Anne's Adventures in Tokyo, Week 3: May 26 - June 1


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Day 12 (May 26, Mon):
In Which I Am Surrounded By People Not Only Taller Than I, But Who Speak English, Too

This morning, Hakubi was visited by a group of college students from the University of Illinois on a cultural exchange trip. A faculty member at the University has a long-standing relationship with Hakubi, it seems, and does this every year or every few years. The powers that be decided it would be fun for all involved for me to go along with the the group to their various presentations. (They were right!)

So, suddenly, after 12 days of being surrounded by Japanese people, I was surrounded by a gang of American college students. It was certainly fun being the one the least confused, for a change. And entertaining to be the "old hand" - a time or two one of the teachers helping out with things actually turned to me help explain something, when the real translators weren't around. I don't think I got anything totally wrong, anyway.

The students saw a demonstration of the Hakubi Mai (the "put on a kimono in under three minutes, to music," thing) and then a flock of the kimono teachers dressed up all the students (and me!) in kimono. They split up the men and the women and got us all decked out in very formal dress in something like 15 minutes. Just amazing. The women got to wear furisode, the long-sleeved, very colorful formal kimono for young women, and the men were in kimono, hakama (a pleated skirt-like thing, similar to the black skirt/pants worn for some martial arts) and haori (an over-coat, left open in the front.) When we all gathered back together, it was great fun to see everyone's reactions. I was sort of used to seeing people in kimono, but the students were, understandably, pretty amazed by it all.

After everyone got back to their boring old street clothes, we all had lunch together in the restaurant on the first floor of the building. The students reactions to having worn the kimono were wonderful - first off, they had a much greater appreciation for the Hakubi Mai presentation in the morning! They also echoed my own thoughts about how the kimono and obi seemed to combine to cause you to carry yourself differently, move a little more gracefully. The most interesting comment, in some ways, was that they usually just thought of each other as all the same, regardless of sex; putting on the kimono not only made them look different, they felt different, and really saw the women as women, and the men as men.

In the afternoon, I had a class with Nemoto sensei, who specializes in weaving and dyeing and fabric pattern studies. The class was about that, and also about furoshiki, squares of cloth used to wrap things. There's a long history of this in Japan. Rather than carry bags or boxes, for hundreds of years they have used fabric, wrapped and tied around an object, as a way of carrying, protecting or gift-wrapping things. They've developed oodles of different ways to wrap things, and it was quite an afternoon. (I learned, for example, how to wrap square things, long things, two wine bottles, a round thing (e.g. a melon), and various ways to wrap a scarf around your head.)

Dinner was "revolving sushi" (kaiten zushi) with some of the computer/office folks. The concept is like a regular sushi bar, except the sushi gets put out on small plates on a conveyor belt that circles the chefs, with the customers sitting at a counter outside the belt. You serve yourself tea from spigots on the bar, and soy sauce and ginger are there in little bottles and bowls. Everyone was concerned that I wouldn't be able to eat stuff (they still don't realize how much sushi I've eaten in my life) because I wouldn't recognize things as they went by. I solved this problem by naming, as they went by on the belt, 7 or 8 different kinds of fish (in Japanese). Everyone laughed, and that was that. At the end, you get up, and they charge you depending on how many little plates are piled up on the counter where you were sitting. Afterwards we went for a beer to a local pub (in my case it really was a beer, too; this was a sort of Western-style place, and they didn't have any sake. And I don't like whiskey, which is what other folks were drinking...beer it was. Thankfully, most Japanese beer is really dry, and I can drink it).

Random Observation of the Day:

Now to completely change the subject, sorry, but it's toilet-related comment number 3: it appears that most Japanese toilet paper does not have any perforations. Almost everywhere, there's a metal or plastic plate that sits on top of the roll, and you rip it off against that. This is a ridiculous thing to notice, but I couldn't help it.

I think it's the myriad tiny differences, like this, that make things feel so different, here. On the surface, cities, houses, and people here look just like they do in America (well, ok, there are some obvious differences, like the writing system, etc.) But, scratch the surface, and you'll notice that everything underneath is different! Most interesting.


Day 13 (May 27, Tue):
In Which Anne Sings Off-Key, Again

Today was "chigiri-e" class (translated it means "ripped pictures") with Miyazaki sensei. Basically, you take hand dyed paper, and rip it by hand into little pieces, and glue it down to make a picture. Beginners use a full-sized color print of a finished picture to work from, and try to copy it as closely as possible. Since I love paper, anyway, this was right up my alley. It takes a lot of hand and finger strength, though - washi (Japanese hand-made paper) is tough - and my hands were surprisingly sore afterwards. The teacher is amazing. While I was painstakingly tearing out each flower petal, she was zipping through petals and leaves, and had the whole thing done, artfully arranged (from her head, no need for her to look at someone else's work) and glued down. The process is surprisingly like painting, actually, you're just using the bits of paper rather than a brush to make the shapes on the paper. I like it.

Aftewards, it was a field trip to a town about an hour northwest of Tokyo where they make hinaningyo, the dolls for the Doll's Day Festival in the spring. I doubt I can do the dolls justice in words, we'll just have to wait for some photos. They're stunning, and all made by hand. We got a tour of the showroom (which, actually, was in the midst of being re-organized, which made it all the more interesting) and the factory itself. One room was full of hundreds of dolls, all different sizes and patterns and styles, all without heads! (The head goes on last, and can be chosen to suit one's taste, more or less.)

Prof. Miyagawa is still in town, and he loves the soba restaurant the Mr. Mizushima tooks us all to last week, so tonight was dinner (again, for me) there. As might be expected, it also turned into a sake-tasting event. And since Shigeru was the guest, he ended up with a whole collection of sake cups in front of his place by the end of the evening, each with a different type in it. Afterwards, we went out for karaoke, since he really loves that, too. And with good reason, he's really good at it. I felt totally out of my league, with all these very talented singers. Lily and I stuck in an English song or two, and I found a couple I could more or less sing, so it was a fun evening, all around.

Random Observation of the Day:

I think I had my first Japanese wrong number the other day. Or maybe it was an obscene phone call, who can tell? It was really odd. I was asleep, so the phone woke me up - not a good thing when I'm operating in English! The conversation went like this:

me:  Hello?
?: ...silence...
me:  Hello?
?:  moshi moshi  (that's "hello" on the phone in Japanese)
me: moshi moshi
?: ...silence...
me: moshi moshi
?: moshi moshi
me: Hello?
?: (something unintellible)
me: ...silence...
?: moshi moshi

It went on like that for a while. I tried, with my sleep-fogged brain, to come up with "who is this?" and "you have the wrong number" but got myself so confused that almost nothing came out. The whole thing was pretty perplexing. Ah well.


Day 14 (May 28, Wed):
In Which We Discover Whether I Can Eat While Wearing A Kimono

This morning was Kimono class, day three. I'm starting to understand how the pieces all go together, anyway. Mrs. Mizushima has given me another kimono, and Hasegawa-sensei (who's teaching me kimono) has given me an obi. This is definitely getting overwhelming.

Three people from the Japan Society of Boston (Dr. and Mrs. Knapp, and Charlotte Beattie) visited Hakubi today, and I was scheduled to have lunch with them at the sushi restaurant Mr. Mizushima took me to the first weekend I was here. (I'm certainly not complaining!) Since I was already in my kimono just before lunch, we decided that it would be fun to send me to greet the Knapps and Charlotte in kimono, and go to lunch that way. (Well, the greeting would be fun. Lunch was going to be a bit of a test.)

Charlotte, who I've met before, didn't recognize me at first when I greeted them. I was very amused. The obligatory round of tea and other greetings and things passed without my spilling tea on myself or anything, so we were off to lunch. (Mr. Mizushima is off in Toronto, this week, doing a kimono show with a gang of the teachers, so it was Kamitsu-san, the Boston guests, Lily, and Wada-san, the ever-helpful assistant in Mr. M's office, and me.)

I managed to get in and out of the car without messing up the obi too much. Like last time, we were the only customers in the shop (it's pretty small, anyway) and the chef (this time, the owner) was highly entertained by my appearance in kimono. Dr. Knapp likes sushi, but isn't all that familiar with this fancy kind of stuff, so, since I was sitting next to him, I got to show off and explain what was what. Once again, the food was just amazing. After this, sushi in Boston is going to be a disappointment, I'm afraid.

