Todoroki, Kai Sushi and happiness in Tokyo

I have started this piece with a picture so that my friends who are Japanese will know what lies ahead of them today. The picture is of tai nigiri and in paraphrasing Blue Peter's famous style; "Here's one I ate earlier!".

The non-japanese readers mostly have no real idea of how this picture can effect the Japanese consciousness. Most especially if they are far from home and access to what they would call decent quality food. If I try and put this in an analogy for my British friends then it is much like being stuck on a desert island where everyone eats raw cocnut.

After 20 years of eating nothing but raw cocnut one day you are walking along the beach and a wave washes a picture of your favourite Sunday roast onto the beach before your feet. If you can imagine the feeling that would generate inside you then you will know something of how our Japanese friends will view the photographs which follow.

I left the house with my Ox Hammer and HMil in bouyant mood. Why should they not be, we were on our way to Kai Sushi in Todoroki, the best sushi restaurant we know in Tokyo. As you can see from HmiL's face, the price is right, the quality is excellent and everything is fresh and oshi (tasty). I was 50 years old when I first started coming to Japan and all things Japanese were really new to me. A new culture always takes time to adapt to and when it comes to food you always carry your cultural tastes with you. Certainly, the idea of pushing large lumps of cold raw fish into your mouth is not something that would get the traditional tastebuds of England drowning in a waterfall of their own saliva.

Learning to appreciate a cuisine takes time and when you are looking at coming from the English to the Japanese, it also takes some sense of adventure. I do have one friend who spent some serious time in Japan as an English teacher and he claimed that he could not have survived without MacDonalds! I will not name him as he is a very dear friend, regular reader and has colleagues who perform miracles in the libel courts. The point is clearly made and that is enough.

We headed down to Mushashi-Koyama station to take the train to Todoroki. This image that you see of the station forecourt is the new development I have mentioned in past articles. This is where they put the whole train line underground and didn't loose so much as a minute off of the timetable during the whole of the engineering.

Where you see the pedestrian crossing used to be a level crossing. Where you see the entrance to the station used to be the entrance to the ground level platform. Where you see the new department store used to be a station car park. Five years ago I could stand on the platform and look down between the railway sleepers to see the whole station and track propped up and in an almighty cavern below diggers and lorries were building this new station. When the moment came, further down the track they threw a switch and the line from that point proceeded underground via new points and not one train had been delayed in the process.

Once the underground was operational they tore up the track and turned it into 10 kilometres of prime real estate in central Tokyo. Of course the railway company owns that land, charges fat rents and in that way keeps fares low. As you can see, the usual standard of public hygiene and cleanliness is present.

Our train arrived perfectly on time as I am hoping you will see in this photo. The notice board tells the story for those of you interested in detail! (click on the picture to see the large version). We boarded our train and I continued with my photo journalism knowing I would be sitting at my computer later telling you all in the finest possible detail (that word again, I wonder why?).

On the way to Todoroki the train emerges from the tunnel back onto the part of the line which remains overground. This gave me the opportunity to take the photos which show exactly how the Japanese get their trains to run on time. The Ox Hammer jokes about trains from our local station, "They are due at 14.10, they come into the station at 14.15 and the board shows them as 'on time'. That's not on time that is late." She looks at me with a condemning shake of the head, "That would never happen in Japan!"

So what is the secret? Well it is all in the picture above and for those of you who cherish the importance of detail (that word again) I am happy to provide full size prints of this picture so that you can hang them on your wall. I am not going to be so rude as to explain this picture to you but if any of you have any questions then just fire off a comment and I will be pleased to reply. As you can see, the mystery of how to get trains to run on time is not exactly rocket science!

However for those of you thinking that it would be easy to get the trains running on time in England there is one key difference between the Japanese trains and the English trains which is crucial: staff discipline. There, I have said it and ruined the whole dream.

You will have noted how the train driver is in a crisp, clean, smart uniform replete with cap and gloves. Being a train driver in Japan is being part of the delivery of national pride. This is not a job to be taken lightly or in any way casually. The driver is issued with a uniform, a kit box and a stop watch. You will not find anyone smoking in their cab, you will not find a driver turning up for work with the smell of alcohol on his/her breath and you will always find a train driver turning up for work ten minutes before the shift begins. You will never see a driver eating food in the cab or stashing anything non-regulation on his dashboard.

