備前焼



I am paying one of my all too few visits to Australia this Christmas to visit my parents. Having had a few heated moments with mom on the phone in the past couple of months (over the topic of gay marriage!), I had it in my mind to bring some kind of peace offering, but left it for later.

Then two days later, all of a sudden, while doing web research for an article on ceramics, I found myself on the website of bizenyaki-so.com ("Bizenyaki Warehouse") and my eye was immediately captured by a Bizenyaki vase of breathtaking elegance and the classic rich autumnal colors of bizenyaki ware.

Bizen is the former name of Japan's Okayama prefecture, and bizenyaki (yaki meaning "firing") comes from the village of Imbe in Okayama. The clay there is high in iron content making it unreceptive to glazing, and giving it the rusty colors visible here.

This particular vase is from the Konishi Touko （小西陶古) kiln, the second piece I have bought from this kiln. It is 24cm high, and came meticulously and very securely packed in a custom-made wooden box, the lid firmly tied down with an ingenious knot that I am unable to retie the same way.

Like almost any product of traditional techniques in Japan, bizenyaki is not particularly cheap, this item having set me back 31,000 yen. However, there are some things that the eye demands that the hand reach for, and situations where elegant gifts miraculously eliminate friction.

Few companies selling high quality traditional products in Japan are willing to deal directly with overseas customers, mainly because of the language barrier. GoodsFromJapan offers a reasonably priced goods purchase proxy service for those living outside Japan who wish to make purchases in Japan. GoodsFromJapan has years of experience and hundreds of satisfied customers. Don't hesitate to use its services if, like me, you see something Japanese that just has to be had.

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羅臼

The small village of Rausu on the south eastern side of the Shiretoko Peninsula has a population of just over 6,000 people and is much quieter than Utoro on the opposite side of the peninsula. Rausu's Konbumachi is famous for konbu, a thick kind of seaweed used in Japanese cooking.


There are a few onsen hotels and a number of smaller minshuku (traditional inns) in Rausu, which also has a campsite.

There are whale watching tours in season departing from the town's fishing port and it's possible to hike to Rausu-dake - a challenging climb.

Tour boats leave from Utoro port to sail up and down the Shiretoko Peninsula.


It is 30km to Utoro on the other coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula through the Shiretoko Pass on the Shiretoko Odan Road when it is open for traffic in the summer months. There are buses all year to Kushiro (3 hours, 30 minutes). Rausu is around 70 km northeast from Nakashibetsu Airport, which has flights to Haneda and Chitose.

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ウトロ (宇登呂)

Utoro is the main tourist town and fishing port giving access to Shiretoko National Park on the western coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula.



The town offers some good restaurants right next to the harbor, known for their very fresh seafood including salmon roe, Hokkaido crabs and local sea urchins. There are plenty of traditional minshuku and ryokan in town, many of them with onsen.

The Oronkoiwa Rock behind the harbor gives a good view of the town (see above) and can easily be climbed. There is also a ski slope further in the mountains behind Utoro.

Tour boats leave from Utoro port to sail up and down the Shiretoko Peninsula.



Utoro is connected by bus with JR Shiretoko Shari Station (50 minutes) along National Highway 334 and Memanbetsu Airport (2 hours, 20 minutes). It is 30km to Rausu on the east coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula through the Shiretoko Pass on the Shiretoko Odan Road when it is open for traffic in the summer months.

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小田急百貨店　新宿


The Odakyu Department Store in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward is the most imposing sight on the western side of Shinjuku Station, with its 14 stories and sporting a soaring tower-like feature in attractive adobe-colored gradations. It is part of the Odakyu group which runs the railway that goes as far west as the north of the Izu peninsula, and whose Shinjuku station is inside the same complex. The group also operates Odakyu Department Stores in Tokyo's Tamachi and Fujisawa.

Odakyu Shinjuku has 14 floors above ground and two below, all but five of them stocking merchandise. Most of the department store is for women, but there are international boutiques on the first (ground) floor, restaurants on the 12th, 13th, and 14th floors, a men’s department on the 7th floor, a department for “babies, kids and teens” (the “teens” bit being largely wishful thinking!) on the 9th floor, books, stationery and fine art on the 10th floor, and – best till last – food galore on the B2 floor.

The shopping is, as the above suggests, matronly, but matronly is fine when it comes to food. The food floor of the Odakyu Department Store is no match for that of the Isetan Department Store on the east side of Shinjuku Station for elegance and spaciousness, but Odakyu is worth it as an example of milling, old-fashioned market-style cacophony.

