Japanese Malt Liquor

I am not a beer or liquor connoisseur by any means.  I can barely distinguish a dark beer from a non-dark, know little about brewing techniques, and care little about where a particular beer comes from. Mostly, I’ll occasionally drink a beer to take the edge off, usually with a meal. So I am not going to get picky with my beer selection.

For the last year or so I have been stocking my fridge with three or four cans of Eurohop, a Japanese “Belgian” beer with “Anno 1877” stated as its founding date and a 5% alcohol content. This beer has been holding tight at around 85-88 Yen per 330 ml can at food import/specialty shops like Kaldi. That is about as cheap as it comes here in Japan, and is good enough for me.

So when exploring the beer aisle of my local supermarket I was astounded by a 500 ml can of beer (that’s one of those tall, jumbo cans) selling for a remarkably low 125 Yen. My wife, in her tea-totelliing manner, explained to me that the beer I had chosen, Neue Welt, was in fact something known as happoushyuu (発泡酒), and in her words, “was not beer but tastes like beer and has alcohol in it, I think.” What in the world? Had I stumbled upon some kind of synthetic/plastic beer of the future? Had the Japanese somehow cracked the code of beer production and found a way to do it sans organic ingredients?

Well no… what it actually turned out to be is the Japanese version of Malt Liquor.  The difference being that this particular Malt Liquor has been refined to taste almost exactly like beer, with a similar alcohol content, and drunk not by alcoholic hobos but “respectable” salarymen. It tastes just fine for someone like me and the price is perfect for penny pinching Japan, since it avoids the Japanese Beer tax saving anywhere between 100-150 Yen for a 500 ML can!

By the way – I fall somewhere in-between alcoholic hobo and “respectable” salarymen  using my own Act-Together Rubrick.

update: Happoshu is actually a low-malt beer with under 67% malt content.

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Sumo: New Year Basho

I wasn’t always a Sumo fan.  It took me many years to warm up to this traditional Japanese sport, and I am still warming up to it.  Last September, I was hooked on the Autumn Basho (one of six annual tournaments) held in Tokyo.  That particular tournament culminated in the promotion of a new Yokozuna(highest rank in Sumo). Once again a Mongolian had risen through the ranks to claim this high honor.  In fact, the last three Yokozuna have been from Mongolia, a time spanning almost a decade. It is peculiar, in this most well known of all the traditional Japanese sports, that so much foreign penetration has managed to infiltrate its highest ranks. Looking at the current Makuuchi Division (highest division), the amount of foreign born wrestlers is extraordinary:

Mongolia – 7, Brazil – 1, Russia-1, Georgia-2, Czech-1, Bulgaria-2, Estonia-1

That’s 15 out of the 42 top division wrestlers.  A fairly big chunk.  Becoming a successful sumo wrestler does carry considerable rewards (money, national respect/admiration). But the cultural and linguistic assimilation one has to endure to participate in Sumo is very intense – even for a native Japanese. The commitment and sacrifice of the foreign born Sumo wrestlers is impressive.  Compare that to myself who after four years can barely hold a simple conversation in Japanese and still am at odds with some of the nation’s cultural peculiarities. These guys are taking interviews, scrutinized by the public, living in confined quarters with other wrestlers, and permitted to only wear robes and straw sandals.  All this in a country that is unlike anything they experienced in their youth, and in cities (mostly Tokyo) so cramped even the slightly biggish can feel claustrophobic.

Have a look for yourself at the Sumo Associations website (there is an English page).

And for everyone who just thinks Sumo is two fat guys bouncing off each other, have a look at Harumafuji vs Hakuho in last year’s Fall Basho.  This match got me hooked on Sumo.

Coming of Age

Today, in Japan, is known as Coming of Age day or Seijin no hi (成人の日).  A day when all those who have turned twenty in the previous year dress in traditional kimono and attend events at their local city hall.  Unfortunately for them, the Tokyo region was hit with a relatively large snow storm, rather freakish for this man-made heat island.  Hopefully for them they didn’t have to spend too long out in the cold.

Since it is Coming of Age Day, I’ve decided it was time for this blog to really come of age as well.  More book reviews and random rants on life here in Japan to come, with much more frequency and intensity.

It began snowing at 10 AM and lasted all day in Kawasaki

Review: Shogun: A Novel of Japan

Shogun: A Novel of Japan
Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Picking up this book seemed like a natural choice. I have an acute interest in Japanese History and have lived in the country for the past three years. It is consistently the first book recommended when you search for historical fiction on Japan. So I was hoping for something slightly more rewarding than this excruciatingly long account of the birth of the Tokugawa Shogunate (albeit highly fictionalized).

The first 300 pages drive along fairly well as we become accustomed to the alien environment that Blackthorne finds himself in. It is from there that the story hits an enormous rut, grinding to a pace that makes James Joyce’s Ulysses seem like a quick read. Clavell manages to turn the few hours of an escape from Osaka into a several hundred page slog through every minute movement of each main character (more than a dozen at this point). Needless to say, this portion of the novel gave me a serious case of reader’s block.

The rest of the novel involves a ridiculous number of plot and sub-plots concerning Toranaga’s attempts to gain the support of rival daimyo’s and secure his path to shogun. By the end you’ve lost track of who supports who, who committed treason, who switched sides, and who did or didn’t commit ritual suicide. By the time my eyes were bleeding at the 1100 page mark I was so grateful just to be through it all, promising myself never again read historical fiction on a nation I am too familiar with.

That is really the brunt of my criticism. This is a novel made for armchair travelers with an modest interest in Japan. The linguistic unrealism and nauseating explanations of cultural melange are too much to bare for those of us who have either seriously studied Japanese History or have lived in the country for any period of time.

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Review: Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan: An Anthology of his Writings on the Country and it’s People

Lafcadio Hearn's Japan: An Anthology of his Writings on the Country and it's People
Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan: An Anthology of his Writings on the Country and it’s People by Lafcadio Hearn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hearn often receives a bad rap in in the realm of Asia Studies, which was initially what drew me to this compilation. The reasons for his disregard in academic circles are varied. Most find him to be a rather oblique example of Nihonjinron discourse. That is to say he overtly praises everything Japanese, making no attempt to define the nations culture through modern sociologically analysis and logic. Instead, the Japanese are in such a distinct category whose history diverges so starkly with other peoples, that one can’t possibly come to a true understanding of their minds. Having no means, thus to approach them, one can only observe in astonishment. And that is how the writing of Lafcadio Hearn reads, at first glance.

Hearn’s essays, some which might more properly be called vignettes, are filtered through a sense of awe of Japanese aesthetics. But this does not diminish from the quality of his writing, or the authority of his observations. His piece on Japanese gardens is extremely well written, putting the reader in Hearn’s environment. The sights, sounds, and textures of the gardens are conveyed with stunning detail.

The traditional ghost stories are also a fine example of Hearn at his best. He manages to capture the grotesque with the ethereal, mixing them with antidotes, and retelling them though the tone of friendly conversations. After a few short passages, you’ll want to seek out more of Hearn’s writing on the subject.

What Hearn’s writing seems to most reveal, is a overwhelming identification with the aesthetics of Japan, and a profuse disregard for the fashions and attitudes that where being developed in the West. He was essentially an outcast, someone not of his own time, and had found a place he could finally agree with. One could take umbrage with the fact that Hearn managed to learn only rudimentary Japanese in his fourteen years in the country, and that is a fair criticism if one is examining his writings for a better sociological understanding of the Japanese people. In that sense, Hearn’s writing can only peel back a limited amount of layers. But for the reader hoping to capture a sense of experience, and feel the beauty of a place, than this book is a very good primer.

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Micro-Balconying – Enjoying the great outdoors from your apartment balcony

One of the most intriguing things to witness in the Tokyo metroplex is just how little residents utilize balcony space. Most are simply relegated as spaces for hanging laundry, which admittedly, is all there seems to be room for.  But laundry isn’t always drying, and it is in those instances when residents should look to take advantage of the cityscape views and non-stale air their balconies have to offer.

There are those who elaborately develop their balconies into beautiful Zen retreats complete with raked stone gardens and perfectly manicured bonsai.  Unfortunately, like many of the beautiful flower gardens one sees attached to homes in residential areas, these tend to be maintained by privileged pensioners. (of which Japan has in abundance).  It is all those in the lower to mid-level tiers of the age demographic that all too often neglect their apartment balcony, and it is my mission in life to steer clear of their work-to-life-balance inequalities, no matter the cost.

Admittedly, I don’t currently possess the green thumb to create a gardening masterpiece, but fortunately my wife had just the motivation necessary to begin the very small process of transforming our formally sterile laundry walkway into a balcony we can enjoy, especially in the nuclear energy-free summer that promises, once again, to sweat me out of my skin.

One needn’t have the dedication of Mr. Miyagi or a blistering bank account to make such a sanctuary. Indeed, there is a middle road to Japanese balcony enjoyment, and it starts with getting yourself outdoors. Whether it’s for a few minutes or several hours, all urbanites can benefit from spending some quality daylight hours just relaxing on the balcony.  Get yourself a tiny collapsible stool, maybe a beverage, and just sit and watch.  Then you can begin to add bits and pieces in the form of 100円 potted plants, or pay slightly more for higher quality from a local 八百屋さん(やおやさん, yaoyasan or green grocer).  Final ingredient: some nice background jazz.

Only a few plants and a glass of wine, the micro-balcony garden offers quick stress relief.

Sure, you might frighten the bejesus out of your balcony deprived neighbors, but in time, once they realize that: a) you’re not a stalker (lose the binoculars) and B) you have no plans of committing suicide – then they might see that this balcony thing aint such a bad idea after all.

Review: Lies, Inc.

Lies, Inc.
Lies, Inc. by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

For fans of Philip K. Dick, this posthumously compiled novel, works with many of the themes common to most of Dick’s work. Reality, para-worlds, paranoia, and government conspiracy all manifest themselves in the final published novel, but unlike other more recognized titles, fails to draw these themes together coherently enough to make for a pleasurable reading experience. More than half of the text is devoted to discerning the variety of different para-worlds that characters perceive, reaching no consensus as to which para-world, if any, represents a structured reality that can be agreed upon. Add on top of that several overlapping conspiracies, an underdeveloped plot-line concerning time travel, and a disjointed storyline that feels as mismashed as this books amalgamation apparently was (according to the afterward by Paul Williams), and you have one of the least readable books in the PKD library.

Much of PKD’s fiction lends to an acquired taste, the language often being reinvented on the fly to fit the bizarre worlds laid out before the reader. Lies. Inc‘s language requires more patience than many of PKD’s meta-psychedelic masterpieces (Ubik). But the utter travesty of this novel is its inability to move the plot along to a reasonable conclusion, as characters grapple with meta-realities and Dick struggles to find the language to convey what seems to be the unconveyable. And that is a shame because this novel seemed to have promise, a solid PKDesque foundation which soon became obliterated by campy psychedelic imagery and an unexplained time shift in the storyline.

As this was touted as the final, correct and unmolested version of The Unteleported Man, readers might expect one last mind bending tale from the Sci-Fi giant. Yet, as with most posthumously published novels, Lies, Inc. is a blemish rather than a shining jewel in the complete works of Philip K. Dick.

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Review: Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s always good to reread “classic” novels. Achebe’s most renown work, originally assigned during a freshman World Literature class, certainly reads better the second time around without the lens of academia and political correctness to distort reactions. Things Fall Apart keeps a fairly smooth pace, as the realities of African tribe life and the early encroachment of colonialism are exposed through Achebe’s stark yet vivid language.

The novel reads as essentially as two separate tracks, despite the book being divided into three parts by the author. The first track follows the life of Okonkwo and his family, as he distinguishes himself with the clan. Brutal violence and the tribes adherence to their own dogma sets the stage for the second track where the novel’s title begins take on more clarity.

The struggle with a new, unforeseen colonial presence in the village, and the inability of the tribesman to effectively resist is played out through clear affective prose. Rarely is colonialism, especially early African colonialism, portrayed so well and stripped bare of its historical ramifications. This is African village life meets Western colonialism, plain and simple. Very little analysis is needed to understand the emotion and confusion of the villagers as their world crumbles in the wake of the missionary influence – Achebe forces us to watch everything that really matters.

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Review: The Rise and Fall of Communism. Archie Brown

The Rise and Fall of Communism. Archie Brown
The Rise and Fall of Communism. Archie Brown by Archie Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Simon Heffer’s cover quote on this title was “SUPERB… A hugely readable book”, and although I can’t quite get behind this lengthy history with as much enthusiasm, this book does provide you with insights from the earliest days of communism through to the near present. Brown goes out of his way to distinguish between communism and “Communism”, the capital C moniker used when referring to political incarnations rather than broad ideological or philosophical principles. It is this political Communism that is of most interest to Brown, and relatively little time is given to the philosophy of Marx and Engels. Those wishing to get a more in depth understanding of Marxist thought should look elsewhere, as Brown is more concerned with political realities, mainly in the Soviet context.

Since so much of world Communism developed from the Soviet Union or was influenced by it, it is no surprise that much of this work deals with the development of the Soviet political system. From Lenin to Gorbachev, the Soviet leadership is analyzed, each leaders role in the development and transformation of the Soviet Communist system is discussed exhaustively. Unfortunately, although understanding of world Communism is underpinned by political developments within the Soviet Union, Brown leaves little room to discuss the many other Communist systems that have developed (aside from China) and asserted their own political will sans the influence of Moscow.

In particular, scant attention is paid to Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea; all which have political systems based upon the Soviet model but who have leaders and a citizenry whose history is so divergent from the Soviet experience that new political and ideological concepts had to develop. The North Korean Kim dynasty is elaborated on poorly, Ho Chi-Min is barely mentioned, and the development of modern Cuba is not given enough mention. If one is looking for decent analysis of the few surviving Communist states (outside of China), than this book should not be your first choice.

Still, for a deeper understanding of Soviet Communism, its development and overarching influence on Europe, you cannot find a better introduction. Brown breaks down the Iron Curtain and examines with precision all the elements, internally and externally, which led to the disintegration of the Eastern European Communist states and the breakup of the Soviet Union itself. Gorbachev’s influence, and how the Soviet leadership came to instigate reform from the mid 1980’s, is also treated with supreme precision, and it seems that no stone is left unturned by Brown. Readers hoping for a more thorough understanding of the Iron Curtains hoisting, certainly have a great starting point in The Rise and Fall of Communism.

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Sakura

Sakura season came and went in rather delayed fashion in the Tokyo Region this past year. Several weeks behind schedule, the blossoms finally came out around the second week in April and managed to hold on strong for about 10 days. The tree lined road between Musashi-Kosugi and Motosumiyoshi (Nakahara Ward, Kanagawa Prefecture) offered some great viewing, and people were out doing their usual picnicking, with an occasional flea market thrown in on the weekend. The most impressive thing about the cherry blossoms are how they look from dusk onward through the night. The pinkish white hues create a canopy that naturally illuminates the narrow alleyways. And as the blossoms fall it looks like pink snow lining the little side streets and fluttering into the canals. Tokyo is often called “The Most Beautiful Ugly City” but for a few brief days in spring, we get to drop the ugly.

Indeed, formerly glum salarmen suddenly are snapping photos on their late night returns from the office.  What looks like spontaneous group parties are held under the blooms, some groups talking late into the night.  And although it is nice to see such sudden outbursts of relaxation in overly formal/serious Japan, something about these 花見 (はなみhanami- “flower viewing” celebrations) seems disingenuous.  For once the pink buds fall, the tree lined canal will become barely used once again and everyone will be back to work.  And we’ll have to wait till next sakura season for permission to party.