Big in Japan: Adventures from the Gaijin Ghetto

It’s hard to remember: 1

seth — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:06:19 +0000

Click above for the Tsukiji Fish Market and surrounding area photos

Click above for the Skiing and Sapporo photos

Partially for nostalgia, and partially for personal convenience, I’ve decided to begin re-creating most of my old Japan photo galleries. Longtime readers will see nothing new. Frankly, I see a lot of badly-taken photos, but these shots from Japan are my first explorations of both color photography and digital photography.

Many of the shots in these two galleries are among my favorites, but they’re also mostly from early 2003, less than a year after I got my grubby paws on a digital camera. I hope that I know enough now about editing digital images now to improve them, but the time to do so just hasn’t materialized.

A Quintessential Contrast (20050606)

seth — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:43:23 +0000

There’s not much that you can do in Tokyo without encountering some noticeable contradiction of modern life, and the street that my apartment was on was no expection.

Dotted by small businesses, mostly restaurants and specialty shops and one liquor store that also fixed electronics, it was impossible to look down the street at any time of day or night and not notice that this quaint little ‘hood had a skyline dominated by this enormous skyscraper. Charmingly called “Shinjuku Su-ku-eh-ah Ta-wa” in phonetic Japanese, what started off as an oddball indicator of the strangeness of Tokyo life became a reassuring landmark that defined the neighborhood as much as the friendly family that ran the Korean restaurant the shadow of that skyscraper.

A Boy and His Sword (20050522)

seth — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:57:04 +0000

Another picture from the 2005 Asakusa Sanja Matsuri, we learn here the inherent danger of getting between a boy and his sword, and the propensity of both to rise from the dead.

Sanja Girl (20050522)

seth — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:08:25 +0000

The Sanja matsuri is a festival held in Asakusa that celebrates the men who founded the Senso-ji temple, and is celebrated by getting a lot of guys drunk on sake while they carry extremely heavy “portable” shrines around the neighborhood.

It’s also a festival for the community’s children to get in on the party, and so they all come decked out in traditional clothes, as well. This girl doesn’t seem to mind one bit, despite not getting any sake.

This is the first of several dozen photos that I shot before leaving Japan but didn’t make the time to put online. Being unemployed does have its benefits, few and far between they may be.

Comments from a Former Student

seth — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:27:16 +0000

I wasn’t planning on writing anything here until the trip to India, China and Southeast Asia was over, but one of my former students from Nova found an entry I wrote about working at that wonderful little company with the mutant pink bunny mascot.

She felt strongly enough about what I wrote to write an email to me with her opinions, and gave me permission to publish them here. I’ve done a bit of formatting and slight grammar correction at her request. We’ll call her Yuki to protect her privacy, yes? Frankly, I thought that she hit the nail right on the head with everything she said. There’s not a lot of interest in study coming from many students and many teachers, although after having worked there for two years, it’s clear that the managment definitely doesn’t give a damn.

Just my opinion…

===About students===
I think I was the one who was so quiet in Nova. I am sorry for that. I was just nervous to talk someone who I didn’t know well. Or maybe it was because that’s the Japanese study style. “Just listen carefully what teacher says, and do not bother the class with asking too much.” I am still quiet in my new ESL class. Maybe I don’t like to talk in classes. I didn’t know other students were the same, though.

===About teachers===
I thought that most of teachers came Japan just to have fun. I didn’t think that they really wanted to teach us English. Some teachers said to me that they were hung over and were sleepy. I think they shouldn’t say that to me even though it might have been true. Or students made them think like you said, that students don’t really want to study English. That’s an interactive situation.

=== About Japanese wemen===
Most Japanese women don’t work hard like men. Sometime I irritate them. I think that it’s because how they grew up. Their mother must stay home. The mothers want their children to be housewives. They BELIEVE that for women to be happy, they must be housewives and be protected by husbands. Additionally, 60% of men like girls who can’t do anything without men. That’s one of the reasons women choose easy jobs. Yuck.

