Big in Japan

Leaving home

2008-08-01T08:00:00.002+09:00

I have, of course, left Japan many times, mostly on business trips (46 times to be exact). There were four times, however, when I left with no idea when I would return. Each of those times was for me a mixture of feeling privileged at the opportunity to live in this great country, of sadness at leaving behind wonderful friends and amazing places, and a yearning for another chance to return (which, thankfully, each time came much sooner than expected).

Well, I know this time will be no different. Later today when I take the bus to the airport, I will see so many places that I've been to and had wonderful times at. While I wait in the airport lounge, I will already miss my friends here. As I get on the plane I will be feeling homesick for the city I have come to love. And as I fly over Japan, perhaps seeing Mt Fuji where I stood so recently, I will yearn for the day that I return.

5 Things Revisited

2008-08-01T07:12:00.000+09:00

As it is time for me to leave, I had a look back over this blog. I found that my entry on 5 things I like about Japan still covers the things I like best...

5. Shopping

4. The service

3. The low crime rate

2. Tradition

1. With festivals around the year, and sights both new and old, there's always something to do.

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXVIII

2008-07-31T07:22:00.001+09:00

Sunset

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXVII

2008-07-30T07:20:00.000+09:00

Roof

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXVI

2008-07-29T10:17:00.001+09:00

Green car, blue car

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXV

2008-07-28T21:42:00.002+09:00

Waiting

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXIV

2008-07-27T16:27:00.003+09:00

Bicycle and pedestrians

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXIII

2008-07-26T12:34:00.001+09:00

Reflections

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXII

2008-07-25T21:32:00.001+09:00

Waiting for lunch

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLXI

2008-07-24T21:35:00.003+09:00

Signs

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLX

2008-07-23T07:11:00.001+09:00

Fight

Mt Fuji Revisited

2008-07-22T07:20:00.003+09:00

Almost two years after I first climbed Mt Fuji, I went back to the top last weekend. Never mind what I said at the time about doing it twice, Matthew really wanted to try it. Things were almost the same, although I found it both harder and easier. The climb to the top seemed more difficult, but after we came back, I didn't feel nearly as tired or sore. I think it helps to know what you're getting into. Will I climb it a third time?

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLIX

2008-07-22T07:15:00.001+09:00

Four vans

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLVIII

2008-07-21T09:53:00.001+09:00

Glass escalator 2

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLVII

2008-07-20T10:15:00.002+09:00

Glass escalator 1

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLVI

2008-07-20T08:07:00.000+09:00

Pens

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLV

2008-07-19T08:05:00.000+09:00

Pastries

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLIV

2008-07-18T10:02:00.003+09:00

Balconies

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLIII

2008-07-17T07:37:00.001+09:00

Truck on truck

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLII

2008-07-16T07:19:00.001+09:00

Bicycles

Japan in Pictures, Part CCLI

2008-07-15T07:31:00.002+09:00

Glass walls

Japan in Pictures, Part CCL

2008-07-14T07:14:00.002+09:00

Slanted walls

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLIX

2008-07-13T21:59:00.001+09:00

Diamonds

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLVIII

2008-07-12T10:28:00.001+09:00

Blue rooms

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLVII

2008-07-11T06:58:00.002+09:00

Coach

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLVI

2008-07-10T20:34:00.001+09:00

Watching you

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLV

2008-07-09T07:06:00.001+09:00

Yellow boat

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLIV

2008-07-08T07:21:00.002+09:00

Flower pots

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLIII

2008-07-07T07:20:00.005+09:00

Curve

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLII

2008-07-06T22:44:00.001+09:00

Watching

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXLI

2008-07-05T22:46:00.003+09:00

Lager beer

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXL

2008-07-04T07:30:00.004+09:00

Apple

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXIX

2008-07-03T07:18:00.002+09:00

More progress

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXVIII

2008-07-02T19:56:00.002+09:00

The rat

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXVII

2008-07-01T07:21:00.003+09:00

Lunchtime parade

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXVI

2008-06-30T07:30:00.003+09:00

Looking back

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXV

2008-06-29T10:46:00.002+09:00

Red truck, blue truck

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXIV

2008-06-28T09:53:00.001+09:00

Red train crossing

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXIII

2008-06-27T07:26:00.003+09:00

Cube

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXII

2008-06-26T07:28:00.002+09:00

Side street

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXXI

2008-06-25T07:15:00.002+09:00

Reflected

Sometimes there actually are things living in your closet...

