2009 August

Spam From Japan: Chocolate Gyoza

Chocolate Gyoza Recipe

Gyouza is the Japanese transliteration of the original Chinese name, jiaozi. They usually consist of a ground meat/vegetable mix wrapped up in pasta-like dough.
…But why not make them with chocolate?

Ingredients
Chocolate
Almond powder
Gyouza skins (If you’re in Japan, you can find these in the meat section. Outside Japan, check your local specialty supermarket.)

Method
(1) Melt the chocolate by putting it in a small bowl and then putting that into a larger bowl of hot water. If you ever made cornflake cakes as a kid, you should know how to do this.
(2) Mix in almond powder to thicken it.
(3) Put the mixture into the skins and seal them using a very small amount of water.
(4) Fry them using a small amount of oil over a low heat.

Chocolate Gyouza (Photo)

チョコギョウザレシピ

材料
チョコレート
アーモンドプードル
餃子の皮

やり方
①　お湯を沸かす。その中に、ボールを入れて、チョコレートを溶かす。
②　アーモンドプードルをチョコレートと混ぜる。
③　餃子の皮で、②を包む。
④　それをフライパンで餃子と同じように焼く。

チョコレート餃子　（写真）

Spam From Japan: The Saga Of The Man-Dress

It began in early January 2009. I purchased a fukubukuro or “New Year lucky dip bag” at the Atelier Boz store in Shibuya. These bags are basically a form of gambling. Pick your size and gender and, while the contents of the bag usually retail for somewhere between two to six times the sale price, you can never be quite sure of what you’re going to get.

In my case, I chose men’s L size. I got a white half-shirt, half-waistcoat hybrid and… something else. It buttoned up to my neck and the material reached to my feet. One might be inclined to call it a dress. Except… it wasn’t. Not quite. It seemed to be for a slim man who could pull off the priest’s cassock look, or for a woman who enjoyed looking like Victorian widow. It was impeccably designed, hung perfectly on whoever wore it, and seemed to warp itself according to the general body shape of the person who put it on. As a trans guy, this was exactly what I didn’t want.

And one last detail? The tag said it was supposed to have retailed for around thirty thousand yen (US$315). What’s a guy with an expensive man-dress to do?

In my case, I decided to sell it at Closet Child, a well-known second-hand goth shop.

How to sell clothing at Closet Child

Go to the counter and tell them you have stuff to sell.
Show them ID with your date of birth on it. You can use your gaijin card (if you live here) or your passport (if you don’t).
You will be given a piece of paper to fill in with your name, street address, e-mail address and phone number.
You then will be given a seller’s card (separate from a point card). Write your name on it.
You will be asked to return in an hour to see how much money they will offer you. You won’t be asked any embarrassing questions, like why you’re in possession of a man-dress.

In my case, they offered me 1900 yen (around US$20) for the man-dress and I politely declined, although I accepted their offers on some other items. The man-dress saga continues…

The Path Through Nagasaki Cemetery

Teramachi is a road with offshoots leading to different temples. A number of paths, however, will take you away from the temples and into the heart of Nagasaki Cemetary.

These paths are called Hefuri-zaka (ヘフリ坂・幣振坂). The main path lies between Daionji Temple (大音寺) and Koutaiji Temple (皓台寺). However, there are other paths which loosely connect to the main one. Another one lies between Enmeiji Temple (延命寺) and Choushouji Temple (長照寺), while another is between Fukusaiji Temple (福済寺) and Shoufukuji Temple (聖福寺.

Hefuri means “to wave a ceremonial Shintou staff“, while zaka refers to a hill (usually steep, in my experience). The name dates from the Kan’ei Era 14 (1637), when a grand stone torii arch was being constructed elsewhere. Stone was taken down the hill and a priest waved a wand to keep the labourers inspired and command them.

It often seems as if this path is being organically-generated as it winds around the graves. There are tiny overgrown paths that may or may not lead somewhere further up the hill.

Clicking on any of these photos will lead you to a bigger photo, hosted by Flickr. If you liked these photos, you might also want to see my photos of the ruins of Hashima Island, also in Nagasaki.

