Big in Japan – Part IV

Posted on July 11, 2019 by adutchkindoflife

(This is the last part, I promise)

A long time ago – I’m getting old – in my second year in high school, I had to choose a branch of study. I originally selected maths and physics but because we were only two girls students enrolled, the school did not agree to start a class. The next year, a class was made available for two boys students (gender equality, sorry what?). I went for biology and chemistry instead. That’s when I also learned about radioactive chemical elements, nuclear energy and what happened in Hiroshima. In my mind, it was a dead city where nothing can grow or live. A place that was destroyed and deserted.

I stepped out of Hiroshima train station on a sunny morning and life seemed pretty normal, with almost a Starbucks at every corner, and a Zara here and there. It was a working day so the centre of the city was bustling with people in suits waiting for buses and metros. Along the river, you could see a ferry cruising right in front of the A-bomb dome which is the only building still standing from 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. The dome looks like the skeleton of a man, a reminder of how destructive war can be and how painful and lasting its repercussions are on people. The museum, the dome and the memorial park leave you silent. At every corner stands a statue or a sign dedicated to those who suffered, survived or died during this attack. Paper cranes made by children from all over Japan and the world hang in one corner with a little girl’s voice telling stories on a recording in the background.

The museum displays belongings left by victims, testimonies of survivors and A-bomb artifacts, mostly materials that are related to the A-bombing. After three hours of looking at pictures, reading stories and listening to recorded testimonies, I looked blank. What happened has traumatized more than a generation. But somehow, there were signs of hope. The city has moved on and its people have picked up their lives again. Trees were blossoming, parks were green, some boats were cruising down the river, sellers were shouting out their prices in a public market. The peace memorial was a reminder of the scale of destruction that a nuclear bomb brings and of the necessity to stop it from ever being used again.

My next and final destination before heading back to Tokyo was Yamanakako, one of the largest lakes at the base of the majestic Mount Fuji. I was not lucky with the weather – it was cold and humid when I arrived. My attempt next morning to have a glimpse at the top of Mount Fuji at 5 a.m. failed as it was surrounded by clouds. The small town where I stayed was very quiet, as it was off-season. There were only a couple of restaurants open. During my time there I cycled around the lake, gazing at the majestic Mount Fuji. I played chess and monopoly over sake with a group of Japanese in the guest house I was staying at. I made long walks along nearby parks and tiny villages, had delicious sushi from a supermarket on a bench in the middle of nowhere. A very relaxing way to end a long trip.

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Here are some tips about Japan:

In some onsens – Japanese hot springs and bathing facilities, people with very visible and large tattoos are not allowed in. Tattoos are negatively perceived in Japan due to their association with yakuza, a criminal gang.

The shutter sound of the iPhone camera cannot be silenced in Japan because of a law prohibiting ‘up the skirt’ photography. Such incidents have also led to the creation of separate women’s train compartments marked in pink.

Ah the modern toilets. Needless to say, you have to try Japanese toilets. Spend some time in there and just experiment by pressing the twenty something buttons; enjoy!

Women’s fashion is highly diversified ranging between pop culture style to elegant, colorful and young. My favorite shop is Apart by Lowrys. Interesting hairstyles with many women having bangs. This obviously prompted me to have one of my own.

Food is delicious. Try yakitoris or skewer restaurants; sushi at Genki sushi in Tokyo where you place your order on an iPad and sushi appears on a belt; and ramen, you will not get enough it.

The bowing culture. There is so much modesty and respect in this gesture. One funny moment was when a a two year old girl on the plane back to Amsterdam kept bowing every time I looked at her. She could not even speak yet.

Japan is timely and Japanese are disciplined: they stand in line and wait patiently. Trains, trams, metros and buses arrive on time, every time.

I felt very welcome in Japan because people were always friendly and helpful even when they did not speak English. A friend told me that living there as a foreigner though is a different story. Locals tend to keep to themselves and do not open up as easily as they do to tourists.

