A Half Day Ahead

Which do you prefer?

2009-12-13T15:35:00.008+09:00

Last night, we went to see Johnny Depp woo Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies. At the theater, we found out that even though Depp may be the most attractive American movie star of his generation, he's no match for Monkey D. Luffy.

The new One Piece movie opened the same day as Depp's movie. At the Ibaraki Warner-Mycal multiplex, all tickets to the weekend's One Piece showings were sold out. We were there on Saturday night -- so it meant that all the showings for the next day had been gobbled up. Some people in front of us wanted to see it and ended up buying tickets for next Friday's show. What the?!

This is not a new development, according to the Japan Times' Mark Schilling. Japanese films have become dominant again in their home market. One advantage they enjoy is they can be cross-promoted via different media. One Piece is a manga and an anime. I'm sure there are card games and video games. And its appeal isn't just limited to teens; the people going to the last show on Saturday were in their 20s and 30s. The people in front of us who bought tickets for next week were our age.

And what about the hot hot Depp?* He was fine. The film is a bit boring but shows off its lead actor to maximum effect. Dillinger is given a very romantic treatment in the film -- he's a man of honor, a straight talker, a formidable criminal, a silver tongue and he's faithful to his friends and his woman.

Plus, the FBI agents act like a bunch of criminals.

---

* I think the funniest quote from the article is the last one -- he hasn't even seen the finished film yet. Didn't it come out in the States during the summer?

---

An update on the monster debut of One Piece.

Looks Strange, Tastes Good

2009-12-06T22:37:00.007+09:00

It's been getting chilly here, so we've been eating lots of hot pot dinners. For the past two nights, we've had hot pot with chicken meatballs, oysters and the special fish of the night. Last night, we had:

This kissing fish is called kawahagi (かわはぎ) in Japanese. It's a kind of filefish. Not bad, but we weren't blown away. The meat of the fish is kinda flaky.

Tonight, we tried:

This beauty is called kajika (かじか). Its English code-name is the sculpin. It reminds me of a smaller version of the monkfish. You may not want to kiss it but it sure was tasty. The fins have a gelatinous texture that was especially yummy.

Coming Soon!

2009-12-03T12:17:00.009+09:00

You can see lots of American films in Japan, especially if you live in a big city such as Osaka. But often, films get released a few months later here. For example, I get to see the following in the next few weeks:

Up opens this weekend

Public Enemies arrives a week after

Where the Wild Things Are comes in January

So what makes James Cameron so special?

Avatar will open here around Christmas,
nearly the same time as in the U.S.

Is it safe?

2009-11-30T23:39:00.004+09:00

Max: I should go to bed. I have to wake wake up early to get to the airport by eight tomorrow morning.
Naomi: Don't worry, Max. I'll drive you.
Emi: Uh-oh.
Max: Uh-oh?!
Naomi: Don't listen to her, Max. I am a safety driver.
Max: Okay...but I hope you are a safe driver.

Lots of Japanese people say they're safety drivers. I am sure they are but actually, they mean they are safe drivers. Drivers is a noun so you need an adjective -- safe.

When can you use safety? Well, this familiar sign uses "safety":

Can you translate it? Right, it says "Safety first."

Of course, I always think in terms of movies. Here is the scariest use of the word "safe" you will ever hear. "Is it safe?" You tell me.

Who Had a Better Year?

2009-11-06T01:34:00.006+09:00

Let's see.

This guy delivered the game-winning hit in the championship game of the WBC. Then he broke an MLB record by collecting at least 200 hits for the ninth consecutive season.

And this guy came back from an injury-shortened season in 2008 to hit 28 homeruns this year. On Wednesday night, he helped the Yankees win their 27th championship by driving in six runs.
Yup, that's a record for a World Series game. So of course he became the World Series MVP.

English Lesson "Pick Up vs. Pick Out"

2009-11-05T09:07:00.009+09:00

"Pick up" has many uses:

My friend's son picked me up at the airport.

Harvey Milk picked up Scott Smith in the subway
in the beginning of "Milk."

Oh, no! The baby made a mess.
Can you pick up the clothes on the floor?

Please pick up some milk on your way home.

• • •

But be careful! "Pick up" doesn't work here:

Ken: Can you help me?
Naomi: What's the matter?
Ken: I can't decide. Help me pick up a tie.
Naomi: ???
Ken: Which tie should I wear?
Naomi: Oh...pick out a tie! That one.

"Pick out" = choose

A win without a win

2009-10-30T13:19:00.005+09:00

poor Joe

What is the right choice?

Your "Philosophy Question of the Day" is sponsored by The World Series.

The Yankees won Game 2 just a few hours ago, 3-1. So I guess Yankee manager Joe Girardi should have a good sleep tonight before leaving for Philadelphia.

Not so fast. For Game 2, Girardi used a line-up with two weaker hitters (Jose Molina and Jerry Hairston, Jr.) in place of two very good hitters (Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher). Why? He used Molina instead of Posada at catcher because the starting pitcher seems to pitch better to Molina than to Posada. And Girardi decided to bench Swisher because he has been terrible in the post season.

Baseball fans who carefully study the numbers didn't think these decision make sense. My favorite line is:

If it works, that doesn't make it the right move.

Wait a minute. If it works, then it is right. Right? Or does the philosophically correct choice matter more than the result? Are we counting strategically-sensible wins over real wins?

I can understand making an argument against Joe's decision. But how can you say he didn't make the right move when he got the result he wanted? Girardi's job is to win games. And his decision helped to win the game -- Molina picked off a runner and Hairston got a hit that led to a run. Cut Joe a break. Give him a pat on the back and let's resume in Philly.

Did you know that...?

2009-10-29T08:52:00.004+09:00

The first ex-wife of actor David ("Knight Rider") Hasselhoff is married to a man named Michael E. Knight.

English Lesson: Tastes Great! Less Filling!!

2009-10-12T23:09:00.011+09:00

Max: How is your ice cream?
Naomi: It has good taste.
I love green tea ice cream. Wanna try it?
Max: Thanks, but no thanks. I prefer chocolate.
Naomi: You only like chocolate?
Max: Yup. By the way, you should say, "It tastes good."
Naomi: Why?

It is a matter of style. Americans most often use "taste" as a verb when we talk about food:
Your spaghetti sauce tastes great!
This bread tastes stale.
I don't like tofu because it tastes bland.

We do this with the other four senses:
You look great in your new jacket!
The popcorn smells so good.
My voice sounded raspy after five hours of karaoke.
I feel so tired every day after work.

•••
How about "good taste"?

One situation where people do say "good taste" is when someone agrees with your choice in something -- fashion, movies, cuisine -- and that choice shows you have an appreciation for sophisticated things. Of course, it also means you have have "bad taste."

For example --

Hugh Jackman has good taste when it comes to picking suits. Of course, when you look like Jackman, just about anything you wear is going to look good. (I don't know about that pose, though. Where was this picture taken? Japan?)

Cher, on the other hand, had bad taste the year she decided to pick this dress. But of course, if she hadn't dressed like that, we would have had nothing to talk about when watching the Academy Awards.

Enter Sandman

2009-10-01T00:44:00.001+09:00

A story about a man and his pitch.

English Lesson: comparatives

2009-09-25T11:25:00.005+09:00

Most students have no trouble making a sentence such as this one:

My dog is bigger than your dog.

But then, they make mistakes with sentences such as this one:

At McDonald's, US sizes are much bigger than Japan.

Huh? What are you comparing? In the first sentence, you are comparing your dog with my dog. In the second sentence, you are comparing US sizes with Japanese sizes. So, you need to use "Japanese sizes" at the end of the sentence. Or you can do this:

At McDonald's, US sizes are bigger than Japanese ones.

•••

Do you know how to use these?

• mine
• yours
• his
• hers
• ours
• theirs

His voice is louder than mine.

