Japanory

A Christmas Round-Up and My Adventurous Mother

End of December 2007 (finally!)

Mum's arrival was a little late this year as she has plans to venture further afield in January.

Always a great traveller, she's going on a botanical exploration trip to the jungles of Borneo! As we're halfway there, it makes sense that she starts her holiday from here, rather than make the appallingly long trip from the UK. She'll get more out of it as she won't be anywhere near as travel-weary and jet-lagged as she would be after travelling from London. So she will travel to Borneo from here, then return to us later in January to recover, before heading back home to England. This caused her a few headaches with regards to packing – as well as "Tokyo clothes" she had to bring her jungle-wear too. The airlines had just decreed a new rule of only one suitcase, which makes it impossible for Mum to cope with – she's 71. So she called the airline and basically told them she was bringing two and that was that.

We shook off her jet-lag with an exhilarating walk around Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park. Rhiannon recently visited Meiji Shrine on a school trip so she was insistent on teaching us how to do all the rituals correctly. Don't stand on the big beam of wood in the doorway – very important! Wash your hands and mouth with water from the communal stone trough, light some incense, throw some coins into a big box and say a little prayer.

All the leaves from the gingko trees have fallen to create an incredible yellow carpet. And with the beautiful sunny and dry weather Tokyo enjoys during the winter, this is the perfect antidote to Britain's dark, damp and dismal December. The colour is much brighter than the photos show.

Christmas was as usual – present opening, leg of lamb roast for lunch – and a Christmas pudding this year, followed by Mum and I heading off for what will become our annual Christmas trip to Ginza.

On Boxing Day we went somewhere for a walk. I can't remember where it was and I've given my books away now, so it will remain a mystery (unless anyone recognises the photos?) We're a little disappointed at the walks here – all are "domesticated" and seem quite sterile. Anyway, there was a cute little shrine there, and this lovely stone trough. Look at the gorgeous bamboo spout, but boy, was the water cold! Once again, Rhiannon was happy to demonstrate her knowledge of the religion here to her Nana and we had to do all the rituals with her.

Some fish were in a pool and Rhiannon sent us all away so she could sing to them again in private. Strange child! Unfortunately, my picture of this amusing moment didn't come out.

We didn't bother with New Year this year. Just went to bed as normal – and that's the way it's stayed ever since. It's just another day; I've done all the partying I want to in my life and I don't want to be hungover with a child and my Mum to deal with the next day.

And on to 2008!! Phew!!!

First Anniversary

22^nd November 2007

(Hell's bells - this post got lost amongst a heap I did recently and I forgot to press the Publish button. DUH!)

So, we've been here exactly a year now. Tim keeps asking "do you remember what we were doing one year ago today?"

Frankly, no! I've been so busy that I can barely remember what I did last week, let alone a year ago.

Naturally I remember the excitement and thrill of moving to Tokyo. I also remember the slight sense of disappointment upon seeing the rather dull buildings here, when I expected to see dramatically designed tower blocks similar to Hong Kong.

My freelance writing work has gone from strength to strength, so this is very satisfactory.

Of course, there's been a steep learning curve involved in day to day life, but unlike many people, I am extremely self-sufficient, well-used to travelling in unusual countries and more than happy to be in a very foreign country. In fact, I'm so loathe to ask for help that our liaison officer contacted me once to find out if I was OK because I hadn't asked her loads of questions! It seems that most other "spouses" are extremely needy and want everything handed to them on a plate.

Actually, it's not that I'm opposed to asking for help – far from it – it just doesn't even occur to me most of the time. I just get on with it.

Tim is thoroughly enjoying his new job and accompanying responsibilities; Rhiannon is settling in fine, with just a few school hiccups. But I'm confident this is just the fact that it's school, rather than THIS school. She doesn't particularly miss her friends in the UK and is making lots more here.

In fact, I've made more new friends in one year here in Tokyo than I did in the entire 6 years I lived in Northampton. Of course, this is a lot to do with the expat culture, which in such a foreign land as Japan, is very close. Sometimes too close – ie cliquey – but that bitchy little side of people has no bearing on my life, that's for sure!

I am aware that I am writing this in long-distant hindsight with rose-tinted spectacles. Obviously there were day to day pressures and not-such-good times, but they were obviously of little importance as I can't remember them at the moment!

So, with the exception of losing my lovely cat, Inti, I've had a wonderful first year.