So lunch was pretty successful, from my point of view, and I didn't spill anything or drag my sleeves in anything. But I did discover that by the end of the meal, I was really wishing I hadn't tied the obi quite so tight! This is, apparently, the major complaint most folks have about trying to eat in a kimono.

Kimono class followed lunch (it was awesome to untie the obi!) and then I had another session on fabric and patterns with Nemoto sensei. Just to keep my brain from getting lazy (ha), I went along with Lily to her evening chigiri-e class, to get a little practice in. I got to do another flower, this time, and it went much better than the first one.

After chigiri-e, Lily and I went to a local restaurant that makes "o-musubi" - basically, rice balls, with stuff in the middle, wrapped in nori, the seaweed they use for sushi rolls. It's totally cool, this is the only thing this restaurant makes (well, they serve miso soup, and pickles with your rice balls, too.) They have some 30 varieties of stuff to put in the middle, so you can choose whatever you feel like. YUM! We need one of these in Boston, for sure.

Random Observation of the Day:

Most Japanese envelopes have no glue on the flaps. This means that you have to have some glue to send a letter...Luckily, glue comes in these nice tube things, and I found a spiffy one with a wide applicator at one end, and a thin one that applies a line of glue at the other. I love Japanese office supplies.


Day 15 (May 29, Thu):
In Which I Finally Give In And Eat A Hamburger

To continue the let's-bowl-Anne-over-with-presents tradition, one of the kimono teachers who came to Boston last year was going through her closets and decided that she really didn't wear this one kimono and obi, maybe I could use it? She's tall, so she thought it might fit. Guess I better schedule some demos in Boston, so these all get used, now and then!

Today was Kimono class, day four. More practice, with different kimonos (slightly different sizes - two are the extra-long/large ones from Mrs. Mizushima, the new one is average - different fabrics, etc.) The teacher is now concerned that since I have the basics, now I have to be able to adjust the thing so it looks good. The level of detail is amazing, but suits my geeky little brain, I'd say. In the afternoon, I learned another way to tie an obi, this one for a formal kimono-obi combination. You need a slightly different (longer, and stiffer) obi for this, and the knot is quite different. Next door, a formal Hakubi kimono class was being held on the exact same subject, and we went and watched for a while. When we went back to our classroom, Hasegawa-sensei was pleased to tell me that that class had been meeting for several months, but that we were doing just as well. I attribute it to private classes, a great teacher, and lots of origami experience!

When lunchtime rolled around, and we hadn't really come up with any great ideas, Lily and I wandered out to see what struck us as good. There's a chain hamburger store right down the street called "Mos Burger" (no one seems to know where the name came from; everyone was very amused to discover what it sounds like - a hamburger made of moss?) so we ended up going there. I got a teriyaki burger, something called a "rice burger" (which has grilled rice patties instead of a bun, not instead of the filling) fries and a coke. Yep, I'm American.

The trip was a bit of a linguistic success for me, though, since I actually managed to order by myself. The sizing for things is kind of funny - they don't use the Japanese words for small, medium and large, they use "essu saizu" "emu saizu" and "eru saizu" (say them outloud, and you'll get it.) I got lazy and just said "french fries," and got a blank look. "Furenchi furaizu" worked much better.

The computer/office gang got together and gave me a present at the end of the day today. They found two software packages that seemed so appropriate that they couldn't resist - one is a CD ROM interactive disk about origami, and the other is a computer brush-painting application. I haven't played with the origami one, yet, but the painting software is installed on one of the machines at the office, and it's really, really cool. I can't wait to get it installed back at MIT. It will be great for making artwork for our project.

Dinner was a local tonkatsu (deep fried pork-cutlet with shredded cabbage and a rich sauce) restaurant with Kuroki-san and Yumiko-san (Mr. M's daughter.) This is, according to Kuroki-san, the best local restaurant for tonkatsu, and I have to agree, it was delicious.

Random Observation of the Day:

The driving-on-the-other-side thing also extends to walking on sidewalks, it turns out. This means, of course, that I end up doing that little dance with people on the street - the one where you both lurch one way, then the other, then back. I always go the wrong way!


Day 16 (May 30, Fri):
In Which I Decide That That Mos Burger Was Pretty Tasty, So...

Today was Kumihimo day two. In the time since last Friday, they took the braid I made last week, and made it into a decoration for a little leather bag, and a hair barette! Very cool. This morning, I used the usual beginner dai (loom, sort of) and made a necklace that combined traditional kumihimo weaving with small beads. Again, hard to describe, but really neat outcome. In my other lifetime, I could make these...maybe there's a market for 'em, they're really pretty. (Eh, probably not enough money in it to buy the necessary cat food, let alone the mortgage...)

Lunch was with several of the Kumihimo senseis and LIly at a local tempura place. Mellow, home-style cooking, and a nice environment (complete with a Japanese soap-opera on the TV over the counter.)

The afternoon was yet another kind of loom, and I spent a few hours weaving another braid (yet another technique, too) which we then made into a bunch of key-rings and barrettes. (Well, if you're not actually making the cords for the obi, then you have to do something with the things!) It was a relaxing day, and the teacher and I continued to hit it off well. Yumiko-san showed up in the afternoon - it turns out she also does Kumihimo as a hobby, so we also had a discussion of some of the really advanced weaving techniques, and pondered whether there were things you could do with a computer to represent or design them. Maybe it will turn into a project sometime. Mr. M wants to send her to Boston, sometime, so it could make a good joint project for her to work on while she's there.

At the end of the afternoon a bunch of the other Kumihimo senseis showed up, and all sat around chatting (as Lily was off doing some other work while I was knotting, this proved a good listening comrehension test!) And since it was to be my last kumihimo day, someone ran out and got some snacks, and we had tea and cakes. There's a small tea-cake thing which has been imported from France called (in French) chou creme. It's basically a cream puff. (Looks sorta like a tiny pastry cabbage, which is why it's "chou" in French.) When it came to Japan, it kept the name, though. I had everyone laughing out loud when I finally managed to explain what it sounded like in English ("Shoe cream? You want me to eat shoe polish?")

After class it was back to Web design stuff, and we got Mos Burger takeout. Unlike MIT, which never closes, they shut down the building and the night watchman locks everything up at 9:30, so we're prevented from working too late...So Yamada-kun and Kuroki-san and I went out afterwards for a drink and some snacks. Yet another izakaya (pub) that Yamada-kun is fond of. We had even more odd things to eat, just about all of which were unfamiliar to me, so it was very interesting. The two of them probably speak the most English, too, so we had a good time talking about the differences between English and Japanese, and the cultural assumptions behind them.

Random Observation of the Day:

The collection of English words that has made it into Japanese is interesting. For instance, the phrase "door to door" (doah tsu doah) has made it completely intact, meaning and all, into the language. (Yamada-kun and Kuroki-san were surprised to discover that it was a usual English usage.) The word "allmighty" (ooru-maichi) has made it in, but gets used in odd ways; the one example I can think of at the moment is that it can be used to mean "the best/most powerful of its type". It sounds pretty strange to my ears, since we rarely use the word except in religous senses. "Power" (paawaa) gets used a lot, too, to mean power/strength. There are an amazing number of others, none of which are coming to mind at the moment, of course.


Day 17 (May 31, Sat):
In Which My Language Skills Are Put To The Test

In the morning I did some more Web site design work, and then headed out to meet Prof. Naito. He and I went to a meeting of the Origami Tanteidan, a Tokyo-based origami club. Most of the young origami designers and folks publishing new designs are members, so it's quite a group. The club's advisor and organizer, Yamaguchi-san is a friend of Prof. Naito's, so we went early to meet him. They have a shop with a display area, and sell all sorts of books and paper. Currently the display is models designed by and in many cases built by a young member who, tragically, passed away recently. It was really wonderful to see the exhibit, I'd heard about it on the origami mailing list I'm on.

They were pleased that I brought four new members and one renewal to the club, and I had a good time helping one of the members type in all our English names and addresses into their computer member database.

