Category: experiences

The Japanese attention to detail and to do things just so amazes me every day anew. Many people here take extreme pride in their work, no matter what it is, no matter how insignificant the detail seems. Especially when it comes to handicraft, the result is always superb. I once watched somebody sew a border strip of cloth onto a tatami, the measuring and remeasuring, the adjusting the strip of cloth and the machine, the measuring once again and the stitching one by one took almost 30 minutes. For one half of a standard, 2 m long tatami.

Of course, nobody is perfect, and every now and then, a little imperfection may slip through despite all the care that has been exercised. For example, a friend of mine is taking urushi classes, where people make their own lacquerware. As written in my post about urushi, a single piece can take months to complete, and the process is quite intricate.

During class, my friend made a small natsume container to be used at tea ceremony to hold the powdered tea. It is a very simple black lacquer cup in matte finish inside and highly polished at the outside, without further adornments. She said it took her six months to complete and it sits on a small red cushion in her tatami room next to her other tea utensils.

The other day, we were talking about it and I complimented her on her beautiful work, and she responded that it was junk because of a mistake she made. So I took a closer look at it to see what was wrong with it, but try as I might, I couldn’t find anything – until my friend turned it upside down. On the bottom of it, there was a tiny speck of dust embedded in the lacquer, smaller than one millimetre in diameter, and invisible for anyone but the most curious of people. But because of this tiny imperfection, her work was considered substandard and could not be sold anymore.

Which leads to the question: when does attention to detail turn into an obsession?

Today was one of those days where all you can do is lie in bed and eat chocolate… I was preoccupied with something, okay let’s be precise: with somebody, all day long and did not accomplish much. Unfortunately, it had 34 degrees today, and my favourite chocolate shop is closed three more weeks, so I could not really have much chocolate. I did drink some Nutella in the afternoon, which is nice too… I hope I’ll feel better soon, I’ve come to hate these broody moods of mine, but I just have to get through them somehow.

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…

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.

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!

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…

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.

Just in case you were wondering: yes, I am still practising soroban. I am not going to the usual evening classes any longer, but nevertheless, I practise six days every week. I have been trying to pass the test for 1st kyu for more than half a year now, and there is always a little something that does not work out. However, I am not willing to give up.

The next test for 1st kyu will be on Sunday morning. Once again, I will go there and do my best, and I am feeling as prepared as I can possibly be. Let’s hope there is nothing out of the ordinary that will throw me off my track yet again… Wish me luck!