Japan '08: Asakusa

Kaminari Mon, the main gate leading into the temple complex and shopping arcade at Asakusa.

Probably the most famous temple and associated cultural sites in Tokyo are located in Asakusa, in the northeastern part of the city, not far from where we stayed in Hongou. The main attraction, Senso-ji Buddhist Temple, was destroyed in World War II, but rebuilt in the 1950s. Throughout October and up to November 25, they are having special celebrations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the re-dedication of the temple.

Larger temples and shrines in Japan tend to have touristy commercial districts associated with them. The Nakamise shopping arcade inside of Kaminari Mon, along the street leading to Senso-ji, is especially extravagant. You can get a pretty decent lunch by hitting the food stalls, then shop for o-miyage (souvenirs). I bought some reproduction old fashioned money from the Nakamise Association booth, which technically could have been used like cash at Association businesses, though it seemed a shame to spend it.

Nakamise money and my fortune from Senso-ji.

Omikuji at Senso-ji Temple yielded kichi (good fortune), which is almost the best outcome. It seems to me that omikuji has a strong bias towards more or less happy fortunes; I've done it a bunch of times and never gotten one of the variations on kyou (curse or bad luck). It's too bad, because if you get kyou, you can engage in another odd little temple/shrine activity: folding up the paper and tying it to a branch or wire frame on the temple grounds, in order to undo the fortune.

Alter inside of the main hall at Senso-ji.

We visited Asakusa on a weekday, but things were still incredibly busy; the crowd was 10 people deep around the main devotional area in Senso-ji.

Japan '08: Washinomiya Shrine

On our first full day in Japan, we decided to visit Washinomiya Jinja, a Shinto shrine in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, which is probably the oldest shrine in the Kanto region, having supposedly been founded by the god Amenohohi prior to 660 BCE. Rather more recently, Washinomiya has gained fame as the inspiration for some of the settings in the 2007 anime version of Lucky Star.

Washinomiya is located pretty far out in the sticks, relatively speaking, and getting there from home base in Hongou involved a couple of transfers, so the outing served as our baptism by fire into the Tokyo train system. We took it slowly, and didn't get lost. Actually, we never once got turned around on the trains the whole trip, which is partly due to preparation (Ray in particular gets props for figuring things out ahead of time), and partly due to the fact that the train system has gotten a whole lot more user friendly than it was when I was last in Tokyo, about 10 years ago. The signage in the stations and on the trains themselves is really thorough, and mostly includes romanized place names, and the stations on a line are now given consecutive numbers, which makes it easy to tell if you're going in the right direction.

Ueno Station in Tokyo, relatively quiet after rush hour.

The biggest improvement to the train system has been the introduction of prepaid fare cards that you just swipe at the gates at your starting point and destination, as opposed the old system (still available if you're a masochist) of trying to figure out what your fare is going to be from a map and buying tickets for the right amount at a vending machine. You don't even have to take the card out; it has an RFID chip that generally works if you nonchalantly wave your wallet over the reader. Probably the most important single piece of advice that I can give to prospective visitors to Tokyo is: buy a Suica or Pasmo card (the two competing card types are equivalent, so just pick one at random) as soon as you arrive at the airport. We got a special deal for tourists, that included a Suica card with some money on it and a ticket on the Narita Express from the airport to Tokyo Station at a discount price.

Washinomiya Station, with Sujith (L) and Ray (R).

Washimiya--the town--where Washinomiya--the shrine--is located, was about an hour and a half from Ueno Station, though we were taking our time and being cautious about catching the right trains. kc_komicer provides good directions. Basically, you take the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line to Kita-Senju Station. There, catch the Tobu-Isesaki Line (the main train line through Saitama). We took a rapid train to Kuki Station, then got on a local train for a one station hop to Washinomiya. There might have been other options--it looked like there was a limited express from Kita-Senju that stopped at Washinomiya--but this route seemed like it would be quick and certain.

Garden in Washimiya with orange trees, persimmons, figs, etc.

Washimiya is a pleasant, quiet place, at least late morning on a Friday; my neighborhood in rural Connecticut is noisy in comparison. Use the East exit from the station, walk up the main drag and work your way over to the wooded area visible to the left, which is Washinomiya.

Washinomiya Shrine main gate, live action and anime versions.

