're going to visit only one museum (and I recommend that you do, as they overlap quite a bit) I would recommend you go see the Nara National Museum, as it has the most depth and variety. The museums house artifacts found on the old temple sites when they were burned down/destroyed in various conflicts. As such, the bulk of the displays are scrolls, small sacred objects (such as altar implements), and paintings that are often darkened from age. 

(Nara International Museum, with thanks to asiaexplorers.com for the image)
 
While I did not find the museum exhibits anywhere near as exciting as the deer, there were a couple pieces that caught my eye. The first was a painting that illustrated the equivalent dieties/holy figures between the Shinto and Buddhist pantheons. As someone who was raised with Western monotheism and “thou shalt have no gods other than me, or else” I found this quite profound. I'm not sure if the undertones of the piece said “look, it's okay to participate in both faiths” but there also seemed to be a lack of follow up paintings featuring the previous artist's hands/head/unmentionable pieces being chopped off. It has always suggested a deep religious insecurity to me that blasphemy/heresy/how-dare-you-see-god-in-a-different-way-than-me-dammit has ever been a capitol offense in the West.

On a less theological note, almost all of the scrolls were written strictly in Kanji (complicated Chinese characters) which I found really exciting. This is because 1. I'm a huge geek, and 2. It shows a distinct period in Japanese history when Kanji was used by (male) scholars, katakana was used by men (to a lesser extent), and hiragana was used by women. One of the reasons why “The Tale of Genji” and “The Pillow Book” survived to be so popular is because they were written by women, and thus in hiragana. Hiragana is a phonetic script (unlike Kanji, which can have several different readings per character), so it was easily read and didn't suffer as much from the transition into modern Japanese (in which all three character sets are used). At least, I recall this as being accurate from what reading I've done. There is an odd chance my Japanese literature professor may be reading this blog, in which case I would like to concede that some of this may be pulled, academically speaking, from my ass.

That's all from me today. In closing, I would like to admit that I bought more souveneirs than was probably wise. Most of them deer themed.

Learning Japanese

As a JET participant, it is strongly encouraged that I study Japanese. In fact, CLAIR (another acronym, this time, the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) provides JET participants with a free Japanese correspondence course if we sign up for it. I am presently at the end of book two and starting book three (of six). I'm taking the intermediate course, and finding it to be a good level for me. Finding time to study, however, can be a challenge. If I'm lucky, I can find time at work between planning lessons and grading papers. But when work gets busy I start to carry my books with me everywhere in the hope that I will be hit by the sudden inspiration to study on the subway, or at a restaurant. (McDonald's is about as popular a place to study as my college's library- on any given night most tables will be full of students, coffee, and notebooks.)

As any student of Japanese can tell you, however, book learning only gets you so far. Because most text-books will only teach you semi-formal Japanese. Casual Japanese is much shorter, and throws out the subjects of sentences with wild abandon. (Not to mention those carefully memorized particles!) Thus, in order to get at all conversational (something I am yet working on) you have to rehabilitate yourself from formal Japanese.

While I am constantly frustrated by how little of the language I know, there are some areas of improvement. For example, I'm starting to be able to understand native speakers going at normal speed. I may not be able to understand the complete meaning of a conversation, but I can usually pick out verbs and nouns that I know. This can only mean more confusion though, especially when these verbs and nouns do no seem to make sense together. For example, I once heard “baseball” “tigers” and “children” all in one sentence. I fervently hope that “The Tigers” are the name of a baseball team, or else Japan has taken a dramatic departure from the game I'm familiar with.

One part of language learning that can be frustrating while living in Japan, is the fact that most native speakers will be amazed that you can speak even the most basic of Japanese. I'm not sure if this is politeness, or the fact that many Westerners come to Japan as tourists and never bother learning the language. Intentional or not, this amazement can sometimes seem to border on condescension. For example, Japanese has two syllabic alphabets besides the use of Japanese Kanji. These “Kana” total about 90 characters or so, and most Japanese children learn these by the time they finish 1^st grade. A non-native student learning Japanese will learn all of these after 6 months or so. So the gasps I get (“Amazing!!”) when I write my name in katakana, or write a simple word in hiragana (something a five year old could do) are a bit trying on my patience.

I got my karmic comeuppance for being a grouchy stick-in-the-mud, however. At one such collective gasp from my students the other day, I turned around and flexed goofily to indicate how silly I thought their amazement was. My students misread this, however, and burst into wild applause. They now do the same anytime I write a character of Japanese on the board. So my advice? Don't fight the “oohs” and “aaahs”- they could give you a standing ovation instead. ^^;

To close tonight, I wanted to show you a sample of the short dialogues I write to practice new Japanese grammar. Usually they're between Alistair and me, mostly because the Volleyball from “Castaway” isn't answering my calls.

