The American Pastime, in a Japanese Style

The Idle Monkey Trainer, after several years of living in Japan, finally made it out to "the old ball game". Like anything borrowed from another culture, adjustments to local norms is likely. In the IT industry, this is referred to as "localization". And baseball is no exception. The Japanese have localized it.

I had read and heard about the differences from others. But, for a while I have wanted to experience it first hand. So, last weekend I made my way to Yokohama Stadium to see the Yokohama Baystars take on the Tokyo Giants. (I see no point in going to a dome for a baseball game; the point of baseball to me has always been to sit in the sun and drink beer.)

The differences were apparent before the game even started. The first difference was presented to us when we reserved the tickets. A friend of the Idle Monkey Trainer made the reservations for tickets through a friend's husband who works for the organization. He apologized for the current bottom-of-the-league ranking of the Baystars. We were also asked which team we supported so that are seats would be in the right place. Fans are divided to keep tempers in check and the fists from flying. About half the stadium was full of Giants fans. Arriving just after 2:00 for a 2:30 first pitch, our party was greeted by the classic strains of "Take me out to the ball game". The song is not repeated in the 7th inning stretch. There were also more cheerleaders and costumed characters -- the black pig at the left is the mascot of the Tokyo Broadcasting System, owner of the Yokohama Baystars -- running around the field than I have ever seen at a U.S. game. The fans keep up an almost constant cheering and singing, in turn with their teams' respective at-bats. There are also specific songs/cheers that rise up after each run is scored. The Baystar's song ends in three cheers of "Bonzai"!



The game itself does not show much difference, in terms of rules or play anyway. The only obvious difference being that when a pitcher hits a batter, the pitcher will tip his hat in apology. I am more accustomed to the U.S. style of staring the guy down. Interestingly enough, on this afternoon, both pitchers were from the U.S.. Williams, starting for the Giants and lasting 2 2/3 innings, only tipped his hat to the first of the two batters he hit.

In the end, the Baystars won 4 - 1 over the Giants (who are, by the way, the NY Yankees of Japan - with every negative -- and perhaps positive -- connotation that conveys).

Taiko Sushi

The idle monkey trainer was fortunate enough to be introduced to Taiko, a sushi shop of some renown in the Asakusabashi area of Tokyo. The fish was very good - fresh and tasty - and very reasonably priced, as are the drinks.

1500 yen, built for two

Taiko is also famous for its nightly round of じゃんけん (janken) or game of rock-paper-scissors. Each night at about 8 o'clock, give or take the whims of the owner, a game of rock-paper-scissors is played to give away several prizes. On the night I was there the prizes included a package of ramen soup mix (a house specialty, and extremely good - and cheap), a store t-shirt, a basket of fruit, which included watermelon, cantaloup, plum, peach and grapes, 200 grams of sashimi-grade tuna and two Sendai steaks, to be taken home by the winner. All prizes are give out during the game, and if the owner wins, the round is replayed.

Free Bird

Japan is a very low crime country. Even minor crimes do not appear to be much of a problem here, but there are obviously some areas in which certain precautions must be taken.

Star search

From Reuters:

Besides Tanabata celebrations, more than 70,000 Japanese shops, offices and tourist attractions such as Tokyo Tower will take part in a "lights off" campaign to save energy on Monday evening.

 "The G8 summit will take place on Tanabata, so we are working towards turning off the lights, and gazing at the milky way while re-affirming the importance of the environment," said Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in a speech last month. 


Having lived in Tokyo for several years, I cannot help but think that the effort will not result in a view of the Milky Way. There is so much light pollution here, that only on the clearest nights and after the
lights at the nearby temple have been turned off, have I seen more than two stars at any one time. And one of those could have been a planet. The G8 leaders, at their relatively remote retreat, may indeed be able to see stars in the night sky.

Tanabata is based on a Chinese legend, in which Kengyuu (the star Alter) meets Orihime (the star Vega) only once a year on this day over the Milky Way. People celebrate this day by putting up big branches of bamboo with colourful decorations at home. People also make a wish and hang a strip of paper with their wish written on it. (from nihongomemo.com)

Global Tito Update

Once again there has been a sporadic update to Global Tito. This year the idle monkey trainer was lucky enough to take the day off from idleness and spend some time carrying a three-ton shrine around the neighborhood. You can read more about it and see the shrine here.

