Six Days in Chiba

And the Winner is... Rakuten Mobile!

2023-06-04T11:18:00.006+09:00

Finding a Phone Carrier in Japan in 2023

Hello, welcome to the blog! I've been off for a while but I decided to get back into writing a bit. Let's get started on today's topic - phone carriers. I've written before many times before on how to select a phone carrier in Japan. Click here for a more in-depth article. It's a bit out of date but what I wrote still holds true. But there are some updates to the market in Japan that I'd like to address.

Let's jump ahead a bit and go to the conclusion.

The answer is Rakuten Mobile. That's a link to their main page or click here for info in English. Their newest ~~plans~~ plan is still a steal, but now even better. Rakuten offers unlimited talk and 5G data, and the price is cheap. It's a tiered plan - up to 3 gig costs you ¥1,000 (I'm rounding costs here to be simple), 3 - 20 gig costs ¥2,000, and if you go over this you're still only charged ¥3000. It's quite the steal considering that currently the big 3 - Docomo, Au, and Softbank - now have plans that all cost around ¥3000 with a hard data cap, and no free calling at all.

Not only that, but since Rakuten has only 1 plan you never have to worry about running out - you just have to be concerned if you (like me) would rather not jump over 20 gig and save a little money. This is different from most carriers who if you want to change your data limit, you have to change plans.

Now there are some caveats, of course, as there always will be. Rakuten still does not have quite the coverage that the big 3 have. In deep subway tunnels, or in the middle of nowhere I occasionally am out of area where someone standing next to me who's on Docomo may have a perfect connection. Also, to use the free calling you have to call with Rakuten's App - but it does show your phone number to the people you call, and from my experience the call quality is good.

Finally, for people like me who travel outside of Japan there's another bonus. If you leave on a trip to most countries, Rakuten still has you covered. You get only 2 gig of data a month while abroad, so there is a limit in this case, but I've found so far in Taiwan and the US that while roaming I rarely lost my connection, and the only thing I needed to do for it to work was restart my phone when I arrived at the airport. No swapping sim cards, not inputting info. Just works.

As a final note I'll add options for people who don't want Rakuten, and in my mind this can only be for people who often travel out of cities in Japan, or who happen to be working in a huge concrete structure that may not have coverage.

If you use a reasonable amount of data and you NEED the good connection but don't make calls, go for one of the big 3, and go for their ¥3000 plans. I would recommend Ahamo from Docomo, as the connection is going to be stable.

If you want more data, want to choose your data plan exactly, or need to have some calling and data, and want a more reliable connection, check out the post I mentioned above, or just go to OCN. They work well and have some plans that allow unlimited voice (with an app), too.

OK, that's all for today! Glad I could help, and if anyone has any questions about phone plans, leave a comment below. Have a good one!

For a Cheaper Phone in Japan... Go with an MVNO SIM Card [ Updated ]

2016-05-08T16:22:00.001+09:00

Who out there besides me is just fed up with the pricing for phones in Japan? If you raised your hand just now, there is an answer: an mvno.

The Big 3 in Japan - docomo, au and Softbank - all offer smartphones with good cell coverage and great data speeds, but they're also pretty expensive. You're going to be shelling out around ¥7,000 to ¥9,000 a month, on a two year contract. And that's for not a lot of data, like around 5 to 7 gig. Every 2 years you get a new high-end phone, and submit to another 2 years of the same high rates.

But there is a way out of this. That's where the mvno come in to the rescue.

What is an mvno, you ask? To put it simply, it's a 3rd party mobile carrier (for more info here's the wiki page: mobile virtual network operator). They operate by leasing out bandwidth from one of the Big 3. Then for some restrictions you can get data and/or voice with them for a lot less than what you'd normally pay.

So it it worth it? Is switching to an mvno the way to go?

That's what this post is for. I'm sure a lot of people new to Japan and also people who've been here for ages have thought about how to get a cheaper cell plan, or to get one with more options for data. And I'm sure you have a ton of questions. I did. But I made the jump, so I'm here to report my findings and answer some questions.

For the record I went with mineo but there are a ton of others to choose from. For a list of a bunch of mvno carriers check here at Mondaiji.

But for now lets get to the questions.

1. Is it really cheaper?

The ads on TV all make it look like you'll be saving tons, but this is Japan and we're talking smartphones and monthly bills, so there's always some kind of hidden fees and taxes to drive up the price, right? Nope. Go with an mvno and your bills should go down. Considerably.

Looking at mineo's prices, you have a few options, but basically they go like this: for 3 gig you spend ¥972 a month, for 5 gig it's ¥1,706 and for 10 gig it's ¥2,721 (all based on their data plan for phones from au). That's for data only, no voice. If you want a voice plan on top you pay around ¥650 extra. Rakuten, DMM and the other mvno all have similar plans.

For people like me, who occasionally make calls but use lots of data the price difference is staggering. I look to save over ¥2,000 a month and have a lot more data.

As for calls, most mvno don't have that much in the way of free minutes or anything like that, so you should sign up for a phone number through Skype or another VOIP service. If you are on mineo you can get a LaLaCall number for no monthly fee and the call rates are rather cheap (similar to Skype). There are also other VOIP services out there like 050 that will give you a good deal.

2. How's the reception?

Fantastic. This is the one area I was most worried about before making the switch, but as of now I would have to say all my worries were for nothing.

I've heard a few bad things about certain mvno (and you can search around for data speeds and reception), but for me so far I've been nothing but happy with mineo. They say that in the case of network congestion or at peak hours an mvno may be more susceptible to slowdowns than one of the Big 3, but so far I haven't noticed anything.

At home, at work, and just this weekend while I was hiking in the hills around Kamakura I had just as good of a connection as always. I've also used my new SIM to watch several episodes of Game of Thrones on Hulu in the past week and never once felt like my data speed was any worse than before when I was on au.

3. What phones can I use?

If you want a new phone, no problem. Most mvno offer a few (usually 2nd tier) phones you can get to use with their service. Or better still, you can probably go to Akihabara, Bic Camera or any of the other big electronics stores and find a SIM free phone and that'll work. Just make sure to pick a phone that's compatible with the mvno you want to go with. As Mondaiji said in his blog, most of the mvno have a list somewhere of which handsets have been tested to work (you can search for 端末 or 動作確認端末一覧).

If you have a phone already you want to use, and it's not a SIM free model don't despair. Most of the mvno that operate on docomo's network will work just fine with a docomo handset. And if your phone is an au model there are options, too. Just check Mondaiji's list.

4. So is it hard to get started?

Signing up for an mvno is pretty straightforward. Most of them allow you to sign up online. You need your credit card info and you may have to send an image of your ID to confirm you are who you say you are, but that's about it. If you're getting a data-only SIM you don't need ID in most cases. Of course the signup pages for all of the mvno seem to be in Japanese only, so if you can't do it yourself you may need to ask a friend for help, but don't let that get in the way.

After you sign up then they send you a SIM card in the mail. It took me 3 days to get mine. And once I had the card, I just put it in my iPhone, downloaded a profile from their homepage that changed all of my iPhone's network settings to work right, and boom, I was online.

Some of the mvno may require you to enter the network info manually, but even still it shouldn't be a big problem.

5. Who... is there anything else I should know?

There is an argument that people who make tons of voice calls shouldn't get an mvno plan. Most of the Big 3 now have a plan for smartphones that gives you unlimited calls and texts, plus 5 gig of data. But... how much does that really save you? OK, if you get an mvno SIM and use their calling plan alone it could get expensive. But why would you do that? If you get an mvno you need to get Skype or some other data based calling service.

As for reception I was hesitant, I'll be honest. But my phone seems to connect just fine. Of course you probably want to do a bit of searching to see which mvno service will be best for you (I recommend a search for "mvno 通信比較").

Oh, there is one thing to think about, and that's number portability (MNP). Some of the mvno take a few days for the SIM card to arrive and during that time you may not be able to make phone calls at all if you had to cancel your old number. In my case since I went with a data-only SIM it didn't matter. I was ~~making calls~~ surfing the web on my iPhone seconds before and seconds after I got the new SIM without a hitch.

If anyone has questions or needs help with the Japanese on the review sites, you can ask me in the comments section below.

Also, if you want a huge ton of info in Japanese, here's a link that may give you some help at Survive-M.com: 格安SIMカード12社をとことん比較. It has a massive list of how much each plan costs for each of 12 mvno companies.

Otherwise, I would say just go for it.

Update (5/14):

The other day when I woke up, I noticed something funny on my phone. It said "out of service area." This isn't the first time I've ever seen this since using a smartphone, so it isn't just because of my mvno SIM. After turning on and off airplane mode it fixed itself.

But after this I decided to do a little real testing, to see just how good my connection actually was. I downloaded a speedtester app, and tested the connection and made note of how many bars I had at the time for a few days.

Testing in the evening at home I was getting around 30 Mbps up and down on my home wifi network. Kick ass, right? Gotta love fast internet in Tokyo. Switching off wifi and doing a test I got around 3.5 down and 7.5 up in the evening and just before bed. I had 3 of 5 bars (or dots I should say since it's an iPhone) at the time. The connection felt good. Maybe not quite as fast as what I had before on au, but not as bad as I thought it might be.

The next morning I had a full strength connection and didn't bother to test. At work at 10:30 that morning on my break I tested it and got 16 down and 3.5 up. So that's really good. And that night at dinner time I was getting 2.75 down and 2 up.

And so on. From what I can tell after switching to a mvno my ability to get a phone signal and a data connection hasn't got any worse. The speed is reduced, more in the evening around dinner time than any other time, and it's also reduced after 10PM, but I'm still getting enough speed to watch videos and do whatever I want, so it doesn't feel like a tradeoff at all.

Kyoto in the Spring

2016-04-09T15:51:00.004+09:00

Kiyomizu (清水寺), one of the most beautiful and famous temples in Japan. In the foreground you can see some cherry blossoms in full bloom.

This spring break I had family in town and we all headed down to Kyoto and Nara. I've been before a few times, but this was the first time I've ever been able to make it while you can still see the sakura there. We went over the weekend of April 2nd, when it was just starting to really get warm, so it was absolutely perfect.

What can I say, besides just how beautiful and magical it all was. Once you moved past the throngs of people it was all just wonderful - like I was seeing the Japan I'd imagined when I was young come to life.

Two women explore the city in Kimono. If you happen to be in the area there are now a lot of shops that'll rent you a kimono for the day, and they rent to men and women.

Stone markers inside Kiyomizu Temple itself. It had rained a bit that morning and it was overcast all day, but I think that added to the overall feel of mystery.

The main deck of the temple. It's made of tons of huge planks of wood using no nails at all. Even with the massive crowds it was a fantastic place to see. I highly recommend a trip to anyone visiting the area. Also, if you go this time of year a lot of temples and shrines are open till 8:00PM or later.

