A.D.D. and the Japanese consumer

Japan has a reputation for being a country of savers. In fact, one knock on Japan's economy is that the consumer doesn't exert the kind of muscle that, say, its American counterpart does. In a country that is perceived as being thrifty, conservative and mono-cultural - you'd expect consumer tastes to be fairly stagnant. The reality is that the Japanese consumer has ADD and is incredibly finicky.

There is no better case study than with the Kit Kat. I am a big fan of the Kit Kat. When I was single living in Japan, I would treat myself to a 100 yen ($1) Kit Kat just about every day. That's where the habit began. In the US the Kit Kat comes in one, maybe two or three flavors. In Japan I can't count how many flavors of Kit Kat there are. That's because every month there is a new flavor of Kit Kat that comes out. Over the last year alone I've had chocolate, strawberry, orange, kiwi, caramel pudding, mango, dark chocolate, apple, red bean, and soybean cake. As you can see from the picture, I recently consumed a ginger ale Kit Kat. These flavors don't last long. They in stores for about a month and then a new flavor hits the shelves.

No doubt this is pull marketing at its best. The Japanese consumer is conditioned to act now to try a new flavor or lose out forever. This conditioning has developed a natural belief that new is better...and if it's not new, then it's not worth buying. You see new consumer products all the time in candy, drinks, automobiles...anything. In the soft drink market, over 1,000 new drinks are launched each year into a 7,000 product market. Like the various flavors of Kit Kat, many of these drinks don't last longer than a year.

To garner further buzz, many candies and drinks will incorporate local flavors and be sold only in that locale. So, on our family vacation to Kyushu last month, we saw a flavor of our favorite candy - Haichu (a soft, Starburst-like candy) - which was only sold in Kyushu. The flavor was a locally grown mandarin orange. Not only did we see this at convenience stores, but also at tourist trinket shops wrapped like it was in a cardboard suitcase. Of course, we bought some.

As a consumer, it has its pluses and minuses. You certainly don't get bored as a consumer here in Japan. But you better not get too attached to something you like, because it might be gone in a few weeks/months. As a marketing guy myself, I respect the genius behind the product development strategy. You try to protect your turf by constantly innovating to keep the consumer's interest.

Nevertheless, I'll be honest, this consumer mindset wrecks havoc in my field of employment. The Japanese are notoriously short-term oriented investors. This has frustrated us to no end since we are fairly conservative when it comes to new product launches. It makes for difficult going when investors are looking for something new to invest in every three months.

Mt. Fuji Sunrise

I took this picture on our recent camping trip to Lake Motosu. This is obviously a Mt. Fuji sunrise. I was up at 5:00 AM with my fellow photo enthusiast friend Ryan, and were lucky to have such a clear morning. We thought we were being pretty sneaky being the early worm, but when we arrived at our perch we realized we were late to the party. About 20 other photographers were there with their expensive cameras and tripods lined up in the 'good spots.' One guy drove 4 hours from his home, arriving just after midnight, whereupon he set up his tripod and camera, then ducked back into his car to wait in the warmth for hours before sunrise. The dedication of some of these Japanese photographers!

Some looked like serious hobbyists. The one thing I know about the Japanese is that if they have a hobby, no matter what it is or how good they are at it (or want to become) they go all out and buy the best gear. It's a "go strong or go home" mentality...which I think is good.

Back to the photo. This is somewhat of a famous vantage point. On the back of the 1000 yen note (roughly $10) there's a picture of Fuji and it's from the Lake Motosu vantage point.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

Camping at Lake Motosu

A few weekends ago we went camping with about 10 other families in the Fuji 5 Lakes region at Lake Motosu. In only about a 90 minute drive from the center of city we felt like we had completely escaped the city sprawl of Tokyo. It was a wonderful long weekend away.

Shelley and I aren't quite sure we're camping people - or at least in the camping stage of our lives. People were pretty amazed that an 8+ month pregnant woman was choosing to go camping. Hey, I didn't force her to go folks! We like camping, but don't do it often...maybe once a year. But our kids were Jekyll and Hyde this weekend. For as bad as it was on Saturday and for as much as we wanted to pack it in and go home, Sunday was its equal in fun and relaxation. May I present the evidence.

We were camping by a lake, so we decided to take a walk around. The really easy, paved and flat walk around the lake turned into two hours of parental torture. For some reason Anthon has an extreme aversion to walking as a means of transporting himself. In his mind that's what cars, trains, strollers and a parent's arms/shoulders are for. If his attitude were a song lyric, it would be "Walking in LA, only a nobody walks in LA" from "Walking in LA" by Missing Persons. Talk about a meltdown. Crying, whining, yelling, everything. We had incident after incident. And mind you, this is flat, paved road.

Contrast that with Sunday. We rolled the dice again and took Anthon on an off-road, steep, slippery hike up a mountain. He must have viewed this as fun, because this hike was tiring, even for me, and much more difficult. Yet we didn't hear one peep. Not a single complaint. He was talking, he was joking around. He was having fun. So I guess we've learned that walking on pavement = functional and boring. Walking on dirt = fun and enjoyable. Good to know. Maybe we need to bring dirt everywhere we go and sprinkle it in his walking path so that he thinks he's hiking instead of walking from point A to point B.

The aforementioned hike was beautiful. There were two intermediate "peaks" before reaching the top. Each stop had its own view of Mt. Fuji. But for the last 2/3 of the hike you had completely unobstructed views of Fuji and the valley below as it sloped up and formed this most famous of views. I don't think I've ever seen Mt. Fuji so right in my face like this.

So I think Sunday made up for Saturday. We left Monday morning thinking we had a good time overall. Maybe we just need to be smarter campers. But soon with three kids 4 and under, I wonder how much more camping we can do for a while.

