goinggaijin.com – Page 104 – A European's move towards Japan

Samurai Photographs

Yesterday I went to a photography exhibition, titled “Last Samurais, First Photographs” near the Imperial Palace. A number of 150-100 year old photographs of samurai were display, and I found them very interesting and beautiful.

Apparently, photography was introduced to Japan only in the last decade of the Edo period (late 1850s), but it spread relatively quickly, and by the late 19th century, there were both foreign and Japanese photographers working in Japan. The exhibition – from the collections of the French Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts – showed photos for example from the Japanese photographer Kusakabe Kimbei, a protegé of the Austrian photographer Baron Raimund von Stillfried who worked in Yokohama for 20 years until he returned to Europe in 1883.

Of course, at that time photographs were black and white, but almost all of the exhibits were carefully hand colored, which gave them a somewhat dreamy appearance. The interesting part about this is that they show the samurai’s armor as very bright and colorful in yellow, red, and blue, with brightly patterned kimono underneath.

Although the exhibition started with two photographs of the then shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, most of the pictures did not show real samurai, because they had been taken after the shogunate had ended and the samurai class was abolished. Although the armor is real, the people wearing them were normal people without samurai ancestry, or actors of the kabuki or noh theatre.

This can also be seen by the choice of subject. Most of the photos were just portraits, focusing on the armor and different weapons. However, a whole album was on display that depicted – again, in carefully hand colored photographs – the famous story of the 47 ronin, who avenged their master who had been forced to commit suicide. Once they had achieved their goal, they went to his grave and also committed seppuku. Another example is the photo below. It depicts two famous people from the Heike Monogatari. At the left is the accomplished female warrior Tomoe Gozen, who followed her lover Minamoto Yoshinaka (right) into the war with the Taira.

Exhibition Postcard with photo. As I said, the exhibition, although small, is certainly worthwhile. It takes place in the Toraya Gallery on Ichijo dori, near the crossing with Karasuma dori, and will be open until the end of May.

Shipping

I have been working on the basics of my company webpage today. Although I am planning nothing spectacularly difficult, I realised that as the whole world (except myself) is now using mobile phones to go online, I would need to catch up with the latest mobile design and programming models, unless I want to become the last dinosaur on the web. Or maybe the first?

Anyway, I decided to throw some money at the problem and to get myself a decent book on the matter. Yes I know how that sounds. Remember: I’m a non-mobile phone owning, actual book reading dinosaur. So, I was browsing a bit and settled on something that seemed reasonable and I can order it from amazon.

Of course, shipping stuff to Japan is prohibitively expensive, you get used to that, but what really riled me up was the estimated duration of the shipping: 3 – 6 weeks. Excuse me, how long? People, it’s a book. One single book! I know that Japan is an island, but I am sure you’re not hiring a personal swimmer even though this would explain the price… Come on people, 6 weeks is ridiculous! Shipping all my 42 boxes from Germany – on a real container ship – will not take longer than that, and yes, my things will have to go through customs as well.

Okay, I thought, let’s look at amazon Japan. I’m glad to say that they have the book too and there they have free shipping, but delivery will take just as long. Obviously they are buying the book in America themselves. I’m deeply sorry I can’t read textbooks in Japanese, although, given the subject matter, half of the book will be English words and phrases anyway.

I have resigned to not buy the book as I wanted to be finished with the site by the time the book should arrive. Although not a big fan of learning things that way, I will look for some tutorials on the web, which will hopefully do the trick. Alternatively, I can always have a look at Kyoto University’s library, I know they have a fairly good English section for the sciences.

Regaining

Today was the last day of this year’s Golden Week holidays. It is a national holiday although not really a holiday if that makes sense. Today is only a holiday because the first “real” holiday of Golden Week – Constitution Day on May 3rd – fell on a Sunday and was thus lost to the general populace. In such a case, the holiday will be made up for on Monday, or, if this is already a holiday, on the first non-holiday in the week. Which means: today. Somewhat complicated, yes, but once the Japanese settle on a cause of action they pull through with it. And thus, there have been people on holidays since at least last Saturday.

