You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Life' category.
OK go! devrais-je dire car c’est reparti pour un tour! Bon OK, ce n’est pas au Japon malheureusement (mais je reviendrai, I’ll be back disais l’autre) mais à San Francisco, qui soit dit en passant, est ce qu’il y a de plus proche du Japon sur le sol américain (Hawaii excepté). J’ai encore tant à raconter sur le Japon mais je n’ai pas trouvé le temps, pourtant je me relance dans une aventure de 6 mois. Je ne désespère pas d’écrire encore quelques billets sur mon séjour nippon, c’est pourquoi je ne fermerai pas ce blog.Par contre, je n’exclus pas qu’il sera fusionné une fois que j’aurai trouvé la meilleure solution pour regrouper mes blogs éparpillés à travers la toile.Le prochain est départ est agendé au 12 février 2008, j’espère que vous serez du voyage et que vous prendrez du plaisir de nouveau à suivre les péripéties d’un Helviet au pays de l’Oncle Sam. Après Get an eye on Pitts et Glimpse of Japan, c’est au tour de Peek in San Francisco de vous donner un aperçu d’une culture différente. On peut dire ce qu’on veut sur les Américains, ils ont tout de même fait rêver des génération avec l’American Dream et je pense qu’il n’y a pas que du mauvais dans ce grand pays.J’y retourne, 4 ans plus tard, pour une durée de 6 mois. Je serai chercheur invité à l’Université de Berkeley. 6 mois c’est bien assez pour découvrir un bout de la Côte Ouest, à l’opposé de Pittsburgh. Attachez vos ceintures, nous décollons sous peu! Ah oui, votre billet est ici!
Already 10 days that I am back in Switzerland but I cannot let Japan out of my head. Coming back from a “long” stay abroad is always hard and it proves me that I am not going to stay in Switzerland for a long time. As a matter of fact, this will be the last article on my life in Japan but still, I will add side notes and other comments later because there are still stories to be told.
Last day at work and final presentation… I feel anxious because I have worked hard during the past months but I did not get the results I expected for my research. I bet you do not really care about that but I will just say that I am still working on this project (I asked for it) and it will probably lead me to my next destination… The presentation went pretty well and I was relieved and happy at the end to get acknowledgement from the other team members. I spent the rest of the day packing and cleaning my workspace, offering Swiss chocolates to my colleagues and waiting for theend of the day… for the farewell party, which is also the welcome party for Thomas.
We only knew it was on Friday but they did not care about telling us at what time…As I was just bringing back some books to our library, one of the researcher had an exclamation and started packing too, it was around 6:25 pm. By 6:30 he was ready and asked if we were also ready to leave to catch the 6:35 bus, I knew it would be something like that so I was ready but not the other interns who shut down thair computer in a hurry. Well, I am not too bad at sprinting I guess as we managed to catch the bus.
Remember in May we went to an Okinawan restaurant, to make the cycle complete it should end also in an Okinawan restaurant, plus they have delicious food and alcohol… Before we get too drunk to say something meaningful we talk about Japanese language and how difficult it is to read kanji. To argue how difficult it was even for Japanese I took out one of my “meishi” and hand itto the boss telling him that Japanese could not read that name. The funny thing is that he looked at the address and asked if this guy was working at NAIST, the university next to our lab, and I answered that in fact he was working for NEC. He was surprised he did not know him then so I suggested him to flip the business card and then he understood. That was a big laugh! And I was honored as he asked to keep it saying it was his treasure (just look back at the meaning of the kanji for my name).
Speaking about Japanese language, it was time to make my speech (which took me hours to write and try to make it interesting). I might leave a transcript later but for now trust me, it was not too shabby eventhough the first part was in English I tried to translate most of it in Japanese then.
