Skiin'

Original Posting Date: Saturday, January 26th 2008

But first:
Since New Year is, as mentioned before, similar to our Christmas and thus a family activity, New Year's Eve is one thing: Boring. Indeed there are plenty of people around and enough alcohol present, but still it's hardly comparable to our New Year's Eve celebrations.
For my part, I spent the 31st at my host family's and in the evening I went with Simon to Sannomiya. After an excellent dinner in a side-street restaurant (the main courses are grilled on small spits and served) we went to an English-Pub for the turn of the year. As mentioned, midnight was by way of comparison unspectacular, but the realisation that here the New Year is already being celebrated whilst it's only 4 p.m. at home and on the American West Coast it's actually still the morning of the 31st, was a strange feeling.




Following that, I went to Tokyo, and on January 4th I set out for the ski-trip to Nagano. It was organised by the exchange-students-center, meaning that the 35 participants were all exchange students, so regrettably, except for the custodians, no Japanese were with us. Although since half of the people were comprised of Chinese and Koreans there were enough occasions to practice Japanese.

The first thing that stands out in Nagano: Snow. SNOW! and really lots of it. And minus degrees (ed. Celsius). Magnificent!
Sorry, I need a moment to collect myself ... okay, I'm alright again.

The rooms in the hotel were kept in the Japanese style (Ryokan　旅館), which means the floor was comprised of Tatami-mats and for sleeping one had to use futons instead of beds. A futon is a thin mattress (actually just a big, little bit thicker blanket) for spreading out on the tatami floor, as well as a pillow (in that case filled with beans) and a blanket (thin during summer, thick during winter) to cover oneself. A futon is meant to be put away into the wardrobe after sleeping for reasons of saving space. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of the room but one should also get a rough idea from this one.




The table in the middle is being put away when you get the futons out.

There were four people in each room, whereas men and women, as is common in Japan, were not only separated by rooms but also by floors (except for families and couples, those were on another separate floor or section, respectively).

For breakfast we were presented with Western style food (ham, sausages and scrambled eggs), but the large dinner was of course pure Asian (Japanese, Chinese) and downright big and tasty.

An example




We have been to the Shiga-koken skiing region, where the slalom and giant slalom slopes of the Olympic Winter games of 1998 are situated (unfortunately not the downhill piste, I would have liked to see the section from which Hermann Maier started his flight). The nice thing was the fact that the participants, contrary to the norm in Japan, could act completely free and autonomous and hadn't had to be in a group. With exception of course for the skiing-beginners course but naturally those were glad to be in a group.
Japanese mountains are, as one can see on the pictures further down, because of their formation from volcanoes, in general comparable "gently inclined" and above all have rounded peaks, even at greater altitudes (2000m and above). There are rather less jagged cliffs and hardly pointed peaks (like in the Alps), therefore the better part of the slopes consists of green (at home: blue) and red slopes. However, of course there are black pistes and sections (or else an Olympiad would hardly have been possible), but in my opinion there's a problem with those in Japan: Japanese seem to be under the impression that black slopes are only being used by professionals and crazy freaks and for such kind of persons a simple piste is not the right thing, so in over half of all black sections they integrate a mogul slope. Completely without warning or any chance to avoid it at the edge of the slope.
Personally I HATE mogul pistes. In my view, and apparently in the view of the better part of advanced skiers, moguls ruin otherwise great slopes since the disrupt the flow, are especially bad for man and material and are simply unnatural. There are people who like going down these and I don't mind at all if occasionally sections of pistes are prepared as such but come on, not the whole width on every second nice black slope.








Something I've encountered in a ski hut on a peak by chance:
A ordinary service sign, but note the sticker in the right corner.




Correct! A sticker from the Ötz Valley in Austria, complete with village names in German (unrecognisable in the picture)
Unbelievable, in the middle of Japan in some small ski lodge.




As usual with such events (trips etc.) in Japan, this time there was once again, organised by the custodians, a party in the evening. A more in-depth description of the structure and progression of such parties will be given in the column.
At any rate, it showed that Asians, first and foremost girls for their petite build, sometimes have problems with alcohol. Thus a Chinese girl was completely "done" after consuming (in practically one go) a can of a Japanese sweet alcohol mix (loosely comparable to so-called Alcopops), with not quite the alcoholic strength of beer.

The Germans at work




Nagano is famous for its apple farming lands (reminds me on my home village) and for its soba noodles. The apples we've seen on sale were really giant, which questions their farming methods but interestingly they weren't artificial flawless like one sometimes sees in Austrian super markets, they actually looked like normal, proper apples.

All in all it has been 4 full days of skiing with a 9 hours bus ride each forth and back. Despite this endeavour it was simply wonderful and was worth it by all means.





Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:

Parties in Japan. It is common in Japan that on trips, longer conventions/conferences and larger internal meetings at companies, a party will be held. They range from small ones with only snacks and a small selection of beverages to large buffets with all kinds of alcoholics. As one can discern from the last sentence, alcohol is always an important ingredient although the fundamental idea is of course the get-to-know, to foster contacts with colleagues, and to relax in a relieving atmosphere respectively. To not give anyone wrong impressions: The actual consummation of alcohol is one of the few things where peer pressure is very low (it actually seems to be lower than in Austria), but one should maintain "non-drinking" throughout the whole party. Corporate and officially organised events are nearly always for free whereas at a private party the custom is that every guest brings a small part of the beverages and snacks, or a small fee is to be paid respectively for larger errands run by someone specific.
Whether solely private or business, all Japanese parties have three things in common:
1) They last for a certain amount of time or end at a specific, prior determined point in time (in case of the ski-trip party, this was 22:00 hours). At that point a party has officially ended and it is expected from the guests to leave the site of the event.
2) Directly after the ending of the party, everything will be tidied up at once, whereas it is expected from the guests to lend a hand (at least from those, who are still able to), all of the waste gets picked up and the event-site will be left the way it was before.
3) All non-consumed food and beverages are distributed among the guests, which means, that every guest is allowed to take home whichever he likes of the leftovers, with no need to regard to who brought what.

Remark: The above presented "rules" and manners of conduct are only applicable for parties, which are not held in private space (house of a host), but in rooms, which are specially designed for events and meetings. At a party held a in private space the rules can, according to the host, slightly change. This is insofar important as Japanese often celebrate "away from home" and quite contrary, it is a great honour, a big sign of friendship and bond respectively, if one gets invited by a Japanese to his home.

The Eastern Capital - Tokyo

Original Posting Date: Monday January 21st 2008

It's been a bit longer since I left an entry, for on the one hand I was on ski-holiday (report follows the next time) and on the other hand I (more or less) finished some courses at Uni.
Concerning this, last week I had to hand in 2 term papers, as well as holding 3 presentations (1 group and 2 individual pres.), of which one last 1 1/2 hours and was partly in English and partly in Japanese. Yes, it was an exhausting and time-intensive week. The good point: I don't have to do anything anymore for around half of my courses and the other half is not that trying.

But now to the promised summary of my Tokyo trip.

I went to Tokyo via plane of one of the Japanese Airlines from Kobe Airport. Note: Flight attendants pf Japanese airlines are all female, young and nearly always exceptionally beautiful, which is being stressed by their fashionable uniforms. This is by no means meant to be sexist or the like, it acts as unofficial requirement in Japan, and normally stewardess' are selected for the most part, on this (unofficial) criteria.
(The uniforms of the AUA, Austrian Airlines, male or female, I personally think to be very ugly)

The Kobe Airport is completely new (opened 2006), exclusively for domestic flights, that's why it's very small, and is situated on a small artificial island just south of Port Island (the Portliner-train connects both islands with the mainland).
Concerning the construction and operation of the airport there were some controversies, among others because the Kansai International Airport is practically in the neighborhood, but I won't go into them (inter alia economical, technical and political reasons). As far as I have heard, on Wikipedia (German and English) are some good summaries of the set of problems, for those, who are interested in it.






Thankfully I was allowed to stay at Helmut's, although his dorm is being built anew at the moment and therefore the dorm students had to relocate to a container-home for 1-2 years. Accordingly ,his new room is tiny (ca. 6.5m²), although the Japanese might not be bothered that much, they should be used to small space.




As mentioned last time afterwards we went to His Majesty where we met some acquaintances of Helmut, a Japanese and two Germans. Later in the city something weird happened: Somehow it occurred that Helmut and I were singing the Japanese anthem with the German girl (from Bavaria) and the flag in the middle.
Imagine the scene in more detail: Three foreigners, 2 men and 1 woman, in the middle of Tokyo, the woman holds up a little Japanese flag before her breast, whilst the men flank her and sing the Japanese anthem.
Yep, our assimilation is coming along quite nicely.
Resistance is futile.


By the way, the main station of Tokyo (station name Tokyo) is, architecturally speaking, built by English model.




After lunch we moved onward to Akihabara the famous Technical Geek/Otaku district in Tokyo. To say it in one sentence: You're interested in computers/ games/ Anime-Manga or the like? Go there. Now. You have to have seen Akihabara at least once, if you've been to Tokyo.






We weren't in Roppongi, but to say it in the words of an acquaintance: God does not exist in Roppongi, there is no God out there, that nigga gone fishing.

Instead we took a look into one of those, at the moment very "in", Maid-Kissa, meaning Maid Skivvy Café. In those Cafés the waiters are, without exceptions, all young, cute girls, dressed in, depending on the Café, different maid uniforms. They speak with high pitched, candy-sweet voices and in a grammatical form, which puts the guest on a special higher level/status, and another one which puts themselves on a lower one. Additionally they use phrases as if the visitor would come home to his mansion. This will sound for example like: "Welcome home my esteemed Master. In what way can I be of service to you today? Please relax while I serve you." etc. I'm asking myself, how long it would take at home, or even worse in the US, for the first demonstrations and protests of feminists to take place? We didn't actually go in, because we didn't want to wait for 1 hour, but one has to have seen such a thing.
In Akihabara one can very good observe the craziness of the Japanese.

As model kit:
I present: The Nazi-Beetle




Afterwards our companions went home, while Helmut and I set forth for the Yasukuni shrine, by a small stroll through the calmer regions of Tokyo. In those it's very nice and one feels like being in a smaller town, the size of Bruck or Graz (ed. 200.000 - 300.000 inhabitants); after all Tokyo is considered to be the "greenest" metropolis of the world.
The Yasukuni shrine is that specific shrine, which again and again is stirring up controversies in politics, since there the souls of the fallen of different wars from 1855 on are being venerated, but among others also some convicted war criminals of World War II, which infuriates China first of all.
I won't go into detail about the circumstances, since this topic, including references on politics, coming to terms with the past, religion and culture, would take up at least one, if not several, entries. It just has to be mentioned that it's by far not that easy to explain and handle as many people might think.




Next to the shrine there's also a museum with different exhibits, for example:

The pilot is waiting in front of his Zero-Fighter (Mitsubishi A6M) for the inspection by his commander






One of the two 20mm-guns of the A6M5




Found on Okinawa; artillery cannon with bullet holes




Aside from World War II, which is here actually called "The Great(er) East Asia War", since it also involves the fighting in China since '37, a major part of the exhibition is dealing with the Russian-Japanese war of 1904/05. However we didn't visit those exhibitions, because it was already pretty late, the museum was on the brink of closing for the day and it would take two history-freaks such as ourselves several hours for such a thing (not to mention the adjacent discussions).

Night was falling and after the return to Helmut's dorm I went home, using the Nozomi-Shinkasen this time around. 589 kilometres in 2 hours 48 minutes, indeed precisely 2h 48min as stated in the time table, I cannot mention the punctuality of those trains (Shinkansen) often enough (all right, maybe it took 2h 47min).

In conclusion: Tokyo is/was very nice and interesting and I would like to visit it again, but because of its size I wouldn't want to live there for a long time.


A great thanks to Helmut for his hospitality and his activity as tour guide!


The next time I'm gonna report about my Ski-trip to Nagano and also briefly about New Years in Kobe.



Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:

Tokyo (東京) literally means "Eastern Capital" and is only official capital of Japan since 1868, ever since the Meiji-Restoration and the move of the Emperor from Kyoto to the former palace of the shogun in Tokyo, and in that Tokyo replaced Kyoto as capital after ca. 1000 years (a fact which many inhabitants of Kyoto still lament). The city is also bearing the name Tokyo only since that year, before that it was called Edo, and during the Tokugawa-Shogunat (start 1603) while not the official capital, it was the political and administrative centre of the country, as well as the domicile of the shogun. For that, the epoch of 1603-1853/1868 (1853-1868 is more or less considered an in-between epoch) is in general also referred to as Edo period.
Today there is not really a "City" of Tokyo. There are 23 inner city districts existing with around 8.5 million inhabitants, which all have a seperate administration and serve as cities of their own; the Tokyo prefecture, with 12-13 million inhabitants, which makes it the most populous, consisting of the inner districts and adjacent regions (whereupon interestingly some islands in the pacific also belong to it); and the urban area Tokyo, which extends into other prefectures (such as the city of Yokohama is part of it) and which is with 35 million inhabitants the largest metropolitan region of the world.
All 3 terms exist officially and are in use. In this regard it shares a certain similarity to Vienna, which is simultaneously a city, a state and capital of Austria.

Tokyo is one of the most important cities of the world and is despite its size considered to be very clean and green and also one of the safest major cities of the world. The author himself worries more about going through the central park of Graz at night, then trough the Ueno park in Tokyo (although Graz is certainly very safe too, no question about it).


This city is for sure on the list of cities, which every person should have visited once in his lifetime.

Hail the Emperor!

Original Posting Date: Thursday January 3rd 2008

As mentioned, I have been to Tokyo and on this occasion Helmut (my Sempai, he's already been studying 1 1/2 years here) and I visited His Majesty Emperor Akihito for his New Year's salutation.
Today I report only about that, a complete review of my trip to Tokyo next time.

