happylife

Tomorrow's Joe

When I was walking along Kokusai Street, which is the most popular and crowded street in Naha City, I came across this boxer slumping over a rainbow bench. He is always sitting here even on a rainy day because he is a doll united with the bench. As most Japanese people know, his name is Joe, a very hungry, professional boxer. He is the hero in a 40-year-old Japanese comic whose tile is "Tomorrow's Joe." It's so old that I don't remember the detail of the story, but most Japanese including me know the last scene of this comic. It was such a impressive last scene. He fought a very hard battle with the opponent whose hair changed into white because of fear in the game, but Joe lost the match in the end. In the last scene, he died into white just like he burnt out into ash. This comic might look too heavy, serious and rough for the present young people, but no one can deny the fact that it is one of the greatest comic masterpieces. Anyway, I don't know why Joe is sitting here. Is he waiting for someone to fight with? He looks tired and burnt out, doesn't he?

Shiisa

We can't walk without watching this dog-like ornament in Okinawa. They are called "Shiisa" in Okinawa while similar ornaments are called "Komainu" in any other areas in Japan. I hear that both of their ancestor is sphinx in Egypt. Sure they are way smaller than sphinx, but they are overwhelming in number. Most entrances in Okinawa is guarded by a pair of Shiisa. Not only historical temples or public buildings, but also common houses have a pair of Shiisa on the entrance gate or on the roof. It's just like this city is full of Shiisa and this is a unique feature of Okinawa because we can see Komainu only in front of temples in Japan. The number of Shiisa must be greater than those of stray cats in this island. It will be interesting to make a research about their historical track from Egypt.

A manner on escalators

I found a kind of cultural difference here in Osaka. It will be a commonsense among people who often move between Osaka and Tokyo, but I have never known it until yesterday. When I arrived at Osaka and got on an escalator in the airport, I was confused because everyone except me was standing on the right side of the step on the escalator and walking up on the left side. It is opposite in Tokyo and same in Vancouver. I didn't notice it when I lastly visited Osaka because there was no such manner related to escalators decades ago. I was thinking that this manner was related to the traffic rule; we are supposed to pass a car ahead from the right side in Japan and from the left side in Canada or the U.S. However, in Osaka, they pass from the left side on escalators which is different from the traffic rule. It will be interesting to investigate this direction rule on escalators in other cities. Anyway, I have once heard that this manner on escalators is not stipulated and positively recommended by the escalator makers. Each step of an escalators is made symmetric and it is not always good that all the pedestrians stand on a side. I think we had better not to walk on escalators because we could save such a short time by walking on escalators.

Ah and Uhm

Kyusyu is an old island located in the south of Japan and there are quite a few temples and shrines scattered all around the island. To tell the truth, I'm not a Buddhist nor a Shintoist except in case of a funeral and a wedding ceremony, I'm not so familiar with this kind of theme, but I at least know that most temples have a pair of statues called the "two Deva Kings." They are standing at an entrance gate of a temple. The most interesting thing for me is that one of the gods is always saying "Ah" and the other one is saying "Uhm." According to Wikipedia, "Ah" means the start of everything and "Uhm" means the end of everything because Japanese syllabary table starts from "Ah" and ends at "Uhm." Apart from the religious meaning, "Ah and Uhm" is sometimes used to describe how a pair of men are acting cooperatively without a lot of words. When one of the men said "Ah" and the other one responed to what his partner wanted, we call the situation "Ah and Uhm breathing" in Japanese.

Bath basket

Most people in Obihiro seem to have this kind of bath basket and always carry it in their car trunk so that they can take a bath at a Sento, a Japanese public bath, whenever they like. As I mentioned before, the number of Sento is generally decreasing all around in Japan, but Obihiro city is one of the rare exceptions because they have wonderful hot springs here and there in and around the city. The basket  contains a bottle of soap and shampoo, a towel, a shaver for men and whatever they need in the bathroom. I have added a shampoo brush and a pumice to scrub my heels. I didn't have this basket soon after I arrived here a few months ago. I used to enjoy only bathing in hot springs, but I have found that it is more relaxing to wash and brush my body in the washing space in hot springs because we can cool down our body and have longer time in hot springs. My face and body seems to have become smoother and is almost shining. I'm sorry that I can't enjoy hot springs so often after coming back to Tokyo.

