Tokyo Highlights

Drinks atop the Park Hyatt Hotel, in Shinjuku.  It's the most amazing view of Tokyo's skyline.  We tried to emulate Bill Murray and look depressed (like Lost in Translation) but just being up there is too good a time.
Here we are with Hajime Funada, one of the most senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.  He's a very friendly guy, and loves all things related to space travel (if he hadn't become a politician he would have been an astronaut.)  We are nobodies in the world, and he is definitely somebody, but he still scheduled half an hour for us with an election season about to begin.

Alex will have MUCH to say about visiting the national parliament building, but here we are with Mr. Suzuki (a good guy who helped us out with getting a behind the scenes tour of the Diet building, including a walk through the tunnel that links the office building and the capitol) and a familiar looking person we will simply call "Not A Funada".
Also in Shibuya, this is purported to be the busiest intersection in the world.  Find Alex!
Shibuya's shopping district, where teenagers and 20-somethings find unlimited shopping opportunities.  You can also get a Hello Kitty rhinestone covered guitar for only $2500.

 
Alex and Steve went to the Parasitological Museum, where they have an exhibit of the longest tape worm ever extracted from a human being (it's in the blue case there.)  Then we had a dinner of noodles.
Knock-off Kitty.  Hand-made in Kamakura for Y100, but quality control is an issue.  This is why Disney so carefully guards its product image in the US.
Diabutsu (Big Buddha).  He's forty feet tall.  
where's Alex?



Alex gets rid of his useless 1 yen coins on buddha statues.  1 yen coins are even more useless than pennies.  They don't yield good or bad luck.  Supposedly 5 yen coins (which are pretty useless) yield good luck when you put them on statues.  10 yen coins are bad luck, but I think that's just because the vending machines still accept them.  In any case, the series above are from a side trip to Kamakura, an hour south of Tokyo.  We were joined by a spectral entity that we called Naomakura
Steve and Alex on the 52^nd Floor of Rappongi Hills Tower.  

Alex, Steve, and an anonymous tourist that looks similar to a colleague (let’s call her Nachiko) pose at the statue of Hachiko, a famous memory-impaired dog who for ten years showed up at this spot in Shibuya, waiting for his master, never understanding that he had passed away. 

Alex, Steve, and an anonymous tourist that looks similar to a colleague (let’s call her Nanime) enjoy sweet treats at a Maid Café, where waitresses dressed in anime outfits are extremely nice and provide very attentive (but entirely innocent) service.  Hello Kitty Cuppucinos are by request.

Kiddy Land, in Harajuku, where you can buy anything for children, ages 0 to 100.  Maturity level can be a bit low.  For the record, these are USB drives.  Alex managed to spend more money here than Steve.

Employees

Focusing on the labor market for a bit: there seem to be an uncommon number of people employed who are tasked with greeting you or making you feel welcome as you shop/browse/are entertained.  At the Mori Art Museum, there was a guy at the bottom of the escalator whose two jobs seemed to be direct people to either the bathroom or up the escalator, where another greeter awaited us at the top (in case we were confused or got lost on the escalator?)  Inside the exhibit, one white-gloved woman’s only job was to make sure a shiny silver ball that had a remote control and aimlessly rolled around a room didn’t hit the wall. At Takashimaya Department store, there are five women at the tea counter (one of whom seemed to be entirely devoted to Steve smelling each and every flavor.)  Service-based employment is, by our eyes, wasteful.  However, it does make you feel special, and perhaps this is an important stimulus to a nation of savers.  Still, it provides the ultimate contrast to the Toyota factory, where the only worker who didn’t seem to have enough to do was the guy we saw who was training with another man.  My dad has suggested that the company that owns 7-11 has tried to apply its distribution strategy to the US (and has run into problems).  It’s easy to see why it works in Japan.  Even at the convenience stores, there are at least three employees (usually more) one of whom is straightening shelves and constantly stocking more products.

