Long time, no see, everyone!
It’s Lady Sudachi here.

The weather has gotten progressively colder and winter is now right at our doorsteps.

At this time of year the air can get very cold and dry, and it can be very harsh on women’s skin.

Why not make use of your time in Japan to try some of the local brands.

There are many well-known brands, but this time I’d like to introduce you to a brand called ‘Chifure’.

Chifure is one of the more inexpensive brands of cosmetics on the market right now, but it has a surprisingly high quality behind its low cost.

Chifure products cost around 1,000 yen at their most expensive and you can get many basic types of cosmetics for just 600 yen. They are scent-free and use no artificial coloring, and are known for being gentle to your skin. What’s more, the labels are clearly marked with the date of production and the ingredients so you know exactly what you are using.

Chifure products are also environmentally friendly. Once you buy a certain product, you can use the same bottle it comes in by simply buying refill packs. Refills are even cheaper than the original, bottled products, so you can make a saving here as well.

Chifure is a very easy brand of cosmetics to use and can be helpful for those who aren’t sure which brand to go with or who are looking for something light and easy to carry while on a trip.

In Tokushima, you can buy Chifure products from the seventh floor of the Sogo Department Store in Tokushima City. Most other general drug stores

Please give it a go!

They even have an English website:

www.chifure.co.jp/en/index.html

Also, a more full description of products is available for those who can read Japanese.

www.chifure.co.jp/brand/chifure/index.html

Examples）
Cleansing Oil 220ml 735 yen (Refills – 630 yen)
Face Wash 150g 420 yen
Skin Lotion (Moist Type) 150ml 578 yen (Refills – 473 yen)
Moisturizer 50g　735 yen (Refills – 630 yen)
Foundation 840 yen (w/case) (Refill – 525 yen), Sponge 168 yen
Lipstick case 105 yen、Lipstick (Refills) 315 yen

Today we’re featuring a trip to Japan ~
without leaving the United States!

Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times, and away we go! Off to Saginaw, Michigan of all places. Saginaw is a Sister City to Tokushima, Japan ~ The City of Water that rejoices everyone’s heart.

And as such, the city of Saginaw, Michigan features an authentic Japanese Cultural Center. Awa SaginawAn was designed by renowned architect Mr. Tsutomu Takenaka, and constructed in 1985. Its foundation rests on three acres beside Lake Linton, and is regarded as part on American soil and part on Japanese soil.

The cultural center states that the performing of the tea ceremony fulfills their mission “to promote intercultural understanding and peace through a bowl of tea.” The center features lessons in Japanese language, calligraphy, origami and flower arrangement, and is available for walk-abouts, weddings and photo shoots.

Now onto the news, the natural news website lists Green Tea in its Top Five Herbs that Promote Kidney Health. Reminding us that the green tea plant contains compounds known as polyphenols (plant antioxidants), which inhibit kidney stones, the report also notes that green tea reduces fatty deposits, encourages improvement of the heart and circulatory system, assists with weight loss, and so much more.

The many benefits of Green Tea are easily
available through Matcha GT.

Matcha GT, the super premium Matcha Green Tea

http://matchagt.com/
http://www.smoothieessentials.com/
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Oh my God oh my Gawwwwwwd, Awa Odori starts this Wednesday!! I’m so nervous!!!

o________O;;;;;

Our last practice was tonight.
I’ve been practicing really really hard!
So hard, that I pulled something… my right leg is all screwed up, as is my lower back. I have to stretch really well every day just to be able to do normal stuff. Ow ow ow. いたいいいい

But oh my goodness is it ever exciting! I can’t wait to wear my purple kimono and my giant taco-shaped hat and dance like nuts! Every day now I wear geta when I’m not at school.

And speaking of not being at school…
Today I woke up, and it was typhooning. We were getting hit by the edge of tropical storm Etau, and it was amazing!!! So much rain, so much lightening and thunder!!! Nature is really really powerful!

I thought to myself, “Oh, I can’t be bothered to go through this storm just to sit pointlessly at my desk”. So I mailed my supervisor to ask for holiday leave. Stupid! I should have said “Oh no, a typhoon! Abunai!”

But now I have to take one of my holiday days. Mottainai! What a waste!!

Although, it did clear up and I could have gone in for half a day, but I am a lazy bum and couldn’t be bothered.

Yesterday I saw an amazing musical play put on by a local musical theater group. One of my students was in it, surprisingly.

The (original) story was about three girls who meet two girls who may or may not be magical, and for some reason, they decide to go back in time on a flying broom (one of the girls is a janitor, one is a makeup artist, and one just likes history for some reason?). So they go back and meet somebody who may or may not be Genghis Khan, and help some people get a scroll and a princess, and then there was a huge song and dance number.

Then, they went to America to try and stop Kennedy from being assassinated. For this half the play, almost everyone spoke a ton of English, and they were all pretty dang good with their accents and so on. The girls made a jazz group, and performed for Jackie O, and tried to warn her. Jackie O said she would tell Kennedy, but she lied! (for some reason, she was a complete bitch, and she couldn’t see the two magical girls. Who knew?)

Undaunted, the girls use their showbiz connections (3 more extremely tall girls in sparkly Supreme’s style dresses) to get an audience with Kennedy. They warn him about getting shot, but he says that danger is part of being President, and the people of Texas are his people too, so he can’t avoid the trip. Realizing they can’t stop him from taking his path, the cast sings “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory” in a very moving style, giving Kennedy one last performance.

In the audience, we had already looked at each other several times to say “No way”

But wait, there was more to come. John and Jackie got on their car and were on the motorcade, and the girls came and stopped time, to try and save him again. They told JFK that they were from the future, and that we had a black President, and that there was a bullet in his future. But JFK said that he was the President of the United States of America, and he was going to do his job.

Then he was shot. (In the audience, we looked at each other and said “No Way” again).

Then the janitor girl held up a flag in a spotlight against the curtain, and the Supremes stood in the balcony and sang something along the lines of “Where have you gone, JFK”. (I’ve been unable to figure out what song they actually sang).

Then they went back to the present time, accidentally inspiring young Steven Spielberg to invent E.T. THE END.

Like I said. It was amaaaaaaazing. Not often am I really weirded out and very moved at the same time.

File that under “Oh, Japan”.

Water levels on the rise in Tokushima City (8:36)

Last Update: 11:00am, August 11

Typhoon No. 9, Etau is currently 110 km west of Hachijojima Island and is moving East at a speed of approximately 25km/h on a path that will take it further along the east coast of Japan later today.

This typhoon is expected to have no further affect on Tokushima Prefecture or Shikoku.

If you have a photo of flooding or rain in your part of the prefecture then post a link to it here in the comments section below!

The storefront to Fukurou.

徳島県鳴門市大津町矢倉字東の越15-17

Tel.
088-684-2960

Hours
11:00-21:00
* Closed on Wednesdays

If you’re looking for a filling meal and a new flavour of ramen,  thenFukurou is the place to be.

Perhaps the most appropriate way to describe the menu of Fukurou is a surprising sense of volume. The standard serving of ramen is much like that found in other stores, but once you leave the safe and normal territory then you’re in for a ride. Just about every other order on the menu is filled with all kinds of meat and vegetables, and I can guarantee you won’t be left wanting at the end of your meal.

A bowl of 'genki soba' ramen at Fukurou

What’s more, the menu has a lot of other options in addition to the standard ramen and gyoza fare. For example, in addition to bowls of rice and plates of shumai, you can also order curry rice (although not the kind you may be used to), kimchi and almost any other combination of noodles, rice and common vegetables that you can imagine.

• Chuka Soba – 530 yen
• Genki Soba – 680 yen
• Curry Rice – 380 yen
• Gyoza – 320 yen
• Shumai – 260 yen
• Kimchi – 180 yen

A look at the inside of the shop.

Store Interior
Located next to one of the main roads running through Matsushige to Naruto City, the shop is easy to find. It has a generous parking space, and like many ramen shops, the interior of the store is very understated, with both table and counter seats available.

