Gatsby commercials

Japanese commercials are often quite immaginative and fun. And thanks to the very liberal advertising laws they can not only be seen on tv and in the cinema but also on oversized LCD screens at major squares in Tokyo and other cities (most famously at Shibuya crossing) and on small screens on trains. Yes, not only are trains in Japan completely plastered with print commercials, now they also feature tv screens above the doors that play the latest commercials.
Gatsby is the most popular brand for male hairstyling products and I find their commercials some of the funniest. The background music can get on your nerves, true, but the commercials are still entertaining. The face of Gatsby is again "Kimutaku", the former boygroup member become Superstar/-hero with a capital "S" Takuya Kimura (See previous post "The talented Mr Kimura"). Not that this is the only product I've seen his face advertising for. He virtually seems to be marketing every possible product. Chewing gums, Toshiba notebooks, Samantha Thavasa handbags and of course his own new tv drama "Mr Brain" (...)
Here a few of the Gatsby commercials with Mr Kimura:
This one if very funny and an illustration of different esthetics across cultures. Imagine that spot on one of our tv channels - people would die from laughing (ok, might make them buy the product). Lascivous hair spraying - that's how it's done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5BzT_BaKoo&feature=related
Kimutaku alias Dorian Gray, admiring his own reflection and finally pulling a cutsy tongue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhfdJNLMoM&feature=related
Hm, kindergarden? "I don't listen, don't listen, just pull my hair..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-2ZwoGKGEw&feature=related
A world premiere: The man with the rubber legs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIrMl1Rl3jg&NR=1
And now watch and enjoy...

Niijima or "Gone with the Wind"

My hard working friends had to leave the Izu island paradise after the extended weekend of course. Me , the lazy unemployed, decided to visit another island. After all the ferry ticket had not been cheap and on the other hand the campsites on the islands were free of charge and I would not spend more on food than in Tokyo. So as long as I'd find an internet connection I would be fine. After having met the tanned surfers heading for Nijima on the overnight boat this island seemed like a good choice... Little did I know there would be nothing like sun, fun and surf waiting for me.
Nijima is a 20 minut boat ride from Shikinejima and quite a bit larger. It is known for its large surf beach and is reputed as a party island. That is on weekends obviously... When I arrived I was lucky enough to be able to convince the bus driver to do a detour and drop me off at the campsite. The campsite was huuuge and almost completely empty, there were a mere 4 other tents. I rented a bike and started touring the island a bit. The famous surf beach next to the campsite was indeed beautiful and a few remaining surfers were still training. But overall the beach was incredibly empty, but stunningly beautiful, a picture perfect beach for a long walk.
The other side of the island featured a little village which seemed very sleepy, no one on the streets, barely any open shops. But I saw a few Izakaya red lamps, so there would be some dinner locations hopefully. Along the roadside there were stone sculptures craftfully cut into large stone blocks. Imagine some kind of Easter Islands light. But soon the rain started and made my bike tour less enjoyable. But the islands community center offered free internet for those able to fill out the Japanese registration form, so I proceeded to do some job search for the day.
In the evening I met the inhabitants of the other tents. A Japanese couple, a French teacher with his japanophile 15-year old daughter and British English teacher twins with a Japanese friend and embassy interns from Belgium. I went for dinner with the British and Japanese girls. We checked out a nice Izakaya which specialized in sashimi (not surprising for an island) and Ashitaba tempura. Dinner was delicious, that is except for the Kusaya that we tried. Kusaya is a dish horrible enough that even most Japanese refrain from eating it. Loosely translated it's "stinky fish" and please don't succumb to the illusion that it tastes better than it smells...
The night started with light rain only. I had Peter's warning in mind that the tent would not resist heavy rain, so I hoped it would not get worse. It did though and all I could do was roll myself up in the middle of the tent in order not to touch the walls. Still, I and my luggage woke up damp in the morning. The guy who was interning at the Belgian embassy left and he wanted to leave his tent behind too, so I put up that new tent for the next night and felt really lucky.
The second day on Nijima was even rainier than the previous one. Non-stop heavy rain, but we still cycled around as this was the only available means of transport. Thanks to the rain the eclipse of the sun was not visible either. Such a rare event and you would be in the right place and then... All we saw was a tv live transmission from Southern Japan at the Community Center. Greeeat - could have seen that back home in Europe too...
Despite the very rainy day I was positive about the night. With the new tent I was sure to resist the rain. Little did I know that the new tents fragile construction would bring new problems. NO, the tent did not leak. BUT it crashed over my head - over and over again. I had to get out in my nightgown with the flashlight and try to fix the poles. Minutes later it crashed again. And there was nowhere to flee - the kitchen area was flooded and the toilet did not seem an inviting place to spend the night. I got up veeery early and packed my stuff, enough was enough and it was definitely time to make my way back to Tokyo.
The boat left in the afternoon only, so all of us campers spent a sulky day at the surfer cafe. The French father and daughter couple wanted to stay on still. The island was obviously a concession to the fathers idea of a good holiday. The 15-year old was your typical japanophile Teenie who is obsessed with anime, manga and of course Japanese boy bands. She tried to strike up a conversation about the above topics with me and the British twins, but for our lack of both interest and knowhow the topic soon died. After a quick soak in the greek themed onsen we boarded the boat, happy to get our damp selves back to a dry and cosy Tokyo apartment.

