Part 2...

Yesterday, I went back to the Hong Kong Museum of Art since my aunt hadn't gone so I had a chance to grab my camera and take some better photos as well as read more about some of the displays there.

Despite still having lots of people riding on trains, the feel is vastly different from Tokyo...

We started the day with a walk around Wan Chai, where you'll find the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The interesting thing about this building is that it's actually built, like lots of Hong Kong including the airport, on "reclaimed" land (ie- filling the sea with dirt to make a new landmass) and is connected by a short bridge. When they wanted to expand the building, the government wouldn't let them fill in the area the bridge was on, since excessive reclamation would turn Victoria Harbour into a puddle. So, they planted giant metal beams into the ocean floor and are now building the entire Exhibition Centre extension on steel supports. And all the while not "filling in the ocean". Sneaky...

The Convention Centre is the low, arched building in the foreground.

After that, it was a short ferry ride across the water to Tsim Sha Tsui to the museum. Having more time to browse, I found out a bit more about some of the displays I took pictures of.

These are the museum-founder pillows I was telling you about.... they're slightly creepy but popular (despite the lack of people in the shot =P )...

As it turns out, popular isn't the right word..... more like infamous, since nobody likes him (his main job is that of a politician). And what better way than show that than to turn him into a stuff doll?? heh...

Four caricatures found in the fine art section.

A nice minimalistic, almost cartoony painting of the 8 Eccentrics of Yangzhou.

I didn't realise this the first time I went, but the coffin-bed I took a picture of is actually connected to a display on the opposite end of the exhibit. The artist commented on the environmental (and, I suppose, metaphorical) unfriendliness of coffins being one-use and designed this. Made out of an old crate, he says he can use it as a furniture for 30 years and, when he passes away, it becomes a coffin holding all his memories. Special thanks to my aunt for modelling the sofa-table-coffin-bed...

And having had dinner near the harbour, I went back to see the lights....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"jidai" 時代 which means "(time) period" or "era". It also means the same in Chinese, although it's read differently (si doi, in Cantonese). While it's most often refers to eras in history, it can be used to refer to any period of time- "These young whippersnappers these days, no respect at all! It really is an end of an era."

And while it doesn't directly refer to generations (that's a different word), you could use it to mention different decades people have lived through. Much like the decades I heard about from my grandmother and grandfather when I met them for lunch a few days ago. I was especially happy to see my grandpa again partly because I haven't seen him in a long time (since 2003 I believe...) but more so because he seemed more alert and stronger than I last saw him, which is always good.

More to the point, the reason "jidai" is the word of the week is because today I took a browse through the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Interestingly, I pretty much ended up in the museum by accident as, seeing I had a few hours to kill, I picked a random train station and upon exiting, a quick glance at the map directory pointed to this and the Hong Kong Space Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui.

To get the bad part with out of the way, despite costing a meagre $10HKD (a touch more than $1.50 CAD), the Space Museum wasn't that great. While it does have lots of bits and pieces of information about astronomy, space research, and space exploration, it didn't amount to much more than a well researched and comprehensive display of pictures and captions.

The Museum of Art, however, was much better. Even with its two separate Special Exhibits under renovation, the other main exhibits, including a modern art exhibit with local Hong Kong artists and a huge range of antiques and fine art from various Chinese dynasties, were great. And it also costed $10HKD.

This display is essentially a coffin-sized crate padded like a bed. A sign encouraged people to lie inside it for a nice "sleep". It was surprisingly comfy...

While red, white, and blue are typically associated with America (or France, I suppose), the "red-white-blue" canvas bags are one of the most recognizable symbols of Hong Kong. This table and backpack is matched with another exhibit outside of the room of a couch and mini-fridge, also fashioned out of the iconic fabric.

Interestingly, next to the display outside are two couches with life-size stuffed caricatures of the museum director. A video suggests giving the stuffed dolls a hug and recommends a short nap with one of the dolls to help you explore your dreams...

This really neat display is essentially an spectrum analyzer reading of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. What you see are basically the physically representation of the peaks of various frequencies at each beat of the most well known part of the piece (the beginning), mounted to a wall. Obviously few people see music in the form of wave frequencies, but it made for an interesting art piece nonetheless.

In the antiques section, these monochrome Ming pottery examples really stole the show for me. The exhibits covered the entire range of pottery from various Chinese dynasties and while the very detailed, very intricate pottery that Chinese culture is known for were present, these monochrome ones stood out, not in the least because of their stark contrast to the more well-known (or perhaps best known) blue-on-white porcelain also from the Ming dynasty.

