6/23
Ebisu
This weekend I met an old friend, spent far too much on food, invented my own kanji and finally played some soccer. Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, especially if you're in a moving vehicle because it's the law and it saves lives.
Saturday I met up with Koki, whom I haven't seen since I was in Gifu. Three years is a long time, and I almost didn't recognize him when we met at the station. Speaking of stations, I've gotten lost at Shibuya station four times now. The place is a maze of tunnels and turnstiles, with occasional climbs to the surface streets before descending again. The walk from the Toyoko-sen (the line closest to my lodgings) to the Yamanote-sen takes like five minutes, and that's if you know the way, which I didn't.
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| The crowds outside Shibuya station. Under the tree is the train station's very own tourist attraction, the statue of Hachiko the dog. The folk legend goes that Hachiko was the loyal pet of a businessman who lived nearby, and would walk to the station every day to wait for him to come home. One day the businessman died suddenly at work, and didn't arrive at the station. Hachi arrived at the station in time for his master's train until his death ten years later, becoming a local celebrity for his loyalty (and punctuality). The statue was erected at his habitual waiting-place, and is now the location of choice for people meeting at Shibuya station. Judging from the crowd, specifying 'at Hachiko' probably wouldn't be enough. |
Koki and I wandered around Ebisu for around an hour looking for a well-known shopping mall called the Ebisu Garden Place. We eventually gave up and hailed a cab, which was not as exorbitant as the stories of Tokyo would have you believe. The cab of course retraced our path back to the station, then went about two blocks further to drop us off. We snacked at a place called Harbs Cafe, which is apparently a popular destination for dates and weekend rendezvous, but whose reputation I think Koki and I would agree is quite undeserved. I had an orange cream tart which was nice but pricey, and a coconut tea which was bland but extortionate. Koki didn't even finish his 880￥ ($8) honey tea. We caught up, and talked football/soccer, mutual friends, etc.
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| What an overpriced afternoon tea looks like. It wasn't bad, but I'd be annoyed paying more than 250￥ for tea, milk and coconut syrup. |
Afterwards we went to an izakaya in Shibuya. It's a little unclear to me how the Japanese choose an izakaya, because every fourth shopfront seems to be one, yet the place we decide on always seems to be pretty far out of the way. Again, I spent too much money, but this time it was well worth it. Koki recommended all of his favorite menu items, and I washed them down with a lovely shochu. My favorite menu item was fried chicken cartilage, in which they take the chicken breast, cut away the meat (sounds strange, I know), and batter and deep-fry the cartilage. The result is crunchy, high-calorie, and well worth 600￥. Unfortunately, I didn't get the name of the place, but might be able to retrace my steps.
Shodou
On Sunday I went to a calligraphy (書道, shodou) workshop produced by Sugimoto-sensei at Futako-tamagawa campus. The attendees were mostly small children and their parents, and the instructor began by explaining the evolution of kanji from early Chinese pictograms. We then mimicked this development by creating our own kanji from pictures. I made kanji for nikuman (meat dumpling), ice cream, and akanbe, the weirdly specific word for a face one makes by sticking out one's tongue, closing one eye, and pulling down the lower eyelid of the other eye. You see it in anime occasionally; it's the Japanese equivalent of saying "nyah nyah" and blowing a raspberry.
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| My creative process. Readers of Japanese or Chinese will recognize the kanji for niku (肉, meat) and man (万, 10,000) in the upper left, which the calligraphy sensei combined into our new nikuman character (top, orange). Complex kanji are usually composed of radicals that relate to the meaning of the word, but it's not uncommon to include a radical with the same pronunciation to indicate how the word is spoken. Second from top right, my attempt at the same strokes. Far right, the kanji for tsumetai (冷たい, cold) and chichi (乳, milk), which I basically mashed together to get a character for ice cream (bottom, black). Finally, the sensei's take on akanbe, using radicals for tongue, eye and mouth (bottom, orange). My favorite is nikuman. |
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| Everyone's work, set against the river Tama in the baackground. I don't remember what this kid's kanji means, but my guess would be "the practice of filleting very large fish with a katana". Meanings that I remember include something about grapefruit (top left, the one that looks like the panda spirit from Avatar: The Last Airbender), eating too much and getting fat (center, the dresing-table on a bowling ball), and panda (center, the baby television with a palm cross; looks nothing like the panda from Avatar). Mine's right above the kid's head. |
Soccer
Sunday night I finally got to play some soccer. Bringing outdoor cleats was a waste of space; I haven't even seen a proper field in metropolitan Tokyo, let alone met anyone who would be willing to play with me. Indoor and futsal, however, are both pretty popular, especially among college students and young adults. A couple of other residents at my share house do a weekly game at a nearby middle school on Sundays, and I got an invite. I was inadvertently a huge prick; first I told the guy I was going with that I was terrible (based on previous experience playing futsal), and ended up being one of the more capable players on the floor. I blame my new futsal shoes--being able to do things like turning and stopping makes a world of difference in a small, fast game. I capped the evening with a humiliating backheel goal that nutmegged the goalkeeper, who stayed on the floor for a while afterwards... Hope I get an invite next week.
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