This is a standard which would be considered the bare minimum of such a nationally important customer service. You will also note how both hands are on the power lever in the first picture, as they are at all times except when the operation in the action photo above takes place. I am proud of the fact that I have caught this action in photos, not an easy shot I can tell you.

At specifically designated points in the journey, not just of this train but of all Japanese trains, the driver, following his queue from the journey sheet on the clip board, will bring his hand back adjacent to his right ear and then point to the signal or track-side sign, then back to his stop watch and then to his clipboard before placing his metronomic hand back on the power lever. This is how at every stage of the journey the time schedule is continually checked and referenced to ensure pristine punctuality.

Attention to detail?

You see punctuality in Japan is essential because excuses for being late for work are simply not acceptable. In fact I am not sure that there is even such a word as "excuse" in Japanese, if there is it probably translates as "I am completely useless". Late is simply something well mannered people do not do. Whenever I am meeting my Japanese friends, say at 7 pm, I know for certain they will be there by 6.50pm, that is just the way things are done in Japan.

I have really grown to love this because it provides something that the Japanese people really cherish in life; certainty. This has gone so far in my life now that I actually think badly of people who arrive late, if only by four minutes, for a meeting or appointment. No matter what they say I take it as a sign of indolence. No second chances, no prisoners taken, they can phone and say they will be late, perfectly acceptable as long as it is at least 10 minutes before they are due but no phone call, just some lame excuse about traffic or phone calls and they are in the dustbin of unreliable souls.

No, Japan doesn't work on "late" or "delayed" without heads rolling, it used to be a literal term but these days it just stops your promotion chances. This is why the man in the picture above was chasing around the platform with the ramp for a disabled wheelchair user to disembark. He had to get to the right doorway for the right train on time because someone needed to get off. Every station provides this service and every station has a lift. Why wouldn't it?

Remember, this is the Japanese underground. Try getting in a wheelchair and travelling on the London tube or even the mainline railway, go on, just try. I have been an assistant to people trying to do that and it is a nightmare. I remember taking a young man with cerebral palsy and learning difficulties from Oxford to visit his parents in Blackpool.

We made all the arrangements in advance but when arriving at Crewe, one of the biggest stations in the UK, no-one was there with the ramps to get us off the train. We had to struggle off under our own steam with help from two burly passengers. After we had landed on the platform a "bloke" wandered up with the ramp and told us we should have waited until he arrived. That would have delayed the train by five minutes if indeed the driver was aware that a disabled person was disembarking. The "bloke" then proceeded to walk away. When I said that we were getting a connection he responded that he wasn't given that job and left.
We had no information, no support, no disabled toilet on the platform and no idea what would happen next. We had total uncertainty.

In Tokyo, where in some places there is a level crossing every 100 metres, absolute certainty is what powers the trains. They are driven by a set of rules and these rules are mirrored in the public behaviour. The level crossings are open and operational the maximum amount of time possible. People know not to cross when the barrier is down, they just don't do it. This means that you can pull the barrier down with the train less than 100 metres away and everything is perfectly safe. Everyone knows the rules and everyone knows the trains are in safe disciplined hands.

 

So we arrived at Kai Sushi, my favourite restaurant in Tokyo. This is a pleasure we like to indulge in when we arrive from London and just before we leave to go home. This is a pleasure we look forward to when we are in the UK, this is a pleasure which stays with us and makes us smile even in the darkest winter nights. But to understand fine sushi you also have to understand that to obtain such treats in England is all but impossible. It is not until you go to Japan and look at their fish shops that you realise just how bad a lot of the fish we are sold actually is. You have to learn what fresh fish really means.

You will have to excuse the quality of the image of the saba (mackerel). As you can see the light in the shop is very yellow. But you should be able to see how good their eyes look. This is one of the signs of fresh fish, the eyes should be clear and bright, they should look vibrant, they should look fresh. The shop above is in the market street just opposite Takayama Towers. The fish in there educated me in exactly what the term fresh fish should mean.

