Japanese Monsters

Japan has a rich folklore that happens to include numerous and terrifying monsters, or yokai.  (Well, some aren't that creepy, but they are.. different.)

Here are a few pages to help get you in the Halloween mood!

The Obakemono Project is nice because it is easy to read and has some nice illustrations!

If you want more traditional illustrations, check out the Zenshoan Yurei-ga gallery!

Urban Legends are always popular. Here's a Cracked article!(Keep in mind... it is Cracked) Kuchisake-Onna is my favorite of these. So creepy.

Some of the less scary monsters include the tanuki and the baku. But as I mentioned earlier, these guys are a bit different. Real life tanuki are the most adorable thing ever, though!

Some others that amuse me, and are possibly scary, are the karakasa-obake, yuki-onna, and ,of course, the nekomata.

Browsing through Google using the keywords bakemono, yokai and yurei can bring up a ton of interesting monsters and ghosts. You may also notice that you are familiar with some of these. Especially if you're big into video games from Japan! For example few pokemon, like nine-tails and espeon, are based on bakemono.

Being Polite!

Japan has many cultural taboos, some of which may be heading out but should still be observed. Here are just a few.

~ Mostly bodily functions should never happen in public: nose blowing, passing gas, failing to wear a mask if you are hacking and sneezing, etc. Especially do not do any of these things in a restaurant. If it comes out of the body it is probably frowned upon.

~ Food: Say "Itadakimasu before you eat, say "Goshisoosama deshita" when you finish. Do not stick chopsticks upright in rice, this echoes funerary rites. In the same vein, do not pass food with chopsticks; this represents the passing of bones at a funeral. Slurp your Japanse noodles, it's polite. Do not slurp your Italian noodles. Do not wipe your face with the warm cloth provided to hands. Try to eat everything you are given, especially rice. Drink all the alcohol you are given. ALL OF IT! Do not put sugar in Japanese tea. Do not make faces at the food. Do not mix foods that are not meant to mix. Do not walk and eat. Do not loudly chew gum. This can go on and on and on.

~ Four is an unlucky number, never do anything in fours (Give gifts, knock four times, etc.). The word for four is "shi" which is also the root word for death.

~ Bring a gift when you visit someone. Make sure the gift is wrapped in a cloth (furoshiki) or other reusable material. Do not be surprised if the gift is not opened in front of you. Do not give knives, scissors or clocks. If you are staying with someone and go on a trip, bring back a regional souvenir. Be modest about your gift in most situations.

~Do not wear shoes in a home, leave them at the entrance and put on slippers. Do not wear -any- sort of shoe on tatami. It is expensive! If you enter a bathroom, change into the (often green) bathroom slippers.

~In every situation BE VERY POLITE. (Unless a pervert grabs you on a train, then I think it's o.k. to get mean...) Try and learn polite phrases for common situations such as bumping into someone, interrupting someone, and in general bothering someone. Also try to learn how people might react to certain situations. If you ask someone a question and they answer "Chotto..." it probably means "no" but they are too polite to outright deny.

And there is even more! But I don't want to bore you too much. Basically, again, do your research! It will really matter if you want to make a good impression.


P.S. Totally unrelated, but here is a CNN article on things someone found surprising about Japan. the one I can relate to the most is  noticing not only how clean the cities were but also how this cleanliness came about. I never saw a single person litter. I remember getting to my home train station, Aobadai, early one morning and seeing the epitome of an Oba-san wearing a utilitarian dress and a head scarf, patiently mopping up pigeon droppings. The station had the perfect roosting place for pigeons and they certainly took advantage! Yet, none of the usually nastiness related to flocking skyrats birds seemed to occur, and this was why!

Christmas Gifts?

A bit early, but better early than last minute! This year we will be too busy getting ready for a big trip to do gifts. We may not even be able to do our normal handmade cards! So our gift to you will be this: If you are on our Christmas list, we will get you a souvenir tailored to what we think you would like! Tea, gadgets, tiny gift bags of odds and ends, incense, snacks and charms. They will likely be small, due to packing space, but we will try to make sure they are nice. And if you're not on our normal list... well, you'll get a batch of cool pictures to browse?

We will be sure to eat Christmas Cake and KFC, as is tradition.

I am also offering some limited shopping services. If there is something small that you must absolutely have, I can try to acquire it for you if you send me the funds. If you just want a selection of sweets, give me some cash and I will earmark it for candy! If you want a small toy, charm, historical item or doll? Same thing!

Finally, if you want to give us a Christmas gift, I know this sounds tacky, but we'd rather have the money. You can use the Paypal tip link on my blog. Or, if you absolutely feel you need to get something physical or thoughtful there's always our Amazon list. Thoughtful things like Dramamine and Emergency C may also be appreciated. ^_^ We're just at a point in our life where things are not really desired. (We want to move next year. I have been desperately purging already!)

More Wacky Tourism

Here's a fluff post. I cannot tell you how much I adore these:

http://cheezburger.com/6598016768

http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/faq.htm

Some questions can be really dumb and show that people haven't done any research. This collection of sarcastic answers, whether true or not, illustrates just how silly people can be.

So you have something to look at, here are some dingo pups.

Probably won't eat your baby...

Cat Cafes~!

Not feeling too inspired so I am going to write about cat cafes.

In Japan many people live in small apartments owned by landlords that do not allow pets, do not have room or do not have time for pets. (And ware those who -do- have the ability to own animals! They take it even farther than we do!) Beyond these reasons, hey, it's just fun and relaxing to hang out with some kitties.

So, the enterprising solution? Cat cafes! A cat cafe will have many breeds of cats and for a small fee you can spend an hour petting all the cats you want! Here are a few blogs/articles, some tongue in cheek, about the experience.

http://sarahmarchildon.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-hour-of-heavy-petting.html
http://www.vice.com/read/meow-meow-meow-329-v17n2

Here you can see an English translation of a cat cafe site. Click on the cats tab and see some of the kitty idols you could meet!

Prefer dogs? Well, you can just rent yourself one! Or any other sort of animal you might like. (I, personally, think cat cafes are a bit kinder. I can't imagine how some of these smaller animals feel being shunted around.)

From http://foodartmusiclife.blogspot.com/2010/05/cat-cafes.html

Places I'd Like to Go in the Future

There are a number of places I've always wanted to go, so here's a list of the top 5!

1. The United Kingdom: I want to see where a large portion of my family came from. I want to explore the lands that inspired so much folklore. I want to see castles. Most of all, I want to visit my friends, some of whom I have not seen in years.
2. A Cruise: This is hard to narrow down. I want to either do the stereotypical southern tropical island cruise, Alaska oooor do the East Coast Inland Passage, which you can read more about here. That last one would be really interesting, but it costs a lot and takes a loooong time.
3. The Pacific Northwest: I have wanted to visit here for a number of years. I, in fact, have wanted to live there almost as long. The weather seems perfect, the With our current situation, that might not happen, so a visit would be great. I'd love to go hiking and kayaking, visit some famous sites like the Fremont Troll, the first Starbucks, and other touristy things. 
4. Machu Picchu; What can I say? It's Machu Picchu! I wouldn't mind seeing the Nazca Lines or other Central and South American ruins.
5. Europe: I'd like to go on a tour of Europe. There are just too many places and things I want to see. I'd love to take a long train journey.

So, what places have you always wanted to visit? 

Tentative Plans for Japan

So, there are a lot of places but the husband and I would like to visit. I'm going to dedicate this entry to the places I would like to go. Maybe he'll be inspired to do a guest entry.

Tokyo:

First off, we are definitely going to the Ghibli Museum; this was a joint decision. I already have the ticket voucher and part of the schedule blocked out. You are not allowed to take photos in most of the museum but you can still find some pics of certain parts online. I like two Ghibli movies a lot, Mononoke Hime and Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä. They're both kind of the same film, as they have similar underlying themes. I have admired the art for a lot of the other movies, though. (I hate almost everything about Porco Rosso, just being honest.)

The first trailer I ever saw for Mononoke Hime

Wards I want to visit: Shibuya for pretty much every reason, Ikebukuro for girly reasons, Akihabara for geek-ery, Nakano for Mandarake. 

In Ikebukuro I want to visit Otome road to visit Milky Way for parfaits, go to Swallowtail Butler Cafe to be pampered, show my husband a Tokyu Hands, visit a cat cafe and many other things. It's the ward I am most excited about, followed by Akihabara and then Shibuya.

There are other things of course; where we are staying has a some great history (One of the oldest wards, previous red-light district, and other fun things.) It is also the main area to get many traditional crafts. Finally it has Kaminarimon and a real Onsen. 

