Next month, my college moves into a new and bigger building than we’re in now, in part due to the fact that after getting Japan Ministry of Education recognition and the ability to grant student visas has increased our student numbers. (Another might be the fact that a second subway line is opening this summer just a few meters from our doors, and probably rents are going up too high).

One thing that we both will and will not miss (for very different reasons) is the drama going on in the streets around us. We are now located on an east-west avenue in northern east Shinjuku, not too far from Kabuki-cho. As I drove my scooter up to school today, I saw a tall guy standing in front of our building, looking intently down the sidewalk past me, talking on a cell phone. His look instantly prompted the reaction, “yakuza!” He was wearing a well-tailored pinstripe suit, and was tall, beefy and, well, rather yakuza-ish looking.

I pulled into our little side alley and parked, and a staff member who joined us not too long ago was observing from the alley way, noting surprise. He told me that someone had just chased a woman (who was at that time nowhere I could see), shouting at her. I replied, “well, maybe not too surprising considering the number of digits some gentlemen in this area have,” referring to the well-known yakuza habit of chopping off one’s pinky as a show of contrition or as punishment. And sure enough, when we looked at the hands of the men in front of our building (a guy in a jogging suit had joined the pinstripe guy), one of them was missing a pinky. Yow.

Actually, in recent days, the yakuza are not as prominent around these parts as they used to be. In the past, every few months we’d suddenly get about a half-dozen and more expensive sedans parking in the immediate area, each one guarded by a beefy yakuza-looking guy standing next to it. The cars would bring and then take away suited men also apparently of the yakuza persuasion. I heard second-hand that there was some incident a year ago, and the police cracked down on the area soon after that, maybe that’s why they moved their meetings somewhere else.

Not that any of this presents a risk to us or our students. In the ten years we’ve been in this location, I have never heard of a single instance of anyone in the student body or the faculty being harassed in any way by these guys; they seem to stick to their own business. Still, it adds a dash of adventure to the environment. Like I said, this is one reason to like the area–often some excitement happening without any real danger–but also is probably not a bad reason to be glad we’re moving to a new location.

Though we caught a glimpse of the cherry blossoms last week as they were just starting to bloom, Sachi and I figured that we’d see them in their prime this week. We decided to go to two different places. Sachi dislikes Shinjuku, so we didn’t go back to Shinjuku Gyoen (though I think that’s really the best place for cherry blossom viewing, as it’s big, well-kept, has lots of trees and varieties, and has elbow room to spread out in–a big thing when you see the other places), and we decided that Ueno would be too crowded.

For some reason, we thought Inogashira Park in Kichijoji would not be. Big mistake.

You really can’t understand the press shown in this photo, it isn’t done justice here. There’s a quaint, narrow shopping street going from near Kichijoji Station to Inogashira Park, and it was packed enough most of the way–but the last 50 meters or so was intolerably jammed. We virtually inched along, with some jerk at my back apparently thinking he’d move faster if he pressed up against me and pushed. The jam was caused more by the large number of people on the street lining up for yakitori at a place called Iseya, near the entrance to the park.

Once inside, the park was little better–it was sardine time, worse than I’ve ever seen it. To top things off, the park has adopted a new don’t-feed-the-birds policy, which meant the loaf of bread we’d brought would go to waste, and there was little else left to do. Forget going out on the lake in a boat, the line was tremendous. Even just walking along was bad enough. Still, a few shots did result from the visit:

In addition to the blossoms, some Oshidori (Mandarin Ducks) were in attendance, though they were just about the only birds there; since the no-feeding policy, the number of birds in the park has plummeted. Clever idea they had there.

So after walking through the park for about fifteen minutes, we’d had enough, and went back to the station, and on to Meguro. Sachi knows the location well because she lived nearby for a while. There’s a river lined for a good distance with cherry blossom trees, and so we enjoyed ourselves there, somewhat better because it was far less crowded.

One thing we did notice was that it was Crazy Day. First, there were accidents on both train lines we wanted to use–the Yamanote and the Inogashira. In fact, as we took the Inogashira Line, we passed a station where, at the end of the platform, there appeared to be two human bodies completely covered over by tarps, apparently explaining the accident delay. A bit of a shock there.

Then, a little later on the same train, some guy came racing through the car; we thought he needed to get from one end of the train to the other fast, but he stopped at the end of our car… and started touching advertisements. Only the ones on either side of the doors–first the ads on one side, then the other, then to the next set of doors, all down the length of the car. Obsessive-compulsive or something, I suppose.

Then, in Meguro, there was quite a bit of craziness brought on by simple drinking, including these guys pictured below (apparently just back from a wedding), who had one member pretend to climb over the railing while the rest, for some reason, sang the Hanshin Tigers baseball team song.

Nevertheless, Sachi and I enjoyed ourselves with a pleasant few hours’ walk, and then dinner at a nice restaurant before heading back.

One last image. Just before we finished up in Meguro, we passed a taxi parking lot, and spotted several cats who had learned about warm car hoods. Two were on one taxi, and another underneath; I caught the couple on the hood.

When you live in Japan, one of the obstacles to everyday entertainment is trying to find a video at the rental store. Aside from the usual bizarre choices for which categories they place titles under, the main impediment in finding a title is…the title. Sometimes it’s the same as it is in the U.S., but all too often it’s not.

Even when it is the same title, you still have to work through the Katakana-ization of the original English; for example, when asking for Back to the Future, you would have to say “Bakku to za Fyuucha.” Of course, the rental store clerk might understand you when you just say it naturally in English, but if the title has tough sounds for Japanese, and/or the movie is not well-known in Japan, then you could still get into trouble–for example, “Batorufiirudo Aasu” is not quite as recognizably Battlefield Earth–and sometimes naming the stars is not so easy either (“Jon Toravorutora”?).

But it gets even harder when they change the title. There are two variations of this, the first being when the new title is in Japanese. These titles can be hard if you don’t read or speak the language well, but even when the title is directly translated, it can make you strain at your Japanese. 許されざる者, for example, translates directly to “The Unforgiven (Man),” more or less the title of the Clint Eastwood film Unforgiven. 猿の惑星 is an accurate translation of Planet of the Apes. But some titles are changed and in Japanese, some more understandably than others. For example, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants became 旅するジーンズと16歳の夏, or (as far as I can imperfectly translate) “The Traveling Pants and the 16-year-old’s Summer.” Dead Poet’s Society becomes いまを生きる, or “Live for the Moment” (or, Japanese for Carpe Diem). The great comedy Blast from the Past became the rather convoluted タイムトラベラー きのうから来た恋人, or “Time Traveler: The Lover from the Past.” One that will really throw you for a loop is 四つ数えろ, or “Count to Four.” Give up? It’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Steve Martin’s parody of old detective flicks. Why the title? Because 三つ数えろ, or “Count to Three” was the Japanese title for The Big Sleep. I remember an older title, 愛は静けさの中に, literally “Love is Within Silence.” Any guesses as to what that one was? How about 愛しのローズマリー, or “My Dear Rosemary” (possibly “Poor Rosemary,” depending on the translation)? See the answer below the fold.

Even more confusing is when the title is changed but remains in English, but different English. For example, if you want to get The Siege, you need to ask for “Marshall Law.” X-Men 3 is not The Last Stand, but “Final Decision” instead. Miss Congeniality becomes “Dangerous Beauty.” Bicentennial Man is “Andrew NDR114.” The movie “Total Fears” might be too easy to guess as The Sum of All Fears; however, would you care to guess which movies got the titles “The Agent” and “Color of Heart”? Those below the fold as well.

If you’re searching for a title in Japanese, a Google search for the title plus the words (in quotes), “Japanese Title” will often get you the correct answer. But if you want a cheat sheet, try this guy’s web site–he lists a good many movies with their Japanese titles–though a few are a bit misspelled in English, most notably Load of the Rings. At least, I hope that’s misspelled.
Read more…

As promised, here is the birdwatching conclusion to the Shinjuku Gyouen Park post. Actually, at the park, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get any bird photos–after taking about a hundred photos of blossoms and other things, my camera stopped working. When I looked, it was flashing, “CF Card Full.” What the? I had cleared the card before leaving home, and the thing holds close to five hundred photos, even Large, SuperFine 10-megapixel images. But then I remembered–I had last set the thing to take JPEG plus RAW images… and the RAW images are huge. Worse, I couldn’t find a way to delete just the RAW images without deleting the JPEGs as well. Fortunately, I had taken quite a few excess images, and was able to erase enough unwanted ones to clear up enough space for a few hundred more high-quality JPEGs.

Good thing, too, because there were quite a few birds there–twenty-one species (though I may be forgetting a few) in all:

Brown-eared Bulbul
White-cheeked Starling
Great Tit
Varied Tit
Bull-headed Shrike
Great Cormorant
Large-billed Crow
Mallard
Mandarin Duck
Spot-billed Duck
Little Grebe
Black-faced Bunting
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Dusky Thrush
Oriental Turtle Dove
Common Kingfisher
White Wagtail
Grey Wagtail
Japanese White-eye
Tree Sparrow
Great Egret

Always beautiful is the Common Kingfisher:

The Black-faced Buntings are not too rare, but you don’t often see them out in the open like this:

The Varied Tits were all crowded in one large bush, coming out to sit on a cable and dip into a plastic sleeve… for some reason. (The first two images have larger versions on click.)

A surprising catch was a Rose-ringed Parakeet, which I have heard about but never spotted before–I did not expect to catch a new species in Shinjuku! The Rose-ringed Parakeet is an escaped species, originally in Japan as a pet, but they have been doing quite well in Tokyo for some time–even roosting 600-700 strong near this biological research lab in Meguro. You can also see a map showing sightings of the birds throughout Tokyo. I only caught this one in flight–and this attests well to my new camera’s worth. I only saw the bird after I heard a strange screeching in the sky, and I spotted and photographed the bird only as it flew overhead in a matter of a few seconds. Nevertheless, these pictures resulted:

Just one more image for today–a flock of Mandarin Ducks were at the park–but only under dark shade and at extreme range in the park’s westernmost lake. Could barely see them, but you could see that they were there in number.

There were lots more, but those were the more interesting of the day.

There was a small but noticeable quake just a few minutes ago. Strangely, about five minutes before that, I swore I felt a quake, but the ceiling lamp didn’t sway visibly (as it did with the larger quake just a few minutes ago), so I discounted it. Also strangely, the larger quake so far has not been noted by the usual quake sites I visit.

Hmm.

Update: OK, it was a 5.6 quake off the coast of Fukushima. Mystery solved.

Seeing as how the weather was nice, and we’d heard that the cherry blossoms had already started to bloom, we made off to Shinjuku to visit Shinjuku Gyouen Park, a large botanical garden very close to Shinjuku Station’s south exit. There was quite a bit to see today, and everyone seemed to come for the same reason we did. Tons of people were there, lots of families with kids, and surprisingly many foreign visitors as well.

Before we entered the park (¥200 admission fee, by the way), we stopped by a convenience store and picked up some food. We broke down and got a few “Calbi Franks,” which were nothing less than frankfurter sausages wrapped in bacon. Incredibly unhealthy, I am sure, but god they were good. We also got a few cans of beer, and so had to hide it when we noticed at the park entrance the sign which said, “no alcohol.” But one really strange thing to me at the store was the sandwiches. Among the ham & cheese and other usual sandwich types were these:

Those are strawberry, cream, and custard sandwiches. Not sold with the snacks, but with the regular sandwiches. Hmmm.

Anyhoo, we got into the park, and it was quite nice:

This little kid below, for some reason, decided to stop right in front of us as we sat on the lawn, and give us a little boogie dance.

Sachi took some photos of me by a cherry blossom tree, and caught this kid with his rather interesting English shirt, staring up at me in shock and awe:

And I can only suppose that these people were doing a catalog shoot for a bridal gown company or something. That little light/lens flare near her chin was there in the photo when I took it.

Naturally, the main reason to be there was to view the blossoms, and though (this being just the bare beginning of the blossoming season) most of the trees were not in bloom yet, there were a startling variety of trees which, while few in number, were nonetheless gracing the landscape with all varieties of white, pink, and red. The park has all different kinds of cherry blossom trees, some which blossom earlier than others (one was already shedding blossoms!), and many which sported different colors, even mixes. One tree had half white and half red blossoms, with several blossoms showing a mix. I’m sure that by next weekend, the park will be spectacular.

Sachi posed very nicely before one of the branches–many (I am sure by design) hang down low so people can see them very close.

The park is also very good for birdwatching… but this is enough for one post. More soon!

Good lord. Already the English language teaching market in Japan has become bad enough so that most jobs out there for teachers rate only the rock-bottom $30,000/year salary, work you hard, and most require you teach classes to little kids. For those of you who thought it could not get much worse, then prepare to have your hopes dashed.

What’s next? Clown suits and pie throwing? (Although this could easily be seen as the equivalent….) I am all for making the classroom environment stimulating and interesting for the students, but there are limits; this borders on the fetishistic.

As I mentioned in the last post, Sachi and I used the Vernal Equinox to make a day trip back to her hometown in Nagano. Despite being in the way-out inaka, the Shinkansen (bullet train) stops relatively nearby, just a half-hour drive from her brother’s house. So we took the express train to Omiya just north of Tokyo, and switched to the Shinkansen there; Sachi’s stop is just one after Karuizawa, a popular Nagano resort town. Despite it being the first day of Spring, it was snowing in Karuizawa, which kind of surprised us even though it was cold and rainy elsewhere. It was snowing only a little less in the highlands of her parent’s home where the grave site is.

After the ohaka-mairi visit, we went back to Sachi’s brother’s place for some food and drink and company before heading back. Hard to ignore was the family dog, Ryu. A cute dog, except that he’s so damned ugly. He’s a seven-year-old dog but looks fifteen. The poor little guy has allergies all the way to Hades and back; he’s a mass of red rashes which cover the exposed skin of his belly, around his eyes, and often right through his fur. He is constantly scratching himself, and spent half the time we were there barfing on a cushion. I just had to take some photos of him. He had no problem with that, but did not seem to like the results–when I showed the picture of him to the canine directly, he peered at the camera through red, squinty eyes, and then started growling deep and low. He showed the same reaction only when the camera’s display, with his image on it, was turned toward him.

Not just mine, of course. This is Sachi’s family grave site (the name is distorted out at Sachi’s request), and Sachi wants us to both be buried there. I’m cool with that–while incredibly out of the way from anywhere most people would ever know about (it’s way up a narrow, steep, and windy little road, far out in the Nagano countryside), it’s a beautiful locale. Being hard to reach doesn’t concern me, and could be seen as an advantage–little chance it will be one day paved over or anything.

There are graves from Sachi’s ancestors reaching back maybe at least a few hundred years, well into the Tokugawa era. The site has permanence, esthetics, and a history. I never really thought or cared much about my eventual burial site before, and this certainly will do just fine.

We visited it because of Shunbun no Hi, or Vernal Equinox, when many Japanese do Ohaka-mairi, or visiting the family gravesite. Sachi’s father set up flowers, left a food offering, and burned incense; he as well as Sachi and I prayed shortly. It was quiet in the snow upon the hillside, almost poetic.

A view of our building, along with the northern Tokyo skyline, from our table at the Cruise-Cruise restaurant on the 58th floor of the Sunshine Building last night. This time, I left a light on at our apartment so we could identify it more easily. Can you see it?

While the details still seem a bit fuzzy, Japan seems poised to deliver a huge blow to file-sharing taking place here:

The nation’s four Internet provider organizations have agreed to forcibly cut the Internet connection of users found to repeatedly use Winny and other file-sharing programs to illegally copy gaming software and music, it was learned Friday.

The move aims to deal with the rise in illegal copying of music, gaming software and images that has resulted in huge infringements on the rights of copyright holders.

Resorting to cutting off the Internet connection of copyright violators has been considered before but never resorted to over fears the practice might involve violations of privacy rights and the freedom of use of telecommunications.

The Internet provider organizations have, however, judged it possible to disconnect specific users from the Internet or cancel provider contracts with them if they are identified as particularly flagrant transgressors in cooperation with copyright-related organizations, according to sources. …

According to the new agreement, copyright organizations would notify providers of Internet protocol addresses used by those who repeatedly make copies illegally, using special detection software. The providers would then send warning e-mails to the users based on the IP addresses of the computers used to connect to the Internet. If contacted users did not then stop their illegal copying, the providers would temporarily disconnect them from the Internet for a specified period of time or cancel their service-provision contracts.

The details given seem strangely incomplete. For example, the article only mentions cutting off people who download “music, gaming software and images”; the music and gaming software were mentioned repeatedly throughout the article, and no mention was made to television shows, movies, or any other kind of computer software. Was that simply a narrow focus chosen by the writer of the article, or are specific industries behind this move?

That narrow focus might indicate a desire to protect primarily Japanese copyright holders–since the most-copied Japanese-owned content is music and gaming software. If this is the case, then the crackdown might be similarly focused. They do mention that the interested parties are “copyright organizations including the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers and the Association of Copyright for Computer Software.” Of course, it might be that this story was leaked by that organization, thus explaining the narrow focus.

However, the question then becomes, “how do they know what’s being shared?” Will they really go to so much trouble to discriminate? Or will they simply detect the signature of a particular type of file-sharing software, or scrutinize accounts which carry a large amount of traffic?

Another confusing sentence in the story is, “They will then begin making guidelines for disconnecting users from the Internet who leak illegally copied material onto the Net.” “Leak?” So, downloading is okay, but uploading is not? The article also notes that “particularly flagrant transgressors” will be the ones shut down.

The article is also vague on what file-sharing software will and will not be monitored for. All of it? The article mentions Winny predominantly, because (unlike the U.S., where Bittorrent is now widely used) Winny is one of the most often-used file sharing programs in Japan.

In one manner, the cooperation by Japanese ISPs makes a lot of sense: file sharers tend to use more bandwidth than most people. Shutting them down, or even discouraging them, could clear up a lot of bandwidth. They might be able to save some money down the road because of this kind of thing. It is hard to see another reason why the ISPs would be so willing to rat out their own customers in favor of, and to the profit of, a third party.

Also, they did note that 1.75 million people used the software; how many people in their customer base are they willing to cut off? Will they be satisfied with simply shutting down a few users, but enough to scare most other people into cutting down on file sharing? Or perhaps, for the ISPs, this will simply be a way of weeding out the less-profitable customers for their service.

Then there is the privacy consideration. In what way have they circumvented that problem, in a way which they were unable to do a few years ago? Are they sure that the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, which shut them down two years ago, won’t tell them to cut it out again?

In a country where copyright violation is practiced flagrantly (music & video rental stores sell blank CDs and DVDs right up at the checkout counter), this is a bit of a surprising development. Having read accounts of this in western publications, I see some wondering what legal challenges there will be. If this is actually carried out and if the government doesn’t tell them to stop, then I presume the answer to that will be, “not many.” Japan is not known for that sort of thing, not too much anyway.

It will be interesting to monitor this story and see where it goes.

A few days ago, I posted about the nice weekend Sachi and I enjoyed, and I mentioned a fun bit of Engrish we saw:

We went home, and I gave Sachi the earrings I got for her main present, then we went off to a very nice restaurant downtown–the Oregon Bar & Grill in Shiodome (unfortunate motto: “Do Me”) City Center in Shinbashi.

To supplement that post, I tried to find some image from the web that had this logo and motto, but couldn’t find anything. Well, I should have been keeping up with Engrish.com, as they had this just a few days before my post:

You’d think that Japan would know by now to vet things like this past native speakers before printing them. We’re not that hard to find, you know.

Sachi and I have been around in the past few days. Yesterday was Sachi’s birthday, so we celebrated. I stopped by Mitsukoshi to pick up a few snacks; usually called “baby castella,” a kind of specially shaped pound-cake mini-snack, except these are filled with maple or caramel-flake flavors, very nice. Plus a bouquet of flowers from a nice florist, not the usual market florist. Then we went to a local “spa.”

It’s not that it isn’t a real “spa,” but more that it is a combination of spa and local bathhouse. These are relatively common, in that you might find one around even medium-sized train station shopping areas. We’re talking about a place that occupies at least three floors of a local building; one floor is set aside for the lobby and men’s baths; another floor exclusively for a more expansive women’s bath; and a third floor for a general-service area, with massage rooms and lounges.

This one is called the “Resta Spa,” though Sachi and I visited a similar spa in Fuchu that was nearly identical. You pay a nominal “introduction” fee (around $20), and another nominal fee for being in the spa for up to 5 hours.

Then you can opt for various services, like massages or aromatherapy. Sachi chose for a varied package of services lasting more than an hour, and I just got a 20-minute back massage (you have to be specific about what kind of massage, and it can be great).

There is a relaxation room with powered first-class chairs with TV units built in, but I could leave that behind easily–unless you enjoy listening to old guys snore heavily, I am more relaxed in bed at home.

We went home, and I gave Sachi the earrings I got for her main present, then we went off to a very nice restaurant downtown–the Oregon Bar & Grill in Shiodome (unfortunate motto: “Do Me”) City Center in Shinbashi.

A bit expensive, but very good food–one of those multi-course dinners. The view was from the 42nd floor over all of Tokyo, though had I made the reservations well in advance we might have gotten the choice seats looking over Tokyo tower and Roppongi–not that the view over Ginza we had was bad one.

Today, we had a lazy sleep-in day, followed by a visit to Sunshine 60 Cruise-Cruise restaurant, one of the first in a series of visits to places to find a good location for our wedding party this September (though the official stuff gets done next week). A lot of restaurants have special setups for wedding parties, and we’re looking into what the best ones are for our needs and budget. We had a talk with the coordinator there, about costs for various rooms with meals and packages (rental outfits, ceremonies, cakes, dinners, photos, etc.) We’ll visit a few more in the coming weeks to see which one can give us the best deal.

After that, we went to a new favorite Izakaya–a popular Japanese dining format, a restaurant that serves lots of smaller dishes to large numbers of customers in big and/or partitioned common rooms. We’ve tried a few in this area, and found bad ones and good ones. A bad one was a place called “Tapa Sunshine Street”; we went there for a nice meal once, and instead got shafted. Went in the door, got seated in a corner among noisy, smoking groups, and were given our introductory snack. You think that it’s a complimentary snack, but it’s really a cover charge. We ordered beers and those were served promptly–they want you to drink as much as possible as the beer is where they make most of their money. But when we waited more than 40 minutes and none of the ordered food arrived, we got fed up and left–to have to pay about twenty bucks for a glass of beer and a bad snack each. Horrible service.

But we found a much nicer place: Nijyu Maru–though it might be ironically run by the same corporation that owns that “Tapa” dump, it’s a much better-run izakaya. You get seated at your table and use an LCD touchscreen tablet to order food. When Sachi and I ordered, the food came almost too quickly; expecting a wait, we ordered everything we could eat at once the first time we were there, and suddenly found ourselves swimming in an abundance of dishes. Tonight, we ordered more leisurely, and got everything in good time. The touchscreen tablets are easy to use (and becoming the rage in Japan, it seems–more and more places we visit use them), and the food they serve is delicious (especially the Negima yakitori, salted). What I like is the fact that the cigarette smoke is less offensive than most places. Most izakayas are smoking dungeons; after leaving this place, we could still smell the cigarette stink on us, but not nearly as badly as most izakayas, and we didn’t notice it much at all while there. Somehow, the seating and/or the ventilation keep it from becoming too offensive. The prices are reasonable, too–$30 per person for two beers and a more-than-satisfying set of dishes we ordered.

So, a nice birthday weekend for Sachi, and, for that matter, for both of us.

I have always gotten my glasses made in the U.S. One of the reasons is that I was scared off of buying glasses in Japan because they were too expensive. I remember, many years ago, checking out prices for glasses in Japan and getting really high numbers quoted back to me. Maybe I was asking in the wrong places, but it was impression that this was a normal thing. So I have always gotten them when I go to the U.S. for visits.

This time around, however, I lost the prescription I had had made for me before I went to the U.S., and so I was not able to get glasses made when I went back. In the S.F. Bay Area at least, the glasses shops refuse to make a new pair for you without a prescription that is less than a few years old; you cannot simply bring in your existing pair and have them make a new pair based on that.

In Japan, however, there is no such restriction. Sachi and I were at Tokyu Hands and we passed by the “Coolens” outlet. We looked around and found a nice frame (at lower left in the image above; I still like my old pair better, but couldn’t find a similar frame here or in the U.S.), and then asked about getting the lenses made. To my surprise, the arrangement was pretty cheap; their cheapest set, including lenses and everything, is about $50 US. The price on each frame was the price including lenses (with UV and scratch-resistant coatings); you pay more for extras, like getting thinner lenses. But the main thing for me was that they would gladly measure the lenses right there and make a new pair for you, no prescription required. So we ordered the new pair–$92 for the basic pair, with an additional $76 for making them a lot thinner than basic. Not the cheapest in the world, but comparable to the prices I checked out in the U.S., and a lot cheaper than they used to be in Japan.

Can anyone out there confirm my impression that glasses used to be a lot more expensive here, and fill me in on when they got cheaper?

Sometimes the nuances of another language can be hard to figure out. They’ve tripped me up on quite a few occasions.

Let me explain. One example I stumbled upon a while ago was the expression “hard to see” in Japanese. In Japanese, one can use the root form of a verb followed by -nikui (difficult) to express the meaning, “difficult to (do something).” For example, wakarimasu means “to understand”; wakari-nikui means “difficult to understand.”

Well, I figured that the root of “to see” is mi (from mimasu), so I tried to say, mi-nikui. Problem is, minikui means “ugly.” That makes sense, when you realize that mimasu is not “to see,” but “to look at”; saying that something is “hard to look at” could be interpreted as saying that it’s ugly. Miemasu is “to see,” and so mienikui means “hard to see.”

However, “hard to look at” does not necessarily mean “ugly,” at least in English; it could mean something that is difficult to focus on, or something that causes eye discomfort. “My computer screen was hard to look at after spending all day in front of computers” would have a very different feeling than just “ugly.” What I haven’t figured out yet is whether or not minikui really means “ugly” or if it is simply translated that way; maybe in Japanese, ugly things are referred to as “hard to look at” as a way of “softening” or euphemizing the language. In Japanese, muzukashii (“difficult”) is used to mean “impossible” in the same way.

A slightly different problem has popped up for me in the past week or so. Twice, I’ve made a mistake when talking with Sachi in Japanese. It comes when I use another verb-root suffix, this one being -gai ga aru (or possibly -gai no aru), which means that something is “worthwhile doing.” For example, yarimasu means “to try,” and so yari-gai ga aru means “worth trying.”

Well, I wanted to say, “it’s worth waiting for.” Tonight, I made a nice dinner for Sachi–sauteed chicken (with cream cheese and spices for flavoring) and stir-fried vegetables, and some salmon with a sauce I cooked up (cream, lemon juice, wasabi, and pimenton spice), along with a salad and rice. It took a long time to make and Sachi was hungry waiting for it, but it turned out really well. So I wanted to say, “it was worth waiting for, right?”

The problem is, the root of “wait” is machi-, and when put together with -gai ga aru, it comes out as machi-gai ga aru, ne? –which means, “there’s a mistake, isn’t there?” You see, in Japanese, machigai is homonymous with the word for “error” or “mistake.” Sachi thought I was saying that something went wrong with the meal, so she disagreed. We then had to figure out where the miscommunication took place.

At least I’m learning.

As it turns out, the alleged case of rape in Okinawa that I reported on two weeks ago, may not have been a rape. It’s pretty clear that something illicit had happened–an American serviceman took a 14-year-old girl home on his motorcycle and forcibly tried to kiss her; when she started crying, he offered to take her home in her car. She then went to the police and made the charge of full rape, and that’s when everyone went nuts. The local population exploded in protest, and local politicians jumped on this as a reason to force U.S. bases and the 40,000 U.S. troops in Okinawa to pack up and leave. The U.S. troops were all put under a sweeping curfew.

But now, it seems that there may not have been a rape after all. This point is not clear–the police are not clearing the soldier publicly, or at least not yet–but the soldier in question has been released and the family is dropping charges. This is not proof that rape did not take place; it is possible that the young girl was so traumatized that the family decided that a trial would not help her. Or it is possible that the girl made a bad decision and made a charge that could not be upheld.

That we still don’t know is just more evidence, to me, that taking such cases and blowing them up into international incidents is very poor judgment. Allow the system of justice to take its course, wait to see what truth filters through, and act on that if it is relevant.

I though February was still supposed to be a good birding time. Not so much, it seems. I went to the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park on Sunday, and the main areas were pretty much empty. Not that I couldn’t spot any birds, but for a bird park, it was pretty light going.

Grey Herons are really beautiful birds, but they are also pretty common; you can see them around pretty much all the time. But, like I said, lovely birds. Beautiful plumage.

I also got a few unusually nice shots of a Great Tit. Again, very common birds, but they flit around so quickly, it’s often hard to get shots as good as this.

Another common bird is the Great Cormorant; these guys are all around. Ugly birds, too. But it is cool to see them standing out there with their wings out, getting them dry (they don’t have the same waterproofing as other birds do).

And sometimes you can catch them in rather epic struggles.

The more interesting birds: in the distance (as birds of prey usually are), there was a Common Buzzard (Nosuri) hanging about:

One of the first things I saw was this young but colorful Bull-headed Shrike (Mozu):

And fully unexpected was a Daurian Redstart (Joubitaki). Not that Redstarts aren’t seen in the park, but this one was hopping around on the ground in the mud flats; previously, I’d only seen Redstarts in the trees and shrubs, and aside from the occasional Wagtail or Thrush, just Sandpipers and other shorebirds in the flats. But this one was happily foraging around in the mud, not far from the only Common Sandpiper (Isoshigi) I could spot in the entire park.

And, just to close things up, a few extra pictures. Enjoy.

Inevitably, it’s happened again: another reported rape of a teenager by an American serviceman in Okinawa. By “inevitably” I do not mean to suggest that American servicemen are predisposed to rape teenagers, what I mean is that in any population of a certain size, there will always be all manner of crimes committed.

Naturally, the Japanese press is going nuts with it. Stories on the news are almost as constant as the poisoned Chinese gyoza story. And the politicians are using it as a reason to call for the U.S. forces to leave.

First, let me set some items straight lest you misunderstand. I do not approve of, trivialize, or excuse in any way, shape, or form any act of rape by anyone against anyone else. I do not claim that this specific accusation of rape is true or not true; it is an accusation at this time and not judged in a court of law. And I do not offer judgment here about whether or not U.S. bases should or should not be in Japan.

What I am saying is, it is unreasonable for the Japanese press to stoke up stories like this for jingoistic and xenophobic purposes, and for politicians to use them for unrelated political arguments.

Here’s the fact: rape happens, and it’s not just American servicemen doing it. You can be certain that there is at least as much of that crime being committed in Okinawa and everywhere else in Japan, by Japanese men. But that is rarely if ever reported, and certainly is never used as an issue to push for any Japanese rapist’s affiliated organizations.

Consider the situation in reverse; with so many Japanese living in the U.S., there are bound to be rapes by Japanese men against American teens. If a rapist worked for Sony, for instance, should that be sensationalized in the U.S. press and then used to suggest that Sony should be made to pack up and leave?

I guess the reason I mention this is because I get nervous when these things are blown out of proportion by the Japanese media. (Again, not that rape should be trivialized, but rather that only rapes by Americans against Japanese are sensationalized. If anything, this kind of misplaced emphasis devalues the perceived importance of other rapes; by placing emphasis on who commits the crime rather than on the crime itself, it suggests that rapes committed by others are not as objectionable, or not as important.) It brings back the specter of the 1980’s and the rampant xenophobia and its resultant discrimination brought out. I am reminded of the Yoshi Hattori case, an event also blown way beyond any reasonable proportions, especially relative to similar events happening within Japan.

And even today, Japanese politicians, especially the ultra-nationalists like Tokyo’s Ishihara, have a habit of singling out crimes by foreign populations, exaggerating them, and frightening the domestic population with scare stories about them. Just like American nationalists do on their turf, and it’s just as reprehensible.

If the politicians want American bases out, then fine; but that argument should be made on its merits, and not in a way that creates and encourages disproportionate fear, anger, and discrimination.

