Japan

“Japan is weird”… “oh, Japan“… “well it would be Japan”, are all phrases you hear when you see an advert that involves a man spouting bananas out of his nose with a banana moustache (see below), and I cannot blame you. Japan can be a little weird, but daily life is not so much weird as simply a little different. Today I wanted to share with you some of the quirks of Japanese life, some annoying, some fantastic, that you can only really experience by actually living here.

So, ignoring the above, which I am not exposed to due to a lack of TV, lets have a look at small snippets of life in Japan that I feel are worth sharing.

Space Age Toilets

Even if you are only visiting Japan for a day, even if you never leave the airport, you will definitely experience the wonders of Japanese loos. The first thing you will notice is that the seat is nice and warm; in Japan you plug your toilet in and it keeps your seat warm for you, great in the winter though its hard to get up again if its cold outside. That may be the second difference you notice if the toilet seat opens as you walk towards it (some do, some don’t). The first time I visited Japan our hotel had one of these self-openers, and as my sister walked towards it it opened and she jumped out of her skin.

You will then notice a panel of buttons to one side with characters that you, a foreigner, probably cannot read. I would suggest not touching the buttons unless you are happy to have a jet of warm water attack your behind. Definitely bad if you mistake the button for the flush and you are not actually sat on the mecha-toilet as it sprays. Japanese toilets often have a flush well away from the button panel, or they even have an automatic flush, minimising any effort on your part.

If you are terrified at the prospect of someone listening to you pee, or heaven forbid defecate (like many 13 year-old-girls at my high school who employed a friend to operate the hand dryer so they could safely function like a normal human), never fear! Japanese public toilets often have a little musical note button that, when pressed, plays a running water or flushing sound, totally drowning out the call of nature.

As strange and unnecessary as they are, I will probably miss Japanese toilets. Having to flush and open the toilet now seems barbaric and so 20th century. Japan, the nation that loves the idea of giant robots, is a pioneer in the field of space-age toilets. It will only be weird of one day they gain sentience or become transformers.

Avian Manner Enforcers

Walking home from university one day, Family Mart fried chicken in hand, happily breaking the unspoken Japanese rule that one should not eat and walk in public, I met my due punishment at the hands of one of Kyoto’s most viscious gangs. One minute I was trudging across the Imperial Palace Park towards home having just taken a delightfully greasy bite, and the next my chicken had been knocked out of my hands and a large bird was wheeling around to strike again. Yes, Japan may be crime-free for the most part, but no one’s told the birds.

Kites and Japanese ‘crows’ that look a lot more like ravens to me, rule the skies of Kyoto, haphazardly dealing social justice to those that feel they can flaunt social niceties and eat in public. My chicken was victim of some form of avian cannibalism and my thumb was victim of a very small nick on the knuckle from the kite’s claws. They are very large birds up close, and only at the moment it is wheeling around to claim the chicken it just knocked to the ground do you realise quite how sharp its beak and talons are. I picked up my chicken, decided I wasn’t going to risk the loss of a finger, or my entire head, and threw bits of it to my winged policeman until there was no more. I then quickly hid my other piece of chicken (safe in a plastic bag) in my bag.

So if you do visit Japan, you will probably notice signs warning of birds, do not scoff, for these are winged justice and you are a puny soft-skinned human, no match for the steely claws of a bird. I read a review of a park the other day which finished with “you need to be careful of falcons, they could be annoying and might hurt you. my friend end[ed] up with 5 stitches on the eyebrows.” (source), so I was pretty lucky!

Bite-Sized Burgers

Japan seems to be the opposite of the US on the burger scale; while in the US I found burgers to be comically (or tragically) large, Japanese burgers feel like they were made for a child with a small appetite. Most burgers you get in Japan can be finished by a normal adult in about three bites, a woeful disappointment for those seeking to satiate their cravings for western fast food. It’s not that all portions in Japan are small; ramen, curry or rice dishes tend to be fairly substantial, and come in a range of sizes from ‘mini’ (slightly smaller than regular) to ‘mega’ (larger than your head), but for some reason burgers are relegated to snack size.

Japanese burgers are good, so its not like you’d only want a morsel; they come in flavours such as teriyaki, prawn, ‘hawaiian’ and many more as well as your standard cheese burger. The most interesting burger I’ve eaten here was definitely the Burger King ‘Kuro Burger’, the all-black burger that was in news stories all over the world when released. To be honest it just tasted like a slightly peppery burger, not that exciting, and it looked a lot like a shrivelled up bin bag with a leak (good thing that ‘taste is king’ because the looks were far from royal), but as everyone wants to try it once, it works pretty well for marketing. The colour is achieved with squid ink and charcoal, and neither leave much of a taste so its mostly just a burger.

Though most Japanese burgers are pitiful, when I went to Tokyo we found the holy grail for those craving a ‘proper burger’, 7th Fleet Burger in Yokosuka has huge burgers. Their full sized burger is a half pound of meat, and they even have a challenge burger that looks like 4 burgers stacked on top of each other. I had a Hawaiian burger (beef, pineapple, lashings of BBQ sauce) and it was heavenly. Sadly my stomach was so used to Japanese sized burgers that I was unable to finish, though I made a good effort. So if you are in Japan and need a real burger, this is the place to go.

That is all I will cover for today but if you find this interesting I will continue this ‘segment’. After my finals finish (4 days to go!) I’ll be able to go out and do more sight-seeing for blog purposes.

My journey on Saturday was admittedly originally about quantity rather than quality; I wanted to see how many temples I could do in a day. We visited two large and interesting temples alongside several smaller temples, making a total of 6. The small shrines and temples are always a pleasure to visit despite being fairly similar. It feels a bit like entering a puzzle game or mystery novel as there is usually no information as to who built it, when it was built or even what god it’s trying to venerate.

While the tiger temple (see here) was pretty obvious in its intended purpose, the three smallest shrines and temples we visited were pretty sparse on the information front. My very useful book (Exploring Kyoto: On Foot in the Ancient Capital – Judith Clancy) did give a little information but it was mostly interested in the large temples (probably because she couldn’t find much on the small temples either). Regardless, the smaller shrines and the journey along the way were interesting and at least visually stimulating even if there was no historical backdrop to fit them into.

Please refer to my handy map for where we went. You will see that these temples fit very nicely into a route between the main temples of Sekizan Zenin (temple 2) and Manshu-in (temple 4).

The first small temple we visited we nearly missed. I had forgotten all about it despite it being in my walk book, and its discovery was thanks to its best feature – this temple’s gate is also a bell-tower. We stopped to look at it before realising that it was a temple. A pleasant surprise.

This temple was Zenkain 禅華院 (3 on the map), an Edo period temple with some wonderful architecture. The bell tower led into a small garden surrounded by walls and a small open shrine area opposite the gate. Usually there is a figure or important looking ceremonial object in the area for prayer but this temple had a simple screen and flower arrangement which was refreshing. We also discovered a tiny door in one of the walls next to a gate. Perhaps it’s an Edo-period cat flap.

The garden may have been designed by Kobori Enshu, according to our friend Judith Clancy, but it is pretty vague as to whether he actually did. It could be yet another temple creation myth. Kobori Enshu was a famous garden designer and tea ceremony master of the Edo period who designed many gardens of castles including Kyoto’s Nijo castle. Perhaps he also happened to design the garden of a tiny temple on the outskirts of Kyoto, a smaller garden must be a nice change from grand castles and bossy Daimyo (lords).

Zenkain also has several statues that date back to the Kamakura period to the right of the gate as you enter. These are statues of Amida Nyorai, Kannon and Jizo. They appear to have been left to the elements but they’ve been around since the 12th Century so they’re probably fine with a little rain.

Our next temple was Manshu-in’s Shinto cousin, Manshu-in Tenmangu 曼殊院天満具 (5 on the map), a small shrine opposite the much larger Manshu-in (see post here). This was certainly a mystery shrine – we had no information from the book (not on the walk despite being next to Manshu-in) and there were no signs or people to glean information from. There was a noodle shop but they probably wouldn’t welcome enquiries about the shrine.

I did a little research and learned that the two shrine buildings are dedicated to different gods. The first pictured is dedicated to Benzaiten, the only female member of Japan’s seven lucky gods (who we have seen quite a bit recently). She is the goddess of knowledge, art and beauty.

Next to the goddess of knowledge sits a structure dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar of Heian period Japan who was so learned that he is now revered as the god of learning by the name of Tenman-tenjin, hence the temple’s name ‘Tenmangu’. This combination creates a shrine fit for a student – pray here and perhaps all your exam worries will melt away. We were visiting just over a week before finals for this term so hopefully the luck will rub off!

There was also a pond with lots of very beautiful koi, so I assume someone comes to feed them and it’s not always completely deserted.

Our final stop on our temple extravaganza was Saginomori Shrine 鷺ノ森神社 (6 on the map), a Shinto shrine with an actual person which meant we could get our books stamped. Sadly when they stamped my book the red stamp didn’t take ink properly so it’s a bit faded, I don’t really mind though. The man apologised and looked guilty so I can’t really be annoyed.

This shrine was established in the 9th Century but was moved to its present location in the 17th Century. It is fairly generic as Shinto shrines go and doesn’t seem to have as much history as many. However, it is located in a forest and has a great sacred tree and guides all say that it’s a great place to visit for plum blossoms, so maybe I will return when they are in bloom.

As well as these temples I really enjoyed the walk; we were close to the mountains and they still have snow from the big fall at the start of January, making them look like they are covered in icing sugar. We also spotted some slightly creepy scarecrows, some small Jizo statues dedicated to travellers and a speaker that had been inexplicably thrown in the river and was amazingly still intact. Perhaps to others that would be unremarkable but in Japan there is barely any litter so to think someone violated the proper procedure of getting rid of speakers (on which there are several leaflets, I am sure) is amazing. I mean, a little rubbish may be excused as an accident, but someone hurling speakers into a river in Japan?! Unheard of.

I have also finished one whole side of my stamp book (it folds out like a screen) and I will be sure to post a full picture of that side soon!

Also please check out my resources and learning Japanese pages in the menu bar. I have compiled a list of the resources I use to write my blog on the ‘resources‘ page and a list of the tools I use to learn Japanese in the ‘learning Japanese?‘ page. I hope you will find these interesting/ useful.

japangie

ジャパンジー

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