Tickets are bought from a machine at the door, and pictures are available for most of the items on the menu so you can work out what to get in advance event if you can’t read Japanese.

View Larger Map

While the majority of fireworks displays in Tokushima are held in July, the fun isn’t over yet. In fact, it has only just begun! A total of two major fireworks displays are going to be held this August, including the largest annual fireworks display in the prefecture!

Kamojima
Come and enjoy a display of over 900 volleys.

When: Thursday, August 6, 20:00-21:00
Where: The Athletics Grounds at Kamojima in Yoshinogawa City.
Inquiries: Call the Yoshinogawa City Industry and Commerce Association at 0883-24-2274.

Naruto
This riverside display is the largest in the prefecture, with more than 3,500 volleys planned for the event!

When: Friday, August 7, 20:00-21:00
Where: Next to the Naruto City Bunka Kaikan, on the banks of the Muya River.
Inquiries: Call the Naruto City Industry and Commerce Division at 088-684-1157.

]]> http://route55.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/awa-odori-events-in-tokushima/ Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:36:04 +0000 route55 http://route55.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/awa-odori-events-in-tokushima/

Senbatsu Awa Odori Taikai
Professional dancing troupes present highly refined dancing performances on stage. A total of three different troupes will be dancing each day of the event.

When
Wednesday, August 12 to Saturday, August 15

Tokushima-shi Bunka Center
11:30 – (August 12 and 15 only), 13:30 -, 16:00 -

Awagin Hall
13:30 -, 16:00 -

Cost
Tickets are 1,800 yen for reserved seats (指定席 – shitei-seki) and 1,200 yen for free seating areas (自由席 - jiyuu-seki). All tickets cost an additional 200 yen if bought on the day.

Senbatsu Awa Odori Taikai – Zenyasai
A stunning combined performance by all awa dance troupes belonging to the Awa Odori Promotions Association and Tokushima Prefectural Awa Odori Association. Hundreds of dancers come together for this once in a year event to mark the opening of the festival.

When
Monday, August 11
13:00 -, 16:00 -, 19:00 -

Where
Asty Tokushima

Cost
2,000 yen for reserved seats and 1,500 yen for free seating areas.

Awa Odori at Tokushima Airport
Performances of Awa Odori will be held in front of the arrivals lobby at Tokushima Aiport to welcome visitors to the prefecture.

When
Wednesday, August 12
10:15 -, 11:45 -

Where
The area in front of the arrivals lobby at Tokushima Airport, in Matsushige-cho.

Cost
Free!

Naruto Awa Odori
The displays of Awa Odori in Naruto are the earliest in the prefecture, held over three days prior to August 12. Over thirty dance troupes perform each day of the event!

When
Sunday, August 9 to Tuesday, August 11
19:00 – 22:00

Where
The stage areas and shopping mall on the west side of the JR Naruto Station in Naruto City.

Cost
Tickets for stage seating costs 600 yen, or 800 yen if bought on the day.

Yoshinogawa Awa Odori
A selection of well known dancing troupes from the area will come to perform on the streets of Kamojima. Seating is free!

When
Friday, August 14 to Sunday, August 16
19:00 – 22:00

Where
The streets in front of JR Kamojima Station on the JR Awa Ikeda Line.

Ikeda Awa Odori
Over thirty dancing troupes from in and outside the town of Ikeda will come to perform during the event, and a paid seating area with over 800 seat is available for visitors.

When
Thursday, August 13 to Sunday, August 16
August 13: 19:00 -
August 14 – 16:  19:00 – 22:30

Where
August 13: The Ikeda Sogo Taiiku-kan
August 14- 16: The area in front of Awa Ikeda Station and surrounds.

]]> http://tokushimaelephants.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/conversations/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:24:35 +0000 elephantdreams http://tokushimaelephants.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/conversations/

Tonight at Awa Odori practice, I wore my geta for the first time.

Remember when you buy a new pair or a poorly made pair of sandals, and the bit that goes between your big and second toe chafes from here to Dixie?

Yes, well it’s like that, except you are putting all our weight on that chafe, and also dancing in time and waving your arms.

A whole new kind of pain.

Tonight’s practice was endurance mode, just dancing up and down and up and down the park pavement. I made it as far as I could, and then decided that since I was sucking so bad because the pain was so distracting, I should probably just change back to my sneakers.

I danced maybe 15 steps in my sneakers before practice ended. I didn’t have a watch or phone, so I didn’t know the time.

All in all, I’m pleased with myself for making it that far.

At the rest point in the middle, one of the really genki men’s dancers came up to me and told me all about how my rhythm was ok, but my power sucked, actually, no, my power was making my rhythm suck, and so I should kick my knees up higher.

I wanted to say “Yes, you put the geta on and see how much genki YOU have!!” but what I really did was agree with everything he said, say “Ossu” (“push / I’m gonna fight hard!”) and try my best. After all, he was right. My rhythm and power were sucking big time.

My old-lady friend chatted me up at break time too. We talked about the weather, and where Supervisor-teacher was, and how dancing was fun. Maybe 75% of the stuff she says to me I don’t understand, but dammit… if I’ve learned anything in a year, it’s that smiling, nodding, and applying the old ganbare (do your best) spirit will get you far.

At the end of practice, I talked with the kids. They wanted to know where Supervisor-teacher was, and to tell me what a good dancing gaijin I am, and to basically joke around. I told them I was going home to eat, and they told me if I ate after 8 pm, I would get fat.

I said “Ah, metabo desu ne” (“Yeah, I’ll get metabo”) and they busted a nut laughing at me, then said “kyotsukete” (“Be careful!”) and sent me on my way.

Thanks, kids, You’re the most awesome.

Now I have to run to the grocery store and sort some dinner. I rearranged most of my furniture today in a brief fit of industry, but now all the bits and bobs of moving are all over the floor and bed and table… I don’t really have a place to eat or sleep. Yet. And I need a shower.

Ahhh.

I enjoy being busy!

BAREFOOTIN’ IN TEE-SHIRTS and short pants, all the better to deal with the 30-minute turnarounds of pouring rain and blazing sun: yeah, summer has arrived at last in Japan. During the dog days, the archipelago offers all sorts of hot-weather delights, including watermelon, shaved ice, and best of all, the transformation of even the most neo-radical of young women into traditional beauties once they exchange their jeans for yukata (a summer kimono).

What else is going on up and down the islands? Well, take a look and find out!

Firefly festivals

Once upon a time, summer nights on the East Coast of the United States came alive with a light show au naturel created by fireflies. The march of progress and suburbia seems to have ended all that, but the lightning bugs, as we used to call them, are still alive and flickering in the countryside here.

This is Japan, so take it as given that people know just when to expect their appearance every year, just how long it will last, and how to organize the viewing parties and festivals held to coincide with those dates.

Lightning bugs!

The photo shows the fireflies near the Ayu River in Tanabe, in the southern part of Wakayama. It’s one of several locations in the area known as superb firefly viewing sites from the end of May to the beginning of June.

But as with the cherry blossoms and the rainy season, the firefly front keeps marching north, and right now the folks in Yonezawa, Yamagata, are enjoying a month-long firefly festival at the Onogawa spa. The festival is sponsored by the spa’s tourism association and the Yonezawa Firefly Protection Society. The opening ceremony was held at the local memorial firefly tower to pray for the safety of the participants during the event. Those Yonezawans must really like fireflies!

It’s not a festival in Japan without liquor, so right after the prayers they perform another centuries-old ritual by knocking open the head of a sake barrel with wooden hammers and passing the hooch around. They say some people see double when they drink too much, so you can imagine the sort of visions that light up the retinas of the festival-goers when a wave of fireflies floats by.