Controversy, thy name is Yasakuni, June 22

We have one photograph of the Yasakuni Shrine from a distance.  You’re not supposed to take photos of the shrine itself.  2.5 millions souls are enshrined here: anyone who died in a war since 1869, 2 million of whom died in the Pacific War.  It includes everyone, which means that war-criminals are equally likely to find themselves admitted along side your noble grandfather.  In the mid-80’s, a Prime Minister visited the shrine and broke with the Japanese constitution’s requirement of separation of church and state by signing “Prime Minister” to the guest book.  In any case, to figure out what the big deal is here, all you have to do is go to the Memorial Hall for a little re-education.  There is a little book at the end of the Hall where museum-goers are allowed to write comments.  Some idiot family from Los Angeles wrote “They learned a lot from this outstanding museum.”  We just decided to write what we “learned” and let you decide.

 

Gandhi was inspired by the Russo-Japanese War in the liberation movement for India.  Ho Chi Minh, Kwame Nkrumah and pretty much every non-Western liberation movement looked to the Russo-Japanese War for guidance.

Japan was called on by the various ethnic groups of Manchuria to help them maintain national sovereignty.

The Nanking “Incident” was provoked by the Chinese.

The US provoked the bombing of Pearl Harbor by illegally refusing to sell oil to the Japanese war machine.

Japan sees itself as having liberated the Asian nations subjugated by European powers, during World War II.

Korea annexation was necessary for Japanese national security.

I left my (shark) hearts in Tsukiji Fish Market, June 22

Alex gets over-eager and tries to enjoy the sashimi tuna before it's ready.

Bleary eyed from a 4:55am alarm, we quickly dressed on Monday morning excited to catch the early action at the seafood auctions.  Miraculously, we ran into an English-speaking Japanese tourist that looked like one of our colleagues.  We never did get her name, so we simply dubbed her, Na-uni.

A trip to Tsukiji Fish Market is a simple study in factor markets.  Your land resource is the fish.  Tuna is the big star at the market (These are gigantic fish, about six feet long and frozen through.  High quality tuna is actually pretty scarce, which is why some of the fish being auctioned was going for upwards of $100,000.)  We then observed stages of production in the resource market where this natural resource is transformed using labor and capital.  Workers take big metal hooks into the tuna and put them on flat-bedded wagons.  For such a valuable cargo, the workers are oddly cavalier about smoking around the frozen tuna that is lying somewhat unceremoniously on an asphalt floor in the auction room.  To be frank, there is so much smoking here that Steve and I are a bit ashamed to admit that we’ve taken up second-hand smoking.

Mmmmm.  Shark hearts a great delicacy.  Somewhere.  I don't know where.  I hope to never go there.
This guy's sword is shorter, but he patiently saws through the tuna anyway.

The auction for tuna goes fast and furious.  Those are whole fish, frozen solid.

The tuna are dragged bodily over to their stalls – about 30 feet by 10 feet areas, where in approximately 60 minutes they’ll become smaller pieces of fish to be sold to the retailers.  There are over 1500 wholesaler stalls, and we found ourselves being pushed aside constantly by busy men with large Styrofoam crates on their way through the compound.  Wherever you are, you’re in the way.  Tourists feel somewhat welcome, although Alex got the nastiest glare from a man who didn’t like the flash as he was sawing through a piece of tuna.  In some cases, men cut the fish the old-fashioned way: with long bladed saws about twice the length of a samurai sword.  For smaller fish, a cleaver will do: a live flapping fish lost its head in front of us (thankfully there was a splatter-guard.)  The workers are precise and extraordinarily fast.  They have to be because the retailers are already on the prowl by 7:00 am.  When they are ready to make a purchase women finally get involved.  There seemed to be two little old ladies in each wholesaler’s stall, ready to take tens of thousands of yen from their customers.

We finished off in the product market, at Sushi Dai, the most popular and crowded sushi place in a series of little stalls built as an adjunct to the market.  These factors of production are taken and assembled in the resource market to create a finished good (i.e. sushi meal).  Though you might be hesitant to have sushi for breakfast, you suck it up (you can have beer too, but all of us declined) and you’re treated to the best sushi of your life.  The tuna melts in your mouth, the uni is fresher and tastier than that brined mess you find in the US, and if you look closely, even though your unagi is cooked, it still feels like it might be quivering.  It cost Y3500 ($36) but by my reckoning, I’ll save money in the long run, since I don’t think I can ever eat sushi that isn’t that quality again.

