Random Bits

It’s 5:21AM Kyoto time and I’m more alert than I was at around 7:00PM yesterday when I wrote the previous post. I thought I’d post some random observations before we head out for the day. There’s a show on TV that seems to be about the handwriting practices of the elderly, or about some sort of social club for the literate elderly, or possibly about elderly people who enjoy both handwriting and doing laundry.

The TV programming seems to have fewer strange (strange to Western eyes, anyway) game shows on than usual. It could be that we’re not finding the right channels, but I suspect it has more to do with a general edict from the government that people observe “self-restraint”, i.e. some amount of sombre respect for the tens of thousands lost in the tsunami. This was described in a recent J-List mailing, and I have to agree with the author that it’s not a good idea. Yes, it is entirely appropriate to show respect for the departed and the displaced, but on the other hand Japan has some serious economic challenges on its hands, and it’s not going to help the economy at all if people are sitting at home trying to be respectful rather than out spending money in restaurants and on consumer goods.

The current Kit-Kat special flavor is hojicha, roasted green tea. I’m not wild about hojicha but I’m developing a taste for it somewhat out of necessity. It seems to be the most common form of tea here, e.g. the dispenser at the breakfast buffet in the restaurant contains hojicha, and I’ve had several different kinds in bottles (largely by accident). It does have a wonderful aroma when it’s being roasted, as we discovered when we happened across someone roasting it in a park near Tokyo Tower last year. Oh–that reminds me that it appears that the topmost mast of Tokyo Tower has been repaired after the earthquake, should you happen to be waiting for that happy news. Also, Sendai airport has reopened for domestic flights.

The current Pretz special flavors are ham and cheese, and what I think is pancakes with honey, judging from the picture. Haven’t tried the latter yet. As usual for Pretz, the ham and cheese variety tastes very much like ham and cheese.

There was a brief incident at breakfast the other morning which I think is somewhat illustrative of the cooperative, communal mindset of Japanese society. An elderly woman was returning from the buffet and her fork slipped off her tray. Three otherwise unrelated people immedately sprang towards her to retrieve the fallen fork. The one who reached it first scooped it up and handed it to the nearest restaurant staff member, who had already produced a replacement fork, which she slid deftly onto the woman’s tray. Everyone then dispersed. This all happened wordlessly, in less time than it takes to describe it.

Is there another country on this planet in which the national weather service predicts and tracks the blossoming of flowers every spring? And why not?

The hotel restaurant has a little display which seems to be some sort of shrine to the shinkansen, commemorating an anniversary or something. Next to it is a somewhat elaborate layout of toy train tracks (of the strictly toy variety for young children, rather than the ultra-realistic hobby variety). Tracie has so far been able to restrain herself from playing with it, but her resolve may be weakening. There seems to be a new variety of shinkansen done in a nice shade of pale blue, but so far we haven’t seen one in person. We’re spending less time in train stations than usual this year since we’re not taking day trips out of Tokyo nor traveling from there to here. We will be taking one shinkansen trip to Kobe to see our friends there.

While ascending a flight of steps near the large statue of Kannon, we were passed by a throng of school children. Several of them seized the opportunity to put their English skills to use, saying “hello” as they passed. What struck me in retrospect is how well they articulated the “L” sound, a phoneme that doesn’t exist in Japanese and hence is difficult to learn. I’d guess that they have a native speaker of English on staff at their school.

Today I can tell that I definitely burned my tongue on the ramen yesterday. At the time I tried to relieve it with a special cold beverage, “sakura ginger”, at one of the coffee shops elsewhere in the station. It was very tasty, and yes, was rather like ginger ale with cherry flavoring added.

Tracie’s reading the English version of the Japan Times newspaper which appears at our door every morning. The US State Department has dropped its recommendation that its embassy staff and their families leave Tokyo. It is thought now that the nuclear plants, although still far from being under control, have now cooled enough that a catastrophe which would present immediate danger to Tokyo is quite unlikely. That’s good news for everyone.

Off for breakfast. I might have to have another glass of the hotel’s special juice, which is made from cabbage, celery, grape fluit [sic], honey, and lemon.