Last Visit to Harajuku

Letter trove details Occupation life in Japan

The Japan Times will begin publishing thousands of pages of letters written by a young American woman living in Japan during the US occupation.  Her letters detail the state of many cities after the war, the first appearance of Emperor Hirohito as a man (and not as a deity), and the well-off situations of the Americans living in Japan while most Japanese were scrounging for food.

The man who found the letters, Ken Alley, is hoping to publish them into a book entitled “Love, Betts — Letters Home from Occupied Japan” and he is currently searching for a publisher.

Read the full article here: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20080905f1.html

Enkai (宴会)

Enkai are a vital part of Japanese culture. The definition of “enkai” is merely “party; banquet” but it is also what greases the wheels of social communication in Japanese culture. The enkai is usually a work party celebrating something such as the start of the new fiscal year or transfer of the office workers.

At these parties there is usually a flat fee which covers the cost of food and drinks, often all you can drink for about 2 hours. Most people drink alcohol, usually beer or 日本酒 (nihonshu, what we Americans call “sake”), sometimes large amounts of it, though others stick with oolong tea or cola.

Enkai ease the formal work environment found in most Japanese offices. It is an opportunity to get to know your co-workers; sometimes the only opportunity to get to know them in a social situation. There is a saying that what happens at an enkai stays at an enkai. Some enkai are known to get a little wild.

The approximate equivalent in the States is the Christmas Party. Both usually involve large amounts of alcohol, but one does not bring a date to the enkai; it is exclusive to the members of the company.

After the main enkai, there is often what is called the “nijikai” (二次会）, which means “second party”. After a big enkai many people go to the second party. At smaller enkai few people go, perhaps only the men. In my experience, the second party is usually karaoke or going to a snack bar (スナックバー) so called because they serve snacks with the drinks, but which also involve ladies pouring the drinks for you and chatting with you, and the seating charge is higher than usual. The snack bars usually also have karaoke, though not the karaoke box. The “sanjikai” (三次会) or third party is often only the men, and I couldn’t tell you what they do because I have never been to one. I believe the tamer ones involve eating ramen, and the wilder ones involve going to places where you wouldn’t take children.

As an English speaker at an enkai you will often be surprised. It is a good chance to practice your Japanese, but every now and again, you will be talking with someone and they will suddenly come out with some really excellent English.

At my last enkai, I was talking with one of my coworkers and he suddenly asked me, “So, what do you think about the current presidential candidates? Who do you like better, Clinton or Obama?” I was floored, because I didn’t even know he spoke English at all! We chatted about politics for bit, when he glanced over and saw that an English teacher was sitting next to us. At that point, he became very embarrassed, clammed up and reverted back to Japanese.

Whenever possible, go to your work parties. The positive interactions you have an enkai will spill over into your work life and it’s a great oppotunity to bring up things that you otherwise don’t have time to discuss during the work day.

Daikou (代行サービス)

In Japan, drinking is very popular. It is an essential part of most evening events, and even work parties (enkai 宴会). However, there is a zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving. If you drive after even 1 drink you could find yourself with a ticket for thousands of dollars, possibly jail time, and you will possibly lose your job (especially if you are a government employee). So, what can you do?

There are several options. One is to take the train, but Japanese trains stop running about 12:00 AM, sometimes earlier, so this is often not a viable option unless you “party” all night and take the first train home in the morning (at about 5:00 AM). The other option is to take a taxi, but it costs a lot and you need to take the taxi both there and back (or take the train there and taxi back).

If you want to drive, but also want to drink, there is a great service avaible in Japan called daikou, or daikou service (代行サービス). “Daikou” means “(n,vs) acting as agent”, and this service is essentially a proxy service where a company does something for you. In this case, they come in a small daikou taxi. One person gets out and takes your car keys. They then drive you home in your own car! The daikou taxi follows. When you get home, you pay them about the same as a taxi fare and they get back into the daikou taxi and drive away. With a service like that, there is little reason for anyone to need to drive after drinking in Japan.