Yes, the Tsukiji Fish Market is a compact view of the circular flow model, but there is one little wrinkle in the system.  On the way out you can’t help but notice perhaps the king of the negative externalities: the colossal pile of eco-unfriendly, bio-destructive Styrofoam.  The mountain is constantly being shoveled down by forklifts, but the pile is also constantly growing.  For a country that is supposedly at the forefront of the environmental movement (hello, Kyoto Accords) the Japanese are decidedly wasteful when it comes to packaging.  We buy rolls for breakfast, and each comes individually wrapped in plastic, then wrapped again in a larger bag.  We buy bento boxes for lunch and the plastic boxes are wrapped in paper, wrapped again in a lovely piece of cloth, and then placed in a large paper bag.  You can ask them to not over-wrap your items, but looking around, few Japanese people do.

A very eco-friendly country.

Mighty D'Antona at the Bat, June 20

We didn’t want to take a chance on the Tokyo Nomuri Giants being sold out, so we decided to see Tokyo’s other home team, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows at Jingu Stadium.  It was an outdoor stadium, and contrary to what we’d heard, we were able to walk up easily and purchase tickets (to be honest, we got the sense watching them that they were not exactly the best team in town.)  We were given the chance of sitting on the home team side or the visitor side, which seemed curious to us.  At first we regretted choosing the home team, because the Seibu Lions scored first and their side was louder, stronger, and seemed much more fun than our sedate, sad-sack Swallows (the quite anemic team cheer: GO, GO, SWALLOWS!!!!!!!)  That is until the lone American, Jamie D’Antona strode to the plate.  Free swinging Americans that can’t lay off the breaking stuff in the Big Leagues find their way to Japan, where they tend to hit a lot of homeruns, and we happened to catch D’Antona on a day where he couldn’t miss.  He tied the game with a single-run homer, and the crowd came alive, umbrellas raised in defiance of the rain gods, in joy for their beloved and mighty Swallows.  Still, things looked bleak, down 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, when once again our lone American gunslinger took the batters box, and then the crowds’ hearts by storm.  D’Antona blasted a three-run shot that tied the game and had umbrellas pumped in excitement.  Already THREE hours long, the game was destined for extra innings.  With men on third and second base, and the Swallows’ most popular player, Aoki, up to bat, the cowardly Lions walked him (much to the fans’ chagrin.)  But fear not, for a third time, our fellow gaijin came to the plate, this time with the bases loaded.  He poked a single through the left side of the infield for the game-winning RBI.  Final Score:  Gaijin 5, Swallows 0, Lions 4.

An amusing side note: an ex-A’s player, Aaron Guiel was another foreigner on the team.  Guiel is from Canada, and the Swallows fans had Canadian flags and joyfully sang “Oh Canada” to support him.

Tepid Fan Pic.  The Japanese fans take turns cheering.  Your side is only allowed to cheer when your team is up to bat.

Umbrellas = fun.  I convinced Steve he didn't want to lug a souvenir umbrella around for another month, but he is a dedicated fan in his heart.

Cheerleaders at a baseball game?!?  Yes, they have their umbrellas.

Sweet Child o' Mine, Tokyo

The Tokyo portion of our trip is all about observing economic behavior, which gives us license to explore neighborhoods and watch people.  It's really pretty interesting, although the rain on Sunday kept people indoors and the crowds muted.  I think it has been best to wait on posting anything about Tokyo until we completed our time here: to process it at any given moment is a bit overwhelming.  On the long train ride to Hokkaido, we will start to really assess.  Still, here's something:

Red bean soup.  Mochi.  Dried, candied beans.  Sweetened rice crackers.  Pumpkin with Red beans.  Many sweets here are not too sweet.  Supposedly, the Japanese don't have much of a sweet tooth.  Certainly, we have generally found that dessert isn't part of restaurant menus, unless you go to a dessert cafe.  But if you put the dessert in the form of a fad, the Japanese seem to line up.  Below, Steve poses with one of about 15 employees of an ice cream shop that sold only single scoops of vanilla ice cream covered in your choice of caramel, chocolate, or mango hot sauce.  The theme of the place was pink, and walls looked like they were covered in Pepto Bismol, which would be appropriate because we got stomach aches afterward.  Further below is a recent American "classic", but if you can't tell, the line in front of the Krispy Kreme is out the door and snaking back and forth at the Shinjuku branch of the establishment.

