Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A Random Visit to Nogi's
Things are going well. I am getting busier and busier, so I suppose that's good. Camille is coming soon too, so that's good. Abi's mother Francoise is also here right now, so that's good. Yep, no complaints. I thought that today I would explain who General Nogi is. To put it briefly General Nogi Maresuke was a pretty high ranking general (but the kind that still had to work, not the kind who got to spend all day drinking tea and telling stories) who had lived through the Meiji Restoration and the Meiji period. When in 1912, the Meiji emperor, Mutsuhito, died of natural causes (I mean he'd been the emperor since 1868, first of all; second of all, if you'd been the emperor who saw Japan shoot up from a slightly connected feudal archipelago to an ultra-unified constitutional monarchy with navies, armies, and industries that were outshining European and American forces, you'd probably have eventually worn out your pacemaker too...), Nogi committed ritual suicide or seppuku. I believe that his wife also did this, but her picture was not up and I'm not going to take time now to verify. Anyway, in a letter that he wrote, Nogi explained that because he was loyal until death to the Meiji emperor, he could have no other lord and would be better following his true lord into death. Many Japanese and non-Japanese historians have explained that this suicide was also a response to a Japan that had changed so much and that Nogi knew would be too much for him (like the Beatles for people who were in their 70s during the 1960s SCARY!!!). What also surrounded his suicide was a large debate about the legality of committing suicide to follow a lord into death, outlawed since the 1600s, and about whether Nogi should truly be made into an example. There were not many other suicides like this, so my guess is that the Japanese decided to let him be an example; hence he gets his own Shinto Shrine wherein lie the walkways, photos, and memorabilia that I put up on the photos page. I am sort of starting to collect pics so that I can make my history classes a little more interesting. These photos will be good for that sort of thing I think:)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
October Update
As a few of you know, I came back to West Lafayette for a few days because I missed this place so much... Sarcasm aside, I missed some of the people back at Purdue, especially Camille. Now, I'm back off again into the great wide open as Tom Petty would call it (although there is not alot of "open" in crowded Tokyo). I am going back to Japan with a macbook (my first new computer/laptop purchase ever!), new clothes (not the first time that I've bought those before...seriously), and a few other things. Why buy all that stuff over here, you ask? Tokyo is like the Paris of East Asia, right? Well all of that has to do with money: I didn't have any. For all of September, I relied on the remnants of my TA summer salary (who are we kidding, there weren't any) and small spurts of "family help". Each week, I assumed that, like the U.S. postal service who guarantees a two-week delivery timeline but typically gets the job done well before, the wonderful people of my fellowship program would put some breathing room into my new shiny, empty Japanese bank account. Truth: when the Japanese give you a date and a timeline, they stick to it like the Bible. Salvation arrived on October 2nd. I believe that my happiness was noticeable. (Don;t make that face; You knew food was gonna be in here somewhere) But to be sure you will have to ask the waiter of the restaurant (my first one in Japan) where I ordered two dinner specials! People still rave about Jenny Craig weight watchers and nutraslim: Truth: poor financial planning for a period between salaries will help you lose weight. If any of you are desperate, I promise that this stuff works. But I honestly like cheap Japanese food anyway; I am just eating more of it:)
I must send a few words of thanks out: to Dr. Larson and Nicki for allowing me to use a department laptop (this may be a leak of top secret info; but I feel that people should know that this department really does want to help us out) to Carla Jo, formely one of our fabulous secretaries, and Camille for finding a way to convince ITAP to make me a reload cd-rom for the department's laptop (a good computer; it just needed a little refresher) and then getting it to me in Tokyo. Given the financial crisis, I would not have been able to buy a computer which would have meant NO work. But I actually got a lot of work done on that not-so-little Dell. Now I will have to go about connecting my new computer to the internet at home and at Keio, but having figured it out with the department one, I feel more than confident in my capacity to do so. So thanks, in this informal way, to you all.
No for a few highlights. The historian stuff is going well. I just realized that Japanese is REALLY FREAKING HARD... But with time and patience and a lot of relearning (think of it like Neo's self-programming in the Matrix; I really think that as my Japanese gets better, I'm also gaining an uncanny adeptness in drunken boxing and monkey kung fu) I'm gettin' er done. I have met three Japanese history superstars who have and will continue to help me immensely with my work. And for all of you grad students: GO TO CONFERENCES! There are tons of reasons, including getting your name and project description out there in a supposedly anonymous realm of grant/fellowhsip/publishing decision-making. But one of the coolest benefits for me was meeting other Ph.D. students. They may be from Berkeley or Harvard or Princeton (or they may be from a school that's as outstanding as Purdue in Japanese history) but they are people who face the same essential problems that we do: how to do social science or humanities research and how to make it sound less boring. Orna Shaughnessy (yep, met her at a Conference) and I hung out in Tokyo. She showed me the Japanese Literature Library where she is doing her research, but the coolest thing about it is having a co-sufferer:) What's better is that she's connected with a whole bunch of co-sufferers and they want me to come be a part of their support group!
My favorite event this month, besides getting paid.. A friend of one of the RAs in my graduate dorm invited me to this party because I told her that I like to dance. Well this wasn't really a party. It was an underground Japanese hip-hop extravaganza! Let me tell you about it.
I was not expecting much. If you've ever seen Tokyo in person or in movies, you can probably imagine what I was expecting. The same Japanese who wear suits that range from black to black to blacker and often work as if they are all day-traders in NYC couldn't be too exciting at night, right? They don't even go home until 11PM on Weekends! Well you have to pull your binoculars back a little further to see the tons of Japanese who don't fit that mold. You don't see them during the day because they don't spend all day and night at work in high rises with transparent glass or in the subway at rush hour. You do see them when you go to Shibuya. I went to Shibuya, got lost for, um, about an hour, and finally found PLUG, the bar I was looking for. After finding the back entrance (the elevator doesn't even go this far below the earth), descending at least four flights of stairs (I know, scary but exciting, yeah), I walked into a greeting by the MC of Dopenotes, the group that was organizing the night. He and the organizer-girl who had invited me took me under their wing as I entered PLUG. There was not a non-Japanese to be found, but neither was there a suit-wearer to be found. A DJ stood behind a simple table (not up on in a pedestal booth like he owned the world) and people watched in awe. After a little adjustment to the dark lighting (and two drinks) I was in awe too. They were spinning Tribe Called Quest, Eric B. and Rakim, and a whole bunch of stuff that even really hip-hop conscious Americans have unfortunately forgotten abou. I spent, let's just say, a very very long night in that place and what I saw put my Japanese experience back on the right track. After one DJ finished, another jumped on the vinyl. About midnight, the music rolled to a hush and I was engaged to help clear some space between the stage (unused up to this point) and the audience. In this space, 3 guys wearing really simple clothes (not Diesel or Puma; more like old Nike shoes and a black non-descript hoodie) stood together. Then the small stage lit up with a xylephone, jimbe (a big congo drum), a wood flute who set a musical palette. These 3 dancers (who I later learned have been on TV and do shows, etc.) went into this sort of primeval Japano-African dance, one by one. Okay, this is a really weird kind of cool. But then the DJ started to creep in with some jungle and all of a sudden, the dancers were in unison doing a brand of hip-hop/soft breakdance that you only find in Japan. Girls would scream as they came within a 6 inches of us with their kicks. No one got hurt; well perhaps my shattered preconceived