A Japanese bullet train with a kingfisher's nose

Making a Shinkansen train run faster wasn't a great challenge; making it run more quietly was. The "claps" created by the train entering tunnels (caused by a sudden change in air resistance) were so loud that residents 400 metres away would complain.

Engineer Eiji Nakatsu noticed that kingfishers were able to dive smoothly from air (a low-resistance medium) into water (a high-resistance medium), and wondered if this was due to the bird's streamlined beak. Computer simulations proved him right. "Data analysis showed that the ideal nose shape is almost identical to the kingfisher's beak," he says. The new shape has also cut the train's energy use by 15 per cent, and increased its speed by ten per cent.

Here is the story

Japan Postcard: Sent Packing

Well it is that time again. I do the packing because I have a particular spacial awareness that is a useful skill in this area. Takayama tends to try to pack artistically, as we would expect, and like all artists demands that more gets shoved into less but everything has enough space around it to allow for the creative context. She's rubbish at packing!

So I do the packing. I have just finished and one case weighs 21 kilos and the other weighs 20.5 kilos which is within the tolerance of the stated 20 kilos per case per person. This did take a bit of juggling because the original pack had us at a total of 46.7 kilos. A quick re-evaluation, some items relegated to hand luggage and we got to within the required tolerance.

There is one small problem though. I haven't packed anything of my stuff at all, not one single item in that grand total of 41.5 kilos is actually mine. This is quite usual, after all Takayama is a sculpture so we have to bring and take back some weighty materials and tools otherwise she can't do any work whilst out here. Then there is HMiL's plum juice, jam and assorted bags and coats given to Takayama out of the cupboard. That cupboard is like the Tardis, over the last five years I have had to carry back about 2.78 tonnes of assorted bits and pieces and yet it is still bursting at the seams every time we get back here.

In addition there is the Chinese medicine supplies, obviously there are essential snacks and presents for most people and of course there are those strange electronic/magnetic devices that HMiL swears by in terms of alternative health care. After that lot's all in then there are Takayama's clothes, shoes and of course a supply of those Japanese heat patches that weigh in at a hefty two kilos.

Once I have winched the cases shut, snapped a ligament or two getting the belt around the case, then the job is done. My stuff? Well you might notice me wearing a similar style for the next couple of months, sort of looking like I only have two sets of clothes. I can get the laptop and camera into the hand luggage then I just stuff what I can into the space that's left and then leave the rest here.

Slowly but surely my wardrobe here is getting bigger than my one at home. Now the big question is, "Is that really something that worries me?"

I hear it's cold in London, Gordon Brown and David Cameron are calling each other sissy and the British taxpayer is set to fork up another 300 billion this year to make it look as though...well, well actually, that our economy is not almost one trillion pounds in debt. Hey and guess who is going to have to pay that bill off over the long term?

"Jack," Takayama calls, "You're not going on about consumer slaughteryards again are you?"

Looks like we've arrived back where we began but I have a feeling that I am not the only person this year who is going to have lost his shirt (well in my case, left it in Tokyo!).

Til next time.......

Mito Komon, Understanding who is boss and why.

I was just sitting around the house watching the television when I realised something about Japanese culture that I believe is actually very important. The programme on show was a typical holiday season drama; love, treachery, swords and samurai, everywhere samurai with swords. In fact I would imagine that for most people one of the first images the word Japan conjures up in their mind is that of the samurai.

Fine clothes, fine swords, the dangerous elegance of power

This icon of Japan is the foundation of television drama, the lynchpin format which places the history of Japan at the heart of entertainment. But the realisation I made was that with very small exceptions this is all there is, almost everything is samurai, almost everything is historical drama that proclaims one standard Japanese identity.

Every child knows who they are

Now this is so obvious that I am sure some of you are thinking, "Come on Jack, what are you trying to say here." Well it is obvious but it is so obvious that I feel we miss something. In our English culture we have historical drama, good lord we are riddled with it, the royal family through history, stories of the Englishman as empire builder, those Norman invaders, Robin Hood, the list is long. But in all of our dramas there are others, we always have others. Even when we deal with the royal family, an example being Queen Victoria, there is always the foreigner, Prince Albert, that German character. Robin Hood, well how many episodes before the skillful Moor makes an appearance? Besides the men in green of Sherwood forest are fighting that dreadful foreigner the Norman overlord.

We have always known who everyone else is

Our history is filled with the comings and goings not just of the continent of Europe but the whole world and they all turn up in the cast of our historical dramas. We source our identity in popular culture from this multiplicity of identities. In Japanese popular culture there is only one identity, all the time the same identity continually playing into the nation's consciousness.

Mito Komon, the definitive Japanese hierachy

We have to remember that for many years the traditional greeting for the tourist arriving on the shores of Japan was decapitation. The poor old sailor who managed to struggle through the surf as the sole survivor of a shipwreck would stagger half way up the beach but never make it any further. No words, no enquiry, no other consideration, the first person to see this demon from the sea would either take the head off there and then or get someone with a sword to do the job immediately. You see Japan is the sacred islands of the Japanese and in the past they intended to keep it that way. There was going to be no issue about foreigners coming and changing or ruining the Japanese way of life. Foreigners were simply not allowed to pollute the national identity.

But, as I have said before, pragmatism and a dislike of uncertainty were always on hand to deal with changing situations. Gunpowder, for the pragmatic mind, and European weapons, especially in a feudal society with clans protected by warrior armies, held a certain attraction. Even then the traders were kept in isolation from the nation of Japan, either on a designated island or in ghettos, contact with the foreign was limited. Once the technology and the skills of production were acquired then it was back to the good old days of banishing foreigners on pain of death.

