Inspector Collector

Sonomama Sonomama: Photographs of Photographers

There may not be many cows in Japan, but the locals sure do say “cheese” a lot. Everywhere the eye can see, the Japanese flash peace signs and grin for the camera. Britain lays claim to the distinction of most cameras per capita, but global photography powerhouses Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Olympus, and Sony all began in Japan. There are photography museums in Tokyo, Nara, and elsewhere, and humongous and knowledgably-staffed retail stores like Yodobashi.

Two of the best books in the world are Japanese photography books:

Sonomama Sonomama (a common photographer's utterance meaning “just as you are"), Taishi Hirokawa’s captivating images of everyday people wearing high fashion in Ehime in the Japanese countryside - anyone for grilled squid on a stick from a beachfront vendor in Yohji Yamamoto?

and Ken Ohara’s ONE from 1970, a thick, square artist's book containing  nearly 500 pictures of international people – each closely cropped to show the mouth, eyes, nose and cheeks only (the part cops concentrate on when identifying suspects because the center of the face fluctuates the least with age, weight or changes in hair).

Whether it’s a fancy 35mm or a disposable camera phone, I’m not the only one who finds its fun to snap shots of people snapping shots or collect pictures of women using cameras like Kodak Girl.

how many photographers does it take to shoot a shot like this?

who's not into photography?

hurry, get a video of that guy taking still shots.

a pro in Kobe

a television crew in Saga Arashiyama, Kyoto

Sunday in the park with the camera club

how many unwitting photographers can be captured in a single shot?

Whether in school...

on tour in your own homeland...

aboard a bicycle...

or hanging with friends, photography sure is omoshiroi (fun)!

Children's Transportation, Japan: Not Your Ordinary Moldy Cheese Bus!

Kids seem to have it pretty good in Japan. The youngest ones are shown the ways of the world by attentive elders, and there's no shortage of cartoon images with which to accesorize. The ubiquitous Ampan-man features characters made entirely of food. Ampan-man is so popular he's even got his own Museum.

Japanese kids age 4 and up routinely walk or ride trains home from school un-chaperoned, and no one frets about leaving bikes and toys unguarded in the plentiful parks and playgrounds.

Best of all, the much-maligned yellow "cheese" school bus has been given a glamorous kiddie makeover:

Japanese Transportation: Sails, Sedans, Tight Squeezes, and 48-inch High Heels

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While most consider raucous karasu to be pests, people like to get about "as the crow flies" and there are many ingenious forms of transportation in Japan, such as these 48-inch wooden geta designed for work in watery rice paddies:

Warriors and royals of yore were ferried about by well-calloused servants in Japanese sedan chairs,

and of course there are boats circling all parts of the island nation.

Giant shipyards too:

With 20,000 miles of coastline, the Coast Guard keeps busy:

as do fishermen, who often pilot their craft from the seiza (kneeling) position:

Cars of infinite description ply parts of Japan that boats cannot.  The fabulous Tokyo City Museum is proud exhibitor of the first of Subaru's revolutionary light cars from the mid 1950s:

Here's a contemporary ride named Midget II,

and a "lush" sedan called a Royal Saloon!

If you think parking in your hometown is tight, you might wish to consult these 2 Tokyo experts:

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Minivans are popular with familes, including this one decorated with Cars,

Long haulers like tricked-out custom rigs,

while modern utility trucks seem straight out of the movie Brazil.

 

WILD WHEELS: BIKING IN JAPAN

After trains, bicycles, motorcycles, and carts are Japan's favorite vehicles. Twice in a month we saw kids practicing on unicycles, and elderly people commonly get around by leaning on rolling carts like these farmer ladies in Yoshiumi-cho:

Of course, the big force of Japanese motorcycles cannot be denied:

Some of the cycles are anthropomorphized like creatures from manga (Japanese cartoons):

while others are Hells Angels tough (almost):

People (and pets) get around on all kinds of bicycles:

Some use bikes to haul heavy loads,

while others pedal luscious-leather Gucci wheels that cost ¥500,000 (c. $5,000 USD),

There are more ignominious bikes, like this long-forgotten ladies model,

and this rusty number which is enjoying a second life as a sign for a Kyoto bike store:

You can buy lovely accessories for your bicycle, such as pre-recorded "bells" that say "sumimasen" (excuse me) in a very polite ladies' voice, or clamps that hold your parasol for you:

Bicycling is so popular in Japan that double-decker storage racks are required!

THE FASTEST TRAINS ON EARTH: JAPAN'S SHINKANSEN

The island nation of Japan is slightly smaller than California and a mere 20% of the land is inhabited by 128 million residents.  Getting around is quite a challenge and only foreigners are allowed to purchase a Japan Rail Pass, which provides great discounts on the super high-speed trains known as Shinkansen. 

Unlike this simple map from rural Tzuchizawa,

following Japanese subway and train maps can be like unraveling spiders' webs in the dark.  Tokyo's basic subway map is 4 or 5 times more complex than NYC's, AND there are 4 more major train systems which overlap the chaotic urban grid!  That's only the beginning, for passengers must be wary of special wagons where riders choose to remain utterly silent, and other cars expressly for women:

People of all classes rely on train travel in Japan, and the rails are unfailingly clean, quiet, and smooth, so smooth in fact that hard-riding commuters routinely sleep en route.   

PEARLS OF BARLEY: JAPANESE BEER 2007

For every bad Budweiser there's a crummy Kirin -- don't fret though -- there's a microbrew revolution bubbling in the Pacific.  Dozens of Japanese cities and prefectures now boast a locally made beer or three. Many takes on traditional European styles are mezurashi (intriguingly different).  Some are even superb, like lusciously rusty Machiyo Kuro, available in Kyoto where Tonchin-tei pub comes highly recommended. I intend to find it someday -- in Kintetsu Meiten gai (a mall across the street from Kyoto Station) -- out the hachiyo-guchi (south doors).

an ad for Wasabi-tinged beer from Miyamori Brauhaus in sedate Iwate prefecture since 1997.

Yona Yona brews are a vast improvement over the old standbys but their good-looking graphics don't compensate for a signature taste that's just not as alluring as other new options.  Word has it that real rishiki (Sumo wrestlers) prefer stronger spirits to beer. Better is 108-year-old Torokko Beer company's attractive weizen so fresh and lively the 'pull-tab cap' sounded like fireworks.

have you imbibed the alluring 5.5% "alcoholicity" of Rubin Rot?

The epicenter of beer in Japan is a tiny tavern in the Ryogoku section of Tokyo, where Mr. Tatsuo Aoki runs BakushuClub POPEYE, which I first heard about via the time-tested tasters blogging about Japanese food and drink at bento.com.

Tappin' with Tatsuo in my Sabit-wear!

The enthusiasm of Japan's service industry is unparalleled, and no one's happier about their job than Tatsuo.  His pub features 40 taps (gravity taps and hand-pulled ales included) covering the range of Japanese microbrews.  The ever-changing selection may include vintage casks of strong ale and barley wine from Hakusekikan in Gifu, or the supreme Teikoku IPA made by Sayuri and Bryan Baird in the shadows of Shizuoka's Mt. Fuji.  Tatsuo is deep into the craft and creates his own unique styles of beer. Savor his India Black Ale called Divine Vamp 3 - 'tis aptly named indeed.

When you first sit down at Popeye, you'll be given a complimentary snack designed expressly to provide stamina for beer drinking. Once we got chicken in miso, another time a soft-boiled egg with green onion and soy flavor:

Popeye's food goes well beyond spinach.  There's a large bar menu including scrumptous eisbein (German for "ice leg" aka ham hocks); intriguing baked avocado, and fresh Buffalo Wings that are tasty if slightly inauthentic.

In other beer news, despite mass quantities of lackluster suds, Japan's brewing giants have come up with a sneaky way to avoid heavy Federal taxes.  Asahi, Sapporo, Yebisu and others have devised non-beer beers with clever names like this one from Kirin:

Skirting taxation by making products that look like beer but don't fit the governmental definition allows a c. 30% savings to be passed along to consumers.  These products taste almost as "good" as standard brews and are being marketed ferociously with billboards and come-ons like free otsumami (snacks):

Hurry if you want to sample the wares.  While Japan's govermental bureaucracy can't move as quickly as corporations, they're onto the scheme and backpedaling furiously to update their regulations. 

