Word of the Day: “gentou”

“Severe winter.” The Japanese have a word for it: gentou.  Unlike dantou, mild winter, the word gentou is seldom or never used conversationally; nevertheless, there is a word for it, and gentou is that word.

Most people would agree that this is a gentou winter in Japan. All I know is, despite wearing a gauze mask at home and school for the last two months I still get nosebleeds daily because of the dry air this year. I’ll probably end up just getting the thing, my nose, cauterized. Allergy season has started, and the thought of explosive bloody sneezes is enough to drive me to a doctor’s office. Or to participate in the annual health check at school this week…

Snow Day Redux!

One snow day, that’s rare enough in Tokyo, but two within a week of each other! 2012, The Year of the Dragon, has certainly gotten off to an auspicious start.

Here, reprinted from my flickr page, are some of the most popular pictures, along with a few personal favourites, I’ve taken during Tokyo’s mid-winter snow season.

I love snow, especially when it falls in big, wet, heavy flakes that settle on everything, and transmogrify the everyday into a fantastical alternativer universe. Guitars make texture not music, and a subway station is the threshold before a winter wonderland.

Snow Guitar

Snow Cabbage

Snow Tree

Snow Tracks

Snow Leaves

Snow Berries

Snow Day, Tokyo

A few pictures from a — rare — snow day here in Tokyo, taken during my morning commute.

Snow Cabbage, Nerima

Snow Guitar, Nerima

Snow Guitar, Nerima

Nice Pics: Metropolis’ Photo of the Day

Metropolis runs a Photo of the Week page in their print magazine, and maintains a database of images on their website, including pictures not printed in the magazine. The subject matter, like the style, varies, but at its best they publish some compelling images of life in Tokyo as seen through an expat’s lens.

Scroll down or “Find” Lee Chapman to view the — chilling — Photo of the Year for 2011, as voted by Metropolis readers.

Good Reads: “snowflakes that cast shadows” (Niseko)

NYTimes: “Niseko, Japan’s Own St. Moritz” by Ondine Cohane; with  ccompanying slidehsow

 

11 years ago, when I last visited Niseko, the ski resort area outside of Sapporo on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, the place still felt off the beaten path, for expats and tourists alike. I remember snowshoeing through a river valley, among rocks and trees mushroom-capped with some of that “champagne powder” snow that is making this part of Hokkaido internationally famous. At the time, Niseko was still a destination worth visiting for some peaceful communing with nature.

Hopefully, that’s still the case. However, in the ensuing 11 years, Niseko has apparently gone from a sleepy village to a world-class resort town. Australians and others are buying up vacation condos, and the area is now on the radar of the international jet set. And service infrastructure, ie restaurants for foodies,  is arising to meet the needs of this new class of visitor.

Good Read: The Tohoku 18,000

Back in the days immediately following the March 11 Tohoku disaster, reports appeared in the media of what was quickly termed “The Tohoku 50″ to describe the nuclear power plane employees who stayed on-site and worked bravely, and perhaps suicidally, to limit the radiation crisis.

The workers who have been exposed to the Fukushima site now number some 18,000. In “Heroes of the Hot Zone” in the January, 2012 edition of Vanity Fair, long-term Japan resident writer Pico Iyer tails a controversial radiation specialist, Dr. Robert Gale, on his visit to the most affected region around the Fukushima Daiichi plant as he attempts to allay the fears of these workers. Iyer does an especially good job of capturing the voices of these anonymous men, and their sometimes complex motivations for putting themselves in harm’s way.

“Walking Hand in Hand”: Charity Song for Tohoku Survivors from The Complaints Department

As part of their ongoing effort to raise awareness and money for the survivors of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (they were instrumental in organizing the recent trilogy Musicians for Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Vols. 1 -3, at What the Dickens in Tokyo, as well as doing volunteer work in the disaster area), my buddies The Complaints Department have released their video Walking Hand in Hand which includes their original – and  catchy – post-punk tune,  as well as images from the disaster area. Powerful stuff.