The outer facilities of the emperor's palace are being made accessible to the public twice a year(the inner never), once on 23.12. for the birthday of the current incumbent emperor, as well as on the 2nd of January for the celebration of the new year. On both days the imperial family appears on the balcony (protected, behind a glass wall) and His Majesty gives a short speech at a time, whereas the one his birthday lasts longer. I couldn't be in Tokyo on the 23rd because of time restrictions so I marched on 2.1. to the palace. On both days countless Japanese visit the palace, because of which the imperial family appears numeral times throughout the day, to live up to the demand. At the entrance of the palace children hand out little Japanese flags made out of paper to every visitor, with which the people wave enthusiastic as soon as the Tenno shows himself.


The incumbent Tenno (天皇 approx.: celestial sovereign, lord) is considered modern and open to new, he is also the first emperor to marry a common woman (nobility was dissolved after the war, however, her family also wasn't part of nobility before the war) and he is also the first emperor, who has studied at an university. Concerning non-noble marriage: Men of the imperial family are in principle permitted to marry common women without ramifications to their status, however it wasn't kindly looked upon). Female members of the family may marry men of "the commpon people" but they loose their rang as member of the Imperial House and have to relinquish all their privilieges with it. Also, women cannot directly become empress though they can in stead of another member e.g. for being under age, take over the governance affairs and act as regent but only until the accession to the throne of the actual emperor. Before the birth of the most recent heir this law was intensly debatted, whereas the populace of Japan to all intents and purposes would have agreed with a revision but the imperial court office objected to it. The court office is subordinate to the government (not the emperor) and is in charge of matters concerning the imperial dynasty. This institution is the real backwardly instrument, for its members are often ultraconservative and heavily insist on old customs and traditions, which sometimes estranges the emperor from the people.


Here's a picture of the office, it's situated on the palace grounds in Tokyo.




Although it is partly understandable if one looks at the long history of the family. It provides the emperor now since ca. the 5th century A.D. (the Japanese tradition states since the 6th century B.C. although this is not historically documented) and in that it is the oldest still "reigning" dynasty of the world. Though whereas half of the time he didn't held any real governmental power but rather only a symbolic position, admittedly he was always "the emperor" to the people.

Today as well, more precisely: Since World War II has the emperor no political power at all anymore and is the "Symbol of the state and the unity of the people". For the Japanese He plainly is Japan, a moral instance and the expression of their long and rich culture. Personally I think it is a shame that we in Austria don't have an emperor anymore, naturally without any governmental power, but as a symbol of our long and proud, sometimes even glorious history, in my opinion it would definitely be a good thing (however, if possible, not to take the scandalous English Royals as example but other families).


Here are some photos from the palace and His Majesty, as well as two clips, one from the advancement into the palace (in the background traditionell Shamisen-music is being heard) and the other from the speech.
Both clips are by courtesy of Helmut.


The famous, so many times used on postcards etc., bridges in the palace.




The square before the balcony was crowded, this is only a small part.




A guardsman




The imperial family (only part of it, it consists of many more members)




His Majesties: Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko




Interesting detail: The emperor speaks in the humble style. In this form of the Japanese language ones own things are being, by using special grammar and vocabulary, only humbly mentioned. One is "demeaning" onself to show respect to others.






Three patriots (he he)




The remaining photos are, well, you already know where.



Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:

As mentioned in an earlier issue, this year is the year Heisei 20 according to the Japanese calendar. This is being caused through the fact, that with the accession to the throne of a new emperor a new age begins, whereas the year 1 runs from the accession to the throne until the 31st December, since apart from these years Japan employs the Gregorian calendar (year 1 has a special labelling since it does not correspond to the normal calendar). However this kind of calculation also exists only since the Meiji-restoration (1868), before new ages were began even without change in throne ruler. The new emperor decides on a name of his era, which also serves as motto of his regnancy, consisting of 2 Kanji, which are being chosen from a determined row. At the moment it is Heisei (平成 approx.: Peace everywhere). The incumbent emperor ascended the thron in 1989 whereby now 2008, according to this calculation of times, the year 20 is. The predecessing epoch was Showa (of erstwhile emperor Hirohito, 1926-1989), therewith the birthyear of the author of these lines lies, according to our calculation in 1983, in Japanese times in the year Showa 58.

An interesting fact is the point that an emperor, after his death, takes on the name of his era and subsequently is also being referenced by that. For example if one means emperor Hirohito, the name Showa is used as labelling, which many times can lead to confusion even among Japanese themselves. A popular fauxpas to foreigners, acquainted with Japan to a certain degree, is to name the incumbent emperor by his era, which is wrong though, since it is a posthumous name. The only thing left is to ask for forgiving for the slip-up afterwards.


Note by the editorial department: Next Wednesday too there won't be an issue, since I'll set off to my ski trip to Nagano tomorrow and will not be coming back until Thursday.