Christmas Eve at the Sushi-ya

(Disclaimer: all photographs taken by some idiot drunk on hot sake with a camera and flash unit completely beyond his control. I thank you.)

Once had love, and it was a gas

City river at dusk

Building (Present Continuous)

三才剣

I finally got out of bed early enough to go and watch Mitz's Kung-Fu practice. She started about 2 years ago and has, through rain, shine and hangover, been going (nearly) every Sunday morning since. She and the other 9 or 10 regulars are learning San-Sai Ken (三才剣), one of the forms that uses swords. かっこいい!

Kan Kan Oji San

"Aki Kan" in Japanese may mean empty can, but there is still money in it. You can see them everywhere. Not dancers, Kan Kan Oji San. The old boys who collect up cans put out for recycling to sell on to a recycling company themselves. Some are homeless, some are in it for the extra cash.

The cans are usually carried on a bike. The bike in this picture once carried all of the cans now being flattened on the ground. More daring than Mr. Kenevil, with better balance than a Chinese circus acrobat, see those Oji San go.

Buy two, use one

On the night of the great art and music live show at the Plastic Factory club in Nagoya, my camera gave up and died on me. I had been asked to take pictures, but instead spent 3 hours at the bar pulling out and putting in again the battery and memory card from the lifeless Nikon. My friend Thomas drank long island ice teas to show me his support. Ping.

Two hours into the humiliation and someone arrived with a Cannon 5D and started snapping happily away. Luckily she agreed to donate photos to the clubs web site so the evening was not a total loss for Heinz, the Swiss-German owner. We got snapped before I gave up, took the taxi fare and went home. Did I get the pout right? It comes from the nose you know!

Looky Likey

Isn't this nice? I got a mail from the Editor of Japanzine, the magazine for Japans western residents (outsiders / foreigners / non-native types / gaijin), to say that one of my photographs has been chosen for the magazines photo competition final.

This photo from my 'Superkids' post will be printed alongside... erm.... some other shots. Won't know which till the January edition comes out. This link will take you to the competition home page. Have a look. It's interesting to see what people choose to present as their image of Japan, and in amongst the fancy titles are some good photos.

Winter lights

It's winter in Nagoya.
Out with the Parkas and let's shopping!

This is part of the light display in the shopping arcade in Osu.
With a huge variety of independant craft, clothing and food shops and with perhaps more recycle clothing shops than the North Lanes of Brighton it is the gathering place for the pilgrims of street fashion.

People also live there. And it has bars! Have I convinced you? Osu is good!

You like? Me neither! Let's try more!

Went to Sakae (department store land) in Nagoya last Saturday for beauty goods and lunch. While waiting for Mitz to be overcharged I was watching the counter next door.
How out of place does a tall pasty foreigner look standing in his winter best with a huge cold sore and Digital SLR in a make up sales area? Very. I'm not confident taking candids as I prefer to have the subjects permission first, but my presence and what I was doing could only have been missed by the 'drugged or the determined' (a new film title?).
Art it ain't, but a moment it certainly was.

Earthquake

Have just turned on the T.V to find a full on tsunami warning after an earthquake in the northern area of Hokkaido.
http://disaster.yahoo.co.jp/1163592484/meteo.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/tsunami/index.html
(in japanese only)
this was a quake magnitude 8.1.
Depending upon the area (very wide) the height of the tsunami could reach from between half a meter and a maximum possible height of 7 meters.
The tsunami is expected to strike any time from now (9:20) to 10pm.
In Nagoya we didn't feel a thing. news still coming in. more to follow.
News advises those feeling tremmor to reach high ground fast.
Quake hit the Hinan Islands.

The tip of the Gold Mountain

Kanayama (where I is livin') is written with two chinese characters (kanji) 金山: the first means gold, the second means mountain.
The tallest building in Kanayama at the moment is the Kanayama Minami Building. It contains a hotel, office space and a museum and art gallery. It was also built right next to the south exit of the train station, which is where the rockabilly boys come to dance.







The building was completed in 1998. It is 134.4 meters tall with 31 floors above ground and 4 below.
The museum space is a satelite of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Boston museum signed a 20 year contract to supply exhibition materials to the Japanese site, in return for which the Japanese site paid a cool 50 million U.S dollars. Nice!






A view from the northern side of the station.
The kanayama minami building also houses the Nagoya Urban Institute.
Check the link for a detailed explaination of their urban activities.
The structure in front of the hotel here is the electricity generating wind wall that supplies power to the recently completed open air shopping area, curiously named 'Asunal' in English and 明日なる （Asu-naru） in Japanese. Mitz tells me it's short for '明日元気になる' (ashita genki ni naru). Grrreat.






The curious design of this and other buildings around Nagoya is something I will be coming back to at a later date. Japan seems to be going through a period of architectural confusion. It is a sad thing that the first impression of almost every big city I have been to in Japan was that it could be almost any other big city in Japan. There is no architectural flavour as such, more like an overuse of architectural MSG. City planning? Still, like I say, another time, with some research.

Super Kids

Friday the 3rd was culture day in Japan and a national holiday. There were various festivals and cultural activities throughout the weekend that I did not go to, but one on Sunday that I did.


This year saw the first ‘All Japan Super Kids Dance Contest’. On Sunday the grand final was held in the outdoor shopping area just down the road from my house in Kanayama, Nagoya. I went for a quick look, but then stayed for a few hours chatting to some of the dancers, the teachers and the passers by.

If you come to Japan you will see them. Not ninjas, dancers. They practice in schools, they practice in parks, and they practice on the street using glass fronted buildings for their studio mirror.

I spoke to Hiro Sakuma, one of the competition judges and a member of the ‘Spartanic Rockers’ dance team who were the winners of the U.K B-boy championship 1998 (and are still going strong). He gave me a brief history of modern dance in Japan.








It began for many, he said, in the 1970’s and 80’s with the American music program ‘Soul Train’ that was aired in Japan. Hiro told me that he used to watch it when he was growing up and that it provided an inspiration for a new generation of dancers. What about the young generation of today? Hiro explained that until about 6 years ago, breakdance was still the most popular form, then Hip-hop and other related styles began to gain popularity until about 3 years ago when the dance craze hit the mainstream.

Why it went mainstream is another story, but I imagine that the (instantly disposable) idols of the J-Pop industry have done their bit to popularize dance. Remember the boy bands of the early nineties? That sort of thing but with more glitter.









So now many people want to learn the new ‘non-classical’ forms of dance. I spoke briefly to an 59 year old lady (not in picture) who had been to see Janet Jackson in concert a few years back and last month signed up for the Hip-hop class at the local dance studio. She had come to the show to support her classmates. What about the younger dancers themselves?








I interrupted two girls during their rehearsal to ask them. Both age 15 and in their final year of Junior High School, they had traveled from Yokohama that morning. One told me that she wants to be a professional dancer, the other that she wants to be a dance teacher. Not at all different to the dreams of many girls of the same age in the U.K. Younger kids that I asked just told me that it was fun.






So now this very free style of dance has broken like a tsunami upon the shores of Japanese culture. I asked Hiro about the place of the more traditional forms of Japanese culture such as Kabuki in modern Japan, he told me quite simply that this is not Kabuki’s time. It’s the time of the ‘Ao Zora Kyoushitsu’, the open air classroom. The message is ‘just go out and do it’ (and yes, Nike were one of the main sponsors of the event)

So who won the competition?

I have no idea. The cat needed feeding and the shopping just wouldn’t wait. Time will tell if this dance craze has ‘got legs’, but for the moment I don’t see it slacking off.

Rock around the block

Often on a Sunday afternoon, especially if it's sunny, the Rockabillies come out to dance, groove and twist.

There is a wide plaza area outside the south exit of kanayama station, just in front of the ANA Grand Court Hotel (more to come) that they have chosen for their stomping ground.

They wrap black tape around the toes of the winkle pickers and wear all leather despite the mid-day sun. They seem to like an audience but don't mind if they annoy everyone either.