Dark days ahead as America forges its diplomatic style

Things really do not change until July 14th 1853 when the United States of America decided to use their own interpretation of the word diplomacy to open up the country for trade. Commander Perry arrived in his famous Black Ship and gave Japan two options, either open for trade or have all your coastal towns bombarded. Faced with an opponent so technologically superior the decision was the pragmatic choice, open for trade. This ended 200 years of trading only with the Dutch and the Chinese. The nation still managed to protect its population from excessive foreign influence but it was recognised that Japan had to become an industrialised country and move on the global stage. The rest, as they say, is history!

That realisation I started with was the effect of a continually mono-cultural background on identity today. True, a lot of what I am saying here is actually quite superficial in some respects, but scratch any surface and you will find the true metal of your subject. I believe the metal of this Japanese identity is something special.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Two years ago a delegtaion of Islamic traders organising the sale of second hand Japanese cars from a port on the coast to Asia and beyond arranged to meet with the city mayor. Their petition was about trying to obtain halal meals for their children at the local school. They presented their case and the mayor, who listened patiently so the report stated, replied, "Ah yes, but this is Japan."

The delegation tried to further explain but anyone who knows the Japanese knows exactly what the mayor was saying. Perhaps I could translate for you, "If you want to eat halal please do but in Japan we are not muslim so we don't do halal in our schools. If you are not happy with this then please go to a country where your children can eat halal meals in their schools. Thankyou and goodbye."

Authority comes from the top

Perhaps this seems a glib interpretaton but to the Japanese mind the whole question would have made little sense and have been seen just as an odd request from a bunch of foreigners. There is only one cultural position and that is Japanese, all other relationships are a matter of pragmatism but Japanese culture is never negotiable.

Halal meals? I don't think so!

And so to Mito Komon. This is Japan's longest running television drama and I love every moment of it. This progamme has over 1000 episodes to its credit and began in 1969. At 16.00hrs most weekdays you can see an episode of the back catalogue and the current series plays in an evening slot within the schedule. 1000 episodes and all with exactly the same format, the same fundamental plot. This programme is the Doctor Who of Japanese television, by that I mean that every so often the main character, Mitsuemon, regenerates and so, I believe, there have been 5 Mitsuemon and with each new interpretation of the character his travelling companions change (slightly).

Outnumbered but never outmatched, Japan against the world.

This is the plot: wandering old retired man arrives at a location and finds something bad going on. He and his team investigate and discover the truth about how local people are being abused by corrupt officials and authorities. They then confront the evil doers and a fight ensues. This fight is badly ill matched with Mitsuemon's faithful and ever present key retainers Kaku-san and Suke-san usually taking on at least 15 opponents at any one time. However what the bad guys do not know is that these two men represent the most formidable of swordmen and the most formidable exponent of judo. Very quickly it is clear that no numbers of opponent will get the better of these two but that is just the first lesson.

The inro is produced

At some point Mitsuemon will call his men to him and then they will reveal that their master is in fact not a retired travelling crepe merchant but the second most powerful person in Japan, Tokugowa Mitsukuni, former vice-Shogun and reitired daimyo of the Mito domain. No matter what your rank or authority this is the moment when you get down on your knees because if Mitsuemon tells you to eat your own foot all you can do is ask permission for some salt.

1. 

Pass the salt

Here is a video clip so you can see for yourself:

So there you have it, out comes the inro (the lacquered box bearing the symbol of the Tokugowa clan) and everyone thinks "Shit!" as Suke-san tells them "Do you know who this is, this is the former vice-shogun, this is the Lord of Mito, get down on your knees now and show the proper respect."

There is no chance or opportunity of any other action in this moment as everyone is faced with the power of Japanese feudal authority. What Mitsuemon says is exactly what will happen, there is no debate. Faced with such power the ring leader gets up and attacks, he knows that he is a dead man and so decides to go out fighting, it is all he can do. But for such unusual insolence even in his moment of death a judicious foot comes down on his neck. Most of the time the ring leaders just keep their noses in the dirt and take their punishment. The other bad boy is then dispatched with ruthless efficiency and all has been set right. Mitsuemon produces his trademark laugh, probably at the very idea anyone thought they could get away with such a scam in the first place, and then goes on to ensure all worthy citizens are safe within that local society.

Everyone on the floor before authority

Well yes, this is an historic drama played with humour and perhaps you would say hardly a touchstone of culture. I would contend that you would be wrong to look at this with such eyes. Those eyes would be your western interpretation. The fundamental of this drama is authority and its power. When that inro comes out everything stops, one look at the Tokugawa seal and everyone falls to their knees. Remember this is Japan's longest running drama celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. We have Coronation Street and the working class of the Rover's Return but Japan has supreme power and authority enforced from the top to ensure society functions as it should with all wrong doers punished mercilessly. Every day at 16.00hrs and once a week in an evening prime time slot, the message goes out, always the same story, always the same result, always consistent. No uncertainty at all.

And who was this Mitsuemon?

Tokugawa Mitsukuni (徳川 光圀, Tokugawa Mitsukuni?, July 11, 1628 - January 14, 1701) was a prominent daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eighth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the second daimyo of the Mito domain.

source: Wikipedia

Tokugawa Ieyasu

The key name in this extract is Tokugawa Ieyasu who is a formidable figure in Japanese history. This is the man who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled Japan for 250 years, absolutely no mean feat whatsoever. So Mitsuemon is Tougawa Ieyasu's grandson and a former vice-shogun in the Tokugowo Shogunate and that is someone you just do not want to pick a fight with.

