Iris – Page 84 – goinggaijin.com

Daimonji 2016

I’m feeling quite tired these days and not very motivated… Last week we suffered through a heat wave of 35+ degrees each day (and around 25 in the night), and although there was a nice breeze through my apartment in the first few days, the last weekend was pretty bad.

This is quite usual in the days before and on Obon, and today was the final event of Obon in Kyoto: the Daimonji, or officially the Gozan no Okuri-bi, the 5 mountains sending fire. I have written about it before, so I will not give any details this time. The nice thing about the daimonji festival is that I can watch it from my own balcony. I can see the large dai, as well as the ofune boat and the hidari dai from my south balcony. Today, I wanted to go to the nearby Kitayama bridge to see the myo-ho fires close up as well, but things don’t always go as we’d like them to.

The whole day was nice and hot but slightly overcast. That would not have been a problem, but about one hour before the start of the first fire it started raining. No, it started pouring down as from buckets. I got slightly worried, but still hoped for the best. At 8:00 pm, it was still pouring, I went out to my balcony to watch the first fire being lit, and there was nothing. Nothing at all. A few times I thought I could see something, but then I was not sure after all.

After a while, on the other side of Kyoto, the ofune boat fire was lit – and it was clearly visible through the pouring rain, as was the smaller hidari dai that was lit 5 minutes later. I have no idea what happened with the large dai, but I am sure could not have missed it, since it is so close and I have the perfect view from my balcony. I kept going outside every 10 minutes or so until now, but there is still nothing happening, and by now they will not start it anymore I am sure. I will ask my friend if he knows what happened, but for now, here’s a photo from this year’s ofune fire, which is my favourite, by the way.

Yama no Hi

It’s a holiday today – and not just any old holiday, but a brand new one!

2016 marks the first occurence of yama no hi or Mountain Day, where the Japanese are encouraged to “get familiar with mountains and appreciate blessings from mountains.”

Since this is the most modern Japanese holiday, there’s no big and ancient story behind it that I could tell, except that the Japanese Alpine Club had something to do with it. It was chosen deliberately for August 11th, at the beginning of the Obon week to give people an extra day off. By now, there is a holiday in each month except June, and I wonder if the Japanese government will fill that gap eventually.

Of course, the most important mountain in Japan is Mount Fuji, and I am sure I will not run out of pictures here for a long time. Although I have passed Mount Fuji several times on my way from Kyoto to Tokyo and back, so far, I have not seen it myself. The mountain was always covered in clouds (after all, it is 3,776.24 m high), or it was pouring down altogether. So, I cannot share any of my own photos, but, there is enough Japanese art to share.

The image below is by Takeuchi Seihō (1864 – 1942) a painter from Kyoto.

Abdication?

The reigning emperor of Japan has given a 10 minute speech on television yesterday. He states in ever so many words that he is now 80 years old and he feels his strength diminishing. He wonders whether there could be a way to move forward for an ageing emperor, and whether a regency is indeed such a good idea. Interestingly, he states in the beginning that these are his own, personal thoughts rather than that of the emperor, and never and nowhere does he use the word “abdication”.

You can watch the video (in Japanese of course) below or read a full translation of his speech, courtesy of the BBC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syYc1RWylPo

Now of course the discussion has started. Not so much among the common people, a majority says that they are fine with the emperor retiring and a new one taking his place. Even though he still is a, if not the main, symbol of Japan, he is 80 years old, an age where even the average Japanese thinks about retirement and taking it easy and enjoying a sunset.

Even Shinzo Abe, the current prime minister, says that he is taking the emperor seriously, and that one should start thinking about what to do regarding his age. However, other members of his extremely conservative party are objecting to an abdication of the emperor. Mostly because “but, this is unprecedented!!” which is not entirely true if one goes back in history long enough. Another reason is “but, we’d have to change the constitution!!” which cannot be such a great deal either since they are at least very big on reinterpreting the thing as they see fit. The deal breaker however, is the last reason: “but, but… what will it be next? Women on the throne???” which is just…

Oh well, I will lean back and enjoy the show. I don’t expect any kind of movement here for the time being since the Japanese are very good at sitting things out, especially unpleasant ones.

