Japanory

Baking and Playing

Thursday 26^th April 2007

The school's annual Spring fair is on Saturday and because I'm still trying to find my feet with the PTA/Fair Organisers et al, I agree to make some cakes for the Cake Stall.

I love baking, so this didn't initially fill me with dread. Until I tried to find the basic ingredients for a cake...

Self-raising flour doesn't appear to exist. So I grabbed some plain flour and baking powder and googled for amounts to use. Butter is horrendously expensive. But I refuse to inflict disgusting margarine on anyone. Cocoa was found in the end - it was with the baking ingredients rather than beverages.

Little paper cake cases required a trip to yet another shop. Tokyo Hands is the best place for stuff like this and at the same time I bought some small cellophane bags (as instructed by The School) to package the cakes nicely. I'm all set to cook.

My enormous KitchenAid red mixer came with me from the UK but this requires a step-down transformer to use. Japanese electricity is 100 volts while the UK is 240 volts. It's a bit of a struggle to use with little workspace but once set-up it all works just fine.

I think I made about 48 little chocolate cakes. Then I realised the oven is in Fahrenheit and not Centigrade. Another search to find the conversion and pop the first batch in. As I'm not yet used to this oven yet, I checked on the cakes some minutes before they were due to be done. ALL BURNED! What a waste. So I was doubly careful with the next batch and pulled them out early to find the bases were over done while the tops were barely cooked. I was very cross.

I hate this cooker. So the cake stall had to do without my contribution. I'm sure this was noted by the co-ordinators…

 

After school, Rhiannon and I are both invited for a playdate at Yoko's. Her daughter, Natalie, is adorable, very sweet and quiet - the polar opposite of Rhiannon. And I'm looking forward to getting to know Yoko better. While the children played, Yoko offered me a glass of champagne she'd bought especially. I love this lady already! We had a wonderful chat; I admired her collection of very English porcelain and played with her funny dog which looks like a black Dougal from The Magic Roundabout.

Yoko felt peckish and raided her fridge for snacks. Now, she'd been living in the UK for a few years and had been missing Japanese food so had stocked up on her favourites, which she kindly offered to share with me. Unfortunately, these didn't appeal. Inch long baby squids, complete with eyes really didn't encourage my appetite.

Then she brought out a pot of Natto. She explained to me that this stuff is very good "for the skin and for beauty". As all the Japanese people I've seen are very young looking and beautiful, I agreed to try it.

Natto is fermented soy beans. It stinks and looks vile - all gloopy and, frankly, looks totally inedible.

I tried it.

It stinks, it's disgustingly gloopy, tastes vile and is totally inedible.

I will remain wrinkled.

Cycling in Tokyo

End of April 2007

Once 'T' left for her trip to Australia we finally had some time to ourselves.

Rhiannon has been riding her bicycle up and down the cul-de-sac with stabilisers for some time now. It's very safe in this immediate area with little or no traffic, so - unlike in the UK - I'm happy for her to play outside on her own. She wants a new bike, which she does need as this one is getting too small for her now. But the prerequisite for this new bike is that she must learn to ride without stabilisers.

Good friends, and experts in this small but vital piece of education, recommended that the only and best way to do this is to remove the pedals as well as the stabilisers. Their son has been riding without stabilisers since he was about two, so they do know about it! Well, he never actually had a bike with stabilisers anyway, just two wheels and the handlebars.

Of course, Tim thought his method was better and just removed the training wheels. Over a period of 2 or 3 days, a panicky Rhiannon wobbled a lot, fell off and cried amid Tim railing against her. I had to put a quick stop to this before her nerve left her altogether and so I insisted the pedals should come off too.

Brave child got back on, with plasters on her scraped knees, wobbled a lot but this time she was able to put her feet down on the ground to prevent further crashes. It's all to do with balance, obviously.

Within half an hour she was ready for the pedals to go back on and we proudly cheered as she confidently rode her bike for the first time, without stabilisers!

I should add at this point that I cannot ride a bike. But Rhiannon has said I can have her old stabilisers if I want to get one! I do fancy a bike, just because I am acquisitive and I've seen some lovely ones around. I'm sure it can't be that hard to learn… even at my age.

Apparently there are over 86 million bicycles in Japan. I should think most of them are in Tokyo. It's most definitely the favoured form of transport.

