Thievery

A shocking headline to reveal a quiet article. Just wanted to mention that it's lovely that I can leave things on a table while I use the toilet, and find them when I return. Or I can leave my jacket in my bicycle basket when I run into the conbini.

The only real exceptions to this are bicycles. Bicycles should never be left unlocked, expecially overnight at a train station. Not because people maliciously steal them, but because drunken salarymen mistake them as their own bicycle and drunkenly ride them home.

Exer-mer-cise

When it rains, the school's dirt sports fields look like a swamp.




Nothing to do but make the kiddies run inside.

Beer Garden

Our friend Ian's bday is upcoming, so he organized a beer garden party in Kobe. Ah, city life. We drove down with Johanna, who has the scoop on the quick, cheap route. She had errands to run, so we split up for a bit. Aaron n I met with Yukiko for a great Italian lunch. A different Italian place, with better prices and no snotty waiters. Had a great time with Yukiko, and then Aaron n I did some serious shopping. Kobe is a great shopping city. It's probably a good thing we don't live there.

Then we met back up with Johanna and the three of us headed to the rooftop beer garden. Rooftop beer gardens seem to be the height of cool in Japan, where outside seating is very rare. For a flat fee, you gain access to all you can drink/eat. The food was ok [the onion rings were great], the beer was so-so, but the company was great. Lots of people, a good time, a big sing along Happy Birthday. And then it was off for an hour or so of karaoke. I like the karaoke, but my singing isn't so great. And I always pick songs that are too challenging for me. Good thing other, better singers join in! And then it was a drive home to sleep in our own futons.

Kite Season

April and May are quite breezy. And the wind really tears down the rivers in our mountain town. Many people take advantage of the wind and put out "koi no bori," those spiffy carp kites. The kites undulate in the wind, and really do look as though they're swimming.

Retraction

Japanese Poodle Scam Revealed as Hoax
The Japanese poodle scam - wherein thousands of gullible buyers were sold lambs instead of the dogs they were expecting - was first reported in UK Sun newspaper. The story went that rich women were buying cut-price poodles from a company named Poodles For Pets, and were astonished to find later that they were sheep.

The story itself was immediately dubious (aside from being in The Sun, which tends to be somewhat lax in the fact-checking department), when you consider snippets like:


The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.
She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.

Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.
One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.

The story unravelled when police in Sapporo, where the company was claimed to be based, said they had never heard of the scam. The talk-show story was not as it seemed, either. It appears that Kawakami had told a story about a lamb being sold instead of a poodle. However, she'd said that it had happened to a friend of hers.

It seems that nobody had heard of the scam - it hadn't been reported in any Japanese newspapers.

The final nail in the coffin? The original article claims that the scam "capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like."
In fact, Sapporo has had a sheep farm since 1848.


I am so sad this turned out to be a hoax. I admit, there were tons of suspicious parts [I knew that Hokkaido is the only area in Japan where sheep are common, and therefore a ridiculous place for shoppers not to recognize a sheep]. It was just so fun to imagine anyone being so silly. But I must be responsible and print acknowledgement of the hoax instead of misleading all you loyal readers.

Usagiya

There is an awesome little Kissaten [coffee shop] in our town. We discovered it last fall, on our way to the conversation class. The coffee's good, the cakes are good, the presentation is amazing.

But far better than the snacks is the inventory. While Usagiya is a kissaten, it sells a lot of pottery, cloth, and rotates local handicrafts. So many fun, gorgeous items. Of course, said items are a bit pricey... so we're particular about what we buy. Currently eyeing some magical cups. The cups claim to "make beer more delicious!" I chuckled about the sign, and asked the owner about it. Seems the interior is a bit rough, so the bubbles grasp onto the sides, ensuring your beer is fizzy longer.

Yeah, I know, I don't really like beer, but the cups could change that!

Tendaki

After our fantastic time in Kobe, we had an active Sunday planned. The plan: hike up the "Heavenly Waterfall" with Chika and Mineko. It was a nice hike, only a bit over 1K, but pretty steep. There was a couple just ahead of us with 3 dogs-- 2 walking and a teeny puppy being carried by the woman. As we hiked on, sometimes passing, sometimes being passed by the couple, we saw that one of the walking dogs had joined the puppy-- the poor woman was holding a dog under each arm! Hahaha!



The view was great, and when we reached the fall, we walked down along the hill a ways to get some pics and relax.




Then it was off to the Fuji Matsuri, which is really just a large garden of wisteria. Pretty nifty and it smelled fantastic.

To wrap the day up, we went out for dinner. Mineko's husband owns a factory, so they're quite well off. She chose the Sun Route restaurant, on the 7th floor of the Sun Route hotel. I'd been there before, and the lunch prices were reasonable. Gah! Dinner prices were not! But we sucked it up, had a nice dinner with the ladies. Chika especially enjoyed it, as she said that whenever her family eats out, her teen boys always insist on something like yakiniku or yakisoba [which I'd almost suggested and was so thankful I didn't!]. And then Mineko surprised us all by taking care of the bill!

Rock Paper Scissors

Known as "janken" in Japan, this handy game solves all problems...

There was a huge Tajima-wide sports tournament Sat 12, Sun 13 for all sports. Pretty sure it was to determine ranking in Tajima. Sounds fun, but I guess I thought it'd be fairly easy to maintain up-to-date wins/losses/rankings.

Anyhow, the Wadayama SHS baseball team did really well, but was tied with another team. Instead of playing more innings or another game, the win was determined by janken!! Yes, Wadayama SHS coulda been 3rd in Tajima, but lost the janket and so were doomed to 4th place.

Guess they shoulda gone with rock.

Puri-Kura

Puri-Kura is everywhere in Japan. Digital photo booths that are swarmed with girls posing and hamming it up. Various backgrounds can be chosen, and after the photos download, you can customize them with frames, writing, random icons, really just about anything. For $4 you get 6 pics, with 4 customized. The students in JHS n SHS collect these suckers to no end. Between classes, students crowd around and pore through their albums.

I avoided these as dangerous money-suckers. And as being too damn cute. And as collectable, something that is inherently money-sucking. But as it is a super-Japanese thing to do, I went the day before my bday back in Feb [so I have a pic of my last hours as a 25 year old!], and then Johanna convinced us all to hit a booth after Spider-Man. Watching her work on the customizing, I realized how much fun puri-kura could be if you were good at it. Which takes practice. Which takes moula. And a willing partner-in-crime, and with Mari n Aaron opposed to it, I can breath easy knowing our 500-yen coins will stay in our inoshishi bank instead of being fed into the booth to fund a new hobby. Whew!

Mission: Movie

Saturday the 12th was a fantastic day. Here is part two.

Movies are expensive. Such is the nature of the beast. I remember those long-ago $3 matinees, and the discount theater that showed oldish movies, 2 for $5. Seattle is a cruel city-- 3 major Unis and no student discounts. Still, going to the movies was a reasonable treat.

Hahahah! Then I came to Japan, land of the $18 movie. Sure, they have a ladies night, but since theaters are only in big cities, that's not much of a consolation. And they get foreign movies pretty late. Still, Aaron n I were determined to treat ourselves to one movie here. We waited, and waited, and waited, bypassing the easy hype of King Kong, Superman, and Narnia. We were waiting for .... Spider-Man!!

Bizarrely enough, Spider-Man opened earlier in Japan than in the US. We thought about going during Golden Week, but decided to wait and do a group thing.

And so it was that the four of us converged on Spider-Man in Kobe. The tickets were expensive. The seats were assigned. The caramel corn bucket was indeed a bucket. The seats were large, red, and luxurious. The movie was pretty good.

As tickets are assigned, you don't have to show up super early in order to get 4 seats together. And outside food is allowed, so smuggling isn't a worry.

After the movie, we hit a purikura booth, then a conbini, and then had a easy ride home. Asago-ites, well-fed, cultured, and up to date on the current movies.

Blanc et Noir

Saturday the 12th was a fantastic day. Here is part one.

Carpooled with Johanna down to Kobe, where we found easy, cheap parking. Took a bus into Sannomiya with no problems. Met up with Patrick for Italian. We had a minor snafu with the snotty waiter, but then Ken and Yuko joined us, and the tiramisu soothed all stress.

Ken and Yuko were off to their bday party, and we remaining four tramped off to the theater to check the times. We'd just missed the show, but bought our tickets for the next one. Then we found Ian, who'd been caught up in lame-o hospital bureacracy for hours. Walked and chatted a bit, but our secondary goal had been put into effect: Attend final day of Rodin exhibit. So Ian left to score some chow, and we continued walking.

How many times have Aaron n I missed Rodin in Japan? Twice. The first time was in Tokyo, where an ORIGINAL!! cast of the Gates of Hell is located in Ueno Park. We kinda saw the gates, but since the museum was closed, we certainly didn't get a good look. The second time was in the fall-- there was an exhibit in Himeji that my parents saw, but Aaron n I missed it somehow. So I was determined to finally see some damn Rodin, and Saturday was the last day.