notions of Japanese propreity... After the dance show in the little one-room bar, a jazz band with a sax, drummer, baseplayer, keyboard goddess (as a piano player, I can rightfully give her that title), tore up both their own compositions and the classic cantaloupe. Still in awe, getting tired, but still in awe. A little more DJ action, before the next group, Dopenotes, the headliners if you will. Most of the jazz band stayed up there, but the music that they created with Tomo as the rapper (he's the guy who I can now call my friend; I know, I feel like a groupie... ) was unique and harmonious in a way that I still can't get out of my head (now I can actually buy their 3rd album). It was funny, raw, emotional, confused, all that: the way rap was before it became addicted to singing about itself... The last showcase of the night was a little overweight Japanese soul singer. Some of the band stayed, but from the audience 3 more sax players got on stage and backed up this genius (as a singer, I can rightfully call him that), who also played the keyboard, on Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and a few of his original pieces. This was the weekend before I came back to WL. When I return to Tokyo this Sunday, I hope to hit the ground with my feet running because I not only have the money to live and a life sufficiently set-up to allow me to live it and a good friend named Vico from Paraguay who has become my closest pal in my dorm, but I also have some Japanese friends now who give life to my research and remind me of why I fell in love with Japan years ago in the first place. The next update will be shorter and will have pictures (at least pics from my new cellphone or my laptop. LATA
I must send a few words of thanks out: to Dr. Larson and Nicki for allowing me to use a department laptop (this may be a leak of top secret info; but I feel that people should know that this department really does want to help us out) to Carla Jo, formely one of our fabulous secretaries, and Camille for finding a way to convince ITAP to make me a reload cd-rom for the department's laptop (a good computer; it just needed a little refresher) and then getting it to me in Tokyo. Given the financial crisis, I would not have been able to buy a computer which would have meant NO work. But I actually got a lot of work done on that not-so-little Dell. Now I will have to go about connecting my new computer to the internet at home and at Keio, but having figured it out with the department one, I feel more than confident in my capacity to do so. So thanks, in this informal way, to you all.
No for a few highlights. The historian stuff is going well. I just realized that Japanese is REALLY FREAKING HARD... But with time and patience and a lot of relearning (think of it like Neo's self-programming in the Matrix; I really think that as my Japanese gets better, I'm also gaining an uncanny adeptness in drunken boxing and monkey kung fu) I'm gettin' er done. I have met three Japanese history superstars who have and will continue to help me immensely with my work. And for all of you grad students: GO TO CONFERENCES! There are tons of reasons, including getting your name and project description out there in a supposedly anonymous realm of grant/fellowhsip/publishing decision-making. But one of the coolest benefits for me was meeting other Ph.D. students. They may be from Berkeley or Harvard or Princeton (or they may be from a school that's as outstanding as Purdue in Japanese history) but they are people who face the same essential problems that we do: how to do social science or humanities research and how to make it sound less boring. Orna Shaughnessy (yep, met her at a Conference) and I hung out in Tokyo. She showed me the Japanese Literature Library where she is doing her research, but the coolest thing about it is having a co-sufferer:) What's better is that she's connected with a whole bunch of co-sufferers and they want me to come be a part of their support group!
My favorite event this month, besides getting paid.. A friend of one of the RAs in my graduate dorm invited me to this party because I told her that I like to dance. Well this wasn't really a party. It was an underground Japanese hip-hop extravaganza! Let me tell you about it.
I was not expecting much. If you've ever seen Tokyo in person or in movies, you can probably imagine what I was expecting. The same Japanese who wear suits that range from black to black to blacker and often work as if they are all day-traders in NYC couldn't be too exciting at night, right? They don't even go home until 11PM on Weekends! Well you have to pull your binoculars back a little further to see the tons of Japanese who don't fit that mold. You don't see them during the day because they don't spend all day and night at work in high rises with transparent glass or in the subway at rush hour. You do see them when you go to Shibuya. I went to Shibuya, got lost for, um, about an hour, and finally found PLUG, the bar I was looking for. After finding the back entrance (the elevator doesn't even go this far below the earth), descending at least four flights of stairs (I know, scary but exciting, yeah), I walked into a greeting by the MC of Dopenotes, the group that was organizing the night. He and the organizer-girl who had invited me took me under their wing as I entered PLUG. There was not a non-Japanese to be found, but neither was there a suit-wearer to be found. A DJ stood behind a simple table (not up on in a pedestal booth like he owned the world) and people watched in awe. After a little adjustment to the dark lighting (and two drinks) I was in awe too. They were spinning Tribe Called Quest, Eric B. and Rakim, and a whole bunch of stuff that even really hip-hop conscious Americans have unfortunately forgotten abou. I spent, let's just say, a very very long night in that place and what I saw put my Japanese experience back on the right track. After one DJ finished, another jumped on the vinyl. About midnight, the music rolled to a hush and I was engaged to help clear some space between the stage (unused up to this point) and the audience. In this space, 3 guys wearing really simple clothes (not Diesel or Puma; more like old Nike shoes and a black non-descript hoodie) stood together. Then the small stage lit up with a xylephone, jimbe (a big congo drum), a wood flute who set a musical palette. These 3 dancers (who I later learned have been on TV and do shows, etc.) went into this sort of primeval Japano-African dance, one by one. Okay, this is a really weird kind of cool. But then the DJ started to creep in with some jungle and all of a sudden, the dancers were in unison doing a brand of hip-hop/soft breakdance that you only find in Japan. Girls would scream as they came within a 6 inches of us with their kicks. No one got hurt; well perhaps my shattered preconceived notions of Japanese propreity... After the dance show in the little one-room bar, a jazz band with a sax, drummer, baseplayer, keyboard goddess (as a piano player, I can rightfully give her that title), tore up both their own compositions and the classic cantaloupe. Still in awe, getting tired, but still in awe. A little more DJ action, before the next group, Dopenotes, the headliners if you will. Most of the jazz band stayed up there, but the music that they created with Tomo as the rapper (he's the guy who I can now call my friend; I know, I feel like a groupie... ) was unique and harmonious in a way that I still can't get out of my head (now I can actually buy their 3rd album). It was funny, raw, emotional, confused, all that: the way rap was before it became addicted to singing about itself... The last showcase of the night was a little overweight Japanese soul singer. Some of the band stayed, but from the audience 3 more sax players got on stage and backed up this genius (as a singer, I can rightfully call him that), who also played the keyboard, on Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and a few of his original pieces. This was the weekend before I came back to WL. When I return to Tokyo this Sunday, I hope to hit the ground with my feet running because I not only have the money to live and a life sufficiently set-up to allow me to live it and a good friend named Vico from Paraguay who has become my closest pal in my dorm, but I also have some Japanese friends now who give life to my research and remind me of why I fell in love with Japan years ago in the first place. The next update will be shorter and will have pictures (at least pics from my new cellphone or my laptop. LATA
Thursday, September 13, 2007
A WEEK IN TRANSLATION
So it's been about a week. I now have a great apartment in Odaiba Tokyo, an office at Keio University, a bank account, a post office savings account, and some great books from Keio's library. Getting all that hooked up has probably been the hardest of my international experiences yet, but looking back, it only took me a week to get set-up. So that isn't so long. I even made a few Japanese friends yesterday at a party in the neighboring apartment building! Honestly, the hardest thing is that I don't have my I-POD because it was hiding when I left and I haven't gotten paid yet; another couple of weeks. These are pretty serious issues when you think about how much time you have to spend going from place to place by train, by foot, etc. and how lonely it can get; and Tokyo is mad expensive. Luckily I have small kitchen, so as soon as I remember how to cook, I'll be alright (well, I just made my first meal last night and I haven't shot into convulsions from food poisoning yet).
I've seen some amazing stuff since I've been here: I discovered an amazing ramen restaurant; not just any ramen, but delicious Hakata ramen (Fukuoka-style) near one of my most frequented train stations. It's not some kind of fancy restaurant where you have a waiter come and serve you. It's like a little hole in the wall but that's the way I like it. You sit at the counter which is the only barrier between you and the cook. He keeps the noodles (sitting in l-serving size strainers) going pretty regularly in the HUGE vat of hot water; he has to wear rubber boots because when they're ready, he pulls out the strainer and shakes all the remaining water out of the noodles onto the floor. Next he dips a big ladel into another HUGE vat, but this one is filled with almost boiling broth. The broth (not the kind you get when you put the powder from the packet in hot water) is brewed over a couple of days (but that's probably some kind of secret) and along with the noodles in a bowl, voila you have ramen.
Next cool thing. Near the same station (Shimbashi) there are tons of skyscrapers towering above the small section with the hole in the wall restaurants and sketchy "Kiss" and "Snack" bars where businessmen can feel loved by cute, young Japanese girls who serve the like modern geisha in a way. Anyway, nestled between the skyscrapers and high rises is a little alley and behind one large building there is a little wooden shrine that totally breaks the rhythm of fast-paced Tokyo. I go there to think about my ancestors; I don't really buy the whole praying to your ancestors thing, but I can at least just reflect on them and their role in giving me a life that has brought me to such an interesting place.
That's all for now. As soon as I get paid, I'll buy a camera and start putting up photos on this site. More in a few
I've seen some amazing stuff since I've been here: I discovered an amazing ramen restaurant; not just any ramen, but delicious Hakata ramen (Fukuoka-style) near one of my most frequented train stations. It's not some kind of fancy restaurant where you have a waiter come and serve you. It's like a little hole in the wall but that's the way I like it. You sit at the counter which is the only barrier between you and the cook. He keeps the noodles (sitting in l-serving size strainers) going pretty regularly in the HUGE vat of hot water; he has to wear rubber boots because when they're ready, he pulls out the strainer and shakes all the remaining water out of the noodles onto the floor. Next he dips a big ladel into another HUGE vat, but this one is filled with almost boiling broth. The broth (not the kind you get when you put the powder from the packet in hot water) is brewed over a couple of days (but that's probably some kind of secret) and along with the noodles in a bowl, voila you have ramen.
Next cool thing. Near the same station (Shimbashi) there are tons of skyscrapers towering above the small section with the hole in the wall restaurants and sketchy "Kiss" and "Snack" bars where businessmen can feel loved by cute, young Japanese girls who serve the like modern geisha in a way. Anyway, nestled between the skyscrapers and high rises is a little alley and behind one large building there is a little wooden shrine that totally breaks the rhythm of fast-paced Tokyo. I go there to think about my ancestors; I don't really buy the whole praying to your ancestors thing, but I can at least just reflect on them and their role in giving me a life that has brought me to such an interesting place.
That's all for now. As soon as I get paid, I'll buy a camera and start putting up photos on this site. More in a few
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Goodbye Tejas
So I'm off. Tuesday is the big day. I'll keep in touch, and I hope that y'all will do the same.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
IT'S ABOUT TIME!!
Y'all
I discovered last night, thanks to hot-air balloon pilot/U.S. historian Megan Birke that blogs are within my range of abilities. So I'm starting one as of today. I'll be keeping y'all up to date with what's going on over the next several months as I teach the entire history of the world since 1500 this summer and wander aimlessly over Tokyo and greater Japan. I think that I'll try to keep this thing up to date with the fun and important stuff since I seriously regret not having done that in the past (sob sob.... another sob). I know. I know. You've been waiting for this moment for along time (at least some of you...). Well the Garrett's space is apparently up and running so come run with me :)
I discovered last night, thanks to hot-air balloon pilot/U.S. historian Megan Birke that blogs are within my range of abilities. So I'm starting one as of today. I'll be keeping y'all up to date with what's going on over the next several months as I teach the entire history of the world since 1500 this summer and wander aimlessly over Tokyo and greater Japan. I think that I'll try to keep this thing up to date with the fun and important stuff since I seriously regret not having done that in the past (sob sob.... another sob). I know. I know. You've been waiting for this moment for along time (at least some of you...). Well the Garrett's space is apparently up and running so come run with me :)
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