Not everybody though: I have received letters as usual, the large shops and restaurants in my area were open, and the facility next to my house – that has something to do with garbage collection I think – was operating normally, company wide open-air workouts included. On the other hand, many of the smaller shops were closed, and the little girl who cannot play outside without regular high-pitched cries of “Okaasaaan, Okaaasaaaan” (mummy) that increase in audible panic the longer they take, must have been shipped off to some place far enough to be inaudible, for the time being, at least.

I spent Golden Week working, more or less. Mostly I was busy giving my apartment a thorough deep cleaning for the first time since I moved in. Of course, I had cleaned the bathroom and kitchen within the first week already, but only now did I finish scrubbing all the hard floors, vacuum all the tatami, and clean all those hard-to-reach places like lampshades (which are mostly plastic here) and the top of curtain rails. Altogether, since moving in, I spent 7 hours cleaning those 10 m^2 of kitchen that I have – yes, it was really that disgusting! – and maybe another 5 hours on the whole rest of the apartment. Right now it is so pristine, I’d prefer to not move at all, just so that it stays that way… oh well, at least from now on it’s just maintenance.

Yesterday afternoon, as it was such a nice day, I went exploring my neighborhood, sat on this part of the river for a while and had an ice cream or two while collecting my thoughts about my new company website.

And today, I spent the afternoon writing a letter to my Japanese pen pal, in both German (which she is trying to learn) and in Japanese (which I am trying to learn). This is always a rather painful thing to do, as I want to write semi-interesting stories related to my life in Japan, which is not something my language ability is really able to support yet. So I am sitting there amongst all my Japanese books trying hard to write something more exciting than “It was nice weather today…”

Midori no Hi

Today is the second of the three holidays that mark Golden Week in Japan. Midori no Hi means Greenery Day and goes back to the Showa emperor who was particularly fond of plants. It is celebrated on May 4th since 2007, between 1989 and 2006 it was celebrated on the Showa emperor’s birthday on April 29th.

The day is also called Arbor Day, and one of the duties of the Emperor and the Empress include planting seeds and a tree somewhere in the countryside of Japan. Unfortunately, I could not find any detailed information where they went this year, but I am sure as from today, there will be a few more trees growing in Japan.

And maybe, they will become as glorious as this one, the Jomon Sugi cryptomeria on Yakushima island, which is estimated to be at least 2000 and maybe even up to 7000 years old:

Dinner

I just came home from dinner with one of my old housemates. We went to an organic, but not vegan restaurant near Sanjo-Karasuma, and afterwards to a cafe nearby for strawberry cake and mango smoothie. It was nice, I enjoyed the evening.

Afterwards we tried to go to one of the exhibitions of “Kyotographie” which is running right now, but they had closed just 10 minutes before we arrived – to the great dismay of my friend who is involved in the festival and wanted to show off a little. Oh well, some other time maybe.

Showa No Hi

Today is a national holiday in Japan, called Showa Day. It is celebrated in remembrance of the last – the Showa – Emperor (Hirohito) who was born today in 1901, acceded to the throne in 1926 and died in 1989.

Showa Day has only been called that since 2007, when the main opposition party finally gave green light to the renaming of the day (which had been celebrated since 1989 as Greenery Day). However, they proposed that the day was not supposed to be a holiday to celebrate, but rather one to reflect on the Showa emperor’s 63 years of reign. His reign – the longest of any monarch in Japanese history so far – was a quite turbulent one with lots of major events taking place, not just in Japan, but all over the world.