Shikinejima escape

July brought us another one of those inexplicable Japanese public holidays (one planted into each month, either Friday or Monday). Marine Day was this months, whatever that may entail. Reference to the supply base for sushi? No clue... Anyway, anyone working here and suffering from few vacation days tries to use those public holiday for short trips. So some of my working friends had decided to do a trip to Shikinejima, one of the Izu islands about 200km South of Tokyo. Obviously a rather quiet and very small island with nice free rotemburo/onsen (hot springs) and a free camping site.
So Friday evening we met up at Takeshiba Pier in Tokyo`s harbour area. We were of course not alone heading for the Izu islands, there were masses of people lining up at the pier. At the ticket counter everybody got a free plastic mat which I later realized was the mattress to sleep on the ferry. The boat soon looked like a refugee camp with all those people laying out their stuff on the floor and trying to sleep or party, two naturally enemy activities. Lucky were those who managed to sleep in the chaos. Otherwise you'd party with Tokyo gaijins or make friends with the surfer boys heading to the neighbouring Nijima.
The free campsite on Shikinejima turned out to be very scenic, located above a beach. Some of the tentsites were down near the beach, the others spread over the hill on different levels. We wisely chose the ones up the hill. Like this you had the choice whether to sleep or party, those near the firesites would be inevitably booked for noise all night long. I shared a tent with Sarah, a Japanese woman who lived in the US for 10 years. Our friend Peter had lent us the tent which was a bit old, but spacious and easy to put up.
Peter visits the island every year at least once, so he was very familar with its sites and the local businesses. We rented some rusty mountainbikes from an old man in town and started to tour the island. It is hilly, but small and with a bike you have quickly seen the major sites. So we mostly stayed in the free rotemburo, soaking up and relaxing. I like the Onsen culture, however, I am not the type to stay in the very hot water for long or do ten different springs in one day. But I had fun taking pictures of my friends and doing people and dog watching.
I got to know a plant/vergetable that had been completely unknown to me before, despite having spent many months in Japan already. Peter was midly obsessed with it to say the least. It is a leave that is growing everywhere on the Izu islands and is called Ashitaba. "Ashita" means "tomorrow" and "ba" is for "leave" meaning a leave that grows back tomorrow when you cut it. It is used for a variety of dishes. We went to the islands "Italian" (well, as Italian as it gets out there) restaurant and tried Ashitaba salad, bread and tempura. The latter two were excellent, very tasty. You can also just eat it fresh from the roadside, but it is definitely better cooked up a bit.
The island was also site for some social tensions between "gaijins" (foreigners) which was namely our group and a group called Alpine club Japan or something like that. Peter and Jim both used to be members of that outdoor club which is one of the biggest in Japan with its own magazine and so on. It seems the clubs president is a bit egocentric however. Jim organized a small hike with a couple of other members and outside friends and did not do it through the official club channel. They got "caught" on the hike and Jim was expelled from the club for organizing an event with other members "behind the presidents back". The guy later wanted to back out and asked Jim to join again under the condition that he would sign an amendment to the club members declaration that said that no member was allowed to organize any event with more than 2 other club members without inviting the club as a whole. Jim pretty much showed his middle finger and some other members left as well. Bad luck that both Jim and the club decided to go to the same island that weekend... Of course a lot of members still know and like him and agree on the president being silly. So there was lots of gossip. The president "caught" us with some club members sitting in front of the supermarket and talking about - well - him. He got a little catty...
We finished the weekend with a hike to the highest point of the island, a very windy affair but with a lovely view. The local tourist board had organised some sort of sea snail race on the nearby beach. They threw tons of those into the water and people with snorkeling goggles jumped after and tried to collect as many as possible. Seemed quite pointless, but fun to watch. After the snails were barbecued (but tasted quite bad). We had a proper barbecue in the evening at the campsite which was cosy. The guys again went to the lovely onsen down a cliff. It looks impressive at night. There is a steep, lantern lit zigzag path leading down the cliffs and you end up in this free onsen right down at the ocean with all the lights around. The guys took wine with them and stayed in the spring for hours, probably soaked up with minerals for life...