*What was left after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima*

Big in Japan – Part III

Posted on May 25, 2019 by adutchkindoflife

Have you ever watched sumo wrestling?

When I heard of the grand sumo tournament happening in Osaka I thought I needed to get tickets. They were sold out online so the only way was for me to get up early in the morning (five a.m.) and queue hoping for a ticket. And it worked!

The crowd started small at nine in the morning to watch junior fighters compete. In the afternoon more skilled and high-ranked wrestlers faced each other, which made fights more exciting. Those who had more wins than losses in the game moved up the hierarchy while those who lost got demoted. The winner was handed a closed envelop (probably cash) at the end of every match. I tried to get more information about the rules of the game from Japanese spectators. One big sumo fan university student explained that the game was all about “pushing” and “pulling”. In both cases, a player aims to destabilize another by either making him fall and touch the ground or kicking him out of the ring.

Sumo wrestlers had to put on weight and were asked in stables, which are accommodations where they lived and trained, to eat certain types of food and drinks including a high-in-calories stew. It is not until many of them suffered from diabetes and others died at the age of 65 (which makes sumo an unhealthy sport – ironically) that rules became a little more lenient. The concluding match took part that day late in the evening. After a long introduction of who the players were, their ranks and them posing with the mawashis they were wearing (check the photos below), it took only a couple of seconds before one of the wrestlers got thrown out of the ring. That was the end – I literally spent about 12 hours watching sumo wrestling waiting for the final match which ended in like 10 seconds.

While you’re in Osaka, Osaka castle is totally worth a visit. It is one of the biggest in size in Japan. Major battles between different clans including shoguns (rulers appointed by the emperor) were fought there. The castle has been destroyed several times to be rebuilt again, kind of symbolizing the rise and fall of the country’s history. The outer moat and tower give you an idea on how this building must have been besieged back in the 1600s.

Because no distance is too far in Japan, I made two trips from Osaka: to Kobe, which reminded me so much of the coastal city of Jounieh in Lebanon with its green mountains looking down onto the sea. I walked around its small hills where you can still see western designed houses. These go back to the 19th century when the city opened up to foreign trade – and Japan was forced to come out of its isolation. Most European style houses were inhabited by foreign merchants and diplomats. Starbucks managed to use one (damn it!)

When I walked into a local standing bar, waitresses and clients started cheering – a tradition that always makes you feel welcome and want to drink more. I had a couple of beers with two Japanese salarymen. Luckily one of them spoke English so I started bombarding him with questions about the country. He was very much pro-peace and said “although Japanese people have concerns about North Korea and China, most of them don’t want to go through war again”. This was in response to my question about article 9 – which is “a clause in the constitution outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the State”. However, he was not happy with Japan “being dependent on other countries for its security or having several US military bases”. He recommended that I visit Hiroshima – which I was going to of course – and that I try the Kobe beef steak while I’m here. I did; medium rare with nothing more than pepper and salt. It just melts in your mouth with its soft, succulent flavor. The next day I took the early Shinkansen to Hiroshima, 330 Km away from Osaka (and back in one day!).

Big in Japan – Part II

Posted on March 28, 2019 by adutchkindoflife

Kyoto station is out of this world. It is an attraction eleven stories high, packed with shops, bars and quality restaurants with views over the city. It has a very futuristic design with a curvy metal roof and “sky walkways”. You can walk slowly up there and enjoy the stunning night view of Kyoto. Underneath is another endless underground mall with its own ‘restaurant street’. I have never seen a train station that is a fun place to hang out. And people do: they go to the station to have a romantic dinner. Kyoto made what is in many cities a magnet for street crime into a popular local hotspot. It says a lot about how the Japanese manage their society: planning, design, cleanliness, quality.

Kyoto is a more compact city than Tokyo. It has a relaxed atmosphere and people seem less stressed and hurried. It is a perfect place to cycle as it is mostly flat with reasonable traffic. In Tokyo, cyclists were going on side walks which was always confusing to me.

