iPhone Calling

It may be milder and underwhelming compared to the American counterpart, but the anticipation for the first iPhone sale in Tokyo is enough to get Apple enthusiasts to start lining up for one when it becomes available tomorrow, July 11. Pictured above is the first of the line at the Omotesando-dori Softbank, and the guy proudly announced his number-one-ness on a nearby board. Hiroyuki Sano, the first guy in queue and who came from Nagoya, had been camping there since Monday night (and it is now Thursday night).

At the eve of this launching, the line stretches only half a block, but Omotesando-dori, known as the "Champs Elysees of Tokyo" has a wide sidewalk, providing these people with ample amount of space. And Japan being Japan, it seems that perhaps Softbank had provided security by posting officers every few feet. Luckily for them, the weather tonight was excellent for a Tokyo summer: breezy with hardly any hint of humidity; best of all, it was not raining. Two different groups of TV crews were seen interviewing some people in the queue.

I did wonder how popular iPhone will be in Japan as this country (along with Korea) is way far ahead of everybody else in terms of phones with great features and usability, although none of them matches Apple's sleek design and level of status symbol.

Run for Your Waistline

That title is meant metaphorically AND literally. If you are going to keep your waistline slim, then run as far away as possible from what is coming to Tokyo: BURGER KING. But, if you are going to start consuming yet another unhealthy fare, then you better run a lot to get rid off the calories. BK's Press Preview took place today (June 6, 2007) at the restaurant, six years after it closed shop. To give it a local flavor, Teriyaki Whopper will be in its menu.

Pasmo is Here!!!

Once upon a time, yours truly arrived in Tokyo to find his wallet filled with not only hundreds of stores point cards but also a multitudes of transportation cards: one for Japan Rail (mostly train over the ground), one for Tokyo Metro (underground), and one for the Tokyo Bus. Many a time Bloompy wondered to himself why the three different proprietors had not developed one electronic card that could be read by the three different modes of transportations.

Well, either Bloompy's suggestion and perhaps hundreds of other people's complaints were heard OR the three institutions finally decided to create a pass that could be read by all, but at any rate, PASMO finally made its debut in March 2007.

Suica, the Japan Rail's Integrated Circuit Card (IC-card), had been in circulation for some years, but now it too can be used interchangeably with the Tokyo Metro and the Bus systems. Just as Suica is accepted by vendors within the JR-system, Pasmo can be used to make purchases at any locations that display the Pasmo Logo, as well as at all Suica-accepting shops.

For more information, click HERE.

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.

Only in Japan

The picture on the left is of a small booth operating in Shibuya, one of the busiest public transportation hubs in Tokyo. The booth is like a newspaper kiosk where, in this case, only one person could fit into it. Tradition and hygiene dictate this person to remove her shoes before entering that small kiosk. The picture on the right showed her shoes neatly stored together by the door.

Imagine doing this in New York, London, or Jakarta: that person will be surprised to find herself walking home barefoot! Or perhaps she might be luckier and still could find her shoes, but not in the same shape as she had left them. I happened to be in the area and passing this booth a few times today, so I could say that her shoes remained intact throughout the entire day. Who knows? Maybe on other days someone does play a trick on her; or maybe she has a security camera trained on that pair of shoes, or the shoes had a Global Positioning System chip so that she could track the thief down. This is, after all, Japan.

Business Names

An American expatriate friend of mine told me that if he ever needed any dental work done, he would prefer to wait until he returned to the States, because he had heard that Japanese dental work was not good at all. Someone quizzed me one time why a lot of Japanese covered their mouth when they laughed. I said that it was perhaps out of modesty. Wrong, he said; it was because they did not want to expose their teeth. That was horrible, but was he right?

It did not help that the business on the picture above had the name Gross Dental Labor, and the name was repeated, making it look like Gross, Gross! I am sure it is the name of the person behind the business, not a name chosen out at random. Then again, when you go around Tokyo, you would see these mind-boggling company names: there is a bookstore called Book-Off, or this salon pictured below, whose name was Flash Bust-up Salon. WTH???

