Category: experiences

Yesterday, I went to two bonenkai, year-end parties. Such a party usually takes place some time in December, and is an opportunity for friends or colleagues to go out and, well, get drunk. It is one of those times when even the Japanese let their hair down.

My first bonenkai was with my English students, we simply met in the afternoon in one of my favourite cafes and had some ice cream. Only one of them had known about the place before, and I have the impression that the rest enjoyed the food – mission accomplished! I even received a little present: a package of red rice – rice with adzuki beans – something that is eaten on special occasions only.

Afterwards, I went straight to another meeting with a friend of mine, and we had a real bonenkai dinner, although a slightly unconventional one: I took my friend down to Osaka, where until December 25 there is a German Christmas Market. Apparently, the Umeda Sky Building near Osaka Station houses the German Consulate of Osaka, and thus, on the plaza outside (or rather, underneath) there has been a German style Christmas Market for years already.

We had a blast – and an enormous amount of food! There were a number of stalls with food imported from Germany: Würstel! Laugenbrezen! Spätzle! Bratkartoffeln! Leberkässemmerln! And of course, lots and lots of Glühwein… The only food I found a bit overpriced were the cookies – 600 YEN for 8 Spekulatius is too much, even if you can only buy them there. The market had quite a good size, there was a large Christmas tree in the middle where people were performing Christmas songs (English ones, unfortunately), there was an Advent wreath and a small train and a carousel for children. There were also stalls selling Christmas items, but I did not find anything I wanted to have; I was looking at a nice traditional nutcracker though, but not for 11.000 YEN, sorry.

My friend, being from Eastern Europe, had never seen a Christmas Market like this before, and he followed my every step with respect to food and drinks. Once we were not hungry any more and had enough Glühwein for the night, we left and made our way down to the river, where until January 17 there is one of the main displays of the Osaka Festival of the Lights. We strolled along the river and underneath the lights near Osaka City Hall, the night was relatively warm (or was that the Glühwein?) and it was a very nice ending to a very nice evening.

I am not sure whether this has something to do with the Oseibo tradition I was talking about the other day, or with the end of the year or Christmas in general, but these days I keep receiving lots and lots of fruits. I have been given apples (from Aomori) and tangerines (from Kyushu) and even some small yuzu, Japanese type lemons. I also received yuzu marmalade, so those at least will keep for a while.

It’s interesting that fruits are considered a good gift, but maybe that’s because tangerines and apples are expensive, even now. Of course all of the fruits I received are immaculate and obviously store-bought, so I am wondering whether people would be happy about getting tiny apples like the ones that were growing in our garden when I was a child…

For quite a while now, I have been regularly meeting a Japanese woman. She is great fun and we do a lot of things together: cooking, going out, visiting temples and shrines,… Most of the time however, we meet in her house and then we sit and chat – in both English and Japanese. We have recently started keeping a short diary (mine is in Japanese, hers in English), and when we meet, we exchange it and correct the other’s mistakes.

I greatly enjoy meeting her, and we teach each other aspects of our culture. For example, she has helped me choosing the right Oseibo presents, and she has shown me how to cook some Japanese dishes. In return, I have recently explained why it is rude to have Christmas cards arrive after the holidays, even if they include new year wishes.

What I also enjoy is that – although she has never lived abroad – she is very open when it comes to answering more private questions about the Japanese. For example, she has explained that Japanese prefer group travel because of a need for security; and that they don’t bother much with elections because Tokyo (and thus the government) is “far away”.

She has also made a personal confession or two: She hopes that in her next life – she’s a practising Buddhist – she will get to marry a foreigner. Her biggest crush is Sean Connery (in his time as James Bond), which is something I don’t understand at all – I certainly draw the line at chest hair! She was greatly disappointed when I told her that all my European lovers were not very endowed in that respect, but then again, maybe Scottish men are different?

All in all, I hope that we can continue to build this friendship, and that it will last for a long time to come…

Yesterday, at 9:45 in the morning – I was barely out of bed – the doorbell rang and three men in work overalls carrying equipment and enthusiastic smiles were standing in front of my door. Their enthusiasm immediately gripped me as well when they explained they were here to clean my bathroom – hey guys, any time! – but it was a bit dampened when it turned out they only meant the bathroom drain pipes, and not the bathroom itself. When they had also finished with the kitchen pipes and I had signed some paperwork (of course), they had left, after maybe 10 minutes at most.

And in the early afternoon, just when I was finished with lunch, there was another ring at the bell; this time it was a postman carrying the official letter with information pertaining to “MyNumber”, a new kind of identity card for all residents in Japan, including foreigners. As far as I can make out, they need me to send in a photo for the real card; and that card will only be issued starting next year, so I have some time before I do anything with this (and write about it, too).

In any case, those two occurrences show that the Japanese do take their work seriously. Many small companies not involved in selling goods to tourists are closed in the weekends, and although mail is delivered on Saturdays (something completely unthinkable in Europe by now), even the postmen have Sundays off. I can only assume that in these two cases it was easier to come at a time when it can be hoped that most people are at home, so as to make things less complicated for everyone involved.

Still, I would wish that the Japanese would not consider Sunday morning as a good time to do anything…

It seems that today autumn has finally ended and winter has begun. The time of the koyo autumn leaves has passed, and it is bound to get cold now – and today already, we had heavy rain in the afternoon, which prompted me to turn on my heater for the first time.

