Dinner with the professor

Thursday was pay day. That's always called "zangyo zero" no overtime. Everyone goes home at 5:30. This time people actually obeyed, as the typhoon was supposed to roll in soon. Already was windy and rainy. Last month the department all went out for sushi, this time only Kita san and my boss remained. Kita is a bona fide alcoholic and never refuses invitations, he's already destined for the oden shop as stop #1. So the three of us had dinner there, or actually 2 people ate. I paid the bill, a big gesture since they usually do that but I was overdue. It was about $100, I was still hungry. We went to an old prewar building that is now a bourbon specialty bar. Had some Old Granddad and blue cheese, mixed nuts, then went home in the calm before the storm rolled in a few hours later.

Friday Professor Hoshi came to town, so some of the SD alumni organized a party at an okonomiyaki shop in Suidobashi, near Tokyo Dome. It was lots of fun meeting Japanese alumni, then a chat with the professor, who is one of the most famous Japanese economists. My old neighbor T from SD was there, and we had to ride the train home together. He works at the Ministry of Economy/Trade/Industry, overseeing 26 people. He said about 5+ of those people do nothing, but can't be fired and aren't good workers. Anyways if he gave them work, he'd be busier than already. Anyways at my station I got hungry and went to the ramen shop that's a dive and always plays Beatles. By now it was midnight and most people were drunk and half asleep. The place was full, and people were smoking while waiting for their food. I got a fried chicken fried rice with soup, and was shocked that I finished it all. Just before I left a guy came in and ordered a huge meal. Then he put his head on the counter and fell asleep. The waitress brought his food, woke him up, and he started eating. I left, stumbled home, and crashed.

more

Soba
From Karaki's house
Matsumoto Castle

more misato pics

Yoshiki and Akari
Keigo, 4

Nagano highlights

Students at their Seijin Shiki
former students, one on left was an English prodigy with University ambitions. I always saw her at her parents' soba shop. She failed an exam to go to the local top high school and commuted 90 mins to another high school, this is how she's changed.
rice
Nitta twins, both at the same art University
pears
Going back to my old home in Nagano, I saw many old friends and did lots of fun stuff; highlights were with yoga friend June and her family, the Nakamuras (my 'host' family and apple farmers), and Karaki Sensei from taiko drum class. I went to a taiko performance and the ceremony was the annual 'adult become' ceremony for 20 year-olds. Didn't know in advance, but all the kids were my students from 6 years ago. Good to see many, and I remebered lots of names. Going for dinner with some next week in Tokyo. Spent 2 mornings picking Shinano Red apples and Nashi Asian pears. Stayed with the Nakamuras for Obon, the time of remembering the dead. I went with them to the family cemetary and laid incense on the graves, then lit fireworks. The grandkids are all in English classes and once in a while shout out words in context. One of them is 4, the others are 10 and 6. One of the adults there needed to talk to someone about tantra, a new discovery of his, and something that's an off-limits topic with any other Japanese he knows. Another showed me his lifework, many oil paintings, and said that he just does apple farming to pay the bills. Returning to Tokyo has totally thrown off my body rhythms. 3 hour daily commutes, vitamin drinks, 2 restaurants a day, beer to make you hit the sack, then wake up an hour before you're ready to catch the last possible train to get you to work before the 9am bell and meeting.

Back from Nagano

Just back from a week holiday in Misato, Nagano, where I used to live. Work's kicking into gear now that time is short and results are expected. Picked some apples and pears and saw lots of old friends and students. Adjusting to this city life is next to impossible when quality of life is so good in the country.
Swam tonight, was asked to remove my yellow "Livestrong" bracelet by a lifeguard because it's dangerous. Others are swimming with similar rubber bracelet with the metal locker key flying around their wrist, go figure. Going to a factory tour all day tomorrow 2 hours outside the city. More to come when there's more time.

Friday Night Baseball

Everyone at work was waiting for the bell to ring at 5:30, the start of the 1 week summer vacation. Hot and humid, everyone sweaty and a little smelly, last-minute questions of where are you going, then yeah, I remember I already asked you last week. Most people took off right away, and I took the subway to meet Bill at Tokyo Dome. The area around it is very futuristic and a great attraction. The complex has a big hotel, a spa, a ferris wheel and roller coasters, and is hard to describe, but pretty futuristic. http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/map/
Met Bill and we went to a 7-11 and stuffed our bags with beer cans. Cans aren't allowed in, so they have ladies in the entranceway who pour your beers into paper cups.