This Tokugawa clan is very important because it established the capital of Japan at Edo, this today is the location of Tokyo. No Tokugawa, no Tokyo, as simple as that.

So how does this all translate into the contemporary. Well it is about authority and how we react to it. One flash of the inro and everyone is on their knees. But if you ask a company man today if that effects his life he would probably not understand what you mean, no Mitsuemon is just a television drama. However, if you ask that company man out for a beer after work he may just say to you that he can't make it because his boss is working late that evening. Nobody leaves until after the boss has gone, that's just the way it is in Japan.
In the meantime if any of you want to buy gold or silver rather than leave your money in collapsing currencies and negative interest rate bank accounts then here is where you do it: Saving in Gold Alternatively  you could simply believe what the politicians, bankers and economists are telling you, after all we all have to believe in something!

The man who replaced Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
Well Done Indeed Sir!
Overwhelming Election Victory on Change Mandate
Consequence: nothing changes.
Hatoyama, the grandson of the founder of a political dynasty

Hatoyama comes from a prominent Japanese political family which has been called the "Kennedy family of Japan."[2]

Hatoyama, who was born in Bunkyō, Tokyo, is a fourth generation politician. His paternal great-grandfather, Kazuo Hatoyama, was speaker of the House of Representatives of the Diet of Japan from 1896 to 1897 during the Meiji era.[3] Kazuo later served as the president of Waseda University.[3] His paternal great-grandmother, Haruko Hatoyama, was a co-founder of what is known today as Kyoritsu Women's University. His paternal grandfather, Ichirō Hatoyama, was a major politician; he served as Prime Minister and was a founder and the first President of the Liberal Democratic Party (ja:自由民主党総裁, Jiyū-Minshutō Sōsai?, 1956).

extract source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Hatoyama

Mitsuemon source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mito_K%C5%8Dmon

The Temple and The Shrine

Meguro Fudo Son

Here then is the story of the journey out into Japanese New Year, a strange and unfamiliar land for those from a consumerist culture that has forgotten its spiritual mythology (U.K.). The first thing to know is that New Year is the feast of feasts in the Japanese cultural and mythological calenders. Christmas is just what it is in the UK, a festival of consumerism, but without the days off of work, New Year is the party every Japanese person goes to. The image above is from the Meguro Fudo Son Buddhist temple which is just behind HMiL's home. This was taken at 02.00hrs on the 1st January 2010 and as you can see the temple is packed.

That is the thing about New Year, the festival really starts in the last few days of December when people go to the temples and shrines, more about this dualism later, to buy the necessary items to decorate the home with for the transition from old to new. Without these items Japanese homes would certainly not experience good fortune in the new year so a thousand yen here and a thousand yen there and the monks and priests will supply the necessary prayers, incantations, symbols and devices that promise every chance of wealth, health and happiness. (Though it should be noted that the first and the last are inseperable).

The Temple staff protecting the wealth,
health and happiness of the people

From first light on New Years Eve the Buddhist temples and the Shinto shrines are ready for the crowds. All day and all through the night, the big moment is the first dawn of the new year, people absolutely pack out these religious sites all over Japan. According to the wiki on Shinto shrines it is estimated that there are 100,000 across Japan. The number of temples is not a figure I can find and that is probably because it is simply uncountable. The number of these sites may seem vast but it is absolutely nothing to the number of people who attend them at New Year.

Cleansing the way

For regular readers of this blog it will come as no surprise whatsoever that on entering the temple the first task is to wash your hands. This is of course a ritual cleansing but I also believe that it is a deep statement of specific identity, "I am Japanese"

The ritual never ceases

What I have personally found truly surprising is not just the numbers of people but the complete cross section of society, when I say everyone goes I do mean everyone. There is an outstandingly high probability that members of the Atheist Society of Japan arrange to go together in a group and probably follow the rational, "Yes, obviously we don't believe in any of this but this is New Year and after all we are Japanese." Last night I even saw a group of Japanese punks washing their hands before going onto the next stage, spiritual purification.

First the physical then the spiritual cleaning

Wander up a few more steps from the water trough and you have a massive pile of incense sticks burning like a fireworks night bonfire and wafting large clouds of deeply scented smoke around the people. Most stop and "bathe themselves" in the smoke by pulling it in and around their bodies.

The burning desire for complete cleanliness

Observing this spiritual washing for some time what again is so amazing is that everyone appears to get involved. Young-old, goth-company man, punk-fashionista, executive-petrol station attendant, they all seem to want some of this cleansing ritual, and for very good reason. This is a moment when the goodness of the smoke gives you the opportunity to ask for a wish for the New Year and that really gives the insight about what is going on here.

Not a smoke screen

Once more this is Japan and this is the Japanese way of doing things. New Year is a re-affirmation of that Japanese identity, it is a defining moment of culture in the social and mythological calender. Yes, around the temples there are many stalls, a sort of fairground (spaces rented from temple or shrine of course) which provides a few light entertainments, some additional opportunities to buy spiritual commodities but dominated by food stalls. These food stalls are uniquely Japanese fare, the American hamburger or similar foreign fast food staples just simply do not exist within this particular universe. Here the seasonal favourite of octopus tentacles and squid hit the griddle plates with a hiss of steam.

