theshinkansen

a few weeks ago, Jill and i took a whirlwind trip along the Southern coast of Japan's main Honshu Island to see the famous town of Hiroshima. while details of that trip will follow in another post, here i'll explain one thing that made it so whirlwind. we finally got to do something i've been wanting to since we got here, to take a ride on a true Japanese institution: the Shinkansen (新幹線). better known to us in the West as a bullet train, Japan is famed for having introduced them in 1964, and is making headlines once again with their new speed record-breaking maglev trains.


as the wikipedia article makes clear, there are several different kinds of trains referred to as shinkansen. i think the 300 series looks the best, and fortunately for me it was the kind we first rode.

literally meaning "new trunk line", shinkansen has brought all of Japan within reach of a very train-oriented people. physical reach, at least, if not economic, because you practically have to sell your soul to get on the thing. not that plenty of people in wealthy Nagoya aren't prepared to do that; the 16-car long things are zooming off both East and West from here every five or 10 minutes. we took a morning ride to the West on the fastest service, the Nozomi (meaning "hope"). it wasn't hard to see why people liked this thing. first, you just walk up and buy a ticket, and that's only the hard part because it involves parting with so much cash. in our case, the 440 Km (273 mile) journey set each of us back ¥12,500, or about $107. then again, it only took a little over two hours, and all that without the hassle of security checks (of any kind) and life vest demos. then when you factor in the insane amount of legroom and the generous recline of the seats, along with the centrality in town of most train stations, you find it beats flying hands down.

maybe it's all those things that have made the shinkansen so popular and have fixed it in the Japanese imagination (the same people who make Hello Kitty dolls also have a whole line of shinkansen characters, kind of like Thomas the Tank Engine). or maybe it's just the view. in a country where getting around generally takes an awfully long time (we spent about 6 hours riding the 150 Km to Kyoto last July), seeing the countryside whipping past at up to 300 Km per hour (180 mph) gives you a whole new appreciation for the size and the sight of the place, and is exhilarating to boot. thanks once again to Jill's camera skills, thejayfather is proud to give you a taste of that feeling, inadequate though it might be. for example, i bet your eyes won't hurt like mine did when seeing this live:

theOrientalCircus

sure we go to Western restaurants all the time, and sure we would go to cool places like Kyoto more than once if we had the money, but we don't usually do the cheap and cheerful sites around here a second time. that stance suddenly changed on Saturday when we were invited to go with a group from church to the Little World Museum of Man.

not surprisingly, it was all pretty much the same, the same buildings, the same general emptiness of the park, even the weather was seriously similar (only this time we got drenched on the way home instead of the way there). so if it was all the same, why this post? well, friends, because of the Oriental Circus. and what might that be, you ask? not entirely sure, to tell the truth, but our Japanese compadres had got the word they were at the museum and sped us through much of the park until we found the small amphitheater where these stars of the East were performing their tricks.


one performer terrifying a timid audience member with his whip tricks. what terrified me was his creepy leather costume

the show was so ghetto it made the one we'd seen in Beijing look like a Metropolitan Opera production, but they did have some pretty cool stuff. even the strange whip guy was pretty impressive, confidently slicing paperback-size pages held between a volunteer's hands. the best one, though, which they did save until last, was the highwire act. they ran across it backwards and forwards, did backflips right in the middle, and even carried each other across; but the best part was the true finale:


the pretty impressive tightrope finale of the Oriental Circus, neatly captured by Jill. we're not sure the name is totally accurate, however, given that all the performers looked, well, not very Oriental. we later learned they were from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

thepearls

in my recent post about temples i mentioned that Atsuta Jinguu, the main Shinto shrine here in Nagoya, is also one of the three most revered places in all Japan. so much for that, but what good would thejayfather be if he could only get you into the top three? still pretty good, actually, but i've gone above and beyond the call of duty yet again to bring you the single greatest site in all of (Shinto) Japan: Ise jinguu.



some views of the great shrine, clockwise from top left: the Japanese flag Hinomaru (circle of the sun) stands out against the spacious and beautiful precincts of the country's holiest sanctuary; the clamor to get a brief glimpse at the shrine itself, even though only emperors and the highest of Shinto priests may go inside; some idea of what that glimpse would look like--was it worth the wait?; and a side view of the main shrine buildings reveals spare but attractive architecture. below, some more of the grounds and surroundings of the shrine, clockwise from top left: a pond with the biggest koi carp i've ever seen, many of whom were actually allowing themselves to be petted; Jill and i take a self-shot in front of some early sakura (cherry blossom) blooms; some less fortunate fish await sale by the rack in the bustling market street adjacent to the shrine; and finally a worthy adversary for me to go head-to-head with was also found on display in the street market.



don't tell me you've never heard of this place, especially after a buildup like that. the important thing is that now you have, and if you read the post about Atsuta, you're already way ahead of the game about understanding this place--they're very similar. however, there are a few things about Ise that deserve special mention. first, i borrow from the guidebook:

