Baseball; not as boring as you might think

Before arriving at Koshien stadium last Sunday I was sceptical to say the least about spending four hours watching baseball. Having only ever watched (American) baseball on TV before I, like many before me, had labelled the game tedious and boring. How can you have a game that lasts for so long only to finish 1-0, I thought. With these doubts hanging over me I gave the live version of the game a try during Golden week. As it turned out the game finished 2-1, hardly a high scoring contest, but boring? No chance. Baseball in Japan is a different prospect from the American game it draws  its inspiration from. It could have finished 0-0 for all I cared, for baseball on this side of the globe is as much about the crowd as the game itself, and the crowds in Osaka are quite something.

Irrespective of my preconceptions of baseball I had actually wanted to attend a game in Japan for a while. As much as I can tell it’s the national sport and having bumped into Hanshin Tigers fans at the central Umeda station with great regularity I’ve been able to get an idea of just how passionate Japanese baseball fans are. To add to the draw, the Hanshin Tigers home is Koshien stadium, which is to Japanese baseball what Wembley is to English football. It’s the sort of place that Japanese children dream of one day playing and dates back as long ago as 1924. After a brief hiatus following the Great Hanshin Earthquake, capacity crowds of nearly 50,000 now regularly attend games. Last week’s game was no exception and I formed part of a sell-out crowd to see the grudge match between the Tigers and the Yomiuri Giants from Tokyo.

The atmosphere around the stadium before the game reminded me a lot of the first time I ever watched Arsenal play football at Highbury. Nothing beats the feeling of anticipation that comes from a sell-out crowd enjoying a sunny day before a match, whatever the sport, and at Koshien there is an incredible buzz. The stadium is surrounded by stalls selling all manner of memorabilia and the smell of the food from the various food stands is intoxicating. Entering the stadium is a breeze and the only hold-up comes from having to decant any cans or bottles of beer into cups or plastics, a small price to pay for bringing in your own cheap booze, a fact seized upon by a large proportion of the crowd.

For those who don't really know the rules of baseball it can take a little while to get into the game itself but at Koshien this is not entirely down to a lack of baseball knowledge. The real spectacle for a newbie is the crowd. Virtually every crowd member arrives with mini plastic baseball bats to hand ready to bang together to the tune of the brass instrumentalists who play well-rehearsed chants prepared for each individual player. A merry band of ‘crowd conductors’ then lead the crowd of nearly 50,000 to sing and bang together for virtually the entirety of the four hour game. It's quite something to watch. 

One of the best parts of the day comes at the end of the seventh innings when the opportunity to witness one of the newer traditions of Koshein takes place. Having purchased some balloons at a memorabilia stall before the game, I joined in with 50,000 others and let them deflate into the sky in unison. Such a description hardly does justice to just how brilliant this is to watch (this video should give a better idea). Its only right that a traditional stadium has certain traditions and though this one may not date back quite as far as 1924 it will no doubt continue for a good while yet.

Baseball in Japan really surprised me. It was far from the bore fest I had expected and even the game itself is quite entertaining. Like most things in Japan it's the unique Japaneseness of the event that makes it that little bit more special though. Next stop on the Japan sport trail for me is football. The crowd will have to be something special to beat the fans down at Koshien though.

The Maple Leaf Trail to Minoh Waterfall

As I begin to learn more about Osaka I'm starting to realise that there are plenty of relaxing places to visit surprisingly close to the hectic urban sprawl. Minoh waterfall in the north of the city provides an excellent example of such a place. For just 30 minutes of your time and 280 of your yen you can access Minoh on the Hankyu line from Umeda. Upon arrival a 2.8km walk awaits you that leads to a pretty impressive 40 metre high waterfall set in quite beautiful surroundings

After working in Senri-Chuo in the northern suburbs for the past month I’ve encountered a lot of students from neighbouring Minoh city and all have recommended a trip to the waterfall. Having combined this advice with a little bit of my own internet research I decided to follow up the recommendation last Sunday; the first day of golden week.

Golden week inevitably means that Osaka is even busier than usual with the cities businessmen taking up the opportunity to have a few uncharacteristic days off work to spend time with their families. Judging from the train journey to Minoh it also marks a busy period for Japanese trainspotters. Virtually every station from Umeda to Minoh was packed with middle aged men armed with cameras waiting for a glimpse of their favourite train. This was certainly not a sight I was expecting in Japan!

Deep fried maple leaves

Like many ‘cities’ in Japan, Minoh city isn’t really a city, it’s a small suburban town that thrives around the twin themes of the waterfall and its maple trees. For those in need of a snack for the walk up you can even combine the two by buying a pack of the local delicacy; deep fried maple leaves, to keep you energised. Personally the attraction of paying 700 yen for a bag of battered leaves is minimal so I made do with a packet of crisps.

The walk to the falls may only be 2.8km, but the uphill nature can be a little hard work, especially on a hot day. Thankfully the stunning scenery along the route makes it a little easier and if the walk does become a bit too much there are plenty of opportunities for refreshment on the way up too; together with several stalls selling drinks and snacks there is a butterfly museum and the beautiful Ryuanji Temple Benzaiten to keep you entertained. On Sunday there was even a rather talented woman playing a grand piano loaded on to the back of a truck!

The waterfall itself isn’t bad as waterfalls go, I’m no expert, but I enjoyed it. Equally rewarding was the scene around the waterfall with families picnicking around its foot, and dozens of children playing in the river. Even out here in the country there is no escaping the crowds though and after a taking a few pictures it was nice to get back on the path down and enjoy the relative tranquillity of the rainforest.

In Osaka peace and quiet doesn't really exist, not properly anyway, but Minoh does provide a nice release for those who fancy some fresh country air without having to spend a long time travelling. With a long hot summer ahead such spots will be invaluable.

http://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/minoo-minoh-falls-japan.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoh,_Osaka

The brief visit of Sakura

Almost as quickly as it started, sakura season in Japan is over, and all that remain of Osaka’s beautiful cherry blossoms are the discarded petals that litter virtually every street of the city. The past two weeks have been my first sakura experience and having entered into the period slightly sceptical of the excitement with which ordinary Japanese approach it, I have emerged a fully-fledged convert.

Virtually every stretch of water in Osaka, along with myriad city streets are lined with cherry blossom trees, and for just a few short days each year they deliver a spectacular blast of pink to welcome in summer across the city. There can be little doubt that the few days in which the cherry blossoms flower represent a special time in Japan. The visual beauty of the flowering cherry blossoms is, however, just one half of the sakura experience. For the Japanese, sakura season is all about ‘ohanami’, which though loosely translated as ‘flower watching’, has developed today to mean something closer to ‘eating and drinking to excess amongst the cherry blossoms’.

Although there are countless spots across Kansai to enjoy Sakura I limited my excursions to within Osaka. Alas, my life as a professional tourist is over and I have a pesky job now which restricts my opportunities for travel. There are plenty of places to enjoy sakura around the city though, nowhere more so than Sakuranomiya which, as the name suggests, is home to a particularly large stretch of sakura trees. It also plays host to the annual Osaka regatta which, though not exactly Henley, provides a nice distraction for the hordes of people enjoying ohanami on the banks of the river.

In the north of the city Bampaku-koen provides another great ohanami spot in the grounds of the expo 70 commemoration park. The park is surrounded with sakura and is overlooked by ‘The Tower of the Sun’; an enormous statue that formed part of the World Exhibition in 1970. Thanks to the size of the park and its abundant sakura it is the ideal location for ohanami, and the various parties taking place under the cherry blossoms are particularly impressive here. When the Japanese do picnics they do them properly! There are full size BBQs, tables and chairs and incredible food offerings, as well as vast quantities of sake and beer!

For now though sakura season is over for another year, I just hope the tradition of BBQs by the river continues for the rest of the summer!

FARPLANE 2012 - Just another night in Osaka...

OK, so this wasn’t just another night in Osaka, this was the annual Farplane get together in Osaka which put simply is one fucking crazy night!

Hosted by the Farplane store in American Village, the annual event attracts an eclectic collection of the most eccentric individuals in Osaka who come together for a night of diverse music, dancing, and stage entertainment. I heard about Farplane through a friend of a friend and after watching a video of last year’s event I was a little sceptical about getting a ticket, the truth is this isn’t the kind of night out I’m used to going to, I’ve lived in rural England most of my life after all. But in the end I parted with 3000 yen and got my hands on an advanced ticket.

In a room full of what most people would describe as being utterly overdressed I was predictably underdressed wearing jeans and a shirt, but then, it’s not often you can share a room with a man covered head to toe in gold paint, wearing nothing but a strap on penis and yet still feel like the odd one out.

The party started at 4 in the afternoon and went through to 11pm with stage entertainment throughout the day and night hosting everything from DJ sets and dance acts to performers being suspended above ground from hooks attached to their backs and necks. The latter was actually a pretty weird thing to witness but most people around the stage seemed to enjoy it and even those being suspended seemed reasonably happy about the whole thing so who am I to criticise. This was just one part of a long night of diverse entertainment though and if there was a performance you didn’t like you could bet there would be something along before long that you did. It was a night like no other and something few outsiders get the chance to experience. If I’m still in Osaka this time next year I’ll make sure I’m at the next Farplane, only next time I’ll make sure I have a decent outfit to wear!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

My home for the past six weeks

Since I arrived in Japan a little over 6 weeks ago I’ve been living at my girlfriend Eri’s house. We live in a part of Osaka called Hanaten, situated in a fairly sleepy corner of the city a short train ride from the central district of Umeda. Although relatively small it has everything I could ask for right on my doorstep; there’s a great little bakery, a convenience store and an off-licence literally across the road from the house. Unlike much of Osaka, Hanaten has managed to starve off the commercial progress that has taken over elsewhere and has maintained a very local feel with an abundance of small family run businesses that have clearly been operating for many decades. The majority of the residents give an impression that they have lived here their whole lives and it’s always quite amusing walking from the station to the house and seeing the looks of surprise on their faces when they see me pass by. The schoolchildren are especially excited, often greeting me with open mouthed shock as their mothers try to stop them staring. Clearly there aren’t too many other white people living in Hanaten.

Although not totally organised before coming to Japan I did have a rough plan of what I hoped to achieve and as enjoyable as my time living in Hanaten has been if I’m to stick to my plan I need to find my own place soon, a task almost entirely dependent on finding a job. After giving myself the first couple of weeks here off I’ve spent the subsequent month trying to do just this, searching for, applying for, and interviewing for teaching jobs throughout the Kansai area. The search has actually been a lot more enjoyable than expected giving me the chance to meet some really interesting people and gain a deeper understanding of the business of English language education in Japan. I genuinely couldn’t have done it without the help of Eri though who has routinely searched for the locations of the schools and got me there on time for the interviews (how anyone can find some of the schools without a Japanese guide is beyond me!) I’ve been lucky enough to have been offered several positions and in the end I have accepted what seems to be a really good role with an education company called Berlitz. For anyone who has read my previous blog post you will have noted that in the current climate the type of contracts being offered are not always that great so it was a relief to be offered a secure and relatively well paid position. There are some pretty decent added advantages too such as paid holidays, medical insurance and even the use of spa resorts throughout Japan!

Hanaten Shopping Street

Aside from my job search I’ve had a good chance to travel around and I’m slowly beginning to comprehend the vast size of Osaka. The transport systems are quite incredible with multiple lines operated by different companies, different stations and complicated ticketing systems, not to mention the fact that all directions and signage are written almost entirely in Japanese (although my Japanese speaking ability has been improving steadily, written Japanese is unfortunately still beyond me!) The transport is an amazing feature of Osaka life though, it’s always on time, runs until the early hours of the morning, and you can get almost anywhere you want, whenever you want. On the downside it’s expensive and I mean REALLY expensive, I’ll never again complain about the cost of a London Underground Travelcard!

Regardless of the high prices, the complicated travel networks have allowed me to travel regularly and explore the nearby cities of Kyoto, Kobe and Nara and although not held in particularly high esteem by many in the tri-city area of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, Nara has been my particular favourite destination. Situated about 40 minutes away by train it is surrounded by beautiful parkland (an aspect that is missing almost entirely in Osaka) that is home to a huge heard of semi-wild deer. The city itself has a beautiful old town centre overlooked by the towering Horyuji Gojunoto temple and is also home to the Todai-ji temple which houses the worlds largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana. Thankfully I’m still amazed by each new temple that I come across which is lucky because i've still got plenty more to see as a travel further around Kansai (there are 16,00 in Kyoto prefecture alone!)

The dominating Horyuji Gojunoto Temple in Nara

A street in Nara

As you can see, life in Osaka has been a great experience for me so far and I’m hugely excited about the next few months, Spring is around the corner and with it will come Sakura season (the flowering of the cherry blossoms), it is clearly a special time of year to be in Japan. Shops already have displays of cherry blossoms in their windows and even the beer cans have sakura designs on them in celebration. For me personally it signals the end of the cold winter months and the beginning of the warmer months bringing with them a fresh start in my new country. I can’t wait to start teaching and enjoying summer in Osaka.

The Universal Language of Good Manners

On my plane from Heathrow to Osaka I watched Lost in Translation, it scared the shit out of me. Having spent the previous six months telling anyone who’d listen how much I was looking forward to moving to Japan I was faced with the sudden realisation that I was in fact, moving to Japan. I saw Bill Murray’s character, Bob Harris, struggle to come to terms with the unique culture he was faced with upon arrival in Tokyo; the size of the city, the number of people, the weird technological advances and the idiosyncrasies of the cities inhabitants. After a little over a week spent living in Osaka, it is another of the great Japanese clichés that has struck me most. An aspect of Japanese culture that marks the country apart from all other modern countries I can think of – the impeccable manners of the Japanese people.

Of course it is an almost universally accepted fact that the Japanese are in general, helpful and polite, but I hadn’t counted on just how helpful and polite they would be. Perhaps this comes down to having spent the past 26 years of my life living in the UK, a nation that ostensibly prides itself on service without a smile. The contrasts are universal. Take the ‘convenience store experience’ for example.

In general the convenience store workers of Britain give the impression that they would rather be just about anywhere else. The interviews must be a doddle, if you can come across as even slightly enthusiastic about a career selling fags and booze you surely stand an excellent chance of employment. The trouble is, no-one really wants to work in these places. In general, the average British customer doesn’t tend to have a problem with this attitude though; we accept that jobs such as working in a convenience store, or flipping burgers at McDonalds, are menial jobs – beneath those who frequent such establishments. And thus an unwritten contract has emerged between customer and worker that makes it acceptable for workers to be morose and unhelpful, while in return customers can feel no remorse in behaving like spoilt children, everyone’s happy, right?

Much of this decline in customer service follows the disappearance of the independently owned ‘corner shop’ and the emergence of the scaled-down supermarket. Having devastated countless local businesses, unable to keep up in the age of rock-bottom prices and loss-leader policies, Tesco et al have moved into the very high-streets they destroyed, installing mini versions of themselves in one last effort to rob town centres of any remaining diversity they might have. Where once we could rely on a friendly face and a smile when picking up the paper or buying a loaf of bread, we are now faced with a drone army of supermarket workers, destined to disappoint in an era of short-term contracts, low wages, and virtually no employment rights. Indeed, in this era of mini supermarket style convenience store, workers have almost nothing to gain by providing good customer service.

If bad service at convenience stores really is the result of ownership falling into fewer hands, or the demise of independently owned corner shops why then is it that the ‘convenience store experience’ in Japan is so different? Let’s start with the important points about the Japanese convenience store, or ‘conveenie’ as they are more widely known. They are brilliant.

Located on virtually every corner of every street in major Japanese cities they have everything you could ask of such a store... and more. Along with the usual selection of crisps, chocolates and soft drinks, they sell a dizzying assortment of hot and cold snacks ranging from traditional savoury rice balls wrapped in seaweed, to fried chicken and cheese burgers. The hot selection is the real highlight. Korokke – a breaded potato and pork snack – is a particular favourite. It’s not just the food that impresses though, it’s the small additions that set the Japanese ‘conveenie’ apart from the British ‘mini-supermarket’. Virtually every ‘conveenie’ for example has a toilet which means that rather than following in the British tradition of pissing down a back ally, late night revellers can instead relieve themselves in comfort before picking up a beer for the road.

Though unquestionably impressive in their material offerings, the most impressive aspect of the ‘Convenience store experience’ in Japan is without doubt the staff. The positive attitude of those on the payroll of the Seven Elevens, Family Marts, Lawson’s, and similar stores throughout Japan is infectious. Upon entering any one of these stores you will be greeted without fail with a beaming smile and a cry of “irashaimase” – welcome. It should be noted here that my Japanese speaking ability is limited to say the least so the majority of what is said to me in the process of a transaction is meaningless. Perhaps though it is better this way, for all I know they could be ridiculing my dress sense or insulting my family, the fact it is said with a smile makes the content almost meaningless, however.

Maybe I am being a little too generous here though, perhaps the Japanese attitude to customer service is normal and it is the British attitude that is abnormal. I think this does Japan, as a nation, a great disservice, however. While modern countries around the world have lost all sense of community in an ever increasing transition towards universal selfishness, Japan, it seems, has stayed true to its traditions of mutual respect and good manners. I have only been here for a little over a week so my opinions will doubtless change over time, for now though it is not the climate, nor the technology, or any other of the major differences that mark Japan apart from Britain that make me so positive about living in here in the future. It is instead the simple good manners of the lowly convenience store workers of Osaka and beyond.