yakihito

Now That's Hot

Oita is not a well-spring of ethnic foods. You've got Japanese food, Japanese food, and Japanese food that kind of resembles American food. So it was with great surprise and excitement that I entered the Indian restaurant I found randomly in the downtown area.

I ordered a curry and without thinking told them the level of spiciness I wanted: super hot. I'm no spice masochist, but I do like it spicy. In America, no matter how much you tell the wait staff at Indian restaurants that you like it hot, it's still never hot enough. I figured Japan to be the same. This is a country that just doesn't do spicy. The Chinese students and Korean students say Japanese food is too sweet.

My curry arrived. I took one bite and realized it was, truly, super hot. It was so hot I started hiccuping. I kept eating, hiccuping all the while, while my friend laughed at me.

"Don't *hic* laugh! It's not *hic* funny!"

The cooks from the back—who I presume to be Indian or Pakistani—came out a few times to make sure it wasn't too spicy, and to bring us fresh water, which we were drinking at a terrifying rate.

After the meal I was taken by the warm glow of endorphins and wandered around downtown in a happy haze. Today, however, my bowels hate me.

Happy End #1

While poking around the web yesterday I came across this article about Rolling Stone Japan's list of the 100 best Japanese albums. The article is interesting for a few reasons. One, because it points out that magazines in Japan have tended to not compile these kinds of lists, as they might piss off their advertisers. (Apparently cover stories are auctioned to the highest bidder, and album reviews are all positive.) And two, because the number one album is one that I actually own.

Happy End (はっぴえんど) was an early-'70s band fronted by one Haruomi Hosono, whom you might know as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Japan's answer to Kraftwerk and the launch pad for another famous Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto. I first learned of Happy End from the Lost in Translation soundtrack. The song "Kaze wo atsumete" is played over the ending credits, and can be heard briefly in a karaoke rendition during the film. At the time I had no idea that Hosono was responsible for the song, or how popular it was.

Here is is in its entirety:

When I arrived in Japan this year some friends in Tokyo presented me with the album the song is taken from, Kazemachi roman. I was delighted, and after listening all the way through became an instant fan. "Kaze" is nice folk rock, but the album is much more varied than that. Country, blues, psych... all with a wistfulness and sadness that gets under your skin.

I guess I'm not the only one that feels this way, judging by the album's placement as the number one Japanese rock album of all time. The article also mentions a rival magazine that decided to make its own list, and went out of its way to mention that it would absolutely not be putting Kazemachi roman at the top. It gave it #32, but a lot of people must consider it number one for the magazine to make that statement.

Hosono left Happy End after only a few albums. He recorded as Harry Hosono and Tin-Pan Alley for a bit, releasing some really cool jazz-influenced stuff, before forming YMO in the late '70s and changing the way we think about electronics in pop music. He's also released a lot of ambient albums, also something up my alley.

So, does it deserve to be number one? I don't know, give me a few more decades to absorb Japanese music. There's so much stuff on that list I've never heard!

My Keitai

Everybody knows Japan has the best cell phones. What you're talking on in America is already like 10 years old here. Even little kids have better phones than you. So it is with great shame that I reveal to you my cell phone, or keitai as they say here.

I knew I couldn't afford one of the really cool phones, like the ones with TVs. (You think that antenna looks oddly old-fashioned for a cell phone until you realize it's to pick up TV reception, not phone reception.) But I had no idea that even the cool-looking, feature-bereft phones were still way out of my price range. And given that I'll be leaving after 10 months and will have to break a contract, I had to go with something that wouldn't cause me too many financial headaches come next year.

So this is what I got: a DoCoMo Foma L7041. It was free. It slides open. It has a camera and web access. And it's a bitch and a half to use. Even the girl setting it up for me complained how difficult it was to use. Features are buried in sub-menus and the keys are too small to effectively text.

But hey, free right?

Yeah, but now it's starting to die on me. At least once a week I have to pry open the back and pop out the battery to get it re-started. I see an awkward visit to the DoCoMo store in my near future.

You get what you pay for, I guess.

Tokyo Is Not Japan

Obviously, right? But because I've spent so much time in the capital, and little outside it, my perspectives on Japan have been largely shaped by Tokyo. The longer I'm in Oita—about as far as one can get from Tokyo and not be in Korea—the more I realize that Tokyo is something of an anomaly in Japan. Or maybe it's just a big city thing—if I ever live in Osaka or Nagoya I'll let you know.

Here are some of the conceptions I've had shattered living in Oita:

No One is Fat
Japan has one of the lowest rates of obesity in the world, and walking around Tokyo you'd have to wonder where they were hiding the few who actually are. It's nothing but model-thin girls and trim guys. But Tokyo is not Japan. I don't know if Oita is Japan, but Oita does have fat people. Not like America, mind you, and not many who are grossly, Montel Williams-guesting fat, but there are fat people nonetheless.

How can this be true? Don't Japanese people eat miniscule food potions?

The Portions are Always Small
Got me again. It's true that I get hungry often in Oita, as the portions are often small but not as a rule. There's a noodle place up the road that offers double- and triples-size portions for the same price as a single. And by double and triple, I don't mean large and extra-large, I mean actual double and triple the original amount.

No One is Handicapped
The sidewalks of Tokyo (along with those of most other cities in Japan too) are bifurcated by yellow, rubber, bumpy pathways. These exist for the benefit of blind people, a subset of the population I have never seen in Tokyo. I always figured it for yet another famous Japanese make-work boondoggle, like tetrapods or giant pedestrian bridges in the middle of nowhere.

But, no! I have seen many blind people in Oita making deft use of those bumpy lanes. And here I thought they were just there to get in my way when dragging a wheeled suitcase behind me.

Everyone is Super Stylish
Take a stroll through pretty much any neighborhood in Tokyo and you're going to see some amazing fashions, with certain neighborhoods like Harajuku and Shibuya full of cutting-edge looks. But not Oita. The outfits here range from three-years-ago-Tokyo to something a homeless person would be ashamed to be seen in. Right now all the girls are wearing thigh-high black stockings and shorts, and the guys are sporting an approximation of whatever Ludacris wore in his last video. And corn rows? Come on, people.

Everyone is Either a Teenager or a Salaryman
Tokyo is a paradise for young people and it's the business and financial center of Japan so it makes sense that Tokyo would be jam-packed with the young and the double-breasted. But again, Tokyo is not Japan. Oita has its share of teenagers and businessmen, but it's also very, very old.

Japan is a rapidly aging society. One in five people right now is over 65. Seriously. America is more like one in nine. And out here in the sticks, it's like living in a massive old folk's home. Take a walk through downtown Oita and get an eyeful of oldsters all heading towards one of the many pachinko parlors to gamble away their pensions. And outside of town, in the little villages? If you see a young person consider yourself very, very lucky and go buy a lottery ticket, because you're obviously on some kind of streak.

People Fall Asleep All the Time
Everyone who goes to Tokyo comes home with pictures of people sleeping on trains, in parked cars, on park benches, standing up, etc. What gives? Is this a chronically sleep-deprived country? I used to think so, until I came to Oita. Nope, Tokyo phenomenon. Even the early trains here are devoid of sleeping beauties. I guess it's just Tokyoites who don't get enough sleep. I guess out here there's nothing else to do so when the shops close at 8, so it's time for bed.

People Get Drunk Super Fast and Slosh Around the Streets After Work With Their Co-workers
No, just kidding, that happens here too.

Photos: Usuki Stone Buddhas

On Saturday I went down to Usuki, about an hour south of Oita, to see the stone buddhas. Four clusters of buddhas are carved into rock exposed by a volcanic eruption. The buddhas were carved about a thousand years ago and are somewhat rare in Japan, as most buddha sculptures tend to be carved from wood.

Equally interesting to me were the grounds surrounding the clusters, filled with dense, lush forests and bamboo groves. There was such a sense of peace in those groves.

More photos of the buddhas and grounds here.

My Ugly Hat

I was out at Don Quixote last weekend, a crazy store that has everything from fireworks to televisions to food to clothing. Clothing like this hat. The characters translate as "Maid Cafe," which, if you read my last post, you'll know I'm curious about.

If you know me, you can guess that I bought the hat because it's ironically funny. And I love how cheap-looking it is—you can totally see the borders of the iron-on transfer. I don't know if the people I meet understand that I'm wearing the hat ironically but they sure get a big kick out of it.

10 Things To Do In Japan

Japan is a big place, with lots to do. I've already been here a month and it seems like the weeks are just flying by. Even with long weekends the time is getting away from me, with me just hanging around rather than taking advantage of what this magnificent country has to offer. So, me being a writer and all I thought I'd write down exactly what I want to do on this trip.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Climb Mt. Fuji

Fuji-san is open for climbing every year in July and August. July is finals for me so it looks like it'll be August. You climb (more like walk steadily uphill) all night and then watch the sunrise from the top. I can't wait.

Who's coming with me?

2. Be Able to Speak in Full, Interesting Sentences

I thought I knew how to speak conversational Japanese. What I in fact know how to speak is broken Japanese, with annoyingly shifting tenses and an inability to make the words and grammar I know that I've studied come out of my mouth. I have about 9 months to get this one down.

3. Stay in a Capsule Hotel

Nothing says Japan more than a claustrophobia-inducing casket of a hotel room, right? There are no capsule hotels that I'm aware of in Oita so it looks like I'll have to get this one out of the way on some weekend excursion to Osaka or Tokyo. I've heard they're not all that excited about foreigners staying there due to their lack of language skills. Alright, more of a challenge.

4. Eat at the Stinky Ramen Place

Before I left for Japan, Rupan777 at Gaijin-zoku told me to not be afraid of the smell coming from ramen joints. The smell, he said, is a good indicator that the flavor of the soup will be spectacular. What he didn't say was that the smell would be something akin to boiling, rancid gym socks. There's a place near my apartment that I actually run past, covering my nose with my sleeve and breathing through my mouth. However, I love me some ramen (it's Nagasaki-style chanpon, yum) so I'm determined to one day open that sliding glass door, sit down, and order up a big bowl of gym socks.

5. Eat Basashi (Raw Horse)

Kind of a long story here. My Dad's wife is into Native American things, and had this great book about power animals and what they can teach you. There's an animal you identify with, or that appears often in your life, so you look up that animal and it tells you what's going on with your life. We should also look up animals we don't like, as that can tell you something too.

I've never particularly liked horses. I don't hate them, we just have a mutual distrust of each other. I feel very uneasy on a horse and always have. With this in mind, I looked up "horse" and found that it represents travel and adventure, something I had been denying myself and was rectifying by going to Japan. (Oddly enough, I recently learned that the opposite of my Chinese zodiac birth animal, the rat, is the horse.)

Upon researching Japan and its food, I found that there was a dish called basashi, which is essentially horse sashimi. I don't really eat red meat, especially not raw red meat, but this intrigued me. What if, like a cannibal, I could eat the flesh of my enemy and thus attain its power? I was resolved to do this.

Update! Last night I ate basashi! I was out with some friends from school and the guy next to me ordered basashi, not knowing it was raw. He tried to cancel his order but I seized the opportunity and insisted I would eat it. And eat it I did. And it was… pretty good. Nice, tangy flavor, not too gamey. It's raw, which takes some getting used to, but you eat it with a squeeze of lemon and ground ginger, and that makes it pretty nice.

Take that, horse!

6. Go to a Maid Café

OK, I know it's a total cliché but I have to go at least once. For those not in the know, a maid café is a café where the waitresses dress in baby-doll maid outfits, kind of like French maid outfits gone super cute. They greet you with (in Japanese), "Welcome home, master," and serve you $10 Cokes. It's something of a phenomenon in Tokyo, and there may even be one in Oita. They're starting to open in the US as well.

7. Visit an Onsen

Japan is volcanic. This means active volcanoes (see number 10 below) and hot springs. There are so many hot springs, or onsen, in Japan, it staggers the mind. It's what people do here on vacation, and what I should really do. There are two reasons I haven't done it yet.

One. There's a lot to remember when taking the waters in Japan. Check out this list. I'll wait while you read it...

OK, I guess that's not that complicated, but I really don't want to screw up. I know a guy who made sure to properly bathe before getting in but forgot to rinse out his pits. Soapy bubbles issued forth from under his arms, causing everyone else in the bath to make pained faces and back away. Ugh!

Two. I have tattoos. These are forbidden in onsen, because they are associated with yakuza. Establishments can't say no yakuza but they can say no tattoos. Maybe I can slide because I'm a foreigner but maybe not. I could just play dumb and act like I don't understand, but if I'm with a group then we all have to leave, etc. I have heard that there are private rooms, so perhaps that's an option.

Whatever happens, you can be sure I'll write about it here.

