December 21, 2023

  • So much English in Japan

    Why do Japanese use English words when there are perfectly fine Japanese words. On the news right now, Prime Minister Kishida was visiting a gallery of 2023 news photos and said: 黒と鮮やかな色彩とのコントラストの中に平和を願う強い思いを感じた (In the CONTRAST between the black and bright colors, I sensed a strong feeling that appeals for peace.) The word 対照 seems perfectly fine to me, but the wife just told me that the use of "kontorasuto" has not necessarily been infrequent for a while. Hmm, I wonder... 外来語

January 14, 2021

  • What's up

    "What's up"はカジュアルで気さくな挨拶語。"元気?"と言ったような意味合いで主に男性が使う。場合によって女性も。相手との親密関係を指すけど目上の人に対して使ったらタメ口のようで投げやりな態度を表す恐れもある。本当に親しい仲間とだけ使おう。

    "What's up"のupは"something's up"のupと同じくて"出来事"や”事件”に近い意味なので"いかがですか"のような気持ちも含む。頭に"hey!"を付ければより自然に聞こえる。”Hey! What's up!”

    Listen: Hey! What's up

    #日常英語 #カジュアル英語

January 24, 2020

  • Goemon 中華そば吾衛門

    In search of Ramen: 02 Goemon 中華そば吾衛門 [RDB 87%].  Our grandson 賢太郎大山 told us that his friends father ran a ramen shop, that was near the city library and only about 3 minutes from Nishi-Hachioji station. As luck would have it I wanted to go to the library to do some work; this condo is too small but I soon found out that the library was just as small... but with more people. So M and I decided to check out Goemon which was literally right next to the library.

     On our way to the library there was a line of about 11 people outside on the sidewalk, a good sign especially on a cold day. Now that it was almost 2 pm there were only 2 people waiting. Our wait was no more than 5 minutes. A lady pointed to two seats at the clean, if old, counter of this tiny ten seat ramen shop. Behind me was a menu, but I didn't really have to look.

    "Two ramen." The lady brought two cups of water and in less than 5 minutes, we had two bowls of ramen. (A)

    The soup was shoyu (soy sauce) in chicken broth. It was a little fatty, which is fine but perhaps a bit salty. (B/C) The protein was, of course, a slice of chashu that tasted pretty average: Not bad but not great. Interestingly, there was no naruto (fish cake). (B/C) The other toppings were menma (bamboo sprout) and a square sheet of nori. There was also a healthy serving of finely chopped onions. Many places will use green onions/scallions but according to M, Hachioji style ramen uses regular onions. It gave the ramen a different taste. (A/B). The noodles were standard thickness so although they were al dente they were not especially chewy like Aoba's the other day. (B)

    Goemon: 84% B. In general, the experience reminded me of the ramen I often ate when I first came to Japan: Piping hot, shoyu, a bit salty. The onions made it a bit different than the usual fare, but as we left the shop, I could still feel a film of fat coating my tongue. M said she didn't need to apply lip balm on this cold windy day. :-P

January 22, 2020

  • Aoba 中華そば青葉

    In search of ramen: 01 Aoba 中華そば青葉. This is a place not far from the monthly condo we are staying at. It was recommended by my grandson's girlfriend. I told her that we are looking for "regular" ramen. Not miso soup, not pork broth, but classic "ordinary" ramen--shoyu or salt base broth.

    We arrived at 3:15 and there were two other customers in a 14 seat counter. We ordered by purchasing a meal ticket 食券 from a machine in the corner. Much to M's dismay, they didn't serve beer. But the service was efficient; the counter and restaurant in general was clean. We ordered the regular--Chūka soba (Chinese noodles)--and it came in 6 minutes. (A) I instantly tasted the fish on the first sip of broth--Niboshi 煮干し is dried sardines and often used to make broth. While not over-powering, it was more than I expected. The broth was a bit fatty too, so I'm guessing that the broth is a mixture of the dried fish broth and some of the pork used to make chashu. (B/C)

    The bowl came with a single slice of pork chashu and naruto (spiral-designed fish cake); the chashu was fatty and soft and very tasty; that naruto was... just naruto. (B) Non protein toppings were menma (bamboo shoots) and a small sheet of nori. (C) After the first couple of bites, the fish taste seemed to drift into the background. The noodles were of medium thickness--a tad narrower than linguine; they were al dente, chewy and tasted absolutely wonderful. (A) By the last sip of soup, I could barely taste the sardines.

