XVIII. Tea

Although I try hard not to think too much about it, the end of the Japan stay is gradually coming into view. June will be a very busy month at work, with me spending the first two weeks at different divisions. After that, I will be busy helping to organize the HISTEP conference, and little time will remain for my own research into CSR. In July I will be working on my final presentations (in addition to the JNI presentation, I am also expected to give a presentation at Hitachi). All this means that I am now working hard to finish a draft version of my Corporate Social Responsibility research report before the end of May.

I must say that I am looking forward to working with the other divisions for a while. My own division, GBR, is great, but it would be nice to get a broader view of the company’s activities. The first week in June I will be working with Hitachi’s internal branding division. The second week will be spent with advertisement. Last week, someone from branding came over to discuss my tasks for the four days I will be spending with them. This turned out to be a fine example of the non-communication that can occur in a Japanese setting. According to the schedule he had received, I had supposedly spent several weeks with different divisions already and given numerous presentations in Japanese. I was surprised- my schedule had the same date stamp on it, but was completely different. Assuming that I had lots of experience giving presentations in Japanese, the branding colleague proposed I conduct several surveys and use the results for a 20-minute powerpoint presentation- in Japanese, of course. Seeing my surprise, he suggested that if this was a problem, I could also give a presentation in English. But then he added that 80% of the audience probably wouldn’t be able to follow it. Indirect communication, anyone? In the end we decided that I would send him a summary of my work at the GBR division, and have another meeting to further discuss what I can do at branding. I hope my boss will be there as well, so they can straighten out their miscommunication errors.

With the “finish line” in sight, I have also made a list of non-work related things I should go see and experience. This week, I have been able to cross several off my list. Last Wednesday I went to the Kanda festival, to go see an open-air Nōh performance. Like natto, uni sushi or karaoke, Nōh is an acquired taste. Many people think this art form too highbrow or longwinded. But I was mesmerized. The hypnotic music, the fantastic costumes, the highly stylized dances and the simple story lines make for a unique form of fairytale-like theatre. The performance lasted three hours and consisted of a Gagaku performance, two acts of Nōh theatre and one Kyogen comedy piece. Unfortunately the seats we could afford were located at the back of the festival tent so we had to look over several heads- if I ever get the opportunity to go see a Nōh performance again, I will select better seats.

Another must-see on my list was the Sanja Matsuri at Asakusa, which I visited on Saturday. Moving through the crowd I felt as if I was in the train at rush hour; the place was packed. Luckily I was taller than most female visitors and therefore able to see most of the procession of Mikoshi. What a great experience! As the Mikoshi passed by, people were almost dancing, clapping their hands and cheering on the bearers, shouting something like “oisa.” It struck me that many of the bearers were women, although not the exquisitely manicured Ginza-kind. After the parade I sampled various Japanese foods at the countless stalls.

On Sunday, I had been invited by two ladies from my choir (both in their sixties) to attend a 茶の湯 (cha no yu, tea ceremony). One of the ladies, Oyama-san, has a mother (aged 86!) who teaches the tea ceremony to younger Japanese women. Together with four pupils, I sat down on the tatami mats of a specially reserved room in the older lady’s tiny apartment. Using proscribed, stylized movements, one of the pupils made us a thick and tasty kind of matcha. Oyama-san’s mother taught me the appropriate way of accepting the cup offered to me- when to bow, what to say, how to pick up the cup, how to hold it, from which side to drink, and where to place it when finished. It turns out that the tea ceremony is also an exercise in geometry, with objects placed at specific positions on the tatami, evenly spaced and in a set order. Basically the tea ceremony is an exercise in politeness, with cups being offered and accepted in a way that is mutually pleasing. With all this formality, I was surprised at the relaxed atmosphere. Only our host managed to remain in seiza position (sitting on the knees) throughout the ceremony (she has been trained to do so since childhood), and in between cups the women were chatting away, telling stories, making jokes and asking me all sorts of questions. All in all it was a unique experience that most short-term visitors to Japan won’t be able to experience. I did not have to pay any tuition (which is, incidentally, very elegantly presented in a white envelope placed on a spread fan), but I did bring some small Dutch gifts. They were unwrapped (!) and very well received: it’s amazing to see what effect tulips and windmills have on Japanese.

