Meaf's Adventures Abroad

My Japanese Date

Well folks, it's finally happened. Yours truly had a date. To be truthful it was a pair, the second being the superior and the details of which I will write below. The first, which was obviously good enough to get me a second, served the purpose of breaking the ice. It was my creation, a classic dinner and movie teenage date. But since her English is rather poor, it was good because we didn't need to talk too much. Although over dinner we chatted pretty much continually for more than 2 hours.
Oh, I suppose I should say how I met her and who she is and such. Her name is Kaoru and she works for Sumitomo Corporation, which is a huge company in Japan, although I haven't the faintest what they do. Knowing Japan, the answer to that question is: everything. She's a secretary to some of the head honchos I believe, although I haven't delved too much into it. She works near the penthouse of her skyscraper, so I'm assuming. She's also a student at my school, but not mine. She is taught by a Japanese English teacher.
For our second outting (planned by her) we went to Odaiba, an island in Tokyo Bay which is pretty much a seaside playground. The beaches are pretty crap, but there are tons of ultra modern buildings and entertainment. There is, like everywhere in Tokyo, great shopping. But in addition to that, there is several game centres and Oedo spa and a bunch of stuff I don't know about. First, we walked along the shore and checked out the miniture version of the Statue of Liberty. After that we went to a game centre which reminded me of an arcade you might find in Niagara Falls or something, but it was way better. It was like a warehouse of games. It had everything from your classics, to crazy shooter games, taiko drums, dancing games (which some Japanese guys are crazy good at - but are obviously social outcasts and they just bask in the attention their performances draw,) virtual horse betting (the betters sit in leather lazyboys with control panels in the arms to make their selections and I think buy the horses extra food and such,) a game where you bring special collectable cards and use them in military strategy and physically move them around the table while the corresponding troops battle on the screen, batting cages, basketball, ping-pong, tennis and other such sporting games, and the apparently super-popular digital editing photo booth. Needless to say we had a blast. We learned we both suck at golf. We giggled like school girls editting our photos and I tested her air hockey skills.
Following that we went to Oedo Onsen. The place totally blew me away. When I said I had been to an onsen, I had been to tiny little pools in Shizuoka with Dan which were simply a hotspring fed tub. This however, was a spa. First you chose a robe and changed into it. I went commando for about an hour before I realized that people had gitch on. Anyhow, leaving the changeroom is like stepping on the streets of feudal tokyo. Well not really, but it was like a mock-town inside. There were souvenier shops and restaurants and games and such and everyone walks around in their yakata (japanese robes). Its a really cool atmosphere.
First we went to the foot onsen. It was basically a path of hotwater snaking its way through a garden outside. You just through on a jacket and bathe your feet. The bottom of the "river" is covered in varying stones, some large and smooth, others small and smooth, others quite sharp and painful. The idea is to walk around and be massaged, but some are really jagged and everyone just chuckles as people cry out in pain, then jump out just as they did.
After eating some soba noodles and tempura (delicious!) we went into the baths. They are of course seperated by gender. Each side had about 8-9 bathes, with varying temperatures and solutions (salt, something red, sulphur etc.) I enjoyed the ones outside best because they reminded my of my friend Mike's backyard and the salt pool and the cold pool. The Japanese men stared at me in disbelief as I lounged in the icy water for maybe 10 minutes.
Although we didn't do it, there was also a relaxation room where you can nap in a lazyboy or watch TV on your personal screen attached to your chair. I'm told you can stay there all night, and in retrospect I would have liked to. Maybe I can convince her to go back. Shouldn't be that hard, she loves spas as much as every other Japanese person does.
Anyhow, it was super-duper and I'm pretty sure it tops the list of dates and I hope I'll be writing about another date soon.

posted by M. Sullivan @ 10:19 PM 1 comments

Sumo

A had the opportunity last Monday to witness the clash of titans that is Japan`s national sport. One of my students, an atypical Japanese lady with very conservative dress and long purple and pink hair, took myself and Andrew my fellow English teacher to Ryogoku last Monday where the current Sumo tournament is being held. I`ve found that going with Japanese people to these things is generally a superior experience since they can explain what`s going on and we had killer seats as well, front row of the balcony.
Sumo cannot really be compared to any other sport. The skills involved are not unlike those hulking men who battle on the line in American and Canadian football. The object is to get the opponent out of the ring or have them touch the ground with anything other than their feet. Tactics include locking arms and man-handling the other out, rapid consecutive pushing/slapping in the chest/face, twisting the body of your opponent so they lose balance and fall over or amazingly, deftly dodging a tackle allowing the opponent`s monstrous momentum to carry him to the ground or out. Some matches lasted upwards of 2 minutes, but it wasn`t uncommon for the match to end within a few seconds. Because of this, my friend Andrew happened to comment "It'd be great if they had a screen with instant replay." So our host Kayoko pulled out her cellphone, flipped the screen around backwards and turned on the Sumo coverage as if it was nothing. So we had our instant replays.
What sets it apart from other sports is the ceremony involved. The wrestlers enter the ring and perform a small dance, the referee is in elaborate costume and yells a lot during the match, each wrestler is announced by a singer who chants their name in a style similar to an Imam calling muslims to prayer in the middle east. Before the pair fight, they face each other and the audience and do the stomping/stretching that Sumo is known for. Those who are high-ranking wrestlers do more ritual than the younger ones. In the top flight, the wrestlers will face each other 5 times and then return to their corner, tossing salt into the ring upon their return for purification purposes, before they engage each other. It kind of reminded me of a pitcher in baseball throwing the ball to first to keep the runner on base, then signaling to the catcher, then the batter takes a step back to stretch and knock the sand from his shoes... etc.
It was a really fun day and it was obviously something I had to do while I was here. I was amazed at the athleticism of these men despite their massive size and apparently soft bodies (to cushion their fall on the concrete ring which is covered in a thin layer of sand) but also the elaborate ritual. A few last comments. Before the end matches, sponsors sent young boys to carry advertisement banners for one lap around the ring. Each is worth 60000 yen or $600. The winner of the match that follows wins the cash. So for 3 banners, the winner gets $1800. Because we were mid-tournament there weren`t as many (8-9 at most) but on the final day in the Yokozuna fight (a match against the permanent champion done last) in excess of $100,000 is put on the line. For a match than can be won in an instant, its a lot of frickin` pressure. A second interesting note is that back in the day, if the head referee in the ring made a wrong decision without consulting the secondary judges who surround the ring and his decision was overruled by said judges, he was obligated to ritually disembowel himself, an old samurai practice called seppeku. Sheesh, and we think refs have a hard time in say soccer or hockey... That wasn`t hooking! Puck to the face!
Anyhow, I digress. In sum, it was wicked cool.

posted by M. Sullivan @ 9:44 PM 0 comments