Munch in Kobe; Sumo in Osaka!

This weekend was fairly chilled- shopping over in Takamatsu, chilling with Miki on "White Day" (Japan splits Valentines Day into two, and "Howaito De" is for boyfriends to give gifts), and a day trip to Kobe on sunday to see the Earthquake Museum and the current Munch Exhibition at the Kobe Prefectural Museum.

The Earthquake Museum was small but interesting, and I must admit it shook me up a bit (ahem). I never realised that the earthquake caused so much damage, and a simulation room demonstrated a small fraction of what it must be like to have your world implode for a few horrifying seconds. Around 6,500 people lost their lives in the "Great Hanshin Earthquake", which struck on January 17th 1995, at 5.46am. It lasted only 20 seconds.

The Munch Exhibition was also fairly short, the highlights being the painting in this post- "Anxiety"- and another piece, "Despair", which together with the more famous "The Scream" make up a set meant to be viewed together. Munch's colours are vivid and expressive, and the Victorian costumes in the piece here, together with the ethereal faces, reminded me of the kind of world Tim Burton creates in his films. The people seem to be going somewhere, somewhere they do not want to go, while the bridge they seem to be on is crossing a background that is wonderfully expressive- a beautiful yet unreal sky, and the lake with two boats that is based on a place in Norway, but is changed and given meaning by the wonderful colours Munch chooses to use.

Anyway, moving on, final news is that this thursday I'll be going to see sumo in Osaka!! It's been long overdue, and I'm glad I'll get to experience this unique Japanese sport at least once, as well as take some photos of the legend that is, Asashoryu Akinori! Stay tuned for more on the world of sumo before my impending trip to the Osaka haru basho.

Language

Languages are such strange and complex things. To pick up the basics, and even become conversational in one takes only the sacrifice of a bit of free time, and a modest amount of effort. Yet to become fluent in one, to truly understand one’s ins and outs, one’s idiosyncrasies, the different mindset a different language requires; that seems an insurmountable obstacle.

In a test one of my students spelt “corn flakes” as “corn freak”, and “sightseeing” as “shatseeing”. That’s not really a great problem. But when you can translate “I might be going to the cinema” in about ten different ways in Japanese, all with a subtly different meaning- well, that is. It would be entirely possible to transform the meaning of a sentence, a paragraph, by translating it in a certain way rather than another. That’s why translation seems to me to be an art rather than a science, a subtle process of weighting the literal meaning with the true intent of an authors work. It’s an art that I have to admire as I struggle through Japanese. If translation is hard, and expressing yourself succinctly and precisely in your native tongue is hard, then imagine combining these processes to speak as you mean in a foreign language. The troubles go further than this- to truly have proficiency in a foreign language surely you have to think in that language- not translate from English in your mind, but construct in Japanese. Sure European languages are hard to master, and Chinese is certainly hard to pronounce, but the Japanese language works in an entirely different way to English. Kanji can be learnt- 2,000 of them may take some time, but the complexities of Japanese grammar could be studied for years and still not mastered. Maybe I chose the wrong language to study!

I think of all these things as I struggle to make the step up from "san kyuu" Japanese to "ni kyuu" Japanese- whether I am willing to invest the time and effort in taking this step, whether my efforts will ultimately pay off. In all honesty if I'm not going to return to Japan it may be pointless. But increasingly I'm feeling like I'll come back here for a while in the future, to live in Tokyo, and if that's the case then maybe I'd better get cracking.

Goethe once said "he who is ignorant of other languages is ignorant of his own". At the very least trying to become half-decent at Japanese has made me realise how insanely difficult English is!

Tsukiji Fish Market, and Conferencing In Yokohama

Hisashiburi! The blog has lain dormant for a while, but I've been increasingly busy after surviving snowboarding and haven't had time for an update. For the last few days I've been in the Kanto area- visiting the famous Tsukiji Fish Market, the current exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, and then going on to Yokohama for a JET Conference.

























Tsukiji was really great; despite waking up at 5, I was able to spring around gleefully at the sight of all kinds of weird and wonderful seafood, huge tuna being power saw-ed and samurai sword-ed, and even some less than politically correct bloody whale steaks. What really struck me about Tsukiji though was the scale; this is no normal market, but a serious shipping operation, with fresh cargo delivered daily, prepared (either through cutting or flash freezing), then shipped off to high class restaurants all over Tokyo and the surrounding area. The food here is literally as fresh as you can get- one young worker was gutting and de-heading fish that were still flapping their tails around! Understandably then, our sushi breakfast was a little pricey- 3600 yen for a platter eaten in a sombre sushi-ya, more akin to a temple than the usual "kaiten zushi" restaurants that I frequent. Sombre it may have been, but I've never had toro sushi quite so succulent, or such a range of fresh seasonal sushi perfectly balanced by just the right amount of wasabi. The Tsukiji experience was wonderful, but sadly I didn't get many good photos as you're constantly on your toes dodging tuna, angry workers and trucks!






Vending T-shirts in Harajuku





Record Shop, Harajuku








I also saw the current exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi while in Tokyo; it was very good, and afterwards we watched the sun setting over Tokyo, with Mount Fuji off in the distance, visible on the horizon! For those not in the know its very rare that you can see Fuji from Tokyo- only on the clearest of days- and its meant to be very lucky (I may have just made that up though).





Fuji-san! Yatta!




If seeing Fuji was a sign of clarity to come, it certainly didn't reveal itself at the"JET Returners Conference", a chance to hear from 'working professionals' in all range of fields, in an effort to sort out the general confusion of life. I ruled more things out than in- banking, finance, corporate business and the general immorality of the private business sector. This leaves me with a range of options- academia, journalism or publishing, government work or other public or non-profit work that relates in some way to the big wide world. Any suggestions greatly appreaciated- my current plan is to become the Guardian's Tokyo correspondent, although I guess this requires a bit of serious effort and planning (not to mention the violent overthrow of the incumbent journalist, the very personable Justin McCurry, who I met at the conference).





Yokohama's Chinatown- the Biggest in Japan! Beware of the gyoza...




Anyway, moving off Tokyo for a moment, today was Shonan Graduation Day. Although I know the 1st and 2nd year students far better than the third, my drummer (Natto's drummer) Murakami was graduating, and it was great to see him. Despite coming from a poor family, having to work in a factory part-time while attending school, and going to a school which never sends any students to Uni, he's managed to get a place at Okayama Daigaku (a good uni) studying economics. I'm so pleased for him- he's a really nice guy, and deserves all that hes worked to get. A long lunch with Kawahara and Toda was followed by an afternoon off work, leaving me to go for a run and write this long update. Thats all for now!

Back On The Piste!

That's right! Last year it was skiing with Georgina and Yukiko, and this year its snowboarding with Hayase, a guy who works in the Shonan school secretary office, and his mate.

Hopefully I'll be doing ollies and 360s all over the place as I descend the slopes of Hiroshima Prefecture before coming to a safe stop (without killing any Japanese people on the way down). We'll be leaving at the insanely early time of 7am (although this was only after fevered negotiations managed to put it back from 5), and travel up past Nimi across the border into Hiroshima. Then we'll spend a few hours on the piste.

Which is harder, skiing or snowboarding? I honestly have no idea, although I guess the more pertinent question is "Can Steve do either?" I'll find out on Saturday...and if you don't hear from me again, well, its been a good life.

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

For the last few days I've been in Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island, and the only one that until now I hadn't visited. It truly is a wondrous place; a winter wonderland, replete with ice sculptures and snow statues, frozen lakes, sea ice and the coldest temperatures I've ever experienced, as well as some of the most beautiful vistas. In 6 days I managed to cover a lot of ground, mainly in my friend Pete's car. We were in Sapporo for the Snow Festival for two days, then drove up to Abashiri, Japan's Alcatraz, home to a scary prison and perhaps the most amazing thing I've seen in Japan; drift ice. From there we went back down to Asahikawa, visiting the snow festival before driving into the mountains to Pete's home, Shirataki.

Sapporo (札幌)

The original reason for me going to Hokkaido at this time of year was to visit the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri, a snow festival held every year for one week. It didn't disapoint, with ice bars selling champagne, huge snow sculptures and a row of ice sculptures in Susukino, with brilliant names such as "Paradisue (sic) of Swan" and "Goldfish of Play". The snow sculptures featured all of Japan's favourite characters- Anpanman, Hello Kitty, Totoro, Doraemon, and even Kojima Yoshio! We went to an amazing bar called Brits Beat Club, with a live band that played Britpop and 60s stuff. We were with a large group of JETs, but me and the other 2 Brits there were singing along to everything (you can see our enthusiasm in the photo on facebook). The singer, Kaz, was a cool guy. You can check out online performances at http://www.brits.jp/. After leaving Sapporo we drove up to Abashiri on the north east coast, and it was only then that I realised how vast Hokkaido is. Flat rice fields covered in snow stretched off into the distance, before mountains took over, and the sky seemed huge compared to down here in Honshu. It was Japan, but totally different to the Japan I know. We left Sapporo sleep deprived and hungover at 10am, and got to Abashiri at about 7pm after stopping off at the Asahikawa Zoo, and some frozen lakes on the way.

Ice Walking on the Sea- Abashiri (網走）

Easily the most impressive thing I saw in Hokkaido was the Abashiri 流氷, or drift ice. Every winter frozen ice leaves the mouth of the Amor River in Russia, and drifts south to the coast of Hokkaido. Its an massively impressive sight, and walking out onto the sea is a bizarre experience. When I was there the conditions were perfect- crystal clear skies, and ice as far as the eye could see. It was unbelievably cold though, especially on the boat. But what an amazing place!!

Matsuri in Asahikawa (旭川）

After visiting Abashiri we made our way back down to Asahikawa, staying again at a friend of Pete's place, then went to the Asahikawa Matsuri the next day. We had lunch in Cocopelis, the best Italian restaurant I've been to in Japan, situated in a log cabin about 45 mins drive from Asahikawa. The views from this remote restaurant were spectacular, out across the plains with the mountains in the background, and the food really was great. After that we went to the Snow Festival, where Pete was dancing in his towns Yosoki ソーラン　team, which was very entertaining. After staying the night up in the mountains in Pete's home town of Shirataki, all that was left was the long journey home.

Sankyuu Beri Muchi!

やった！日本語ペラペラだよぉぉ！Yes after a few months of waiting I finally got the results of my JLPT test today, and I passed! Hurrah. My score of 310 comfortably cleared the 240 I needed, the only downside being that Georgina somehow managed to get 311! One mark more! God dammit!! Still, both very respectable scores out of 400. Grrrr.

Having planned on making this my last Japanese qualification, I've decided to "ganbare" for the next level, 2, which I can take in London this year or next. Why not eh. Only another 600 Chinese characters and, err, 4,500 words to learn. Hmm.

The title, by the way, is a cheesy Japanese joke, or おやじギャグ that got a lot of laughs today. You see "sankyuu" is the level of the test that I took, level 3 or "san" in Japanese. But sankyuu is also the way (some) Japanese people say "thankyou". Hee hee. Ahem.

Anyway tomorrow I'm off to the grim north of Hokkaido; with temperatures that rarely break above freezing, it will easily be the coldest place I've ever visited. If I survive the trip, expect magnificent photos and fantabulous words to appear on this blog after I return.

じゃね。

明 瞭

Around eight months ago I encountered a Japanese-English magazine, produced to an extremely high standard, concerning the history, people and culture of my Japanese home city, Kurashiki. Its name is Krash Japan. After being given a copy of the free magazine at a second-hand clothes store, I emailed the editor- who lives in the same area of Kurashiki as me, Kojima- to see if I could get involved. His name is Akahoshi Yutaka, and he introduced me to the person whom this post concerns, artist and craftsman Masahiro Kawabe.













To make a long story short, and to paraphrase Krash Japan itself (which relates the details of Kawabe-san's life far better than I could), Kawabe is an artist who lives and works in Shimotsui, an area of Kojima adjacent to the Seto-Ohashi bridge. He has lived there since birth and works on stainless steel nuts, such as the one pictured above. He turns these nuts into rings, works of art shaped over months by the simple process of filing day-in, day-out. Kawabe never commits a design to paper, and uses no machines when creating these rings; instead he holds the idea in his head as he shapes the material in front of him. All that he does ask for when he creates these rings, specially to order, is a theme. So continues Krash Japan...

When working on a given theme, he does not begin for at least a month. He goes on with his regular daily activity. However, the theme is constantly in his mind, waiting for the moment when an obscure image suddenly appears. The image can be visual, a tone, or in other forms. Once an image comes to mind, it is put into concrete form. Everything is done inside his head, up to the final design. He leaves nothing on paper. He faces the hexagonal nut with file in hand, only when he can picture the final design in his head. "I only ask for a theme and not a visual image. I have created what I myself have imagined from that theme. It is a selfish way which I have no intention of changing. I am, therefore, grateful to the people who order based on that understanding."




















Kawabe is personable, kind and has a great sense of humour. Earlier this week I was at the cafe hangout of Kawabe and Yutaka, in Kojima, and he related a story to me about how the local yakuza boss came to visit him, after a ring! Kawabe's rings have become increasingly well profiled, his work fetching several "man yen" (around 100 pounds each) in fashionable Tokyo and Osaka stores. Yet Kawabe is modest and friendly, the exact opposite of what you would expect from such an "artiste". He does however possess an entirely individual style and manner.

I feel honoured that Kawabe has decided to make a ring for me, in exchange for an unspecified "interesting item" from the UK- he could have charged me the 100 pounds or so his work regularly fetches, yet was intrigued by the idea of receiving an item bought in a flea market 5000 miles away from where he has always lived. In making a ring for me, Kawabe asked for a theme. The theme I gave him was 明 瞭, "meiryo", or clarity. It's my hope that in wearing this ring the clouds of confusion that currently hang over my future will clear, and I'll have a better idea of what to do with my life. The ring will take several months to make, and I look forward to receiving it- an item that, far from being made from precious material, will be treasured due to the time, energy and thought put into it by a truly gifted craftsmen.

Photographs nicked from Krash Japan website, taken by Kunitoshi Yabe.

Please visit Krash Japan at http://www.krashjapan.com/