See the flickr link for more pics.

Plastic Factory

These snaps from a series of photos of the new gallery space above The Plastic Factory club space in Imaike, Nagoya.





The new owner has completely renovated the second floor to provide a wallet friendly alternative to the expensive galleries uptown. Seriously, 500 pounds a week compared to 2 or 3 thousand! Not bad.

Crime!

This not so little beauty was my bike until the early afternoon today. I got home and it wasn't there. Still, I got to ride in a police car today so it wasn't all bad.

I flagged down a passing patrol car, explained the situation, and they said they would drive me to the station a few hundered meters away. Just like being in a taxi really. Perhaps a little cleaner?

At the station, the young and very new officer took details of the grand theft. It must have been his first time. He often used his electronic Kanji dictionary to check how to write the characters his senior dictated.

It took 40 minutes to get the form filled out. Because I had forgotten to take my Inkan (name seal) with me, I had to put my fingerprint at the bottom of the page, and over any errors that were made in the filling out (this proves that the details weren't changed without my knowing).

The senior officer then explained to me that there are 2 possible ways to recover the bike. If they catch them riding it, or if it gets dumped. I don't hold out much hope on either.

I will have to take the subway to my Japanese lesson on Monday. Goddam crime.

Nuclear Japan

Japan has enough natural threats (earthquakes, landslides, floods), without the threat of North Korea's missiles, its recent nuclear test, and the threat of more to come.

Now Japan, a country that has never tried to develop nuclear weapons of its own (it says) may be open for discussion on the matter!

We don't have to do anything.... we can just talk about it....

Street Performers Festival 1

As mentioned in the Osu Kannon post, last weekend was a two day street performers festival. Just 15 minutes walk from my house (25 if you're short) and a whole weekend of entertainment, festival foods and booze (~o~)V.

This (left) is one of the members of the Oiran-Douchu parade. Based on a practice that reaches back to the Edo period (1603 - 1867), the Oiran-Douchu parade depicts beautifully made up and attired courtesan walking the streets with their attendants.
The participants wear a special type of Geta (wooden sandals) . These Geta are about 9 inches high, and the performers spend a lot of time practicing walking in them before the parade itself.










This group is a Chin-don-ya from Osaka. Chin-don-ya groups perform using various instruments, traditional and western, and dance. They are not seen now as often as they were, but they are still sometimes employed to advertise the opening of a new shop, just like a noisy sandwich board.








These two go under the name of 'sesame street'　（ｾ三味　ｽﾄﾘｰﾄ）.
They are a performance unit from Tokyo, and perform using the shamisen (3 string cat skin covered instrument) and a variety of physical humor.











"Gamarjobat", the name of this pair of 'silent Comedy' performers.
I was almost too busy laughing to take photos... no really!








Belly Dancers!!!! Japanese Belly Dancers!!!

Street Performers Festival 2

This is the night time performance from the Kin-pun show (the gold show). The dancers, men and women alike, are covered head to toe in gold and wear only a thong.
The dance group only uses gold for their performances in Nagoya.








They perform three times in a day. The night show is the most spectacular and performer friendly. The daytime shows are hot, and the dancer's sweat runs gold.










Here, a fire eating, fire twirling acrobat...













... and here a performance artist keeping the crowd and the subjects alike entertained with her picture and her banter.










There was a monkey show too, but I didn't go to see it. One of the trainers was standing outside of the marquee announcing the last show as I was passing by. The monkey spent the time picking it's nose.








The Ayatsuri puppets date from the Meiji period in Japan (1968 - 1912). There are about 25 strings controlling the puppet's movements, and the puppetry, though based on the European style, is unique to Japan.








This was a very bizarre performance incorporating live music, puppetry, dance and, as you can see, other forms of physical performance.
The show told a story, but I admit to being lost as to what kind.

What is Yaki-tori?

It's not easy being vegitarian in Japan! The price of vegitables is high, and vegetarian products are few and far between.
If you eat meat and fish however, the world is your oyster.