I particularly liked these because they looked minimalist and modern, like they'd be right at home on an Ikea shelf. Even the colour (if they were indeed such bright hues), are trendy. But the absolute best part is that really subtle and elaborate designs are engraved into the porcelain. You can't see it until you're up close (and you can barely see it in the pictures), but these simple looking bowls and cups are actually really elegant once you put some time into examining them. I like that...

However, the neatest part of the entire museum was a little area of 15 paintings in the fine art section. Titled "One Painting - One Story", each classic painting was numbered and visitors were encouraged to write a short 80 word explanation about what they thought a certain painting represented. The stories were submitted and then posted under their respective painting.

Take the above painting for example. I overheard a 6-year old future museum curator explain it as:

"One day, everyone got on a bus to go pick up their kids. But they were all annoyed because the bus was going really slow. They all said, `Why is the bus going SO slow?`. Then the bus driver said, `Because there's a cow walking across the street.` Then everyone said, `Why are there so many wheels?` And the bus driver sai-"

Then his mom said they ran out of space on the paper...

Here's one final story. I actually took a picture of the paper so what follows is a direct transcription:

"There is once a monk called Chris, who always have illosions. He once have a illousion about his Friend, Domini Lau betray him. Of course, it was a illousion but Chris thought it was real, and balled his friend. But this is not the worse one. One day Chris decided to go camping. he walked up a mountain and went to the top. There's a cliff. Chris thought there was a door. He made a 大 position and thought he opened the door. He thought he saw Issac's stove. He jump and bow. But instead he fell down the cliff. He's dead. So the illousion guy was gone.

By Issac"

I love art... =P

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"hisashiburi" 久しぶり which translates to "after a long time". It's heard most often when you see someone again after a long time and basically means "It's been a while/Long time no see". For me it applies to my aunt, cousin, and the general country of Hong Kong, where I'm staying from April 1-19.

In truth, when I was getting ready to come here, I wasn't really expecting much. It's not my first time here and there are lots of parallels to draw between HK and Tokyo, so it couldn't be that hard to adjust, right? But, as I've found in one simple day out, HK and Tokyo are vastly different despite similar outward characteristics like lots of people in a small place, lots of tall but narrow buildings, and lots of taxis (below right).

The biggest thing is simply that while Japan always feels like a country where the image and the reality can (and are) quite different, Hong Kong has a distinctly "straight-forward" feel to it. People certainly aren't as courteous be it in shops, restaurants, or in the street. But having seen my share of aggressive or gossipy Japanese people beneath the image, seeing people in HK simply just being who they are is..... well...... not good, but..... refreshingly honest, let's say.

The city itself looks like that too. Each of Tokyo's areas look as they should whether it's a high-tech business hub or a rustic area surrounding a temple. On the other hand, HK just looks like it was built as is, on whatever budget the builder could afford, and not fixed til it broke. Lots of buildings darked by age sit right next to (or on top of) big office towers while street vendors sell their wares in stalls/shacks.

Even the fashion sense here is slightly different. People somehow look slightly less trendy, as if they saved a dime here or there whenever they could while many Japanese look like they subsisted on cup-noodles just to buy real things at real prices. As I mentioned before, there's a very real sense of honest pragmatism here...

Of course, I promptly went out shopped amongst the pragmatic vendors. There's lots of great deals to be had considering everything is made in China and those factories seem to have no qualms about making an extra few "samples" to ship over. Fakes can still be found but I have honestly seen things for sale in Japan (an Edwin messenger bag, for example) sold here at half price.

Shopping aside, it's been great just being here spending time with my aunt and cousin. And their absolutely insane Pomeranian, Lola (left). And on Saturday I'm going to see my grandpa, which I'm excited about. Oh, and getting my Chinese back up to speed of course =P......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"hirakegoma" 開けゴマ. The first half of the phrase (hirake, 開け) means "to open" and the second half (goma, ゴマ or 胡麻) means "sesame". Yes indeed, hirakegoma translates literally to "Open Sesame!".

I found out this neat tidbit as I was standing in front of the Komazawa Olympic Gym (web page is Japanese only), built for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Waiting for the doors to open, I asked a friend what people say when they want doors to open and she quickly answered "hirakegoma!". While we stood there blabbing away about the crazy odds that the phrase is the same in both English and Japanese, another friend calmly pointed out that the phrase comes from "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", hence the same translation..... right....

Anyways, this past Sunday was the Kanto area Wadokai Championships. I competed in this last year as well, but for some reason it looks like I forgot to write a post for it. Anyways, last year all I did in kumite was give my opponent a bloody nose and all I did in kata was not win.

Usual large Shiramizu turn-out. Picture courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's blog.

This year, because of a slight registration mix up, I was entered in kata only. Which was fine with me, but I found out that they also split up the university students from the adult kumite divisions, which means I would've stood a better chance had I entered kumite. Mostly because university students in Japan are known for not really studying (they do that in their high school years leading up to university) and thus spend every waking moment taking part in whatever club they're in, karate included.

