A Spring Trip to Japan
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I arrived at Narita in the late afternoon, and after immigration, baggage claim, customs, and a train ride into Tokyo, it was suppertime. We took the easy way out, and went to a local outlet of Barmian, a Chinese food family restaurant chain.
Family restaurants in Japan are typically two-level, with a parking lot on the ground floor -- real estate is at a premium! The dining area on the second floor looks just like its American counterpart, except the self-serve bottomless drinks are more likely to be Calpis than Coke.
Several social trends have made convenience a major factor in Japanese consumers' food purchases. More women are entering and staying in the work force: they are pursuing career opportunities, marrying later and having fewer children. The number of unmarried men is also rising accordingly. Meanwhile, the percentage of Japan's senior citizens is increasing, due to the low birth rate and the longest life expectancies in the world (83 years for women, 76 years for men).
In general, the people in these demographic groups have little time, energy or inclination to cook for themselves. Consequently, the already-strong demand for products that cut down on cooking time and effort -- such as frozen foods, microwavable foods and those in retort pouches -- has grown. Consumers also buy take-home meals from supermarkets and other outlets.
These social and economic factors have also fueled a trend toward consumer spending on eating out. The number of western-style family restaurants has grown rapidly since the late 1990s.
- Convergence of U.S., Japanese Food Trends Spells Opportunity for U.S. Exporters
- Leading Japanese Foodservice Companies (JFY 1998)
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Because of problems of fraud related to its 500-yen coin, the Bank of Japan recently replaced it with a new, gold-colored coin. Dorami-chan saved one for me, and I will scan it soon for my Japanese Coins page.
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My main reason for coming to Japan this time was to attend my cousin Taku's wedding.
Dorami-chan and I had lunch at Roy's Bar and Grill in Aoyama, part of a chain that spans the Pacific, both in terms of its fusion cuisine and its locations in Japan, Guam, Hawai'i and many cities in the mainland United States. We were there to meet with a Toronto-era friend who is now working in Tokyo. When we told her we have been learning taiko in Portland, she mentioned that one of her cousins plays taiko in America. It turns out that cousin is a member of the Asian American drumming group Portland Taiko, our teachers! When I met Star Trek's George Takei last year, I told him I know his aunt. How many degrees of Nikkei separation are there? Apparently not many!
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When the folks at Portland Taiko heard we were going to Japan, they asked if we could pick up some drumming supplies for them. We went to the source, Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten Co., Ltd., a maker of Japanese percussion and festival instruments since 1861. The fourth floor of their Asakusa outlet is Taiko-kan, a museum of drums from Japan and all over the world. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, however, so we couldn't see it this time.
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The drum shop was near the famous Asakusa Temple,
a popular tourist site. As we navigated through the crowd on shop-lined Nakamise-dori,
Dorami-chan reminded me that this street is a favorite of
suri (pickpockets) and I should keep my hand on my wallet.
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You can see a cross section of Japanese
society just by standing on the fohmu (train platform).
The chapatsu (bleached brown hair) and yamamba girls that were
everywhere when I was last in Japan had all but vanished. What a difference
six months makes in Japan, where fads die fast and hard!
That said, there were still some high school girls with "loose socks",
which I first saw on my 1997 trip.
March is graduation season. Some college and university women students
dress up for their commencement ceremonies in
furisode and hakama but western-type boots.
This was everyday dress for women in the Meiji period (1868–1912) and
early Taisho period (1912– 1926).
- Where are they now? The metamorphosis of the yamanba tribe
- Gals sell soles to give platform-shoe trend the boot
- From Japanese to Western Dress
- What's Kimono: Photo Gallery
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March 20th was Shunbun-no-hi (Spring Equinox Day), the middle day of Haru-no-higan, and a national holiday. The coming of the equinoctal week in March signifies the advent of spring (and, in September, of autumn). It is said that no winter cold (and no summer heat) lingers past the equinox day.