XVII. Quake

It is almost surprising how easy it is to get back into Tokyo life after a week of sleeping on tatami and eating wafu food. Big city life can be addictive, and sometimes it takes travelling through a countryside devoid of functioning ATMs or subways to fully appreciate its comforts. I was just getting back into the work-eat-sleep-study routine when early Thursday morning, a fairly large earthquake hit. It had a force of 6.8 on the Richter scale, and although the epicentre was off the coast of Ibaraki-ken, this was the strongest I’ve experienced so far. Although it was quite scary at the time, being woken up by my shaking bed, I must say that I usually don’t worry about the possibility of an earthquake. Of course, seeing the devastating results of the recent quake in China has made me very aware of how serious a matter it is. Yet, living in modern and comfortable Tokyo I do as the Japanese do: I am aware of safety precautions, but I go about my day-to-day business, not worrying too much about a possible quake. Of course, the earthquake in China has been big news with Hitachi as well, as the company has many factories and offices in China as well as Chinese employees working in Japan. Luckily, my Chinese colleagues have not lost any friends or family members in the quake, but they are understandably worried. Hitachi has pledged financial aid to the stricken area (as it has also done in the case of Myanmar). It makes me proud to be a (distant) member of the Hitachi family...

Other than that, the week after Golden Week has been fairly quiet. Walking through Marunouchi on the 7th, I did see several pro-Tibet protesters, who had turned up in response to the Chinese president’s visit to Tokyo. Apart from the Tibetan flags and banners, the demonstrators, standing in central Marunouchi, looked surprisingly like ordinary salarymen, dressed in suits and greying around the temples. Apart from that, the only big thing this week for me was the Tokyo International Singers concert on the 10th. It was great; the choir sounded a good deal better than before Golden Week, and the concert hall was quite full. Biggest and best surprise for me was to see the seven smiling faces in the front row, all belonging to fellow JPP students. The choir will give another concert in July, singing lighter repertoire such as songs from musicals and popular Japanese songs. Invitations will follow!

XVI. Golden

Now that Golden Week has come to an end I can only come to one conclusion: Japan must be one of the most beautiful and impressive countries I have ever travelled in. In just one week I have seen everything from snow-capped mountains and forests with Macaque monkeys to surf beaches and picturesque wooden houses and bridges. I have several hundreds of photographs to organize and will probably write a lengthy travel story in time, but here I will focus on the highlights of our trip.

Together with 3 other JPP students I spent the first leg of our Golden Week vacation in Takayama. This village in the Japanese Alps was praised by my colleagues as a connoisseur’s choice. They were right- it was great. We slept in a former temple turned into a youth hostel, but still with its characteristic features intact. There’s nothing like the feeling of bare feet on clean tatami mats after a long day of walking! The town itself was equally picturesque. With its wooden houses, narrow streets, traditional restaurants, morning market and countless rickshaws Takayama seemed almost untouched by modern times. Even more so was the secluded mountain town of Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its Gasshozukuri style houses. Walking around the green village in the blazing hot sun it was difficult to imagine that from November to April, this town is covered in several metres of snow, making it as isolated as Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country.

We did manage to see some snow during our trip when we went hiking at Kamikochi. This area is famous for its natural beauty- and rightly so. With the snowy mountains in the background, our hike past the river was amazing. Large chunks of snow lined the road, Macaque monkeys were foraging in the woods and the walk through the Takazawa marsh (walking on elevated wooden walkways) was very atmospheric. All in all, this was yet another great hiking experience in Japan- unbelievable how such a densely populated country can have so many areas of exceptional natural beauty. And the greatest thing about enjoying nature in Japan is that you can soak in an onsen afterwards, even if the water is so sulphuric you have to wash your hair twice to make sure it doesn’t smell afterwards.