Trip to Kyushu: Kurume & Fukuoka

Our last stop on our trip to Kyushu were the cities of Kurume and Fukuoka. I lived in Kurume for 7 months as a missionary. As a tourist destination it's not much. But this place houses a lot of great personal memories for me. One of the great memories was teaching a person who worked at the first Subway sandwich shop in Kyushu. And we as missionaries, longing for a decent sandwich, would frequent this place. The other main reason to frequent this place was a guy, nicknamed Gonchan, who was interested in the missionaries and then eventually joined the LDS church. Gonchan was our age and had boundless energy. He would call us when his boss wasn't there to tell us to come down and he would make us sandwiches. He even made me a Subway nametag and got a uniform to fit me and I was able to be "sandwich artist" during our lunchbreak.

The only other things that make Kurume somewhat famous are 1)a gaudy and 200ft tall statue of Kannon the Goddess of Mercy; and 2)the Ishibashi family. You may not know the name Ishibashi, but you've probably heard of Bridgestone Tire, the largest maker of tires in the world. They are from Kurume and started the company there. As a side note, the daughter of the founder married a future prime minister of Japan. And one of their sons is the current prime minister of Japan.

Our time in Kurume was spent with Gonchan and seeing other friends that I knew in the area. It was great to catch up. For those of you Fukuoka missionaries, I have to tell you that we dined at the best tonkatsu place on Earth, Hamakatsu. For those of you who don't know what tonkatsu is - it's a flattened, breaded and deep fried piece of pork (usually pork, but also chicken). It's served with a cabbage salad, miso soup and rice. You dip the katsu in an Asian style barbecue sauce and it's wonderful. As missionaries we used to lust after this restaurant. We would always get the chicken katsu and we would go to town on the all you could eat cabbage salad and rice. It was a decent sized chain 15 years ago, but nowadays it's absolutely everywhere. We had to stop in to eat there once. It's so good. Anthon loved it so much he downed a whole thing of tonkatsu, then threw it up in bed with me later that night. In what was undoubtedly major inspiration, I woke up, sat up and moved out of the way literally a split second before Anthon spewed half-digested tonkatsu everywhere. I escaped the sickness. Yes!

After our one day in Kurume, we spent a half day in Fukuoka, killing time before flying home to Tokyo. Fukuoka is the 8th largest city in Japan and doesn't really hold any real special feeling for me, except for the LDS temple that was built on the site of our old mission home. A friend of mine from the mission, Greg Peterson, and I were able to fly back in 2000 for the dedication of the Temple. It was surreal to think that the old home that we would visit on the large plot of land was now a temple. From my LDS perspective, what a blessing that is for the members of the LDS church in Kyushu.

Our final stop in Fukuoka was Ohori Park - a large park created on the old castle grounds. We devoured McDonalds hamburgers and fries and let the kids run. I think our vacation went a few hours too long because in what should have been a fun ride on the paddle boats turn into a nightmare of crying by the children. My attempts to get us back to the dock to stop the madness were futiles as we were paddling against the wind and it made our trip back not only slow but very physically taxing on my legs! If you like hearing kids scream and cry, then please feel free to watch the short clip Shelley took below.





As always click on any of the pictures to be taken to a gallery of the few shots we took in Kurume and Fukuoka.

Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots

About an hour south of the city of Kagoshima is a small mountain town called Chiran. This was the home of the air base that launched kamikaze attacks on Allied warships towards the end of World War II. The air base is long gone, replaced by a museum dedicated to the 1,000+ pilots who died flying suicide missions in their explosives-laden airplanes.

From an American perspective, it's really easy to dismiss the kamikaze as faceless fanatics blindly following the edicts of the government. Or, perhaps using modern terminology - suicide bombers.

Visiting this museum, however, you get an extremely personal view into the lives of the pilots who trained here before flying to their deaths. At its entrance you're immediately struck with the reality that these were just boys. The first image you see is of five boys who are in their flight gear playing with a puppy. Three of the five are 17 years old and the other two are 18 and 19 years old. The picture was taken the day before their mission. All five died.

Pictures are displayed of every kamikaze pilot througout the museum. Some of the final letters written by the pilots home to families have been translated and digitized for all to read. It's a sobering insight into the mindset of these young men. Some say they look forward to dying so they can bring honor to their family, the emperor and their country. Some write home to young wives telling them that they will always be near, even in death. Others write specific instructions to little children to be good, study hard and take care of mother.

The tragedy in all of this is the wasted future of these young men. Families were robbed of sons and husbands. The thieves were Japan's militaristic leaders that deceived its people into thinking their cause was just, that Japan was freeing its Asian neighbors of western influences. These men's lives could have been so much more. They could have brought honor to their nation by helping foster the most stunning economic recovery of the 20th century - not dying in the ocean. They could have been family men and made more of a difference in other people's lives. And while I admire the courage and dedication to something I hope they believed in, I can't help feel sorrow that their leaders were all too eager to mortgage the future of their young to preserve their interests in the present.

Applying my feelings to the modern day, I first think of my son and hope that he never has to go to war. Secondly, I respect every member of any military around the world who is fighting for just causes of freedom and equality of all people. Thirdly, I hope that as an American my leaders will engage in only necessary and just warfare. The standard set forth in the Book of Mormon is something I've thought a lot about of late.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the rant. But this museum is one of the most sad and thought provoking museums in all of Japan. It is a definite must see if you're ever in the Kagoshima area. I urge you to visit the website of the museum, which has a lot of information that's found in the museum itself.

Trip to Kyushu: Kagoshima

Stop number three on our week-long trip was Kagoshima. I served here as a missionary in two stints to start my mission (5 months in the city of Kagoshima) and to end my mission (3 months in the suburb of Taniyama).

