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The government of Japan
The government of Japan recently reorganized itself. It streamlined 23 federal agencies into 13. Some of the changes made sense. The Education Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry were combined. Similarly Heath & Welfare and Labor were married. Those all sort of go together with similar goals and probably some overlapping programs. But some…
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As we walked outside
As we walked outside last night, I felt the air and commented, “It’s going to snow tonight, I think.” A few hours later, my weather sense was proven true. We had a nice little snowfall of about an inch or so. Rooves and trees were coated white; roads were slushy. By this morning the snow…
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Tokyo’s firefighters are well
Tokyo’s firefighters are well prepared for fires and other emergencies, and they proved it to the public yesterday at their annual New Years Fire Review. In a program organized down to the minute (10:51 March of Firefighters; 10:59 Parade of Fire Apparatus), the city’s fire service strutted their stuff. From commendations to stunts to a…
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Last night after dinner,
Last night after dinner, our dining companion took us down the street and around the corner. “Here it is,” he said. We were standing in front of BoPeep, a tiny walk-in closet of a shop. With just room enough for a single file of customers, the store was crammed floor to ceiling with drug paraphenalia…
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I got lost in
I got lost in my own train station yesterday. When the Odeo subway line opened last month, Kasuga station was enlarged to include access to the new line. In fact, the Oedo line forms a perpendicular bridge between the parallel Kasuga and Korakuen stations. So when I got off the Odeo line yesterday on my…
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Fukubukuro are grab bags
Fukubukuro are grab bags for grown-ups. The name means lucky (fuku) bag (bukuro) and it is just that. For a set amount of money, you select a sealed shopping bag full of merchandise. You get at least as much as you paid for and if you are lucky, you get more. I decided to search…
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When I rolled out
When I rolled out of bed just now to start my day (OK, I admit that I’ve been awake for a few hours but lying abed and finishing a book I started yesterday), Tod sleepily asked me to turn up the heat. The front panel of the heater was blinking. That’s an indication to me…
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The Japanese have a
The Japanese have a very nifty tradition for new year’s greetings. People mail postcards (called nenga hagaki) to one another. The post office sells pre-franked cards with cartoon charaters or other scenes and lottery numbers printed on them. The lottery is drawn in mid-January and these cards are very popular–a greeting and a potential gift…
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At 1:00 am, there
At 1:00 am, there were hundreds of people at the temple. Stalls along the walkways hawked daruma dolls, wooden arrows, and all sorts of good luck charms. Food sellers were doing a brisk business with fried noodles, “baby custard” doughnuts, and warm sake. It seemed as if all the residents of Sugamo had turned out…
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Click. Click. Click-click. The
Click. Click. Click-click. The rhythm of wooden sticks has echoed through our neighborhood for the last few evenings as “fire patrols” make their year-end rounds. Groups of four to eight men (and a rare woman) from the neighborhood walk through the streets, looking at each building to make sure none is on fire. The leader…
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