***

After passing through Kiyomizu we went north along the slopes and roads. Here you can find a lot of souvenirs and local snacks. We stopped for a brief rest and to have cream puffs made from yatsuhashi (one of Kyoto's standard snacks), and then headed on towards the shrine.

But before then we stopped off in a few smaller temples.

This beautiful alter was outside of Entokuin (圓徳院), a temple built in 1605 by Nene, wife of the lord and conquering leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. I'd visited the area before, but usually when it gets to around 5 or 5:30 everything shuts down and you head for your hotel. This trip we could see how Kyoto looks after dark. And it was a fabulous experience.

Glowing lanterns of Yasaka Shrine (八阪神社). The main shrine inside is illuminated with a bunch of green, white and yellow lanterns. And beyond that were a ton of night stalls selling food and drinks, and it being cherry blossom season of course you had the usual crowds doing hanami. But here, next to this amazing shrine at night, it was completely different than the standard cherry blossom viewing parties.

Yasaka Shrine dates to the 7th century, and is still in use today and is one of my favorite places to see in Japan. It has a kind of peaceful aura that you can really feel. A lot of the big temples and shrines may be more impressive, but Yasaka has a kind of presence of its own.

I'll be posting about my travels about Nara in the next few days, so stay tuned.

***

Fore more info on Kiyomizu, check out the official page: Kiyomizu-Dera. The site (in English) is really cool.
For more info on Yasaka Shrine, check the wikipedia page here: Yasaka Shrine.

Or for tips on where to go and what to see in Kyoto, I really recommend the Kyoto Travel Guide, one of several guides made by Japan-Guide.com.

Japan CM of the week - The Neighbor is a HUNK!

2016-03-14T20:32:00.001+09:00

OK, it's been a while but I'm back. This last several months have been busy. Maybe I should correct that and say the last year has been busy.

As some of you may know I moved to Tokyo. I'm not going to change the blog name (again, ahem), but I will probably shift the focus to more Tokyo related stuff.

I've also had about the most eventful year in my life since... well, since ever. And it's all been great. Among other things I passed the N1 Japanese Language Proficiency Test - something I've been meaning to do for years - but I've also had a lot of great things happen in both my personal and professional life. So things are good.

So let me now get back to the point of this post - the commercial. Today's CM is a favorite of mine. It also kind of fits in with the fact that I moved (for the first time in 12 years).

It's an ad for Ii Heya Net (いい部屋ネット), a realty agency. They've made a bunch of commercials in this line, all featuring catchy songs and some quirky dancing. The one at the top of this post is about the best. At the end of the song, she sings, "And the guy next door is so handsome. WOW!" You gotta love it.

Oh, by the way, if you're wondering the main girl in the ad is Hinako Sakurai (桜井日奈子). And if you'd like to see more of these ads you can find them on II Heya Net's pages: いい部屋ネット and their commercial page: いい部屋ネット CM.

Have a great day everyone, and see you soon!

Six Things to Do in Summer in Japan

2015-08-02T19:03:00.001+09:00

It's summer in Japan, and with the summer you get heat and humidity like almost nowhere else, but with it there's also a ton of stuff to do.

So without further ado, I would like to present my list of things to do in summer while you're in Japan.

The List:

1. Go to a festival.

Summer time in Japan means festival after festival. You have tons of local matsuri (like the Ten'nosai I posted about recently) where you can watch a variety of floats, parades and dances. If you're in the Tokyo area there are a ton of international festas going on as well.

For a list of events I recommend checking out what's going on in Chiyoda-Ku (home of Hibiya Park - a center for festival life). Or check out what Tokyo Cheapo has on their events list.

2. Fireworks, fireworks, fireworks!

I shot the video at the top of this post in Matsudo City this Saturday. One thing Japan does probably better than anywhere is fireworks (hanabi - 花火 in Japanese). The shows here are long - often over an hour - and have some really cool explosions in all kinds of colors and shapes. Most fireworks displays in Japan in the summer aren't the kind of massive bursts of destruction you'll see at New Year's around the world, but they have a style and beauty that I don't think you'll find anywhere else.

Also, as with the festivals, a fireworks display is always considered by Japanese people to be a good excuse to wear yukata (浴衣 - lightweight summer kimono) or other summer attire. So that means it's also a good excuse for you to buy one and wear it out, or just do some people watching to take your mind off the heat.

3. Go to the beach.

Yes, Japan is an island, and yes it has beaches all over. The key, however, is knowing where to go. It depends of course on what you're into but my first two picks are either Choshi (銚子) on the east side of Chiba Prefecture, or Enoshima (江ノ島) to the southwest of Tokyo.

Choshi is an odd little town, and since it's kind of out of the way it's usually not so crowded. You can swim, go for a hike, surf, or have some fantastic seafood. For more on Choshi, check out my blog post about the area (Choshi - Trains, the Ocean and the Lighthouse). If you don't have a car the train ride there is long, but it's worth a visit.

My other choice is Enoshima. Just west of Kamakura, it's another old port town, but there's something about it that makes it just feel different. The island itself attracts tons of tourists, but despite that it has a unique old timey charm that makes it worth a visit even on a hot crowded day.

You can hike on the island (and into the creepy caves there) or around the city on the mainland. And make sure to take a ride on the Enoden Train Line - riding the tracks through rows of old wooden buildings lets you see scenery that looks like its out of a different century.

There's of course beaches nearby for surfing, swimming or playing beach volleyball, you can go for a boat ride, or watch the streams of motorcycle riders that flock to the city every year.

And make sure to stay into the evening - sunsets in Enoshima are some of the most beautiful in Japan.

4. Head to the boats.

Tokyo is a city of rivers but if you only travel by train or car it's easy to forget this. Getting on a boat gives you a different view of the city, and also in my opinion will give you a different feel for how various parts of the city fit together.

There are a lot of different cruises, but I think the best is the Odaiba to Asakusa route. You start in Odaiba (お台場), an ultra-modern shopping and entertainment area where you can ride roller coasters or shop for about any brand you can think of. There are decent restaurants there as well, and in the summer they have tons of events and concerts. The boat goes on a route that takes you under the Rainbow Bridge, up the Sumida River and then you end up in the very old city of Asakusa. Time it so you arrive in the evening so you can then head to one of a million little bars in the area.

For info on routes and pricing, head over to japan-guide.com.

And last but not least:

5. Relax and stay cool.

Remember, summer in Japan is just crazy hot. But there are a lot of ways to get out of the heat. You can go to a movie or shop in one of the billions of stores in Japan, or IMO a better choice is to check out one of the many great museums, especially in Tokyo.

Museums in Tokyo are usually pretty expensive, but if you pay ¥2,000 for a Grutt Pass (I am GRUTT?), then you can for the most part get into any of the major museums and see their permanent exhibits for no extra charge for a year. For more info hop on over to JapanVisitor.com's Grutt Pass Museums and Attractions.

6. Have a beer, or better yet a lot of beer

And if you're going to have a beer, you have to do it in style. Yes, there are now a lot of nice craft beer pubs all over (and I'm a big fan - I'll write more on my favorites later), but to get the real Tokyo drinking experience you have to do the beer garden.

And what, you may ask, is a beer garden? Well, Japan has a ton of shopping malls and department stores, and they of course all have roofs. So in the summer a big number of the shopping centers convert their roof into an open-air beer hall. For usually not very much money you can go up to the roof, get endless refills of beer (and sometimes other drinks), and drink yourself stupid.

Since you're on the roof it's always a bit cooler than down on the street, and despite how obviously awesome the idea is they often aren't so crowded, you seating isn't much of a problem. Just be aware that at the sight of lightening they will often shut down, so I would wait to go till the weather's nice. And of course nothing makes beer taste that much better than hot weather.

OK, that's all for now. I hope my little list can help get you through the heat.

And for your viewing pleasure I will close up with another video, one I took at the festival in Shin-Matsudo last summer. Yes, it's kind of strange, but I love the costumes (and expressions on their faces).

To the Ten'nousai Festival [ Machiya/Minami Senju - GX7 ]

2015-06-07T11:25:00.000+09:00

Yesterday (June 6th, 2015), I had a chance to see one of Tokyo's really awesome events.

The Ten'nousai (天王祭) is a festival for Susanoo Shrine (素盞雄神社), in Minami Senju, Tokyo that takes place at the beginning of summer every year. And once every three years they do their rocking parade. And by rocking I don't mean rockin' out to music - they literally rock the huge parade floats they carry down the road on their shoulders.

It's quite a sight to see. The video above was taken near the intersection of the Toden Arakawa Line in Machiya (町屋), and it shows a pretty good view of what the parade is like. Click on the link to watch it on YouTube and if you do, make sure to watch it at the full resolution.

And if you'd like to watch a close-up, here's another video:

Now that's just crazy, especially when you consider the float they're carrying weighs at least 100kg, possibly a lot more, and how precariously low it goes on each swing.

Now for some photos:

This pic is a bit better resolution than the videos, and shows the ornate detail of the float they're carrying.

Not to be outdone by the men, the women of the festival had a float of their own. They also rocked the float insanely low each time. Crazy dangerous I'm sure but also really cool.

Another view of the women carrying their float. Both men and women had at least 3x as many people waiting in reserve to jump in in case someone couldn't take the weight anymore.

A bit before the parade got to us I got a few shots of the three floats as they approached. The one in front is a kids' float. It's much smaller but still pretty heavy.

A woman standing on a little step takes pics of the procession.

Drummers add a bit of oomph to the events.

***

All in all it was a bit of an odd festival. When you hear summer festival in Japan, your initial thoughts go to waves of crowds in the hot summer eating fried chicken on sticks, playing games of chance, and watching dancers go by. But this one had none of that, at least not where I was. I'm sure there was a lot of alcohol being consumed in the background, and if I'd been able to head to the main shrine I'm sure there was something to eat, but the main event here was surely this procession of floats, and the crazy people willing to risk life and limb for tradition.

It was a unique experience among all the festivals I've seen here and IMO one of the best.

For more info head to the Suanou Jinja Web Site (in Japanese). Alas the rocking parade happens only every 3 years, so if you missed it, you'll have to wait... or click on my videos to see more.

Let the summer begin!

Six Days Left in Chiba? (Part 1 - Looking Back: 5 things I miss about old Japan)

2015-03-25T19:29:00.000+09:00

OK, so this post has been a while coming, but today I finally have a breather so I can sit down and write.

I will be moving.

Not out of Japan, just out of Chiba. I'm not sure what to do with this blog, though. I'm sure I'll continue it, and I'll probably stick with the same name, but I will be living in Tokyo. Yes, I'm movin on up!

As I'm going to be no longer a resident of the great city of Abiko in a short while, I decided over the next two weeks in the lulls between frenzied packing and cleaning to write about my time here - not just Abiko but my life in Japan as a whole.

I think the best way to do this is to divide the topic up into a few posts, and as this is the internet the obvious answer to the question of how to arrange it is to make lists. So I'll start off with the one I've been thinking about most:

5 Things I Miss About Old Japan

1. The Crazy Mess of Tokyo

I first arrived in Japan early in the summer of 1998. So what was Japan like back then? In a word, messy.

My first impressions of Japan of course were colored by where I ended up - the conference for new English teachers was held at the Keiyo Plaza in Shinjuku (新宿). So we get out of a bus, jet lagged and then even more drained by a two hour drive from the airport in to town, to arrive at the west exit circle of skyscrapers. To get a view of sort of what I saw when I arrived, there's a great picture up at wikipedia here. Of course the view from the street level was a lot more hectic, and the mind-draining heat of summer combined with masses of shoppers and other random crazies you see in Tokyo just blew my mind.

Of course none of that has specifically changed. What has changed is the mess-like quality of the arcades you used to have all over the place. Just across from the hotel I was staying at there was this huge electronics bazaar - a mass of kiosks with people hawking cellphones like it was a fish market. Walk around a corner and you had the same thing with knockoff watches (I recall seeing a Rorex very vividly), men's jackets, perfume, everything. And if you went to Ueno (上野) nearby where I'll soon be living, there was another mass of shops like that clustered in the first floor under a huge beer hall.

There is still a lot of hustle and bustle, and the number of people in Tokyo is probably a lot more than it was then, but the randomness, the energy was just different. It was also a lot shabbier... but sometimes shabby is good.

2. Bargaining

This is a huge one. When I got to Japan you could really bargain here; especially when you were shopping for electronics it was almost expected. Ask for a few thousand yen off the price, for memory to go with your new camera, or for almost anything and you could usually get a better deal.

Nowadays when you're making big purchases, or during sale times you can sometimes do the same thing. I just got a new TV to put in my new place and I was (I'm happy to admit) able to talk the guy down about 15% off the base price. But back in the day you could bargain in a lot more places, and more people seemed keen on trying. Now most of the time if you even try the staff look at you like you just sprouted a second head.

3. Boring fashion for the Old, Crazy for the Young

OK, this wasn't something I saw right off the plane. I noticed it more over the first few years. Have you ever heard of ganguro (ガングロ)? That's when mostly young girls but some men go for a really crazy tan then die their hair either blonde or silver and do their eyes in matching makeup. Just crazy (for more info and pics check here). It was one of many gyaru (ギャル - like "gal" in English) styles that popped up at the time, almost as memorable as the ever-present super short skirts and loose socks look that was here before I arrived. All of these were fashions designed specifically only for the very young, and in many cases designed with the explicit intent of alienating adults.

Contrast that with adult styles at the time and you could see just how extreme youth fashion was. Now Japan has a lot of hipness with what people wear across all ages but back in 1998 especially the style for adults was plain colors, smart but also very plain suits, slacks, and loafers. Have you ever watched the Japanese Ring (wow, tried to find a link to the preview vid but I can't)? Yeah, what they're wearing in that movie is like how everyone over 23 dressed, constantly. When in doubt go with a brown blazer.

OK, for me, living here (and at my age) current fashion is obviously nicer to wear. But the ultra conservative vs ultra new was really cool at the time.

4. Summer

This one is simple. Summer in Japan, around 1998, was hot. Really hot and muggy. But it was livable, especially because it got cool at night. Now? Not so much. For people in some places the effects of global warming/climate change may not be so obvious, but in central Japan where I am it is. Back my first few years you could go an entire summer without keeping the AC on at night except like 2-3 nights the whole summer. But that's just a dream now - many years it seems like you need to keep it on from mid-July until halfway through September.

OK, that's probably exaggerating a bit, but it's definitely gotten worse. And this is coming from a guy who's gotten really used to the heat in general. And to make things more interesting I will soon be moving deeper into the concrete jungle. Yay me! I just hope the number of windows I'll have on the 2nd floor (did I mention I will have two floors?) will help keep the place a bit cooler. We'll see.

***

OK, this post is probably beyond any bearable length, so I'll keep the last one short.

5. The Dinginess - the Feeling of a Used World

Some people have talked about Star Wars as having a Used Future - the idea that Lucas' movie creation was made much more appealing and more believable by the worn, dusty and dirty look. The vehicles characters fly around in look high-tech, but also look very much like they've been used and abused.

When I first got to Japan, the massive rebuilding/remaking boom hadn't started yet. Well, maybe it had, but I was just lucky enough to get here before it was done. There were wonderful old apartments like the Dojunkai (同潤会 - Japan's first modern concrete apartments. Click here to see some images), some nasty, some dilapidated, but they all were tough and built to last and had character. You also had the magnificent Nishigokaikan (西郷会館 here's a nice blog post in Japanese that shows a lot of the building), home of a nice restaurants above, odd little drug stores below, and a grungy little theater (where I watched the first movie I ever saw in Japanese without subtitles).

And of course it wasn't just limited to a few examples.

But like what's happened in the US, things have been cleansed, polished over. I like new and efficient. I like some of the neat building designs even. But they often go too far, as you can see if you walk around any of the major stations lately.

Which, of course, this blog is about 1/2 my record of the old in Japan before it disappears.

At least it hasn't gotten quite as bad as in the US, but Japan could be heading the way of endless big box stores and strips of road 100 miles long that are indistinguishable from the next 100. I only hope not.

***

OK, that's where I'll end this post. Keep checking back for more soon. I'll be continuing this mini-selection of posts about my time here soon.

No way! What really gets under your skin? [ Musings ]

2015-02-20T18:22:00.000+09:00

You ever have one of those days? You're rushing for the door in the morning, glance in the mirror and see you didn't get all the shampoo out. OK, splash your hands and run them through your hair a bit and try to make the most of it. And rush out the door... only to realize you don't have your USB thumb drive in your bag with all the info you need for the meeting. Shit! Run back up the stairs and dig around to find it. Then leave again, and notice you're not wearing any gloves. So go back up again.

Now it's only 5 minutes till you need to be at work and you have a 20 minute drive. All right, so I'm late so it can't be that bad, can it? And then you notice the garbage truck slowly plodding along in your lane, and there isn't any way around it.

OK, maybe my morning wasn't quite that bad. But it seems like when one thing pops up in your way, more than one other thing follows it. This week overall has been decent (I'm an optimist, generally speaking), but there have been just enough annoyances to really irk me. So I decided to make a list for my reader's out there to glance over. Here goes:

10 Things That Get Under My Skin

(as a result of me living in Japan)

1. People who drive 10mph under the speed limit in front of you, slide up to a green light that's old enough to be sprouting mushrooms, then time it right to hit the yellow light and take their time turning perfectly so you are sliced off from behind them on the red. Jesus Christ people, pull your head out of your ass and just drive. This happens in the US for sure, but in Japan people make annoying driving into an art form. Tho at least you're unlikely to get shot for bad driving here... So maybe it ain't all bad.

2. The modern Japanese way of building. It's not that cold in winter, so let's not put in any insulation at all... making it feel colder than anything I felt back home in Illinois. Trust me, a long, numbing slight cold can be worse than the short bursts of real cold you get up north.

3. Not being able to buy anything more or less at a supermarket depending on its size. Bigger just means they'll have 10x as many of the same products, unless you're able to find a real international market. Meaning for the most part, you're always better off going to the smallest, seemingly worst stocked supermarket you can find.

4. Lack of labelling on meat products. Buy beef in Japan and unless it's super special meat from one specific place or it's an import, they will just label it as "Made in Japan"... which to my eyes reads as "Made in Fukushima, right outside the nuke plant. And no the cows weren't glowing per se, but they did have laser beams they could shoot from eyestalks and a few had a tentacle or two."

Even before 3.11 this got on my nerves, because you hear all kinds of stuff about dioxins and other crap getting into beans grown here, pigs raised there, and whatnot on the news, and labelling for vegetables now is great, but for whatever reason no one seems to want (or care about) labelling for meat.

5. TV programs that make "best of" lists, because in Japan there's a rule: at least one of the top 5 in any category has to involve Japan. It's kind of like Americans and their insistence that no matter how much something might suck in the US (healthcare, school lunches, crime rates, whatever), that particular thing is still somehow evidence that the US is #1.

6. The obsessiveness this country has with Mao Asada. Yes, she's a great technical skater, but her performances and facial expressions are usually wooden at best. Tho maybe now that she's taking time off and is doing TV commercials she'll be able to take what she learns selling meat products and whatnot and come out next year as a much better skater. We'll see.

7. PM Abe. Has anyone seen the look Shinzo Abe gets on his face from time to time? Man, is it annoying, because it looks exactly the same as the smirk George W Bush got, when his face was saying, "ha ha, I just fooled these suckers."

8. Being asked by people if something exists "abroad." They will always say, gaikoku de wa (外国では), and I'll be asked if we have everything from chopsticks and heated toilets to seasons, Japanese style sticky rice, or whatever. OK, asking is fine... but I am not from abroad (the land of elves, fairies and leprechauns); I have a country. If it's the first time we've met, sure, but I get this statement from people who should know me. Just odd and also a bit off putting.

9. People taking pictures of a stack of camera lenses, a line of lenses, old lenses on new cameras, new lenses with newer cameras, lenses on fire... OK the last one might be interesting. But the rest aren't. Posting pics of your camera lens collection to Flickr is the equivalent of posting a pic of your drooling 1 year old as your Facebook profile. Just stop. Well... I'll allow one post per person, but that's my limit.

***

And for the last one, this one is a personal issue for me, and it pops up annoyingly quite a bit:

10. Repeatedly asking people with food issues to explain themselves. I can't eat hijiki (a brown sea vegetable like nori seaweed but different). I just can't, and it's not because I'm picky. Every time I've tried it for the past decade or so it makes me physically sick to my stomach. OK, it may be a bit unusual but one would think that explaining something like that once would be enough - I mean, wouldn't something odd like that stick in your mind?

But not here apparently, because I have had to explain why I can't eat it to some people several times (I think the record holder is sitting around 7 times). Fuck me. That's just beyond my ability to explain.

And it isn't just me. I have a friend who's lactose intolerant, friends who have dietary restrictions because they're vegetarians and others who don't eat certain things because of their religion, and a certain type of person here just refuses to understand.

For the non-Japanese like me, often times it feels like our inability to consume something is brushed aside and it's assumed we can't eat it simply because we're foreigners. It's the natto argument - that some foods are too Japanese for us to get. But even Japanese people I know get the same kind of ignorance thrust in their faces, again and again and again.

And it gets tiring, and on some levels feels like a kind of bullying (いじめ) at a very callous unfeeling level.

But you know, the easy answer is for us to just ignore them.

***

OK, that's all for today's long rant. I hope you have a nice weekend, and if you're living in a concrete slab of an apartment like me, try to stay warm.

Japan CM of the Week - Hugh goes for a drive

2015-01-20T17:56:00.000+09:00

Hello all. How goes your week?

Mine is much better now after seeing this odd but kinda nice commercial.

This is Toyota's new ad for the Crown Reborn (?), starring the seemingly always singing nowadays ~~Huge Ackman~~ Hugh Jackman. I have to say though... he does a pretty bang-up job in this ad.

Oh, and I guess I should also point out that this ad has a brief cameo from the (also singing) Hikari Mitsushima (満島ひかり). Her work ranges from the odd to the also odd, but she's gotten a lot of work lately (finally) as a lead in TV dramas. I'm not a huge fan, but I've enjoyed most of what she's been in - she was pretty good in the Death Note movies and has made a ton of commercials over the years.

For more info and to see a few more of Toyota's commercials in the series, hop on over to their web page: Toyota Crown Reborn, and click on the New CM link on the bottom.

Or if you want to know some more about Mitsushima, there seems to be an official page of hers or about hers up, but I'm not sure about who's doing it. Anyway, it's right here.

Lost - In memory of my furry friends

2014-12-14T16:49:00.005+09:00

Sometimes it really comes out of nowhere.

Today, I woke up a bit late, hung-over some but not too much from attending two parties in one day. To be honest I was surprised I didn't feel a lot worse, considering what and how much I'd drank, but I guess spreading beer, wine, and grog over a full day lessened the impact to my system.

The weather being nice, I headed down to the lake to hike along the old path. Starting at Teganuma Park (手賀沼公園) there's a path that circles the entirety of the lake. I used to bike the path a lot, sometimes 3 times a week, and my stopping point was always a little clearing just beyond the fishing pond where a group of stray cats lived.

Here is a picture of one of the cuter of the bunch. I took it in February of last year. I always liked the look on this male cat's face, like he somehow knew just how ridiculous his black mustache made him look.

I first came in contact with the cats, and their friendly keepers - a pair of kindly old Japanese women - I would guess in late spring of 2006 or 7, when I started cycling a lot.

When I first stumbled across the little troop of cats there was just a chunky calico mother, another mother cat and their litters of kittens. Over the years the numbers would grow and shrink, but the calico was there the whole time. She was my favorite. Here's a pic I took of her:

People who know me from my childhood will understand when I say this calico reminded me of Squirrel, my favorite cat I had as a kid. She was very fond of licking your hands, just like my old cat, and was very friendly.

The group was tended as I said before by a pair of old ladies. They'd gotten special permission from the city to feed and shelter the stray animals. I know at least one (Mr Mustache in the first pic), was taken in by an older gentleman who would often visit the area, but I can't be really sure about the rest. And I also know that last winter several had died when a disease passed through the group. Even with regular feedings and care it's hard to live outside all the time.

A piece of me will always regret not taking at least one of the animals in. I have excuses why I couldn't but they are of course just excuses.

I am happy, though, that I could be a part of their lives.

I'm not sure of all the details, and I probably will never know, but what I do know is that they're all gone. At least all but one. A fluffy black and white was in the trees near where the cats used to stay, but I don't remember seeing him before, and for all I know he could be a newly abandoned pet.

All I know is that one or more of the cats was killed by someone. Near the now empty cat houses there were signs warning people to report any suspicious cat food that had been left out, so I assume someone poisoned them.

I can only hope it was just one or two, and that after it happened the others were rescued. I will try to find out more if I can. For now all I can do is stop and say a prayer for my nice friends. I hope they are someplace better now, out of the cold.

I'm of an iPhone - what to buy and which carrier to use, smartphone life in Japan (as of December, 2014)

2014-12-10T17:00:00.000+09:00

So you want to get a smartphone in Japan? What should you go with? Today I would like to write a little guide to smartphone life in Japan, and in it I will incorporate what I've learned using both android and Apple smartphones on all three of the major carriers.

Question 1: Android or iOS?

I could go over all the differences between the two smartphone operating systems, but I'm guessing most people here already know something about them. If not, the easy thing to remember is that android phones are more customizable: you can add little widgets to show your calendar, the weather, etc. at all times. iPhones have more apps in the store, but this isn't a big issue anymore, IMO. And while the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are really great when it comes to stability, the built-in camera, and battery life, a lot of android phones in Japan are about as good, and many are waterproof as well.

For me the real tipping point on why I chose to get an iPhone 6+ was two issues. First, with an iPhone you get regular updates from Apple. Especially in Japan carriers are very fond of letting android phones languish with no updates at all. And the 2nd is apps, but not in numbers. In Japan many apps for android phones that are available in the US just never appear in the Japanese app store. The same is true on iOS but getting around it isn't as much of an issue. Also, but not quite as big of a deal, is the carrier apps. On android in Japan you're stuck with a bunch of crapware from day one that you can't delete, but on iOS you never have to worry about this at all.

Mainly I'd say grab a phone and pick it up. Does it fit your hand well? How big is the battery? Is the screen the right size for you? Then make the choice. If you do go with an android phone, go with one that's running the latest version of android (4.4 or higher, or if you can get one on 5+ even better), and I would pick a major brand like Samsung or Sony if you're going Japanese because they will tend to update their phones the earliest. If you're going with an iPhone pick a 6 or a 6+. In Japan the way they price handsets it's almost always pointless to not get a top-tier phone.

Question 2: Which carrier?

OK, now which of the big three should you go for? The base cost is the same for docomo, au and SoftBank: you end up paying about 8,000 yen a month for unlimited talk time and 5gig of data, plus whatever the handset fee is (in Japan you almost never pay up front, instead the cost of the handset is divided up over 2 years). Which that kind of sucks. It's damn expensive and who talks on their phones anyway?

Fortunately for antisocial people like me there is an option. For now anyway, SoftBank and au are offering a 7gig data plan with no minutes for around 7,000 a month. Which lets you go mostly nuts when it comes to data usage, but I did come close to going over in November. They also let you freely call people during the day if you're on the same carrier.

SoftBank and au also have a deal where you get around ¥1,500 back if you have internet at home through an affiliate company. For me this makes my total bill under ¥6,000, but it required me to have a cable TV + landline phone + internet setup at home, so the total savings ends up being less.

SoftBank also has 2 other cool features. First, if you do get their unlimited talk plan, you only get 5gig of data, but they let you carry over unused data to the next month. So by going light one month you can have tons the next. That's cool. And even better is if you're in the US because SoftBank bought Sprint you can use your phone freely. So IMO if you're American and plan on getting a free-talk plan, it's a no brainer. You just have to make sure you get a compatible handset (which is just the iPhone 6 and 6+ right now).

Oh, and for the people who want unlimited talk + more data, the three all offer several tiers of data, but they charge quite a bit. If you are getting multiple handsets on one plan, though, it becomes cheaper as you can divide up the data. Also, it is possible docomo has a discount with a home internet provider but I couldn't find any info on their page.

Aren't there any other options?

Yes. You can get a phone through ~~emobile~~ Y!mobile. You can also get a super cheapo phone and buy data as you use it from several companies. For more info, check this site: Japan Mobile Tech (a cool blog that keeps up to date with all kinds of info on using SIM-free phones in Japan and stuff like that).

Personal Reflections

Now, I'd like to add some more personal thoughts on the matter.

I was an iPhone user from when they first came out in Japan. I got a white 3G model a week after they launched and used it mostly happily for around a year and a half. Why did I change? Curiosity, mainly, and because the iPhone 3G's GPS always sucked in Japan. So I switched to a HTC Desire on SoftBank, and was very happy with it. After rooting it and tweaking it to hell the battery life was awesome and the GPS was accurate. Unfortunately it had next to no free memory, so it got really tiring deciding which app to delete when I got a new one.

After that I picked up (stupidly) a Samsung Galaxy s2. Wow, was that a piece of shit. The new Samsungs are all pretty awesome, but this one was bad in every way besides memory. After a year I dumped it and got an LG Optimus G... which was less shitty. OK, no it was pretty good. It was an LTE phone and the camera worked well, but Japanese text input sucked as did the GPS, and the battery was always just so-so.

So after all that and seeing the new crop of phones this summer, I decided to go back to the iPhone waters. Why? As I said above, for updates. But also because I wanted to be able to have decent English and Japanese input without having to switch keyboards. I also heard that newer iPhones have great cameras, so I wanted to check that out, too.

How has life with an iPhone been, after years of being on android? For the most part, great.

The two big pleasant surprises have been the GPS and camera. The GPS on the iPhone 6+ is just insane. On my last two phones it was barely usable at all; now I pull up the maps app and 95% of the time it's very obvious the phone knows exactly where I am. For me that makes having a map app on a phone useful for the first time in ages. The camera is also good. The pics on this post were all taken with my 6+, all using the default camera app and shot with no extra support or anything.

Also, I have to say the battery life on the 6+ is really good. If I game a lot I can drain it down, but in my two typical scenarios: at work checking email and maybe reading the news and looking at Facebook while on my break; or on weekends using it to listen to music or podcasts on the train, read news, and use the map while wandering around Tokyo, it rarely gets below 70% when I go to bed at night. But then this is what any of the good chunky-ass phablets should offer for battery life.

As for the size... yes, it is big. Too big I would say. If the 6+ was a half inch smaller with a similar battery and weighed just as much it would be the perfect phone. Alas the 6 regular has a much smaller battery, too small screen (for me), and no image stabilization for the camera, so I had to get a 6+, but every time I find myself choosing to not wear my jeans that are a bit slim, and I know my phone choice is dictating my wardrobe, a little imaginary Nelson pops up over my shoulder and laughs, "Ha ha!" It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen, so for that reason I can say the 6+ isn't for everyone.

For me it's the best choice for right now. And I think anyone who went with an iPhone 6 or 6+ (especially if you're an American and you go for SoftBank) would be happy. Otherwise, go for:

On au get a Galaxy Note or an Xperia Z3.
On SoftBank get a Z3.
On docomo get a Z3, a Note Edge, or a Galaxy S5 Active.

I'm back! - thoughts on things happening in Japan and my new iPhone

2014-12-08T17:39:00.000+09:00

This is a little street view of a quite area in Machiya, Tokyo (町屋), a new hangout of mine and a great hidden gem in the big city.

So how goes life in your end of the pond? As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately - work an personal life stuff plus a few long trips made posting basically impossible - but I'm back now.

So what is happening in Japan? First of all we have the election coming up.

Yay. So we can all sit back and watch the ruling LDP ride on a wave of apathy back into power. Despite Abenomics' basic failure it looks like him and his wacky bunch will ride through without a bump. Why call an early election? It's simple: do it now before people realize what's really happening so the LDP can stretch out their control over a fresh new term. His economic policies and pump priming have boosted stocks and made some rich richer, but now everyone is paying more as prices go up, and also because they decided to hit us with a sales tax increase (in order to pay for their handouts to big business and ag). So it's a win win if you're... hmmm... in the LDP? Or if you're the head of a conglomerate or a big time investor. Otherwise? Not so much.