Sadly, neither my friends nor the old guy sitting in front of the tea shop in the photo of the actual gate were much inclined to do the dance. The Washinomiya expedition was on October 10th (Moe Day, coincidentally) but it was pretty hot, especially out in the sun. According to the natives, the weather was unusually warm for that time of year; I wished I had brought more short sleeved shirts.

Walkway inside of the gates, 3-D and Lucky Star modes.

If I was really hardcore, I would have had some printouts of key Lucky Star scenes with me, in order to search for good photos. This shot of the entryway to the shrine was just an interesting view; I noticed it was present in the anime only after my return to the U.S. It's probably just as well my preparations didn't go that far; I received enough ribbing from my Japanese friends just for visiting Saitama to see anime locales ("Uwaa, mania sugiru!" or something along those lines). Much of the shrubbery to the right in the background is Osmanthus aurantiaca, (Kinmokusei, Orange Fragrant Olive), which was in bloom and gave the whole area a citrusy smell.

A cherry tree (sakura).

Cherry trees were planted all along the main walkway; it must be nice in spring. This was a particularly gnarled old specimen that must have an associated spirit or some such in order to warrant the shimenawa (ceremonial ropes) with shide (folded paper wards) around it. If years of watching anime have taught me anything, something interesting would happen if you tripped and broke the rope. Nobody tripped. The grassy green leaves growing on the side of the trunk are an epiphytic fern, probably Lepisorus thunbergianus, that was pretty widespread on old trees in Tokyo and Kyoto.

Washinomiya Ema stand.

Shinto shrines sell wooden plaques (ema) on which visitors can write their wishes and hopes (and sometimes just random chatty observations), and provide a place to hang the finished work. Washinomiya has been getting a good amount of otaku traffic since Lucky Star aired, so there are lots of funky ema, and even a few from foreign visitors.


Before you get to the main shrine plaza, there's a washing station, where you are meant to purify yourself before entering. Ray demonstrates: you wash your left hand, then the right, then take a sip from your left hand and rinse your mouth. Most people seem to drink the water, though you should read the signs (or watch what other people do if your Nihongo is shaky), because the hand washing areas at some shrines and temples are marked as being non-potable. At right there's a really impressive female Ginkgo tree, which was just starting to shed seed. I snagged a few fallen seeds and brought them back to the US, and will have to see if I can grow some Washinomiya Ginkgos.

Sujith and me at the shop.

Shrines and temples include stores where you can buy omamori (charms for protection in various endeavors: studying, childbirth, traffic safety, etc.), ofuda (paper wards with writing and seals), or get your fortune told via omikuji lottery. I picked up some shrine goods, and did omikuji. To get your fortune, you pay the cute miko (shrine maiden) 100 yen, shake up a container and draw a stick, tell the miko the number on the stick, and receive a slip of paper. At Washinomiya, I got shou-kichi (small fortune), which is so-so.

Shou-kichi or no, things seemed to work out well on this trip. For example, by dumb luck we happened to visit Washinomiya Shrine on one of its seven annual festival days. When we first arrived, around 10:00, the staff seemed to be doing something with relics in the inner part of the shrine, but the area was closed off to the general public and it was hard to see what was going on. Later on, the action moved to a public area, with music and much ceremony, all picturesque if more or less incomprehensible for us gaikokujin.

Ootori Tea Shop bulletin board.

After we were all matsuri-ed out, we headed back to the ancient-looking tea shop, Ootori Chaya, just outside of the gate. Ootori is a traditional eatery in most respects, but the local youth group that operates the place [ref.] has taken up the Lucky Star theme with a vengeance.


Their menu, for instance, lists the usual tempura, udon, soba and dango, but many items have been given names that are puns or references from Lucky Star or other anime. For better or worse, I did not sample Tsukasa's Balsamic Vinegar Parfait, though I sort of wish that I had. It's easy to say things like that, now that I'm safely thousands of miles away from Japan.


The interior of Ootori Tea Shop is decorated with Lucky Star memorabilia, including signatures from voice actors and anime staff who have visited Washimiya.

Ray, Sujith and lunch at Ootori.

The food was ordinary light fare, but tasty. After lunch, I snagged a few more souvenirs, including a Sacred Land Washinomiya t-shirt (visible behind the guys) and we made our way back to the city. That evening I caught a movie (Gurren Lagann) on my own, and then we all went out to dinner in Shinjuku with some of Ray's Tokyoite friends. All in all, it was a really satisfying day: a bit laid back, but with enough challenges to get us into the swing of things, and enough excitement and outdoor activity to keep 13 hours of jet lag from overwhelming us.

From the M.J. Political Desk

I'm feeling pretty good about the election. No mistake, the problems that Obama will face come January are formidable, and all of us here in the U.S. should be prepared to hold the president elect's feet to the fire about bringing Bush's various wars to swift and humane conclusions, effectively re-regulating the economy, restoring eroded civil liberties, bringing balance, transparency and accountability back to the federal government, enforcing environmental regulations, awarding political and judicial appointments based on the merits of the candidates, ending government use of torture and secret offshore prisons, and fixing a thousand other things that have gone to hell in the past eight years. The really broad scale, long term problems that the world is staring down--environmental degradation and the depletion of natural resources--might be beyond the ability of any leader to address, no matter how capable and well-intentioned they are.

Still, and cheesy as it sounds, I felt something while watching the results last night that I haven't felt convincingly in a while: hope for the future of the country, hope that progress is possible, hope that something, besides video games and moe character designs, might have been getting better amidst 30 years of creeping neoconservative cultural rot. At one point after Obama's victory was certain, a reporter talked to some grizzled old civil rights activists, and the hardened veterans of a decades long and still ongoing struggle had to choke back tears of joy: the country had achieved something that they had never imagined could happen in their lifetimes. It may just be for a few hours or a few days, but I can't maintain a drop of cynicism in the face of a scene like that.

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I'll continue with Japan trip reports next week; election aside, this week is impossibly busy.

Japan '08: Lodging

During the planning phases for our Japan trip, expedition members Sujith, Ray, and I quickly came to the conclusion that while staying in western-style hotels near major train stations would be convenient, it would also be relatively expensive and boring. So, we decided to reserve rooms at ryokans, or traditional Japanese inns.


Our first and longest stay was at Homeikan Morikawa Annex [Homeikan main site], in the Hongou area of Tokyo. It's about a 10 minute walk from the Hongou San-choume subway station, which is a little off of the beaten path, but convenient to Akihabara (two stops away, with a short walk to a JR station at Ochanomizu). Actually, you can just walk to Akihabara from Hongou; it took me half an hour, at a moderately brisk pace.


Hongou is an interesting place in its own right; the residential area where the various Homeikan branches are located is just across the street from what is possibly Japan's most respected institute of higher learning, Tokyo Daigaku (The University of Tokyo, or "Todai"). That's me in front of the famous clock tower, which actually seems to be the entryway to the cafeteria. Eat your heart out, Keitarou Urashima. The campus is a nice place to take a stroll, and I didn't have any difficulties entering, just marching by the security guards. The locals apparently take advantage of the open space for dog walking.



This is the alley in back of Homeikan Morikawa Annex. I thought the wall with spikes was interesting; I would vaguely imagine that it's a legacy of leaner, meaner times in Japan when the building was constructed, and can't imagine they serve any pressing security needs today.



Upon entering a ryokan, you take off your shoes and stow them in a cubby, and put on the provided indoor slippers. Homeikan Morikawa provides a computer for guest use is in an alcove at the right. The Morikawa Annex has a really pretty little garden at the entryway. That's Ray in picture, by the way.



Rooms at a ryokan have tatami mat floors and a table with cushions around it for lounging (hot water and tea making materials are provided, as well as a few snacks). Futons are put out at night, and rolled up during the day. At most places you can get breakfast and possibly dinner (no dinners at Homeikan) served in your room by exceedingly polite hotel staff, which is a good experience, though probably not very cost effective. This photo was taken the first day, before we unpacked and started shopping, which kind of wrecked the spare aesthetics of the place.


Facilities at a ryokan are all public; it's sort of like being in a college dorm. In the hallways there are sinks for washing up and brushing teeth, Maison Ikkoku style. All the places we stayed had western toilets, as well as the dreaded Japanese no-seat variety. As in private homes in Japan, there are special slippers to wear inside of the toilet room: you take off your normal indoor slippers as you enter, and put on the bathroom-only slippers.


