Tiny little great big men

We got up at 6 on Saturday morning to get same-day tickets to the second-to-last day of the May sumo matches. We had been slightly less ambitious during the previous set of matches and got to the end of a long line just before 8, about 100 people too late. This time we were an hour earlier and in the clear. They hand out numbered vouchers at 7:40 that are traded in for tickets when the box office opens at 8. We had our tickets in hand by 8:15. We walked up the riverside path to Asakusa and grabbed a bite and wandered around Sensoji temple as shops raised their shutters. Sleepy by 10:30, we scrubbed plans for the sumo museum in favor of going home for a nap.


You can can get right up close* earlier in the day to watch the lower-ranked wrestlers. We didn't - we got there just as the really big guys were parading in before 4 pm in ceremonial ($20,000+) skirts to start off the last two hours of the big matches. Advance tickets get you seats in masu - squares of floor on the risers marked off by knee-high steel railings. I'm told that for your money, in addition to a good view and cramped knees, you can get lunch boxes and piles of souvenirs. One guy told me about lugging home 10 kilos worth of commemorative ceramic rice bowls, tea cups, and plates for his whole family. There are no goodie bags in the nosebleed general admission seats at the back of the second level. The view from above is perfect, though, if small, and the chairs have backs. A pair of binoculars is a good idea.

The English guide book handed out with the tickets said watching sumo can be "baffling." Agreed. Jim seemed to know an awful lot about it - he's been watching at work lately. The winner and loser are as clear as 300 pounds of flesh hitting the sandy ground. I found everything else about the show, from the pre-emptive stomping before some matches to the twirling golden archer's bow and the rain of floor cushions at the end, more obscure. And the ranking system. It was interesting. There was something about the way they hesitated and tried to draw each other out at the start and got into long, motionless clenches occasionally, that made me think, oddly, of thumb wrestling.

We watched the final day as surely the original stable masters intended - on a hi-def TV with self-assured ("what he needs to do is drop his hips") American commentators.



*There is such a thing as too close. During the preening before the final tie-breaker playoff round, NHK followed the fellows into their dressing rooms. They abused the power of their ultra high-resolution cameras to bring us an extreme look deep into the pores of the wrestlers. We were looking for a switch to turn off the hi-def.

Welcome. Please decontaminate yourself

Hand sanitizer and an apologetic sign asking all guests to use it in the entrance of a big Japanese company. The receptionists are all wearing masks, but the rank and file are not. Most people on the subway aren't, either. Weekend concerts and company picnics are being canceled. I don't know how useful that is as long as we all keep piling into trains and elevators all week. Probably better to catch it now while it's mild, anyway.
Incidentally, I think the IHT headline - front and center, above the fold - that we are in "full-blown crisis mode" may be jumping the gun. (The online editions don't use "full-blown" in the headline, though it is in the URL. Did cooler heads prevail along the way?) Because then what can they call it when everyone is wearing Tyvek suits to work?

Take your swine flu-y business elsewhere

This sign is on a little bluegrass bar in Harajuku.

"Please, if you have a FEVER or a COUGH do NOT come in."

This is the only one of its kind I've seen so far. (I translated the swirly red dots as all caps. I think it gives the same overwrought tone.)

Prime real estate going to waste

Not a lot of good ads on the train lately. In fact, not a lot of ads. Look at all this empty space. Is this what slashed advertising budgets look like? Bo-ring. Let's get this recession over with. I want more ads.

Charm by the tubeful

"Eyelashes, life."


I am not too modest to tell you that I am no slouch in the eyelash department. My students used to say that my eyelashes were my "chaamu pointo." If anyone can spot a "charm point," it's seventh grade girls. But I never thought about them all that much.


Once, on a visit here in 2002, I was waiting for rush hour to pass so I could get on the commuter train with my huge backpack, and I camped out for a few hours in a Saizerya. (This is one chain of 24-hour restaurants where you can sit and nurse the hot and cold drink bar for as long as you can stand the vinyl booths and poor ventilation.)


