The Blog From Another Dimension: Focus on Japan Miscellaneous Archives

Sakura

It's that time of year again. Japanese people love this. It's the one-week period when the Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom. All too often, the unstable weather at the beginning of Spring will lessen the impact of the trees; one strong rainfall, especially with heavy winds, can ruin an entire viewing season before revelers get a chance to enjoy them. But this year, in Tokyo at least, everyone got a break: the blossoms came into full bloom on Saturday (though it was a bit chilly), and despite a Saturday night storm that had unusually strong winds, the blossoms stayed put just long enough for the trees to still be beautiful on Sunday, when the temperature shot up 8˚ C (15˚ F) for a 24˚ (75˚) partly sunny day.

So millions of Japanese people were doing what they always do when this time rolls around: they lay out blue tarps on just about every inch of space under the Cherry Blossom trees, and party as the petals fall. Beer is a favorite (and often times the area smells of it), but people lay out full picnics, including portable gas stoves and everything they can cook, drink, or snack on, while kids run about like crazy. I've never been a huge fan of this pastime, but you have to admit, the white-and-pink boughs contrasted against the near-black bark of the trees is quite a pretty sight on a beautiful spring day. Sachi and I went blossom-viewing both weekend days, Saturday along the Meguro River, and Sunday in a local park. Here are some photos from the walks. Enjoy.

Because of their popularity, Sakura trees are everywhere,
lining streets and rivers in abundance.

This is what you see when you look up.

The Brown-eared Bulbuls love the blossoms as a snack; they were all over the trees.

The petals fell in such abundance that they often looked like drifts of snow on the streets and rivers.
Here's a close-up of one of the covered areas of the Meguro River. (Click for larger view)

Notice the petals drifting in the breeze just above ground level.
If you walk in such a drift while looking down,
it's like walking in a river of petals.

And sometimes, when a good gust of wind comes along, it looks like it's snowing.
Click for larger image.

Revelers.

And let's finish today's post with a nice image of two isolated petals, growing almost directly off the tree trunk's bark. Sachi spotted this one, and it seemed too poetic to pass up. Click for a larger image.

Street Signs

I thought I'd share a few things I've spotted on the streets as I go to work every day.

This first one is a view I get while coming up Meiji Boulevard. That "OMEN" sign stands out a bit ominously. In fact, it's the Marui Men's store; the "O" is really an "OI" (pronounced "Maru-i" in Japanese) with the "I" hidden behind other signs on the right side. With the "MEN' sign below, it produces the creepy effect. I always find myself thinking, "is that a good omen or a bad one?"

Next is a label I started seeing on taxis a few months back:

And a close-up, from a different taxi:

Literally, the sticker reads: "CAUTION! MOTORBIKES -- Two-wheeled-vehicle Accidents! Repeatedly Occur (Police Headquarters - Tokyo Passenger Vehicle Association)"

Though it's a bit cryptic, the essence is pretty clear--the sticker warns people on motorbikes that they cause accidents frequently. I say that because it certainly doesn't seem to be blaming the taxis, as taxis are not even directly mentioned. And if taxis were to blame, the sign would read something like "Caution -- this vehicle makes sudden stops" or something like that.

Now, should a regular car bear such a sticker, I could see the justification--many bike riders do get out of hand. But for taxis to be bearing these is like a murderer calling a jaywalker "hard-bitten." Taxis are dangerous sunzabitches. They constantly weave in and out of traffic--as bikers do--but then they also, often and without signal or warning, merge suddenly and/or hit their brakes and pull over to pick up or drop off passengers.

They also have a tendency to hog the road; on two-lane streets, they will straddle the center line, slowly weaving a bit right and a bit left, so they can command both lanes while driving leisurely, something which probably causes many of the aforementioned bike accidents. Bikers have enough room to pass on either side, and the taxi will often at the same time suddenly decide to choose one lane over the other--of course, without signaling or other warning--thus causing the biker to brake suddenly or veer off dangerously.

For that and other reasons, taxis and motorbikes are often natural enemies on the road. A further frustration for bikers is that taxis get a free pass from traffic police, who will instead over-prosecute bikers. I have seen literally hundreds of bikers pulled over for tickets, but only once in more than a decade have I seen a taxi driver given a citation. Same thing with truckers, who also (though less frequently) pull dangerous crap on the roads. I think the police cut a lot of slack to anyone whose driving is also their livelihood.

So to see so many taxis sport signs more or less accusing the bikers of causing accidents--especially when bikers are the ones who get hurt in the collisions--is a tad galling. Now, maybe I've got it wrong and the signs are not meant to be accusatory--but frankly, I doubt that.

