What Took You So Long?

Fall finally arrived in Ota this past week....I was beginning to think it was going to be summer forever.  I documented it whilst biking to the post office.  And for those of you who care about such (I myself am a disgracefully lazy photographer) these were all taken with my 55-200mm VR lens--a lovely going away present from my former co-workers. :)

limes, anyone?

if I were taller, you could see more mountains

still not harvested

Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover....

....or a Japanese eating establishment by it's facade.  On my trip to the mall the other day, my fellow expat wife also recommended one of the little mall vendors.  I had noticed it before but had written it off because it's somewhat "rustic" appearance signaled to me that it was probably the kind of place that sold scaly and/or tentacle-y things.  Come to find out, I was sort of right.  It's a "taiyaki" vendor.  Taiyaki are very traditional dessert cakes that are shaped like fish, made of a waffle-ish batter and have sweet fillings.  According to my research, the fillings vary from shop to shop and can be a little gimmicky.

I didn't get one that day, but I went by later in the week and picked out a couple to try.  One that I had hoped was double-chocolate turned out to be filled with a sweet red bean paste that is popular here.  I had a pretty good idea that it wasn't chocolate based on the limited conversation I was able to have with the girl behind the counter but I got it anyway just to try.  I'm not a fan of it (it tastes exactly like "sweet red bean paste" sounds) but the other one I got was filled with a custard that was pretty tasty.

no, I don't know what the shop is called....I can
sound out some of it but it means nothing to me

I had always kept on walking to the yummy
smoothie shop next door

I think they are definitely best when hot and fresh

the top one is the chocolate/bean, bottom is vanilla custard

How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?

A week or two ago I met up with another one of the expat wives at Starbucks.  Afterwards she introduced me to one of her favorite pastimes....puppy-watching.  I knew there was a pet store in the mall but I'd never  been by it (the mall is massive) and I didn't realize that there were actual dogs and cats for sale.  Turns out puppy-watching is a popular pastime in Aeon.  That's not too surprising considering how much Japanese people love their pets.  Same as in the US for the most part, but judging by the year-round availability of a variety of costumes, dressing one's pet up is a little more popular here.  I have also seen two or three dogs being pushed around the Tokyo subway in dog strollers, which was a little startling.

Side note: It's hard for me to see puppies for sale in cages and I know I have some even more soft-hearted readers but at least they look healthy and well-cared for and seem to be rotated out into large play areas regularly.  They are also kept together as you can see below so they can play.  I was also surprised to see people petting them freely (the cage tops are open) so they get lots of attention.

dachshunds, for which I have a particular
weakness, are very popular here

puppy pile (by the way, these are some expensive puppies....that's
 at least $700-$800 worth of dog there)

I was not the only one who was enjoying the puppies

a photo I took a long time ago of all the pet clothes in Cainz

can't forget the kitties

Tokyo Game Show 2011

Hello. Chad, the guest blogger, here to talk about my trip to the Tokyo Game Show last weekend. For those of you who have never heard of TGS, it's an annual convention where video game developers show off their latest games and technology. However, TGS is also known for attendees dressing up in weird, geeky costumes (also known as cosplay). As an avid gamer, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to experience this unique event. So while Amanda was out spending my hard earned money in the shopping malls...enjoying the Odaiba district, I spent my Saturday at the convention center, Makuhari Messe, in Chiba.

The convention opened at 10am, but I arrived at 8am in an effort to beat the crowds. Yet, even two hours before opening, the line was about a half mile long. So it was just me and 80,000 of my Japanese friends hanging out in the late summer heat and humidity for a couple hours. It did cool off just before the doors opened, but that was only because it started pouring rain. At one point, a Japanese guy nearby struck up a conversation with me. He knew about as much English as I know Japanese, so it was not an easy conversation. However, he finally understood that I wanted to see a new racing game called Forza 4 and I understood that he liked the game series, Final Fantasy, and that he thought TGS was "Paradise!".

The line went to the end of the building far in the distance and then around the corner to the right for another 200 yards or so.

Did I mention it was hot?

Umbrellas went up just before the skies opened up. I didn't have one, so I got soaked

While waiting in line, I snapped some photos of the cosplayers headed to the end of the line.

Once inside the convention, I immediately headed for the Xbox display which was just inside the entrance. I waited in line about 45 minutes and got to play 10 minutes of the new Halo game. After that, I planned on walking around to the other game displays, but at TGS, one doesn't really walk from point A to point B. Instead, there's a compressed mass of people that you have to squeeze yourself into and flow into the next area. There's no room to move and you'd better not think about stopping. There's also a torrent of people coming in the opposite direction which complicates matters. Then there's the body odor. I had always heard that the B.O. at gaming conventions was bad, but this was brutal. To be clear, Japanese are typically very cleanly people. This wasn't Japanese B.O., it was Otaku(nerd) B.O.