It was the beginning of the blossom season in Kyoto and I was lucky to see blossoming trees around the colorful shrines and temples I visited. There are hundreds of them, so again get the Lonely Planet and pick what you want to see. Before leaving the city, I stopped at Fushimi Inari Taisha, a series of orange arcades that make up a shrine on a mountain. One temple and one shrine, that was it for me. I walked around Nishiki, the city’s public market where I tried a variety of exotic pickles, fish, meat and sweets. Rain was my excuse to spend long hours there and taste all I can eat.

In the evening, I strolled down Gion, the geisha district, hoping I see one. I managed to get a glimpse of two who vanished quickly behind closed doors. A geisha is a traditional female entertainer (not prostitute) for men. Her work includes talking about arts, music, poetry, politics and also dancing. Not too far from this quarter are many nice bars in alleys – most of them with a cover charge.

At the base of Kyoto’s mountains to the west is the Arashiyama Bamboo forest, reached by walking through a temple. It is a perfect place for photos, with the rays of light falling through the very tall bamboo trees. I gave it up soon enough though, as it turned out to be impossible not to have a tourist taking a selfie in the picture. Next to the forest is an amazing Japanese garden, built by a famous Japanese samurai-actor in the sixties. It is endless perfection, with plants manicured and positioned to flank the most beautiful views of Kyoto while you make your way on a meandering garden path. The amount of work that must be put into keeping it neat and pretty is unbelievable.

On my last sunny day in the city, I joined a group of Japanese who were having a short getaway in Kyoto. We took a three-hour boat trip gazing at the beautiful scenery in the valley, watching trains passing on bridges above the river; trees covering the mountains on both sides – it reminded me a bit of Nahr Ibrahim in Lebanon – until we arrived back to Kyoto.

Four days later, it was time to go. While waiting for the subway to catch a bullet train to Osaka, a couple of 7 or 8 year old kids in their school uniforms were taking the bustling subway by themselves. I looked around, there were no adults with them. I was almost tempted to ask them if they were lost or looking for their parents. Then I understood that it is common (and safe) for very young children to meet their parents everyday after school.

Thirty minutes in the Shinkansen and here I was in Osaka (about 55 Km away). It is amazing how much distance doesn’t matter when you have a functioning transportation system. This reminded me painfully of all the hours I wasted in traffic jams in Beirut. At Christmas it took me up to two hours to get from Hamra to Ashrafieh (7 km) by car – totally insane.

More on Osaka and other places in my next post!

Big in Japan – Part I

Posted on January 28, 2019 by adutchkindoflife

Going to Japan was a “not anytime soon” type plan for me. It is a bit out of the way (12 to 14 hour flight from Amsterdam), it needs time and money. But it happened that I had all that this year and I thought: it must be a sign. Yeah, I’m one of those. Besides, I got my visa so easily – I still need to apply for visas, it’s not over yet – which meant I had to go.

Despite a horrible jet lag after a very long trip, I hit the streets of Tokyo: a city that knows no limits. You’ll probably need two lifetimes to see its main (big!) areas and visit all the restaurants, pubs, karaoke bars, museums, shrines/temples and manga comic stores. That’s when the Lonely Planet comes in handy because it helps you to be more selective and not lose your mind. There is just so much to see and do.

Tokyo is overwhelming. Its glass shiny buildings are modern and huge. Its streets are incredibly clean although you barely see trash bins anywhere. I have never carried so much trash in my bag as I did during this trip. Everything was so clean. At a public fish/meat market, we did not see one single fly, literally – it makes you want to keep it that way.

Indoor smoking was surprisingly allowed in Tokyo while it was illegal in undesignated public areas. The use of plastic bags was quite common every time you bought anything no matter how small in a shop or a supermarket. And the drinking. I thought Asians had more trouble tolerating their alcohol but it did not seem to be the case there. In all izakayas – small bars that can accommodate anywhere from 8 to 100 people who end up mingling together throughout the evening – salarymen and women still in work wear were drinking and chatting. Whenever I was heading out around 10 in the evening, I would see them heading back home, most of them looking exhausted or falling asleep in the subway. People seemed never to stop working: you don’t leave the office before your boss, and he does not leave either before his boss and it goes on and on. Some companies I learned have taken measures to block employees access to their emails starting a certain hour.