But on to a lighter subject: the Construction Sign of Doom! (Sorry, Sean, I ripped that moniker off from your satchel.) This is the one I mentioned last week, and I got it on film this time.

It's a bit different from what I recalled an hour after having seen it for only ten seconds or so, but my recollection mostly holds true. The big, dull red arrow at bottom was pulsing; the orangish smear above the green-backed construction signs was an electronic scrolling text sign; the three yellow arrows were flashing on and off from left to right; above them, those yellow lights were the flashing roller lights, and above those, the pizza-slice rotaters, with flashing green lights at their centers.

Sadly, the guy with the light baton was absent tonight (I guess they figured out how irrelevant he was), but if you can picture it in your mind, he was only tall enough so that his construction-site helmet only reached the bottom of the big, pulsing arrow near the bottom of the sign.

This has to be the most outrageous warning sign array I've seen on Japanese roads. Now that I'm aware of them, I have noticed that other signs use the exact same elements of this one, except they only use half as many parts at most--like the pulsing red arrow and the green-backed warning signs only, or some other combination of bits and pieces that make up the sign. Maybe on this one, someone got too enthusiastic and just threw in everything but the kitchen sink.

Asakusa

It having been maybe 24 years or so since I last visited, I got away to Asakusa last weekend with Sachi. The main draw of the area is the large temple, Senso-ji (a.k.a. "Asakusa-dera"). The street to get there begins with the landmark Kaminari-mon, or "Thunder Gate," with the distinctive large red lantern, pictured above. Once inside, you get to brave the long gauntlet of pricey tourist-trap stalls and shops lining the avenue, separated by masses of tourists.

This is about as touristy as it gets in Japan, the kind of shops where kitsch dominates. Shops filled with "Ichi-ban" T-shirts, "Kamikaze" hachimaki headbands, Hi-no-maru folding fans, to bawdy novelty items--like the "Oppai Purin" ("Titty Pudding") pictured below (miniature brassiere optional--I'm not kidding). The Osaka variety at left was sold out (god knows why that one went first). And no, I didn't get any.

To round off the tourist kitsch, there were dango & manju (dumplings & buns) salesmen dressed up as old-style samurai, and nice rickshaw rides available. Though Japanese don't call them "rickshaw," they say "kurumaya" or "jinrikusha." And to those of you who have never been to Japan, rickshaw are only located in the tourist areas, and not even very often then--though I will admit to having spotted several underpasses with "no rickshaw" signs at their entrances--probably very old signs indeed. Though they may have been simply more generic "no hand-drawn cart" signs instead.

Nearby is the Asahi Beer Building, designed to have a giant flame atop the monolithic base. However, many Japanese see it differently, and call it the "Unko" building--literally, the "Turd Building," after what they recognized to be a giant, stylized, golden piece of fecal matter (if you're familiar with Japanese manga, they are kind of drawn like that).

Once you get past all the tacky shops, you get to the Senso Temple proper. At the front there is a rather famous incense pot, where everyone stops and waves the smoke over their heads and at their bodies, as a kind of good-luck thing.

There is also a pagoda there, quite a nice one. This shot below is actually a composite. I took two shots at different exposures; one that was exposed well for the pagoda had the sky too washed out, and the other was good for the sky but the pagoda was too dark. Experimenting in Photoshop, I superimposed the good sky on the good pagoda and got quite a nice effect, I think. Click on the image for a larger version.

One more shot before I go: the pagoda with the washed-out sky. A very nice view regardless.

Ruminations on an Early Morning Mall Walk

I walked Sachi to the station this morning before going off to do some birdwatching (next post), and on the way back, snapped some photos of the pre-business mall walk. This is an upscale area just out of Meguro.

This one I'm not sure I figured out. It's twenty people lined up to get into a pachinko parlor/game center, at maybe 8:15 am. Was there some special new game that gets 20 forty- and fifty-somethings up before eight a.m. on Sunday morning? Or do they do this every week? Note the mini-chairs many are using.

This shop is interesting as it's not some Japanese faux-American rapster joint or something--it's a clothing shop and the proprietor is an African-American man, as I've observed while passing by during business hours. Not something you'd expect to see on an upscale Japanese walk-and-shop mall. I wonder if he has local shoppers coming in all the time and then seeing him and slooowly backing out...

And this is a chiropractor's sign. They got the foot OK, but what the heck is with the hand? Is that a hand? If not, then what the heck is it?

Why Can't They Just Leave Us Alone?

One of the down sides to living in Japan is the loudspeaker trucks--as you know well if you are a long-time reader of this blog. True, we don't get robo-calls during an election, and I admit that this could be worse than loudspeaker trucks. But only marginally. At least you can avoid the robo-calls by leaving your house.

My location has turned out to be pretty bad, in fact: there is a spot on the road just outside my building which all the loudspeaker trucks favor as a staging area for long rants and raves. They'll stop there, deploy their banner-toting crew, and do their schtick for ten, twenty, or even thirty minutes at a go. During heavy election season campaigning, we sometimes get one or two of these every day. The are, of course, scheduled for times when the most people are at home trying to relax in peace and quiet.

There seems to be an election on right now; I haven't heard of this in the news, but I sure can hear the loudspeaker trucks. Yesterday, as I tried to teach a lesson, no fewer than three trucks drove past the school, almost drowning out my lecture. As for the people pictured below, I honestly can't say whether they are a political campaign (I couldn't see the side of the truck where a candidate's name would usually be plastered, though the lack of a name on all sides is a hint they may not be campaigning for a particular candidate). All I know is that this is an election season of some sort, and these people blared away for 15 minutes as I tried to do my morning blog-reading.

The caravan parks and begins to unpack their wares; the speakers waste no time, shouting their message from the moment they arrive

Getting the banners out

The first of several speakers

The Banner Brigade, fully deployed

Two weeks ago, I caught some audio of a guy with a loudspeaker truck; the audio is here (800KB wav file). This guy was on an anti-American kick, and at one point even shouted, "America dai-kirai!!" ("I despise America!!") The significant thing about this audio was that I never actually saw the guy or his truck--when he made this speech, he was at the very least a few hundred meters away, maybe more. And yet I could hear him blasting away with my windows closed.

Arts Day 2006, Part 2

In the second half of the show, we've had some dance groups, who have been pretty good--impressive for kids who don't do this much.

"OK," a cheerleading-style dance group (with one odd member...)

The first set of "Studio B," a 9-person dance team

Studio B did several sets, with costume changes for each one

The Drama Club put on a performance

...and finally, "Voices of America / Japan" did some singing for us.

Construction Mannequin

Perhaps one of the most visible jobs one could have in Japan is the person who works at a construction site, waving traffic along with a flag or a flashlight cone. I'm not talking about the kind where they direct traffic, but rather the kind which simply stand in front of the traffic cones and work crews and gesture traffic to the other lane. That particular job tends to stand out for two reasons: first, you almost automatically imagine how easy and yet mind-numbingly boring and unrewarding such a job must be, and second, because 95% of the time, the position seems utterly unnecessary.

Now, there are some situations in which a person standing there controlling traffic is vital--like when the road construction is right around a sharp bend in the street, and you wouldn't see it until it were too late. But most of the time, you can see the construction cones and heavy machinery from a mile away, and the person standing there waving you to avoid hitting them seems completely lame. But you gotta figure there's a law that requires it.

Fairly often, you'll encounter a site which is using a mechanical signaler--usually a simple stylized-figure cutout with a mechanical waving arm with a light on the end of it, as in the photo below. Nothing to write home about.

But once in a rare while you'll see a rather interesting sight: a mechanical dummy, complete with arms that goes up and down, with a flag in hand. Talk about having your job taken over by a machine... but when your job is so completely simple and mechanical in the first place, one should pretty much expect to have a simple motor take over the position.

Click for larger image

The funny thing about this particular dummy was that the flag he's waving had to be strapped onto the end of his arm--apparently, it's not set up to hold one normally.

Nor are these mannequins unique to construction sites. One sometimes sees fake policemen as well. Back in my touring days, when I drove across Japan on a motorcycle, I would see both cutout photographs of policemen and mannequins dressed up as cops placed in strategic locations on roads to try to fool drivers into slowing down. Sometimes they were very realistic, but sometimes they were laughable, including one mannequin who was clearly strapped to a pole--it looked like he was both frozen absolutely rigid and tied up by a kidnapper or something.

Chofu Hanabi, 2006

I always do it this way, figuring it out at the last minute. This time, I was washing dishes, and heard some loud pops, like fireworks. It was still light out, late afternoon, so I figured that maybe it was a local display, maybe something inconsequential. But it reminded me that I had not yet found out the fireworks schedule for the summer, and so I checked.

In the U.S., we have fireworks displays usually only at special times--the Fourth of July being the most notable. Sometimes at New Year's, and at special events, maybe at some ballgames, and Disney does it a lot, I hear. But in Japan, it's an all-summer thing. There are big displays, usually on the weekends, throughout July, August, and sometimes later months.

Near where I live, there's an annual fireworks show by Chofu City, on the other side of the Tama River. The display is actually held on the river itself, and is one of the biggest local shows. And all too often, I forget to find out when it is, and miss half of it. This time, I didn't expect it because it was so early--usually this show is later, and once it was in October even. But when I checked the schedule after hearing the booms, sure enough, this was it--and just 20 minutes from when I checked. So I made sure I had a clean flash memory card, packed up the tripod and the camera, and took off. This time, they blocked off the river street entirely, so I had to take back roads in, and got settled maybe five or ten minutes after the show started.

And got these shots. Enjoy.

Often they include smaller shaped shells, including hearts, stars, cats, mice, and as pictured here, smiley faces.

There always seem to be more trains than usual going by during the display--I think that in itself is considered an attraction, to be on the train while you ride by the show.

The people along the river nearby as we watch the show.

Stripped

Well, that's quite the strange experience.

I got a phone call not two hours ago from the police. I didn't know it was them until a bit later, as they didn't use the word "keisatsu," the one I know. But I could tell it was someone who worked for city services in some manner. They told me that my scooter was found abandoned in a nearby park, about a quarter of a mile from where I live; someone had found the insurance papers.

That gave me a start. I just bought a new scooter a year ago, and it's a nice one, too. My immediate fear was that I had left the key in the ignition--something I have been known to do--and that someone had taken it for a joyride. But the guy on the phone told me that the scooter was beyond broken. Not good.

There was, however, a possible alternate explanation. I got the new scooter to replace the old one--and I hadn't gotten rid of the old one yet. It was six years old, and probably didn't even run anymore. I couldn't even get the ignition lock open, it had rusted shut. I had been meaning to call someone to tow it away, but had never gotten around to it. So the missing scooter could be that one.

I had severe doubts, however. Who would want to steal a junker like that, when a nice new bike was right next to it in the parking area? (I did not think about the new bike's security alarm at the time.) Also, the fact that the insurance papers had been found by the person who discovered the bike suggested that the seat was opened--which suggested that maybe I had been an idiot and had left the key in the ignition when I came back from Costco late Saturday afternoon. In which case I may have been out about $2000 for a new scooter.

As soon as I could, I got the caller's number and went downstairs to check. Going out the door, I got a nice reassurance: my keys were where I usually leave them at the door, meaning I hadn't forgotten them. And, when I got downstairs, sure enough, it was the old junker that was gone, its accompanying helmet left on the other side of the parking area.

I called back and discovered I was speaking to the local police officer (I found this out when he told me he was at the koban, the police box). I went down, and he showed me the insurance papers--indeed mine--soaked with water. The officer thought that they had been left in the rain from yesterday. He offered to take me to see the bike, and I wanted to go, to see what had happened to it. The officer had only been told that it had been deposited next to a pond at the local park, and so first took me to the place a quarter of a mile away, where we climbed stairs to go to a pond way away from it all. When the bike was not there, the officer admitted there was another pond--the one right across from the police box where we met--that the finder may have been referring to. We went there, and found the bike.

It was at the edge of an artificial pond, one which I pass every day. One edge of the pond is under an archway, relatively hidden. The bike was stripped bare--tires, wheels, engine, lamps, belts--everything. Even the seat was missing, with the contents of the helmet well left behind, scattered on the ground. Evidently the insurance papers had been tossed into the pond, which is how they'd gotten soaked.

Apparently what had happened was that some local kid had the same model scooter, and it was falling apart. Unable to afford new parts and repair from the shop, the kid stole my bike and stripped it bare. Saturday or Sunday night, he came to my apartment building and somehow spirited the bike off. That would have been no mean feat; as I mentioned, the ignition lock was rusted shut, and when I found the bike, it had not been opened. That means that the steering column was locked in a turn. Either the thief broke the steering column entirely at the parking area (directly four floors beneath my bedroom), or he and some hoodlum pals carried the bike to a truck and carted it off to the pond, where they could strip the bike unobserved.

As you can see from the photos, they did a hell of a thorough job. Fortunate for me that it was the bike I had fully intended to have taken away for parts and scrap anyway. I just prefer to do it on my terms, not some punk thief's.

When the policeman and I found the bike, I made an effort not to touch anything. But he seemed indifferent about any investigating, and started touching parts on the ground, even asking me to pick up this or that. Afterwards, he apparently changed his mind and started printing the carcass. He found nothing but a partial shoeprint on the broken dash. It would seem that the thief or thieves had worn gloves during the disassembly. The officer allowed me to remove the license plate and take it with me. He told me that he'd see to it that the bike was junked, and kindly waived any fees for doing it. He told me that if they found anyone from the shoeprint, they'd give me a call. I don't expect anything to come of it, but the officer seemed strangely confident.

Apparently, this kind of petty crime is not too unusual. The officer told me that it's usually teenage kids with certain popular scooter types (which mine was) who steal other people's bikes and strip them like this. He recalled one instance in particular where one teenage kid lost his scooter that way--and eventually discovered that one of his own friends had been the thief!

