goinggaijin.com – Page 127 – A European's move towards Japan

Devotion of Suspect X

The Devotion of Suspect X
Keigo Higashino

Ishigami lives next door of Yasuko, with whom he is secretly in love – not that she will ever find that out, of course. However, when Yasuko’s abusive ex-husband Togashi shows up at her apartment and in an unexpected outburst of violence is killed by her, Ishigami senses his chance and offers his help.

A body found at the old Edogawa river is quickly identified as Shinji Togashi. Naturally, his ex-wife is questioned, but her alibi is sound. Somehow, detective Kusanagi of Tokyo Police is not satisfied, however, and he turns – yet again – to his friend Prof. Yukawa for assistance.

In a strange coincidence, it turns out that Yukawa and Ishigami were classmates at University; the former a gifted experimental physicist, the latter a genius mathematician. Soon, solving the murder case changes into a battle of minds and wits, and there can only be one to answer the question: “Which is harder: devising an unsolvable problem, or solving that problem?”

This is perfect light reading for summer time. While Yasuko has commited murder, it was done in self defence, and one cannot help pitying her throughout, especially when Ishigami starts weaving his web. Ishigami, the shrewd teacher of mathematics, is in fact the main and most interesting character, who devises a cunning plan to help Yasuko and from then on pulls the strings from the back. I could not even guess at the solution of the mystery, and when it comes on the last few pages it arrives as a shocking surprise.

Check the book out on amazon – have fun!

Antique Fair

I spent all afternoon at Kyoto Antique Fair and I still have the feeling I didn’t see it all. There are about 350 antique dealers trying to sell literally millions of items in three days before they move on to the next venue. This fair is travelling through all of Japan and stops over in Kyoto a few times a year. The sheer amount of items for sale is overwhelming, and if you just go there to browse, without something specific in mind, it is possible to spend all three days there just looking at stuff. Most of the things on offer are at least vintage, if not truly antique.

There were thousands of pieces of jewelry, probably mostly costume pieces although I cannot ascertain that. One person sold real jewels, cut already, but without mounting, and although he offered me a “good price” for one of the jewels I coveted (a large, beautiful tourmaline, changing its colour from green to red), it was still beyond my financial capabilities.

Another favourite of mine are old chests and cabinets, especially those that were once used for medicine and have lots of little drawers. There were so many of them, some of them in mint condition – and unaffordable, of course. A very small one, with four drawers in A4 size cost less than EUR 20 but I decided not to get it because I don’t want to clutter up my room at Ebisu’s with more things than necessary. There will be other such pieces, I am sure. In a similar vein, I have seen lots of little sewing chests and one stunning writing desk which was even more expensive than the jewel I talked about above…

Much cheaper were the kimonos and obi, some of them used, some of them brand new. In fact, there were quite a number of dealers who sold brand new wares as well, especially clothing, ceramics, and Buddhist prayer beads. Other cheaper items included equipment for calligraphy, hanging scrolls, and sake cups. Of the latter there must be millions of different designs and shapes and sizes. It’s probably very dangerous to start collecting those – you are never finished. Ever.

Last but not least, there were plenty of swords (both katana and wakizashi) in all price ranges, together with accessories (tsuba for example) and a handful of complete samurai armour. Unfortunately I cannot assess the value of such items, so I would probably fall prey to a smart salesman who could tell me anything about the thing in the full knowledge that I would not be able to prove him wrong. Besides, a sword would not really help me fighting the cockroaches in our kitchen 😉 I do confess that I fell head over heels for one particular little weapon I found by chance… and I still love it so much that I am tempted to go back and buy it after all… The problem is: I’m not good at haggling, and so far my online attempts to assess its value have been fruitless.

Temptation… it’s always out there, it’s just a question of how to deal with it…

Day’s End

Did you ever have one of those days that already start terribly and the best, no probably the only, way to prevent complete and utter disaster is to turn around and go back to bed?

In fact, it already started last evening when I went to the community house to see a friend – who wasn’t there. I thought we had wanted to go out for dinner, but I may have mixed up the dates, so I had another one of my takeout sushi meals.

