Gift giving is a vital part of Japanese culture. It’s the lubricant that keeps relationships in good standing and society functioning harmoniously. While many Japanese people do give gifts out of goodness of their hearts, there are 2 times during the year when gift giving is an obligation. At the end of the year, called Oseibo お歳暮 and during the summer in which case it’s called Ochugen お中元. Generally, these gifts are given to people who you are obligated to rather than family or friends. People such as your landlord, your clients, someone to whom you owe lots of money, etc. The types of gifts are limited to expensive meat or fruits, dry food or kitchen items in bulk or basically anything that can be eaten or serves a practical purpose in any household. You don’t give decorative items or souvenirs. The reason is that if you get an ochugen that you don’t like or won’t use you can give it to someone else. This is the art of circulating gifts that most Japanese housewives are very good at. Some seasoned gift givers do not even buy gifts, they just give out the gifts they’ve received carefully making sure that they don’t give the same gift to the person they got it from. For example, if they received a gift from person A, they would give that gift to person B, and give the gift from B to C, C to D, D to A and so on.

Japanese department stores and supermarkets have made gift giving very easy. During the peak seasons they have lots of displays like the ones in these photos. You choose the item you want and the department store will have it delivered to any address in Japan. In this store, the boxes only have a photo of the contents but in the fancy department stores in Ginza they will have samples of the real stuff. The items are often fresh foods like crab from Hokkaido or beef from Kobe which get sent from those locations. You can also order things online through the department stores websites but it’s not as much fun as going to the shops and checking out the gifts in person.

Which would you be happier receiving, a box of really expensive steaks or a case of vegetable oil? Why the steaks of course! Who the hell wants a huge box of vegetable oil?

If you’re too lazy to pick something out you can just get one of these gift cheque books. They range in price from ¥3000 to over ¥100,000! You give one of the books to someone and they can pick some item from the book. Sometimes these books are given out at weddings (to the people who attend not as gifts for the marrying couple). Inside the ¥105,630 book, there were gift certificates to some pretty expensive restaurants, presidential suites at some luxury hotels and other things that I would generally not blow a thousand bucks on. Personally, I would rather just have the cash.

Have you gotten any ochugen yet?

You can learn how to do Bon Odori (The Bon Dance) at this friendship lounge. Oh, it’s already over…sorry I was too late in posting about it. As many of you know, Bon Odori is the custom where you dress up in a yukata and dance around in a circle. As the poster describes, Obon お盆 is the period in summer where “the spirits of our departed ancestors return for a visit.” Obon is recognized as a buddhist tradition. Although in Chinese cultures it’s not seen as such a nice thing. When I was a little kid, the obon period was descibed to me as the time when the gates of hell are open and all the evil spirits are let loose with a one week free pass giving them a chance to reclaim their souls by possessing someone in the earthly plane. So I had to be careful during that week. Enough to scare the crap out of a 7 yr old. But anyways, Bon Odori is kinda fun. Especially watching the little kids doing it.

If you live in a residential area of Tokyo, no doubt you’ve noticed the big boards which popped up just before the elections started a few weeks ago. I took the left photo when the boards first appeared and it was mostly empty even after the gubernatorial election which Shintaro Ishihara won again. Then magically overnight the boards were filled completely in preparation for the municipal election for my ward, Setagaya-ku. It’s interesting that so many of the candidates have their first names written in hiragana instead of kanji. This is to make the names easier to read and more memorable, but I wonder if their names are written that way on the ballot. Since I’m not Japanese and cannot vote I guess I will never know. I’m not really interested in local politics but I’ve heard that political candidates in Japan have strict rules about what they can and cannot due during their campaigns. Not really sure what those rules are, but I wish one of them was not allowing them to drive around the neighbour all day long shouting their names out through loud speakers. Election time in Japan is very noisy.

Like in any country, declaring your income/filing your taxes is a tedious process. It’s even more of a bother if you have to learn a whole bunch of Japanese tax vocabulary just to fill out the forms. For most people, the HR department at the company they work for will file their taxes so there’s no need to go through this process unless you have other sources of income. Also, the Japanese government gives tax breaks to people who have babies and purchased real estate, so if you want to take advantage of these benefits you have to file for a tax return. I didn’t have a baby last year, but I did purchased a house so I’m entitled to getting up to ¥300,000 of my tax money back. A fair bit of cash. It could pay for a new MacBook!! But I think I’d rather use it to buy a new door for the house. The one it came with is falling apart. I think I could kick a hole through it no problem.

So I took the day off work, again, to do my 確定申告 kakuteishinkoku (filing tax return) at the local tax office. During this season, lots of staff are on hand to assist people in filling out their forms. I had already filled out most of my forms but I wanted to double check if it was correct. Also I wasn’t sure about which documents I had to submit so I wanted to confirm that too. When I arrived, there were already about 100 people in the room seated along several long tables. In between, a few government workers were giving advice to a dozen people at the same time. They pointed me to a seat where I’d be assisted by a goofing looking guy with bad breath. Now why couldn’t I get the nice looking young lady at the other table? Figures. Anyways, I explained my situation, he looked at my papers for 2 seconds and then began giving me simple instructions like “write this number here” while simultaneously shouting orders at other people. You could tell he was in the zone. Then an old guy with a huge stack of documents sat down beside me and started to explain some insanely complicated tax situation he was in with all kinds of property being inherited, then changing ownership, sold and then bought again and so on. Everyone else was getting impatient as we waited for this guy to finish explaining but the story kept going and going and the documents kept coming and coming. In the end, my forms took about 45 minutes to complete but in hindsight I could have finished it in about 5 minutes. It was a relatively simple process after all and I don’t think you need to take a whole day off work to do it. While I was sitting around waiting I thought I might take some random photos of the tax office but there were government types patroling the aisles. I’m sure they wouldn’t really care but you never know what “the man” might do to you.

Unfortunately, I was missing a document so I had to go to the ward office in Shimokitazawa to get it. Drag. Since I had all day, I ate some Chinese food and enjoyed walking back along one of Setagaya’s green walking paths. Setagaya ward is about the size of Manhattan and there are nature paths crawling through the residential areas. You can literally walk from one end of the ward to the other enjoying Sakura trees, plants etc. I noticed that they had rebuilt some of the paths adding benchs, better maps and a nice creek. It’s still too early in the year for hanami so no cherry blossoms along the paths, but when I got back to the tax office I saw this tree at the entrance in full bloom (above photos). Strange. Did they import this one to attract people to declare their taxable income?

Happy Year of the Pig! This year’s shogatsu was spent with the usual friends in Oji at the northern tip of Tokyo. We went there to watch the local event: 王子狐の行列 Oji Kitsune No Gyoretsu, “Oji Fox Procession.” At midnight, members of the community dress up as kistune/foxes and march slowly around town carrying lanterns. Anyone could join in the procession but you have to wear a kimono and put on kitsune make up. When you sign-up, they give you a lantern and teach you how to walk like a ghoulish fox. In Japanese folklore, kistune are considered the messengers of the Shinto god, Inari and have magical powers. The entire event is very somber and has a ghostly atmosphere. It made for a quaint new year’s eve away from the crowds at the larger shrines (1) At the main starting point, they displayed these 2 big kistune masks which were later carried to the Shrine with the procession (2) Lanterns are an essential part of any Japanese festival.

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And tonight I went again and had a great time. And again I met up with a bunch of people, some of which was the first time for me to meet in person. They were all super cool and we enjoyed 3 hours of Awa-Odori madness and then lively conversation afterwards at a nearby izakaya. I just got home and I’m pooped.

I had said that I wasn’t going to take any photos this time but before heading out I decided to bring my DSLR. Ending up in Shinjuku Bic Camera with 3 hours to kill and eyeing that nice EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 Canon Lens. Hmmm…I had pre-ordered it 3 months ago but had to cancel because of my tight budget at the time. I’m still on a tight budget but that image-stabilizer was just too tempting, especially when I could look forward to a night of lowlight photography. Also, felt lucky and might have gotten that red receipt. At Bic, 1 in 100 people get their purchase for free if the receipt comes out with a red mark. They ring a bell when someone gets one. Well, it didn’t happen to me but I bought the lens anyway (I’m soo weak!) But boy do I NOT regret it. This lens is the SHIT! And now I’m totally a believer in image-stabilization. Not one blurry photo tonight. My only regret is that I did not take more photos. It rained off and on and I just didn’t want to get my camera wet.

Yesterday, I was wondering what group this was (above) and found out that they were Midori-ren. They were pretty good.