Hiroshima Notes

Hiroshima Notes
Kenzaburo Oe

At 8:15 in the morning of August 6th 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, immediately killing about 100000 people. Twenty years later, from 1963 to 1965, journalist and writer Kenzaburo Oe travelled multiple times to Hiroshima where he visited hospitals, talked to survivors, and witnessed first hand the ongoing struggle of all Hiroshima people to deal with the aftermath of the bombing. Hiroshima notes consists of seven essays written in these two years. Oe talks about such divers topics as the fighting between different Japanese charities dedicated to help the victims; the marginalisation of the survivors suffering from radiation sickness; their own shame and guilt of being sick; but also the dignity these people are exhibiting regardless, up to their very last days.

This book is one of the few where a Japanese view on the Hiroshima bombings is exhibited, and with only 20 years after the facts it is a relatively early account. Although Oe should be one to understand the sentiments of the people he is talking to, one can feel that he is struggling greatly with what he hears and how he should interpret it, how he should make sense of it all. It is not an easy book to read, especially for somebody who is not familiar with Japanese culture, but still, if you are ready to delve into a book that will certainly provoke mixed feelings, it is worth it.

Kenzaburo Oe was born in 1935 in a small village on Shikoku. When he was 19, he started to study French Literature at Tokyo University, and in 1957 he began publishing his own stories. In 1994 Oe won the Nobel Prize for Literature, as the second Japanese citizen. He is still writing – his latest book was published in 2013 – and he is now active in pacifistic and anti-nuclear movements.

Check out the book on amazon

Backups

The importance of backups is usually underestimated, right up to the point where you need one. Today I have spent half afternoon with recreating a file that was accidentially overwritten with other contents. It was one of the files for work, and usually I keep such files in two places, plus the handwritten notes (yes, I still write longhand) are often not thrown out immediately.

Unfortunately, the file was 3 months old and somehow was deleted in one spot and overwritten in another, my notes are probably already in the paper mill… So I had to start from scratch. At least I kept the illustrations so I could just reuse them, but still, it was a great loss of time and hence, money as well.

Oh well, I will go out now with a friend to celebrate our soroban success (he passed 2nd kyu). And I’ll probably raise my glass to the usefulness of backups as well…

Trial and Error

Truth be told, I am not a very gifted cook. The food I fabricate myself is mostly edible, but not something that really needs to be served to the general public. This is something it shares with German and Dutch food, by the way. Every now and then, friends have to endure it, but so far, all of them survived the experience, and some of them even returned a second time, surprisingly.

So, my home cooking is usually simple and fast. Especially now, in summer, it is too hot to stay in the kitchen for too long anyway, even though I have all my windows open and there is often a nice draught through my apartment. If I feel like eating anything at all right now, I try to have something cold like sushi, or something requiring a minimum amount of preparation.

One of the dishes I love is yakisoba, Japanese style fried noodles. It is soba noodles fried with a little bit of meat and a lot of veggies, and a special brownish sauce mainly responsible for the taste. Yakisoba are often sold at festival stalls and are very easy to make. At least, that’s what I thought when I first found a box containing all the ingredients for a one-person yakisoba fest, from precooked noodles to meat and veggies to the sauce and final toppings.

It should be simple, no: in a pan first fry the meat, then add the veggies, at last the noodles. Stir a bit, add the sauce and toppings and eat. Well, I have tried now several times, and I am still burning the noodles faster than I can stir them. At least the charcoal taste is not that strong anymore, but I still cannot manage the dish tasting as it should.

Oh well… I will simply keep trying – and erring – until I get it right. It can’t take forever, can it? And when I finally figured out the secret to really good yakisoba, I’ll post the recipe on my “washoku” page. Promised.

1st Kyu!

Finally, at the 5th attempt – meaning: after 10 months of training – I have passed the soroban exam for 1st kyu! I had begun to seriously doubt myself, but this time things fell into place and my (almost) daily training paid off! As I still feel that there is room for further improvement, I will start training for the first dan grade, the equivalent of a black belt in martial arts.

The exercises remain much the same: multiplication, division, addition/subtraction, and mental calculation, dempyo, and word problems, with now more digits than before (up into the 10 and 100 millions, or more complex calculations. There is now also one new category: square and cubic roots. I have already learnt how to do them (it is a rather involved algorithm), but now I have to get up to speed with them.

