Fuji!

So after leaving Nagoya last saturday we (Olivia, James and Myself) met up with some friends, Zac, Jon and Tom from Tokyo, and together, with the power of the first and third largest incorporated cities in Japan, climbed Fuji!!

Theres lots to be read about climbing fuji. We did much the same as everyone else. Starting in the late evening, after taking the bus from the surprisingly dingy fujinomiya station, we climbed up the Fujinomiya trail.  Since we were climbing up at night, we took headlamps along with us. Its supposed to be more dangerous this way, and people have warned me about slipping and falling. But I slipped way more during the day coming down the mountain than up. 

Boarding our last train to Fuji. You'll need that energy, Olivia! 

Looking fabulous at the bottomn after exiting the bus.

I didn't take a whole lot of photos coming up the mountain, since It was so dark. Basically we climbed up rock in a long trail of people for  many hours. Along the way we had fun together, complaining and making ridiculous jokes, as well as laughing all of our thin oxygen away.  The mountain is very  cold after living in Japan for  the whole summer, and I was even shivering in my ski jacket and several layers. 

After a mad rush at the top and alot of waiting in line, we got up there about 20 minutes before the first rays crept over the horizon. It definitely was a sunrise to remember, and I see why so many people make the climb. Still it is a long way to go up for a sunrise. To be honest my favorite part was the views and the clean air during the day.  At the top its hard to appreciate the sunrise, when you're so cold and deprived of sleep and oxygen. 

Zac and James look terribly dejected. Spirits were still high, but we all wanted to get to the bottomn.

There really isn't a more breathtaking view to be had in this country. Forget the damn tall buildings. There is a reason fuji is such a famous mountain. climbing so far above the clouds is such an incredible experience

I had to get one photo of me on top of the world.

And Thats it! After hours and hours of climbing down the mountain, knees a knocking, dust a flying, wind a blowing, we got to the bottom. Its still a pretty cool place above the clouds, even at the foot of the mountain. I wanted to sit and watch them for a while longer, but I was already sunburnt and tired enough. Plus we still had a four hour journey back to our beds in Tokyo.

James and I both got pretty well prepared for the climb, and despite all the anxiety of climbing a mountain that so many people have a miserable time climbing, Fuji was alot easier and funner than I expected. Climbing well prepared, and with good company, It was actually a pretty great experience. No doubt tiring, but really something anyone can do if they have the gumption. Its definitely a wonderful way to cap off a trip to Japan, and the views from the top are so breathtaking,  I couldn't help but enjoy myself immensely coming down the mountain in the late august sun, which is much nicer with the cold mountain air than the humidity of urban Japan.
Thanks Fuji, and see you again sometime!

Sumo!

 

So, a couple weeks ago, we planned to go to see sumo with Michelle and Heather, two volunteers from another part of Japan. We expected to go really early one morning to line up and grab cheap seats before they sold out. We happened to mention to the director of our hospital our plans for the weekend, and he said he would ask a friend of his.

As it turns out, the friend of his was the commissioner of Sumo for Nagoya, Mr. Taichi Matsumoto! So what would have been an early line up for crappy seats, turned in to use getting chauffeured around and given ringside seats right up close. We weren't even able to express our gratitude in japanese! You can see from the picture above, just how close we actually were.

For those reading not familiar with sumo, the basic premise is two muscly, heavy wrestlers to try and get eachother to step out of the ring, or to stumble to their feet. Sounds simple, but the actually wrestling usually involes bestial clashing of men, and wrestlers getting tossed out of the ring! There's a whole lot of ceremony inbetween, bouts, but this is all just as captivating! Inside the ring, everything but the lights feels like it's straight out of Edo-era Japan.

These two grapples for a full two minutes before one just nudged the other out of the ring.

After matches, this guy and his co-workers would come on to read the results in the chant-like song that one should expect from any japanese ceremony, or performing art.

One of the most regal aspects of the wrestling are the gaudily dressed referees.

 Most of the time the Wrestlers are on the mound, they are strutting around making noises and psyching themselves up, or throwing rice or chalk or something around. Or balancing on one leg, and doing whatever this guy is doing. It makes for a suspenseful performance.

