Remiscing Japan

I needed to choose a photo for a workplace newsletter the other day, so I promptly went onto Facebook and started scrolling through my picturer and further down I went, until I realised that I'd hardly any pictures of Osaka, Kobe, or several other places in Japan that I'd been to and loved.

Facebook in the past couple of years has become, for me, a great platform to remember and reminisce about the past. Looking back on where I've been and what I've done helps to bring to mind happy times, beautiful places and wonderful friends. When I'm down, it reminds me that I've had some great experiences and that there will be more to come; when the weather is - quite literally - putting a damper on my mood, I am reminded that even Ireland can have lovely weather and that I'll be ready to enjoy it when it comes.

I therefore decided to dig up photos of my time in Japan and post a selection on Facebook, so that they'll be just a few convenient clicks away when the mood hits. I was struck by nostalgia browsing through the photos of my neighbourhood in Osaka - it's the simple things and once-familiar places that threatened to bring tears. The sight of my apartment brought to mind smells of the tatami and the feel of the cool kitchen floor; the shot of clear skies over the Yodogawa evoked clearly the sense of freedom and peace that I felt when out on my bike, cycling around the neighbourhood on restless evenings and quiet weekends.

Yet, I was surprised and disappointed that there were so few photos of the city I love so dearly and once called home. There were none of the touristy shots of frequent haunts like Shinsaibashi, Namba and Umeda. Nothing more than my memory of the Glico Man, the Dotonburi crab, the plastic food figurines in Sennichimae, the HEP 5 ferris wheel, JR Osaka station, Yodobashi camera, LoFT, Crystal Nagahori, Namba Parks... nothing from the cycling route from Sagisu into Umeda (like the mural at a junction and the long slope that was so scary yet thrilling to go down; the wind in my hair and adrenaline in my veins); nor the Ebie junction; nor the Fukushima-dori; nor even Nodahanshin itself or Jusco.

It scares me to realise that I have nothing tangible of Osaka - even if the memories I have are so real and so clear. I don't know why I didn't take many pictures then, when I spend so much time photographing bits and pieces of my life here - the food, the city, the everyday. Maybe it would've been different if Instagram had existed back then. But now that I know I will one day be looking back on photos of my life, I'll bear in mind to continue snapping away as I go through the days.

Best friends

When I hung Totoro up, I wished I'd bought more Ghibli souvenirs when I was still in Japan.

Two and a half years

A chat the other day had someone ask me what made me decide to move to Belfast “out of a sudden”. And it struck me then that this move isn’t sudden at all – on the contrary, it is a whole two and a half years in the making.

I hadn’t thought about this in a long time, and I suppose I hadn’t shared it with that many people either. But there were what were to me anxious, depressing talks about “what next”, “where now from here” and “how can we get visas with nothing but experience being assistant language teachers beneath our belts”. The decision to first go our separate ways was made, but there was the knowledge – although I might not have fully admitted it to myself back then – since the day we boarded separate planes at Kansai Airport, that this Singapore-phase of my life was always going to be an sojourn; an interlude before our lives merged properly again.

I recall how it was when I just came back – with no job, severely missing Japan and full of uncertainty over what was going to happen to us. I remember the difficulties adjusting – to living with the parents again, to the crowds in Singapore, to the lower quality in the taste of food, to being so very far apart. It was painful, it was frustrating, I didn’t want to be here and I was not happy.

Yet, humans will always adjust and somehow things managed to develop their own sense of permanence. The friendships I had before Japan were renewed and some new friends were made; work, unfortunately, more or less became my life but I really got back into ballet; my ability to really appreciate good, fresh, clean flavours faded to just a memory; and I came to spend lots of time with a bunch of colleagues whose company I really enjoy.

One year flew by, and there came this ‘turning period’ where a question posed led to some thinking, which resulted in the decision that something had to be done to end this at two years. Slowly, steps were taken and plans were made – it would have been very nearly 2 years if I could have left in September as originally intended, but there was the traumatic visa application, the agonising wait, the monetary calculations and decisions stemming from desires borne of friendship and, of course, Chinese New Year. So two and a half years (and 9 days, in fact) it will be.

Looking back, things feel so different now. August 2010 is without a doubt the lowest point in my life thus far, and I hope it remains so. Also, I’m tempted to describe the time back here as “liminal” – except that it really is not, as I’ve gained a lot and things have developed. Regardless, the next phase is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, so here’s wishing for its fruition, for a good adventure and for much more happiness ahead!

Hokkaido, July 2010. We used to take so many shadow pictures in Japan.

Nirai Kanai (Liang Court)–Fabulous Okinawan Food

Okinawan food is fantastic and a must try for anyone. Due to the history of the Okinawan islands and their proximity to Taiwan, Okinawan food will have a familiar – yet different – taste to those of us used to southern Chinese cuisine.

The restaurant has a very rustic feel – and it does remind me of Okinawa:

There are several must-tries for Okinawan cuisine. One of them is champuru, a kind of stir-fry. Popular ones are tofu champuru and goya champuru. Japanese bittergourd – or goya – is only slightly bitter and has a crunchy texture. It’s the only kind of bittergourd that I’ll eat.

We ordered the goya champuru – champuru in Okinawa is often fried with luncheon meat (tasty!) and is drier. Ours had a fair bit of sauce but was still very delicious, as it tasted as if it had been cooked with bacon when in fact there was none – just egg, tofu and pork:

Another signature dish in Okinawa is Okinawan soba. Okinawan soba is more like noodles as we know it, and looks quite like mee pok. We tried Souki Soba, which you will find everywhere on the islands. The broth was thick and delicious but less salty than ramen broth, and the stewed pork was full of flavour:

As one can probably tell, Okinawan food is very heavy on pork – and many of their signature dishes are pork dishes. I’m not sure whether the pork knuckles we had were authentic Okinawan food, but oh man – it was AMAZINGLY GOOD. Unlike German pork knuckles, the meat came right off the bone with just a prick of the fork, and the knuckles had less fat and contained more flavour than Chinese pork knuckles. Honestly, the skin was extremely tasty:

There was nothing left after we were done with the pork knuckles:

Finally, here’s a dish which one absolutely cannot miss when in Okinawa/in an Okinawan restaurant – stewed pork belly, or Rafute. The fat melted in your mouth and the meat had just the right amount of bite, and every inch of the meat had been adequately infused with the aromatic sauce:

The servings are pretty sizable and we were stuffed by the end – all for just $52. The service is average – one server was attentive, but another wasn’t at all – and they forgot the tuna carpaccio that we’d ordered (just as well though!). That said, the food was awesome – and I’m quite partial to Okinawan food – so I’d recommend everyone to try this place!

Yayoiken, Singapore

I was happy when I saw Yayoiken the other day at the basement of Liang Court outside Medi-ya, as there was one branch near where I lived in Osaka – I would go there occasionally when I didn’t feel like cooking, wanted some rice and didn’t want a combini or supermarket bento.

And when I saw the prices, I got really excited as their fish items were way cheaper than that of Otoya’s (which is actually cheap in Japan; cheaper than Yayoiken).

I returned on Thursday and was surprised to find myself needing to queue for a table at 7pm. Seems like word spreads fast – who the hell goes to Liang Court? – and that Singaporeans really love their Japanese food.

We ordered the Tonkatsu set and Saba Miso set, both of which I didn’t try:

I had the Miso Katsu set ($13.90) – I loved the runny egg yolk and the potatoes - which had the nice ‘skin’ you get on the surface of potatoes when they’re roasted right. The miso wasn’t too salty and was good with rice, although the spinach did look a bit pathetic.

We also ordered a Saba Shio Yaki (ala carte $6.90, set $9.90). To me, an indication of whether a Japanese place is good is if they can grill their saba to perfection – moist and juicy meat (not dry like so many Japanese restaurants here, e.g Shinkushiya), crisp skin and just the right amount of saltiness. Yayoiken had good saba in Japan, and it’s just as good in Singapore. 

At only $9.90 for the set, the saba at Yayoiken is half the price of that at Otoya – a very good deal. Granted, the saba at Otoya is of higher quality (oilier and more tender flesh) but there’s absolutely nothing to complain about Yayoiken’s saba – it’s good on the tastebuds and good on the wallet.

Japanese family restaurants like Otoya and Yayoiken are meant to provide hearty, wholesome meals at a low cost and with minimal fuss anyway, so Yayoiken gives exactly that feel. In fact, it kinda reminds me of how it used to be like eating there in Japan, so that’s a plus for me – Otoya didn’t exist in Kansai :)

Super cute pandas and Oji Zoo, Kobe

I’ll never forget the time when the boy and I went to Oji Zoo to see pandas, only to get a glimpse of a dirty panda rump and nothing much more. The rest of the zoo wasn’t too bad by Japanese standards*, but this was not:

the above offered a sharp contrast to evidence no-longer-existent long queues of panda-lovers hoping to get a glimpse of the furry animals:

anyway, I finally got to see some really cute panda action, though unfortunately not in person, thanks to this video on the Telegraph. the two pandas are sooo adorable.

Actually, I’m quite sure I’d posted photos from Oji Zoo somewhere. However I can’t find them on my previous blog, but well. Here’re some highlights (as usual they’re the boy’s pictures, not mine):

We saw this huge Saint Bernard just outside the zoo:

A look of such longing in his eyes.

 

 

 

 

*: I take that back – actually I think some of the animals were under stress, especially the really depressed-looking elephant :(

I agree…

There’re a few Japan blogs I like to read, and this is one of them.

I like the simple and clear writing style, great photos, cool insights, and most of all I like that its mainly set in Osaka or Kansai (which totally kick ass compared to Tokyo*) – a nice change from all the Tokyo blogs out there.

There was a post providing some short updates on the earthquake, one of which relating to the relations between the two main Japanese political parties. In there was a brilliant quote, which I’m quite inclined to agree with:

“The average mental age in the diet is still five or so, in other words, and there's no sign that this disaster will improve anything on that front.”

It pretty much sums up the state of Japanese politics at the moment, and I REALLY hope for Japan’s sake that the people in charge – and by that I don’t just mean the government, but also those who wield the power and make the decisions in companies – get their act together.

It’ll be a great tragedy should the future see Japan slip further into decline due to poor leadership – forces of nature cannot be prevented, but this can.

Hotel Room deals

A colleague was looking out for places to stay in Japan, and I was telling her of how cheap and affordable the rooms there generally are. That impression has been reinforced after I started looking for hotel accommodation for visitors to Singapore – hotel rooms here are so so expensive and aren’t very well reviewed either!

That, compounded by the wonderful steal of a room I got in Dublin, makes me sad, because it’s impossible to get anything beyond a tiny room in a Singapore hotel that’s not very well located for the prices that I’ve paid elsewhere.

Anyway, I thought to just document some good, cheap places I’ve stayed at while in Japan in case they should come in useful. I always book hotels via Jalan.net as it offers really great deals and has a good search function.

Hokkaido, Sapporo

First up, accommodation in Hokkaido. If you’re in Sapporo, Hotel Tokeidai, or Hotel Clocktower, (ホテル時計台）is my top choice because it’s so cheap. It offers basic rooms* with plenty of luggage space and an ensuite bathroom just 5-7 minutes from JR Sapporo station at about $66 per room for two.

(Note that it’s cheaper than Hotel 81 in Singapore, which has received lots of complaints regarding quality of the beds, sheets and room size – which is interesting, since I’d expect a hotel in the red light district to have better beds and sheets!)

Another good hotel in Sapporo is Weekly Hotel Sapporo, and its annex (ウィークリーさっぽろ２０００＆アネックス). It’s located about 6min from Susukino station, which is the entertainment and food district of Sapporo. The small intersection before the hotel has some cool structures:

The rooms cost about $79 per room (2 persons) a night, and the rooms also seem to have increased in size since I was last there (prices remain the same though), because according to the panoramic flash video on their website, the rooms now contain a sofa. Apart from the usual facilities and ensuite bathroom, each room also contains a microwave, sink and stove, cooking and eating utensils – including a rice cooker, as seen below!

Hokkaido, Lake Toya

I feel that no visit to Hokkaido is complete without going to Lake Toya – for that, I highly recommend Toya Sansui Hotel Kafuu (洞爺山水ホテル和風). It’s a traditional Japanese ryokan – complete with tatami mats, onsen baths and dinner and breakfast provided. And how much did it cost?

