Three Years On…

On March 11 2011, Japan was hit by a major disaster. An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred off the coast of Japan, causing the most expensive natural disaster in world history.

Three years on, Japan is still trying to rebuild from the effects of the earthquake and tsunami.

In February, I visited Minamisanriku, a town in Miyagi prefecture that was devastated by the tsunami. You can see a before and after video of the tsunami in Minamisanriku here

Minamisanriku is one of many towns along the Japanese coast that was affected by the tsunami. Due mostly to economic factors, much of the town that was destroyed is yet to be rebuilt. Understandably, there are many residents of Minamisanriku that do not want to return to live where their homes once were, preferring to live in the temporary housing provided by the government. The plan for Minamisanriku is to raise the ground level over 10 metres, so the buildings will be safe from future tsunamis. 

Still clearing old buildings before they can begin new construction.

This is what all of the buildings in the area look like, temporary housing structures scattered amongst cleared land.

Sections of the old train line, most of which was washed away. The train now no longer runs here, you can only get there by bus. 

Rebuilding is a slow, expensive process.

While I was there, I worked with a non-profit organisation called OGA for Aid, who work with the community to provide a range of services, from distributing aid, to economic enhancement though employing local people and creating local industry, and community revitalisation though community events and projects such as English lessons for students. This organisation is made up of people who are working tirelessly to help improve the lives of those in need. You can see more about the organisation here: http://www.ogaforaid.org/en/

Harvesting Nabana in one of OGA for Aid’s greenhouses.

I met the Mayor of Minamisanriku, Jin Sato. When he was asked what message he would like to send to the rest of the world three years on, he said, “Don’t forget about us. We are still here.”

Sapporo Snow Festival

Every year in February, more than 2 million people come to Sapporo to celebrate the さっぽろ ゆき まつり.

The festival involves many people from all over the world coming to Sapporo and creating snow and ice sculptures of all shapes and sizes.

Sapporo Snow Festival by numbers:

Number of Visitors (2013) : 2,367,000

Number of Sculptures (2014) : 199

Amount of Snow used: 32,000 tonnes

Many of the people who compete in the snow festival are amateurs, coming from places like Malaysia where there isn’t a lot of snow to practice on!

Some of the teams building their sculptures, using barbed wire, chisels and even chainsaws to carve the sculptures.

Some of the finished products of the smaller sculptures, can you guess which Japanese folk tale the last sculpture is?

As well as lots of smaller sculptures, big companies sponsor the festival and make the main features of the festival. This includes giant snow sculptures of buildings and streets of ice sculptures.

But the best part of the the festival is when they light up the sculptures at night. Every 15 minutes or so, they put on a light show projected on to each of the main sculptures, it was so pretty!

(Sorry the video is not very good quality… my camera died and I had to use my phone!)

Other parts of the Snow Festival… Eating a famous Sapporo lamb dish called Genghis Khan, a park which had been decorated and lit up by the local primary school, and ice sculptures at Lake Shikotsu which were all made using the lake’s water.

And finally… Not a part of the Snow Festival but pretty cool… On my way back to Tokyo I stopped at Zao Onsen to see a natural phenomenon they call ‘Ice Monsters.’

The snow and wind here are just right so that all the trees get covered in snow to make them look like this!

Setsubun

Yesterday in Japan it was せつぶん! It is held on the 3rd or 4th of Feb to signify the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

There are several parts of Sestubun. Usually in a household, the male head of the household will wear an Oni mask, and the rest of the family members will throw roasted soy beans at him, yelling ‘おにはそと！ふきはうち！’ Which means “Demons Out! Good Luck In!” It is meant to purify the home for the following year, and drive out spirits that bring bad luck.

Oni mask display at the local supermarket. Most supermarkets had oni masks and roasted soy beans for sale for the occasion.

As well as celebrating Setsubun at home and at school, many people go to local shrines on the day. At the shrines, priests, invited guests who are としおとこ and としおんな (people whose zodiac sign corresponds to the year’s animal, i.e. this year it was people who were born in the year of the horse) and celebrities come and throw small bags of roasted soy beans and lollies to the waiting crowds. People then take them home and eat the same number as their age for good luck.

  

Ikegami Honmonji Temple set up for Setsubun, and the priests leading the procession of people.

 

 Famous Former Sumo Wrestlers

People were very eager to push forward to catch the soy beans! (But I guess if you have to eat the same number as your age, some people had to catch a lot!)

You had to make sure you were watching so you didn’t get hit in the head by them, they were pretty solid! These bags contained roasted soy beans and a caramel lolly.