The city is so big that I felt very small, completely anonymous. It is very unlikely that you’ll ever run into a cousin or an ex there. Half of Tokyo exists in the form of subway and train stations. I got lost in stations due to the language barrier – not many people I met could speak English – but also because there were at least four or five exits to every station. The city has the most “polite and well behaved” red light district I’ve seen (okay, I’ve only see one, in Amsterdam). I wouldn’t have recognized it if it wasn’t for the “Sleep, rest or stay” sign at the entrance of so called love hotels and the many maid cafés. Apparently some bars hire women to cater to men or vice versa. I did not get the chance to know what actually happens in there. Maybe next time. Bright lights, music and ads are all over the place. Among the areas I visited were:

Shinjuku: Several buildings are dedicated only to Karaoke – it’s quite a serious business there. It wasn’t long before I rented a cubicle, probably 2×2 square meters, for half an hour. You can shout all you want and drink all the beer you can, it’s almost therapeutic. Before 11:00 P.M. I took a walk towards the Tokyo metropolitan Government Building. Once you are at one of their highest floors, you’ll be able to have a free night view of the city and its towers – or you can also try Tokyo SkyTree and pay a little (a lot) more.

Shibuya: It is known for its famous crossing, where every couple of minutes several hundreds of people cross in all directions. It looks like the start of a protest, but it’s really just Japanese following the rules like a well-organized stampede of harmony. Tokyo subways run until 12:30 after midnight and it happened that I missed mine in that part of town. Taxis are very expensive so I used that as an excuse to spend the night roaming around between bars and clubs until the early morning. Speaking of taxis, the door behind opens like magic. You don’t even need to touch it. Harajuku, which is a street in Shibuya, is a must see for those who like funky, pinky and kawaii (meaning cute) styles. It is known for its fashion scene, cafés and bars which attract mostly teenagers and youths. There’s so much pink everywhere that you feel you’re in a piece of bubble gum.

Akihabara: I thought I had stepped into a futuristic cartoon movie or comic book. Posters with different Manga characters – comics created in Japan in the late 19th century – are everywhere. They include “normal” funny comics and at times even adult or teen porn comics. Female cartoon illustrations take different shapes and forms but mostly, show manga girls in “sexy” school uniforms. It’s THE fantasy. Entire buildings are dedicated to virtual reality games, video games, electronic stores, animation, you name it. A total nerd haven but incredibly fun.

Ueno: This is where the Tokyo national museum is located (and a must see) in addition to several shrines and temples and a beautiful park.

Ginza: Here you are close to the imperial palace and can take long walks along shopping avenues while making stops in elegant bars and cafés. I seized the opportunity to book a single Kabuki act, which is a classical Japanese dance drama. It was called “Kanda Matsuri”. The story was available in English on a small screen. Only men are allowed to play the role of Geishas. The music, white facial make-up and clothes were very exotic, to me at least. Photos are not allowed.

Asakusa, where the oldest temple of Tokyo is built: Senso-ji. I went there before sunset to enjoy the bright orange colors of the various buildings and visit craft, souvenir shops and eateries – got a cool sake set for home.

I really enjoyed my time everywhere I went. There was always something new to see, to eat (I put on two kilos in one month) and to discover. Even when you thought you’ve seen one street, more small bars and restaurants would appear in hidden alleys. It was just endless.

After seven days in Tokyo – which is not enough, I hopped on the Shinkansen or high speed train to Kyoto. And this thing goes like a bullet. It is very comfortable, clean and timely – not a second late (you can do better Holland!). In just a couple of hours, I was in Kyoto – after a very smooth trip and a glimpse on the way at Mount Fuji above the clouds.