Now You See It, Now You See It Less

Kimonos are not cheap things to acquire in Japan. Even a good summer kimono (yukata) can fetch for a few hundred dollars. A good silk kimono can cost somewhere from a thousand dollars to, say, $15,000, which gets the average Japanese girl (or her parents) thinking about how much she wants to spend on something that she may not wear too often, given that people would have seen the design once worn. It is perhaps the equivalent of wearing a Gucci or a Dolce & Gabbana: once you wear it, people will remember it. How often will you then don the same thing for the next function?

Now enter the Tokyo-based Kyoto Kimono Yuzen Co. (京都きもの友禅) with a seamless solution of the Dress-Furisode: a kimono that converts into a party dress or an evening gown, where the wearer puts the full-length dress first, then an undervest, a jacket, and finally the obi (the sash or the belt). A young lady or perhaps her parents may buy one for her Seejin no hi (Coming of Age Day), and the lady could wear the evening gown for another occasion.

Furisode is formal kimono for single women. Click HERE to learn more about Furisode or kimono in general.

Ready Your Chopstick, Get Set, Grab!!!

Concerned that Japanese youth are forsaking their ancestors culinary culture and table manners, Hisatagakuen, an all-girl high school in south Japan, reportedly employed a chopstick-using ability as one of the entrance requirements. Perspective students were asked to demonstrate their dexterity in using the chopstick to pick up objects such as marbles, beads, and beans from one spot to another, according to the school's principal, Hisata Junko (Japanese names start with the family name/surname and then the given name).

With Western and western-inspired fast food inundating this nation, young people now prefers burgers and fries to traditional Japanese food such as fish, rice, and miso soup; and with the shift in eating habits, the table manners went away too. The school, founded in 1902, also aimed to preserve other cultural activities such as flower arrangement and the traditional tea ceremony.

Coming of Age Day ( 成人の日 : seijin no hi)

The United States of America has their Debutante Balls, Mexico has their Quinceañera, the Indonesians have their Sweet Sixteen/Seventeen, and Japan has their Seejin no Hi or the Coming of Age Day (literally, seijin means "to become a person"; "seijin no hi" therefore means "to-become-a-person's day"). This national holiday celebrates those who turned 20 during the preceding year (during the current school year, which in Japan began in April). According to the Daily Mainichi, this year's number of debutante is the lowest ever in 20 years, prompting concern about the declining birth rate in Japan. Last year, 1.39 Million Japanese reached adulthood.

In Japan this used to be celebrated on January 15 until 1999 when it started being fêted on the second Monday of January. Twenty is the legal age for voting, drinking, and smoking (and I shall see which of these three new rights is celebrated the most by these youth!). In the two times that I had attended the festivities (the first in Asakusa Temple back in 2005) I noticed that the majority of youth who donned their kimonos were mostly the young women. This year I only spotted a few, but was not sure if they were the girls' dates or fellow debutants.

(I caught sight of a couple of kimono-clad middle aged women who were too coquettish for local standard, prompting me to believe that they must have missed their own Coming of Age day a few decades ago; or perhaps they are now celebrating the Coming of Old Age day. Rejoice!)

There were a few three-generation groups of women: a set that included the grandmother, the mother, and the debutante. You can almost trace the genetic line on most of them. The elder ones were beaming with pride as spectators snapped pictures of their progeny (not to discount a number of fathers who proudly escorted their daughters to the shrine). As soon as I load the pictures to my Flickr account, I will create a link here.

Tarako Hell

During the holiday season last month, my partner and I were in Tokyu Hands, hearing in the distance a faint sound of a children song that turned out to be a Siren Song from Hell. Why, you ask? Well, watch the video, and see if you can get the darned song and dance out of your mind for good!!! If you succeed, let me know how you do it...

Apparently, "tarako" is Japanese for cod roe. These videos are commercials, hawking tomato-based cod roe sauce. There is indeed Japanese pasta dish that is served with such sauce. I happen to like the dish, dang it! The video above was the one we saw at Tokyu Hands, sold as DVD for kids, and as you can see, it is a sing-along video complete with the lyrics down at the bottom of the screen (if you can read Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana, by all means, sing along!)

Here are the lyrics for the original Tarako music video (thanks to JapanNewbie.com):

たったら　たったら　たらたら　たらこ [x2]

tattara tattara taratara tarako [x2]

おなかが鳴ると　やって来る
なかまを連れて　やって来る

onaka ga naru to yattekuru [when your stomach growls, it (tarako) comes]
nakama wo tsurete yattekuru [it comes bringing its friends]

たらこ　かぶって　顔出して
スイッチョ　スイッチョ　出かけます

tarako kabutte kaodashite [It wears the tarako hood and sticks its face out]
suiccyo suiccyo dekakemasu [suiccyo steps out for the day]

ふと気づけば　窓の外
ふと気づくと　家の中

futo kidukeba mado no soto [suddenly you notice, it’s just outside your window]
futo kidukuto ie no naka [suddenly you notice, it’s in your house]

たらこ　たらこ　たっぷり　たらこ
たらこ　たらこ　たっぷり

tarako tarako tappuri tarako [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]
tarako tarako tappuri [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]

たらこが　やって来る
たらこ　たらこ　つぶつぶ　たらこ

tarako ga yattekuru [tarako is coming]
tarako tarako tsubutsubu tarako [tarako tarako lumpy-lumpy tarako]

たらこ　たらこ　つぶつぶ
たらこが　やって来る

tarako tarako tsubutsubu [tarako tarako lumpy-lumpy]
tarako ga yattekuru [tarako is coming!]

たらこ　たっぷり　たっぷり　たらこ
たらこ　たっぷり　たっぷり　たらこ

tarako tappuri tappuri tarako [x2] [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]

パスタゆでると　やって来る
きれいに並んで　やって来る

pasuta yuderu to yattekuru [when you boil pasta, it (tarako) comes]
kirei ni narande yattekuru [it comes all neatly lined up]

いつも　ニコニコ　素敵な笑顔
チャカボコ　チャカラカ　チャーミング

itsumo nikoniko sutekina egao [always ginning with a nice smile]
cyakaboko cyakaboka charming [cyakaboko cyakaboka charming]

ふと気づけば　肩の上
ふと気づくと　皿の中

futo kidukeba katano ue [suddenly you notice, it’s (tarako is) on your shoulder]
futo kidukubo sara no naka [suddenly you notice, it’s in your plate]

たらこ　たらこ　たっぷり　たらこ
たらこ　たらこ　たっぷり

tarako tarako tappuri tarako [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]
tarako tarako tappuri [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]

たらこが　やって来る
たらこ　たらこ　つぶつぶ　たらこ

tarako ga yattekuru [tarako is coming!]
tarako tarako tsubutsubu tarako [tarako tarako lumpy-lumpy tarako]

たらこ　たらこ　つぶつぶ
たらこが　やって来る

tarako tarako tsubutsubu [tarako tarako lumpy-lumpy]
tarako ga yattekuru [tarako is coming!]

たらこ　たっぷり　たっぷり　たらこ
たらこ　たっぷり　たっぷり　たらこ

tarako tappuri tappuri tarako [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]
tarako tappuri tappuri tarako [tarako tarako plenty of tarako]

***

Here is another video, and that sachet of tomato-based cod roe sauce was exactly what I had sometime last year, except I did not look as scary as that girl eating it.

R.I.P.: Ando Momofuku (1910-2007)

Inventor of the instant noodles died at 96. Ration condition after World War II inspired the man to develop the first instant-noodle ever. Starting with Chicken Ramen in 1958, he followed in 1971 with the ubiquitous Cup Noodle, found in supermarket shelves as well as Cathay Pacific galleys.

Read the original article HERE.

New Year in Full Force

Tokyo awoke from her New Year's Holiday. While Christmas in this predominantly Shinto/Buddhist nation is not a big deal, New Year is. Christmas 2006, which fell on a Monday, was not a holiday, but from December 29 until January 4, most offices and businesses closed down. People fled the city or stayed at home to relax.

While major department stores already opened on January 2 with gradually longer hours, only today (Friday, January 5) did most of Tokyoites return to work in full force, and the effect could not be felt more than in one of her busiest spots: Shibuya. Just witness the major intersection with hundreds of people crossing tonight: in the past few days, this spot was almost like a ghost town.

Like major European cities, January in Tokyo means Major Sale Month. Businesses want to dump their inventory by slashing the price up to 70%, but with this city being one of the most expensive places in the world, a sale price here means just a regular price elsewhere...

On the first day of reopening, many stores features "Fuku-Bukuro," which is basically a "Mystery Grab Bag:" you pay for the said price and take a risk in getting a bag with mystery contents. This is a real bargain because the actual price of the content s is much higher than what is charged to the customers, but the risk is there: you can end up with either "treasure" or "trash," which sounds very much like a commercial "trick or treat." The Nike Fuku-Bukuro at Takashimaya, for example, included a jogging suit, a sports bag, and a pair of shoes. I am not entirely sure what happens if one does get what he wants but in the wrong size. These bags sell like hot-cakes, according to one staff member; within less than two hours, they were out of Fuku-Bukuros.

Spread the Fat

The company may be closing many locations in the U.S., but Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has decided that Asia is where the action is, especially in places that worship anything "new and Western," like Tokyo and Hong Kong. Kriskpy Kreme blamed the downturn in their fortune to the No-Carb Obsession of the Americans; perhaps they will have better luck here in Asia, whose people seem to have higher metabolism and to know moderation (although these days in China the children of the nouveaux riches seem to have expanding girth).

I was passing through the Shinjuku Southern Terrace back in December 8 of last year when I realized that there was a new addition to this commercial stretch that had already included a Starbucks and a seafood restaurant. It was the Krispy Kreme shop, and the sign said, "7 Days" until the opening, on December 15. Inside of the store, staff were working full time, doing a dry run, if you will. The machine was humming and doughnuts were being produced, and instructions were given to the underlings. At night time, with so thousands of practice doughnuts in abundance, they did not know what to do except to give them away to passersby.

Since its opening on December 15 until this article was written, the store never ran out of doughnuts and the new customers who loved them. Not only were faithfuls, new converts, and the curious patiently queued and filled the raised terrace area in front of the shop, but the line also continued at another side of the building (at the beginning of the bridge that connected the area to the Takashimaya department store), prompting the company to hire security staff to direct traffic from that line to the terrace.

I still remember in the mid-90s, when Krispy Kreme hit California. Not only was the line inside snaked all the way outside, but the drive-through queue caused traffic jam in the parking area of a mall complex in East Bay. I had my first taste of KKD in the mid-80s, when I was schooled in the South (Louisiana and Tennessee). I remember that when I went to one of the shops in Nashville, it was just like a diner, complete with at least two of the city's finest (police) perched at the counter. The shop was located in a rather deserted area, and from outside, the scene could pass for a stepsister of Edward Hopper's famous popular painting "Nighthawks." Who would have guessed that one day, I would run across Krispy Kreme at one of the hot spots of one of the most exciting metropolis in the world.