Here, in his own words, is the band’s lead singer Nate Gildart:

Some of you already know about the charity song my band has released on iTunes and Amazon MP3, with ALL PROCEEDS being donated to grassroots charities working in the Tohoku (northeastern) region of Japan. It can be sampled on YouTube, as well as on iTunes. If you like it, please download it and pass it on to friends and family. This isn’t a callous effort to promote the band; we questioned whether we should release it at all. 皆さんにメールを送ってすみませんが、チャリティーのためですから許してください。2011年の11月に僕のバンドはiTunes& Amazon MP3にチャリティーソングをリリースしました。『手をつなぎながら』と言う曲です。売上金は全て東北で活躍しているNGOに寄付します。好きだったら友人、家族などに教えてください。バンドの宣伝の為ではなく、チャリティーの為です。

There is still a lot to do in terms of reconstruction, but 2012 will bring better things to Japan. まだまだ、たくさんの仕事がありますが、2012年に日本は一歩一歩進んでいく！

ダウンロードは：

Download at:

Official Web Site: http://www.thecomplaintsdepartment.net/

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/jp/album//id482075047?l=en

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.jp/手をつなぎながら-Walking-Hand-in/dp/B006BADEJC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321920913&sr=8-1

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYJpeR6ix54&feature=youtu.be

Good Read: Vegetarian Survival Guide to Japan

Erin and Simon, over at Never Ending Voyage, have added a page on Japan to their growing list of resources for vegetarians on the road (other pages cover Hong Kong, and parts of South America).

I spent three-plus years living as a vegetarian in rural, remote Hokkaido. Then again, I lived with an awesome vegan cook at the time, so it was no great hardship for me. The reality for most vegetarians, however, and especially travellers, is that Japan is a surprisingly challenging destination for non-fish eaters, in particular, as this recent thread at Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree attests.

In a pinch, you can always go Indian. Erin and Simon, however, provide some survival tips, such as useful words and phrases in Japanese, pictures of vegetarian-friendly dishes common in Japan (think  tofu! And Mos Burger’s carrot and burdock-root “burger” on a rice cake bun), and a short list of restaurants — mostly in Kyoto — which the authors recommend.

All in all, a virtual tabehodai of useful information for vegetarian travellers to Japan.

NHK TV Documentary: Everest

(cross-posted to http://exitbooted.wordpress.com/)

Channel surfing this evening (Monday, January 2nd, 9pm), we stumbled onto NHK’s broadcast of “Everest: the Highest Peak on Earth,” which may or may not be the first HD film successfully shot from the summit of the world’s highest point (8,848 meters, for the record).

Whether it is a world first or not (the English-language website claims “successfully captured in high-definition images by NHK TV crew for the first time ever,” which literally claims something considerably less noteworthy), the HD images of the group’s route through the Khumbu Icefall and the Western Cwm, as well as landscape shots of the surrounding peaks and the view from the summit, are breathtaking. I hope this one will be available on Blu-Ray (please take the hint, NHK execs)…

Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami Update: Japan “open for business” (Outside magazine; BBC)

Well, no surprise: Japan made Outside magazine’s “Top 10 Travel Stories for 2011″ listing this year. At least there’s some good news: despite the media’s insistent comparisons to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the actual amount of radiation released in Japan appears much lower than in that historic event. What’s more, life in Tokyo is returning to normal (which matches my impressions), and major projects such as Tokyo’s Sky Tree, which will be the second tallest building in the world, are back online, and expected to be a major attraction when it opens in 2012.

Check out ken.h’s picture of Fujisan on the Outside web page.

On a more sober note: anecdotal reports from travellers to the tsunami-afflicted regions of Tohoku report that there is still widespread devastation in the area, and entire areas remain abandoned. Volunteers continue to work in the area.