Bath-hopping

Bath-hopping is as popular as barhopping in Japan. I love it so much that I have once hopped ten times a day. Sure ten baths in a day is too much because taking bath requires more energy than we estimate. We can't help feeling dizzy after so many baths. If you are not Japanese, you might think why I need to change baths so often. The reason is clear for us Japanese; each bath has its own taste and we enjoy the difference. As I mentioned before, there are tens of Sento in the small city and each of them differs from others. It's interesting that every Sento has its own color, smell, temperature and ingredients. The Sento I took today for the first time was really good. It was rather a small Sento with a small bathtub which would be full with four to five people, but the hot water was the best as far as I know; lots of fresh hot water was fountaining and covering the floor of the small bath room. It was amber in color, a little bit slimy with a slight sulfur smell and what was special was that once I soaked in it, my body was covered with numerous very small bubbles. It was really a fantastic feeling; we might feel in the same way when we soaked in hot Coke. 60 days have passed since I came to Obihiro and more than tens of Sento are waiting for me. I must be busy if I tried to cover all of them before going back to Tokyo.

Sento

"Sento" means a Japanese public bath which we could find anywhere all around the nation, but now a days, the number has been reducing year by year because of the spread of a private bath in each house. While the normal type of Sento keeps on reducing, there is an exception; it is "Onsen" which means hot springs in Japanese. I have visited some hot springs in New Zealand and Canada, the ones in Japan are totally different from all of them. Onsen in Japan is a kind of culture in which we enjoy it without any clothes on and sometimes drink it. It is so popular that someone dug more than a few kilometers in Tokyo to get Onsen. Obihiro is a happier city than Tokyo because we don't have to dig so deep; there is a peat bed shallow under the city and we can enjoy special Coke colored, slimy hot springs. As it was so hot this summer, I couldn't enjoy Onsen very much, but now the fall has come and I'm expecting to enjoy it to get the loss back.

Made in China

I think I need to make it clear before writing this article. That is to say, I have no hostile feelings to China or Chinese people; far from it, I actually have Chinese friends in Canada and they are all good people. I bought a working chair when I came to Obihiro about a month ago. It was nicely designed with a very reasonable price. I had been happily using it for a month and it was broken a few weeks later. One of the sea-star-shaped legs was damaged like this picture and I was almost fell on my hips. Fortunately, I wasn't injured at all and the store person brought me another chair with apologize on the next day. This is my personal feelings, but made-in-China products are inferior in their quality to products which were made in other countries including Japan, USA, Europe and Taiwan. Of course, I think the news about the pork buns with cardboard or the pet food with poisonous material are the extreme cases, but the image to made-in-China products is bad and they need to reconsider how to control the quality of products.

Fireworks festival in Obihiro

It is now the summer vacation season in Japan though it is very short and dense. Lots of people go back from major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka to their home town and have a good time with their family and old friends. Fireworks festivals held here and there color the vacations. It is said that more than 200 fireworks festivals are held a year in Japan and most of them are in this season. I went see one of them held in Obihiro. It is one of the largest festivals in Hokkaido island and more than 20,000 shots of fireworks were launched in less than two hours. It was really great and I was more or less impressed after a long break. Sure I used to enjoy the fireworks in Vancouver every summer very much, but this fireworks was so gorgeous and beautiful that I can't tell both of them in the same level. The large shots of fireworks which were launched only in the last stage in Vancouver were generously fired one after another in the show. It was not only the size; the colors, shapes, combinations, musics and the new technologies including laser beams. Everything was great. I found teas came to my eyes, but it was not because I was so impressed but because the powder from the fireworks came into my eyes.

Heritage horse racing

Obihiro is the only city in the world which is hosting the official and unique horse racing games called "Bannei Keiba." Keiba means horse racing and Bannei is the type of racing. Jockeys in most horse racing ride on the horses, but in this type of racing, they are in the sleighs pulled by the horses. The weight of the iron sleigh comes to 500 kilo-grams to 1 ton! The horses are way bigger and stronger than usual thoroughbreds. The horses run a 200 meter long, straight course with two slopes. They are not so fast and sometimes stop on the course to take a rest that spectators can watch them close by walking along the course. It looks so powerful and exciting that it is natural this racing are designated as the cultural heritage. However, I hear that Bannei Keiba has been in danger of abolition because of financial problems. I was thinking that public gambling is one of the most lucrative business, but the economy of this city is too bad to run it. I don't like gambling but I think this racing should be kept forever.