For you Japanese history buffs and Tom Cruise fans, Kagoshima is the home to a guy by the name of Saigo Takamori, who is a local hero. Saigo, once a military man closely allied with the imperial government, he resigned his position in a huff because the government didn't go along with his proposal to attack Korea over their failure to recongize the newly formed Japanese government. He returned home to Kagoshima and with 40,000 disaffected samurai, and local soldiers, he led what is known as the Satsuma Rebellion. They got as far as Kumamoto, burning the castle, before being driven back to Kagoshima. The final battle was the basis for Ken Watanabe's character in the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai.

Kagoshima is also known for it's gigantic, and quite active, volcano Mt. Sakurajima. It's quite a spectacular sight! It sits 15 minutes by ferry across the bay from from Kagoshima and dominates the view from almost any part of the city. The volcano used to be an island until an eruption in 1914 poured enough lava and rock to bridge the watery gap between the island and the nearby peninsula. Ash is spewn daily from the volcano and on particularly heavy days, if the wind is just right, it can feel as if a light rain is falling on you...but not a refreshing rain. As missionaries who would have to bike in this kind of environment, our shirt pockets would fill with ash and if we had a cold or allergies, the phlegm would be black. And let me tell you, when it actually did rain, the mixture of water and the ultra fine ash made for slippery roads. Good times.

We decided to stay two nights at the Furusato Kanko Hotel, on the volcano itself. The hotel has a famous hot spring that backs up against the bay. We enjoyed the expansive views the sounds of the lapping waves. The hot spring also has a shrine inside it, which meant that so as to not offend the kami (god of the shrine) we had to wear cotton robes to cover our nakedness. The benefit was that it was a mixed gender pool so we could enjoy the hot spring as a family. They even had tiny robes for Anthon and Ella, which was so cute. Spending that time in the hot spring was definitely a top 5 highlight of the entire trip. The hotel can be a bit pricey, but it's worth it. Dinner and breakfast are included and each night you dine in your own private tatami room. The food is quite good and focuses on local cuisines (pork, sashimi, etc.)

Our time in Kagoshima was spent touring the volcano (which has a large park filled with large fiberglass dinosaurs of all random things) and traveling south of Kagoshima to see the massive tea fields outside of Chiran. We also spent time in a museum dedicated to the kamikaze pilots who at the end of World War II were sent to die as a last ditch effort to prevent defeat. More on that later as it deserves its own lengthy post. And above all it was nostalgic for me to be back in Kagoshima.

Click on any of the pictures to be taken to a gallery of photos.

Trip to Kyushu: Kumamoto

Stop number two on our trip was Kumamoto. I spent 7 months here as a missionary in 1995 and in the process had some great experiences. I’ll share some of my experiences in a later post.

From a travel perspective, Kumamoto typifies everything that’s great about Kyushu. There are some beautiful seaside towns with views to tiny islands that dot the bay. Then as you head east you run into the city of Kumamoto which has a surprisingly international feel. It has really made great strides to welcome foreigners to visit, study and work there. Finally, as you head further east you scale mountains and volcanoes and enjoy hot springs, rivers and gorges. It’s really a diverse area.

Kumamoto Castle
This is one of the premier castles in all of Japan. While it’s a replica, it’s a stunning piece of architecture that is THE signature building in Kumamoto. It sits on a bluff and overlooks the town. We made our way there on a hot Sunday afternoon and didn’t really get to enjoy enough of our time there since the kids were tired and cranky.

Mt. Aso
The Mt. Aso region is one of the world’s largest volcanic caldera and according to sources it’s also the most densely populated caldera in the world...which has got to be nice since it's technically still an active volcano. Admittedly, Aso did most of its damage more than 100,000 - 300,000 year ago.

You can drive to the peak of the active crater and peer into it. We went on a national holiday and were happy to leave early in the morning because it was busy. I kid you not, we were within 5km to the parking lot of the crater and it took us 90 minutes to travel the last 5km. Talk about ridiculous. And we were the lucky ones. There were drivers who, I’m sure, had to endure two hours just to get into the parking lot. It was a great reminder that no matter how rural one gets in Japan, one is still in Japan…great lines of people will happen everywhere!

Boshita Matsuri
Animal rights activists and my Korean friends might not like this festival, but the Boshita Matsuri celebrates the pillaging of Korea hundreds of years ago and involves parading large horses with phallic symbols strapped to their backs. The horses are fed beer and prodded to a point where the horse will often times run wild through the streets or rear up and buck. Many years ago, some of the horses would then be killed and the meat of the horse would then be served raw, which in fact is a local delicacy called basashi.

Watching the procession is really fun. People parade around town for hours in their summer festival clothing (happi) and are impossibly drunk by the evening (when we got there). They’re chanting and singing and looking like they’re having a good time. Ella got into it and due to her being impossibly cute she got quite a lot of attention from the passersby who wanted to give her stuff – glow sticks mainly. Anthon was instantly jealous. He took a cue from Ella, started to act cute and soon saw glow sticks come his way.

Kikuchi Keikoku Koen (Kikuchi Gorge)
This is one of my favorite places and is off the beaten path. If you don’t have a car, then you’ll likely not get a chance to come here. The gorge is on the back side of Aso, to the north, and is a set of hiking trails that meander up a river with a series of beautiful waterfalls. Tons of trees shade the trails and it’s a wonderful place to hike, picnic and play in the water. It would have been the perfect outing except of course Ella lost her shoe while trying to resist being picked up by Shelley. The shoe dropped from the bridge to the water. We tried to track it down the river but we lost it.

The drive to and from Kikuchi is great because you pass by a ton of fruit farms and fresh fruit stands. We stopped by a vineyard that sold gigantic purple grapes. Behind the stand were the vineyards. You could tell the fruit had just been picked. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted grapes that good ever.

We love Kumamoto. Click on any of the pictures to go to a gallery of shots from our three days in Kumamoto.

Trip to Kyushu: Nagasaki

The family took a 9 day trip to the island of Kyushu, one of the four main islands in Japan's archipelago. It also happened to be the area where I served my mission. I wanted to show Shelley and the family where I lived for two years.

