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.

Tokyo mountains

Tokyo is the largest city in the world and incredibly densely populated with 35 Million people in the city area stuffed into a rather small piece of land. Still, some nature remains even in the close vicinity of the city. The most popular destination for excursions is Mount Takao. I have not yet had the chance to visit, but it seems a little on the overrun side with masses of schoolkids and families going there all year round.

This weekend I went hiking on a mountain in the very West of Tokyo, Mount Mitake. We were four expats lacing up our hiking boots and taking the Chuo line in direction of Tokyo`s outlayer. It takes about 1.5 hours from Shinjuku to get to the final train station. We had a little lunch right in front of the station. A local farmer was selling sandwiches and cucumbers with miso paste and chatted cheerfully with us. He also had some local bugs in a box, I was not quite sure whether they were supposed to be eaten as well... Then we took the bus and a mountain railway up to the top of Mount Mitake.
We did a beautiful round tour on Mitake that takes you through the little village, the large pilgrim`s temple and a lot of forrest area. I just love the look of the Japanese forrests and we were lucky to pick a good day for hiking, cool but not raining. My friends Andrew, Michael and Jim were trailing a bit as they constantly stopped to take pictures of mushrooms. They have grown very fond of growing and collecting mushrooms here in Japan. Not that I want to suggest it has something to do with the very strict anti-drug policy in Japan... There were two nice waterfalls in the forrest to which we climbed down. Climbing them up again was definitely better than any stepmaster in the gym. The guys freaked out a little bit because I drank water from the river. It`s supposed to be full of little bugs and their fecals here and cause of serious diarrea. But I was simply thirsty and the wasabi that I ate later probably cleaned up my stomach quite well, I didn`t face any problems later.
A lovely stonegarden was also hidden in the forrest. The atmosphere was just beautiful and it felt very far from Tokyo. Due to the clouds you could not even see the city either. People we met on the way were unusually friendly. It`s only hikers who greet each other with "Konnichi wa" here. (Other than that they just scream "Irrashaimaseeeee" (welcome) in every store - because they have to...). The hikers were of course superbly equipped as usually in Japan, with expensive and a little over the top (for such an easy hike) mountain gear. Strangely enough you don`t see those Japanese in sandals and shorts trying to climb serious mountains here in Japan. How often we laughed about them... They must all exile to Switzerland, seriously, you don`t meet them in their home territory.
After the hike we had a dinner break before heading back to the city. We found a lovely oldfashioned soba place on top of Mitake, managed by two elderly ladies. We had some cool beer and soba noodles. They served us some extra free goodies on the side which was actually clever. They were so good we all ended up buying them from the little store the ladies have as well. We were really tired (more from lack of sleep than from the hike) and felt like lying down right away on the tatami mats in the restaurant. Instead we had to do the 2-hour trip back to Tokyo and started snoring on the train, twisting our necks painfully.

Japanese literature - first recommendations

The one Japanese thing I`ve been really interested in before coming here, was Japanese literature and I have read quite a bit more since. So in this post I`d like to give recommendations for those who are interested in reading Japanese authors. After all, I was member of a literature club in Basel and maybe you girls back home want some tips since we never got to read Japanese authors in the club...
Here are the first two recommendations by two contemporary Japanese authors. I really like Ishiguro`s work, I have read almost all of his novels by now. He is maybe not strictly a Japanese author as he has been living in the UK for a long time and is publishing in English only. But definitely worth reading
Kazuo Ishiguro, "Never let me go" ("Alles was wir geben mussten"), 2005
The novel is set in rural England, sometime in the near future. Young people are living in a strict boarding school on the countryside. But they are not there to be educated for their future, they are clones and their reason for being is to serve as a human spare parts stock and are taught how to be good at that and are taken care of after each operation to continue serving until the lethal operation is necessary. The youth, despite being brainwashed that their existence serves only one purpose, try desperately to give their existence sense and maintain relationsships. This novel is a chilling future vision and was named one of the most relevant books of the year. Ishiguro is a Japanese native living in the UK and has published many other novels, among them the novel turned into a film "The remains of the day". Another novel of his that I highly recommend is "An artist of the floating world" which deals with the Japanese "day zero" after WWII and the question of individual guilt and collaboration with the previous regime.
Hitomi Kanehara - "Snakes and Earrings" ("Tokio Love") 2004
Lui is the typical Tokyo Barbie Girl, cute looking with a single focus: consumption, her nickname being a derivate of Louis Vuitton. But Lui is attracted to men with a darker side, her boyfriend being a instable punk and her lover a tatoo artist fantasizing to kill her. The menage a trois is linked by their interest in body art, tatoos and more extreme forms of piercings and modifications. Working towards Lui`s split tongue, the three delve deeper and deeper into sex and violence. Kanehara is in her twenties and considered one of Japan`s most promising young authors. "Snake and earrings" earned her two of the most relevant literature prizes. "Autofiction" is another work of hers that has been translated and well acclaimed.