Tsukiji's Fish Market

Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, and therefore it is normal some of the biggest "whatever"... In this case, due to the special importance of fish in this country, it is not strange that we find the biggest fish market in the world.



Its name is Tsukiji, and is also one of the attractions of this incredible city. You should go around 4.00 a.m. to see the fish auction... But I haven't seen this yet, as we arrived with the first metro after 5.00 and most of the auctions (specially those of big fishes) had finished.

Anyway, it was worth to walk around and see the variety of fishes they had there and how they prepare them to be sold... The most impressive ones are the big tun fishes, lying on "operation tables" like in a hospital...


... being taken care by the specialized surgeons with professional tools ...



But it's not only about tun fishes. There are many other impressive fishes you may be used to see... or not, like eels, or huge octopus, or ...




And after this, tasting an excellent fresh sushi for breakfast... Isn't it a good plan?

Osaka

Coming back from Koya-san, I spent a couple of hours in Osaka to do some sightseeing. It was more than enough, as Osaka is just another megalopolis in Japan, with very few tourist spots. Here you have a couple of pictures showing one of the musts in Osaka, its castle...

... and an example of the modern city it is, with some cool skyscrapers.


All big cities in Japan are the same. Some very old buildings (most of the reconstructed, though), with amazing new buildings, and most of the times, very close one to each other.

Drinks in tombs

These are two tombs in Koya-san, with something you may see in many other places in Japan: food and beverages. I guess they pretend them not to be thirsty in the near future... but I do not know the exact reason behind this... I will try to get some more information.

What do you do?

Today, I've been the whole day at home. Half of it sleeping, recovering from the tough week with the guests; and the other half preparing a trip I am going to do in Christmas... and suffering some allergy. :( Therefore, I have not been out tonight in spite of being Saturday night.

But I did something else. I decided to walk from home towards a place I had never been and look for some place to have dinner in. If you remember what I wrote a couple of months ago, Tokyo neighbourhoods vary a lot from the area close to the stations to further places. I live relative far from my station, and today I decided to walk towards another station which, I realized today, is almost as close as "mine".

Anyway, when I arrived to the next station's area, I started finding lots of shops, restaurants and some more people than earlier. It is a pity that I did not bring this time the camera with me, as I saw some interesting things. I saw two hairdressers, with all the personnel training with dummies (Saturday at around 9 pm!) and a Spanish restaurant with a big flag, and no Spaniard in it (it seems every neigbourhood in Tokyo needs to have at least one spanish restaurant).

Finally, I went into a small sushi place, the only restaurant in a non-main street... It is normal that they looked surprised when they saw a western face sitting there. They understood quickly that I do not speak a word in Japanese and they (owners and all customers) did their best to communicate and did not wait long until they started asking me where I come from, how long I have been in Japan, why I am in Japan, where I work, how old I am, if I am single or not,... From all these questions, they are showed special interest in the company I work for. This makes a point, and you can realize how they use it when they talk one to each other about you... I had read about the importance of this in the japanese society, but today I experienced it.



After that, I walked back to my place, but using a different path. I was not in a hurry, so I could spend some time trying out new ways. And in a small corner, next to the tracks, I saw a small bar, from outside seemed very noisy and with lots of people. It reminded me to the atmosphere in some bars in Seville, so I looked in through the window, and found out a couple of paella pans next to the window... What...? I could not see anything else due to some curtains, but I decided to go to the door, and check why those paellas were there... And I checked that they were not the only spanish element of the bar: the name is "Barrera" (remember: it is placed next to the tracks), there are tapas and vinos in the menu, spanish pottery, bull fighting and sevillanas posters, a Spain's map, ... It was the first spanish bar (not restaurant) I have seen in Tokyo. When I was standing at the door, someone opened it, and I just went in... It was full of japanese people, and also an italian guy living for some years in Tokyo was hanging out with a friend. Just two people in the bar apart from him spoke English, and those who did, surprisingly could also say a few words of Spanish... Guess what they asked me, and what was then repeated to everybody... Yes, the same questions as in the sushi place, and special attention to the professional activity...

And now that I am reflecting about this, I remember another example, when we visited Yokohama. We asked a couple to take a picture from us, and it happened to be a spanish guy with his japanese wife. We talked for a while with him, and we did not talk about work... But his wife, suddenly, asked us what we do for work. The guy was visibly a bit embarrassed, as he knew it is not that common in Spain to ask that in the first two minutes of conversation...

But in Japan it is. So, be ready for that.

People

Just another small example of what a crowd is...