Our first stop was the city of Nagasaki, a town in which I didn't actually serve as a missionary.

Nagasaki is an interesting city that is as beautiful and scenic as it is steeped in history. The city sits on a peninsula where water and mountain terrain intermix to dominate the city's scenery. It is definitely a city built on a hill. This solid foundation must certainly be a metaphor for the resiliency of its citizenry who, over the centuries, have persevered through many trials.

Obviously, Nagasaki is most famous for being the site of the second atomic bomb blast on August 9, 1945, which effectively forced Japan to concede defeat and put an end to World War II. If it were not for a museum, a park at the hypocentre of the blast and another peace park close by, you would hardly know of this city's place in modern history. I think this is a credit to the city and its people's ability to reconstruct and restore the city to its natural beauty and charm. More on that later.

The city has a much more important ancient history, however, as a trading port. It was through Nagasaki that many new ideas were introduced to Japan from the outside world, including Christianity. When western influence began to be perceived as being politically disruptive, Japanese rulers effectively closed the country to foreigners. Christian influence was seen as subversive and Christians were persecuted. Followers were forced to renounce their faith or suffer death - some by crucifixion. It wasn't until centuries later when Japan was forcibly reopened to the outside world that it was made known of a vibrant underground Christian population in Nagasaki who were practicing totally unbeknownst to the government. Those centuries-old influences are still prevalent today. In our day and a half of touring the city we saw more Catholic priests and nuns walking around than we've seen in our nearly two years in Tokyo.

Being an American visiting Nagasaki can be a bit uncomfortable. While there are precious few outward signs that the city was decimated by a plutonium bomb, visitors to the atomic bomb museum are given insight into the affect the bomb had on the people of Nagasaki. And I really am not sure how local people, especially the elderly who could have lived through the blast, feel about what happened to their city.

I happen to fall into the camp of people who believe that this was a tragic event that cost the lives of tens of thousands of completely innocent people, but probably saved the lives of millions of other people in Japan and perhaps throughout Asia. The Allies were preparing to invade Kyushu after a long and protracted battle in Okinawa, while the Soviet Union was advancing into Manchuria. It seems as if the stage was set for a fierce and costly battle on Japan's homeland.

Putting aside the tactical or ethical argument of the bomb, and focusing instead on the physical impact of the bomb, I was left in total unbelief of its vast destruction. Video footage from the air shows a massive mushroom cloud shooting nearly 20km in the air after detonation. The bomb produced instantaneous heat that was several thousand degrees celsius, sending a wave of immense heat and radiation that destroyed buildings and killed people in an instant with two kilometers of the hypocenter. All told, almost a third of the population died due to the blast and subsequent fires, with probably half sustaining injuries and widespread radiation exposure.

It's hard to fathom that in one instant life can be normal, but in the next instant there is a flash and life has changed forever. Seeing the amount of death, destruction and suffering makes one wish that there was no need for war. At the very least it made me question what constitutes a war of necessity.

While in Nagasaki, we took advantage of having a car and drove south on the peninsula and were treated to vast views of ocean and islands. There were plenty of places to hop out and enjoy the rocky beaches and endless tide pools. We also drove to the top of Mt. Inasayama which provided 360 degree views of Nagasaki city to the north and east, the bay and islands to the south and the ocean to the west. A great place to see the sunset. If you don't have a car, there is a ropeway that takes you up to the top.

Video will follow, but click on any of the pictures to be taken to a small gallery of photographs of our time in Nagasaki.

My Weekend in Kobe and Kyoto

The Wedding I spent my last weekend without family in Kobe and Kyoto for the wedding of the daughter of the family I lived with as a home-stay student 16 years ago. This was my first trip to Japan. Who knew then it would turn out like this? Anyway, I turned the wedding into a long weekend in some of my favorite areas of Japan.

The wedding was a traditional Shinto wedding, a first for me. There is a part in the wedding where the bride and groom will drink what looked like ritual water poured by the priestesses. Then each member of the wedding party, as a symbol of I guess unity, partakes of the ritual beverage. Now, if you know me, you know that I don't drink alcohol. Let me tell you, that was NOT water I drank. Can I just marvel at how such a small thimble full of sake can generate so much heat in the mouth and throat? Wow.

Geisha / Maiko Oddly enough I had many opportunities to interact with geisha and maiko (who are apprentice geisha). The father of the bride is a patron of a geisha house and has access, which is extremely uncommon. So throughout the weekend we had geisha and maiko attend and perform at the wedding, dinner the next night and at an after-party at a local cabaret. Not to mention I did my fair share of stalking them with my camera on the streets in the districts of town where one can find the geisha houses. I wasn't the only one. There were a lot of tourists, like me, and other fan-boys whose main hobby it is to hang out in these districts to take these girls' picture. Seeing that was almost equally as interesting as the girls themselves.

Here is my take on the whole geisha thing. It's incredibly interesting. These are young teenage girls who choose to move away from home to learn a very traditional way of life. Their access to friends and family is limited. They learn traditional forms of dance, music and singing. They learn a high form of etiquette. To me, I find these girls beautiful in the way I find a statue beautiful. Everything about their appearance is a work of art. It takes them about an hour to get dressed, 30 minutes just to put on the facial make up and their hair takes so long that they only have it done once or twice a week. The clothes they wear costs thousands of dollars. Even their mannerisms and attitude are trained to be mature, docile and agreeable. It's not necessarily who these girls are, it's who they're being made up to be. And they're being made into a work of art. It's a really interesting world. A funny example of this training came at a dinner the night after the wedding. I was sitting next to one maiko at dinner, translating for the group, and she would not eat any of the food until she was invited to do so. I didn't know this and she just sat there until the father of the bride told me to let her eat.