Where are you going to stay, at my house or his?

Our team practices more often than theirs.

Just Like National Geographic

2009-09-19T00:09:00.003+09:00

The big news item of the summer in Japan has been the saga of Noriko Sakai, the former pop idol who disappeared for a week when her husband was arrested on drug charges, and then later was herself arrested for the same crime.

After she was jailed, the newspapers and TV stations gave us at least one report a day about her plight -- places where she bought drugs, people she partied with...blah, blah, blah.

The only thing newsworthy enough to knock her off the front page was the Democratic Party's historic victory in the Lower House elections.

Anyway, I got to thinking that maybe I could make some cash selling "Free Sakai/Let Her Go!" t-shirts. Well, the authorities beat me to it. I don't mean they are gonna sell t-shirts. I mean she made bail* and they freed her.

In the States, just just deny, deny, deny. And when you get in legal trouble, you let Jacoby & Meyers do all the talking. Here in Japan, you gotta make a tearful public apology once you've screwed up. Her award-winning performance was captured by what seemed like all the photographers from the last Super Bowl. They all had their good cameras with them:

(source)

Outside of nature magazines, I've never seen such a crystal clear representation of motion frozen in a frame.

---
* Is it just me or does she sound like she's still using the stuff from those awful quotes? Some things just don't translate well.

What if...?

2009-09-17T01:31:00.004+09:00

A short man makes for a long story.

Of course this one only takes seven minutes.

Watch Napoleon Bunny-Part - Bugs Bunny in ã�³ã�¡ã��ã�£ | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

English Lesson: Learning English with Google

2009-09-10T12:10:00.005+09:00

Recently, I looked at how Japanese people use English words differently from Americans -- specifically, I talked about the word "challenge." In fact, there are many words that fit this category. Today, let's look at "renewal" and "reform."

In Japan, these two words are often used to talk about fixing a building, a business or a home.

renewal -- Here is a site about improving Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture, home of the annual Summer HS Baseball Tournament.

reform -- Take a look at this site for a company (with an impressive-sounding name) that will fix up your home.*

(from here)

Well, Americans use "reform" and "renewal" very differently. We don't use these words to talk about homes or stadiums. How do we use them? OK. Try this. Go to Google News and do a search for "reform."

What did you find? Lots and lots of stories about healthcare reform. It's the hot topic of the year. And it makes some people in the US very emotional.

So, reform is a word we use to talk about improving or changing political processes and government programs. And there are lots of programs and processes that need change: Social Security reform, immigration reform...

How about renewal? Did you check Google News? Did you find anything about buildings or stores or stadiums? Nope. Renewal has to do with licenses:

Every few years, I have to renew my driver's license.

Some married couples renew their wedding vows on their wedding anniversary.

So, what should you use when you talk about buildings? Try "renovate," or "refurbish."

• • •

* I started to notice the word "reform" in Japan while watching a show called "Before/After," which is similar to "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" except without all the excessive emotional manipulation.

English Lesson: "Have you seen 'The Last of the Mohicans'?"

2009-09-03T12:48:00.004+09:00

We use "the" in noun phrases with the word "of." This often appears in titles. For example, have you seen the Indiana Jones movie where he goes to India? It's called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

It's not my favorite one but the dinner scene is fantastic.

Book titles also commonly use "the" and "of":
"The Count of Monte Cristo" is discussed in a funny moment from The Shawshank Redemption. It happens around the 5-minute mark of this clip:

I tried to think of song titles too but I couldn't come up with any. Can you think of one?

Let's finish with the title of this blog entry. Michael Mann's remake of "The Last of the Mohicans" tells an old-fashioned love story but with such beautiful images and well-chosen music that the movie feels fresh and new. I can watch the final sequence of the movie over and over.

I think the secret to its power is that there are so few lines of dialogue in the end. Here, actions speak. And the pace of it, measured by the music, is slower than most action sequences. The Mohicans do a lot of running at the end, and as they run, anticipation builds and builds.

Excuse me. I'm gonna watch it again.

English Lesson: "Let's try it!"

2009-08-30T19:17:00.005+09:00

Kelly: Have you ever played darts?
Naomi: No, never.
Kelly: Me neither. There's a British pub in my neighborhood. It has a dart board. Do you want to play?
Naomi: Sure! Let's challenge!
Kelly: ???

The Japanese language uses a lot of English words. But Japanese often uses these words in ways different from their original meaning. One example is "challenge." In the case of Kelly and Naomi, "challenge" doesn't make sense. Naomi should have said:

Sure! Let's try it!

We use "challenge" for starting a contest or a battle:

I challenge you to a game of darts.
The contender challenged the champion but lost.

"Challenge" is often used as a noun for a task or goal that will require a lot of hard work and luck:

Getting astronauts to the moon is a big challenge for NASA.

You can also use "challenging" as an adjective:

The most challenging part of this exam is the vocabulary section.

You got it? Okay. I challenge you to make three sentences using "challenge."

Ooohs and Aaahs by the Lake

2009-08-27T09:11:00.013+09:00

Lake Biwa (琵琶湖), the biggest lake in Japan, is just a short train ride from Kyoto. At the beginning of August, Otsu, the biggest city on the shores of the lake, has a fireworks show that's worth seeing. So we decided to take a look. Plus it was a chance to check out the lake, which we had never done.

The initial plan was to go early, rent bikes and ride around the lake and then, in the late afternoon, grab a spot for the fireworks. Well, the problems is, there is no bike path or even foot path along the lake in Otsu. On the closest road to the lake, you can barely see the water most of the time. It felt like we were biking in any old urban area in Japan, so the ride lost its appeal pretty quickly. I didn't even bother to stop and take pictures of the lake.

We were gonna eat lunch by the lake but ended up at Omi Shrine (近江神宮) instead:

Squint real hard and you'll see that I'm wearing my "Hiroshima Loves Peace" t-shirt. Unfortunately, it was August 8; I was two days late.

After lunch, we cycled around town and found some streets near the JR station that reminded Yuki of side streets in Kyoto. Many of the buildings looked old school:

By 4 p.m., the main street from the station to the lake was closed to cars and food stalls were beginning to open. Lots of people were making their way down to the show. Crowd control was very impressive. Also impressive was the statue of the exhibitionist near the station:

now

you

know

everything

We realized we didn't have a picnic blanket or a plastic sheet to put on the ground so we ended up spending a good chunk of time hunting one down. Back by the lake, we found a spot to our liking, laid out the plastic sheet and held it down with rocks and pins and went back to the station to return our bikes. It's great that you can just leave your plastic sheet on the ground and no one would mess with it. When we picked out our spot, our part of the lakeside park was already covered with (mostly) blue sheets.

The walk back to the park was jumble of people:

We grabbed some food and sat down on our sheet for a two-hour wait until the show. At dusk, I spotted the riverboat Michigan:

I wonder how much it costs to watch the fireworks from the boat. Finally, showtime arrived. The first few rockets were weak. I started to think that we had waited for two hours for a shitty show. And that's when the sky lit up with bursts:

I tried to get some good snaps of the show but ended up failing about 90 percent of the time. That's a horrible batting average.

The fireworks show I can compare it to is the Niigata City fireworks show over the Shinano River. I used to think that one was the most impressive. Biwako's leaves a lasting impression, too. It's worth a trip back to the lake next year.

English Lesson: "What a rally!"

2009-08-25T23:45:00.010+09:00

Did you watch the final game of the Summer High School Baseball Tournament?

Here are the highlights:

Of course I was rooting for the team from Niigata.　Which team were you cheering for?

The game was really exciting in the 9th inning. The team from Niigata was behind, 10-4. They needed a big rally -- six runs! -- to tie the game. They almost made it but lost 10-9. It was an impressive effort.

