goinggaijin.com – Page 58 – A European's move towards Japan

Toni Toni

It was a wonderful day today, bright and sunny, just what I needed after a month of typhoon-induced rain! So I decided to take a bit of a time-out after my Japanese class and walk around the area a bit. And I went into the Toni Toni, the “Festival of the Ages Building” right next to Heian Shrine. It is a modern, steel reinforced concrete building with two storeys, but it looks like an old wooden house with white walls and dark wood beams and windows. It was built as a shopping mall and food court, and the location is well-chosen since there are barely any shops or restaurants in that area, and Heian Shrine is quite popular.

The building is brand new, it opened only last December, and I had been there two or three times before. But something felt out of place this time. There were hardly any customers around and some of the places I had noticed or shopped at before have already closed again, like the nice gyoza restaurant that would offer sake all day long… The whole feeling was rather sterile, unfortunately, and the prices for food were quite steep, which means that the rents for the shops must be outrageous.

I wonder how many people come to the place. Last time I was there, the guy from the gyoza shop complained that they would have to close already at 18:00, so no evening customers coming out of the theatre next door. And I know that many people visiting Heian Shrine come there with buses, I would guess that they have limited time for shopping, and definitely none for eating, even though takeout is possible.

And then again, maybe I just came at the wrong time. I was noon, where most bus tourists probably have lunch elsewhere. There are no big companies nearby whose employees would come for a quick bite. And there may be more tourists in the weekends too. Still, it appears that even in Kyoto, even in a very touristy spot like this, some things don’t work. Or at least: they will take quite some time to take off properly. Maybe things will be different by the time the 2020 Olympics come along?

Small World

Today, I had to take the bus to my weekly appointment in the city. On the way home, an old man sat next to me and started to chat, as they are always eager to do. He spoke quietly, but in a very good English, and after a bit of back-and-forth, he said that he had lived in California for four years.

It turned out that this man was a scientist, whose research was about the physiological influence of zero gravity. I could hear how proud he was to tell me that one time, he had sent his rats into space for 18 days and see what would happen to them. And, in passing, he mentioned a colleague of his, who just a few days ago was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Small World indeed…

Mount Hiei

After two days of stressful work, I decided to take today off. The plan was to take a walk along the Philosopher’s Path on my way home from Japanese class and to visit a few of the places I haven’t seen in a long time. However, this morning, my Japanese teacher cancelled unexpectedly and on short notice. And because I still felt like walking around somewhere outside, I decided on the spot to visit Mount Hiei.

Hieizan as it is called in Japanese, is the highest mountain among those that surround Kyoto; and it lies on the northeastern mountain range. It is 848.1 m high and marks the boundary between Kyoto and Shiga province. From there (although not from the same spot) one can see both Kyoto and Lake Biwa, and the views are beautiful. In the ancient times it was said that Mount Hiei would serve as a guardian for Kyoto and the imperial family. This is not just a fanciful saying: On top of the mountain lies Enryakuji, the headquarter of the Tendai sect, and from the founding of the temple in 788, its famous warrior monks have protected Kyoto in times of war and danger quite literally.

And Enryakuji is the main reason to visit Hieizan today. There are some hiking trails on the mountain and the Monet-inspired garden museum Hiei, but the top of the mountain is dominated by the temple. Or rather: the temples, because there are three different areas where several temple buildings are clustered together, and the whole is called Enryakuji, even though no single building has this name.

I did not know that there was so much walking involved, even within one of those areas. As this is a mountain, there are many, many stairs to climb and long paths between each temple. The silence and relative solitude on the mountain does make up for it though. And the temple buildings are beautiful! Many of them are very old, and they fit perfectly into their surroundings. I’ll just add a few of my photos below to give you an impression of the mountain.

The Briefcase

The Briefcase
Hiromi Kawakami

Tsukiko is a 38-year old office lady in an undistinguished Japanese company, leading an average life. One evening, as Tsukiko orders her dinner at a small bar, she is addressed by the old man next to her. Surprised at the approach, she finally recognizes him as her teacher of Japanese literature from high school. From that evening on, they keep meeting each other – always unplanned – and marvel about how similar they are. Sensei and Tsukiko like the same food and drinks and eat the same snacks to their sake. After a while, they begin to meet on purpose, for short little trips to the local market or to the high school reunion. Their feelings for each other and the perceived unlawfulness of them leads to internal struggles for both. Will they overcome their fears and stop hiding their feelings?

This is a wonderful love story between two soul mates who struggle not only to overcome an age difference of 30 years, but also their own perceptions of what an “appropriate” relationship should look like.

Hiromi Kawakami, born 1958 in Tokyo, studied science, taught biology, and wrote short sci-fi stories before her first book was published in 1994. She counts among the most popular authors of Japan. This book received the Tanizaki Prize in 2001, and has been made into a movie.

If you want to find out whether Tsukiko and her sensei get together at the end, get the book from amazon!

Too Cold

I haven’t complained about the weather in a while, have I? It’s too cold. Way too cold. In September, we should have temperatures in the high twenties, we are about 5 degrees below that. It’s been raining too often, especially in the night, and although tomorrow should be a nice and sunny day, the next typhoon (# 24 this year) will arrive in the weekend already.

Unfortunately, weather like this makes me depressed, which is not good at all. During summer, I started to go out once a day in the evening to escape my stuffy apartment; I would just walk along the river, cross at the second bridge and return home. But now, with all the rain I have all but stopped doing that because it’s no fun walking in the rain at the mud path along the river. I really hope this is not a sign of a terribly cold winter. Two months to find out…

Hagi Matsuri

Last weekend was the Hagi Matsuri (Bush clover Festival) at Nashinoki Shrine. Nashinoki Shrine is rather small and lies next to the Imperial Palace, and it is full of bush clovers. One thing that people do during this festival is to write short poems and tie them to the bush clovers of the shrine.

The main attraction throughout those days, however, are the performances of traditional Japanese arts. There are three performances per day, and they show different types of art – including martial arts.

I went there on Saturday afternoon with a friend, where we caught the last bit of the Iaido (sword drawing) performance. At the end, there was the cutting of reed mats, something that seems to be surprisingly difficult.

Then we took part in a tea ceremony. It must have been my third or fourth, and still, I don’t know how the tea is prepared! There are so many other things I need to pay attention to during the ceremony – it is pretty hard to be a guest even.

I went again on Sunday morning for a kyogen performance where I understood a bit here and there, but not enough to get the whole picture. It was funny though, the facial expressions alone could make you laugh.

Afterwards there was a short shakuhachi concert. I love the tone of the bamboo flute, and the first song that all three players did together, was my favourite. I am tempted to learn it myself eventually… But maybe I should finish my soroban degree first!

I did not return on Monday, the last day, so I missed the Japanese dance and the archery. However, it was fun to watch so many different traditional arts in such a short time span.

Praying Mantis

I went to a shrine this weekend where somebody picked up this lovely member of Japanese wildlife. He held it on his hand for quite a while before and after this shot. Fascinating – especially how cool many Japanese are about insects.

Tirol

There are new sweets on sale at my supermarket. And they have the enticing name of “Tirol” (a federal state in Austria). And since they appeared to be chocolate tarts… You see where this is going:

They are nice, with a very rich chocolate taste, so there will be more to come even though they are pretty small. The one thing I don’t understand is the Tirol connection. Especially since most Japanese wouldn’t know the name – the only two places they know about Austria are Vienna and Salzburg. But I guess it’s just like with so many things used for advertising in Japan – as long as they look and sound cool, anything goes…

Underestimated

Always on the lookout for new opportunities, I have found a new (freelance) job as a writer. And just like the one where I wrote articles for facebook, this one is a bit out of my usual expertise as well: I’m writing articles about smartphones even though I don’t have any kind of mobile phone.

At least it’s not writing articles of how great smartphones are… well okay, maybe a little. We’re talking about product descriptions, like the ones on amazon for example. The idea is that the writer gets a factsheet about the thing that needs a description and then has to wrap up those facts into more pretty sentences with a more or less overt “pick me” idea. A kind of easy, low-level copywriting. Essentially it’s blah-blah with a lot of adjectives. Or so I thought.

I had to do 10 articles at 450 words each, plus 50 words each with extra blah-blah and extra adjectives like “This smartphone shows off its amazing design in clean lines and with extra technological oomph under the hood” or some such. The first 350 words were easy, that’s what the factsheet is for, but the last 100 words were rather painful to find. There are not that many different adjectives to describe a piece of metal and glass, and besides: I’m not used to waffling…

Honestly, I had no idea this would be that difficult. I completely underestimated the time one article would take – I mean, how long can it take to write 450 words? At most 30 minutes for sure! Well, the first article took me 4 hours. There was no sample as guideline, and these days you must keep SEO in mind and can’t just copy/paste from elsewhere and change a word or two. And then there’s the waffling… There were a lot of blood, sweat, and tears going into that first article. Thankfully, towards the end I was down to about 70 minutes for one article. I worked 12 hours yesterday and made the deadline by a mere 38 minutes. I’m pretty proud of myself! And I have garnered respect for people who do this every day, for a living – if there even are any who can handle that 😉

Monument of Gratitude

What do you think this is?

A tomb maybe?
It does look like one, and the sheer size of it (about two storeys high and with a diameter of perhaps two metres) would suggest a very important personality. But this is not on a graveyard, but in the middle of a standard residential neighborhood. Imperial tombs, the very old ones at least, are large and located all over the city, however, they have a distinct look that is very different from this here.

A memorial perhaps?
Could be, but there is a meadow around it with a stone fence, and it is not publicly accessible.

So, what could it be? In fact, it is both a tomb and a memorial. It belongs to Kyoto University and is meant for the people who donated their body to science.

I am not sure whether this monument really hold physical remains – that is, a few bones of each person – like a normal Japanese tomb, or maybe just a list of names, or other things that are more symbolic. But just the fact that somebody took the time and effort to build something like that, does show an enormous amount of gratitude. It makes me happy.