Something to chew on

But it would be completely wrong to write off the attendance of young people at the temples and shrines as just the chance to "go to the fair". Of course there are some that just hang around the stalls but the vast majority ascend the steps, wash their hands and then cleanse their spirit with incense smoke before entering into the inner sanctum. There in Meguro Fudo Son they stand before the statue of the Buddha, clap twice and join their hands in a silent prayer with head bowed before throwing coins into the enormous trough before them.

This goes on all New Years Eve through to the dawn of New Years Day, throughout that day and on for another three days. People visit temple and shrine, they walk around or get the all night tube trains and go from site to site, eating, drinking and offering a quick prayer.

For whom the bell tolls?

This is the great beauty of the Japanese mythologies that those in the west fail so often to grasp. There is no monotheism in Japan; that dreadful mythology of the imperialism of the soul and the divine right of the one and only true God to dam into hell the non-believer, heretic and anyone who says their prayers in the wrong way. No, when people ask me, "Is your wife Buddhist or Shinto?" then I know they haven't got a clue about the Japanese culture. In Japan you can be both Buddhist and Shinto because neither are exclusive, they are inclusive beliefs that recognise there are many ways of seeing the spiritual aspect of humanity.

Besides this we all have to remember the Japanese qualities touted by this blog repeatedly. The Japanese are fundamentally pragmatists and they dislike deeply any level of uncertainty. Shinto is very much about being in tune with the kami (let's just say this means spirits here but it is actually much more than this) and thereby good fortune is yours in life. Once again, a whole paper could be written just on that word 'fortune' and what it means in Japan. The key point here is that Shinto is an ideal belief for making life good, so the Japanese use it mainly for the rituals of birth and marriage. On the other hand Buddhism promises re-incarnation, hmmm says the Japanese psyche, sounds good to me, where do I sign up? So Buddhism deals mostly with the rituals of death.

Obviously, for both to work you still have to put the effort into both of them. In observing all the feasts and rituals you pay the shrines and temples in a constant stream of coin, an investment in keeping all life harmonious and well balanced. After all, surely this is the pragmatic spiritual solution and doesn't leave room for the appearance of uncertainty! There is a Japanese saying that reflects exactly this pragmatism and certainty; "If one God throws you out you always have another to pick you up."

On New Years Day we went to the Hei Shinto shrine, a shrine associated with the Imperial family and with close ties to the sport of sumo wrestling. The image you see above does not give you anything like the true story here. We arrived at 16.00hrs and the queue to get into the shrine was out in the street.

Shrine security men in blue police style uniforms and armed with megaphones were marshalling this huge snake from the pavement, up six flights of steps (about thirty steps in each flight), in through the entrance, in through the outer courtyard to the main entrance for the inner courtyard. At this point you started to realise the enormity of the operation. You see the shrine is set in a square with roads on all four sides and queues were feeding in from all four street entrances. When you managed to arrive at the main inner courtyard then all four queues were merged into one gigantic parade ground file.

At least forty minutes to get this far, at least!

Everyone was patient, everyone was queuing, there was no trouble and everyone conformed, well nearly everyone. Takayama has never been one to wait in line, perhaps that accounts for her having left Tokyo when she was 18. She and I scurried up the steps into the outer courtyard where all the food stalls were. I thought that I was quite happy to just film around that area. I am also not fond of queues and suffer what I like to refer to as creative impatience!!!!!!!!!

Four minutes later and another three feet further on

But, as Takayama delights in pointing out, I suffer from guilt as a result of a Catholic education. She equally rejoices in her own position, "Guilt, what's the point of that?" So when she came brushing up against me and said, "I found a way in and no need to queue, it's just around the back." I felt a little uneasy knowing her track record in this area. She led me around and sure enough she had found an exit from the inner courtyard and, with a heavy heart beating with a sense of betrayal of thousands of loyal queuers, we entered against the flow of people exiting.

What it was all about

Once inside the inner courtyard my emotional burden was relieved because I saw at once the aim of the queuing activity and I hadn't in any way breached that purpose. Before the main shrine there is a row of bells from which hang red and white ribbons. After having made the journey from the street and been patient and polite, once all obstacles had been surmounted, all passage travelled, the queuer found themself before one of these bells and with a quick grasp of the ribbon able to ring it once.

Ringing in the New Year

Once they had rung the bell they stood for a few seconds with hands clasped and head bowed making their prayer for the New Year. A quick throw of some coins into the enormous open trough just behind the bells and off to buy some of that special spiritual merchandise. All around, the inner courtyard was lined with booths staffed by men and women in white and red robes. They were selling prayers, charms, fortune predictions for the coming year and spiritual arrows, one of these is a must have for every home.

Everyone goes to New Years Day

The arrows are made of something like balsa wood, flighted with card, wrapped with a prayer and touched up with red and gold paint, mass produced, not more than 50 pence each to make. Currently, at 150 yen to the pound, the arrows sell for 1000 yen each, about £7.50. These of course are the cheapest arrows, if you pay for a more expensive one it may not look very much different but it will have a much better prayer attached to the shaft.

Around the back in the outer courtyard staff were opening the rear doors to the inner courtyard booths and unpacking a constant stream of merchandising into trolleys inside the booths. If you remember the size of the queue, if you remember that this activity goes on for almost four days, then you have to understand the triumph of logistics that keeps this whole process moving. At a very conservative estimate of a thousand people an hour spending an average minimum of £10 each, each hour for four days then your supply lines need to be good. The temples and the shrines of Japan never, never let their customers down, the organisation and delivery are management models that sparkle with the world famous Japanese efficiency. And if you require a lesson in added value then it has to be worth the 50,000 yen for a private twenty minute consultation with a monk or a priest.