Disaster season

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting at Starbucks with my housemate Rinko and her friend Yuki. When I took the picture we were just cracking some jokes about the gift Yuki had brought for Rinko, a diary with Rinko`s favourite Korean singer. It`s considered a bit "middle-aged Lady" to be infatuated with neighbour country`s cutie boys, called "Hanryu Stars".
A couple of minutes after I stoped laughing and got rather sick in my stomach. An earthquake... There had been one or two very light earthquakes since I came here, but this one was a much stronger one. Not just a little tremor, but rather heavy shaking as I had experienced only in the earthquake simulator in Fukuoka last year (http://clod-lost-in-translation.blogspot.com/2008/07/preventing-disasters.html). My friends laughed about it, but I thought it was not that funny especially considering that a major earthquake is long overdue in the Kanto area, the last one was the huge disaster of 1923 which left over 100`000 dead. Statistics say about every 70 years an earthquake of that magnitude happens, so make your calculations...
I learned on the internet later that yesterday`s earthquake had had a magnitude of 6.9, some sources say 7.1 and had its center near the Izu islands, where I just spent a weekend lately. A magnitude of around 7 seems very strong indeed, the Kobe earthquake in 1995 had a magnitude of 7.2 obviously. The epicenter may have been a bit further away this time, but that was definitely serious. But except for a few people getting injured by objects falling down there was no damage.
It`s also typhoon season in Japan and tomorrow the large typhoon that was sweeping over Taiwan on Friday is passing near Tokyo, so some heavy rain is expected. The South of Japan however is much more affected and the typhoons occur every year in late summer. This is definitely a country with a lot of natural action, be it earthquakes, typhoons or volcanos. Not quite used to that yet.