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It’s Awaodori season again. I heard that Edokko-ren would be appearing at the Shimokitazawa Awaodori this year so I headed over there just as it began. The Shimokita Awaodori is not as big as the one in Koenji but it has a different sort of charm, plus it’s usually not as crowded. The festival is held for 2 days (today was the last day) from 7-9pm. From 8:30-9:00 each group does a 30 minute long performance at a designated spot rather than march around. This is different from Koenji and is great because there aren’t as many people and you can get really close for photos. I brought my GR with the wide angle converter but since it was quite dark I had to use 1600 ISO for the setting and most of the photos have quite a bit of noise. I’ll choose some of the better ones and upload them shortly. Next week, 8/27-28 is the Koenji Awaodori. If the weather is good try to get out to see it. You won’t regret it. If you’re not familiar with the festival you can read my FAQ which I wrote last year.

You can always tell it’s August in Japan when they’re playing Koshien on every television in the country. The National High School Baseball play offs are still a big deal in this country and is called “Koshien,” the name of the oldest stadium in the country and the place where the tournament is held every summer. On the weekend, I was watching the opening ceremonies which looked great in High Definition. HD is truly amazing but what’s more amazing is how all 49 teams march in the exact same way!! Not a single guy out of step. Terrific!

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I’ve been in a really lazy funk recently and not motivated to do much of anything. My GR sits in my pocket with an empty SD card. No photos taken. Anyway, Golden Week is coming up. April 29th, May 3-5 are National Holidays so I’m going to take May 1st and 2nd off and have a whole weeks vacation. According to Wikipedia, from 2007 April 29th has changed from Greenery Day to Showa Day while May 4th is changed from Between Day to Greenery Day. They realized that Between Day was a lame name so moved Greenery Day to that day and changed the 29th to Showa Day since this was originally the Showa Emperor’s birthday but was renamed after he died in 1989. Actually, Between Day is only the English name. In Japanese, it’s called Kokumin no Kyujitsu which translates to “Citizens’ holiday” so I don’t understand why they use Between Day. There’s an explanation of the reason behind this nonsense on Wiki.

I was planning on a road trip to Hokkaido but all the ferrys from Sendai or Owarai were fully booked. I’ll probably just end up hanging around Tokyo because as everyone who lives here knows, Golden Week is one of the few times that Tokyo is rather empty. I also started reading the Da Vinci code (against my better judgment) because I figured I needed some mindless diversion and the film starts next month.

The next stop on today’s drive was Kintaikyo or as they call it on the sign “Kintaikyo Bridge”. The “kyo” is Kintaikyo means bridge so essentially you are saying Kintai Bridge Bridge. This is like when they used to call the Tama River the Tamagawa River. They fixed that now but they still call the Arakawa River that way. This is of course irrelevant to Japanese who don’t give a crap what English speakers call it. Anyway, I visited Kintaikyo bridge again today. Kintaikyo is one of the most famous Japanese bridges next to the Rainbow Bridge and Yokohama Bay Bridge ;) I was not impressed by it previously because it was dark and raining. But this time I could get a good look at it. It’s a very nice bridge although I still don’t understand why they needed to build such an elaborate thing for that tiny little river. You have to pay ¥300 just to cross it and come back. It was cold and I’m cheap so we just took some photos. Iwakuni castle sits on top of a mountain behind the bridge and there’s a ropeway you can take to visit it. There’s always a ropeway isn’t there?

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It’s colder here in Hiroshima than in Tokyo. That’s the first thing I thought when we arrived. A couple other things I noticed, many women dress very lightly despite the cold. I saw one girl wearing just a t-shirt and mini-skirt. Also, everyone drives a Japanese car and about one out of every three is a Mazda. There are no BMWs or Mercedes like in Tokyo.

Lunch was rice and tofu, tofu, tofu and more tofu and for desert, tofu pudding. We jumped in a taxi to go to the Mazda Museum. The taxi driver said he was really bored and would take us anywhere we wanted for the whole day for ¥10,000. While that was tempting, it was too much money to be throwing away on a taxi. And it wasn’t even a very clean one either.

A crowded day at Nishiarai-Daishi 西新井大師. All these people lined up for a hour to try and get into the temple where they could get exorcised 厄払い Some people couldn’t get into the main hall so they stood outside to listen to the session for 30 minutes. They also broadcast it across the entire place so that you could listen to it while eating yakisoba or tonjiru.

A year ago, I went to Kawasaki-Daishi which is another yakuyoke temples in Tokyo. These are shrines that specialize in exorcising evil spirits. You can bring your car here to get it blessed too.