Dispatches from Nihongo

My latest "oy-vey moment" with Japanese came during this past week's lesson.

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Counting in English:

One, two, three... regardless of what the items are (a few exceptions for things like floors - first, second, third...).

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Counting in Japanese:

Numbers: ichi, ni, san...

Things: hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu...
People: hitori, futari, sannin...
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Clothes: icchaku, nicchaku, sancchaku...

Not to be confused with:

Socks and Shoes: issoku, nisoku, sanzoku...

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"Small Things": ikko, niko, sanko...

Not including:

"Small Animals, Fish & Insects": ippiki, nihiki, sanbiki...

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I swear I'm not making this stuff up:

Drinks: ippai, nihai, sanbai...

Houses: ikken, niken, sangen...

Machines and Vehicles: ichidai, nidai, sandai...
Books and Notebooks: issatsu, nisatsu, sansatsu...

"Thin and Flat Things": ichimai, nimai, sanmai...

"Thin and Long Things": ippon, nihon, sanbon...
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Dear lord!

Nikko

Almost exactly 3 years ago, I was on my first trip to Japan. I had prepared my itinerary carefully: a day in Tokyo, 3 days in Kyoto/Nara, Student Pugwash pre-conference in Hiroshima (Wed. July 20 - Fri. July 22), Senior Pugwash conference (Sat. July 23 - Wed. July 27), then 2 more days in Tokyo before returning to Belfast. For one of my final Tokyo days I had planned to visit Nikko, a town 2 hours north of Tokyo which houses many well-known temples and shrines. As things turned out, I met this woman there who I was quite smitten with and so abandoned my Nikko day to spend another day with her in Hiroshima. It turned out to be a good call, but it did take 3 years for me to finally get to Nikko.

Since Nikko is 2 hours north of Tokyo by train and I am 1 1/2 - 2 hours south of Tokyo, it made for a lot of trains and travel time. I left the apartment at 8:30 am and didn't arrive there until 1:30 pm. I left Nikko at 6:00 pm and arrived back home at 11:00 pm. That means I spent 10 hours (and about ¥5000 - approximately $50) to spend 4 1/2 hours there!

But it was worth it; the setting is gorgeous - up in the green mountains surrounded by huge trees. And the temples, shrines, toriis (gates), and other historical items were interesting and beautiful.

Nikko Pictures

Nikko Pictures

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Japundit

I've been on a self-imposed two-week moritorium on Japundit because I was annoyed at the owner of the site once again starting a partisan attack and then censoring me when I respond. This particular episode was him taking a swipe at "weird and liberal Californians." I am currently ignoring his current bait of asking if the Spanish basketball team's photo was really racist.

Nevertheless I do enjoy the outlet for sharing what I read about Japan and engaging in conversations about Japan and its culture. So today, I ended the moritorium and we'll see how things go. Since my last Japundit post here, I've written posts there on the death of the founder of Benihana's, Asian tourists in Japan, lawyers in rural

Japan, Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya, tourism in Japan, and foreign labor in Japan. I think that the two most interesting articles are the one on Rocky Aoki of Benihana's fame and foreign labor in Japan. Aoki created good restaurants and led an intersting life. Foreign labor here is a controversial and touchy topic and gives a window into the culture here.

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Foreign Labor in Japan (NY Times)

More Japan Travel (Budget Travel)

Hiroshi Hamaya (Slate)

Lawyers in Rural Japan (NY Times)

Asian Tourism in Japan (NY Times)

Benihana's Founder Dies (NY Times)

Paperwork

For the second time in a week, I successfully battled the Japanese bureaucracy. On Monday, Yumi and I officially registered our marriage at the local ward office. On Thursday, I obtained my new visa and re-entry permit.

A couple notes of interest regarding the visa...

1. Japan is the only country I know of which requires a separate visa and re-entry permit; normally the visa *is* the re-entry permit.

2. The combined cost was about $100 which has to be paid at a local convenience store. This is actually very common here - many things including utility bills, sporting tickets, train tickets, and even mail order merchandise is paid for at convenience stores. Money is very different here: cheques are unheard of and credit cards are rare; almost everything is done with cash. Amazingly, you often can get the items before paying for them and then you are just trusted to go to a convenience store to pay!

For the visa, since it was a nice day I rode my bike the 11 km (6.5 miles) each way and then stopped off at Yamashita Park and the Osanbashi Pier. Both are within spitting distance of my school but I never made it until this week. Both offer nice views of Yokohama.

