When the Sun Beats Down

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Update on last night: We went back not to our local train station for dinner, but a more important one, the last stop before ours, where we were yesterday morning. There was a big outlet mall there, and we did a bit of shoe shopping, and got a couple more items from the Y100 shop, before having dinner: okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake with meat and veg in the batter. Stephen also went with the declared intention of getting some video for his e-book. He has brought a explanation in Japanese of how he would like to get some footage for students o talk about for English pronunciation practice, and tonight we saw some guys rock-climbing up a wall in the shopping centre, and also the okonomiyaki cook, who were all amenable to being filmed. We got a taxi home, to avoid the walk back from our station (hereinafter to be referred to as K Station, because Kemigawahama Station is just ridiculous) and on the way we passed a building with some people doing kendo practice inside. It wasn't far from that building back to the apartment, but we weren't sure quite where we had come from, so we had no idea where it might have been. But it could make for some good video. We watched a British TV show on YouTube (wifi's up!) went to bed and slept very well.



This morning we were up quite early, and it seemed a lovely morning, so we set off for a walk in the general direction of where the taxi might have brought us last night. Stephen had had a look on Google Maps and had some idea of some possible locations - schools and another institution or two - so we went a-looking. The search was complicated by the fact that Stephen hadn't actually seen the kendo, and just looked around when I shouted out, and there was not much else to see in the dark if you hadn't seen the lighted windows. We ruled out a school or two that we passed, and we didn't see how it could have been a kindergarten, but as we went a little further we realised we were no longer on the streets that the taxi had used, so we retraced our steps, and decided that in fact it had been the kindergarten. The windows were the right size and shape, the room inside was bigger on second glance, not just the office it had seemed earlier, and we were on the right road for the taxi to have comedown. We decided to comeback another evening, and if necessary, next Tuesday, since that's clearly their club night.



We left home a bit after 9 this morning to go into Tokyo proper for the first time. It was a lovely day, sunny and hot, not too muggy. But it did get hotter. We were taking it easy, just revisiting old haunts: the apartment I lived in for 4 months in 1983, near Tamachi Station, and Shiba Park Hotel, where I worked during that time. The train line that goes through K Station starts from Tokyo Station, the hotel is 3 stations from there, and Tamachi is one station further on. I was looking forward to the transfer at Tokyo, because I remembered it as a great bustling area with lots of interesting shops and kiosks for food and traditional souvenirs, and I thought it would be good to look around again. We did pass a lot of shops during the transfer (the lines we were tansferring from/to were at almost opposite ends of the station) but they weren't as interesting or varied as they used to be. Or at least, as I remembered. I guess there has been a lot of franchisation over the last few decades, so the variety is disappearing. Globalisation has also brought Subway and Starbucks here, but then they always used to have a lot of American fast food chains anyway. Come to think of it, seeing only one McDonald's today should have surprised me. It used to be possible to see three or four in the walk from the station to work. There are a number of local coffee shop chains too, but the density is not as great for any of these. I wonder if that's market forces or local government control at work.



We saw my old hotel, but didn't go in. We have a meeting arranged tomorrow with some workers (they're probably managers now) who were there when I was there, so I'm really looking forward to that, but that's at their newer sister hotel, where those guys all work now. I'll let you know how that goes. By now it was after 12, and we looked in some of the back streets for a place for lunch. I remembered wandering those lanes - narrow, meandering streets with loads of old wooden houses with sliding front doors serving lunches to the local salarymen... but although the streets were still narrow, there are very few wooden buildings left. Still a few small private dwellings, but now the little local luncheries (really? Why isn't that a word?) are just the ground floor of tiny-footprinted tall buildings - not unlike Vietnamese neighbourhoods. We went into such a one, which we found to be a Japanese Chinese restaurant. It was okay, but I was a bit disappointed with my meal. Japanese fried rice is a favourite of mine, but this was really bland.