A mere $183 a night for two – such Japanese ryokans with meals provided usually charge an average of $126 each, and can go much higher depending on the quality of the food served. That doesn’t mean that we didn’t get good food here though – far from it, it came with a spread which included pork shabu shabu with sesame sauce, fish and prawn sashimi, black cod, a crab claw wrapped in egg, various tasty small dishes and a slice of the famed yubari melon.

Breakfast was a simpler affair as it always is, but was still filling – with fish, tofu, japanese omelette, grated yam and a serving of melon (in the covered bowl on the left).

Nikko

A useful comparison to the Toya Sansui Hotel above would be where we stayed in Nikko. Perhaps best known for being the place where the Tokugawa mausoleums are located, Nikko doesn’t seem to have many overnight travellers. Like most of the other hotels there, our accommodation – Seiyou Hotel Ichibankan (西洋ホテル壱番館）was a short 5 min taxi ride from the station.

From its name, it’s clear that it’s a western-style hotel – it’s literally a western-style house which has been converted into a hotel, and everything on the inside (apart from the presence of onsen-style baths) is western in style, which was a nice change. It was $123 each per night, inclusive of dinner and breakfast.

     

I unfortunately have no visual record of what exactly we had there, because it was so appetising aesthetically that it all went down pretty fast. The hotel owner was formerly a western cuisine chef, which explained why the food was so good. There was a delicacy of taste to the meals, which I realise is difficult to achieve and nearly non-existent in what you’d usually get here. As it was low-season and a weekday when we went, we were the only two people in the entire hotel, which made it even better.

Yokohama

The last recommendation is Porto Hostel Yokohama, located about 10-15min walk from Yokohama’s famous Chinatown. It actually has an English website and is quite a large hostel. The place seems slightly foreboding on the outside as it appeared to be rows and rows of rooms, but the rooms are actually rather cheery and nice, with space nearer the door for more luggage:

 a posed picture from one of the travel websites, provided by Porto Hostel Yokohama itself

Private rooms are $47 (or $70 for a twin or double room). Being a hostel, it doesn’t provide the usual amenities and the bathrooms are shared coin-operated showers, but breakfast – consisting of eggs, toast, salad, juice and coffee – is provided. It’s a comfortable stay though, and due to Yokohama’s proximity to Tokyo and consequent prices, is rather reasonable. A general tip, however, is that hotels are more value for money in Japan than hostels are!

*  *  *

*: Basic rooms in Japan all contain the following amenities, which are not necessarily available in Singapore hotels – free internet in rooms (often wireless), hairdryer, shampoo, conditioner, shower foam, hairbrush, toothbrush and toothpaste, towels, tea and coffee, slippers, shower and japanese-style bathtub, yukata/bathrobe, TV.

URGH.

When will people from the West ever realise that more than half the world we live in comprises people who are not Caucasians and that things are different and can’t be expected to be the same?

Domino’s Pizza – Still Ridiculously Expensive in Japan

I think it’s very important that someone inform them sometime – and make sure it gets into their heads – that out there in the grand scheme of things, they’re in the MINORITY and they simply cannot – i repeat, CANNOT – take for granted that what they’re used to is what other people are used to as well.

stop bitching that pizza is expensive in Japan. you’re only saying that because you’re ordering pizza every week more than once a week, like some of the other people I know. if you tried eating Japanese food or stopped being lazy and actually cooked for yourself using ingredients found in ordinary supermarkets rather than ordering in cos you’re hungover from heavy and irresponsible drinking the night before or even the entire weekend, you’ll find having the occasional pizza much more affordable.

i just wished that back in Osaka, there was some other born-and-bred Asian who spoke fluent English whom I could team up with and argue with all those close-minded – or ignorant, to give them the benefit of the doubt - people, to inform them that more than half the world has experiences that are NOT like theirs and they ought to change their mindset to at least acknowledge that fact.

urgh.

Ootoya (Suntec City)

While Kansai as far as I’m aware doesn’t have Ootoya, I had the chance to try it when i visited Sendai and boy was it good and cheap. Set dishes were generally about 650 – 850yen ($10.30 – $13.20), which was extremely good value for money given the quality of the food served there.

Hence, I’d been interested in trying it out when I discovered it had opened a branch in Suntec. Unsurprisingly, prices are higher here, starting from $16 for a meat set meal (chicken, pork) to about $20 for a fish set meal.

The food was pretty good though. I ordered the Chicken Salad set ($16), which came with a soup and 2 small side dishes (all so-so). The grilled chicken was tender and tasty, and the pesto-basil dressing was unique as I’ve never had chicken paired with these flavours.

There wasn’t enough dressing to go with the salad, but I liked the egg slices and the vegetables were crisp and fresh. Word of warning to non-fans of cabbage though: this salad was uniquely Japanese in that it consisted almost entirely of shredded cabbage. This is one aspect of Japanese salads (especially those that accompany rice sets) where I’d happily forgo authenticity and have tastier vegetables!

Ootoya offers several types of grilled mackerel dishes, and D. ordered the only one available ($20) as all the rest were sold out. Thanks to my lousy camera phone I don’t have a picture of it (it’s the last pic on the Ootoya website), but it was a big serving and more worth it than my chicken.

Some might find the fish slightly too salty and oily, but I liked it cos it tasted just the way it is in Japan. The bones were a little tricky, but it was done just right and not too dry as it often turns out to be here.

The best thing is, Ootoya’s food was, as D. described it, “light on the palette”. There’s no after-taste and the food, for those prices, is the cheapest you’ll ever get for authentic Japanese food in Singapore. I’m likely to return to Ootoya, just as long as I don’t think of how little these once cost me. Haha!

Setsubun–Lunar New Year

thanks to some of my JET friends who’d been posting Setsubun wishes on their facebook profiles, i realised that Setsubun coincides with the Lunar New Year. It makes sense anyway, since Setsubun marks the beginning of spring, but somehow – despite calling my parents and grandparents every Chinese New Year while I was in Japan – I never realised they coincided.

Perhaps it’s cos Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year has a whole set of cooler traditions than throwing beans while shouting “Oni wa uchi, fuku wa soto!” (out with the devil, in with the fortune) and eating uncut makizushi at one go...

….but anyway. So this got me thinking – the Japanese celebrated the Lunar New Year on the same day as the Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese all the way till 1873 (five years after the Meji Restoration) when they adopted the Gregorian calendar. Since then, the Japanese New Year – or Oshogatsu – has been celebrated on 1st January, just like the Western world.

What happened then, before 1873? Since Setsubun and Oshogatsu have their own set of customs – including prayers at shrines – what rites and rituals did the Japanese conduct when Setsubun and Oshogatsu were essentially the same day? a mixture of both?

an interesting article on Japan from the Financial Times

I’m not sure i agree with some of the arguments presented in this article – i certainly do think Japan has many things it should be worried about and should change – but it’s refreshing to read an article which isn’t all gloom and doom.

Japan finds there is more to life than growth (FT, 5 Jan 2011)

By David Pilling

Is Japan the most successful society in the world? Even the question is likely (all right, designed) to provoke ridicule and have you spluttering over your breakfast. The very notion flies in the face of everything we have heard about Japan’s economic stagnation, indebtedness and corporate decline.

Ask a Korean, Hong Kong or US businessman what they think of Japan, and nine out of 10 will shake their head in sorrow, offering the sort of mournful look normally reserved for Bangladeshi flood victims. “It’s so sad what has happened to that country,” one prominent Singaporean diplomat told me recently. “They have just lost their way.”

It is easy to make the case for Japan’s decline. Nominal gross domestic product is roughly where it was in 1991, a sobering fact that appears to confirm the existence of not one, but two, lost decades. In 1994, Japan’s share of global GDP was 17.9 per cent, according to JPMorgan. Last year it had halved to 8.76 per cent. Over roughly the same period, Japan’s share of global trade fell even more steeply to 4 per cent. The stock market continues to thrash around at one-quarter of its 1990 level, deflation saps animal spirits – a common observation is that Japan has lost its “mojo” – and private equity investors have given up on their fantasy that Japanese businesses will one day put shareholders first.