This picture was taken in Osaka some Sunday in the afternoon. Ok, this area is a commercial area, but I find it a lot of people... What do you think?

Koya-san

Some weekends ago (I've been quite busy lately), I went with some other Spaniards to Koya-san, which is an area in the mountains, where you can find hundreds of temples. It is historically very important, as it is here where the Zen sect of Buddhism began. Apart from that, Koya-san offers you some temples where you can sleep, enjoying both the life (and food) in the temples and the calmness before the arrival and departure of the tourists.

Vending machines

Japan is probably the place in the world with the greatest number of vending machines per square meter. You find them in every corner, and in some places, you can even find ten of them.


And what can you buy here? Almost any drink. From water to coffee, both cold... and hot! Yes, these machines provide both hot and cold stuff...


One of my guests pointed out something interesting about this... "Hot and cold? So many lights? 24 hours a day? That means a lot of energy." Completely right, but so it is...

Flying to Spain

In this moment, if I am not suffering a big delay in my flight, I should be flying to Europe for an express visit for some paperwork, meeting family, friends, colleagues, and even attending a wedding!

I'll be back.

Kamakura

Kamakura has more than just a big Buddha... You can find many other interesting spots in many of the temples it has. I enjoyed the visit a lot.

Lost and Found

Last weekend we found a Channel bag with some jewels inside, which had been forgotten by someone after buying a train ticket in the machine. We took it and waited for a while to check if someone would come to pick it... but nobody arrived.
So, we wrote a note and went to the closest police station to give the bag and its valuable content to them, assuming that whoever lost it would go to the police to check if someone had found it. The japanese police stations are called Koban, and there are lots of them everywhere. They have a reduced number of policemen there (typically 3) and they do almost nothing, as criminality is not a big issue in this country.

So, when we arrived to the Koban, we immediately had three policemen attending to our explanations (although only one could understand some English). We explained him that we had found that bag, and he immediately took out a form (one day I will write about Japan and the forms) and said "I will call an interpreter". I thought the interpreter would come physically, but fortunately she just needed to be on call. So, she said to me:

- We want to thank you for having brought the lost object to us.
- You are welcome
- We want to ask you if you want a reward for this?
- What????
- Yes, do you want a reward for the object?
No, thank you, there is no need for that.

After that, she talked to the policeman, and then again to me:

- Do you allow us to give your contact details (phone) if the owner of this object appears?
- Yes, why not?

And then, it was time for the form. This time I suggested the policeman to fill it in, as it normally takes me a long time to understand the different fields in the . After that, he gave me a copy of the form, and told me that if in 3 months I haven't got any news from them, that would mean that the owner of the bag hadn't appeared, and according to the Japanese Law, the bag would belong to us...
So, this was a nice experience for many reasons. I could check "in situ" that people in the kobans have nothing to do. I got also surprised by the option of asking for a reward (I found it, and if you want it back, please reward me), although I still do regret of not having answered yes to that question... Now, I would not wonder about how and who can fix the amount for the reward. And of course, I have realized that they have a perfect process to make the finder get the object if no one claims it.

I will update you in less than three months. :)

If you run a little...

... you arrive earlier. To be more exact, 2 minutes earlier.



I love this precision. :)

Great Buddha

Japan has an interesting mix of religions, mainly Shintoist and Buddhist and all their sects. Whoever has been here knows Temples are everywhere, and one can even get tired of them... But some of them have something special, like this one in Kamakura, a small coast town, holding a huge Buddha...




... and it's only the second biggest in Japan.

Accidents

What happens when there is an accident (*) in the train?

In the station (see the normal situation here):



And in the train:



(*) Accidents are very common in the trains in Tokyo. At least, that is the word they use in those cases... But the truth, is that those accidents have a lot to do with the high rate of suicides... So far, I have suffered the consequences of two accidents. And I do not use one of the "famous" lines. O_o

Earthquake!

Finally, after more than 2 months in this earthquake country, I finally managed to feel one earthquake. It was a small one, just a couple of seconds, enough to realize everything is moving (laterally), then everybody makes a couple of comments ("It was pretty big", "Not really", "First earthquake, then?") and back to work.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has a complete website with weather and typhoon forecast, earthquake information, etc. So, after feeling one, you can check how big it was, where the epicentre was, etc. The one I felt is this one.




My office is very near from one of the "3" spots. So, I felt an earthquake of magnitude 3, according to the japanese seismic intensity scale, which use the shindo as a unit.

The Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale is a measure used in Japan and Taiwan to indicate the strength of earthquakes. It is measured in units of shindo (??, shindo? seismic intensity, literally "degree of shaking"). Unlike the Richter magnitude scale (which measures the total magnitude of the earthquake, and represents the size of the earthquake with a single number) the JMA scale describes the degree of shaking at a point on the Earth's surface. As a result, the measure of the earthquake varies from place to place, and a given quake may be described as "shindo 4 in Tokyo, shindo 3 in Yokohama, shindo 2 in Shizuoka".

From Wikipedia.

Looking forward to feeling the next one... A bit more is ok, as long as it is not the Big One everybody is expecting here... Even the JMA.

Odaiba

This is the artificial island of Odaiba. It's in the bay of Tokyo and it is like a trip to the future.



It's full of modern buildings, and you can find there from Euro Disney to the Statue of Liberty. Nice trip with the floating train, and nice views.


Do you like these futuristic buildings?

Sumo (2)

In sumo, apart from fighting there are lots of symbolic gestures that come from ancestral times. This is in what they spend most of the time, and not fighting at all. The funny thing is that each gesture is done going back from the initial position in the center of the "ring" to the respective corner... Some of these things are done "by default", but some other times, they go back to the corner by their own initiative, in what japanese explain as "mind game".

In each corner, the sumo wrestlers have a box with salt and some transparent liquid (maybe water, maybe sake,... O_o).


One of these gestures is taking grab some salt with the hand...

...and throw it to the ring.


They also drink the liquid... whatever it is...


And of course, they show how athletic and flexible they are.


Quite interesting spectacle, but quite slow for my taste...

People love it, though. Although, the situation of sumo in Japan, is quite similar to the Bull Fighting in Spain. Yes, it is a popular event, but not many people like it. Specially, not many young people, which is what happens here.

They also have sponsors which suddenly show their names on the ring... and people scream excited because of that! (I don't get yet where the excitement for this comes from).


But, of course, there are some people who cannot be full-time focused in the sume and also keep track of what is happening in other fields... Like this one, following the horse races in his mobile phone, while the sumo guys do the show pre-combat.

Sumo (1)

As you all know, sumo is a traditional japanese sport. It basically consists in two extremely "big" guys wrestling. It was really impressive to see so many people watching this (a full big arena) with a lot of media coverage around the sumo players, which are very high located in the hierarchical japanese society.

The tournament lasts for two weeks, and everyday everybody competes once. It is a kind of league, with different categories. We arrived at 14.00 and left at 18.00, and we saw around 4 divisions... and they had been competing since early in the morning!

Each combat is quite short. Since they actually start fighting (hugging one to each other), until the combat ends normally takes less than 1 minute. Typically, less than 30 seconds.



More about sumo in future posts.

Japanese Politics

I am not going to bore you talking about politics... Specially because I do not have a clue about this in Japan. But anyway, thanks to some friends' contacts, we could visit the parliament of Japan. The Diet is a huge building near the Imperial Palace, holding both the parliament and the senate, which seems (once more in Japan) very practical, isn't it?




Next to the parliament (again, very good idea), we could see the Prime Minister's Residence. There was a lot of movement those days, as he had resigned, and the new one was about to be elected.

Tom

Childhood memories... :)

Incense

This is the reason of not being polite to drive your chopsticks into the rice bowl. It reminds people the incense lighted for the dead people.

Can you explain me...

... who can sit in this priority space?

Oyster

Look at the size of these grilled oysters in Mijayima.



Now, imagine the exquisite taste. Now, imagine the price of each unit. Half of it. Half again... How much do you say?

Mijayima

After Hiroshima, we also went to Mijayima, which is an island very close to Hiroshima, which combines temples and nature.

It has the famous torii, which sometimes is in the water...


... and others in the mud.


The island was considered sacred, and normal people couldn't go to the temple walking, but only on boat. Therefore, they had to go through this gate in the water, so they didn't step outside the temple.




Apart from that, this island has a very nice mountain with lots of nature that you can either climb, or take a ropeway.



Guess what we chose, in such a hot and warm day...


Now, I can say I have climbed more mountains in Japan than in Spain. ^_^

Hiroshima

Monday was a bank holiday in Japan. It was the Respect for the Elderly day (yes, Japan has such a day, isn't it nice?).

Therefore, I decided to go to Hiroshima, which is in the western side of Japan. We only needed 4 hours to cover a distance of 800 km in the Shinkansen. We went to a couple of places more apart from Hiroshima, but our base was Hiroshima.