The second part of our holiday was spent on laid-back Izu-Hanto, as we wanted to include some relaxation in our holiday as well. At the coastal village of Shimoda we relaxed on the beach and explored the exciting nightlife of the town (aka the Cheshire Cat Jazz Club, which was very cosy albeit a bit quiet). As this was also the landing place of the famous Black Ships, we decided to go and visit the Shimoda Historical Museum as well, which featured a large exhibition on Perry and Harris, especially on the latter’s maid Saito Kichi, whose tragic life story has been the subject of many books and plays. The exhibition also included a fairly large section on Harris’ Dutch interpreter Henry Heusken, who was assassinated a few years after their arrival in Japan. It was interesting to see how the Americans used several interpreters working in Dutch as well as Chinese to communicate with the Japanese.

The last stops on our journey, Matsuzaki, Dogashima and Shuzenji, are less historically important but were still nice. Highlights included joining the locals to pick flowers in the fields surrounding our gorgeous wafu youth hostel in Matsuzaki, taking a boat tour round the cliffs at Dogashima where I saw my first flying fish ever, soaking in a tiny cliff-top onsen with an amazing view, taking a stroll through the very picturesque village of Shuzenji and drinking matcha in the sunny garden of a small teahouse in the hills overlooking the town. I must say, the traditional red bridges and bamboo grove at Shuzenji were exactly what I imagined Japan to look like when I was a kid.

All in all this holiday was just what I needed and it has inspired me to plan more trips for our last months in Japan. I can’t wait to go out and travel through this country again.

XV. Future

The last days before Golden Week were not easy, as I was trying to keep focused at work but my mind was wandering elsewhere. Outside, the sun was shining. At home, travel guides and bag pack were ready to go. At work, Golden Week was The Lunchtime Topic. It struck me that whilst most managers had to go on business trip during Golden Week and had only a few days off, many Office Ladies were using Hitachi’s long Golden Week to go on trips to far and exotic destinations, ranging from Italy to Trinidad. I guess the combination of having fewer responsibilities than their male co-workers and being able to save up more money living with their parents enables many young Office Ladies to make trips many salarymen can only dream of. It made me wonder: should Japanese career women really aspire to careers similar to those of their male colleagues? Or had Japanese salarymen better follow the example of their female counterparts and invest more in free time and having fun? I wonder if emancipated Japanese women will want to adopt a salaryman lifestyle or if they will be able to change Japanese corporate lifestyle as they rise in the company’s ranks.

All this Golden Week talk made me eager to get out and travel. Luckily the working week ended early as I got Friday afternoon off to go to the Dutch embassy’s Queen’s Day reception. Although I am not too fond of expat culture in general, it was quite nice to chat to other Dutch people and find out how they are experiencing life in Tokyo. The Dutch cheese was also wonderful, although I did miss the dropjes.

The first days of Golden Week I spent relaxing, catching up on sleep, e-mails and enjoying the gorgeous weather. I discovered Hamarikyu Teien which is now officially one of my absolute favourite parks in Tokyo, and sipped matcha in the tea pavilion in the middle of the park’s salt water pond. I also explored Odaiba, which sometimes feels like a city from the future. There are dancing robots at the Toyota Universal Design Showcase, there are the Fuji Building and Tokyo Big Sight which seem like spacecrafts carelessly left behind by aliens, there is even a Tokyo Teleport Station. It doesn’t get much more SciFi than that. I read somewhere that Tokyo is the place the rest of the world goes to in order to see what the future looks like- looking back at the island’s futuristic skyline from the deck of the water bus, I myself felt a bit like a tourist back from the future. It was a strange sensation, yet at the same time “just another day in Tokyo.” Be it a miniature Statue of Liberty, a trumpet playing robot or an indoors recreation of Venice: if you can’t find it in Tokyo, it probably doesn’t exist- or you’ll have to wait at least another decade before it does.