メリークリスマス! (Merry Christmas)

Yes, Virginia, there is Christmas in Japan, but, no, Virginia, don't expect it to be anything like life back in Kansas.

The Japanese have come to adopt many features of Western society and adapt them to their own tastes. Included among those adoptions are Christmas, Valentines Day, fast food, pop/rock music and parents threatening to sue a school for scolding a misbehaving child (as has happened to a fellow JET's school).

Christmas is a relatively recent addition to Japanese pop-culture and, although decorations and Christmas music abound throughout the country in December, it is primarily a holiday for young couples and families with young children. Many children do believe in Santa, and gift exchange is generally limited to those who believe in Santa or have a 20 something year old girlfriend or boyfriend.

As for Christmas dinner, look no further than "Kentucky". Everybody who wants a traditional Christmas dinner in Japan makes a visit to "Kentucky" - "Kentucky" being what most people in this country call KFC. Somewhere in the translation of "Jingle Bells Batman Smells" Robin laid an egg - a big greasy, extra crispy egg, at that. People seem to think that chicken is the traditional American Christmas dinner, so those who wish to celebrate the season go out for chicken by the bucket full.

New Years is the big holiday here, and, unlike China, Japan has transitioned from the lunar calendar, so their New Year always falls on the same day. Next year will be the year of the rat on the Chinese zodiac (also the Japanese), so be kind to your rodents, amigos.


As for me, I'm going to be travelling in Osaka, Thailand, Cambodia and Nagoya, so I won't be writing much for a couple weeks. I will leave you with some seasonal felicitations from a weekend English seminar I helped run last week. High school students had to group together and develop small dramas based on the theme of Santa's reindeer being too sick to fly on Christmas Eve. Using the props provided, one young man developed a brilliant Christmas exultation:
"I'm black spiderman. I hate global warming!"

Merry Christmas, mina-san (everybody).
Happy New Year 良いお年を！

Afternoon Tea

Japan is not known for invention so much as it is known for innovation. Ramen comes from China, but cup ramen comes from Japan. Robotics developed in western science before Japan was a major contributor to the global economy, but today the country has more robots per capita than any other nation in the world. Tea Ceremony, Calligraphy, Martial Arts, Video Games, etc. The list could go on indefinitely it seems.

One of my biggest surprises in discovering Japanese innovations is the Japanese take on baked goods. The word for "bread" in Japanese is non-native ("pan"). It comes from Portuguese as Portugal was the first sustained European contact with the isolated island nation. This country has almost always had a rice-based agricultural system, so it would not seem likely that bakeries would be all too common here. Yet, they are.

Every day on my commute through the Fukui train station I pass Vie de France, a Japanese bakery wherein I frequently stopped for afternoon tea until I finally purchased a kettle for my own home tea-making purposes. When I was studying in Nagoya, I also frequently stopped by a train station bakery on my way home from school. What draws me to Japanese baking is, as already mentioned, innovation. Japanese bakers have taken the proud, long history of European bread making and, in a short period of time, adapted it to create own tradition. Green tea, poppy seed, pumpkin, sweet beans, black sesame and many other flavorings contribute to a style and taste that is uniquely Japanese.

They also produce many items on a seasonal basis. Pumpkin, for example, is very common in the autumn. At the moment they are featuring many sweet baked goods for Christmas (even though less than %1 of the population is Christian people still love to celebrate any holiday that includes cakes and presents).

some Christmas tree cakes at Vie de France

結構ヨカタ: just right, man, just right

So, I was in class giving some reading tests, when the bell rang for class to end and I turned and noticed something on the blackboard: Me! I added the peace sign, myself, but the rest is all student work. The Japanese says, "just right".
I think I look more personable in inverse colors, don't you?

金沢: Kanazawa

Just a brief jaunt north of Fukui is a city nicknamed, "Little Kyoto". Kanazawa features some nice temples, some of the most beautiful gardens in Japan and a fairly decent Mexican restaurant.
Don't think I ever saw a Halloween decoration that grand in the States.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, a few friends and I made the brief train ride up for some sightseeing and shopping. The weather wasn't kind enough to allow us a nice view of the gardens, so we stayed indoors for the most part.
Kanazawa has some very scenic side streets. This particular non-descript alley leads into the secretive temple that has come to be nicknamed, "The Ninja Temple". It has no connection to Ninjutsu, the secret art of the ninja (or so they say), but it is an amazing piece of architectural trickery.

This isn't a very good photograph, but it does allow you to see how simple the building appears from the outside. Simple 2-3 story temple, right? Wrong! Inside it is has nearly 30 stairwells twisting and turning about a multi-layered den of traps and pitfalls constructed to befuddle government spies. Imagine a 6 or 7 story building trapped inside a 3 story building's body. Every turn, every door leading into a trap or some guard just waiting to spear, slice or stab unsuspecting trespassers.
And it also served as a religious center for the local nobility.

Thursdays with 芭蕉: Haiku Round 2

On Thursdays now I venture a 1 hour bus ride to the coast to visit a junior high school with less than 40 total students. Classes are small, awake and interesting. I think I'm really going to like it there. The bus ride is scenic with forests and tunnels and fields and mountains. Also, another JET who has become rather popular with ladies because of his perfect teeth and black belt in tae-kwon-do rides the same bus to a school not far from mine. He's an outgoing sort unless if his energy is drained. Either high or low - never in between.

As for me, I'm pretty much always on the quiet side of life. I brought along the book that I purchased in 京都(Kyoto) written by 芭蕉(Basho), a poet who wandered about Japan and let the scenery inspire his work. As it turns out, students in the school are about to read some excerpts from the same book (おくのほそ道：The Narrow Road to Oku). The literature teacher, noticing the book on my desk, asked to me read some excerpts in English to her class. I was struck by a few lines in the opening paragraphs,

"I seemed to be possessed by the spirits of wanderlust, and they all but deprived me of my senses. The guardian spirits of the road beckoned, and I could not settle down to work."

Basho traveled, journaled and wrote Haiku whenever scenery or events inspired him. Reading his works and gazing out into a morning rainstorm on the Autumn mountain forests, I couldn't help but try my hand at Haiku again.

The wind cries against
Teardrop reddened mountain leaves
Shelter is the storm

That's not the only haiku I wrote yesterday. Inspired by the fact that my only pet peeve is culturally acceptable in Japan (slurping), I vented some frustration. I simply cannot tolerate noises during a meal, but in Japan slurping noodles is very polite while silence could be considered rude. This is supposed only to be the case with noodles, but Japanese men tend to make noise eating anything and everything.

One cup of coffee
One hundred desperate slurps
God, please strike me deaf!