Baths (ofuro) at ryokans are often communal, too, which is a bit awkward for us New Englanders. Actually, all the places we stayed had foreigner-friendly private bath options, with lockable doors. Whether you brave the public area or not, the general idea at a Japanese bath is to rinse off outside the tub, briefly enter the tub, scrub thoroughly while sitting at the faucets outside of the tub, and only when clean and rinsed enter the tub for a good soak.


At the end of our trip, we stayed for a couple of days at the Homeikan Daimachi Annex, which is a couple of blocks from Morikawa (which sort of felt like our home in Nippon). Daimachi was a larger, busier place, with perhaps a bit more room to spread out. We had the balcony pictured here off of our tatami area, for instance.


Homeikan Daimachi also had a lovely courtyard garden. The octagonal building sticking out into the garden is the private bath. Naturally, you take off your indoor slippers and put on a pair of garden sandals if you want to go out and contemplate the Podocarpus.


While we spent most of our vacation in Tokyo, we also made it out southwest to the Kansai area, where we had a ryokan in the old capital, Kyoto. Hanakiya Ryokan [official site] is located in the hills on the eastern edge of the city, very close to Kiyomizu-dera (Kiyomizu Temple). It was an amazing place to stay, right in the middle of one of the city's major tourist destinations, though not exactly convenient to Kyoto Station. We used taxis to get back and forth between Hanakiya and downtown; there's a major taxi and bus stop for Kiyomizu just up the street from the ryokan. The neighborhood got really quiet at night; everything but the vending machines closed down by dinnertime. It was quite a change from Tokyo!



We stayed in the Hanakiya annex building, which only has a couple of rooms, and had more of a bed & breakfast feel about it than Homeikan. There was a small common area, with a fridge and computer, where we hung out a bit with some guests from Poland and Austria.
















Here's the neighborhood around the Hanakiya Annex building. Behind a retaining wall in back of the house there's a sprawling cemetery called Nishi Otani, and Kiyomizu-dera is maybe half a kilometer uphill. On the larger streets, there are a lot of gift shops and ceramics stores. Kiyomizu is famous for ceramics, and I bought some tea cups. The proprietress tried to tell me something about the form of the lip of the cups that is distinctive to Kiyomizu, but the adjective she kept using was beyond me.

M.J. Japan Adventure

Matt at the gate of Washinomiya Shrine in Saitama.

Moetic Justice is now reporting live from Japan. I’ve been here five days, and a lot has happened--too much to waste time in Nihon blogging about--but it has been a superb trip so far, and there is a lot left to do. I am in Tokyo right now, and my friends and I have been spending time in Shinjuku, Nakano, the Ghibli Museum, and of course Akihabara, the Vatican City of nerds. Later this week we head to Kyoto and Nara for some legitimate Japanese Culture. More later, though any kind of systematic account is going to have to wait until after I return. おたのしもいに！

Summer 2008 Anime Rundown

There are something in the neighborhood of 25 new anime starting up this summer [via Moetron]. The summer season is traditionally a bit slow, but there is a good range of material out there this year, and a couple of really strong new shows. I'll cover four that have attracted my attention, and briefly mention some others that I've seen. Ratings are based on the first two or three episodes.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~
(Important Things for a Mage - Summer Sky / Someday's Dreamers - Summer Sky)
Genre: supernatural, slice of life
Overall Rank: A-
MJ Rank: A

Natsu no Sora is set in the same mildly alternate Japan as the original Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto (2003) and has the same basic premise, but involves a new cast of characters. Sora Suzuki has the innate ability to use magic, and so is required to leave her agricultural hometown in Hokkaido in order to train with the Bureau of Magic in Tokyo. Sora has great potential as a mage, but experiences an awkward first day of class. She arrives late and then gets snubbed by one of her classmates, surfer-dude Gouta Midorikawa, who is strong and silent, but apparently unsure of whether he deserves to be at the Bureau.
Staff-wise, Natsu no Sora is in good hands with long time director and occasional voice actor Osamu Kobayashi, who is possibly most famous for his work on seminal '80s romantic comedy TV series Kimagure Orange Road. Visually, it's the most interesting of this seasons offerings, with ridiculously detailed backgrounds that seem to be a mixture of retouched photographs, hyper-realistic paintings, and CG. The characters designs are quite simple, and sometimes clash in funky ways with the scenery, though generally everything is well integrated. Story-wise, Natsu no Sora is going to be too slow for some tastes, though it strikes me as an ideal entertainment for lazy summer evenings.

