To bad my friends do this on Tuesdays. As fun as it may have been, I wouldn’t miss my ninjutsu class for it

Part Hummer, part Bug, the Humbug is guaranteed to piss everyone off, no matter their views!

You saw it here first, folks.

Later on I had a talk with Mr. T. about why authentic, historical martial arts (budo) is on such a decline in modern Japan. He attributed the decline to the Japanese not having a “strong, samurai heart” like they used to. He later claimed that today Japanese are more concerned with money than with the spirit, a remark which is probably true, if not ironic in some ways.

I think L.F. is closer to the truth though, when he remarked that the Japanese see us (the foreign martial artists) the same as we would view a foreigner speaking little English flying in to Houston to dress up like a cowboy and strut around Texas practicing his quick draw.

However there is a distinction, even if the Japanese can’t see it. The cowboy is an anachronism, as is the art of quickdrawing (assuming such a thing even existed). The samurai too is out of place today, albeit the ninja less so in certain places. But their arts remain alive because they still provide a benefit to their practitioners either in practical application or personal development. The former is often true of ninjutsu, but the latter is true of the martial arts in general, and is similar to the reasons many athletes express for their dedication.

For the Japanese though, the only arts which have value are those which can be turned into a sport and practiced safely. Thus the modernized perversions of ancient forms (the big 3 of Judo, Kendo, and Karate) are remain popular here while the more historically accurate budo arts are quickly vanishing, except those which have been discovered and picked up by foreigners. But this chance encounter shows that at least some locals are aware of what’s going on, which is better than I thought it to be.

Having lived here for a short while now, including two weeks with a host family of sorts, I can tell you there’s good reason why only sushi has made it to the west: there’s no way an American would ever set foot in a restaurant which served even half of the things they call food here.  And the other half would incite protests and letter bombs.  One memorable meal I had with my host family consisted of raw horse meat and what I am told was squid testicles.  I have since learned the many ways in Japanese to say “No, no, that’s quite alright.  I’ll have just this.  I’m rather full right now, you see.”

*Note to the Japanese out there: should you find yourself hosting a gaijin on an occasion, and should he ask what food is set before him, simply say “chicken” or “beef,” depending on the colour.  Trust me, it’ll be less pain for everyone involved.

It wasn’t long before I longed for something western.  Maybe some enchiladas, a real hamburger (with buns!), or a fat, juicy steak.  Hah!  Good luck finding that in Japan.  But while wondering Tokyo I spotted a Denny’s, and just had to stop in for a taste.  From the menu it seemed even Denny’s had not entered Japan unscathed, but I managed to find an omelet which looked sufficiently like what I was used to. And when it at last came I eagerly grabbed a fork and dove in, only to make a truly horrifying discovery: the Japanese omelet is sushi rice with food colouring, wrapped without spices or extras in a starched egg covering.  At least the ketchup was real.

I have discovered one food for which is a shame we do not have* in the west: ramen.  Not that cup-o-noodle stuff you buy from the supermarket.  True Japanese Ramen.  Made from a thick, saturated broth a day in the making, fresh Japanese noodles, fully cooked meat (from domesticated animals!), and a side of gyoza.  My gods its delicious.  There’s a funny thing about Ramen shops though: they’re only to be found when you least desire them.  When I first came to Japan I mistook ramen to be that instant noodle of my youth, but as I’ve since been introduced to the glorious bowl of heaven-on-earth deliciousness that is True Japanese Ramen (not to mention it being, along with sushi, the only native food I can eat here), it was naturally the first thing I looked for when I got off the local train.  I swear to you: there isn’t a single ramen shop within a 30 minute walk of Minami-senju station.  I spent a hungry afternoon looking.

[*Update2: I have since found some True Japanese Ramen shops in the S.F. bay area.  Their quality is almost as good as those I had in Japan, but I have yet to find a place that does both good broth and good noodles in the same bowl...  -RS '08]

At least the 7-11here sells a ham and cheese sandwidge that–get this–actually tastes like a ham and cheese sandwidge!  Plus they have these deep fried chicken strips which they serve toasty hot and are totally awesome.  They’re probably not really chicken, but until I find my ramen, I prefer to stay in blissful ignorance.

Update: I finally did find a ramen shop, after talking to the hotel receptionist.  I sure had to walk to get there though.  I find that when exploring Japan it is easiest to measure distance as the number of passed 7-11′s, which are ubiquitous here in Japan.  Typically my comfortable walking distance for a meal is about 0.5 7-11′s.  This walk had to be at least 5 or 6 7-11′s.  But for ramen it was totally worth it.  I think I may even go back for a second bowl.  But this time I’m renting a bicycle.

