The Best of Japan

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Odds and Ends

The Language Barrier

Languages don't come easy to me. At some level, I just don't get it. But when we travel, I do my best to pick up some useful phrases. Even knowing a little pays off, as people usually appreciate it when you try to speak their language. I worked hard to pick up some Japanese. Before we went, I knew approximately 60 words or phrases. Turns out that was more than I needed. In two weeks, I believe I used exactly 19 words. They included "good morning" and "excuse me" and the most important, "thank you." Everyone says "thank you" all the time; it's the social lubricant for Japanese society. I could order a meal by saying "good morning", pointing to the food I wanted, and saying "thank you" many, many times. People loved it.

 

Bamboo, the Japanese 2x4

Bamboo is a plant that grows very fast (it's a grass) and produces a straight, wood-like hollow tube that is incredibly useful. It's strong and light and is used to make furniture, handrails, poles and almost anything you can imagine. I call it the Japanese 2x4, but because it gets bigger as it grows, you can get any size you want.

Stacks of seasoned bamboo in a bamboo grove

Bamboo lumber yard

 

Smoking

Smoking is banned in many indoor places and a lot of outdoor places, especially near restaurants and shops...

No smoking on sidewalk

Do not touch doubtful things

 ...and yet smoking is allowed in most restaurants.

 

Traffic jams (or lack thereof)

Tokyo has lots of cars, but I never saw a real traffic jam. I'm guessing drivers are more polite than they are in Boston.

Loudspeakers

Tokyo has a number of outdoor loudspeakers. Luckily, they weren't used all that often. If announcements of some sort were made they were, of course, in Japanese, which I found very easy to ignore. In a couple of places they played music, thankfully not very loud. But what I thought was odd, was the choice of music, which included "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" mixed in with 70's rock music.

 

Train Turnaround

At the end of a train line, cleaners board the train before all the passengers have left. Because the front of the train is now the back, all the seats get turned around.

Seats facing left

Turning around the seats

All seats facing right

Fences

The paths in public gardens are often lined with fences...

 ...which are made of concrete, complete with fake bark...

...and tree rings. And sometimes, to keep pigeons away...

...they have concrete owls.

See other Quirky Japan photos.

Art

I like public art. I don't go in for museum art so much, but when people place art in public spaces, I like it. It's robust, made to survive the elements, and it's usually doesn't take itself too seriously.

Some art I can understand, like this tortoise-shaped fountain...

 ...and some I don't...

 ...but that's okay.



Some art is in locations that make you wonder why they put it there...

 ..and in some cases you wonder what they were thinking...

Some public art is ephemeral but no less interesting:

Flower art under plastic

Detail of flower art made with petals and colored grains

Flower art depicting an oncoming train (displayed at Tokyo Train station)

Detail of train mural

But it's all fun.

See more art in this art gallery.

Animals and People

Here's a photo gallery of Animals and People.

Zen Gardens

This is just a short note about "Zen" gardens or Japanese "Rock" gardens. I know only a little, so I may have a few things wrong.
When I heard of "Zen" gardens I had this vision of gravel carefully raked in a pattern for no particular reason. I understood that the raking was meditative, that the process was more important than the result. It sounded boring to me, but then I learned just enough to make them interesting. The most important point is that the gravel is a representation of water.

The rock gardens in Kyoto are best compared to landscape gardens. Someone gets a idea and sculpts the land itself to achieve a vision. Rocks and gravel and plants are positioned very carefully with a purpose in mind. I don't always understand the purpose, but I acknowledge the skill in the design.

Ginkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto

In the garden shown above, a single large stone slab slopes down to the gravel in the foreground. The stone represents a waterfall, the gravel the relatively-still water of a pond. When the flowing water encounters the rock on the left, ripples form on the pond.

Ginkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto

The photo above represents waves on the ocean as they approach the volcanic cone of Mt. Fuji.

This garden was designed in the 18th century (though its roots go back to the 15th century.) It has undergone restoration at times, but it is still the same design. In other words, the people who maintain it don't change anything. I don't have the faintest idea of how one goes about maintaining something like this, but I'm pretty sure that it's not just a bunch of loose gravel but closer in consistency to concrete. How else can they maintain the steep edges?