The final tradition that I took part in was eating えほうまき, which is uncut まきずし. There are 7 ingredients inside them as 7 is a lucky number in Japan. This tradition originated in the Kansai area, but now you can find えほうまき in every department store and supermarket in Tokyo. It is customary to eat the whole えほうまき (which means lucky direction roll) without stopping, in silence while facing the compass direction relating to this year’s zodiac animal. This year we faced East North East to eat them.

We were also very lucky on the day, it has been unusually warm in Tokyo (it was 19 degrees on Setsubun), and some さくら had started blooming! A good sign to welcome in the spring!

Japanese Plastic Food

In nearly every restaurant you go to in Japan, they will have samples of their restaurant’s food on display in the window. 

This week I went to Kappabashi, a street in Tokyo that specialises in kitchen products. There were whole shops that sold nothing but kitchen sinks, and other dedicated to plastic cups and waribashi.

But the best shops are the ones that sell plastic food! If you are a Japanese restaurant, you can bring pictures of your dishes to these shops and they will make perfect plastic replicas for you to put in your shop window. You can also buy the dishes they have on display there. でも、とても　たかかったです！！！

 

Each of these pieces of てんぷら were about ¥2000!

I bought a couple that weren’t too expensive…やきそば

 

DIY らめん: This one you have to construct yourself… It comes with the pieces and you have to heat the liquid and set all the pieces in it… How hard can it be?!?

And the best news… these shops have online stores! Check out:

Ganso Sample

http://www.ganso-sample.com/ec/

Sato Foods Sample

http://homepage3.nifty.com/310sample/

Snow Monkeys

So pretty much the whole reason I went to Suzaka was to see these monkeys…

They are Japanese macaque, and with the except of humans, no other primate lives in a colder or more northern climate. So what do they do to deal with the cold? Sit in the hot springs of course! These monkeys live up in the hills at night, and come down to the onsen during the day to relax! What a hard life!

Sumo!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to go and see the Sumo in Tokyo. There are only 6 Grand Sumo Tournaments each year, and only 3 of these take place in Tokyo, so it was good timing! I am no expert in Sumo but I managed to learn a bit about it!

We arrived in the afternoon to see the Makuuchi Division, which is the highest ranking sumo bout. Before the matches begin, all the sumo wrestlers participate in a ring entering ceremony, wearing けしょうまわし keshou mawashi. These ornamental mawashi usually represent their sponsors. Sometimes sumo wrestlers from other countries will wear a keshou mawashi with their country’s flag on it.

Apparently these mawashi were traditionally worn to show that the wrestlers were not concealing any weapons

Before the wrestlers begin a match, they participate in a number of rituals that are related to Shinto religion. On entering the ring, the sumo will clap and stomp his leg in a manner called  しこ shiko. This is to drive evil spirits from the ring. Then the sumo wrestlers will then receive ‘power water,’ and throw salt in to the ring to purify it. This must be done every time they enter the ring. 

The flags at the end of the video represent sponsors of that match. Whoever wins the match receives ¥60000 per flag

And then they are ready for battle! They are not allowed to start the match until both sumo wrestlers have put both their fists on the ground, and there is a lot of mind games and staring each other down that go on before the match actually begins. The wrestlers will often squat down to face their opponent 3 or 4 times before actually being ready for the match. Once it begins, it is usually over within 30 seconds. To win, your opponent must either step outside the ring or put any part of his body apart from his feet on the ground. Although they may look fat and wobbly, sumo wrestlers are very very strong! This video is of the the current highest ranking sumo wrestler, Hakuhou (who is originally from Mongolia) winning his 14th match in a row.

Did You Know? 

• High ranking sumo wrestlers usually wear traditional dress at all times. I saw sumo wrestlers at the train station, and at the supermarket (buying pudding!), dressed in traditional yukatas.
• Women are not allowed in to the sumo ring at all.
• Not all sumo wrestlers are fat. Takanoyama Shuntarou (from the Czech Republic) entered the highest level of sumo competition in 2011, and weighs only 98kg.

Off to Japan!

Looking forward to hanging out with these guys in Suzaka!

I am very excited to be spending 2014 in Japan!

Although I have not finalized my full itinerary, the plan so far looks like this;

• Early Jan      – Skiing in Hakuba
• Mid Jan –      Suzaka to see the Snow Monkeys!
• End Jan –      Tokyo, will be there for Setsubun!
• Early Feb      – Sapporo Snow Festival
• Mid Feb –      …… On to more adventures!

楽しみにしている！＼（＾o＾）／