We walked up to Zojoji Temple, just behind my hotel, for the photos it offers. The temple was established in the 14th century, but now the oldest structure remaining is from the 1600s. Several of the buildings, while traditional, are new since my time. I just wanted a photo of the little stone statues that are placed there as memorials to miscarried or stillborn babies, as it's such a poignant sight. I got some pictures, we sat in an opulent (air-conditioned) hall, and then headed back up the road towards the station. After a coffee and cake to sustain us, we made it there, thence to Tokyo Station again (a few more shops and kiosks to look at, but still not as exciting as I'd hoped) and back home on a fast train, so back at the flat by 4ish, having bought a takeaway obentoo (a pre-packed lunch-box type meal) near the station for our dinner. When we came to reheat it tonight, we were trying to figure out the microwave here (we don't have one at all at home, so it's been a while) but it seems that reheating a bentoo meal (the 'o' is optional) is such a common thing that the instructions are printed on the microwave itself (a minute and a half), as is the time for warming a drink of sake (40 seconds for a little china flask).



We met our neighbour tonight, as I needed to ask what to do with our rubbish. They're big on separating rubbish here, into burnable and non-burnable, but they also recycle, and I didn't know if we had to separate all the plastic and paper, and what to do with the food waste and so on. There seems to be a mother and a teenage daughter (but there's also a toy scooter and a skateboard lying outside near the stairwell) so maybe Giang was wrong about the family there. Eh, doesn't matter.



It was good to finally see crowds of people today. This area is clearly what they call a dormitory town, but it's still spookily quiet, at any time of day. Tokyo Station was busy and jostling, and that's the Japan we know and love. And yet the traffic was not scary at all. Even downtown, there were long distances between the cars, mostly. I don't know why the traffic used to seem overwhelming. The footpaths were very crowded though. It was almost amusing to see all the salarymen at lunchtime, all in their perfectly white shirts and navy trousers. So classic. But the women! Sure, mostly elegant, often fashionable, usually demure, but some of them - many of them - are demure to the point of seeking invisibility. So many are wearing really shapeless dresses, in greys and olives and brown; young, not so young, and middle-aged women: just wearing sacks with sleeves, or baggy tops over sloppy skirts. The clothes aren't ugly, per se, just incredibly boring and drab.



I've been noticing my language skills return. At first I tried to anticipate conversations by rehearsing my lines in my head, but the language always reverted to Vietnamese. Luckily when I spoke, the words generally came out in Japanese after all (but not always - sometimes it's just a word or two, and this morning I made a comment in totally the wrong language and didn't realise until Stephen pointed it out.) . Also problematic is "Excuse me" or "Sorry", probably because they are often said in surprise: so far I've always said them in VNese by mistake. But I've been pleased by how much I understand. Yesterday, trying to clear up the wi-fi bizzo, I had quite a technical conversation with the man in the shop, and although there was some vocab that I didn't know, I didn't lost the thread of the conversation. It seems that when VNese people hear me speak VNese, they answer with speech like that of a mad Irishman ranting about the English 350 years ago, but when the Japanese reply to me, they speak like a Bostonian professor explaining a point of law to his grandmother. It's lovely to listen to, and a great surprise to me.



I'm going to try the photos again. Windows keeps taking over the transfer from my phone, and then stuffing it up but not letting me cancel or get out of the action.

Okay, so it seems to have worked. The last three days' entries should now have photos up. But I don't know. I can see the pics for Day 1 but not yesterday's or today's. Maybe you can see them but I can't see them when I'm in editing mode... I don't know. Let's see how it goes.

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Photos

Tokyo Station
Finally, some people!

Comments

[Bruce Hilliard]

Loving your blog
Dear Fiona, Just thought that I would let you know that I am really enjoying your blog. Your trip sounds incredibly interesting, and I really appreciate your personal insights. Please give my best to Stephen as well. Bruce

[Kerflumpy]

Thank you Bruce. I often wonder if people really need or want all the detail, but to be honest, much of the writing is just so that I can remember the details and my feelings in the future - both to refer back to and because the act of writing helps cement it in the memory. So thank you - I appreciate the feedback, and I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing!