Silver linings

After living in Japan for a while it's a bit too easy to focus on the negatives here. To me it seems that's because many of them impact on day to day living. It's like forgetting to enjoy your health until you get sick. So in a bid to accentuate the positive, I'll resort to talking about something that almost every foreigner who leaves Japan will tell you they miss: the food.

The small company I work for has a list of regular lunch haunts, and we work through them every week or so in quasi-random fashion. Occasionally we try something new, but straying from the list is often an invitation for disappointment. Not disappointment western-style though, where a bad meal can really put a crimp in your day. Bad food here is like above-average food elsewhere. Mostly Japanese food is of excellent quality, which is one reason why Japanese usually stick to Japanese food when travelling.

For most people, sushi immediately comes to mind when talking about Japanese food. And it is common. Satoko is pictured above at a kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant near my apartment, unloading the sushi for our table (number 41). This place is pretty big, hence the intercoms used to order dishes. In a smaller, more traditional kaiten-zushi, the chefs would be in the middle of the loop, taking orders, making and handing the sushi directly to customers.

Sushi is served cold, though the rice may be still warm if the chef has just prepared it. Washed down with a bowl of crab or shellfish soup, it makes a surprisingly hearty winter lunch. Because there are many types, and you choose the sequence of dishes, sushi maintains a lasting variety that has me hooked.

Three little girls from school ...

I spotted these fembots the other weekend while out shopping for a wedding dress with Satoko. They certainly look about as far removed from an actual Japanese schoolgirl as is physically possible, save perhaps for their brown irises. Presumably this is a sales pitch directed at the parents, and thus reflects what they wish their children to look like. Hands up those who want western featured cartoon characters for kids! Self-image training probably begins earlier than this in Japan anyway.

The first dose of reality we can inject into the picture is to make those eyes Japanese. After all, almond eyes really are almond shaped, and lovelier the closer you get. I'm talking about eyes here; not schoolgirls, ok? ;-) The next dose of reality depends on the nature of the schoolgirl, but generally follows two styles: (a) the hair is long and black, as nature intended, with perhaps a hair-tie or two. In time, these girls might grow up to be onei-kei "older sister types" - sensible young women, like Satoko. In case (b) the hair is dyed anywhere from brown to blond, and the skin is dyed and tanned. After leaving school they might retain this ko-gyaru "school-girl" look, or progress to the extreme yamamba "mountain hag" stage, where lack of pre-teen youth is concealed with a combination of tanning, make-up, and Playboy brand pyjamas. The BBC has a brief but interesting pictorial round-up of some of these Tokyo fashion tribes.

Since it's winter, and I've just popped outside to reaffirm that sleet hitting the eyeballs is indeed unpleasant, I might as well add a seasonal note. The colder it gets, the shorter the skirts. This applies to both schoolgirls and other young women, because nama-ashi ("bare/young legs") differentiate the young from the not so young. I suppose it might be hard to tell the mice from the shrews otherwise, since most Asians are so blessed with youthful complexions. Still, it's a wonder they don't die from exposure in this cold. Some wear leg-warmer like looz-soksu ("loose socks") to protect themselves, but that's another story ...

Bittersweet

Happy new year, everyone - wherever you are. This year brought me and Satoko (pictured center) both joy and sadness. The tsunami disaster in Asia seemed to sour xmas a little, but we were busy preparing to visit her parents in Ibaraki prefecture, an hour or so north of Tokyo. All went well: her father got me to date the letter I'd written to him and his wife (correcting my oversight of "make [Satoko] happy in the future" to "... forever") and then he shook my hand. Easier than buying a horse.

On our return to Tokyo, things got a little more grim. Chris (pictured right) had been on a boat with his girlfriend leaving Kho Phi Phi about 9:30am local time. Luckily the boat made it over the 4 meter wave they encountered, and after laughing nervously they continued making their way back to Tokyo, where they discovered the enormity of what they had so narrowly avoided.

Sadly, Shione-chan (pictured left) was due to catch the 9:30 boat from Kho Phi Phi, and was checking out of her beachfront hotel when the first wave hit. Her Indian boyfriend survived the ensuing chaos, and spent 2 days looking for her before being evacuated because of his injuries. I know this is just one of 150,000 sad stories, but this really brought it home for me. These things often seem to happen to those who least deserve it, and I'll always remember this lovely girl, and her cute Irish accent when she spoke English.

So enjoy your new year of life, and don't forget to donate to your charity of choice.