And finally came the drinking game… in May one of the manager asked what strong alcohol exists in Switzerland, as we were drinking awamori, to what I replied absinthe. Thanks to a friend who visited me during the Summer I could get a bottle of the “green fairy” (it was from Neuchatel and 53% for the curious). They were a bit intrigued by the process of pouring water slowly on a sugar but they drank it. Sweet and tasty! We got to try also an Okinawan liquor with a sleeping snake inside… tastes like fire and you can really feel the snake taste! We finished the bottle, some even drank it without sugar nor water and figured out it was a bad idea.This was a great party and I was happy it ended up like that.
Of course it is always sad to say good bye or “sayonara” should I say, but we will meet again once a page of our life has turned. Until then, I wish that NEC C&C Innovation Laboratories succeed in getting closer to build a new world where we will communicate heart to heart, from my point of view I will go on to figure out how we can communicate mind to mind and in 30 years we will lead people to the light we followed during our research.To all the people who passed by and read my articles, I address my thanks. I am not sure if I gave you enough of a glimpse of Japan but at least I tried. I would encourage anyone who has the chance to go to Japan, it is a mind blowing experience and I learnt a lot from those 6 months. This adventure fulfilled one of my dreams and I reallywant to come back so as final worlds:
“Believe in your dreams and make it happen, because dreams really do come true.”
I have not written for a long time, not that I did not have anything to say but I was too busy at work (and it’s getting worse) but also not in the right mood to write. Well, did you ever had that feeling that when something goes wrong, everything else will follow the same way till you are broken down? Or maybe it is just that something is wrong and you cannot appreciate anything for a while…
So yeah, the couple of past weeks in Japan have been quite disappointing. The end of my stay in Japan is nearing fast and I still wanted to do and visit so many places and there is no time to spend thinking of what is the next destination. So as I woke up on a Sunday morning, I decided to go to Ise; Ise is not far from where I live, I mean speaking in Japanese distances… it is still a 3 hours ride by train. By the way, why did I choose Ise? Because I had that picture of two bounded rocks, with sacred rope in the water, in my mind. But in fact, Ise is known for two famous shrines, or should I say 1 shrine, Ise Jingu, divided into 2, the inner (Naiku) and the outer (Geku) shrines keeping 2 of the 3 symbols of Japan’ emperor family. As a matter of fact, everything that is sacred has to be protected right? so are the shrines, hidden by wooden walls; you can barely see the roofs… and the artifacts? do not even think about it. Eventhough those shrines are among the most venerated in Japan, I felt I was wandering in the countryside (yeah Ise is pretty drab) with a walk in the forest to see trees and shrines’ roof.
Funny story, I met one NEC researcher a few weeks ago and he said he was from Ise, which at the moment I thought it was nice. Now I understans why he said it was not really a good place! Even Ishikiri, the place I am living in, is more exciting than Ise.
Alright, it was rainy, the sightseeing was not extraordinary but I did not see the 2 rocks yet! There are just a train station away so let’s head for Futami and the Meoto-iwa! It was not raining that hard but being on the coastline, wind was pretty strong so you get soaked anyway. And there they are… (Ise is lost in the middle of nowhere but Futami is even more lost than that) the 2 wedded rocks… wait… aren’t they supposed to be bigger? I was cheated again, the illusion of 2 big rocks comes from the size of the tori on one of them, a dawrf would not be able to go through it! Well you got the idea, an optical illusion, really dissapointing.
So this was my last sightseeing in Japan, I wish I could go to Hokkaido but money is getting short and I have met new friends so I am gonna spend some time with them before i leave.
Oh I almost forgot, I went back to Hakone to see Mount Fuji but guess what… yeah clouds were in the party again! But being in Tokyo for a week-end and meet friends there was fun though.
Pictures will come shortly…
Initially written for the already too long previous post, I decided to separate the two as wanted to write more about my week-end trip to Koyasan. Right after the Summer Cooling Evening on Friday, I decided I will go the origins of the Shingon Buddhist school, namely Koyasan. Located at about 1000m above the sea level, the place is surrounded by 8 mountain, as it should be to reflect the lotus flower, a symbol of Buddhism.
I left my place on Saturday morning as if I would go to work, except I aimed at a more peaceful and resting place south from Osaka, in the Wakayama prefecture.
The city was founded by Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師) in 818 A.D., it is known as the headquarter of the Shingon (or True Word) school of Buddhism. The place features a lot of temples and pagodas but one of the main interest lies below the ground… in fact the cemetery next to Kōbō-Daishi’s mausoleum is gigantic! The reason is that many people are buried here in the wait of Kōbō-Daishi’s awakening, in the hope to reach the Nirvana. I am not quite sure of people are really buried here but at least, believers buried hair or bone to be somehow here for the awakening. Also, among the tombs many monuments were erected in memory of famous historical persons such as Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, Mitsuhide Akechi and so on. There are probably thousands and thousands of tombs and my kanji reading disability prevent me from knowing if I was taking a picture of Oda Nobunaga’s monument or a probably wealthy guy. Still, the cemetery is surrounded by a pine forest so once you entered it, you really feel like you are somewhere out of the real world, the nature is taking over the man’s buildings. During the day, you can still see the sunlight when dusk is here, there is an eerie atmosphere taking place and it would be perfectly normal to see ghosts or spirits wandering at night… I got bitten by mosquitoes pretty bad when walking through it at dusk but maybe it was just the inhabitants playing hide and seek with me…
Koyasan being 3 hours away from Osaka by train, I decided I would stay for the night here, I mean, not in the cemetery but at one of the many temples offering a place to sleep and 2 meals (not for free of course). As I did not visit everything around here, I thought it would be the best choice anyway. Speaking English does not help to book a room for the night so I had to do with my crappy Japanese and I apologize (as any Japanese would do) for being hard to understand, but we managed to do it.
Of course monks do not eat meat or fish, so the meal is essentially made of vegetables and tofu and it was truly delicious. I recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to stay in shukubo, to do it; monks are really kind and careful persons. Part of the experience is the Morning Prayer which you are expected to attend at 6 in the morning. Normally, you would have to sit in seiza position but it is acceptable if you take a more comfortable position if you are not used to it. Well, let’s try to do it the right way, I was telling myself. I could not feel my legs anymore after 30 minutes, so I had to switch to another position and hopefully I did because the prayer was still going for another 30 minutes. After a good breakfast, it is time to hit the road of temples again, it was a pleasant and replenishing stay though it is a bit commercialized as I ended up with a souvenir from the temple as I signed out.
I am using a slideshow again for a couple of pictures but you can also find all the the pictures for this pilgrimage on the following url
Les Japonais sont de durs travailleurs mais ils savent aussi faire la fête et se décontracter le temps d’un week-end. Si les dernières semaines ont été épuisantes avec des deadlines à tenir pour l’ouverture officielle du laboratoire et la venue de la presse et des officiels, la tension est retombée et il était temps de passer un bon moment sans stress avec les collègues.
Ainsi, sur proposition d’un collègue, nous avons organisé un BBQ, un dimanche de juillet. Le soleil n’a pas été de la partie et finalement c’est tant mieux, une légère pluie nous a rafraîchi, nous évitant une lourde humidité. En route pour le mont Ikoma, le même mont dont mon logement se situe au pied, mais sur l’autre versant (je suppose). Une batisse en bois perdue en haut, nous offre une belle vue sur Nara, la hutte à pizza est tout aussi perdue la haut et je me demande bien qui vient manger une pizza la-haut…
Un grand foyer en pierre, de quoi faire griller un bon BBQ ! Au menu, saucisses, poulet, porc, boeuf, patates (pas cueillies cette fois), oignons, poivrons, carotte, potiron et maïs, il y a de quoi remplir un régiment ! A peine arrivé, les femmes s’attèlent à la tache, rinçage, épluchage puis découpage des légumes, ces messieurs installeront tables et chaises et sortiront les boissons. Il est amusant de voir les collègues décontractés en dehors du cadre du travail et c’est encore plus amusant de faire la connaissance de la famille de certains membres. L’organisation des Japonais n’est pas un mythe, chacun à sa tache et s’y applique, évidemment en tant qu’internes (étrangers), nous ne savons aps où nous mettre et finalement s’asseoir et la meilleure solution, après tout ce qu’on nous demande c’est de profiter des grillades.