8. Visit Ise Jingu

Japan has two religions that exist side-by-side, even synchronously. They are Buddhism and Shinto. I like the aesthetics of Buddhism, the calming sounds of the prayer bells and the smell of incense, and the philosophy of Buddhism is very in-line with the way I view the world. But it's Shinto, the native, animistic religion of Japan, to which I feel a real affinity.

One of the main Shinto shrines in Japan is Ise Jingu, a shrine to the sun goddess Amaterasu. The shrine has been there for more than 2000 years, meaning that it predates the introduction of Buddhism by about 600 years. But what's really interesting about the shrine is that every 20 years it is knocked down, and a replica rebuilt next to it.

This to me is a kind of time travel. By freezing time, we're able to experience what the shrine was like upon its original creation. It is not an old building, nor a new one, but an infinite one. It is the past, present and future together. This to me is incredible.

9. See the Boredoms Play Live

I love the Boredoms. The Osaka band's space rock is pretty much perfect music to me. I've seen them play in San Francisco, which was great, but to see them in Japan would be a dream come true. Unfortunately they play more in the States than here.

10. See an Active Volcano

Like I said, Japan is volcanic. There are numerous volcanoes here, especially on Kyushu, the part where I live. Less than two hours away is Aso, a caldera with a volcano inside it. And at the southern end of Kyushu is Kagoshima, a town that sits in the shadow of Sakurajima, a volcano so active the people who live there often have to carry umbrellas because of the ash.

And they have a lot of stinky ramen places! How can you not love this place?

Oita Bike-Riding Tips

As you may know, I recently acquired a bike. I've been riding it around a bit, and I'd like to share some tips of the road with you that I've picked up along the way.

First off, I should say that all of us international students were given a lecture on the proper rules of the road when riding a bicycle. It was your usual stuff: ride with traffic, be careful when crossing the road at intersections, don't ride the wrong way down a one-way street, etc. Of course, this being Japan, everyone courteously follows these rules, hyper-aware of the constantly shifting social environment. Yeah, and I'm fluent in Japanese.

The first thing you learn in Japan, whether bike riding or even walking, is that no one will see you, ever. Sitting still, these people will stare at you all day long, whether you want them to or not. On the road, however, where you desperately want to be noticed, they never do. Example: Even as I'm diving into a bush to avoid getting flattened by an old man on a very wobbly bike, he takes no notice. And you better believe this applies to motorists too. How bad is it? One of the Americans here got hit by a car the other week. While walking in a PARKING LOT.

So, no one is looking, everyone just tooling around on their bike with their head in the clouds. On the sidewalk. Or on the wrong side of the road. I try to follow the rules. I ride with traffic and off the sidewalk. Bikes are vehicles, hence they belong in the road. But here comes Johnny School Uniform on the wrong side of the road on a head-on collision with me. We both can't occupy the same narrow shoulder, and because he doesn't even see me I end up swinging out into traffic to avoid getting my chocolate in his peanut-butter, so to speak.

This is bad enough, to not be seen by bicyclists, but when cars refuse to see me as well, that's just dangerous. Note: if a car is pulling out of a parking lot or side-street, they will not consider your ass when deciding the best time to pull out. They will gauge their speed on the approach of other cars, but not by you. He pulls out, you either stop or table-top over his anime character-printed hood. Hope you've got your national health insurance all squared away. And word to the wise: that bike path down by the river, that impossibly narrow one with no shoulder and naught but a hill on either side? Yeah, that's a road and here comes a Daihatsu. Good-bye.

Lastly, be sure to have your bike licensed, so the cops know exactly which yakuza gang has stolen your bike, and from whom to collect the kick-back.

Happy cycling!

What Kind of Egg?

Spotted this sign while coming out of a club in Miyako-machi, the drinking and partying and sexing and, um, sedate lunchtime restaurant neighborhood. Please excuse the blurriness, I think I had 3 or 9 beers by then.

The View From Oka-jo

Last weekend I caught the train out to Taketa, a small town about an hour and half inland from Oita. Apparently the town had a pretty impressive castle back in the day ("the day" being samurai times) but it was torn down voluntarily when power was transfered from the shogun to the emperor.

Although it's known as the Oka-jo Ruins, a better name would be Oka-jo Foundation. There's really nothing left of the castle. Nothing. But what is left are some pretty fantastic views of the surrounding, lush countryside.

This is why I came to Japan, for views like this. *sigh*