BNE Has Arrived in Tokyo

On September 17, 2006, New York Times produced an article by Jesse McKinley titled "In San Francisco, a Plague of Stickers Opens a New Front in the Graffiti War." It talked about the proliferation of white stickers with a big black BNE printed on them. Remember those ubiquitous stickers "Obey," the "Giant" (referring to Andre the Giant)? It is similar to that. In the report, it mentioned the possibility of the stickers popping up in Tokyo. Well, guess what? They are definitely here. Above is a couple of stickers that I found at the Shibuya bus terminal.


[Update: January 7, 2007]
The top-most pictures of this blog remain the only remnants of BNE at the Shibuya station. As of January 1, the authority did their annual cleaning and scraped all stickers and repainted walls and columns. No more trace of BNE, but late last night I spotted more graffiti in two different sites in the Shibuya area: one in a dark back road by a river (the two horizontal pictures down below) and one in a busy alley in the heart of Shibuya (the vertical picture on the right). So, who is this BNE?

Means of Collection

Pay up, no matter how they collect 'em. It has been at least a year since phone companies like NTT DoCoMo introduced cell phones that act as debit cards. Working together with East Japan Rail's Suica e-money (JR East's Integrated Circuit card that allowed debit card swiping on an electronic card reader), DoCoMo issued cell phones (called Osaifu-Keitai) that could be swiped over a reader and money debited from them; both were based on a smart-card technology called FeliCa, a contactless IC chip technology that was developed by Sony Corporation.

I have no idea how many people have taken advantage of this technology and convenience. I think one of the factors that would comfort me in owning a cell phone "loaded with money" is that I am in Japan, where I can be rather sure that my cell phone would not be targetted for theft. Imagine what a "debit" cell phone may attract outside of Japan. JR East introduced the Suica IC (integrated circuit) card back in November 2001, and since then, 17 million people had taken advantage of the technology.

Buses in Tokyo will soon use a card reader, too. It is slated to start the service early in 2007. In addition to cash and electronic buss pass, one can now have a card swiped over the reader. Since the bus is not owned by JR, I am not quite sure whether the Tokyo Bus system will adopt something similar to the DoCoMo and Suica technology.

On September 27, 2006, JR East, NTT DoCoMo, JCB Co., and bitWallet Inc. announced a platform that would allow different e-payment to be done (Suica, iD, QUICPay, and Edy, respectively). This makes it easier for customers to use their e-money not only on transportation but also at vendors.

For Women Only

This is certainly not new in Tokyo, but it was the first time that I happened to have my camera ready to catch the decals on such special train cars: for WOMEN ONLY. Ladies, you know how it is in public transportations during rush hours: part of your body being groped by mysterious hands and perverts rubbing their crocthes onto your behinds. When you confront them, some have the gall to reason that the bus or the train's movement had caused it to happen.

Well, at least in Tokyo there are special JR (Japan Rail) train cars and Tokyo Metro subway cars designated for "Women Only" during rush-hour and late-night rides. Ladies are guaranteed safe rides during those hours. Outside of that time frame, the cars are co-ed. Pictured here are shots from the Chuo Rapid Line train car, stopping at Shinjuku.

In Japan, the platforms are marked to match where the train doors would be, so that people waiting can actually start lining up at the right spots. As you can see, the picture at the bottom informs the ladies that the Women Only cars' doors would open in these marked spots.

O-Hanami, O-Hanami

O-Hanami, O-Hanami...how lovely are your blossoms...

It is that time of the year again when the already ubiquitous never-stay-at-home Tokyoites come in droves to view the magnificent Cherry Blossoms. I am just happy to have made it back in town in time for this annual flower viewing. The marvel of it has gone down a notch, mainly because we went to the same spot (the Chidorigafuchi and the notorius Yasukuni Shrine). A friend of ours invited us for a picnic at the Shinjuku Park, another popular spot for Cherry Blossoms viewing, but the invitation came as we were already on our way meeting another friend at the Chidorigafuchi site.

The difference this year came with the presence of so many ducks floating on the river, competing for attention with the romanticists who were rowing their boats nearby. We were also treated to an outdoor dance performance that took place right by the Shrine. Men and women of all ages participated in the music and merry making of this festival.

While the emergence of the blossoms varies each year because it is dependent on the weather, we are glad that this year the blossoms have not made a mockery of us in this April's Fool's Day.

For more pictures, click here.

From Here to Eternity...

It may not look like it, but this Oedo-subway-line escalator at the Kokuritsu-kyogijo (by Sendagaya JR Train Station) seems to be one of the longest escalators I have ever seen in Japan, in the U.S., or in Europe. When you hop in it and stay put, it takes quite a while to reach the top (or the bottom). I actually started reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" at the bottom and finished it three steps before reaching the top. And I read that twice.

Currently Tokyo is building its 13th line, somewhere down beneath the Meiji-dori (Meiji street), one of the busiest streets in the city. While that is not yet near completion, Oedo line will for the time being carry the title of "the last" subway to be built in Tokyo.

Oedo line, the 12th subway line, was inaugurated on 12/12/12 (December 12 on the Japanese year 12 [the Japanese year starts on the beginning of the reign of a new emperor, and as such, the year 2000 was equivalent to the Japanese year Heisei 12]). The depth reached close to 50m at certain points, making it one of the deepest subway lines in the world.

The picture above is just one of the series of escalators that one has to take in order to reach the street level. At the Roppongi station, for example, you have to take at least 4-5 sets of escalators to reach down. Forget having any cell phone signals down there. Perhaps the long journey down to reach the train or up to return to the street level is one reason why the line has not been so popular. The ridership has been below what was originally predicted.

Next time you are in Tokyo and happen to ride this line, bring a good book. A thick book. Forget the thick book: bring your parents' entire Encyclopaedia collection, or do your family tree, going up to your great-great grandparents and down to your grandniece twice removed.

The Yanaka Course | Nishi Nippori

The Yanaka Course | Nishi Nippori, originally uploaded by bloompy.

In January, my cousin who visited from Amsterdam went to the area of Tokyo called Nishi Nippori. She recommended the place to me as she found the place tranquil and wonderful a site with many temples, shrines and houses preserved from the old time. I tried looking up the area in the guidebook and the Internet, but the former yielded nothing and the latter came up with only a scant result. So, equipped with nothing, I set out yesterday to go to the area blindly.

I was accompanied by a friend who had been wanting to explore an area called Yanaka, which, according to his reading, hosted a number of temples, shrines and houses that dated back from the Meiji era. I told him that I would be happy to accompany him on his exploration at another time.

Boy, were we both surprised when we ran into a map of the area to find out that what each of us had been looking for was actually the same, exact thing, except that he wanted to approach it from one end (the Sendagi Metro Station - Chiyoda Line) and I from the other terminus (the Nishi Nippori JR Station - Yamanote line). What lay in between these two stations was our interest all along!

During the Edo period, temples and shrines were pushed out of the city to avoid the frequent fires that ravaged the central area. With Japanese homes and building constructed mainly of wood and rice paper (for the partition screens), they became a willing ally to the fire that could lick and burn them at a much faster rate than the incense burnt at the temple to appease any naughty and arsen-minded gods. As a result, the temples and shrines here were also kept rather empty in the interior to lessen the problems with fire.

Temples in the outskirt of town also doubled up as a means of fortification. A lot of people could hole up within the temple to protect themselves from invaders. The so-called invaders, however, usually turned out to be locals who flocked to the area for some tranquility and beauty, according to the Frommer guidebook, which seemed to be the only one so far that had any information on the Yanaka trail.

This site also was least affected by the great 1923 Kanto Earthquake, as well as spared from bombing during the World War II. There were many temples and cemeteries on our first journey here.

The day's heat and humidity was the only reason we decided to end our sojourn. We would treat this as an introductory survey as we both planned to return here to do more observation and to snap more pictures. We wonder if the unavailability of information is meant to spare the site from tourists pouring into the area, making this haven of tranquility a well-kept secret ... Ssssshhhh!

The Yukata Party

The Yukata Party, originally uploaded by bloompy.

Last night I attended my first Yukata Party. It was quite exciting a soirée with about 80 men attending. The event, hosted by my friends at their residence at the posh Roppongi Hills, started around 7pm on Saturday evening, and the last guest left at around 4 in the morning on Sunday.

Yukata is a type of kimono worn by both men and women during the hot summer months. Since my move here in 2004, I learned that yukata was becoming popular again. Perhaps the cultural ministry wished for the young people to wear the traditional costumes from time to time, if not the full kimono then at least this informal yukata.

I learned that the men wear their yukatas loose on top (revealing a little bit more of the middle of the chest) to allow some natural ventilation. The obi (sash or belt) is to be worn under the stomach area, to emphasize the bulge of the belly, which in the olden days signified wealth and economic prosperity; but with young metrosexual men and gay men being very healthy and image conscious these days, the bulge is no longer... As a result, with too skinny a man, a towel has to be wrapped around the belly to give the illusion of a protruding stomach. I have yet to find out if, like the Scottish kilt and the Balinese sarong, underwear is supposed to be worn with the yukata.

The women unfortunately are to wear theirs with the lapels closed to display modesty. Still, I believe that the colors and patterns of the women's yukatas and obis are much more interesting than the limited color palette of the yukatas available to their counterpart.

I read a year ago about a young female entrepreneur who started producing and selling inkjet printed yukatas and kimonos. These are to be sold at a less expensive price than the traditional kimonos. Her aim was to get the young people to buy them at an affordable price with hope that if they enjoyed wearing them, the experience would become the springboard to buying a more traditional kimono, thus preserving the national costume.

In my experience, it is very easy to tie the obi on my own. You start with a temporary sash that holds the yukata closed while you wrap the decorative obi about three times around your hip (not waist). At the end of the wrapping, you tie the obi into a knot two times, and once it looks tidy, you rotate the sash so that the knot would be slightly off centered in the back. Then you untie the temporary sash that is buried underneath the decorative obi.

When I was buying my yukata, I saw a ready-made obi: a sash that had a beautifully tied knot and is easy to apply, using a velcro. I was tempted to buy this until I realized that this was the Japanese version of an American "clip-on tie". So, I learned quickly from the staff on how to tie the obi properly. Later on, I learned from a new acquaintance another way of tying the sash.

I have worn the yukata many times since the purchase. Having paid dearly for it (a good quality yukata can run from ¥22,000 to ¥50,000, an equivalent of US$200-$450), I better put a lot of miles into it. I have riden a taxi, picked up my partner from the train station and have lunch with friends wearing the yukata. My pair of geta (Japanese sandals) was quite comfortable and fashionable too, a little modification from the more traditional and the more painful to wear geta.

With the limited color palette and pattern for men, I am tempted to have my yukata custom made. I have had my shirts and pants custom or tailor made for some time (the US and European garment industry is not really that accommodating to smaller framed people like I am; and the boys department's largest size is still a tad bit too small for me), so why not have a custom made yukata?

The Return of the Cicadas

I recently returned to Tokyo from an extended Golden Week vacation. I left it as the city was trying to shed its cold weather and came back to see that some foreigners had donned shorts and light shirts, which could only mean that the warmer weather had arrived (one cannot really tell by the way most businessmen dress as they always wear the same dark suits, whiter shirts and dark ties, but that all will change soon, and I will explain that more later). The smell of the ginkgo (or gingko) biloba tree wafts throughout the city; these showy gymnospermous trees of Eastern Chinese origin can be found lining up the different neighborhood streets, and the smell . . . , well, let me say that there is a distinct scent to it that any sexually aware human being would easily recognize.

Tokyo mornings are beautiful, peaceful, and enjoyable, especially in the Springtime. The sun starts to reveal himself very early in the morning, around 4:30 or perhaps even earlier, necessitating one to have very opaque drapes and curtains in the bedroom if one is to shield him or herself away from the bright light.

Last night a friend, my partner, and I ate at a restaurant called Cicada (review will be available at the accompanying site at bloompyeats.blogspot.com) on Gaien-nishi dori in the Minami Azabu area. The name of the restaurant proved to be premonitory as this morning, for the first time since the end of summer last year, I heard the first of the cicadas in the distance, competing with the squawking of the crows. I had my window opened but the screen closed to keep the mosquitoes out (perhaps it is still too cool a weather for those blood-suckers to return, but so far, I have found and killed 3-4 of those vampiric pests).

(Now, returning to the dress code of the Tokyoites: the government has recently persuaded their male citizens to shed their dark suits, white shirts and dark ties in favor of "Summer Breeze" outfit [much like the American's Casual Friday outfit]. This was done so that buildings' air-conditioning could be set at a higher temperature, therefore reducing the energy intake and the heat outflow to the streets of Tokyo. The government is serious in reducing global warming [it would be rather embarrassing not to set example for other KYOTO Protocol adherents]. Up until now, female colleagues had had to brace the glacial temperature at offices everywhere because the cooler temperature ensures that their male counterpart would be at ease wearing their layered clothing inside the buildings [for further read: NY Times' James Brooke's article "Is a Salaryman without a Suit Like Sushi without Rice?" at www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/business/worldbusiness/20tieless.html? ])

The Last Shabu-Shabu

Hanezawa Outdoor Dining, originally uploaded by bloompy.

After a 3-day winter-like weather that brought rain and cold wind across the city, Tokyo re-emerged into the sunlight on Thursday, although unaccompanied by the glory of the cherry blossoms. Today the Hanezawa Garden, a favorite restaurant near where I live, offers its last shabu-shabu lunch and dinner for the season. Beginning next week, the Korean BBQ will again be featured as the main and only attraction in the outdoor dining at this elegant restaurant complex.

I was given a seat that was partially shaded by the tree; yet giving me full access to the bath of light available in front of me. The cherry blossoms in this garden still retained some of their flowers, but the look was pretty much emaciated. Throughout lunch, the petals were blown by the wind and fell down to the earth as if scattered by the hands of the gods and goddesses. The effect was magical. The shower of petals looked like a summer snow.

As lunch progressed, the comfort of the shade left me exposed to the mighty sun. Unlike the winter sun whose effect one could hardly feel, this one made its presence known. While enjoying my book -Marco Livingstone's David Hockney- I felt the heat becoming slightly unbearable. The presence of a standing waiter nearby provided a much-needed temporary shelter, but alas, his shadow went with him as he was called by a customer at a far-away table. I was once again exposed.

I am not complaining. After a three-day insistence by the grey winter weather to stay in the city, I welcome the change of weather. Spring, hopefully, is here to stay.

(For a review of the Hanezawa Garden, please consult http://bloompyeats.blogspot.com)

Confetti of Petals

Confetti of Petals, originally uploaded by bloompy.

It feels as if there were many weddings and birthday parties taking place these last few days for there were so much confetti strewn across the city. In fact, Tokyo (and all over Japan) is experiencing what the French call elegantly "La Fleuraison de Cerises", better known here as the Cherry Blossoms. In private gardens and public parks, canopies of the white flowers dominate the landscape, and the city is blanketed with confetti of petals. Last year I was travelling back to California when the cherry blossoms happened, much to my regret; the only consolation was that upon my arrival at the San Jose airport, I spotted one or two trees with blossoming cherry trees, but let's be real here, it ain't the same.

Last week, when the entire city was wondering to each other back and forth when the colder weather would give in to the warmer climate to allow the buds to emerge, I asked myself what the obsession was with this particular natural phenomenon. After all, this concrete jungle of a city is graced by the presence of other equally stunning flowers throughout the year, like the pinkish red Azaleas. Last Tuesday, while walking past three trees in my area, I saw that none of the flowers was apparently ready to come out. I tried to imagine if I would be amazed by the sight of a full blossoming tree. Few days later, I saw a third of the tree was covered with flowers. Still I was not too overly impressed.

But suddenly yesterday, on a bright, sunny but cool Saturday, it all changed. Accompanied by two friends and equipped with a camera, I set out to the Kudanshita area, heading toward the complex of the notorious Yasakuni-jinja (the Yasakuni shrine is where the war deads are interred; an annual visit by the Japanese prime minister to honor those deads remained controversial for Japan's role in World War II ). The walkway before and slightly after the two torii gates was lined mainly with food vendors. A vast area on one side, under huge pine trees punctuated by several Cherry blossoms, was occupied by picnickers on straw mats and people eating at tables provided by the food vendors. These picnics are so popular that it is difficult to secure an area for a group gathering. I learned that freshmen of many companies usually were sent early in the morning to block a certain area for their companies' people.

As one traversed the second torii gate and through a wooden double gate, one is greeted by a shower of these confetti, blown by the wind from the canopies of sakura abound. It was a stunning view, indeed. I gathered that because I was so used in seeing the greens of the trees juxtaposed against a clear blue sky that a sight of these millions of white flowers against the same blue heavens presented quite a different view of the landscape. There are other flowering trees, but usually those flowers are but punctuations in a bed of greens, but with the Cherry Blossoms, the whiteness of the flower really overwhelms any hint of greens. For the next few days, these green leaves will yield to the powerful presence of the white flowers.

At the end of the visit to the shrine area, we crossed the street and walked along toward the more beautiful Chidorigafuchi area, a stretch of walkway along a moat. The entire area was like a queue line at Disneyland, with people lining up to see the coming attraction. Even the overpass, a pedestrian crossing bridge, was chockfull of couples in love and family members in cheerful mood. None of this long waiting dampened their enthusiasm in viewing the blossoms up closer. Again, the sight did not disappoint: the moat was lined with the trees in full blossom. The audience was treated with the sight of several boats rowing down below: perhaps young couples in love and old couples rowing down memory lane (I suppose the middle-age couples are busily tending their screaming children and rebellious teenagers). Petals fell onto the moat but with each row of the oars, they were pushed to the sides. I saw a boat rowed by a much abled man, cleaving into a body of water filled with the strewn petals, but then his boat got under a tree. As if punishing the rower, the tree's branches overwhelmed him and for a moment, I saw him struggle to free himself from the clutching branches. He was more careful after that.

A Japanese friend asked me why foreigners always thought that the cherry blossoms were pink instead of white. I do believe the answer lies in the fact that the Japanese themselves depict these flowers as pink, as shown in travel brochures, billboards in the metro, and even fake cherry blossoms that decorate some stores and pachinko parlors; they are all white-centered with pink edges. From any distance, they are unmistakably pink.

There are still many different parts of the city I have yet to visit, but today's viewing of my first ever Japanese Cherry Blossoms will be etched in my memory. Unfortunately, the weather forecast has called for a rain spell in the next three days, reducing the chance that any flowers will remain intact in the branches after the rain subsides.

Almost Greek to Me

Since my travels to Europe in the 70s I have visited many public squares: in small towns and in big cities; during the fall, winter, spring, and summer; at dawn and near dusk, day and night. In my subsequent travels −after learning about the Greek agora and the Roman forum during college− I tried to recreate the feeling of being in that ancient marketplace, in that old public square. Did anybody ever stand and think that the very spot she or he stood on would one day be a subject of a study? What went on the mind of the people as they walked among the architectures that dwarfed them? In Nashville, Tennessee, stood the only standing replica of the Parthenon of Athens. While I was in college, many times I would visit the park where the monument stood and walked around the structure, but the feeling I was searching for eluded me.

Then today it happened in what I thought was the unlikeliest place in the world: the Ebisu Garden Place, one of the many contemporary temples to the gods and goddesses of commercialism. I have been to this shopping and dining complex cum brewery (the Yebisu Beer) many times, but today, because of the gorgeous mid-Fall weather of sunny and cool, I decided to walk aimlessly, in and out of and around the different buildings in the area. After three hours in the area, I walked on the ground level of a building with a tall ceiling. The portico was devoid of any Greek element: no Doric, Ionic or Corinthian columns; instead, it was simply rectangular columns that lined the sides of the building, supporting the overhanging roof.

The angle of the sun cast a shadow of the adjacent structure onto the wall of this building. Suddenly I felt as if I were circling a classical edifice in the ancient time. It was a weird feeling, because I thought such a reaction would only be available to me in the West, while touring similar structures. Here in the East, specifically in Japan, I thought I would be overcome by a site-specific sensation, such as: the Shinto shrines, the Buddhist temples or the Zen gardens. How foolish of me to be so narrow-minded. An exhilarating experience it was not; nonetheless, it was a gratifying feeling. At the time of the revelation, I was not thinking about the people in the future; instead, I was soaking in the moment of what I thought would be a walk among the giants in the ancient times, and oddly enough, that made my Sunday for me.

Xmas Starts to Pop Up

In the mid-80s in the U.S., this was how things worked: Stores had their Christmas decorations and merchandise for sale the day after Thanksgiving. In the late 80s, Christmas-related items started to pop up after Halloween, moving one month ahead before Thanksgiving. Shortly thereafter, in the early 90s, Christmas items ridiculously showed up in July in a major department store in San Francisco, which is not too bad compared to the year-round Christmas-stores in some small towns somewhere in the United States.

Here in Tokyo, on my outing tonight, I saw the first hint of Christmas shopping season. With the temperature dropping steadily in Tokyo, with the light of day diminishing ever so quickly in the late afternoon, and with people donning their scarves and overcoats already, the Isetan department store in Shinjuku 3-chome started to put up their dripping lights, metallic red garlands, and glass balls. Just a few weeks ago, the Halloween decoration was up in several shops and cafés. I have yet to see how October 31 will actually be celebrated here: whether the Tokyoites will actually run around the city, go to work in costumes, or whether any locals (expats excluded) will go trick-or-treating.

My feeling was that in the U.S., holidays were mostly created so that retailers can have a reason for putting things on sale. Somewhere in the lobbying world of the Washington, D.C., there must be some reps from the card industry that tried to get new holidays created so as to generate new greetings cards and boost up sales. In Tokyo, there is already a new kind of day called "the White Day" in response to the Valentine's Day. You see, VD (yes, that's Valentine's Day) in Tokyo is for the women to "give things" to the men; therefore, the White Day was created so that the men could return the favor. There is yet any indication about what happens to children who give their parents something on Valentine's Day (why children do this to their parents in the first place really confuse the meaning of that day. Wasn't VD created for lovers or does the term 'lovers' have an expanded postmodernist meaning now?)

The original intent of Mother's Day and Christmas and the likes was to honor the people or the history involved, but really, these days, those holidays concerned more with what to get for whom rather than remembering the spirit of the event. Do I sound like a much repeated broken record out there? Perhaps. I better shut up and do my Xmas shopping now.

I'd Like a Champagne with that Popcorn, Please.

All cinemas in Tokyo offer a ¥1000 admission price on the first day of the month. Without this discount, a ticket could be close to ¥2000 (bearing in mind US$1 roughly equals JP¥109). For the first time since my arrival I took advantage of this deal. Mind you, there is not much of a choice here with regard to the movies because of my language limitation. My European languages ability cannot carry me through an entire movie on one viewing only. American –mainly Hollywood– movies are indeed available, but they do not play at about the same time the American cinemas are playing them. According to a Japanese friend of mine, the theatres in Tokyo wait until a big holiday to launch a première for select American movies to ensure a big turn out and a sizable box office gain. Some movies play six months after its American première; but hey, a good movie is a good movie no matter when it is viewed.

The AMC theatres' reclining seats in the U.S. are so darned comfortable that I could fall asleep in that plush seating in a dark and cool auditorium; not necessarily so in Tokyo, at least not in the two cinemas I have attended thus far. The Shinjuku Takashimaya’s seats are stiff, making me think that the backing and the seat part are made of wood covered with felt: it has a plushy appearance but the feel of an old style school bench. The good thing is that this kind of seating will keep you awake to see the movie for which you had paid a lot of money. The rows are so narrow that basically your shin can tell you whether the person seated in front of you uses gel, mousse, foam or a hairspray to keep that funky hair-do.

The Virgin Cinemas at the new Roppongi Hills complex fares a little better in this department: plush seats and ample amount of leg space, but the theatre imposes a seat assignment when you buy the ticket. This reminds me of the cinemas in Indonesia in the olden days up until the late 80s, when you had to specify which seats you wish to take unless the ticket seller already assigned one for you. Like the ones in Indonesia, this Virgin Cinemas ticket seller showed me the map of my auditorium and offered me a few available seat assignments.

Once when I was in New York watching a matinée, I smiled as I saw the offering in the concession stand: alongside of the regular movie junk food like popcorn, nachos and the plastic cheese, gummy bears, there were baked goods, such as: carrot cake, blueberry pie and apple pie. These were not packaged pie or ready-to-go cake wrapped in cellophane. The server had to cut a slice from an entire cake. It was served in a mini paper plate (with a doily, no less!), a plastic knife and a paper napkin. I thought at the time that it was a novel, yet quaint, idea, until I saw what the Virgin Cinemas (and possibly in other Tokyo cinemas) listed the following in their concession offerings: beer, wine (red or white), or Champagne. Yes, maybe in other theatres, on any day these mood-altering drinks will definitely help us forget how much we had spent on the theatre to see a movie in a very cramped space.

Lost and Found

It has been a while since I had any "Lost and Found" item; not just any item at home, but losing something in public and going somewhere to retrieve it. In Indonesia, 99.9% of the time if I lost it, I would never find it again. In the U.S., the percentage was slightly lower; I really had to depend on a Good Samaritan to submit that lost item to the Lost and Found department somewhere. Well, recently, yours truly, in his excited state of having swum in the clearest indoor pool water and best visibility pool ever, left the area without bringing his goggles. I realized it much later at home when I could not find the item in my gym bag. Two days later, I decided to go out and get a new set of goggles to bring to the pool, just in case I could not find the lost one.

An article in the New York Times few months ago mentioned the honesty of the Japanese people. A photo accompanying the article showed what seemed to be thousands of umbrellas in a warehouse. Turned out that those umbrellas that were found were usually submitted to the police station, where they stayed until the owners reclaimed them. Wallets with money showed up as well, and the rule was that if the owner did not reclaim the item within six months, then the person who had submitted it could claim the item.

I decided to see if I could retrieve my pair of goggles at the pool first. After I described the item, the staff looked at their logbook of lost items. In my poor Japanese I mentioned that I had lost it the previous Friday. Then two staff members said what seemed to be the Japanese "a-ha!" and informed me that the item had been sent elsewhere. Of course this was all explained to me in Japanese, but as usual, when I started learning a language, I found it easier to say things than to understand what others were saying. I looked at their hand gestures, retrieved all the recognizable nouns and adjectives, and deduced that the item had been sent to a glass-topped office next to the swimming pool building. That building seemed to house the administrative office that governed both the pool and the gym next-door.

I pursued it further by going to the adjacent building after my swim with the new goggles (I was, after all, inquiring about the loss already in my swimming briefs). First, a stop at the front desk, where the staff told me to go to the office around the corner; then, as I was about to leave, I saw her pick up the phone (maybe alerting the office that an absent-minded foreigner -me- was approaching). By the time I reached the office and entered it, I saw the welcoming staff hang up the phone; she was indeed informed about me by the other one.

This second staff had me fill in a form of what I had lost, the description of the item, my name, address and phone number. Then she took me a few feet away to another counter, by where she asked me to sit down. She then approached a much older colleague, a man in his 50s. They had a friendly chat, and then they parted. She went back to her desk, and the old man disappeared into a room in the back. Not too long thereafter, he came back with a clear plastic bag with the goggles. Before he even took them out, I saw already that they were mine. Still, I had a closer look at it, and with a beaming smile, I thanked him, and on my way out I thanked her.

I think I was more excited that the system had worked than actually finding the goggles themselves. Well, at least this time, it has indeed worked. We shall see if they will be able to find it when I finally lose my mind.