Si le BBQ occupe une majorité des personnes, d’autres se sont faufilées derrière la cabane à la recherche d’un grand bambou creux… oui parce qu’en plus du BBQ, il y a aussi les nagashi somen ! Le principe consiste à faire couler de l’eau dans un bambou creux coupé dans le sens de la longueur et d’y verser des somen qui seront alors emportés par l’eau. Les gourmands qui seront placés de part et d’autre du bambou pourront alors à l’aide de leurs baguettes, se servir des somen, les tremper dans une sauce à base de shoyu et déguster tant que somen il y a. Une expérience inédite et voir la fabrication du dispositif est des plus ludique. Le fait de voir ces chercheurs qui sont toute la journée devant un écran, couper un bambou et bricoler avec application est curieux. Après tout, il faut bien se changer les idées de temps en temps.
Une autre façon de se changer les idées avec les collègues de travail ? « Summer Cooling Evening » ! une petite fête qui a eu lieu vendredi passé au centre de recherche. Pour une modique somme, chercheurs et familles peuvent se joindre à la soirée composée d’un buffet et de boissons à volonté. La soirée est animée par différentes activités comme une tombola, un loto, différent quizz collectifs ou encore la performance scénique des nouveaux employés… et des internes.
Evidemment nous sommes toujours les derniers informés et ce n’est que 10 jours avant l’événement qu’on nous propose de faire quelque chose sur scène avec les nouveaux employés. Ces derniers ne sont pas beaucoup plus avancés de toute façon ; ils ont décidé de refaire la chorégraphie de Thriller mais n’ont pas encore maîtrisé la danse. N’ayant pas d’idée sur le moment, nous nous joignons à leur répétition, cela déclenche les fou-rires de certains et nous ne sommes pas convaincu de la faisabilité dans un laps de temps si court pour danser sur Thriller. Qu’à cela ne tienne, Mary, une nouvelle interne qui vient de Stanford, nous propose de nous faire couper les pieds avec une danse traditionelle philippine ; tinikling. Une paire de bambou, 2 danseurs et 2 personnes qui frapperont les bambous en rythme. Oui mais il faut danser sans se faire haper les pattes par les bambous… nous nous sommes entraînés une dizaine d’heures je pense, en sautant des pauses de midi, en restant plus tard que d’habitude au bureau (provocant par la même occasion, des tremblements de terre dûs à nos bonds répétés pour les étages inférieurs) et même chez nous, empéchant apparemment les voisins de trouver le sommeil…
Au final, aussi bien Thriller que le tinikling sont exécutés avec brio le soir venu, les compliments des collègues sont réconfortants, après toute la peine que nous nous sommes donnés. Par la même occasion, je pense que maintenant tout le centre de recherche sait que les internes dansent le tinikling…
Une autre anecdote de cette soirée, nous sommes affectés à la distribution du pop-corn… étant donné que les familles sont les bienvenues, il y a aussi des enfants friands de pop-corn ! Comme partout ici, les instructions de la machine à pop-corn est en japonais… mais nous nous en sortons bien jusqu’à ce que nous changions le parfum du pop-corn pour du lait fraise…
- Je te dis qu’il est brûlé
- Non, je ne trouve pas, ça donne un petit goût certes…
- C’est le sucre qui fait ça…
La file d’enfants commence à grandir, ils attendent le pop-corn au lait fraise avec impatience ! Même si le pop-corn a légèrement un goût de brûlé, cela n’empéche pas l’odeur du lait fraise de se répendre et attirer les gourmands ! Après quelques essais, c’est parti ! Tout le monde en veut !
La soirée se terminera par un feu d’artifice suivi de feux du bengale distribués à chacun. Tout le monde s’amuse et passe une bonne soirée.
C’est tout de même différent de l’atmosphère de travail du quotidien qui avait encore place quelques heures auparavant. Les Japonais aiment s’amuser et quand ils s’amusent, il n’y a plus cette retenue de rigueur dans la monde du travail. Ceci dit, une fois la fête terminée, et c’était aussi valable pour le BBQ, tout le monde y met du sien pour ranger et nettoyer les lieux. D’une efficacité redoutable !
En prime, vous avez droit à une vidéo du plus grand feu d’artifice (hanabi en japonais) du monde, pas moins de 120′000 feux d’artifices pour 1h15 de plaisir pour les yeux! Bon, j’ai juste pris une minute de vidéo et elle fait 100 méga… Par patriotisme, j’aurai dit que le spectacle était pour le 1er août, fête nationale suisse, mais c’est en réalité pour commémorer la fondation et le fondateur de la ville de Tondabayashi au sud de Osaka.
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
“Bonjour! Je m’appelle PaPeRo (Personal Pet Robot) et je suis votre compagnon quotidien.”Le centre de recherche de NEC a toujours des surprises pour égayer le quotidien de ses chercheurs. Après les récoltes d’oignons et de patates, un aspect plus technologique et plus en rapport avec les activités de NEC, PaPeRo! Ce petit robot haut comme 3 pommes, peut reconnaître un visage humain ainsi que certaines phrases pour y répondre après. Aussi doué d’une forme d’autonomie, il se promène tout seul dans le bureau en évitant les obstacles que sont bureaux, chaises ou chercheurs. Il donne une atmosphère bon enfant durant les après-midis mais peut aussi devenir parfosi agaçant quand il se met à chanter et danser à tue-tête juste à vos côtés quand vous essayez de vous concentrer…
Jusqu’à la semaine passée, 1 PaPeRo nous tenait compagnie (en fait 2, mais l’un deux n’était jamais activé). Depuis, c’est pas moins de 6 PaPeRo qui ont élus domicile dans nos locaux! Evidemment l’arrivée des nouveaux, qui sont en fait des mini PaPeRo, donne des idées à certains chercheurs et des mises en scènes se mettent en place. Je vous en propose quelques clichés, je suis sûr que vous avez assez d’imagination pour trouver d’autres légendes à ces photos mais voici ma version.
Voici la PaPeRo Family!Avec de gauche à droite et de haut en bas, maman, papa, grand-maman et les 3 mioches
Soyez sages avec le monsieur les enfants, je viens vous chercher ce soir après l’école.
Pendant ce temps, petits commérages entre dames…
Et quand arrive le soir, “Mais que vais-je bien pouvoir faire pour le dîner… Ah! un petit jus évidemment!”
Chérie, je suis rentré avec les enfants. Rose n’a pas été sage aujourd’hui.
On s’amuse comme on peut durant la phase digestive et ça rajoute encore plus l’impression d’être dans une boîte à jouet avec les couleurs des meubles, mais c’est normal après tout, il faut stimuler la créativité!
The busy life of a kaishain is not only made of meetings and reports, in fact there is also a little time for harvest. For those of you who missed the first episode of tamanegi crop, they can catch up with the potatoes crop. Right, we as researchers like to dig deep subjects that matter and sometimes output weird ideas. So like last time, we went to the small field next to the research center and joyfully dig to take out potatoes from the earth. It is sure a lot of fun, especially when everyone is there to get their potatoes, even the big boss.