アリスター　：　アンドリュー！おなかがペコペコです！オムライスを作って下さい！

アンドリュー　：　今、仕事から帰ったばかりだから、ねむいです。オムライスを作りません。アリスターが作ったのほうがいいと思います。

アリスター　：　でも、僕もねむいです。うんどうしたばかりです。

アンドリュー　：　。。。

アリスター　：　。。。

アンドリュー　：　ピザを注文できます。

アリスター　：　やった！


Translation:
Alistair: Andrew! My stomach is growling! Please make me an Omelette with rice!
Andrew: I just got back from work, so I'm tired. I won't make an Omelette with rice. I think it would be better if you made one.
Alistair: But...I'm tired too! I just finished exercising.
Andrew: …
Alistair: …
Andrew: I can order a pizza.
Alistair: Hooray!

Christmas-Time in Japan, Part II

It is now the evening of the 26^th (Boxing day), and while today I did not do any boxing, I did run some errands and play some card games with a friend. The day after Christmas in Japan seemed like much any other. While I did not go out to the mall today, I suspect that it was not overrun by people wanting returns or to spend their gift cards.

Before I continue on in my description of Japanese Christmas, let me indulge in a tangent. My supervisor was kind enough to help me do some banking today, and also to help me do some returns of my own. My parents sent me a little Christmas tree for my apartment, and with it some battery powered Christmas lights. I was perhaps a little too delighted by this present and quickly ran the batteries into the ground (figuratively speaking, as I live on the 3^rd floor and did not throw them from my balcony). So on Christmas day I trotted over to the local grocery store and cheerfully bought the wrong size of batteries. Thus I found myself with no Christmas lights on Christmas and a set of batteries that were too large (insert steamy music here).

But fear not, dear reader, with my supervisor's help I went back to the store and she helped me make an exchange for the correct size batteries. There was even an added bonus- this being Japan, there are forms you must submit if you want to return something (even an $8 package of batteries). However the following dialogue unfolded:
Clerk: *looks at both my supervisor and myself* (In Japanese) “How can I help you?”
Supervisor: (In Japanese) “He wants to return these batteries in exchange for these ones.”
Andrew: *smiles obligingly*
Clerk: (In Japanese) “Who is returning these?”
Supervisor: (In Japanese) “He is. He got the wrong size.”
Andrew: *looks politely confused*
Clerk: (In Japanese) “So why are you here?”
Supervisor: (In Japanese) “He doesn't know Japanese.”
Andrew: *Endeavors to look perfectly clueless...this is not hard*
Clerk: (In Japanese) “Well...we usually have some paperwork you would need to fill out...” *looks back at Andrew* “...but I think we can skip that this time.”
And that is the story of how Andrew avoided paperwork by being foreign. I fervently wish this happened more often.

(The three essential things for Christmas in Japan: A miniature Christmas tree, a slice of Christmas cake, and a festively dressed alligator.)

But back to the topic at hand: Christmas in Japan. How do the Japanese celebrate Christmas? The answer is: very differently. Christmas is celebrated mostly by young couples (ala Valentines day) and is a day to go out with your sweet-heart on a date and exchange presents. Thanks to maneuvering by the toy companies, the idea of Santa Claus has also come to Japan. Parents of small children are now beholden to buy their kids presents from jolly old Saint Nicholas. There is no written law to this effect, but with all the colorful store displays cleverly stationed at child-height, there might as well be one.

 There is also the Japanese tradition of the Christmas cake. Rock-hard fruit cakes aside, I do not believe we have a similar tradition in America. Anyway, about a month prior to Christmas grocery stores bombard the public with advertisements asking them to order their Christmas cakes. These cakes are invariably white frosted with strawberries on the top. I am not sure why. It seems as though these cakes can be picked up the day before Christmas, although the undiscerning foreigner can still pick up their unordered cake, or slices thereof, from the sweets section. The tradition of the Christmas cake is so ubiquitous in Japan that unmarried women older than 25 years of age may find themselves likened to a Christmas cake left on the shelf after Christmas, never to be bought...er...married. Misogyny aside, I think the cake is still plenty good the day after Christmas and am baffled why no one buys them afterward. (I could do with some more cake right now...)

