Archive for June, 2017
June 23, 2017 – Karaoke!
Posted by Barniferous in Klaxman, Return to Japan on June 26, 2017
Today I met up with Klaxman, one of my old roommates for lunch. He is a retired game programmer turned English teacher who moved to Japan in 2006 and has been there ever since.
We went for lunch at an Italian restaurant that had taken over what used to be Cats Cafe. They didn’t serve ridiculously oversized desserts like their predecessors, but they did have some pretty good octopus spaghetti. Klaxman caught me up on all of the changes that NOVA has made over the past 10 years since their bankruptcy, and told me about an open source portable game system called Arduboy that he was making a game for.
After lunch we played a few games at the nearby game center before joining some of Klaxman’s friends at Radio City karaoke. I was happy to see that “Suck My Kiss” by Red Hot Chili Peppers was available to sing, but the crowd in the room was a little more Beatles so I decided to hold off on songs with rampant use of the word “motherfucker”. Karaoke is not a rock concert – some times you need to adjust your song choice for the audience.
It was fun to catch up and break my long karaoke dry spell.
June 22, 2017 part 2 – Visiting family in central Izu
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, The Penpal, Tiny Dog on June 26, 2017
Today we went to beautiful Izu Peninsula to visit family. Both sides of the Penpal’s family have roots in Izu, and there are still numerous uncles, aunts, and cousins who live in the area.
Izu is one of my favourite parts of Japan. The entire Peninsula is filled with small towns, mountains, and natural hot springs. The few flat areas are home to rice paddies and strawberry farms. It’s about as close to “rural” as you can get near Numazu.
The Penpal’s father has a large family, and most of his siblings are in the 70-90 year old demographic. An energetic 3 year old looks even more energetic in a room where the average age is 80. While the family visited, I did my best to entertain TD with Lego, an ancient electric organ, and the small, friendly dog who was happy to go for endless walks around the house.
There were two interesting things I noticed during our visit:
- The Penpal’s father is the youngest of 12 children. At home he is absolutely the king of the castle. When he is around his siblings, some of which are almost 20 year older than him, he almost fades into the background. It’s an interesting things to see, and I’m not sure if this is unique to his family, all traditional Japanese families, or just large families in general.
- In Canada everyone says that Tiny Dog looks like his mother, pointing out some of his more Asian features. In Japan everyone says he looks like me, pointing out his many non-Asian features. It’s interesting how different things stand out to different people.
I’m happy we got a chance to visit so much of the family while on our vacation. It was a cool experience to introduce them to the overseas branch of their family.
Izu is beautiful despite it’s many mudslide monsters
June 22, 2017 part 1 – Kaiten Sushi with a kid
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, Tiny Dog on June 26, 2017
Today before embarking on a trip to Izu, we stopped for lunch at the Mishima branch of Kappa Sushi, a kaiten sushi restaurant.
Kaiten sushi, also known as conveyor belt sushi, is a fun way to eat. The restaurant will have some form of conveyor belt or train where plates of sushi come by. If something looks good, you simply take it from the belt and eat it. Depending on the restaurant, each plate will have the same price or the plates will be colour coded indicating how much each costs.
Kappa Sushi has a long snaking conveyor belt which winds its way up and down rows of tables. To ensure that people at the end of the belt can still get what they want to eat, there is also a bilingual computer ordering system at each table. You can use a touch screen to place an order which will then be delivered directly to your table on a special train.
The Penpal and I have been to kaiten sushi many times, but today was the first time for Tiny Dog. Little plates of sushi coming by on a belt or by train is very exciting for a 3 year old! He was a big fan of maguro (tuna) and cucumber rolls. I ate way too much, which is exactly the right amount to eat when on vacation.
June 21, 2017 – A Canadian walks into an Indian Restaurant in Japan
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, Shizuoka, The Penpal on June 26, 2017
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Today the Penpal had lunch plans with one of her friends and the freind’s daughter. Instead of tagging along, I decided to go off and have my own adventure.
