My First Experience Being Felt-Up by Japanese Men

Over the weekend our friends Chris and Caitlin had a couple of their friends come to Nagoya to visit and we all went out for dinner. While we were eating these two Japanese girls came over to talk with us. This is common in Japan. After a sufficient number of alcoholic drinks, Japanese people lose their reluctance to practice their English on foreigners. They stayed for a few minutes to talk about where we were from and how they wanted to go to America and Canada and then returned to their table.

After dinner we saw them again with their male friends at the subway station. This is where things got a little weird...

I guess the male friends wanted to see what I looked like under my shirt so they come over and before they had even introduced themselves they lifted my shirt up to see what I was hiding. I found this very amusing. I guess they liked what they saw because then they felt my pecs. They felt over my shirt so it was only a little weird. I probably would have drawn the line at being felt-up underneath my shirt. Instead of responding like a lot of foreigners would (yelling, lashing out, screaming) I just lifted their shirts up. They and their girl friends found this incredibly amusing because they all burst out laughing. The guys then slapped their bellies and said they were fat. I told them that I'm skinny because I run every week; they told me they were fat because they drink beer every week.

That episode was definitely the strangest thing that has happened to me since moving here. I thought maybe I wasn't offended because I had been drinking but even two days later I still think it's just funny. I think a lot of it had to do with the demeanor of my frisky friends. They were drunk and happy and harmless. Had some sober Japanese business man come up to me to lift my shirt my reaction would have been much different.

My only regret was that I didn't tell the guys that next time they want to see a foreign man's stomach they should send their girl friends over to do the undressing.

Beer Gardens

This past Sunday Aimee and I had our first visit to a Japanese beer garden. It was hosted by one of the schools Aimee teaches at and we, along with a friend and a couple other Western teachers, were the token Westerners attending the party. This afforded us a discount on the entry price (1500 yen instead of 3300) and the rockstar status most foreigners get when they're surrounded by a group of Japanese people who wish to speak English.

Beer gardens are all you can eat and drink so there is no shortage of entertainment in the form of Japanese children running around with heaping plates of food and Japanese men inebriated enough to try their best at picking up women. I saw more unsuccessful flirting Sunday night than at a high school dance. Keep high school flirting in your mind while you read the next paragraph (I'm thinking specifically of this scenario: You ask your friend to tell the friend of a girl you like to tell the girl you like that you like her... maybe... only if she likes you back).

Draw a tall, narrow rectangle. In the bottom right corner is M (for Mike) and the top right corner is K (for Kate, our friend). The top left corner is JM (Japanese man) and the bottom left corner is JL (Japanese lady). JM makes small talk with K before revealing the reason he introduced himself - JL would like to be introduced to M. K tells JM to tell JL to introduce herself then. JM smiles and says she is embarrassed. K interrupts my conversation with a different Japanese lady and introduces me to JM. We make small talk until JM tells me that he had himself introduced to me so that he could introduce me to JL. Two things should strike you as odd here. First: we are adults and should be able to make our own introductions. Second: JL was sitting closer to me than JM was (you can see this because you drew a rectangle). JM and I had to lean uncomfortably over the backs of our chairs to make the kind of small talk you make when you first introduce yourself to someone you like so that JL could overhear it ("Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "You have the most beautiful eyes in the world and I could be swallowed up in them..."). I found the whole episode quite humourous - I'm not sure that my tone has captured that.

JL and I talked (with JM translating a little since his English was pretty good) for a little while until Aimee came back from refilling our glasses. JL didn't lash out when I introduced Aimee as my girlfriend but I could tell she was disappointed. Brief aside: I've had numerous conversations with friends and girlfriends (ex and current) about the appropriate time to divulge that you have a boyfriend/girlfriend and have never reached a consensus.

Now, to continue my tale...

The garden is on the rooftop of a 6 story building in the heart of Nagoya. It was raining though so we were eating under tarped gazebo frames. This was a pretty stifling environment to be in. The food at a beer garden is cooked at the table on hibachi-like grills so there's lots of smoke which gets trapped because of the tarps. This smoke is mingled with cigarette smoke since there are no laws in Japan banning smoking in restaurants. Add to this a humidity level that is rivalled only by sitting in tub full of water and you get a recipe for a not-so-comfortable night. I had had a lot to drink the night before so I wasn't in an all-you-can-drink mood otherwise I probably would have been more comfortable than I was.