Spam From Japan: The Ruins of Gunkanjima

Hashima is an island off Kyuushuu and is also known as Gunkanjima or “Battleship Island”. It was in use from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. When the coal mining industry collapsed, it was abandoned just as it was and fell into ruins. Now it’s famous for looking a bit like a battleship and its post-apocalyptic landscape.

From April 2009, the general public has had the opportunity to land in certain restricted areas of the island. You are advised to book in advance because these cruises fill up quickly around popular holiday times. If you want to walk on the island, you’ll want the Jouriku Course (上陸コース), which costs 4000 yen for one adult. Bear in mind that all English signs at the harbour (few though they be) make no mention of the names Gunkanjima or Hashima, but refer only to the “Battleship Island Cruise”.

Book through the official tour site here.

I was unable to land on the island, but I was still able to go around it on the regular cruise and I loved it. The photographs show the view from the boat as it started off at Dejima Wharf, went through Nagasaki Harbour and past Soroban Docks before arriving at Hashima. Worth mentioning is that you travel on a fairly small boat out into the open sea, so don’t expect a smooth trip.

Finally, remember your sunscreen. I wish I had.

Random Japanese Words Are Awesome. Sometimes.

When studying second language acquisition, linguists often research how the native language (also known as L1) interferes with the target language (L2). For examples, a native English speaker who is learning Japanese might say “gomen nasai” when hearing that their friend has received bad news. They might have meant to say, “I’m sorry (to hear that),” but they are actually admitting fault for whatever happened. Likewise, a native Japanese speaker learning English might ask, “Are you busy?” and add more work when an English speaker replies that they are not. Yes, I’ve been there.

These linguists rarely look at how the L2 interferes with the L1. I mean, seriously, when’s that going to happen?

If you’re learning Japanese, all the freaking time.

I once overheard two English-speaking guys talking on the train. One said to the other, “I’m going into work at a shougakkou on Mokuyoubi.”

Wait, what? I can understand using shougakkou in place of ‘elementary school’ within Japan. After all, I attended a ‘primary school’ like many other Brits and so both expressions are equally unusual to me. I’ll happily tell you that I’m thinking of upgrading my ordinary keitai for an iPhone. Yeah, it makes sense to select the word you have in common when two or more dialects collide.

I also understand using a Japanese loan word for something so culturally specific that there’s no comparable word for it. Would you prefer to eat “vinegar rice, often served with raw fish” or sushi? I’m even a fan of the word kawaii. Sure, you can translate it as ‘cute’, but we all know there’s something more going on there.

So why Mokuyoubi when you mean ‘Thursday’? Is this really unique to those of us learning Japanese? Maybe those linguists should investigate.

Do you use Japanese words when you’re talking/writing in English? Which ones? If you’d like to read more about Japanese check out my article on the number eight and Japanese wordplay.

“Twentieth Century Boys: The Beginning of the End” Review

This review contains spoilers.

Kenji is upset. He’s upset because the plans made by a club that he formed when he was a kid are now being used to destroy the world. Successfully.

The leader of the revolution is Tomodachi (“Friend”) and his political party called Yuumintou (“Friendship Democratic Party”). Step by step, his plans for world domination follow the crude drawings of Kenji and his friends. These illustrations depicted terrorists and the boys (and one girl) imagined themselves as a superhero team who could stop them.

The beginning of the end starts when Kenji starts seeing the symbol that they designed everywhere, particularly in connection with the death of his friend, Donkey. You probably know it by now as the hand/eye emblem used in all the advertising for these movies. It’s creepy and mysterious as Kenji enlists his former friends to find out who is behind this and also functions as a (brief) meditation on childhood memory.

It’s so creepy that it’s almost a disappointment when the giant robots show up in the end. Having said that, you have to have a certain amount of respect for a movie trilogy that has already destroyed most of the world by the end of the first part.

What really struck me is that, according to this movie, Japan hasn’t really changed much from the late sixties to the present day. The 1970s school might well have been filmed without making any changes. The only difference I noted throughout the film was the size and technology of the mobile phones. I have no idea if this is accurate, or if they were making a point as the world only really changes after Tomodachi achieves power. Due to the movie’s depiction of time, you watch as the characters change and grow up, only to be murdered or end up working in a convenience store. That left me feeling quite unsettled, although I doubt that was the point.

