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Bien que je sois déjà rentré de mon séjour au Japon (que je conclurai à l’occasion), j’ai encore quelques expériences à partager avec vous. Une des grandes questions que l’on se pose quand on va partir pour un certain temps dans un pays étranger, et encore plus le Japon, est : “Est-ce que je vais réussir à me faire des amis la-bas?” Il y a bien évidemment plusieurs types d’amitié et je ne garde pas un souvenir très profond de mes amis des Etats-Unis. Pourtant au Japon, je me suis dit, ça doit quand même être plus sincère et durer plus longtemps…Encore faut-il passer la barrière de la langue qui empêche une communication normale entre 2 personnes.Je pense avoir eu 3 types d’amitié au Japon:
- celle du travail, rien de particulier, cependant lors des soirées entre collègues la retenue japonaise n’existe plus et libre de s’exprimer comme on le souhaite. De toute façon, le lendemain tout sera oublié, du moins pour le protocole.
- celle des étrangers qui sont au Japon depuis quelques temps, véritable réconfort que de pouvoir communiquer avec d’autres personnes sans tous les codes japonais, même si ces personnes s’imprègnent de la culture locale.
- les Japonaises qui cherchent un partenaire pour pratiquer une langue étrangère (généralement l’anglais mais le français ne se porte pas trop mal), le temps d’un après-midi et de visite dans diverses villes ou autour d’un verre. On passe un très bon moment à découvrir la culture de l’autre.
Mais alors, tu n’as pas fait la connaissance de Japonais pour sortir et faire les 300 coups? Et bien non pas vraiment… oui j’ai quelques amis japonais avec qui on est sorti ensemble mais de manière générale, les Japonais sont des gens occupés et refuser une invitation n’est pas un manque de politesse. Je regrette donc de ne pas avoir pu faire la connaissance de plus de Japonais, certains me reprocheront ma timidité et c’est vrai que je ne suis pas une personne extravertie. Ce qui pose encore plus problème car rare sont les Japonais qui engageraient directement la conversation avec un parfait étranger (aussi japonais soit-il visuellement…), généralement un ami commun présente les 2 parties et après libre à eux de gérer. Il y a une exception toutefois, ce sont les soirées “internationales”.
Ces soirées sont faites pour faire connaissance et justement permettre aux différentes personnes présentes d’échanger quelques mots et numéros de téléphone selon affinité. Le but premier est bien entendu de pouvoir trouver les partenaires de langues (cités plus haut), mais rien n’empêche d’essayer de trouver une relation plus intime.
Ainsi, 2 semaines avant mon départ, j’apprend l’existence de ces soirées, l’une se déroulant à Kobe et sur invitation d’un nouvel ami (français) rencontré la veille, nous nous y rendons. Bien m’en fait car je repartirai de la soirée avec 4 numéros de Japonaises, ce n’est pas dans mon habitude d’aborder une fille pour une conversation mais l’alcool délie ma langue et puis je n’ai plus rien à perdre, il me reste 2 semaines au Japon. Que les mauvaises langues se taisent, si je n’ai plus que 2 semaines au Japon, je n’ai nullement l’envie de commencer une relation longue distance, l’expérience m’aura prouvé de toute façon que je ne suis pas chanceux dans ces cas. Je passerai mon dernier week-end sur le sol nippon en leur compagnie, à Kyoto et à Himeji puis Kobe. Essentiellement pour converser en anglais mais aussi pour faire plus amples connaissances, car le milieu bruyant des soirées ne se prête pas à la conversation.
Au final, j’ai un regret, c’est de ne pas avoir eu plus de temps pour découvrir le Japon par ses habitants, j’ai donc laissé la-bas l’espoir de revenir prochainement et continuer la conversation là où elle s’est arrêtée avec ces Japonaises très aimables et accueillantes. D’ici là, j’espère avoir fait suffisamment de progrès dans la langue de Soseki pour tenir une conversation plus longue que “Bonjour je m’appelle Bao-Lan, je suis Suisse d’origine vietnamienne et je travaille pour NEC”. Ceci dit, ces quelques mots ont généralement suffisamment d’impact pour attirer l’attention, après il faut espérer que l’interlocuteur possède un vocabulaire plus varié en anglais que le mien en japonais.
Mid August is the usual holiday’s season in Japan. Especially as Obon is taking place, many Japanese go back to their hometown to welcome their ancestors. This is for the traditional part… Obon’s week is probably the busiest week in Japan or maybe just after the Golden Week and every single hotel is for sure booked a long time ago in every touristy city. Luckily I decided to take my vacation one week before the rush and got to several beautiful places in Japan. The schedule was pretty tight but we (note that “we” does not refer to Sébastien and me this time) managed to enjoy the sightseeing despite the many hours we spent in trains, subways, boat, bus and other transportation.
We started at Osaka obviously on Saturday 4th, I have been in Osaka for 4 months already but never visited the castle, Ōsaka-jō. No need to say it twice, we headed there and even if the castle looks beautiful from the outside, also considering the surroundings, once inside we were a bit disappointed. The 7 floors were rebuild as a museum and not much from the original interior were kept but it is still nice to have a idea of how this castle and the surrounding evolved through the years. And as every tall building in Japan, you can enjoy a panoramic view of the city (which looks endless except for the mountains far far away and the sea).
For the following days, we took the shinkansen (probably the most convenient way to travel in Japan, I wish there was shinkansen everywhere) for Tokyo and stayed there for 3 days. Of course you can spend years in that city and still have something you did not visit, but as simple tourists we just got a glimpse of it. (After all, it is the purpose of this blog right?) Also as far as I remember, I did not write a second article on Tokyo when I went there 3 months ago so I will take the chance to show a couple of pictures I took in addition to some new one. Osaka is known to be the city for food, but as a poor student I never tried the numerous delicious restaurants there. However as a tourist who wants to experience good food in Japan, we tried as many restaurants as we could during those couple of days. Maybe I should not stay a poor trainee once back in Osaka… it was so good!
The next stop of our journey was initially Mount Fuji, as I had that crazy idea and wanted to climb it (and come back in one day). It is for sure possible but many guides warn that it is not an easy walk and you should be prepared beforehand… which we were not unfortunately. Giving up that idea, I still wanted to see Mount Fuji and a good place to see it is to go to Hakone. About 1 hour from Tokyo and located at 1000m in altitude, the place is famous for its onsen and the sulphur scented hot water that comes out of the mountain. We were just 1 hour late as by the time we reached a high and god spot to see Mount Fuji, an gigantic cloud chose to take a nap up there before we could admire the sight. This is too bad as we spent hours in train, bus and rope way to get there. The good thing is that after 3 days in the Tokyo excitement, a walk in the mountains we nothing else than nature, the strong smell of sulphur (and a load of tourists…), was truly pleasant and cleared our mind.
Back to Osaka for the night, the next day is for Hiroshima! Travelling is exhausting and we got up a bit late and hit Hiroshima only around 6pm… not to say that it was quite hard to get a hotel or ryokan just for one night as the holidays are very close and something like 62 years ago on August 6, around 8 o’clock a tragedy took place in Hiroshima. You bet there have been ceremonies and people attending them. The city was not the main reason of our visit in itself, we walk around the (in)famous Genbaku Dome and the Peace Memorial Park and though the hope living in a world free of nuclear weapon is honourable, it sounds a bit unrealistic when you see the damage that occurred during the last century in the city. Also wandering at night near the dome, somehow gave me the goose and I felt uncomfortable.
The clou of the journey was Miyajima, supposedly one the three most beautiful views in Japan! And indeed it is wonderful! From Hiroshima, you go to Miyajimaguchi where you take a ferry for the island and enjoy the sight as the ferry is getting closer to the famous tori (or shrine gate). The place is delightful when the sun goes down as the water will have covered part of the coast thanks to the tides. We did not stay long enough to see that as we had a long road back to Osaka but we stayed long enough to see the tori in the water. Be warned that the deers on the island are much friendlier than their relatives in Nara, and they will not hesitate to empty your pockets, bags if you leave them unwatched for a second, in search of food or whatever that can be chewed.
Seven days passed already and this is the last week-end but no resting time! Months ago I booked tickets for the Summer Sonic Festival. A two day festival held both in Tokyo and Osaka at the same time, featuring lots of international artists as well as Japanese ones. In the heat of Osaka and a radiant sun, we enjoyed live performance of Rooney, The Fratelis, The Pillows, Kasabian and The Arctic Monkeys but there were many more artists. It is just to hard to choose among them as they were not less than 6 stages and performance started from 10am till 9pm. The incredible thing with Japanese organization is how they keep everything clean and no trouble happen… except of course for the transportation but when you think about it, thousands of thousands of people are not easy to move from one place to another in a short amount of time. That was the only bemol of the festival and I am pretty sure many people missed the last train back to Osaka’s downtown.
The journey ended in Kyoto but again, tired to the bones by the festival we were lazy and got there at 4pm… unfortunately every museum, shrine, temple and other touristy place close around 5pm. Bus are convenient in Kyoto as they go pretty much everywhere but it takes time to go through the city… luckily we arrived at the Golden Pavilion at 4.55pm and got the chance to see at least one of Kyoto’s monument, though it is a quick visit.
Time flies and many events happened and accumulated in my head but I could never find the time to write it down. So let’s try to catch up as I announced in the previous post, still 3 subjects are a lot for a single post but let’s do it! I just warn you, I am doing it on the fly otherwise I would think too much about it and postpone again.
Starting with the International Manga Museum of Kyoto, well it was a cloudy Sunday and I did not know what to do. Then I remembered that the museum had an exhibition about figurines and it was the last day. No need to think more about it, let’s pack a quick snack and a drink and I was off for Kyoto (1h30 by train). No rain and I was not used to the city subway, so let’s just have a walk, at least I had a map of the city. On my way there, I changed my mind and decided to visit Nijojo first, it closes earlier and at least I could easily spot it (I will tell you later why I did not see the museum first as it was closer from where I was).
Why did I want to visit Nijo Castle anyway? I guess it was because I had the whole afternoon… well Kyoto has lots of temples and monuments to visit… true this was the closest from where I was looking at my map, trying to find the museum. So Nijojo was the residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns, it consists of 2 concentric walls and a moat. Most of the buildings are in wood and I did not realize at first that the noises I thought to be singing birds, was in fact the sound of the cracking wood under my footsteps, it was a funny observation and made the wandering through the castle pleasant. Speaking of that, they recently announced that for safety reasons, they might close the castle to the public as it is becoming weak against earthquakes…
Unfortunately, for the safe of the paintings and other crafts inside the castle (like in many places in Japan) pictures are not allowed, at least inside. The surroundings of the palace are for the gardens and it is a peaceful walk through the trees, ponds and rocks. Climbing the wall give you an excellent overall view of the castle and how vast it is, 275,000 square meters. After 2 hours within the castle walls, I decided to go back tracking the manga museum.
And there it is! But wait… is it not a school? Oh yes it is, that is why I could not find it earlier then. The former Tatsuike elementary school in downtown Kyoto was reborn in November 2006 as the Kyoto International Manga Museum, “a next-generation museum to disseminate manga culture to the world” (in the words of its English brochure). It’s also a nifty place for lolling on the broad swath of real grass fronting the building, English-language comic book in hand, or watching professional kamishibai storytellers weave their narrative magic.
“As museum director Shuzo Ueda explained, “Since Chinese characters, or kanji, are intrinsically pictorial, they logically supported the development of manga, in which you look at the visuals and read the text simultaneously.” He added that today, with the Internet, all written language is becoming more visual, which helps feed growing interest in manga. Kyoto Seika University, which has a Faculty of Manga, operates the museum and its permanent collection of more than 200,000 manga. It also trains manga scholars from Japan and abroad, holds academic seminars, and plans to host an International Manga Summit in 2008. To help offset museum operating costs, Seika students create manga for public or private entities–or even individuals. Yes, for 10,000 yen a page, you can have a manga produced about your life–the latest in vanity portraits. Almost half the museum’s 130,000 visitors have been adults, Ueda said. Twelve percent are foreigners. Visitors to the museum can freely explore the shojo (girls’), shonen (boys’) and seinen (teens and young adults’) comics that line the walls, including a broad selection of foreign manga. You can also try sketching your own manga during weekend workshops, have your likeness drawn by manga artists, or read picture books in an invitingly carpeted children’s library.” (source: Asahi.com)
This was for your information, now my visit of the museum, well in fact as it is stated in the article, it is a library, a huge manga library! You would spend your day reading your favorite manga, sitting wherever you can find a place to sit; on the a couch, a chair, the stairs or simply on the floor, making a hard time for the other visitors but who care as long as you enjoy your reading. Hopefully there is the exhibition on figurines, which was the initial goal of my visit in Kyoto, because I still cannot read manga without spending hours and hours looking for a kanji in my electronic dictionary…
Again you will only have words to trigger your interest in the figurines exhibition as pictures are not allowed here also, not that it would deteriorate the little plastic figurines, but because it infringed copyrights of course. Believe it was a good exhibition with thousands of figurines and for every single visitor, there must be some that would be of interest. From sea or arctic life animal to Gamera, from samurai and historical replicas to 34th century robots or mecha or maybe maids in underwear or simply basic character from diverse manga, you got to find something here. One of the key figurines was a true size Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken, quite impressive.
I was never attracted to these small representations of the manga characters but I have to say that they are pretty well made and detailed. By the way, I received a pokeball-like present containing a figurine of a dragon; it is just taking dust at home now…
In addition to the exhibition, there also some activities around the museum such as “draw your manga” workshop or “get your portrait done” by young mangaka, a cyber space where manga and computer come together to explore a new media allowing “animation” but still being a manga. The last interesting fact was the presence of Hagiwara Sanae, a young mangaka, drawing one of her work, though I might not be the designated public. Hey wait! Why is it written in French on the flyers…
– Bonjour, vous êtes… Sanae Hagiwara?
- Hum… nod.- Vous parlez français ?
- Puzzled face… eeh ? wakaranai…
- Pointing to the flyer. Furansugo wo wakarimasuka ?
- Aaaaaaahhhh! Iie, gomen. Ano… I make friend if you give email.
I skip the rest, there is nothing truly interesting. Just to let you know that if the flyers were in French, it is because she went to Paris (France) for the Japan Expo.
Let’s conclude this long post with a quick note on the Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka last week. Gion Matsuri was crowded for sure but Tenjin Matsuri was even more crowded! Well, the parade is made of 3000 people walking through the neighbourhood and then down the river and back in the streets. I arrived around 8pm for the fireworks, but come on, how can you possibly fireworks with all the buildings in the city?! No way, so it was more a “hide & seek” game, running through the streets to find a good spot among the hordes of other people just doing the same. We eventually ended up buying food at stalls and went back home, a bit disappointed. It is supposed to be one the 3 biggest festival in Japan, but truly too crowded, but it was nice to see many people wearing colourful yukata. It was just too bad we missed the day part with the procession.
That is all for now but in the meantime several new events have taken place so stay connected!
Next time: (hopefully by the end of the week)
- BBQ and nagashi somen
-Thriller and fireworks
- Pilgrimage at Koyasan
Il est venu le temps des festivals! La saison des pluies étant terminée (mon oeil… elle n’a jamais eu lieu ou plutôt elle continue mais sans trop être là), le beau temps est donc propice aux festivals et pourquoi pas pendant qu’on y est, prendre le temps de découvrir une autre ville que Osaka. Je vous propose donc de faire un tour à Kyoto.
Durant le début du mois de juillet, se déroule à Kyoto le Gion Matsuri.
Ce festival consiste en une gigantesque parade depuis le Yasaka Shrine jusqu’au palais impérial de chars, décorés de trésors familiaux, tirés à travers la ville par des hommes. La parade a lieu le 17 juillet et les trésors ne sont visibles au public qu’à partir du 16 juillet, data à laquelle les maisons familiales exposent les-dits trésors, que ce soit tapisserie, étoffe ou armure de guerrier d’antan. Avant la grande parade, il se déroule le tirage au sort de l’emplacement des chars dans la parade, ces chars ont un nom, yamaboko (hoko pour les grands et yama pour les petits).
Pour l’histoire (et ceux qui ne lisent pas les liens wikipedia), le Gion Matsuri prend place quelques 1100 ans plus tôt, alors que la peste se propage à travers le pays. Pour contrer l’épidémie, les habitants érigent 66 lances (représentant les provinces) et décident de faire une procession de chars, chacun d’entre eux, afin de célébrer et honorer les dieux. Ainsi lors du festival, autour de chaque yamaboko, il est possible d’acheter des chimaki, que l’on accrochera à sa porte pour s’attirer les bonnes faveurs et la protection du ciel.
Bien, Kyoto étant renommé pour le design de ses kimono et autres yukata, ni une ni deux, il faut absolument porter un yukata (le kimono étant hors de prix) pour le Gion Matsuri. Non pas que celà soit obligatoire, mais le yukata étant un habit léger et “pratique”, il est souvent porté l’été durant les festivals. On ajoutera les geta (sandales en bois) pour ajouter au folklore. Une question traverse l’esprit, mais où mettre argent, appareil photo et autres? Il faut avouer que se trimballer avec un sac ferait perdre tout son charme et à la peine qu’on se donne (car oui, marcher avec des geta n’est pas aisé). Dans les manches pardi! Les manches servent donc d’immenses poches et si on est dubitatif au premier abord, c’est très fonctionnel (on est juste anxieux de savoir si tout est toujours dans les manches vu le nombre incroyable de personne lors du festival ou si un petit malin n’a pas pensé à vous couper les manches pour vous faire les poches…).
Une fois équipé, il ne reste plus qu’à faire la visite des yamaboko, admirer les trésors et se laisser porter par la joie et la bonne humeur (malgré la pluie). De jour ou de nuit, l’atmosphère est bien différente, ainsi à la tombée de la nuit, de nombreux étals et stands se mettent en place et l’animation ne se porte plus sur le festival en lui-même mais plus sur la découverte des plaisirs du palais et autres petits jeux pour les plus jeunes. (NB: je pense que ça fait partie du paysage japonais maintenant mais si j’étais un enfant de 3 ans et que le marchand de bonbons avait des piercings, les cheveux décolorés et limite un maquillage à faire peur, je ne suis pas sûr que je lui achéterai des bonbons…) Kimonos ou yukata, les filles sont plus colorées et les motifs plus divers et variés, l’essentiel étant de mettre de la couluer pour apporter de la vie au festival!
Le port du yukata est une expérience à vivre lors d’un festival, je retenterai bien l’expérience la semaine prochaine pour le Tenjin Matsuri à Osaka mais je partirai du bureau et je ne pense que travailler en yukata soit apprécié… je note aussi que les geta ont quelques avantages pour contrebalancer leur inconfortabilité (essentiellement due à mes grands pieds je l’avoue), du fait de leur hauteur, on évite de se mouiller (s’il pleut) et avoir les pattes à l’air c’est aussi agréable quand il fait chaud!
Les photos du Gion Matsuri sont sur cette galerie.
Prochainement:
- Le musée international du manga à Kyoto
- Nijojo, Heian jingu et Jishu jinja shrines à Kyoto
- Tenjin Matsuri à Osaka
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