This year, the koyo were not quite as they should have been because the weather was not stable enough. To have good koyo, the weather should be warm and sunny until mid November, and then there should be a sharp drop in temperature. The latter is what induces the maple leaves to turn red or orange or yellow. This year, however, the weather was different, with many cold (but not too cold) days in between somewhere, so the leaves did not change that nicely, but instead just shrivelled on the trees.

Even so, the usual haunts for koyo-looking were all full to the brim with Japanese tourists, who, although slightly disappointed, still seemed to take photos of individual leaves. So did I, but as I missed the one sunny day to go out because of an appointment, I only have very few photos to share this year. I am sure there will be many better years to come though.

Yesterday I spent a very long day in Osaka. A friend of mine and me did another friend of mine a favour, and this is how we two ended up as extras in a Japanese movie…

I am not sure whether I am allowed to reveal which movie it is, but it is the film adaptation of a well-known Japanese novel (so, not another remake of Godzilla). The scenes that were filmed yesterday required a large audience of about 100 non-Japanese, and this is how my friend and I got considered in the first place.

Getting the job was relatively straightforward: Our friend gave us an internet link where we signed up, we received a request for a photo, and afterwards a phone call telling us that we had been chosen and were expected in Osaka on Tuesday morning. About half the people present came through this route, but the other half had apparently signed up with some film or model agency; it seems that acting or modeling is one of the few professions that foreigners can do in Japan that requires no knowledge of Japanese and is still quite well paid.

The whole experience was interesting. We met at about 8 am in Osaka and the film crew brought us to the filming location, a very nicely decorated reception room with high ceiling and large windows in an otherwise empty building, which was designated either for renovation or demolition. The plan was to shoot three different scenes where we were to watch the performance of different Japanese arts and act as the enraptured spectators. So far so good.

In the course of yesterday, I have learnt quite a bit about how to make a movie. For once, I was not aware that every different camera angle requires a repetition of the whole scene, from beginning to end. One performance was shot from three different angles, so it had to be done three times from beginning to end, plus one time for a detailed close up, plus two extra repetitions because something went wrong and somebody did not turn off his phone. Not to forget the rehearsal in the very beginning. Hence, what will end up in the movie as a well-cut sequence of a few minutes at most, required us to stand there on the same spot for 1.5 hours.

I was surprised that nobody really cared about our outfit or makeup etc. While the performers were professionally made up and styled, and their clothes received a quick brush or tuck between each take, all we had was the instruction to come in “formal clothing”, which, to my surprise, some people took rather loosely. After all, we were just people somewhere in the back, warm bodies to fill the void.

I was also unprepared for the extreme wait between the scenes, while the room was set up again for the next shot. We could relax in a nearby room, but unless you brought something with you to read or do, nobody cared what you did between the shots, as long as you were available when they needed you. Tea and coffee were provided, as well as cup noodles and senbei crackers as afternoon snack, but besides that you were on your own. We also had to be very quiet at times because apparently, something else was filmed, or at least set up, at those times. And if you were not needed for a particular scene, you had to sit through that one as well.

Interestingly, although the waiting time was considerable, people did not talk much to each other. Some of those that had come through an agency knew each other and quickly formed groups, but the others remained alone, staring into space or onto their mobiles. To be honest though, with a single exception, there was nobody there I would have liked to get to know more closely anyway.

Altogether the experience took 13 hours (including travel time to Osaka); I had to be there for two of the scenes which in total took less than 2 hours, and the final end product will probably be not more than 5-10 minutes overall. We received a bento box for lunch and dinner, a compensation for travel expenses, and a small souvenir; and I took home an important realisation: I am not patient enough to be a movie star…

Between all the work for setting up the company and moving and unpacking, I had time to pick up a new hobby: For the last two months or so I have been playing Contract Bridge. For all of you who don’t know what that is: It is a card game for four players – playing together in two pairs across the table – originally adopted from a Russian game by the British.

What is interesting about it is that it is not so much about luck and not at all about bluffing your way through it, but that all four players have a rough idea about the hands of the others and from there, with elaborate guesswork, each pair tries to take more “tricks” than the other. In the beginning you have to say how many tricks you think you can win, and if you can, you get a number of points, and if you lose, your opponents get points, very roughly speaking.

I find the game intriguing, there are many rules how to tell your partner about your hand, and how far to go in this “bidding” step. It is rather difficult and overwhelming at the beginning, and there are lots of exceptions and special meanings to certain bids; and even playing a certain card later on may tell your partner something about your hand and help him in deciding how to play himself.

The group I am playing with is essentially a bunch of (mostly) old Japanese ladies, who meet in a home in my neighbourhood. Many of them have lived abroad, in countries as different as Canada, the US, China, Myanmar, Australia … and all of them are decidedly un-Japanese in their behaviour and attitude. They are loud and boisterous and funny and open and although I am an introvert and don’t cherish being amongst people very much, I feel very welcome and accepted.

I think I was allowed to actually play the third time I came; I have now played once a week for about two months, and I feel like an idiot, as there is so much to know and learn and I keep forgetting stuff. Still, although I make many mistakes, my partners are very polite and kind and keep praising my efforts a lot. Hence, I shall keep going for the time being and see how long I can learn something. So far, I’m having great fun.