The other morning we were having a rare lay-in on the weekend, when at about 7 or 8 AM we heard loud honking outside. We drifted back to sleep, but it reminded me of something that happened shortly before we moved out of our last apartment.

In was the middle of the night. I don’t remember if it was a weekend or a weekday, but we were aroused from sound sleep by a loud and persistent honking. We shut our eyes, pulled the covers over our heads, and hoped it would stop. But it didn’t.

When my husband finally had enough, he went outside to find out what was going on. I was worried about some kind of fight; who knew what kind of person honks their horn that loudly at 3:00 AM? I needn’t have worried. Our neighbor in the apartment block across the street had been out drinking. He had ordered daikou to take him home, but rather than park his car for him, they had stopped it at the end of the long, difficult to navigate parking lot, returned his keys and left.

In his extremely drunken state, he was trying to park his car, and couldn’t. He was a bit disoriented and thought that someone had parked in his space, which they hadn’t. He was honking to get the attention of the person who he thought had parked in his space. This being Japan, no one went out to see what was going on while he honked and honked for 30 minutes.

My husband went and talked with him and convinced the guy to let him park his car. My husband parked the guy’s car, the guy thanked him profusely and stumbled off to bed. I have no doubt that the next day he felt incredibly ashamed and embarrassed for disrupting so many people (an even worse thing to do when in Japan as compared to the States). We then went back to sleep.

But the main question I have is: why didn’t the daikou driver park his car for him as they usually do?

Saying Goodbye to Japan…

After three years I am finally leaving Japan. As the plane tickets are finalized (and payed for), and as we pack up our belongings; ruthlessly throwing out the things which we don’t need, the realization that we are actually leaving hits me. I have had a great time living in Japan and I have learned so much. This tangent I have spun off on from my original goal of working in theater has taught me a lot, and now is the time to go back to the States and use these skills I have acquired and find my place.

Inspired by my friend’s post, this is a reflection on my time in Japan.

Things I accomplished:

• Learned some Japanese (and learned how to learn a language).
• Learned that I love teaching high school students and became a good teacher.
• Met my husband and got married (and struggled through a yearlong wait for his spouse visa to be issued. At last!)
• Learned about a different culture and how to exist in it (when in Rome…)
• Lived on my own for the first time in a rural area and learned how to be fully self-suffient.
• Made a few Japanese friends.
• Became a better cook.
• Helped other Assistant Language Teachers with their problems and hopefully helped them become better teachers.

Things I regret:

• Not learning more Japanese.
• Not making more Japanese friends.
• Not going to Okinawa and Hokkaido.
• Not seeing Takarazuka (there are still two months left…)
• Not starting a blog about my experiences sooner.

Things I will miss about Japan:

• The food (soba, udon, ramen, the special taste of canned coffee, hire katsu ヒレカツ, izakaya 居酒屋 food, all you can drink specials, salad udon, agedashi tofu 揚げ出し豆腐, festival yakisoba 焼きそば, and much more.)
• Friends I’ve made.
• Karaoke boxes!
• Purikura (print club!)
• Nama gurepufurutsu sawa 生グレープフルーツサワー (shochu (焼酎) - Japanese vodka – soda, and a raw grapefruit that you juice yourself and add to the glass).
• Vending machines everywhere; from drinks, to toys, to oden　（おでん）…
• Summer festivals (祭) and wearing a yukata (浴衣) to them.
• Cherry blossom viewing parties (hanami 花見) where we sit outside all day and eat and drink.
• Great customer service and no tipping.
• Good trains and public transportation.
• Being an expat at time when when the reputation of the USA is not very good.
• Automatic flushing toilets and automatic faucets that actually work properly.
• How safe Tokyo feels compared with big cities in the States.
• Hot springs (onsen 温泉)!
• Watching gakkou e ikkou (学校へ行こう！) on Tuesday nights.

Thing I will be glad to leave behind:

• Having to bike everywhere.
• Being stared at just for looking foreign.
• Expensive fruits and vegetables.
• Not being able to find many cooking ingredients for recipes I want to try.
• Unequal gender roles.
• Simple things being difficult to do because my Japanese isn’t good enough, or there is excessive beauracracy.
• The translation/repeat method of English teaching.
• The idea that the group is always more important than the individual.
• Lack of central heating, kerosene heaters, small refrigerators, microwave/oven combination, Japanese stoves.
• Big, stripy mosquitos.

