A Tokyo Tale: Chad Goes To The Top

So my mother asked me a tough thing to do. She is a social studies teacher at Horton Middle School and she is teaching her children about Asia. She is asking me to send her back some souvenirs or objects that would come from the Japanese culture. Problems present themselves immediately. 

The Japanese culture has shifted within a generation or two in Tokyo from resembling a city with a few buildings and old structures to a concrete jungle. My professor described Tokyo as the Venice of Asia after World War II, with canals, old structures, that would conjure thoughts of the Japanese heritage. However, most of these structures are no longer in place, as they have been torn down, to make way for earthquake-proof buildings, and bring about more city projects. 

The culture itself is an entirely different matter all together. The Japanese do not believe in souvenirs and the new culture is one centered around technology. Every corner is filled with the latest technology and there is little in terms of objects I could ship back that would be affordable at this point. Chop sticks? We already have those. Clothing? Too expensive and resembles nothing like the old Japan from history books. A cell phone? No thanks; cell phones are expensive and I can't imagine going to buy a phone and telling the person, "It's just for show and tell. No monthly plan, please. Just the phone." I'm not going to ship a cell phone back to the United States. 

So what am I to do? Blog about what I can. The only way to capture the culture now is through pictures and videos. When I can find an aspect of the Japanese culture, I will take a picture or videotape it for everyone to see. It is the only viable option at this point. But then there comes the debate of cultural analysis and how the judgments of another culture change from first hand experiences to others and so forth. But I want to keep this blog accessible to everyone, so I will leave that conversation out of here. For now, let's talk about a five day weekend.

So after this week ended, I had a five day weekend. Weird, considering that the Japanese government decided to place three holidays in a row for some reason. The first I did was go to a museum devoted to four hundred years of history about Edo/Tokyo. Edo was the name of the capital city of Japan before it changed to Tokyo. I went on a tour with other students to the museum and it was massive.

We were not able to explore the whole museum because of time constraints, but inside were whole buildings practically of ancient parts of Edo.

As we explored the museum, we had an English-speaking tour guide explain to us what life was like in Edo. Edo was designed to basically be a fortress city, where canals surrounded the area and very few bridges were in place to access the city. Edo was separated into districts where different classes lived. There would be a district for the ruling family, an area where the samurai lived, merchants lived, etc. There were dioramas of the city and buildings in which the ruling class lived in.

For anyone not living in the rich districts of Japan, life was very tough. Your home was practically a shack, where the dimensions of homes were smaller than most living rooms. Some houses were known as "burning houses" because of the frequency in which houses would go up in smoke. 

One of the more interesting aspects of the tour was the discussion involving Ancient Japanese firefighters, known as firebreakers. Because of how limited water was to the rest of the city, houses had to be broken down, not saved, when on fire. This was due to the fact that how close each building was to one another and how the firebreakers could not risk the fire spreading. The firebreakers could also determine which surrounding houses to destroy in order to stop the spread of the fire. If your house was on fire, it meant everything would be destroyed and there was nothing you could do about it, unless you were rich. If you were rich, the upper class would make an effort to convince the firebreakers to save their homes and destroy the surrounding houses instead. Being a firebreaker could be considered a competition as well, when other squads were involved. Squads would race to a fire in order to claim it for themselves. Whoever arrived first, their squad's marker was placed at the top of burning building. This showed other squads that this squad had the ability to destroy other buildings around the area to their preference. Even their uniforms looked like military garb the samurai were known for.

An aspect of Japanese culture that has survived through the centuries is the Japanese theatre, known as Kabuki. Kabuki is like regular plays, only with more fancy make-up and attire. This very traditional style of theatre had attires stylized with fancy engravings, involving gold and other fancy embroidering. Many plays were made for the public, to keep their minds off of their hard living conditions, by having happy endings. Some play writers would style their plays off of William Shakespeare's works and were known as "Shakespearen writers." In this scene, one can see the woman, the upset father or antagonist, and the man literally fighting for the woman. The actors were all men, including the female lead. This style of theatre involves acting, singing, and dancing on a stage such as this one.

The next thing the group did was attend the Grand Sumo Wrestling Tournament. This is something I have been highly anticipating since I first arrived in Japan. The weekend we went was one of the last weekends of a grand tournament they hold every year. About four tournaments are held every year and this was one of the last ones. Sumo wrestling is the equivalent of American football, where huge crowds show up to witness these grand masters fight. Here is the stadium in which the tournament was held in.

Here are some interesting aspects of the Japanese culture. Their religion is known as Shinto. While there are no scriptures or documents, it is the ceremonies and traditions that matter to the public. The sumo wrestling tournament demonstrated this when the wrestlers would throw salt around the ring, get in numerous stances, wipe their face, and have the announcers prepare the ring.

Another interesting aspect of the Japanese culture is what sumo life was like. It was very tough (it still is today), where losing was not an option. They did not have families because of the large amount of time one committed to being the best. The wrestlers represented their districts or towns, just like football teams now represent their cities. The towns people would save money to make fancy robes for their wrestlers, involving gold and silver embroidering. If a wrestler lost a match, their lives were basically over. They would bring great shame to the town and could not show themselves any longer. That aspect of wrestling is over, but the robes still stay in modern times. Here is a video showcasing the wrestlers appearing for the grand tournament in their robes.

 

While the matches were going on, a few of us went out and got some food. Like all food at stadiums, most of it was more expensive than usual. There was the usual udon, rice, miso soup, but something caught my eye. It was called sukiyaki and it was a stew with beef and other vegetables. It was $15, but when I first saw it, I knew I had to try it. When it came out on a huge tray, with a cooker underneath it, I was floored. It was a big dinner, one that filled me up very quickly.