The little extras that really count

Once you have your arrow then you can tie a handkerchief or strip of material to it, so as to identify it as your own, and hand it to a very elegant lady from the shrine's staff. This lady is a Miko, a messenger of the spirit world and she gathers up the arrows in her arm and takes them to the centre of what appears like a small stage.

After the queuing, after the bell, after the purchases, a moment of real beauty

In one arm the arrows are gathered like a bouquet, in her free hand she holds a small shaker of golden bells. From the side of this stage a small group of musicians produce a traditional sound with traditional instruments that even a hermit living in a cave on Mars would recognise as Japanese. Our lady with the arrows then begins to perform a ritual blessing, I assume. This is done with slow graceful movements and starts with a bow towards the audience. The audience bow in return.

Respectful bowing commences the blessing

The lady shakes her bells and then turns slow circles before stopping facing to her left side of the stage. She shakes the bells and then slowly turns more circles until she faces the audience once again. Everyone is silent, everyone is mesmerised, everyone is captivated, this was truly beautiful.

A final blessing

Once this small ritual is complete our lady of the arrows moves to the front of the stage and shakes the bells over the audience. They all bow as she walks along the front of the stage from her left to her right and finishes with a final bow. Once this is complete she then hands the arrows back and each person holds their hand up to receive the one with their handkerchief on. Once they have reclaimed their arrow they have an opportunity to place some yen in a box, in Japan there are limits to what is for sale but added value is always appreciated, good manners would not allow less.

And so this is my own view of New Years Day in Japan, a small glimpse from a very partial viewpoint. Perhaps you would think that I am just writing from a cynical insight but nothing could really be further from the truth. Yes, I can see humour in what I see each year in Japan but only the humour a foreigner sees in any unfamiliar culture. However, as my stated aim is to understand something of another culture and share with all those who read this blog something of Japan, then we have to put this mix of spiritualities and commercialism into context and that context is cultural.

If you hold on to a deep pragmatism then you accept the way the temples and shrines do business, after all business is a necessary function of life. Japan is the consumer society, I would contend, without peer. As there is no conflict with visiting a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine so there is no conflict between the material practicalities and the spiritual practices, both can co-exist without compromise. Ask any Japanese how wealthy the temples are, ask them how good a business is a shrine and they will nod their heads and draw a breath. Senior ladies like HMil may even say they are built on gold and that to get a good funeral you need a high ranking monk for a good afterlife and that costs serious money. But when you are talking 'afterlife' there are not enough coins minted to value that commodity.

Wrapped in culture

As with everything else in Japan, if there is good customer service and value for money, like the Shinkansen, then it is seen as emblematic of the culture. The people may pay the temples and the shrines year in year out but all over Japan there is a cultural heritage in these buildings that defines an identity you cannot buy into but have to have been born to. The monks and priests spend their lives in prayer to defend the spirit of Japan and even if you don't want to be too involved in the rituals they do all the spadework for you and that is worth the cost. At the end of the day, if you spend New Years Day in Japan you are going to see a lot of people enjoying themselves, together, peacefully and pragmatically. Of that you can be absolutely certain.

Coals to Newcastle, queueless?

Oh and yes, in the five New Years I have spent in Japan I have never seen anything but Japanese stalls at the temples and shrines. The image above was photographed today at the Hie shrine. Perhaps a trend but I doubt it, it didn't seem like a lot of people were buying. Japan loves its food, loves its tradition and New Year is not a place where I would like to sell cross culturally. However, it reminded me of a night driving back from Exeter to London many years ago. We were hungry, it was nearly 1am in the middle of West Country nowhere but my friend Ali Gullen insisted we pull off of the M5 at the next junction and get a kebab. I told him he was mad, it was midweek, the early hour of the morning and we were heading to a village or town we had never heard of before. Thirty minutes later we were eating kebabs.

"You see Jack, we Turks get everywhere and when we do we open a kebab shop."

Ali Gullen, British of Turkish cultural descent.

And is if further confirmation was necessary then you just have to look at this image from the BBC web site showing Japanese businessmen praying at the Kanto shrine on the first trading day of the New Year. In Japan, wealth and happiness are indivisable and pragmatism says, even if you don't believe you still pray, after all, that leaves no room for uncertainty.

source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8439594.stm

This shows you the real difference between the Japanese and us, never in your wildest dreams would you expect to see the souless of Canary Wharf and the spiritless of the Square Mile gathered in prayer. The only shrine our business people know is the mirror in their bathroom!

Want a shinto shrine?

The Best Sushi Restaurant in Tokyo

I came to Tokyo for the first time in 2005. If at that time you had told me that I would develop a taste for raw fish, large slabs of wet, cold, raw fish, then I would have patted you on the head and told you to keep taking the medication. Being English, there is something which goes against our soul in the act of eating raw meat. this act is far too close to the living beast and the kill for our gentle sensibilities. And here we have a contradiction, for as I have expressed earlier, some of our life style could be interpreted as barbarism by some Japanese but we tend to associate the eating of raw fish with barbaric practice.

Cross cultural experience, the dragons lair of the true traveller's explorations. This is a mythic image and without going all Comparative Mythologist on you (see: http://creativemythology.blogspot.com/ for my site in this connection!) a small explanation of the metaphor is probably useful.