Sometimes, when a team is behind and needs a rally, the players wear rally caps:

I wonder how often that strategy works.

***
Do you have a favorite baseball player? Which star do you root for?
I follow Major League Baseball so I'll introduce a few Major League stars to you.

Joe Mauer plays for the Minnesota Twins. He is one of the best hitters in baseball. This year, his batting average is even higher than Ichiro's. Plus, he has 25 home runs and 78 runs batted in (RBI) so far. The most amazing thig is, he is a catcher. Usually, catchers are not great hitters so Mauer is an exceptional player.

Albert Pujols is the best hitter in baseball. He plays first base for the St. Louis Cardinals. Pujols hits over .300 every year with lots of home runs and RBIs. This year, he's leading the National League in home runs, but it's a slim lead. If he stays healthy for his career, he can break a lot of records. Take your vitamins, Albert!

My favorite player is Mariano Rivera, the closer for the New York Yankees. In November, he will become 40 years old. That's not so old, except when you're a baseball player. No matter. Rivera is still the best closer in baseball.

When he enters the game at Yankee Stadium, it feels like this:

Rivera and Metallica's "Enter Sandman" are a perfect match.

Summer Gifts

2009-08-19T00:56:00.006+09:00

We received a couple of seasonal care packages recently. Yuki's Mom sent us some udon (稲庭うどん) and soumen. (小豆島そうめん) They're usually eaten cold in the summer; you boil and wash the noodles then eat them by dipping them in a soy-based sauce.

Speaking of summer foods, our friend Aya sent us edamame and a watermelon.
どうもありがとうございます！！
Take a look:

This kind of edamame, which is from Niigata, is called chamame (茶豆).
If you read Chinese characters, you'll notice the first character means tea.
That character also stands for the color brown.
Chamame gets its name from the brownish tint of the skin of the edamame bean.

This beauty was born and raised in Uonuma, Niigata,
which is famous for super-expensive rice
(Uonuma rice is a brand name in Japan, the Louis Vuitton of rice)
and the noted actor Ken Watanabe,
perhaps the only rice farmer ever to get an Academy Award nomination. ; )

An even more beautiful view.

English Lesson: "The de Young Museum is in Golden Gate Park."

2009-08-16T14:07:00.006+09:00

Articles drive students of English crazy. How can you learn to use them correctly?
Practice, my grasshopper, practice.

Learn the rules. Here's one:

Museums use "the":
I've been to the de Young Museum many times.

It was great living just ten minutes away from one of the best museums in San Francisco. Yuki and I went to a bunch of terrific exhibits, including the Gilbert and George exhibition and the Chihuly exhibition:

The tower of the de Young also has a great view of the western part of San Francisco. If it's a foggy day, you can admire the photo mural instead:

Nope, this photo wasn't taken on a foggy day.

My favorite museum in Japan is the Hakone Open-Air Museum. It's a bit out of the way, which makes it an even more worthwhile trip. I've only been there once, and I would love to go again.

Museums with nicknames also use "the." For example, the Met is the biggest museum in New York City. Just about every time I go there, I start in the cluster of rooms that contains Masterpieces of Western Art and I get exhausted making my way through them.

A nickname that doesn't use "the" is MoMA. It stands for the Museum of Modern Art. New York has a MoMA. So does San Francisco. Do you know of any other MoMAs?

Parks don't use "the":
Golden Gate Park is the biggest park in San Francisco.

Did you know that buffaloes live in Golden Gate Park? Or that you can play golf there...

Yuki's mom is approaching the tee!

...and a get a good BBQ sandwich? Right, Phil? Next time, let's try the BBQ ribs.

The U.S. has a bunch of great national parks. I've been to a number of them. Yuki and I saw Yosemite National Park and Zion National Park. Joe and I hiked in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Which one do you like better, Yuki?

Yuki in action in front of El Capitan in Yosemite.

Do you have a favorite park or museum?

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo

2009-08-14T14:50:00.007+09:00

What does Ponyo want?

There is a theory about the formation of the self that goes something like this: Just after you are born, you cannot tell the difference between yourself and a chair. Of course you don’t know what a chair is, but in fact, that isn’t important to you at all. You only know that you are, and you are the only thing that there is. The chair is you. The air is you. Your mother is you. In this state of being, you are everything and everything is you. And the only thing that concerns you is needs. You need food. You need to sleep. You need to do number one and number two.

But of course you are wrong. Your conception of everything is wrong. You begin to realize that the chair is not you. It is something else. And the fact that there are other things is the first thing that we ever learn. And it is very frightening.

It is as if you are suddenly broken into a million pieces. What was once whole and full and complete has become fragmented, forever separated. Who are you? That chair is not you. It is not a part of you. What are you?

Can you picture yourself? I mean your entire self? Of course you can. You’ve looked at yourself in a mirror. You know what you look like. You have seen the entire you. But what about when you were born? And after you realized that your idea of you had been totally wrong?

Who are you? What are you? You realize that the right arm is a part of you. The left arm? Yes, that too. And those legs. And that part near the bottom that gets wet a number of times a day. And the part where food goes into. All those parts are parts of you. But they are parts. And you can’t get a sense of the whole. What is the whole of you?

Sarasaちゃん asks: "Are you sure you're not me?"

At first, you felt only needs. But now, you feel something different. You feel want, which is different from need. Without satisfying needs, you will die. You are sure of that. You need to end the feeling of hunger. You need to relieve the pressure of number one and number two. Without satisfying wants, you won’t die but you’ll be miserable. You want to be whole again. You want to be able to feel that you are everything and everything is you again. You want to be full and complete again. But of course it is not possible. Once you realize that your idea of you is wrong, you cannot go back to that sense of being whole ever again. You are forever separated from that content feeling of completeness. You want but you can’t get what you want. As Morpheus said:

Um, welcome to spelling class.

Wants and Needs. Wholeness and Separation. Those concepts kept coming to mind while I watched Miyazaki Hayao ’s most recent film, “Ponyo.” The most powerful scene in the film is Ponyo’s storm. It’s a whopper of a storm. Maybe she didn’t mean to whip up such a frenzy. She may not even realize she had caused the mess. That storm came because she wanted something that we have all wanted since we realized that the chair was really a chair and not us. She wanted to end the Separation. Ah, but in her case, it’s separation with a small “s.”

Like Chagall. But, you know, for the kids.

“Ponyo” is a love story for the kindergarten set. Little boy meets little fish. Little fish and little boy bond. Father of fish comes to take little fish home. Little fish wants to be with little boy again. The want that the little fish feels is the most powerful force in the film, so great that it can change a fish into a girl and create a tuna-powered storm that dwarfs fishing boats and floods a town.

The storm is Miyazaki’s way of depicting want. And maybe it is the best depiction of want I have ever seen. Want is the storm that we make and we really don’t care about what the storm does or who the storm affects. We just want to be at the tip of that storm, pistoning our chubby infant legs so that we maintain our position at the front and get where we want to go. The younger you are, the more powerful that storm can get. And the easier it is to maintain that storm.

Ponyo’s storm is a mighty creation because she is, after all, a child. And anyone, from children to the elderly, can understand the power of that creation. Ponyo never once looks back while she is at the front. No, because her sense of want is supremely powerful, like the want you felt when you realized that you are not who you thought. But as I watched it, I was exhilarated and at the same time horrified. It’s one heck of a storm, and it can wreak havoc.

After the storm, the movie loses steam. It starts to deal with another character’s want and that doesn’t seem as compelling as Ponyo’s. The moments that will stay with you are Ponyo's -- when she wills herself arms and legs; when she makes Sosuke's toy into a sea-faring vessel; when she discovers ham, and later, ramen:

"あ〜〜〜〜〜〜〜！！"　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 "おいしそう〜〜！！"

"Ponyo" isn't quite up to the standards of "Totoro," the last film Miyazaki made with the kiddie set in mind. It's hard to be perfect twice, I guess.

English Lesson: All about "Back"

2009-08-13T19:53:00.007+09:00

Bo: What did you do last weekend?
Abe: I backed to my hometown.

Let's look at Abe's answer because it doesn't make sense. What is the verb in the sentence? "Back." When we use "back" as a verb, it means to support or endorse. For example:

Newspapers in the U.S. always choose to support a presidential candidate a few days before the election. Last year, The New York Times backed Barack Obama while The New York Post backed John McCain.

You can also use "back" at the racetrack for the horse you gambled on.
I backed the wrong horse in the last race and lost $100.

So, what should Abe have said?
Abe: I went back to my hometown.
go back = return

Phrasal Verbs
back up (driving) - During the driving test, you have to show the proper way to back up while parking.

A while back, my co-workers and I got into a conversation about what specific things turned each of us on. Yes, we were talking after work. I forgot most of the answers but there's one I still remember. One of the teachers said she really liked watching her boyfriend park his car. She said there is something very sexy about watching a guy look over his shoulder while turning the steering wheel, especially because he uses just one hand to steer. I wonder what the other hand is doing.

sexy?

back up (computers) - You should always back up your files. If your computer crashes, you may lose all your work.

back off - After their first date, John called Kelly every day, sometimes twice a day. That's just too much. He needs to back off a bit.

The Dog Days

2009-07-15T10:56:00.005+09:00

We're in the middle of a run of unbearably humid and hot days in Osaka. Daily temperatures in Ibaraki are about 95ºF with the air nearly saturated with moisture. It's so bad, I'm writing sentences like a possessed weatherman.

We were thinking that we could be strong, that we could just grit our teeth and survive the next two months without an air conditioner. But we were wrong. We're weak. Yes, we're wusses. Yuki ordered a savior for us last night and it should get installed by Saturday. We need it. The computer needs it. It gets overheated way too quickly.

Guess who is having just an awful time?

Every day, she spends all her time in a never-ending quest to find a comfy spot -- some cool shady place to nap. When I open the front door to get some air circulating, she tries to take advantage:

Look, a chubby long-haired calico just wasn't built for a Kansai summer. Don't despair, Ponzie. Help is on the way!

梅酒 update with some other random pics

2009-07-02T10:00:00.010+09:00

Here's what the plum wine looks like after a month of rest in the closet:

You can see that all the rock sugar has dissolved. The plums have lost their vibrant green and look more pickled. They're starting to wrinkle a bit also. For a comparison, just scroll down or look here.

***

As long as I got the camera loaded, let's empty it out and see what's there. Hmmm...not much to choose from.

Here's a shot of the police box sign that I see a lot around here but never in Niigata:

I don't know why but the style of the drawing looks French to me. Can someone draw a Japanese-style toilet in the bottom left coner, please?

Next to my city is Takatsuki-shi (高槻市), home of factories and distribution centers. Meiji Seika, makers of the Meiji chocolate bar and カール, has a factory in Takatsuki with a huge mural on the side of one of its buildings:

Oh, and the last box from the US to be opened was the one containing Yuki's Gilbert & George print:

ギルバート&ジョージさん
日本へようこそ

Race ya, Michael Phelps

2009-06-25T07:58:00.006+09:00

Here's the next winner of the 100m butterfly at the Special Olympics:

According to Yuki, the sea turtle had a traumatic encounter with a shark but thanks to some sympathetic engineers, Papa's got a brand new flap...er, flipper.

The turtle story was broadcast on NHK, the PBS of Japan. No, that's not quite right. People in Japan actually watch NHK. Plus, everyone here has been bothered by the NHK guy coming to your house to collect "donations."

I watch NHK for the dubbed nightly news but usually I don't pay attention to Japanese TV. Whatever Yuki is watching, I'll watch. Recently, that has amounted to just early morning talk shows. Yuki's got her nose stuck in her textbook so there isn't much time for TV. The one program we watched recently showed a lot of wacky/horrific news clips. If your perception of the world was informed only by this program, you'd think that:

• the preferred method of suicide in China/Thailand/South Korea is jumping off a tall building;
• taxi drivers hate bicyclists;
• only bizarre robberies occur at convenience stores.

The Drinking Life

2009-06-04T11:26:00.006+09:00

One thing baseball fans like to do is imitate their favorite hitters, or favorite hitting stances. Do any come to mind just now?

I know which one I think of immediately -- the distinctive homeplate ritual used by Ichiro Suzuki, the singles-hitting machine. You've seen it before:

Like other famous people in Japan, Ichiro shills for a number of companies, including the alcohol of choice at frat houses everywhere. I see this one at train stations everywhere:

Yeah. Looks familiar, doesn't it. Maybe he's toasting the pitcher at a wedding ceremony.

On the subject of beer, a student of mine was surprised when I told him that beer commercials in the U.S. don't actually show people drinking beer. Huh? If nobody drinks beer in the commercials, then what do these commercials show? Someone pouring beer, dominoes, Q and Pharrell Williams and Dr. Dre, a douchebag of a skinnydipper, and "All we need is one pin, Rodney."

Where is the pleasure of drinking? It's on this side of the Pacific.

On second thought, Ichiro gets edited in mid gulp, like a Jackie Chan fight scene filmed by bullshit American directors. Let's give Indy Jones a go:

Homemade Umeshu

2009-05-26T17:01:00.004+09:00

It's time to make some plum wine (梅酒). Here's what we need:

The plastic bag on the left contains rock sugar. The carton is filled with liqueur.

We live pretty close to Wakayama, which is famous for its fruits -- especially plums, which are used to make plum wine or are pickled into umeboshi. When Yuki spotted bags of plums from Wakayama at the local supermarket, we decided to make umeshu again. The last time we did this was 2001 (maybe 2002?) in Niigata. The results kicked major ass.

The directions we got with the big glass jar told us to put the plums and sugar in the jar in layers:

I don't remember if we did the same thing in Niigata. The directions also said that we can drink it after about a month. But from experience I know the longer you wait, the better it tastes. We kept the jar in Niigata for about two years before we drank all of it. Super tasty!

So, see ya guys next year...

Stuffing Ourselves at the Conveyor Belt

2009-05-24T13:27:00.004+09:00

Last night at dinner, I said to Yuki that I think I've never been to a real sushi restaurant in Japan with her. In Niigata, whenever we wanted to have sushi, we'd go to one of the kaiten-sushi places. They kinda look like this:

(source)

We were having this conversation at Kappa Sushi, which is the nearest kaiten-sushi for us in Ibaraki. Kappa Sushi is a chain that charges 100 yen for a plate with two pieces of sushi. That's 100 yen (= $1.10) for just about any kind of fish: salmon, tuna, mackerel, yellowtail...

One of the first plates Yuki had was amberjack (カンパチ). She liked it so much, she proceeded to have four more plates of カンパチ, spread out through the entire meal. That's ten pieces of the same fish for those counting at home. We ended up having 14 plates of sushi, plus miso soup, plus chawanmushi and some watermelon for dessert. The total was 2200 yen.

I don't think we ever went to Kappa Sushi in Niigata but we did once in Tokyo and it wasn't good at all. Yuki remembers that the mackerel she had there hadn't been thawed completely. But the one in Ibaraki is fine and dandy. My favorite feature is how they deliver your orders. There are actually two conveyor belts. The lower one is in constant motion and you can take what you want. The upper belt is actually a track for the bullet train sushi delivery system. Fun for the whole family.

See ya next time, Kappa!

Travis Bickle Sells Out

2009-05-21T22:27:00.004+09:00

From this...

to this...

Out of Luck

2009-05-20T22:15:00.009+09:00

If you were a whale, where is the last place you'd want to get stranded in?

