goinggaijin.com – Page 114 – A European's move towards Japan

Typhoon?

I have seen that in several European media there has been coverage about the typhoon that was passing over Japan during the last few days. There were indeed serious disasters along the path of the typhoon, especially in the south-eastern parts of Japan, in Okinawa and in Kyushu, with even seven victims.

However, it seems that Kyoto lies in a favoured part of the country; at least this time we could not feel any effects of the typhoon at all. The storm – or rather, its offshoots – was supposed to hit Kyoto yesterday, today at the latest, but – nothing. Not even rain, just a bit more wind than usual at this time of the year. The only thing noticeable – and I’m not even sure it was related to the typhoon at all – was a clearing of the clouds from Tuesday on, and this brought sunshine and increased humidity. A friend told me that yesterday evening – at a time when I was busy with my soroban class, so I missed it – there was an evening sky so blue it was almost unreal.

By now, however, we are back to grey skies… So, don’t worry about me, everything is back to normal, actually, it has hardly deviated from normal at all.

Writing

I am very busy these days with lots of writing assignments, some of them self-imposed, some of them from the outside…

For one, I have to write a journal detailing my soroban classes. While not every class needs a long writeup, I like to write at least a short summary quicly, so I can later point to it and say: Well, that’s what I’ve done!

Second, I have been busy for a couple of months now working on a larger translation project, self-imposed, sure, but I don’t want to take forever with it. Also, I have now found some people to help me with corrections, and I cannot keep them waiting forever. I will write a more detailed post about this when the work is further along.

Third, a friend of mine urged me to do some creative writing of my own, saying that it may be a good thing for me to do right now and that there may never be a better time to do that. Hence, I took her advice and try to get some things off my chest, and I am considering to write an alphabiography for that purpose.

Finally, I am still committed to this blog, although as you see, by the end of the day I am rather tired of writing, and, as I am not getting out much, there are not that many news to report at the moment. Please bear with me for a while.

However, maybe it won’t take that long, as next week will be the main parade of Gion matsuri, and also yoiyama the night before, and in the evening of the day of the parade I will have my soroban test and the day after I will go with a friend to the opening of a new exhibition at Miho museum…

It really seems being busy comes in waves, and I’m surfing up one right now…

Steam

I had a great day last Saturday. Friends of mine from Kobe came over and together we went to the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum close to Kyoto station.

It’s absolutely brilliant – I love steam locomotives! The museum was opened in 1972 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of Japanese railways – the first railway connection ran between Tokyo and Yokohama in 1872. It consists of the old Nijo station building, a beautiful wooden construction that has been moved to this place from its original spot, a fan-shaped locomotive house with a turntable at the centre point that houses almost all of the engines, and a large outdoor space containing a few more exhibits and a short rail track. The museum houses about 20 old steam locomotives, and about half of them are still operational. One of those is used to pull a small train along the one kilometre long rail track mentioned above three times a day, probably one of the major attractions of the museum.

The non-working locomotives can be entered, they are in a rather good shape, and I took many pictures of their in- and outside. I grew up in a town with a large railway station, my grandfather worked in the shunting area there, and although I am too young to have lived in the steam age, my grandfather took me on railtrips all through Austria, and I always loved – and probably always will love – trains. Often, we like to think our own era as the pinnacle of technology, but I am always amazed at the sheer ingenuity that went into machines such a long time ago already. The engines are huge, and there are some spare parts that can be viewed – a single piston is as large as a leg of mine…

Of course, there is always something I take out of a museum. In this case it is the following: Operating a steam engine for a single kilometre requires 100 litres of water and 40 kilograms of coal, copious reserves of both of which are stored in the tender behind the locomotive. Older models get the coal into the furnace by an auger, a spiral conveyor (this is still used in larger ovens for wood chips), but in the early years, this had to be done by hand. This shoveling is obviously a very precise operation – there were specific shovel training devices for goal training… A pity we could not try that one out…

Anyway, we all had a great day in the museum which we concluded with Korean food before my friends went back to Kobe. I also received two large stacks of books as present – and reading them has essentially been everything that I did for the rest of the weekend…