The dragon hoards treasure in the lair and spends most of his life sleeping on the coin, precious metals and jewels so that the thief cannot rob him of his prize. But the treasure should be shared with the community so the hero confronts the dragon, fights the battle to release the treasure to the world at great personal risk and once triumphant, the community benefits.

Hmmm, so eating raw fish is a treasure? Well actually yes, and in that admission you can see how far I have come in four years of journeying to Japan. What truly examples my conversion is that I now actually have developed not just a taste but a discernment for this Japanese cuisine. So much so that when back in London my heart yearns to be able to come back and go to my favourite Sushi restaurant and one I would claim transcends the mere dietary requirements and is elevated to an exposition of the art of this cuisine.

Our local hero displays his raw materials.

Once you actually move on past your own internal revolt against chewing on raw fish and ally that with the realisation that you do not actually have to like everything then things start to become delightful. This point about not having to like everything is actually really important. There is a tendency to try and eat everything because as you approach a different cuisine you have no established experience or mechanism for discernment. In every cultural cuisine there is room for likes and dislikes, that is quite normal so once you find your own normality then any pressure to eat is replaced with a desire to eat. In my case there are two fish that led me to the promised land, tuna and bullie.

Nirvarna

The above picture is what is called au toro (spelling inaccurate but you get the sound I am sure). This is the most expensive cut of the tuna fish rich in white fat. The delicate shade of pink set against the green leaf with a flourish of pickled ginger and a squidge of green wasabi presents as a minimalist design. The fish rests on a pug of rice which has been hand moulded, flavoured and the married to the slice of fish right before your very eyes. A swift but perfectly balanced lift over the counter and an impactless placement on the leaf and you are not so much served as graced with the art of sushi.


Using your hashi, chopsticks, you slip it into your mouth and your seduction is almost complete. As the flavour, taste and texture relieve your senses of all stress and your taste buds convey undiluted sensations of pleasure into your brain it seems as though you have touched a small eternity. This experience is not about any one element, it is about the whole process, the performance of the production, the attention to detail without over elaboration and the sheer quality of the fish, this is the place to learn to know about sushi.

Back in London people tell me that they do or don't like sushi. I ask them if they have been to Japan. I don't know why I ask because if they are talking about sushi in London, like or dislike, then they haven't been to Japan normally. You simply cannot get the quality and cuts of fish for sushi in London. You certainly cannot achieve the ambiance of a place like Kai, the best place for sushi in Tokyo in my own opinion.

All is washed down with some sake. As you can see there is a wonderful custom with sake which is a definition of hospitality. In anywhere that possesses dignity and grace your sake will be served in a glass which stands in a small bowl or lacquered box. This is because sake is the life blood of hospitality and good manners so who would dare risk not filling their guest's glass right to the rim.

Rather than risk any unintended slight, accidental spillage, inadequate measure and in order to prevent any uncertainty whatsoever the bowl allows you to pour a proper generous measure into the glass. Indeed you can completely and enthusiastically overfill the glass and allow the surplus to collect in the bowl or box. This can then be utilised by your guest at leisure.

Dare I say a pragmatic solution to ensure against uncertainty or error with an attention to fine detail. I can already see the approving smiles on three certain faces in Brisbane, Worcestershire and Cambridge at this news.

You will all note that on the right hand side of this blog I have now added the links to other work in progress. Top of the list is the web site I knocked up for the Kai Sushi Restaurant on Christmas night just as a thanks to them for all their efforts. More detail is to be found there.


As you can see we were the last to leave this particular lunchtime. The Redoubtable Takayama is seen questioning your unwarranted intrusion into her pleasures as she cherishes her glass of sake. For the more observant amongst you there is a fragmentary glimpse of HMiL who is very busy attending to a substantial portion of red mullet.

Japanese Humour: Coming out of the closet!

Here is a special something for the New Year. Japanese television is a phenomena that absolutely fascinates me. If you need to be reminded that you are in a different culture where things aren't quite what you expect then sit in front of a television for a couple of hours.

One of the first things that you will notice is how much food and eating dominates this culture. Really, there is just so much food consumption going on in Japanese programming that it is astounding. But the other thing you quickly learn about Japanese people is that they have an amazing and unique sense of humour.

What is strange about the humour is that all manners and codes of behaviour can break down where it is involved. Humour really presents as an important safety valve for the psyche in a society where formal manners are heavily codified and the individual can be a completely submerged identity. Just how far Japanese television producers are prepared to go may seem, well..., actually..., totally insane!

The video clip below is a scene from a Japanese TV show. In the year of the great scandal at the BBC of two half wits, Ross and Brand, thinking it is funny to phone up a grandfather and tell him his grand-daughter is an S&M Dominatrix working in London, could you imagine the uproar if the BBC did this to unsuspecting members of the public!

Just on health and safety grounds alone any television executive proposing this stunt in the UK would probably be visited by a psychiatrist double quick time. In terms of the essential subject matter, the personal private issue of defecation, our English taboos around this subject would probably present an insurmountable barrier.

And yet, if you have watched this clip then I would bet that you were laughing like a drain. You see our taboos will break down when the breach of them is happening to someone not from our own culture. Instead of a letter to the Times from "shocked and upset licence fee payer of Dorking" you would probably see "Those Japanese, they are mad aren't they, did you see...".

The clip below examples another piece of Japanese television humour which whilst it is less taboo challenging still appears to have a particular edge that makes it not exactly comfortable viewing.