But despite the obviousness of what's going on, and the wreck that most people feel coming as real wages for them aren't increasing while prices are, the obliviousness of the other parties makes the LDP look like they're the only choice, by default. Sigh.

OK, on to other things. For me life is going well. I won't dwell on personal issues here, but I've been busy and doing good stuff at work, and my personal life is going pretty good at the same time. It's looking to be a nice winter holiday this year, and (Yes!) I will also be able to hop over to Hong Kong for a week or so.

Also, as I mentioned in the title, I picked up a new iPhone (Booyah!). I'd been struggling to keep sane trying to cling to my LG Optimus G in the last month of my contract, but when I found a gold iPhone 6 Plus for sale in the size I wanted, and found that it would actually make my contract cheaper (because I'd been paying the full rate for my old phone) I had to get it.

I'll make a post specifically about the phone situation in Japan these days with advice on what to get and what to avoid, but for now I'll just say this: the iPhone 6+ is a beast. It works really fast, takes awesome pictures (the pic above was taken with my iPhone) for a phone, with it being even usable at night to a certain extent, and the battery is fabulous. It's also nice to not have any bloatware occupying my precious phone (and eating my battery, the biggest problem I had with my old phone). So anyone wanting to get a new smartphone in Japan would be hard pressed to find a better option. I'll write about that more in the next few days, though, so come back for a full report.

OK, this post is getting long, so I'll end it here. Just remember, though, that I still do exist. And Japan still will too (hopefully), after the next election.

So stay warm, enjoy the coming winter, and come back for more here soon.

PS I would like to thank all my loyal readers who kept coming while I was away. I did look at my stats from time to time and it's nice to see that Six Days in Chiba still has something of use for people to read and look at, even while I'm gone.

Japanese Festivals - the Best and Worst Ranked!

2014-07-22T21:22:00.002+09:00

This video is one I took the other day at the Shin Matsudo (新松戸) Festival near where I live in NW Chiba Prefecture. I hadn't been there in 5 years or more, but it was really nice to see how much it had changed for the better over the years. The last time I went it was pretty small with maybe a dance or so and some food stalls, but this year it was really big, there was a great variety of food (and cheap beer), and a bunch of neat dances.

This dance has to be the best I saw that day. If you have a few minutes, watch the video (best in HD). Their dance is kinda cool, and I really like the tempo and dance style change halfway through.

OK, so as we go into summer here in Japan, and you're trying to decide which of the many festivals to go to, I thought I'd provide a little advice from my long years in Japan. Now, I'm not going to tell you specifically which event to go to as there are just tons and tons of them all over the country. If you want to see a really cool, traditional one I would suggest the big festival in Asakusa near Sensoji where people put on armor and do a parade. Or you can see some of the big ones out across the country. But there are other posts for that (like this good post up at Japan Talk - 101 Best Japanese Festivals).

What I will talk about, instead, is what to do when you get there. So here goes, my little (not so serious) collection of lists about the best and worst of Japanese matsuri life.

First, what to wear? The festival is going to be damn hot, so it's important to choose the appropriate attire:

The Best Things to Wear at a Japanese Festival

3. A happi/yukata: Summer traditional Japanese garb. The happi is a short vest-esque coat. The yukata is like a summer kimono. Very cool, and you also look stylin. For pics, check here or here (for some reason both searches only show women, but they are for men also). This option can be a bit costly but the great thing is that after buying one, you then own them forever.

2. Pajamas: OK, sorry, they're actually called jinbei, but they essentially are really cool pajama-like pants and shirts that are considered OK to wear outside. Popular with older men, they're also worn by women, too, and tell everyone around you that you've come to do some serious relaxing. Put on a straw hat and you're aura of easygoing will be almost overpowering.

1. Normal Clothes (Duh?): Maybe it's just me, but the best way to relax and enjoy a festival is to just wear something light and cool. Put on a pair of shorts and some shades. Just keep it cool and IMO limit the number of layers. It's insanely humid here; the last thing you want is to be hauled away by a paramedic after you get dehydrated drinking too much beer.

And (this one's easy):

What Not to Wear

3. Cosplay: Sorry, it's just too damn hot. Yes, some of the dancers may look like characters out of Naruto, but they have permission. You don't.

2. Muscle Shirts: Unless you have the muscles... and no gut. Then I'm OK with it.

1. Nothing: Er, I mean don't take off your shirt. Yes, it's hot, but show a little class. Japan is not very much of a no-shirts friendly country. If you're that hot go to a park or go to the beach, but in town taking clothes off here is pretty much a no no.

***

OK, now for the next set:

The Best Foods to Eat at a Japanese Festival

3. Yakitori (fried chicken on skewers): Cooked usually on a grill, these mouth watering bites of pure chickeny goodness are a real good way to start off the festival, and will make you crave more, as well as crave some serious beer to wash them down. Don't be surprised if you have to wait in line a bit, as they're also super popular.

2. Doner Kebab: If you can, wrap your hands around one of these pitas filled with greasy, spicy delicious meat. Originally you'd only see these Turkish sandwiches in little shops around Tokyo, but now they are pretty common at festivals even out in the middle of nowhere.

1. Takoyaki: The king of Japanese summer food - octopus balls cooked in batter with sweet sauce, mayo and various toppings - you can find them at about any summer event and they usually aren't so greasy, and are pretty easy to make, meaning they're one of the only festival foods that you can always count on. If you happen to be in southern Japan like especially Osaka, they're even better.

And the Worst Festival Foods

3. Ringo Ame: Like a candy apple, except the coating is sickly sweet. They look great but unless you're a serious fan of apples or tooth decay you will give up in frustration. I don't think I've ever actually seen someone finish one of these red balls of despair.

2. Cotton Candy (wata ame): What a ripoff. OK, they're not bad per se, just you get almost nothing and the little puffs of sugary candy tend to cost more than a whole meal at some festivals.

1. Grilled Meats (other than chicken): There are tons of varieties - you see steak chunks, rolls of bacon (that I saw this Sunday, ick), or plump sausages cooking about every 15 feet at most festivals. They all smell really good, look good, but when you wait in line to buy one there's always a little voice inside telling you it's a mistake... Listen to that voice! Nothing but pain and misery can come from eating it.

***

OK, so you're at the festival, enjoying yourself. There are a ton of people around you, it's swelteringly hot and almost anyone of age (plus a few extras) are getting drunk. So what's there to do now that you're trapped in festival land? I'll finish this post with one last list:

The Best Things to Do at a Festival (When You're a Bit Drunk)

3. Watch the dancers. This one is easy. It requires little movement, no coordination, and the best part is that any dance troupe seems awesome after your fifth Zema.

2. Dance! Not as obvious, and you can't always join in, but many of the big fests end up with one final dance for everyone. It's a lot of fun, trust me, especially when you've had a bit. No one expects you to be perfect or even come close to doing the right moves. Just get out there and enjoy yourself.

1. Have another beer: Japan is a land of excuses to get drunk in public, but this one I can really get behind. The winter holidays and Golden Week are long gone, and unless you work in education or some other special field, you probably won't get much time off for the summer anyway, so enjoy yourself when you can. Have a beer or three. And especially, have them with good friends. The memories I've made over the years at festivals are some of my best since I've come here. OK, maybe you don't even need that extra beer. Just enjoy yourself and be with people you care about. That's what festivals are about anyway.

***

OK, I'm off for a while now. Heading off to much cooler climes. But I'll try to post when I can.

So enjoy the summer. Have some watermelon, crushed ice, and especially some takoyaki.

And try to relax a bit.

And Now For a Break From the Seriousness, Let's Have Some Crazed Crying on Air

2014-07-03T21:00:00.002+09:00

So how goes your week? Here in Japan there's been a lot of bad shit happening. I could go into details of oddballs crimes (like a guy who allegedly plowing into crowds of pedestrians after getting high on semi-legal drugs). But even worse is the big news: Prime Minister Abe cramming revisions to Japan's restrictions on the use of military force.

How did this all come to pass? It's easy. Abe's party, the LDP, lost control briefly to the opposition party Minshuto a few years ago. They had good intentions, and I personally was hopeful when they came into power, but alas they didn't get a whole lot done, and after the 3.11 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster and a continuing sense that nothing was really changing in Japan, the voters as a whole told them to get the hell out and voted the LDP back in, this time in a landslide victory that finally gave them enough seats to do basically whatever the hell they wanted.

So that's what they're doing now. Over the past year first they enacted the highly controversial law to make it a crime for public servants as well as journalists to leak "government secrets," a law that is just as scary as it sounds. Read the article I linked to for more info. I'll just say here it's a nasty law that makes it even a crime for journalists (wait, does that include bloggers?) to seek out secrets in certain instances... though of course you can't know what's restricted till you get the cuffs clapped on you.

But back to the war-priming machine.

Up until now, Japan's post war constitution has specifically forbidden the use of arms except in cases of direct self-defense. So in other words, while Japanese jets can't do anything at the Chinese planes flying crazily close a Japanese patrol boat coming under fire from a North Korean vessel can send it to hell with high-speed 20mm cannon-fire (happened several years ago - they put the wreck of the "spy" ship on display, too).

The new rules don't let Japan suddenly take the offensive. But they do let Japanese units come to the aid of allies. According to the Japan Today article I linked to above, and news reports I've read, there are questions about whether the new rules might let Japan take part in overseas military ventures, like what happened in the Gulf War or later war in Iraq. Abe has said no to this, and maybe that's his interpretation, but my fear (and the fear of a lot of people I think), is that it opens the door for future prime ministers to steadily push the rules to let them do whatever the hell they want.

My personal interpretation of the intent of the law is simple: it's to allow the military industrial complex to make money hand over fist by selling even more tanks, guns, and bombs here than they already do. The loosened restrictions on power usage are probably more of an extra bonus. They are the main source of discussion in the media, and that's what the people in charge want.

Just like it's my own personal belief that the anti-whistle blower law's real purpose is to let the govt keep secrets for 60 years instead of 30 (the old time limit under previous law). The ability to persecute whistle blowers and snooping journalists is nice, but a side benefit.

OK, so this has gotten quite long, a lot longer than I'd originally planned, but it's all stuff I've wanted to talk about for a while.

So without further ado, I give you this video to take your mind off the serious news:

OK, that was pretty freakin weird.

That was a remix by some wonderful person of the tearful Ryutaro Nonomura, wailing like a character from a a Greek tragedy in wonderful form. Why is he crying like that? Nonomura, a local assembly person from Hyogo Prefecture, was being questioned about expenses he'd tacked up over the past year for a bunch of trips he took. I'm not sure of all the details and I don't think anyone had yet suggested any wrongdoing... but man, that's some crazy powerful sobbing. If anyone was ever unsure what the line "wallowing in freakish misery" from the Princess Bride would look like, I think this is pretty close.

Oh wait, you haven't seen the real video yet. If you want to see highlights, check it out here. I think the real thing is actually more odd and jarring than the remix.

Or for more info, here's the BBC's take on his crying and how videos of him have now gone viral.