The following week, I was also dragged from idleness to again carry a shrine, though smaller and for less time, at the Torigoe Matsuri. This particular festival is held in the evening, with candles illuminating the mikoshi as they are carried to the small shrine.

The orange lights are the shrines.

Stopping to receive the blessing of the temple priests under the crescent moon.

A foreign monkey trainer burdened with mikoshi.

Surrounding the main event, of course, are the attendant booths, selling food, booze and those with games. Games like "scoop the goldfish/turtle/other aquatic creature". Well, that is not the official name, but that better conveys the gist of it.

Scoop them up and take them home, as many as you can before your paper scooper disintegrates.

The catch of the idle monkey trainer, who, by the way, practices catch and release. After all, what is an idle monkey trainer going to do with six small green turtles and that other thing?

Different festivals have different attendant events, of course, and among the more rare is the lion dance. This apparently used to be much more common, but has lost some of its popularity and there are fewer dancers able to perform nowadays. But, if you are lucky enough to get a "bite" from the lion, it brings good luck.

Yoshida Brothers

One advantage of being an idle monkey trainer, as opposed to one regularly and gainfully employed*, is the abundance of free time which allows me to attend concerts oddly scheduled on a Friday afternoon.

Yoshida Brothers (吉田兄弟） put on just such a show on May 2, 2008 at the new ACT Theater in Tokyo's swanky Akasaka district. The small theater was opened in April along with an office tower and shopping and restaurant area. This being Japan, of course every shop and restaurant opened on precisely the same day and at precisely the same time.

Given the time the concert started - 2:00 p.m. on a normal Friday - it was perhaps not surprising that the audience would be older. By my own rough estimate (monkey trainers, by the way, are remarkably accurate at gaging percentages in large crowds and can easily recognize numbers up to five) approximately 80 per cent of the audience was above the age of 60. It was also predominately female. I counted five Westerners.

Of course, another explanation of the audience's demographics could be the relative lack of interest in the shamisen, the traditional three-stringed Japanese instrument the Yoshida Brothers play. Traditional, however, is not how one would describe their music.

Some of their songs are played only by the two brothers, seated at center stage, with their shamisen hooked into amplifiers. On other songs they were backed up by taiko drums and a traditional flute. On yet others they were backed by a full drum kit, bass guitar, violin, electric guitar and keyboards.

Over 90 minutes, they played approximately nine songs, including a two-song encore of what are arguably their two most well-known songs: Rising and Kodo. (See below.) There was also a ten-minute movie that provided a bit of humor and a chance for them to go from jeans and t-shirts to more traditional kimono (as seen in the video).

For those unfamiliar with the Yoshida Brothers:

Rising


Kodo (This song was also used in the brilliant Nintendo Wii commercials in the US.)

Global Tito Update

Global Tito has two new pages from the trip to Seoul, South Korea mentioned below. Check out more images of Seoul, as well as the start of the new Urban Wildlife series.

Seoul Tournament

The TSHA played a ball hockey tournament in Seoul, South Korea on Sunday, April 14, 2008. Only five members of the TSHA made the trip, picking up some assistance from a variety of goalies and some new-to-Seoul players generously loaned to us by the organizers.

The NHL-sized rink at Seoul's 1988 Olympic Stadium.

The TSHA accomplished our first international tournament win, ending the day with one win and three losses, and missing the second round by one point. Although disappointed to some extent at not advancing, it did mean we were able to retire earlier to good food, rice wine and foot massages.

Core TSHA members and "astronaut".

On the road

The idle monkey trainer is on the road, bound for Seoul for kimchi, soju and a ball hockey tournament. Huzzah!

Spring in Tokyo

Officially the sakura blossoms have come out six days earlier than last year. Global warming? I have no idea. But, it looks good this week.


Both photographs were taken March 23, 2008 in Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan.

Reference Materials

A book of English phrases was recently brought to my attention. There is no shortage of these books in Japan. And many of them are geared as quick references for surprisingly specific uses.

The particular book I was shown was designed to assist with English phrases in short notes, post cards, etc. Many of the phrases were standard, some more eccentric. The same was true of the situations in which the phrases were set out.

There were the standard phrases for Thank You notes, birthday cards, congratulatory cards for all manner of accomplishment. There were some phrases outlined for praising the contributions to one's own success.

The phrases that really caught my attention, however, came at the end of the book. Under the heading "Adultery". The example phrases were all written as coming from women to a lover, and included such useful lines as:

"My husband means nothing to me."
"My body hungers for yours."