There are so many different kinds from standard city bikes to peculiar 'lie-down and pedal' contraptions with a roof. We laugh to see a fully grown man in his business suit pedalling furiously on a kids' sized Raleigh Chopper style bike.

By far the most common sight is the mama-charis, literally "mother's bike". These very basic shopping bikes have a basket on the front and a child's seat on the back. Sometimes there will be a child's seat on the front as well! Actually, most bikes have a large metal basket on the front, even the toughest -looking mountain bike. Sometimes the basket contains a small dog, enjoying the ride with ears blown back in the wind. Occasionally the dog is a little bigger...

Mama-charis bomb along the pavements with the mother pedalling, sometimes with a baby strapped across her chest in a sling and a toddler sitting or sleeping on the back seat. There are special holders for umbrellas too. But when it's raining it's not uncommon for the cyclist to be holding the brolly over their head and cycling one-handed. It's terrifying. And nobody wears helmets either.

Other bikes that intrigue me are the electric powered ones. For ages I wondered how these women managed to cycle up hills with two kids and bags of shopping until someone pointed out to me that the pack near the pedals gave a little extra power to their efforts. There are also plenty of adult sized tricycles, some with two wheels on the rear, others with double wheels at the front.

But almost all cyclists ride on the pavements! And they don't cycle slowly, either.

With a small child in tow, it's frankly terrifying to see the speed they reach and they barely slow down to weave between the pedestrians. Although they don't' annoy me as much as mountain bikers in the UK, tearing up the countryside and feeling they are entitled to make up rules up as they go along, it's still tempting to carry a sturdy stick to shove in the wheel spokes.

Some politely ring their bell just before they are about to hit you. Which is nice. Unless you are deaf…

Apparently there ARE cycling rules, but they are rarely enforced. Unless you are a gaijin, when (allegedly) the police often take the opportunity to stop and fine you. Bikes have to be registered and display a little yellow sticker on the frame.

Official rules are (as far as I can tell):

• Ride on the road - unless you prefer to ride on the pavement
• If you ride on the pavement, do so slowly and with care
• Pedestrians have right of way on the pavement.
• Cyclists bear full responsibility for accidents with pedestrians
• All traffic signs and traffic lights apply to cyclists as well a motor vehicles
• Keep left
• Don't ride on the wrong side of the road - riding the wrong way is prohibited
• Drunk riding is illegal
• Lights are mandatory for night riding
• Park in designated areas. If you fail to do so your bike will be taken away by the Bike Police and you will incur a fine in order to retrieve it.
• Carrying passengers over the age of six is prohibited.
• Don't ride carrying an open umbrella or talking on your mobile phone

It's also very common to see "no bicycle parking areas" full of parked bikes.

So, if you want to be a true cycling Tokyoite, ignore all the above rules.

It seems the law turns a blind eye to all these rules until someone other than yourself gets hurt.

Perhaps I will stick to my trusty car instead.

Fairy Letters

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In Which We Find a Fabulous Japanese Restaurant

Monday 23^rd April 2007 (yet again!)

Back at home I did the standard new visitor things. Feed them tea, show them their room, explain the earthquake drill and make more tea. Then we did the work bit; installed a new database uploaded the data and gave it a trial run. All OK.

I went to collect Rhiannon from school while 'T' took a shower and sorted out her stuff.

Once Tim arrived home, 'T' and I headed off to find somewhere to eat and gossip. Now, as I don't go out that often, I don't really know all the good restaurants. Apart from the place I went with the school mums, where we were fed batter-covered chicken gristle (not recommended) and a sushi bar, I didn't know any Japanese restaurants.

We set off for Akasaka as there are loads of eateries there and were confident we'd find something. 'T' is a bit of a foodie so I was under a little pressure to find somewhere good.

Up one street we went and only found Western restaurants or very Japanese places where we had no hope of understanding the menu. This is frankly a little scary as some Japanese food is known to be, erm…, unusual to our unrefined Western palates. It was also very busy with "salarymen" out on their regular jollies. Pachinko parlours deafened passersby when the doors opened and are garlanded with neon-coloured fake flowers and other decorations. There are also numerous hostess bars…

Down another street. This one housed only sushi bars and we wanted something a bit more substantial… and cooked.

Then into the unknown. The next street was a bit darker than the others but a mysterious man was carrying a framed stall that was making a gentle, yet intriguing tinkling sound. So we followed him to see what was on his cart. It was festooned with delicate glass windchimes and the sound and sight was enchanting.

Continuing up this street, we spotted a beautiful old wooden house with the much welcome sign, "English Menu"! Perfect. It was a Japanese restaurant in a fabulous setting with an English menu.

Except… we could not find out how to get in!

There was no door to be seen. We went back and forth around the building. Looked for stairs in case the entrance was up a level. Nothing. Through the windows we could see people inside eating, but how did they get there? How frustrating - so near, yet so nowhere close to finding a way in. After several circuits, we noticed a closed tiny sliding door. Could that be it? Surely not - it was only about a metre high. 'T' dared me to try it, so I did. Eureka! It was the entrance! How very authentic.

Inside we were greeted warmly and invited to remove our shoes which we left by the door. There were separate rooms off a short, dark wood corridor. It all looked extremely old and authentic. We were ushered into a room where for a dreaded moment I thought we would be expected to sit on the floor as the tables were very low. But no, under the table was a hollowed out floor enabling us to sit more comfortably. Thank goodness.

Decorated with many ancient (looking) artefacts, the ambience was perfect.

 We ordered from the set menu and had the most delicious meal ever; lots and lots of courses including sashimi, sukiyaki and miso. We drunk lager from heavy, rough pottery mugs and dessert was a disturbingly grey ice-cream. Tasty, but still grey.

The toilet was surprisingly modern, but the old custom of putting on "toilet slippers" was used - these are communal wooden open-toed clogs.

As we left, just about able to walk after the copious amounts of food we'd consumed, the host lifted a floorboard by the miniature door and gave us a gift of some tins of drink. I think they were soba-pop. The drink was grey, like the ice-cream, but nowhere near as tasty. We didn't keep them.

Would you like to know what this fantastic restaurant is called? Yes?

It's called Jidaiya and now has an English website.

I can highly recommend Jidaiya if you're ever in Tokyo. Just mind your head when you go in!

 

Tokyo Taxis

Monday 23^rd April 2007 

(still)

So, after finally finding her way to the correct exit, 'T' and I made our way to the taxi rank for the quick trip back home. Really didn't fancy taking the Metro as it's quite a walk from our nearest station.

I can't remember if I've already mentioned about the Tokyo taxis? They are numerous and very easy to use, albeit a little on the expensive side. There is just one thing to remember - do not open or close the doors. Doors for passengers are self-opening and the driver gets a little cross if you forget this. The boot opens too. But, somewhat surprisingly, the driver offered us absolutely no assistance in getting 'T's' heavy suitcase into the tiny space. Between us we struggled but managed.

We got as close to home as I could direct the driver. Few speak English. In fact (bearing in mind that I'm writing this 3 years on) I've only been able to have a conversation in English with one taxi driver. She was a widow in her mid to late forties who was forced to become a driver after her husband died young and she had to find some work to do in order to give her children an education.

I digress.

Once again, the driver offered no assistance to two women struggling to get the case out of the boot of the taxi. In every other country I've been in, the driver has willingly helped. Whether this was just a grumpy driver or the norm, I cannot tell.

However, the good outweighs the bad: taxis are very easy to flag down, but in typical Japanese fashion the "taxi free" sign is the reverse to what one would expect. Over here, if a taxi is available there will be a red sign lit up at the bottom of the front windscreen. Sometimes this is hard to see, especially in sunny weather. Just wave at any that pass and one of them will cross three lanes of traffic to reach you. You can pay with cash or credit card, which is peculiar because credit cards are fairly rare here - almost all transactions are done in cash.

Anyway, I'll mention more about credit cards in another post.

Also, you do not tip. This is one of The Best Things About Japan. No tipping! Anywhere!! If you do leave a tip, for example in a restaurant, the waiter or manager will chase you down the street to return your money. It's considered an insult to tip someone for doing the job they are paid to do. Quite right, in my opinion.

I've mentioned before how difficult it is to navigate around Tokyo, and taxi drivers have the same problems as everyone else. This is acknowledged by every business, who put maps on their websites and business cards. Even 'normal' people have maps to their homes to hand. So you carry a printed map and show it to the driver and off you go.

A website we have found invaluable here glories in the name of Diddlefinger. You can type in the required address in English and the map is displayed in Japanese. Perfect for the drivers who cannot read English.