We Dress Up Like Snowmen (Part One)

I think my slight obsession with the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri started one day, many years ago in my university library. Browsing through a journal looking for something that actually had relevance to my dissertation, I stumbled across a mention of the giant snow sculptures at the Yuki Matsuri and got distracted (easily done when a dissertation deadline is looming) for a good 40 minutes. In my head, the festival was like that Hiroshige print* (music fans may know this as the cover of Weezer’s Pinkerton album) but with huge snow models of polar bears.

As I found out more about the festival (and after I’d read Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami, hmmm, should have stayed at the Dolphin Hotel) I discovered that Sapporo was a major, vibrant Japanese city and that the sculptures were in the middle of the park, not my initial romantic vision of a tiny sleepy town hidden away in the mountains brought to life by mind-blowing snow sculptures once a year.

Did this mean I wasn’t as keen to go? Did it heck.  At Ueno station in 2006 my friend and I got chatting to two fellow British girls who were off to Hokkaido and I felt major pangs of jealousy even though the snow festival wasn’t even on (it was September) and I was about to head off to the equally amazing Kyoto by shinkansen for the first time.

So, when we stepped off the plane on Saturday morning wearing as many clothes as we could possibly could without having to pay for an extra plane seat, I was a little apprehensive in that way you can be when you’ve built up something in your mind.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Sure, it was crowded –ish and a little heavy on the advertising (but hey, aren’t most places in Japan?) in Odori Park, one of the main three sites, but the joys of seeing the (wow running out of adjectives here) uniquely spectacular structures made of snow and the glorious smells wafting from the various food stalls were more than enough distraction from the –10 weather conditions and equally amazed crowds.

After about two hours of photo taking, hot drink consuming and gawping though, I was happy to head into one of Japan’s many handy underground shopping centres for more hot drinks and waffles to warm up. I also bought even more socks. Note: in Sapporo in February, there is no such thing as too many socks.

In the evening we headed to Susukino, the city’s entertainment district, and another festival site – this time with a huge collection of intricate ice sculptures. There’s something strangely beautiful at times about the bright lights of Japanese city centres, and rather than distract from the beauty of the ice sculptures, the neon advertising hoardings on the surrounding high rises reflected off the surfaces of the ice, enhancing their impact.

It started to snow, adding to the excitement (here in Okayama shi we have had exactly one afternoon’s mild flurry this winter), and we luckily came across an ice bar to stop in and drink mulled wine while being snowed on. Like so:

Dinner was jingisukan**, a Hokkaido speciality of barbecued lamb accompanied with maybe the tastiest prawns I’ve ever eaten in my life.

The next day after a quick breakfast catch up with a fellow JET we hadn’t seen since parting ways after Tokyo Orientation, we headed to the Sapporo Beer Museum. Bet you didn’t know that Sapporo Beer is made by tiny tiny snowmen:

Well, you do now.

The most interesting part for me about the museum (apart from the 500 yen beer tasting – get in!) was the advertising posters and its odd gendering of beer drinking (what can I say, once a film studies student…).

The posters start with beautiful women in traditional Japanese dress serving beers, and then by the 1960s the beautiful women are actually drinking the beers! By the late 1970s they have started using men to advertise the beer as well…

After a lunch of (ahem) jingisukan again (what can I say? There’s a shortage of lamb round Western Honshu parts) we headed back into town to catch a train to Otaru.

Hmmm. I was going to try and fit this all in one post, but I think I’m going to have to take a leaf out of Ben’s book and split this into two parts. So you’ll have to wait for the next post to hear about our Otaru adventures…

You can also read about our trip to Sapporo from Ben’s perspective here.

*I just found out this is actually called “Evening Snow at Kanbara.”

** Well, according to Wikipedia, jingisukan is thought to be named thus because in prewar Japan people thought lamb was what Mongolian soldiers ate, and because the dome shaped barbecue pan looks a bit like Genghis Khan’s helmet. Hmmm.

“A London taxi is a flying bomb.”

I finally saw the film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy last night and it took me a while to settle into this version of the story. It’s a book I picked up six years ago not really expecting to enjoy and by the end was so involved with the characters that I missed my stop on the Tube and was late for work.

The acting and direction were spot on – I loved the griminess of everything on screen and the actors they chose: Tom Hardy, Toby Young, Kathy Burke and Mark Strong were particularly good.

However, the pacing of the story threw me a little in a way that’s hard to talk about without spoilers. As I’ve already seen the TV adaptation and read the book numerous times, I’m not sure if it’s obvious who the mole is from the beginning if you don’t already know, but to me it really did seem like they didn’t spend enough time with each character to make it really any kind of a mystery. Or enough time with each character to really get you as involved with them as you do in the book/BBC adaptation. Do you, for example, really learn who Roy Bland is in this film, other than he has a gruff voice and he’s one of the top Circus brass and a suspect? The blackly comedic Christmas party scene made up for that in a lot of ways – although (and this is a common complaint of mine with film versions of books, and yes, I know, this is a film, not a book, it’s a film, not a book) why add something to take up precious screen time?

I got a bit confused with there being two scenes where Peter Gulliam* takes files out of the Circus and thought for a second they’d ballsed up one of the tensest scenes in the entire book. However, I was relieved when I realised the scene I was thinking of was actually later on. (And I’ll  probably always think of it when I hear George Formby from now on.)

I also didn’t like the fact they opened with the failure of Operation Testify – instead of with Ricki Tarr’s arrival and interrogation in the UK. The book is confusing the way it throws you straight into the middle of things, but I like the way it forces the reader to unravel things for themselves (Who are all these people? What are “babysitters”, or “pavement artists” for that matter?)  in much the same way George Smiley is patiently, gradually doing for himself. I realise 2 hours is a lot less time than an author or a 5 hour TV adaptation has though, and that’s probably most of the reason why it was set up the way it was.

I was also a bit annoyed that Smiley/Gary Oldman didn’t really say anything for the first five minutes. After that though, I didn’t really have any problem with him as Smiley, although Alec Guinness is always going to be who I have in my head.

Having said my criticisms, I think they got the themes of the book across perfectly. I sometimes listen to Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review and they had a long running discussion when this film came out where Mark Kermode  kept being criticised for saying it wasn’t a film about spying.

And, ok, it is a film about spying… but really it’s a film/story that uses spying to talk about love, aging, friendship, loyalty and betrayal. That’s what it’s really about, and why I love the book and what this new adaptation just about manages to show, in very subtle, tiny ways.

* Also, I can’t quite work out why they made Guilliam  gay, not that the gender of the person he’s in a relationship really matters to the plot…

Grade me

Not content with watching the pain of my students and their endless exams, I’m considering jumping into the revision frenzy myself and signing up for the JLPT N5 when applications open in March.

The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) takes place twice a year (July and December) and is one way to get a shiny certificate to show all that hard (cough cough must study more) work I’ve been doing since September 2010 to try and learn Japanese.

N5 is the lowest level (defined as “some basic Japanese”) – N1 is the highest. My teacher seems to think with some revision I should be able to pass N5 without too much problem. She even recommended trying for N4 if I work really fast through the second textbook we should be starting soon, but that seems a little ambitious and scary.

I haven’t really bothered with the JET language course since I got here. I took a look at the first book and realized a )self study never works for me as I need someone to correct my mistakes b)it was all in romaji (Roman characters like what these are, unlike これ)　and c) it would be taking me back a couple of steps and confusing me. So I’ve just been continuing my private lessons and ploughing on (nearly finished!) through Genki 1. The one attraction of the JET course however, was that you get a nice certificate to say you’ve been studying Japanese for a year.

However, do I really want a “nice certificate”?

I’m studying Japanese so that I can attempt to talk to people and read signs/menus/bus timetables. And also for a weird sense of enjoyment: since I started learning kanji I sometimes feel like I’m learning it for the sake of learning it – it’s really satisfying to start recognizing more and more of the various newsletters that pop up on my desk or of the various signs everywhere.

I find Japanese really really hard. I’m often embarrassed to tell people how long I have been studying considering I still speak in very basic sentences, have a terrible accent and forget/mixup all my tenses, forms and particles all the time. It drives me mad when my kids come up to me and say “I don’t speak English” or “English is too hard” but I understand where they’re coming from a lot of the time. My brain often pulls a rabbitintheheadlights motion when it’s confronted with Japanese, even when it’s the most basic question. And then I want to kick myself.

Passing a test isn’t necessarily going to make me a better speaker or reader of Japanese. Practicing speaking Japanese, revising grammar, vocabulary and learning kanji is going to make me a better speaker of Japanese.

However, no matter how much I know that with everything in life it takes hard work to get to something, I’m really bad at motivating myself to study (apart from with the kanji which has some kind of addictive quality to my brain at present). So the JLPT might just be another small goal to aim for to make me speak Japanese, revise grammar, vocabulary and kanji on a regular enough basis. Deadlines are always a good motivation. Plus it would mean I could come back to the UK in six months time with something concrete to show for my time here.

Hmmm.

Bath day

Um. Yes. So we have lots to catch up on. Tokyo, my dad’s visit, Beppu… to name a few.  Sorry. I’ve been getting on with that list of mine and with the decision to leave Japan in six months made; I need to get a move on! (By the way,  for more Okayama/Japan adventures, Ben’s rebooted his blog – and you can read it at Not Enough Cheese.)

So here’s one of the things I’ve scratched off the list:

3) Sitting in an onsen full stop: haven’t managed this one yet. Plans are afoot for Beppu in January, so…

Yesterday was my birthday. By Thursday afternoon I realised I hadn’t really planned anything to do on the day itself. Luckily Jess (who blogs here) sent out an invite to escape the winter cold by spending the day sitting in hot water at Spa World in Osaka.

Spa World is an “onsen theme park”. The baths are divided into two zones: “Europe” and “Asia”. They swap the zones around by gender depending on which month it is – because this is Japan, and in communal baths in Japan, you get nekkid.

We arrived to find out that for some obscure reason, it was about 1,700 yen cheaper than the stated price on the website (1000 yen = about £8!). Score.

As it was an odd numbered month, and as we’re female, the Europe Zone was our destination. There were about six different areas: “Rome” (a very hot bath with pillars and statues), “Finland” (two different saunas with a cold water pool to cool off in), “Greece”(a herbal bath) and an outdoor bath with waterfall  (“Mediterranean” – no, I’m still not sure what’s so Mediterranean about that) being some of them.

It was ace. It wasn’t exactly the same experience as the outdoors mud baths and baths in Beppu (something special about staring at Japanese hills while in a hot bath) but it was lovely, relaxing and most importantly, warm.  Five hours passed very quickly. They’d also come up with the genius plan of giving you wristbands with a little chip in them so that you could buy drinks and food (even from the vending machines!) without having to go and get money out of your locker.

This was…my fourth time (I think) in an onsen after Beppu, and it’s funny how you get used to being naked in front of others very quickly. There’s always the initial awkwardness where you sheepishly walk into the bath using as much of the tiny towel as you can to cover yourself and then five hours later, you’re striding round the place with the towel on your head without a care in the world.

It’s one of the things I love about being in Japan – it’s a bit of a cliché, but living here really does frequently challenge your established perceptions of yourself. Not that I’m usually that freaked out by nudity (if you grow up with a father who runs a life drawing class and life paintings all over your house it’s not really possible) but I think being naked in front of others is usually considered one of the most embarrassing things possible. Cf. all those nightmares where you’re taking an exam, look down and – uh oh, no clothes!