The crowds at TGS are insane. Almost everyone is very polite, but there is no space to move (or breath!)

A horde of people watching a presentation from Konami

In between the three massive convention halls, there is an open area where the cosplayers line up for Japanese men to take photographs. I snapped a few pics myself. There's lots of cosplayers wandering around the show floor as well. Many of them are attractive females paid by the game developers to hand out swag. Strangely, one dude (in the blue dragon skin type armor in the pic below) didn't seem to want his picture to be taken so I only could take one of his back. What's up with that?

By the afternoon, I was exhausted and ready to head back to our hotel in Odaiba. I was glad that I experienced the show, but I doubt I'll be headed back next year. Too many people and too much B.O.!

Happy Holidays!

This week we are celebrating not one, but two national public holidays.  Monday was "Respect for the Aged Day".  For real.  It's a day to celebrate old people.  You're supposed to be extra nice to the elderly around you.  We were told that stores sometimes give senior citizens discounts on this day and I read that the Japanese news will do pieces on really old people.  Chad even got the day off to celebrate old people.  It's been a holiday since the 60's but was moved to the third Monday of September to fall in line with the "Happy Monday System", which was a law that moved as many holidays as possible to Mondays so everyone could have a long weekend. 

Tomorrow (Friday) is the Autumnal Equinox as it falls on Japan Standard Time.  Chad gets another day off.  Apparently a long time ago this holiday was celebrated as part of Shinto but it was made more secular after WWII.

Also I am pleased to announce that on this long weekend Tokyo D'Esposito will welcome a guest blogger with an exciting story provided I can nag him into doing it!  Be sure to check it out!

and (because I know everyone only looks
at the pictures) a strange flower that is
showing up all over my yard.....
not very autumn-ish, is it?

City Lights

We spent this past weekend in Odaiba.  Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay with incredible views of the Tokyo skyline.  We had some pretty big plans for the weekend, and while some of them worked out, others didn't.  We first tried to take the local (cheap & hard) trains into the city but realized midway there that Chad had forgotten his glasses (he was wearing his prescription sunglasses) so we had to turn around (which means hopping off the train and onto the one going the other way) and go back for them.  Easier said than done.  We ended up going around and around in circles on the trains between Ota and Tokyo for awhile.  Eventually we regrouped, switched to the express train (expensive & easy) and made it into the city.  After a quick trip to Ginza to visit the Apple store (yes, again...don't ask), we caught the express train out to Odaiba.

 We got to go over the famous Rainbow Bridge on the train.  Once there it was easy to see why Odaiba is referred to as "futuristic".  There are a lot of space-agey buildings, unique shopping malls, a giant ferris wheel and museums.  By the time we got there on Friday it was pretty dark so we just ate dinner (at Hooters, no less, but I was lured by American-style wings and the entertainment of watching drunk Japanese guys doing the YMCA with the waitresses) and then crashed.

On Saturday I stayed in Odaiba and shopped all the malls saw the sights.  Chad went elsewhere---more on that later.  That night we ate dinner (a Hawaiian burger joint in Aqua City) with a jaw-dropping view....

the Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and the Yakatabune dinner cruise boats

Daikanransha, which was the tallest
Ferris Wheel in the world in 1999

our hotel, the Grand Pacific Le Daiba

the Rainbow Bridge right
before we crossed

the Tokyo Teleport, a crazy space-age
train station

Aqua City, a giant shopping mall

buildings and monuments

the famous Fuji building

inside the Venus Fort, which is this wild shopping mall
 designed to look like an Italian piazza...complete
with a fake color-changing sky and "moving" clouds

it was like being in Hogwarts

Huh?

I know there are a lot of photos on the Internet of crazy English signs in foreign countries.....well, here's one more.  I will say that most of the English signs here aren't too bad.  Sometimes the grammer is a little off but you can get the gist of it....

....with the exception of the sign below that is at the drive-through of a local McDonalds.   I have theory that instruction is needed because there just aren't that many drive-throughs here....but I'm not sure this instruction helps much.  I hope it's better in Japanese.

Also, I've been a little slack about blogging the last few days (I've had an unusual number of social engagements!) but we have an exciting adventure planned for this weekend so check back next week for lots of photos!

I think #4 indicates that a lot of people show coupons
from their cellphone?  Is that a thing now?

Milky White Skin

A comment that was posted a few days ago reminded me that I meant to post about tanning here, or the lack thereof.    First off, I have yet to see any sunscreen with a lower SPF than 28, and most of it is SPF 50.  There is no bronzer, no tanning lotions, no strip mall tanning beds.  Instead you find lots of "whitening" lotions and creams to lighten your skin tone.  Most younger girls are really pale, and  female celebrities and models all have porcelain skin.  I feel kinda tan here, for someone in my age range, and trust me, that is not usually the case. I think the culture here promotes whiter skin because it indicates that you are a higher class of worker i.e. not a farmer in the paddy fields. (I do not quite understand this, but I think I'm blinded by my long-standing dream of raising goats and growing squash like they do on those hippie green TLC shows.)

Anyway, as I shopped this summer, I noticed that the bikinis for sale here are a little bit (just a little bit) more modest than what you see in the US.  And when we were vacationing with all the Japanese people in Guam there were a lot more women on the beach in the type of bodysuit that you surf in (they were not surfing).  Of course there were plenty of bikinis too....I think the tendency to cover up more is half modesty, half skin protection.

And don't forget my parasol (eventually I'll get a photo of it on here)....as you can see in some of my photos, they are everywhere in Tokyo on a sunny day.  Because you just can't have your face out in the sun, ladies.

sunscreen here also comes in really small expensive bottles

bright face milk, perfect milk and mild care milk, SPF 28+

You'll notice in the photo above (click to enlarge any of these photos) something else that is different here.  Along with creams, lotions, gels, etc. you see a lot of "milks".  I assume this indicates that they are the consistency of milk.  You may also be amazed that these are all in English....well....that is because those are the ones that I can easily read as I tote my camera around and get funny looks from the other shoppers.  There are many, many more that are all in Japanese. 

the variety of skin potions here is mind-boggling

you see many that say they have collagen in them,
whatever that means

medicated finger whitening

 

the ultimate: whitening milky lotion

Politickin'

Japan got a new Prime Minister on September 2nd, a guy by the name of Yoshihiko Noda.  Apparently the Diet (similar to Congress or Parliament) elects the Prime Minister and can also get rid of him whenever they so choose.  As a result, Japan goes through a lot of Prime Ministers.  I don't think one has lasted more than a year in the past five or six years  even though I don't believe there is a limit on how long or how often someone can be Prime Minister.   Our Japanese teacher told us that all the past Prime Ministers is one of harder things to learn as a Japanese school child.

The last guy was the one that was all over the news during the March earthquake, it seems the Diet "lost confidence" in him so they ditched him.  I always felt sorry for the poor man, I don't think he slept for most of the spring.

Our Japanese teacher also told us that the new guy is known as an exceptional orator, and is good at languages.  And, he is famous for giving speeches at train stations.  It seems there are some popular jokes about how he's always to be found carrying on about something in a train station.  He probably doesn't mind, if this article is any indication....he seems to have a pretty good sense of humor.  Wonder if that will still be the case when his year is up.  ;)

Where Have All the Sunflowers Gone?

I received a phone call this morning from someone who had been watching the news in the US.  Based on that news, this person had determined that there was a good chance Chad and I were washed away in a typhoony mudslide.  I am happy to report that we were not, and that here the only lasting effect of the weekend of rain and wind is that all our neighbors have cut down their gigantic sunflowers.  Fortunately I managed to get a photo a couple of weeks ago.

note that I was clearly shooting up,
as they were dangling down over my head

I believe the mudslides and such were farther north, unfortunately in the same general area as the March earthquake.  I imagine the destruction lent itself to further destruction.  The only thing I've seen lately about what's going on up north is this article about a man who refuses to leave the evacuation area.  A few things in the interview stood out to me, namely that he believes the rest of the country has moved on (I would tend to perhaps agree), that his relative wouldn't take him in (I was shocked), and that he is made out to be a rebel in a country of strict rule-followers. That's a popular view of the culture here and I'm not totally down with it and I'm totally an expert.  I have seen plenty of minor rule-breaking since we've been here and a healthy amount of I'll-do-whatever-I-want-to-do attitude.  Not as much as other nationalities maybe, but Japanese people are definitely not sheep and do not walk around looking over their shoulder for the government.  That kind of stuff is more for our big red neighbor.  ;D

Bookstore Blues

I torture myself occasionally by going to the bookstore in the mall.  It's torture because there are only two shelves of English books and, while the selection is pretty good, I've read half of them.  I'm saving the rest for an emergency (the ones that aren't dead boring, that is).

Everything else is still virtually impossible for me to read....for now.  (I recently started making my own flash cards of Japanese characters....it's very first grade.)  I content myself with wandering around trying to decipher what each section is.  The situation isn't that dire though, I can order books from iBooks and Nook to read on my iPad and I do so often enough to keep my sanity.  I also brought all my favorites along with me and I can re-read most of those at least once or twice a year.

I haven't even found the library yet.  I know there is one in Ota but so far no one had been able to give me sufficient directions.  Probably for the best.....a building full of free books I can't read might do me in.

the English section

this, I have determined, is the travel section

sigh

I could probably barely make it through The Very
Hungry Caterpillar or Rainbow Fish

I've scouted the kids section a lot because I know that
is where I'll have to start

Harry Potter