Bill's seats were season tickets that were courtesy of the US Embassy, so they were right behind home plate, which was great. We didn't watch much of the game, especially since Tokyo Giants' star players (Kiyohara, Tuffy Rhodes, etc.) weren't in the lineup and the din of mindless mass cheering, as if even the game is secondary to the shouting. Mostly we caught up on news and chatted, and watched the concession ladies (they're all young girls in neon uniforms) as they walked by. Most have mini kegs attached to their backs and pour 800yen beers in seconds. Picture highlights are the star of David at the entrance with Chagall images, and a KFC chicken ring snack...

Friday morning

Started off about 5 minutes early but turns out there was a train delay anyways. I didn't understand the announcement, but soon Shirin came in the same train car. We know which one to get in to position ourselves near the stairs at the transfer station. A few cars away, and we'd be in the mob and miss at least one train. The come every 2 minutes, but it's still important. So when the train doors open, it's like when you have to go to the bathroom and you've held it in for 30 minutes, all of a sudden there's a burst into the toilet, that's what happens when the train doors open. We just run for the stairs, relieved. But the announcement was 'person-body' accident, which usually means someone jumped in front of the train. I looked shocked and Shirin says it happens all the time. I guess they cleaned up the mess and in 10 minutes we were moving. At the transfer station, attendants were handing out slips of paper. I took one, and later found out they're slips that say why you were late, and you're supposed to give it to your boss. Just like back in school days for us.

My excitement came today with a phone call from the president of the SEIA, the premier Solar lobby organization in the USA. He is a Michigan alum, and we talked about Sanyo USA joining. He said he and SEIA were responsible for the large tax credit for solar energy in Bush's recent bill, a huge victory for the industry. He was kind and offered to get in touch with him when I graduate.

meeting a Jew while buying milk

I met Adi, a teacher friend I used to know in Nagano, near Ogikubo station at 8 and we went to his house. After we agreed on a percentage, I gave him the disc and he downloaded the file I'd been working on for him. To celebrate, he took me to the outdoor yakitori stand in front of the station, and we had beers and lots of chicken with onions, mushrooms, even duck. I took a cab towards home, but had to go to the store for milk. The cabbie didn't know the place and I walked a bit. When I was looking for milk (I always look for Nagano milk but this time, late Sunday at 11pm, most of the stuff was gone), some guy came up from behind me and asked me in English why I was scrutinizing the milk so much. I told him what I knew, and he was interested in me- why I was in Japan, and why I knew about Nagano. He'd come to the store for a lightbulb. We exchanged cards and I realized he was Jewish, South African, and he said he had a business in Detroit. He bought a warehouse years ago full of 60's Motown soul-funk fashion (brands like Prince Mauricio and Pierre Foshey), new, and has been wholesaling the stuff ever since, making crazy profits here in Japan for instance. I told him about myself and he was pretty amazed to have met a Jewish guy from Detroit here at the store. We walked out and he invited me to his place for a drink.
Diamond is his name. He seems about 40, like a hippie but not dirty, and talking so fast and fragmented that I think he was either on speed or bipolar or something. Turns out he comes from a Hasidic family and was in the diamond business until he got fed up, says he lives in Cape Town, London, Tokyo and Detroit. Tomorrow he's going to Bangkok to have a cavity filled, and to relax, not sure when he'll be back. His house was a turn-of-the-century old-style place, all wood and tatami, and decorated with Nepalese hangings, drums, random artifacts, and boxes of funk clothes. He gave me a banana shake and started to roll a cigarette. The process was finished in a flash, all done while giving me a monologue, calling one of his girlfriends, changing the channel, etc. We chatted for a bit about who knows what, but was totally entertaining and he promised to get me in touch with Benjy when he gets back, who knows everyone in town. LD took me home in his van as he went out to visit one of his girls, both of us not knowing how to get anywhere.

Jazz with Aliya and Les McCann

I’ve always wanted to go to the Blue Note Tokyo, but the prohibitive price means that it’s never worth it unless a phenom comes to town. I saw the listing for Soul Survivors, including the great Les McCann on piano (from Les McCann and Eddie Harris, “Swiss Movement”) and Cornell Dupree on guitar with others. I knew Aliya from UCSD would go, so we made reservations and got in. The place was in the very classy Aoyama near Omotesando Doori, like the Champs Elysses of Tokyo. We had gin drinks and some olives, and then showtime! Les was so old and fat that he had to have 2 handlers help him onstage. This added to the suspense- Ruben Gonzales from Buena Vista Social Club was nearly wheeled onstage when I saw them in Tokyo, and he tore the roof off the place. Unfortunately Les McCann had nothing, and even his keyboard sound was the cheesiest 1980s noise. Dupree was great, but the best part of the short night was when Aliya went up to give Les a hug at his table. He cut off the conversation with another girl and Aliya put her arm around him. He was pretty drunk I think (even though Aliya is beautiful) and was carried away with her presence. He asked me where I was from but didn’t really care, saying “Toledo- dat’s too bad.” But he did make me drink his beer and guess what it was. When Asahi wouldn’t do, he said Asahi with 2 shots of vodka… the only way to drink a beer.

dinner with Masako

My friend Mineko from Keio NY introduced me to Masako last summer in a Cuban bar in Roppongi. She’s also at least 30. I liked her, she’s cute, so I got in touch with her and we’ve gone out a few times. She asked me to join her because her French friends were in town, in transit during their honeymoon. We took a cab to the restaurant, a traditional sit-down-on-tatami place with seats for about 30 at long tables facing a small stage. The waiters and waitresses became performers for a show, with shamisen, taiko drums, shakuhachi flutes. When not performing they chatted up the guests, mostly older Japanese seeking nostalgia, probably tourists. People were pretty drunk and pretty happy. The French weren’t used to sitting on the floor, hadn’t eaten sushi or tofu, or drunk rice wine. They enjoyed everything overall, but you could see the guy wondering about how people survived on this crap. Anyhow it was good company, and Masako was proud to show her friends her culture. The musicians were great. Turns out the youngest shamisen player, a boy about 20, had just won the all-Japan shamisen competition. This restaurant, in fact, is famous, and it’s the place where the now infamous Yoshida Kyodai played until they broke out. Towards the end of the meal, Masako’s colleague from Sumitomo Ship Sales came. Yuki was a 24 year-old girl who grew up in Belgium and spoke fluent French and English. She was really cool. We took the train together at the end of the night and exchanged numbers. But she and Masako work together so if I wanted to take out Yuki, Masako could find out and I don’t want to burn bridges. Advice? Anyways finished another night drunk with friends, again taking the last train home. Even the damn late trains are packed like sardines. You take a deep breath and have to say excuse me to the person you’re bumping.

Lunch with the President of S&M

Today all 4 of us interns were taken out to lunch by S~ Kaicho, kai means company and cho is head. He’s the head of Sanyo Sales and Marketing, one of the top guys in the whole company for sure. He seems very not busy and the entire staff of hundreds of SM is in Osaka, while he works in Tokyo with only a secretary. But he’s very bright and it’s quite an honor for us to be hosted by him. He is quiet and has a sense of humor, and always pays. Once at a nomikai (drinking party) I told him how much I like eating oyako donburi and he said he knew a specialty shop for it. Today he took us there. There were 2 items on the menu: regular for $10 and hi quality for $15, meaning free-range eggs and better chicken. It was really excellent, and there were large jars of takuwan, or daikon pickles, on each table. But the atmosphere was pretty stodgy compared to my other favorite oyakodon specialty shop, Kawanakajima. I’ll talk more about that later.
The new intern, an Indian girl of 20, seems not to know much about Japanese language or culture even though she’s lived here as a student for 3 years. She was talking to S~ like he was at her service, and also during the meal stuck her chopsticks in the rice. That’s a top level cultural blunder, done only at funerals. Then we walked the grounds of Tokyo U (Todai) and finally around Ueno park, all in 35 degree weather. We were so hot and sweaty that we couldn’t really work for the rest of the afternoon. But I had a big night coming up, so I drank my Pocari Sweat, finished work, and headed out to Asakusa to meet my Masako.