Certainly, these facts tell a story. But it is only partial. Underlying much of the head-shaking about Japan are two assumptions. The first is that a successful economy is one in which foreign businesses find it easy to make money. By that yardstick Japan is a failure and post-war Iraq a glittering triumph. The second is that the purpose of a national economy is to outperform its peers.

If one starts from a different proposition, that the business of a state is to serve its own people, the picture looks rather different, even in the narrowest economic sense. Japan’s real performance has been masked by deflation and a stagnant population. But look at real per capita income – what people in the country actually care about – and things are far less bleak.

By that measure, according to figures compiled by Paul Sheard, chief economist at Nomura, Japan has grown at an annual 0.3 per cent in the past five years. That may not sound like much. But the US is worse, with real per capita income rising 0.0 per cent over the same period. In the past decade, Japanese and US real per capita growth are evenly pegged, at 0.7 per cent a year. One has to go back 20 years for the US to do better – 1.4 per cent against 0.8 per cent. In Japan’s two decades of misery, American wealth creation has outpaced that of Japan, but not by much.

The Japanese themselves frequently refer to non-GDP measures of welfare, such as Japan’s safety, cleanliness, world-class cuisine and lack of social tension. Lest they (and I) be accused of wishy-washy thinking, here are a few hard facts. The Japanese live longer than citizens of any other large country, boasting a life expectancy at birth of 82.17 years, much higher than the US at 78. Unemployment is 5 per cent, high by Japanese standards, but half the level of many western countries. Japan locks up, proportionately, one-twentieth of those incarcerated in the US, yet enjoys among the lowest crime levels in the world.

In a thought-provoking article in The New York Times last year, Norihiro Kato, a professor of literature, suggested that Japan had entered a “post-growth era” in which the illusion of limitless expansion had given way to something more profound. Japan’s non-consuming youth was at the “vanguard of the downsizing movement”, he said. He sounded a little like Walter Berglund, the heroic crank of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, who argues that growth in a mature economy, like that in a mature organism, is not healthy but cancerous. “Japan doesn’t need to be No 2 in the world, nor No 5 or 15,” Prof Kato wrote. “It’s time to look to more important things.”

Patrick Smith, an expert on Asia, agrees that Japan is more of a model than a laggard. “They have overcome the impulse – and this is something where the Chinese need to catch up – to westernise radically as a necessity of modernisation.” Japan, more than any other non-western advanced nation, has preserved its culture and rhythms of life, he says.

One must not overdo it. High suicide rates, a subdued role for women and, indeed, the answers that Japanese themselves provide to questionnaires about their happiness, do not speak of a nation entirely at ease with itself in the 21st century. It is also possible that Japan is living on borrowed time. Public debt is among the highest in the world – though, significantly, almost none of it is owed to foreigners – and a younger, poorer-paid generation will struggle to build up the fat savings on which the country is now comfortably slumbering.

If the business of a state is to project economic vigour, then Japan is failing badly. But if it is to keep its citizens employed, safe, economically comfortable and living longer lives, it is not making such a terrible hash of things.

Visit Kansai, Visit Japan

A friend posted on facebook her intention to visit Japan and Korea, and I offered some accommodation suggestions and asked if she would be visiting Kansai.

Her reply, though not surprising, unfortunately summed up perfectly the general – and grossly inaccurate - perception most have of Japan and Kansai:

“Is it worth a visit?”

Everyone thinks of Tokyo when Japan is spoken of, while others wax lyrical over the ‘wonders’ of Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku – it’s now time to set the record straight:

Kansai is the best place to be for a one-stop, catch-all visit to Japan.

In Kansai, you can visit two ancient capital cities (Nara and Kyoto) and a port city (Kobe) within an hour’s train ride from a bustling, vibrant and exciting city (Osaka).

Tokyo doesn’t offer any of much of those; a visit to Tokyo is very much a visit to a modern global city. Also, Tokyo is a big city and travelling within it will already take 20-45mins (due to its size and horrible subway connections) – Akihabara, for example, is 10 stations away from Shibuya, and the Yamanote Loop Line is not a small loop at all.

To elaborate slightly:

Nara was the first capital city, established 1000 years ago, and is home to freely roaming deer and the largest Buddha statue in Japan:

Todaiji, where the largest Buddha statue in Japan is housed, and the deer which you can touch and feed.

Kyoto was the capital before Tokyo and is the best place to visit for traditional Japanese houses, temples and shrines, as most of its buildings escaped bombings during WWII, unlike most cities in the rest of Japan.

Above: everyday items and gifts made from kimono material

Below: The Fushimi Inari Shrine, location of the famous scene in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’

Kobe is a charming, walkable city – it also has more sights, better architecture and a stronger European influence than Yokohama.

The Kobe Port Tower and the museum to its right (above); Kobe has a ferris wheel (below) and a Chinatown too.

And Osaka? Osakans are the most flamboyant among all Japanese – this city is the place to be for crazy fashion and Japanese funk. It’s small and compact, making it easy to explore. Osaka is also known as “the kitchen of Japan” – the food is more delicious and slightly cheaper than in Tokyo. With its proximity to all of the above, its attraction as a base from which to explore the rest couldn’t be clearer.

Osaka is also where you get okonomiyaki, a ‘pancake’ of cooked cabbage, egg, seafood/meat eaten with a sweet-salty sauce with bonito flakes.

You get a theme park – Universal Studios Japan – right in the city too; Tokyo Disneyland is actually in neighbouring Chiba prefecture.

Considering the above, how can anyone not consider visiting Kansai??

thoughts on the JET Programme

news reports on the abolishing of the JET Programme* are not new, but have definitely increased in the past year or so, especially since the DPJ came into power. while I occasionally read the Japan Times, these two articles were brought to my attention via a friend on facebook:

Don’t blame JET for Japan’s poor English

Readers offer their thoughts on jettisoning JET

while I certainly agree that the JET Programme is by no means responsible for the lack of english proficiency in Japan, that is not to say that JET has contributed significantly to raising the standards of english in the country. In fact, my main gripes about my time on JET were that i struggled to find meaning in my job and was highly doubtful that i had any impact whatsoever on the english standards of most of my students**. also, there are JETs out there who don’t have english that’s good enough (especially grammar-wise) to teach (or edit, or whatever else ALTs are asked to do) and their presence can cast doubt on the selection process.

but the qualifications and quality of JETs aside, how they’re used has to change: JETs wouldn’t be a waste of money if they were used more efficiently. i mean, only a maximum of 4 classes (i had less) a day in an 8 hour working day? having nothing to do during the term holidays and test periods (of which there are many)? not being able to help with scoring tests and entrance exams even though the Japanese teachers always complain about it and struggle to finish marking in time? no doubt JET salaries are high – that could easily be reduced without scraping the programme*** – but i think one major reason for the complaints about their fat salaries is because those in the know are aware of just how little JETs have to do.

i’m not sure an english-teaching cum cultural exchange programme should be ceased, as it theoretically is a good idea. the problem is that theory, of course, differs from practice – JET needs an overhaul (like much of the Japanese system in fact) but perhaps not complete removal.

 

*: these tend to refer to and address the ALT aspect which forms the bulk of the JET Programme.

**: perhaps my junior high students in the english course were the sole exception, but that’s just 20-40 students out of the many whom i’ve taught.

***: according to David L. McConnell, author of the illuminating book “Importing Diversity: Inside Japan’s JET Programme”, JET offers a high salary due to the belief that a lower salary will not attract quality applicants. my opinion is that a lot of people apply to JET due to personal desires to experience Japan or Asia and that they’ll still apply as it offers precisely the paid opportunity to do so. it also makes sure that the people who apply primarily to get a paid holiday – there are quite a few and usually they’re those who’re the biggest waste of money on JET – will no longer to so.

Sapporo, Hokkaido

Jalan.net is a great website for booking accommodation in Japan.