Another winter tradition here in Japan is to illuminate natural scenery with lights. For example the district of Arashiyama has a winter festival each year featuring beautiful paper lanterns, flower arrangements, and an illuminated bamboo forest.

 The mountainside was lit up with blue and white flood lights. It was quite breathtaking.

This festival still had some street-fair qualities to it, so my friend and I stopped to have some light dinner. I indulged in the traditional Japanese dish hot-dog on a stick.

 One of the hand-made paper lanterns. There were at least 50 of these on display, some that I could have easily fit inside. Unfortunately this is the only picture that came out clearly.

 This is Arashiyama's famous wooden bridge. It was also illuminated by flood lights. I took the first photograph from this bridge. It was host to some incredible views, but the icy gusts of wind along the river made sure we didn't dally too long.

 One of the many giant floral arrangements to be seen along the route of illuminated trees and bamboo. This one made me chuckle because of the copious amounts of tinfoil the artist used. 

 The bamboo forest was probably the most beautiful sight all evening. White, gold, and blue lights made the canopy above us glow as it rustled in the winter winds. My camera really failed to capture the effect, but at least the pictures give you a vague idea of what we saw.

Arashiyama is a bit of a tourist trap, so the main road had many souvenir and knick-knack shops. My favorite shop looked like it made little animals from white paper...later my friend and I realized that these were actually emptied silk worm cocoons. This is a case displaying the entire Chinese Zodiac.

Closer to my apartment the lights took on a more Christmas-y flavor with lit up reindeer and sleighs. I went with my supervisor, her husband, and three small children. Here are some of the pictures I took:

I didn't realize how cool this tree was until I went to edit the photo for my blog. Someone actually affixed strings of lights to every little branch of this tree.

 A picture of me with my supervisor (Okamoto Sensei) and her three sons. The kids were adorable and all wanted to speak English with me. The youngest was given a head-lamp to make him easier to find, which had the unfortunate side effect of blinding any person he made eye-contact with.

 ^^;

Here's the big fountain by the Northern gate of the park. The picture didn't turn out very good, but with the timing involved (the lights and water spout turned on and off at different random intervals) I'd be damned if I didn't post it.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I will start picking over half-typed blog entries from earlier in the year and hopefully get them up for the world to see!

-Andrew

Merry Christmas from Japan!

Merry Christmas from Japan!

After a long break from blog writing I’m back! It’s my goal to post an entry a day through New Year’s Eve. Please unleash the Badgers of Cajoling if this fails to happen.

Tonight I have a poem I wrote on the Kyoto subway yesterday, whilst traveling to a friend’s house for a Christmas Eve potluck. It’s meant to be a spoof of the “Twas the night before Christmas” poem by Clement Clarke Moore (1799 - 1863), except in this particular poem, Alistair is waiting to see Santa Claus.

‘Twas the night before Christmas

And not a night later

Not a creature was stirring

Except a chubby alligator

Andrew was there

All snug on his futon

Oblivious to Alistair

And getting his snooze on

In a tie made from a kerchief

Whilst Andrew did nap

The ‘gator paced the room

Doing lap after lap

To see Father Christmas

This was his goal

Perhaps to get presents

And hopefully not coal

And then on the balcony

There arose such a clatter

Thought he, “To hide? To look?”

(Alistair chose the latter)

And there on the ledge

Santa stood and did swear

Tangled up in the clothes-line,

Andrew’s socks, and underwear

His frame was quite portly

His voice a great boom

But he became quite jolly

Freed from the fruit of the loom

“Now what have we here?”

Said St. Nick with a smile,

“The spawn of Gozilla

Or an Asian crocodile?”

And Alistair explained

His species and station-

He had come to teach English

In this small island nation

And dear Santa found

The alligator not at all unpleasant

And said “Here you are young reptile,

I’ll give you a present.”

“Your tie is quite nice,

But on this eve you spend restive

Perhaps I should give you

Something slightly more festive.”

And then from his sack

He pulled a ribbon and a bell

Tied them ‘round Alistair’s neck

And said “Gee, you look swell!”

“But now I’m off

I mustn’t tarry

These deer are from Nara

Kids’ loot they’ve helped carry.”

“They’ll be back before morning

So nobody knows.”

Saint Nick leapt into his sleigh

And at his shouts it rose –

“Now Udon! Now Soba!  

            Now Sake and Yuzu!

On Bento, on Daikon,

on Ramen, on Ponzu!”

And the last sound he made

As Santa vanished from sight

Was “Merry Christmas to all,

And to all a good night!”