The B1 floor is the Shinjuku station underpass, but is also a hive of commercial activity with small shops here and there, and retailers and craftsmen often selling their wares in hired spaces.

Odakyu Department Store was established in 1962 on the site of what is now its annex, HALC. HALC is dominated by the electronic and home appliance megastore, Bic Camera. B2, B1, 1F and 2F of the Odakyu Department Store have walkways to the HALC annex.

There can often be seen a mendicant monk begging for alms at one of the entrances of Odakyu. There is sometimes a Japanese right-wing truck parked out front haranguing shoppers.

The space in front of Odakyu is a large open bus station. Right across from the entrance to Odakyu you can see the shiny, tapered space-age Shinjuku Mode Gakuen tower.

Odakyu Department Store is open from 10am to 8.30pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 8pm on Sundays and public holidays.

The 13th and 14th restaurant floors are open from 11am to 10.30pm, and the 12th restaurant floor from 11am to 10pm.

The store is closed on January 1.

1-1-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-8001. Tel. 03-3342-1111
Google Map

Read the full guide to Shinjuku shopping.

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東京都水道歴史館


The Tokyo Waterworks Historical Museum is a small, easily accessible, modern museum in Tokyo’s Bunkyo ward that presents the history of a public potable water supply in the capital.

The origins of Tokyo’s water supply go back to the year 1590 when the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, having consolidated his authority over the nation at his stronghold in the township of Edo (now Tokyo), decreed the construction of a drinkable water supply as one of the first steps in building what became a city.

The Tokyo Waterworks Historical Museum colorfully traces this history on two spacious floors of exhibits.


Read more about the Tokyo Waterworks Historical Museum



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国勢調査

The 2010 Japan Census forms will have been arriving in your post box over the last week and need to be completed and returned by October 7, 2010.


The Japanese language-only form is fairly straight forward and involves a multiple-choice form, rather like a Japanese university entrance examination. For information in English please visit the official census site. If you would like a survey in a language other than Japanese, either ask the visiting official (I did and was told she only had them in Japanese) or visit the your local ward office's Statistics & Election office in the General Administrative Section (総務課 souma-ka).

Japan conducts a national census every five years.


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今週の日本

Japanese Playing a New Video Game: Catch-Up

New York Times

Japan Retreats With Release of Chinese Boat Captain

New York Times

China-Japan relations sour as fishing boat dispute escalates

Guardian

Relations between China and Japan worsen over filming of military targets

Washington Post

被扣中国船长搭乘包机返回国内

Caijing

Ohata may take rare earths halt to WTO

Japan Times

China demands Japan apology as boat captain returns

BBC

Paris Hilton denied entry to Japan over drug record

BBC

La Chine suspend les contacts de haut niveau avec le Japon

Le Monde

Ichiro reaches 200 hits for 10th straight year

Yahoo Sports

The Failure of Imagination: From Pearl Harbor to 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq

Japan Focus

Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

Percent of prefectural land mass used by US military facilities:

1. Okinawa 10.41%
2. Fukuoka 1.15%

National Average: 0.27%

Source: Asahi Shinbun

Unemployment by prefecture:

1. Okinawa 7.5%
2. Aomori 6.8%
3. Osaka 6.6%

Japan: 5.1%

Source: Asahi Shinbun

The estimated number of elderly in Japan aged 80 or older now is more than 8 million. This is the first time in Japanese history.

The total number of elderly - 65 and older - is 29.44 million

Source: Kyodo News

There were 71 days with temperatures over 30 degrees Centigrade in Tokyo this year, a record since readings began in 1876.

Source: Kyodo News

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たばこ

Non-smokers will be pleased to hear that prices of cigarettes are to rise from October 1st this month due to an increase in tax.



The average packet of twenty smokes, which now costs 300 yen will rise to between 400 and 440 yen, which is still much cheaper than the cost of tobacco products in other developed countries.

For long a smoker's paradise, smoking rates are coming down in Japan hit by the introduction of the TASPO identification card for cigarette vending machines and a previous price hike. The percentage of smokers is predicted to fall again after this latest price increase.

There is no plan in the pipe-line for a European-style blanket ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in Japan, a step which would be deeply unpopular with Japan's army of male salaried workers and the owners of hostess bars and snacks, but widely welcomed by everyone else.