 When a new class of wrestlers come on, they parade around the ring with their ta bards on full display. The design is often related to their home town, or prefecture. In the typical Japanese way of mixing old with new, some actually had anime characters emblazoned on theirs! Foreign wrestlers will wear their national flags or heraldry.

 Sumo is a huge commercial spot in Japan, and companies pay big money to the winning fighters to display their ads! As much as 60 000 yen or 600 dollars for one banner! To preserve the traditional aesthetic, the ads are embroidered on banners and paraded by boys in kimono.

In all this was probably one of the most incredible and lucky experiences in Japan. The spectacle of sumo, seen from so close, really transports you back to the past in Japan. Its a shining example of the dualistic nature of Japan's culture. A century old tradition preserved almost completely intact, but still existing somehow in the modern world.

If you have the chance, and the money, to get close seats to a sumo match, do take it. Its definitely one of the coolest things you can do in Japan, and anyone can enjoy it from the 90 year olds to the 5 years in the audience, Japanese, or Canadian. What a day!

Calligraphy

 This weekend, we practiced some Japanese calligraphy!  Our coordinator at work, Ms. Yamada, and her family graciously invited us into their home so that we could learn from her grandfather. He has been doing calligraphy for over 50 years, and his work is quite beautiful. So we spent a nice few hours learning that calligraphy is a rather difficult art form, and having lunch with our hosts.

Here I am standing over my first attempt, and probably the most successful of the days work. We started out with the simpler japanese writing system of hiragana, in which is much easier to achieve a pleasing result. It's not by any means easy, but because these characters are so few, (only 42) and they form the building blocks of written Japanese, I have much more practice in forming the shapes.

This stands in contrast with the other "half" of Japanese writing, kanji, literally Chinese characters imported from the continent along with buddism and much else. If you're familiar with Chinese writing, you'll know it to be a rather intimidating and complex collection of vaguely pictographic characters.

After studying them for a number of years now, and using them in everyday communication, they are no longer strange nor meaningless, but writing them beautifully even with a pencil is no mean task. Calligraphy was an exceptional challenge, and one which I have not yet surmounted.

Our sensei blots the ink from our work. Japanese people are surprisingly sprightly in old age.

Our teacher attempts to guide Simeon's clumsy hands. Well, we all were pretty clumsy.

 If you're unfamiliar with japanese, you might be vaguely impressed with my attempts. But I assure you, my calligraphy captures none of the grace and beauty of our teacher's.

Me signing my name in the third type of Japanese script reserved primarily for words of foreign origin.

I manged to grab some of the blotting papers before our teacher used them. He may think them garbage, but they are the everyday exercises of a master and I find them rather beautiful.

 After our vain attempts at calligraphy, we had a wonderful homemade lunch by Yamada-san's mother.
I really felt spoilt today, as I often do, by the kindness of everyone we meet. The Meal was delicious, and our teacher, though his Japanese to me was unfamiliar and archaic, was wonderful company. And of course with Simeon, there's never a dull moment, his command of the Japanese language always seems to lend it self to wonderful jokes.

 

A wonderful afternoon spent with the Yamada family! I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to try out some calligraphy in Japan, and to top it off, realizing my particular affinity and interest in painting, Yamada-sans grandfather made me the wonderful and generous gift of the few necessary tools for calligraphy, including brushes, ink stone and even a few hundred sheets of (washi?) paper. 

Inuyama

 We decided to take a short trip and make the most of the rest of June since it feels like time is going by really quickly. So James and I went to the picturesque town north of Nagoya: Inuyama, or "Dog mountain".

Inuyama is famous for three things: Its castle, a monkey zoo and conservation center, and its spectacular cormorant fishing. The first two are self explanatory, but cormorant fishing is a little more interesting. In certain towns in Japan, an interesting attraction is kept alive for tourists. Special fishermen keep cormorant, a type of fish eating bird, similar to a pelican. They take the birds out in a boat, and then tie their necks up, so that they cannot swallow the fish that they catch in their mouths. Under the light of great charcoal braziers hanging from the prows of their boats, the fishermen handle the birds and use them to catch fish.

We didn't get to see any actual fishing, but I imagine the show is quite spectacular. Inuyama has a new attraction this year; It has welcomed this June a new fisher, and she's a pretty, young japanese woman!

