Ein Jahr Madrid

Earthquake after-pics

2011-07-26T13:03:00.001+02:00

Hello there,

first of all: sorry for hardly updating my blog throughout the year. Well, well. I mostly blog about traveling and since I got back from Asia I hardly traveled at all, so there you have one reason. Anyways.

Now one more blog entry about the Tohoku earthquake before I get to blog about more pleasant things again. Once again, to recap: I was very lucky not to be anywhere near when it all happened (check my last couple of blog entries for details).
This time I won't bother you with overly long texts but I just wanted to blog some more pics.

First of all: after getting back to Europe, I was closely following the news. Almost no information from Japanese media, and overly panicking stuff in Western media. Some of those really made me angry with its stupidity. An example of nuclear idiocy:


Austrian boulevard news

What I hate about this headline: it's trying to create panic here in the middle of Europe for no reason. While there were thousands of people in Japan with real problems in the aftermath of the earthquake.
(short explanation of the headline: it translates to "nuclear cloud above Austria today". The background was that we had measurable outcomes from the Fukushima power plant in Austria. But measurable doesn't mean of any significance. With today's methods we can detect quicksilver in our drinking water, as my chemistry high-school teacher used to say. Because it's in there, but below any significant level)

Now for some personal pics that had quite an impact when I first saw them. They were sent to me by the nice Japanese friend of mine who cleared out my dorm room in Tokyo for me.

This is what my room looked like after the earthquake. All the mess and stuff out of the shelves, well, that was the earthquake (spare me the jokes about my room being messy because of my own doing). What impressed/shocked me the most besides all the stuff on the floor: the room between the shelf and the desk/shelf-combination on the second pic. Up until I saw this I wasn't even aware that my desk and that shelf left of it were two separate pieces of furniture - same material and they stood there attached to each other. That ~30cm gap between them was done by the Tohoku earthquake. Meaning that the earthquake moved around the furniture. Possibly also the many after-quakes, but those were rather small (for Japan) and I've had quite some earthquakes while living there, and none of them had moved my furniture.

So much for that. I'll leave you for now the same as last year:
よいおとしを！
(yoio toshi o! which would be "Guten Rutsch!" in German)

Earthquake afterthoughts

2011-07-26T12:45:00.000+02:00

First of all: if you are reading this and you are concerned about my status, thank you. Let me reassure you that i am fine. I am in Vienna now and i have decided to stay here, meaning that i have canceled my second semester in Japan.
I had the luxury to be able to choose to go back now or not. So i chose not to go back - Japan is struggling enough at the moment, so one less mouth to feed/one less person to use up electricity and other resources was the better decision for me. Mostly i miss all the nice people i have met in this one very short semester in Japan. I will blog more about all the things i miss, another time.

A friend here in Vienna suggested i should write down how i experienced the earthquake and what it has caused, even if i was so lucky not to feel it at all because i was not in Japan at that time. Write it down to record it, and if i felt like it, share it in my blog. So this is what this blog entry is about. Short warning: this might be one rather long text.

So, to recap the facts: the big one hit Japan at 14:46 on Friday, March 11th, 2011. It was an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 and caused a massive tsunami and many other horrible things. Read details here.

So, about my experiences. At that time there was the spring break, meaning no lectures at my university in Tokyo. I wanted to travel to another Asian country, you know, with the flights from Tokyo being much cheaper than from Europe. A friend of mine was going to South Korea in that week and asked me if i wanted to join them (one European, two Japanese). Great, i had never been to Korea yet. They wanted to go to Seoul from March 10th to 15th. Since i had the time i checked the options available and decided to go already two days earlier, on March 8th. Korean Air, Tokyo-Seoul-Tokyo, March 8th to 15th. One week in another megapolis, yippiiieee, and then back to my second semester and more months of Japan. That was the plan. First two days of couchsurfing and then the last five with my friends from Tokyo in a youth hostel.

Before leaving Tokyo i had some work for university that i had to finish. Resulted in another long night in my little dormitory room, working. In the end i managed to get one hour of sleep before getting up again to go to the airport. When checking in my luggage, the nice lady there told me "Sir, you are the first economy class passenger checking in for this flight today. I'll upgrade you to business, for free" and smiled. Very nice, thank you, Korean Air! That was my first business class flight ever. It's only a two and a half hours flight, but with my lack of sleep i really enjoyed the extra luxury. You can sleep really well in these stretched-out business class seats. Being able to select from two different meals and choose a wine, well, nice, too, but not sooo essential.
One more thing before the flight: since i had quite some time before boarding i went through all the souvenir shops at Narita airport. Just to check what stuff's available. I thought if they'd have good and still affordable stuff, I might get some there once I'd leave Japan. They actually have a nice assortment. Little could i know that i was actually leaving Japan already, for good. Well, to see it like this: i must've gotten the best/worst excuse for not bringing anyone in Europe any Japanese souvenirs since i didn't even know i was leaving... remember, my plan was to stay in Korea for one week of vacations and then come back to Japan for another semester, and only leave in the beginning of August.
So, anyways, after a nice and short flight and waiting a little at customs, i went to the city to meet my host for the next two nights. I'll write more about my Korean experiences another time, for now I'm trying to keep it related to Japan.
On Wednesday i was sightseeing during the day. In the evening i heard that there had been a big quake in Japan - 7.2 magnitude. Of course i was very concerned. I went online in the evening and checked with my friends in Japan if they're ok. Most of them live in Tokyo. An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 might cause a lot of damage in other places, but in Japan and especially in Tokyo there were no real problems. Just shaking a little. One more day of sightseeing on my own on Thursday, then in the evening i said good-bye (actually, "see you again") to my host and met my friends in the hostel that we had booked together. They told me their stories about the Wednesday quake - mainly where they had been at the time and how it was shaking. But no real damages.

Now, Friday. We were exploring Seoul together. Wonderful sunny weather, first feeling of spring approaching (my first two days had felt freezing cold and windy). In the afternoon, around the time when the big one hit Japan, we were walking up the hill in the middle of Seoul. It's a big park, and on top of it is Seoul Tower. There is a cable car to go up to the tower, but with the nice sunny weather and all we decided to walk up. And stop every here and there when we found a nice spot, to sit down and enjoy the sun. I imagine we were sitting in the sun, talking and generally enjoying life, just around the time of the quake. But since we were in Korea we noticed nothing of it, but instead kept walking up to Seoul Tower. Our plan was to go up the tower when we still had sunlight, then stay up there till it's dark, to have both views of Seoul. And so we did. Seoul is one giant city, and if you like such vistas like i do, you would have also enjoyed it up there.
I didn't have a working mobile phone with me - i had my Japanese smartphone in my pocket but it was on airplane mode. To safe roaming costs - i actually think roaming wouldn't have worked because i had not unlocked that - and to use it as a WLAN device if i find a free network on the way. My European friend had his regular Japanese phone with him. Classic one, clamshell design, i think that's the most common type of mobile phone in Japan. I wouldn't call them 'dumbphones' because all of them can do email and internet, albeit in a bit crappy way. So anyway, the weird thing that surprised us was that my friend received two emails from his brother within an hour while we were up Seoul Tower. Both asking if he's ok because of the earthquake. We hadn't heard about the big one yet and assumed that his asking was about the 7.2 quake on Wednesday. Asking about this seemed weird to us because my friend had told everyone that he's ok and nothing had happened even before he went to Korea on Thursday.