And yet for all these observations, the fact of the matter is that the Japanese style of television is actually what is in the ascendant in the UK. Surely making celebrities eat bugs in a fabricated jungle situation, no matter how worthy a concept some of us may feel that to be, is a similar form of humiliation to being dragged out of the toilet and across the bay for all to see. Mind you, on further consideration it could be that Ant and Dec have missed a trick here... no actually, I think I will stop there.

What really interests me is the willingness for such a private, mannered society with ritualised rules of behaviour to invest heavily in public humiliation for the sake of laughs. When we add to that the willingness
to see contestants physically abused as well, and watch them accept it willingly, then you do have to admit, whatever you think of the format, the Japanese people have a very robust sense of humour.

And finally, just to show exactly how robust that humour is a clip which should leave you in no doubt whatsoever. Humiliation of innocent member of the public: 10 out of 10. Immediate risk of physical harm to innocent member of the public: 10 out of 10. Immediate risk of physical harm to innocent members of the public not involved in the "prank": 10 out of 10. Humour level, well see if you laugh at this!

The wrong snow and nowhere to go!

Bet you don't know what this is!

source: http://www.seikatubunka.metro.tokyo.jp/window/index.html

The news from the UK is grim at the moment, apparently there has been a nasty case of the wrong sort of snow and inclement weather. Obviously no-one expected bad weather in December and absolutely no manager can be expected to take responsibility for what looks like a complete freak of nature.

Complete surprise as snow falls in December.

In addition it is going to be truly difficult to get away this year. Even more so if you need to organise a passport. The single passport office in Petty France, London, has announced on its web site that there will be delays in just trying to get through to make an appointment to get into the queue at the passport office.

Clearly no manager can be held responsible for the unexpected desire of people to want passports. There never was this problem in the 1880's and the single office coped really well between 1939 and 1945 when a lot of people traveled abroad. So everyone in management and politics is at a complete loss as to why the wrong sort of queue has now unexpectedly appeared in Petty France.

Passport interviews in the South East

Due to increased work volumes, we currently do not have enough appointments available in London and the South East to meet current demand. Consequently our appointment booking line is very busy, especially early in the morning. If you wish to make an appointment for other areas we suggest you call after 10 am, if possible. We are monitoring the situation and will endeavour to fulfil our service to you. We will continue to provide regular updates on the website.

source: http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/index.htm

So there you have it, its official, no-one is to blame and the management systems work perfectly. No reason to complain as nobody will take any notice anyway. Oh yes, and the graphic at the top of the page! Well that is from the Japanese passport issuing authority in Tokyo. What it represents is the FOUR passport issuing offices in Tokyo and is colour coded to show when they are busy and when they are not so busy.

If you go when it shows red then you will have to queue and have a bit of a wait. Yellow shows when it is reasonably busy but not packed. Blue shows you when it is relatively empty and you can get your passport quickly. This system works, we know because HMiL went to get a passport yesterday, NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY, and was in and out within 10 minutes.

As you can see from the image the Japanese management have also come up with an amazing and revolutionary idea; opening until 19.00hrs on some days. How is this all done, is it magic? No, they just have enough offices to serve the customer need and then publish the data from the previous year regarding how many people visit the relevant office each hour, each day of the week. I bet the bloke who worked that out is an absolute genius.

Oh yeah, and did I tell you, the trains run on time, company directors don't get massive salaries and bonus payments with many of them eating in the same canteen as any other worker. Of course this wouldn't work in the UK because you simply can't attract the right calibre of people unless they are paid like Emperors and have an expense account the size of the Romanian Gross National Product. No to get the sort of people who run Eurostar for example you have to reward them appropriately.

"Already, anyone holding a Eurostar ticket to travel to France today will not be able to go before Christmas Eve, as the company struggles to process the backlog of passengers after the three-day suspension of service caused by the wrong sort of snow in northern France."

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/22/christmas-travel-eurostar-air-flights-transport

One Passport Office

The population measure given for the Larger Urban Zone
centred around London is 11,917,000 million.

Four Passport Offices

As on October 1st, 2003 the population of the
city of Tokyo stood at 12.369 million.

Fuji, the culture of a volcano.

Christmas week is with us and back in London the weather has turned a bit sharp and chaos reigns:

More than 2,000 people have been evacuated from four Eurostar trains that were trapped in the Channel Tunnel after breaking down due to the cold weather.

and

Heavy snow hits UK Christmas getaway: Airports closed, flights cancelled, trains delayed and roads hazardous as eastern parts of England see up to 12cm of snow

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/18/snow-christmas-getaway-travel

Well, well, well, 12 centimetres of snow and absolute, unconditional chaos. Regular readers will of course remember that in the winter of 2007-8 Japan had the worst snow fall for 60 years and that resulted in the man in charge of the Shinkansen (known as Japanese bullet trains, the same as Eurostar bought to run) going on national television to apologise because the service was running 25 minutes late.

Shinkansen, a source of national pride

Yes, one of my favourites, the Shinkansen. One every ten minutes in all directions, expansive leg room, large seats, regular, polite and edible refreshment service at your seat as you go. The real joy of travel, fast, efficient, reliable and comfortable, if you ever come to Japan then have a treat and travel by Shinkansen.

For certain, you will never find four of them stuck in a tunnel because of the cold. The service to the northern island, Hokkaido, a place neck deep in snow during the winter, is connected by a tunnel that makes the channel tunnel (built with Japanese tunneling technology by the way) a much younger baby.