A Man presses a "reject" buttion — courtesy of PinkBlue @ freedigitalphotos.net

When I read my emails later in the evening, there was a reply from a potential employer, an international company in Tokyo – cancelling the skype interview that was set for Thursday afternoon. I had made the mistake of asking for an interview in English, not being confident to do it in Japanese, and was informed that Japanese fluency on native level was essential for the job and hence, no interview needed. Mind you that the advertisement only mentioned “Japanese communication ability” and not how much of it, and that the job description talked about travelling and doing business with foreign people in English, not Japanese. The email was brief, but it said that they were “impressed with [my] background and experience” (but just not enough to conduct an interview and find out how bad my Japanese really is) and that they wished me “success with [my] delightful career and future”. That’s what you get for talking only to some snotty boy from human resources, and I bet “English native level” was not one of his job requirements… Anyway, at least we didn’t waste each other’s time, but I am indeed a bit floored by this, as I am sure that that desk in that company had been custom made for me already…

Today around noon it started to rain heavily, with lots of wind that pushed the water against my main window. I had not closed it as it was so hot the last few days, and my blanket which I put up to air out got all soaked by the time I was back to close the window. As the humidity goes up quite a bit when it rains, and it also cooled down a few degrees, my blanket couldn’t dry properly and is still damp now.

In the afternoon I got an email from my real estate agent essentially telling me that I’ll have to reduce my price for the house considerably in order to be able to sell it. Once I will have paid all sorts of fees and taxes, the remainder will only buy me a one room apartment in Japan. I have not yet decided what to do, if and by how much to reduce the price. That will require more thinking.

Finally I just went down to refill my water bottle and I had to face two cockroaches in the kitchen. Only one of them was polite enough to wait for the washing-up-liquid treatment, the other one disappeared. I hope one of my housemates will come across that one – I did kill the bigger one after all.

Those were my last 24 hours (and a bit) and I’m glad they are over – it can’t get worse, can it? To alleviate the pain I spent the day surfing the internet, playing lots of stupid games, and reducing my stash of chocolate to zero.

Dang it, now I’ll have to go out tomorrow in the rain to buy new sweeties…

Dinner

I have told you about unwelcome house guests in my post of last Friday. Today’s post is of a similar vein, but this time the guests are much more tolerable, no, even cute.

Last night, when we were sitting and chatting with the window open, we suddenly noticed something moving across the screen. It turned out to be a small gecko, maybe 7 centimeters long. It was running up and down the screen hunting its dinner – probably all the mosquitoes that were attracted by the light in the room. It seemed very busy, so I hope it could diminish the local bug population considerably.

It was fascinating to watch; and I have to confess that I posess a soft spot in my heart for those little creatures. The type that lives here has a yellow, sand coloured body, a triangular head and a very intelligent look in its eyes. A few years ago a gecko got trapped in a kitchen cabinet of mine, and I had to catch it so I could put it outside again. I knew that they can run on vertical window panes, but only when I tried to pick this one up did I realize how much they actually stick to the surface – any surface that is. It took me a while of gentle pulling until I could finally lift it up, and with both an apology for the rough treatment and a “please don’t call again” I set it free again on my balcony.

I hope the little one who visited us yesterday will stick around for a while – and that he’ll get big and fat on all the mosquitoes he eats… I don’t really count on him to diminish the cockroach population, but maybe the lizards that live on the stairs outside of Ebisu’s can help with that?

Drinking

Alcohol is a very important ingredient of Japanese society. Not only does it provide the glue that holds groups of employees together in a tight embrace after working hours, its overuse is also a welcome excuse to loosen the shackles of propriety towards your superiors and society rules in general. you are expected to be part of the group and drink together, but whatever misdemeanour happens once you’ve had enough will stay inside the group and is never mentioned the next morning. Drinking is socially accepted, even expected, and “nomi-hodai” – all you can drink – is often used as incentive to lure customers. (Note here that usually a visit to a bar or even restaurant is time bombed; you are expected to leaver say, 2 hours after you entered the establishment.)

Anyway, obviously I have limited experience with such matters – not because I’m a teetotaller, but because I have never worked in Japan and experienced enough of such events t form my own expertise. However, since coming here last month I have done some research of my own regarding alcoholic drinks and I have come across something that is called “Horoyoi Chu-Hi”, probably meaning something like “Tipsy Juice”. Essentially it is sweet lemonade with alcohol, only a tiny bit really, often at most 5 % vol. I have seen some with 8 % vol., but they are already called “strong”. It is very sweet, comes in gaudy tastes and colors and can be found right next to the beer cans in the fridge of every supermarket or convenience store. Those drinks are a relatively recent invention, apparently geared towards women who neither drink beer or sake and are generally believed to prefer sweet drinks.