Things I miss about home:

• My family and friends.
• Cheap fruit and vegetables.
• Having a car.
• That being an individual is valued and success is not measured by seniority but by ability.
• Making theater.
• Not living in a tiny apartment.
• Being able to dress uniquely without worrying that I am not dressed appropriately for teacher (a highly regarded job in Japan).
• ATMs are open 24 hours and you can use a credit card or cash card almost anywhere.
• Cultural diversity.

Things I am worried about dealing with when I get home:

• Culture shock.
• Finding a job in the arts.
• Getting health insurance.
• Moving back to my hometown where I haven’t lived for 10 years.
• Evaluating my experience in Japan and creating a new 5 year plan.

Gunmania 2008: Spring Issue (vol 2)

The magazine I write for has just come out with it’s spring issue, so check it out. This magazine is a quarterly publication about Gunma Prefecture (群馬県), where I currently live.

In this issue:
-Running (And Cycling) For A Cause
by Erin Kessler

-Great Japan Beer Festival
by Bahia Simons-Morton

-Gunma Public: Teacher Dorama
by Joyce Wong

-Koyasan: The Best Of Old Japan In A Day’s Leisurely Walk
by Symerna Blake

-Not Done Yet
by Chris Hensleigh

-The Princess Of Kiryu
by Bahia Simons-Morton

Download the PDF here: http://www.gunmajet.net/node/1171

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

A typhoon brought in rain from the south today. The amount of rain and wind is unpredictable, so I layered on my raingear this morning, piece by piece. From plastic bags in my shoes, to trash bags covering my back pack and a rain jacket, I waterproofed myself as well as I could. When I finally went outside, I was surprised at well I had wrapped myself up and how dry I managed to stay on the way to the train station. The visor attached to my jacket shielded my eyes from the worst of it and kept the rain off my face and out of my eyes.

As I waited at the train station, the usual group of high school boys eyed me as they talked amongst themselves. When I got on the train, I placed my backpack on the overhead rack, as usual, after taking out Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. As I became immersed in the book my thoughts began to take on the particular quality of the words. The translation is very good, though I wish my Japanese was good enough that I could read it in the original Japanese.

The story is not sad, not exactly, but throughout the story the theme of suicide is touched on frequently. This ordinary boy living day to day is faced with so many stories of suicide, and is deeply impacted by one that touched his life during high school. The thing that strikes me the most is that he doesn’t understand either. I have never understood the high rate of suicide in Japan; why you see it on the news all the time, why there are trends for different types of the suicide. The character Watanabe doesn’t seem to understand either. For a book that takes place in the free time of the 60s, it seems that while some things in Japanese culture have changed dramatically, others have remained the same.

This book doesn’t make me feel sad, as I might have expected. Instead, there is a certain quality of “the real” that imbues it. The characters seem so real, like the type of people you meet everyday. Woven throughout the story are references to great Western books, like Cather in the Rye and The Great Gatsby, and other authors as well; Dickens and Faulkner. The theme of the book, the melody of Norwegian Wood, reoccurs throughout. The story is bittersweet at times, but also reminds me of college days.

Upon arriving at the train station, I watched as the other cyclists wrapped themselves and their belongings in plastic and waterproofs and I felt a strange sense of unity with them; we are all the ones biking in the rain because we must. As I cycled the last leg of my route, from the train station to my office, I thought about this book and half formed thoughts floated throughout my head, but I couldn’t remember the words to Norwegian Wood.

Harajuku Fashion, 2008

Below are some photos I took while recently in Harajuku, Tokyo.

All photos are copyrighted by Bahia Simons-Morton (me), all rights reserved.