So, anyway, we were up on Seoul Tower for quite a while. When we decided to take the elevator down again there was a queue of people. We got in line. Next to the elevator's entrance there were a couple of large TV screens. There we saw some news in Korean. It was obviously about Japan. They showed pictures of the burning chemical plant in Chiba. Quite a big fire, but it didn't seem strange to us two days after 'such a big quake'. We went down from Seoul Tower and started looking for some place to have dinner. After dinner and some more walking around we went back to the district where our hostel was. Incidentally also a great area for going out, lots of bars etc, we'd been told. We decided to go for a beer.
When we sat down in some bar there, we realized that finally we had found a place with working free WLAN. Checking our emails we started to get the news of the big one. Plus, they had some large TVs in the bar as well. And they were no longer showing the burning chemical plant. Now they already had videos of the devastating tsunami. We realized that something really big had happened. We finished our drinks and went back to the hostel - they had PCs with free internet for guests there.
Only one of the two PCs in the hostel was free, so we let one of our Japanese friends take that. I sat down in the TV room with the other Japanese. We were watching CNN. The commentary was quite useless, but at least they were showing NHK images, and the Japanese next to me could translate what was written. We were all in shock. They kept showing tsunami images, just sometimes in between live reports via Skype from some CNN people who tried to get somewhere in Japan but were simply stuck in traffic. For me, the commentary got ridiculous when the CNN people in the studio didn't even know which time zone Japan is in. And i stopped watching when they started reporting from the beaches of California. One man reporting something like "yes, i am here at the beach of blablabla in California. People are scared, the beach is empty, and we are waiting for the tsunami". All that after they had reported that the wave had already passed Hawaii and had already been only half a meter or something like that there, causing no trouble at all.
So i left the TV rooms and joined the others in the room next to it, the PC room. We shared news from our friends and family in Japan, and eventually i also got to use one PC.

Even before getting to use the PC I used the WLAN capabilities of my mobile phone to post this blog entry to let people know that I am ok and not in Japan at the moment. Once again I was happy that the internet is such a useful thing. And I have to admit: this is the first time that I found Facebook really useful instead of just being just the huge waste of time that it usually is. Because of almost all of my friends in Japan having an account and posting updates and pics there. So I could easily check that they're alright and see personal views of what was going on. I have an account on Facebook since 2007 but honestly, this was the first time it was good to have it. So much for that.

The next days in Seoul felt quite surreal: get up in the morning after some few hours of sleep. Check the web for news while eating breakfast. Then spend the whole day sightseeing in and around Seoul. And worrying what to do, and about all people in Japan. Getting back to the hostel in the evening. Getting back online there. Reading more and more news that didn't seem to get better. And wondering what to do - go back to Japan, as planned, or not. Amidst all this receiving a lot of messages from family and friends back in Europe and elsewhere. Very concerned messages, but also very comforting to read from all of you. Truly thank you for that, it really helped a lot to read from you all. I did my best to answer all of them, even though many wrote things like "I am sure you are receiving tons of other messages right now, so I'd understand if you can't answer me personally". Thanks for thinking of me.

So, back to Seoul: when there were more and more news about the unclear situation of the reactor blocks of Fukushima, my family got really concerned and recommended me to not return to Japan. They also sent me the contact info of the Austrian ministry of foreign affairs. They had set up a hotline for everyone related to the earthquake and its aftereffects. I talked to my family through Skype and also called that hotline. They strongly advised me not to return to Japan for the moment, unless I really, really have to. And with those reactors blowing up (that's what the media said, each day another one, more or less) less than 250km from Tokyo, I made my decision: get a flight from Seoul back to Vienna, and wait for a while to see how the situation develops. Good thing was that it was only mid-March and our university's spring break would last until the beginning of April. So I wouldn't miss lectures while waiting in Vienna - well, technically I missed one lab seminar, because my over-eager professor in Tokyo simply set up working meetings all during spring break. But that meeting was more philosophical discussions about the nature of travel, so I didn't miss too much, content-wise, considering my research. I checked for flights: my original flight back from Seoul to Tokyo would've been on Tuesday, March 15th. Checking on Sunday, 13th, two days after the big quake, I found a flight from Seoul to Vienna for less than 400 Euros. Aeroflot through Moscow. Really cheap, especially considering that I booked it only three days in advance. I have to say I am not fan of Aeroflot after flying with them in 2010 - I'll spare you the details - but they are ok, well, safety-wise, and for that price they were really a good option.
The two Japanese that were with us in Korea completely did not understand why I was not going back to Tokyo. They read the same news as I did, more or less, but kept saying something like "I don't think it is bad, and it is getting better now". I also saw their belief that if something really bad would happen, their government would save them for sure. Well, of course it's easier for me to not go back to Japan. I don't have family there and only had few belongings left in my dorm room in Tokyo, nothing worth risking my health. I have to say that Western media panicked a lot. It added to the situation being so surreal: reading the nuclear panic in Western media, and almost nothing in Japanese media, the truth and myself at that moment being somewhere in the middle of that. I am sure we (Western, especially Central European world) are more sensitive to nuclear issues because we've lived through the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago, being so close to it. And because of those experiences we don't really trust government information politics about nuclear disasters anymore. Reading the news of Fukushima, it was quite clear that not all information was released immediately, just by following the day-to-day news of the first three days. So this "nuclear unclarity" was the main reason for me. My family was also concerned about the aftershocks of the quake. But frankly, those were smaller than the big one, and even if they were numerous: Earthquakes is something that the Japanese can handle well. I mean, biggest quake in recorded history, and half a day later the metro in Tokyo is up and running, and no real damage to buildings in Tokyo (I still find that fact truly impressive!). My friends still in Tokyo told me things like "it feels like little shakes about every 15min" so, quite extreme as such, but well, just little shakes. And it'd be interesting to perceive all that first hand, how disciplined the Japanese are even in extreme situations etc.
But to sum up my reasons for not going back:

unclear how the situation in Fukushima would develop
if I'd go back, it'd be much, much harder to leave than it was from Seoul
advise from the Austrian ministry of foreign affairs
advise from my doctor: I have to be very careful about the amount of radiation I take in. Having lived through Chernobyl as a child when you take in more than adults was already a bad start for me, and the shitty handling-radioactive-sources in my oil job also contributed to the fact that I rather over-react a little when it's about radiation
even if all develops in the best imaginable way: then I'd simply spend two weeks of spring break back in Europe with my family and friends, and could still go back to Japan in time to start the new semester

And, well, in case something in Fukushima would've gone really wrong: you simply can't evacuate 35 million people or more(!). Logistically impossible. So, given the choice and the reasons above, I chose to take a flight back to Vienna.

That also meant that I'd be staying one more day than originally planned in Seoul. I could have asked at the hostel, but being a couchsurfer and having had such an amicable host for the first two nights, I simply asked him again. And he was happy to help me out there and host me for another night on his couch. A really friendly Korean. That evening he had his mother and brother as guests as well, and they cooked a family dinner and insisted I joined them. So nice, they made me feel at home in their home. Big thank you to them.

I am writing a bit non-chronological here, sorry for that. Before I went back to my couchsurfing host, there was the good-bye situation with my two friends. The one European and the two Japanese. My European friend was quite unsure himself, but somehow really wanted to return to Tokyo at that moment. I told him "you know my decision. You are my friend, and I really would prefer it if you would also go back to Europe for the moment". He took the flight back to Tokyo as planned. And then only went back to his dormitory, picked up a few things and went back to the airport only four hours later. To spend the night there and catch a flight back to Europe in the morning. Luckily for him, his government was paying the flights back to Europe for all students from his country currently staying in Japan. Well, that's Sweden for you.
When we left the hostel, them going to the airport to fly back to Tokyo and me going back to my host's flat in Seoul to stay one more day, I also gave my Japanese keys to my friend. Because I was quite sure that he'd be in Tokyo before me even if I would come back. Which, in the end, was a good decision, since he was one of the nice people clearing out my dorm room for me. Plus, he can use my bicycle now, after having it registered to the right person :D

Back to Seoul again. I used my last day on my own there to visit some more parts I hadn't seen yet. And to drop by that huge electronics market one more time (apparently the biggest electronics market in the world). It's quite a sight for a geek like me. Even though I did not buy any more things - I considered getting another external hard-drive, but in the end did not buy it because of lack of WLAN and hence not being able to compare prices. Was good, because in the end it wouldn't have been cheaper than buying it back home. Anyways. As I wrote earlier, in the evening I had this wonderful dinner with the Korean family of my host and his Catalan flatmate. It was great to be in such nice company on the evening of that day. Would have felt quite lonely otherwise, after that strange day of unexpectedly wandering around Seoul one more day alone. And the whole unsure situation, not knowing if I would go back to Tokyo for my second semester or not.