So it was one of those really cool and rare experiences to get so much time interacting with these girls. This isn't a normal thing, even for Japanese...many of whom have never seen one in person let alone talked to one.

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Ask my wife, and she'll tell you that I'm a sucker for heights and panoramic views. So, I decided that I would take a tour of the world's largest and tallest suspension bridge. It may not sound interesting, but the climax of the tour was an elevator ride up to the top of the main gate, 300m above the 4km long bridge. You emerge from the elevator and you're outside with nothing but a chest high wall keeping you safe. You have unobstructed views of the world around and below. For my metrically challenged friends of the U.S. (I used to be one of them!), 300 meters is about To give you perspective on the height of 300 meters, for my metrically challenged friends that's just under 1000 feet, or about 90 - 100 story building.

Kyoto Other highlights of the weekend included the trip to my favorite shrine in all of Japan, Fushimi Inari Shrine. This is a mountain shrine that has many kilometers of steep pathways up and down the mountains that are enclosed by giant red torii gates packed in one after the other. These are gates that are purchased by companies and donated to the shrine as an offering for prosperity for that particular company. There our thousands of these gates of all sizes lined up one after the other.

Bamboo forests, river cruises, zen rock gardens. It was a very traditional Japanese tourist weekend and I loved it. I was only sad that I couldn't have shared it with the family.

So, definitely check out the pictures by clicking on any of the photos in this post. I took hundreds of pictures, but I picked the best ones and put them into one gallery. There are some really cool shots of the maiko as well as some panoramic shots from on top of the bridge. Definitely check out the video below.

Rockabilly dancing in Harajuku

Nothing says manly like a bunch of dudes dancing in the street in a circle, playing air guitar and flaring the collar on their leather jackets. This is the image created by the rockabilly scene here in Harajuku. While it's just another sign for what makes Tokyo so unique, I do have to give these guys credit for the really brash display of public alcohol consumption and greased up hair-do's. It's been a revival of sorts. Word is these guys and gals dressed up in Grease-style 50's era leather jackets and poodle skirts and danced through the better part of the 80's and 90's before the goth-enthused Harajuku girls stole the limelight. Now it looks like the Rockabilly is making a comeback.

There are multiple rockabilly clubs that meet in Harajuku on Sundays and they all have their own audio equipment that they blast for public consumption. And it wouldn't be Japan without there being some sort of hierarchical structure in place for the club - not everyone can be as outgoing and with their dancing moves. Some people are relegated to play air bass and others are more "back up dancers."

There seems to be enough room for the greaser-rockabilly man and the goth-Harajuku girl, though. That's good to see. You'd hate there to be acrimony between Fonzi and Little Bo Peep. Speaking of the Harajuku girls, there was one who looked like a kind of Strawberry Shortcake doll, who seemed to like posing for people.

Click on the picture to go to a small gallery of shots. Or watch the youtube video I shot below.

Fresh Fish

I went to dinner with some coworkers last night. We ordered a plate of sashimi and on the plate was a fish that had seconds before been alive and well, but who now sat on our plate skinned and carved up into sashimi. We were told not to put our finger in the fish's mouth, because it was still "alive". Low and behold the fish kept opening and closing his mouth, and would even constrict its head and tail if we touched it. Talk about fresh fish!

There's something awkward about looking at a fish who seems alive, and who's being used as a platter on which is served carefully slices of his own meat. I think to myself that I'm sure glad that's not me. But he was delicious.

Japanese Honesty...

I got the following email from someone in our office - it shows just how honest the Japanese people can be.

Did you forget to pick up 50yen from vending machine? We found 50 yen in vending machine in the lounge this afternoon. Please contact office services if you forgot to pick up 50yen. Thank you.

50 yen is the equivalent of 50 cents. Someone took the time to find the 50 yen, walk it up a flight of stairs to our office services team, who then had someone craft an email that went to over 100 associates in the entire office. That's a lot of work for 50 yen.

On a related note, vending machine drinks used to be free in our office, but with major cost cutting in effect that subsidy has been lifted. I can see how there could be vending machine mishaps. It just so happened that I lost a 500 yen coin ($5) trying to fish out my 50 yen for a drink. And as luck would have it, the 500 yen coin popped out of my wallet, rolled across the room and stopped underneath the same vending machine. I've tried for the past few days to get it and I can't. Nothing reaches.

I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't try to claim the 50 yen as mine to recoup my losses!

Spooning on trains

There have been two instances in the last month where the subway I've traveled on is so crowded and so many people feel it necessary to pack themselves into this train that I've literally felt like I've spooned or been spooned by two other passengers. With one, at least I could swing my work bag to give me some space. You know, for those of you who have attended an LDS dance and had to be "Book of Mormon" distance from your dance partner. The other time, however, no such luck. And when you're packed in there like that, there's no concentrating on your book - there's hardly room to lift your hands to read it!

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not in any other city in the world...because there would certainly be more violence on the trains. Can you imagine people in New York packed into trains like this? There would be civil unrest. I guess Japan's not all sunshine and puppy dogs when it comes to their packed trains. Japan suffers from serial gropers - people who take advantage of the tight quarters to cop feels of other unsuspecting passengers. Groping has become such a problem that most trains now set aside one train car solely for women during the morning commute. I've not seen these train cars, but I imagine there's tea, soft music and pedicures between each stop. And how are us guys treated? Well, we're in the rest of the train cars forced to spoon one another on busy days. But I guess in the grand scheme of things, I would rather be spooned than groped.

Why I run for trains

They joke in Los Angeles that the one benefit of a recession is that it reduces traffic. I wish that were the case here in Tokyo as well...but it's not.

The train station nearest my house is the terminus for the Chiyoda subway line - a busy subway line that runs through most business districts in the city. It's also the transfer point for the Odakyu train line, that connects Tokyo's western suburbs to the city. During rush hour these lines, and this station in particular, serve as a major transportation artery.