Kogetsudai (Mt. Fuji)

An island in the ocean waves

But sometimes, a rock garden can be designed for abstract reasons, as in this one showing a phoenix and...I don't know what!

Honen-in Temple, Kyoto

While the raised "bed" of stone is permanent, the pattern on the top is changed every few days.

More pictures of gardens (rock, water and moss) and trees with fall foliage can be found here: Gardens and Foliage.

Walking the Streets

Walking in Japan is the simplest thing in the world, if you learn one important detail: stay to the left. The Japanese drive and walk on the left, so when you step onto the street, look right for oncoming traffic. Traffic engineers make walking easy by showing you where to go:

Every street in Tokyo and Kyoto (at least) has a yellow line down the center. Keep to the left and you'll be fine. Well, mostly. If the street isn't crowded, people will ignore the line, but it does serve as a guide.
Turns out that there's an additional reason for the line. It's raised rubber that can be felt with a cane; the theory is that if you're blind, the yellow line shows you the center of the sidewalk. And although I didn't see anyone using a cane, it makes some sense.
I also saw, in a new building, a yellow line in the corridor. I think it lights up if the power goes out, providing an illuminated pathway in the event of an emergency.

Tokyo can get crowded. There are, after all, 13 million people in the city.

(By the way, I like the clock on the building)

One pedestrian crossing is supposed to be the busiest street crossing in the world. I'm a little skeptical; I figure New York must have some pretty busy crossings. But I had to check it out, the Shibuya Crossing:

It's sometimes called "The Scramble."

There is never a conflict between pedestrians and cars. Pedestrians always have the right of way and cars always yield to pedestrians. Sounds normal, but it doesn't work that way in the US, or at least in Boston. As a pedestrian, I never know for certain, that a car will stop for me, even in a crosswalk, so I hesitate, sometimes signaling the driver to go ahead. But the driver tries to be nice and signals me to go first. Maybe I trust him, maybe I don't. It's a dance that on the surface seems like everyone's being polite, but we all know we really don't trust the other. This "dance" never happens in Tokyo, where all crosswalks have signals, no one jaywalks, and cars always wait for the pedestrian.

 

Umbrellas

When it rains, umbrellas sprout like mushrooms. Everyone has an umbrella. Everyone. We stood out like sore thumbs with with our hats and rain coats. One stranger tried to give us his umbrella, which would have left him without one.
There's a cheap clear plastic umbrella that goes on sale as the first drops fall. People buy them, and after the rain ends, they accidentally leave them on subways and in bathrooms. I imagine that the shop owners walk around and collect the abandoned umbrellas and sell them the next time it rains. You could say that people rent umbrellas for an afternoon.

Outside museums you can lock up your umbrella for safe-keeping

Sometimes people carry the umbrella thing a bit too far. More than once, we saw people carrying umbrellas when it wasn't raining. Okay, I can imagine doing it to protect from the sun. But then we saw people with umbrellas when it wasn't raining...at night:

More than one:

(Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of a black umbrella at night?)

 

Police Officers

And if there's ever a concern for pedestrian safety (like in a construction zone), there's a police officer helping direct.

He (and he's always a "he") is dressed in a reflective vest with a short red baton to wave people or cars along. But what's really cool, is that at night, the batons light up...

...and suddenly, they're armed with light-sabres! And they wave them around just like they're in a duel. (They always seem to win!) And if they ever tuck their light-sabres into their belts, it looks just like a samurai sword.

 

Construction zones

Speaking of construction zones, you've got to love it when they put bunnies to work:

And they really want you to see their construction workers with moving arms:

And at night...

 

Bicyclists

I do have to mention bicyclists. In Kyoto, especially, there are cyclists everywhere, because much of the city is flat. Unfortunately, they seldom ride on the street: they're on the sidewalk. Some sidewalks have marked bike lanes next to the marked pedestrian walkways, but mostly it's just a free-for-all.

There are bicycle parking lots. (This is a small one.)

People almost never lock their bikes. One side effect is that people don't lock their bikes to lamp posts and railings, but instead leave their bikes with all the other bikes.
And in some cases, it's clear that bikes are the preferred mode of travel:

(Don't ask me how they get the car parked in that garage.)

Finally, what do you suppose bicyclists do when it rains? They carry umbrellas:

And yes, some will ride full-speed while carrying an umbrella!

Tempura and Sushi

Here's my third gastronomic report. Who could have guessed that I would write three blogs about food? The others can be found at:
Chris Becomes a Food Critic
The Dining Experience

Tempura

We have now had the best of Japan.

My seat mate on the flight to Japan gave me several restaurant recommendations, saying we must eat at these restaurants. All of them were outstanding, but we left Tokyo before we could eat at one of the places that specialized in Tempura (batter-coated fish and then deep-fried.) Luckily, it's part of a chain that has a restaurant in Kyoto. We found it in an upscale department store (like a Nordstroms.) The prices were high ($35) but we put our trust in my friend and went for it.

(Yes, that's the moon.)

We sat at the counter where the two chefs worked. That was the perfect choice, not just because we could watch them work, but we interacted with them throughout the meal.

Our "personal" chef placed each piece of fish directly on our plate and told us how to eat it, whether we should dip it in the sauce or in salt or in powdered green tea. That part of the experience was priceless. And we could eat the food less than a minute after it came out of the fryer.

Sea salt, powdered green tea and other spices

It might not be to everyone's taste to see the fish before it's cooked. We began with prawns. Our chef reached into an aquarium and pulled out a prawn, prepared it and served us just a couple of minutes later. You can't get any fresher than that.

The menu:

The Giant Tiger Prawn was probably my favorite:

This is the complete prawn, including the head on the right. Knowing what it was, I still ate it, and it was great. It was crunchy and the "antennae" (or whatever they are) provided great "mouth-feel."

The main course was conger-eel, before...

...and after, cut into bite-sized pieces:

The last item on the menu offered a choice of three items. Ann looked in the phrase book and asked the chef, "Which would you recommend?" He laughed. Of course, he would know. He served Ann "a bowl of rice with tea and shrimp ball."

He poured green tea on top of the rice and put the shrimp ball on top. We wouldn't have guessed that's what the menu meant!

With our chef

Afterwards, we bowed to the chef (and he bowed back) and everyone said "thank you" many, many times.

Sushi

While in Tokyo, Ann had eaten some ultra-fresh sushi (bite-sized fish served on rice) so while in Kyoto we went in search of sushi. Our first choice would have been fun: it's called kaiten-zushi or "conveyor-belt sushi." You guessed it: the sushi goes around on a conveyor belt and you pick what you want. But it was not convenient and so we found a Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant in, of all places, the train station in Kyoto.

Atrium of Kyoto Station

(The station is 11-stories tall with a department store, hotel, convention center and open-air atrium and dozens of restaurants. Not an American-style train station.)

Once again, we sat at the counter with a bunch of locals, watching the chefs at work.

Five chefs prepared the food for the restaurant (which had a line out the door.) We chose a "set" menu so that we didn't have to choose the dishes. The food was right in front of us, in a glass ice box on the counter:

Our chef picked the fish out of the cooler and molded it onto a bed of sticky rice, then placing it in front of us.

On the right is ginger, which we ate between each course to "cleanse our palates."

Sometimes the sushi was wrapped in black seaweed.

The idea is to pick up the sushi, dip it in soy sauce, and eat it all in one bite. That made for quite a mouthful, but it was an amazing combination of flavors.

I had a hard time picking it up with chopsticks, but I found that I was not alone. The Japanese woman sitting next to us assured us that it was okay to pick it up with their fingers, which is what she was doing.

Our chef

I can honestly say that the five best meals of my life were meals I ate in Japan. I would never have predicted that. In the future I'm sure that I will eat my share of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate-chip cookies, but I was truly amazed by the food in Japan.