Super Mario Mario

Our friends made Mario and Luigi costumes. They were mobbed at Kawasaki station by people who wanted pictures with them. They got at least as much attention as any other costume.  They met a whole Mario family after the parade.

The Kawasaki Halloween parade was a lot of fun, by the way. I don't remember why I thought it sounded like it would be a nightmare - it was less crowded than your average festival and some of the costumes were pretty intense. Like the 12-foot tall electronic robot and the zombie office ladies. I need to get something together for next year. I dug some institutional orange pants out of the depths of my closet, but that was more a nod to the occasion than a costume.

Halloween last year, in which I learn about a strange Japanese Halloween custom.

Canvas-arm-patch-on-plaid-flannel-shirt of the week

"It's stupid not to ever see you again."

(You'll have to take my word. I don't like taking pics of sleeping people.)

Wet day, bad American

I overslept this morning. A text message from a friend who was probably already at work woke me up. There would have been time to make a quick cup of coffee, except that there was sludge in the French press and no coffee filters. Desperate times, etc: I did my NY usual and grabbed a cup on the way to the train. It's not illegal to take food and drink on the train like it is in DC, but it is something you are asked to "be considerate" about.
And I did consider it. Was my coffee bothering anyone? Were people tsk-tsking? How strange to feel conspicuous over something so small.

Anyone can Hang it at Home

UPDATED RULES - now with more randomness.

Just leave your name. I'll use random.org to pick someone at random.

I will put your name in twice if you leave an example of bad train behavior you have seen (anywhere in the world) that would be better off Done at Home.

I will put your name in three times if you make something visual.

That's it. 

You've joined me in mocking appreciating the Tokyo Metro "Do it at home" manners posters for over a year now here.

Now, I would like to give you the chance to do it at home. For real.

I have one copy of the October 2009 poster (man splattering/stabbing cup noodles) that I will happily send it to the reader anywhere in the world who comes up with the best Do-it-at-X poster whose name is drawn as the winner.

Write your idea in the comments. Or, photoshop something on your own site or Flickr and post a link.

For inspiration, here again is the official Tokyo Metro manners site with all the posters so far.

This will go until the end of the month, when the new posters go up. Do it at work. Do it at home. But do it soon!

***
Random.org has made the winner one Ms. Trixie Bedlam. Congratulations!

Merry Halloween

The KFC Colonel is all set for the next few months. Call it a Halloween costume for another week, then ho, ho, ho, all the way til Christmas.

Audrey Hepburn, Aunt Jemima turn in their graves

I want to believe in the idea of a perfect engineered food. I don't think it's possible yet. And if it were, I doubt the second ingredient would be margarine. Calorie Mate is a vitamin-sprinkled shortbread cookie with a very long shelf life that claims to be "balanced food." They've come out with a maple flavored version for a "balanced breakfast."
The English press release explains that the secret ingredient is a touch of soy sauce that counterbalances the maple and orange peel flavors. Hey, guys, they call it a secret ingredient for a reason.
Poor Audrey.

Then there's always Calorie Mate jelly. I like that it doesn't even try to approximate any actual food.

Digital parsley

Lots of produce have these 3D bar codes readable by cellphone camera. (Chew on that, iPhone! Hmm? There are apps for that now? Ah, nevermind.) Anyway, clicking on the QR code brings up info on the produce. Not just nutritional data, but a photo of farmers growing it, background on the climate, annual yield, and the full name of the supervisor.

These aren't new. They might even be on the decline now. I bring this to you today only because I clicked on it today. But food traceability is an issue here as everywhere (we arrived in the middle of the poison Chinese gyoza scandal) and this is an interesting attempt to soothe worries.

Of course, if suppliers purposely mislabel meat for everything including origin, grade, and sell-by date, there's no reason to think they wouldn't give their parsley a fake online profile. (That picture could be ten years old! Or just taken from a flattering angle.)

Speaking of mislabeled meat, here's a Japanese meat-labelling scandal more than 100 years old.

Geocache girl

Jim and I loitered at the entrance of a shopping plaza for a few minutes, trying to poke around discreetly. It wasn't until I got down on the ground, put on the photo light on my cellphone, pushed away some damp ivy, and stuck my arm under the magazine kiosk that I found the little tupperware box. I know that doesn't sound so exciting. But it was! It was like Mission Impossible and an Easter egg hunt and a crossword puzzle all at once--with an iPhone.