I guess like a lot of things in Japan, it’s about the established time and place.  For example, it’s okay to get steaming drunk at a work party, but it’s not really the done thing to talk about personal matters in the workplace.  Doubt we’re going to see naked bike rides down Momotaro-dori anytime soon.

You! Me! Dancing!

I know that I am incredibly lucky that there are not oceans between  us, but some evenings (especially dark cold ones like this when there is nothing to do but put on lots of layers and huddle round my laptop/a book/a Japanese textbook, cough cough, muststudymore, cough cough),  I miss sitting in our tiny flat in London with my boyfriend, whipping him at Trivial Pursuit (or being pwned at Scrabble),  listening to shouty indie music and laughing at the cat falling off the sofa.

This would be the soundtrack (skip to 1:18 for immediate indie shoutyness, although I like the buildup)

I don’t even have the pleasure of having the TV remote to myself in this apartment.

This is not to say that I am not enjoying Japan. I’m having an insert-sea-mammal-of-your-choice of a time. Even two days at the English camp (and one of them was a Saturday too) was great fun. There was a minor blip last week  where I had a brief culture shock meltdown inspired by a menu when my usual tactic of “well, I think this is the type of food I’m ordering and if not it’ll still be nice” backfired and I ended up with mushroom (food of evil) gratin and wasabi salad (I thought the wasabi salad was going to be fish. Yep, I really muststudymore). Apart from that, I’m having fun, enjoying nearly all my classes,  had some good hanging out time with other ALT types and I’m off to Tokyo this weekend.

Is it weird that I’m a little intimidated by Tokyo? I’ve been before and loved it, so I’m not sure why I’m a little worried about this weekend. It’s just so huge and there’s so much going on that you always have the Fear that you’re somehow missing out on something amazing going on just round the corner.  A lot like London in that respect. I’m hoping if nothing else, there will be me, him and dancing. I think I just need to stop my brain going on huge “but what happens next?” flights of fancy with regards to lots of aspects of my life. I would be a lot happier  (and I’m pretty happy now) for it.

To do: Japan

For the past few weeks or so I’ve been making a list in my head of things I want to do before I leave Japan.  Some of these are hopefully in the pipeline, and I’ll undoubtedly add more as I go along, but here’s what I have so far, written down and available for the whole internet to see. Hopefully that means there’s more chance of me getting these done. And some of them are ones I have already done, nicely already ticked off, in the grand tradition of all the best to do lists.

Japan: To Do:

1. Try skiing/snowboarding somewhere in Japan. I have never tried skiing or snowboarding on actual snow.  I really enjoyed the one hour on a dry ski slope boarding I did way back at university. Japan seems as good a place as any to start, considering it’s supposed to be a little cheaper if you’re already here than going somewhere in Europe or America.
2. Sitting in a natural onsen in the snow.
3. Sitting in an onsen full stop: haven’t managed this one yet. Plans are afoot for Beppu in January, so…
4. Continuing the snow theme: going to Sapporo’s Yuki Matsuri. I have a very clear memory of stumbling across photographs in a book in a library of the Yuki Matsuri and being absolutely taken aback. It’s one of the reasons I returned to Japan. It’s difficult to get there as it takes place when there’s no national holidays or exams, but I’m going to try my best.
5. Have a drink at the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt Hotel. A little naff this one, I know, but I really love Lost in Translation.
6. Visit a Japanese theme park. Tokyo Disneyland or even the Hello Kitty one…
7. Visit at least one place on Honshu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Okinawa.
8. Go to a maid café. Preferably a non-sleazy one.
9. Go to a love hotel. I don’t think there are non-sleazy ones.
10. Have a go at shodo. (Japanese calligraphy). I’m famously uncoordinated so I don’t think it’d be a viable long term hobby for me, but I’m really enjoying beginning to learn how to write kanji, so I think at least one go would be ace.
11. Learn to cook at least one Japanese dish really well.  Had fun learning how to make tempura with Ben’s Kyoto-sensei the other week but I don’t think tempura’s something I’ll be making regularly.
12. Go to more Tadao Ando buildings. Ben’s burgeoning obsession with this guy is beginning to rub off on me. There’s a pending post in my head about the Nariwa Museum which we went to on Saturday to explain some of this.
13. See Kinkaku-ji. I’ve been to Kyoto twice and still not seen it.
14. Watch the Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri (also known as the Okayama Naked Man Festival). Nine thousand men in loincloths wrestling each other for sticks. In February.
15. Go to the I Love Yu crazy arty onsen on Naoshima.
16. Spend a night on Naoshima.
17. Learn enough Japanese to actually have a proper conversation with someone. I’m getting there… I can have 20%Japanese/80%English conversations!
18. Go to the Yakushima forest on Kyushu. It looks stunning in photographs.
19. Eat natto. Done. Not a fan. Maybe I’ll try it again in a few months.
20. Visit Shodoshima.
21. Visit Onomichi.
22. Ride a camel on a Tottori sand dune.
23. Spend a night in a monastery in Koya-san.
24. Sit on a beach in Okinawa and pretend I’m a yakuza hiding out from inter gang troubles.
25. Have a crazy night out in Tokyo.
26. Have a crazy night out in Osaka.
27. Have a crazy night out in Kyoto. (noticing a theme here?)
28. Have a crazy night out in Fukuoka.
29. Stay in a machiya in Kyoto. I tried to do this for New Year, when my dad and stepmum will be visiting, but all the ones in our budget had unsurprisingly already sold out.
30. Cycle/hike the Kibi Trail.
31. Read more Soseki.
32. Have another go at taiko, or even try to join a group.
33. Go to a gig in Japan. We nearly got tickets to Friendly Fires in Tokyo in a couple of weeks, but our train won’t really get us there in time to go. Mogwai are playing Osaka on Wednesday night, but I can’t face a day’s teaching after the night bus back… (I know. I is a wuss.)
34. Proper all-nighter (with snooze breaks) in a karaoke room.
35. Walk a hike in the Sandan-kyo gorge in Hiroshima. There’s just something about the description in the Lonely Planet Hiking In Japan book that grabs me.

I think that’s enough to be going on with for now. I’m pretty sure there’s more. Any suggestions? Fancy joining me on any of the above?

It’s cold out there

Today is one of those days which makes me glad Ben convinced me that asking to be placed in Hokkaido was a terrible idea.

After a couple of false starts (I went out fully layered up on Saturday and spent most of the day sweltering) it feels like winter has finally come to Okayama. Although I’m inside most of the day, not all of my schools have heating in the classrooms, so I’ve spent most of the day confirming “Samui desu ne?” (cold, isn’t it?) with my colleagues. It’s cold out there.

It seems like not so very long that  I was desperate for some air conditioning in my apartment. Now, I’m very grateful to have such a small apartment that at the moment seems to keep the heat in. I haven’t had to turn either the heat function on the air con on yet or make use of my groovy little kotatsu. (Kotatsu-s are heated tables and one of the things that appealed to me about Japan before coming, although the famous lack of central heating did not.) Having said that, I am sitting here in a hoodie, vest, a sort of polyester inner layer top that I bought when I was freezing my butt off in Christchurch, New Zealand, two years ago*, jeans, one pair of socks and a big woolly pair of socks. It’s environmentally friendly if not the most fashionable of looks.

I’ve had some good advice today on Facebook about the glories of the Uniqlo Heat Tech range so I think I’ll be getting some of that.

*most unprepared for a climate I have ever been. “We’re going to the southern hemisphere in November, it’s practically summer, we won’t even need jeans!”. 9 degrees Celsius said otherwise…