The viewing in Yonezawa begins on the riverbank right after it gets dark at 8:00 p.m. and lasts until 9:00. The area is such a firefly mecca that three different species breed here, and who but the entomologists knew there were different types of lightning bugs? For a spot of relaxation after all this excitement, the open-air baths stay open until nine, and there’s a tea house set up temporarily next to the firefly tower. The festival fun lasts until 31 July, but some people like to time their visit for the amateur entertainment contest on the 4th and 5th.

Hatsukiri

Sliding over from zoology to botany, here’s a photo of the festival held by the Miyajidake Shinto shrine in Fukutsu, Fukuoka, for the first cutting of Edo irises in a local garden. The purpose of the event, called Hatsukiri—first cutting, appropriately enough—is to present the irises as an offering to the divinities. They’ve got plenty of flowers from which to choose, because the garden has 30,000 individual plants. While the priests grunt, bend over, and swing their scythes, two miko hold irises as they perform a dance accompanied by a flute. More than 200 people came to watch. A small turnout, you say? That’s not a bad crowd for watching two girls perform a centuries-old dance in costume in a garden in a town of 56,000 while priests cut flowers. How many people would show up where you live?

The shrine held its Iris festival on the same day. They place 70,000 irises in front of the shrine and light ‘em up until 9:00 p.m. for 10 days. The shrine has its own iris garden too, started from bulbs sent by the Meiji-jingu in Tokyo in 1965. They now have 100,000 plants in 100 varieties. That’s a heck of a lot of irises, but they need that many to go around for all of Shinto’s yaoyorozu divine ones. (Yaoyorozu is the traditional number of divinities in Shinto. It literally means eight million, but figuratively represents an infinite number, signifying that each natural object has a divine spirit.)

Seaweed cutting

Irises weren’t the only flora getting cut for a Shinto ritual. Four priests from the Futamikitama Shinto shrine in Ise, Mie, boarded a boat with some miko and sailed offshore for some seaweed cutting. They present the seaweed—fortunately an uncountable noun—to the divinities, allow it to dry out for a month, and then distribute it to their parishioners to drive out bad fortune and eradicate impurities.

At 10:30 a.m., the priests set sail on their skiff festooned with red, yellow, green, purple, and white streamers, with bamboo grass placed at bow and stern, and headed for the special seaweed site 770 meters northeast of the Futami no Meoto, sometimes called the Wedded Rocks. (The word meoto designates a pair of something, one large and one small.) Since this is a special ritual, they can’t just start cutting—first they have to circle the divine Kitama rock on the seabed three times, then they haul out a three-meter long sickle and get to work.

Sea goya

Since the subject is aquatic plants, now’s as good a time as any to report that the Fukuka Aquaculture Center in Kin-machi, Okinawa, is ramping up production of a new variety of sea grapes they hope to popularize in Japan after sales start next month. The center has dubbed the new type “sea goya”, after the knobby bitter squash for which Okinawa is famous. (Here’s a previous post about sea grapes in Okinawa and goya in general.)

Tastes as good as it looks!

The center’s director said they discovered these particular sea grapes among a batch imported in March 2008. The new variety flourished in the southern climate, and that gave people the idea to turn it into a new product, particularly as they were looking for ways to juice the market after the prices of regular sea grapes and mozuku seaweed tanked.

They decided to call the new plant sea goya because it’s more elongated than regular sea grapes and has the bitter flavor of goya. The center has already applied to register the name as a trademark, and they’re confident the application will be approved. After hearing about the new product, more than 10 companies inquired about handling the distribution.

Nara ayu

After insects, irises, seaweed, and sea grapes, here come the freshwater fish: namely the ayu, or sweetfish, which we’ve encountered before in a post about their encounters with traditional traps.

Some sweetfish just for you

These sweetfish, however, were caught by means with an even longer and exalted pedigree—trained cormorants. The birds require keepers that are somewhat analogous to falconers, all of whom ply their skills for the Imperial Household Agency because the technique is a tradition of the Japanese Imperial household. (Dig their costumes in the photo at the link.)

Six keepers were employed to catch the fish at the Imperial fishing grounds on the Nagara River in Gifu City, but the keepers can handle up to a dozen birds on the end of ropes, so they must have taken quite a haul. They go out in boats too, but at night, and they take along lighted torches. The fish are attracted to the flame like maritime moths, and the birds dive in after them. The lower part of the cormorants’ necks are collared to prevent them from swallowing the fish, and after they’ve snatched one, the keepers reel them in and make them cough it up. That’s got to be more cruel than feeding a dog peanut butter.

The fish were packed into paulownia boxes and shipped to the Kashihara-jingu, a Shinto shrine in Kashihara, Nara, as well as the Imperial Palace and the Meiji-jingu, another Shinto shrine in Tokyo. Both shrines have an Imperial connection.

The Japanese have been using cormorants to catch sweetfish since at least the 8th century—don’t you wonder who came up with that idea?–and the Nagara River event is more than a millennium old, but this shrine has been receiving the sweetfish shipments only since 1940 to offer in prayer for the safety of fishing and a good catch. (The 1940 date suggests it might have begun as part of the celebrations that year marking the 2600th anniversary of the establishment of the Japanese Imperial House.)

Contributing to the delinquency of minors

Yet another sign of summer in Japan is the yaoyorozu of rice-planting festivals held throughout the country. It’s easy to figure out why—they grow the rice in wet paddies, which are made even wetter by all the rain that falls this time of year.

But the students at Miyoshi High School in Miyoshi, Tokushima, weren’t planting this rice as part of a festival; they were getting classroom credit. The lads aren’t planning to be farmers when they grow up–rather, they’re enrolled in a course covering the brewing and fermentation of food products. They’ll harvest that rice in the fall and use it to make sake.

The rice is grown on a 3,000-square-meter paddy the school rents from area residents. The teachers do most of the planting with a machine, and then some of the second year students wade right in and plant by hand those parts the machine can’t reach. They expect to harvest 1.5 tons of the rice in mid-September, which can probably be converted into enough sake to keep the town of Miyoshi more lit than a riverbank full of fireflies until New Year’s. The school started the project last year, and this year they increased the size of the cultivated area six-fold to use only the rice grown by students.

One of those students, 16-year-old Fukuda Shinya, had planted rice before, but he said the seedlings were more difficult to handle because the size was different than that of regular table rice.

Now why couldn’t I have gone to that school!

Shochu collector

While the high school students were outdoors sweating and getting dirty as they planted the rice for the sake they will later brew, Masuyama Hiroki (73) of Izumi, Kagoshima, was relaxing with an adult beverage as he contemplated the success of his 12-year effort to collect one bottle each from all the prefecture’s shochu distillers. This is Kagoshima, where everyone drinks shochu and almost no one drinks sake, so he had his work cut out for him.

He’s so proud of his accomplishment he’s got them lined up on the wall, and hasn’t twisted the cap on a single bottle. Mr. Masuyama decided to make it is hobby after he retired from a job with the prefectural government in 1996 and started working in sales. His business trips took him throughout Kagoshima, and after he got the idea—probably in a bar during one of those business trips–he made a list and started buying while he was selling. He started with 1.8 liter (1.92 US quarts) bottles, but they were too heavy and took up too much space, so he switched to bottles half that size. He had a few difficulties completing the collection, and no, one of them wasn’t a tendency to polish off a bottle before before he could display it on the rack. For one thing, the smaller bottles were sold mainly to commercial establishments, but he applied his salesmen’s skills to get what he wanted. Another was that he didn’t have much of a chance to go to the prefecture’s many outlying islands on business. After retiring from his second job, it took two more years to finish the project.

Mr. Masuyama says he enjoys looking at his collection while having a late-night drink, but his libation doesn’t come from those shelves on the wall. He hasn’t opened any of the bottles and says it would be a waste to drink them.

Now there’s a man with discipline!

Miko class

Shinto shrine maidens, known as miko, get to do all sorts of fun stuff. In this post alone, they’ve sailed out to the Wedded Rocks to help the priests cut seaweed, carried the sacred sweetfish caught by cormorants, and danced while the priests cut Edo irises in Fukutsu. Even better, they get to handle the money at the shrine during New Year’s.

