The friend who went with me on the trip to Kyoto was really shocked by my post so I thought I would share it here. In sum, she found the shrines spectacular, and despite the fact that the city was full of ugly modern architecture, she thought what I was saying was similar to saying that the "Coliseum is minimized by the hellhole slum its in."

My response was that perhaps I was exaggerating a bit for effect, but I do believe that the temples sit almost apologetically amongst the concrete and I am outraged that 40,000 wooden structures were bulldozed in the last decade alone and it's not stopping. Paris, London, Rome are (even with a bit of scum) beautiful, enjoyable cities. I did think the temples were very, very beautiful, I am thrilled to have seen them. Maybe the slum that surrounds them "shouldn’t" take away from that, but it makes me mad that I have to ignore the scum and focus and the itty bitty bit of beauty when Kyoto could have been so beautiful. It makes me more mad that the Japanese don’t care, they continue to bulldoze and concrete everything. No relic is safe. It is Western groups that are doing anything to try to preserve that city.

In sum, maybe if a few more tourists get outraged it will (for economic reasons: tourist $) drive the Japanese to do something about preserving their city.

Alex Kerr's Dogs and Demons book articulates far better than I ever could. If you are at all interested in modern Japan please read this book.

The completely unrelated photo of the day is school girls sleeping on the subway. One instant messages on her cell phone.

Last week I visited Kyoto with an old friend who was in Japan with her husband. Long romanticized by the West, Kyoto ranks 3rd Best Asian City by T&L.

In the last days of WWII the Americans deemed Kyoto too beautiful to destroy, but that hasn’t stopped the Japanese. One imagines the Florence of the East, Kyoto instead resembles a cold war eastern European town and, except for a few small oases of temples scattered around town, has about as much charm as a municipal parking garage.

Nevertheless, fun was had by all.

Visitors come to Kyoto expecting this:

But instead get this:

I especially like the juxtaposition of this photo, beautiful temple in the front and monstrosity in the back. A Japanese travel brochure would airbrush any ugliness out.

Find out more from the Honest Photographer.

Anyone who has spent more than 2 seconds in Japan has probably heard or read a bit of “Japlish.” Sometimes called Engrish, Japlish is essentially Japanized English and ranges from misspellings (I had the “Located Chicken” at a restaurant) to grammatically incorrect phrases (a revolving door sign, “Don’t playing here!”) to sentimental sap. Below I have collected a few samples to give you a flavor.

Photo Album covers are always a good source

We are with special time. If made carefully the wonderful love like this has been created.

Certain events in our life will remain meaningful to as log as we live.

Cherish photograph of your precious person.

The scene still comes to mind now and then. Cake was baking in the over and mother was making tea for us. We were veild in good old smell.

A food company’s mission statement

We are presenting the commodities that can be pleased by the customers, in pursuit of the deliciousness, pleasantness and health.

A notice from the cable company

Hello this is “Minato Cable”!
We will change our company nickname

“To be more friendly”
“To be more satisfied service”

On a garbage can at work

This expresses our life-vision
LET'S SUPREME CAN

On the package of RELISH LEG COLLECTION Hosiery

Beautiful women lives on the beautiful planet
There’s a whole new world you had never seen
where all the guys praise your beauty to the skies
Only if you screw up your courage to step in
The brightest life there will be all yours
With relish any of your dream comes true

For more examples see Engrish.com
or Tokyotales’ Hall of Japlish

At Thursdays Foreign Executive Women's (FEW) meeting I was officially announced as their new PR Director. After the meeting four of us went for drinks to a typical Japanese style bar where had to take off our shoes, sit on the floor, and eat skewered chicken parts.

Recently, I did a "member profile" for FEW answering questions about working in Japan.

For the photo of the day I have included what I call the "Omotesando Girls." Aren’t they chic? Japanese girls are always fully decked out. Omotesando is the high end shopping area similar to 5th or Madison Avenue in New York. It also happens to be where I live.

It is just after 5:00pm and the musical chimes have just finished ringing. Everywhere, everyday in Japan at exactly 5:00pm a little jingle is played to mark the end of the day. Whether or not people stop working then is another story.

On a positive note, I scored 100% on my Japanese test today. I am also including a photo below. I bet you all (meaning anyone who has not been to Japan) think that Japan looks like this. I promise you, although this picture was taken here, nowhere in Japan looks like this.

This weekend Tim and I stayed in cottages near Mt. Fuji with a group of 20 people. The barbeque area was communal and we were the only foreign group. The Japanese quietly grilled while we blasted music and made a ruckus. By the end of the evening everyone was so drunk that we shared food (they got some of our hot dogs and we got skewed whole octopus with tentacles attached) and we joined in their group photos. The next morning was crystal clear with this view of Mt. Fuji.

From my friends at home I get all kinds of questions about Japan such as: "do you eat sushi everyday?" alternately "sushi must be really cheap in Japan." (no and no), "are hamburgers really $40?" (no, but some melons cost over $100), and "what's with the hostess clubs?"


The melon on the left costs 11000 yen (=$90)

For the uninitiated this is how it works: hostess clubs run the gamut from talking only to full on stripping. The hostess' job is to "entertain" the guests (i.e. engage them in witty banter that leads them to buy lots of drinks). The idea is that they have as much fun here as they would if they were out for dinner with friends or playing online poker (www.partypoker.com) or whatever it is that they enjoy doing. The aim is for them to keep coming back and back.

The girls are compensated on a basic sales commission structure: for repeat customers you get more, more for up sells, more the longer they stay, more the more they buy, and so on. Sometimes hostesses are required to get clients to take them to dinner first (the idea is to then bring them to the club). I have heard at least one account from a western hostess who said she preferred stripping to the talking type hostessing because "it's easier."

It was Friday night, 3am, in Roppongi, the rather seedy, nightlife part of a Tokyo that's more crowded at 3am than 3pm. My friends said they were taking me to bar (I am sure there are very lush hostess clubs, but that is not where we went). It was empty except for the 3 waitresses (hostesses?). One wore a long, black pleather skirt, another animal print. After serving our drinks they sat at our table and toasted us with water from thimble sized champagne glasses. Eventually, the men splurged on a bottle of champagne for girls and much euphoria followed. I didn't stay long, but stopped in the ladies room on the way out. The hand towel and tp cover thing were pink, fluffy, and decaled with a hello kitty knock-off cartoon character.

This weekend I went to Akihabara, Tokyo's computer electronics district. In a land of consumer electronics fanatics, where cell phones are cameras and cameras play MP3's, Akihabara is Mecca. A certain store helped me part with a good deal of my money on a 19 inch computer monitor. No excuse to not blog all the time now.

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