After hiking a bit, we grabbed a taxi. This guy was the best, most polite taxi driver ever! So friendly and very hospitable. Yeah, that's weird to mention, but he was def great.

At the museum, Aaron, Patrick, and I received free tickets, so we split her attendence cost as Johanna was paying when we received the tickets. Then we wandered the exhibit. All 190 pieces were originals from the Musee Rodin, with 59 being plaster, which apparently aren't loaned often due to their delicate nature. Many of these pieces were reductions of figures on the Gates of Hell. Obviously, most were under glass, but a few large bronzes were scattered throughout the rooms, begging to be touched. Don't worry! Somehow I restrained myself, but really, large bronzes just beg to be stroked-- and the tactile look of Rodin was so tempting...

Rolling Your Own

We've gotten pretty good at the whole sushi-at-home thing. This was greatly driven by the closure of our favorite cheap sushi place, Shijaaku. It reopened around Dec as the classier Kaishumaru. The sushi cuts look better, but not enough to justify the price hike. And while the tank of doomed sea creatures is pretty cool to watch, rumors of a legless octopus floating around depressed me.

Then Ishii-sensei had us over to his house for temaki-zushi. And we caught the bug.

Now we indulge ourselves fairly often. Two blocks of good fish, some avocado, cucumber, rice and trimmings, and you've got a fantastic dinner. A little miso soup rounds it out nicely.

Now to learn the art of blow-torching so we can make those seared nigiris.



Pic: I stumbled across this nattoh-maki in the conbini. Don't worry, I didn't buy it.

More Depressing Bits from the News

Tojo's granddaughter is running for office. She wants to enshrine all military dead at Yasukuni.

Ishihara was reelected for a 3rd term as Governor of Tokyo. Tokyo. The largest, most cosmopolitan city in Japan. An international city...

When giving a speech to the Self Defense Force in 2000, he said''Atrocious crimes have been committed again and again by sangokujin and other foreigners. We can expect them to riot in the event of a disastrous earthquake.''

Ishihara stated in a 2001 interview with women's magazine Shukan Josei that he subscribed to a theory that "old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin," adding that he "couldn't say this as a politician." He was criticized in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly for these comments, but responded that the criticism was driven by "tyrant" "old women."

Note: The rioting foreigners comment is horribly ironic, as hundreds of Koreans were killed by Japanese mobs following the Kanto Earthquake in 1923 due to lovely rumors about the Koreans being responsible for the disaster.

Bit o' Politics

Not as much fun as the poodle/lamb scam, this news is more political. Prime Minister Abe, whose accomplishments include:

*Requiring history books to instill a sense of patriotism [AKA white washing]

*Pushing for constitutional revision, as a prelude to rearmament

*Defending his colleague's "Women are birth-giving machines" comment

can now add "appeased the nutso right-wingers" to his list. Abe had refused to comment about any visit he may or may not make to Yasukuni Shrine. For those of you who don't know about the shrine, why it's controversial, or why riots in China n S. Korea break out whenever a Japanese PM visits said shrine, read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_shrine

Anyhow, Abe didn't actually go to the shrine. Instead he donated a $500 potted plant and signed it as the Prime Minister. While I completely am against Yasukuni, at least Abe is fairly upfront about his support. The lion-haired Koizumi talked one way, then shamelessly acted in another, all to please the scary right-wingers.

note: Yes, they deserve the title "scary" as the extreme right-wingers have shot more political figures than the Yakuza.

Spring Stuff

In anticipation of spring, jogging was reinstated about a month ago. Jogging is painful, jogging is agony. But not jogging brings anxiety-- the solitude [well, we go together, but his long legs keep Aaron a good bit ahead], the scenery, the healthiness demand to be fed. So we jog. Our neighbors seem to think this is adorable. They get broad smiles as we stride out, and call out "Healthy, aren't you?"

The healthiness is also being fed by salsa. Yes, there are salsa lessons here! The teacher is a short Japanese woman who has learned the tantalizing step of Latin dancers. Her rear, typically flat, maneauvers saucily. I don't know how she can walk down the street without cat calls.

The bugs are returning. Horrifically, there are even a few early cicadas. Reassuringly, the frogs are asserting themselves. With the paddies being flooded, their ribbits are a thrumming purr of contentedness. I like to imagine each ribbit brings death to a bug.