The meeting was pretty mellow; folks sat around and folded things, compared their latest models and generally hung out. One of the origami people who I know from the US conventions, Joseph Wu (who is just finishing up a several-year stint living and working in Japan) came to the meeting, too, so we had a good time talking together. He brought his girlfriend along, and she doesn't speak any Japanese, so she and I chatted a bit, which seemed to be a relief to her! Prof. Naito showed his tiny origami cranes around, to everyone's astonishment (his world record for the smallest cranes is not as well known as I would have thought, here.)

Afterwards Prof. Naito headed home to Kamakura, and a group of us went out to dinner. Joseph and Nancy came along, too, and Joseph and I were kept busy interpreting what was going on. It was a really fun evening, and even with Joseph there (who has a few year's time in Japan over me) I was hard put to keep up. People were really nice, though, and would slow down or repeat things if I asked, so I felt like I was participating, for the most part. After dinner, Joseph had to leave, but a smaller group was going somehwere else, and Yamaguchi-san wanted me to come along, since I was sort of his guest...and I couldn't quite figure out how to say "no", so I went. This pretty much stretched me to the limit, and I figure I missed a lot of things, but it was still a good evening. I think they are interested in organizing something of a local Boston branch of the Tanteidan (which would make handling money for memberships easier) and things. They're quite happy to have a solid connection to more people in the States. Quite a day!

Random Observation of the Day:

Yet Another Odd Subway Habit: I suspect that we do this, to some extent, in the States, too, but here most people who are standing in front of the door on the subway or trains face directly outwards, and stare out the window. They really jam themselves against the door, even if it's not very crowded. Women, in particular, are prone to doing this. It may not sound like a noticeable thing, but for some reason it's quite marked.


Day 18 (June 1, Sun):

Today was another (though very informal) field trip. This was to Ogawamachi, a town about 45 minutes northwest of Tokyo (not too far from the place we went to see the doll factory.) The town is famous for its hand-made paper, among other things, and we went to a craft center that was created to display the various local products. A whole gang came from the school, 9 of us in all.

One of the highlights of the craft center is that you can make your own paper - either postcard, paper size, or strips for calligraphy. I elected to make postcards. They show you how to do it, and help hold and dip the paper mold with you, so it's over awfully quickly. While the paper is still wet, you can put flowers and things on it, and then they do a final coat of very thin paper on top of the flowers. They they dry it for you, and several days later mail them to you.

We had lunch there, a local specialty which is is, apparently, one of the five famous lunches in Japan. Really. (I dunno what the other four are.) It was a nice mixed bento (box) lunch, with the special thing being the rice at the end. It's rice with nori (dried seaweed) and then you pour a light broth over the rice. It was very good, but I haven't quite figured out what makes it all that famous. Some things are just mysterious.

And, in the mysterious department, we went to see a sake brewery after lunch. They only make sake in the winter, it turns out, so we couldn't see the process, but we did get a wonderful tour. The process is very organic, and they use a special mold to start the fermentation. There's a lot of emphasis on good water, and good rice, and Ogawamachi is famous for both, it seems, so they make good sake. There are a lot of superstitions about making sake, too; apparently women can't go in while they're brewing (first off, it's really hot, so nobody wears much in the way of clothing, which is one reason) but there seems to be some superstitious thing to it to. The whole place smells really interesting, no unlike a winery, just different. And of course, afterwards we got to taste things, just like at a winery.

On the way home I stopped by one of the large department stores, and bought a bento supper at one of the shops in the basement. One of the neatest features of larger department stores is that the whole basement, usually, is one huge food-court, filled with deli-like counters that sell all sorts of food, from prepared meals to raw ingredients.

I spent a quiet evening doing laundry and things (I still can't figure out the stupid dryer!) and crashed early after a long, but interesting day.

Random Observation of the Day:

Contrary to what you might expect, Japanese construction workers are not large people. In fact, even for Japanese they are strangely uniformly compact and wiry people. It's an interesting contrast with the States, where most people in construction jobs are at least average or larger build. It's sort of strange to walk past a group of them (there's a new building going up down the street) and be able to see over their hardhats...


DON'T FOLLOW THIS! I'm working on it. On to the next week...

Date last modified:
Copyright 1997 Anne R. LaVin
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http://www-japan.mit.edu