Genuine Imitations, Takayama, June 18

Alex carefully tends a rice plant in a rice-paddy near the Hida Folk Village in Takayama.  It's not yet harvesting season, so Alex is just making sure that the plants are properly watered and not infested with bugs.

Steve makes a wish and with a mighty swing, rings the gong in the Hida Folk Village.

IMMEDIATELY IT COMES TRUE!!!! (That's why Alex went to tend the rice paddy alone.)
Later, Steve, concerned about open flames in the Gassho-zukuri, tries to play the hero and put out the fires.
Alex fancies the thatched roofs of the houses would make a lovely hat.  The steep sides of the roofs are designed so that snow in this mountainous region will fall right off (I wonder if that means more works shoveling snow for the kids...)

We visited the Hida Folk Village in Takayama.  The quaint village-life of the Hida region has been recreated by gathering the few remaining actual homes from the Hida region, and assembling them in an outdoor museum.  The damming of the Sho-kawa River in the 1960's, as well as migration of young people to the cities, led the community to a desperate effort to preserve their culture.  However, that's a costly a business: to thatch a roof costs upwards of Y20,000,000.  So in the 1970's the Japanese government began to subsidize the preservation of the village (and two others like it).  The government may actually be making a profit on the matter, as the area is swamped with (literally) millions of tourists a year.  Hida Folk-Everything can be acquired, including, yes, you guessed it, Steve's favorite little character...

Rice-crackers are everywhere in Hida: you can even buy them raw and toast them yourself.  Steve actually resisted the purchase of these...

I'm not sure about the authenticity, but the local cuisine is earthy, tasty, and full of mountain vegetables.  This is a sansai ryori.  We liked it so much, we had it twice.  If you look at me with my chopsticks, you can see the hoba miso (miso with mushrooms) cooked on a magnolia leaf, over a charcoal brazier.  Alex indulged in a local, hand-crafted beer (partly to make brother Pete jealous that he's had a beer he can't enjoy).  The local craft-beer movement that is so pervasive in the US has come to Japan, and so it's worth noting that the "villagers" have figured out that they can market those craft beers at quite a premium (Y800) to the tourists (of course, it's still a good deal relative to coffee.)

Alex hits his head again

One sign of economic prosperity is that the average height of a population goes up.  We have noticed some very tall young people, so that seems to fit.  Still, it's a country that was built by a shorter generation, and Alex's head has taken a beating on every possible door frame and low stairwell...

Toyota Automobile Factory, Toyota City, June 17

We visited the Toyota car factory while staying in Nagoya (it was a busy day there!)  We were interested to learn that the company began as a loom manufacturer.  In 1929, financed by the sale of the patent on their loom, the company began to develop automobile engines.  In 1937 they founded the motor company.  We didn't see anything noting that their first major contract was for building trucks for the military when Japan attacked China.  We visited the Tsutsumi Plant, which had 6,000 workers total.  They manufactured several models in this plant, however the day we were there, it was almost entirely Priuses (Prii?  Prius?  Prion?) which fits with the company's goal to make themselves "eco-friendly" (more on that later.)

Photographs in the plant are not allowed, but in the gallery exhibition hall where the tour begins, you can take pictures.  Here is a rather silly robot that impressively plays Disney music and other tunes on the horn.  It fits with the Toyota philosophy of automation, as we learned that over 90% of the factory is run by robots.  Robots cost an average of  Y4,000,000 per, and last 8 to 10 years.  At roughly $40,000 for a robot, a company that is hell-bent on efficiency makes the obvious choice to automate.  To be honest, from what we observed, there were still a few humans that could have been replaced along the assembly line...
This is the Toyota IQ.  Steve hopes it is sold in America soon, as it will be his next car.  It was like a SmartCar, except it felt safe.