I have tried quite a variety so far, and I have to say: I like it! The picture shows a few different tastes (top to bottom: lychee and grape, lemon ice-tea, pineapple, apple, peach, and lime), and the one in poison-red is sour grapes. This is the perfect stuff to drink after a long sweaty day running through temples and shrines, and even though the alcohol content is minimal and can hardly be tasted, there are non-alcoholic versions as well. No matter whether with or without, as long as you don’t forget the ice both types are seriously oishii (tasty)!

Wildlife

As I have written before, summer is here with sunny, hot and humid days, blue skies and wonderful sunsets, and people complaining “azui – hot” all around. And on top of all that, insects finding their way into the house…

So far I have had what feels like a million mosquito bites (they don’t seem to care about the window screens), I dispatched of a number of wood lice, and saw two enormous spiders in communal rooms (thank goodness in a fossilised state already, but I am sure their live offspring will soon descend unto the house) and a number of other assorted bugs. My landlady is terrified of mukade, centipedes, some ten centimeters long, with wide, thin legs and a nasty bite, and my housemate told me about the time when he found a praying mantis following him up the stairs.

To be honest, I don’t care for insects very much, especially spiders freak me out (but I find praying mantis kind of cool). I don’t mind them outside so much – there is usually enough space to avoid each other, but I prefer not to meet them inside. And the fact that my disgust will not deter them from entering does make me feel somewhat queasy about sleeping on the floor, eye to eye with them, so to speak. For those reasons I have already told my housemate that I consider him to function as the resident exterminator, insect department, while I will happily deal with lizards, snakes, anything furry… I believe this is a fair division of labour – unfortunately it breaks down when he is out…

Which was the case Wednesday night. After writing my post for the day, I went to the kitchen to get me some more water. It was dark, so I trod lightly, turned on the lights and carefully watched where I placed my feet. Turning to the sink to fill my water bottle I stared into the eyes of a cockroach. It was not very big, a non-flying variety of maybe 3-4 centimeters, but still. I am glad I had spoken to my housemate before that:

“What do I do?”
“Never squish them.”
“Why?”
“Eggs…”
“Eew… but then…?”
“Washing up liquid!”

Hence I took the bottle and tried to squirt the liquid on the cockroach – I can tell you they are fast moving beasts! It took quite a while and much too much of the precious liquid until the insect was covered, flopped over obediently and died. At least it didn’t move anymore. I felt like a hero! The feeling of relief quickly evaporated when I realized the next problem: What to do next? I mean, there was a dead cockroach in my sink, which was not going to hop into the trash can on its own devices anymore, and I was so not going to touch that! Flushing it down the drain was not really an option either – with the liquid washed off, will it spontaneously resurrect and come after me? Finally I used a piece of cardboard to sweep it into a plastic bag, which I tied closed – twice! – and put into the trash can. Let’s just hope the beast doesn’t revive itself and starts gnawing its way out of the plastic bag…

In the end I can say: I regret nothing and I’d do it again in an instant. Especially now that I know that the method works so swiftly and that I have found such a clean way to dispose of the remains. But I still hope my housemate will be home next time to be the brave knight to respond to this damsel in distress. And I mustn’t forget to buy more washing up liquid. Just to be on the safe side…

Summer

Today was the first really hot day, with temperatures reaching at least 30 degrees, a perfect blue sky with some white clouds…

I went out for a stroll in the afternoon, along the Kamo to one of the Zen temples in Kyoto. I walked through the gardens there and then back home again, taking breaks at the river, watching people passing by.

When I came home, my room was still sunny and hot, and I have been drinking ice water ever since. I must remember to bring more water on my expeditions…

In the evening, there was a beautiful sunset and an early moon gracing the view from my window.

I love this place…

Homeopathy

I admit it – I broke down. After five weeks of being in Japan and eating the local fare (some slight cheating with the bread from a “German” bakery which tastes like the real thing), I caved in and bought foreign food – imported from Italy. It does come with a nice Japanese label though – does that count?

This must be the smallest jar of Nutella ever produced, not counting those spoonful packages sometimes seen at hotel breakfast buffets. It is tiny, plastic, and contains only 220 grams. I cannot be the only one to call this a homeopathic dose, and already I am wondering “What do I eat tomorrow”? The price is fitting for the drug status Nutella obviously has in this country – 399 YEN per jar, which, even at the current exchange rate, is outrageous and makes every spoonful a real treat.