So it has been an adventurous afternoon, and I'm grateful that it was a lot less unfortunate or expensive as I had initially feared.

A Day Out

It seems like everyone was out there today--I've never seen so many people out at the parks and on the river. Tons of people. Too many, in fact, for good birding. A lot of guys fishing out there, especially. You see them out a lot of the time, but today they were everywhere.

Though my usual spot on the river didn't have any birds because of the crowds, there was one interesting visitor near the embankment:

So I traveled around quite a bit, up and down the Tama River, and up into Sakuragaoka Park (no birds there, but some nice views). One thing this birding will do for me is give me some much-needed exercise. Though my feet are killing me.

In any case, a few nice photos from today--vertical shots, this time. Photos of the birds I found later.

Not a Snow Town

Well, Friday brought quite a bit of the white stuff into town, though the weekend-long storm predicted fizzled out in the end. But we did get a few inches all over town, and for Tokyo that's quite a bit.

This city is not really geared up to handle much snow. I remember back in the countryside, where we got real snow, meters of it, things would run relatively smoothly. Trains would operate. Business would go on. And in the evening we'd watch the news shows with images of a few inches of snow in Tokyo and people slipping, sliding, and waiting for late trains, and we'd have a good laugh. Of course, it's not the people, it's the city and its readiness. Even several hours after just a light snow, the trains were still running late.

One small note--they've added wooden planking to the railroad tracks next to the platforms at stations, at least some on the Keio Line. I have no idea if this is a snow measure or not. If it is, it doesn't seem to help the trains stay on time in bad weather.

Crazy Weather

Talk about extremes.

Just two days ago, we had a warm spike, the weather rising to 65 degrees F (18 C), possibly even more than that. And tonight we're having a pretty significant snowstorm, several inches at least. That's quite a shift in temperature... and an excuse to upload a few photos of the white night to the ol' blog.

Inogashira Birds

Went to Inogashira Park today, and did something I haven't done in many trips past: looked at the birds. You take them for granted, but there are so many there. At least three or four different kinds of ducks, for example, including the Tufted Duck, Common Pochard, the Northern Pintail, and I think Mallards, though I'll have to research the identity much more closely. Here is a photo of a bunch of them in a feeding frenzy...

...But the interesting find was this bird, which I haven't fully identified yet--maybe a Black-crowned Night Heron, but I really have to look into it--when I have time.

One other bird we spotted, but only in a flash, with an emerald or turquoise flash of back feathers--maybe a Kingfisher. I've got to go there again sometime soon. But I've also identified three parks with bird sanctuaries--one in Setagaya, Koganei Park, and Showa Memorial Park in Tachikawa. All should be good places to go.

Can't Get Enough Fuji

Some more nice sunset photos of Mt. Fuji from the banks of the Tama River. Click on any of the photos for a 1280x960 full-sized image (about 60KB each).

A New Computer Class

These are my new students for the Winter 2005 semester of Introduction to Computers at Lakeland College Japan. A big class this year!

Of course, after the photo was taken, I realized that someone was missing--but there was no way to take the photo without leaving someone out of the picture. Except, of course with Photoshop--so we took another picture just of me, and with a little retouching--

Voilà!

Kamakura

From the 12th to the 14th centuries, Japan was ruled from Kamakura by the Minamoto shoguns. Today, it's a seaside resort (near Enoshima), and is famed for having a large, outdoor statue of Buddha. And that's where I went last Friday with a friend. After enjoying some really good noodles (they make 'em in front of you) at a shop in Yokohama's Chinatown, we headed over to Kamakura in the hopes that maybe the on-and-off Typhoon (#10) weather would clear well enough so we could enjoy the beach. Alas, no--even though we reached the beach and the sun was out, the waves were too high; a red flag was flying, meaning you can't go in there, bub. And laying on the beach didn't work too well, either--the sun was just too danged hot to stay under it for too long.

Still, we enjoyed the town, and went to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, where the photos below were taken, save the last one. We didn't go to the shrine per se, but visited the lotus flower gardens named after the Heike and the Minamoto (two clans that battled each other), each with different-colored lotus flowers. The place has quite a bit of wildlife--the trees are filled with herons, large white long-necked birds, and the ponds are inhabited by rather lively turtles that come up out of the pond when people come to feed them.

While taking a leisurely walk around the neighborhood, we came across a shop with a rather imposing name:

And we took a side trip when we saw direction to a temple called "Komyoji," supposedly one kilometer distant. However, despite following directions, we never found it--only new signs to other temples and shrines, which we decided not to follow. After all, "fool me once, shame on me, fool me, can't get fooled again." Or something like that.