I watched two girls in high school uniforms empty their makeup bags onto a table and line up tubes of mascara. They each pulled out a mirror the size of a paperback book and started layering gunk onto their lashes, wand after wand after wand. When they were done, it looked like they'd fallen eyes-first into a pit of tarred pine needles.

The ads for Heroine Makeup, like the one above, don't understate the case. Another one said in Japanese something like "Win by eyelashes."


The woman next to me on the train seems to have taken this to heart.

A flock of Disney sparrows could land - could nest - on her lashes.

If eyelashes are life, if victory is by a lash, she wins.

Cartoon newscasters get masks, too

Props to the Japanese Ministry of Health for getting instructional cartoon and live-action flu videos up on the Ministry's own YouTube channel. (Do we have that?) Boo for lack of embedding and social networking buttons.
Probably someone more clever could stick the videos right here anyway, but all you get is a link. (Go right to 3:30 to find out what happens when someone sneezes on you. Or, maybe, don't.)

Swine flu: it's on

Confirmed swine flu cases rocketed from 3 to over 120 over the weekend.


This is the first time I've seen turkeys singled out. (Mainichi)


I think what we want to do is find that guy in the middle. (Allatanys)


To bring down a fever, cool your neck, armpits, and thighs with damp towels. (Yomiuri)



And fer chrissakes, stay away from that guy. (Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare)

But with two more faces and five and a half more arms

I don't know, from an art standpoint, if it is reasonable to compare the Buddhist statue of Ashura to the Venus de Milo. Venus is 600 years older, 50 cm taller, and a lot heavier. Ashura is a national treasure made of hollow "dry lacquer," which seems to be similar to a papier mache process using layers of cloth and lacquer, and is therefore incredibly fragile. Moving it to Tokyo for its 1300th anniversary was a delicate project.

The statue and dozen or so others are on special loan from Kohfukuji Temple. The exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno is heavily advertised and popular. I am not sure what exactly is bringing the crowds. It seems that it is always on display (for a thousand yen less) in Kyoto, which isn't that far away. And it's not... new.

I got out of work early on Friday and, at a friend's urging, went to see it. There was a fifty-minute line outside at four p.m., mostly retirees. It was sunny (the museum was lending parasols) and I had a crossword to work on, so it was a rare occasion when I didn't mind too much standing in line. I didn't even hate the crowd inside, maybe because everyone seemed so enthusiastic about seeing the art. Not that I'd complain if there were a little less elbow in that enthusiasm. The statues are all up on pedestals but there's no glass or even ropes around them, just eagle-eyed guards every few feet. Ashura itself is displayed alone in a separate room. When I was there, there was a dense coil five or six people thick around the base shuffling, as directed, "clockwise without stopping."

The uncanny thing for me was that as I circled around, the heads on the sides looked squished and small and sort of determinedly Warrior II. In the Sony hi-def megascreen short film about the temple and the statue itself, all the heads looked perfectly proportioned and more reposed. Same in the beautiful postcards at the gift shop. Maybe because you view it from a bit below in real life?

I wouldn't even think about going on a weekend. But if you can get there during the week, check it out. There are larger than life, fierier and brimstonier wooden statues, too.

New jellies

These are the shoes. I have seen versions from two pairs for 5 bucks (one friend bought them in six colors) to at least 5000 yen a pair. They are everywhere. They look like they are made of some kind of industrial extrusion by-product. But in a cute way.

Press for change

The default denomination at ATMs is the 1 man bill, about 100 dollars. I noticed this nifty "partial change" button on my bank's machine for the first time not long ago. After you enter the total amount you want and press the "yen" button, you press that green fellow above instead of the usual "enter" (確認）button at the bottom right. The machine will break down 10,000 yen of your money into smaller denominations, like 1000s.

This is not really necessary for shopping as no one will bat an eye while counting out 9,720 yen in change for your cup of coffee, but it is useful if you are about to go out with friends and split a check. No, no. Don't thank me. Japandra is just here to help.