I've never done it before so I don't have anything to compare it to, but apparently (a) the iPhone and (b) doing it in the middle of the city take a little of the mystery out of it. But still so much fun. And almost immediate gratification. We found two spots that were more or less on the way home from a walk down to Aoyama.

Do you already know all about this? There's a geocache iPhone app that links up with Google maps and GPS to pinpoint where you are in relation to stuff that people have cached nearby. These were both hidden in plain sight and therefore pretty small. They were both set up about a year and a half ago. You can take and/or leave something in the container if it's big enough. The one in the photo had a green tea cellphone strap charm and a US Navy patch along with the log book. (This book was the kind of pocket-sized notecards on a ring that we all use as Japanese flashcards for a few weeks and then stick in a drawer.) You write the date and a note in the log book. Some people have stamps made with their name or a logo and "found it" in Japanese. I think I have already said way too many nerdy things, so I will skip all the geocaching abbreviations I learned just in today's crash course.

Most of the log entries had Japanese names, though there were a few from Europe and America. A few people logged that they'd left Euros. They were gone, so it seems like people were glad to find them. I left the American coins that have been slowing me down at convenience stores for the last three months. Win-win.

Wedding parties were starting near the first and ending near the second of the spots tonight. People dressed up in pointy heels and suits walked (or lurched) past, all holding glossy matching souvenir bags. No one paid any attention as we practically dismantled a phone booth looking for a well-hidden stash. I think we were having more fun than they were.

iPhone app for your feet

Jim got an iPhone this weekend.

I wrote a long post a while back about the grief that went into replacing his old Au phone. Rereading it exhausted and antagonized me, though, so I spared you. The take-home lesson was don't lose your phone. Ugh, just saying that, the memories are flooding back - the phone calls from the retail shop desk to customer service, the line at Bic, the forms, the faxing, the waiting, the re-faxing, dear god - the loudspeaker noise! and the fees-- ack! See? And then, he hated the replacement phone. Hated. And fair enough; everything he wanted to do with it was awkward and difficult.

So, this weekend, we steeled ourselves for another time-sucking, character-building trial and walked to the Softbank store. But it wasn't so bad. In fact, compared to Bic, it was rather like a visit to a spa.

Looking now at the "what you need to get an iPhone in Japan (English)" page, I see that it does clearly (sort of) say that you need to bring both your alien card and passport. Ah, well. I make these mistakes so you don't have to.

Any other little tips for getting an iPhone in Japan?

Since you asked... yes. Bring a gaijin card, passport, and credit card.

You can keep your Japanese cell phone number, but not your mobile e-mail address. Japan has had mobile number portability (MNP) since 2006. Call your old provider and tell them you want to take your phone number elsewhere.* They will put you on hold to an endless loop of Fur Elise and then give you a reference number to give to Softbank. They will also bill you for ending your contract early, but I bet you already guessed that. How much depends partly on how long you've been with them, like earning time for good behavior. Probably somewhere in the 100-dollar ballpark. Again, depending.

The first thing Softbank will ask you when you take a number to get in line at the shop is whether or not you already have your MNP number sorted out. They say they can still set you up even if you don't have it with you, but "it will take longer." Doesn't that sound ominous? They are even kind enough to give the phone numbers of the other providers on their MNP information page. (Whatever you do, do not look at the graphic "explaining" the process.)

*Since you, clever planner, will not have the walk back home to get your passport during which to make this call, do it before you go to Softbank. Right before is fine. Luckily.

There is one other thing, and it's kind of a big thing. I didn't see it on the website. If you have fewer than 27 months before your gaijin card expires (the card, not your visa, we were told), you have to pay for the phone up front. You can put it on a credit card and pay that off however you want, but you can't do the normal plan that's 0 down and 980 a month for the phone. Instead, you give them an arm and a leg up front (almost 70,000), and they "discount" 1,920 off the bill each month after the third month. After two explanations and some time with a calculator, I saw how this all comes out the same at the end of two years.

The guy who helped us was Japanese but spoke great English and was helpful. That is probably just luck of the draw, but you'll increase your odds by going to one of the bigger Softbank shops with English-speaking staff.