That's right. I'd avoid the land of whale sashimi and whale bacon too. I'd make sure to keep my distance from a land where whales get caught for "scientific research" because there is just no way to count them without harpooning them first; where people with science degrees claim that the supply of fish in the oceans would increase if we'd keep the population of whales under control.

Well, this poor thing got stuck in shallow water in the wrong place -- the wrong place being the port of Tanabe-shi in Wakayama Prefecture.

(source)

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the tireless rescue team spent all of one hour on trying to help the presumably sick cetacean.

I wonder how long they spent tenderizing the sucker with special juice:

(source)

Just joshing...

What's Wrong with This Picture?

2009-05-19T15:25:00.008+09:00

For me, this is the most tangible evidence that things are not normal these days. The high school yard is deserted on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. What I miss more is the noise the kids make. It's my constant background noise. And now it's gone. Have you ever watched a movie with the sound turned completely off? It feels off. That's what Ibaraki-shi feels like now -- off.

Here's Yuki and I getting ready to go grocery shopping yesterday:

I look like a medical professional, don't I? Outside, mask-wearers outnumber gamblers over 3-to-1.

You know who needs a mask? The cat. She doesn't seem to be sweating it too much, though:

H1N1 comes to Kansai

2009-05-17T23:16:00.005+09:00

I've probably already mentioned that I live behind a high school. My front door faces the school's yard. This means during the day, seven days a week, I hear the softball team and the soccer team and the handball team practicing and chanting.

Today, it rained. So the yard was empty. But it turns out that the weather did not keep the kids away. The flu did.

Schools in Osaka have closed because H1N1 has spread here. Yuki just found out from a classmate that her school has shut down for a week. She just received a second Golden Week.

Now that I think back, it was strange that the high school was completely empty. Even if the teams were idle, there should have been students there for band practice, or judo practice or dozens of other club activities. A Japanese school is always alive with activity.

A related aside:
Earlier last week, Yuki told me that in one of her classes, she sat next to a Mexican student. The student was coughing on and off. And the student told her that he had gone back home during Golden Week. But he felt okay.

Argggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!

If you never hear from me again, I love you all.

The Trust System

2009-04-04T18:54:00.004+09:00

It's been a rainy Saturday. On my way to the station in Uji, I passed a table placed on the sidewalk. On top of it were about half a dozen baskets of oranges. And a tin box with a slit for you to deposit coins. And a sign. Since it was raining pretty steadily, I didn't read the sign carefully but I could spot "300円" written near the bottom. If you're playing along at home, this most likely means that a basket of oranges (I'm guessing you get six) cost 300 yen. And you should deposit your coins into the tin box. Sorry. Exact change please.

As I walked, I marveled at how something like this can exist in the world.* I grew up in NYC. People from my hood would laugh at things like this. And then take the tin box. And the oranges. And the friggin' table. My buddy Ric just told me that a friend of his -- a visitor from Japan -- absentmindedly left her purse in the restroom of a restaurant for a few minutes. When she realized her mistake and went back to retrieve it, it was already gone. Along with money and her passport. Yeah, I know. Providing one anecdote to prove my point is lame. But you get my drift, right? Why can't oranges on tables in the rain exist in Brooklyn? Or the Sunset?

•••

In other news, the final box from San Francisco was opened and emptied today. We managed to fit all the stuff into our place. The bookcase that I found on the curb helped a lot. Free furniture is always helpful.

On the other hand, this one didn't help with the unpacking at all:

* At the exact moment that I was marveling, I was also thinking that I wasn't surprised. This was Japan after all. You lose your wallet on the bus here and it will make its way back to you; this happened to a friend of mine.
It was a weird collision of feelings -- a sense of amazement and, at the same time, actually thinking that this is how things work here and you know this is how things work here and yes, I expect things to work here this way.

Different Views of the Sun

2009-03-29T16:56:00.012+09:00

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Expo Park started yesterday, so we went to taker a look. The first day was chilly and sometimes overcast. Plus, most of the cherry trees were not in bloom yet. That would explain the sparse crowd. Also, Yuki said that since the blossoms were in full effect in Kyoto -- our destination for tomorrow -- everyone went to the ancient capital instead.

Here was the best blossom close-up I found:

Yuki went for the more distant composition:

I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the Tower of the Sun instead. Let's start with the backside view:

Yuki had visited the park when she was a really young so she didn't remember the view from the back. It looks like a really impressive tattoo.

How about some perspective on size? Take a look at 22 clumsy seconds of me walking around the right side of the huge dude.

Yeah, it's pretty big, but so is Yuki:

Walking around the western side of the park, we found pictures that showed what Expo 70 must have looked like. Yuki attended with her parents when she was a wee lass, so she doesn't remember a thing. Here's the German Exhibition Hall:

There are actually two parks to Expo Park. The second one is a Japanese Garden. Yeah, you have to imagine Yuki sneering and saying, "It's nothing like that cheap Japanese Garden in Golden Gate Park!"

I really like the pine trees:

And the bamboo trees:

Wanna see more? Click!

Good News & Bad News About the Cat

2009-03-27T18:37:00.004+09:00

Good News -- The big cat stand arrived yesterday. It got Ponzu's seal of approval pretty quickly. Now she has something to scratch, something to climb, and something to help her see the traffic below. The new cat stand is an upgrade on the one we had in SF -- currently being enjoyed by Buster:

Bad News -- The damn cat stand takes up a big chunk of the kitchen. There's a never-ending battle being waged for space in our apartment.

Good News -- The cat likes living in the Ibaraki apartment. She kinda digs the tatami, although we're always keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't scratch it up. The apartment may be old but the tatami is new. Plus she really likes Japanese cat food. She was a semi-fan of the turkey&gravy or salmon&rice cat food she sometimes got in the States. But lemme tell you, she can't say no (actually, she can't say anything except...meow) to katsuo (かつお) aka bonito or maguro (マグロ) aka tuna.

Bad News -- Um, she's starting to gain weight. And that train may not be stopping anytime soon. It's a pretty hefty job just trying to hold the cat in my arms. If I were to drop her on your foot, you'd definitely feel it. But help is on the way. We get our second and final delivery from SF on Sunday and I packed the remainder of her diet cat food in one of those boxes.

Good News -- We're all done with the moving. She doesn't have to worry about another flight or long stay inside her pet carrier.

Bad News -- It's gonna be checkup time soon. Nobody likes the vet.
Plus, she's got the Osaka summer heat to contend with in a couple of months. Maybe she'll get shaved. At least that's what Yuki's promising.

...Beyond the Sea

2009-03-23T16:03:00.004+09:00

For most of my adult life, I have lived near the sea. And just knowing that I was a bike ride away from hearing the sound of waves made me feel more at home. Last month, in Niigata, I got to go down to the shore and hear the waves just once. It was a gorgeous day.

Here, in Osaka, I am not landlocked. The beautiful port city of Kobe is only an hour away by train. But it's not the same. And knowing that a brutal summer is just months away, I need to find a beach or a shore.

Suburban Living

2009-03-18T20:37:00.016+09:00

We've moved to Osaka. Actually, technically, we're in Osaka-fu (大阪府) and not in Osaka city (大阪市). The city we live in is called Ibaraki-shi (茨木市); don't confuse it with Ibaraki-ken (茨城県). Can you tell the importance of each place just by checking the quality of each website? You make the call.

Since the majority of people work in Osaka city, where we live and our neighboring cities are considered the suburbs. But it's not the American image of suburbs. Don't think cul-de-sacs and rows upon rows of houses that all look the same. We may be in the suburbs, but it feels bustling and crowded, just the same.

Our new home: third floor, fourth window from the right. We have a six-tatami room that serves as our bedroom. The place is already filled up with stuff and we're still waiting on our boxes (a lucky 13 of them) from San Francisco. Where will everything go?

How do you feel about city logos? Here's ours:

It looks like a bird with a diaper. Maybe it's a sumo pigeon. Perhaps the best thing about the city is its central location. We're north of Osaka city, right between Kyoto and Kobe. It's possible bike to Kyoto from where we live, if you feel like taking the scenic route:

By scenic route, I mean strip malls and factories. For instance, one of the major factories for Panasonic is about 10 minutes by bicycle from the spot my ass is taking up. I think they make the hi-def TVs here:

I've never lived near an industrial zone before. It's weird bicycling on the sidewalk with trucks whizzing by. Even weirder if you look past the factory and see a rice field about a quarter of a mile away.

The location is most important to Yuki, whose U. is also a bike ride away. We paid a visit to one of the two campuses she'll be studying at come April:

Her main campus has all the medical and science departments. The part of the school I like best are the busts of two old dudes guarding the department of medicine's building. Here's the more fun-loving of the two:

The most impressive element is the university hospital. It is huge:

And a 10-minute bike ride from her U. is Expo Park and Taro Okamoto's Tower of the Sun, which reminds me of a pissed-off Ultraman Jr.:

There are many things you can't do at this park:

...including, don't give piggy-back rides to campfires, don't picket, don't try to catch mid-sized fish with a mid-sized fish as bait, and don't make the water fountain cry. Sir, yes sir!

One (or two) more images of Osaka:

We had some really tasty takoyaki (たこ焼き) tonight from Ahoya (あほや). What's tako (蛸)?

Welcome, Schmuck

2009-03-08T12:10:00.004+09:00

A condo being built on the banks of the Shinano River has this advertisement:

I understand the New York part; you want your high-rise to be associated with one of the most cosmopolitan and stylish cities in the world.

But hospitality?

Hey, douchebag! Would you like a middle finger with your welcome wagon?

30kg of Sustenance

2009-03-04T21:43:00.016+09:00

Rice is life. We keep 30kg of life in a big sack next to the rice cooker. This particular sack contained unhusked rice. Usually, we get husked rice, which is white. But Yuki's Mom -- our rice dealer -- gave her a bag of the unhusked type because she thought we'd bring it to Osaka. The husk keeps the rice fresh. But we're almost done with our old sack so we needed to take the husk off this new sack.

Niigata is the epicenter of rice in Japan. So, this might not be true of other parts of Japan, but here you can get your rice husked at machines by the road, like jumping into a photo booth or a pay phone...shit, do those things still exist? Yuki, her Mom, and I went to this one:

You need 300¥ to take care of 30kg. First, check the directions:

Notice the brown unhusked mascot explaining what to do. Mascots are always smiling in Japan. You go to the meat section of the supermarket and you'll see smiling pigs, cows and chickens. They're happy to die for you! Anyway, you put the unhusked rice into the pit on the left, listen to the machine make a lot of noise, and then collect the husked rice on the right. It takes about 5 minutes to do 30kg:

To see the machine in action, click...

A fun night out for all. How serious are people here about rice? A couple of weeks ago, walking around a big appliance store, I spotted this:

This rice cooker will set you back about $1200. Does your rice cooker really need to be pricier than your TV?

A Short Tour

2009-02-23T12:39:00.023+09:00

The snow fell like it meant business early last week, but just as quickly as it came, it left without saying a protracted goodbye. That's a good thing. I hate the sight of soot on snow.

With the sun out and temperatures above single digits (I'm thinking in Celsius), I ventured outside to take some pictures and have a look at what was going on near the station. Tamara asked me for a look at what has changed in Niigata and the station is a good place to start.

This is the back of the station, and it looks like a mess. There used to be a couple of huge parking lots but they've been torn up to build what appears to be a winding road that leads right up to the entrance. The two rectangular staircases encased in glass and a walkway are supposed to help increase foot traffic around the back of the station. The big magnet of course is the white building on the right.

Bic Camera opened a three-story superstore here last Friday. I went there on Sunday so the crowds were a bit smaller. They're having special one-day sales all this week; come buy a hi-def TV today! You need a bicycle? They've got 'em. Liquor? Yes, ma'am! Some people think it is Big Camera, but check the katakana, folks -- ビックカメラ.

All of this is happening on the east side of the station. Go through the east passage and it will look like this:

Brightly lit. White walls. Lots of glass. It'll remind you of the areas in Tokyo Station near the bullet train entrances.

So, what's happening on the west side of the station? Well, it's gonna be death for Yodobashi Camera. Everybody will be visiting the new superstore so business is gonna die a slow death. I'm sure they've got exit strategies in place -- a new location, a new building and, wham, business is back.

Speaking of exits, here's what the west passageway looks like now:

Notice what's missing? Yeah, the homeless and their cardboard-box village are all gone. Liza-chan told me that when the Emperor came for a visit recently, the homeless people got "relocated." Also missing were the swallows that used to nest there:

Conspiracy? Here's a picture I took from 2003:

And you thought apartments in Tokyo were cramped.

About a 10-minute bicycle ride from the station is the new main library of Niigata City:

Looks kinda like the crown of a shimeji mushroom, doesn't it? The library is so popular that there is a wait to get into the parking lot. It is two floors with banks of computers, study rooms and -- most impressively -- three long shelves of books in English. If you've ever been to the Prefectural library in Toyano, you know just how impressive "three shelves" sound. Plus, the city library is brand new, so the building doesn't have that musty, radiator-steamed carpet smell.

Oh. Daiei is gone. Replaced by:

In addition to more clothing shops than you can count, LoveLa Bandai is also home to Kinokuniya, which used to be across the street. A reasonably-priced supermarket is in the basement. Notice Rainbow Tower on the left side of the picture. 450¥ will get you to the top.

Other sites on my tour:

The NST broadcast studio, on the banks of the Shinano River.

Bandai Bridge with Toki Messe (朱鷺メッセ) behind it. "Messe" is mess-ay, not a mess.

Yuki's hospital. If you ever get sick in Niigata, Yuki recommends that you not go there.

-----

In other news...
＊Now, you're probably thinking...he did a lot of walking that Sunday. Nope. I've reclaimed an unused bicycle from the construction field next to the apartment building:

The basket is falling apart and the back wheel likes to stay flat rather than inflated, but it beats walking. There's a Hokuetsu High School (北越高校) sticker on the back, so if anybody from that school is missing a bike, you come find me and reclaim what is rightfully yours. Until then, I will keep it in working condition, which is much better than what it was two weeks ago.

＊Wanna see another vending machine?

Milk in glass bottles!!! Coffee milk too! Can't beat that.

＊Liza told me that Niigata's female high school students wear the shortest skirts in all of Japan. When they go on school trips to Okinawa, administrators there take out rulers and there is much tsk-tsking as measurements are done in public. Congratulations, young ladies of Niigata! Nothing comes without determination.

What's Special About Special?

2009-02-15T22:42:00.008+09:00

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell wants to take The Beatles and Bill Gates down a few pegs. Of course he thinks we should consider them geniuses and they deserve our admiration. But what he wants us to rethink is the way we consider them as something beyond what is normally possible. To Gladwell, the quartet of John, Paul, George and Ringo is not a once-in-a-generation band; but the circumstances of their development -- ah, now that was special.

Our fallacy is we think of the success of The Beatles or Gates or any other extraordinary person or group as the result of great talent (or intelligence) and the focused application of that talent. What we don't take into account, and what Gladwell shows us over and over, is how extraordinarily fortunate these successful people tend to be. Have you heard about The Beatles' extended stay in Hamburg, where they played together almost every day, often eight hours a day? Well, how did you think they became so good? Did you know that in 1968, a teenage Bill Gates wrote code on a computer on a daily basis when most computer science professors at the time didn't even have access to a computer? And what did Gates end up doing?