2008-06-24T07:41:00.002+09:00

Though how you fail to notice this for a year, I'm not clear:

A homeless woman who sneaked into a man’s house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXX

2008-06-24T07:30:00.003+09:00

Red Bentley and No Step Bus

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXIX

2008-06-23T07:26:00.003+09:00

Chopsticks

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXVIII

2008-06-22T09:39:00.001+09:00

The castle

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXVII

2008-06-21T22:52:00.001+09:00

Matching set

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXVI

2008-06-20T07:44:00.000+09:00

Anniversary monorail

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXV

2008-06-19T07:39:00.000+09:00

25th anniversary

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXIV

2008-06-18T07:37:00.000+09:00

Night lanterns

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXIII

2008-06-17T07:34:00.000+09:00

Black ball

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXII

2008-06-16T07:10:00.000+09:00

Power construction

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXXI

2008-06-15T23:29:00.000+09:00

Green phone

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXX

2008-06-14T20:56:00.002+09:00

3.8m

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXIX

2008-06-13T07:10:00.001+09:00

Entrance

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXVIII

2008-06-12T08:00:00.000+09:00

Crossing the road

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXVII

2008-06-11T08:00:00.000+09:00

Under the bridge

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXVI

2008-06-10T07:18:00.003+09:00

Brown triangle

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXV

2008-06-09T07:25:00.001+09:00

Distortion

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXIV

2008-06-08T23:51:00.000+09:00

Tokyo Drift

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXIII

2008-06-07T18:34:00.002+09:00

Reflections

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXII

2008-06-06T07:19:00.002+09:00

Tall building

Japan in Pictures, Part CCXI

2008-06-05T07:26:00.001+09:00

Red posts

Japan in Pictures, Part CCX

2008-06-04T07:59:00.001+09:00

Blue and green

How to mess up the dairy supply

2008-06-04T00:41:00.004+09:00

I have been scouring stores for the past few days in search of butter, all to no avail. Here, in Tokyo, with 30 million inhabitants, I can buy almost any kind of food from around the world, but not, it appears, butter. The reason? No surprise it has to do with the meddling of the government with the usual inept results:

When the country suffered an overproduction of milk in 2006, the government ordered about 1,000 tons of raw milk poured down the drain and dairy cows slaughtered to prop up prices and defend local milk farmers. Dairy prices were then managed to retain their advantage to imported milk and butter, whose prices were inflated by tariffs. (To protect domestic butter, the tax on imported butter went up twice last year. There is a nearly 30% tariff on butter imports.)

But now grain-feed prices have risen as a result of a drought in Australia as well as the accompanying use of corn for ethanol, which has reduced the amount available for feed for Japan's cows. The drought has also cut back on milk that would have been imported to supplement the Japanese market. Combined with competing demand for milk and milk products from emerging markets in China and Russia, the result is a collapse of the local butter production in Japan.

Going from a large surplus to a shortage in less than 2 years is quite an accomplishment. Government incompetence is the same the world over, but why people insist on voting for the same failed policies is beyond me.

Japan in Pictures, Part CCIX

2008-06-03T07:40:00.002+09:00

Isetan at night

Japan in Pictures, Part CCVIII

2008-06-02T07:17:00.001+09:00

Bridge with windows

Japan in Pictures, Part CCVII

2008-06-01T09:28:00.001+09:00

Tokyo Station

Japan in Pictures, Part CCVI

2008-05-31T16:11:00.001+09:00

Flower Week

Japan in Pictures, Part CCV

2008-05-30T07:39:00.003+09:00

Max 130 kg

Japan in Pictures, Part CCV

2008-05-29T07:15:00.003+09:00

Multi-level

Japan in Pictures, Part CCIV

2008-05-28T07:25:00.001+09:00

Windows

Food in Tokyo

2008-05-27T22:08:00.001+09:00

The Economist has a great article on eating in Tokyo:

The world has suddenly discovered that Tokyo is a gourmet’s paradise. Outside Tokyo, this was secret outside a tight-knit freemasonry of gluttons. But it burst into the open late last year, when Michelin chose Tokyo as the object of its first guide beyond the eating bastions of Europe and the United States.
All around the world, diners looked up from their plates in astonishment: restaurants in Tokyo had gathered more Michelin stars than Paris, London and New York put together. A number of the stars were won by restaurants serving French, Italian and indeed Spanish cuisine.