Speaking of which: gaining speed is now the most important thing. For the test, the timing stays the same with 7 minutes for the major parts, but now the number of exercises you can finish correctly in this time determines your rank. One must pass each and every of the seven categories; and more than 100 points each (10 correct exercises each) mean a rank of 1st dan; more than 120 points (12 correct exercises) 2nd dan, more than 140 points (14 correct exercises) 3rd dan and so on.

At the test, there are 30 exercises in each category, and the more you do, the longer and more involved the calculations become. I am really wondering how many people hold a 10th dan soroban, since this would mean correctly completing 28 exercises for each and every of the seven parts… To me, this sounds close to a miracle. My own soroban sensei is 5th dan, that means more than 18 correct exercises in each of the categories, which is already very difficult.

Anyway, nothing will happen on that front for me for the time being since preparation for the 1st dan grade takes at least half a year. I guess the earliest test date that makes sense for me is sometime in March next year. I’ll keep you posted!

Recognition

I do not – and never have – considered myself very pretty or even beautiful. Altogether, from a European viewpoint, I would qualify as a rather average Jane. This is probably the reason why I am so surprised every time people recognise me. I am not talking about the cashiers at my supermarket, or the owner of my favourite bakery, after all, I go there often enough. I mean people I have barely spoken to ages ago.

For example, last week I had to make an appointment at my dentist, and I went there in person because I still do not trust my Japanese enough to make appointments on the phone. When I came in and said I needed an appointment, the receptionist got up, pulled out a file from a large drawer and asked: “Miss Iris, right?” I did not expect that at all and was greatly surprised, because I am terrified of dentists, and a dental cleaning once a year is all I can muster the courage for.

Another recent example was me buying a T-shirt on sale where the shop assistant also remembered my name. I had been there only at the sales a year ago where that same lady had to order a size that would fit me (otherwise she would have never known my name in the first place). Again, I was flabbergasted.

It is amazing that people remember names and faces after so long a time – and after only one or two meetings to boot! I’m the total opposite: unless I keep meeting you over and over again, I only remember either your face, or your name. This can make for rather awkward conversations, of the “I know that I know you, but I have no idea who you are” kind…

Anyway, I asked some friends about that and they agree that both women must have an extremely good memory. They did also say that me being a foreigner probably helped as well. If that’s not it, well, just as I said in the beginning, I do have a face for radio…

Jinbei

The Japanese summer is hard to bear. The temperature itself is not extreme (in my view, that is) but the humidity presses down on people more than is comfortable. To help them surviving the heat, the Japanese have come up with a very special type of summer clothing, called the jinbei. Essentially it is nothing but a kimono, cut off at the hip, with shorts added to at least partly cover the nether regions. There is no obi belt for the top; instead, four ribbons are attached that are tied together, which makes the top sit rather loosely. The cloth is usually soft cotton dyed in various hues of blue, mostly with a subtle stripe pattern.

If you look closely at the picture above, one thing that makes the jinbei so cool to wear are the open stitches between the sleeves and the body. This particular one has the same open stitches at the side of the body as well, but the majority of jinbei I have seen do not have them. Also, there are holes underneath the armpits where the seams have been left completely open – this is a standard feature of women’s kimono as well, by the way. These planned holes allows for extra circulation of air at a time when every bit helps.

Wearing a jinbei is very comfortable even in the biggest heat, but: it is a men’s garment, and even men are supposed to wear it only at home. It is not considered in good taste to wear it anywhere outside of the house especially when mingling with other people, but at Gion matsuri’s yoiyama, some young people wear them regardless. Nowadays there are even jinbei for women, in much more flashy colours and with the obligatory flower print.

However, personally I prefer the subtle patterns of the men’s jinbei, and I will probably go out and buy myself another one since they are so much more comfortable than shorts and T-shirts.

Stressful

Today was one of those days where you run around from one meeting to the next, try to squeeze all sorts of other things somewhere in between, and by the time you come home you still have the impression of having achieved nothing… Oh well, most of my days are quite relaxed anyway, so one exception is not going to break me. I am feeling tired though, I’m sure that’s allowed. So, this might mean an early bedtime for me today.