The first impression when you arrive to Hiroshima is that it's just another big japanese city... and that's impressive. I don't remember anything that has impacted me more than the Peace Memorial Museum. I can only compare this to the visit to Bergen Belsen during my Erasmus.



As you probably know, the first atomic bomb used with military purposes was dropped in Hiroshima in the First World War. It destroyed the whole city, killed half of the population and the rest were injured.



The Peace Memorial Museum is built very close to the place the A-Bomb exploded, in a memorial park, and has everything related to the A-Bomb. From the way the war started, the life before the war and the bomb, how the decision of using the atomic bomb was done (one of the reasons was just to justify the investment), why they chose Hiroshima, and of course the consequences.



And are countries still considering using nuclear weapons again?



Update: A comment about this last picture I forgot to write at the beginning. That's a paper crane. It became a symbol of hope, after Sadako, a girl with leukemia after the A-Bomb, started doing 1000 of them. There is a japanese saying that states that the person who does 1000 paper cranes, will have one wish become true. Sadako didn't manage to finish the task, but her friends did it for her. From that moment all over Japan, paper cranes are done and sent to Hiroshima.

Imperial Garden

This is in the middle of the city. Exactly in the middle. No need to comment that there was no noise, apart from some insects on the trees...

Back to the Future 6

I live in a quite posh area. Everyone, when I say where I live, opens the eyes surprised. It is like if I lived in La Moraleja or something similar. It is a well-known area for nice french cafeterias and rich people.

But not everything is posh and fancy. Everyday, I see this car. I wouldn't be surprise if one day, Doc and Michael appear in a corner...

Fushimi Inari

Fushimi Inari is a the sacred mountain of the wealth. It's been protected by foxes and other animals for centuries.


Nowadays, people and companies from all over Japan come here to build their own toriis for praying the Gods to success in important businesses or similar wealth-oriented desires.




It was great, until I discovered some of the insects living there decided to taste me... I got 15 red dots souvenirs in my leg which lasted for a couple of days. Japanese spiders are not that fun!

Praying

Rock and Roll

Last Sunday, I finally went to Yoyogi Park. This park is very famous for several things, but one of the main reasons are the Rockabillies. These Rock&Roll lovers meet always in one of the entrances of the park quite customized...



... and they also dance all together.


This week I was sort of lucky, because they were posing to a professional photographer. There were also there girls, which in my opinion are part of a real band of music and they took all the rockabillies as cheap extras for the promotion.



I have to go back to Yoyogi another day when more people dressed as manga characters are there, because last Sunday it was not that full of people.

Melones

Let me introduce you the famous square and pyramidal Watermelons!




Yes, they are real. Yes, they are on sale. Yes, they are really expensive (1000 yen = 6 euros, calculate the prices). Yes, some people buy them.

No, I don't know how they make them.

Gardening

For me, a garden is something similar to this (ok, it can be less beautiful), with flowers, trees, etc... Green stuff.


But, there are also rocks and sand gardens, deeply influenced by the zen culture. It's true that after a while you start seeing relationships, and giving a meaning to the configuration of the garden... But I still don't get it completely...

Temples in Kyoto

Globalization

Kyoto

Amazing. This time we only had time for some walking around, and visiting a couple of sights (temples mainly), but I promise a second visit to Kyoto.

In Kyoto, you can see this beautiful temple, called the Golden Pavillion...


...relax and reflect looking for the meaning of life in zen gardens ...


...have a nice walk in the wealth company under thousands of toriis...


...get together with the nature in the temples' gardens...


...or just contemplate the politeness of two geishas in the street.


Yes, Kyoto deserves more than one post...

Collectly

Seen in a hostal website.

Super Yosakoi

I am back. Current status: I have beaten the virus (or that's what I think), my friends are travelling around Japan (like them), and the news report that prime Minister of Japan has resigned. He has just resisted one month me being in the country... Will it be because of me?

Anyway, let's focus in more interesting things. A couple of weeks ago, although it was raining, I went to see a festival I had been recommended, the Super Yosakoi. And I enjoyed it a lot. (A lot = more than 5 hours)


It consisted in groups of people with songs combining both traditional and modern Japanese music, one or two singers, beautiful colourful dresses, and a very nice choreography.

It was impressive to see so many non-professional people, from different ages (there were groups covering a range of more than 50 years), dancing at the same time.





Now, I give you the opportunity to see a some videos of these performances.




You can find other videos in Youtube: Video 1 - Video 2 - Video 3

It's a good flavour of the japanese culture: group identity and karaoke. :)

Why is it always like this...

... bad weather during the weekend.



Ready to get wet!