The next morning I went to Incheon airport to catch my flight to Moscow. While waiting to board I looked through the souvenir shops there. Not that much stuff like in Narita, but they also had some local Hello Kitty. And dried seaweed. I decided to spend most of my last won for a huge pack of dried seaweed. In three flavours: classic, with olive oil and Kimchi-flavoured, the last one being quite a Korean taste ;-) the nice lady in the shop even gave me a special pack of extra-spicy Kimchi-flavoured seaweed for free to convince me to buy it. She didn't know I was about to buy it anyway, or well, was just being nice according to company policies. Anyways, that big pack enabled me to have little gifts from Asia for my family and friends back home. That was quite nice for me as well, not having brought any presents from Japan simply because I hadn't know that I was leaving Japan for more than a week...

So, the flight to Moscow was rather uneventful. You know, flying Aeroflot feels a bit like using a time-machine: I remember long-distance flights in the 80ies were that uncomfortable, and the interior of their machines looks a bit like it might not have changed since that time. Plus, for some reason unknown to me, the flight attendants just seem quite unfriendly. Must be a combination of their not-so-great English skills with them being simply totally stressed out. It's a nine-and-a-half-hours flight. And after last year's terrible experiences with Aeroflot food I was positively surprised that the meals were quite edible. I sat next to a Korean woman who was on her way to do a Eurotrip. She was also going to Vienna, so giving her some advise was fun. Other than that I read a book I had acquired in Seoul: Memoirs of a Geisha. It's written by an American, but dealing with so many Japanese traditions it felt like a nice closure to my time in Japan, reading this on my way back to Europe.

Arriving at Sheremetyovo airport: i was happy that I had enough time to transfer this time because it simply takes forever to get anywhere on that airport. When exiting the plane there was a big printed sign saying "transfers" and a huge arrow pointing left. And in front of it there was a bored Russian lady saying something like "transfers, to the right". After walking down some corridors I ended up in a big line. Waiting for my passport to get checked. There also was a huge group of Korean tourists on their way to Europe. They were quite confused, as there was basically no real information what was going on or why we had to queue. And the Russian personnel spoke mainly Russian and hardly any English. After about half an hour of waiting I got to a lady who asked me in broken English about my connecting flight. And then, looking it up in a printed list, was happy to stamp the terminal of that flight to my ticket. I didn't have the heart to tell her that this information was already printed onto my ticket by the Koreans at Incheon airport and so her job was completely useless. After another security check i was allowed to enter the shopping area. And there simply were no signs at all which would point in the direction of my terminal. So i found another information counter, queued up again, only to end up in front of another Russian lady with very little English knowledge. She pointed me into some direction and "up stairs" or something like that. Going that way was interesting: up those stairs there was a hallway with first nothing, then in the middle people sleeping on mattresses(!) looking like a bunch of homeless people inside the airport's check-in area, then more empty hallway and stairs down again to the area where i had started. Well, after some running around that whole terminal i found a little exit in the end that lead to my terminal.
During my first queue i had started talking to a German guy. He was also "fleeing" from Japan. By plane even though he didn't like flying. Was interesting to talk to him, not only because we were kind of in the same situation. He had gone from Germany to Japan by train and boat, doing the whole Trans-Siberian with some nice adventures on the way. To stay in Japan for about five months again as a street musician with an accordion, same as he had done the year before. We had some nice talks about life in Japan. I let him use my smartphone for checking his emails/updating himself about the situation in Japan. And also lent the phone to some Japanese teenagers who were about to board a flight back to Japan and looked quite lost, not knowing what to expect. We wished them all the best.
In the end i bought one more bottle of Russian Standard - you can pay with Euros :-) - and boarded my flight.
I would've finished my "Memoirs of a Geisha" on the flight from Moscow to Vienna. Plane was relatively empty, but in my row there was a guy from Salzburg who apparently needed to talk so badly, especially after he discovered that i speak German as well. Something about he also wanted to live in Japan for half a year. Somewhere in the South, basically unaffected by the quake, tsunami, Fukushima etc. but now going back because his family was worried blablabla... I just wanted my peace, having traveled already i don't know how many hours and just wanting to quietly finish my book. When landing he finally shut up, and i fell asleep for those ten or fifteen minutes. Hadn't finished the book because i had to listen to that guy. And when i woke up after our plane was in parking position, well, with me being so tired and all i managed to forget the book on the plane in the bag in the seat in front of me :-P thanks to my study colleague who's borrowed me the book to finish it (it's the German translation, but well, i think I'll get the other book by the real Geisha that this American author has not only pissed of but actually put in danger by mentioning her real name).

Well, Vienna. Of course it was really nice to get back and meet all my family and friends here half a year earlier than expected. I made up my mind to wait for a maximum of two weeks and then make a decision about going back to Japan. Those two weeks i felt like hanging in the air, on some thin rope. Closely following the news, even if they didn't say much. My university in Japan even postponed the start of the semester from beginning of April to beginning of May, meaning i could've prolonged this situation of waiting for a month more. But after two weeks i made a decision, to move on with my life. And cancel my second semester in Japan. I would've gone back only for about two and a half months. Interesting months, for sure, but research-wise i wouldn't be able to do much in such a short time. So I've decided to stay in Vienna and get on with my life, also as the situation hadn't gotten much clearer after waiting for two weeks (meaning the situation in Fukushima).

There sure is a ton of things that I haven't seen in Japan. Actually, at the end of my first semester - which somehow went really fast - i started making a list of things that i still need to do before leaving Japan. Dammit, i haven't even been to Kyoto. And now it's July and I would've climbed up Fuji-san. And...

Actually i wrote most of this text in the end of March/beginning of April. Sorry for taking so long to update my blog.

Thanks for reading through this very long entry. As said in the beginning: I wrote this down to record it, mainly for myself. And who knows, someone else might find this interesting as well.

I wish all the best for Japan and all the people living there - and other people affected by this terrible natural catastrophe and its aftereffects.

Update: not going back to Tokyo now

2011-03-14T18:33:00.000+01:00

Hello there,

just to give an update about my situation, for those of you who haven't heard from me through email or facebook: i am not going back to Japan from Seoul, but home to Europe.
I am very worried about the situation in Japan right now and my friends there. I hope for the best and closely follow the news.

So, in short, instead of going back to Japan on Tuesday i will go back to Europe on Wednesday. With Aeroflot through Moscow (i am no fan of Aeroflot after my flights with them in 2010, but well, they are reliable enough, nevermind the bad food and i hope even the long flight will be bearable in their seats).

Keep safe,

Cheers (?)
CGA

ps: Oh, and a side note: Seoul is a very interesting city and i enjoy my sightseeing here. More about it later.

I'm OK, not in Japan at the moment.

2011-03-11T17:45:00.001+01:00

Hi,
today the biggest earthquake in more than 100 years hit Japan. 8.9 magnitude. More than the 1995 one and the one in the 1920ies.
Usually i don't post my current position here in the blog, but this is a good reason: i am in Seoul, South Korea, since Tuesday and will stay here till next Tuesday.
Thank you for all the concerned emails, facebook posts etc. I will answer them, right now i am trying to find out how my friends in Japan are doing and what's happening there.
The ones i reached so far are ok, all trains in Tokyo are not operating, mobile network is down (antenna masts broken etc.). A friend walked home from university, a way that usually takes one hour by train... and the Japanese were as scared as the foreigners when the earthquake hit.