Tokyo Showers - Yes, It's Rainy Season Again [ GX7 ]

2014-06-30T20:34:00.003+09:00

This is a little video I took along the streets of Tokyo yesterday, when we had a sudden (and I mean very sudden), torrential rain come down on us. It was crazy - one minute it started to sprinkle, and as we turned the corner it started coming down hard. Fortunately there was a little awning we could duck under, because it went from nothing to pouring down in buckets in around 15 seconds or so.

Of course, if you want to see the video in all its glory, you need to head on to YouTube and watch it at 1080p. Not that you have to, I'm just sayin...

Here is a still I took of the same spot. Man, was that a nice downpour. After waiting a few minutes we decided to chance heading to a coffee shop on the main street (right of this pic), but stupidly made the choice to run for it right as the light was turing red. So we waiting like a minute under my little folding umbrella. Yes, it was better than if we'd had nothing, but not much.

But we made it to the coffee shop and had a rest there, legs and shoes sopping wet. Thank god they didn't toss our dripping asses back onto the streets, or it would've been a lot worse.

Of course, the shower was mostly over 15 minutes later, so I guess we probably should've just waiting in our first hiding spot. Oh well, live and learn.

Actually, thinking about it, it was a lot like an American summer rain, especially like stuff we always got when I was a kid back in Illinois. It comes on hard and fast and out of nowhere, you duck under a ledge or into a building, and before you know it, it's all done.

The rainy season in Japan doesn't usually get rains like this. Or at least it didn't in the past.

When I first came to Japan and for most of the time I've been here rainy season was an endless rain. It would start on a Monday and when it really finally stopped raining a week or so had gone by. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. We'd get a lot of rain, yes, but it was spread out over a long period of time.

Rainy season was (and is still) the gateway to summer here. Just when it's starting to get warm in the latter half of June, the rainy season starts. You have alternating days of muggy humidity and constant rains, with a brief respite from the heat as each shower hits. And then two weeks or so later the rains end and you enter the endless heat of summer.

But around 3 or 4 years ago especially we've started to get these massive, quick storms like the one we got yesterday. And not just that, also crazy stuff. Just this week on the east side of Tokyo (near where I filmed this), they got so much hail and rain it went up to your waist on some streets and they were shoveling it like snow afterwards. Japan's also seen a bunch of tornados in that same time period, and not just far north in Hokkaido where they always used to happen. You have mudslides and floods now almost every season, and on a scale that breaks records left and right.

Is this evidence of global warming/climate change? Probably. But I don't want to get into that now.

Anyway, the rainy season is here, and will still continue I'd guess for another week or maybe two. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Especially the cool evenings after the rains stop.

I'll finish up with one more picture. This one is of one of my favorite spots in Japan - near the old Tobu Asakusa station. Just outside the station you have this steel bridge over the street that continues on across the river. It's a beautiful old bridge in one of the neater spots in Tokyo.

Down the Lane of Memories [ Panasonic GX7 ]

2014-06-16T17:43:00.000+09:00

Peeking down a narrow lane in Tokyo.

This little cluster of bars and smoke-filled restaurants is called Omoide Yokocho (思い出横町), and is meters away from Shinjuku, one of the busiest stations in one of the busiest cities in the world. Though you wouldn't know it from the quiet seclusion here.

The other day I decided to give my fancy zoom lenses a rest and instead take out an old 50mm Auto Chinon lens my brother got me. It's small, and despite the age and a few cracks is in great condition, and on a micro four thirds camera (like my Panasonic GX7) it turns into a great little portrait lens, perfect for street photography.

Yes, not being able to auto focus can make it hard to get shots just the way you want them, but I noticed two things walking around the Shinjuku station area with this lens on my camera.

First, and I think a lot of people would agree with me on this one, using a fixed lens, especially one that forces you to do everything by hand, slows you down a lot. You can't just snap off picture after picture, so it makes you think more about framing, distance, and a lot of other things. And in the process you think about other things, and in many ways it leads you to taking pictures you would've never thought to take with a usual modern all-auto zoom setup.

I used to shoot with only fixed lenses, and those years really helped me a lot. Lately I've gone more for convenience (especially after picking up the fantastic Panasonic 12-35 F2.8), but I think I need to go out with my fixed lenses, and even moreso go for just one lens if I can, to force myself to think more like a photographer.

The other thing is that people don't seem to mind you as much when you're using a setup like this. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's because the smaller lens makes the camera look smaller overall (and thus less imposing). Or maybe it's because with a very old looking lens on it my already retro looking GX7 looks more like a film camera than digital. Or maybe the act of taking pictures like this puts you in more of a photographer's mindset, and you blend into the scenery yourself. Whatever the case, I found that I was able to get up closer and a lot more personal with my subjects, none of whom seemed to flinch at all in front of my lens. So I think in the end I got a bunch of good pictures.

If you'd like to see more pictures like these, check out my other posts: Down a Long Alley, Shinjuku Night Streets, or Tokyo Ruins Hunt. Or check out my Flickr Photostream. I plan on posting more pics there with this great little lens.

Darkness Comes - To the Bayon Before Dark [ GX7 ]

2014-06-07T12:21:00.000+09:00

Two of the huge stone faces at the Bayon, Angkor Thom, Cambodia.

The first day I went to the Bayon (central temple of Angkor Thom, just north of Siem Reap in Cambodia) something stirred in me that I didn't know existed. The intricate, maze-like subterranean tunnels, the massive central cathedral, the towers jutting out at each corner, and more than anything else, the mysterious stone faces called to me.

That night I woke at 4 in the morning, after having a long, freeform dream about the Bayon. It was very vivid and real, and very serene. The next morning I was supposed to meet the driver I'd hired to take me to a traditional farming village miles away, but I knew that plan had to change. So I decided I wanted to spend the whole day in Angkor Thom, really see it.

So I did, and it was fantastic. I went to all the major ruins, the Bapuon (a massive collapsed pyramid temple), Phimeanakas (a still standing pyramid), the Leper King Terrace, and several smaller towers and temples you can only reach by walking through the wooded expanse of Angkor Thom.

After the day was mostly done, around 5:30pm I went back to the Bayon and the stone faces, and these pictures are all ones I took that evening. At first there was an American tour group of about 15 people plus a few other random stragglers, but within 15 minutes the place was completely deserted, so I had the Bayon all to myself.

I have been to Stonehenge and the Sistene Chapel, two places where I felt something. At Stonehenge I could feel an almost electric energy. At the Sistene Chapel, pure tranquility among the throngs of tourists, but at the Bayon I felt something beyond the other two, beyond anything felt at the 2000 year old ruins of Rome or the ancient temples in Japan.

Voices from the past call out. But to say what?

It is quite something to be in a ruins this big all by yourself as the light dims.

If I had more time I would love to stay the night. What dreams would you have in a place like this? But the light was dying, my driver was waiting (for about an hour longer than I'd paid for), and I had an early flight the next morning.

***

This ends my travelog about the trip I took to Angkor Wat and the surrounding ruins. To see my past posts, I recommend you start from the beginning and work your way forward. Start with part 1: The Crumbling Walls of Beng Mealea. Then view Mini Temple and Mountain, followed by The Jungle Temple Ta Prohm and Ascending the Temple (Angkor Wat). And finally you have my first visit to the Bayon: Under the Watchful Eyes of Gods.

I used the Panasonic micro four thirds GX7 to take all of the pictures on my trip. It proved to be a lightweight camera more than capable of taking great images, and considering the insane humidity and heat, a durable camera as well. This post I used three lenses: the Panasonic 20mm F1.7 II and 14mm F2.5 fixed lenses, plus the 45-150mm F4-5.6 zoom for closeups of the faces. To see more pictures, click on any of the images in this post, or head to my Flickr Photostream.

Under the Watchful Eyes of Gods - To the Angkor Part 5 [ GX7 ]

2014-06-05T20:47:00.000+09:00

Standing atop the upper level in the Bayon, you are surrounded by scores of giant stone heads carved into the temple itself. Today I begin the last of two posts about my trip to Cambodia and the Angkor ruins.

This bridge (with multi-headed nagas on each end) crosses the moat surrounding Angkor Thom, one of the largest of the Khmer cities and by far the biggest of the temple complexes in Siem Reap. My last post was about Angkor Wat, the most well known and biggest single temple in the area, but it is dwarfed again by Angkor Thom, which covers an area over 2,200 acres in size.

A line of statues guards the entrance. One of the face towers guards the main gate itself.

Angkor Thom is, as I said, a huge temple complex. The main construction sites date to the 12th century, although some of the major temples inside were made much earlier. Keep checking my Flickr page from time to time and I'll post more pictures I took in the area. It's an incredible place with so much to see that you can easily spend an entire day or more (as I did) and still not even see half of what's there.

More nagas and other beasts guard one entrance to the Bayon, the main temple of Angkor Thom.

The Bayon is famous mainly for the enigmatic face towers jutting up throughout the temple. Wherever you go you find yourself under the watchful eye of one or more of them, each with a different design and expressions on the multiple faces.

Some have faces carved on all four directions (N-S-E-W), but others do not and while the overall plan of the temple seems very random and chaotic at first, there is a kind of beautiful symmetry to it. The picture above shows one of the face towers standing above a covered gallery, and behind there is a stairway leading to the upper levels.

Not all of the temple is intact, of course. Here massive piles of stones lay scattered all about. Amazingly enough, however, many structures here and in other sites have been reconstructed from rubble as bad as what you see here. It's like a massive 3D jigsaw puzzle waiting for someone to decode it.

Unlike many temples in Angkor Thom, you can go inside the Bayon. On the upper levels you find towers like this that open up to the sky above. In the lower levels are a maze of corridors. I did a bit of exploring and was surprised again and again every time I went down deeper, but to be honest I have no idea just how much of the lower part I saw.

This is one of my favorite spots in the Bayon, up on the top level. If you look left and right, and through open passages, every direction you have a different set of faces looking back at you.

Down in the main courtyard you have this partially reconstructed sub-temple (one of the so-called libraries). The Bayon has amazing architecture and the face towers are of course its main feature, but there are also engravings as at Angkor Wat on many of the faces. You could easily spend a day just observing them, which here seem to tell tales of wars and daily life and in fact much of what we know about the way of life of the Khmer comes from deciphering the engravings at Angkor Thom.

More of the face towers watch over here as well.

***

The Bayon and Angkor Thom left the biggest impression on me of any of the places I visited in Cambodia, and to be honest, I would say possibly anywhere I've been in my life. A lot is known about Angkor Wat and many of the other temples, but the complete purpose here is a mystery, though you can almost feel the voices of the past trying to call out to you. Being amidst the towers and corridors here, the 200 or so giant faces looking at you from every angle, inside this massive pyramid temple, is one of the most awe-inspiring things I've ever experienced. And I can say that without any exaggeration.