In retrospect I think I may have selected the wrong transport method. I chose “SAL”, in part because it had the largest letters (and there were separate options for airmail and express, which I did not select). Does anyone know what this acronym stands for?

Anyway, after that expensive trip to the post office I went back to Asakusa for my second visit. I’d been there once before on tour with Ms. S, but our stay was brief and I knew there was more to see. And there certainly was! Senso-ji temple is an amazing sight during at midday… but at sunset is stunningly beautiful.

Also at night Asakusa takes on a carnival atmosphere even on a Monday evening. New stalls are set up surrounding the temple, and the whole area is packed with tourists, both Japanese and foreign.

After a good True Japanese Ramen dinner and some exploring of the surrounding area, I got back on the subway to get back to the hotel, but stopped off at Ueno to take a look around. That’s where I’ll be heading tomorrow, and it looks like fun will be had.

Update: It turns out the carnival atmosphere was because there was a carnival going on!  Note to future travellers: Dec 17-19 is the Toshi-no Ichi and Hagoita Ichi fairs at Asakusa.

Update:  I managed to find a bank in Kashiwa that could take money off of an international credit card.  This turned out to be way more of a problem than I imagined it to be, as the bank tellers would, one after another direct us to some other bank across the way.  It got to the point where L.F. and I figured that none of the tellers actually knew which bank would work, and true to the Japanese way they were just politely redirecting us to get us out of their face.  But the six or seventh bank we tried actually worked (woohoo!).  I’ll get a picture of the bank and directions so that others won’t have the same problem.

I still don’t know how to get money out of an Bank of America account, and am a little worried about the fees charged to my VISA card.  Of course the potential fees to my BofA account would be similar… yet another reason to bring all the money I need in cash next time.

So list of things I regret not bringing, item #2: protein bars. When Jason went earlier this year he brought a big pack from Cosco which he affectionately referred to as “ninja food pellets.” I didn’t because I didn’t have room to pack or time to buy them, but I should have grabbed at least a few from the cupboard. You need snacks constantly for the first day or two, until your body adjusts to the new eating schedule.

The flight out was test of endurance. It took a whopping 11 hours, I think mostly because the flight hugged the coastline up past Canada, Alaska, Russia, the Sakhalin islands. Why they take such a roundabout route is beyond me. Thankfully there was no one sitting on either side of me on the airplane, so I was able to make a bed out of three seats and catch a few Z’s, though not nearly enough. I flew ANA on a Boeing 777, so each seat had a TV in the back of it, with an extensive video colleciton. That is if you allow ‘extensive’ to refer to Pirates of the Carribean and a slew of movies by Adam Sandler and Keanu Reeves. Pirates was interesting.

I met up with Steve at the airport, since his flight arrived about an hour after mine. (BTW, getting through customs with an iaito is no problem. As long as it’s not sharp, they don’t care.) We figured if we were together we’d have a better chance at finding the hotel without problem. But as it turns out it didn’t matter: there was about ten ninjas waiting at the bus stop.

[start commentary]

When we finally did make it to Kashiwa (some two hours later) Richard Van Donk was kind enough to give us firsttimers a tour of downtown. I was surprised at how compact the whole city is. All the buildings are new, sleek, modern looking structures, but the layout is definately feudal: short, narrow streets designed for horse-drawn wagons. It has the feel of old European town centers, but with a completely modern look. I’ll get a picture from the rail station later to illustrate this.

Despite Kashiwa’s small size, it really is crowded:

As we came out of the mall/rail station complex, we ran into a pair of street performers:

(I’m still working on getting the camera settings right)

They were actually quite good, although I think they got kind of nervous when a dozen foreigners showed up at once, quadrupling their audience.

List of things I regret not bringing, item #1: a watch. I don’t own one because I always use my cell phone, but I didn’t bring that with me to Japan. With train schedules and such this may be important enough to have to go out and buy one.

Finally, here’s a photo of my hotel room here at Kashiwa Plaza. It’s of the absurdly small variety, which I understand to be above average for business class in Japan.

I wish I could get a picture of me in there for size comparison. It’s hard to get a feel from the picture of how small it is, since the dimensions are universally shrunk like a dollhouse. I’m about the same height as the mirror in the foreground.

That’s it for now. I have tons more to say, but I’m running on just a few hours sleep, and it’s about 5 am california time.

Peace out.