One of the best of the Japanese eateries is the Yaki-tori-ya (cooked-chicken-shop, or the "Every bit of a chicken on sticks, cooked on a charcoal grill" shop).





Sat at the counter just in front of the charcoal grill, a strong fan above whipping the smoke from the cooking chicken, we ordered chicken liver, heart, neckbone, cartilage, chicken chunks grilled with leek, chicken meat pattie grilled on the stick with a sauce dressing which was finally served on a plate with a freshly cracked raw egg (not without a sense of irony the Japanese), and we would have had the grilled chicken skin too but it wasn't on the menu (the asparagus wrapped in pork done on the same grill, we had that too, even though it wasn't chicken).




Like everything else that's fun, it isn't cheap, and probably not too healthy. Some places use too much salt, some don't cook the chicken properly, and some just charge way too much for the beer and sake. I was told this morning that a diet of too much Yaki-tori and beer will give you Gout!

Well I don't plan to be there every night, but the little by little, order when you want to eat style suits me very well. You can choose a minimum of one stick at a time, try a bite here and a bite there. It's never cold in a Yaki-tori-ya, and in the city there is usually one nearby. With the cold weather comes the warm sake 'atsukan', and the feeling of having done this some time before.

The majority of the Yaki-tori shops serve good chicken, well cooked, and don't overcharge on the drinks.
I tried vegetarianism once before, but fell foul to a roast duck.
Keep up the good chicken Japan.

Fuel truck

Mei-eki wishes it was Boston

Mei-eki is the name of the area around the main Nagoya train station.
It has cinemas, izakayas , bars and traffic to make kings cross sigh with envy.
Not really a pretty place, but it is the home of the twin towers, Nagoya's landmark building. Landmark in the literal sense and landmark in terms of size..... that was until












.... this came along. The new Toyota building that pipped the towers height record by a metre or so and was built directly opposite the towers (to provide balance?).
Whereas the towers are home to a hotel, department stores and restaurants, this monolith is dedicated office space. Mitz starts working there sometime this year when her current company moves in.
You wouldn't get me up in one of those!

Osu Kannon

DSC_1625
Originally uploaded by japanlight29.

This is the Osu Kannon temple in the central district of Nagoya.
To the east of the temple are the covered shopping streets of Osu (click full screen button on the linked page for best results).

Next weekend on the 14th and 15th, the temple will host the Osu Daido-chonin Festival, a yearly festival that is famous for it's street performances.

Monday the 9th was a national holiday, taiku no hi (physical activity/education day), and both the shopping streets and the temple alike were busy.

The temple and shopping streets of Osu also host the Nagoya St. Patrick's day parade each March, the first of which was held two years ago when yours truly took to the streets as the famous saint (who I had always thought was Welsh, but some say Scottish and some just don't say....).

stats from the CIA

Read what the CIA has to say about Japan

and then see what they have to say about the UK

Points of note:
1) The percentage of foreign residents in Japan. Just how the CIA worked these figures and whether they included 3rd generation 'foreign' residents and other 'grey areas' into their stats or not, Japan is Japanese. To experience this yourself, try living in a liberal multicultural area of London then moving to a backwater village in the fens.

2) The last few lines on drug imports into the U.K. Anything you'd like to say there chaps?

Party beneath the highway

Middle of the city, open space, what else are you going to do with it?
Whilst scootering to the city center passed under the elevated highway between Kamimaezu and Sakae. There's usually someone doing something there; skateboarders, hip-hop dance practice,
band practice. It's open space, and you don't have to rent it.




This time it was the combined musical talent of three of Nagoya's universities who had rented a sound system and support staff to hold a one day event. Each band got to play one song.
The guy on the left is engrossed in the lead of a cover of The Eagles 'Hotel California', other bands played their own origional tracks. The range was astounding, the ability high, and the ocassional guitar smashing was most entertaining.


The Entire event lasted about four and a half hours, after which the musicians/audience gave a mass thank you to the sound support team, and then spent the next hour packing gear away and cleaning up after themselves.