Either way, I watched the kumite rounds and got ready for my kata match. I had set my sights on Top 8 for kata but that didn't happen because I crashed out in the first round. Luckily, Carl taped my performance but after watching it twice, I still couldn't see what the difference was. I felt I was sharper on a lot of the moves but somehow the decision still went to the other person.

I had a short chat with one of the judges after the division was over and he explained that while there was nothing "wrong" with my performance, there were lots of little details that were missing. I asked for an example and he just said "Lots of different ones". Sufficiently confused, I thanked him and sat down to ponder the profound statement.

It wasn't til the day after that Richard explained that perhaps the other guy's kata had more "emotion" and that helps even if the kata itself isn't as good technically. That made a lot of sense and explained that judge's comments and the video difference....... so, it's back to the drawing board.....

Arakawa Sensei leading the afternoon demo. Picture courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's blog.

I had a good time despite that, as I always do. But the absolute best part was that all of the Shiramizu instructors (all of whom, I believe, are over 40) competed except two, who were judges. It's inspiring to see them compete and even better that a few of them took medals home.

In fact, special mention goes out to Yoshihara Sensei who won silver in BOTH senior women's kata and kumite. I should also mention Uchida-san who, after getting his black belt just two weeks ago, went in and won the senior men's 50+ kumite!

Here's to hoping that I can be that sprightly when I get to that age haha......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"okagesama de" おかげさまで which means "thanks to" or "owing to". It's not the same as directly thanking someone, but it's more said in relation to something happening as a result of someone caring.

The phrase could be found on posters celebrating an anniversary of a restaurant for example, thanking customers for years of patronage. Or, if someone asked how you're doing, you could add "okagesama de" after your response to show you appreciate their caring. And, of course, it applies directly to someone helping you do something.

Picture courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's blog... because I had no camera... again...

In my case, I want to thank Arakawa Sensei and Shiramizu, Takagi Sensei and Guseikai, and Richard for helping me pass my sandan test this past Sunday. I was originally going to take one in June but Carl needed a partner for his nidan test (which he passed! Congrats!) so I took my test with him. Extra congratulations to all the Shiramizu students who passed as well, including Uchida-san- 50 years young and getting his black belt!

The test was in the same place as last year (in Chiba, near Tokyo Disneyland) and run by more or less the same people. The tested material was the same as well, especially since this one lets you choose some of the things you will do.

The test in June was to be the Tokyo area one and it's harder since there is a range of things they will ask you to do. They'll only ask you to do one or two of the things, but since you won't find out which until the day of, you essentially have to know them all. I planned on (and prepped for) this Tokyo one, but I didn't take it....

That, however, was not the only thing I'm grateful for. I'm also grateful for this...

A Stig mug!!! And a giant chocolate egg to go with it!

This I got from Fiona who came from England late last year and, through a common karate interest, got in touch through the Shiramizu Internship Blog.

Anyways, extra super mega thanks to Fiona.

In the meantime, make sure to check out her blog as well. I dare say it's more interesting than mine haha.....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"tetsudo hakubutsu kan" 鉄道博物館

Tetsu-dou 鉄道 means "railway" and haku-butsu-kan 博物館 is "museum".

So, as you can imagine, mashing them together gives you "Railway Museum". More specifically, it refers to Japan Rail's (JR) Railway Museum in Saitama. It opened late in 2007 and I used to go by it every Friday on my way to work. I made a mental note to visit it at some point and since I took a "Me Day" for myself yesterday, I went to check it out.

I must be honest and say that I didn't expect much. I'm generally skeptical of such specialised museums because many of them lack the resources or the design flare to become anything more than just a room with lots of pictures. The difference here is that this museum is the work of the JR Culture Foundation, a non-profit group linked to the JR Rail Company. This means they have access to loads of de-commissioned and historical items from Japan's railway past, such as the 220kmh 0-series Shinkansen (see below), the first ever bullet train which serviced parts of Japan from 1964 until it was finally retired last year.

But that doesn't really describe just how comprehensive the museum really is. The entire first floor is dedicated to the history of Japanese rail and it includes lots of neat little trinkets and items from the past including old steam locomotives, examples of the early Imperial passenger cabins, and re-creations of a really interesting rack-and-pinion track system used to climb steep hills. They even had an old Hino (see below) that was used as a bus to and from certain train stations.

But it doesn't end there, because there's lots of interactive features such as a cutaway of a bogey (railcar chassis) that shows how the transmission or brakes are working as you "operate" them with replica train switchgear. Or open cabins of various trains for people to walk through. Or small paths underneath the trains so you can pretend you're a railway tie and see the trains from underneath.

Someone forgot to tell them it's not a real train...

The upper two floors house the "Learning Zone" with loads of cutaway machinery and more interactive features show how steam engines work, why rail tracks are a certain shape, or where the motors are in different types of electric trains. There's also a huge wall that chronicles the history of Japanese rail. All in all, it's surprisingly well thought out and does a very good job of explaining the concept of rail, rail cars, and locomotion without overwhelming you with details.

Even better, however, was the replica train system (see right) outside of the building that even includes all the modern safety features (like track-switchers, etc.). Also, if you make a reservation and pay a reasonable ¥500, you can even check out one of 4 different train simulators they have. One of them (for people age 15+) is a real video simulation of an early steam locomotive, mounted on hydraulics to replicate all the little bumps and bounces as you wind your way around perilous mountain passes.

More evidence of the surprising detail in this museum is the amazingly comprehensive (and gigantic) diorama display seen above. It's claimed to be the largest model train diorama in Japan and I can believe it. With more than 6 or 7 trains running at one time, it simulates day and night as overhead TV's give a short presentation about the history and current state of the railway system in Japan.

In fact, the museum actually employs two full-time model makers to keep up with the workload and, as you can see above and below, they do a rather good job.

Wheeeee!!!

Despite my initial gawking at the ¥1000 entrance fee, the Railway Museum is actually worth that. Whether you're a train anorak or not, it's a pleasant way to expore the machine that continues to shrink time and space for the modern world.

Photo courtesy of JR West.

I'd also like to point out my personal favourite train in JR's line-up is the ¥5 billion, 25,000bhp, 300kmh 500-Series Nozomi. Partly because of the speed but mostly because, as you can see above and below, they look like how high-speed trains should look.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kowareru" 壊れる which means "to break", as in to cease functioning. Actually, in my dictionary is says "to make useless".

Interestingly, the suffix -chau can be added to verbs if the action was unwanted or unintended; accidental, as it were. It can also be made into a past tense as -chatta.

So "kowarechatta" 壊れちゃった can mean something that's broken... unexpectedly.

Here's an example of some broken things I've seen this past week... (note- I took all these pics with my phone, so forgive the quality)

This person's taste...

Sure, I realise everyone has different tastes... I have good taste, for example...

Jokes aside, this isn't the first pink car I've seen. I've seen a pink Mini before and that actually seemed ok since it does sort of fit the Mini's cute character.

A 911, however, has no cute qualities. Porsche's insistance on having the engine in the back means it's like driving a sledgehammer and 911's (particularly the Turbo models) have a long standing reputation for spitting drivers off the road... backwards...

Any car that's built on and thrives off an image of death does not deserve to be pink...

Him...

I saw this man in Shibuya last week.

I've mentioned before that the Japanese seem to like taking their freedom of speech to extremes by standing somewhere public and shouting their thoughts at passersby.

This fellow, however, particularly irked me as he was spouting off about how the Chinese were at the root of all the Japanese's problems. He claimed that the culture has snuck its way into Japan and the people were ruining his little Tokyo haven.

I guess someone forgot to tell him that the kanji in his name came from Chinese... like the writing he's using on his poster... or even the pronunciation of many of the words in his speech...

My stomach...

There's a ramen shop near my house. It's small, seating probably only 15-20 people. And it's almost always closed, the two guys working only a few hours in the afternoon and another 4 or so hours in the evenings. They're also closed on Tuesdays and Sundays, and close early Saturdays.

And yet, there's always a massive line-up.

Since I got off work early last week and noticed the line was short, I gave the place a shot.

This mega-bowl of ramen costed about 700yen and it nearly made me explode.

For starters, the pile of noodles is really a pile, not just a handful plopped into a bowl filled with soup.

The soup itself it made with a very delicious pork stock.

The pork itself is not the processed slices you normally get from most other places. It's pulled off a pork roast and served in liberal amounts.

Lastly, there are 5 different toppings and, as you can see, they're served in generous quantities.

And while the portion size itself could kill you, what really gets you is the amount of fat and oil in it. They seemed to have taken the meat from pigs with cholesterol problems and then offer both "extra fat" (abura 脂) and a "spicy oil" that seems to be more oil than spice.

Being me, I asked for all the toppings just to try it out haha.... It was extremely tasty but I probably won't be going back until May =P.....

I'm sure some people go weekly and how they have avoided heart disease is beyond me....

English...

I saw this in an arcade I was walking by...

It says

kochira kara wa hairenai-yo

which essentially means you can't enter (or, rather, go beyond) this point.

What gets me is the English translation they've offered...

"It doesn't put it here"

Sega should really invest in a better dictionary if that's the best translation they could come up with haha...