Just my two cents on the issue.

After yesterday’s heavy snowstorm, I took the opportunity on this clement day to visit Kasai Rinkai Park on Tokyo Bay to see what the birds were doing. The results: there must have been some popular bird event elsewhere, because Kasai Rinkai was virtually void of any avian presence. Yes, there were the inevitable Winter ducks, but just the usual collection. I did get a few shots, the best of which I’ll share first: a Mozu, or Bull-headed Shrike, happened to land on a close perch as I arrived at the park.

The same shot, full-sized:

And I even caught a nice shot of it flying away (larger image on click):

Other birds included a fair number of Mejiro (Japanese White-eyes) flitting around the park, scavenging among the reeds:

Again, a nice close-up shot, with larger image on click:

Early on, I saw several Black-faced Buntings in the trees, but they danced and flew far too fast to catch a good shot; however, I did get a view from a distance to confirm they were indeed the right Buntings:

There were also the ubiquitous Brown-eared Bulbuls–noisy, unafraid, and disappointing as always… but I did get a fairly close shot, so what the heck, here it is:

Along with all the ducks were the always-attractive Green-winged Teals. There were also some Coots and even a Moorhen among the ducks.

And what bird park is complete without a hungry feline?

As I left the park on my scooter along Wangan Boulevard, I was witness to a near-accident: a car passed at more than 100 kph–and then, when trying to merge left, the driver lost control and spun out in a rather spectacular fashion. He first served right and spun about ninety degrees, then the same in the other direction, and eventually almost did a 360. I kept expecting the car to lose its footing and start tumbling end-over-end, but it would seem the car’s engineers were far more in control than the driver of the car; eventually he straightened out, and then immediately slowed to under the speed limit. Still, the smell of burning rubber was thick in the air behind him.

After a minute or so, as he was now driving especially cautiously, I passed him… and saw that the driver was a man, and the woman and child in the back were presumably his family. What the hell he was thinking by driving that way with his family in the car in the first place is beyond me.

Okay, this is somewhat of a small thing, perhaps irrelevant in the grander scheme of things. But is anyone else in Japan (or anywhere else where they do this) tired of how cashiers in stores hand stuff to you at the end of the checkout process?

I have noticed that in most such situations, the clerk will hand you your member’s card (if you have one), your change in bills, your receipt, and your change in coins, all in one pile at one time. Does anyone else here hate that?

It seems dumb. First of all, you usually are holding your wallet in one hand, so you only have one hand free. They put all that in one hand when all else is finished, so while they go on to the next shopper and you’re supposed to move on, you must somehow (a) put the member’s card back in your wallet, (b) but the bills back in the wallet in a different place, (c) put the receipt wherever you need to put it, and (d) put the coins back in your pocket or in your change purse, all while both hands are full.

It’s even more dumb when you realize that it’s not necessary–while you are just standing there with your hand out, the clerk could hand you the card back first, and while you put that away, they could get the bills and hand them to you, and when you’ve put them away, they’d be ready to hand you the coins, and by the time you’ve put that away, the receipt would finally have printed out and perforated, and they could hand that to you, and you walk away ready to go.

Instead, you stand there for 10-15 seconds with your hand out ready to go, while the clerk picks up the card, counts out the bills, picks out the change, and then sits there waiting for the receipt to print out–and then they give you the whole pile, where you get to put four things in four different places with one hand.

Who thought up that stupid way of doing things? And why don’t they figure out more or less immediately that it’s the dumbest way to do things? I would try to explain it to the clerks, except (a) it would take a few minutes and they would just stare blankly at you or nod and then keep on doing it, (b) it would be tiring to take the time to explain this to five clerks a day, and (c) you know that they’d just do it again the next time anyway.

Some clerks do it right–hand back the card, then count out the bills for you, then give you the “komakai” (small) change, and then hand you the receipt. They did that for me today at the 100-yen shop, it worked smoothly. Then I go to the Pororoca supermarket in my building and they give me the hands-full, you-sort-it-out-magically solution.

Like I said, a trivial, irrelevant thing. And I know you’re not supposed to sweat the small stuff. The thing is, I really hate inefficiency like that. Kind of like the traffic lights that are timed to alternate so you get stopped at three red lights in a row when there’s no traffic-sense reason to do so. Kind of like in a shop, when they take a box you just bought which already has individually-wrapped pieces in a plastic sleeve inside the box, and then they wrap it in paper, put it in a bigger box, then put that in a bag for you. Or why more shops don’t use a common feeder line instead of making you try to guess which line will go fastest, or why Japanese supermarkets have no Express lane.

This is not the kind of stuff that takes a genius to figure out that it’s stupid as hell–it is plainly evident. That makes it all the more frustrating, especially when you see it several times a day.