    Aoba: 86% B.  https://www.nakano-aoba.jp/

January 17, 2020

  • You Know You're in Japan 02

    We live in this tiny monthly condo and have nothing, I mean nothing. So we have become good customers at Don Quijote. Donki, as it is more familiarly referred to in Japan, is a discount store that is packed with almost anything and everything you might need at a discount price. Coffee, hair drier, extension cord, pillow, fry pan, etc. Some things really are cheap but most are similar to US prices.

    But, omigod, what stands out is the service.

    There is an expression in Japan: The customer is god. お客様は神様. So at Donki, I have M's hair drier in hand and am looking for a cash register. I find it but see that there is no customer there and the cashier was about to leave her station to do some other task. In the US, I'm sure most cashiers would continue on with the new task, whether or not they saw me. But this cashier, as she is about to step out from behind the counter, deliberately looks around to confirm that there are no customers approaching, but when she catches my eyes, she pauses, smiles and says,

    "Are you ready to purchase?"

    I nod happily and make payment satisfied that she took care of the customer before any other task.

    I then go downstairs to the 1st floor to purchase food stuff--coffee, snacks, y'know, the important stuff.

    "That comes to ¥1,037", the young cashier tells me.

    My coin purse is heavy with coins so I want to get rid of some of it and fumble to find 37 yen as I apologize for my slowness. As I juggle a handful of coins, one falls from my palm and lands in the wastebasket (it's mostly for customers to throw away receipts and other bits of trash). "Crap" I think as I manage to sort out the 37 yen. Well, the cashier says, "Oh no!", leans over the counter to quickly rummage through the trash and picks out a 50 yen coin.

    "はい!" (here you go), she smiles and hands it to me.

    I almost lost 50 yen just to lighten my pocket by 37 yen, but thanks to this helpful and customer-oriented cashier, I didn't. I'm not sure if I ever said this but, I love Japan.

January 14, 2020

  • Law & Order

    The other day, I was in the car with M's son and I see a car make a left turn on a red light. Since the Japanese drive on the left side of the road--like the British--this is similar to making a right turn on a red in the US. But, whereas this is legal in most of the US, in Japan it is not. I was going to ask my son-in-law to confirm this legal point when suddenly I hear a loud whistle and see a police officer run past us at high speed.
     Yes, he was running.
     The police office obviously observed the same thing I did and went after the violator. I turned around to follow him and saw him catch up to the vehicle at the next red light down the block. He knocked on his window to, I presume, write up a citation.
     As our lane began to move and we left the traffic violator in the rear view mirror, I couldn't help but marvel: Only in Japan would a police office even imagine to pursue on foot--let alone catch!--a perpetrator driving a car. They obviously take law and order very seriously here in Japan.

January 13, 2020

January 2, 2020

  • Kars4Kids


    Sis says the family trait is to do things the hard way. It's a path that entails stressful steps but eventually works out in the end. Sometimes it is coincidental, sometimes it is through personality disorders. Case in point: I'm a procrastinator.
     I have an old Maxima that I inherited from my mother after she passed. After 17 years, our move to Japan has compelled me to finally let go of the car and so I decided to donate it to Kars4Kids but I didn't contact them until the last minute--I mean, their radio jingle says they could even pick it up the next day, right? Well, not so at the end of the year. I call Dec. 24, ask for the car to be picked up by the 28th, but they couldn't until the 30th. "I won't be home..." They told me that they often pick up cars without the owner present; leaves title and keys in glove compartment and the door unlocked. So I did just that, but not knowing if they came for the car had me worried for a couple of days. Rats! All I had to do was call them a week earlier, like when I was in the middle of packing and frantically cleaning the house and rushing to grade finals and contacting dozens of companies to close accounts and end services.
     Fortunately I just got an email saying that they picked up the car and appreciated the donation. Whew! Worked out in the end. One load off my mind.

March 25, 2019

  • Kakehashi Project: Day One

    Left Dulles on time and arrived in Tokyo on time. Although getting everyone together after getting our luggage was a bit of work. This is the first time I'm meeting about half of the students and it is surprising what you can learn about a student by how they react to requests or instructions. Some listen happily 素直, some frown and show reluctance, some feign various levels of unawareness to establish in their own way a sense of (youthful, self-indulgent or naive) independence.
     Oh well. Variety keeps me on my toes.
     Anyway, after we gather our luggage and exit into the Narita Airport lobby. we met Ms. Yasuko Yagi, our coordinator for the Kakehashi program in Japan. She gave me a run down of the program and our schedule for the next seven days on the bus to the hotel. We arrived at Sunshine City Prince Hotel and checked in. Some students couldn't wait to explore Tokyo. The Kakehashi program prohibits drinking and sets up a curfew. But all I could do was tell them to be careful and "try" to be back by curfew. *sigh*
     My colleague, associate dean Elizabeth Chacko, and I got a bit of an orientation from the JICE group and we retired to our respective rooms. But my card key didn't work.
     Stuff happens, and a quick meet with the JICE coordinator and hotel staff settled the situation.

