Learning Katakana

Learning to read Katakana may be the single most helpful thing you can do to make living in Japan easier (short of actually learning Japanese, that is). If you want to know how I arrived at this conclusion and how I managed to learn them, read on!

So, I made the decision to finally learn how to read Katakana after another helpless night out without being able to read the menu - and after a very helpful friend pointed out that nearly everything on the menu is just English words written in Katakana.

So the next day, I started by learning how to write the characters using the lessons on this page - I learn best when I write stuff down, so this was an obvious first step for me. The page has detailed instructions how to write the characters, particularly when it comes to the order and direction of the single strokes. So for each new character, I wrote down one or two lines to practice. This looked pretty awful - and probably not very Japanese - at the beginning, but I believe I got better at it after I was about halfway through. Check it out:

In parallel to that, after each new block of five Katakana, I practiced recognizing them using this page. This is actually a great tool, as you can pick exactly which Katakana you want to practice, and you can also choose between different typefaces (some of them still confuse me now... but I'm working on it).

I also picked the correct pronunciation off of this page.

Finally, to apply my knowledge, I used the Google image search to find pictures of actual Japanese (drink) menus. If you want to try, just use ドリンクメニュー (pronounced dorinku menyu) as search term. And - holy shit - this actually works!

Although I am still very slow at reading, I seem to have them all memorized - within one weekend! I had expected this to take a lot longer. Now when I go out next time, I can at least make an informed choice as to what I should drink - hooray!

Fun with Food Allergies

It seems that I developed a new food allergy (or food intolerance, I'm not quite sure) in the last couple of weeks. After I got rid of nearly all my other allergies last year, it is a "nice" change to have to be on the lookout for specific foods again.

So, to make things interesting, the new allergy is - of course - soy. And as you might imagine, just about everything in Japan is somehow contaminated with soy. But the most interesting part is not the fact that there is soy in many foods, it's the fact that I can neither read the labels, nor communicate properly with restaurant staff!

So, as a first emergency response, I memorized the characters for soy beans: 大豆. So now every time I go shopping, I have a detailed look at ALL the labels and try to find the soy bean characters. Next to the usual suspects (tofu and soy sauce), I discovered soy in some varieties of bread, cookies, chocolate, and ham. Luckily, there is bread (and ham) which is free of soy, but you still have to find out which is which among the different types of bread (or ham) on offer.

In effect, this also rules out buying stuff in a bakery where you don't get to see a detailed label before you purchase (not that Japanese bakeries are all that good when it comes to bread, anyway... they don't really deserve the name when compared to a German bakery!)

As for the sweets - most of them seem to have soy (most likely soy lecithin). It's really frustrating to go through an entire shelf of sweets, only to discover over and over again that it does indeed contain soy. But it's probably healthier to eat fewer sweets anyway, so I'll just take this as a hint ;-)

To make things a little more complicated, daizu (大豆) is not the only word used when soy beans are involved. There are different words for soy sauce (shoyu, written as 醤油 or しょうゆ) and tofu (豆腐), and even more words for the different varieties of soy sauce and tofu. But so far, it seems that scanning the labels for daizu is sufficient - most types of soy sauce and tofu are easily recognizable just by looking at the product.

I have not quite finished testing whether small quantities of soy are ok, but smaller quantities definitely result in fewer symptoms. So there is hope that I will be able to eat sushi with soy sauce again next time - it tastes ok without soy sauce, but definitely not as good ;-)

Kaiyukan

So, the correct answer is that the picture shows jellyfish. Actually, the picture consists of nine distinct photographs that I took in quick succession and then layered on top of each other. The effect is that the composite picture gives some impression of the movement of the jellyfish instead of only showing a static snapshot. Here is another jellyfish photographed using the same technique:

I saw the jellyfish when I was visiting Kaiyukan - Osaka aquarium - a couple of days ago. The aquarium is a very nice and well-designed place. Basically, you start out on the top floor and then spiral down, with fish tanks of various sizes on both sides of the path. This is how it looks like from the outside:

The aquarium's theme is the ring of fire / ring of life represented by the pacific rim, so the natural habitat of all the animals is located somewhere on the pacific rim. The show not only fish, but also otters, penguins, dolphins, seals, turtles - and a few monkeys.

A very interesting feature is that many of the tanks are visible several times from different levels in the building. This makes for a great change of perspective. For example, have a look at these two pictures of the Great Barrier Reef tank. On the top level, you are just below the water surface and what you see there is mostly lots and lots of colorful fish. On the lower level, you are near the bottom of the tank and as you can see it's a completely different atmosphere compared to the top level.

Another very interesting exhibit is the piece of acrylic glass you can see below. I've never really thought about how thick the glass walls are in an aquarium - or how thick they have to be to keep all that water safely where it's supposed to be. The glass they use in Kaiyukan is 30cm thick. Just think about it... 30cm! That's massive!

With regard to Japanese people or culture, the aquarium also has a couple of insights to offer. First, the urge to photograph seems to manifest early in a Japanese kid's life: in front of each and every tank, there were lots and lots of kids taking pictures of as many fish as they possibly could.

Second, there are several photo spots throughout the aquarium. You can pose with model sharks or dolphins, have your picture taken, and pay for your copy of the picture on the way out. Taking pictures with your own camera isn't allowed - seems the aquarium has to make money some way or other...

And, finally, the bottom floor. I've never seen such a huge gift shop in a museum - many, many shelves with stuffed animals and just about any other souvenir you can imagine, all themed around Kaiyukan and its inhabitants. Impressive!

What's this?

I'll write the corresponding blog entry as soon as someone guesses correctly what I've photographed here... :-)

Getting a Haircut

Today, I finally went to get a new haircut. As I still don't speak Japanese, I prepared myself by printing out some pictures of the style I wanted to get from the Internet.

The first hairdresser I went to refused to serve me as soon as he found out that I couldn't speak Japanese. The clerk retrieved a piece of paper from behind the counter that said something like

"We only serve people who speak Japanese. If you can't state the style and length of the haircut, we are not allowed to serve you".

After reading it, I showed him the picture I had brought with me and asked if that would be sufficient. Apparently it wasn't, and he basically threw me out of the shop.

I have to say, it feels really shitty to be treated like a second-class citizen just because you don't speak the language. Aren't the Japanese supposed to be really polite and helpful? Apparently not all of them are.

Well anyway, I knew that there were a couple more hairdressers in the area, so I proceeded to the next one. The lady at the second place couldn't speak English at all, but after some confusion managed to communicate that they would be happy to cut my hair about 30 minutes later. So I decided to get my weekly shopping done at a nearby supermarket and come back after that.

When I came back, they took my jacket and backpack and asked me to sit down. One lady then draped one of the usual cloaks around me, and after a minute another lady - who would end up cutting my hair - arrived. She took a look at the picture I had printed out and got to work immediately.

What surprised me was that she didn't wash my hair at first, but instead sprayed it with water to get the cutting done. I tried to ask her about it, but apparently she didn't understand me. Well, I decided to trust her hairdressing skills, be patient, and wait to see what happens.

When she was done cutting, she blow-dried my hair, cut some more, asked if I was satisfied (which I was), and then removed the cloak. I thought that this was it, but apparently I was wrong: she gestured towards another chair and asked me to sit down there. The chair tilted back, she put a scented cloth over my face and started washing my hair. It seems they wash the hair after cutting in Japan - which isn't too bad actually because it removes all those tiny pieces of cut hair that would otherwise be left on the head.

After washing, she blow-dried my hair again. She didn't use any styling products like most German hairdressers would - I wonder if that was a communication issue, or if the average Japanese hair just doesn't need volumizing mousse or anything.

When she was done, she showed me result of her work in a mirror again, and then helped me into my jacket. Because it was my first haircut at that place, I got 20% off, so I only had to pay 2800 Yen (divide by 100 to get a rough Euro estimate).

Cycling in Japan

Happy New Year everybody! I'll write about my New Year in Japan soon.

But first, I've been meaning to write about cycling in Japan for some time now. In a way, I'm happy I put it off until now because I would have sounded overly bitter and resentful after my first few attempts at cycling here a couple of weeks ago.

Now, as far as I'm concerned there are two aspects to cycling in Japan, and it all depends on which kind of bicycle I use: city bike or road bike.

As you may know, I brought my road bike to Japan to keep up my triathlon training (if you want to have a look, it's this one). But of course, I can't really use the road bike for daily errands such as shopping. I would hate to leave the bike unattended somewhere, in fact I don't even own a lock for it. And I would have to wear cycling shoes to go shopping, which would be very strange.

So I bought a cheap city bike which I use mainly to go to the train station, to the gym, and for shopping. This is actually the cheapest bike I've ever owned, but it serves its purpose perfectly. Have a look:

The concept of bicycle lanes is virtually non-existent in Japan. People use city bikes all the time, but most of them just use the pedestrian paths. And as long as I'm riding my city bike, I'm perfectly comfortable riding there as well.

But when I ride my road bicycle, the pedestrian paths hold a couple of surprises that make them a very inconvenient option: there are potholes, street lamps and road signs narrowing the path, pedestrians and other cyclists going at different speeds, and so on. So, the only other option is using the street. But that's also not perfect: there are many, MANY traffic lights, it's possible to get into traffic jams, and some drivers pass by rather too closely for my taste. All this makes cycling a rather stressful experience, quite in contrast to Germany where I found it very relaxing. (Basically, this is the part that would have sounded bitter and resentful a couple of weeks ago).

In the meantime, I have found a route that may not be perfect, but at least viable - and better than everything else I tried. It consists of a 5km loop where a dedicated bicycle lane runs parallel to the road. This loop has only five traffic lights, which is really something to be thankful for in this city! Everytime I went there, there were a couple of other cyclists doing loops, so I guess that this is really one of the better options to ride a road bicycle in this area.

The loop is located about 10km from my apartment, and so far I've tried two different routes to get there. The most direct path is a big and very busy street with several lanes in each direction and virtually no traffic lights. However, the cars on this street are way too fast and pass very closely. So this is not a very enjoyable option. Another option I've tried is somewhat of a detour, nearly twice as long as the direct path, and with many more traffic lights. But it's also a more quiet street and everybody drives a lot more slowly because of all the traffic lights. That makes it my favourite option right now.

In fact, I went there earlier today. Have a look at the track: