Plain Talk
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JANUARY 25. 2019My home country of Japan by Kai Raine
I grew up in the suburbia of West Tokyo. I’m a ha-fu, but neither half is Japanese. I left when I was thirteen to live with my grandparents in the US to relearn English. I thought that I’d get to come home to Japan after a few years. Instead, my family moved to India; there followed fifteen years of moving every two years.
During those fifteen years, I told myself all sorts of things to try and ease the ache: mostly I drew on memories of being Other. The preschooler who would scream, “Look, Mom, a foreigner!” as I walked to school every morning for the entire first term of sixth grade. The bullies that made third and fourth grades my hell, until my parents finally transferred me to a new school. Home is a myth, I told myself―and one day, I believed it. The ache was no more.
I came home to visit for the first time in nine years. It was bliss. I wanted nothing more than to stay. When I left, I expected the ache to come back. It didn’t. I’d conquered it for good. So it was easy to remind myself that visiting and living were worlds apart.
A few rounds of rinses and repeats in this pattern, and I’m back now―have been for the better part of a year. I expected the sensation of being Othered to diminish my homecoming, somehow. But it hasn’t. I notice the occasional wide-eyed look of alarm when I enter a shop. I notice that often the seats beside me in a train car are often among the last to be occupied. I’m conscious of the way my friends speak about “foreigners” and “foreign lands”, as if there is no distinction but “Japanese” and “Other”. Once upon a time, this was the bane of my existence. It isn’t, anymore.
I smile and speak to the wide-eyed shopkeepers, and revel in the joy when their expressions relax. The first time someone apologized to me for thinking I was “foreign”, I felt my heart grow three sizes.
I even find that being “foreign” has made it easier to stumble through relearning my hometown as an adult. There is no pressure from the outside for me to conform, or for me to be anything other than―me. (India is my counterpoint, where strangers berate my father for raising a daughter who can’t speak Hindi, and remind him that I must be married to a good Indian man.)
Yet it is still my home, in a way that nowhere else has ever been. I’m a part of this place, and this place is a part of me. I’m home, and at peace.
私は田舎と都会の狭間にある西東京育ち。ハーフではあるが、どちら側も日本人ではいない。小学校を卒業して間もなく、英語を勉強するためにアメリカの祖父母に預けられた。数年すれば、日本に帰ってくるだろうと想像していた。しかし、家族はインドへ引越し、その後15年間、不本意ながらも1年置きに引っ越すような生活を送った。
15年間、日本を求めて疼く心を癒すため、私は周りに特別扱いされた、嫌な思い出に浸った。六年生の一学期、毎日毎日バスを待つ保育園児が「見てお母さん！外国人！」と叫んでいたこと。三、四年生の同級生にいじめられ、とうとう転校させられたこと。帰る場所なんて子供の見る夢だ、と自分に言い聞かせているうちに、その言葉を信じるようになった。そして、疼きは消え去った。
一時は旅行でさえ日本に来れない年が続き、9年ぶりに帰ってきた時はこの上ない喜びを感じた。とにかく日本に残りたかった。その後、外国に戻ると、また疼きが戻ってくるだろうと思った。しかし、疼きは根から抜かれていた。だからか、1、2週間の滞在と住むこととは違うと自分に言い聞かせるのは容易かった。
戻っては帰ってを繰り返す内に、また日本に住めることになった。現在、帰国して半年以上になる。日本に外人として住むことは、子供の頃同様、辛い経験もあるだろうと思っていた。だが違った。もちろん、店に入って、店の人が戸惑うと気づく。電車に座っていれば、自分の隣の席が埋まるのはよく他が全て埋まってからだと気づく。友達の『外国人』や『外国』の話を聞いていると、『日本』と『その他』以外見えていなさそうな世界観にも気づく。だが、子供の頃に私を苦しめたそうした事にはもう動じない。
戸惑っている店の人に話しかけて、その人の力が抜けてホッとするのを見ると、私も嬉しくなる。初めて外国人扱いしたことを謝ってくれた人に出会った時の私の喜びは、これ以上ないようなものだった。
今は、外国人であることを利点としてさえ思える。何せ、15年も離れていて、住んでいた頃は子供だったのだから、新しく学ばなければならないことも多い。これらは、外国人だから知らなくて当たり前だとされる。私に牙を向ける社会の鎖も少なく、何のプレッシャーもなく、ありのままの自分でいられる。道で知らない人が父に、なぜ娘にヒンディー語を教えなかったのか、ちゃんと娘を良いインド人家族に嫁入りさせろ、などと言ってくるインドとは比べ物にならない。
そして、私の帰る場所は紛れもなく、ここだとわかった。私はこの町の一欠片であり、この町も私の一欠片。
Plain Talk
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JANUARY 25. 2019Excitement on the Eve of Setsubun (節分) by Raulie W. Schnee
The Japanese celebrate Setsubun, the coming of spring (according to the Chinese lunar calendar) on the eve of 3 February.
Special sushi rolls called ehomaki (恵方巻) are eaten for dinner. After dinner, some roasted soybeans (福豆fukumame) are eaten and then more are scattered outside the front door. Setsubun, associated with the Chinese New Year, has been celebrated for centuries in Japan, and is still enjoyed today, especially by children.
Ehomaki is a long sushi roll, held at length in the "auspicious direction", and eaten at one go without stopping to talk until the roll is gone, all the while making a wish for the new year. It should never be cut into pieces beforehand. The auspicious direction changes from year to year (east‐northeast for 2019). Failure to obey the ritual cancels your wish, so proceed carefully.
The roasted soybeans are rather bland. A big bowl of the beans is placed on the table. Each person counts out the number of beans for each year of their age, and then places the beans on their plate. (Some will take and extra bean, believing it may add more good fortune in the coming year.) After each family member eats their allotted number of soybeans, the remainder of the beans are tossed out the front door while chanting, "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!" (Out with the devils, and in with good fortune!) This spell casts out the devils of misfortune and welcomes spring with a dose of good luck. This ritual is also observed at temples and shrines on the evening of 3 February.
Your soybean purchase may come with a devil mask. Dad puts on the mask so the little ones can pelt him with beans, as he (the devil) is driven from the house, and, hopefully, allowed back in after removing the mask and all the beans have been thrown.
The bean scattering ritual dates back at least a thousand years and is familiar to all Japanese, but eating the ehomaki is more recent and not as well known.
The ehomaki ritual is very recent in the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo. Many older Japanese in the Tokyo area are not familiar with this practice. Many say the custom originated with their rowdy cousins to the west in Osaka. The ehomaki sushi rolls, made with seven fillings to represent the Seven Deities of Good Fortune (七福神 Shichifukujin) are marketed aggressively in convenience stores, super markets, and the basements of department stores, so put in your order early because on the evening of 2 February these sushi rolls, available only at this time of year, will be flying off the shelves at your local convenience store.
Tokyo Fab
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JANUARY 25. 2019JESU´S RAFAEL SOTO - PENETRABLE BBL BLEU
For its sixth exhibition within the framework of the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s “Hors-les-murs” programme, the Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo is pleased to present a specific installation by the late Jesus Rafael Soto: Pe´ne´trable BBL Bleu. This programme has been showcasing unseen holdings from the Collection at the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Venice, Munich and Beijing over these past three years, thus carrying out the Fondation’s intent to realize international projects and make them accessible to a broader public.
Jesu´s Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan artist who was best known for his kinetic sculptures and large scale optical installations. Born in 1923 in Ciudad Bolivar, Soto remained in Venezuela for his formative years, before moving to Paris in 1950 where he would remain for the rest of his life, while keeping a workshop in Caracas from 1975 onwards. Very early on, he attached himself to post-war avant-garde modernism and became part of the abstract art circles. His participation in the Salon des Re´alite´s Nouvelles in 1951, followed by his involvement in the celebrated exhibition Le Mouvement at the Galerie Denise Rene´ in Paris in 1955 alongside Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, and Victor Vasarely, bears witness to this commitment. By the late 1960s, Soto was known as a leader in kinetic art, with works that were remarkable for their illusions of sensory vibrations.
JESU´S RAFAEL SOTO
Jesu´s Rafael Soto was born on June 5, 1923, in Ciudad Boli´var, Venezuela and died in Paris, France, in 2005. He studied at the Escuela de artes pla´sticas in Caracas from 1942 to 1947 and then served as director of the Escuela de bellas artes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, until 1950, at which time he relocated to Paris. There he associated with Yaacov Agam, Jean Tinguely, and Victor Vasarely, as well as artists connected to Galerie Denise Rene´ and the Nouveaux Re´alistes (New Realists).
Date: Till 12 May 2019
Venue: Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo.
Louis Vuitton Omotesando Bldg. 7F 5-7-5 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/exhibitions/beyond-the-walls/jesus-rafael-soto-penetrable-bbl-bleu.html
What’s App With You?
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JANUARY 25. 2019Chunky Comic Reader
Try an app that makes your comics look great, makes reading them a pleasure, and takes all the friction out of importing and managing them. The app will happily grab comics from a range of cloud services, but splash out on the single £2.99 IAP and you also gain access to Mac/Windows shared folders and Chunky’s own web server. When reading, settings enable you to adjust aspects of panning, page turns and rendering, including upscaling; the last of those things ensures comics in Chunky look stunning on the Retina display − even if the source material isn’t of the highest quality. It can browse and download and Copy. Also you can copy files in and out with iTunes on your computer or download them via the built-in web browser.
Letterboxd:
Watched too many movies and they all blured into one, at which point you run the risk of accidentally watching same movie? Save yourself by using Letterboxd to make a record of the films you love. Letterboxd for iOS puts the popular social network for film lovers on your iPhone or iPad, so you can log films and catch up on your friends’ activity with ease. Sign in to enjoy its all-new native interface. Tracking can be as simple as providing a quick thumbs-up or star rating. All your films can then be browsed in a grid that can be filtered by various criteria. To take things further, you can write reviews and delve into the social side of the app, thereby becoming someone clever or an angry person on Twitter.
Tokyo Voice Column
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JANUARY 25. 2019Am I a regular? by Mardo
There is a question I have been pondering lately. I was working, not at my usual school, but at the district education office. Very quickly, the owner of the coffee shop next door, learnt my order, Small Cappuccino. Within a fortnight he was asking me if I wanted it the moment I walked in, within a month, all I had to do was walk in and nod, and my order was put in line. I was a regular, and it was my local coffee shop. So my question is, how long does it take to become a local?
In England, Australia etc, when we say a local, we usually refer to our local pub, even if its not in the same local area as where we live or work, it’s the pub we go to the most. A place where you are considered a local, a regular... a place where the barmaid automatically knows what to start pouring as soon as you walk in. When I lived in Gunma, my Local was the Drunken Duck in Hitachi-naka. There was an Izakaya closer to my flat, but the Drunken Duck employed Australian cooks, so there was always beetroot on the hamburger and someone who knew the football scores from home. Within a month I had an account. If I was broke just before my monthly pay day, I could put dinner and a pint on the tab.
I am sure becoming a regular or having a local are not likely to happen in a month. I think there has to be a many factors combining. How often you go, how friendly the staff are, and it probably helps to order the same thing over and over. I have been to bars where the staff were so unfriendly, or just busy, that I would never be a regular there. And then places where they remember me after two visits. Either way, having a Local bar, cafe, restaurant, supermarket, or in fact ANYTHING, makes living and working somewhere so much nicer. Even if I walk into my neighbourhood store, and the old lady behind the shop complains that it’s just too hot, makes you feel like you belong… Even as a large foreigner in a small country town.
最近気になる事がある。僕の勤務先は、学区の公立学校ではなく、地区の教育関連事務所だった。端的にいうと、隣りにあるコーヒーショップのオーナーが僕の好みのドリンクがスモールカプチーノーだと覚えてくれた。２週間で、店に入るとすぐにスモールカプチーノでいいか僕に聞いてくれた。１ヶ月たつと、僕が店に入り、首を縦に振るだけで注文完了した。僕は馴染みとなり、そこはローカル（行きつけの）コーヒーショップとなった。そこで、僕の気なる事とは、どれくらい通うとローカル（行きつけのの店）になるのだろう？
イギリスやオーストラリアでは、ローカル（行きつけの店）という場合、パブを指す。住んでいたり働いている地区でなくても、頻繁に通うならばローカル（行きつけのパブ）という。「行きつけ」、「馴染み」とは、店に入ると、女性のバーテンがすぐに酒をついてくれる所だろう。僕が群馬に住んでいた頃、僕のローカル（行きつけの店）は、アパート近くにある居酒屋ではなく、ひたちなかにあるザ・ドランケンダックだった。オーストラリア人のクックがいて、ビートルートが挟んであるハンバーガーが食べられ、オーストラリアのフットボールについて語れる人が誰かいた。１ヶ月でつけ払いができた。給料日の直前でお金がないなら、つけで食事とお酒が飲めた。
１ヶ月で馴染みになったり、行きつけの店ができるなんて滅多にないだろう。いろんな要素が重ならないとむずかしい。どれくらい頻繁に通うか、そこで働く人がフレンドリーかどうか、それに毎回同じものを頼むというのが必要かもしれない。スタッフがフレンドリーでなかったり、忙しかったりして馴染みになれなかったバーもあるし、２回行っただけで僕を覚えてくれた店もある。いずれにせよ、バー、カフェ、レストラン、スーパー等、なんでもいいのでローカル（行きつけの店）があるのは、生活したり働く上で気分がいい。近所の店に行き、カウンターにいる年配の女性から、今日は暑いねとこぼされたとしても、小さな田舎の大きな外国人にとって、地元の人として扱われた気がしてうれしい。
Strange but True
TOKYO NOTICE BOARD JANUARY 25. 2019Januhairy!
Hawaii may be renowned for its white sand shores, but the island's coast is also home to some eye-catching black sand beaches. These beaches come about after a volcanic eruption, when the lava flow reaches the ocean and explodes before cooling, causing black shingles that become the shore. Following Kilauea Volcano's eruption last year, now Hawaii has a brand new black sand beach located in Isaac Kepo‘okalani Hale Beach Park. It's only recently opened to visitors; the region was closed for months after the eruption, which caused devastation and forced thousands to evacuate their homes. Less than a year later, the island is already bouncing back, with many new resorts opening as it gets its tourism industry back on track. Although visitors are allowed to visit the beach, they are being advised to exercise caution.
Bringing your pets?
A Taiwanese woman was stopped at a customs checkpoint on the island of Kinmen after returning from a visit to China. Coast Guard officials conducting routine security and customs checks noticed the woman was walking in an unusual manner. The passenger was pulled to one side for questioning where officials discovered the shocking reason for her funny walk. Individually wrapped in bags were 24 gerbils, strapped to the woman's legs and covered by a skirt. The woman reportedly told customs officials she was smuggling the animals for friends and had purchased them at a pet store in China, according to local news station 97x. But authorities believe she had been sent by a smuggling ring to test inspection procedures at the Taiwanese port. The poor creatures were all eventually euthanized by vets in Thailand.
50 Shades of Yikess