Convenience stores and supermarkets are pushing sales cartons of 200 cigarettes at their check out counters in an attempt to clear old stock.

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冷やし中華

Hiyashi Chuka, Chinese-style Japanese cold noodles, is a summer staple designed to beat the heat.



The dish, basically a ramen noodle salad, is made with lots of toppings including sliced cucumber, smoked salmon, sliced omelette (tamagoyaki), chicken, tomatoes and beni shoga (pickled red ginger).

Vegetarians and demi-vegetarians can replaced the meat, eggs and fish with vegetarian alternatives including yuba or dried bean curd, bean sprouts and grated carrots. Add mayonnaise for the kids.



After boiling the noodles, drain and add the toppings and the tare sauce usually a soy and sesame mix that can be bought in supermarkets or made at home.

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• Date: Sunday October 3rd, 2010
• Time: 18:30 - 22:00 3.5 hours!!!
• Drinks will be served between 6:30pm-9:00pm.
• Place: WINC AICHI Building 5F　〒450-0002
  4　Cho-me　4-38 Meieki Nakamura-ku Nagoya (very close to Nagoya Station)
• Fee: First 30 foreigners ￥2,000 ￥2,500 RESERVED ￥3,000 AT THE DOOR
  
• Dress code: Anything (Casual, etc)
• Reservations: Not necessary but recommended and appreciated. Just show up to the party!

There will be free food along with free drinks (beers, wine, cocktail drinks and juices).
Our party is not a dinner party, but we will have light food & snacks.
Quantities are limited, so please come early! Please free to come alone or bring your friends.
EVERYBODY is welcome to join regardless of nationality/gender. Reservation is greatly appreciated.
About 125-150+ people are expected to attend. Approximately 55% female and 45% male, 70% Japanese and 30% non-Japanese.
Pictures from previous Nagoya Friends Parties.

Get off at Nagoya Station [Exit #5 or #6]

WINC AICHI

〒450-0002
4　Cho-me　4-38 Meieki Nakamura-ku Nagoya (very close to Nagoya Station)

Train Directions

From Nagoya Station 2 minutes by foot

Nagoya Station

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柏屋旅館

Kashiwaya Ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn located at the entrance of Shima Onsen, about 150 km north of Tokyo in Gunma Prefecture.


Kashiwaya Ryokan has three types of outdoor baths (rotemburo) as well as one indoor bath, and a private bath for chartered use.

Kashiwaya Ryokan is a 3 hour journey by train or bus from Tokyo.


Access

Take a Niigata or Nagano bound shinkansen to Takasaki (50 minutes) or take the JR Takasaki line (90 minutes). At Takasaki change to the JR Agatsuma Line for Nakanojo (50 minutes).
There are 3 direct Kusastu Express trains from Ueno Station to Nakanojo Station.
From Nakanojo Station take a bus for Shima Spa and get off at Seiryu-No-Yu bus-stop.

There are also direct Highway buses from Tokyo Station to Shima Onsen.

9:00AM - 12:30PM
10:30AM - 14:15PM (winter only)

From Shima Onsen to Tokyo
Depart - Arrive
10:45 - 14:45 (winter)
13:45 - 17:30

Kashiwaya Ryokan
3829 Shima Nakanjo-town
Agatuma-gun Gunma
377-0601
Tel: 0279 64 2255

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ブラジル祭り２０１０



Japan has a very large Brazilian community, mainly second generation returnees of the Japanese immigrants who went to Brazil in the early 20th century after Japan had impoverished itself in winning the Russo-Japanese War. The boom years of the 1980s brought their children and grandchildren back to Japan, but to a culture completely different to the one they were raised in.

Nevertheless, despite the cultural divide between Japanese born here and Brazilian Japanese, the latter are permitted to stay here and are able to get permanent residency much more easily than foreigners without Japanese ancestry.

Tokyo is of course home to a large percentage of the Brazilians in Japan, and Yoyogi Park sees the Brazil Festival every year, which is no holds barred celebration of Brazilian high spirits. The rhythms are infectious, and some of the dancing is like you've never seen before.

The festival took place on the ninth of this month. It has taken 10 days or so to get in gear and produce the video. Here it is. Click, and you have no choice but to ... enjoy!

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Dear Friends of Haiku,

We have a book, One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each, with much of any profit we eventually make going to charity - the charitable act of cleaning up Japan's Hill of Poetry! Our NPO needs funds for this.