Slowly I came to realise that what I was seeing in the supermarkets and fish shops is what we should really term "rotting fish". Obviously we do have some fresh fish but the bulk of what I see would be classed as unfit for human consumption by Japanese standards. You see, when it comes to fish then fresh means "just killed" wherever possible and in some cases that means "so that you can see it being killed". The idea is, a very complex scientific notion granted, that once something is dead it starts to decompose, it starts to rot. Therefore you need to eat it quickly before it starts to smell. 

And there is the big clue, Japanese fish shops don't smell like English fish shops.

I have separated that line because you really need to read it twice to get the full meaning. This is very pertinent information when one is deciding whether or not to eat raw fish! In Britain we like our fish grilled, baked, covered in a sauce or coated in batter and deep fried in scalding boiling oil. There is a good reason for that! 

Here the preparation of raw fish is an art form. Perhaps you would think that you just slice a piece off and stick it in your mouth but no, sushi is a very subtle culinary skill. The chef uses his hands to craft a morsel that will delight your tongue. He balances flavours, he judges cuts, he sculpts a form and presents it to you for the delight of your nervous system.

Kai Sushi is a temple within which the masters practice their skills as a way of life. This is a community, two men out front, one man running the tables and seating and three men in the kitchen. Five years I have been coming here, no change of staff, no change of standards, no change of quality, just a continual pursuit of excellence. Kai Sushi is a temple and the devotees come because someone has told them about this sanctuary. There is no marketing, there is no sales department, there are just six men serving an audience of people who come from far and wide to taste a small moment of heaven.

This is where the going is going to get tough for our Japanese friends in England. Some may cry, some may just weep silently, some will phone their travel agent to enquire about flights home and some will loose their smile for a moment. This is where those who know quality when they see it will drown in their own saliva.

This is how we started, this was our opening gambit. These were the offerings we needed just to get ourselves firmly seated in position and ready to take on the all the chefs could throw at us. Then we went for the big stuff.

Japan, the ancestors and grave matters. Part One

Some of you may be familiar with my stories on matters regarding death in Japan and the role of temples in guiding the departed soul to the afterlife. Certainly being dead in Japan is not as easy as it is in the UK. In Britain you die, people cry (maybe), they bury you and then all go down the pub. If you are in a very, very close sexual relationship then you stand a chance of being actually missed on a regular basis for a good period of time. As a general relative the deceased will start to loose a place in memory very quickly. As a colleague and friend, often a chance whimsical thought will resurrect a dead person for a moment or two in a year but over time you are forgotten.

In the UK you are most certainly of very little value as a dead person. If you are cremated you are but dust but if you are in the earth at least you still own a small plot of land until such time as no-one knows who you were and a new supermarket needs to be built where you are "resting". In our western consumer society we are only any good whilst we are buying things or selling things, if you are a king or a queen and your face will sell on a commemorative mug then you have some value after death but for most of us we are simply dispensed with.

In Japan things are very, very different, in Japan even after death you are still an intrinsic part of both life and the economy. The bodies get burnt but that is no reason why the memory of that person should loose any economic value, indeed, if a real cost/benefit relationship analysis was performed, the average japanese person is at their most productive when they are dead!

As an economy Japan is a vibrant thriving hub of trade and commerce. True, they have had what are called ten lost years, have huge national debt and are stuck between declining American power and rising Chinese power. However, compare Japan to the UK and what do you find, one country living in the 21st Century with a dynamic population who know how to work hard, make money and, most importantly, save it (Japan has found its savings rate decline but "In short, Japan’s national savings still exceed its domestic investment, allowing Japan to be a net capital exporter."), the other country, the UK, is in terminal sociological decline, a policy mess from top to bottom and still waiting to get a railway system like Japan had thirty years ago.

Just go shopping in the local arcade in Mushashi-Koyama, one of these every kilometre or so across Tokyo, and you will see rampant commerce in action. Within this consumer hive you will most likely find a shop which sells "family shrines" and all of the paraphernalia of the spiritual needs of a family home.

The family shrines are the most important spiritual feature of Japanese domesticity. Families will have something to a greater or lessor extent but it is very unlikely to find a home without any spiritual furniture at all.