Ahhhh, tsume tai birru (cold beer) -- beautiful in drinking, ne?

JAPANESE CUISINE: IS EATING RAW CHICKEN YUCKY OR KOSHER?

Many Japanese restaurants in Japan specialize in a single dish.  There are eateries expressly for tonkatsu (crispy panko-crusted pork cutlets); soba (buckwheat noodles), seafood including kujira (whale) cutlets,

a sort of pancake called okonomiyaki, with loads of cabbage and a choice of main ingredients like squid, meat or veggies griddled over table-top burners),

and “Stands” where diners remain afoot for quick snacks and libations.

My favorite style of Japanese restaurant may be the Yakitori-ya, a subset of Izakaya (drinking houses). Here customers sit at bars across from grill-masters who deftly twirl skewers of chicken, vegetables, pork, and seafood.  Popular choices include shiitake mushrooms, shishito (small wrinkled green peppers which, every once in a while, are quite spicy), and crisped bacon wrapped around asparra (asparagus), gobo (a sturdy carrot-like root), or mochi (gooey rice cake).  Tori means chicken though, and sizzling yaki (grills) sear every part of the barnyard bird except feathers, feet, and cluck.  There are separate skewers of each of the three parts of the wing; ground chicken-meat balls (tsukune); marinated gizzards, hearts, and livers; and perfectly-crisped folds of skin (torikawa). Real fressers (Hebrew for big eaters) favor the fatty tail called pupick in Yiddish, and you can even crunch on nankotsu, milky-white darts of cartilage from the unadventurous eater’s favorite portion, the breast. 

At better Yakitori-ya, like this one on the outskirts of Kyoto in Saga Arashiyama,

diners specify the amount of several different flavorings (soy, salt, white pepper, or a sauce of soy and mirin  (sweetened rice wine).  Here, nama-birru (draft beer) fairly flies out of the tap as customers order a little at a time, eye-to-eye with bare-handed chefs fearlessly working fiery grills as if they had asbestos fingers.  Glass barricades shield customers from the scorching heat, and when chefs shake salt on the skewers they purposely allowing the gritty crystals to fall on treacherously slippery floors.

A variety of small plates are also available at yakitori-ya, often including Yukke, a Korean creation starring sasami, raw chicken breast so-called for its resemblance to the pointed shape of bamboo leaves, and fresh raw egg with saffron-colored yolk.

Ultra-fresh Japanese dairy inspires natsukashisa (nostalgia), bringing to mind the 1960s when Joe the Milkman delivered glass bottles and my dad bought farm-fresh double-yolkers at Kreher’s Egg Farm. Eggs rarely see the inside of a Japanese fridge and most every food purveyor in Japan, from the tiniest train station soba shop to McDonald’s, serves soft-boiled eggs.  Oh for the days before salmonella.

To make Yukke, the pink breast meat receives just a touch of heat before being well-chilled (ever notice how most food starts to spoil on the outer surface?).  Right before serving the sasami is sliced into 1/4” thick Post-it tab sized bits that look like Dentyne but have a subtle and sublime texture that is neither chewy nor gummy.  All you have to do is mix the chicken and "henfruit" with nori (paper-thin strips of crispy black seaweed) and negi (tiny rings of chopped green onion), and dig in. 

Surprisingly, Yukke is neither squeaky nor revolting like the horrid raw-centered tandoori Simla once delivered to my Upper East side home.  Eating Yukke, the Japanese sister of steak tartare, provides a custard-like sensation that’s a superb summer cooler with shochu (30% alcohol distilled spirits). 

“Bottle-keeps”are another informal type of Japanese restaurant where regulars buy magnums of shochu and sake (15-17% alcohol rice wine). You mark your name on unfinished bottles,

and return another time to continue the fun.  A classic working-person's bottle-keep in Osaka-ko had an uncooked meat dish on their chalkboard but alas it was sold out by the time I’d sufficiently steeled myself to call for raw pork liver.  As the Japanese say after a meal - Gochisosama deshita - it was a feast! 

5 Great Ideas from Japan

electronic hand dryer that actually works

trucks that open from the side

robotic construction flag men

assorted eyeglasses for public use

clip-on coat hangers