Sweet Home Itakura

My tipsy little house has grown on me. Despite the harshness of the Japanese winters, the house doesn’t appear to be overly sturdy at first sight, but I have been reliably informed that it has withstood what nature has thrown at it so far – earthquakes and typhoons. The rain lashing down on the tin roof and the tin roofs of the nextdoor buildings has quite a relaxing affect when I’m curled up on my futon. When the wind starts to blow, there is always a good 20 minutes of fun to be had trying to shove paper between the shoji screens and windows to stop them rattling.
My apartment is on the small side, but this has its good and bad points. Whereas I’ll never have space to host a big party, I am able to heat my place in the fraction of the time it takes some people. I have one tatami room where I sleep, study, eat and relax in. Tatami is the tightly woven straw matting that is a commonly used in Japan. It’s a no shoes zone – socks or barefoot only please… It’s a much warmer surface than a wooden floor and easier to clean than a carpet. I have a decent sized kitchen, a bathroom and a fair bit of storage for all sorts of bits and bobs. The only furniture I have is a chair, a bookcase, a wardrobe and a low table called a kotatsu. It’s basic, but I don’t like having a lot of clutter around me, so it suits me fine.
The place is reasonably traditional. I’ve got the tatami floor, sliding doors and shoji screens (paper walls / blinds – I fully expect to drunkenly put my hand / foot / head / all of the above through it in the not too distant future, so I don’t count them as a permanent feature of my house…).
Aircon is a man’s best friend here. As there is no real insulation in the building, you seem to be either too hot or too cold, except for about four days in October when the temperature was perfect.
I got a wee car. It’s a four wheel drive… um, Suzuki Alto… It might not look it, but it’s a dream to drive, honest! Slightly concerned that I won’t be able to find it in the morning after a heavy night of snow. It’s a bit of golf cart really, but when the studded winter tyres are on her, then the true beast will be revealed! With a bit of persuasion I should be able to get it up to the slopes in winter. Driving around has helped me orientate myself. It’s also nice to have the freedom to just shoot off into the hills whenever I want.
There is not much in Joetsu to be honest, so I’m quite glad to be out in the sticks. I’m in the village of Itakura, which has a population of 2000 or so, but it is quite spread out. It’s far nicer to go for a run amongst the rice fields than down the streets of a rather non-descript town. Joetsu City reminds me of a sprawling US town that doesn’t really have a town centre.
The town is too sparse to just walk around and all the streets look the same. There aren’t an abundance of street signs, even in kanji, which makes it’s a tricky for those new to the place. There is an area called Takada, however, that is quite nice. There are a few nice shops there, a big park with castle and a massive lake covered in lotus flowers. There is also an area in town called Honcho, which has lots of shops – it should get quite Christmassy there soon, well, by Japanese standards at least…

Proper Crimbo (shopping)

