Japan Travel Report

I would say the best and worst part about getting around Tokyo is the city’s trains. No matter if the trains are above ground or part of the elaborate subways system they are usually crowded or in the morning rush hour OVER crowded.

The average Tokyoite live 1 – 1.5 hours from their “Salaryman” office job, usually in places like Chiba, Saitama, Kawasaki, or one of the other suburbs. This means there are millions of people that have to move from A to B every morning during the crazy rush hour taking place between 7-9 am. The Tokyo train system does an amazing job at accomplishing this day in and day out but I would not say it is done in comfort.

Many of the train lines coming in from the suburbs such as the Tozai or Chuo lines bound for Tokyo from Chiba are so crowded that people don’t even have to use their own muscle control to keep standing, they just relax and stay in one place like the proverbial sardines. In this type of situation I can understand that some pushing does take place, especially when entering or exiting one of these jam packed Tokyo trains but it is still hard to deal with.

What I don’t understand is when manners disappeared, not only on the super packed trains but on all of the trains in Tokyo. Japan is supposed to be famous for manners and politeness but apparently this does not apply to trains. Generally when people need to get out they simply bulldoze their way through the other passengers without even an utterance of excuse me or pardon me (sumimasen) and this has become the excepted way of doing things.

I know from Tokyo friends that no one likes the pushing but when I talk about the subject the comment I usually receive is “this is Tokyo get used to it!” This leads me to wonder at what point did this city “get used to” being rude?

Using your cell phone to talk on a train in Tokyo is a big no no, eating is another taboo except on the Shinkansen, and  putting on make up while sitting on a train is considered almost a crime the way some Japanese people complain about it. Yet when walking down the station platform and a salaryman coming the other way shoulder checks you don’t expect an apology.

I have to say the best thing to watch unless you are in the middle of it is when the train pulls up in the morning and it is already at 99% capacity. The train doors open and people almost fall out yet no one disembarks, the platform is full of people waiting for this train to come and you think to your self “there is no way more passengers can fit on that train”. Then the pushing starts, people will actually grab the door frame to use as a brace, turn around and start pushing their way in backwards their body sometimes half in the train and half out until the door almost closes, yet somehow they manage to squeeze in just as the train’s doors shut. I have to wonder who wants to get to work that badly to go through that everyday. I’ll catch the next train thank you very much!

How could I write this article without mentioning Tokyo’ s famous “oshiya,” or train pushers. These are the guys paid to push people not the ones that do it for fun like mentioned above. At some of (not all) Tokyo’s more packed train stations in the morning these guys assist in making sure the trains are a full as possible and there are no body parts hanging out of the train doors. Once again these guys can usually be found in the suburbs at stations like Funabashi on the Tozai line. Contrary to popular belief they are not often seen in central Tokyo at places like Shinjuku or Shibuya or on the Yamanote line. Most peoples final destination from the suburbs in the morning are places like Shinjuku so there are more people getting off there than getting on.

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I drive a motorcycle in Tokyo and as with any vehicle they need to be serviced ever so often oil changes, chain tightening, and things of that nature.  So after some quick research on the internet I found a bike shop near my house in Oota-ku Tokyo called Ogiyama motorcycle shop. I thought great they have an English web sight so they will at least be foreign friendly and easy to deal with. Well I was half right I…..

In Japan apparently where you buy you motorbike is where you are supposed to go to get it serviced. Well I bought my bike in North Tokyo almost all the way to Saitama and had no intention to go all the way back there for a simple oil change and quick once over check.

I asked the folks at Ogiyama to do a full check of the bike as I have been driving it for a full year almost every day and wanted a professional to see if there were any problems I could see my self. They quickly informed me that they were too busy to do this and didn’t really want to do it as I didn’t buy the bike there but would happily do the oil change for 5,000 yen and they said they could do a “quick check.”

What they found in their “quick check” was a loose chain that I knew about. They tightened it and charged me another 1,680 yen on top of the oil change. Being satisfied with this as I know everything in Tokyo costs way more than it should I paid them and then asked if they could order a side panel that had fallen off or been stolen buy vandals a month agofor me.

They happily said they would, checked the parts catalogue, checked the number on the frame of my bike, and quoted me a price of 5980 yen. I said that was fine and they asked me to pay the full amount up front. What a stupid mistake that was.

The part arrived a quick two days later but I had no time to pick it up until the following Monday. I stopped in to Ogiyama on my way home from an appointment I had in Shinjuku a little bit excited to pick up this part that would once again complete my custom built machine. The guy I dealt with the week before came out to meet me and happily handed me the part. I opened it to check that it was indeed what I had wanted and found my self disappointed.

After some investigation the bike shop guy figured out that the number on the frame and the number of the side panels was different because the bike is a custom chopper and is a mix and match of few different models. At this point I was not upset and just wanted him to order a new part. He said that was no problem and quoted me a new price of 8,715 yen I was not happy with the price but hey what I can do.  I said “sure go a head and order it” and paid the money up front once again.

