Tokyo nights

It's moving time!

So I've finally set up my new blog.

Here is the address: http://tokyofashionheaven.blogspot.com

I won't be posting much here anymore, and my payments on this site will run out at the end of October.

Click on the new blog link to get all your Tokyo news! Although the first two posts are personal and only have pictures of Canada, so you might want to wait. lol

See ya!

All my bags are packed (not really), I'm ready to go (and how!)...♪　♪

Goodbye, steaming armpit of the world!

In two days I will leave the humid hell that is Tokyo summer and go back to Canada for an extended vaykay. Soon to come are days of barbecuing on the veranda while drinking beer (a big no-no in Japan) and having my fucked up English (Japan does this to you) ridiculed by all my friends.

I know all of you are wondering what will happen to mon chat, Mochi. Never fear, his vet (where he is extremely popular) has a pet hotel, and he will be getting premium care while I'm gone. Only the best for my boy!

Tokyo Nights will be back in operation on August 20th.

In major bloggie news: I am changing sites. I've decided that shelling out money on this site for basic services I could get for free elsewhere is stupid. No offense to Typepad, since it was Tokyo Nights' first home, but I'm moving on to greener, freer pastures. I will post the link for the new site when I get back from holidays.

The direction of the site will also change. I never meant for this blog to become a list of negative complaints about my life in Japan. I really do enjoy living here (unless it's VISA renewal time...or I'm moving apartments), and want to feature more of the positive sides of Japan.

The new Tokyo Nights will still have commentary on life in Japan, but regular features will be fashion and shopping news, reviews of bars/restaurants, news updates for foreign residents, etc. If anyone has questions about Japan they'd like answered, feel free to send them to me. I get the odd question from time to time and am happy to help!

To tide you over until I get back, here are some before and after pictures of Mochi; the cuteness, and the lard ass who doesn't quite fit in the box he recently claimed.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Oh, the irony!

For those who live in Japan, or are in the know when it comes to insulting remarks in Japan, let it be known that there is a brand of shoes called "Yellow Cab."

I'll just leave you with a link so you can snigger at the brand yourself. Click here to see some of their wares.

The shoes are trashy and tasteless. Intentional, or funny coincidence?

Hanami post!

My first (and only?) Hanami Bento (cherry blossom viewing picnic lunch box) post is now up on my food blog. Check it out here.

Lights, camera, action!

When you're a teacher in Japan, you are essentially a product to be marketed. You are a money maker, a PR Patsy, a sweetner, if you will, to draw in those money making bees (i.e. students or parents of students). This means that when your school is doing a PR drive to bring in new students, you might be "volunteered" to take one for the team and be in a commercial. You will end up with your face on the billboards of train stations, in newspapers and pamphlets, on websites, and on TV (unless you're not photogenic. Ugly teachers are hidden away until students have already payed their non-refundable membership fees).

This seems wrong, but in Japan your public image is everything. This is why if your school has only a surplus of ugly teachers, you should contact modeling agencies and hire foreigners for the day to pose as your staff. The professional photographers will take pictures of the models sitting in the school with "students", and make up a bunch of posters and pamphlets. If you could afford premium models, you're all set! The handsome young men on your website will attract horny, unfulfilled housewives who control their husband's money, and who think they might like to learn English as a hobby. Not REALLY learn it, and like study or anything, just sit around repeating the good looking teacher's words and giggling. It's a social thing! Get your girlfriends together and oggle a foreign man up close for an hour a week! It's cheaper than a host club! You can go for coffee after and discuss how young and handsome he is, in Japanese!

Some people don't give a shit about being used for PR and just do whatever is asked of them. I, on the other hand, prefer to avoid having my picture taken at any cost. But when you're trying to make sure you're employed next year, and your boss is holding your new contract hostage until you do his bidding, it's funny how your vocal damnation of whoring out teachers for profit can change. Next thing you know, you're smiling uncomfortably and making stilted small talk with a blank student in front of a camera crew during your lunch hour.

Yesterday afternoon I was warned by my coworker that she and I had been chosen to appear in the promotional video of our school (the school wasn't going to tell me until right before the shoot, so I wouldn't run away. Sneaky bastards). Lucky us. Our mission was to make small talk with students on camera to show how wonderful our English program is. Let's get one thing straight about my ghetto school right now; despite several kinds of English classes they have to take (reading, writing, conversation, grammar, etc.), some of our kids still can't spell "study" by the time they're 3rd years. We aren't exactly running a world class second language program here, and our kids aren't exactly eager, bright eyed waifs starving for knowledge. I wasn't sure how the director was going to work magic and fool people into thinking our school is the next Waseda Jitsugyo.