The shop in the Mushashi-Koyama arcade is a veritable treasure trove of statues, cabinets, incense burners and all manner devices which will help provide the family fortunes with divine benevolence.  In the image here we can even see a statue of Daikokusen, one of the most important of the seven lucky gods of Japan.

The cabinets are the receptacles for a shrine, be it Buddhist or Shinto (and both is really the only option therefore two cabinets need to be bought), and they do not come cheap. In fact I found all of the prices to be somewhat on the mountainous side however, when it comes to the favour of the gods skimping is only an option for the foolish.

These family shrines require regular daily attendance. Gifts to the gods need to be provided in the form of wines, beers, fruit and even packets of cigarettes. On specific holidays traditionbal rice cakes and family meals need to be shared in the family shrine so when meals are served there will be trays to take to the gods. The Buddhist Temples and the Shinto Shrines will provide certain artefacts absolutely necessary for spiritual harmony of the family. At all important holidays people will queue, sometimes for hours, to obtain these offerings from a religious institution they favour or is related in some way to their family history. The cost of all of these materials of ritual are variable; the more you want to pay the more the institution will sell you. Once again, skimping is seen to be very bad form and of course as much of this spirituality is publicly visible both inside and outside of the home, being seen as spiritually mean can affect the esteem in which a family may be held, or so the priests and monks will advise.

But the priest and monks are not the real power in this family spirituality. In the home it is the ancestors who watch over all proceedings and they are ever present. One of my jobs this visit has been to set two of the ancestors in new frames as the earthquake of March 2011 caused them to fall and break. As this was the biggest earthquake in the recorded history of earthquakes I escaped blame for any perceived shoddiness of my work to secure them previously. But this time I had to ensure that all were fixed to the wall in such a way that even if there was a direct hit by a meteorite on the house, the ancestors would remain staring down on us stony faced.

Japanease: Understanding Japan and Japanese People

Japanease: Understanding Japan and Japanese People

Having travelled in Japan for five years now I have decided that now is the right time to publish a book on the subject. Consequently I will be producing a manuscript in 2012, complete with original photographs, and publishing as an E-book available through Amazon.

In this work I will cover the story of my own relationship with Japan and the people I know here. The focus will be on understanding the Japanese mindset using the slightly humorous views of a London cockney. I will also be presenting a mythological analysis as would be appropriate in my occupation as a Comparative Mythologist.

This blog will serve as the fundamental background research for the text but new, unseen material, text, image and video, will be presented so that even the most devoted reader of these pages, and yes, there are people in secure institutions who write approving letters to me on a regular basis, will find this new book of interest.

The title is a word I "invented" five years ago to reflect something of how I feel in Japan. Japanease means to be comfortable and safe when amongst Japanese people; "I am having it Japaneasy right now!" This is probably not an original coining of the word but when I first wrote it I could not find another reference to it at that time. I do find that there is the Japaneasy Language School in Melbourne now and am therefore supplying a link on this page for those of you inclined to travel to Australia and take language lessons. This should be enough goodwill to prevent any claim that the use of Japanease and its grammatical derivatives somehow breaches either etiquette or law.

I am now hoping that a fervent wave of excitement and expectation will swell in the coming months as readers anxiously await publication of this marvellous new tome. Hopefully sales will make double figures over the coming yeas and I will be invited on lecture tours.

Back in the real world my expectation is that I will really enjoy writing this and some of you may even enjoy reading it. Beyond that I remain a truly fortunate human being gifted with a fine Ox Hammer, a redoubtable HMiL and invited to spend time in Japan every summer and winter, what more could a poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks ask for?

Japan; fashion, shopping and trains.

Last night we needed to go out to Shinkuku to do a bit of shopping. Careful planning of the sort which can only be the work of experienced Tokyo travellers (when confidence has exceeded wisdom) saw us venture out in the evening rush hour. The crush of peak travelling time in Tokyo is world famous but it is not until you are in it that you can feel its impact!

The Japanese are a very private people in general and within the densest population figures in humanity, the people of Tokyo have a deep respect for private space. Home is not a castle but your own slice of paradise and Japanese manners, the means by which culture has evolved a survival strategy for those closely packed, are practised in all corners of society except in the carriage of a rush hour tube train.

In these shiny carriages everyone is squashed together, bashed about and thrown around with more physical connectivity than you would find in a Roman orgy. I found myself in extremely close physical union with a young woman last night and whilst for a man of my age such an event would normally be a joy of the soul it proved actually deeply embarrassing.

The more so because no matter how I tried I was pinned so tightly that I could not find a way to disengage our connection. In fact any attempt to act in a chivalrous manner was in great danger as being interpreted as an action of a completely different intention. The young lady in question maintained her gaze towards the floor in patient acceptance of the situation. I believe I just went as red as a beetroot in a blush of deep embarrassment which marked me out visibly as a stranger to this process.

This situation which precipitates the collapse of normal personal space also engenders behaviour modification. Once the train doors open and the crush of humanity gets a chance to breath in once again, all those waiting patiently and politely on the platform then begin to aggressively push their way into the carriage. If you don't push yourself into the carriage you are going nowhere!

Once you actually make it into the frame of the doorway then you have to make sure that you are fully inside lest the doors snaffle you as they try to close. What happens next is the surprise. You know the carriage is full way beyond capacity but unfortunately the other 50 people on the platform queue fervently believe that they can squeeze themselves in.

Suddenly there is a great surge and from the door frame you find yourself pressed into the middle of the carriage in seconds as those on the platform quite literally form a rugby still scrum and push everyone deeper into the compacted morass of commuters.

Various strategies for survival are then adopted. In the image above you can just see my own view of a man watching network television on his mobile:- yes, this is Japan and in Japan, in the depths of the subway, you can get all of the main television channels on your mobile (one of the great things about leaving England and coming to Japan is enjoying life in the 21st Century rather than struggling in the 19th).

 Another strategy is to find a corner and simply go to sleep until your stop arrives.
I do not think it is possible to find another community on the planet which are so able to sleep at the drop of a hat. Many of the commuters, morning and night, sleep their journey out. Yes, I am aware that a few people in the UK do the same but nothing like the numbers or positions on the Tokyo subway network.

Amazingly, though people do get off of the train, with a titanic struggle, more people appear to get on at every stop. As it becomes ever more packed each movement and roll of the train is reflected in surges amongst the passengers. The sway can be extreme and several times I am sure that my feet were literally off of the ground for a few seconds as I was lifted aloft on the crest of this transport tide.

  

Eventually we made it to Shinjuku and were swept out of the carriage in a major disembarkation. Not only a popular destination in itself, Shinjuku is a major transport hub with 20 platforms of trains coming and going all into this one space. The crowd here is a phenomena in its own right but at all times the Japanese quality of patience is observed as people make their way to another train or out into the city night air.

Shinjuku station is a consumer hub like every other station in Japan. This is not in the way that our stations are, exploitative pricing, cheap shoddy wares and precious few facilities, no, Japanese stations make every possible use of space to satisfy the Japanese person's third religion; shopping.

In this religion there are no greater practitioners than young ladies who voraciously hunt out fashion. In predatory packs these girls inundate stores and shops looking for new things to buy. Clothes are top of the list but everything else from mobile phones to purses are fair game in this ruthless hunt.

As you can see in this image, the shopping facilities at Shinjuku station knock our weak offerings into a cocked hat. This is just one of the retail alleys, there are four, which sit below the platforms. The essence of this consumer management is profit as always but here the railway company owns the building, rents out the consumer space and this all impacts on the same balance sheet which includes under income "fares paid".

Not only can I use my Pasmo Card (Japanese Oyster Cad) to travel all around Tokyo but I can use it on the wider train system. Last year I completed a journey equivalent of London to Birmingham all under my Pasmo card. As an aside, as that particular train from the provinces came into Tokyo it entered the Tokyo subway system and finished its journey as a subway train! As I currently understand it, we are busy trying to build a west coast high speed line (which will cost four times more than the tax payer is currently being told) and if we manage that we will have a train system equivalent to what Japan has had for the last thirty years! We are so far behind it is shocking to see. Anyway, off the soapbox and back to the shops!

The shops are busy hives of activity but the queen bees are the shop girls. These are the young ladies who dress in the clothes of the store and sell, sell, sell to the hungry shoppers. These are professional girls, these are customer service experts and when it comes to fashion sales they know their market and how to relieve a consumer of the burden of a heavy purse.

From each shop front they cry out the wares and bargains available. When the customers enter they serve them with a bustle of activity and smiles. They are helpful, bright and filled with enthusiasm for the sound of the cash register going off like a fire alarm. I had the feeling that if I got too close to a doorway I could end up coming away with a rather fetching mini skirt or a bra. Maybe not obvious purchases for a man in his fifties but I am confident the sales girls would find a good reason for me to buy!

Tokyo Earthquake: Mariko Rocks

On New Years Day we had a bit of an Earthquake. A Richter 7 at the epicentre, this was a serious quake for Tokyo. I had sort of been expecting it because ever since we have arrived tremors have been rocking the house on a regular basis. Over the years of staying in Tokyo I have become accustomed to these small regular quakes and accepted them as a fact of life here. HMil (Honourable Mother in Law) is so used to them that sometimes when I ask her if she ok after a small shift she responds by asking me why I am concerned. I explain there was an earthquake and she replies "Was there!". She just doesn't notice unless the piano starts moving across the room.

Vulnerable Senior Lady in Earthquake Shocker

 This stoic resistance to nature's forces is not just an individual characteristic of HMiL but as the Montreal News reported:

The tremor struck at 2:28pm with its focus deep at about 370 kilometres, Japan's Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the depth at 348 kilometres. Its epicentre was located near Torishima, a northwestern Pacific island about 560 kilometres south of Tokyo.There were no immediate reports of damage or injury and no tsunami warning was issued.

The mid-afternoon quake swayed buildings in Tokyo and surrounding areas but it did not disrupt the final of the Emperor's Cup football tournament under way at the National Stadium. "Some people, who were walking, did not seem to notice the quake," a spokesman for Tokyo Disneyland said, adding business went on as usual at the theme park after some rides were automatically shut down.

What I can never get over is just how powerful these events are. The big one in March 2011 actually moved the whole of Japan 20 metres west. The fact that something 560 kilometres away from me can have the building I am in swaying and vibrating around like a fairground ride is an awesome display of nature's power. Of course, as powerful a display as this is one could argue it pales into almost insignificance compared with the human spirit in the face of such threats.

"When it comes to Tokyo, things get immensely complicated," said Dr Stein. "There seems to be broken pieces of plate that are jammed under Tokyo like a pill that won't go down your throat. And on top of that we have the two different slabs of plates beneath it, so there's really a triple stack of faults beneath Tokyo."

source: BBC

Tokyo is coming to the moment in its history when a truly big event is expected. The last time such an event occurred, in 1923, 100,000 people died. This is because Tokyo sits on the conjunction of three tectonic plates and this for the seismologist Dr Stein produces a minimum of a 30% risk of "the big one" in Tokyo at the moment. The quake in March 2011 was the largest ever recorded earthquake at Richter 9+. This has added tension on the other two plates below Tokyo.

So when the room started shaking on New Years Day I knew this was the biggest quake I had yet felt. Immediately I wondered if this was it, could this be the start of the big one. I rushed to the main room and held onto various items of furniture which were beginning to move around. I called for my Ox Hammer and HMil to come into the main room so we were all together. Everything was really beginning to grind. My honourable wife appeared and came over to my side and we both called out to HMil.

She appeared from the bathroom with her electric toothbrush whirring away as she brushed her teeth. Passing the piano she reached up to her favourite toy, her dancing cat. Pressing its paw activates it and it starts to gyrate and dance to an old rock and roll classic "I want you for life". As the toy started dancing and singing out the tune so too did Mariko take to the centre of the room and give it some slick rock and roll moves, she does go ballroom dancing three times a week, and took her toothbrush out, laughed and said,

"Don't worry, it's only a small one." and laughed again. She danced her way through the quake as we watched in awe. At least I had saved her new 42 inch digital television from toppling to the floor!