-Yuki

Festive seasonal goodwill and whatnot

seth — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 09:38:54 +0000

I meant to do something about this much earlier, but I left Japan at the end of July with a fair amount of credit at one of my favorite used English bookstores, Kichijoji’s Bondi Books.

So, I’ve decided to leave a bit of a parting gift. Head on over to Bondi, mention the “Big in Japan free book ad” or something equally to the point, and you get a free book worth up to 700 yen.

That’s it. No catch. Nothing to print out – why kill a tree, right? Walk in, choose a book, express your true love of reading with an interpretative dance, mention the free book deal, and you’re on your merry way. This deal is so good, you don’t even have to sing the “buy one, get one free” song – although I’m sure once you visit Bondi you’ll be hard-pressed to leave with just one book in-hand.

Plus, you get to support a local bookseller. And in light of stories like this, as the small community store goes the way of the vinyl record, what could be better than that?

The Return of BIJ

seth — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 19:05:57 +0000

Hello all, welcome back to Big in Japan.

The new server is functioning correctly, because I’m writing this and you’re reading it. And loving it. Lovin’ it, baby, lovin’ it.

As you should know by now, I’ve moved on from Japan. There will be a batch of entries from my last days in Japan, but unfortunately my notes and photos from that fiery final fortnight are in a closet in San Francisco – yes, how apropos. When I finish travelling around Southeast Asia, China, Australia and India, I’ll get those online.

For now, may I direct your attention to my blog on my current journeys outside of the Floating Kingdom, Big in Japan on Tour. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see any photos from this current trip until I get back sometime in mid-2006.

Until then, thanks for coming back and please excuse things as I tidy up the place. Yoroshiku!

Yopparai in Translation

seth — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 12:40:30 +0000

It’s Dawn and Scott Week here at Big in Japan central, and all is well. Well and drunk, that is.

As a wedding gift from her boss, Dawn was given a night’s stay at the Shinjuku Park Hyatt hotel – recently made famous in Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Although, if you’re reading a blog about life in Japan and you don’t know that movie, you clearly have an Internet connection under your rock, and maybe a sofa, as well.

We raided the local conbinis and nearby Yamaya for cheap vodka, and headed up to the 42nd floor. As you can easily imagine, the Park Hyatt is a swank joint, with massive rooms, bathrooms, and exorbitant extra charges for using the sauna. The pool is free and predictably tiny.

And without a doubt, that was the most comfortable bed I’ve slept on in three years.

Charlotte from Lost in Translation made such a huge impact on us, that after a half-dozen strong drinks we decided to emulate our Experienced in Tokyo idol. And here we are, contemplating the reflections of our navels on the window sill.

Ink Me Again, Baby

seth — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 02:00:21 +0000

Dawn crammed herself into Rino the Tattoo Artist’s tighter-than-a-schoolgirl schedule, and we all headed over to watch the visceral and sometimes painful transition of pasty skin into something a bit more colorful.

Last time, her cherry blossom tattoo was done capriciously and turned out great. This time Rino did freehand bands of fire and water around her arms. Clearly, women are much tougher at taking ink getting drilled into them than men.

Bostonians on a stick

seth — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:28:12 +0000

Imagine: you’re packing up your life in Japan, ready to leave and head off to parts and parties unknown, and a friend rings up and says, “I’m Rick James, bitch!”

Which sounds strangely like, “Can I come visit you one more time before you leave Tokyo?”

Normally, I’d say, thanks but no way – cocaine is a helluva drug – but when those friends are the irrepressible and major Tokyophiles Dawn and Scott, the only thing to say in response is “Hell yes!”

For their first night back in the saddle, or off the wagon, or however you want to put it, we went to the yakitori heaven known as Iseya, in Kichijoji. Back when they visited in March, we went but found ourselves too late and locked out of meat-on-a-stick goodness – not the glorious way I’d intended to introduce them to proper Japanese food.

Fortunately, we got there early enough and all was beer and tsukune (balls of grilled chicken meat.) Yatta!