The Big Boys

What would a Tokyo blog be without some sumo wrestlers?



Yes, the picture is fuzzy, I know. I apologize. But these guys are HUGE and I didn't want to get in the way.

A few weeks ago, myself and the lovely Jana, who is a brilliant German scientist, went to Ryogoku in downtown Tokyo to try to go to the Sumo Museum. Little did we know that there was a massive sumo match that very day, so we were able to grab some shots of the big boys and the action outside the arena. Unfortunately the tickets to the shows were completely sold out way in advance so we will have to wait until January to see it live.



Above, the bright and colorful signs are the names of all the different sumo wrestlers performing that day.




When life imitates art.




How many sumo wrestlers can you fit into one taxi? We saw all these guys get out of a taxi and it was like one of those things in the circus -- how many clowns can squeeze out of a Volkswagon beetle?




Behold..... the McDonalds!!!

This McDonalds picture is a perfect example of one of the facets of the Japanese language. They have one alphabet for Japanese words, such as 'samurai' or 'sushi'. Then there is an entirely different alphabet, used only for foreign words, such as 'McDonalds' or 'whiskey'. Each symbol is phonetic, meaning that rather than representing one letter, it represents a sound, such as 'KA' or 'MI' or 'HO' or 'YU'. So the sign in the picture is read as 'MA-KU-DO-NA-RU-DO HAN-BA-GA'. McDonalds hamburgers! It might seem like a strange system but it actually makes things quite a bit easier once you get the hang of it.

Good vibes and broken hearts

Dusk at the Meiji Jingu Shrine, in central Tokyo.



At every shrine, you'll find a place where you can purchase a small wooden tablet, and write your good vibes, hopes and prayers to hang up for blessings.



People write all kinds of things in every language imaginable, so I thought I'd share some of the more interestings ones with you.



Bob Marley lives in us all! One love. Bless.



Ahhh the innocence of youth.



This one just broke my little heart..... poor Joe! Erin, go back to him man!

KARAOKE

God how I love it!!!!!!!!!!!



Karaoke (which, by the way, should be pronounced cah-rah-oh-kay) is without a doubt one of my great joys in Japan. On Friday night, I went out with a very mixed group of karaoke enthusiasts -- three from France, two from Germany, three native Tokyo-ites, and little old me. The French people sang some French songs, Ze Germans sang a German version of '99 Red Balloons', I sang what little reggae they had (UB40 counts as reggae, right?), and the young Japanese man in the first picture entertained us by singing a number of theme songs from Japanese anime shows.



Karaoke here is very different: here you and your friends get a private room, rather than perform in front of a room of strangers. Each room comes with an eletronic device that allows you to select your songs, and you don't even have to go to a bar -- you simply pick up the phone on the wall, place your order in the kitchen, and a waiter magically appears with a tray of booze. It's so great!

Today I went with one of Ze Germans on a hike in the nearby mountains. West Tokyo is actually quite mountainous, and there are many lovely hiking trails. We went to the Ruins of Hachioiji Castle, but honestly it was SO ruined there was pretty much nothing left, other than a few stone walls and walkways. But it was still a nice trek in the bush.



Pretty Buddhist temple in the forest, built to honor those who were killed during the invasion and destruction of the Castle during the 1500s when the clans were fighting for power.



Big fat spider.



These lovely people struck up a conversation with us on the mountain top picnic spot, gave us some tea and chicken, and chatted with us. They were very nice, and were not the only people there using ski poles!

Japanders

Most famous, high-profile Hollywood actors and actresses would never, ever dream of stooping so low as to do an embarassing promotional ad for Cup-O-Noodles in America. Hell no! They're too good for that! People who make $50 million per movie have no reason to promote some crappy product, right?

But in Japan, where they are paid exorbitant amounts to put their names on every kind of ad, from Coca Cola to coffee, those American celebrities who whore themselves out for a Japanese audience are known as 'JAPANDERS'. It was even the subject of the movie 'Lost in Translation', where Bill Murray plays a washed-up Hollywood actor who goes to Tokyo to do a billboard ad for a Japanese whiskey. I've seen quite a bit of Japander-ads myself, which I will, of course, gladly share with you.



Want to be a nice, refined man like Richard Gere? Then get your ass to The Dandy House, Japan's best finishing school for men! (This is no joke.)




Whose the boss of really crappy, disgusting canned iced coffee? Apparently Tommy Lee Jones.

I've also seen quite a few on TV -- such as Meg Ryan sitting surrounded by cute Japanese chicks, in the sunshine, the music playing in the background.. then she takes a sip of a Coca Cola, swallows, and says, 'Mmm... perfect!'

The list of Japanders is very long, and in fact has its own website, with a massive list of awfully cheesy ads done by American celebrities for their adoring Japanese audience. Wanna see more? Check it out at http://www.japander.com/

Weird stuff

Enough with all the scenic temple pictures! Let me show you some weird Japanese stuff.



Anyone whose ever played Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo is familiar with the word 'tankuki', but few know what it is. It's actually a Japanese raccoon dog, and it's also regarded as a mythical creature. People often put statues of tanukis, much like the one in the picture above, outside of their businessplaces, especially cafes and restaurants to make their business prosperous. Mmmm. Nothing like a mythical raccoon dog with a small erection and an enlarged nutsack to stimulate the appetite.




Could you drink something with 'SWEAT' in it's name? COULD YOU?




We've all heard of car parks, but in Japan they have bike parks!

Tomorrow -- few in America are aware of it, but their beloved film stars actually come to Japan secretly to do advertisements for everything from coffee to KFC. I think you'll be surprised who you see.

A different way of life

'What do you mean people don't steal things in Tokyo?'

I was talking to my mother on the phone a few nights ago when I told her I had just bought a bike.

'But where do you park it?' she asked, concerned.

'Oh, I just leave it downstairs in the apartment complex with the other bikes.'

'What do you mean you just leave it downstairs? What if someone steals it?' she asked.

'People don't do that kind of thing here!'





The picture above perfectly demonstrates the amazingly high level of safety in Tokyo. This 'salaryman', as he is called in Japan, was fast asleep on the sidewalk, outside of Tokyo station, at 4.30 in the morning. Most likely he was out drinking with his co-workers, as is the norm here, and like me, had missed his train home. I had gone with my drinking buddies to an all-night all-you-can-drink karaoke place to kill a few hours. But this salaryman, exhausted and drunk, simply lay down outside the station gate, put a book over his face, and took a snooze until the trains opened at 5 am.

A drunk man sleeping on the sidewalk might not seem like an incredible thing to you. But just take a second to think about what this picture signifies. Imagine that in a big city like Tokyo, at 4.30 am, a salaryman, who probably has a lot of money in his wallet, can lay down, alone, drunk and defenseless, and not a soul will touch him. Nobody will take his wallet, nobody will steal his shoes, nobody will take the gold watch off of his wrist, nobody will gently lift his drunken, sweaty head and nab his briefcase.

It truly is a different way of life in Japan. I'm slowly starting to let my paranoia and distrust of the general public subside. But the concept of public trust is quite new to me. The concept that you simply don't have to worry. That you can accidentally leave your umbrella outside of a store for an entire day, and when you return that evening, you can bet your last dollar that it will be exactly where you left it. People often park thier bike outside of a store with bags and other belongings in the front basket, and nobody touches anything. Imagine that! In Trinidad if you only blink twice someone will steal the chain from off your neck.

But people simply don't do that kind of thing here.

Bizarre, isn't it?

The old and the new

So far I've only shown you all the pretty pictures of various pretty historical and culturals locations in and around Tokyo. But Tokyo is indeed a modern and futuristic concrete jungle with urban sprawl as far as the eye can see.

About 35 million people live in Tokyo -- that is roughly the same as the population of CANADA. The statistics are pretty incredible, 27% of the population lives on 2% of the nation's land!!!

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Observatory and got some shots of Tokyo from 50 floors up. These pictures give you a glimpse of the other side of Tokyo.



Futuristic lamp posts



View of west Tokyo



Urban sprawl as far as the eye can see



Check out the dude laying down in the bottom right corner -- am I watching him or is he watching me?

Kawagoe Matsuri 2006 - 'Little Edo'

Anyone who says that there isn't any 'culture' in Tokyo, or that Tokyo 'isn't the real Japan', is either downright crazy or they don't know what they're talking about.

I've only been here for two months, and I swear that every time I turn around there is some kind of traditional festival or 'matsuri' going on, and half the time I run into these matsuris without even trying to. Granted, Tokyo is a modern city, considering it was bombed to the ground a few decades ago, but there are still many places that still hold to the traditional Japanese way of life.

One such place is Kawagoe, and they just happened to have their annual grand matsuri yesterday. Kawagoe is also known as 'Little Edo', since Tokyo once went by the name 'Edo', much in the same way that Istanbul was once Constantinople. Kawagoe is famous for its traditional architecture reflecting of the Edo era -- and for their sweet potato beer -- and their grand matsuri draws tens of thousands of people every year.



The matsuri consists of a street parade of floats, many of which are over 200 years old and have been designated as national heritage treasures of Japan. Each float has two or three levels. The bottom level has musicians playing traditional instruments, such as drums and flutes, as well as a dancer with a specific mask. The top level has a life-sized doll, often representing a shogun or a warrior. The floats, which are made out of wood, are all very uniquely and ornately decorated.



Isn't he handsome? Pucker up baby!



There are dozens of floats that take different routes on the streets, each one different.



Above, a float goes past the famous wooden Bell Tower of Kawagoe.



Above is a close up of one of the dolls on the top of the float.



More dancing, with a Japanese fan in hand.

There were also loads of people participating in the festival who wore traditional clothes.



These ladies knew that everyone was trying to get a picture of them, but they absolutely refused to look at the camera or pose. Personally, I have a feeling the one in the middle isn't a lady at all.



And these very cute little girls also shyed away from the camera, but I managed to get one of them to look at me!

The streets are all insanely crowded as the floats are quite large and the streets are quite small! On the side of the roads, people were selling all kinds of things, like sweet potato fries, sweet potato candies, sweet potato fries, and sweet potato beer. But sweet potatoes were not the only thing on the menu -- what would a street parade be without octopus balls?



Eventually I started to feel claustrophobic in the teeming mass of human traffic, so I got away from the festival route and went searching for another Kawagoe attraction -- the Kitain Temple with its famous 'Gohyakurakan', or 500 Disciples. Finding this temple was quite a challenge, since I can't read kanji and they didn't have any signs in English.

So first I went into a big temple, hoping it would be Kitain, where I stumbled upon this very disturbing statue:



What is up with Anorexic Buddha!!!!!!! How can anyone so emaciated achieve enlightenment? I really wish I could have read the sign, so I suppose it will sadly remain a mystery.

I then walked around in the temple garden, and found these little guys:



I thought, maybe this IS the Kitain Temple, but a quick head count of these little dudes told me that these couldn't be the 500 Disciples, so off I went.

On the street, I saw a bunch of tourists heading in the same direction, and where there are tourists, there are tourist attractions, so like a stalker I followed them, and lo and behold, they led me right to Kitain Temple, and the Garden of 500 Disciples. But unfortunately, they were about to lock the garden! While the attendant was locking the entrance, myself and two French students ran around the back and snuck in the exit while no one was looking.



I was only able to stay for a minute or two, but I did get a few pictures. Apparently the story with the 500 Disciples, in a nutshell, is that each one in the garden represents a different human emotion, so each one has a different face, some are holding certain objects such as fish, and some are in various stages of relaxation, anger, excitement and embarassment. In the picture above, I'm not too sure about the emotion of the one on the left, but the one on the right looks like he is mildly constipated.



'Oh god.. what have I done.... WHAT HAVE I DONE????? SOB!!!!!!'

After being ejected from the garden, I wandered around the temple grounds. At all temples, you can get a fortune paper, but if you get a bad fortune, you are supposed to take it and tie it onto these metal lines so that the bad fortune doesn't come true. The bad fortunes really are bad... they usually say 'employment is bad, marriage is bad, travel is bad', and I should know because I've taken my fortune twice and both times they were bad!



Extreme close up of awfully bad luck.



After that, I was totally exhausted, my feet hurt, I was ready to kill the next person to bump into me, so in a nutshell, I got out of Kawagoe, jumped on the train and went home.

'The Psycho Downstairs'... also known as 'The Episode of the Sh*t Slinger'

As I wrote in the previous post, myself and the other two teachers-in-training were subjected to a psychotic episode on our 2nd night there. It was truly terrifying, I won't lie. After all, you have just arrived in a new place, you don't know who this person is, he could be a psychotic rapist. So what are you supposed to do when you are locked in your room on the second floor and a stranger is throwing himself against the living room walls downstairs, in the room that just happens to have the only phone?

Just as I was about to throw my futon out the window, take a leap of faith and hope that I landed safely, a teacher who lived next door happened to walk by and see me looking desperately for help. He called the head office, who took a long time to figure out exactly what to do in this situation. It was decided that the three non-psychotic teachers would spend the night by another teacher while they figured out what to do. By that time, the psycho downstairs had become very quiet, and had apparently passed out on the floor, so we packed a bag and slipped out the door like thieves into the night.

Although I was not happy about the situation, one good thing came out of it. Since we couldn't go back to our place, we were forced to go somewhere the next day, so we jumped on the bus and went to the nearby city of Narita, which is a very historical place famous for its Buddhist temples.



Above, Matt (Narita Bye-Bye) and Parker (Shanghai) pose in front of a beautiful wooden building.



This is the entrance to the first temple. All temples have a similar giant red lantern at their entrances which you must pass under, and unfortunately I havnen't even begun learning kanji so I couldn't tell you what the symbols mean.



Detail of the red lantern, with Parker posing below.



Above you will see an ever-running spring with some bamboo sort of scoop things. Before you enter the temple, you are supposed to take some of the water, wash your hands, wash your face and rinse your mouth.



I couldn't help but notice this next to the water spring. Japan is often romanticized as such a mystical place, and indeed temples like Narita are, but what could be more mystical than 'HOT DOG'?



I must say, this temple was absolutely incredible. All carved out of wood, painted with vivid colors, the details are just stunning.



Details from the temple roof. I love the dragons.



Wooden wall carvings of Buddha's disciples. His disciples are often portrayed in various poses of meditation.



A very very large two-tiered padoga, inside which was a no-photo zone.



More beautiful wooden carvings. This lion appears to be chewing on some bamboo?



I caught this modern looking sort of headstone just as we were leaving. The gold actually fits in very well with its surroundings.



These very serene looking gentlemen were welcoming people into a nearby graveyard.

So if The Sh*t Slinger hadn't gone mad, we never would have gone to Narita to see these beautiful temples, so it really is true that you can find a silver lining in any cloud. I only wish I knew more of the language so that I could better explain some of these pictures! A lot of the times, temples and other historical places don't have much English translation, so sometimes I don't quite get the significance or the story of the sights. But that's ok. It is still very easy to at least appreciate what you see.