Still many that i need to reach.

When the quake happened, i was sightseeing in Seoul. The whole day i couldn't find free WLAN, hadn't heard anything unusual. We only were a bit confused because a friend received two mails on his mobile from family in Europe asking if he was ok after the quake. We assumed this was about the 7.2 quake that happened the day before where we had already informed them that we're ok. Only in the evening we saw this shocking tsunami images on a tv and realised that something bigger is happening. And now i am finally online with my phone.
And watching CNN in the hostel. With some quite moronic commentators who didn't even know what timezone Japan is in. But at least they've shown the NHK videos several times, so i saw that.

I wish all the best for my friends and everyone in Japan right now.

So much so far, i will go write some emails now.

Seoul, out.

Boso-no-Mura - Samurai Posing and Tea Ceremony

2011-03-05T14:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday i went on a bus tour organised by the foreign student office of the civil engineers at Todai. Very nice. They took us to Bosa-no-Mura in Chiba prefecture, a kind of open-air museum of traditional Japanese houses. Less reading, more pictures:

Traditional merchant street. The guys in kimonos are actors - they were shooting an episode of a Japanese serial that'll be aired sometime in April.

Traditional roof, made from rice plants.
The tiles look like metal but are made from clay just like traditional red ones in Europe.

Raincoats at the local farm,
also made from rice plant.

Guess what kind of shop that is: a woodwork factory, NOT a shoe shop :-)

After looking around a bit we proceeded to the house of a samurai. They had the right to be a bit more separate, having their own hedge around their houses. There we started the first tourist activity of the day: dressing up in traditional samurai armour and kimono. Here we go, guess what follows are classic Japanese tourist pics.

Instructions on how to dress up as a samurai. Back in the days these guys were dressing up all alone.
I also got this instruction sheet in Japanese...

The lady helping everyone into the different parts of samurai gear.
Looked liky mummy dressing up her warrior boys :D

Receiving my katana and instructions on how to use it.

The result: two samurai bodyguards for a beautiful lady in kimono.

Profile pic-to-be.
Well, a bit too serious.

A little less serious.
"Ain't it funny, now i will cut all your heads of with one swift cut."

We tried to get them to look like fearsome warriors, didn't work.
And one of them was smiling permanently :-)

Also funny:
Everyone in costume became a living statue for tourists to take pics with.

We also had a warrior queen who made those two stop fighting.
The power of intimidation ;-)

Mixed pic: people from three different continents.

So, that was fun. But the day was not over yet, we just reached lunchtime. I guess getting up early really pays off!

Yummy tempura lunch.
Everything except the fried shrimp is vegetables.


Check: doesn't smell like Sakura yet... we had wonderful sunny but very windy and bit cold weather. (and that's actually no cherry tree, i think)

After lunch we went to a tea ceremony - for tourists. Was interesting to see. Follow the link for details. The ceremony takes place in a separate house, in a room that has tatami mats on the floor and some seasonal flower arrangement and other things in the corner. Who sits where is all an important part of the ritual. Some pics:

Ritually taking the shoes off and putting them in line when entering.

One of the two tea masters closing the door after everyone's in.

If you're an old ojiisan like myself and cannot sit on your knees,
they can provide you with a little stool and table.

First thing we got was seasonal candy.
This is spring candy made from mostly sugar and some part of rice.

Preparing the tea from powder with that bamboo-brush-thingie.
I was fortunate and sat next to the tea masters, got a close look.

This is how you use it.

The tools: hot water pot with bamboo ladle, it's lid with hanky to grab it, tea bowl,
bamboo-brush-thingie, can with green tea powder and the tool to take tea out of it.

Receiving tea, one by one. You should drink the whole cup in three sips.

After we all finished our tea, we walked out of the room, one by one, in the same order as when entering (first-in, first-out). Taking care not to step on the black lines between the tatami mats and using exactly three or six steps for each mat, depending on if you move along the short or long side.
So, tea ceremony, i can check that off my list ;-)

I'll leave you with two more pics of this wonderful day. Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

Nevermind the cold weather: there was soy ice cream!
Kampai!

One of the two main organisers of the Association of European Students at Todai for Hongo Mayfestival 2011 (the biggest student festival in Japan!), practising for the three crazy days in May when he'll be running around, carrying a lot of stuff :-)

Shooting cars

2011-02-24T12:52:00.000+01:00

Another quick entry: you know what a driving range is? You know, those places where you can rent a golf club and a bucket full of golfballs and hit away at your pleasure. I have never played golf - except for miniature golf ;-) - and tried that driving range thing only once, because i lived next to one in China and had a flatmate who knew how to golf. Anyways. Have you ever thought about where to build a driving range in a cramped city like Tokyo? Well, me neither, but last night i passed by one:

So there you have it. Above a parking lot. Not the most obvious choice, i think. I wouldn't have thought of golfballs above cars as the first choice. But well, you know, space is scarce around here..

Another thing i passed by:

One of the ubiquitous vending machines that I've already mentioned. Just posting it here because of the name: don't know about you, but i don't want to drink something called 'sweat' :D

Fishmilk

2011-02-20T12:33:00.002+01:00

Before i moved to Japan someone in Austria told met that their idea was to get oneself a treat everyday to make life in Japan even nicer. Well, i don't strictly adhere to this, but every now and then i get myself something. Mostly out of curiosity, to try new products that don't exist elsewhere but Japan.

So, the fish milk was one of this things. If you think combining fish and milk is a really, really bad idea, hold your horses: there's no actual fish involved, as far as i know. Maybe a picture will help:

Just before yummy in the sun.

If you've been to Japan, you might recognise this fish as Taiyaki. A waffle-like cake in the form of fish. Most commonly filled with delicious anko. So this is nothing else than sweet milk with Taiyaki taste. It really tastes like those waffle-things filled with anko. Yummy, Japan.

If you're wondering where i enjoyed this: i drank it in front of Yasuda Auditorium at Hongo campus. Just after lunch. In the sun, with snowmen around me because of the snowfall during the night before - but they were already melting away in the sunshine.

Happy fishmilk ad in the local COOP shop.

Cheers.

書道 (calligraphy)

2011-02-20T08:51:00.000+01:00

The Japanese language class of my first semester here at Todai ended this week. But we already had the final exam in the week before. The rest of the course our nice teachers did several activities with us. That included pronounciation training and reading comprehension, but also one class about the many cultural festivals that exists in Japan. And, to come to the point of this blog entry, one session of Japanese calligraphy or shodō (that is also how you read the two kanji in the blog's title. The dō is the same as e.g. in Judō).

It started with the teacher giving us a presentation about the different styles of calligraphy. She told us about three of them each one more difficult to do. Interestingly, the most advanced one is the most unreadable one and looks more like well, someone writing very fast and not caring so much about the readability of the text. Uhm, writing letters unreadable, looks like i can do that...

Anyways. We had already studied our first 110 kanji during our course, nevertheless the teacher had some examples of 'nice' kanji at the end of her presentation. So each one of us picked two that would make some kind of sense and started practising. To know what we're aiming for, our teacher wrote us a sample sheet of our kanji with red ink (actually, it was more orange than red) and we were copying that. Here's my 'master copy':

先生の書道

The two big kanji mean something like 'happiness' and 'travel'. Originally i wanted to write 'happy traveller' but that would've been too many kanji - more than two - and there was only space for two kanji on these sheet. So, 'happy travel' it was. Oh, and i usually don't write my name here in this blog, but if you can read it - the four small kanji on the left - well, good for you ;-)
Some more pics:

Practising. Next to me is a Nepalese friend of mine.


My final product compared to the teacher's one on the left. Some Japanese friends told me that my name is 'no Japanese', well, i guess i managed to achieve the 'unreadable' Kanji style ;-)

Expert at work - a Chinese classmate, obviously knowing more about calligraphy


All of us incl.our teacher.