Christmas Party Season

December 2007

We are not great party goers, but there are two we must attend for work reasons. And another I choose to attend at lunchtime because I adore the lady holding it.

So on 6^th December I had a real Christmas lunch with turkey, sprouts and all the trimmings. How wonderful! Goodness knows where the sprouts came from as I haven't seen them in the shops here. And there was Christmas pudding too! (I bought mine from Nissin a few weeks ago when they first hit the shelves so I didn't miss out for our Christmas dinner like last year. I also later found sprouts - they cost about £1 each!)

Our host is a long-term member of the "trailing spouse" community and has lived in many countries; including Japan some years ago. She regaled us with tales of trying to find lard so her cook could be taught to make pastries and Christmas pud for the visiting dignitaries of the time. Apparently the look of horrified disgust on the butcher's face was well worth the trouble of trying to explain precisely what lard was. And here it's perfectly normal to eat some very peculiar things indeed!

The next event was a kids' Christmas party which was very well attended. An enormous decorated tree was in danger of being pulled over by hoards of over-excited children so another room was opened up for them to charge around in. Dinner was served, but hardly any of the children ate anything – luckily we hungry parents didn't let the delicious titbits go to waste.

Strawberries are a traditional Christmas food here and the chefs had turned them into little Santas by slicing the pointed end off, squirting some cream on (for the head & beard), popping the end back on – the hat – and adding little eyes. Very cute… and very tasty. Strange to eat strawberries in December, but that's when they are in season here so taste incredible.

A lady magician gave an excellent show that Rhiannon couldn't stop talking about. Especially as she was asked to come on "stage" and assist with one of the trick. The magician was so good even I couldn't work out how she did that particular trick.

Then Santa paid a visit! Oh the excitement!! Dragging an enormous sack with him full of presents too! The children waited incredibly patiently for their name to be called and each one got their gift. I think the photo says it all, really!

A few days later it was time for the adults Christmas party at the same place. People got very dressed up for this, some even wearing full length gowns.I didn't. I did buy some "posh frocks" before we left the UK last year, but it turned out I lost a bit of weight in the stressful run-up to our move... and quickly put it back on again when we got here. Nothing fits me anymore. And naturally, there is no way I can buy anything here - it's hard enough to find clothes to fit me in the UK.

This time we all sat at large round tables with an incredible amount of food available. There were the most enormous turkeys I've ever seen, done to perfection with all the trimmings and more. Later we had a ceremonial dimming of lights for the flaming pudding to be shown off and after that, a quiz. Hah! Luckily we were at a table with some extremely clever people as the questions were very hard, and included some tricky questions purely for scholars or native Japanese. Our table won! The prize was a hamper of British food which then had to be shared between about 15 of us. I remember there was also a teddy, which as the only parents at that table, the others kindly donated to us.

Finally, we were told that whoever was sitting on a chair that had a ribbon tied around it got to take the table's flower arrangement home with them. I won that! So it was a very lovely evening and a great start to the Christmas season.Two full Christmas dinners, as well!

The flowers lasted long enough for Mum to see them when she arrived on 20^th December.

Some random photos of funny signs

December 2007

I could fill an entire blog with funny signs I've seen in Japan, but I will restrict them to when they appear in my monthly photo folder.

We saw this wall of white. Just there, on the street, doing nothing in particular apart from inviting people to draw on it!

How polite is this notice?

Can you imagine this in the UK? And yes, all the crayons were put back in the pot.

 

And now we know where Superman lives!

 

And this sign is one I see every day.

It's just up from the school and I have NO idea what it's referring to. It's at the top of some steps leading down under the road so must relate to whatever's at the bottom.

I sent it into the Daily Telegraph for inclusion into their "Sign Language" place and to my great surprise was actually included! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/signlanguage/4978119/Sign-Language-week-39.html?image=17

Thanks to Facebook - I found out it had been published by a friend in America who read a British newspaper online and sent me the link here in Japan!

Christmas Concert - mark 2

Friday 7^th December 2007

I have been so looking forward to this after seeing the wonderful performance just after we arrived here!

However, this year there is a change of format. It is to be held at the school's other campus (for years 4 and up) which is about an hour's drive away. We have been told, yes, told, by the school that all children MUST attend and that there is absolutely no parking at the school. Hackles rise...

OK. We assume that the new venue is larger so the show will be even better than before.

Oh dear. How wrong could we be?