I'm also not as enamored with all-you-can-eat restaurants as I used to be. When you're a teenager they're fun because you have an appetite that could shame an elephant and no real understanding of how wasteful it is to eat a twentieth of your body weight in one sitting. The problem is that no one needs to eat 5 dinner plates worth of meat and 3 bowls of pudding. All-you-can-eat restaurants perpetuate the belief that people need to eat until they're stuffed when people actually only need to eat until they're not hungry. I think this message would fall on deaf ears here though (if I could even translate it into Japanese properly) because Japanese obesity rates are essentially non-existent when compared to obesity rates in North America.

Boys Don't Cry?

One of the boys in my class lost a game to another girl and he freaked out - he started swinging his arms and stomping his feet. Inadvertently he hit me, so I told him he had to leave the class for 5 minutes. He refused and instead sat down on the cushions and cried. So I picked him up, carried him out of class and sat him down outside the room. The tears kept rolling down his cheeks and he buried his face in his sleeve so none of the other children (nor the giggling mothers who were also outside the class) could see him. Oh, this boy is 10 years old.

What 10 year old cries because they lose a game to another kid? I was embarrassed for him. I told them to touch their noses with their right hands and the girl was faster than the boy, so she got a point. It's not like he got the answer wrong - he was just slower. When I tried to bring him back in he again refused. Perhaps he realized he was being a baby and felt embarrassed? I had to pick him up again and carry him into class, stand him up and give him a ball to shoot in the basket on the wall (we play "shoot the basket" a lot). Miraculously he got the ball in the basket (they rarely do) and afterward all was well.

After talking with other teachers I've found out that the crying boy phenomenon is common. I don't think there's anything wrong with crying - if it's for a legitimate reason. I had a different boy in the same class cry once but he got hit in the eye by one of the other students. There's no shame in crying there. But because you lost a game?

The consensus seems to be that it's because Japanese boys are spoiled. I agree with this. I see more boys walking over their mothers and getting away with murder than I have seen in Canada. It's ridiculous. If these boys don't get what they want from their mothers they start to cry or they throw temper tantrums. It's logical for them to assume that the same thing will work with Native teachers. This is one reality I'm happily destroying, one crying boy at a time.

Strange things...

I saw three very strange things today. In order of strangeness: a 5 year old boy dancing to Michael Jackson in the street; a man wearing a sandwich board advertising porn; three girls on the train touching each other's breasts. All of these events were within an hour of each other.

The boy in the picture above was dancing where these guys usually dance. He must be a good dancer if he can scare off those greasers. Kidding aside, the kid was quite good. He was dancing to "Smooth Criminal" and he definitely was one.

The man wearing the sandwich board with scantily clad women on it was kind of creepy. He was handing out tissues (handing out packages of tissues with information about your product on them is a mainstay of Japanese advertising) which had the address of some sort of strip club on them. I was most intrigued by the look on the man's face. He was just as resigned to his crappy job as anyone else I've seen doing something they hate. It didn't seem to bother him at all to wear a sandwich board with pictures on it that 13 year old boys would happily masturbate to. Although with the advent of the internet I imagine 13 year old boys now need something more racy than women posing provocatively in their bras and panties to get off...

The young girls touching each other's breasts was the strangest thing I saw all day. I was riding the train home from work and these girls got on the train and stood next to the door. One of the girls had a loose bra strap so she asked her friend to tighten it for her. I'm sure just this act would give a lot of Japanese men something to think about for the rest of the evening. After it was tightened the girl admired herself in the glass door. When she turned around her friend poked her in the breast. Then the pokee poked the other girl in one of her breasts. After a few more rounds the poking turned into groping. It's like they were feeling for growth. I'm sure young girls do this all the time - at home. Everyone is curious about their bodies and there is nothing wrong with that. However, you don't explore your body and your friends' bodies on a train that, from 5am-9am and 5pm-9pm, has women only cars because of problems with sexual assault in crowded trains.

Golden Week - Takayama and Kamikochi (Days 3 and 4)

Day Three

We woke up to this:

There had been a lot more on the ground but we laid in the tent for a while since we didn't have to get up early to catch a bus. We did get up in time to try the hot spring though.