Doesn’t that sound like a great part-time job? If that’s the kind of work you’re looking for, the Kanda Myojin Shinto shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo, is offering a beginner’s level course that provides instruction in how to become a miko. Even better, the class will last only one day, on 17 August—the middle of summer vacation!

Kanda Myojin conducts the class every year with the idea of giving young Japanese women a better idea of their traditions and culture, as well as teaching them more about the shrine. Last year, the student body consisted of 24 women who got to wear the red and white outfit for a day as they studied the shrine’s history, the daily conduct of affairs at the shrine, and its religious ceremonies.

Considering they charge only JPY 5,000 yen ($US 52.40), that sounds like a good deal. They’re looking for 20 unmarried young women this year from 16 to 22, and enrollment is open until the end of the month.

The declaration of the eisa nation

Start with a party, end with a party. This particular hoedown is the eisa dance native to Okinawa. Centuries ago, it was performed as a rite for the repose of the dead, but now it’s done for entertainment and is more likely to wake the dead than ease their way into the next world.

Okinawa City issued a proclamation declaring itself Eisa Town earlier this month, and held a Declaration Day Eisa Night event outside the city offices to lay claim to the title. Six groups made their eisadelic statement as they performed in original/trad clothing they created themselves. Eisa Night means that eisa season has officially started in the city, and summer in this city means that local youth groups will give public performances every weekend until the really big show, the Okinawa Eisa Festival in September.

During her greeting at the ceremony, Mayor Tomon Mitsuko said, “We hope you come to Okinawa City on the weekends and enjoy yourselves.” Then the dancing started and everyone proceeded to do just that.

It’s not just for the Ryukyuans, either. One of the six groups performing was the Machida-ryu of Machida, Tokyo, who started their own group in 1999 after a trip to Okinawa. They were so captivated by the dance they had to do it themselves at home. Now the troupe has more than 100 members.

There’s an idea: create your own Okinawan dance and drum ensemble and visit Eisa Town next year. If you want to learn, watching the video is a great way to start!

THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN are two countries separated by a common language, observed George Bernard Shaw, but at least the written matter in one country can be read by the people in the other. Those two countries, along with the rest of the Anglosphere, use the same writing system.

Imagine how much greater the separation must be in the Sinosphere, where there’s more than one way to write Chinese. Many languages are spoken throughout the region that might be called Greater China, but different approaches to the lexicographic system for the written Chinese language are one manifestation of the perennial battle royale in Taiwan over the question of how closely they should associate with the Mainland. On one side are those who want to adopt the PRC’s standard writing system (now that they’ve already adopted the PRC’s Romanization system). Arrayed against them are those who think that’s just a ploy to promote unification on PRC terms. The latter group is using an argument based on the unusual combination of preserving tradition and maintaining ethnic diversity to support their claim.

First, here’s some historical background to get everyone on the same page. The Chinese have been using ideographic characters since at least the 11th century BC. They’ve developed several writing systems throughout their history, but the characters they use today became roughly standardized about 2,000 years ago. Other people throughout East Asia adopted (or adapted) them to write their own language. They were used in the earliest documents written on the Korean Peninsula, and the Koreans used them until they developed their own alphabet. The Korean writing system was formally adopted in 1446, but did not come into common use until the late 19th century. Thus, literacy in Korea until fairly recently required the ability to read Chinese characters.

The Japanese used Chinese characters to write their own language at first, but only as phonetic symbols to express Japanese pronunciation and not necessarily for their meaning. While those early texts appear to be superficially Chinese, no Chinese reader would understand them because it’s still the Japanese language. Japan later developed two phonetic alphabets to use in conjunction with the characters to express vernacular grammatical elements, and these alphabets came into general use from the 8th to the 12th centuries.

The Chinese characters are called kanji in Japanese (which is now also an accepted English word), hanja in Korean, and hanzi in Chinese, but they all mean the same thing: Chinese (Han) letters.

Some of the traditional Chinese characters are quite complicated and require many individual strokes to write. In 1946, the Japanese started modifying their written language by reducing the number of kanji they required students to learn and simplifying their written forms. For example, the character gaku, which appears in such words as daigaku, or college, and gakko, or school, once had 18 strokes, but now has only eight. Some of the modifications were so extensive it would be impossible for contemporary readers to identify the connection. (Here’s a chart comparing the old and the new, for Japanese readers.)

The Chinese started simplifying the same characters in the 1950s, but their modifications were different than those the Japanese adopted, making the divergence between written Chinese and Japanese that much greater. The Koreans still use the traditional form of the characters for hanja when they do use them, but that is seldom. The Taiwanese are the only people to have retained the traditional form of the characters in everyday applications.

But now some people want to change that.

The current president of the Republic of China/Taiwan is Ma Ying-jeou of the reconstituted Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT). That was Chiang Kai-shek’s party of the Chinese who fled China when Mao and the Communists took over to set up a government in Taiwan.

Earlier this month, the president proposed that Taiwan adopt the Beijing government’s simplified character set for writing only and retain the traditional characters for reading. The skeleton of the story is in this AFP article.

Said Mr. Ma:

“We hope the two sides can reach a consensus on (learning to) read standard characters while writing in the simplified ones…It is also our hope that the standard characters can be listed as World Heritage by the United Nations one day,” he said in a statement.

AFP is perhaps the least-bad of the major media outlets reporting on Northeast Asia, and this article gets the basic facts right. Yet they still manage to tilt perceptions in the direction they want all right-thinking people to support.

Relations with China have improved dramatically since Ma’s Beijing-friendly government was inaugurated in May 2008, vowing to promote reconciliation and trade ties.

Note that the Taiwanese president also wants the standard characters to become a “World Heritage”. He does not explain why any Chinese should think a UN imprimatur would enhance the prestige of a written language several millennia old and still in daily use by more than a billion people.

Though it’s not mentioned here, Mr. Ma also hopes that the PRC will implement two United Nations human rights covenants (the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) in Tibet in the future.

Add his Harvard Law degree to his wishful thinking about Chinese behavior and it’s easy to see why Time Magazine chose him as one of their top 100 “Leaders and Revolutionaries” for 2008.

Meanwhile, AFP chose an over-the-top yardbird to provide the only dissenting quote in the article.

“Ma is seeing China as his master. He is even trying to change our writing habits to please China, which is absolutely unnecessary,” said Cheng Wen-tsang, spokesman for the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP.)

It’s not as if they didn’t have other people from whom to choose. Take this editorial from the Taipei Times:

Since taking office, Ma has been leaning toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as can be seen in many things, from his statement on the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre to his plans to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement with China.

This may be the trend of the times and Ma may not have a choice, but this does not mean that Taiwanese should learn only to recognize traditional Chinese while writing with simplified characters, because there is a thin line between this and unification — or, rather, being unified.

In ancient China, the standard for unification included standardized wheel width for carts and a standardized script. Today, Ma is promoting simplified Chinese without receiving any goodwill from Beijing.

This is not far from unification as seen by ancient Chinese — how can we not be worried?

And:

Ma may see an acceptance of simplified Chinese characters as part of cross-strait economic and cultural exchanges, but it constitutes a form of political recognition.

Mr. Ma’s statement on Tiananmen, incidentally, praised the Chinese for the progress they’ve made on human rights. (One of these days, perhaps we’ll understand why the people for whom Harvard Law degrees, Time Magazine lists, and the UN are so important think it’s commendable to be friendly with the maleficent Chinese regime, yet were so outraged by the existence of the South African apartheid government, or even the comparatively benign Chile of Augustin Pinochet.)

But the KMT wanted to quickly ameliorate any concerns. They explained:

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday proposed a concept of “reading in traditional characters, writing in simplified characters…The Office of the President today explained that the suggestion was aimed at 1.3 billion simplified character users in China, not Taiwan. (emphasis mine)

The concept aims to make Chinese people get to know the traditional character symbolizing authentic Chinese culture, said the Office. Traditional characters should be used in publications, but simplified ones are allowed in writing. It is not necessary to promote the concept in Taiwan as Taiwanese are familiar with traditional characters, the Office noted.