Higan, along with Bon is a Buddhist religious period tied to ancestor worship. Higan means "nirvana" or eternal paradise. Family members pay a visit to the ancestors' grave at Higan, sweeping and cleaning up around it first, then they offer seasonal flowers and foods, light incense and pray. They usually offer rice cakes called ohagi (rice cakes with sweet red beans).
I didn't have time on this short trip to go all the way to my father's family tomb in Fukue. Instead, we went to visit Obaa-san (my maternal grandmother) in suburban Tokyo and brought copies of photos we took at my cousin Taku's wedding. Before we left, we prayed "Konnichiwa to omedetougozaimasu" to Ojii-san (my maternal grandfather) at Obaa-san's butsudan (home Buddhist altar).
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Dorami-chan's father turns 70 later this month,
so we took the family to a fancy Japanese restaurant for a multicourse traditional meal
to celebrate his reaching the koki age.
We had a whole tatami banquet room all to ourselves. The food was
delicious and the dishes were beautiful. Don't ask what the bill came to!
The word "koki" originates in the phrase, "Since the ancient times, it has been rare to live for 70 years", from a poem titled "By the Winding River" written by Tu Fu, the master of Chinese poetry in the Tang dynasty. Tu Fu died at the age of 59, and did not live to the koki age.
During the last 50 years, life expectancy in Japan increased almost 27 years for men and about 30 years for women. The greatest improvement occurred in the 1990s. In 1997 the average life expectancy reached 77.l9 years for men and 83.82 years for women. Both are the highest in the world.
In contemporary Japan, the word "koki" to express the rarity of reaching 70 years of age no longer seems to fit. However, in the rest of the world, the "1998 Annual Report on the World's Population", projected the average worldwide life expectancy as 63.4 years for men and 67.7 years for women for the period of 1995 to 2000.
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The television is constantly on at my in-laws house. I enjoyed some things I saw, like broadcasts of matches of the Spring Sumo Basho. Much has changed in the sumo world since I saw the demonstration basho in Vancouver BC, just three years ago. There has been a net loss of one yokozuna: Wakanohana and Akebono have retired, and Musashimaru got promoted. The progress of Japanese player Ichiro at the Seattle Mariner's spring training camp was updated daily. There were many panel shows, featuring so-called tarento ("talents" = personalities) I didn't know (and frankly didn't really care to find out about). Other things weren't so pleasant: local news stories of abandoned babies and sutohka (stalkers). "Gino" thought sutohka was a wasei Eigo (Japanese-invented English) word, but I less-than-proudly told him that it is a term that had to be coined in the West because of the obsessed behaviour of certain people.
- Far East stars rise in West
This feature on Ichiro and Sasaki was the cover story of the 14 March 2001 issue of Baseball Weekly - Batting Out Of Their League
Thanks to an archaic ownership system, Japanese baseball is losing its best players - For TV idols, an IQ isn't a plus
Japan is going wild over idiots - J!-ENT: A Japanese Entertainment Zine in English
Keep up on the ever-changing Japanese entertainment scene - The Head Scratcher's Glossary
A guide to gairaigo and wasei Eigo - Violent crime scars Tokyo's safe image
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The Apartment (USA 1960; Dir: Billy Wilder)
Part of the in-flight entertainment was a Film Classics channel. This won Best Picture Oscar back in 1961 (not that I have any faith in the opinions of the Academy of Motion Pictures). Watching this oldie, one can't help but think that American society has progressed in the last 40 years (uh, hasn't it?).
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I have ranted before about the poor design of information at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. My opinion was reinforced by my experience this trip. On emerging from the customs and immigration area, we were all handed an n-th generation photocopy of a map indicating how to get from the South Satellite to connecting flights leaving from the North Satellite. I had learned how to do this from previous (bad) experience, but the others for whom this was the first time were left wondering where they had to go. If only the airport had signage that says the right things and is posted in the appropriate place, they could save the money of producing the maps and paying someone to hand them out.
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