More Baseball

Last weekend, I ventured up to Tokyo to visit my friend, Tomo and then go to see the Japanese Olympic team play the Central League All-Stars.
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First, I took 3 or 4 trains for an hour and a half up to Tomo's apartment at the campus of the university where he is a chemistry post-doc. We hung out with his 1-year old daughter, Nao for a while. Later, his wife, Kyo came home and made us an udon (noodle) lunch and then we were off to the Tokyo Dome (aka The Big Egg) for the game. After our 1-hour journey, we arrived.

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The game was ok - I'm not really into exhibition games but it was nice to see the best of the Nippon League. The game was a rout, with the Olympic team (the best players) losing 11-2. I don't like these games because a) I don't know who to root for and b) it doesn't count for anything. I was surprised that Tomo was rooting for the All-Stars because they had 4 Hiroshima Carp players whereas the Olympic team had none (that tells you about the strength of the Carp).

I find it very interesting that Japanese baseball is continuing during the Olympics without the 24 best players (some teams losing 3 or 4 players and others losing none). It would seem to throw into question the results of the season.

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After the game we went to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame which is housed in the Tokyo Dome. It's not very big but it's not inconsequential either. I most liked the displays on the World Baseball Classic victory and their record holders. The consecutive games played record holder and retired Hiroshima Carp player Sachio Kinugasa played 2215 games in a row! That's better than Lou Gehrig's number (2130) but was finally eclipsed by Cal Ripken (2632).

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The all-time home run champion is Sadahara Oh who played for the Tokyo Giants. His record of 868 home runs is pretty mind-boggling. 40 home runs a year is very good. 20 seasons is a long career. Yet 40 home runs for 20 consecutive seasons would still put someone 68 home runs short! Barry Bonds' (drug-enhanced) U.S. record is 762.

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Another 1 1/2 hours on trains brought me back home. For those keeping score at home: 4 hours of travel for about 4 hours of baseball and an hour and a half with Nao.

Life Post-Ph.D. Part I

Once again, I'm having technical difficulties (blog posting software seems antiquated compared to other software out there), so I'll try to break this post up into smaller posts and hope for the best.

Yumi's 3-year long wait for me to be free of the yoke which was my Ph.D. is now over and she has wasted no time filling up our social calendar. In the month we've been back to Japan (mostly in the 2 weeks since my Ph.D. corrections were submitted and accepted), we've managed to do the following:

Sunday, June 13

Joe O'Donnell Photos

My beautiful wife convinced me to buy a bicycle so that we could both go places in the evenings and weekends. Some huge percentage of people here have bicycles and they are very utilitarian; they almost all have baskets in the front for groceries, etc. Yumi got one shortly after I moved here and I resisted until February or March. But once I did capitulate, I enjoyed riding it; so much so that on the weekend of this photo exhibit, I had already logged about 6 hours on the bike exploring the neighborhood.

So when said wife said we should go to this photo exhibit about 5 miles away, I suggested we ride our bikes (the ones she made us buy, I reminded her). It was a beautiful, if hot, day and I was insistent. I told her it would be fine if she wanted to take the train and meet me there but I really wanted to ride. She apparently preferred to suffer with me than go by herself so she conceded. An hour later, two sweaty and tired bikers arrived at the photo exhibit (I did enjoy the ride even with the massive hills of Yokohama; Yumi - not so much).

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Joe O'Donnell was an Army soldier tasked with photographing the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and he later went on to be a White House photographer. In Japan he used two cameras, one for the Army and one personal one. The exhibit is of the personal photographs he took of the atomic devastation and they are quite impactful. It's fitting that I'm posting this today as it is the 63rd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Life Post-Ph.D. Part II

Saturday, July 19
Eri and Noriko

Yumi and I went up to Tokyo to meet two of her friends from her Bradford (England) days, Eri and Noriko. We met them for lunch and then walked around the Harajuku area of Tokyo including the very cool Ometesando Mall. I would describe this area as the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo. It had every high class store I'd ever heard of and more: Gucci, Luis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo Shoes, Prada... Not my kind of thing but fun to gawk.

Carp vs. Swallows

Later in the day, we met up with my friend and fellow Hiroshima Carp fan, Tomo for their game against the Yakult Swallows in Jingu. What was different was the new stadium. Jingu was the third stadium I've seen the Carp play in (the other two being the Tokyo Dome and Yokohama Stadium). The thing that was the same was the result; the Carp lost again. I'm now 0-4. I did get to see the "famous" 7th inning rituals: Carp fans release hundreds of colorful balloons and Swallows fans do their umbrella dance.

A few observations: instead of peanuts and popcorn, it's noodles and rice balls. The fans are really fanatics; the Carp fans we're cheering like crazy in the top of the 9th inning while losing 8-1 (they eventually lost 8-3).

Saturday, July 26

Sea Paradise

Yumi actually had to work on this Saturday at the Sea Paradise amusement park. She is a trainer for foreigners working for Japanese companies and she chaperoned her trainee group to the amusement park for the traditional Japanese summer festival. The amusement park is only a 20 minute bicycle ride from our apartment, so in the evening, I rode over and joined them to watch some traditional dancing and music and for the fireworks show. After the show I unhappily discovered that my bike tire was flat, so I took the train home, then went back the next day, walked the bike for an hour to a bike shop and had it fixed.

Life Post-Ph.D. Part III

Friday August 1
Dinner Party
Since we got back from Hawaii Yumi and I have been playing Ticket to Ride (aka the Train Game) courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law. While I am currently winning 10-8 in games won, I've discovered that my wife is neither a good winner nor a good loser. When she wins, she taunts me endlessly with chants of "loser" and when I win she sulks. I have to have a talk with her Mom. In any event, we had three of Yumi's work friends (Yumi, Yuiko, and Miki) over for dinner and games. I was volunteered to make my homemade stuffed pizza which went over well.

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Saturday, August 2
Akiko, Mariko, and Shoko
We went up to Tokyo again to meet Yumi's college friends for a very nice Italian lunch; 3 courses and dessert. They generously treated us and got us wedding gifts.

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Indiana Jones
Since we were already in Tokyo, we took advantage and walked around, window shopped and caught Indiana Jones (Indei Jyonzu in Japanese). I was terribly disappointed in the movie and am scratching my head at how critics gave the movie 76% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I know that some movies need a bit of a willing suspension of disbelief but this movie was a bridge too far from reality. Surviving a nuclear bomb, 3 massive waterfalls, etc. plus the massively inconsistent magnetic fields which featured prominently in various scenes, the "luck" to find the right path to whatever they were looking for and on and on. Blech.

What I'm Up Against

A week and a half ago, I started private lessons with a Japanese teacher. My first task is to learn the second alphabet: katakana. As if it were not difficult enough to learn 2 alphabets plus the thousands of kanji characters, I am also up against the similarities between characters....

Hiragana characters:
き and さ
こ and に
め, の, あ, and ぬ
ね and ぬ

る, ろ, and そ
は , ほ, and ま
れ , わ, and ね
り and い

Katakana characters:
ノ, ン, ソ, シ, and ツ

ウ, ク, ケ, ス, タ, ヌ, フ, ラ, ワ, and ヲ!

チ and テ
メ and ナ

ユ and コ

Japundit Posts

Needless to say, I haven't posted many articles to Japundit during the past month or so, as I was pretty busy with a few other things! The handful I posted are once again an eclectic collection. The article on Japanese work culture is very interesting and gives a good insight into part of Japanese society which confounds me I must admit. That article generated a fair amount of discussion on the website. The article on the best defense was a silly article on a woman who outsmarted a robber. The healthy diet article was also silly; it is about "eating champion" Takeru Kobayashi. Japanese whaling is controversial and is dealt with in one of the articles. The article on Japanese technology discusses some of Japan's innovations. I am concerned that developed countries which are more progressive than the U.S. (i.e. all of them) will develop the environmental technologies which we will all need to implement soon, so instead of exporting we will be importing while the profits go in the opposite direction. The last article is on the Ainu; an indigenous population in the northern part of Japan. I didn't know that Japan has it's own native population. It turns out that their fate is similar to that of the Native people in the U.S.

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Japanese Work Culture (Washington Post)

Best Defense: Gun? Knife?... Tea? (Associated Press)
Healthy Japanese Diet? (ESPN)

Japanese Whaling (Newsweek)

Japanese Energy Technology (NY Times)

Ainu Recognition (NY Times)

Notes

Progress Report: FINALLY! All the wedding/honeymoon posts are now up! The backup of posts is long so hopefully I'll pick up the pace now.

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A quick P.S.: My Ph.D. corrections were accepted today!!!!! So that means all that stands between me and those 3 little letters is printing 3 copies, binding them, and submitting the paperwork, all of which my friend Markus is doing for me (thank you again, Markus!).

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Two things to note first:
1. My computer completely died today (this post comes via Yumi's computer), so these posts might be even more intermittent than I had originally thought (and throws a snag into the PhD corrections which are due shortly - yikes!).
2. I'll be posting in the opposite order of normal posts, such that the whole Hawaii travelogue reads in chronological order; in other words new posts will appear below (instead of above) older posts for now - so scroll down to see if there is anything new.