Well I’d better try and get into the habit of the blog lark, so here are a few words on my trip to Tokyo this weekend – well, Saturday to be precise.
My home prefecture of Niigata is on the west coast of Honshu and sits next to the Sea of Japan. Tokyo is on t’other side of Honshu, but thanks to Shinky the Shinkansen you can get across to the capital relatively swiftly. We (Heather, Stacia and I – the three of us live in the same building in Itakura) left our sleepy mountain village before sun up in an attempt to cram in as much as we could in our brief visit to the city, the principal aim of which was Christmas shopping.
Squeezed into Stacia’s tiny Suzuki something or other, we weaved our way through the misty mountains and numerous tunnels on our way to Nagano City in the next prefecture – along the expressway it takes a little over an hour. We parked the car up at Nagano train station and head off for the Shinkansen line just as the sun sleepily lifted its head from behind the horizon.
If you are a kid in the UK and you say that you love trains, then people will think you are a geeky trainspotter. Not so here. Boys in Japan love trains, and rightfully so, because the Shinkansen is a very cool thing indeed for numerous reasons.
Firstly, they look like space shuttles more than trains; secondly, they travel at around 200mph; and thirdly, they are always on time. Your ticket has your seat and carriage number on it and indicated on the platform is where you should stand and wait for the train. The Shink then whispers its way up to the platform at precisely the scheduled minute and, as if by magic, the carriage door you want is tight in front of you. Once on board you have bags of legroom, plenty of space for your bags (and legs) and the ride is so quiet and smooth that you nod off within a few minutes – none of this screeching of wheel on tracks that cuts you right to the core. Anyway, enough of this waffle – the moral of the story is that the Shinkansen is quite cool. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Tokyo from Nagano.
Once in Tokyo it was time to see whether I still had all the city-slicker skills that I’d picked up in London. Not so, it seems, as I tripped coming off the train and had a close encounter with an elderly Japanese businessman. We took the metro from Tokyo Station to Shibuya, where some of the city’s best you-can-buy-it-all-here-and-more department stores are.
I had heard a lot about the outrageous dressing of the Tokyo youngsters (says he at all of 24), but I thought it was probably just a few alternatively-dressed kids and the whole thing had been hyped up. Not so, they are all over the place. If you can imagine Camden on a Saturday afternoon cranked up a little bit, but more cutesy and less Goth / rock, you're almost there. The guys have big coiffured hair soaked in so much hairspray that you fear walking too close to them as they might spontaneously combust, while the ladies are so scantily clad it would make you mother blush. It is definitely the place to be seen.
Our first port of call was Tokyu Hands, three sprawling multi-story towers of all sorts of Japanese randomness. Christmas isn’t a very important religious holiday in Japan, but they have embraced the spirit of Christmas – the commercial spirit that is.
Having looked through what Tokyu had to offer, we toddled along to Loft – more of the same basically, but more trendy. Back out on the streets we took in the atmosphere – a cup of coffee while standing by one of the busy crossings made you wonder where all of these people could possibly be going (I think I have been out in the sticks for too long).
Next stop was Asakusa, formerly Tokyo’s principal entertainment districts way back when. The main attraction for us was Nakamise-dori (top picture), a long shopping precinct that leads up to Senso-ji Temple. You can buy all manner of bits and bobs here and it’s a fascinating area to simply wander around. At night the street is wonderfully lit, which makes it very atmospheric. Senso-ji is not one of the most attractive temples I’ve seen since I’ve been in Japan, but to it’s left is a stunning five storey Pagoda. It too was rather atmospheric, all lit up and that…
Back on the tube and we scooted off to the Ginza district. Ginza is the posh shopping area in Tokyo; huge buildings pulsate with neon and the main aim seems to be to remove as much yen from your wallet as you can as quickly as possible. The most impressive building for me was by Dior (I don’t know if he designed it, but it had his name on it). It looked as though it was covered in diamonds.
In search of some non-Japanesey food – not something we have the luxury of in Joestu too often – ideally we would have stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant as soon as we exited the station, but it wasn’t to be. Instead we settled for a wee Irish pub down a side street. I didn’t catch the name, but O’Flannigan’s probably isn’t far off. A Guinness and a Shepherds Pie later and I was a happy bunny.
A hop, skip and a jump back to Tokyo Station and we were soon Shinking our way back Nagano.
Did I ever tell you how cool the Shinkansen is? Well, firstly…and sleep.

Why put off today what you can put off tomorrow?

Well I make that a solid month and a half since I wrote anything on this blog. Yes, like a small child, I picked up the concept of “the blog,” played with it for a wee while and then threw it away and moved onto something else. While that is part of what happened, another reason for my infrequent updates is that life in Japan started, and a little matter of learning how to teach English (and speak Japanese) came into focus.

Even as much as two months into being here the holiday atmosphere was still in full swing. The days were warm, the nights long, and everything was new and exciting. All the newbies here in Joetsu were frantically rushing here, there and everywhere to see all the different and unusual things that our new home had to offer. Needless to say, such a pace was not going to be kept up indefinitely. In my first nine or so weeks in Japan, only one weekend did not involve jumping in a car and heading out of town on some sort of adventure.

I must admit being rather impressed by what lies on our doorstep. Being in the central belt of the main island of Honshu, there are a lot of places within easy striking distance. Niigata itself comes into it’s own when the snow arrives (which, I have been promised, is imminent). The novel Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari, which won the 1968 Nobel Prize for literature, was set in Niigata (but I don’t need to tell you that). The prefecture is famous for excellent rice, sake and skiing, and I’m happy with that.

I’m yet to explore the coastline, but I have been told that a few good beaches exist. South along the coast from Joetsu is the town of Kanazawa. Due to its lack of military targets it was spared the kind of destruction that many of the other major cities received in WWII (Kyoto also escaped in tact). Consequently, many of the cultural and historical sights still exist, including former samurai and geisha districts.

In the next door prefecture of Nagano are some of the most breathtaking mountains that the country has to offer; it is often referred to as “the roof of Japan.” It is also home to apples the size of grapefruits, which are a meal in their own right (Dave will attest to this). The prefecture’s main city, also called Nagano – really, what are the chances? – is only a short drive along the expressway from Joetsu. It’s a very modern and trendy city and got quite a boost thanks to it’s Winter Olympics in 1998.

One of it’s main attractions, piping Starbucks by a whisker, is Zenkoji Buddhist temple. Inside, next to the main alter, is a staircase that descends into a pitch-black tunnel that you can walk through – this symbolises death and re-birth, clever, eh? Within the dark, twisting tunnel you can find the key to eternal salvation. FYI – it’s about two-thirds of the way along on your right.
That’ll do as a wee chunk for now. I’ll update this as best I can, but I can’t guarantee there will be any coherence to things until we are up to speed. Things will just come to me over the coming days and weeks and I’ll be inspired to type in a few lines, so bear with me.