The 100 contemporary poems comprise 68 haiku and 32 tanka, of which 40 were originally composed in English and 60 in Japanese. All are translated into the other language, with bilingual notes furnished about the literary history, natural history, and environmental issues to which they may allude.

Mount Ogura is situated in the Sagano area of rural Kyoto, and was where Priest Saigyo built his first hermitage, where Fujiwara Teika compiled his Hyakunin Isshu (100 classical poems collection that became the karuta card game), and where Basho wrote his Saga Nikki.

For the past six or seven years, a few of us have been taking groups of haiku poets, local people, students, resident foreigners, etc. up the mountain to clear the tons of rubbish illegally tipped there, and to help with conservation of pine and bamboo forest.

It is a gem of a hill - with views on all sides, some into a gorge - but it needs love. It took 6 years before the editors felt they had enough good poems from which to select. We are there now - the book has been launched - and I (as one of the editors) am wondering to whom to send a review copy.

The 136-page book is unique in its mix of both Japanese and English, haiku and tanka, and in its local literary/environmental thrust. We would like the poems to get a good airing and the haiku/tanka community to enjoy them - some by respected poets (a few well-known), others by locals who until the day they went to Mt. Ogura had probably never written a poem in their lives.

If you, or your journal/site editor would like a copy, ostensibly for review, please shout! If you would like to order one personally, that would be appreciated, of course, and to that end the prices are given below. We will have to see how the stock goes with our free allocation. The full-color covers by Yoshio Kawagoe (two scissor-cut works of Saga and of some rubbish cleared!) are viewable on our Icebox site at quite near the top (or on the Publications page accessed at top right).


Stephen (Tito)

Following the monk
with a key as long as a wand ...
autumn leaves


Prices for anyone wishing to order copies
Ordering from abroad: US$ cash double-wrapped inside your order and another blank sheet in an envelope to Hisashi Miyazaki, 54-16 Hamuro-cho, Takatsuki-shi, Osaka-fu 569-1147, Japan. Prices incl. p & p and have been specially discounted for foreign orders. Pounds sterling also accepted. Please do your own conversion. Hisashi is very efficient and will send you the book(s) by return. hmyzk1307@iris.eonet.ne.jp

1 copy $ 15, 2 copies $ 32, 3 copies $ 49, 4 copies $ 64, 6 copies $ 90, 8 copies $ 116, 10 copies $ 140.

If ordering within Japan, use genkin-kakitome 現金書留 available at your local post office (this cash-secure envelope costs about ￥500). Put your order letter and the exact cash necessary for your book order in the envelope and address it to Mari Kawaguchi, 6-62C-907, Senriyama-nishi, Suita-shi, Osaka-fu〒565-0851 大阪府吹田市千里山西6-62C-907河口万理様　mjk-marik@aria.ocn.ne.jp　tel. 06-6821-6074. Prices incl. p & p. Mari is also a longterm member of the Hailstone Haiku Circle. Please trust her.
1 copy ￥1,690, 2 copies ￥2,840, 3 copies ￥4,140, 4 copies ￥4,950, 6 copies ￥7,050, 8 copies ￥9,190, 10 copies ￥10,690.

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名古屋農業センター

Nagoya Agricultural Center is a large city-operated public gardens in the east of the city.

The gardens are especially known for their plum blossoms in March.

It's free to get in, there's a cafe/restaurant, a shop selling often organic vegetables as well as plants and health foods, glass houses, a bamboo forest, streams and even a model farm with battery chickens, pigs, sheep, goats and cows.



The nearest station is Hirabari on the Tsurumai Line - head east from the station on the road to Toyota. The Nagoya Agricultural Center is about 15 minutes on foot on your right.



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今週の日本

Strong Yen Fuels Rise in Japanese Takeovers

New York Times

Did Japan apologize to US POWs in exchange for Hiroshima visit?

Christian Science Monitor

Japan's new foreign minister gets tough on China

Washington Post

前国土交通大臣前原诚司将担任日本外相

Caijing

Prime minister makes bold move in shutting out Ozawa's influence

Japan Times

Q&A: China-Japan islands row

BBC

Tokyo-Séoul : une occasion manquée ?

Le Monde

Kamikawa defeats Riner at judo worlds

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India-Japan Ties Poised for Advance as Both Nations Eye China

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Last week's Japan news

Japan Statistics

54,386 people were taken to Japanese hospitals by ambulance this summer due to heatstroke. 170 have been confirmed dead.

Source: Kyodo News

The number of Japanese centenarians is expected to reach 44,449 people this year. That eclipses the current record, set last year, by 4,050.

Source: Kyodo News

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のれん

Japanese noren curtains are a feature outside many restaurants, bath houses (sento) and traditional stores. Usually rectangular in shape, noren have several slits in the fabric to allow easy passage, ventilation and allow a degree of privacy while at the same time allowing a peek inside.


Noren often advertise the wares or function of the business from which they are hung and are a sign that the place is open for trade. Noren are taken down at closing time, signifying the place is closed.

Classic noren can be seen outside Japanese bath houses often with the character for hot water 湯 or the corresponding hiragana ゆ.


Noren are also used as room dividers in individual homes. Kyoto is known for its high quality indigo-dyed curtains in traditional and modern designs.


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ナイーブレディー


Naive Ladies wipe, experienced ladies spray. Is that it?　At only 26.5 yen per roll, though, there's nothing naive about finding a good toilet paper bargain.


Japan is a toilet aficionado's heaven. Read more about hi-tech Japanese toilets.

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代々木公園



Yoyogi Park in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward is one of Tokyo’s biggest, and is only a few minutes walk away from the youth fashion area of Harajuku. Next to Yoyogi Park is the Meiji Jingu Shrine, Japan’s most famous Shinto shrine.



Yoyogi Park is the site of Japan’s first powered flight, in 1910. It was the site of the athletes’ village for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, as well as the venue of a few of the events, and it became a public park only in 1967.

Yoyogi Park's main attractions are its free entry and sprawling size - making it great for kids to run around in – and, on Sundays, the kaleidoscope of human activity that takes place here: with everything going on from trance parties to '50s street jivers.



I was in Yoyogi Park on Saturday, and took a few snaps of people, flora, and fauna, proving that although it may not be as meticulously landscaped as some other of Tokyo's parks, armed with a keen eye and curiosity, a very stimulating afternoon can be had here.

Read more about Yoyogi Park.



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• Date: Saturday Sept 18th, 2010
• Time: 18:00 - 21:00 (Now 3 hours long!!!)
• Drinks will be served between 6:30pm-8:50pm.
• Place: The Red Rock (2F Aster Plaza Building, 4-14-6 Sakae, Nagoya (very close to Sakae Station)
• Fee: 3000 Yen
• Dress code: Anything (Casual, etc)
• Reservations: Not necessary but recommended and appreciated. Just show up to the party!
• Over 25,000 Yen worth of exciting prize giveaways each month!

There will be free food along with free drinks (beers, wine, cocktail drinks and juices).
Our party is not a dinner party, but we will have light food & snacks.
Quantities are limited, so please come early! Please free to come alone or bring your friends.
EVERYBODY is welcome to join regardless of nationality/gender. Reservation is greatly appreciated.
About 125-150+ people are expected to attend. Approximately 55% female and 45% male, 70% Japanese and 30% non-Japanese.
Pictures from previous Nagoya Friends Parties.

Get off at Sakae Station [Exit #13]

The Red Rock (2F Aster Plaza Building,
4-14-6 Sakae, Nagoya (very close to Sakae Station)

Train Directions

From Nagoya Stn. take the Higashiyama Subway line to Sakae Station (GET OFF at Sakae Station!!) Take exit #13 and then walk straight AWAY from Hirokoji-Dori for about 3/4 of a block. TURN LEFT Red Rock is on the right side of the street in the middle of the block. Look for the sign on the sidewalk.

Sakae Station

Higashiyama Line

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納豆

One standard question that many foreigners in Japan are asked is: "Can you eat natto?"


The strong smell and slimy constituency of natto - fermented soybeans - means that even many Japanese are put off this much-maligned, healthy, gooey and 100% vegetarian delicacy.

Natto is usually served with a touch of karashi mustard and a drizzle of soy sauce and eaten as an accompaniment to rice whether at breakfast or dinner. A little bit of sake poured on the natto as a condiment can also add to the flavor, I've found.



Mass produced natto sold in supermarkets usually comes in a 50g polystyrene pack with little sachets of mustard and soy sauce.

The health benefits of eating natto are many and legendary and include lowering cholesterol, preventing cancer and strokes to helping fight obesity.



So in answer to the question, "Can you eat natto?"

Yes, I'm lovin' it.

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