Differences

This is only my second July in Kyoto – and already lots of things have changed since my first time…

The weather is not so nice as last year. It is less sunny, so far we had overcast weather practically daily for a couple of weeks already, and it does also rain much more than last year at this time, although still not enough to call it a proper rainy season. I think the relative lack of rain is the reason why I am not yet seriously depressed right now, I really don’t like it that grey day in day out… At least the temperatures are up where they should be, in their low thirties during the day and in their twenties during the night – which means you can still sleep. That’s certainly a bonus; also it does not feel quite as humid this year. I hope the weather will stay like this – if only with respect to the humidity…

The other big change since last year is regarding to Gion Matsuri. I have written extensively about it last year, it is probably the largest and certainly the most famous of the festivals in Japan. This year the proceedings have been renewed, or rather, re-traditionalised, as now there will be two parades of floats instead of only a single one. From this year on, we will have the so-called Saki Matsuri with the first and bigger (23 floats) Yama Hoko Grand Parade on July 17th, and the preceding yoi-yama party evening on the 16th. And then, there will be the Ato Matsuri with the second and smaller (10 floats) Yama Hoko Grand Parade on July 24th, combined with the Hanagasa Flower Hat Procession (which also took place last year on the same day). The other events surrounding the two parades will take place as the year before.

Apparently, this way of having two parades – one before (saki) and one after (ato) the Gion shrine deities have been moved to their temporary resting place in the Otabisho – was the original form of Gion Matsuri that has been practised until 1965, when it was abandoned because of increased road traffic and the disturbances it would cause to have two parades that effectively close off the inner city. Obviously, it is unlikely that car traffic has severely decreased in the last 48 years, but these days, there are other priorities, and this one is called: tourism. People who made the decision to return to the traditional two-parade Gion matsuri are hoping that there will be more people coming, or that at least they will be a bit more spread out this time.

Personally, I don’t mind either way, and I will probably go and see both parades anyway. I just hope that the yoi-yama evening on July 16th, when the inner city is closed and turned into a pedestrian zone, will have an atmosphere just as festive and relaxed as last year. Let’s hope it will not rain!

Literary

One of the main reasons for applying for a library card was that I wanted to read Japanese books. I am a very visual person, my preferred approach to learning is by making lists, writing down all the grammar points from the books again, and reading – lots of reading. For me, this is also a way to make learning vocabulary more fun; although I have to admit that by now I don’t look up every single word I come across – as long as I get the gist of the text, and the unknown word does not keep reappearing (in which case I assume that it is important and I look it up after all).

So, I went to the library and borrowed a children’s book in Japanese. The pros are obvious: Easy language and words comprising short sentences, all written in hiragana – and even with spaces between the words! And there are often many cute illustrations to help understanding. If you go that way though, the cons are obvious too: Children’s stories are not meant to teach vocabulary – the kids know what the words mean; so the beginning student of Japanese may find herself with a huge list of vocabulary that may not be immediately useful beyond the book – vocabulary for animals or household things,… For example, how often do you use the word “vase” in your daily life? Hence, a lot of the reading consists of looking up words, which can prove rather tedious. Also, the hiragana sometimes causes more problems than it should. When looking up words, it can happen that you get a very long list of possible translations – and not all can be dismissed immediately. Sometimes it would be much easier just to have the kanji there, to make it easier to find the right meaning – and, of course, to study them as well while reading.

Oh well, I remember I started reading English just like this, albeit with the benefit of a shared alphabet. I hope I will graduate to books for older children soon – which should have some kanji with furigana. And probably more interesting stories too…

Women Power

When I went downstairs about two hours ago, I met on the bottom of the stairs one of our charming house pets – a large spider – obviously on the way upstairs… After a disgusted and somewhat panicked shriek of mine, it changed direction and tried to hide, but I did not move until my housemate (the one who actually likes spiders) came down the stairs behind me and asked what was going on. While I explained, another housemate (who does not like spiders that much) came along too and the three of us, with the guys in front of course, chased the spider into a corner in the corridor leading to the back of the house. We then discussed the further plan of action and we were divided between leaving it be, killing it, and putting it outside (that was my suggestion, actually). Finally, the last two people in the house appeared also, probably alerted by all the noise I was making, the walls here are indeed very thin.

