They’re Baaaaa-ck!

It is that time of year again in Japan – when the entire country goes batty over blossoms, cherry blossoms. The symbolism of the cherry blossom - the ephemeral or transient beauty of life - resonates deeply with the Japanese aesthetic. The cherry blossom season can be one of the best to visit Japan, as trees turn the cities delicate shades of white or pink. If I contort myself a bit I can look down on a flowering tree from my window, but I certainly don’t have to go out of my way to find them anywhere else. Newscasts run special reports with the prediction for which day will herald the opening of the buds; TV weather reports are replaced by blossom forecasts,


showing the progression of the opening of buds across the country; and advertisements of popular blossom viewing locations are plastered all over trains and train stations. There are websites (for example HERE and HERE and even in English) with interactive maps and other features that provide detailed flower reports and all the information you could possibly need about hundreds upon hundreds of flower-viewing spots across the country.

Hana-mi (literally "flower viewing") parties are held underneath the blossom laden branches, and are really an excuse to start drinking before noon. You have to get there early to get a good spot, after all! The hardcore picnickers will even have portable stoves to cook food or warm up sake. These parties are a great opportunity for the usually reserved Japanese populace to let loose and, as such, are also good fun for people viewing!

The museum is located in a park long known for its cherry blossoms. Here are some views through the years...







The hordes of people, the drunken craziness, and even the stone monument haven't changed a bit through the years! Although unfortunately Mount Fuji is no longer visible from the park.

Spring has Sprung!

While spring has not officially arrived (that is Thursday), and I realize I am setting myself (and the rest of Tokyo) up for months of cold and rainy weather, it appears that spring has sprung! The past few days have been warm and sunny. I had my camera in my bag when I ran errands today, and thought that I would give a glimpse of spring to those of you still shivering and shoveling in Canada...






This one was (obviously!) not what I was going for, but I thought it was kind of neat anyways!

Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork!

I submitted my first round of paperwork for my scholarship to the Japanese consulate in Vancouver two years ago now. I submitted much of the same paperwork to my university the first time a few months later. When I entered the university last April as a research student I had to resubmit most of that paperwork. My fourth round of paperwork came in the summer when I applied to the MA program and sat the entrance exams. Having passed my exams I am currently in the fifth round of paperwork - in preparation for being a full student as of this April. Round six will be starting in a few weeks - when I will get my student card and sign up for classes. The amount of trees I have gone through is quite incredible, especially since each time I have to submit many of the same documents (copies of my passport, official copies of my foreign registration, transcripts...). My history creates even more of a paper trail, since I attended three universities during undergrad, two high schools, one middle school (for only 4 months), and four elementary schools. Japanese forms invariably include a table for this information to be supplied, but only offer space for one of each school. Add to that the fact that although I am entering an MA program, I already have an MA...

I had to submit a different set of paperwork in December in regards to my scholarship. It was originally for two years, but since I will be starting a two year program this April, I applied to have my funding extended by one year. I am happy to report that this application has been accepted, and the Japanese government will be paying for me to complete my MA. Yay!

I also had to submit some paperwork (and still have more to submit in the next week or so) to the personnel department. My advisor has asked me to be the TA for the hands-on portion of the 4th year final curatorial certificate course. The students learn how to properly handle and care for traditional objects (hanging scrolls, picture scrolls, tea bowls...), and how to pack objects (see my blog post about that here). My role will not be to teach directly (thank goodness!), but to assist the professors, guide the students through the hands-on portions, and help with set-up and clean-up. I am a little unsure about being a TA for this course, as I sat in on the class this past year and will be taking it come April, but my advisor says he sees no problems. I am, however, very excited about this challenge must admit I am also feeling a borderline diabolical anticipation of the shock the undergrads will have when they find out their TA is a foreigner... tee hee!!

Scarf Update

I know you were all worried about my blue scarf and hat, and how they were missing Japan. Any doubts that they'll miss the urban sprawl that is Tokyo after this?!


I may have yarn for four other projects, but now that my first scarf set is no longer missing me I felt it was time to go to the yarn store so that I wasn't missing it either...


This is destined to be a surprise gift for a friend here in Tokyo... I've already cast it on, lengthwise on circular needles. It is an easy knit, which is kinda nice right now.

As for finished projects... The first was a very simple scarf to make, but great fun. The wool, Noro Silk Garden, jumped out at me as the perfect colours for my friend / tutor / sempai (student senior to me). The colours are gorgeous - blue/purple, pink, green, yellow, and beige. Following a simple pattern, the self-striping Noro is combined with a solid contrasting colour (chocolate brown in this case).






It may seem simple, but watching each colour come up and seeing how it changed and added to the scarf was really great fun. The scarf made it in time for the last bit of winter, and will be warming her neck on her early morning commute to her new job.


Doesn't she look happy?!

Rather more complicated and time consuming was this pink scarf for a coworker / friend. Made even more time-consuming as I had to frog back three times - once with nearly half the scarf done! Once I got the hang of the multiple patterns, however, I really enjoyed watching this one develop.





The day I took the scarf in to work, my friend wasn't there. I left the scarf on her desk, but with most of the female staff eyeing it I wasn't sure it would still be on her desk the next morning! This is the photo she sent me taken on her cell phone...


Since a number of people saw me put it on her desk, I now have a whole bunch more people wanting scarves... Not that that is a bad thing, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish before next winter, and I'm certainly not going to be able to graduate to a sweater as I had been contemplating!

Kindred Spirit in a Taxi

My little cousin (who is a full head taller than me and legal just about everywhere so no longer so "little") spent a week in Tokyo on his way home from visiting his sister in Australia. It was his first visit to a non-English speaking country and it was really interesting for me to see Japan through his eyes. As often happens when I spend time with a non-Japanese speaking foreigner, I found people around me assuming I didn't speak the language, which is always interesting.

We spent most of our time exploring the modern urban centre that is Tokyo - electronics shopping in Akihabara, riding the 5 floor escalator in Ikebukuro, people watching in Shibuya, exploring the Sony Showroom in Ginza, and taking puri-kura photos.


I did sneak in a museum visit - taking him to the Tokyo Electric Company's Denryokukan (complete with a "scent computer" that randomly enough has a library of Canadian recipes complete with olfactory accompaniment). We also explored some more traditional sites - wandering around Ueno park with a friend, getting fortunes at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa, and going to Kamakura to see Enoshima and the big Buddha. We ate lots - sukiyaki, Korean BBQ, Krispy Kremes, giant tako-yaki, sushi rice-bowls, Japanese pub fare, pork katsu rice-bowls, monaka (Japanese ice cream sandwiches)...

People watching is one of my favourite sports, and rarely does Japan fail to provide interesting fodder. We spent an amusing 30 minutes in the Starbucks overlooking the famous Shibuya crossing, looking down at the masses of humanity moving everywhere, and imagining stories for a few interesting characters. I must admit I am rather glad that there seemed to be nobody who understood English around us - from the 60 year-old lovers eloping to Brazil, and the drunken fight master rendez-vous-ing with his gang contact, our stories were quite fanciful! My favourite people watching moment came in Shinjuku, however. We were sitting outside of Krispy Kremes, eating our doughnuts in the sun. I looked up and saw an older woman approaching us carrying two rather incongruous items. The fresh cut flowers under her left arm were not surprising. The large hockey stick in her right hand, however, made my jaw drop!

While I see my cousin every time I go through Vancouver, and would say that I am close to that part of my family, it was our first time to spend an extended amount of time together. We've always teased each other a fair amount, however, and our sibling-like antics surprised a few of my friends! (Another was un-impressed by my nagging of my little cousin... sorry 'bout that cuz!)

So when I dropped him off at the airport and came home to my dorm room I was feeling rather sad and lonely. Since I had a suitcase I caught a cab from the station. The driver, commenting on my baggage, asked if I returned home to my country. I replied that I had been staying in a hotel in Tokyo with a visiting family member, and the driver made approving sounds. Half to myself I added "but then it is lonely when they leave, isn't it?" My driver sighed deeply and agreed with me. It turns out he's from outside of Tokyo, and his wife and children still live there. He works in Tokyo and can only go home infrequently. We commiserated and bonded over a discussion of the trials of living far from one's family. From there we chatted about what I was doing in Japan, the differences of Japanese and Canadian climates... This simple conversation made me feel far less lonely. As I got out of the cab, the driver offered a piece of fatherly advice that put a big smile on my face... He told me to focus on my studies and not let any bad Japanese boys distract me (perhaps better advice than he realized!).

I've unpacked, done a load of laundry, and begun to think about the million things I have to do before school starts in early April... Sigh, back to my real life!

Lessons from a Translation - Take two

Having now finished the translation, and gotten a bit of sleep so that my brain is working again (or as close to it as I can get), I got to rethinking my “lessons learned” post. There are a few things I want to add.

1. Friends – I am so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful friends. Every time I go “home” to Canada the realization that my life is in Tokyo comes a little bit stronger. Don’t get me wrong, I am Canadian and dang proud of it, but my life is in Tokyo, and that is where I feel I belong. I have a challenging and rewarding academic/professional life, a good support network, and, most importantly amazing friends. I turned to three friends for help on the translation in three different ways. One dropped everything and spent 24 hours translating for me. One spent hours the night before his university entrance exams to track down people to help me with translations. One gave up his only free day in about two weeks and spent hours in transit to check draft translations in the galleries. I had also met each of these three for coffee or a meal while I was working on the translation, and the social contact was also greatly appreciated! To these three people, my thanks. Just typing these words　isn't enough to describe how grateful that I have people like you to lean on in my life! I hope someday to be able to repay you for your kindness.
   
   
2. Translation is hard. Writing is something I enjoy. My friends at school and grad school were always shocked when I admitted that I enjoyed writing papers. I do. I love writing, putting into words the thoughts and ideas in my mind. (I guess that’s why I enjoy this blog too) Translation is similar to writing in that you are putting words onto paper (or a computer screen). It is not your own voice or ideas, however, but those of somebody else. You have to be faithful to the words and tone they chose, and yet make it understandable in the new language. It is a delicate balancing act. For museum-related translations there are two further complications. One is subject matter. When translating text on historical or cultural subjects the problem is that quite often no one specific word exists for a direct translation. That means that either a foreign word gets used, or a long explanation is needed (or both). The second complication is something I don’t feel I took into consideration adequately enough while working on this latest contract, and that is the issue of media. When writing text for a brochure or panel text, you can get an idea of what it will look like while you are still working on it. You can put text into the layout to be used and see immediately how it works for length, etc. But for an audio guide? I thought it would be enough to simply read it aloud, but it isn’t, as that is my voice and I am looking at the words as I read it aloud. Listening to somebody else read it, without the text in front of me, while I look at objects in the gallery, would be completely different. I don’t feel I kept that in mind well enough while translating and so I am unhappy with the appropriateness of the finished product.
   
   
3. Endurance – I realized just how far the human body (or at least my particular body) can be pushed. I’ve pulled all nighters before, every grad student has, I’m sure. But I had never pushed myself quite so hard as I did this week. In the space of 50 hours I was in bed for about two hours and had two short naps on the train. I also missed meals and didn’t eat properly. I drank large amounts of caffeinated beverages. After 40 hours my brain was no longer processing thoughts properly, but after two short naps and non-sugared food, I was able to think (somewhat) coherently again. After just 2 hours of sleep I was able to spend another 5 hours of editing/rewriting. The human body is incredible. But I am very lucky. I feel healthy and fine, but I also know that I owe my body. I intend to treat it very well for a bit now. I am trying to get good nights of solid sleep, eat good food, and maybe get in a soak in a hot springs to thank my body for all it has put up with.