Worth mentioning is that (so far), you don’t need to have read the manga to be able to follow it all. The movie explains everything you need as you go. I’m looking forward to the next parts.

Twentieth Century Boys: The Beginning of the End // Nijusseiki Shounen: Owari no Hajimari and Twentieth Century Boys: Final Hope // Nijusseiki Shounen: Saigo no Kibou are available to rent on DVD in Japan. The third and final part (Twentieth Century Boys: Our Flag // Nijusseiki Shounen: Bokura no Hata) will get its cinematic release on 29th August.

The official site is here. If you thought my review was fun, check out my review of G.I. Joe.

Spam From Japan: Taking Silliness Seriously With GI Joe

Please note that this review contains spoilers.

Every summer a cry goes up. “Movies these days have been designed for ten year old boys with tiny attention spans!” they say. If you took one of these critics and asked them to create a parody of what they thought movie execs wanted, in between muttering “Then he joins two katana together to make a double katana,” and “So he covers his face in silver and renames him Destros,” they would have written the script to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

GI Joe makes it work by using everything they can think of. When it gets a bit too silly, they add another trope to the mix and make it even sillier. Evil guy with a mask and monocle? Sure, but how about if we made him the brother of the main guy’s love interest? (I would love to recommend TV Tropes to you, but I’ve never known anyone to make it out of that site alive). It’s internally consistent and it makes perfect sense when it turns out the two ninja, one dressed in black and the other in while, have a shared history.

One has to disguise one’s love for these movies, of course. It’s appropriate to say, “While it didn’t shed any light on the mystery and existential nature of the human condition, it was in accordance with the way the trailers portrayed it.” You can’t say, “The fight scenes and explosions were really cool and that evil ninja in white was awesome!”

But GI Joe IS awesome. Not awesome as might be commonly understood to mean ‘very, very good,’ but awesome as in the moment The Doctor describes the way he’s injected a serum into a group of men to take away their sense of fear in order to turn them into an army of killing machines. Then he makes one stick his hand into a terrarium holding a king cobra, which bites the guy, but his body pushes out the poison. Then there’s another explosion, or something. See? AWESOME.

Incidentally, said awesome evil ninja (Byung-hun Lee) will turn up very soon in The Good, The Bad, The Weird a movie from South Korea which looks like it’s going to be… y’know… awesome. The release date for “GBW” in Japan is August 29th.

Spam From Japan: Paris Coffee

Paris Coffee is a cafe just off Dougenzaka in Shibuya, not far from the Hachiko crossing. It’s fairly cheap, considering it serves fancy-looking coffee from actual, named countries. A coffee will set you back around 450 to 550 yen, while a scone is less than 300 yen. A good choice suitable for those who appreciate a pleasant atmosphere, but can’t be bothered to make reservations for a butler cafe.

The above photo doesn’t show my drink, by the way. I got a “Rose Marry” and when it arrived, cream rose swirl on the top, pink brandy glistening on the petals, HUNDREDS-AND-THOUSANDS, I got excited and… *splodge* The drink suddenly wasn’t so photogenic. That sound effect was my hand squashing the rose just as I caught the glass when it fell off the coaster, by the way. Pervert.

You can find a map in English here. There are photos of the shop front below.

Spam From Japan: Japanese Wordplay and Hidden Eights

It’s revealing that while American ads use the telephone keypad to spell out letters to help you remember that number, Japanese ads use whole sentences.

Numbers are easy to convert into words and then sentences in Japanese. Everyone knows the one about ’4′ being pronounced shi, which means death, right? But you can also convert longer words. For example, yaoi can be rendered as 801.

That’s not to say English doesn’t do it too (or should that be ‘doesn’t do it 2′?), but Japanese makes it easier because it has a limited number of syllables to work with, and so there is an increased chance that a single sound in the language will be a complete word. Also, we’re playing with two different languages and writing systems here.

So, having said that, today is August 8th. Two eights in a row. In order to make sense of it, I consulted a site called Every Day Is A Holiday (Japanese).