Which is why I went back again the next day. Come back again to see my next post, where I'll put up a collection of pictures I took just as the sun was setting on the Bayon.

I really recommend reading the Wikipedia pages for the Bayon and Angkor Thom. For an idea of the size, check out a map of the area. Zoom in a bit and the names you'll find on the map will make you want to take a trip there yourself. And if you'd like to see more images, please have a look at my Flickr Photostream.

Ascending the Temple - To the Ruins of Angkor Part 4 [ GX7 ]

2014-06-03T20:48:00.002+09:00

In the Distance you see the looming ruins of Angkor Wat.

Like any story, I think it's best if we start at the beginning. Today's post I will be talking about Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. The above picture was taken on the bridge leading to the main gate. If you didn't know any better you would think it was built in the middle of a massive lake, but it's actually a moat surrounding the temple complex.

Now I'm at the end of the bridge. I still haven't even entered - this set of towers and walls is just the main gateway inside.

Glance to the left and you can sort of get an idea of just how big the gate is. Sort of. It's so big you can't even see the end as it disappears into the woods.

Now we're inside, but the temple itself is still far away. Up on the left ahead you see a smaller temple complex. I made my way there only to get out of the sun for just a bit - the weather that day was around 106° Fahrenheit (41° C), and with the humidity it was much worse, possibly the hottest I've ever felt in my life, easily worse than I've ever experienced in Japan or the US.

This picture was taken at the sub-temple and shows off the front of the main building of Angkor Wat very well, though unfortunately some construction is covering part of the main entryway. But it still doesn't give you enough of a feel for just how huge and intricate the temple is. Let's head inside.

Here is the NW entrance. Unlike most temples in the area, you enter Angkor Wat from the west.

Thankfully, wooden steps have been built over the much steeper original stone stairs leading inside. This is the 1st inner wall (of 3).

This path leads around the outer wall, giving you an occasional peek inside. As my friend said to me when we were talking about visiting Cambodia, Angkor Wat is one of the few places on earth where you can get a glimpse of what infinity feels like.

Now I am at the farthest north side of the temple, facing the path going up into the next inner wall. Though at this point it felt like I'd been walking forever I was only 1/4 of the way around.

At nearly the top of the stairs, looking to the west you can see another sub-temple there. The architecture here is probably the most amazingly intricate and exact that you can see anywhere in the world. What's also interesting is that the ground level you see here, between the outer and inner wall, is actually about 20 feet higher than the ground around the temple (which rises each time you go through another wall), making the whole structure a big pyramid in design.

Fast forwarding a bit, we come to the top of the central inner temple, looking down to the west over the inner and outer walls. In the far distance you can see the outer gates.

Here is a view looking directly west.

Here is a section of inner wall, leading up to the central main tower inside the 3rd (innermost) wall. I saw a picture like this when I was 10 or 11 on some TV show or in a National Geographic magazine and the image stayed with me forever.

It's what brought me to Angkor Wat, and in many ways is one of the reasons I wanted to visit Asia from the time I was quite young. To be able to really see it at last was just incredible.

Angkor Wat is amazing of course for the architecture and grand scale, but there are also several thousand carvings like these on all the walls. I only had a few hours to visit, so couldn't see more than a fraction of all the beautiful wall decorations.

Stairs and stairlike patterns adorn the walls leading to the inner chambers in the main tower. For a sense of scale, I could easily stand without ducking under the openings on the left side of this picture. I read somewhere that experts say this inner set of four open courtyards may have originally been filled with water.

Unlike some of the more ruined temples, Angkor Wat is hard to get lost in because of just how exact and well designed it is. Even without a compass or map, the layout seems to pull you in the right direction at all times. But it's very easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer size.

This is one of several flights of stairs leading upwards toward the central main tower. This one doesn't have the tourist-friendly wood step structure built onto it, so you can see just how steep the original design is.

***

Just how big is Angkor Wat? The outer walls measure over 3000 by 2600 feet long, and inside that is the 620 ft wide moat - which means the area inside the outer wall is over 200 acres. The main temple is 613 x 705 feet, an area roughly the size of 8 football fields. That's for one temple.

It is unique in its sheer size, but also in its relatively good state of preservation. Completed in the 12th century it was the state temple of kings, and would've been the center of a city of tens of thousands. It was first made as a Hindu temple, was sacked, and then later converted into Buddhist use. But unlike most other ruins in the area, it was still in use when the first western visitors came upon it around the 16th century, and is still in use today. Yes, the civilization declined but the traditions were continued through the centuries to this day.

Traveling there was, simply put, incredible, one of those experiences that seems almost too amazing to believe while it's happening and that stays with you forever when it's done. I only hope that my pictures can do it some justice. Well, actually that's almost impossible. How do you convey something like this place with just images? I guess my real hope is that seeing these pictures inspires more people to visit Cambodia and see this place for themselves, because that is the only way to really understand and feel it.

It is a journey that will stay with me forever, a pilgrimage in every sense of the world.

If you have time, please check out the other posts I've made about my trip to Cambodia: The Crumbling Walls of Beng Mealea, Mini Temple and Mountain, and The Jungle Temple Ta Prohm.

For more information on this great temple, please check out the Wikipedia page: Angkor Wat Wikipedia.

Also, you might want to see pictures other people took at Flickr. There are a lot of fantastic photographers that've visited the area, so please have a look at the images they've taken.

Tending the Field [ Panasonic GX7 + 12-35mm F2.8 video ]

2014-05-26T19:55:00.001+09:00

Just a little video I took the other day, while wandering around Teganuma on the way in to Kashiwa. I happened to spot this old guy getting his field ready for planting. It was kind of cool. If you can, make sure to watch this one and the next at 1080p.

Later when I got a little closer I took this 2nd video. Yes, I know the video isn't really about anything spectacular, but it shows a little slice of life here.

***

BTW for anyone interested, these videos were shot with the Panasonic GX7 micro four thirds camera. This time I was using the 12-35mm F2.8 lens, which seems to do video quite well. The stabilization is also really neat. I mean, I shot this without any extra gear and it only bobs just a bit.

Musings - Train Edition

2014-05-25T11:14:00.001+09:00

Ah trains, whether you love them or hate them, if you live in Japan you will spend some time on them, unless you live in the total middle of nowhere or are a recluse. Today I'd like to talk a little about some stuff I've noticed riding the trains around, especially in the Tokyo area.

● Why won't anyone sit by me? This is the question every non-Japanese person must ask themselves several times before it finally becomes a non-issue (and then even a plus). The fact of life is that Japanese people prefer to sit by other Japanese, in most cases. It doesn't matter if you (the non-JP) is dressed in a suit and tie looking like Leonardo DiCaprio, a woman done up with make up in a classy way, looking hot as the sun, whatever. You will have people specifically avoid you because you're the other.

If you want to really see it in action, try hopping on a ride from Shinjuku station late at night. I guarantee there are some really nasty shady types on the train. But if the question is "Do I sit next to that angry, stabby looking hobo or do I sit next to that white guy reading a book?" for most people here it isn't a question. You take your chances with Mr. Stabs-a-lot.

Now I've heard several excuses for this from the obvious: "They're afraid you'll ask them a question in English and they won't know how to answer," to the insulting: "They don't want to smell your barbarian stink." (OK I've never had that one said to me, but I did see an old guy sniff his shoulder after I'd bumped into him, like he was checking to see if I hadn't rubbed off some gaijin foul on him). Whatever the case, this will happen to you, and there are a lot of reasons I'm sure, but who really cares? In the end, if it means you get to sit without a stinky dude falling asleep on you, then that's a good thing, right?

● Of course then the opposite also happens: Please, oh please God, don't sit by me. Being that the only open seat on the train car is right next to me, I find that the creepiest, most foul (often drunk) people always choose to flock to that one seat next to me. Hell, they seem to plop down next to me even if the rest of the train is empty. I'm not sure if this one happens to lots of people. Maybe I have a special non-threatening vibe that draws in the truly messed up like flies to a pile of rotten mashed potatoes. I don't know.

Note, however, that this one is far less annoying when you're riding the train home drunk. Of course then the real possibility is that you (and by you, I of course mean me) become the creepy, foul-smelling guy.

● Train lateness. This one is an odd one. If you look on any website about Japan they all rave about the punctuality of trains, how they're never late, and blah blah blah. Yes, compared to the busses I occasionally rode when I was a kid back home, they're super nifty. And yes, this was very true a decade ago. But over especially the past 5 years it seems like the trains have gotten worse and worse. And I'm not really sure why.

The overall suicide rate in Japan has actually been falling (no pun intended) lately, so surely the number of jumpers is also decreasing, but I don't know. Maybe it's just that over time, the number of total times the train has been delayed has added up in my mind but the actual frequency hasn't increased, but my biased experiences just make me feel like it's more often (sorry, math major nerdieness rears its ugly head).

***

OK, this post is a long one, so I'll finish with just 4, and I'd like to end on a positive tone, so:

● Damn, are the trains in Japan really nice. Yes, there are delays, and yes sometimes there are crazies, people holding back their barf right in front of you and all kinds of weird crap that happens when you deal with masses of people packed into a small space, but the trains themselves are just really nice.

On the Joban Line that goes from Ueno all the way up into deep, dark Ibaraki and sort of beyond, the new cars have toilets even. You can see these kinds of cars popping up all over the place, too, so many times even if you have to use the bathroom in a real emergency, you're fine. I had this happen to me on a trip to Mie several years back, and let me say had their not been a toilet I would've been in serious trouble.

You also have a billion different train types, all in neat, unique colors, so it makes every ride feel just a bit special. A good friend of mine told me that if the US would just introduce some neat looking, unique feeling train designs, maybe we'd have more people wanting to ride.

Of course Japan then also has the real kings of train travel, the Shinkansen (bullet trains). Not only are they freakishly cool, but the ride on the newer models is so smooth you can set a full cup of water on your tray and not have to worry about it spilling. And of course you also get a tray. And leg room. And a decent space to sit on even if you're a big person. Combine that with air conditioning and no wait before the train ride starts, IMO the only real way to travel long distances in Japan is by Shinkansen. Planes = suck. Give me a nice Shinkansen ride any day.

***

OK, thanks for reading. If you have any interesting train stories or things you'd like to add, post it in the comments section below.

Oh, and in case you're interested, the picture at the top of this post is an above view of the tracks near Iidabashi Station, one of the coolest train watching spots in Tokyo, not only because of the number and denseness of the lines, but also because all kinds of trains pass by here, and the view is completely clear with no obnoxious fencing or partitions getting in the way.

All Night Diner and other Japanese TV Greats

2014-05-21T22:22:00.000+09:00

This little video is the opening for the JDrama All Night Diner, in my opinion one of the best TV shows to come out of Japan in the last decade.