Nanpa - pick-up artists

I was recently meeting a friend for drinks in Ikebukuro, one of the major train stations of Tokyo. My friend Damiano was quite a bit late, around 25 minutes, so I had to wait at the station. With no book in my bag it could have become a little boring. But I got a free spectacle that certainly made excellent entertainment.
There is a phenomenon in Japan that is called "Nanpa". It generally means something along the lines of "flirting", see the following link for a more historical background on the term : http://neojaponisme.com/2007/12/05/nanpa-a-history/. These days it is used for pick up lines on the street and there are certain areas that are especially popular for this, eeh, sport... Tokyo`s main spot would probably be Center Gai in Shibuya where all the male and female fashion dolls like to spend their time at. Or the square in front of Shinjuku`s South East Exit. And definitely the Ikebukuro station area. Ikebukuro as a nanpa spot has even found literary mention in Ira Ishida`s novel and manga "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikebukuro_West_Gate_Park). As one of the more seedy areas of the city and with an abundance of love hotels it seems an obvious choice for nanpa...
So there was this group of guys standing at the East station exit. Excuse the poor quality of the pictures, I took them in a as unobvious as possible fashion with my mobile phone... Quite clever, three guys representing three distinctly different types and tastes. There was a) the epitomy of the Japanese Male Doll or "Gyaru-O" (girly guy) with the "Tina-Turner-in-the-80`s" hairstyle dyed in blonde, super tight trousers, long pointed shoes, all sorts of bling bling and a stupid "I`m so hot" expression on his face. Then b) the Macho Guy. Short hair dyed in sand blond, heavy fake tan, baseball cap and a intentionally manly body posture and facial expression, the internationally recognized "I`m the man" type. And then c) a less obvious candidate, the Nerdy Guy or "Otaku" as they are called here. Next to his friends an obvious lack of fashion sense, glasses, undefined haircut. Still, unlike the typical Otaku definitely not of the shy stay-at-home-and-play-video-games type. In a refined approach that would have made anyone working in Sales jealous, those guys scouted the area for girls to tackle and chose the appropriate team member to address her instantly. I seem to be the macho type target - lol. When I arrived the guy too a closer look at me and seemed to consider addressing me. But they are cowards, so the risk of me not speaking Japanese seemed too big I guess. It was really funny to watch and they were very busy as the approach of Nanpa is not class but mass. Chat up as many girls as possible and try to get their phone numbers. Most will probably be annoyed and leave, but if you approach enough you will get SOME phone numbers. That is the philosophy of Nanpa I guess. The girly guy targeted the dolly girls, the "Hime" gal, princess girl and the super fashionistas. The macho targeted the more streetsy but still fashionable type. And the nerd the shy, office girl type. Despite the obvious stupidity of the endeavour as such I thought their way of approaching the "market" was kind of brilliant.
I failed to count the number of girls they chatted up during these 25 or so minutes, but there were quite a few. They were insistent too, so if the girl kept on walking they would just walk with her for a bit to still talk her into handing over her phone number (or ideally go straight for the love hotel I guess). They did not chat a lot with each other, though obviously being there as a group. In between the chat-ups they would be checking their mobiles to keep track of past success stories I guess and scout the area for new "customers".
The most clever of those guys combine nanpa with a job. A popular form of ads is the hand-out of small items like handkerchiefs or a hand fan with a marketing message printed on. They are handed out in high-density pedestrian areas, usually by students. Quite a few of those guys seem to use this job that requires approaching people anyway for nanpa. Making money while picking up girls, I guess that is smart...