It was not a good evening.

Firstly, we caught a cab – after all, no parking, right? And no Metro. Then the cabbie got lost making us fairly late, but still arrived just before the concert started. He refunded us half the fare, so not too bad.

Once in the enormous hall, there were very few seats left. Rhiannon had to go to the front with her classmates, while Tim and I found a place right at the very back. The large centre columns of seats were reserved. Who for, I wondered? It turned out to be completely full of governors and sponsors. The parents had to make do with the smaller side seats. Humph.

Anyway, we looked forward to seeing our girl on stage singing some carols or something.

Again, this did not happen. All that was on stage was the school's large orchestra, various school choirs and that was it. When it came to Rhiannon's year to sing something, all they did was stand up by their seats, turn around to face us and regale us with one of the most dismal and depressing carols ever written – "In the Bleak Midwinter".

Various dreadful readings, some awful musical stuff and that was it. Pitiful – but extraordinarily lengthy.

It was the most boring event I've ever attended and quite obviously only a showcase for the music department. The majority of children weren't included in the service unless they happened to be in a choir or orchestra. It was evident that this was a money-making exercise to raise contributions from the sponsors.

I didn't meet one, single parent who enjoyed the show. Even the ones whose children performed on stage were seriously disappointed.

Aikido - Proud Mum Moment.

8^th December 2007 (and 3^rd December)

Yeah, I got the posts out of sync, sorry!

Because Rhiannon has been taking two classes a week in Aikido, we have the pleasure of going to two "watching days". These more than make up for the dismal Christmas Concert (which you will hear about tomorrow... sorry!) as they are fantastic fun! The teachers are hysterically funny and the children clearly enjoy themselves very much indeed.

Proudly we saw Rhiannon achieve her yellow belt – 9^th kyu in this particular dojo. She is immensely pleased with herself and it's good to see the hard work recognised by changing the belt colour.

This doesn't happen in many dojos – most remain on a white belt until they make it to 1^st Dan ie black belt. But children, especially as young as this, need to see the change and progression. And the coloured belts make this possible, it gives them something to work towards.

 

And down he goes!

 

The ceremony of Receiving The Belt

 

Group Photo

 

She wouldn't change out of her Aikido kit! Doesn't she look pleased with herself?

Tattoo in Japan - and a Side Trip to Bolivia

Thursday 15^th November 2007

It's time for another visit to my lovely tattoo artist.

We'll be finishing the cover-up in January, but in the meantime there is a design I've wanted as a tattoo for a very long time. You'd better get some of the "back story".

Let me take you away from Tokyo for a while...

Way back in 1996, when I was young(ish), free and single I backpacked around the western coast of South America for about 4 months. It was my second visit to this, my favourite country in the world. My first visit was a month in the jungles of Venezuela in '94.

After visiting Costa Rica, Venezuela, Ecuador, The Galapagos and Peru, I finally ended up in Bolivia where I paid a visit to the amazing ruins of Tiahuanaco.

While there, I had, what can only be described as a spiritual experience. I cannot put it into words - it's all a bit weird - but it was a fantastic place and the entire trip was one of the best times of my life.

Fast forward to December 1999. I was working in the delightful city of Florence, Italy; living in a romantic old, typical Florentine apartment overlooking the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore - the Duomo.

One day, I passed a sign advertising an exhibition of objet d'art from Tiahuanaco! Of course I went. And still felt the same spiritual connection to the place.

I spotted a smooth stone recovered from the area, and on it was a spiral design that caught my attention immediately.

Scrabbling around in my handbag for a note book, I scribbled the design down and kept it with me for the next 8 years - through two major house moves, meeting Tim, childbirth and of course, to Tokyo.

Luckily, my tattoo guy was able to translate my dire drawing into the perfect tattoo.

The spiral represents the spiral of life - according to my Aymaran guide at Tiahuanaco - although many other meanings are attached to it.

I just love it. And I love the way it's been interpreted as a gentle piece of skin art.

It's on the base of my neck.

 

 

Japanese Symbols and a Brilliantly Timed Flashback

November 2007

I went to a little antique shop in Azabu Juban for a look-see.

They had a lot of very reasonably priced articles as well as some completely incredible and very old antiques – some dating as far back as the very early Edo era 1615-1868, possibly even the Azuchi-Momoyama period 1568-1615. With prices that had too many 0's to count. These were museum quality and therefore behind glass.

