Just give me one more Tokyo

It’s never hard to get me to go to Tokyo. While anyone who has spent a great amount of time in the city can tell you that it can get a little ‘much’ after awhile, it is always nice to drop in for a few days and enjoy all that the city has to offer. Well, all that you can manage to get in a few days that is. Since most of my readers have read about Tokyo before, I’ll just stick to the basics. My dear friend Laura Page and her sister Olivia decided to come to Japan for a few weeks and seeing as how they were ‘in the neighborhood’, I decided to go visit them. Here are some pictures of our time together in Tokyo. (Above: Free Hugs? What a deal!)
Hanging out with Laura in a Cat Cafe in Shibuya


Some old Waseda friends of mine decided to join the fun

Laura and Olivia battling on some Super Tetris

People Viewing in Harajuku

Just amazing!

Tsukigi Fish Market


Could someone call Jessica Simpson and confirm the chicken or fish thing for me?

Rice Planting

Having been on Sado for all of 10 months now, I have seen a great deal of rice paddies, rice farmers, and of course rice itself. However, last weekend was the first time I was able to take part in the process that ultimately ends up feeding me nearly every day. The previous ALT for my region of Sado still resides on the island and has taken up rice farming. His associated farm, Daruma An Farms, has over 20 fields that produce some of the most delicious rice I have ever tasted
(http://www.facebook.com/DarumaAnFarms) . This year, they decided to test organic rice planting, no pesticides or fertilizers whatsoever, on one of their paddies. In order to keep weeds from overtaking their crop, they found a biodegradable sheet to lie over the paddy. This sheet, however, required them to forgo the usual means of plating, a tractor/planting machine of sorts, and switch to traditional planting by hand. Rice planting involves grabbing a slab of the infant rice seedlings, called nae(pictured), separating one to three of the little seedlings and placing them in the muddy paddy. This is done through the very technical process of bending down and sticking your hand in the mud. The trick is to place the seedling deep enough in the mud so that the wind won’t carry it off without making too much of a hole in the process. Having no experience with this whatsoever, we were pretty slow at first, but by the end of the day we seemed to have found our rhythm. I greatly enjoyed my little rice planting experience. Working outside, standing barefoot in almost a food of mud and getting to do a real, honest day’s labor was good for me in many ways. While I don’t think I am about to switch my nameplate from Phillip Sensei to Farmer Phil, I am thoroughly glad that I got to experience this vitally important piece of Japanese culture.

Hanami

In Japan, spring means cherry blossoms (sakura in Japanese). Although these blossoms usually only live for a few weeks, during their short lifespan they are the object of total obsession of their surrounding community. Hanami, flower viewing, is an exercise in both adoration and relaxation. Hanami usually consists of a family or group of friends heading to a local park known to be rich with blooming cherry blossoms, spreading out a tarp and enjoying drinks, food and good company under the pink petals. Popular weekends for hanami are often paired with festivals to increase the fun factor. Families take pictures under these sacred trees, admire their short lived beauty and simply enjoy the fact that winter is over. Being quite fond of the outdoors I naturally enjoyed this little outing, but I’ve never been able to appreciate these flowering trees quite like the Japanese. It reminds me a bit of the leaf watches who drive down to the Appalachian Mountains to see the fall foliage in its glory. While we usually don’t make such a social commitment to it as the Japanese do, I was glad to see that the act of simply enjoying one of nature’s most beautiful seasons was not confined to a single culture.

Oiran Photos

Tradition in Slow Motion

Oiran Dochu, roughly translated as courtesan procession, is a practice that dates back to the Edo Period (1600- 1868). Oiran were prostitutes of the highest class – the ancient Eliot Spitzer variety – and they could choose their lovers from the richest of men. They could only operate inside walled pleasure districts inside major cities. Tokyo housed the most famous one known as Yoshiwara. While they were trained in the arts, music, conversation, etc, they did not receive the kind of training a geisha did. I know many of you read ‘Japanese courtesan’ and go right to your cinematic or literary memories of Memoirs of a Geisha, and you would not be the only one to do so, but you would also not be the only one to be mistaken. Oiran came about before geisha and to oversimplify it a bit, geisha were more artists than prostitutes and the opposite is true of oiran. This parade of sorts was done when they were escorting their honored guests. The oiran would wear 6 inch geta, wooden clogs, place 8 or more pins in their hair, and were up to 60 pound of ornate clothing for these walks! To make it even harder, they walked VERY slowly and moved their feet in a slow figure-eight pattern. The pictures do more than I ever could to describe the ancient beauty being reenacted here. So the next time you start complaining about wearing heals or that your clothes feel uncomfortable, just imagine putting on 60 pounds of priceless robes, 5 inch wooden-heals and placing enough metal in your hair to pick up XM Radio.

A Fantastic Trip

We rarely use the term fantastic outside of Disney movies. I chose to use the term in my title for its basic meaning: imaginative, fanciful and remote from reality. If you had told me during my freshman year at Furman that I would one day meet up with the guy from 2 doors down in Tokyo, I would have considered that pure fantasy, remote from reality. And I would have been wrong!
Michael Clemens, a fellow Furman-ite and dear friend of mine recently flew to Tokyo to visit his brother who is serving in the US Navy. Being that he was now 14 hours closer to me, I thought a reunion was simply necessary. We met up in Tokyo near the end of his trip to take in the some of Japan’s wonderful capital. Traditional shrines, sprawling metropolitan areas, first class museums and great local restaurants were all thoroughly enjoyed. Being as we had not seen each other in almost a year, we were never left lacking conversation and even if we had been, Tokyo offers ample talking points at every turn. While I certainly enjoyed all of our time together, I would have to say that our final night out on the town that was brought to an end with drinks on the top of the Shinagawa Prince Hotel was simply epic. Very little beats sipping drinks 39 stories high while gazing out a panoramic window at the tallest building in Tokyo. Add a good friend in the mix and simply nothing beats that.

Reggae Show

Now, I know the words “Japan” and “Reggae” might not seem to mix but give this post a shot. Japan does indeed have a reggae scene and a few Buffalo Soldiers call Sado their home. I guess it’s an island thing. The show I went to was staged at a very nice hotel in the north of Sado. The room was small but so was the crowd. My friend and I were 2 of 12 for over an hour, but the crowd finally started to grow and the night ended up being pretty fun. The most amusing part of the first show was when the dj spliced some western pop into the reggae he was spinning. All of the dj’s music was western reggae, but these artists have no place in any reggae show: Backstreet Boys – Celine Dion – Enrique Iglesias– Dolly Parton. I really don’t have the vocabulary to fully explain my reaction so let’s move on. The latter shows included a few dancers and some Japanese rappers from the mainland. Most of them were pretty good, but I don’t think I’m Japanese enough or Jamaican enough to comment intelligently on the subject. My favorite was a big guy who called himself Large Rice. Despite his size, this Marley in the making could really move and rap reasonable well. Although you won’t find much reggae on my Ipod, this show was certainly worth cover charge.
Also, let me apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera was in my car, my car was at Charles’ place and Charles’s place was 30 minutes away. Problem!