Happy Love © Bahia Simons-Morton

Leader of the Pack © Bahia Simons-Morton

Great Japan Beer Festival

My first reaction when I heard about the Great Japan Beer Festival during Golden Week was, “Awesome, I like beer! Let’s go!” My second impression, after viewing the poorly designed and amateurish website was, “On second thought, this website is really lame. Maybe we shouldn’t go…” In the end, however, we spontaneously went to Tokyo during Golden Week and just as spontaneously decided to go to the beer festival.

When we arrived, we were at first awestruck by the enormous bouncers standing outside, towering above the crowd; something usually not seen in Japan. We got in a short line and purchased our tickets and entered. I immediately regretted not bringing in food, though there was a selection of “American Dogs”, hot dogs, yakisoba, and various snacks. We immediately bumped into some Gunma JETs who had just arrived as well.

The doors had opened at 2:30, but we arrived just in time for the kanpai at 3:00. A camera panned through the crowd, projecting our raised glasses onto a back screen. After the kanpai we started to make our rounds, with our friend marking down our opinions of each beer as we went along. We started at the A booths and throughout the festival, which lasted until 7:00, eventually made our way through all the booths (up to F).

The right side of the room was filled with a mix of German beers and Japanese beers (and Japanese breweries making German-style beers). Not a big fan of the darker beers, I tried a variety of pilsners, ambers, and light hefewizens and anything that was pale in color. One of my favorite was a yuzu-flavored beer that was quite refreshing. When we finally reached the back of the room, we found that there were buckets for dumping your extra beer and water for drinking or rinsing your glasses.

Of my several ventures the restroom, the first wait in line was about 30 minutes, but after that, most of the women disappeared, and the ratio of Japanese to non-Japanese people grew steadily more even. By the time we reached the left side of the room we were feeling suitably “relaxed”. I even bought an “American Dog” (hotdog on a stick), though it wasn’t my first choice; all the other food was sold out.

As we worked our way down the left side of the room our beer drinking became more selective, each of us choosing the type of beer we like the most. On this side I found my favorite beer, which was a light and slightly fruity Blanche made by a Japanese brewery. Actually, the left side of the room was entirely made of Japanese beers, half of which were sold out by 5 pm. Though the beers were not particularly international, there were some very good beers and I certainly felt we got our 5,000 yen worth of beer, plus souvenir glasses to take home.

All in all, if you can taste at least half of the 120 beers offered it is a worthwhile event, and going to Tokyo during Golden Week was much more relaxing than jostling with Japanese people in some picturesque location.

Event details:

The Great Japan Beer Festival
Over 120 microbrews featured.
Advanced tickets 4300/day, 4700 at the door.

http://www.beertaster.org/index-e.html

Event Location:

The Garden Hall at Ebisu Garden Place
1-13-2, Mita, Meguro-ku,Tokyo

2008年4月8日: Japan News Update

News:

• Phillapino woman cut into pieces and left in a locker.

• Experienced native English teachers in Osaka offered only 4-month contracts. Teachers call on Osaka governer not to cut the English program.

• As email use becomes more prevalent in schools, it can be both a blessing for student- teacher communication, and it can also open up students to bad situations. After a principal was recently caught for threatening a student by email when she wanted to end a relationship they had been having, this article discusses the current use of email and student-teacher relationships in Japan. Gunma is mentioned.

• Are Japanese people ready for “change they can believe in,” as per Obama’s message to the American people? Not likley:

“With the exception of the dynamic years early in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), and the decade of national restoration following the end of World War II in 1945, Japanese people have steered away from any sort of leadership that appeared genuinely committed to social and political change.”

• Conflict over the showing of documentary about Yasuki shrine is nothing new. Ultra-nationalists use threatening tactics to scare Tokyo theaters into not showing the film:

“[...] four Tokyo cinemas subsequently pulled the plug on the documentary after apparent threats and protests from ultra-rightwing groups.”

• Rather than increasing immigration and providing childcare for families, why not use robots instead?

• Aww, kokusai (international) romance! An interview with a Japanese/German couple.

Trends in Japan:

• Vitamin supplements designed for gamers.

• Do you want your coffee to taste like Tokyo? However, regional coffee blends are only offered in their designated regions…

• The waste produced by disposable chopsticks in Japan is extravagent. Try these new recycled rice eco chopsticks!