It has a really good search system where you can look for accommodation in specific parts of Japan (e.g. Asakusa area in Tokyo) which is something most websites don’t offer, as well as narrow down your choices according to room type, budget, with meals etc. You also earn points for all the bookings made through the site, which can be redeemed on your next booking in most cases. The only drawback is that the site is in Japanese only, but it’s so easy to use if you know enough Japanese to navigate around.

it was through Jalan that i booked my accommodation for Hokkaido. Our first hotel in Sapporo was the Weekly Sapporo 2000 in Susukino, the entertainment district of Sapporo. It was a business hotel and cheap at 2500yen, with all the amenities of a business hotel (shower and ofuro, towels, bathrobe, etc) and even a microwave, sink and stove, cooking utensils and cutlery.

Our second hotel was Hotel Tokeidai (clock tower) and was even cheaper at about 2100yen per night. It’s within 5min walk from Sapporo station, has really friendly receptionists and all the amenities of a business hotel too, plus an electric kettle and green tea. It’s so cheap and good that i’d recommend it to everyone who’s thinking of visiting Sapporo.

nearby our first hotel is this really cool building:

check out the crazy detail on the facade of the human’s face – i think there was a claw somewhere too. i like the spanish-style building opposite too.

we didnt do much in sapporo, except go for breakfast at Nijo market. All the food seemed really expensive, and we finally went into this store that promised crab soup with every set meal ordered – an empty promise by the way. this stall has been patronised by many famous people, but i didnt really like the food there. seafood dons are usually served with sushi rice – cold and seasoned with sweet vinegar. but this was just regular rice, warm and bland. needless to say i was a little disappointed.

 

there was also this funny sign in the ladies’ toilet at Nijo market. i’m just wondering how anyone could use a sitting toilet incorrectly. I understand that lots of places in Japan – Hokkaido especially – have a problem with tourists from China throwing the used toilet paper into the wastepaper basket as they do in their own country, but i’ve never seen a how-to poster for a sitting toilet – the signs are in English too, and as far as i know most English-speaking people have a problem with squat toilets but not sitting ones:

we also went to the Sapporo Beer Festival. it was cool because each major beer company in Japan occupied one spot of Odori Park; you can ‘bar hop’ from Asahi to Kirin to Sapporo and so on by just walking down the length of the park. Unlike beer gardens in Osaka, the food and drink aren’t free flow, so if you want to drink and eat lots it’ll come up to quite a lot.

it’s nice though, for a mid-day drink and relax, which is what most people there were doing. being in Sapporo, we had to try the local beer, but i ended up having the Yebisu premium dark instead – Yebisu, by the way, is the best beer in Japan. The larger mug below is 1.5 litres if i remember correctly, but surprisingly it wasn’t very popular with the crowd that was there.

the Ishiya factory is one must-see in Sapporo, as it’s the manufacturer of the famous Shiroi Koibito cookies and is housed in a beautiful Tudor-style building:

its interior is gorgeous:

 

it was very random, but i liked this exhibit – part of a feature section on japanese toys over the years:

and proof that calpis is quite an old drink and no recent invention – this section was featuring things from the 1950s i think:

the production of shiroi koibito requires more manpower than i thought it would, and check out the many discarded biscuits that didnt meet production standards because they’re either too charred or under-baked:

 

at the start of every hour, the clock tower and the area surrounding the rose garden outside the factory building will have a musical performance. my favourite part is where bubbles are released into the air. again, it’s best to visit Hokkaido in mid-july – the Ishiya factory has a rose-festival that was from 11th to 19th july this year where its garden’s huge, gorgeous roses are in full bloom.

 

 

on this visit, i even managed to take a ride on the train – it was quite a lame ride (most were children :P) but it’s fun to do this kind of silly stuff on holiday:

when in hokkaido, you have to eat seafood. nearing the end of our trip, we splurged on crabs at the restaurant with the famous moving crab signboard – it’s a photo-op on the dotonburi in osaka, but we had to go all the way to Hokkaido to eat at their restaurant. there was a lot of food involved, like tofu with crab meat, and this really really delicious porridge with egg and crabmeat. the porridge was the last dish, and i was really stuffed by then, but it was so tasty and i ended up finishing almost all of it:

and the rest of our crab feast. the hairy crab was boiled – it’s apparently in season now – while the snow crab came in sashimi form. i dont think the snow crab was very fresh though, but the hairy crab was delicious!:

i want more of that crab porridge…