Just to name a few of these events:

Economic collapse starting in 1928 leaving many people unemployed and starving.
Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the installment of a government there under the Chinese emperor Pu-Yi. Some historians count this as the start of the World War II.
The second Sino-Japanese War starting in 1937.Entering World War II by creating the Rome-Tokyo-Berlin Axis in 1940 and the attack on Pearl Harbor one year later.
Surrendering in 1945 after two atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the total Japanese death toll mounting to around 2.7 million people, among them 600.000 civilians.
Occupation of Japan, which saw a complete change in government and the first democratic elections in 1946, where women were allowed to vote for the first time.
Japan became a sovereign nation again in 1952, after the signing of the San Francisco Treaty with the United States.
The “economic miracle” of Japan starting in the 1950s, where the economy grew three times as fast as that of other major nations. By the end of the Showa era (in fact until 2011), the Japanese economy was the second largest one in the world.

Jane Doe

Over the weekend, I have completed the last bits of my visa application, and I have just heard back from my lawyer that they will submit all the documents tomorrow afternoon, if possible.

Now, all I can do is wait… The procedure to change the visa can take up to two months, but the good thing is that I can stay in Japan even if my current visa expires during this time. How fast I would have to leave the country in case the new visa is not granted, I do not know – and I am certainly not keen on finding that out.

But that does not really worry me, I’ll take care of that problem when it arises. I am much more worried about the following: For my lawyer to be able to submit the paperwork on my behalf, I had to give him both my passport and my zairyu card, and he will keep them throughout the application procedure, however long this may take. (*) You know that those two are the only two documents proving that I am who I am, here in Japan…

I find this quite scary, to be honest. Although I have received a “certificate of deposit” that states that both my IDs are with my lawyer and even include photos, stamps, and his mobile number, this is not quite the same. I will try not to run into the police of course, but what if there is some sort of emergency? Besides, not wanting to leave the country is one thing; not being able to, is a completely different thing…(*) Added one day later: Just to clarify: It is not strictly necessary that my lawyer keeps my IDs throughout the screening procedure. He needs them only twice: in the beginning when he is filing the application (proof of application is stapled into the passport, by the way) and in the end when the visa has been approved and he goes to exchange the old zairyu card for the new one. The reason why he wants to keep them is to simplify and speed up the whole procedure, and, yes indeed, I have agreed to this (after some agonising back and forth…).

Stumbling

The Geisha – or Geiko as they are called in Kyoto – are the incorporation of everything Japanese, not only for foreigners, but for the Japanese as well. A Geiko is a manifestation of tradition in everything she does, a masterpiece of art in everything she wears, and a showpiece of that Japan that is all but gone and only survives in tiny enclaves like Kyoto’s Gion. In short, they embody everything that is beautiful, sophisticated, and rare in Japan. And rare they are indeed as their art is a dying one, and an evening of personal entertainment with a Geisha is a costly enterprise.

So, you can probably imagine the lengths to which people are going to even only see a Geisha. People flock to the few yearly events with public appearances of Geiko and Maiko. They spend hours wandering the streets of Gion in the early evening in the hope of catching a glimpse of a Maiko on her way to an appointment. Some very obnoxious fellows even follow them around when they are going out, just to get that one perfect picture.

I can certainly understand the first thing – I have done so myself – but I find the second a little odd and the third outright rude and impolite. That’s probably the reason why after two years in Japan I only have taken very few photos of Geiko and Maiko. But then again, it’s not as if I had to resort to such methods, my approach is much more casual…

A while back, it was such a nice and sunny afternoon that I decided to go out. There is a tiny little cafe near the Philosopher’s Path, with maybe 15 seats, interesting decor, and great hot chocolate. I had been there before and I felt like walking a bit. When I arrived, there were five or six men occupying the largest table at the back – never before had I seen so many customers there. Well, that was not how I had envisioned my quiet afternoon, but I ordered and crouched down over my notebook anyway.

Then, suddenly, they arrived from the room in the back: a young Maiko, flawlessly dressed and made up, with perfect coiffure in which stuck those little seasonal hair ornaments that are often worn during only a few days. She was accompanied by a somewhat older woman, obviously a senior member from her teahouse. Both women then took seats on the large table and started chatting with the men waiting there.