In the last pic you can see only about half of my language class. Most people didn't show up during the last two weeks because of exams etc. and the language class not being compulsory. Still, you can see six different nationalities in that pic. Hehe.

Well, that was fun :-)

Cheers.

Gib mir Deinen Saft

2011-02-04T05:55:00.003+01:00

What's the Austrian sauce? Does this question make any sense to you? And what would you answer if "we don't have one sauce that we put on everything" doesn't count as an answer?

Another little anecdote from my two weeks of family home stay in Hokkaido:
On the third or fourth evening my host family asked me to cook something Austrian for dinner. I cooked Wiener Schnitzel and Kaiserschmarrn for them. So far, so good. A novelty for me was eating Schnitzel with chopsticks - i made small, bite-sized Schnitzel to make that feasible (also easier to fry ;-)). I explained them that we would not do that, but use knife and fork to eat the Schnitzel. They told me well, they just love to use their hashi because they are so practical. Uuuhm, i don't think that'd be so practical if the food wasn't pre-cut/came in bite-sized pieces. Anyways. They liked the Schnitzel and the Kaiserschmarrn. Yummy, yummy.
I helped them cook dinner every evening. Besides that one Austrian evening and one time Spanish paella - they had visited Spain and liked that - we always cooked something Japanese, and almost every day something different. Delicious, two yummy weeks for me :D
But back to the sauce. The day after Austrian evening we used soy sauce while cooking. On that occasion they asked me what the Austrian sauce was. At first i wasn't sure what they meant, but then they explained me well, they can use soy sauce to put on everything and also do that with most dishes. So they wanted to know the Austrian equivalent of that. I told them that we don't have the one sauce that we can/do put on everything. They did not except that as an answer... hmmm, i could not tell them anything else. After consulting each other they agreed that it must be lemon. Mainly because on the night before, i had also bought lemons and explained them that you squeeze lemon slices over your Schnitzel. They seemed content with the answer they found and i left them in their belief.
Cultural differences...

Mahlzeit, everyone!

Cheers
CGA

ps: nevermind if you don't understand the title of this blog entry. It's from an old German song - by 'old' i mean something like 20 years old.

Gruppenduschen

2011-01-28T14:15:00.001+01:00

#sorry, German blog entry. Google "Onsen" to find similar information all over the web :-P

So, der Jänner vergeht wie im Fluge. Gibt wie immer noch einiges, worüber ich vorhabe zu bloggen, aber man kommt ja zu nix. Naja, fast nix :)

Jedenfalls, in meinen gut zwei Wochen auf Hokkaido, also ganz im Norden Japans, war ich auch das erste Mal in einem Onsen. Also ein öffentlichtes Bad, das von einer natürlichen heißen Quelle gespeist wird. Über die Prozeduren dort findet man im Internet schon genug. Insofern werd ich das nicht im Detail beschreiben, oder was man alles falsch machen kann.

Naja, war wie erwartet. Reingehen, Damen-/Herrenbereich getrennt, also ist man(n) dann nachm Ausziehen in einem großen Raum mit anderen nackerten Herren. Es wird im sitzen nebeneinander geduscht, d.h. abduschen, manisch mit Seife einschrubben, abspülen, wenn geht möglichst oft wiederholen. Wer will auch gleich rasieren, also, den Bart. Und dann setzt man sich ins heiße Becken gleich neben der Duschwand, mit dem kleinen Handtuch stylisch aufn Schädel gelegt, und sitz im heißen Wasser, solange man will. Naja, eh ned ewig, die Japaner machen so Sachen wohl wie vieles andere einfach recht schnell (Stichwort Aussichtspunkt: "Da sind wir. Also, Photo machen. Jetzt fahrmer noch kurz zum Souvenirshop, und dann wieder eineinhalb Stunden nachhause." und wenn man antworten will, sind sie schon Richtung Auto unterwegs :D).

Das ganze hatte was von Gruppenduschen. Ned so mit Zwängen/Zeitdruck wie beim Bundesheer, aber halt gemeinschaftliches Duschen - und dann im heißen 'Heilwasser' sitzen. Noja. Wems gefällt. Ob das jetzt so super gesund ist, weiß ich nicht, also, ob es so großartige gesundheitliche Vorteile bringt. Jetzt im Winter vielleicht, wie halt ein heißes Bad.

Muß noch dazu sagen, daß ich jetzt nicht im Super-über-drüber Onsen war. Meine Host Family hat mir gesagt, das ist halt schon ein älteres, deshalb kann man leider nicht ins Freie, das hätte ich nett gefunden, heißes Becken und rundherum Schnee. So wars halt mehr 70er Jahre Charme, die Kacheln an der Wand und so. Dafür können wahrscheinlich nicht allzu viele Leute sagen, daß sie schon in Setose im Onsen waren...
Setose war das nette Kuhdorf, wortwörtlich, in dem ich über Neujahr die gut zwei Wochen untergekommen bin. Ist so klein, daß es nicht einmal eine eigene Wikipedia-Seite hat, auf Englisch, nur die eine Bahnhaltestelle, siehe hier. Außer der Haltestelle - "Bahnhof" - gibts da noch gut fünf Verkaufsautomaten für Getränke wie überall in Japan und ein Postamt. Greisler haben sie keinen, zum Einkaufen fahren sie mit dem Auto die zwölf Kilometer nach Engaru.

So long,

Cheers
CGA

Winter holidays report in Japanese - my trip to glue(?) :)

2011-01-10T17:31:00.004+01:00

First of all:
あけましておめでとうございます！
In other words, i wish you all a very happy new year and all the best for 2011.

I had to write a report - three, actually - about my two-weeks-long stay in Hokkaido. In Japanese. So just for the fun of it, i thought I'd share this report with all of you. Here we go:

__________________________________________________

わたしのりょこう

ウインターホームステイプログラム

ほっかいどう

２０１０ー２０１１

わたしはほっかいどうにりょこうしました。オホーツクにひこうきでいきました。

オホーツクのふゆはおもしろいです。ふうけいはいんしょうてきです。ゆきはすきです。しろい山とはたけがあります。とてもきれいです。

オーストリアにうみがありませんからほっかいどのうみはすきです。

ほっかいどにホームステイをしました。わたしのホストファミリーはとてもしんせつです。いっしょにたくさんのことをしました：

ゆきかきをしました。さろまことびほろとうげともんべつとえんがるへいきました。とうげいはたのしかたです：じぶんのカップをつくりました。せとせのおんせんにいきました：あつかったでした。さわやかなさんぽをしました。

がんたんにせとせのじんじゃへいきました。まるせっぷでしょどうをしました。

またいっしょになまらおいしいたべものをつくりました。まいにち日本のあさごはんはみそしるとごはんたべました（ときどきヨーグルト）。

それとよるは：ヤキニク、おすし、たこやき、ローストビーフ、オーストリアのりょうり、かに（なまらうまい！！！）、かき、ほたてがい、そば、やきとり、スペインのPaella、しろいこいびと、ケーキとわたがしをたべました。あとわたしはもちつきをしました!とてもおもしろかたです。

わたしのふゆやすみはたのしかたです。

__________________________________________________

And since a text in Japanese is not much use for most of you, let's try something fun: here's the Google translation of the above text:

__________________________________________________

My Trip to glue

Uintahomusuteipuroguramu

What Beihai

ー 2011 2010

I will do the quantitative Yokoushimashita Beihai. Hi I went on the Okhotsk Kouki.

It is interesting winter of Okhotsk. Silicon is becoming like impression. I like the snow. There are mountains and bamboo Shiroi. Very beautiful.

Beihai is not a sea which Austria is like a sea.