    Finally, I can relax in my room! I try to open my suitcase but it wouldn't open. Upon closer inspection, I realized there was a three-number combination lock.
     Combination lock?!?
     Crap. Why didn't I notice this when I was packing? But no sweat. I was borrowing my wife's suitcase so I LINE her to ask her what the combination was.
     "What combination?" she said!
     Gulp...
     "Let's see," she chuckled. "Did you try 0-0-0? Or maybe 1-1-1 then..."
     "Ooooooh." I finally get to the right combination. Whew! Second complication fixed.

    So I settle down and eat the box lunch they have prepared for us. It was a 9 compartment box that was quite delicious. Three different types of rice and proteins and veggies.
     After eating I get ready to go to sleep and do what I usually do, set up to recharge my computer and my tablet... but... but... my tablet won't recharge. At home, I usually plug my tablet into the wall but to save even a little bit of space/weight on this trip, I decided to recharge the tablet with a USB port. But it wouldn't work. "Did I bring my tablet just to not be able to use it after a day or two?"
     Thank God for Google. A quick search revealed that the Samsung Galaxy will charge on a USB port if the tablet is turned off--it has something to do with saving the battery. Or something. It's beyond my technical capabilities. As long as I can recharge. Anyway, three temporary setbacks, three quick fixes.
     Whew. What a way to start a trip. Hope things go more smoothly going forward.
    #KAKEHASHI2018 #JICE #JAPAN

November 13, 2018

  • Samurai Fiction

    Here's another installment. Sorry I couldn't do it everyday, Jeri. School is killing me.  :-(
     #3 In Harakiri, the facade of Bushido is underscored by the insinuation that the samurai of the Iyi clan were no longer warriors. When Tsugumo reveals that he went after Omodaka, the best swordsman of the Iyi clan and the ring leader of Chijiwa's demise, he admitted that Omodaka's use of the wind was clever, but in a fight he was still no match for Tsugumo who had fought in actual battles, lecturing those who would listen to his admonition that swordsmanship practiced only in the dojo and not in actual battle was like "learning to swim on a tatami mat." 
     This attitude led to movies in the 1990s that revisioned the samurai. They were less warriors and more bureaucrats, and the lines between good and evil were not so clear. In "Samurai Fiction", one clan hires a ronin--Kazamatsuri--who saves one of its members on the road. He is a superior swordsman but others in the clan are suspicious of him. He is tasked to watch over a famous sword gifted by the shogun but a clansman accuses of him of trying to steal it. An argument ensues and the ex-ronin ends up killng the clansman and runs away, taking the sword with him. Heishiro, the son of the clan Lord, insists on pursuing Kazamatsuri to take back the sword. The father knows that he is unskilled and tries to stop him, but Heishiro will not be denied. 
     Both Kazamatsuri and Heishiro are symbolic of this shift in view of the samurai. Kazamatsuri is a samurai with skills but is portrayed as both good and bad: He saves the clansman but then walks off with the shogun's gift, although that was not really his original intent. Indeed, when he flashes back to the series of events that finds him running away, we wonders, "How did it come to this?" The fact that Kazamatsuri is gay further blurs the modern image of the samurai.
     Heishiro's character suggests that the romantic image of the samurai is over. Besides his own ineptitude, his brothers-in-arms are just as flawed. When they catch up with Kazamatsuri on the road one, Kurosawa, dies immediately, the other, Shintaro, survives but is seriously injured. Does Kurosawa's death suggest the death of the romantic image of the samurai as portrayed in Kurosawa Akira's Seven Samurai and Yojimbo? Is Shintaro's injury a criticism of the attempts to reframe the samurai in Katsu Shintaro's Zatoichi films? Indeed, the man who helps Heishiro recapture the sword is named Mizoguchi, a man who is as skilled as Kazamatsuri but refuses to fight after killing one man and then adopting the daughter of the man he killed. He would rather live a peaceful life and fight only by throwing stone or two, a bloodless way to fight, as bloodless as the most famous movie directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, The 47 Ronin (Chushingura). Kurosawa, Shintaro, Mizoguchi: I'm pretty sure that these names were not chosen by accident. 
     Anyway, the movie was not very popular, but it is as entertaining, even humorous, as it is thought provoking.