Day Trips: I have been trying to decided between Nikko and Kamakura. Nikko would be a day trip and might be very cold, but it has a lot of awesome history. (Ieyasu Tokugawa is entombed there.) Kamakura is not as far away, and also has a ton of cool history. (Kamakura has the Daibustu, Amida Buddha). And in that vein, there's also a daytrip to Yokohama, where I stayed in 2000. I'd like to show my Husband the area and maybe go to Minato Mirai 21.

Kyoto:

This is simple; I want to visit as many temples and shrines as possible, I want to have Kaiseki, I want to walk through the gates at Fushimi Inari, I want to celebrate Hatsumode and eat all of the things. Last time I went to Kyoto it was on a very strict schedule; we visited places I wanted to visit and some I didn't. (Fureaikan, I am looking at you. T_T) We will be staying in Gion, which is pretty sweet. I hope I can find an affordable  kanzashi and some of the famous incense. 

Day Trip: Nara, of course. Need to be mauled by tiny deer and show my husband around the park.

Narita:

I have no clue. We will have half of a day there on the second to last day, and half of a day on the last day. Frantic last minute packing and repacking? A post office visit? Who knows! I hear there are some things to do!

Travel Necessities - Japan

A small collection.

When one travels one often has to bring some odd things and some normal necessities. Here we have  (clockwise) Downy Wrinkle Release, a pink micro-fiber towel, Tide packets, an orthopedic neck pillow, pocket tissues, travel bottles and passport carry holder thing.

These are a few of the supplies I've purchased with CC rewards from paying for plane tickets and hotels. I still have many more things that I need to purchase, as you can see Amazon Wishlist. 

Explanations:

1. The wrinkle release is because we plan to pack very lightly. I intend to bring nothing more than will fit in my Osprey Quasar. (with the exception of shoes) I will bring an empty suitcase!
2. We have two micro towels to supplement the hotel towels and to bring to Onsen/Sentou. 
3. Tide- for washing things in the sink~! Don't want to waste time waiting for the single washer/dryer in our hotels. 
4. The neck pillow is to help with some neurological/ortho problems I have. I am hoping for surgery before my trip but it may not happen.
5. Pocket tissues -  Some public restrooms have no toilet paper or paper towels because you are expected to carry your own. Sometimes, outside of train stations, you can get advert tissues/chirigami: a small packet of tissues with an ad for a company on the outside.  The only problem here is that foreigners may be passed over, as the ads may be viewed as wasted on them.
6. Travel Bottles- Typical reasons here. I think we'll get some toiletries at a hyakuen store, but some things we want will need to be brought. (P.S. I <3 Daiso)
7. Passport holder- I love these. You slip some money and your ID in, then stuff it in your shirt. Japan has a low crime rate compared to many places I've been and even where I currently live. I still feel more secure when I can have the tactile feel of my passport touching my skin. One of my skirts, my Macabi, also has an interior pocket that can not be easily accessed by others. It's nice piece of clothing for visiting less savory places. It's a nice skirt for any sort of travel, really.

Things we still need (We have some, but they are not rounded up yet!):

1. Thermals - We'll be in some cold areas! I want to get some more Cuddl Duds light thermals. They pack well.
2. Handkerchiefs - For drying hands.
3. Gallon Baggies- For our stuff, souvenirs, trash items (nearly impossible to find trash cans in Japan, may as will stuff it in a pack or purse), any pretty much everything.
4. Copies of everything from scripts to ID to itineraries- It's important to be prepared in case anything goes missing. In a foreign country, unless you are perfectly fluent or straying with someone, it's best to be as safe as possible. I have a binder that I'm gathering information in.
5. Travel journal - To collect memories, receipts and STAMPS!
6. A duffle-bag for our trip back, just in case we buy ALL THE THINGS.
7. Other things - Trying to think of more helpful stuff and blanking. I will probably post a picture of the unpacked/packed bags before we go.

Things to leave behind:

1. Excess anything - Too much bulk or weight is bad in a crowded country.

When I go to someplace local, or to visit relatives, I try to pack lightly. Every single time I manage to fail. I hope I can stick to my simple wardrobe plan! Only planning to bring three pair of shoes (tennies, small dressy shoes and Uggs) for two weeks. I may perish!