But what we did find was a local temple that had this rather imposing fellow guarding the outside. He seemed rather annoyed to be having visitors, so we quickly prayed and skedaddled.

One of the topics that came up from seeing the Heike pond, by the way, was the Heike Crab. It's a crab found in Japan with the face of a scowling samurai on its carapace. I remember first seeing it in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series quite a while back, as an example of accidental forced evolution. The idea is that of the crab that were being collected by the fishermen, one had a mutation that made its carapace look a little like a face. Superstitious, the fishermen who caught this crab and its descendants threw it back--so it survived and reproduced, more than the others. Over time, successive mutations made the face more and more like a scowling face of a samurai, the best carapace a crab could wish to have to avoid being eaten.

The legend of the crabs is that they were created after a terrible water-borne battle between the Heike and Minamoto clans, which the Heike lost. The dead samurai, lost to the waters, are said to have be reborn as the crabs--hence the name "Heike Crab." The crabs with the human faces happened to emerge in that area at about that time. And it was that battle which led to Minamoto dominance and the beginning of the Kamakura Era.

Just a little fun fact there.

Barbecue Party

Yesterday, as one of my school's yearly events, all students who wanted to went to a bayfront park on the newly-built Daiba island for a barbecue. Could have used some actual barbecue sauce and maybe some ribs, but otherwise it was a perfect event. A bit hot--in the low 90's--but that just made the water fun more appealing.

Too high a flame!

Getting ready some sprouts, sausages, yakisoba, steak and salad...

Ruth getting splashed after ambushing some students

Cheezu!

And one more, this a landscape from the park. Remember those matte painting shots from Star Trek episodes? This skyline really brought that to mind, looked as much like an artist's rendering as it did like real buildings... and there are some more exotic buildings over on that island, let me tell you. Like an architect's playground.

By the way, a thumbnail page with 64 photos from the event is available here.

Because There Aren't Enough Places to Smoke In Japan

I Went to Akihabara today to try to find some computer equipment for the school. Every time I go there, I am less and less impressed; really, the electronics stores in Shinjuku are better stocked and with better prices. There was a store called "Liberty" which sells used DVD movies for cheap (¥980 and up), which might be something to visit once in a while, and if you hunt long enough, you might find some cheap junk at some stores in the back alleys, but other than that, I don't see much use to visiting the place. Maybe 20 years ago some deals could be found and some merchants were willing to dicker and bargain, but now it's pretty tame.

I did find an interesting new sight, however: a place called "Smoker's Style" (pictured below). Apparently, a place where they could dwell in smoking heaven while working on their computers, eating snacks and drinks bought from the machines, and so forth.

God knows they need a place like that. After all, with 90% of the coffee shops and restaurants being only mostly smoking (who could stand to be in a place where non-smokers were allowed a corner of the room?), smokers need places like this now more than ever.

Apparently, the room was created by Japan Tobacco, Inc., because, in theory, smoking was banned on Akihabara streets (though not in cafes or restaurants). Funny, because I saw dozens of people smoking on the streets, as well as about a dozen cops walking around, and no one being ticketed. I also saw no prominent no-smoking signs.

Japan Tobacco is still half-owned by the Japanese government (the Finance Ministry, specifically--they owned two-thirds until a month ago, when they sold off 15% of the company for $2.2 billion), and while one part of the government is making the very Japanese-style shallow acts of outlawing smoking on a few streets, another is fighting back with lounges like these. All kind of bizarre, meaningless, superficial--in other words, business as usual.

If you want to keep up with smoking news in Japan, this page is where the action is at. Roughly 53% of Japanese men smoke, the highest percentage among industrialized countries, and Japan is among the nations that tried to block an international antismoking treaty (the U.S. and Germany were the other two holdouts), until revisions watering down the treaty were introduced. So what will Japan do? Increase the warning label on the cigarette packs (maybe) and consider changing the name of its "Mild Seven" brand to one that does not include the word "mild." Goody.

Pears and Grapes

Sometimes I just like to step outside, pick a direction, and see what's down the road. I don't do it every day, but when the weather is good and there's nothing else to do, it's fun to explore. All too often, having lived in Japan for more than 13 years now, I forget that I'm living in a foreign country and haven't seen a lot yet. I'll stop where I am, look around, and realize that I'm in Japan. It sort of hits you that way sometimes.

This time I went to the edges of town, near where the railroad runs against the nearby cliffs and hills, and noticed more and more the little farms that traded off occupancy of the lots with suburban houses built on the less expensive real estate on the fringes of town. There are lots of little farms all over Tokyo, in fact, and you'll find them in the darndest of places--an artifact of high property sales taxes and low property ownership taxes, subsidies to small farmers and so on--the farmers have been represented fairly well in government.

What I saw more and more were small orchards of trees kept at a low height, maybe 6 feet or so, and hanging from the trees were small paper bags. When I got to wondering what was in the bags, I asked a lady at a small fruit stand (they sell a lot from the mini-farms and -orchards at stalls), and she told me they were pears. Not grapes? They can be wrapped too, she replied, but they're wrapped in different paper.

Too bad I'm not a big pear fan....

A Few Recent Shots

A small break from politics... a few shots I've taken recently.

and one taken shortly after I noticed the moon rising tonight

Morning Photo

During vacations my sleep schedule gets shot to hell. One advantage of this is that I see a lot more sunrises. I really should aim towards waking up to them and not going to sleep by them, though...

Tax Time, Japan-Style

So, you're an American living in Japan, it's past April 15th, and your taxes are still not ready? Well, don't worry about it quite yet. You get an automatic 2-month extension from the IRS, until June 15th, to file your income taxes. And if you want to, you can file for another extension after that, and usually you get it--but June 15th is enough, and filing for an extension would actually be more trouble than it's worth unless you have some unfortunate and bizarre situation going on there.

Since we all get the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE), now at $80,000 per year, most of us unlucky enough not to earn more than that end up not paying anything in taxes to the U.S.--which is fair, because we have to pay full taxes here in Japan. But we have to file with the IRS anyway.

"But I don't owe anything, and I paid taxes to Japan, so I don't need to file." Well, we all wish it were so. But alas, you have to file no matter what. In fact, you have to file to get the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion--if you don't file, then technically you will have to pay complete U.S. taxes! So make sure you do file...

In order to file, you need Form 1040, Form 2555, a 2003 "gensen chusho" form (a small slip that documents your income and tax fess for the year) from your work, and the 2003 Annual Average Rate for the yen and dollar.

By the way, here's a news flash: As of June this year, the IRS office at the Tokyo embassy will be shutting down permanently, which sucks big-time. The person at the office said the shut-down is to save money (money that Bush has spent on Halliburton or tax breaks for billionaires). They have always been there to answer phone calls, not to mention being there to help you in person if you have problems that can't be handled by phone. So now if you need help, you have to pay international dialing rates and wait on hold for an hour and a half to talk to someone in Philadelphia who knows nothing about paying your taxes from Japan. Ah, Bush's America.

But if you want help in the next two months, then call (03) 3224-5466; press "8" as soon as you hear talking in order to avoid the mind-numbing voice mail handling, and instead get switched directly to an "assistor." If they're busy or out to lunch, then you can leave a message and they'll get back to you.

Anyway, I decided that this year I was going to explain how to get those forms done, because there is a bit of a confusing process to go through for this (it wouldn't be taxes if it weren't at least a little confusing), and I tend to forget how to do this from year to year. This explanation should help all you regular Americans living in Japan do your tax returns, although:

DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional tax preparer. I do not guarantee that any of the information or advice on this page is correct. If there are any errors which lead you to make errors, that is your responsibility.

In other words, I want to try to help you, not get sued by you. So follow my advice at your own risk. that said, here we go:

(see continuation)

First, get your gensen choshu hyo (源泉徴収票), from the accountants at your workplace. The form looks like this:

Let's say that the amount is 5,000,000 yen, for the sake of this example. Now go to the IRS page at the Japan embassy to find out the official exchange rate to calculate how to translate. If you trust me here, I'll tell you now that it is 113.873. Divide your yen income by that amount; that's your dollar income for 2003. With the example amount of 5 million yen, it comes out to $43,908.54. The Tokyo IRS office says you round to the closest dollar, so in my example it'd be $43,909. Write that number down, you'll be using it.

Now, if you've paid taxes from your current address before, you'll have gotten your 2003-1040 form book; if not, you can download the forms from the IRS at the links I showed above. The booklet, if you have it, has duplicate copies of the 1040 and 2555, which is what most people need and is what I'll be explaining how to use.

I like to start with the 2555, because there's data from that sheet you'll need to input early on in the 1040, and not the other way around. Start by filling out Part 1, with your name, address, and other info.

Don't forget your Social Security number at the top. Fill out your address and occupation, and the name and address of your employer. Ask your employer for this, because they may have a special business address for you to use. If you have filed a 2555 before, write the year you did so on 6a. It is likely that you'll check the "no" box on 6c and 8a, but check them and make sure anyway. On line 7, put your country of citizenship.

Now you choose which way you'll prove that you lived outside the U.S. There's the "Bona-Fide" test, and then there's the "Physical Presence" test. The bona-fide test is if you (a) have lived in Japan for more than one year, and (b) have a contract period longer than one year. Since most foreign workers in Japan are limited to one-year renewable contracts, the physical presence test is called for; you can skip over Part II and go straight to Part III on page 2.

I've been doing the Physical Presence test every time since I came to Japan, and I just got misdirected into doing the bona-fide test by the IRS office. Yesterday, I told them I was doing the physical presence test, and the woman acted like I was crazy, the bona-fide test is much easier! I asked her if she was sure I qualified; she asked if I'd lived in Japan for more than one year, and when I said "yes," she told me that I should really do the bona-fide. So I spent much of last night and this morning trying to figure it out, and trying many times to call the office to clear up subtle questions. When I finally got through to the IRS office (a lot of we're-busy-now hang-ups)--I think I got the same woman--I asked, among other things, about line 15a and what the contract terms were about, and she said that if my contract was for one year or less I wouldn't qualify, and would have to do the physical presence test. When I complained that yesterday she had directed me without any reservation to doing the bona-fide, she shot back, "well, maybe you didn't tell me you had a one year contract!" Yeah, lady. Thanks a lot for nothing. Good thing I worked on copies and didn't mark up my originals.

Next, if you traveled in 2003, get out your passport and figure out departure and arrival dates, and note which countries you visited on each trip; that'll be needed for the 2555. In my case, I visited Spain in April and the U.S. in December.

With this information, I can fill out the physical presence section:

Note that you only have to count the full days, days in which you are present in another country from start to finish; therefore, my Spain trip counts as 12 days, and my American trip as 18. That brings me to a total of 30--which is good, because if it is more than 35, then I have to go to some trouble to offset the one-year physical test period, and that entails more confusion.

From here, things get a bit more straightforward. On page 2, just fill in your dollar income, the same number, on lines 19, 24 and 26. You would only need to fill out other stuff if you have special financial conditions, like special reimbursements for housing, cars, meals, home leave, etc. which is not included in your income total stated in your gensen choshu hyo. Again, most people don't have this--if you do, you'll have to translate the amount into yen and add it to the total.

Then you carry your total--still my imaginary $43,909 in my case--to line 27 on page 3, the last page. You should check "no" under line 27 unless you want to claim the housing deduction--not necessary if your total will be under $80,000. So we jump to Part VII.

On line 36, I write down how many days I was in Japan--365 minus the number of full days counted in Part III, Line 18. In my case, 30 full days, making my amount for line 36 "335." Then you have to divide your number from line 36 by 365, which in my case is .918, and put that on line 37. Then multiply line 37 by $80,000. I get $73,440. That's the largest amount I can deduct. But since my total income was $43,909, I put that number on lines 39 and 40--on line 40 because it's the smaller number.

The same amount is carried to lines 41 and 43, so long as you have no special deductions--and you're done with Form 2555!

Now go to your 1040 form. Fill out your name, address and other personal information, as well as your filing status and exemptions (for me, just the "yourself" exemption).

Next, on line 7, put your income in dollars. Above the dotted line to the left of the number you just wrote, pen in the calculation that got that number--e.g., "¥5,000,000 ÷ 113.873 = $43,909."

Next, you have to add any interest or dividend income from the U.S. For example, if you have a bank account, then you should have a 1099-INT form that was sent to you from your bank listing the total interest income for 2003. If you have stock and received dividends, that must be listed also. Any taxable income of that sort has to be included here. If you do not have that information available, then there is a solution: I do not in any way comment on its legality, but you could possibly enter an amount that you are certain is greater than the amount you actually earned. Say you have a few thousand dollars in the bank at home--the interest you got was surely not more than $100. And since that is way under the minimum tax level, you could write $100.00 on the form. Whatever your number is, write that in on line 8a.

Then, on line 21, write "FORM 2555" in the blank white box in the blue zone, and write the amount of your income, from line 43 of Form 2555, in brackets (denoting a negative amount) in the number area of line 21. On line 22, you add up all the numbers, which should be the amount from 8a, as lines 7 and 21 cancel each other out. In my imaginary case here, it is $100. Since I have no special adjustments, I simply bring the total down to line 34, and then to page 2 on line 35.

On line 37, fill in 4,750 (the single-or-married-filing-separately deduction, unless you are filing married jointly). You can subtract that amount from your total on line 35, so the total will clearly be "0". On line 39, you get to deduct another $3,050 for each exemption claimed on page 1 line 6, which for me is just one, but it is moot as my amount is already zero and anything deducted will still add up to zero. And from there, it's zeroes all the way down to line 72, the amount you owe.

Sign it, seal it, and send it off.

I usually like to take it to the embassy myself, often because there's other stuff I can do there and it's not far from my work. This year I want to pick up voter registration materials, so I'll be going in early next week.

I hope this was of some help!