Grass Burning Festival

A few weeks ago, I went to the Grass Burning Festival, or Yamayaki, with a couple of friends. The festival basically consists of setting fire to the grass on mount Wakakusayama. It is held in Nara every January.

Apparently, the origins of this festival are not quite clear: one theory says it could have been due a dispute over territory between neighboring temples, while another says it was a means to drive away wild boars. Anyway, the festival is said to have been celebrated for the past couple of hundred years. The burning hillside looks quite dramatic:

Nowadays, the actual burning of the grass is preceded by a display of fireworks. I felt like the new year had finally arrived - being used to celebrating the beginning of a new year with lots of fireworks, there had been something missing this year because the Japanese don't use fireworks on New Year's.

I enjoy fireworks a lot, so I got a bit carried away with taking pictures (that's why it took me so long to sort through them and write this blog post...). For the pictures below, I used the same technique as for the jellyfish in Kaiyukan - due to the nature of the technique, it works very well in dark surroundings.

Next to the standard fireworks, they also had a couple of rabbits (this is the year of the rabbit, after all) and deer (being Nara's signature animal).

Earthquake!

I experienced my first ever earthquake today, at 3:46pm.

I was just having coffee with a colleague in the 7th floor of our building, when suddenly the building started moving and we heard noises as if somebody was moving furniture about. The whole thing lasted for a about minute, or maybe only 30 seconds, and then everything was quiet again.

Feeling the building move below me was slightly eerie, but also strangely fascinating. The power that nature is able to unleash somehow never fails to amaze me.

The quake's magnitude was only 5.0 (look here or here for more information), but the epicenter was less than 100km away, so it was pretty close. We probably also felt it a little stronger because we were on the 7th floor.

So now the question is - how would I have reacted if the quake was any stronger? I'll take this as an occasion to read up on the topic of how to behave during an earthquake :-)

Birthday

It was my birthday this week (I'm not telling you my age of course, except for this hint: it's a very geeky age), so I'll take this as an opportunity to reflect a little on the past year. At the end of the post, I also have some details on how I spent my birthday in Japan.

The past year was incredibly eventful for me, and since not all of them were good events there were hard times, too. There was my breakup and the subsequent move to a new apartment; a great and long holiday in New Zealand (with a couple of additional days in Sydney due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland); the completion of my PhD; my first triathlon and the couple of months training for it; my grandpa's death (now all my grandparents are gone); my move to Japan; and, of course, everything I experienced here in Japan - read the rest of my blog for details :-)

What I haven't really covered in the blog is that I've met many unbelievably kind and decent people in Japan and had great conversations with some of them. Some of them really changed my way of thinking, some inspired me to read books I would never have thought of reading, some gave me new perspectives to think about. So far, it has really been an eye-opening experience - which I hope will continue! - and I'm really thankful to everybody I've had the chance to talk with.

I also began to doubt if what I'm doing now is really what I want to be doing in my life. The process is not nearly finished, but it looks like change is in the air. I thought a lot about what I value in my life and I realized that I need to start living according to that. I think I have a lot more to discover, so all I know right now is that I want to do something more meaningful, and actually help to make this world a better place.

Ok, so enough with the reflections for now, on to the lighter topic of how I spent my birthday :-)

On the evening of the day itself I was invited for dinner at a friend's house. It wasn't really a birthday dinner for me, but a farewell dinner for another friend, so I was quite surprised - and delighted - when it turned out they had gotten me a birthday cake with candles and everything. Have a look:

I even received some presents, among them an incredibly cute squirrel (neither live nor stuffed, but I won't go into details - just that: squirrels are my favorite animals).

Two days later, we had a big party which was primarily a farewell party again (for the same person as above), so we decided to kill two birds with one stone (is talking about killing birds too martial to describe a party??) Anyway, the party was at a very nice sushi restaurant, there was excellent food, plenty of fun, and good conversations.

Being a farewell party, however, the sad part was of course saying farewell at the end of the evening. The weather seemed inclined to underline the sadness of the occasion, and it was raining heavily when we left the restaurant. On my way home, I got completely soaked from head to toe. The rain went straight through my jacket (which I had always thought of as more or less waterproof... have to correct that assumption), and my shoes took two full days to dry. Ah well... at least I didn't get sick! :-)

Valentine's Day

So, Valentine's Day in Japan is a little different from what people do in Europe. Apparently, the custom here is that girls give small boxes of chocolate to guys - and not only guys they are romantically interested in, but basically everybody. There seem to be two different kinds of chocolate boxes, one being reserved for the romantic interests or partners, and the other for everybody else.

Of course, the chocolate industry is very happy about this custom and produces special (meaning extra expensive) chocolates just for Valentine's Day. I managed to buy two boxes for less than half price - I went to the nearby convenience store around 11pm, and apparently there is very little demand for them once Valentine's Day is (nearly) over. The packaging is super fancy, of course, and they give you a small paper bag (with matching design) for each box you buy.

As for the taste, at least the ones I got are very nice! Pretty decent chocolates, especially for the Japanese standard of chocolate ;-)

And because the chocolate industry likes the profit they make on Valentine's Day, they invented a payback day: the guys are supposed to return the favor exactly one month later, on March 14th.

Shopping, part 4

The past Friday was a holiday in Japan (the National Foundation Day, to be precise), so instead of going to the lab, a friend took me on a shopping tour of Osaka. I hadn't really bothered with shopping (other than for groceries), so it was like discovering a new aspect of Japan for me. We visited many, many different shops, but I'll only pick out some of the more interesting bits (the ones where I remembered to take pictures, mostly).

One thing that I noticed in several clothes shops was how neat and tidy everything looked. Just have a look at the picture below - I don't remember stacks of trousers being quite so meticulously arranged (and sorted!) in Germany.

Another funny thing I saw was this t-shirt:

What is this slogan supposed to tell me? Is there anything special - or particularly desirable - in working in an office? Or is there some hidden meaning only accessible to Japanese people? Or is it just the translation that made the slogan weird? As the sign on the top left says, they apparently believe that the designers are brilliant geniuses. Maybe too brilliant for me?

A little further on our way, we came across this building:

Apparently, this is a wedding chapel. From this perspective, the only thing that looks really wrong are the trees on the roof - the original buildings that this one is modeled after did certainly not have a flat roof! Once you look at it from the other side, however, it becomes clear just how much of a fake the building is:

Notice how they kept up the front part just long enough so that it would look good from the front. Apart from that, everything is very cheesy of course - designed so that the wedding photos will look good, if nothing else.

The next stop was Den-Den Town (geek town would maybe be an appropriate translation), an area consisting mainly of shops selling everything related to video games and computers. The shops resemble normal supermarkets - with the difference that they sell CPUs instead of rice. Just as in Germany, however, the prices in real-world shops can't really compete with the prices you get online. Here's an impression from one of the shops:

On the way back home, I noticed a small hardware store that was displaying a selection of pretty plain-looking screws and nuts in a glass case. Yes, one of those display cases that are usually reserved for the really special and pricey items in a shop. And no, I don't think the screws were all that special - or pricey. Just regular Japanese weirdness, maybe? Unfortunately, I didn't stop to take a picture, so you'll just have to believe me like this ;-)

Triathlon Training, part 1

Today, I completed the first (of three) blocks in my training for the half Ironman I'm doing in September. The graph below gives a very nice summary of my training in the past twelve weeks:

Snow!

I woke up this Friday morning, looked out the window and saw this:

It was snowing quite heavily for an hour or two after this, but by noon all of it was gone again. Still, this was a lot of snow compared to what I had seen here so far. Apart from this day, however, it is usually dry and too warm for snow :-)

Customs among race cyclists

How do you distinguish between Japanese and non-Japanese race cyclists? Apart from the obvious, there's one big difference I noticed during my cycling trips in Japan.

As I mentioned before, I cycle on a 5km loop because it's the only designated bike path I've found so far. Every time I'm there, there are several other race cyclists doing loops, so I suppose it's really one of the better options for cycling around here. Being a loop, you often come across other cyclists who happen to do the same loop in the opposite direction.

Now, in Germany, when you encounter other cyclists on the road, you greet them - nothing fancy, just a nod of the head or a short raise of the hand. In Japan, however, this custom doesn't seem to exist: up until now, the only cyclists who have returned my greeting were gaijin, while the Japanese cyclists stare but don't react - not even on the second or third encounter. What a shame!

Vending Machines

One thing I really like in Japan are the ubiquitous vending machines. They are especially useful when I do long runs. For example, I ran for an hour and 45 minutes yesterday. During this time, you definitely need to hydrate. As I don't like to carry a bottle around in my hand, and don't own a belt or camelbak, vending machines are the perfect solution.

You rarely need to go farther than a few hundred meters to find the next vending machine, so the term "ubiquitous" really hits the mark. Most vending machines offer an assortment of beverages for as little as 100 to 150 Yen. Now, the thing that amazes me most is that the machines do not only offer various cold drinks, but also hot ones. Fancy a coffee? Black? Or with milk and sugar? How about tea? Or hot lemonade? Of course, you can also get cold sodas, and even cold coffee.

A vending machine. The drinks in the top two rows are cold (see the blue bar with the prices?), and the bottom row has hot drinks, indicated by the red bar.

There seem to be very few general-purpose trash cans in Japan, but every vending machine has a container where you can return empty bottles or cans. So, when I get thirsty while I'm running, I can just get a nice, cool drink from a vending machine, drink while running, and dispose of the empty bottle at one of the next vending machines. Very convenient!

Now, as far as I have seen, the overwhelming majority of vending machines sell beverages. Maybe about 1 in 20 sells cigarettes. I haven't yet seen vending machines selling anything else - in particular, I haven't come across those selling used girl underwear that some of my weird German friends are always obsessing about...

Christmas / 5ivestar Fashion Show

This blog post about how I spent my Christmas in Japan is WAY overdue by now... but better late than never, right?

As you may know, Christmas is not a real holiday in Japan because virtually nobody is Christian around here. So instead, Christmas is treated as an imported festivity - a little like Halloween in Germany. There seems to be the notion that you have to eat a special Christmas cake (look here for pictures), and so all the bakeries start selling them from the beginning of December. Needless to say that they're ridiculously expensive - and of course I had to try one... they're basically just sponge cakes with a cream and strawberry filling, nothing very special in my opinion!

On Christmas Eve, I was invited to come along to a Christmas party at a friend's house. The party was great and very international which I really enjoyed. The only downside was that we had to leave relatively early to catch the last train home. On a side node: that's one aspect of Japan that I really don't get. You live in a multi-million city, and the trains stop running around midnight? What kind of bullshit is that?

Anyway, on the next day I accompanied a friend to the fashion show 5ivestar. He knew one of the performers (I do now, too), so we were able to get discounted tickets. I've never been to a fashion show before, so I can't really say if it was a regular fashion show or something out of the ordinary. In any case, I had lots of fun and really enjoyed the show. Check out some pictures below :-)

The world would be a more colorful place if people wore feathers in their faces more often!