Things I like about Japan #3: Fans

As I think I've mentioned repeatedly, summers in Japan are hot and humid (蒸し暑い, or mushiatsui, is a phrase you'll hear countless times). There are a few things that make this bearable, however. One is the ability for both women and men to carry around fans without looking ridiculous. (And as you can see from the picture above, having a fan at a choice moment can definitely make you friends.)

There are actually two types of hand-held fans common in Japan: uchiwa and sensu. Although many people might think first of folding fans (sensu) as the Japanese cooling implement of choice, uchiwa are actually more popular for everyday use. Uchiwa are flat, non-folding Japanese fans which have been a familiar part of daily life for all classes in Japan since ancient times. They come in all shapes and sizes, from more decorative/formal ones to video game-themes versions to free uchiwas that actually have ads printed on them:



This site has some interesting background information on uchiwa.

The folding style fan is harder to make and thus also more expensive. But according to various sites, although the uchiwa was commonly used in China, the sensu was actually invented in Japan sometime around the 8th century. The earliest versions were made of thin slats of Japanese cypress hinoki wood that were stacked and bound. The production of these folding fans rapidly grew in Kyoto and sensu became popular among the nobility. Gorgeous decorations evolved with the use of elegantly painted designs and paper sprinkled with gold and silver foil. Folding fans were also made for use in Noh, Japanese classical dance, and tea ceremony. In the 13th century, sensu were exported to China and the fashion later migrated to Europe as well.

Again, a variety of styles of sensu are available, though I have yet to see a sensu with ads printed on it:



The fan I'm using above was actually procured in the Philippines, where it seems that lace styles are also popular. In any case, I'm always looking for ways to beat the heat, and these things are great!

Hello from Kyoto!

It's been such a busy week! On Monday, I moved out of the house I'd been living in for the last three years, put most of my earthly possessions in storage, and got on a red-eye flight bound for Washington D.C. to start my Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) in Advanced Japanese. I was very pleased to arrive to an amazing breakfast and plush accommodations at the Embassy Suites, conveniently located closed to a number of sights in Washington D.C. After a nap, I managed to arrange impromptu get-togethers with Alice, an old friend who interned with me at the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003, and Tessa, a fellow University of Washington Political Science major who is now working as a lawyer in D.C.

Tuesday night and all of Wednesday consisted of an orientation at the American Councils headquarters. Though the State Department provides the funding, American Councils appears to handle the U.S.-side organizational responsibilities for the CLS Program. The staff were all incredibly friendly and helpful, though they were only able to give us a limited amount of information on our program, since this is the first year that CLS has included a Japanese program. Still, we used the time to meet one another--there are 14 students in the Advanced Japanese group, 5 graduate students and 9 undergraduates. Everyone seems remarkably nice and friendly, and some of the participants speak fabulous Japanese--I'm particularly impressed with the undergraduates who haven't ever been to Japan before and yet seem to have mastered an impressive level of language skill.

At 3:30 am on Friday morning, the 14 of us got on a bus bound for Dulles airport and embarked on a 16-hour plane journal (with a 2-hour stop at San Francisco International Airport) for the Kansai International Airport in Osaka. It was a surprisingly pleasant plane ride, in no small part due to the fact that I was seated in United Economy Plus, which was well worth the money to upgrade (yay for 5 extra inches of leg room!). Anyway, an hour-long bus ride found our group at the Hearton Hotel in Kyoto, where we met our Resident Director. Saturday was our orientation at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS), which included a 2.5-hour long placement test, a campus tour, and (finally) lots of information about our classes to come (and our first homework assignments, of course!).

Today, I finally met my host family. I'm staying with a very nice couple in a house just a short walk from Doshisha University's Imadegawa campus, where KCJS is based. I'm excited, as this is my very first homestay experience, and I hope to make the most of it! And it looks like an amazingly relaxing place to live and work--I have a surprisingly spacious room all to myself, and even a separate study area:

The house is also home to a very well-behaved dog named おじゃる (Ojaru):

Overall, I've been very impressed with the coordination and effort put in by American Councils and KCJS--and the State Department has been amazingly generous in paying for pretty much every expense that we could possibly encounter. They've even set us up with temporary cell phones for our stay! (Although, as anybody who's lived in Japan knows, cell phones are basically mandatory for Japanese life.) I'm quite glad that I decided to attend this program. It's like the study abroad program that I never did as an undergraduate.

Anyway, I should unpack and get started on my homework! No rest for the weary!

A Voice from the Deep

I've decided to resuscitate this blog because... I'm moving back to Japan! That's right, after an extended hiatus away from the Land of the Rising Sun, I'm going back. This summer, I will be studying doing a homestay in Kyoto and studying advanced Japanese through the Critical Language Scholarship program based at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies. Then, I'll be in the U.S. for a bit, tying up loose ends in Berkeley, visiting family in Seattle, and presenting at a conference and doing some interviews in Washington D.C., before heading back to Tokyo to start 12 months of fieldwork. Exciting stuff!

In any case, I will be updating this blog regularly with tales of productivity and adventure, and as always, a ton of pictures. I look forward to sharing them with you! For now, I'd like to get things started with a slideshow from my time at an English teacher in Niigata-ken from 2005-2006--it's a "greatest hits," of sorts. Enjoy!

Yokohama Port Opening Festival and Ocean Day

Yesterday, I attended the annual festival commemorating the port opening of Yokohama. 6,000 fireworks were released over the course of an hour and 10 minutes, which made for a pretty good show. My school hosted a party for its students, which was particularly convenient, since our school overlooks the part of the Yokohama harbor where the fireworks were set off. Snacks and drinks were plentiful, and it was a pretty good time overall, even if my teacher spent some of the party correcting my speech for tomorrow, LOL.

Today is Ocean Day, a recently introduced Japanese national holiday to celebrate the ocean. The day marks the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Hokkaido in 1876. It's a pretty uneventful holiday, all in all.

A trip to the National Diet

I went on a class field trip to the National Diet building yesterday (the Japanese equivalent of Congress) and toured the Upper House (the House of Councillors). The Diet isn't currently in session, so it was something of your typical historical/national building tour, but it was definitely interesting to see where all of the action (or inaction) of the Japanese government happens. I frequently see the chambers of the Upper and Lower Houses in newspapers and on the TV. I was tempted to buy a set of Japanese sweets imprinted with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's face. But I managed to restrain myself.

One interesting fact: Everything in the National Diet building is constructed of Japanese materials except:

1. The stained glass
2. The doorknobs (which were made in the U.S.)
3. The mail chute system (also made in the U.S.)

And here's me pretending to be a genki Diet member:

Kyoto

I went sightseeing in Kyoto this past weekend and saw Fushimi Inari Taisha, Ginkakuji (which I don't recommend visiting until after the construction is finished), and Kiyomizudera. I am loving my language program and living in Yokohama, by the way. For now, I have a speech to write!

Novelty gravestones: Morbid or eternally cute?

I have homework to finish before this morning's first session, but I just wanted to share photos of these gravestones that I saw in a shop on the way to Sojiji the other day. The "Baseball Santa" tombstone is a a particularly strange amalgamation of concepts:

The Japanese can make anything cute...

So, every day on my way to class, I walk through or past the tallest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower (and an amusement park with one of the world's largest ferris wheels, but that's not the subject of this particular entry). While I definitely think it's pretty cool, the Landmark Tower is not what I think of as "cute" - it looks more like a medieval fortress crossed with a skyscraper and tends to ring more "imposing" or "impressive" in my mind. Exhibit A, the Landmark Tower:



But of course, I was simply seeing the building with my non-cuteness-creating American eyes. The Japanese, however, know exactly how the cuteness of this building would manifest, if the latter so desired. Exhibit B, an advertisement for the Landmark Tower's 15th anniversary:



I particularly like the declaration of "I Love You!" at the top. And the way that the top section of the building so nicely imitates a mouth just where one is needed.

Second day of classes was good, but I have so much homework!

First day of language classes...

It went well, but I am so so so so tired. I woke up around 4:30 am (partly because I'm not fully adjusted to Japanese time and partly because that's when the sun comes up in this crazy country), had a busy morning of classes, and then went on a class field trip to Sojiji, Yokohama's largest Buddhist temple, for a rather intense tour (all in Japanese, of course). Highlights included witnessing some type of Buddhist ceremony and experiencing zazen (which included getting whacked by a Buddhist priest with a large piece of wood - and it was a good whack). Anyway, I still have a lot of homework to do, and my brain is fading quickly, but here are some pics:


Our tour guide


One of the buildings of the temple


One of the shrines within the temple

It's been an interesting first week back in Japan. But for now I'm off to try and finish this homework before I pass out.