Gladwell hammers home the point that circumstances can and often do count more than intelligence by comparing The Smartest Man in the World with J. Robert Oppenheimer. What's amazing in this tale of the tape is Chris Langan (The Smartest Man -- 190 IQ) couldn't last one year of college and ended up becoming a bouncer while Oppy once tried to kill his university adviser and ended up in charge of the Manhattan Project. Oppy's secret advantage was his upbringing; he came from a rich family and learned how to defend himself in front of authority figures -- very handy when you have to explain why you tried to poison your assigned mentor. Langan came from a fractured home and developed a distrust of authority, which Gladwell surmises led him to drop out of school once he had bad luck with financial aid and got stuck with unsympathetic teachers.

In the second half of the book, Gladwell deals with the influence of culture on success. He takes a chapter to explain about airplane crashes and why Korean culture contributed to all those accidents suffered by Korean Air. Gladwell is really good at showing how much nonsense common sense can be and in this chapter, there is this winner: Airlines have at least two pilots in the cockpit, the captain and the first officer. The guy with more experience is the captain. Now, only one person flies the plane at a time. So, when do more accidents happen -- when the captain is flying or when the first officer is flying? Common sense will shout that of course crashes happen most often when the first officer -- the less experienced pilot -- is flying. But of course....If you're curious about why, head over to EastWindupChronicle because the good folks there have it on audio!

My favorite part of the book is Gladwell's discussion on Asians and math. Why are Asians (here, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Hongkies and Singaporeans) so much better at math? Again, we're talking about culture -- it has something to do with the way the Chinese (and Korean and Japanese) language expresses numbers. English seems arbitrary (41 = forty one, so shouldn't 11 = ten one?) while Chinese seems logical (11 = 十一 = ten one while 41 = 四十一 = four ten one).*

And, according to Gladwell, it has something to do with the culture of rice-farming. I can't tell you enough how much I love this part. Gladwell is so utterly convincing when he explains why if you have a culture that grows predominantly rice, as opposed to one that grows wheat or corn, you're gonna produce people who are better at math.

Yes, Gladwell's argument is clever, persuasive and entertaining. But he's pretty serious about his goal. He wants us to see that culture has advantages and disadvantages. So, culture can be a hindrance in one instance (such as Korean in the cockpit) but it can also be an advantage in another case (such as Korean in calculus class). And if we look at success the way Gladwell does -- as a goal that can be achieved not just by the Beatles, Bill Gates and Oppy, but by a much larger group of people given similar circumstances -- then we an begin to think of ways to help more people achieve success. The talk of rice leads Gladwell to conclude that farming wheat or corn can lead to a culture that has a two-month summer vacation at school. And that a culture that grows rice wouldn't have any of that nonsense. And maybe it's not rice the U.S. needs to adopt but a school year without such a long break.

----------------
*Two asides.
I. Gladwell doesn't talk about the way Asian languages deal with big numbers and I always notice that Japanese and Korean students get mixed up when they have to deal with millions and billions. It has something to do with separate characters for thousand (千) and ten thousand (万). So when someone wants to say 100,000 in Japan, you get 十万, which is ten-ten thousand. A million would be 百万, which is one hundred-ten thousand. Go through higher combinations and you'll start seeing people use their fingers to count off place values. Here, English has got that beat. We check the commas and every time you slap one on, we give you a new name. Got two commas? You're working with millions. Three commas? Billions. See? EZPZ日本語Z!

II. The book has lots of fun with numbers: 10,000 hours is the magic number you need to practice in order to achieve greatness...just ask Mozart, or Bill Gates; a huge percentage of the Canadian National Junior Hockey team was born in January or February...ever wonder why?; it usually takes at least seven errors to cause a plane crash.

Niigata Winter Food Festival

2009-02-07T19:04:00.001+09:00

This year's food festival features rice bowls (丼) and hotpots/stews (鍋). We tried lots of stews but left the rice bowls alone.

A sampling...

もつ鍋 -- stew with tripe

いか焼 -- grilled squid

Nothing says Niigata Food Festival like whale.

Of the three, we only tried the stew. We had squid, but it was fried tentacles, not grilled whole squid. And I'm not a fan of whale soup -- it's really, really oily. But if you spot any whale sashimi, I'm down.

For more photos...click.

The good news is, the food festival is happening tomorrow too, and in two other locations. You know where to find me tomorrow. I regret that I have only one mouth...

A Proustian Moment

2009-02-05T14:27:00.000+09:00

One big disappointment I have with Hannibal the movie is the filmmakers didn't try to show us the good doctor's memory palace. This is how he remembers things. In his mind's eye, there sits an enormous structure built from fusing a number of real palaces. Dr. Lecter's version of Muzak plays as he walks the halls to the rooms where his memories and vast volumes of knowledge are stored.

Me? I don't have the mental discipline to build a palace. I could, if I rolled up my sleeves, come up with a log cabin in the woods: one big room with a loft, and maybe an outhouse because getting a plumber is pretty pricey. And the woods are important, because some of (much of?) my memories are dark and unexplored.

Take this path less traveled:

On a quiz show last night, the guests were asked why the space shuttle flies upside down. Easy. So the astronauts can see the Earth. Also, did you know that the rocket boosters are reused but the big orange fuel tank burns up once it is separated from the shuttle?

I stopped paying attention to the quiz show so Yuki asks me the second shuttle question afterwards -- The shuttle launches from Florida and lands in California. How does it get from California to Florida after it lands? She was hoping to stump me but I knew that one too; it gets a piggyback ride on a jetliner.

How come you know all that useless information?

Well, the piggyback ride appears in 007's Moonraker. But all my shuttle trivia comes from elementary school. When I was in the 4th or 5th grade, a scientist from NASA came to give a presentation about the space shuttle. This was in the early 80s, when the shuttle was still pretty impressive and the Challenger had yet to blow up.

At the presentation, he asked us if we knew who the first American in space was. A guy sitting in my section raised his hand and shouted out an answer.

... Shepherd!!

We were sitting pretty far from the stage but the guy seemed to have heard the answer. And he was pleasantly surprised.

That's right! Hey, that's pretty impressive! The first American in space is Alan Shepard.

Everyone in our section cracked up. When the laughing died down, the kid repeated himself.

No, I said German Shepherd!

The kid was thinking of Laika, I guess. Anyway, everybody heard his answer pretty clearly the second time and we all enjoyed the best laugh of the day.

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that moment in...

Things around the neighborhood

2009-02-02T14:56:00.000+09:00

You might have heard that vending machines are everywhere in Japan. True.

And you can get practically anything you need from them. Most likely true.

This vending machine looks like a coin locker. What can you get for 110-200¥? Veggies. Slim pickings today. White radish is available. So is a kind of Japanese mustard spinach called meikena (女池菜).

The vending machine is located right in front of a plot of farmland, but I can't say for sure that that land produced this produce. It's also next to a bus stop. Pretty convenient.

Everyday Food Porn -- Part I

2009-01-30T15:20:00.000+09:00

This is the first thing I ate when I got back to Japan. It's a bento (弁当) I bought at Tokyo Station (東京駅).

Each city's main train station sells special bento -- ekiben (駅弁). Since Tokyo Station is the terminal for multpile lines of bullet trains, you can imagine it's ekiben heaven. Everybody grabs one on the way to the platform.

I had my eye on one of those daily special ekiben but it was way too big to carry. My hands were full with cat and cat paraphernalia so I settled on the smaller, old school makunouchi bento (幕の内). It's got grilled salted salmon, some simmered veggies and pickles. The rice in bento often has a red pickled plum right in the middle; it's supposed to remind you of the Japanese flag. When I dug in, I thought to myself, you're gonna eat really well for the forseeable future!

A bowl of udon in light broth. A bowl of rice with
tempura and sauce. Some pickles. (天丼セット) Simple. Cheap. And amazingly good, especially in winter.