After some more words, all three men disappeared on oh so urgent business; and it was me and our latest arrival, a British woman, who were left in charge. I was stunned when she simply said Let’s just put it outside, went to the kitchen to get a Tupperware box, caught the spider (about half the size of the one pictured) and released it at the bottom of the steps outside the house – all within five minutes. To my question whether she was not afraid, she simply answered I grew up in the Caribbean, we have tarantulas there…

So, once again, it was shown that if you want something done, ask a woman (if you can find one that does not have arachnophobia, that is). The big spider pictured above still lives in the house by the way, but it has been smart enough not to show itself recently. If it ever does so again, I’ll know whom to scream for…

Libraries

About two weeks ago, I decided to get a library card for Kyoto city library. There are many branches around town, and I thought it would be a good idea to be able to lend books, as I love to read, and buying them can get very expensive soon (given the amount of books I tend to read…) So far, I was thinking of English books, of course, and maybe something easy in Japanese for children, with many pictures; but eventually I thought, I would graduate to novels for teens and adults. The Japanese love to read, there are bookstores all over the place, and even in trains there are equally many people staring into a book as staring onto a smartphone…

I have been to Japanese libraries before, in Nagoya and Hiroshima, so my expectations were quite high. Well, it turns out that the quality of Kyoto libraries is rather…underwhelming. It seems – I have seen four so far, so I may be wrong – that not a single one of the libraries has their own building, they are all stashed somewhere in some remote floor of a place that is mainly used for something else. The first library I went to was on top of a daycare facility, so they had mostly children’s (picture) books, which is okay, as I cannot read much more just yet. Another one was similar, and when I asked for English books in a third library, they showed me a tiny shelf with maybe 50 books in English, and barely a third was for adults.

They did send me to the “Chuo Daigo Library”, and told me it was the biggest one in Kyoto, and had the largest selection of English books, so I spent the afternoon there. Daigo is a part of town that I have never been to before, it did not make a very good impression on me to be honest, it looks like all the other busy Japanese towns; there are apartment buildings and a noisy, busy main road. The library is situated on the fourth floor of Daigo subway station, and indeed, it was the largest one I have been to so far. Their English section – still tiny – comprises two large shelves, bottom to top, and they have many English translations of Japanese authors – something I have hoped for. Unfortunately, they have a borrowing period of only two weeks (renewal is possible, but they ask for a single one only), so I only took a single book with me. I did make a list of a number of other books I’d like to read, and it should be possible to lend them at a branch that is closer to my place than Daigo – it took me about an hour to get there by subway.

All in all, I am not happy with Kyoto libraries as they are now. My soroban teacher confirmed that Kyoto’s libraries were not very good, compared to other libraries in Japan, even those in smaller towns around Kyoto. He says it may have to do with the fact that there are so many universities in Kyoto that have their own libraries, which are open to the public (although you cannot borrow books from them unless you are a student or working at that university). I hope that, once I figured out the lending system, I can lend books from libraries outside of Kyoto. It must be possible to get my fix here without spending tons of money, right?

Test, test…

I am only in my third week of my soroban studies – okay, I have gone to class twice a month for much longer than that, but still – but yesterday my sensei has suggested that I’ll take my first test already.

It must have been because I did surprisingly well yesterday in class… Okay, I guess I’ll have to explain how a typical class is conducted: I have a book – level 6 – containing sets of exercises for multiplication, division, and addition and subtraction. Each set of exercises consists of 15 calculations that you have to solve, and you have 7 minutes in total for each set, that is about 30 seconds per calculation. You do as many as you can in the allotted time, and all the correct answers will score you one point. So, essentially what we do is to do all three sets of exercises – first multiplication, probably because it is most difficult, then division and finally the addition/subtraction – for seven minutes each. Then I finish the exercises I could not get to during the 7 minutes, and finally I get to grade myself (the book contains the solutions in the back).