So far though, the jar is still unopened. I’m so proud! It’s not the price that’s putting me off or the fact that I’ll probably have the thing empty in two minutes anyway… It’s more that I’m facing a logistic problem as to one other necessary ingredient of the perfect “good morning” toast. Nah, the bread is easy to get, and we even have a toaster at Ebisu’s. The question is much more profane: Where the heck do I get unsalted butter?

Japanese Era

After writing the post about my troubles with the expiration dates, I realized that it could be even worse: They could write “25” instead of “13“.

Japan is a monarchy, and every emperor has his own era name. The reigning emperor ascended the throne in 1989, which marked the beginning of a new Japanese era. Currently, we live in Heisei 25, and while Japan is mostly using the standard Gregorian calender, the era years, called nengo, are still used – for government documents, CV’s, or on railway tickets, for example.

The era name is used as posthumous name for the emperor reigning through it, so the reigning emperor Akihito will be referred to as emperor Heisei after his death; and he was born in the year Showa 7, the era (and now the name) of his father. This is actually in line with Buddhist customs, where the deceased acquire a new name under which they are worshipped on the family altar. Note that a new era can start at any time during a year, so for example 1989 is known both as Showa 73 and Heisei 1. After that, the era years start on January 1st as usual.

To avoid confusion in Western writing, era years can be distinguished by using their first letter as abbreviation before the number, so it would be appropriate to write H25 for the current year. It is good that the last four eras – reaching back to the mid 19th century – all start with a different letter: Going back in time, we have Heisei (peace everywhere, since 1989), Showa (abundant benevolence, since 1926), Taisho (great righteousness, since 1912) and Meiji (enlightened rule, since 1868). The Meiji emperor was also the one to decree the rule of “one emperor – one era”, as before that, era names changed much more frequently – during his father’s reign of 21 years, there were seven different eras. Then the names were changed almost at a whim – both in case of disasters or lucky events, a new name was chosen to bring more luck to the country. Automatic name changes took place in certain fixed years of a regency, and at some point in history, it was common for the emperor to abdicate after a rather short reign, yet increasing the number of eras even further.

The tradition of era names is modeled after that of the Chinese court, and it was officially and finally adopted in 701 by emperor Mommu, after two attempts of doing so before were short lived. As the Japanese don’t seem to abandon their traditions lightly, I guess their eras will be around for as long as there is an emperor – and I don’t see that changing any time soon either.

Target

Being an obvious foreigner in Japan has its pros and cons.

The pro is that you are neither assumed to speak the language properly, nor expected to know all the little intricacies of correct Japanese behaviour. If you are friendly, people will often go out of their way to help you, up and beyond standard customer service (which is very good in Japan to begin with). I recall an instance a few years ago where we – a group of about 10 foreigners unable to communicate in Japanese – descended on a nice restaurant in Sendai and demanded dinner. After some back and forth with the waitress, in which it became clear that we could not really get together, she finally pulled out her mobile phone and had the phrase translated “How much would you like to spend?” We agreed on a price – and had one of the best dinners I ever had in Japan. Talk about service…

The con of being a Caucasian in Japan is – school kids. When alone, they are too timid to be a threat, but most often unfortunately, they come in groups and then there is always one who is plucky enough to yell the first “hello” in the direction of the unsuspecting foreigner. From there you are subjected to all sorts of well studied phrases: “Where are you from?” – “Do you like it here?” – “I love America!”, or just a general giggling of the girls. A friend of mine who lives in Korea and speaks Korean very well has learnt to counter these verbal advances with a smart “Do you want to marry me?”, which usually leaves the girls speechless and him time to escape.

Hence, my slight annoyance when, on an errand near Kyoto station, I passed a group of junior high kids starting to go “Hello!” just to be stopped by two slightly older girls with notepads in their hands a few meters later. I expected the worst, when the girls explained that they were students and wanted to ask a few questions for their homework. Not being able to retreat, I agreed. Imagine my surprise when the first question was: “What do you think about the death penalty?” The girls studied International Communications at the local university and had a few more questions in that vein: “Does your country have it?”, “What if it happened to your family?”. They wrote down my answers and opinions without further comment. For a moment I was tempted to ask what they think about it – Japan does have the death penalty – but I didn’t want to put them on the spot after all. What an interesting encounter!