asazuke

Life in Japan, food, music, whatever…

Sakushima 19 February, 2010

Filed under: places — johnraff @ 2:50 pm
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Industrial wasteland right to the coast…

Leaving Tokyo on my first shinkansen ride – some time ago – I was stuck to the window eager to see some of the Japanese countryside.

It didn’t happen. 20 or 30 minutes out the buildings still hadn’t stopped, although by then we were going through Yokohama I suppose.The urban sprawl continued all the way to Nagoya by way of Shizuoka, Hamamatsu… Each city merged into the next in a depressing grey continuum, with no green in between at all. In fact a good part of Japan’s population is concentrated into that strip between Tokyo and Nagoya – the Tokai plain which is flat and fertile, while most of the country is mountainous and almost empty, as I found later. In fact it’s possible to be out in beautiful hilly countryside a short 30 minute train ride north from Nagoya.

Isshiki Port

It was however in the opposite direction that we took the car last weekend: to the south, past Nagoya port, one of the biggest in Asia, past the Chita peninsula, past endless factories, warehouses, drab apartment buildings, tatty shopping centres, all of which we had a great view of from our overhead flyover on a perfect clear sunny day, finally arriving at the fishing port of Isshiki in the Mikawa Bay.

Isshiki market

From there it’s a 30 minute boat to the island of Sakushima. The first thing you notice is that the water is crystal clear – you can see right down to the bottom of the harbour! This comes in contrast to the popular beaches on the Chita peninsula like Utsumi, where you might feel as if you’re swimming in chicken soup.

Coming into Sakushima harbour

In fact the water, along with a certain “island feeling”, reminded me of our trip to Okinawa a few years ago. Okinawa’s a bit livelier though; here a good half of the houses are empty, several lodges and restaurants have closed down and even on a sunny Sunday afternoon you can hardly hear a soul.

One of the 88

This was fine for us though, and on a January afternoon we managed to work up a sweat walking around in the sunshine of the warmest day so far this year. We’re surrounded by the sea here so it must never get as cold as Nagoya, still less the mountains of Gifu, and flowers are coming out everywhere in a foretaste of Spring.The largest island in the Mikawa bay, it’s still possible to walk from one end of Sakushima to the other in half an hour or so, but there are a number of temples and shrines to see, not to mention 88 tiny Buddha statues built all over the island about 80 years ago in an imitation of the famous temple cicuit of Shikoku, mostly with offerings of fresh flowers, so obviously someone is visiting them. A beautiful sunset, then back to our minshuku for dinner. Out of the half-dozen or so places open in off-season January ours must have been a popular one as there had been a couple of lively parties in at lunchtime; soon we got an idea why. These waters are full of fish, but a few seagulls must have gone hungry that day as we had about half the contents of the bay on our table. Crab, sashimi, fried fish, oysters in miso, sea-slug… it was all really good and by 8 o’clock we couldn’t move, so had an early night. 8000 yen (say, $90) for bed, dinner and breakfast with more fish and oysters seemed a pretty good deal.

The west end of the island, away from the biggest beach with all the hotels, minshuku, restaurants and coffee shops, is much quieter, and the people seem a bit less used to tourists, though everyone is very friendly. The village is a maze of streets about wide enough for two bicycles, creosoted buildings (to keep out the salt spray) and little vegetable plots, tended by old ladies, who could be someone’s great grandmother. Half the houses seem to be falling down; one has been converted into a restaurant by some young people, maybe from the city over the water, but you can’t help wondering what will happen to the place ten or twenty years down the road…

A short walk back to the minshuku through wooded hills, past more little buddhas, wind rustling the bamboo, kites calling overhead; ducks have taken over the west end of the beach; our minshuku owner says he couldn’t see Nagoya as a place for human beings to live and here it’s hard to believe we’re in the same country, let alone the same prefecture.

EDIT: I’ve added a lot more photos here.

 

Farmlog 18th January 2010 29 January, 2010

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:20 am
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It’s still cold. The climate septics (sic) must be having a field day with this Global Freezing we’ve been having lately, and two weeks after our snowbound New Year there’s still snow on the ground (maybe it melted once in between) and we had to leave the car at the top of our drive because the slope is too steep with snow on it.

Monday was beautifully clear, but at ten in the morning yesterday’s slush was crispy at minus 2 °C. Those migratory birds were still flying around like a swarm of bees.

NB From this year I’ll be recording the maximum and minimum temperatures for the week up to the day of the post, not for the previous 24 hours as was the case last year.
Min temp -7°C, max 4°C

 

Whale Meat Again 20 January, 2010

Filed under: food & drink,news,politics — johnraff @ 1:00 am
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The whaling season got off to a good start with a collision between the Japanese ship and the Sea Shepherd hi-tech speedboat that sank the pirates. The Japanese media refer to the protesters as something like terrorists, and can’t seem to understand why the Australians, and most of the rest of the world, should have any objection to this lawful “research” culling of several hundred whales every year.

On paper they’re right of course, but the ironical thing is that most Japanese people wouldn’t care at all if they never ate whalemeat again. Many have probably never tried it, and it’s certainly not a prized delicacy like “toro” tuna belly for example. Whalemeat is more like what it was in Britain: something people had to eat when times were hard just after the war. There seems to be a mountain of the stuff in a big freezer somewhere which they’re doing their best to sell off with TV advertising. You still don’t see it in the supermarket though, or anywhere else for that matter.

So what’s all the fuss about? Why don’t they just quietly pack it in? The only thing I can think of is just plain stubbornness – noone like to be ordered around and the Japanese are no exception. The more they’re told to stop the more they’ll carry on… unless there’s some hidden vested interest here which I’m not aware of…

 

New Year at the farm 19 January, 2010

Filed under: countryside,customs — johnraff @ 2:23 pm
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The weather forecast said a cold front was on its way and sure enough just after midday on the outskirts of town the snow started sprinkling down. We were on our way out to Gifu so that didn’t bode too well for conditions further on, but we had decided to spend a couple of days out at “the farm” for the new year so pressed on… Of course by the time we’d got halfway the road was getting slippy and there was nothing for it but to put those cursed chains on the front tyres. Put on the brakes to pull into a parking area and the car just kept going… that’s how close to the edge things had been. These new-fangled plastic tyre chains are supposed to be easy to put on, but after half an hour of scrabbling about in the freezing slush I still hadn’t got the hook thing at the back properly attached – my fingers had no feeling and it was getting dark and things were looking somewhat hopeless… Finally a friendly passerby gave us a hand and the left chain was on. Back in the car with the heater on full for a few minutes of agony as the blood returned to my fingers, but then the other chain went on much more easily, as I’d sort of got the hang of it.

It’s now dark and an almost full moon is gazing balefully down through a gap in the clouds as we tiptoe gingerly down the road through 10cm or so of snow. Finally make it to the house, turn on the heater, sit in the kotatsu with a cup of tea and it’s all in the past…

New Years Day and it’s still snowing. The postman braves the elements to bring us our small bundle of nengajo – there’ll be more back in Nagoya. Unlike Christmas cards, which should arrive before Christmas, New Year cards are supposed to be read at New Year and the Post Office keep the ones posted in December and go to some trouble to deliver them on the first of January if at all possible.

New Year is really just like Christmas back home in many ways: everything’s closed, all day spent watching the box, eating, drinking… We’ve only got a radio on the farm, but still don’t miss NHK’s big song spectacular which they’ve been plugging for weeks. Something like the Royal Command Performance (do they still have that? ), it’s been slipping in the ratings in recent years. The newspaper is full of adverts for January sales – these used to be after a week or so but now many places start right in on the first, along with “lucky bags”, which can be OK and can be rubbish. Even the shrines are advertising – the best place to have your car blessed to protect it from accidents, the best place to pray for success in exams… They say some 80% of a shrine’s takings are in the first few days of new year, so this is peak time for them. The terrible economy is good for holy business, but the snow and cold probably hasn’t helped.

Throughout our stay we are visited by a huge flock of small birds, flying around in a swarm like migrating swallows. About the size of sparrows, with a crest on their heads – I’m not an ornithologist, but I suppose they’re winter visitors from somewhere further north.

A new beginning… and everything is “hatsu”whatever, ie hatsumode – first visit to a shrine and presumably hatsu-sake, hatsu-tabako…

Happy New Year!

 

Hana Matsuri 30 December, 2009

Filed under: customs — johnraff @ 1:56 pm
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Yesterday we got a postcard from a village in Toei Cho in the mountains of Aichi prefecture – the same prefecture as Nagoya but a completely different world. That region is known for the Hana matsuri (“flower festival”) held around this time of year and which seems to be a sort of fertility rite to encourage the return of the warm weather (not to be confused with Buddha’s birthday, in April). That postcard was to remind us of our visit in 2004, in case we wanted to go back I suppose. It’s tempting… anyway, here’s a bit from a letter I sent home that year:

This January we went to the Hana Matsuri in a place called ToEiCho a
couple of hours drive from here. It’s still in Aichi Prefecture, but in the
Northeast corner and quite isolated in the mountains. The Hana Matsuri takes
place in a number of villages in the area from late November to sometime in
March, depending on the village. In the 28 years I’ve been here I’ve been to
this festival 3 or 4 times, and it really is quite special. Because the
place is so isolated the ceremonies have been preserved much more completely
than in most other places, it runs continually for about 36 hours, there are
some impressive devil masks worn by the dancers, and the beliefs behind it
are really interesting if you’re an ethnologist. Of course it’s now a
“National Treasure” and well supplied with photographers, not to mention TV
cameras, but it still has a special atmosphere, especially if you pick one
of the smaller villages as we did. At 4 in the morning, freezing cold,
watching two huge devils dancing by the light of a couple of pinewood
torches, Japan feels like a pretty exotic place after all…

 

Spring Cleaning

Filed under: customs — johnraff @ 1:24 pm
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This weekend (27th & 28th) we stayed in Nagoya again to do some cleaning up before the New Year holiday. I had given myself the task of getting the grease off the extractor fan hood, and T re-waxed the floor so the restaurant looks quite nice now. This is the traditional time for a big cleanup here, so everything can be fresh for the New Year. Actually new year is associated with Spring anyway – the traditional lunar calendar, still followed in Okinawa and China, would put it somewhere in February, and even at the end of December you’re already past the solstice so the days are getting longer – so we’re not that far from our Spring Cleaning really.

 

Farmlog 21st December 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 1:12 pm
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One day in Amsterdam some 35 years ago, with a heavy grey sky overhead and the wind blowing the sleet into my ears, I swore I’d never again put up with a North European winter… and so it has proved to be, barring a couple of Christmas visits. The wind, the wet, the short dark days: sorry, it might appeal to the poetic side of some people but I set out for Asia that Spring. Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India: each country was warmer, and cheaper, than the last and eventually in the South of India I was living in paradise, on about $30 a month.

Of course that can’t go on indefinitely and I wound up in Japan in search of some gainful employment. Now here there is a winter I have to admit, but it’s much more tolerable, at least in Nagoya. For a start, it’s dry with plenty of sunny days when it can be quite warm outside in the daytime. With the latitude of Crete, the sun here is a good bit higher in the sky than in the UK. It can be windy sometimes, but it’s really not so bad, and quite short- from December to February, roughly. On the Sea of Japan side it’s a different story though: there the wind comes in across the sea picking up lots of moisture which it drops when it hits the mountains, and that region gets some of the highest snowfalls in the world! Just in the last two days they got over a metre in the north of Gifu prefecture, not all that far from our country place; that same cold wave gave us a foot or so at the farm and even Nagoya got a sprinkling.

So when we drove up on Sunday it was still overcast, and as we got into Gifu there was more and more snow on the fields around. Luckily the snowploughs had been through and we didn’t need tyre chains – putting those on in freezing winter weather is one job I hate – but the entry to our side road needed clearing with a spade so we could park the car. Once you get inside and the oil heater cranked up it’s quite warm enough though.

On Monday we were back to the norm – a beautiful day in fact without a cloud in the sky and the snow was dazzling. It was worth driving out after all!

Min temp -3.5°C max 2.5°C

 

Farmlog 14th December 2009 29 December, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 2:35 pm
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(slowly catching up here)

Last week we stayed in Nagoya because of a -most welcome- private party booking at Raffles’.

Sunday was rainy, but cleared up in the evening so I was able to go out and look for meteors. The Gemini shower was due in, and I caught a couple before getting bored but it wasn’t all that spectacular…

Min temp 0°C, max 13°C

 

Farmlog 30th November 2009 28 December, 2009

Filed under: countryside — johnraff @ 9:36 pm
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Phew, these sudden dropouts are obviously going to happen from time to time – I hope you hadn’t completely given up on this blog, but setting up my “new” computer (still not finished) has been the first thing I get into when I have a bit of time, so posting something to the blog got left out… Apologies.

Winter coming on: Sunday was rainy and miserable, but Monday turned clear again. No particular work done, beyond general clearing up.

Min. Temp. 4°C, Max. 11°C

 

A new box 2 December, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — johnraff @ 1:44 am
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There was no farmlog for the 16th of November because we had to stay in Nagoya. I took the chance to have a look round Osu, which is our local version of Akihabara, the famous computer and anime district of Tokyo – the centre of “otaku” culture. I came home with a “new” second-hand computer I found: an IBM desktop with a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of memory, 80GB hard disk and a DVD/CD drive that can write too, so I can make CDs. It’s quite an improvement on the present box, and was going for the almost “junk” price of 7300 yen (about $80). I thought it was a bargain, and so far it seems to be working OK, though checking it out has taken most of my “computer time” this past week. Fingers crossed…