What kind of tempura can you see? I see eggplant (なす), pumpkin (かぼちゃ), shrimp (えび), and Japanese whiting (きす). What? It's a finger-sized white fish perfect for frying.

The afternoon selection
at a bakery
called Pure Dough!
That exclamation point
is not mine;
it belongs to
the name of the shop.

I love going to the fish markets here.
This one thinks he is Steve McQueen.
Make a break for it, guys!

I'm on housework duty for the time being, which means my biggest responsibility is dinner. So far, no disasters. Actually, Yuki made most of the first night's dinner. I took care of last night's.

Miso soup. (Y)

Stir-fried pork belly and cabbage. (Y)

Stir-fried Manila clams with spring onions (me)

This kind of fish is called shiroguchi (しろぐち) or ishimochi (いしもち) in Japanese. It took a bit of googling to find its English name because the poor thing doesn't have a wikipedia page in either English or Japanese...yet.

Anyway, in English you can call it...drumroll...silver jewfish.

Yeah, it needs a better tag. Someone should recommend a rapper name for it.

How do you eat it?

You grill it. And then eat it with some Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Don't forget a veggie dish: bean sprouts with two kinds of mushrooms, enoki (えのき) and shimeji (しめじ).

All this stuff came from the food court at this monster shopping mall in Kameda, Niigata. The place is not yet two years old so everything was super clean.

Ramen (ラーメン) in a soup made from chicken stock. And pot stickers (餃子).　The pot stickers are kinda big. I like my Japanese pot stickers small and my Chinese pot stickers oversized.

Picky? Hell yeah!

Curry rice. Bowl of udon with seaweed (わかめうどん). Squid tentacle tenpura (イカゲソ).
Yes, that is a lot of food, expecially for just $7.

I don't go to Micky Dee's in the US on moral grounds but in Japan, I don't mind because the ground has changed.

Yet, I still have standards. I eat just the teriyaki burger.

Winter?!

2009-01-29T11:42:00.000+09:00

Yes, it does exist. And I had forgotten all about it.

Three things you should know about winter in Niigata City:

• the snow here is wet and clumps easily, good for making snowballs

• nobody shovels the sidewalk but when they do shovel, they don't shovel the corner so you walk on solid groud for about 10 seconds and then you end up on treacherous terrain when you want to cross the street. This city, like many in Japan, is filled with the elderly. Why don't they rise up and demand that the city (and its people) shovel the sidewalks?

• you can see lots of rice fields covered in snow

One more point -- and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with winter. I am really paranoid about getting hit by a car. Because (1) traffic moves in the opposite direction here and (2) there are no sidealks on the side streets. In Dance, Dance, Dance, one of the characters, who happens to be an ex-pat living in Japan, gets hit by a car and dies because he's used to looking left first instead of looking right. That's the word that constantly appears in neon in my mind's eye when I am walking on the street -- RIGHT! That, and Why don't they shovel?

See? No sidewalk.

Ponzu can fly

2009-01-29T10:28:00.000+09:00

It didn't start off well.

The night before the flight, I called United to make sure they knew the cat was coming. She would have to travel in the cargo bay since her carrying case was too big for the cabin. No problem. Actually, it looks like pets are not allowed in the cabin on flights to Japan. Oh? It's gonna cost you $210. Right.

At the check-in counter on the day of the flight, we ended up with a staffer who acted like she had never dealth with boarding a pet before. No problem; we had three hours before takeoff. She slooowly checked the reservation, caaaaarefully looked up the price and...what's this? "It's $85 for the cat in the cargo bay."

Of course it is. I paid and then the supervisor came over, took one look at Ponzu's carrying case, and says the cat can't go into cargo. You see, the case used clasps as fasteners, not screws. It's not secure enough for the cargo bay. Of course nobody I had talked to (not the woman on the phone the night before, not the staffer checking us in) knew about screws vs. clasps.

OK. Time for Plan B.

"We'll have to sell you a soft-shell carrying case and you can take your cat on board with you." Hey, Plan B sounded even better. Wait, I thought cats weren't allowed in the cabin on flights to Japan. So, three people got on the computer to find the purchase price for the new case. I looked down at Ponzu, who was not amused being stuck in a rectangular prison. You've got a whole 24 hours of that coming, I thought to myself.

Finally, they found it: $64.95. I paid and the staffer disappeared to retrieve Ponzu's new case. She returned 25 minutes later with the case (a clock on the internet explained that in 25 minutes, in a country with good food and bad infrastructure, a group of hard-working schoolchildren with nimble fingers would have been able to make five of those cases) and my nickel in change. More fussing with the reservation: tags were removed, replaced with new tags. How about the old case? I wanted to take it with me so I asked for it to be checked as luggage. They didn't charge me but made me sign a waiver because it wasn't properly packed (?).

Finally, after about 90 minutes, I was ready to go to security. At security, they asked me to take the cat out and hold it while I walked through the metal detector. The women awwwwed at Ponzu while the cat struggled to get free. The idiots in charge of the conveyor belt flipped her case over, spilling cat food and ice (the vet's suggestion for a long flight) all over the place. So, picture me: shoeless, holding the squirming cat, trying to get the cat food separated from the ice, listening to a lame apology from one security guard, answering another security guard's question about the cat's nail clippers...

With about 20 minutes to go, I got to the gate and thought maybe they would let me board early on account of Ponzu. Instead, they pulled me aside because I didn't have a receipt for the cat (remember, $85). At first, I thought they were trying to tell me the cat needed a boarding pass. But no, it was a receipt they wanted to see. Receipt? No, the lady never gave it to me. Really? Yes, she had to switch the cat from checked luggage to cabin and when she did that, she never gave me the receipt. We'll have to track it down for you sir. Blah. Blah. Blah. She left already? Blah. Blah. Blah. No, the gentleman said he never received it from you. Blah. Blah. Blah. You need to speak to her, sir.

Listen, remember you told me you had to cancel her check-in status? Then, you ripped up this card and made a new one but you never gave me a copy.
I did, sir.
No, you didn't.
Please check, because I did.
I have checked. You didn't give me a copy.
I don't know what to say to you, sir.
OK. I just want to get the cat on the plane. Do I have to pay again? Do I have to come back out to you? Whatever it is, just tell me what I need to do.
You don't have to pay, sir. It is recorded in the computer. You just don't have a receipt.
So I can get on the plane?
Yes, you can get on the plane. I just want you to understand that I gave you the --
Bye.

At the end of the day, I didn't really care if it had been her mistake or mine (but, you know, it was her mistake, Your Honor), I just wanted to get on the plane with the cat. A basis tenet of customer service is be aware of what concerns your customer the most. At almost every point of the check-in process, United had failed miserably. They spent 20 times more time looking at their computer screens and walking around looking for supervisors than they did assuring me that they would get my cat on the plane. They never said to me, "We'll get this straightened out. We'll get your cat on the plane."

Instead, I heard:
How much is a case? $45? I thought it was $65.
ten minutes of click click click
See?
$64.95!

Why doesn't anybody know about the carrying case regulations?

I just want you to understand that I gave you the --

So, the moral of the story is that nobody at United knows what's going on with pets on flights.

Travel wasn't agreeable with Ponzu but she didn't make a big fuss. I checked on her every hour or so, stratching her head and making sure she knew I was there.

At Narita, the Animal Quarantine people did everything the United people didn't. All those forms I filled out and faxed greased the wheels perfectly. We were in and out of the office in 20 minutes, just enough time for the lady to gasp at how...chubby...Ponzu was when I took her out of her prison.

On the bullet train, it cost 270¥ (about $3) for the cat to ride two hours to Niigata. Once she arrived, she could eat and drink for the first time in about 24 hours. She seems to like the apartment (it has pet doors and a better view) but the cold weather doesn't seem to agree with her. With me either, but it's hard to argue with nature.