Our first hot spring experience was a good one. There were separate baths for males and females so we agreed to meet in the lobby after the non-guest hours were over. So we had a little over an hour to soak. After stripping off all of your clothing (there's even a sign that says not to bathe in your underwear or swimsuit) you must clean yourself in the outdoor showers. These pump water from the hot spring through regular plumbing so you can shower/bathe. You sit on a little stool and lather up and then rinse yourself off. Now clean you are free to enter the various pools.

At this point I forget all the temperatures of the pool, but the only indoor pool was probably the medium temperature pool. I sat in this one for about 10 minutes with no problems. I then ventured to the outdoor pools. There were two wooden tubs and two pools. The upper pool was, as expected, warmer than the lower pool into which it flowed. The first tub was warmer than both the indoor and outdoor pools and the second tub was the hottest of all. When I got out of the hottest tub after sitting in it for 2 or 3 minutes I felt light headed. I staggered back inside and got into the indoor pool again before I fell over. Passing out, cracking your skull and spilling your blood into the pools is a major faux pas.

After 10 more minutes soaking in the indoor pool I got out and showered myself again on my little stool. It felt very cleansing and relaxing the first time so I wanted to do it again. After meeting Aimee in the lobby we both agreed that this would be a fantastic way to start and end every day.

After our hot spring baths we broke camp and headed back to Takayama and began what Aimee called “eating our way through Takayama.”

Aimee had been told by the staff at one of her schools that we had to try Hida beef. What was our first meal? Hida beef stew:

The meal was expensive – 8000 yen for both of us – but nothing compared to what the high-roller at the sushi bar must have spent. While we were waiting he and his lady friend dined on champagne and 3 appetizer plates. While we were eating they had 2 plates of sashimi which was prepared right in front of them. Even though we couldn't afford to eat what he was eating, we were not disappointed. The beef was fantastic - well marbled, well aged, well cooked. The vegetables were excellent too.

We ended the night with Haagen Dazs ice cream sandwiches from the convenience store and then headed back to our accommodations for the evening. We stayed in one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan - the Zenkoji temple. The one in Takayama is a branch of the Zenkoji temple in Nagano. We slept in traditional Japanese beds – on tatami mats on futons with blankets. The blankets were electric since it was quite cold, so the experience wasn't entirely authentic.

Day Four

We got up early to head to the morning markets. Aimee and I are both huge fans of farmers' markets back home so we were excited to see the Japanese version. We were a little disappointed. Every vendor has pretty much the same vegetables and a few spices. All of them also sell silly knick-knacks. We did have a good breakfast though.

First course:

These were little rice balls coated in a soy-type sauce and then grilled. Basically an appetizer; not filling at all. They were pretty tasty, but not something you could eat 5 or 6 skewers of to feel full.

Second course:

Owara tamaten is basically a fried marshmallow. But sooooo much better than what you're thinking. The inside is marshmallowy, but not like the marshmallows in North America. They're not just high fructose corn syrup and preservatives. The guy who makes them does so himself using some kind of gum syrup. Once they're made into cubes he dips them into an egg mixture: beaten eggs, sake, mirin (sweet cooking sake) and honey. Then they're placed on a giant table-top-sized electric frying pan and fried golden brown. They're amazing. We had one and then went back for 4 more in the afternoon.

Third course:

Hida gyuman (Hida beef bun) are made from ground up Hida beef which is fried with onions, wrapped in dough and then steamed. They're also much tastier than they look. They weren't as good as the Hida beef stew though.

After the beef bun we went back to the temple to check out. We were allowed to leave our bags at the front of the temple so we could continue exploring (and eating our way through) the city.

From the temple we went to Hida Folk Village. It was created in the 1960s by moving houses from traditional Japanse villages to Takayama. A lot of traditional villages were flooded during the creation of hydroelectric dams in the late 1950s and early 60s. People had started to leave traditional villages for the city in the 1940s and 50s so they were becoming less and less populated. However, a group of people wanted to preserve that way of life so they created an open air museum – Hida no Sato. It was a really cool place to see. Some of the buildings were from the 1600s. We both particularly liked the thatched roofs. They're over 30 centimeters thick. An entire town (approximately 40 people) could put one together in two days. Some of them had moss, grass and even small trees growing on top of them. There are a lot of pictures of the Folk Village but this update is already huge so you'll have to check them out on Facebook.

After returning to town from Hida no Sato we promptly visited the Owara Tamaten vendor for the aforementioned 4 more Owara Tamaten. From there we decided to look for a birthday present for Aimee's friend Kirin (whom some of you know so I'll keep my mouth shut) which we found. We also found these:

They're frozen tangerines. We saw dozens of people with these and we were determined to find them. It didn't really take long... we worked our way through the crowd and then were shouted at to buy them by the vendors. It wasn't all that difficult. If they hadn't shouted at us though we probably would have missed them.

After finishing our tangerines we decided to get our bags, catch our train and end our Takayama adventure. On our way back to the temple though we were waylaid by another food vendor...

Hida beef sushi and Hida beef gyuman were both really good. The Hida beef sushi – not so much. The problem with eating raw meat isn't the “Eww, but it's raw meat” factor – I have no problem with raw meat in that sense. The problem I have is that with raw meat you can't really taste the fat, and fat is what makes all Japanese beef so good. With the Hida beef stew and Hida gyuman you could really taste the fat. With raw Hida beef you couldn't. It was still ok, but not great. I would have rather had another helping of stew.

And with that meal our Golden Week adventure ended. After a disappointing beginning we ended up having a great time. Looking back on it we even enjoyed our time in Kamikochi, even though we didn't get to hike.

I'll leave you with one last picture. The baby monkey was the best picture from Kamikochi; this is the best picture from Takayama:

Golden Week - Takayama and Kamikochi (Days 1 and 2)

Golden Week is a week long holiday in Japan which starts at the end of April and ends in the middle of the first week of May. Aimee and I decided to go to Takayama (a city in the Japan Alps) and Kamikochi (a resort area and the beginning of many Japan Alp hikes – we went for the hiking, not the resort).



Day One

We took a 2.5 hour train ride from Nagoya to Takayama. The scenery we saw from this ride was second only to the scenery I saw riding on trains in Switzerland. We followed the Hida river almost the entire way up to Takayama. The Hida river is often called the Japan Rhine because it looks so much like the Rhine River in Germany. The vegetation is incredibly lush and green and the river has been running for so long that it has carved its way 10 meters down – sometimes more – through solid rock.

When we arrived in Takayama we promptly got on a bus for Kamikochi. We planned to spend 4 days hiking in Kamikochi and then return to Takayama to spend two days there before heading home. The bus ride to Kamikochi was much like driving through the Rockies in Canada. The snow-covered peaks brought back many memories of my numerous drives across Canada. They were also an ominous sign of what was waiting for us in Kamikochi.

Kamikochi is in the Shirakawa World Heritage Site area, so there are no private vehicles allowed past a certain point on the highway. Most people do what we did and take a bus from Takayama. It takes about 20 minutes from the blockade on the highway to the resort area in Kamikochi because the road is one way and there are a ridiculous number of buses making the trip in and out daily. When we arrived at the resort parking lot there were probably 50 buses.

All those buses must have meant the area was pretty popular. This is why:

Our Hiking in Japan book said that 95% of the people you see milling about near the bus terminal don't make it past the kappabashi bridge. They come for photo opportunities like this and then stay in the resort or turn around and go home. Five percent of the people continue past here to hike. Unfortunately for us, this was the only accurate information we had concerning our trip.

After we got off the bus we went to the tourist information centre to get maps and information about hiking in the area. We had planned on camping in Kamikochi for the night and then starting up Yari-ga-take (at 3190 meters it's the second highest peak in Japan. Fuji-san is the highest) in the morning. The lady looked at our bags and asked if we had crampons and ice axes. We looked at each other and then back at her: “No, we don't.” The book we have said we wouldn't need crampons nor ice axes at this time of the year for the hike we wanted to do. “Oh, well you need them to hike up Yari-ga-take.” We looked at each other again and then I asked her, “Well, where can we hike without crampons or ice axes?” She said, “We recommend here and here.” She pointed at the map on the table in front of her. “And how long does it take to get to here?” I asked, indicating the longer trail. “Oh, it takes about 6 hours – 3 hours each way.” We looked at each other with great disappointment. It had taken more than 6 hours to get to Kamikochi. We didn't come here for a 6 hour round trip hike. We thanked her and left the building.

After venting our disappointment with the hiking book we decided to camp for the night in Kamikochi and reevaluate in the morning. We went and registered for a camp site and set up our tent. Since it was only 3 o'clock we decided to walk for a while on the longer trail the lady had told us about. We weren't entirely disappointed since there were animals along the way - monkeys and a Japanese sero. A sero looks like a cross between an antelope and a goat. I've got a picture of one on Facebook here that you can have a look at. I'd post it here but it would have to be small so you wouldn't see much detail.

The monkeys were significantly more interesting than the sero. There were about two dozen monkeys – half of them were on the ground foraging and the other half, mostly younger monkeys, were in the trees. Not surprisingly they didn't mind our presence. They continued foraging for roots as if we weren't there. When we got back to camp we saw a man chasing them with a wooden rake. They're seen as pests by the people who work at Kamikochi. Interestingly they don't seem to steal food from campers. We thought we might have to take precautions similar to those you take to keep bears from stealing your food in Canada. I guess the rake man has that problem solved.

Day Two

The walk the tourist information centre lady said takes 6 hours we did in 4. We passed pretty much every person in front of us so maybe the 6 hours only applies if you're Japanese. The walk wasn't too bad though. It's railroad grade the entire way so it wasn't difficult. And we were walking through the valley so the mountain scenery was very beautiful.

On the way back we ran into more monkeys. We took a few more photos and then continued heading back. Our timing was perfect because we saw this little guy:

Watching him play and eat was almost worth not being able to do any hiking. Almost. The coolest part was when something spooked his mother. She ran over and grabbed him at full stride, swung him under her chest and scampered over to a tree. The whole motion took maybe 3 seconds. We took a lot more pictures but this post is already huge... You can check out the rest on Facebook.

We wanted to experience our first onsen (hot spring) when we returned but we missed the time period it was open. The two hot springs in Kamikochi are at two (of about 8) hotels and they are only open to non-guests during certain hours. So we spent the rest of the day/evening writing and reading in the tent.

I'll make a post about days 3 and 4 later.

Hiking in Tajimi

No, we didn't need to be rescued this time.

I found out from one of my students that there is a hiking path almost right off the train at a place called Jokoji. It's a very picturesque area – there's a river running right by the station which runs through a valley so there are high tree-covered hills on either side.

The trailhead is right across the bridge this picture was taken from (to the right). About a kilometer along the trail is a nice park with a huge pond and large shaded grass areas. A nice place to have a picnic – especially on a day off since it's only an hour from our place. We couldn't find where the trail continued from the park so we ended up following a road up into the mountains. We eventually came to a footbridge that crossed the road. The footbridge was part of the trail we were originally on. Back on track, we carried on.

Three kilometers along the trail we stopped to eat some of the food we had brought. Aimee and I both have fine taste – we ate Brie cheese and some kind of walnut bread. Very delicious. Sated, we continued along the trail, where we ran into our first Japanese snake.

He was originally on the trail but he moved much too quickly for me to catch him. Stop gasping – the only poisonous snakes in Japan are in Okinawa. He climbed this tree (it's about 4 meters high) in 30 seconds. From where he was perched he was able to watch as we took pictures of him. He also tracked us as we moved along the trail to change picture taking angles (but that doesn't worry you because you remember that they're not poisonous). It was really cool. Aimee would walk underneath him and I would watch as his head turned from one side to the other. Wanting to let him get back to sunning himself, we continued.

About four kilometers after we saw the snake the trail came to a crossroads and we weren't sure which way to go. There were sign posts but, as you all know already, my kanji reading isn't great. We picked the path that lead down the mountain and, a couple kilometers later, ended up at a strange natural history museum.

It says Nishiyama Natural History Museum. The “museum” consisted of a bunch of old fish tanks on this guy's lawn, a lot of junk, and some strange paintings strewn about the lawn and entrance. We poked our heads inside the building and there was more art hanging in a hallway. At the end of the hallway we could see a man sleeping. Fearing we would be invited in, we took our leave.

There were no more trails to be had so we had to walk along the road to get back to where we (thought) the train was. We ended up walking 15 kilometers along the road to a train station a couple stops up the line from where we originally got off. We've got 11 more months to work out this navigation thing – have faith!