I tried a bit of whale at somebody’s house at new year. It was nice enough, if a bit chewy, but it seemed odd eating whale (even thought it was presumably killed purely for scientific research purposes). All my life I have thought of whales as things to be saved, not served.
Articles about Japan
Harry Potter to Himitsu no Heya
In deference to the small Japanese children in our party, we went to see “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” dubbed into Japanese. It seemed a bit slow, but maybe that’s just because I only understood every 20th word. Even so, I thought the giant spiders were quite scary, though they didn’t seem to bother the 5-year-old girl next to me.
Chocolate Beckham
Following the trail of rumour, we mounted a search for the giant chocolate statue of David Beckham. We found him in Shibuya, complete a with long queue of people waiting for a photo with their chocolate hero. It was pretty impressive, perhaps 2 metres tall. (Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me when we found the Beckham.)
Gas Panic
Gas Panic is a nightclub (actually two nightclubs) in Tokyo. One of the requirements of being in the place is that you must drink continually as long as you are inside, to the point that if you put your drink down somewhere, the staff will take it away and make you buy another one.
Here we see Joanne dutifully obeying this rule.
Karaoke
I’ve become quite a fan of karaoke. Some people inexplicably like to sing on a karaoke stage, where you sing on a stage in front of everyone else in the place, but I prefer the karaoke box, where you and your friends pile into a private room to sing, eat and drink. At some places, you can also hire instruments (such as tambourines, maracas, and cacophonous fake electric guitars). These can be useful for drowning out particularly grating singers.
The selection of songs is generally huge. There are tens of thousands of Japanese songs and thousands of English songs, as well as Chinese, Korean, French, and other languages. Everyone sings Japanese or English when I go, but it’s always good to throw in an ’80s German pop song from time to time.
It’s a bit distressing how many people regress to the late ’70s or early ’80s when they get behind the mic, even people who are young enough to know better. Queen’s ’70s epic “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a favourite for karaoke hilarity because of all the funny voices you can use, and for the Wayne’s World-style headbanging bit in the middle.
Prismic — Yuki
I heard Yuki‘s song 66db, an odd, Bjork-ish ballad, in the J-Pop Cafe one night. Later, I bought her album to celebrate my new job, She’s melodious, in a rockin’ kind of way. One of the songs is called The End of Shite.
Curry donuts
Curry-filled donuts (or doughnuts) are a surprisingly popular snack in Japan. They are available everywhere from local bakeries to Starbucks, and they taste as good as they sound.
Botchan — Natsume Soseki
A teacher from Tokyo gets posted to a country town and spends his time getting into misadventures and complaining about the shifty country folk. Quite fun! Maybe one day I will be able to read it in the original Japanese.
Strange Tokyo
I visited Tokyo for a couple of weeks in 1992. I came away with the impression that everything is funny, inexplicable or amusing, or all three. Now that I live here, I have realised that this is partly because I harldy understand the language, but partly because things really are strange. Especially TV.
Maneki Neko
In Japanese the cat with raised paw is called “maneki neko” (“beckoning cat”). In the West, we beckon people by holding the hand with palm facing up and moving the fingers (as popularised by Neo and Morpheus in the Matrix films). In Japan, people beckon by holding the palm facing down or forwards (like the cat) so it looks as if they’re waving. I wonder if the Chinese do the same?
Note that maneki neko should not be confused with Hello Kitty.