 

We chose this day to go to Inuyama because the weather was gorgeous, and the town is a very pretty place to walk around in the sun. 

The shrine at Inuyama is quite picturesque, like many mountain top shrines.

It was a hot day.

James takes advantage of the shade to get out of the sun. Our poor Haku-jin skin is very sensitive.

 Inuyama Castle sits atop a small hill bordering the river, and the top floor has a panoramic view of the whole region. Despite the low, wooden railings, it was quite a nice place to hang out.

 After climbing down from Inuyama, we decided to visit a local museum, Called Meiji-Mura.

The Museum is actually a village of reconstructed Meiji-Era buildings, and contains over a hundred unique buildings. Most of them are in European style, as during this time period Japan underwent rapid westerization.

This was pretty much the inside of most of the buildings.

 One of the Museums most famous attractions, and partly the reason I came, is a reconstruction of the Lobby of the Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Loyd Wright. He is one of the most iconic North American Modern architects, and I had to see this reconstruction of his famous building.

Inuyama Castle from the river.

 We left Inuyama after the sun set, after watching the beautiful day end over the river running through the town. Theres nothing like sunny day out of the city to cheer up the rainy-season blues. Watching the sunset over Inuyama on a sunday evening really brings home the finality of the weekend. Time is starting to go really fast here though, and the next weekend comes along very quickly. Soon summer will come, and we'll be missing the cool-ish overcast days of june.

My apartment: Part 1

Since I haven't made a Blog post in a couple weeks, and golden week is long gone, I thought I'd do a few posts about my daily life in japan, starting with my apartment!

From the outside our apartment is fairly typical: The exposed concrete stairs, the tiny elevator shaft, the bike parking port. Like most japanese buildings of this size and purpose, the outside is primarily raw concrete and tiny tiles. What made this effect so popular in japan? I probably will never know. (Actually I'll probably look that up when I'm at school next year with access to a large architectural library)

Because bicycles are such a popular method of transportation in Japan ( I estimate the bike population of Japan to be something like twice the human population, and I'm being conservative here to avoid sounding like I did no actual math)
Every apartment building ha some sort of bicycle parking. Ours is very simply a roof to keep the rain off. The thing is always full of bike, but you can tell that only a handful are ever used because most of them are covered in the brown dust that floats over from China.

Going up the little elevator you reach our landing at the third floor:

Our hallway is directly exposed to the elements if the door is left open. It's usually stifling hot if its left closed.

Entering my actual room , it looks much like any Japanese Room. There is a little area for me to take off my shoes, next to my laundry and garbage. 

 I have a nice little japanese washing maching. Its maximum capacity is pretty small, but I suits the amount of laundry I need to do.

The catch with Japanese laundry machines is that they don't use hot water. At least mine doesn't. When I do whites I usually fill the thing up manually with buckets of hot water which,  thankfully, is extremely hot in Japan.

More over, the washer has a really loud and violent rinse and drain cycle. This usually involves knocking over my brooms and umbrella.

You can see my collection of plastic bottles and milk cartons in the bottom right.

My bath room is again, fairly typical. A small plastic walled room, separate from the toilet, and raised further above the rest of my floor. The tub is pretty small, but very deep, and the shower is  naturally much too short for me to stand under it. I have a small mirrored cabinet above my little sink to store my things. The funny thing is, I can remember now when this was all very small, but after living here for three months it feels quite natural.

The kitchen area is pretty minimal. A tiny sink that I can barely fit my pans into, and a small electric element sit below a little storage shelf. The counter is about up to below my crotch, so I usually kneel when I do dishes.

My little appliance corner. Along with the ubiquitous fridge and microwave/ oven combo, I also a have a rice cooker (most useful kitchen appliance since the electric stove) and an insulated electric kettle. I was luckily enough to land a toaster when I came here, and  in spite of the relative strangeness of Japanese bread, it has served me well.

To round the team out, a broken VCR to add some height to the microwave and cut my back 4 inches of slack. Lord knows the ball height kitchen counter isn't doing anything for me.

Toyota Commemorative Musuem of Technology

 

Since Nagoya is rich with cool museums, and this Saturday was rainy, James and I decided to go take a look at The Toyota Commemorative Museum of Technology.  The Museum is divided overall into two segments, exploring the history of the original Toyota Automated Loom Corporation, and its eventual subsidiary companies after it diversified its industries into Car Manufacturing, Electronic.

There are over ten companies in the Toyota Group, And only one or two of them have anything to do with cars. This is standard accoording to the "Zaibatsu" system, around which many Major Japanese corporations (All Japanese Corporations?) are arranged. In this system many large companies from diverse sectors provide mutual support to the group members. These companies are usually descended from a parent Corporation (e.g. Mitsubishi) or have been acquired by a larger group.

The point is, Toyota does a lot more than cars, and because of its early history as a loom builder, and then automobile manufacturer, it produces everything from textiles, to modern automated looms, to of course, cars. This allows the group to be very independent of other manufacturers. For example, Aichi Steel Corporation, originaly Toyota Steel Works, a subsidiary of  Toyoda Automatic Loom Manufacturer, likely produces the steel used in many Toyota cars manufactured in Japan. Toyota also produces the textiles it later uses in its seat belts under the name of a separate company in the Toyota group, which was in fact the original parent company of the Toyota group.

Anyways the result of all this history lesson in Toyota's history, is that the museum they have set up is an awesome showcase of the history of both weaving technology and automobile manufacturing in Japan

  

To begin, here is one of the older automated looms on display in the museum. Many of the looms actually work, and the employees demonstrate them every few minutes. This particular model was based on a french design, powered by a waterwheel. The interesting thing about toyota, and likely many Japanese corporations, is how they took the models of cars and looms made in Europe, used them to start up their own companies, and then improved upon them in the decades after, to become world leaders in the same technology. 

Its a promising story of how much any people or nation can achieve from humble beginnings, if given the chance.

  But enough wishy-washy philosophy! God knows America's not going give any mostly rural countries the chance to do that again! Better to just bomb them and take their resources and be done with it!

On to Robots! TRUMPET PLAYING ROBOTS! This guy here isn't the actual model you might have seen on the news or in documentaries. But it is a prototype of the one that actually walks around and plays the trumpet- With its lips!

 The musuem is amazingly demostrative, all of the looms they have, including the older ones are fully operational, and they demonstrate them regularly. This is a demonstration of the forging process used to produce car parts.

 Moving on to the car part of the museum!

The Museum has a large pavilion where you can see display models of Some of Toyota's most iconic cars through its history. Two of my favorites were the original American inspired Toyota Passenger car, and the first Corolla, with all its late fifties classiness.

The Majority of this part of the museum, however, is dedicated to displaying the manufacturing processes that Toyota used when first making its cars in the 1930's up until modern processes which ar heavily automated. There are simulations of robotic part fitting, forging, and machining. And when I say simulations, I mean that the actual machines are there working in front of you, they just don't produce anything!

Here is the rig used to automatically assemble and weld the frame of one passenger car.

James standing under a 120 tonne forging press from chicago Or maybe it was a 6500 tonne press. In any case it was about four stories of practically solid steel.

It wouldn't be a good museum dedicated to a currently operating company if there wasn't sometime of modern marketing included on the display floor. A sudden departure from the rest of the collection of cars on display, whose models seem to span up until the late 80's, there was a display of a a cut away Plug in Hybrid Prius.

 

As we were leaving the museum at closing time and the rain was coming down, we checked out one last piece on display. A large steam powered wheel, which would have run the looms when the factory was first being built. A nice way to end the trip through the museum, which does a really good job of presenting the history of the Toyota company, through interactive and authentic displays of the company's machines in technology.

Aside from the fun of seeing so many industrial machines in action, the museum is an inspiring reminder of the things humans can accomplish.  Automated Looms were some of the first automated technology humanity ever produced. To see the progression in a few hundred years of those at once simple and fascinatingly complex steam powered machines to their modern equivalents, is an inspiring reminder of what humans are capable of. As much as we lament on the human condition, and the dire situation we find ourselves in, it is impossible to forget, when confronted with the brief history of our technological advancement, the genius of which we are capable. Men throughout history have dreamed up ways to make our lives easier and more comfortable, life less full of hardship. And they have succeeded again and again. Thinking about this inspires me not to look back on our terrible mistakes,  but to look to the future with the hope that there are clever people who will wholeheartedly work towards the resolution of our problems.