Week in Pictures: 7.22.2012

This past week has been a whirlwind with preparing to go to Japan for work at the beginning of the week and then being in Japan for the rest of the week. So far my business trip has been very productive and as an added bonus I've had a chance to see a lot of friends from when I lived in Japan. I always enjoy being back in Japan and this time has been no different. Here is a sampling of some of the photos I snapped this week.

Collage One, First Row
- Right before heading off to Japan I hit up Target to find some treats to bring my co-workers in Japan (omiyage)
- I discovered the first ripe tomatoes in my garden before my trip. They were delicious and I hope when I get back more are ready to eat
- Tuesday afternoon I took off from the Detroit airport after grabbing lunch with Frank

Collage One, Second Row
- Wednesday evening I arrived in Nagoya absolutely exhausted. Barely sleeping for a few days followed by a thirteen hour flight and a thirteen hour time change will do that to a person.
- As I was riding the bus from the airport I saw a lovely sunset over Mikawa Bay
- I wanted to stay awake to try and get adjusted to the time zone so I went to Vegebird to get some delicious kushiyaki (grilled skewers) and umeshu (plum wine)

Collage Two, First Row
- After work on Thursday, I took a walk by my old apartment building and am happy to report it is exactly the same as when I lived there. I do this every time I come back to Japan for work just to reminisce.
- I met up with some friends for dinner on Thursday night who happened to be staying in the Toyota Castle Hotel. When I met them in the lobby I discovered that the Toyota Castle now has a tanuki mascot dressed up in a bellman's outfit complete with a top hat. Of course I got a picture with him. 
- For dinner we headed to my favorite place to eat in Toyota City, Tsubasaya. The have the best tebasaki (chicken wings) 

Collage Two, Second Row
- Tsubasaya had a new item on the menu, amai ebi mayo, which was fried shrimp covered in mayonnaise and topped with jelly beans. It was too strange not to order.
- Following dinner, we headed to Second Story (a tiny bar nearby) for Magic Night performed by Sawa-san. When I lived in Japan, Magic Night was every Wednesday but it has since moved to every other Thursday. Lucky for me, it just happened to be on the Thursday I was in town. Sawa-san had some amazing new tricks and I am always impressed by his act. 
- My trip overlapped with the Nagoya Oktoberfest celebration so I headed over with some people on Friday night. It was a little strange (Oktoberfest in July in Japan?) but really cool. There were huge tents set up with table underneath and the outside was ringed with German beer and food stalls. Up front a German band, wearing lederhosen of course, played polkas all night

Collage Two, Third Row
- What do you eat at Oktoberfest? Sausages, sauerkraut, potatoes and beer!
- Oktoberfest closed down at nine, so we headed out for more eating and grabbed some dumplings
- Saturday morning I decided to head out to Gujo Hachiman, a little town on the Yoshida River in Gifu Prefecture that is famous for the Gujo Owari dance festival and plastic food replicas 

Collage Three, First Row
- While I was walking along the banks of the Yoshida River I stumbled upon a man fishing for ayu, a local fish
- Being in Gujo Hachiman, I had to try my hand at making some food replicas and created a little pastry. Eighty percent of the food replicas that are on display in the windows of Japanese restaurants are made in Gujo Hachiman
- Saturday night I went back to Nagoya Oktoberfest, this time with a different group of friends 

Collage Three, Second Row
- After Oktoberfest closed at nine, we headed to ID Bar, a dance club in Nagoya that I hadn't been to in years. It was like going back in time four years
- On Sunday morning I headed to the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium to see if there was any chance I could get a ticket to the Nagoya Basho (Sumo Tournament). It was sold out but I had fun watching some of the younger sumos walking around outside 
- For lunch I grabbed a bowl of kishimen, a flat type of noodle famous in the Nagoya area

Collage Three, Third Row
- Since I was right nearby, I visited Nagoya Castle, which I hadn't been to in several years. They are rebuilding the Hommaru Palace which was destroyed in WWII using traditional techniques. It was really neat to see the progress on the buildings
- It was hot out so I escaped to the cool and peaceful forest surroundings of Atsuta Jingu (a famous Nagoya Shinto shrine) for a little while
- In the late afternoon I headed to Osu Kannon (a covered pedestrian mall) for some fun people watching.  

What have you been up to this week? Have you been busy or are you enjoying a relaxing summer?

Japanese Omiyage (お土産)

Working with people from from a completely different culture is rewarding in many ways but it can also be difficult to find common ground and build trust as colleagues. Nothing bridges gaps more than making an effort to follow some of the other culture's customs.

One of the simplest goodwill building gestures you can do in Japan is the act of giving omiyage (お土産). Omiyage are souvenirs, but in a work place context they are little treats that you bring for your co-workers when you come back from a business trip or a vacation out of town. Additionally, if you are going on a business trip somewhere else, you also bring your hosts omiyage.

Omiyage is big business in Japan. Everywhere you go, especially at large train stations and airports where people are in transit, there are beautiful shops selling gorgeous omiyage. Different areas have local specialties, but some things, like fancy rice crackers, are popular just about everywhere.

I won't even pretend to know all of the intricacies of Japanese gift giving, but in general you want give omiyage that is consumable, beautifully packaged and has the contents individually wrapped so it is easy to distribute within the group you are visiting. It is also best if the treat you are giving reflects the place you are coming from or is locally produced.

All of this causes me no end of a conundrum when I visit Japan. When I was living in Japan and would travel domestically, finding something nice to bring back to my group was no problem. Coming from the U.S. on business trip is a whole different matter. First, I usually end up visiting a ton of people when I am on business trip so I have to bring tons of omiyage which can be very pricey. I just don't have it in my budget to spend $500 for treats. Additionally, since this isn't a custom in the U.S. finding something that looks pretty, is tasty and is individually wrapped is next to impossible. I always try my best but because I am not Japanese and giving omiyage is not expected from me it is okay if my omiyage isn't exactly Japanese style. The point is that I make an effort to give omiyage and follow Japanese custom which is what is important.

Figuring out what to give on this trip was difficult. I had just used my standby go-to omiyage of Ghiradelli chocolate squares (individually wrapped = check, edible = check, something produced in the U.S. = check, won't make me go bankrupt = check, beautiful packaging = so-so) which meets most of the criteria when I was visiting in December so I didn't want to use that again. I ended up getting several boxes of large round wafer cookies with various fillings. The box wasn't exactly beautiful but looked nice enough and the treats seemed pretty tasty. I also got some individually wrapped chocolate truffles but they melted in my luggage. Yeah, I know I am an idiot for bringing chocolate to Japan in the summer. Anyway, luckily I brought enough of the wafer cookies since my checked bag was half full of them.

As a side note, have you ever been in a duty free shop and seen packages of chocolates emblazoned with U.S.A. and pictures of American flags and the Statue of Liberty? Despite not achieving the beautiful packaging requirement, those boxes of chocolates clearly indicate that the traveler is coming from the U.S. and are being marketed for omiyage. One time when I was desperate I bought some of them for a business trip and the chocolates were terrible. I'll never do that again!

The upside of this gift giving business culture is that I often have a chance to enjoy being on the receiving end of these little treats. When I was working in Japan, after we would have a company wide holiday I would come back to work and it was like a little buffet of delicious treats in our office area with everyone having brought something in. Being back home in the U.S. whenever we have a Japanese visitor I get to have a little bite sized tastes of things that I loved in Japan but are hard to find in America.

When it is all said and done I really love this Japanese tradition. It's a nice simple way that you show your colleagues that you respect them and appreciate working with them. Plus, I get to give and receive treats. Any tradition that involves me getting to eat tasty things is awesome in my book.

Off to Japan...

I'm at the airport right now waiting for my flight to Japan. Last time I was in Japan was in early December when the fall leaves were beautiful shades of red.

This trip will be different, however. The end of July is right when the rainy season in Central Japan ends and the crazy hot and humid summer begins.  

Despite the impending heat, I am looking forward to this trip. I have a lot to accomplish for work, plus I'll get to see some friends from my days when I lived in Japan.

We're boarding soon so I better sign off. Happy travels!

If you are interested, check out some other posts from this trip to Japan: Japanese Omiyage, Week in Pictures: 7.22.2012, Shopping at the Hyaku-en Shop (百円ショップ ), Flying Over Mt. Fuji,  Week in Pictures: 7.30.2012

Picture of the Day: Lanterns at Enryakuji

Enryakuji, Japan
12.3.2011 

Picture of the Day: Flowers at Farm Tomita in Furano

Furano, Hokkaido, Japan
9.2010

How to Wrap Gifts Like A Japanese Department Store

One of the things that I always thought was cool while living in Japan was the method that the department stores would use to wrap gifts. They wrap the gift with the paper on an angle, tucking the excess paper in as they go and the final result requires only a single piece of tape at the end. It always looks quite elegant and I would watch amazed as the department store clerks would beautifully wrap up something I bought so quickly and efficiently.

With one of my friends moving to Chicago I bought her a little book about the town as a going away gift and thought it would be fun to wrap in a Chicago map. I've been meaning to try to wrap something Japanese Department Store style and this seemed like a good opportunity.

I had seen it done a ton of times so I thought it wouldn't be hard but it is definitely a little more difficult than it looks. I tried it out with a scrap piece of paper before I wrapped it for real with the map and I am glad that I did. Getting the right angle and making sure the paper is big enough to cover your gift, but not so big that you have too much excess paper to tuck in is a little tricky. I think with a little practice it would be fairly simple to get the hang of though.

To wrap the gift place it in the bottom right corner of your paper at an angle so that you can fold a small amount of the corner of the paper over the bottom of the gift. Next, fold the paper over the right side of the gift, tucking in the excess paper at the corner so the paper lays flat.

Once you have the bottom and right side folded over, you flip the gift over itself on the table, tucking in excess paper on the right as you go. Now the gift is mostly covered with paper flaps still remaining on the left and top. Fold the left side over the gift, tucking in the excess paper and the finish by folding down the top over the gift. The wrapping paper can now be secured with a single piece of tape on the top flap. I finished my gift off by adding a handmade Bon Voyage card and some baker's twine with a bow.

I am happy at how my first try at Japanese Department Store gift wrapping came out and I'll have to try it again. If you are curious how the experts do it, here is a video of a lady slowly explaining how to wrap a gift (it's in Japanese but you can see how it is done) and here is a video of an Isetan Department Store Clerk in action wrapping a gift. Pretty neat, don't you think?

Picture of the Day: View of Lake Biwa From Atop Hikone Castle

Hikone, Japan
5.22.2011

Picture of the Day: Boats on Gokase River in Takachiho Gorge

Takachiho Gorge
Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan
3.2009 

My Favorite Shrine in Kyoto: Fushimi Inari Taisha

Kyoto is an amazing place full of Japanese shrines and temples. With roughly 2000 to chose from you could spend years and not see it all.

On my first trip to Japan back in 2006 I had a Sunday to myself that I spent in Kyoto. As I was planning my day off a Japanese colleague asked me what I was planning to see. I said that I was trying to narrow down to a few temples and shrines to visit since there was no way to see it all. "Yes," he replied, "as you Americans say don't even think about it."

Not only did he do a nice job of working an English colloquialism into the conversation (he loved picking them up from watching American TV) but he was also right that if you go to Kyoto and try to see everything you'll end up seeing nothing.

I've been to Kyoto many times over the years during business trips to Japan and while I was living over there and when I've gone I usually focus on visiting just a handful of places. With all the amazing places to see in Kyoto I have a special fondness for Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社). It is south of town and a little bit out of the way but so worth visiting.

Fushimi Inari is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the kami (神), Japanese shinto spirit, Inari (稲荷). Inari has many depictions sometimes represented as male, female or androgynous and sometimes as a collection of three or five individual kami. There are many Inari shrines in Japan but Fushimi Inari is the head Inari shrine and dates back to 711 AD.

The entrance to Fushimi Inari has a typical layout. On the sando (参道), or shrine approach, two large red sacred gates, torii, mark the main entrance to the shrine's grounds. Passing under the second torii, on the left is a temizuya (手水舎) which is a basin filled with water for purification before entering the shrine. Continuing along the sando is the romon (楼門), or tower gate, which you pass under to enter the main area of the shrine.

Inside the shrine the go-honden (御本殿), main shrine, is a beautiful building located at the base of Mount Inari and is the heart of the shrine complex.

Inari is associated with white kitsune (狐), or foxes, that act as his/her messengers. A typical Inari shrine has very stylized fox statues flanking gates and Fushimi Inari is no exception. The ema (絵馬), Shinto wooden wishing plaques, at Fushimi Inari are even in the shape of a fox. You can buy one at the shrine, write your prayer or wish on it, and then leave it at the shrine for Inari to receive.

The thing that I absolutely love about visiting Fushimi Inari is wandering through the torii (gates). Inari is the patron kami (spirit) of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry and worldly success. Because of the two later items companies in Japan will have torii erected at Inari shrines with their company name written on them.

The rows of torii create paths that wind through the forest and up the mountainside. Although there are generally a good number of people near the entrance to the shrine you can quickly find yourself alone as you explore deeper along the paths. It is a really peaceful and beautiful experience and if you should ever find yourself in Kyoto, be sure to make a trip to Fushimi Inari Shrine.

To reach Fushimi Inari Taisha, you can take the JR Nara Line from Kyoto Station and get off at Inari Station. The train ride is about five minutes and then the walk to the shrine from Inari station is about three minutes. 

Picture of the Day: Lanterns at Kasuga Taisha in Nara

Nara, Japan
08.15.2010