I was very surprised and tried very hard not to stare. After a while of talking and drinking coffee the women got up and everybody left. The whole meeting – from the time the women came out from the back until the cafe was empty again – took not more than 15 minutes. Interestingly, it was the older woman accompanying the Maiko who paid the bill, which makes me assume that the gentlemen paid for the meeting including drinks beforehand.

Afterwards, the owner of the cafe, an old lady who speaks a little English, confirmed that that had indeed been a real Maiko. See, that’s how you get to see them close up, just go to the right cafe…

Earth Day

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day, and many events take place worldwide to support the environment and its protection, or at least raise awareness in that respect. I am not aware of any local events here in Kyoto, so I did not participate in anything, although there may have been some in Tokyo or in other large cities around Japan.

However, I tried the Ecological Footprint Calculator on the Earth Day homepage. You have to choose the country where you live (or the one closest to it) before you start calculating, because obviously, your footprint not only depends on your own actions, but also on societal factors that are a bit harder to influence for the average citizen.

I did two different calculations, one for Switzerland, as a central European, and the one for Japan. Interestingly, the questions are very different in both calculators, for example there was a large section on recycling for Switzerland, which did not feature in the Japanese one at all. In both there was the question “How much of your food is produced locally?”, which I found a very tough one to answer. I mean, I know that the rice I eat is definitely Japanese, but even the Japanese chocolate I consume so much of is made from imported cocoa beans… The strangest thing I encountered in the Japanese questionnaire was the question for the size of your home. Apparently, the average Japanese lives on something between 150 and 200 m^2 – that can’t be right, surely?

Anyway, me living in Japan means that my lifestyle would consume 1.8 Earths if everyone did it that way (the calculation for Switzerland gives a result of 2.4 Earths). How large is your footprint?

Endspurt

After my company was established, you would think that I deserved a break from paperwork for a while. Oh no, no such thing. The next goal was to apply for a new visa, one with which I am actually allowed to work for my company…

So, again, I needed to produce yet more paper. Have I already mentioned that the Japanese love paper and paperwork? The more paperwork you’ll give to the authorities, the more sincere they believe you to be… In this vein, I collected a copious amount of documents, the obvious ones like Curriculum Vitae and university degrees, and the interesting ones like various photos of my office space and the nameplates on my door and mailbox as well as the rental contract for my apartment that had to state in writing – and with the hanko of my landlord in place – that I was allowed to use one room as an office for the company.

Slightly vexing was that I had to prove that the start capital of my company was indeed my own money – and how I got to have all that cash. Okay, I can see that if you are buying yourself a visa with that investment, it should be your own assets. Mind you though that it was not good enough that I had transferred the money from my own account back in December last year. First of all, because the magic timeframe for anything in Japan seems to be “within the last three months”, so December was too late – or too early? This is the reason why I needed that second Japanese bank account under my name, so that I could transfer the investment from one account with my name to yet another account with my name… To be fair, even Japanese citizens have to do that if they want to open a company. Anyway, that was not good enough. I still had to show where I got all that money from in the first place, which thankfully was easy.

Today I finished the last piece of paperwork: A business plan and a budget for the next two years. Interestingly, this is something that is only required for the visa application and not for the business establishment itself. I hate writing these sort of self-adulations and extensive accumulations of empty phrases and buzzwords, and to be honest, I have considerably procrastinated on this task. Thanks to a good friend of mine who has experience with running a small business, however, I could push myself over the finish line today.

Now I have some time to rest, and maybe even time to catch up with all my emails… The paperwork is now with my lawyer and he promised to have a look at it in the next few days. With a bit of luck the business plan with its seven pages of manifested blood sweat and tears is satisfactory and we can finally hand in all the collected documents to the immigration office. Let’s hope there will be fewer instances of the drama “fun with immigration” than last year…