Beihai etc. for a homestay. My host family is very Setsu Shin. Together with a lot of things:

Oysters with snow. Saro びほろとうげともんべつとえんがるへいきました truth. Thank Ihata How to Ge is: I made a cup jackpot. We went to the hot springs of Tose: Could ni atsukatta. For a refreshing walk.

Tose went to the shrine of bogus cancer tan. Pudeshodouwoshimashita whole stoneware.

ょになまらおいしいたべものをつくりました s together again. Asami Japanese rice every day I ate miso soup and rice (sometimes yogurt.)

It says that: Yakiniku, sushi, Takoyaki, roast beef, cooking, Austria, crab (Namaraumai !!!), oysters, scallop challenging, soba, yakitori, Spanish Paella, Shiroi Bito Come, then ate the cake Towata . Then I did a rice cake! is pretty interesting how.

The loom is how I Huyuno Yasumi.

__________________________________________________

That sure doesn't make a lot of sense. But it was funny to read, thank you, Google! I admit that my Japanese text is not very sophisticated or special to read, but this English translation has hardly anything to do with its content. My favourite of the above: "the shrine of bogus cancer tan" - i just wrote "On New Year's Day i went to the Shrine of Setose" in that sentence. I guess it's a bit unfair to the translation algorithms that i hardly use any Kanji yet. That might make it harder to recognize where words are starting and ending, since you don't use blanks between words in Japanese. But still.

Hehe.

If bored, try some scallop challenging!

Okhotsk

2010-12-30T14:59:00.001+01:00

A Russian name, but in Japan: Okhotsk. That's where i am right now, a region in the north of Hokkaido, in the very north of Japan.

Basically a rural area, meaning small towns, all spread out in a snowy landscape. Enjoying yummy food and improving my Japanese, staying with a local family.

I am writing this from my mobile phone, attaching some photos. Hope they turn out allright.
Main reason to write this is to wish you all:
よいをとしお！
(once again, that'd mean "Guten Rutsch!" in German)

I guess i will be in the new year hours before most of you, hehe.
(^-^)
Cheers!

-sent from my Android

Ma chi me l'ha fatto fare? BEST
http://www.BESTvienna.at

Seasonal greetings

2010-12-22T16:37:00.003+01:00

Yeah, it's that time of the year again. I know it's not a popular thing to say, but i am no fan of it. Anyways.

Funnily enough, x-mas is not a family celebration for the Japanese. You know, they have no Christian background like people e.g. in Europe, they just took this opportunity to celebrate because they liked it and adapted it in their way. Which means that x-mas here is more something for couples, a time when you go for a fancy dinner in a restaurant with your girl-/boyfriend. X-mas spirit in tha house.

A nice video, classic, in German, about "Weihnachten":

And a picture from today's lunch in Todai's cafeteria:

Looked yummy behind the display window. When i bought the ticket to get this Ramen the friendly lady behind the window was a little worried and made sure that i really want this "kurisumasu ramen" (get it?) because it is with milk.
Was actually quite tasty! And it did not remind me of any kurisumasu-taste i knew so far :)

So, happy celebrations, everyone!
よいおとしを！
(that'd be "Guten Rutsch!" in German)

I'll be in Hokkaido, far up in the north end of Japan, for the next two weeks, so, see you next year (またらいねん！）!

No theatre

2010-12-19T16:47:00.008+01:00

See what I've done there? The title is a slight hint that I am not the biggest fan of theatre (yup, no typo, that's British English). Nevertheless, you know, moving to other countries for me is also about getting to know the culture of those. Plus, they offered traditional Japanese theatre shows for free for students, so I've already been to two shows here. Hah, if you thought I'll only blog about shopping here, let me prove you wrong ;-) even though shopping is a very important activity for young Japanese people.

So, here we go. The first theatre show was called "Jiuta-mae" and it was actually traditional Japanese dance. Two musicians playing on traditional instruments, and once dancer. At a time. All in all there were about five different dancers. In full make-up, meaning that their faces were completely white, special hairdo, and what i guess are kimonos. Gracefully doing their thing, i.e., dancing. Here are some blurry pics:

As you can see - a t least a bit - it's a wooden stage, with a wooden roof. The whole thing built inside a bigger hall. I imagine that in 'the old days' these kind of stage were built outdoors, in villages, and people sat under the sky, kinda open-air.

The stage looked the same for the second show that i saw in a different place: Noh theatre. For hundreds of years, this traditional form of Japanese drama has been performed by male actors. Interestingly enough, there were female actors in this one. It was the show of the Todai theatre group and it took place here. I was happy to see that even with this very, very traditional form of theatre, nowadays both women and men can play it.

Anyway. It reminded me of classic Greek theatre - choir and all. Quite similar setting, choir in the back and few actors in front. Well, plus some musicians.
And unlike the first one, this was a full play, plot and all. It was the classic Atsumori. Fortunately they provided the text, in both Japanese and English. We got that in my language course, the day before. One of my teachers told me that sometimes even she reads the English text, since the Japanese is a bit old-school and can be hard to understand even for native speakers. And another teacher told me that she doesn't like to go to Noh because it makes her fall asleep :D sweet.
Some pics:

One of the first scenes. Many actors, choir in the back, drummers/singers on the left.

Atsumori's ghost doing his thing with a sword. Wearing a mask since he appeared in his ghost form.

To give you a better idea of the atmosphere, here's a video:

Especially note the two guys on the left. Doing the "oooh/wooh/ooih" thing, followed by a clap on their wooden drum. They did that during the whole show.

The luxury 'seats' in the loges. Actually Tatami mats with some pillows. I wouldn't be able to sit comfortably like that, so i would not pay more for these seats...

The nice group of people from my department who were in the theatre with me.

After the theatre i went to a vernissage where i knew one of the artists. So i had a cultural Saturday last week, you might say :)

Cinema

2010-12-19T16:29:00.004+01:00

Hello there,

if you know me well, you know that i love going to the cinema. A week ago, i went to the cinema the first time here in Japan. Well, no big surprises here. It basically looked like any "megaplex" cinema I've seen so far. Went to see the most recent Harry Potter movie - was as expected, looking good because there is a lot of money put into the special effects, but the plot still seems quite randomly stuck together at many moments. Anyways.
Two things worth mentioning about cinema in Japan:

it's damn expensive. More than 16 Euros for a regular ticket (1800 Yen), two Euros more for 3D movies
funny: all people sat through the whole credits. That has never ever happened to me in Europe. Here they don't even turn the lights on as long as the movie credits are still running. And everyone was still there when the credits ended.

Even though it's so damn expensive, i plan to go again this week to see Tron 2.0. A movie I've been waiting for, the trailers looked pretty damn cool (didn't watch the last one, to not see too much already). And it seems i am lucky: the movie was released last Friday here in Japan. Thought it'd be a worldwide same-day release, but now i saw that people in Austria will have to wait until the end of January. Well, well. Here's a pic of the posters that you can find down in the metro right now:

Nice, huh? The Dude, geeking it out.
Keep watching.

Vending machine record

2010-11-27T16:59:00.006+01:00

As already mentioned: here in Japan they have vending machines for drinks (water, softdrinks, icetea, coffee hot and cold) at almost every corner. Lots of them. But what i saw last weekend's a new record:

That's 15 machines next to each other! If you count only 14: the 15th is not visible because it was a little thinner and is covered by the one you see on the left. Anyways, that was the best shot i could get.
I mean, fifteen! It is very usual that two to five of these vending machines stand next to each other in one place, but 15's a bit extreme. After all, at least every third machine is selling the same kind of drink. Oh, and just for completeness: yes, some of them are also selling icecream.
Found this accumulation of vending machines a bit outside of Tokyo, in a street where lots and lots of tourist are walking by. Near a shrine. A week before i was there a certain Obama (this one, not that) had visited that shrine which led to numerous blocked roads etc. for the local population. Aw, celebrities. Luckily, when i was there, everything was accessible again. Just regular tourists around me :)

And now, two random pics from an architectural city tour i did today:

Cheers!