Consequently, the tiny station is always packed with people. The Odakyu train will come and go at least twice, dumping off its transferring passengers, before an empty Chiyoda subway train arrives.

This subway platform is more than 200 meters long. There are 10 cars per subway. Each car has 4 doors. Standing before each door are three rows of people about 12 deep. That's 144 people per car, or 1,440 per train. Standing next to the three orderly lines in front of each subway car door is ANOTHER three lines of passengers some waiting for the next train, some waiting to make the existing 1,440 existing passengers pack in line sardines. That means at any one time on the platform, there are over close to 3,000 people waiting for a train. Let's say every 10 minutes for two hours this station turns over close to 40,000 travelers. And we're talking about a relatively small station. Can you see what I'm getting at? This place is crowded.


That's why I run. I used to make fun of those businessmen who would burst into a full sprint as they got closer to the train. Oh, how I mocked what I didn't understand! They weren't running to catch a train, they were running to beat another trains' passengers in line! That's exactly what I'm doing. As soon as I hit the train station, I'm using my long legs to propel myself up two flights of stairs, briskly walking through the turnstiles and up another flight of stairs to the platform. If I hear an Odakyu train coming with thousands of other passengers that want my place in line, then I'm running hard and I'm not afraid to push people out of the way. The result is that I'm WAY out of breath and sound like a panting dog by the time I finally get in line. If I can beat the other train's passengers, then I usually can either find a seat or at least stand in a place where I'm protected from the crowds. But if I can't, then it's like being packed in a can of sardines. But more on that in another post.

Pet parents strike again

Tokyo is the land of pet parents - people who treat their pets less like animals and more like their own offspring. Meet Leon the dog. We saw Leon this weekend being held by his pet parent. Leon was sporting pretty cool goggles to shade his eyes, because we all know dogs hate the sunlight.

Leon's owner told me somewhat defensively that the glasses were from the States - as if to tell me 'back off American, these are from YOUR country.' I was then informed that Leon has some allergies. Yeah, poor Leon, surrounded all day by pet dander. If true, where is the doggie surgical face mask?

Look it might be entirely plausible that Leon has allergies, but come on, what's with the Lilo & Stitch hoodie? Leon is sooo EMO. This screams raving pet parent trying to make a fashion statement.

Cherry blossoms

It's that wonderful time of year when for 10 days the endless concrete of Tokyo is consumed by these soft pink and white blossoms. Despite their extremely short life, their beauty invigorates a country emerging from a cold winter.

This year, my birthday fell on a Saturday and we joined the many thousands of other like-minded locals along Meguro river. It's an especially urban and narrow canal where clusters of sakura trees line both sides of the river creating a beautiful canopy of cherry blossoms. It's quite the sight to behold.

On a day like this where literally thousands of people were cramming into these small streets to view the sakura, it gave occasion for many photography enthusiasts to get out and practice their craft. Now, I like to make fun of Japanese people because it seems to me that they are in love with standing in lines...any line. If there's a line of people there MUST be a reason that people are standing there - so they'll stand there to find out. That's the stereotype, anyway. Well, Shelley served it right back to me saying that if there was a group of people taking a picture someplace, then I would HAVE to go over to where they were and see what they were taking and take a picture myself. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Anyway, sakura viewing, picture taking, family time, wonderful pizza in the park - all in all a great birthday.

I took a few pictures from that day - click on the picture above to see a small gallery of pictures of the sakura and the family.

My new drivers license

What is it about government issued photo ID's that make you look like anyone and anything but yourself? This looks like a mug shot. In my defense, they purposefully tell you not to smile, but I didn't know I look this unbelievably dorky.

Taking the driving test in Japan is less an exercise in showing off your driving skill, and more about jumping through hoops - like driving as slow as you can go. A 1.2 km course, the test should take a normal person driving on normal streets no more than 2-3 minutes. But in this exercise it takes about 10 minutes. I don't think, but for one stretch where it was mandatory, I got the car above 20 km/hour. In my almost 19 years of driving I don't think I've ever driven that slow. (I'm counting the year I had my permit when I used to take my parents' car out -- sometimes with their blessing, sometimes without. But come on, when you're 15 and your parents let you drive all by yourself once, it's a blanket OK to take it out whenever, right? Right? Anyway, I digress.)

I don't think I've ever driven that slowly. Imagine driving down the road without touching the accelerator and just letting the idling of the car propel you down the road and you're about at how fast I was driving.

When I clipped a curb turning left a bit too sharp, I thought I was a goner. But the examiner must have been in a great mood because he passed me on the first try. And now I finally am driving legally in Japan. My two month stint of joy riding sans license in Tokyo has come to a happier ending than when I was 15 and caught by my parents for taking the car out...and slightly scratching it. But that's another story for another day.

Anthon versus the monkeys

While visiting the historical mountain village of Nikko, we got up close and personal with wild monkeys that were hanging out by the lake. There were three of them, two parents and a baby, and they were getting harassed by onlookers who were jokingly trying to pick fights with the monkeys. Naturally, when the monkeys tried to fight back, the onlookers ran away like sissies.

I was of course filming some of this, hoping to catch something funny - like some dude getting pelted by monkey feces. After a few minutes, Anthon and I retreated back to where the rest of our family was, and we took out some bread and sembei (rice crackers) to eat. One monkey, about 40 yards away, charged towards us, resulting in our quick retreat. He ate our bread and then made a deliberate march towards Anthon, who was holding a sembei. Shelley screamed for Anthon to get rid of the sembei, so being the closest to him, I grabbed it out of Anthon's hands and threw it at the monkey who happily backed off to eat the loot. Anthon wasn't too happy - his sembei was stolen by the monkey. Later, Anthon offered tough words about the next time he came across the monkey - he was going to "kill him by slicing him with his sword"...my little samurai.

Here's a quick little video of the monkeys and the aftermath of their taking Anthon's sembei.



It's interesting to note that the two people that the monkeys proactively stalked and went after were little kids. They vigorously defended themselves (and their young) when adults came too closely, but they made two unprovoked advances on children their own size. I guess the primates take to heart the belief that you should only "pick on someone your own size."

Multiplying and Replenishing Japan

I can't take credit for finding this article and video done by CNN, but I think it's nevertheless funny and insightful.

With a work culture used to 12 hour days (sometimes more), I find it an interesting sociological tidbit that Canon has to forcibly turn off the lights to get people to leave. When I was working in LA, if you were told by the company that you could leave early, you left early...and oftentimes skipped lunch so you could leave even earlier. Here, leaving early, even when the company tells you that it's OK, is not such an easy task. I mean, I'm surprised that turning off the lights was such an easy fix. Some people in my office would need the power cut, the office tear-gassed, and then to be carried away by commandos before they would leave.

Then there's the whole "big brother" aspect of your company telling you to go forth and procreate. It just takes the whole romance out of it when "it" becomes your civic and corporate duty, right?

But I have to hand it to Canon, with work hours as they are, at least they resisted the urge to take a page out of the US prison system by going the conjugal visit route!

It's time for some sumo

Shelley and I recently attended the year's first Grand Sumo Tournament here in Tokyo. I'm sure you caught highlights on SportsCenter, right? On the surface, sumo wrestling looks like a bunch of fat Asian guys in ornate g-strings pushing and slapping each other inside a ring. But it's so much more than that.

Sumo wrestling has deep roots in the Shinto religion, and started literally as a symbolic wrestling match against the kami, or local God of the shrine. Today, every aspect of the sport is embedded in the Shinto religion from the construction of a shinto temple roof over the ring, to the coordinated rituals that are done before and after matches. One interesting one is done by the Grand Champion(s) (called the yokozuna) who enters the ring, and purifies it by driving away evil spirits by doing the big leg stomp. Certainly a site to behold...on a number of levels that I don't think I need to go into.

Sumo wrestling is going through an interesting time. Because while it is quintessentially Japanese, it is being more and more dominated by foreign wrestlers from Polynesia, Mongolia and Eastern Europe. Four of the last six grand champions were foreign born and the many of the top wrestlers are foreigners. How do officials of this very traditional Japanese sport deal with it? They place limitations on the number of foreigners that can participate, of course. But that's beside the point.

The point is, seeing it live is awesome. I'd seen it on TV a number of times, but you don't get a feel for how strong these guys are, and how much real technique there is. While the guiding principles of the sport underscore a need for little emotion, seeing it live you pick up on intense competition and bitter rivalries that percolate underneath the surface. Plus, as one of my friends put it, it's a great opportunity to remind your wife that she should be glad us husbands don't look like that.

We enjoyed ourselves so much so that we're hoping to head back in May when the tournament comes back to Tokyo. Anyone care to join us?

Click on the pictures above to see a small gallery of photos taken from our nose bleed seats. There is also the video below that we shot of a few rituals and matches. Be careful, they contain images of large, scantily clad Asian, Polynesian and Eastern European men pushing each other around. Best not seen within 30 minutes of eating.

Shichi-Go-San

Sometime in mid-November marks the shichi-go-san (7-5-3) festival, or rite of passage, for Japanese children. Girls aged 7 & 3, and boys aged 5 dress up in formal attire, usually kimono, and come to their local shinto shrine to be blessed, by the priest, for a long and healthy life and to drive away evil spirits. This ritual has been around in some form or another for at least 1,000 years.

The family made our way to Meiji Shrine to see all the little kids dressed up and to take some pictures. Plenty of foreigners like us were playing paparazzi and stopping people to take pictures. Whenever I see kids dressed up in kimono like this, I can't help but think they're tiny adults, not kids. They look so grown up. The funny thing is whenever Japanese see western kids dressed in formal wear, like a suit, they think the same thing of us.

A hodge podge of updates

Yokohama Triennial 2008

The family spent the day in Yokohama a while back, and I reaffirmed my belief that me and modern art aren't really that good friends. Every three years the city hosts the Yokohama Triennial, where modern artists from around the world show off their creations. My personal "favorites" include a wall of print outs of emails and newspaper articles talking about "NoMo phobia" or the fear of having no mobile phone. Another had a saddle ridden by a Vietnamese Catholic bishop just lying in the corner with the rental agreement tacked to the wall. Are these artists really trying? Where's the art in all of that? I really don't get it, and at this point don't care if I do. And don't get me started on the short videos. What happened to the whimsical and fantastical side of modern art? Why does everything have to be so dark and cynical? Well, at least I took a cute shot of Ella.

Fall Colors at Shinjuku Gyoen Park

Growing up in Southern California, it's well understood that there are really only two seasons, spring and summer. Winter is really two weeks of Autumn, and anything cold or wet would be treated as massive newsworthy events, not seasons - like when it rains the news is always on "Weather Watch!" for hours. So while I'm not complaining, I am stating as fact that I never knew the simple joy of making a pile of fall leaves and jumping into them. We had a large liquid amber that dropped a lot of pretty leaves, but twice as many of those really prickly balls. If you jumped into a pile of that, you'd come out looking like you'd been a victim of really poorly done acupuncture. So, at a local park Anthon and I gathered up as many leaves as we could, and he had fun jumping into them, as well as picking up arm fulls and throwing them at me.

Setting up the Christmas Tree

And finally, here is the video of our setting up the Christmas tree in mid November. It's a bit long and the video size is a bit big. So have some patience with it while it downloads.

Seeing the lions at Tama Zoo

Our first major excursion with our new car was to the Tama Zoo, a rather large zoo on the outskirts of Tokyo with an impressive array of animal exhibits. Certainly the highlight was the lions. There were probably 10 lions inside a large enclosed area, half male which is odd since I didn't know male lions got along. Inside their habitat are roads upon which a plexiglass encased bus drives visitors around to see the lions. Now to make sure that the visitors get their money's worth, parts of the bus are covered in meat so as to ensure that the lion will attack or lick the side of the bus to wow the guests. If you didn't know any better, you'd think the lion was going to reach in and attack you. We took a short video of us offering Ella up to the lion as a sacrifice in return for the bus' safe passage. As you can see from the second picture, Ella does her best imitation of the lion in attacking Shelley's chin.

The other interesting thing we found at the zoo was the number of people there with high powered telephoto lenses - we're talking professional ones that cost thousands of dollars. Shelley jokingly asked if I would rather have the camera and be left only with enough money to take pictures at the zoo? Or go to Africa and take along my current camera. There are evidently people who choose the former. One such guy shot a lot of the orangutans. He pulled out two magazine editions that featured his work - saying that he had visited this zoo over 150 times in the last year. Wow. People really get into their hobbies here. Even if it means they have to come to the zoo to get their fix of wildlife photography.

For those in Tokyo, Tama Zoo is well worth a visit. There's a huge insectarium with butterflies everywhere. Shelley felt like she was in a princess fairly tale land. Orangutans aren't caged up, but are allowed to swing free through a tall network of cables over the zoo. Lots of cool stuff at the Tama Zoo.

The view from our office and thoughts on bubbles

As seen in the picture above, this is the view from our offices in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo. As I look out, I thought about the current economic mess that resulted from, among other things, the bursting of the real estate bubble in the U.S. My mind turned immediately to the strip of land before me, the Imperial Palace grounds. During Japan's heyday, some valued the 2.1 square miles of Imperial Palace land MORE than the entire real estate available in the state of California.

When put in its proper perspective, as seen in the red-circled land below, it is ridiculous that a strip of land so small could equal the value of land in a state that has the 7th largest economy in the world. But that's what people were saying. This underscores how easily asset bubbles can quickly get out of hand when investors form irrationally lofty expectations and greed clouds the better judgment of otherwise smart people. It makes me think that it might take some time for the global economy to be able to unwind and regroup from the mess that we're currently in.



Now that we're hitting winter time, the air is a lot more crisp and clear, which allows us to have these splendid views from our 33rd floor reception area. The jewel of our view, however, is Mt. Fuji, which can be seen off in the distance only on clear days, and usually then only in the morning.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So, it's the middle of November and around Tokyo we're starting to see a lot of Christmas decorations. At least in the United States Thanksgiving is a significant enough holiday that people have to focus on it before they can start to digest Christmas. But not in Japan. As soon as Halloween was over the retail shops went into full Christmas mode. Christmas trees, lights, decorations...the works. And there's the unique Japanese spin to it all...I mean what do Godzilla and Christmas trees have in common? If you know, enlighten me.

It's a little disconcerting to see that a country whose population is 99% Buddhist/Shinto has been so taken in by the consumer aspects of the holiday and not the true meaning behind why Christians celebrate Christmas. Truly, this is a holiday that has been hijacked by retail marketers. The story goes that Kentucky Fried Chicken, back when they were new to the country, spent a load of money promoting fried chicken as THE Christmas meal. According to NPR this is one of its biggest money making months of the year. Et tu, Colonel?

So in that vein I'd like to say that the Cannons have joined the masses in starting to celebrate Christmas. Though we would like to retain our rights to make this a more meaningful holiday season. At Anthon's urging, we put the Christmas tree went up on Sunday. Since Halloween Anthon has been talking about it nonstop. Anthon has spent a lot of time staring at the tree and playing with his favorite ornaments that are at his eye level - a squishy santa and a tin nutcrakcer. He even discourages turning on other lights in the room so as to not take away from the tree's sparkly lights. Shelley and I can tell that this is going to be a very fun Christmas season with our extremely excited boy.

Sleeping on Trains

Allow me to paint with broad cultural strokes - the Japanese, especially those in Tokyo, are world class sleepers. This isn't to say they get a lot of sleep, quite the contrary. I believe many in Tokyo suffer from a chronic lack of sleep. But when opportunities for sleep arise, the speed at which people fall asleep is impressive. It's as if there is a latent genetic narcolepsy that takes hold across society at the opportune times. There is no better example of this than on Tokyo's trains. Long work hours and insufferable commute times make trains a fertile ground for sleeping.

You may be thinking that I should leave these people alone. But sleeping on trains is not a victimless crime, mind you. Many sleepers are looking for places to rest their weary heads, and that usually means encroaching upon the space of the person sitting next to them. It's at those times when you have to develop a quick response elbow to keep people from resting their head on your shoulders - something that's happened many a time. A quick jab to the ribs, however, is only a temporary solution as most train sleepers will fall right back to their sleepy ways within moments.



As you can see from the guy above, others sleep on trains because they introduce immense levels of alcohol into their system and it causes them to lose their sense of Japaneseness. This guy uses his man purse as a pillow. He stretches out across four seats and even keeps his shoes on! I've never seen such a brazen display. I have seen, and come to expect, this from mass transit in the U.S. **cough** LA's Metro Gold Line **cough**, not Japan.

Other train sleepers are more advanced - they have mastered the art of sleeping while standing. They jam themselves into a corner of the train and sleep, or they use handlebars as make shift pillows. Some brave souls just stand like cows and let the crowded trains be their protection against the buffeting from the train. Still

The worst of all train sleepers are the fake train sleepers. These are people who fake being asleep so they don't have to give up their seat to the elderly, pregnant or disabled - usually in areas of the train designated for such people. You see them everyone once in a while peeking out to see if the coast is clear.

There a whole host of varieties of sleepers, including the massive snorers. For a non train sleeper like me, this brings nonstop amusement.