Somehow I had an exceptionally good day yesterday – I could finish almost all the multiplication and addition exercises – and not only did I solve as many exercises as never before, but I even solved most of them correctly! My sensei was quite surprised – as was I – and then he asked me if I wanted to try the test.

There is an official test scheduled every two months, and people can take it in their own school. Sensei will register my name, and on the test day he will receive a test booklet with the exercises I have to solve. It will be the same level of calculations and I’ll have to do them in the same amount of time; and I need to solve more than 10 correctly on each set of exercises to pass the test.

It seems that sensei is hopeful that I can do it, otherwise he would not have asked I am sure, so I will try. There’s nothing lost if I don’t pass – except for 1000 YEN – but it will be fun to try. I just hope I’ll have as good a day as yesterday…

Rude

It is very rare indeed that people in Asia in general, and in Japan in particular are rude to anyone, especially to foreigners. Usually they go out of their way to help you and do so with a smile on their face. Now, what do you think of this:

The other day, when I was in a bookstore browsing the (tiny) English section, a man came straight towards me. Our conversation was very short, I only said a single word in response. In virtually perfect English he said, “Can I ask you a very impolite and personal question? I nodded and he continued, “Are you a native English speaker?” “No.” At which point he raised his hand in a dismissive gesture, turned around on his heels and disappeared without a single further word.

This the first time somebody has been obviously rude to me in Japan (I mean the running away part, not the asking) and it still baffles me. I talked about this incident with a housemate of mine who has been living here for 5 years or so, and he said this might have happened because the man wanted to practise his English, used up all his courage in the first question and then did not know anymore what to say. I doubt that as his English was too good for that, though. My housemate also said similar things have happened to him – he’s a native speaker and gets annoyed when people don’t leave him alone, so it’s the opposite – and I should not take this too seriously. I am still somewhat annoyed by this though, especially as this totally hits my sore ENS spot: English Native Speaker…

Wheels

As you know, I have started my soroban classes last week. The school is about 50 minutes walk away (along very busy roads, the scenic route next to the river takes more than an hour), and I’ll have to go there at least twice a week. The bus prices have just been raised, and although I wouldn’t call 230 YEN for one trip outrageous, it does add up over time. So, I have done the most sensible thing one can do with respect to city mobility:

I finally bought a bicycle.

I went to a tiny little shop that is owned by a very old man with huge, bushy, white eyebrows, and who of course speaks Japanese only. Neither his lack of teeth, nor his apparent hearing loss made conversation any easier, but we managed in the end. And now I am the proud owner of a bicycle, lovely, used, and red, and it cost only 6500 YEN. We adjusted the seat down (I have very short legs), checked the brakes together, and I had to prove by showing him that I understood how to use the attached lock.

Finally, the man’s wife helped me fill in a registration form for my bicycle. A registered bike has a yellow sticker on the frame bearing a number, and I now have written proof – for an extra 500 YEN – that this bicycle indeed belongs to me. In case it is stolen and retrieved by the police, I will get a phone call so I can pick it up again. (Oh, wait, I didn’t provide a phone number… well, they can always send me a letter.)

The only thing I still have to figure out is where to park when I go downtown. On the large streets of city centre it is even forbidden to ride a bike (pushing on the pavements is okay, but difficult especially during the crowded weekends), but in many more places you may not park your bicycle even for a short time. There are special parking lots or garages for bicycles, and they do remind me of the ones in the Netherlands, but you have to pay there (which means I could just as well take the bus) and I am not sure how conveniently they are located, as I only ever found a single one – being a pedestrian and all. I will find out soon.

What I have found out already is that it is not only possible, but quite likely that wrongly parked bicycles are towed and impounded. You have to go somewhere near Kyoto station with your registration card and pay a fine to get your bicycle back. I hope this won’t be happening to me any time soon, but if it does, you will hear all the details.

My action radius has just increased considerably, and I’m looking forward to lots of new and far away adventures…