We gathered in a classroom to begin filming at exactly 12:45. The schedule promised that they only needed a few seconds of film and that we would be done by 1 p.m. Falser words were never spoken. The director of this fuckery was a perfectionist who took it all way too seriously. I hate perfectionists. It's  probably because I'm so far from being a perfectionist myself. If it's done half-assed, who cares? It's done! That's my motto! I felt like I was trapped in a nightmare with Joaquin Phoenix, Mariah Carey and Tyra Banks. We had to repeat our pathetic dialogues several times so that the director could get the cameraman to move around and film us from different angles. We also had to try different locations in the classroom. My smile began to slip after the seventh take and I could feel my bitch face was just itching to make a guest appearance.

The chosen students were, to be frank, not the brightest crayons in the box. Most of them were from the athlete classes and half of them look at books like they're alien artifacts. We do have a few smart kids in our advance classes, but none of them were chosen. I asked them simple questions, the kids looked at me blankly. I prodded them, they gave a completely wrong answer. I smiled, they looked desperate. This is how our lunch hour went. The director had us redo several takes because the kids weren't facing the camera or were refusing to answer my questions. Eventually I broke down and asked if we couldn't speak in Japanese, or at least allow me to help them in Japanese since they were so nervous and uncomfortable. I was given the most emphatic NO and told the whole point was to show the kids "having fun speaking in English." I shrugged and struggled on.

After going through the multitude of camera angles (that would do the Wachowskis proud), and going over our dialogue several times, I was allowed to escape about 40 minutes after taping had begun. 10 minutes to eat my lunch, get my class materials ready and hit the bathroom before next class! Alright!  As I was walking out the door, I asked the director if the taped conversations were okay, considering the broken English of the students. His reply was, "Oh, don't worry about that. We're going to dub a speech by the Principal over your dialogue, so no one will hear the English anyways. It's not important"

I am still enveloped in a rosy cloud of pride that I didn't stoop to violence. It was a near thing I tell you.

Japanese Advertising

Just a quick example of the stunningly brilliant names used by Japanese ad execs to get us buying their products:

That is all.

Traditions

Since my first January in Japan, I visit a few shrines every year during the new year's holiday. Part of my resolution this year was to get more exercise, so I decided to walk all the way around the northern part of Taito ward (or at least it felt like it), walking to four shrines and two temples I like.

The first one I visited was 鷲神社　（おおとりじんじゃ）. Before you bitch about my kanji; yes, that is the way it's written, and yes, I know that it's read as washi and not ootori. Take that up with the shrine, cuz that's how they romanized it. *shrugs*

 

Sorry about the shot. It's right near the street, so the only way I could get a great shot would be from across the street with zoom and no traffic.

Anyways, I discovered this little gem of a shrine when I was trying to walk to Asakusa with the ex in January of 2009. We knew we were on the right track because the traffic signs said Asakusa, but we still had to rely on GPS to find it. On the way, we stumbled across this wonderful place. They have the cutest love charms you have ever seen. They come with your love fortune inside. I think I posted one last year, but here's my new one:

Unfortunately, it was not a good fortune like last year. I got 末吉. Basically, that's what some temples give you at new year instead of 凶, which is the worst fortune you can get. Boo. It DID say that my 赤い糸の相手 [fated person. Japanese people believe soul mates or perfect partners are joined by a piece of red string tied to their fingers. We can't see it, but it joins two people meant to be together] was very close to me. It also suggested I date either someone from Tohoku (one of my coworkers I have a crush on is from Akita!) or someone from the south (drunk love confession guy #1 is from Okinawa). Under 縁談 (marriage proposals) it said if I show any hesitation, I should reject the person asking. lol.

That was a specific omikuji for love, so I decided to get a regular one, too. I got it at another temple closer to Ueno station on Asakusa dori. This shrine was a new discovery for me! I must have walked by it before, but it's down a little side street. I wouldn't have noticed it if people hadn't been heading that way. It's called 下谷神社 (shitaya jinja) and is my new favorite place! Why, you ask? Because they have PET OMAMORI! Omamori are good luck charms that you can buy at temples. They usually come in a brocade bag (which you shouldn't open) and can be general good luck, or specific things like traffic safety, passing exams, etc. Of course, I got one for Mochi! He is wearing it as I type! Very cute! It's made of chirimen silk.

 

A closer view of the charm:

Too cute, right?

As for my regular fortune, it was also pretty spot on. Luckily, even though my love luck isn't so good, I got 中吉 (medium happiness) again this year. The fortune told me to stop worrying over the misfortunes of my family (my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer right before Christmas) and to leave things up to heaven. Constant worrying will only cause me pain and won't be productive. Be patient, and calm, and things will get better. Too true. Sage advice. 

I don't know if I believe in them, but it's always fun to get my fortune and compare notes with my friends. The discovery of the pet good luck charms was also a bright spot in the day along with walking 10,000 steps!

Just a quick photo

Went to see a movie the other night with a friend. I got to the hills too early, so I wanted to shop around for a clutch purse for my big party on Saturday. The rain was against me. I couldn't even get from the Mori Art museum to Banana Republic because of the strong wind and rain.

I did get this great photo from the shelter of the hills, though. You can see a bit of Tokyo Tower lit up. Too bad about all the fog from the rain. Enjoy.

Tokyo rocks!

When I first came to Tokyo I admit I was only thinking about living somewhere exciting. I wanted to be able to go party until the wee hours if I wanted to, visit strange theme bars and clubs, have a higher salary job, etc. I never really thought about how incredibly convenient and metropolitan the city is, and how I could benefit from it.

I'm thankful for the variety of cultures represented here. Having dozens of different embassies, cultural events and schools is so wonderful. If it weren't for Tokyo, I probably wouldn't have the chance to learn Kathak. I certainly wouldn't have learned it sitting back in my hometown! How many other places outside India can I learn an authentic nothern Indian dance?

Below is the video for one of my fave dances with Gopi Krishna (best male Kathak dancer!!!). The movie is Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje. The day I got it in the mail I was beyond happy! The singing takes some getting used to for people who aren't used to it. Watch the fast footwork. Amazing!

Today was my first lesson (finally!). My teacher learned from one of the great dancers in India, Guru Birju Maharaj (he did the choreography for Devdas!!!), and I was excited to learn the Lucknow style. Happily, she is as kind and patient as she is graceful; because I can't dance. I think it was well established today that not only can I not dance, but my body isn't that flexible either. My teacher and the other student present were bending into contortions I could only dream of while I sweated and strained to make it even halfway. I need a lot of work!

We started with a lot of warm up stretches (painful ones) and then moved on to Tatkar, the basic footwork of Kathak dance. I didn't have much trouble keeping the rhythm because of all the years I spent learning music (and tapping my foot to the beat). Since I was so good at this, I thought I was IT. This lasted about 5 minutes, until my teacher said "Okay, let's start working in the arm movements!" From there is was all downhill. I cannot keep my arms and legs moving separately for long. Sooner or later (usually sooner) my arm movements will stop or I"ll lose the beat with my feet. I felt like a total idiot. I still can't get the overhead circular movement down.

My teacher was ever encouraging and said I could probably advance to the next level class (I'm in the beginner, beginner class) in a few weeks or so. I'm content to stay in a low level class until I know what I'm doing. I can see that it's going to take a LOT of work to get even the basics down pat.

I can't wait for my next lesson because we'll be doing more chakkars (I suck suck suck at spinning)!

My cool new ghungroos!

Again?!?

So I was on my way home tonight when I remembered I hadn't faxed in my time card to the head office for this month. Liking money, as I do, I thought I should fax that sucker in toot sweet. Once I was out of the train station, I ran into the nearest convenience store and made my way to the back...where I was stopped in my tracks by the image of another foreigner who was monopolizing the machine to copy/fax every page of her passport. Damn.

I took some money out of the ATM to kill time and was browsing around the store waiting for the other gaijin to piss off when I came across this little item:

 

Your eyes do not deceive you. This is Ginger Ale flavored Kit Kat. All I could think was, "What new fuckery is this?"

I have to admit I have this thing where whenever Kit Kat in Japan comes out with a new weird flavor, I take a great interest in knowing about it. I don't always buy one (some flavors I refuse to try), but the ingenuity of Kit Kat's Japan division never ceases to amaze me.  I like to walk casually around the chocolate aisle of conbini and nod knowingly, thinking, "Ah, this month they've come out with xxx."

I have taste tested a variety of crazy Kit Kat flavors including; rose , red bean, pickled plum, Kuri (chestnut), green apple, kiwi, mango, lemon chocolate (yes, together), soy sauce (you saw that right, it was a Tokyo only edition), grilled corn (Hokkaido edition), and a host of other wacky, random ones.

Ginger Ale is not the most scary or strange flavor idea they've had, so I decided to give it a shot and buy the thing while I was waiting for that fax machine to free up. I threw it in my purse and moved off to hover menacingly around the copy machine to hurry things along.

After dinner I kind of forgot about buying it (attention span of a fruit fly, that's me!). It wasn't until I was looking for my cellphone to confirm several birthday party plans for this weekend that I saw it sitting there in the bottom of my beat up Vivienne Westwood bag. I decided to have it with my tea.

Since most of you won't get to try it (these wackjob flavors are limited editions inside Japan only), I'll reassure you now that you aren't missing much. The scent they used for the ginger ale is so strong that it practically slaps you in the face when you tear open the package. They also used lemon powder in the cream between wafers and the strong artificial ginger/lemon flavor isn't that great. 

It rates higher than some flavors like soy sauce and miso, due to it not being disturbing, but it loses to flavors like sakura (cherry blossom), cherry cheesecake and Kinako. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

Kit Kat score: ★★☆☆☆