Then I asked for the refund for the cash I paid out for the other part and was promptly informed there would be no refund, I was the proud new owned of a side panel I didn’t need for a Honda steed I didn’t own. As anyone can imagine I was not happy with that. He than was “kind” enough to offer to buy it off me for 1,000 yen. At this point my Japanese was no longer good enough to be able to argue with him and I called a Japanese friend explained the situation and let them fight the battle in their native tongue.

The end result…….after some big guilt tripping from my friend  on the phone ant the guy talking to his boss the best they offered me was 3,000 yen back on the part I paid 5,980 yen for, a part that I did not order, a part that I did not need, a part that was not my fault was the wrong part.

Left with no other option than to take the 3,000 yen as it was better than a kick in the pants here I  am writing this blog about Ogiyama Motorcycle Shop and telling anyone out there if you deal with these people be careful what you pay for. If THEY order something you don’t need you still have to pay for it. A strange way to do business but I guess it’s one way to make money especially if they don’t want repeat customers.

Oh by the way I am seriously thinking of buying a new Honda CB400 motorcycle this year, does anyone know of a good shop in Tokyo because I know where I am not going.

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Japanese portable enema

 This is definitely one of those “only in Japan” stories. While in a drug store one day not so long ago buying gum or headache medicine or something like that sitting on the counter complete with pictorial instructions was a portable enema.

I had to ask my self the question why would someone need to carry an enema around with them or more to the point why is there a big enough market in Japan for a company to produce portable enemas? Plus I just though it was funny and had to take a picture of it.

The idea of a clean ass in Asia has deep roots, in places like Thailand it is common to see a hose with a spray nozzle on it located next to most toilets. But in Japan as with most things they are taken to a whole new extreme. Most toilets here have heated seats some even sing or play music to cover up the inevitable noises that are made during such functions. These same toilets have built in bidets with setting to clean different areas of the neither regions of both men and women complete with adjustable spray levels, some are close to a power spray level and could almost remove paint from a car.

A popular game for children in Japan is called “Enema” (kancho in Japanese). The rules are simple children will wait until there friend, English teacher, or father is not suspecting, and then they will stick their two index finger up the victim bum and yell “KANCHO!” This bring to mind the question of where do these children learn this? Are enemas so common here that even a 5 year old is aware of them?

Getting back to the main point of portable enemas, I can only wonder if people sitting at their desk in the office take enema breaks the same way most people in the west take coffee breaks, do commuters on Tokyo’s busy trains duck into the train station washroom close the door to the stall and start squirting that plastic bottle? I will ask again where is there a need for the portable enema? The thing that amazed me the most about this device was the price at 8,379 yen (about $80 USD) you would really have to like having a portable enema to buy it!

Portable enema in a Japanese drug store

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Ever wanted to go to Okinawa but never had the free time, money or whatever? Well good news…. Every year for 6 days in July a small but good part of Okinawa comes to Tokyo. Music, Orion beer festival, food, and some shopping too.

The highlight of this event the Eisa festival which took place this year on July 26^th. Groups from Okinawa and other parts of Japan converge on Shinjuku-dori (street) and a few other side streets for an all day high energy parade. Festival groups of Okinawan musicians and dancers play taiko drums, shanshin ( a traditional Okinawa instrument) and sing all while spinning and dancing like crazy in the Tokyo summer heat.

Eisa started in Okinawa with Buddhism monks traveling from house to house offering prayers for deceased loved ones. They would chant there prayers along with a drum. This evolved over many centuries into groups of young men (shonen) traveling throughout their neighborhood, guiding their deceased ancestors home during the Japanese traditional 3 day  O-bon season. Today Eisa is one of the main symbols of Okinawa and can be heard and seen being performed year round. The biggest festivals take place in Naha  on Kokusai Street and in Okinawa city.

The papers reported more than 1 million people went to the events in Shinjuku so for this guy who couldn’t make it to Okinawa this summer yet there was still much more fun to be had. A Orion Beer festival took place on the roof of Isetan department store it also involved more great Okinawa music. Also in Isetan department store on the 6^th floor was a great variety of local Okinawa food dishes. Isetan was also host to a wide variety of Okinawa goods for sale in different departments of the store.