The Presidential Office explained that some media misunderstood that Ma intended to push forward the use of simplified characters in Taiwan, and thus clarified that the use of traditional character in Taiwan, a token of preservation of Chinese culture, will not be altered.

Most Taiwanese people are accustomed to using traditional characters in writing. But, for the sake of convenience, it is difficult to ban the use of simplified ones in writing. However, schools, government agencies, and military units should still use traditional characters at all time, according to the Office.

Do we have that right? The KMT wants people to believe the president suggested adopting the simplified PRC writing system in Taiwan so that the people on mainland China will reconstitute its entire educational system for 1.3 billion people and have them turn back the clock and recognize traditional characters?

Did they really think anyone would believe that, or, as seems to becoming common for politicians these days, did they just say it because they had to say something and didn’t care if anyone believed it or not?

But that still leaves another question: if all the books and documents in Taiwan are going to be in traditional characters; the schools, government, and military will use all trad/all the time; and since most people today usually communicate in writing by using the Internet and text messages…

What’s the point?

The Taiwan News has some other objections:

Despite hasty denials by a presidential spokesman, such an interpretation (promotion of unification) is by no means far-fetched given the apish decision by the restored KMT administration to officially adopt China’s Hanyu Pinyin romanization system and exile to the margins Taiwan’s home-developed Tongyong system on the grounds that Hanyun Pinyin was the “international standard,” presumably because of the PRC’s rising global clout. This conclusion was based less on Hanyu Pinyin’s questionable advantages than on an ideological drive to “link” the PRC’s “putonghua” with “Mandarin,” which the KMT defines as the unitary “national language” of the “Republic of China,” and ignored Taiwan’s multilingual environment, in which Tongyong could well be more suitable.

Their concerns are not unfounded. While the advocates of Tongyong pulled off some backdoor maneuvering of their own to get it adopted a few years ago, the Ma administration quickly rolled that back, ditched Tongyong, and adopted the PRC Romanization standard after taking office.

One of Tongyong’s advantages, by the way, is that it allows foreigners who don’t know Chinese to better pronounce family and place names. For example, non-Chinese speakers are at a loss how to deal with the Q in Qingdao (青島) and the X in Xian (西安). Tongyong used other spellings.

The opposition might also have a point that the PRC will see this as a concession without making any of their own:

Ma’s proposal received immediate applause Wednesday morning from PRC Taiwan Affairs Office Spokesman Fan Liqing, who gushed that “both simplified and complex characters were rooted in Chinese culture” and proposed that “experts on both sides can actively discuss how to make mutual interchanges in writing more convenient.”

Notice that Mr. Fan said nothing about restoring the use of traditional characters for reading in the PRC. He knows that isn’t going to happen.

“(A) most objectionable facet of Ma’s remarks concerned his implicit privileging of Mandarin, “the” national language in Taiwan, and his complete lack of mention of the fact that Taiwan has at least three Sinitic languages (Mandarin, Hoklo and Hakka), which do not entirely use the same Han characters, and over a dozen Austronesian languages which have no relationship whatsoever to Han characters but are equally or even more entitled to be considered as “Taiwan languages.”

The anachronistic attachment of Ma and KMT ideologues to Mandarin and Han characters as an unitary “national language” reflects their continued colonialist imposition of a racial and patriarchal conception of “Chinese” culture on Taiwan’s multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual democratic society, as reflected by the arrogant and false declaration of his inaugural address last May 20 that “all the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese race nation (zhonghua minzu).”

How refreshing to see the bogus concept of multiculturalism put to a positive use for a change. And then they drive the point home:

Instead of compromising Taiwan’s cultural sovereignty and democratic pluralism, the KMT government should demand that the PRC should fulfill its own international commitments and “converge” with the world community by implementing full freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of thought.

Writing in the August 2008 issue of Voice, Omae Ken’ichi suggested that the ties between the constituent elements of Greater China will loosen, and that the Sinosphere will eventually become a confederation rather than a single nation. The article itself was poorly written and poorly argued (and a disappointment, because that’s why I bought the issue), but this lexicographical dispute presents some of the reasons that confederation might come into being.

Kangolian?

Meanwhile, as the Chinese argue about how to best write their own language, a native of Inner Mongolia—also part of Greater China—studying in Japan is creating art by combining two different languages.

A graduate student at Shikoku University conducting research into calligraphy is presenting an exhibit of his creations in Naruto, Tokushima.

Usually I include names with these stories, but in the article this man’s name was written in katakana, the Japanese alphabet used for foreign names (other than Chinese and Korean names, for which kanji is used). It’s not possible to track back the katakana and come up with an accurate Romanization of the man’s name–and doesn’t that dovetail perfectly with the theme of this post?

His calligraphic art is the combination of the 800-year-old Mongol script with kanji. Mongolian also has a calligraphic tradition, and he is studying ways to fuse kanji with that script. Written Mongolian is one of the few vertical scripts in the world read from left to right. (You can read more about it at this website.) The student has also created some works with the two scripts side by side that show identical words and phrases.

To create a bit of Mongolian atmosphere for the exhibit, the museum is serving chai, or milk tea, and playing tapes of horsehead lute in the background.

He came to Japan five years ago and began attending a calligraphy class to improve his Japanese. He was fascinated by the strength of the brushes and the beauty of the work, so he enrolled in college to focus on those studies. He’s now in his first year of grad school.

So to sum it all up, two countries with the same basic language want to impose their own lexicographical views on each other because they can’t read what the other has written, while in Japan a man can combine two entirely different writing systems, call it art, and hang it in a museum to be viewed while drinking tea and listening to music.

And some people wonder why I don’t read fiction any more!

Pilgrim at Yakuouji Temple.

For the first full day of my motorcycle adventure, I travelled down from Tokushima to Kochi.  It was over 200kms for my first day of riding.  The first part was very boring.  When you drive in Japan, the cities are places you want to skip.  There isn’t anything to really see.  You just go from light to light seeing nothing new.  It took about an hour to get outside of Tokushima and its surrounding suburbs.  Once out of the city, things got smaller, yet more scenic.  Things didn’t become interesting until I reached the small town of Hiwasa.  This is a very small town located about two hours along route 55.  It is so small that you will be in and out of this town in less than 10 minutes.  There are only a few things to do in this town.  The main point of interest is to visit Yakuouji Temple.  This is built right next to the highway, and up a mountain.  There are many steep steps to reach the temple.  I found it to be an interesting temple for its location and how it was built, but the art and basic design wasn’t any different than any other temple in Japan.  There is also a small castle in this town and a few beaches where you can relax and enjoy yourself.  It is a good place to stretch your legs a bit if you are travelling this way.

At an unknown dam along route 55.

From Hiwasa, I would recommend leaving route 55 and heading down route 147.  This is a very small road, and the entrance is very easy to miss.  It is just past the temple, which can’t be missed.  This road follows the coastline more than route 55.  There are several mountains along this part of the coast making road construction difficult.  Route 55 heads to the north side of these mountains making it easier to drive.  However, the views from route 147 are wonderful and you’ll be graced with various types of corners.  This is more for drivers to enjoy.  There are also several different lookouts, but after one or two, they tend to look the same.  Heading further along route 55, there isn’t much to see.  However, there are many beaches, dams, and other things to see.  If you are travelling along anywhere in Japan, there is one easy way to know if there is something interesting to see.  The government tries to help local communities attract more tourists by promoting local attractions.  On the road, you will see a large white sign with blue lettering.  This is almost always something of interest.  Unfortunately, it isn’t always really interesting, so if you are driving around in Japan, beware that some sites may be worth a pass.

My Inukshuk at Muroto.