But most went to Japanese restaurants. And here, the range is striking. Certainly, many starred restaurants serve kaiseki, Japan’s multi-course equivalent of haute cuisine, myriad small dishes organised for taste, texture, look and colour. Others, though, specialise only in tempura, or teppanyaki, sushi, soba noodles and, yes, fugu, the pufferfish that is lethal if contaminated with the toxic internal organs.

For all that, to concentrate on Michelin misses a trick or three. The guide is criminally silent about Tokyo’s ubiquitous izakaya, for which “pub” serves as an inadequate translation but where some of Tokyo’s finest food and certainly greatest conviviality can be found. And it gives no hint of Tokyo’s extraordinary array of fast-food options—a glorious burst of taste and experience at best, a monstrous affront if it’s four o’clock in the morning, your lover has left you, and the convenience store shelves have run out of all but yakisoba dog (cold fried noodles in a hotdog bun).
For a fleeting visitor, the Tokyo food experience is a life-changing one. A resident is incomparably luckier. If not every day, then certainly every week promises a revelation. After all, some 147,000 eating establishments, large but mostly small, serve the capital’s discerning diners.

What could go wrong?

2008-05-27T22:05:00.001+09:00

I'm sure someone thought this was a great idea:

A passenger who landed at Tokyo's Narita airport over the weekend has ended up with a surprise souvenir courtesy of customs officials -- a package of cannabis.
A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong as part of an exercise for sniffer dogs on Sunday, Reuters.com reported.
However, staff then lost track of the drugs and suitcase during the exercise, a spokeswoman for Tokyo customs said.
Customs regulations specify that a training suitcase be used for such exercises, but the official had used passengers' suitcases for similar purposes in the past, domestic media reported.
Tokyo customs has asked anyone who finds the package to return it.

Japan in Pictures, Part CCIII

2008-05-27T07:18:00.002+09:00

Dumpling

Japan in Pictures, Part CCII

2008-05-26T07:14:00.001+09:00

Toys

Japan in Pictures, Part CCI

2008-05-25T09:08:00.001+09:00

Raft

Japan in Pictures, Part CC

2008-05-24T22:07:00.003+09:00

Eyes

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCIX

2008-05-23T22:49:00.002+09:00

Lanterns

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCVIII

2008-05-22T07:31:00.003+09:00

Bridge & boat

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCVII

2008-05-21T07:04:00.003+09:00

14:31

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCVI

2008-05-20T07:31:00.001+09:00

Policewomen

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCV

2008-05-19T06:50:00.002+09:00

13:07

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCIV

2008-05-18T07:42:00.002+09:00

House

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCIII

2008-05-17T22:15:00.001+09:00

12:38

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCII

2008-05-16T07:13:00.002+09:00

Destination

Japan in Pictures, Part CXCI

2008-05-15T07:00:00.003+09:00

Carrying on

Japan in Pictures, Part CXC

2008-05-14T07:06:00.003+09:00

Taking a nap

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXIX

2008-05-13T07:00:00.002+09:00

Portable shrine

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXVIII

2008-05-12T20:43:00.001+09:00

White and black

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXVII

2008-05-11T20:44:00.003+09:00

Red rider
(The first of several photos from a recent festival in our neighbourhood.)

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXVI

2008-05-10T09:23:00.002+09:00

Jars

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXV

2008-05-09T07:06:00.002+09:00

Split in the road

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXIV

2008-05-08T07:21:00.003+09:00

Buses on the overpass

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXIII

2008-05-07T07:20:00.003+09:00

Shinjuku highrises

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXII

2008-05-06T09:07:00.002+09:00

Glass

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXXI

2008-05-05T20:01:00.004+09:00

Carp streamers for Children's Day

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXX

2008-05-04T23:34:00.003+09:00

Black and white

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXIX

2008-05-03T11:14:00.003+09:00

Cubes

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXVIII

2008-05-02T07:03:00.003+09:00

Applicant city

Japan in Pictures, Part CLXXVII

2008-05-01T07:32:00.002+09:00

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