Although there is widespread infidelity here, I had not realized it had reached a point where it was necessary to have such useful phrases at the ready in English.

Hello Kitty Causes Cancer

Indirectly anyway.

Happy New Year!

There are a number of traditions for ringing out the old year and ringing in the new. Among the most physically taxing (for ordinary people, university students have a mountainous marathon relay on the first) is making sticky rice cakes called mochi.

Step one (following the cooking of the rice, that is), mash the mochi rice.
Step two, pound the rice like your hammering rocks on a prison chain gain.

Happy Holidays!

Praying to the gods

These images were taken in October, so in some respects they are late going up. The first is taken of one of the most photographed and famous scenes in Osaka (at least at night and of those scenes shown to most people and in mixed company).
Remember in viewing it that Japan likes to tout its efforts at energy conservation and the battle against global warming.

The kirin is a phoenix-like creature in Japanese mythology. It is also the symbol of Kirin Beverage Company, makers of Kirin Lager. The photograph below was taken at their headquarters building next to the Ebisu Bridge (above). Someone had paid homage to this god.

Global Tito Update

I have finally gotten around to updating Global Tito with a few highlights from the Tokyo Motor Show.

Shaping up

Wacoal, long known as the top lingerie maker in Japan, has recently introduced underwear designed to slightly tighten the wearer's body to give a more fit appearance. Japanese women have long been fans of such clothing, and even embraced padded pants -- much like they have padded bras -- to give themselves more curves.

Wacoal's new line, however, is aimed at the middle-aged, cubicle dwelling man. According to the Nikkei Weekly even younger cubicle rats are joining the trend. One man in his fifties was quoted as saying, "As I grew fatter, I became more aware of my body shape." So, he did what any man would do -- he purchased form-flattering underwear.

The market has grown for such products with the awareness of "metabolic syndrome", an accumulation of fat around vital body organs (which an American friend refers to more directly as "getting fat"), which has lead to an increase in attention to body shape. This of course leads to problems such as diabetes and other lifestyle related illnesses. The natural response, therefore, is to cover the problem. According to the Nikkei, "form-fitting underwear is likely to be [a] potential growth segment, as the popularity of such underwear is driven not just by a rising interest in health, but also by a strong demand for slender suits."

It seems reasonable, after all, that gym membership takes much more time to work.

Finally!

For those who have been waiting, and doubtless there are many, OWND is finally open. What is OWND, you may be asking. OWND is Oxygen, Water, Nutrition and Dogs, which is of course a place to stick your small- or medium-sized dog into an oxygen chamber for a few minutes. They also have human-sized ones you can enjoy while waiting for Fido to rejuvenate. And, it is only JPY2000 ($17.53) for 30 minutes. And there is no need to fear your dog will be crushed by the pressure normally pumped in for humans, because the flow of oxygen has been brought down by 0.1 point from the people setting. The best part, is that these things look like little clear plastic torpedo tubes.

Source: Nikkei Weekly, October 22, 2007

Catering to the geeks

The Akihabara district of Tokyo has long been a geek stronghold. The main strip is lined with electronics stores of various description. There are numerous shops catering to anime and manga enthusiasts. The back alleyways and side streets are filled with enough porn to satisfy most, much of it anime. Maid Cafes, in which young women, clad in "French Maid" outfits giggle and serve tea. An industry in its own right has been spawned by these cafes and now includes other manner of stores, including glasses stores, souvenir stores, and reflexology shops. All of them cater to the otaku, Japanese for "geek".

According to a Japan Times article, however, all this catering to otaku is dangerous. In short, the cartoonish maids and making their socially inept "masters" ever more socially inept by reducing the geeks' need to interact with normal society.

Apparently, it would have been so much better if it had stopped at the porn. Perhaps the growth of maid-themed shops will keep them from breeding.

Random Thought

I was walking around an area not far from my neighborhood when this thought struck me: Does it seem feasible to anyone else that any fresh water shortages Japan may suffer could be caused by the clusters of soap lands scattered throughout major metropolitan areas?

For those of you unfamiliar with soap land, you can read wikipedia's entry here. *

*Please note that this does not constitute an endorsement of wikipedia, but rather a laziness on the part or the idle monkey trainer. And the first few sentences seemed fairly accurate.*

* Or, so I have heard from a friend of a friend.