The cheaper items were obviously meant for daily use and many had a little damage or could be considered "seconds" with kiln marks or mis-painted patterns.

A couple of elderly ladies were in the shop and were happy to show me around, but spoke no English. I was in a phase of trying to identify certain extremely stylised symbols incorporated into the porcelain. We got on well with items such as "sakura" – cherry blossom, "ume" – plum blossom, "tsuru" – crane and "koi"… well, I think you know that one!

With some hysterical sign language they explained a pattern based on octopus tentacles, "tako-karakusa". (Further research tells me this is actually now considered to be a plant called the Octopus Vine). And taught me a load of Japanese names for other common symbols too.

We had a great time, and they wanted to learn the English for these words, so we went around the shop with me doing the teaching – as far as I could recognise the pictures. "This is a crane, this one is a plover, here's bamboo and pine. Oh, this is a cloud." When we came to koi, they were surprised and delighted that we use that word in English too. They diligently made notes and we had a wonderful time.

Then we came a bit unstuck. The symbol on a pretty plate was quite clearly a chrysanthemum. As Japan's national flower this appears regularly and is very recognisable.

"Aha", said I, "This is a chrysanthemum"… producing very blank looks and a lot of discussion between them. They obviously had never heard the word before in their lives. I recalled Mum mentioning a confusion when discussing the national flower with some Japanese people at an art exhibition. Again, the word was unrecognisable to them.

Suddenly from the depths of my mind came a vision of a bilious yellow perfume set from the 1970's (my parents owned a pharmacy where I spent a lot of time as a child). It had the same symbol on it. What was it called?? I wracked my distant memory and somehow it popped back.

Oh yes… "Kiku!" I exclaimed rather triumphantly.

"Ahhhh, Kiku!" they said, somewhat relieved. Then one of them trotted behind the counter, returning with an electronic translating machine commonly used here (see my previous post about how many kanji they have to learn!)

They typed in "kiku" and jumped back in horror at the word in English. Valiantly they tried to pronounce it, but all those consonants together proved too much for them.

 

You see, the Japanese language, whether written or spoken, has a vowel between each consonant. My last name is pronounced "Harretto Mobb-us".

You can understand why chrysanthemum was a little too much for them with five consonants in a row!

Japanese Kanji

November 9^th 2007

Today I went on a little course to gain some insight into the beautiful Japanese lettering, kanji.

It appears I cannot learn a language unless I can see the words written down. For example, with hard-won O levels in French & German, a smattering a Latin and an evening crash course in Latin American Spanish, I can read quite a bit of these languages, even though I can't speak them anymore. It also means I can work out some Italian and Dutch words, according to their roots.

However, this method is obviously not going to work in Japan!

Even though it was absolutely fascinating, I was hoping to be able to learn how to read the words, but the course centred on the evolution of the characters and their individual meanings rather than their pronunciation.

This site shows the sort of things I learned today.

Since then I've picked up a few more but don't necessarily know the sound AND the meaning, usually one or the other.

So I know that this 出口 means exit – very useful in the enormous underground car parks or train stations. Another useful one is 東京 meaning Tokyo.

This 分 means "minutes" and we worked that one out from various food cooking instructions. Don't know the sound – we call it the "jellyfish", so "boil for 7 jellyfishes" is now a standard comment here.

山 is "mountain" so I presume (for most of the time) that it's pronounced "yama" as in Fuji-yama. But I fully realise that this is doing the Japanese language, both written and spoken, a huge disservice. It seems that all the individual symbols have numerous meanings and sounds depending on the other kanji around them.

北 means north – and I also learned east and west but can't find the characters in my symbols list – sorry! We weren't taught south as apparently it was too complicated. Feel free to Google to learn for yourself!

There are more than 60,000 kanji. Children have to learn 1,006 kanji before they reach the end of primary school! Can you imagine?! To be able to read most books and newspapers you'd need to know 1,945 kanji.

The Japanese government have a kanji proficiency test for scholars. Apparently the highest score has been 6,000. So what's happened to the other 54,000? Does anyone know them?

Oh, and as well as kanji, there are hiragana and katakana to learn!

Katakana is used for foreign words, so my name looks like this: キャロル ハレット モッブス

On my meishi – business card - my name appears as above, most of my address is written in kanji because it's "original" Japanese, while "House" is written thus ハウス

I don't stand a chance, do I?!