Shinto tradition has dictated for centuries that the shrine buildings (about 200 of them) be replaced every 20 years with exact imitations built on adjacent sites according to ancient techniques—no nails, only wooden dowels and interlocking joints. Upon completion of the new buildings, the god of the shrine is ritually transferred to its new home... The present buildings were rebuilt in 1993 (for the 61st time) at a cost exceeding ¥5 billion.

elsewhere I've read that Ise is the place where the spirits of all the emperors are enshrined, and that each new one must come to pay homage to their ancestors. and in case you're a little rusty on your Japanese (or even WWII) history, the Shinto belief was, and may or may not still be, that the emperors are deities in human form (MacArthur made Hirohito renounce his and all future emperors' claims to divinity during a radio address following Japan's surrender to allied forces).

so there's your dose of learning for the day; now on to what we did with the rest of ours. Ise is a little over 100 Km (60 miles) south of Nagoya, and just a little further down the road is the tiny town of Toba, Mie Prefecture. if you have a thing for pearls, you may have heard of this place; if not, you may at least have heard of Mikimoto, the man who figured out how to culture them by sequestering himself on a small island there at the end of the 19th century.


i hope this one is self explanatory.

today Mikimoto Pearl Island is a tourist hotspot, and has a very interesting museum in addition to, obviously, a well-stocked store. but the thing that really gets them here, or at least that got us there, was the pearl diver demonstrations. in several coastal areas of Japan there are crews of women known as Ama who dive the ocean waters in search of pearls and the like. they are trained over about a 10 year period, beginning in their early teens, in order to build up lung capacity and i suppose resistance to the fatiguing effects of the cold water (it was around 10°C, or 50°F the day we were there). i guess they cheat a little at Mikimoto, because you'll notice they're really wearing wetsuits under the traditional clothes, but the short demonstration was nonetheless impressive:



that's not all that was impressive about the miniscule island. a brief tour of the shop after the demo revealed several beautiful jewelry pieces, along with some raw pearls. one fairly odd-shaped, but huge, silver pearl was on the block for a shade over ¥10 million, enough to make your eyes water. but since we're going for number ones, thejayfather brings you the pearl of all pearls (not to say the mother of all pearls, groan), with the mind-blowing number in the picture's foreground representing the actual, serious price of this tiny golden orb:


that's a shade over US$300,000 for a ball whose diameter is about the same as that of your average chapstick.

thekaraoke

you had to know this one was coming: in the very land of karaoke, it was only a matter of time before thejayfather succumbed to the temptation to raise the art to a new level. after spending so much time practicing Tom Jones at Loma Linda parties, i finally got the chance to beat the natives at their own game.

or something--i'm still a terrible singer, but i do enjoy it so; lucky for me there was a party at the local Shidax karaoke hall last November. unfortunately, the reason for the party was the departure of our good friend Linda, who returned to Canada in December. in her honour, and with gratitude, i present these pictures of our experience:


clockwise from top left: It's Not Unusual for me to torture the mic with a little Tom Jones; our church friends Yui and Aiko break out the J-Pop hits in typically V-for-victorious style; Linda and Jill fight back with some Engrish tunes--probably from the 80s; and finally everyone made up so that we could get a phone-cam picture before we were thrown out on the street for having a good time without sake.

thesoapland*

*WARNING: this post may not be appropriate for younger readers.

back on January 11th, i decided that i should treat myself to lunch at one of my favorite places, Yoshinoya. in the states they are called Yoshinoya Beef Bowl or something, and that's just what they serve, a bunch of beef on a bowl of rice. thing is, it's a lot better in Japan, despite being cheap and kind of common. in any case, i had to ride there pretty hard to make the most of my lunchbreak, and i chose to ride through the neighborhoods to avoid the many traffic lights on the way. i'm not really familiar with those areas, and the streets are like rabbit warrens, but i knew the general direction and knew i'd get there.

but on the way i passed a drab fifties-ish woman sitting on a low wall at the confluence of several tiny streets, who called out "irrasshai..." to me, which means welcome. i only slowed a little, thinking she was talking to somebody else, but i soon noticed i was the only other person around. she began jabbering in fast Japanese as soon as i paused, but i told her i didn't understand a word she was saying--"wakarimasen"--and i turned to leave. then the wily old devil tried a new tack, repeating one word in "English" over and over again until i understood: "sekusu, sekusu."


one of the many soaplands in our area, which look decidedly less Vegas-like during the day than they do at night.

the Yakuza, or Japanese Mafia, are said to control much of our local area, and one of their alleged cover businesses is the "soapland", or Turkish bath. of course, bathing is only half the story, and on this day i came face to face with the existence of the other half. there are plenty of soaplands in our area, but i had never been propositioned for one before, nor thankfully have been ever since. it was a little confusing to me, as i hightailed it out of there, that they would have a chain smoking old hag out drumming up business for a clip joint; you'd think they'd want to keep her hidden until the very last minute, and send one of the inside girls out. having only a couple of minutes more before i was tucking into my tasty yakiniku don beef bowl, i didn't have much time to ponder my disturbing experience. there must be a reason why it's done this way, but i am content to stay confused and let you, mature reader, figure it out for yourself.