A European's move towards Japan
Whew, I’m almost done with my business meetings, only one more next Tuesday, and from then it’s up close and personal… Still stuff to do, as I wrote in my last post, but that i will do from the privacy of my desk. That means, that I will keep to myself for a while, and will take a break until at least the end of the year, maybe even one week longer. Until I’m back, I wish you all, as usual:
Happy Holidays to everyone!
I hope you’ll have a nice time, regardless of your plans.
It’s time to make serious plans for next year, especially with respect to business. The What’s up in Kyoto crowd is slowly (very slowly) growing, and I want to take the page to the next level. First of all, I’m planning a slight upgrade and redesign by New Year’s Day, including a few new pages.
Also, I will need new highlights each month – and I have decided to feature 12 of the most important shrines throughout next year, or at least: those shrines with the most exciting or fun events. It would probably be fine just to write the articles on my own like I did this year, but since I don’t have photos of all shrines or all their events, I will approach them and ask for information, photos, and help in general. To be honest, I am rather worried about this because, essentially, I’m nobody. And a foreigner to boot!
This afternoon was my first meeting with a representative of the January Highlight shrine (yes, I’ll keep it a secret until then). And I’m proud to say, it went very well! After making a phone call and sending a fax with further details, a friend – working as my translator – and I were received today by a rather young man representing the shrine. He was very forthcoming and friendly, and we could already clarify a few things I got wrong in the preliminary article that I had brought along. I am allowed to use any of the photos available for download from the shrine, and I have a few of my own as well, so it should be fine. The whole meeting was over in 10 minutes or so.
Now we’ll have to finalise the article, including photos and everything, and send it to the shrine for their final okay, since they are keen to have the information correct. Again, this is supposed to happen by fax… We also have to provide a translation into Japanese, even though the young man seemed to have understood me perfectly well (he didn’t let on, of course). Either he feels more comfortable to read and check in Japanese, or he needs it for the records of the shrine.
Either way, the first hurdle has been taken, it was a relatively low one, thank goodness. My friend will be busy the rest of the month, but we have already sent a fax to the February Highlight shrine – no reply from them yet. We think we’ll have a better selling point if we can prove that we’re already working with another famous shrine of Kyoto. Wish us luck!
Last week before Christmas, and I’m counting down my to-do list. All Christmas cards sent out, Christmas emails to the rest of the world to follow. All oseibo Year-End presents bought, sent, and return “thank you” emails received. One Christmas present left to buy, but I have ordered a small Christmas cake already. Two bonenkai Year-End parties successfully survived.
One more nengajo New Year card to write, and that only because I had to ask my Japanese teacher for his address again. The others I finished over the last weekend, I’m so proud. I even set up a mass-mail form for all my future business nengajo. That alone took me half a day because when I print them, the post code must fit into the preprinted boxes. I’m greatly looking forward to all the time I’ll save next year though!
And, finally, as of today: 1 more deadline, and 4, maybe 5 more meetings and 2 soroban classes. Year’s End. It’s good things are winding down.
When Kyoto was founded more than 1000 years ago, it was modeled after the then capital of China. This means, all of the city was laid out on a rectangular North-South, East-West grid, with the grounds of the imperial palace on the northern end of the city, representing its head.
Lots of things happen in 1000 years, in particular the growth of Kyoto beyond its original boundaries to fit the 1.5 million people living here today. A large portion of the newer parts of the city have simply extended the grid scheme, but especially near the mountains that enclose the town, this is not the case anymore.
However, to be considered a “true” Kyoto person, you must live in that inner part of town that once made up the original city (ideally, that means your family has been living there forever). And so as not to get lost in those little streets that all but looked the same in the time of the old Japanese wooden houses, children learnt the Kyoto street song, listing all the streets of Kyoto “proper” first from North to South, and then from East to West.
Even today, every person born in Kyoto knows this song. I am not sure if the song itself has a meaning beyond the street names, but since they are abbreviated and one of the lines talks about “Ane san”, meaning older sister, I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually did tell a story. Enjoy!
Just in case you’re wondering what’s with the penguins: Kyoto City Aquarium houses 47 penguins that are all named after the 47 streets in this song. And in this video, you hear the staff of the Aquarium.
Yesterday I read a short article in an Austrian newspaper about the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. To cope with the expected influx of foreign visitors to the country, it is planned to have a number of robot models greet and assist passengers on the airport in Tokyo. The robots are supposedly able to perform easy tasks (like carrying bags), doing instant translations, or answering simple questions. The goal is to show off how modern and cool Japan is.
My first reaction to that one: I laughed out loud. I’m not sure, maybe it’s Kyoto, but somehow the “modern Japan” has still not permeated the whole of my city here… Let me illustrate this:
Recently, I have started contacting companies in Kyoto about the What’s up in Kyoto event calendar (actually, a friend is helping with this one). First contact is per phone, we tell them about the event calendar and what we want and then, at some point comes the “more information” part of the call. When this happens, we inevitably get an “oh, just send us a fax with the details, okay?”
A FAX??
Have you heard of emails? 21st century and such? To be fair, those are not IT companies, but still, all of the places we are contacting have websites, often quite beautiful and elaborate ones. Still, no emails, they want a fax. And finally, they want you to show up in person and do the whole sales pitch again, of course.
This is the fascinating thing about Japan: On the one hand, they have robots in all shapes, sizes and intelligences. And on the other hand, they are holding on to technology from the 1980s because that’s just what they do. This country will never cease to amaze me.
I’m going back to soroban school! My soroban teacher is all excited about me passing the test next time in January, so he said he wants me to come back to get the final polish.
With the last test I passed all but two of the exam types (okay, except anzan – mental math, but that’s no surprise). So, for the next test in January, I only need to focus on divisions and additions; if I get at least 100 points (i.e., 10 correct exercises), I will have passed the shodan exam, just as I had planned. For both divisions and additions, I am hovering around 80 – 90 points, which is a good starting point. However, I make too many avoidable mistakes, so I have to put in extra effort here, both to increase accuracy, and to increase speed.
I went to class today, and my sensei said something very interesting: When I do the math, I speak the equations in my mind, for example “6 times 3 is 18” (in German, of course), and afterwards I set the appropriate numbers on the soroban. My sensei watched me and said that I seem to stop between two such equations, which means I’m stopping on the soroban as well. This interruption of the smooth flow of the hand movement may introduce extra mistakes, he said.
Solution: I should slow down, just enough to speak the equation and set the beads on the soroban at the same time. This will lead to a smooth, almost continuous flow of the movements of the hand – which in turn will increase speed, and maybe even accuracy. It does sound a bit weird at first, but if you think about it, it makes sense. I will try to do this for a couple of weeks and see where this is going.
Besides that, it seems that by now I know the book by heart – I make very few mistakes when doing the basic exercises that can be done in the seven minutes’ time frame, but beyond that I make more mistakes. According to my sensei, this is not just because the numbers are getting longer, so to get a better training experience, I should now start with exercise number 11 instead of the beginning.
I’m sure he has a point there – in both respects. I am really eager to finally pass the shodan exam, so I’ll do as he suggests. Wish me luck!
Masks
Fumiko Enchi
Yasuko Togano has lost her husband Akio in an avalanche on Mount Fuji several years ago. Nevertheless, she has decided to stay with her mother in law Mieko, and also to finish Akio’s work on ghost possession. This work is her link to the friends Ibuki and Mikame, who both are in love with the attractive Yasuko, despite the fact that Ibuki has a wife and daughter.
Mieko Togano is a renowned poet, and although she tries to remain out of sight, it is in fact she who pulls all the strings. She is the hidden force when Yasuko starts an affair with Ibuki, and when Harume, the strikingly beautiful but mentally handicapped twin sister of Akio gets caught up in things, Mieko will do anything to see her long harboured plans bear fruit.
Mieko, although only prominent in the last third of the novel, is the main character, the driving force behind everything. She, who has lost everything and tries to regain a small piece of it, is not above sacrificing her own family.
This was a fascinating read about the strength of women. When Ibuki and Mikame muse about Mieko’s being a witch, possibly able to control other people with her mind, they make an interesting statement: The misogyny found in Buddhism and Christianity was simply a way for men to control that inner strength of women, which they always feared, but never understood…
Fumiko Enchi (1905 – 1986) was born in Tokyo. She was home-schooled and was taught English, French, and Chinese literature; through her grandmother she got to know the classics of Japanese literature. She is one of the most prominent Japanese writers of the Showa period.a
A fascinating book – get your copy from Amazon!
Let me say it as it is: I’m terribly jealous!
Yesterday evening I went to the German Christmas Market at the Umeda Sky Building with a friend of mine. And there he came clean: they had adopted a baby! Not a human one, but this adorable kitten here! She’s 6 months old and a Scottish Fold, even though the ears are not folding at all. For some reason, Japanese love high breed cats; my friend bought her from a shop for 100.000 yen. Personally I would never do that, there are enough cats in shelters everywhere looking for a good home, but since he has the money…
Anyway, isn’t she cute? I sooo wish I could have my own cat, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. However, I have already told my friend that I’ll be happy to come catsitting at any time they need it. I’m very excited to meet her at Christmas!
Christmas is coming! Even though most Japanese are not Christians, they embrace the Christmas spirit – in its cleanest form: that of shopping! Christmas decorations are everywhere by now (even in the really traditional Japanese shops) and of course, in the big shopping arcades on Shijo and Teramachi dori, Christmas songs are played up and down. I even heard the obligatory “Last Christmas” last week already (thankfully only once so far, I hate that song).
So, I am doing my own Christmas and New Year preparations: Not that I’m buying any gifts for myself (although I’m considering a very small Christmas cake), but I have almost finished writing my Christmas cards already (I’m so proud). Yesterday I was out shopping for an oseibo, a year-end gift, for my accountant, and the nengajo New Year’s cards are ready and wait for me to pick up pen and Kanji dictionary…
I’ve already made plans for the Christmas holidays – visiting a friend in Kobe for a Christmas cookout – and tomorrow, always the highlight of the Christmas season, I will go down to Osaka to visit the German Christmas Market underneath the Umeda Sky Building with some friends.
I don’t know what it is, but at the moment, I’m feeling very energised. Two weeks ago, all I wanted to do was sleep, but now it’s almost the opposite. Maybe the promise of an “end to all this” that will come at the end of this month is pushing me forward?
It’s December again, time for an advent calendar counting the days until Christmas. I completely forgot making my own this year, but thank goodness my friend who visited me last year has a new version of his nerdy “curiosity calendar” up and running. This year, for the first time, it’s in English, so it is accessible for everyone – enjoy!