Kamakura Buddha

Kamakura is located just outside of Tokyo on the seashore and one of the "must-do" trips around the city. Kamakura itself used to be Japan`s capital for a brief period of 150 years in the 12th to 14th Century. These days Kamakura is renowned for its many temples that make it being called little Kyoto by some. And the Daibutsu, the large Buddha statue, although not quite as big as the one in Nara, is a famous object of pictures.
I went to Kamakura with a friend from Okinawa who came to visit his parents in Saitama prefecture. So I could combine a day of sightseeing with a day of Japanese speaking practise. And it went very well and added to the feeling that lately my Japanese is becoming quite functional. I don`t need to consult my dictionary every couple of minutes and I can express myself fluently in most situations. And my friend Yuuki speaks a lot, so this was definitely a good challenge.
We set off from Ikebukuro in the morning and it took us about one hour to get to Kamakura. There is an old tram that links the different sites and goes down to the seashore as well, so we bought a "Norihodai" ticket - "all-you-can-ride" ("hodai" in Japanese means "all-you-can", so it`s used in a variety of package offers like "Nomihodai" ->drink "Tabihodai" -> eat and so on). I found the expression quite funny as "all-you-can-ride" was a new term to me and sounds a bit silly. Anyway, the tram prevented us from getting too wet as it was raining quite a bit unfortunately.
The large Buddha figure in Kamakura was of course well visited. You could enter it as well, but I doubted that there would be any worthwhile view up there considering the weather and paying money to enter a narrow damp stone Buddha, I did not consider that again (see post on visit to Kurume last year...). The seemingly aslepp Buddha figure with the pouty mouth looked impressive though. Yuuki said the its hair looks like salmon roe - the kind of remark that as a culturally sensitive foreigner you are trying not to make usually ;-) We also visited some temples nearby and a little cave with statues of Shinto Gods. After paying reference to the cultural aspect of the cave we could however not resist playing "Caveman" in there as well...
For lunch we stopped at a restaurant that is obviously a must-visit too and famous for its super fresh sashimi and shirasu. I definitely was in for the fresh sashimi, but did not know what shirasu is. Turned out to be tiny, almost transparent raw fish. One Japanese friend later told me she can not eat it fresh, only dried because of all the tiny little eyes of the fish looking at you. It was not bad though I slightly prefered the delicious sashimi.
In the afternoon the weather cleared up a bit and we visited Enoshima, a little island linked with the mainland by a bridge. There are some famous temples on there as well, so we took a walk over the island. For the lazy folks there are escalators to climb the islands hills if you are ready to pay 500 Yen for the luxury. We did not of course. The island was also full of cats, they were virtually everywhere - from the expensive Siamese to street breeds. We had another couple of bites of seafood on top of the hill, more shirasu and grilled marinated squid, yum!
Before going back to Tokyo we lazied around the seashore in Fujisawa for a bit. Yuuki wanted some French fries and we had to eat them outside because he also wanted to smoke absolutely. There were warning signs on the beach saying you should NOT eat outside because of all the birds (whatever they are, crows maybe?) that would attack you if you had food. I am seriously scared of big black birds, have been for a long time (no, I haven`t seen "The Birds" though read the book). So I was veeery nervous and the birds circling above our heads were not encouraging at all, not the situation to enjoy the actually very pretty sunset. Yuuki hid the package of fries under the table and once in a while stuffed a bunch into his mouth. Was quite funny, but I still had the vision of the birds attacking...
P.S.: I had to correct several spelling errors before posting. I wrote "Karmakura" instead of Kamakura. Maybe that should be the real name, good karma place it seems for sure...

Starbucks Tribes

Starbucks is definitely not the most original place to spend your time at. But then again it is a really good place to study at. Obviously Starbucks has recognized that exactly this is a major appeal and has placed an extra shared study table in its stores here in Japan. Even the regular tables are mainly occupied by people studying, having informal business meetings, reading, working on their laptops, having language lessons and so on. So basically Starbucks has turned into one big office/library/meeting room with the benefit of decent coffee.
I go to study in my favourite Starbucks in Akabane almost every day. It`s the ideal atmosphere to study: some noise but not too distracting, a cup of coffee, other people studying as well to make you feel you are not alone and the impression that you are still having a social time while working. I do like small private cafes, but unfortunately you quickly get the impression that you should buy a new cup of coffee every 30 minutes or so or else start moving on. I had developed a dislike of Starbucks in 2006 when doing my internship in Boston where you have a cafe every 5 meters or so. But now I`m in again, just too good of a study spot.
The other guests, and some of them are regulars too, are interesting to observe too. There is this English teacher who gives conversation lessons to a Japanese business man at Starbucks. He totally confirms my impressions that many English teachers are not cut out for improving Japanese people`s English skills. All he does is just sit there and chat with the other guy and being paid for it. I haven`t heard any serious inputs from him to improve the others grammar, vocab or anything. There is also a foreigner who gets Japanese classes with an elderly lady. She looks very stern, he looks very clueless... And there is this guy who comes to "study" at Starbucks frequently. Seems to be a student of city planning or something like that according to his books. The trouble is just, he reads like 3 lines, then he starts typing messages on his phone again or he re-arranges his hair or he looks at his too tanned face in a small mirror or he goes to the toilet or he falls asleep (see pic)... He could easily skip taking those props (aka textbooks) with him as he never seems to get anything done.
Coming there so often plus being a foreigner has made the staff of the Akabane Starbucks notice me. The boldest of the guys there asked me for my Facebook contact after a while and then gradually introduced me to his colleagues. It`s nice, I get special treatment now, little figures drawn on my cup and so on. Makes it even more fun to go there and I have the chance to practise my oral Japanese skills as well. Now every time I enter the store I get a big "Hello" from the staff and of course lots of encouragement for my Japanese studies.