"The Seikan Submarine Tunnel was opened in March 1988 and runs beneath the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait, which separates the southern edge of Hokkaido from Aomori Prefecture on the northern edge of the mainland. This tunnel is a part of a railway that runs between Aomori City and Hakodate City in just two and a half hours, and was named by combining the two characters and pronunciations of Aomori City's "Ao (Sei)" and Hakodate City's "Hako (Kan)". The length of 53.85 kilometers (33.5 miles) makes it world's longest..."

source: http://web-japan.org/atlas/architecture/arc02.html

Hokkaido: Sapporo Snow Festival

One of the real sights from the Shinkansen service is that of passing Mount Fuji. You really have to see this volcano for real to appreciate its size and impact on the human consciousness. I will try and describe the enormity of this geographical icon of Japan and whilst my words will only ever be a pale reflection of the reality, I believe at the end of this article you will see for yourself something of what I mean.

I have been talking about the tributaries of Japanese culture and pointed out the importance of hot water in the forming of Japanese identity. This water is the consequence of the unstable geography on which the islands and people of Japan rest. Volcanic landscapes prone to earthquakes, not the most ideal landscape for millions of people to crowd into but a plentiful supply of boiling hot water does offer some compensation.

This wonderful resource has permeated the culture with a deep belief in cleanliness. Not a recent development but a cultural condition hundreds of years old. Our western minds do not readily understand the extent to which this idea of cleanliness persists and our own concept of "clean" is actually woefully short of the Japanese standard. I am sure that the first time visitor to England from Japan is shocked by our general lack of hygiene but, of course, would never be so rude as to mention it.

An everyday example would be the provision of hand towels to wipe your hands before eating. The closest we get to this in the UK is in a curry house where we are given hot towels after eating!!! In Japan,most food outlets will provide a warm towel before you start to eat, all will provide a hand towel before food is served, even Moss Burger, the Japanese fast food franchise.

Moss Burger, small but perfectly formed.

You see, as with most things about Japanese culture, when you actually think about it then it makes perfect sense. Ask yourself, do you really want to wander around a city all day, drift in and out of stores, maybe work at a desk for hours, whatever you do you are touching this, feeling that and picking up some of those, and then you go and eat without washing your hands first. Yes, yes, yes, I know, we are all meant to wash our hands before we eat, we all know that, but when you pop into MacDonalds or such do you actually wash your hands before you pick that burger up? Are you provided with a hand cleaning towel anyway?

Next time you are in town and you see some Japanese people watch carefully when they get their MacDonalds or whatever. You will know they are Japanese because they will sit at a table, put their tray down and then reach inside their bag for a wet wipe to clean their hands with.

This is only the tip of the cleanliness iceberg the ultimate expression of which is something I call Japanese bath culture. On the every day level the domestic bath scene is supported by local bath houses. Remember that unlike like us filthy barbarians who like to wallow in our own dirt, the Japanese insist on showering and cleaning thoroughly before sitting in a bath of hot water. You see the bath of hot water is a soothing, relaxing social occupation not a method of cleaning, for that you use a shower.

The onsen, volcanic hot springs, is the epitome of this cleaning culture. Can you imagine English people going away to a hotel just so they can spend two days washing themselves thoroughly before luxuriating in mineral rich hot volcanic water. In Japan there is a national industry, a vibrant commercial sector dedicated just to this delight in hot water.

Jack in Onsen, Dawn 14.12.2009 Ryokan Terrace, Hakone Mountains

So I said I was going to talk about Fuji-san and whilst it may appear that i have strayed (how unlike me) actually the issue of hot water and Japanese culture is relevant to understanding the place of volcano god in the national psyche. The hot water comes from volcanic vents and bubbles forth in clouds of steam from the mountainsides. I have long argued that culture is the human interface with environment, the inevitable consequence of cognitive thought as a chosen vehicle for species evolution, and therefore the found structures in the environment are the driving forces of cultural development.

In early times, as witnessed in indigenous Australian culture, the landscape and all within it is the manifestation of the spirit world. For the human society lightening had to be the work of spirits, thunder was their voice... what else could these natural phenomena be. So too were the great mountains the manifestation of the nature spirits, huge demonstrations of power and strength, sacred places of the spirits or even a god in their own right. In totemic landscape mythologies of pre-city cultures life revolved around the beneficence or malignancy of these spirits.

So when we come to look at Fuji-san we have to understand the root of its history in the psyche and development of Japanese culture. And when we get our first glimpse of this volcano then you start to loose your breath at the sheer size of it. Fuji is absolutely enormous. In fact, when you land at Narita Airport, an hour and a half drive north of Tokyo, before you descend through the clouds you can often see Mount Fuji, a two hour drive south of Tokyo, majestically rising above the cloud base to the starboard.

But size is not the whole story, it is only when you get close enough to see the shape as well that you can begin to envisage the effect this icon has on the mind. From horizon edge to horizon edge a smooth arc slides up from each side to raise the chalice of the caldera to the sky. The form itself is a meditation in its own right. Even today your first view of Fuji should take your breath away, that is if your mind reacts to anything other than Playstations and Strictly Come Dancing. The existence of this gigantic, poetic natural form within the developing landscape of Japanese culture and its continuing, reliable presence within the history of the land and the people conveys the sacred in a way our cathedrals can only ever dream about achieving.

If you are going to have a sacred space at the heart of a culture then
no-one can deny the presence, physical and spiritual, of Fuji-san!