Abacus Day/Soroban no Hi	When you count using an abacus, it makes a sound a bit like pachi pachi, which is a play on the repeated pronunciation of ’8′ in Japanese.
Moustache Day/Hige no Hi	The kanji for eight, 「八」, looks like a moustache.
Calabash Day/Hyoutan no Hi	The number ’8′ looks like a calabash, or gourd.
Octopus Day/Tako no Hi	Because octopodes have eight legs! That one was easy…
Laughter Day/Warai no Hi	Haha is the sound of laughter and also a way to pronounce two eights in a row. There are a lot of ways to read ’8′ in Japanese.
Respect For Parents Day/Oyakoukou no Hi	It’s a bit of a stretch, but hachi (8) hachi (8) can be lined up and rearranged to make haha and chichi, which mean ‘mother’ and ‘father’.
Fermented Food PR Day/Hakkou Shokuhin no Hi	Celebrate food like natto and cheese on this day dedicated to promoting foods that undergo fermentation. If you’ve figured out the pattern by now, the reference to the number ’8′ is hidden in ‘hakkou’.
Papaya Day/Papaiya no Hi	The two eights are hidden in the first two syllables of ‘papaya’.
Fruit Day/Kudamono no Hi	The eighth day of every month is Fruit Day! It promotes fruit as a snack, which is oYATSU in Japanese.
Teeth Day/Ha no Hi	Last one, I promise. This also falls on the eighth day of every month and is for promoting healthy teeth. Tooth/teeth in Japanese is ‘ha’.

Did you get through all of that? There are many more besides the ones I’ve listed here. It’s worth noting that all of these days have wildly varying amounts of attention paid to them…! If this was interesting to you, try a more cynical take on learning Japanese in my post titled Six Reasons Why Kanji Are Unnecessary.

Spam From Japan: Tokyo Figure Show

The Tokyo Figure Show started today (August 4th 2009) and so I headed to Harajuku. It was to be held in the H&M building, so I ignored the shoppers inside and bravely headed to the stairs. After searching several floors for the elevator I’d read about online that went straight to the top floors, I still couldn’t find it.

I’m not someone who doesn’t ask for directions, but I hate looking lost. And I draw the line at asking staff in a store for (mostly) women’s clothing if they’ve seen the secret elevator that leads to a stash of anime figurines.

I found an elevator on the fourth floor, which was as high as I could go using the stairs and pushed ‘up’. A woman pushed past and pressed ‘down’ and looked at me as if I was so stupid. It was like the time I accidentally pulled the tag off a teabag while making tea in the drink bar of an internet cafe and a nearby gamer decided to educate me on the correct use of teabags.

Was it really H&M? That really didn’t seem right. The post on DannyChoo.com had been talking all about bringing plastic anime figures to people who didn’t usually see them, but it was hard to believe the people surrounding me would care at all as they ploughed through the brand-name goods in search of a bargain. No, something was amiss.

I called it a day and headed to a cafe I’d heard did crumpets. Along the way, I ran into a friend and we did a tour of Takeshita Doori, ending up outside H&M once more. Outside, a queue was forming for an elevator hidden between the two main doors and a man was touting free drink samples of Vitamin Water. I’d finally found the place.

Inside, were several stands of Good Smile Company figurines (including the Suenaga Mirai figure). There were also figures for Haruhi, Death Note and other anime keywords that will hopefully bring traffic to this blog.

We descended a spiral stair and came out in a room draped in white cloth, padded areas to sit down on, and tons of bottles of Vitamin Water, a drink they were promoting alongside everything else. You spun a wheel and they gave you a drink based on what it selected for you. I landed on the ‘lucky!’ segment, so got to choose. I choose dragonfruit, because it’s got the word ‘dragon’ in it. It

Below are more photos of the event. If you liked this article, you’ll also want to read my write-up of the Tokyo Toy Show.

Spam From Japan

Live from Tokyo

Spam From Japan: Chocolate Gyoza

Spam From Japan: The Saga Of The Man-Dress

The Path Through Nagasaki Cemetery

Spam From Japan: The Ruins of Gunkanjima

Random Japanese Words Are Awesome. Sometimes.

“Twentieth Century Boys: The Beginning of the End” Review

Spam From Japan: Taking Silliness Seriously With GI Joe

Spam From Japan: Paris Coffee

Spam From Japan: Japanese Wordplay and Hidden Eights

Spam From Japan: Tokyo Figure Show

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