The big discussion after the crops is “what are we going to do with them?” The most common answer is obviously curry rice (pronounced kare raisu), after 2 months in Japan, it is probably one of the most common and appreciated dish here. And of course my answer is the same as my Japanese colleagues but just mentioning I will do it in the betonamu style.
Back to work, each of us carrying 1,2 or more kilos of potatoes, you get a strange feeling entering our open space as you see many bags of potatoes next to each researcher but hey ! that how it is, the fruits of our hard work. Speaking of hard work, it was not really that yesterday. Everybody was excited for sure but because we were going to watch the fireflies after work (you bet we or they left the office at least 3 hours earlier than they usually do). We all met at the station to get to Nara and except that they were no one around Todaiji, we really looked like a school excursion… taking pictures of the deers and playing with them.
Once we got to the little water and forest place, perfect setting to see fireflies, we waited for a couple of minute, gazing in the dark to be sure we do not miss the first one. Unfortunately we did not see many of them or were I expecting too much, I don’t know. What’s the point in watching fireflies? Well, it is part of Japanese culture, it is relaxing outside the city and you remember your mother telling you that story of fireflies close to a small river and a forest just like that one. Or maybe because it is the boss’ idea and that we are going for drinks after that…
You said drinking, but are we not eating first? Well there will be some food… Like the welcome party one month ago, we went to a Japanese style “restaurant” or izakaya. Food is of course delicious but so are the drinks! And you cannot read the drinks name, you let your colleague choose for you and hopefully till the end of the night, you will have taste enough of them to remember some names for next time…
Anyway, those social parties are really made to make abstract of the hierarchical relationship you have during the day, more or less, and freely chat and joke on any matter. This is during those nights that you discover how fun are your colleagues but don’t get me wrong, tomorrow, you will be at work and forget about what I said tonight.
People think that Japanese cannot stand alcohol very well, the thing is that alcoholic drinks tend to be cheaper or slightly more expensive that the dishes they served in izakaya, so let’s drink! The corollary is that you may get drunk easily then. An interesting point is that those izakaya usually take the last order at 10pm so customers can recover, just enough if needed, to catch the last train. Social analysis of the last train population is something to experience.
I do not know if Japanese like to play “Hide and seek” but lately some people have come ringing at my door. I am not sure but I guess Japanese use to shout “はい” as they are going to open to their guest. Neither am I shouting the word nor am I prepared to answer as I am not waiting for anyone at night. Anyway, back to the hide & seek game; I know some kids like to ring at doors and then run away before someone can see and catch them but I do not think children in Japan are doing so, still whenever I open my door to see who’s ringing, guess what? Nobody there! Actually, not quite true… the person is not waiting in front of the door so I can see him as I open my door, instead he stays right behind it to be sure I cannot see him?! So once I open it and seeing no one outside a head pops out from the back of the door and begin to apologize for troubling me (in Japanese). Why can’t they wait on the opposite side so I can see (and not being frightened every time I open my door? They know how the door will open, don’t they?
Maybe next time I should try to open it suddenly and violently to knock out my guest… One can never know the true motivation of unexpected guest. If I am right, the next person will be the money collector from NHK… Ok, just joking.
One last thing… my neighbour (I hope he really was my neighbour) came last night at my door to apologize for troubling me (in Japanese) during 5 minutes (just exagerating a little bit, but only a little bit). To what I just replied it was too fast and I did not understand anything except he was living next door. Puzzled for 2 minutes, he explained he forgot his key in Kyoto and was asking if it was possible to get to his balcony from mine. It sounded strange for me as I did not understand why it would be easier to get in from the window or from the door if he did not have his key. Well let me tell you that Japanese usually do not close their windows and sometimes their doors so he was able to get into his room from the window. He came back to get his shoes and apologize again and then thank me and bow a dozen of time before going back next door.
I am pretty sure none of the neighbours lock their doors and windows though we have been told to do so. Japanese are really too much confident that no one would intend to do something wrong here.
Il m’aura fallu deux mois pour devenir un “alien” ou résident étranger au Japon. Evidemment je n’ai pas entamé les démarches administratives dès mon arrivée, il est marqué qu’il faut juste le faire dans les 3 mois qui suivent l’entrée dans le pays. Et puis, quand on est laissé à soi-même, ce n’est pas chose aisée de savoir où s’adresser pour faire cette demande de carte de résident étranger. Heureusement, on peut encore se débrouiller avec les rares sites en anglais ou alors se déboîter les côtes à la lecture des traductions de Google translate ou Babelfish… Un autre point, c’est que je ne voulais pas prendre congé pour aller trouver la “mairie” donc j’ai attendu la Golden Week… Je me suis rendu à la mairie d’Osaka il y a donc un mois (40 minutes de train quand même), pour qu’on me dise : “Ah, mais vous devez allez à la mairie de Higashiosaka (Osaka Est). Je suis vraiment désolé.” (grand sourire de la réceptioniste) Je tente tant bien que mal de lui soutirer l’adresse de la-dite mairie et après le feuilletage de 2 recueils que je ne saurai identifier, elle me tend un papier avec l’adresse. Merci beaucoup et bonne journée… ah ?! mais c’est en kanji !!! Les Japonais sont aimables et patients, il faut juste savoir leur demander ce que l’on veut. Donc après quelques gesticulations et mots en anglais je sors (sous la pluie) avec l’adresse et une petite carte du lieu. Ah ? mais c’est à 10 minutes de chez moi ça en fait ! *grumble*
Après 30 minutes de train dans l’autre sens, je trouve enfin le bâtiment que je cherchais ! Il ne me reste plus qu’à trouver à qui m’adresser pour faire ma demande de résident étranger au Japon. Ah chouette des formulaires en japonais exclusivement ! Bon bah je vais attendre mon tour et donner mon passeport avec un grand sourire à la gentille personne qui s’occupera de moi… Pour finir je n’échappe pas au formulaire à remplir en japonais avec les aimables conseils de l’employée qui ne parle pas anglais mais qui sourit. Pfiou 2 heures pour qu’on me remette un papier qui m’invite à revenir un mois plus tard pour obtenir ma carte. Anecdote en passant, la demoiselle qui me remet ce papier a un joli livre avec toutes les phrases nécessaires à la communication avec des étrangers, il lui suffit de pointer sur la phrase et moi de lire la traduction en anglais, généralement cachée par son doigt puisqu’elle pointe la version japonaise.
Pouruoi se donner tout ce mal, me demanderez-vous ? Et bien pour pouvoir m’acheter un keitai ou téléphone portable pardi ! Les email ont leur utilité mais donner rendez-vous à quelqu’un dans un grande ville sans téléphone, relève de la grande coordination. Je vous épargne les démarches pour acheter un téléphone, c’est très similaire (sauf qu’avec de la chance on tombe sur un vendeur qui comprend l’anglais) Evidemment comme tout téléphone qui se respecte ici, il faut lui mettre un strap, seulement je n’en ai pas encore trouvé un qui me plaisit vraiment alors à défaut, j’ai opté pour mon porte-clé et un Totoro. Il y a probablement beaucoup de fonctionalités que je découvrirai au hasard d’une combinaison de touches improbables car le manuel est bien évidemment en japonais avec toutefois une version anglaise abrégée (mais vraiment abrégée, à la hache quoi !) Il a tout de même un appareil photo et peut envoyer et recevoir des emails. Bon je vous laisse avec 2 photos prises avec mon natel… keitai1 keitai2
Oui je suis un alien ici parce que les gens ne me comprenennt pas quand je parle… ou alors est-ce l’inverse et c’est moi qui ne les comprend pas ?! Enfin, un grand sourire débloque parfois la situation et ce n’est pas comme si j’avais zéro connaissance en japonais, donc en route pour l’immersion !
What people said recently