Fun observations/questions we had answered for us:

There are two shifts for employees:  6:40a ~ 3:40p and 4:00p ~ 1a.  The way the line is designed, the entire line must shut down for lunches and breaks.  Everyone eats lunch on the morning shift at 10:45.  They have a 10 minute break every two hours.  The team basically eats, works, and poops together.  When something has gone wrong on the manufacturing line, a worker pulls a lever and the entire line shuts down.  We actually saw this happen, and everyone works feverishly to solve the problem (for us it lasted no more than 15 seconds.)  

The plant is committed to zero landfill waste, and energy-efficient lighting (a refractory system, so that they didn't have to use too many bulbs,) and design.  They even had "photocatalytic paint" on the exterior of the building, which helped turn CO2 into oxygen.  We kept our comments to ourselves, but we thought it interesting that while they took pride in the manufacturing process and its environmentally-friendly set-up, they neglected to mention the environmental impact of raw resource acquisition as well as the sheer fact that 8,500,000 automobiles that are made will sit in landfills at some point.  Negative externalities are very easy to sweep under the rug...

Burakumin and the Problems Therein, Osaka, 6/16

We saw this young woman at the train station near the Liberty Museum.  Steve has composed a haiku that sums up his feelings on things:

In the Buraku,

Trains will not even slow down

for short-skirted girls
Alex pretends to drum, along with this statue commemorating one of the cultural bright spots in a dreary community.
This photo may not look like much, and that's the point.  We thought this apartment building looked like something you'd find in Soviet-era Eastern Europe, not modern Japan.

No photographs are allowed in many of the facilities that we toured over the last few days, apologies for that.

On June 16 we travelled to Osaka to visit the Liberty Museum, which serves as a sort of clearinghouse for all of the minority groups in Japan that are discriminated against.  We stepped off the train and were somewhat mystified by the industrialized and marginal area that we found: why would they build an important museum in this wasteland?  We were further confused as to why there were three shops selling large wooden drums right next to the train station.  We found the museum after walking past run-down apartment complexes and factory warehouses, at one point passing a grocery-store that looked worse than the worst 99 cent store you've ever seen.  The museum is somewhat informative.  On the plus side, it highlighted groups such as the buraku (a class of individuals who were cast as untouchables due to the fact that they dealt with death, specifically slaughter and removal of hides from animals,) the homeless, AIDS and HIV positive individuals, and the Ainu (indigenous peoples of Hokkaido) who do not receive much coverage in the press.  We felt that it suffered from the same flaws that the Atomic Bomb museum in Nagasaki did: namely, it didn't seem to acknowledge the complicity of individuals in the problems in Japan.  There were myriad photographs of people protesting to the government (often successfully obtaining concessions,) but we felt that there wasn't anything examining the real roots of the prejudices these people face.  As such, the message that these individuals are deserving of human dignity was compromised.  To use an analogy: if I were to simply show a few photographs of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's in my class, I would be wasting my students time.  It is absolutely necessary to examine, discuss, and explore Jim Crow segregation in the South, discrimination in the North, the successes and failures of Reconstruction, and the roots and effects of slavery to even scratch the surface of how pervasive a problem racism was and is in America.  

In any case, the burakumin were our primary focus and reason for going to the museum.  Afterward, we were going to try to find a buraku neighborhood, having an extraordinarily vague idea where there was one in Osaka.  We knew that the areas of a city that were associated with buraku were always economically depressed, and that non-buraku didn't want to move to those neighborhoods, for fear that they and their family names might be tainted with the label (buraku are ethnically exactly like other Japanese).  While in the museum, we learned that drum-making (wooden drums with animal skins stretched over them) and drum playing were well-celebrated elements of buraku culture.  As we left the museum, planning to seek out a buraku neighborhood, we looked around and realized that by coming to the museum in the middle of this industrialized wasteland, we HAD come to one.