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News Year in Japan is like Christmas to people in the western world. Children come home from studying or working in different parts of the country or return to Japan from their lives abroad. Food is shared, lots of food as a matter of fact. Japanese New Year food is called osechi-ryori and is different from family to family and region to region but just about all of it is tasty. Osechi-ryori dishes are packed in layers of lacquer boxes, called jubako. Each dish and ingredient in osechi has meaning, such as good health, fertility, good harvest, happiness, long life, and so on

For the last few years in Japan on New Year’s Day after feasting and drinking the night before it is always a challenge to wake up early. Why would some one wake up early on New Year’s Day in Japan you ask? Well one of the traditions here is to get up before the crack of dawn, that’s right you didn’t read that wrong I said get up before the first light on January 1^st. This may seem a little crazy but watching the sun rise on the first day of the New Year is actually quite worth it, after the fact of course as getting out of a nice warm bed into cold Japanese January morning doesn’t always seem worth it at the time.

Every family or person in Japan seems to have a different place to watch the first sun rise not that everyone does this. For the last few years we have gone down to a near by river to watch this spectacular sight. Some families go to a near by mountain and TV news typically shows the sun coming up over Mt. Fuji or as the Japanese lovingly call it Fuji-san.

almost all of these signs in this video are for Sex clubs or hostess bars or similar related establishments. Places that most respectable people would not want to go anyways.

But the members only signs that are on the doors of dance clubs are there as an excuse to not let foreigners in legally and everyone else going in is not a member, this I don’t like. But in my experience if you dress nice and talk your way in or slip the door man a little something extra it is not a problem. This is no different than any dance club in the UK or USA or any part of the world that stops unwanted people from entering.

I have lived in Japan for 6 years now and I have had very little trouble with Japanese Racism. For the most part people just stare at you. It has to be remembered that Japan is still 99% Japanese and some people here have never even see a foreigner except on TV especially in smaller communities.

The biggest problem I have noticed is that Japanese people do tend to follow stereotypes and 80 % of the population will believe the stereotype. Ex. all Canadians speak French and the country is always covered in snow, Australians say “IA” instead of “A” , all Englishmen are “gentlemen” and other such nonsense.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is always being referred to as a “foreigner”. This is not meant to be racist but it does serve to constantly remind you that you are and outsider. No matter how long someone lives in Japan they will always be considered to be a “foreigner”. I gave up a long time ago on the idea of trying to fit in to Japanese society and I have been much happier since. I have known many people that this has destroyed and have moved out of the country because of it.

Most Japanese will say that this attitude towards non-Japanese is because they have a history of being a closed country for over 300 years in which no foreigners where allowed to set foot on Japanese soil, but the country opened up almost 150 years ago so I don’t know how much validity there is to that statement. I personally believe it is because the country is uni-cultural and the fact that most people only speak Japanese cut them off from the rest of the world, making there inflow of information rather limited.

Many people come to Japan expecting to have the same civil rights and to find a society not so different than what they left back home. We must never forget this is a different land with thousands of years of history. They have different values and views on the world then people from the west or anywhere else in the world, the goal should be to try to understand why they think the way they do rather then trying to change them or judge.  

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Ok no matter what family member hacks up what other family member or the ignorance towards foriegners that is systemic in the Japanese people the one thing that is truly positive in Japan is the lack of any serious drug problem and this helps to make Japan safe.

I am not saying that there are no drugs in Japan but there is not a problem here like there is in the western world. I am from Canada and after living in Japan for a few years and then returning home I was reverse culture shocked at how normal it was considered by almost everyone to do drugs. And how many families are destroyed by this plague on society.

The average Japanese person has never even seen marijuana and most who have saw it when they where abroad. So this results in a society that does not have street gang wars with teenagers shooting each other over “turf”. Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world and yet I can honestly say there is no where I’m afraid to go at any time of the day or night. I wish I could say that about Toronto, Vancouver or and major city in the USA.

As far a racism goes it does exist here and it does get to me sometimes but it has never put me in danger unlike my one black friend in Toronto who told me “ You’re a nice guy but you wouldn’t last 2 minutes in my neighborhood” Japanese people are more afraid of what they don’t know rather they hating. And they generally don’t what to deal with foreigners because of language problems rather than race problems.

They do use words like “gaijin” and even though when translated this word has a negative implication, sometimes things get lost in translation. These days more people are using the word “gaikokujin” which means person from a foreign land opposed to barbarian and other similar meanings of “gaijin”  

In Canada there are many immigrants who move there and try to change things to make it more like their home country. I always say “if your home country was so great why did you move here?” And now nothing pisses me off more then people who move here and expect the Japanese to be more western to them I say “GO HOME IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT.”  On the internet there are many foreign nationals who will complaining about the issues in Japan but compared to most of there home countries it is much safer here so take what you read with a grain of salt please.

I have lived here for 6 years I am also a business owner, married to a wonderful Japanese woman, and own property. I have realized that you can’t fight the system and if you play by their rules life is not that hard here. But if you come here and expect it to be like home it’s a real up hill battle.

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A while back I lived in Fukushima prefecture in the northern part of Japan called the Tohoku region. Life there was peaceful and calm. Being surrounded by beautiful nature, small traditional Japanese towns, ski hills in the winter, and mountain bike paths in the summer, not a bad way to live life. But sometimes you just have to take on an even bigger challenge and climb a live volcano.

Not far away from where I lived is the city of Nasu area. Know by many for its onsen (hot springs). It is a popular destination for Japanese travelers in the area to relax and enjoy a soak.

My goal on this day however was not to soak but to sweat and climbing a live volcano is sure one way to work up a sweat. The volcano’s name is Chausu-dake  which literally translate into tea grinder, it’s strange name comes from the shape of it’s crater. Let me tell you though climbing this steaming mountain was no tea party. Rising up to 1915 Meters (6283 Ft.) to the summit and spewing hot steam and sulfur gas it looks even more intimidating to climb up close than it does from the bottom.

There were five guys in our group two of which had climbed Chausu-dake  in the past. We made a steady assent keeping a good pace except in the areas where the volcanic rock was loose under our feet and dangerous. We also had to avoid getting to close to some of the hot steam and smoke.

 After about a 5 hour steady climb we reached the summit and I felt fairly proud of my self for this achievement.  This good feeling quickly faded however as I looked around to see  groups of little old Japanese women most of whom were well over 60 or 70 years old who had climbed up the other side and easily achieved what I though was a great accomplishment at the age of 25.

Sir Edmund Hillary I am not but if you ever in the  Nasu (Northern Tochigi)  area I recommend attempting this few hour climb or taking the cable car to the top for the rather unique experience of being on top of a live volcano in Japan. And who knows you may get a good story out of it like I did.

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I would have to say on the top of my things to do in Japan list was go to Hiroshima, and a few years ago before leaving Japan and not knowing if I would every be back I made it there and am glad I did.

The city its self is a very nice modern city with lots of trees and wide streets. The people are friendly and the food is rather tasty especially the local okonomiyaki ( Japanese omelet).

The main reason for visiting Hiroshima for me as for most is to see the memorials and museums related to the atomic bombing of the city at the end of World War Two.  Visiting these memorials was probably the most powerful and emotional experience I have had anywhere I traveled to in the world.

The peace museum is set up to tell the story of the bombing and those that suffered from the after affects and it does this very effectively. The pictures are rather graphic and the stories are heart wrenching but I personally believe this should be mandatory for every child in the world to see so they grow up never wanting anything but peace.

The other memorials are also rather touching especially once you know the stories behind them such as the children’s peace memorial with the millions of origami cranes dedicated to  the little girl that died from  leukemia cause from residual radiation. She folded cranes until her last moments of life in hopes of inspiring other to not let this happen to any other people in the future.

The memorial that stands out the most though has to be the “A-Bomb Dome”  it’s a building in the center of Hiroshima whose outside structure was one of the only buildings to survive the blast in 1945. Instead of tearing it down the people of Hiroshima decided to keep it standing as a constant reminded of the tragedy of war. From my first hand experience when you see it up close it is a truly powerful symbol. A few years ago it began to deteriorate structurally and was reinforced to keep it standing.

Although it may not be the most upbeat and exciting destination on a travelers agenda this is one of those places that can change ones out look on life and help shape ones view on world politics today.

If you have children take them here so when they become the leaders of tomorrow they will think back on their experience at the museum or one of the memorials and think twice of violence towards others or starting a war.

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In a new series of articles under the category of Only in Japan I plan to write about the types of things I see here everyday that make me shake my head  sometimes smile and say “only in Japan.”

I am starting the series with this funny little guy named Marimokkori (まりもっこり). With his big round green head and large bulging erection he is the symbol for the entire northern prefecture of Hokkaido.

This cute little souvenir comes in all shapes, sizes and a variety of outfits to add to the cute factor but it is still hard to get past the large lump in his pants. Marimo (まりも) a type of round green alga found only in lake Akan in Hokkaido. Mokkori （もっこり） is the slang word for erection in Japanese so when you put the two together you get Marimokkori. Japanese like to make these kinds of  plays on words which quite often result in new and commonly used words being added to the Japanese vocabulary.

The first time I saw this little green bugger I was at a yakitori (grilled chicken) shop in Yokohama. The master of the restaurant showed me and I almost fell of my stool laughing so hard when they told me this was the mascot of Hokkaido. The very kind restaurant owner gave me that small toy but because it was attached to my keitai (cell phone) taking it in and out of my pocket caused it to fall off shortly after. Since then every time a friend of mine goes to Hokkaido she brings me one back and every time I see the new one I laugh almost as hard as I laughed the first time.

The originators of this collectable souvenir started this in a local area of Hokkaido and it quickly caught on and became a big hit through out the entire prefecture and country. Soon all the major tourist hot spots in Hokkaido had their own versions of Marimokkori with his own unique outfit and theme to symbolize their corner of the prefecture.  

This is truly a unique and hilarious thing that could happen “only in Japan”

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