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Other slice-of-life anime for the summer include Telepathy Shoujo Ran (Telepathy Girl Ran), this year's new NHK (Japanese public TV) anime. As is typical for NHK fair, Ran is a classy production, faintly old-fashioned and wholesome. In the shoujo-anime subcategory, there is Antique Bakery, a cooking show with boy's love undertones. Well, not even undertones, really; the shounen-ai themes are hot and heavy.


Natsume Yuujinchou
(Natsume's Book of Friends)
Genre: supernatural, shoujo
Overall Rank: A-
MJ Rank: A-

Takashi Natsume has always gotten into trouble because he can see yokai (traditional Japanese monsters) that are invisible to normal people. But his situation takes a turn for the worse when he moves to the country hamlet where his grandmother, Reiko, grew up, and yokai start to actively hunt him down. It seems that Reiko, who died young, really kicked ass--in the spiritual sense--and had gained dominion over the local yokai by collecting their names in her Book of Friends. Now, spirits who have gone bad, who are lonely without Reiko, or who want control over other yokai, are after Takashi and the book. Assisting Takashi in his quest to return the names to their rightful owners and not get killed in the process is Madara, A.K.A. Nyanko-sensei ("Master Kitty"), a cat spirit who is indebted to the boy.
The bonds and complex motivations that govern the interactions between Takashi and the yokai form the heart of Natsume Yuujinchou, and everything is influenced by Reiko's short but intense life, which is gradually revealed in flashbacks. In spite of a slightly cartoony look (which does grow on you), Natsume Yuujinchou is a serious and emotionally powerful drama.


Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
(Haruka Nogizaka's Secret)
Genre: comedy, romance, otaku
Overall Rank: B
MJ Rank: A-

Haruka Nogizaka is the quintessential school idol: talented and intelligent; a formal and demure girl from the best sort of family. She would be a true Yamato nadeshiko (traditional Japanese beauty), if it wasn't for a dark secret: she's really an otaku who loves goony fanservice anime. Our hero, ordinary schmoe Yuuto Ayase, runs into Haruka while she's guiltily borrowing back issues of an anime magazine from the library, and promises to protect her secret. Naturally, the two grow closer in spite of the social divide between them.
Haruka Nogizaka no Himitsu is looking like a fairly predictable example of the anime-about-anime-fans genre, and presents an idealized fantasy version of fandom (a la Comic Party), but so far it has been executed with enthusiasm and a sense of humor.


Slayers Revolution
Genre: comedy, sword and sorcery
Overall Rank: B+
MJ Rank: B+

Slayers returns to the airwaves, after more than a ten year hiatus since its last television incarnation, Slayers Try. Over-powered and quick tempered sorceress Lina Inverse--as always, voiced by omnipresent 1990s voice actress Megumi Hayashibara--has concerns about declining numbers of her usual bandit prey, and decides to head to sea to incinerate pirates while the bandit population recovers. She's joined by the old gang--Gaurry, Amelia and Zelgadiss--and comic mayhem ensues.
There are more than the usual number of revivals of older franchises out there right now (e.g. Macross Frontier, Birdy the Mighty Decode), but Slayers Revolution has the strongest lost-can-of-film-melts-out-of-glacier vibe going on. There's hardly any way to tell that it wasn't broadcast in 1996, apart from the aspect ratio and animation that is somewhat brighter and steadier than could be achieved with cels. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on individual taste, though Slayers Revolution clearly isn't going to break much new ground. Back in the mid-90s, ironically, Slayers really was revolutionary, with designs that were modern or even fringe for the time. It was also one of the first TV anime, if not the first, to be based on a light novel.

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Other current fantasy anime include: Koihime Musou (恋姫 無双 ...I know all those kanji, but can't imagine what they're supposed to mean in that combination. I'm not even going to try: everything I come up with sounds incredibly stupid. For what it's worth, Google Language Tools--and I emphasize that this is Google talking, not me--renders it as "Princess Love no Twin"), which is set in feudal China. The character designs are pretty, but they're shackled to a somewhat uninspired plot. World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin (The Six World Destroyers) is from the RPG-esque end of the fantasy anime spectrum. It takes place in a world where beast-men rule, humans are a despised minority, and some destruction is apparently in order.