The main tourist attraction along route 55 is Muroto.  It is the southern most point of the highway.  Shikoku has two capes in the south.  Muroto is the western one.  It is very easy to drive in and out of Muroto.  There isn’t much to this cape.  However, it is a great place to stop and spend at least an hour.  There are a few places to take pictures, and the seawater is extremely clear.  The first thing you will see, coming from Tokushima, is a giant statue of a Buddhist monk.  Once you pass this large Buddhist monk, you will soon reach the tip of the cape.  There are a few places to park, but once you park, it’s a short two minute hike to the waterfront.  The waterfront if full of rocks that can make it difficult to walk around.  However, because of the remoteness of the cape, it is extremely peaceful.  There are only a handful of people around at any time.  I would highly recommend a dip in the water, but beware that you’ll need your bathing suit at the cape.  There are too many people around to go skinny dipping.  If you have time, you can also head up the mountain at the cape and take a look at the lighthouse.  It is the largest lighthouse in Japan and it can be seen from over 50kms away.  The views from the lighthouse must also be very nice.

After passing the cape, there isn’t too much to see.  The road follows the entire coastline up to Kochi.  The coast is very beautiful and worth the drive, however, there isn’t too much to do along this part of the road.  If you have a chance to rent a car and travel down this way, I highly recommend that you should do it.  You will have a wonderful day trip.

このblogは英語のblog。もし私の英語は難しい、日本語のquestionは大丈夫。

Tokushima is situated in the north-eastern region of Shikoku.  It is the major gateway to the island from Kansai.  It is connected via Awaji Island to Kobe.   Unfortunately, this city is very small and easily visited within a day or two.  You can easily get out of Tokushima city and head to Naruto in the north; Iya Valley in the west; and towards Muroto in the south. 

Sudachi-kun. An unknown character found at the foot of Mt. Bizan.

Tokushima is primarily known for one thing, and only one thing, the Awa Odori.  It is a summer festival held in August.  It is one of the most distinct and unique festivals in Japan.  The Awa Odori is literally a traditional dance of the region.  People dress up in the regions unique festival clothing and the dance can be heard for blocks.  It is very difficult to describe the dance and it is something that must be seen in video to truly understand how complex, active, and interesting it really is.  All over Tokushima city, you’ll be able to see statues, banners, art, and videos of the Awa Odori.  You can even take a dance class at the base of Mt. Bizan.  While the Awa Odori is the most famous thing about Tokushima, sudachi is the most famous gift from Tokushima.  It is a small green citrus fruit that is similar to limes and lemons.  It has a slightly stronger taste, but very refreshing.  Beware that buying any sudachi sweets can be dangerous.  They last a long time, but once opened, they “could” expire within a day or two.  I would recommend buying sudachi alcohol and drinks, which are very popular. 

Mt. Bizan

There are only a few things to do in Tokushima itself.  The most famous thing to do is to head up Mt. Bizan.  There is a gondola that will take you from the base to the peak, but it runs every 15 minutes.  You can also get a discount if you go in the evening.  The top of the mountain is very beautiful and gives you a great view of the city.  Heading up in the evening is worth the price, however heading up at full price may not be worth it for those on a budget.  You can also hike up the mountain, and the peak offers various hiking paths.  If you are an avid hiker, this is a great place to get started for a short day hike.  Routes tend to be well marked and wind their way around the mountain.  In May, you will also be greeted with beautiful flowers blooming around the peak station.  If you are lucky, Mt. Bizan has over 1000 cherry trees, so the cherry blossom season is supposed to be extremely beautiful.  

Cascading Flowers in Mt. Bizan Park

After Mt. Bizan, Tokushima Central Park is the next best place to visit.  It is located on a hill behind the station.  It can be a little difficult to reach as the station has only one entrance, to the south.  The park is located north of the station.  Once you find the park, it is a very nice place to visit.  The entire park is the site of the ruins of Tokushima Castle.  There are two routes to the top of the hill.  While both routes are equally difficult, be aware that the main route may have some school kids running up as part of their training exercises.  In all honesty, this park is better served to the locals.  There isn’t too much to see.  The view from the top of the hill, while nice, isn’t that great.  It’s difficult to see much of the city as there are large trees surrounding the old courtyard.  However, it is a good way to enjoy an afternoon in Tokushima. 

Shinmachi River

Finally, walking along the Shinmachi River, south of the station, is a lot of fun.  The parks along the river are very beautiful, and there is a lot of outdoor art to enjoy.  You can even take a boat cruise around the city for only 100 yen.  It takes about one hour to go around the city.  You can also take a 4 hour cruise up to Naruto.  The river is also conveniently located near the main shopping area.  Shopping in Tokushima is sparse, to say the least.  It is probably the smallest major city in Shikoku, so finding any major name brands would be very difficult.  If you are looking for something to eat, I would recommend ramen.  It is a local specialty and the local food maps, available in most hotels, show the locations of famous ramen shops.  While it isn’t very different from other ramen shops in Japan, they tend to add slices of meat, and the soup base tends to be a little thinner and saltier, in my opinion.

Overall, I couldn’t say there is a lot to do in Tokushima city itself.  However, there is enough to make it a good weekend trip.  If you are just backpacking around Japan, timing a visit to coincide with the Awa Odori is the best way to go; otherwise it’s best to skip this city.  I would definitely like to return someday.

このblogは英語のblog。もし私の英語は難しい、日本語のquestionは大丈夫。

Ready to board the ferry

On April 28, 2009 I embarked on my second great motorcycle adventure.  I went for two weeks to Shikoku.  Shikoku is an island located south of the main island.  It’s the fourth largest island and a dream destination of mine.  I had two destinations for riding adventures, Hokkaido and Shikoku.  As I have written before, I had already visited Hokkaido, with a bad result.  This time, things were completely different. 

Ocean Tokyu Ferry

From Tokyo, there are two simple ways to reach Shikoku.  The fastest and possibly cheapest is to take the highway from Tokyo to Tokushima.  This is roughly 700km in total.  You will start off in Tokyo, head past Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe before going over the Akashi Bridge to Awaji Island and then over the Naruto Bridge into Shikoku.  In Japan, the ETC system can provide significant savings to your trip.  On weekends and holidays, there is a flat rate of 1000 yen for cars and motorcycles with an ETC system.  If you travel overnight, enter or exit between 10pm and 6am, you can receive up to 50% off your total travel costs.  Many people make use of this system, however be very aware that during the weekends and holidays, traffic will be backed up for kilometres.  During the first Golden Week rush, there were traffic jams along every expressway on Japan’s main island and they could stretch for over 100 kilometres in some cases.  ETC has also become so popular, that it’s sometimes faster to go through a regular pay toll gate than the automatic ETC gates. 

Tatami room of the ferry

The second route, and something I recommend if you don’t have ETC, is to take a ferry.  From Odaiba, you can board a ferry and reach Tokushima in 18 hours.  It’s an overnight ferry, but the gas and sanity that you save is a lot.  Plus, you can meet a lot of people if you want to.  It’s definitely better if you can enjoy the trip with a friend.  The ferry arrives around 1pm in Tokushima and it’s just enough time to go around the city.  Going outside the city to other regions can be difficult unless you plan everything correctly. 

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

When travelling in Japan, most Japanese people will use their car navigation to find out how to go from A to B.  This is the most efficient way to do things, but it isn’t always the best.  For motorcyclists, we have a touring bible.  It’s called “Touring Mapple”.  It’s written completely in Japanese, but there are references within each book, road recommendations, and information about camp grounds, hostels, and almost anything you need to know when travelling.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.  Whether you travel by bicycle, car, or by it’s intended audience, by motorcycle.  Without it, I would have been lost in my travels.

Please note that this is just an introduction to my actual adventure.  I will be writing about things in much greater detail in the coming weeks.

このblogは英語のblog。もし私の英語は難しい、日本語のquestionは大丈夫。

A message from the Tokushima Prefectural Government. The original message can be found here.

On Tuesday, June 2, a women recently returned from a stay in the US was confirmed by the Tokushima Health Care Centre as being infected by the swine flu.

However, due to following instructions from the prefecture on the correct behaviour after returning from a trip abroad, the patient has had little contact with other people since their return, and there is little possibility of the infection spreading.

Accordingly, Tokushima Prefectural Government has released the following statement:

1. After graduating from university in New York City in the US, the patient returned to Japan and then Tokushima. Shortly afterwards, the patient contacted the Swine Flu Hotline, and has been reported as having little close contact with other people since. Therefore, there is NO current need for the temporary suspension of schools, kindergartens, facilities for the elderly and other facilities.

2. There is no need for any public facilities to be closed at current, and no events need to be cancelled as a result of the confirmation of infection.

THERE MAY BE nothing new under the sun, but big fun often results when imaginative people modify and adapt whatever’s at hand to create something semi-new. One such group of people, led by 66-year-old physical education instructor Kita Ryoko in Mima, Tokushima, decided they wanted to invent a new sport that could be played by people of any age.

What they came up with was yacurling. It’s similar to curling, but played on a gymnasium floor with a kettle instead of on specially treated ice with a granite stone. Curling has shown up on everyone’s radar in Japan since the better-than-expected performance of the women’s team at the 2006 Winter Olympics. The women’s team also finished fourth at the 2008 World Championships, though they didn’t fare so well this year. (The women from China won instead.)

Ms. Kita and her crew started with a five-liter yakan, which is a Japanese-style kettle. (There are different sizes, but they all look the same.) They cut three holes in the bottom of the kettle and inserted casters to allow it to roll. To make sure it moves along smartly, they put 2.5 kilograms of ballast inside.

The players stand nine meters away from the target (which in curling is called the house). The house in yacurling has a diameter of 0.65 meters. The winner is the player who can roll the stone (yakan) closest to the center. Unlike curling, the stone is recovered after each toss, so strategic placement and knocking the the other team’s stones out of the way aren’t factors in this game.

The inventors worked out the kinks at a local sports club on Saturdays and were delighted to discover that it was harder than they thought it would be. Now they hope to get other people interested.

For the sake of comparison, a curling stone is from 17 to 20 kilograms in weight (and costs several hundred dollars). The house is 3.7 meters wide, and the players stand from 45 to 46 meters away.

Yacurling looks like an inexpensive way to have fun to me. Of course it’s just a game rather than a new sport, but who wouldn’t want to try it at least once?

About that name—Japanese vowels have only one pronunciation each. The Japanese A is always pronounced like the A in “father”. Curling in Japanese is rendered ka-ri-n-gu, so the first two syllables in yakan (N at the end of words is a separate unit) are pronounced the same as the first two in yaka-ringu (yacurling).

The reports didn’t say whether it was an individual sport or a team sport, so I don’t know if the team members use a mop on the floor to help the kettle roll home!

Afterwords:
The more I think about this, the more it reminds me of something the members of my college fraternity would have cooked up. One night well past the witching hour, two of the members stole a wheelchair from a nearby hospital (I know, I know), and within 24 hours, we were having contests in the living room to see who could do a wheelie the longest (i.e., ride around balanced on the two back wheels with the front wheels in the air).

The front of California Table as you come in from the parking area.

Naruto-shi Seto-cho Ooshimada Aza Nakayama 1-1

Tel.
088-688-0212

Hours
* Lunch – 11:00-14:30
* Cafe Time – 14:30 – 17:00
* Dinner – 17:00- LO 21:00 (Fridays and weekends only)

A classy restaurant and cafe with a stunning view over the Seto Inland Sea.

If you have ever wondered exactly how far you’d have to go to find a restaurant making good use of the beautiful scenery Tokushima has to offer, look no further. California Table in Naruto City is a fantastic place with good food, a good view, good service, and good everything else.

As its name might suggest, the main fare of California Table is western style food. The menu has a wide range of common items such as steak, salads, a cheeseburger, pizza, pasta and other items, but they are served with both flair and volume. The prices might be a little off-putting for those looking for a casual lunch, but once the food arrives you won’t be left wondering where your money went.

One of the main attractions on the menu - the cheeseburger and side of chips.

• Cheeseburger – 1,600 yen
• Herb Rotisserie Chicken – 1,600 yen
• Grilled Beef Steak – 2,300 yen
• Caesar Salad – 950 yen
• All cakes – 600 yen

A variety of drinks, including coffee, fresh juice, wine and more are also available.

Just a small part of the view from the deck area.

Store Interior
One of the main attractions to California Table is the view. The restaurant stands on top of the mountainous ridges by the Seto Inland Sea, and provides a view out over the surrounding area and the bridge from Naruto to Awaji Island. There is an interior seating area and a deck, both very classy, and the view leaves nothing to be desired.

If you’re looking for a place to take that someone special, this is it.

View Larger Map

A notice from the Tokushima Prefecture Risk Management Office regarding precautions to prevent an outbreak of swine flu in the prefecture.

1. Act calmly.
Ensure you have access to correct information and act according to this.

2. Gargling, Washing Hands, and Masks
Wash your hands and gargle after going inside a building and avoid large crowds whenever possible. Persons displaying symptoms such as a fever, coughing or sneezing should wear a mask at all times.

3. If You Feel Ill
The Tokushima Prefectural Government has established an Influenza Guidance Hotline. If you have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, loss of appetite or coughing within seven days of visiting a region where the flu infection had been confirmed, please contact the Influenza Guidance Hotline directly without visiting a medical institution.

Influenza Hotlines

Health Promotions Department
Infectious Symptoms and Illnesses Office
Open 24 hours.

Tel. 088-621-2228
Fax. 088-621-2841

Healthcare Centres
Open from 9:00am – 5:00pm

East District – 088-602-8907
Yoshinogawa – 0883-24-1114
South District – 0884-28-9867
Minami – 0884-74-7343
West District – 0883-52-1017
Miyoshi – 0883-72-1122

Furthermore, if you have any queries about the influenza, then don’t hesitate to call the line below.

Swine Influenza Enquiries Line
Tel. 0120-960-005 (Free dial)
Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm

The rose garden in Tokushima Central Park. (Photo by Lady Sudachi)

News just in – the rose garden at Tokushima Central Park is now in full bloom and is the perfect spot to see some lovely flowers or go for a picnic! If you have the time, come and spend some time here and enjoy the lovely weather before the heat creeps up into its mid-summer levels.

Your standard bowl of ramen at Soup Nuts.

Tokushima-shi Minami Tamiya-cho 1-5-25

Tel.
０８８－６７７－８３８０

Hours
* 11:30 – 14:30
* 17:30 – 21:00
* Closed on Wednesdays

For a fresh style of ramen with a fish stock base.

Don’t let the name fool you – soup nuts has little to do with normal soup, or nuts. It is in fact a ramen shop just north of Tokushima Station that, unlike many ramen stores in Tokushima, uses a fish stock base to its soup rather than pork or chicken.

While the stock for the soup has a unique taste that might not be for everyone,  the entire menu tastes a new take on the standard ramen fare. The gyouza are served with a special miso sauce instead of standard gyouza sauce, and the menu has a few new additions such as egg with chashuu on rice and other, similar combinations.

A plate of gyouza with miso sauce. More filling than they appear.

And for those who feel that your standard ramen with a side of gyouza is just about right, but be deceived! At first glance the ramen doesn’t seem very big, but once you set out to eating you start to realise how filling it is. The gyouza are also very large, and if anyone ever manages to leave feeling unsatisfied, please send us an email so we can mark the occasion.

Another speciality of the store is “tsuke-men”. Rather than standard ramen where everything is put together in the one bowl of soup, here you are served the soup by itself with a plate of noodles and other ingredients to individually dip in and eat separately.

• Ramen – 630 yen
• Tokusei Ramen (large) – 830 yen
• Tsuke-men – 680 yen
• Tokusei Tsuke-men – 880 yen
• Gyouza – 400 yen
• Onsen Tamago Nose Chashuu-don – 400 yen

The beacon to Soup Nuts - an orange sign poking its head out onto the street.