It was a rainy day, but I stayed mostly dry thanks to some expert use of my umbrella. I’m only mentioning this because I live in Winnipeg where many people don’t own a single umbrella, and the usual response to rain is to stay inside or run while outside in hopes of not getting too wet. I felt a sense of accomplishment in being able to get to the station mostly dry in the rain.
I took a short ride to Numazu station, and walked towards the Bivi building on the north side. Bivi was built during my last year of teaching in Japan, and houses a movie theatre, internet / comic cafe, Game Center, and a bunch of restaurants. Many of the restaurants had changed since the last time I was in Numazu, but everything looked good. After making a quick loop around I was drawn in by the delicious smells coming from Ohsama No Curry.
A Canadian walks into an Indian restaurant in Japan sounds like the start to a bad joke, but it was actually the story of a good lunch. The lunch special had curry, a choice of nan bread or rice, salad, and a drink for just under 1000 yen. SOOOO GOOOD!
After lunch I made a visit to the Game Center and played whatever the newest version of Guitar Freaks is called before shooting some zombies and checking out the claw games. Most of the machines have cute anime characters as prizes, but one of them had something a bit different for “ladies day”.
I’m assuming by the picture in the background that these were actually hand massagers, which would be very useful after playing too many video games. It is possible that they may have some other uses as well.
No, I didn’t play this machine. If I want a “hand massager” I’ll buy it from a specialty shop instead of trying to win one in front of random strangers in a place frequented by teenagers.
I returned to Numazu station and took the Gotemba line towards Gotemba station at the foot of Mt. Fuji in the hopes of getting some pictures. Unfortunately the rain kept getting worse as the train climbed the mountain. By the time I reached Gotemba it was a total downpour. I managed to snap a few rainy pics from the station, but didn’t trust my prairie boy umbrella skills in rain that the Japanese people were avoiding.
My ride back down the mountain was delayed by 15 minutes due to weather. Delaying a train in Japan is NOT something taken lightly, so the weather must have been really bad. Instead of being lined up on the windy, rainy platform, everyone was politely lined up in the enclosed stairway leading to the platform. For the record, politely is the default way to line up anywhere in Japan.
I ended up getting home about the same time as The Penpal. We both went out for lunch, but had very different experiences. I may be biased, but I think mine was better. When you are on vacation, even a quick bite to eat and a train ride can be an adventure.
June 20, 2017 part 2 – Purarail
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan on June 26, 2017
I know you’re not supposed to give kids too much screen time, but sometimes it’s the only way to get anything done around the house. We let Tiny Dog use the YouTube Kids app, and he has a few favourite types of videos that he likes to watch: playgrounds, marble runs, and cool toys. One of the coolest toys that he likes to watch is plastic rail sets, known in Japan as purarail.
The Japanese language doesn’t have the same sounds as English. Turning English words into Japanese sounds is similar to a lossy compression on audio files – it can make things sound wrong.
The word “plastic” comes out as “pu-ra-su-ti-ku” and rail is “re-ru”. As if this wasn’t weird enough, this is sometimes written in letters as “Plarail”. Regardless of what you call it, purarail is pretty cool. You build a train track with interlocking plastic track pieces, and then put a battery powered, motorized train on the tracks. Most of the trains look like actual trains that you can find in Japan.
Like any toy / hobby, there are people who take this to the extreme, creating whole model towns with buildings, landscaping, and elaborate multi level track designs.
Since Tiny Dog was having a rough day with all of his mosquito bites, I picked up a starter set at Ito Yokado that had three suggested track layouts and came with a model of Doctor Yellow, the Shinkansen used to test tracks at high speed.
He absolutely loved it.
The rest of our evening was spent building tunnels for the little plastic train as it circled the tracks over and over. Watching my 76 year old father in law on the floor playing trains with my son was definitely a highlight of my vacation so far.
June 20, 2017 part 1 – Mosquitoes
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, The Penpal on June 26, 2017
Japanese mosquitoes are vicious little bastards.
Yesterday we all woke up with mosquito bites that we had gotten while sleeping the previous night. Tiny Dog got the worst of everyone, with several bites to his legs and one side of his face. We all assumed that it was a one time problem. We assumed wrong.
I woke up around 2:00 am to the annoying sound of a mosquito buzzing around my head. After swatting blindly for a while, I turned on the lights to find that I didn’t have one persistent mosquito, I had a small battalion who had all been taking turns. Each one that I squished released a splatter of my blood.
In the morning I found that Tiny Dog, a heavy sleeper, had fared much worse than The Penpal or I. He had almost 20 bites on his face alone, looking like he had come down with a case of chicken pox.
The Penpal’s father discovered the problem: The Penpal and I had no idea how to operate the complicated assortment of sliding windows, screens, and storm shutters in our rooms. We thought everything was closed, but the stupid mosquitoes had a clear path inside to feast on us while we slept. Looking at TD’s red, swollen bites made me feel like a terrible parent.
The bites were bothering him so much that we took him to a pediatrician in the late afternoon. Fortunately there were no allergic reactions, just the discomfort of a whole lot of mosquito bites. The doctor prescribed ointment to help heal and medicine to reduce the itch.
In the evening before we put TD to sleep I hunted every last mosquito that was in the house, leaving some of their squished corpses on the wall as a warning to the others: nobody gets away with eating my kid!!
June 19, 2017 part 2 – Not Tokyo
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, Shizuoka on June 26, 2017
Looking north across Uchiura Bay towards Awashima and Mt. Fuji
Japan is a fascinating country to visit, with simply too many things to see and do. Most people who come to Japan for a short period of time will see the most popular sites – the bustling urban jungle of Tokyo and the wonderful temples and shrines of Kyoto. While those are both well worth the visit they don’t accurately represent much of the rest of the country.
The drive along the Numazu coast towards Izu Mito Sea Paradise is a good example of something that exists for the people who live there, not for the benefit of visitors. Numazu is famous for it’s fishing industry. The narrow road along the coast is lined with marinas, fishing supply shops, and warehouses. Trucks speed by taking the day’s catch towards local markets or even to the big cities. Fishing boats are docked along the shoreline next to fishermen with dark tans who are casting into the nearby waters.
There are no skyscrapers. There are no salarymen. There are no temples. There are just hardworking people whose lives are based around the ocean.
As we drove back towards our house, my father in law pointed out some spots where he and his older brothers went fishing for their dinner in the hard years after World War II had ended. These were likely the same spots where people had been fishing for hundreds of years before.
I really enjoyed the drive today – it was cool to get a little taste of non-tourist Japan.
June 19, 2017 part 1 – Aquors? In my Sea Paradise?
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, Shizuoka, The Penpal on June 26, 2017
This morning we drove to Izu Mito Sea Paradise, an aquarium in the south part of Numazu on Uchiura Bay. The first time I ever went to Sea Paradise was in 2014 with The Penpal on my first ever trip to Numazu, and I have been to a few times since. Tiny Dog (TD) has never seen the ocean or been to an aquarium before, so we were excited to show him something fun and new.
When we arrived, I noticed artwork for some kind of animated idol pop group all over the building. Since I hadn’t seen this on my previous visits, I assumed (correctly) that “School Idol Project” is probably one of those things in Japan that is massively popular for a while but then disappears suddenly. We must still be in the massively popular stage.
Sea Paradise has an impressive collection of aquatic life from near and far. Usually I take the time to read all of the signs and learn a bit about the animals on display, but this time I had an excited 3 year old dragging me to see the next thing. “So cool” he assured me as he spent about 10 seconds looking at the octopus before moving on to the jellyfish.
After a whirlwind tour through the main building, we went outside to kill some time before the dolphin show. TD fed some fish and then got into the kids wading pool where children can walk in knee deep water with small fish swimming around while their parents alternate between taking pictures and hoping the kids don’t fall because they didn’t bring a change of clothes. TD loved the dolphin show; he was excited and clapping every time they jumped out of the water.
The real highlight for TD was not the fish, the amazing dolphin show, the wading pool, or even the idols plastered all over the place. It was the kids play area in the gift shop that featured a ball pit and indoor sandbox. We could have come to the play area without even buying a ticket!! He was having so much fun that we let him play for almost an hour while I shopped for souvenirs.
Sea Paradise is a great place to visit in the Numazu / Mishima / Izu area. It’s a lot of fun for kids of all ages, but I would recommend that if you’re traveling with small children that you avoid the gift shop until end unless you want to hear “ball pit! ball pit!” for the duration of your visit.
For fans of the animated group Aquors, there are a bunch of cardboard models in the gift shop. I didn’t know anything about the group before I arrived, but I knew that I had to do what any mature adult would do on vacation:
Hanging out with Aquors at Sea Paradise
June 18, 2017 – Rakujuen
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan, Shizuoka on June 26, 2017
This morning I took my 3 year old son Tiny Dog (TD) out for an adventure by myself. Our destination was Rakujuen park in nearby Mishima.
Rakujuen is a large park in Mishima which was built in 1890 by Crown Prince Akihito. As you can imagine, the park is beautifully landscaped with impressive thick forests and a beautiful lake. More importantly for the under 5 year old demographic there is a petting zoo, miniature train, merry go round, and coin operated rides and games.
Remember all of those coin operated rides for young children that you used to be able to find in front of malls and supermarkets? Rakujuen is the place where classics go to retire alongside some high tech Pikachu games.
TD was totally overwhelmed with his options and didn’t know where to start. We rode the train and merry go round and rode a few of the coin operated rides before he found the most exciting game in the entire park: Pirate Blasta.
The object of Pirate Blasta is to aim a water cannon towards different pirate themed targets to make them move. Up to 4 people can play at the same time, and there are step stools provided for the young children.
To say that TD loved this game would be a complete understatement. He ended up playing it 5 times in a row before I got him to check out some other games with the promise of snacks. I even got him to go to the petting zoo for about 3 minutes, but not even the opportunity to pet some adorable guinea pigs could keep him from dragging me back to “water game”. I reminded myself that we were on vacation, and paid for a few more plays. Thankfully it started raining which I used as an excuse to head back to the station.
I’m sure that Crown Prince Akihito never intended for his park in Mishima to become home to a bunch of children’s games, but I’m hoping that he would be happy that it has become a fun place for families to visit and leave with slightly lighter wallets. Highly recommended if you have kids under 5.
June 17, 2017 part 2 – Seiyu is WAY different now
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Japan on June 26, 2017
This afternoon we decided to go to Seiyu to pick up a few things, most notably a new hat for Tiny Dog (TD) after his awesome Domo-kun hat was lost at Haneda airport, and some toys to keep him occupied at the house.
For a little background, in 2002 Walmart acquired a majority stake in Seiyu, a Japanese department store company. In 2003 they opened their first big box, Walmart style store in Numazu.
I lived in Numazu from 2004 – 2006 about 5 minutes away from the big box Seiyu on foot. It was incredibly convenient to be able to buy groceries and pretty much anything else 24 hours a day.
Overall, Walmart’s expansion in Japan has not been a success. There are a lot of very good articles explaining the reasons, but long story short Walmart was trying to provide something that people didn’t want.
Sometime since our last visit to Japan, Seiyu Numazu got a pretty serious remodel. The groceries were still there, but the housewares and most importantly the toys were all gone, replaced by a new clothing store and a 100 yen shop. We didn’t know this before we left, and had promised TD some new toys. That was a mistake.
There are few things on planet Earth more persistent than a 3 year old who has been promised something fun but has not received it yet. After a few laps around the store, we decided to occupy him with the huge selection of Gatcha machines near the store entrance. Gatcha machines are the ones with cheap toys inside little plastic capsules.
The cheap toys he got were fun, but not nearly as fun as putting money into the machines and turning the handle.
Lessons learned: things change when you are away for a few years, and never promise something to a kid unless you can get it to them in a reasonable period of time.
Drinking in Japan 
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