There's something about Shinjuku that drew me in from my first visit (literally the first day I arrived in Japan, in July of 1998), and keeps me coming back, as you know if you've followed my blog even a little. In many ways it feels like a doorway to an older Japan that now really no longer exists. I'm not talking about the Japan of samurai and ninja or geisha and lords. For that there are a lot of other places you can visit. I'm talking about the crumbling but vibrant, sleazy but also pure, very much alive Japan of the post-war pre-bubble era.

Of course I was only a baby when this was all happening, but I've certainly consumed enough media from the era to have a feel for what it was like, or what it was like seen through the lens of a camera.

All Night Diner (深夜食堂) is about a quiet man who runs a little hole in the wall bar somewhere in Shinjuku, probably Kabukicho, and the various pimps, hookers, scam-artists, drag queens, and all sorts of people who drop into each episode. The lead, played by Kaoru Kobayashi (小林薫), is almost never the focus of the show. Instead, each episode has a star, someone who pops in and then out. Each story feels very familiar, because they're almost all intentionally cliched plots you've seen a million times, but like the title sequence they're done just right to make you feel for the characters because they're someone you know, or feel like you know, and acted well enough that they sink into the richness of the world around.

I write about this show now because it's available on Hulu Japan. If you have a subscription, check out the series. Each 25 minute episode is one of the best written, most concise and especially beautifully filmed shows you're going to see in Japan. The show's homepage is also still up here.

As a bonus, I also want to mention the two other shows that I think fit in perfectly.

First we have River's Edge Okawabata Detective Agency (リバースエッジ大川端探偵社), starring Joe Odagiri (オダギリジョー) as a mostly burned-out detective who specializes in finding people and finding about people. It's a quiet, slow-paced show set down in the old downtown area near Ueno and Asakusa, one of my other favorite stomping grounds.

Spiritually it feels very much like a sequel to greats such as Detective Story that starred the legendary Yusaku Matsuda (松田優作), a show that basically invented the detective show in Japan. Like the All Night Diner, the show centers around a single main character (plus his boss and their sort of secretary), with each episode featuring a new client and often a completely different feel.

Very much worth a watch, for the story and Odagiri's solid action (he also played a recurring character in All Night Diner and was a lead in Yae no Sakura), and also the great music. You can find the homepage here - it's on TV now, TV Tokyo Friday late night around midnight.

And last, we have a show that sits between the other two in both time and feel.

This is the official preview video of Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi (まほろ駅前番外地), which stars the exceptionally talented Eita and Ryuhei Matsuda (Yusaku's son) as a pair of benriya (便利屋 - a Japanese term for someone who's like a cross between a handyman/fixit and a detective). In reality, they're a couple of losers who can barely scrape the rent together, but somehow survive by taking all kinds of cases.

The main charm of the show is watching the two interact on screen together, often failing in their missions and finding new ways to get the crap beaten out of them. The locations and camera work are also great, as is (again) the music.

In many ways it's like a dirtbag version of River's Edge, which jokingly told the audience in an early episode what the difference is between a benriya and a detective, IMO highlighting the fact that both shows are quite similar.

The show's homepage is here or you can check their link page for sites where you can watch the show streaming (for a fee).

If you have the time and can find a way to watch all three, there's a great kind of symmetry in feel and style to the sort of trilogy. Enjoy. Trust me, after watching each episode you'll want to watch more, and also head out to the city and find the wonderful locations yourself.

Down a Long Alley - the Other Side of Yokohama [ Panasonic GX7 ]

2014-05-13T20:40:00.002+09:00

When you think of Yokohama, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me Yokohama has always been about two things - the bay area with glittering new buildings and ultramodern but still very nice looking in a way that Tokyo can never be, and Chinatown.

This weekend I was able to see another side of Yokohama.

The key I guess is to even know to look.

As anyone who's done any travelling in Yokohama knows, the main place with stuff to see - the shopping center, Chinatown, the harbor, the Red Brick Warehouse and all kinds of other attractions - is all centered around Sakuragicho Station. Just walk out and head north to the water or east to Chinatown and you're there.

But if you head out the southwest from the station instead, you find something completely different.

Noge (野毛 or のげ - written on the arches above), is the name of a small section of the city, and it plus Miyagawacho (宮川町) forms a line of several blocks south of the station along the river. Here there is just an amazing number of little businesses all crammed into a tiny space. In many ways it feels a lot like the "downtown" (下町) parts of old Tokyo you see in Asakusa, Shinjuku, Kita Senju and many other areas, but even more tightly packed.

This old, crumbling building is just one of many that may feel a little old and worn, but they're still very much in use and thriving, as is the whole area.

I love this street scene (above). On the left there's a police box with a sign up that says "out on patrol." To the right across the street is a capsule hotel and down the street ahead is a curved line of bars all occupying the 1st and 2nd floors of a long building that looks like it was intended to only last until more permanent construction could be built, many many years ago. The view further down the street is the 2nd pic in this post. Each little bar sits around 10 (maybe) with just enough room behind the counter for a bartender and a cook, and that's about all.

More amazingly, the 2nd set of bars above is reached by climbing a set of rickety stairs where you enter from the back side, above the river. Incredible.

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Yes, the place could use a little paint, a fixed window here or there, but it has a lot of character, especially after dark. I really love the slatted windows in this standing bar, named appropriately Standbar.

You could wander around the same paths several times and not even notice everything there's so much to see. After walking around all afternoon and into the early evening we decided to get a bite to eat. And that was a fantastic little journey in and of itself. We went into what looked like just another building, only to find it was actually the entrance to an arcade spanning down an old covered alley. There we sat down at a teeny French restaurant where they had Foie Gras steaks on the menu, (we opted for pâté instead) seating for 4 at the bar if you're thin, and two other small tables and that's it.

For anyone interested in seeing what's probably the best place to drink in Yokohama, and maybe also the best place to eat, I really recommend a jaunt. The whole area is only a few hundred feet long from north to south and it's all close to the station, so the journey isn't a problem at all. I honestly can't believe I never knew about it until now, but I plan on going back again for sure.

If someone wanted to try out the French I had (which was really good, and decently priced), the place is called the Bistro Graine Marche (you can see it on the map here), but you have to look around a bit because it's not on the street really. When you find it on the map, head into the glass doors and look around. Even if there aren't any seats the area has a ton of cool bars, bistros, Japanese dining.

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These pictures were all taken with my Panasonic GX7 and the excellent 12-35mm F2.8 lens. If you'd like to see more click on any image above or head to my Flickr Photostream. You can also check out some other posts about this wonderful city to the south of Tokyo: A View From Above (where I head up the Landmark Tower), To the Red Bricks (cool sightseeing around the harbor) or Yokohama Nights.

Japan cm of the week - My girlfriend is Kanna Hashimoto

2014-05-10T10:51:00.001+09:00

No, that is not a Stalker Vision™video of Kanna Hashimoto, though it could be.

Hello everyone, how was your week? It's Saturday now, meaning I have a few days off and we get another installment of my commercial of the week series.

As anyone who's been following this blog knows, I like to give a weekly link to Japanese ads that are a) quirky and a bit strange, b) highlight something about Japanese culture, and c) feature an IT personality.

This one manages to do all three in the perfect balance.

First, to explain, this ad is for Ameba's game, Girlfriend Beta. It's one in a long, long tradition of Japanese dating sims. The idea here is that you're a guy who runs into one of your old crushes from when you were a student, and you both agree to play out what would've happened had you dated back then. There's a list of girls you can choose to "date" and each has their own storyline.

OK, I don't 100% remember the plot (I tried it around a year ago), but I do recall that for a free dating sim game it was actually pretty good, if you're into that kind of stuff, and the artwork was great.

And now they've added real people as characters into the game. Kanna Hashimoto (橋本環奈), the smiling girl you see in this ad, is being called the perfect idol, that a girl this cute only comes along "once in a thousand years." She's a member of the group Rev. from DVL (?) and whether you agree with what they're saying about her or not, she will surely be popping up on TV more and more.

Oh, and the quirky/strange part? It has to be the Stalker Vision part of this ad. What, you ask, is Stalker Vision? Just watch this commercial and you'll understand. Yes, there is a very stalker-ish element to any dating sim, especially one featuring anime versions of real people, but the way this ad is shot seems to say "this is how the world looks through the eyes of a stalker." Like how she smiles at a person looking at her through a rack of books. Kinda creepy when you stop and think about it.

Anyway, more of her can be found here: Kanna Hashimoto Official Blog and at the Rev. from DVL homepage.

And the game's page is here: ガールフレンド (仮) Girlfriend Beta with links to get it for iOS or Android. I'm not sure if it's available in your country but if you like Japanese dating sims it's free and a lot better than most.

Shinjuku Night Streets [ Panasonic GX7 ]

2014-05-02T17:18:00.000+09:00

This a view I've seen many times but have never really been able to get a good picture of, until now. It's the view along Yasukuni Street (靖国通り), that passes along Kabukicho when heading west past Shinjuku. It's one of the busiest and most varied streets in Tokyo, making it also probably one of the busiest and varied streets in the world.

Here's another view, this time looking towards the Kabukicho area, Japan's most notorious red light distric, though it's not really that dangerous, bad, or sleazy by the standards of many countries. I would rather walk through here than many normal streets in Chicago during the day. But that's Japan for you; even when it's dangerous it isn't that bad.

There isn't any particular theme for this set of images, besides that they were all taken in the same Shinjuku area, but if you look at them I think I got a decent collection of snapshots of the city and nightlife you can find there, and as usual I found some odd little curiosities tucked between the usual spots.

I'm pretty sure I've passed by here many times on the way from one of my favorite little camera stores in the area (SW Shinjuku is a goldmine for old lenses and camera stuff), but I never noticed this wonderful sign for the now long-closed Shinjuku International Theater.

There are a lot of different people around here, and a lot of different lights that give each street its own flavor.

Here is another shot of the Ishii Sports building, a new favorite of mine. I love how the windows seem to follow a line of stairs up the side on the right. I also like the choice of ICI as the logo of Ishii Sports. Odd but not in a bad way.

This little trip was mainly a roundabout way to check out a new camera store. I went to an excellent used lens shop in Nakano (just outside the station in a maze of little stores in the shopping arcade) the day before, but decided to try someplace new, and since I had some time decided to take out my new lens for a spin around my favorite photo spot.

I picked up the incredible Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 and I have to say that so far I love it. Yes, it is heavy - with lens on my little GX7 turns into a 600g (21oz.) beast - but the balance is great, and the zoom covers everything I usually need. It's a 24-70mm equivalent range, so you get a nice wide end and enough zoom to let you get in closer than just your legs would allow. It's also relatively small, and with it on I can in theory leave most of my other lenses at home. The 12-35 is IMO a great walking around lens, and it has glass that's good enough that you don't feel like your photo quality is suffering.

Anyway, I'll finish up my post here. If you'd like to see more images I've posted, especially with this new lens, check out my Flickr Photostream. Or check my other posts: Shades of Old Tokyo, Flowers From Tokyo or To the Abandoned - Ruins Hunting in Ueno.