Store Interior
The store itself is very minimalist, and is a lot less like normal ramen shops and more like a trendy cafe. The seats are hollow stools with room inside them to put bags and other items you might bring with you, and the counter and walls are very bare. It all comes together to give the place a very open atmosphere, but those looking for a homely ramen shop with fifty years of random paraphernalia tacked to the walls might feel a little disappointed.

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An article about swine flu from the May 11 Tokushima Newspaper:

As the first case of the swine flu was confirmed in Japan, public schools in Tokushima postponed school trips one after the after. “It’s impossible to tell when a domestic outbreak might occur, and we have no choice but to take serious measures to ensure public safety,” said the Governor of Tokushima Prefecture Iizumi Kamon during a meeting on Sunday, May 10.

“While it isn’t good to be overly cautious, it is necessary to wait and see how the situation progresses,” the governor was also quoted as saying in regards to the swine flu being raised to phase six by WHO, a move that signifies it as a pandemic.

On Saturday, May 9 public schools in the prefecture were advised by a letter from the Prefectural Board of Education to postpone plans for school trips. In accordance with this, the next day a total of 52 primary and junior high schools, and ten high schools were reported as choosing to postpone their trips.

The governor also commented on the delay with which people  returning from trips to Mexico, the United States, Canada and elsewhere were reporting flu-like symptoms. “It only takes one infected person to create a potential disaster inside the prefecture. It is important that we have the correct information as soon as possible.”

If you experience flu-like symptoms within 10 days of returning from a trip abroad to a country where infections have been confirmed, please contact the Prefectural Health Promotions Division as soon as possible at 088-621-2228.

For those that require assisstance in communicating in Japanese, the staff at TOPIA can help interpret for you. Please contact the office at 088-656-3320.

To tell the truth, on the next day of our trip to Kochi, we were planning to go to Kagawa, which is located in the north of Tokushima.

But all members were very tired, so we changed our schedule.

In the morning, we stayed at home and just relaxed, and in the afternoon, we went to 2 temples, which are not so far from my parent’s house.

Before write about these temples, I want to write about “Ohenro“.

In Shikoku, there is a peculiar Buddhism custom which is called “Shikoku-henro” or “Ohenro” or “Ohenro-san”.

There are 88 temples in Shikoku, and some people go on a pilgrimage to visit 88 temples from no.1 to no.88 or in reverse order.

To visit these temples is one way of fulffiling their wishes, or overcoming their physical or mental problems.

Nowadays, it is a popular tour to visit these temples, so tourists go there by bus or car or bike.

However some people visit all temples on foot. It’s very hard physical and mental training.

In Shikoku, if we come across”Ohenro-san”(people who visit temples wearing white costumes), we should treat them kindly.

For example, we give them rice balls, some fresh fruit, and of course, give them directions, if they are lost.

Someday, I want to be a “Ohenro-san” to train my spirit.

My parent’s, my husband and I went to the no.1 temple which is called “Ryōzenji“.

After visiting Ryōzenji(the no.1 temple) and Gokurakuji(the no.2 temple, which is near from Ryōzenji), we went back to my parent’s house before going to a steak restaurant to eat dinner.

My favorite aunt reserved the restaurant, but unfortunately she couldn’t come with us, because her relative died suddenly, so she needed to go to the funeral.

We had a nice dinner together and talked about many topics.

The next day, my husband and I left Tokushima early in the morning.

This time, I didn’t have enough time to talk with my grand mother and aunt, so I checked the schedule of future cheap flights to Tokushima.

I want to talk with my family more, so I’ll go back there on July 4.

In Japan, there is a long national holiday in May, which we call, “Golden Week“.

Generally it starts on May 3, Constitution day, and ends on May 5, Children’s day.

Especially this year, Golden Week was longer than usual because of the weekend.

My husband and I went back to my parent’s house, which is located 1 hour by plane from Tokyo.

In Golden Week, it’s difficult to buy discounted tickets.

In this season, many people travel by planes, therefore the airlines don’t discount tickets.

I was not able to get a good flight time(morning and afternoon), because other people had already booked them, so we went back to Tokushima prefecture(my hometown) ,at a somewhat late time.

I was very happy to see my parent’s, because it was last October when I went there last.

The next day, my father, my husband and I went to Kochi prefecture, which is next to Tokushima prefecture.

It was very far from my parent’s house our destination in Kochi.

My father drove for about 4 hours through the mountains, and by the time we reached our destination, we were all tired tired.

At first, we went to Kochi castle, which was the setting for a famous TV program in Japan.

There, we ate local ice cream which is called “Ice Crin”, the Japanese old name of ice cream.

I really like this ice cream!

The shop’s staff said to me, it was free to add other flavors during Golden Week. We were lucky!

After Kochi castle, we moved to a big and famous market in Kochi, which is called ‘Nichiyo-Ichi (Sunday Market)‘.

I remember this market, from my childhood, as I once went there with my parents.

By chance, I could get a free paper at the market. According to an article, there are more than 500 shops there!

It was very very crowded, because of Golden Week!

Vegetables, fishes, pickles, knives, flowers, etc are sold at many similar style of small shops!

The prices of them are not too bad, so we just enjoyed the peculiar atmosphere of the market, and bought small dried fish and one kind of miso which was packaged in a small container, for our breakfast when we returned to Tokyo.(Actually they were very tasty! So now I regret that I didn’t buy more!)

After passing through the market, we looked for restaurants for our lunch.

But there were not so many restaurants around us, even though there were many small shops!

I didn’t want to enter a usual restaurant.  To eat delicious local food is very important for me and my husband.

So we bought some fish cakes, tempura and grilled bonito which is called ‘Katsuo no tataki‘ at another market, and ate them in my father’s car.

I think it was a nice idea, hahaha.

We left Kochi at about 3p.m. and reached my parent’s house about 4 hours later.

All of us were very tired, but we really enjoyed the trip to Kochi. And I was able to talk with my father in his car after a  long time.

Oh! I have another thing that I want to write about.

On our way home, we stopped at a parking area in Tokushima, where I saw a wonderful sight!

There were many carp banners, which are called ‘Koinobori‘ over the river.

On Children’s day, we cerebrate the growth of children by decorating carp banners above our house.

In Some rural areas, the Koinobori are decorated over rivers, or between mountains.

To be continued!

The store front next to the shrine.

Author: Miree

Tokushima-shi Toori-machi 2-15

Tel.
088-622-1378

What happens if you wander around the city with your parents and it is four in the afternoon? Well, your father may ask you where he can get a coffee and cake like he is used to in his home country. And as you walk through small streets heading for the station, because you know three coffee shops near them, your father suddenly stops and points his finger to a small Cafe, which you have passed a million times but never seen.

The store is filled with wooden chairs and furnishings, giving it a very homely atmosphere.

The outside is really simple and almost invisible, but when you step inside it is a lovely, warm but small place. Wood everywhere, nice paintings on the wall and a mini garden in the middle. As you sit down, a friendly lady approaches you with the menu and the bait is the cake set.

For 700 yen you get one coffee, and what else? Right, a piece of cake! Chocolate or cheese cake or others. They are not handmade but delicious enough. The coffee is quite good. I had Wiener coffee, which makes the cake set a 750 yen price. We sat next to the garden. Or should I say window to an outside world. A few cats were in this small place and it was an open place but no connection to the inside. Hard to describe. I want to go again and see it at rainy times.

The interior is as described, woody and looks old but comforting. Its clean and has a nice atmosphere, like your grand parents garden house. The pictures on the wall are changed by the owner by season and are inspired by the works of Chagall. The lady said, she likes Chagall so much that she named her Cafe after him.

Standard Coffee is 400 Yen, special selection going up 450 Yen.

They serve breakfast as well.

Just a 7 minute walk from the station and next to the Kotoshironushi Shrine.

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