You will get a new cell phone e-mail address. Of course you can set it up yourself, but it might be a lot quicker to ask them to do it for you. There are instructions on the website. But it takes the staff about 20 seconds to do the whole set-up, and it would take me longer than that just to find the instructions. (This goes for any cell phone provider, especially for Japanese handsets that are as intuitive as mud.) You will actually get two new email addresses, one @softbank.ne.jp and one @i.softbank.ne.jp. The second one can be accessed from a regular computer. You don't need it. Skip it.

Jim is already checking out one list of the best Japanese apps in English and has bookmarked Joseph Tame's iPhoning Japan.

Finally, the slippers. These are the present for opening an account at the moment. The dog talks. Like you needed another reason to get an iPhone.

"Style starts at your feet!"

Say hello to my little friend

This little goth geisha lovely is a Poken. What's that, you ask? Glad you asked... Check out my Poken story on Japan-i.

Poison and cure

There is a new ager I like to listen to sometimes. (She is merged in my mind with the elegant demon lady from the second season of True Blood. This makes me like them both better.) She says that native Americans say that whenever there is a poison in the forest, the antidote is "within a certain number of feet." (This strikes me a little funny. Do people of the forests measure in feet?)

Pedantic quibbles aside, it's an interesting thought. And borne out in the urban jungle of Tokyo with this: a turmeric dispenser two feet in front of a bar.

Turmeric? It is common knowledge that turmeric is the end-all of hangover remedies. It turns out that the "ukon" in this power drink was not paint thinner, but turmeric. (See how much less interesting things become when you look them up?) This is why some salarymen swear by curry as hangover food, and why DHC sells bags of turmeric capsules to support the health of "those who have many occasions to drink."

One clear plastic ball with a variety of turmeric tablets is ￥200, and, depending on your circumstances, either the most fantastic or the most disappointing thing you ever got out of a gumball machine.

Surely, the maenad would approve.
Incidentally, "ukon" is usually written phonetically, but it has at least two kanji variations, and they are both amazing.　欝金　鬱金

Think these masks will fly?

These masks stick right to your face. Too goofy for anyone to wear? I saw a man wearing two of the gappy rectangular ones today, one over the other, so who knows.

One thing interesting about these, besides their aerodynamic look, is their angle. The ads for Unicharm masks are all about Japan. The one that say's "Japan's family mask" drives home the point by putting "Japan" in katakana - the equivalent of underline or bold or both. This one is about America. The masked model is white with blue eyes, in contrast to the masked Japanese family with the grandmother in a kimono and the daughter in a sailor school uniform. How good is the mask? So good that it's certified by NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - of the USA. I think it's strange that they went with the US seal of approval, even translating NIOSH into Japanese, since it's pretty rare to see Americans in face masks outside of an operating room.

Olympics are a no-go

Sport Tokyo - "Bay Side Village" in the heart of the city.

These two trailers in a fenced field near Odaiba mark "The Proposed Olympic Village." A few other people going by on bicycles also stopped to look and take photos.

These banners have been up all over for at least a year. This one, on a tennis court in Hibiya Park, is appropriately faded.

This is one of those cases where the simpler the words are, the harder it is to give a pithy translation, but I would suggest, "A new kind of Olympics only Japan could have." Ah, that sounds terrible. Shall we go more literal? "Because Japan, can do. New Olympics!"

See how all those t-shirts happen?

Climbing the walls

The first time we got to the climbing gym, there was an ambulance out front and a glum young guy holding a pretty handbag, a gym bag, and a pair of pink heels.

I hadn't climbed much since college, and this almost turned me back to the train station. But we went ahead, it was fun, and now I go about once a week.

There are quite a few indoor rock climbing gyms in Tokyo. I go most to T-Wall. The two T-Wall climbing gyms (Edogawabashi and Kinshicho) have a good variety of top rope, lead, and bouldering courses. The bouldering area is usually the most crowded. I tend to avoid it because I am afraid of heights and hate jumping down from the top, about 10 feet above the mats. Top roping is much higher, but you are attached to, you know, a rope. (I still get the shakes pretty badly the first few times I go up a new wall.)

I have mixed feelings about the gyms. I love that they're there. I'm happy that I got back into climbing and I feel lucky that they are pretty convenient, cheaper than yoga, and both have good food nearby.

What I don't like is more about me than them. The people who work there seem cool and friendly. But around the time that Betty used up her second 10-time pass (I am supersitiously avoiding getting one), it started to bother me that they had never said anything to us besides, every single time, "Your total is 2100 yen." They respond politely when I try to start a conversation - "Hey, I like the new routes!" or "That loose hold near the top was pretty scary!" - but that's it.

I know we Americans are mocked the world over for our chattery small talk, but I think there's something to be said for it, especially when you have an obvious shared interest. I am realizing that it is something I actually miss.

We tend to see the same people there often. I would have thought that putting life and limb at risk a few feet from each other would tend to break the ice a bit, but it does not. Just the occasional nod. It's not all icicles - we've gotten to be friendly with a few of the other climbers there over time. I'm just surprised that it's not, overall, a friendlier atmosphere. I think it's a big-city thing.

The T-Walls cost 2100 yen for as long as you'd like to climb, plus a ￥525 membership fee that covers both places and their other bouldering gym. Shoe, harness, and chalk rental is an additional ￥945. (It gets a little cheaper after 8 pm, and a lot more crowded.)

For the Edogawabashi T-Wall, the nearest stations are Edogawabashi on the Yurakacho line (exit 4) and Kagurazaka on the Tozai line (exit 1). Scroll to the bottom of the T-Wall Edogawa info page to see the map.

For the Kinshicho T-Wall, the nearest stations are Kinshicho on the JR Sobu and Hanzomon lines (South exit) and Sumiyoshi on the Hanzomon and Shinjuku lines (exit 3). Scroll to the bottom of the T-Wall Kinshicho info page to see the map.

Note: Kinshicho is closed every Monday, and Edogawabashi is closed the first Monday of every month. Guess who found out the hard way.

On weekends, we've been to a few that are a little further, in Saitama.

Energy climbing gym in Urawa is bright and airy with a big lounge area. It has two self-belay devices and interesting top and lead routes as well as plenty of bouldering. Membership is ￥1050, admission is ￥2100, and shoe, harness, and chalk rental is ￥840. The closest stations are Nakaurawa and Musashi Urawa on the JR Saikyo line, 20–30 minutes from Shinjuku. Also closed Mondays.

B-Pump 1 in Kawaguchi had a friendly vibe. The lead area is very large. There are also many top rope courses. We were lucky to be the only people there the rainy Sunday we went, but they seem to be pretty close together - could feel crowded if there were a few more people. The closest station is Akabane on the Keihin Tohoku line. Same price scheme, but I think the membership fee was a little over ￥2,000. However, rentals are free. Closed Mondays.

There are bouldering gyms all over, like PekiPeki in Shibuya and Gravity in Takadanobaba. This Japan Today article has a list of some other bouldering gyms in Tokyo and Kanagawa at the end.

Bonus: Here's a great feature about rock climbing in Japan from Climbing.com.

And the winner is...

A big old arigatou to everyone who participated in the first Japandra Tokyo subway poster giveaway.


In addition to a few lovely people who do not seem to have active blogs, I got great entries from these guys.

Invisible Gaijin skewers Japanese news and keeps his twitter followers laughing.

Jen writes a blog that, despite the name, is a not-so-generic person goes to Japan blog, featuring a killer crystal-covered phone and a brave foray into homemade rice cooker yogurt.

Dekooning has a charming blog packed with pictures of a summer trip to Japan.

Joe Jones writes tons of smart stuff about aeronautics and Japanese politics.

Vika seems to do a little bit of everything in California, and she writes on arts.

Jamaipanese lives in Jamaica and writes about Japan. How cool is that?

Claytonian is a self-described hopeless romantic with lots of friendly and useful advice on learning Japanese.

JJWalsh gives advice for hanging out and getting around in Hiroshima on several different sites.


The decision was tough. But, the first ever Tokyo Metro subway poster giveaway is going to Claytonian, for "Do it at home." It's to the point and relevant, and the subway would be a better place if everyone followed it. Congratulations, and thank you again to everyone who entered.

The sharp-eyed among you will notice this was the first poster giveaway. Stay tuned, friends...


PS. Did anyone notice that "Groping is a no-no" is a salute to The Mighty Boosh?

Keep your fork use private.

A dig at non-Japanese?