Chopsticks for Dummies

2010-11-22T16:41:00.008+01:00

Hello there,

when you come to Asia and you already know how to eat with chopsticks, be prepared to meet a lot of impressed local people. Still surprises me, i mean, it's not like eating with chopsticks was a big deal. Anyways.

If you really, really, can't figure out how to hold chopsticks, this product might be something for you:

I guess the Japanese text says something like chopsticks for inept Gaijins. Here's how you hold these:

Supposedly the same as regular chopsticks, with holding aids and rings. I think i would actually have trouble eating with those. The rings etc. kind of restricted my movement. I definitely prefer normal chopsticks. Well, i guess I'm not a chopstick dummy :D

In case you still want to buy some, i found them at Tokyu Hands Shibuya. Big department store with all kinds of stuff. Besides the usual Hello Kitty-anything, massage devices, erasers or iPhone protective covers in the form of Japanese food, things to keep cats and dogs off your premises (in case the traditional filled water bottles put on your fence or around your house surprisingly won't work), Frosch Reinigungsmittel imported from Germany, here's some more funny stuff i saw there:

Scotch tape that looks like poo. "cappuccino" sounds better but doesn't make it look better, IMHO. Guess that product is also sold in other countries, but whatever.

Humping sake bottle and cups (on the right). The cup has pink cheeks to display a more emotional expression.

My new favourite webcam. Not that i had a "favourite webcam" before, but that one's wonderful. A TIE fighter to clip onto your screen, playing big brother. Not that i had any use for it, my laptop has a built-in camera, but still. Nice.

New forms of Rubik's cubes, in case the classic forms in its 2-, 3-, 4- or 5-variety (were on display left of what is shown in the pic) are not enough to keep you busy.

Assortment of bicycle horns, mostly in the shape of animals. Also mind the Sumo in the middle/right.

Cheers.

Police encounter

2010-11-19T17:43:00.002+01:00

Hello there,

i haven't told you yet that i got a bicycle. Nice and practical.
When you get a bicycle here in Japan it is very important that you also register it. Meaning that you have to pay 500 Yen and register it to your name. If you buy it in a shop, like i did, the people selling you the bike will/have to take care of that, you just pay and show them your ID. If you get it from a private person, you need something proving that you are the legitmitate owner and register it at the police (?) yourself.
There will be a sticker with its registration number on your bike.

The reason why this is sooo important is mainly that when the police stopps you, you might/will get into trouble if the bike is not registered to your name.
So here's what happened to me today: riding home from the supermarket, i passed a contruction site with a police station close to it (gotta blog about those lightsaber dudes as soon as i have a good picture of one). So, much personnel standing around, waving with their lightsabers. I also saw some policemen getting on their bicycles while i was waiting to cross train tracks. Anyways, i pass by the contruction area and some meters further two policemen suddenly are next to me on their bicycle and wave somehow, gesturing me that i should stop. All very friendly and smiling. I stop and they stop in front of me. All smiling and speaking in a very friendly tone. I actualy understood most of what they said :) but not completely. Third line of them was the question if i understood Japanese, to which i answered a little. Given the Japanese way that you would never say you are really good at something - maybe unless you are an absolute master - they might've assumed that my Japanese is already better. Didn't really matter, i could see from what they were doing that they just tried to read the number on my registration sticker. And one of them asked me if it's my bicycle, i think. While i was trying to tell them in Japanese that yes, it is mine, one of them was already talking on his radio set, telling the number to someone. Then he asked me for my name. Guess whoever checked the number in the registration system told him the same name, because they were very content.
I almost wanted to get on my bike and ride on, when the one on the radio very politely, almost embarrassed, asked me if i could also show him any ID :D they both looked very curiously at my alien registration card and said something like "oooooh, オーストリア"(oosutoria=Austria) and one of them asked me if i was a student. I told them that i was a student at Tokyo daigaku and pointed in the direction of the nearby campus where i live. That seemed to please them.
Well, in the sense that they seemed happy. Like you can encounter many times here in Japan: people are very curious and happy to talk to foreigners, and their asserting ways while listening to you seems like they are really interested in what you say. No matter what you say.

So, that's that. Much ado/text about almost nothing, my first and rather uneventful encounter with the Japanese police force. Very Japanese (friendly and smiling).

And by the way, about the legal alien thing: yes, i am a legal alien again. And since i am working as a language assistant at the international friday lounge (sounds fancy, huh?) that i already mentioned somewhere in this blog, i had to get an アルバイト=arubaito. German speakers might recognise this word here: Arbeit =) in Japanese it means part-time job, and is mostly abbreviated to just baito.

Cheers.

Wale

2010-11-15T13:29:00.003+01:00

Hello there,

short entry: I've seen a lot of interesting things (including Fuji-san, finally!) last weekend, will write more about it later. Just this pic now: i couldn't read what this is, looked like some intestines. Found it in the fish section of a supermarket. My knowledgable friends who were with me at the time were also a little surprised when they read and translated for me: this is wale!
I have no intentions to try it, much less to support Japanese wale hunting by paying for it.

Oh, and it looks quite bäh! Maybe that'd get better after someone with the proper cooking skills prepares it.

:-P

Sexual Harassment Kitty

2010-11-06T21:15:00.009+01:00

Hello there,

Since i arrived in Tokyo, i really appreciated that they take really good care of us at university. Trying to support us with all things we might need, and they are very kind and open to help whenever needed.

There are also the proper helping channels in place in case something goes really, really wrong. I got the feeling that in case things go bad, i got the relevant contact places to go. Fortunately i never had to use this support so far.

Another fact about Tokyo in general is that there is Hello Kitty everything. Really.

Anyways, i was quite surprised when i saw this:

I know it's not really Hello Kitty, but it was quite surprising to see such a cute design for such a serious thing. Maybe it's supposed to help victims to overcome their inhibitions and seek help (hope that's correct English, i tried to translate "Hemmschwelle"). Which would be, of course, a good thing.
Strange card, nonetheless. Even for Japan, where you find Hello Kitty everything.

Unrelated to that, i also had a medical checkup at university. It seems that Asia is the country where i have the most medical checkups ever (e.g. in China i did at least three for getting visa and going on my first job). Well, this one here in Japan was pretty standard, and another service of the university, trying to take good care of its students. Anyways, part of it was a "Mental Health Check Sheet". I know these things are also very serious and there to help people with serious issues, nonetheless some questions amused me.

Look at questions 15 to 18:

Have you ever heard voices other people cannot hear?
Some people believe in mind reading or being psychic. Have other people ever read your mind?
and my favourite: Did you have messages sent just to you through the television or radio?

Possible answers: 1.no, 2.yes, probably, 3.once, 4.more than twice.
From now on, i will listen to the radio more carefully, just to be sure. Someone might try to tell me something...

Oh, one more thing of interest happened a week ago: my first earthquake in Japan. Read about it here. 4.7. Fortunately no immediate injuries or damages reported. And personally i can't report feeling anything. At the time i was having dinner with some colleagues in the biggest refectory at Hongo Campus. Which is an underground refectory. Some people from our research lab called us. Up there - 3rd floor - things were shaking.
Oddly enough, on the morning of the same day i woke up two hours too early and had the feeling that my bed was shaking, quake-like. But i haven't found reports about any earthquakes at that time, so let's blame it on the mind being something else when waking up at unusual times. Anyways, good thing i got through my first quake here without any problems.

Cheers.

Videos

2010-11-02T15:31:00.005+01:00

Hello there,

short post: i started to upload some videos i made here in Japan. Nothing special. I'll upload more once i have more and need to embed them here.
As for now, you can head over to my videos and watch two short ones i recorded around Harajuku. Search youtube for more videos if you want to see more of that stuff, I'm sure there is lots.

Cheers.

ps: since I'm at it: here's a funny Japanese video about chopsticks.
And a weird video by some Japanese guys - the ones who did the local version of the Get A Mac campaign - pretending to be French who study Japanese.

Fugu

2010-10-31T16:44:00.004+01:00

Hello there,

weee, I'm almost through my first month in Tokyo. Didn't get to blog as often as i wanted to, sorry. Will let you know more once i get to do it (already started to write more posts).

For now, two pictures will have to do.

You might've heard of fugu. Or at least seen the early Simpsons episode where Homer eats fugu and is told that he has only 24 hours left to live. Obviously you can get fugu here in Japan. But it's expensive and 'just for the thrill of it' not worth it for me. Nevertheless i consumed some unexpected fugu: fugu Sake. Some colleagues from my research lab at the university had it and shared it with me and the other labmates last Thursday. As you can see it has a comic little fugu painted on top of it. Of course there was a bottle inside this carton box, but the box was more interesting so i took a photo of that. As for the taste: well, it was Sake that tasted a little fishy. Won't become one of my favourites :-P

Another pic from university: taken at last friday's edition of the weekly International Friday Lounge where i am helping out as one of the official language assitants. Since Halloween stuff can be bought here same as in Europe - meaning there is no tradition of Halloween but thanks to global commericalization they have it, too - the theme of the day was Halloween and ghosts in general/in your home country. The sensei brought some Halloween decorations including this hat, which she asked me to wear.
"Silly Hats ONLY!"

That's it for today, so I'll leave you with this:
I'm a banana!

ps: if you don't know what the last lines were about, watch this. But be advised, it might be a little disturbing. And funny.

General hints about Japan

2010-10-25T10:55:00.015+02:00

Hello there,

some general hints for your next time in Japan:

ATM: if you plan on using a Maestro card to withdraw money, good luck :-P your best bet is to find a 7-Eleven and use its ATM (they all have one inside) or a Citibank. Not common. If you don't see a Maestro logo on, it won't give you money. Really nice how many unwanted receipts i got printed from ATMs telling me that my card is not valid with that particular machine. In short, have a back-up plan.
public garbage bins: they (almost) don't exist. Get used to it. Your best chance might be looking for a kombini=convenience store, they're everywhere and most of them have garbage bins in front - for their customers, assuming they buy stuff and eat it in front of the store hence the bins.
take your shoes off when you enter someone's home. Most likely there will be a place to put them, and a little step after entering marking the 'starting line' of the no-shoe area. Oh, and home can also mean someone's car, or the plastic blanket they bring for sitting upon while picnicking :)
if it looks like cheese in its package, it most likely isn't. Experiences so far:

looks like Feta: Tofu (that was easy to guess, even without anything in English on it)
looks like processed cheese packed in little sausage-form-thingies and right next to the little snack-sausages in the supermarket: some kind of fish-paste. Bäh.

public toilets: when in need, and somewhere inside the metro, use the toilets down there. I wouldn't do or recommend that back home in Europe, but here in Tokyo public metro toilets are clean, safe and available (once you're in the metro system, mostly not accessible outside of the ticket-area). In case you need to take a dump, you might have to squat, though.
if you simply want to go for a beer with the lads, find an izakaya. They even like tapas with their drinks. Well, not the same kind as the Spanish have. But good as well. Don't forget to try Edamame.
if you want to know what it's like to live in Tokyo and wander through the city, and you understand French: i highly recommend you the book Tokyo sanpo by French graphic artist Florent Chavouet.
go left. I mean, they drive on the left side, but you should also tend to go on the left side while walking. Like, when someone comes straight at you while walking in the street, go a bit to the left. And on stairs, stay on the left to let people pass on the other side. That's generally also true when you're inside the metro system, but there are exceptions. When down there, simply keep your eyes open for arrows on the ground or signs on the wall and you'll know on which side you should walk.
be sorry all the time. Really. It's ok to say "sorry", if you want to do it more Japanese say "sumimasen". No matter what happens, be sorry before, after, and during it. Or at least say so. No matter if it's your fault, someone else's fault, or there is no fault at all (out of your view of the world).
don't worry too much - Japan is a safe and clean place. And people are generally friendly towards foreigners, even trying to help you if you look lost and they don't speak anything but Japanese. Respect them.

So, be humble and thankful. And come prepared. And don't forget to smile and nod a lot :)

Note: so far i haven't seen much more than Tokyo and its surroundings.

Cheers.

Earthquakes (and other disasters)

2010-10-21T10:14:00.004+02:00

From my first guidance for new students session, which i had during my first week here in Tokyo: what to do in case of an earthquake:

protect yourself (0-2min)
prevent fires (2-5min)
secure safety of family (5-10min)
cooperate with neighbours&non-Japanese friends (10min-12hrs)
be prepared to survive on your own (water, food, shelter etc.) (12hrs-2weeks)

Time in () is time after the earthquake.
ad 1.: e.g. get under a table.
There are places where emergency supplies are stored in each community, but one should also prepare supplies oneself. I'm also attending a lecture called "Earthquake Engineering", quite interesting.
After one of the big quakes, it took them only three days to get electricity back, but sewage system took two weeks. Fortunately there was a river near which was used as a temporary, uhm, disposal of personal excrements facility :)

Just had a session here where my research mates introduced us to Japanese geography. Some facts:

Japan has 6852 islands, out of which about 400 are inhabited
its area is about the same as Germany, and about 1/10 of China
2/3 of land is forest, 3/4 is mountain
"Nihon alps" are similar to European alps :)

If the earthquake introduction didn't scare you, there's more:

volcanic activity: lots and lots, same reason as for quakes. Saw a nice pic of gas/ash cloud coming down a mountain. >1000 degC, moving with 700 km/h. Blaster!
if Fuji-san explodes, Tokyo will be in deep, deep trouble...
floods: 98% of all Japanese cities have had more than 10 floods. In the last 10 years!

All in all, a great place to study disasters ;) and now i also understand better why disaster management is emphasized a lot in the lectures here at the civil engineering department that i am a part of now.

Japan: Interesting place, that much's for sure!

Pelicula

2010-10-11T17:17:00.003+02:00

Hello there,

yesterday I've done something quite Japanese. And promised to blog about it ;)

Met friends of mine at Shibuya station. And they told me they would take me to pelicula because they thought after my last blog entry that might be a funny thing to do, completely Japanese. Got me curious. Especially since pelicula means movie in Spanish. So, after some strolling around we went into an establishment, how to say, unlike things we have in Austria. Very colourful and filled with strange music, or actually more a cacophony of many different machines. In the entrance area all of those were these thingies where you can control this kind of robotic arm that after putting it into some position it will drop down and grab with its three fingers. And if you're lucky it will grab some item for you. Looks like this:

But back to the actual purpose of my visit there: movie-pelicula. Those are machines mainly for schoolgirls. But as a foreigner nobody stops you from using them. You go inside a bright white box to make pictures of you. All the while having to make decisions on a big touchscreens for all kind of backgrounds with crazy environments. No idea what the difference between the different machines is, but they had around 20 of them. And at all of them there were people (girls) queueing. My friends selected one and the three of us got in after some waiting. Our Japanese teammember did the selecting, and we made a lot of funny faces for the camera.
I thought that was it, but you move on into the box next of the first, to edit the pictures. They have algorithms in place who will make your eyes ridiculously large, you know, enlarge your pupils like you were an anime character. But you can add all kind of stuff to the pictures, like stars, hearts, kana writings...

In the end you can load it to your mobile phone - if it's a Japanese one and have this kind of bluetooth they have here - and print the pics on photo paper. Here's what i got: one third of that photo paper.

Hehe, now i have a truly Japanese bookmark.

Oh, one more random Shibuya shot, with a bit more people crossing then on the last pic i posted. Still not many, though.