The meal came on a cooker that we had to cook ourselves. It was all prepared and all we had to do was cook it to the way we wanted it to be. It came with beef, green leaves, mushrooms, tofu, an unbroken egg (that we later cooked), soup, rice, and few other items. The reason why we ate was because the tournament lasted many hours and each match was about four minutes of preparation and less than a minute of fighting. There are about 200 matches a day when the tournament is held, which can last three weeks each. Here is a match:

The thing to remember about sumo wrestling and Japanese culture is how important the rituals are. The wrestlers spend a large amount of time preparing themselves and the ring for their match. They bless the ring with salt and prepare themselves for the match. A lot of the fight depends on the intimidation factor of the wrestler. They will stare at one another and then head back to their corner for final preparations. While it may look like the men are fat, it is all pure muscle that they gain through training. There are numerous techniques to take down an opponent, some as easy as side-stepping out of the way. 

The tournament lasted until 6 p.m. with the longest and most exciting match saved for last. The day ended with a man on a tower, playing drums, as the spectators and wrestlers exited the stadium.

I had to get to bed early for the next day. What I did can be considered dangerous and exciting at the same time. Before I started writing this entry, I read that a famous manga artist, or comic writer, was found dead at the base of a mountain he had been climbing. I had to be prepared, both mentally and physically for a challenge the I never thought was possible.

I climbed Mount Fuji.

Don't know what it looks like, here's a picture of it.

So how did this crazy adventure start? It started off really as a simple dream. "You know what would be cool? Climbing Mount Fuji." A few friends began to talk more about it and soon we psyched ourselves up for it. A few of us got bus tickets there, while others, including myself, tried to get train tickets and failed. When that moment came when we could not get train tickets, it came down to whether we wanted to do it at all or not. One of the students phoned a friend and said it was miserable and pleaded that we should not attempt it. It became a team of two at this point, me and my friend, Jeff.

The next day, we woke up at 6 a.m. and prayed we could make all the stops necessary to Mount Fuji. We had to travel to four stops before we would reach Station #5, the last station before the climb. Luckily enough, there were no crowds or lines, got on the trains on time, and made it to Station #5 with hours to spare. Here are some pictures from Station #5:

At the top, we could see the cities around us, clouds, and the landscape of Japan. It was quite a sight to see from so far up. At the top were numerous restaurants, stores, shrines, and trails to walk or ride horses on. 

We spent some time getting extra supplies, paying our respects to the shrines, and decided to rest before the big trip up. I slept for three hours, before I woke up to the other group of friends who arrived later than expected. Jeff read a sign that said that Station #6 would be closed this month and that there might be a chance the paths could be closed. This is due to the extreme temperatures of the mountain, such as frequent snowfall and rain. With that in mind, we decided to leave earlier than expected, 5 p.m.

After about an hour, we reached Station #6. We were some of the only hikers along the path and already the sun was setting. We could also see the lights turning on in the major cities and the wonder at being near the top of such a colossal peak.

This was the last picture I took, before the darkness swept in. During the long hike up, we would witness the stars, the steep stairs, jagged rocks we had to climb, and feel the temperature drop over time. We took frequent breaks, drank water, had food, talked, and watched the stars. We saw a lot of shooting stars that night because, hours later, we would be above the cloud line. It was an incredible and perfect night for climbing.

We also saw other climbers, such as foreigners and Japanese groups. These groups would be composed of thirty people, with two tour guides, one in the front and one in the back. They had large, strobing lights to keep the lines in check and to keep marching up the mountain. It was unsettling to me because the stops I saw the groups on, the people looked exhausted. I heard some individuals say in English, "Oh God. Oh God," like this was the most difficult thing they had ever done. We took our time, did not feel nauseated, or use oxygen tanks; the Japanese groups felt all of that and continued hiking, at a running pace. While we were tired too, it was a different kind of tired for the Japanese groups, exhausted. They did not stop to enjoy the stars, but were basically running a marathon all the way to the top. Even on holidays, the Japanese rush everywhere.

Many grueling hours later we reached the summit. We knew were at the top when we saw a tori gate (a traditional gate that was used to ward off evil spirits) and a shrine. It was a huge relief to be at the top, in time for the sunset. However, we realized it was very cold at the top,  -4 Celsius, and had to take time to rest. I curled up in a ball in the corner of a shrine, slept, but prayed I did not die of hypothermia (luckily I didn't or else this entry would not exist). I slept for an hour before I woke up to some light on the horizon.

This is also a picture of the crater of Mount Fuji. After I took the picture, I turned around just in time to see the sunrise. It was quite a sight to see, with everyone oohing and ahhing. Here are the pictures of the sunrise:

The original plan was to stay at the top awhile longer. Because of how cold it was at the top, we decided that this was not a good idea and began the trek down. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to Station #5 and another 2 1/2 hours to get back to the dormitory. I had been awake for more than twenty-four hours. My legs were sore, I was tired, hungry, socks covered in black, volcanic ash, etc. etc. etc. But in the end, it was all worth it. I can now look back on this experience with joy and amusement at accomplishing this feat.

That's all for now. Once again, I'm sorry this entry took so long to complete. With school work, there is not much else to do during the weekdays. I have been studying Japanese very hard and I am picking up the language more quickly now that I have spent many weeks here. I was supposed to go to a very controversial shrine today, but because of how long the videos took to upload, I had to hold off on that idea until tomorrow. By tomorrow, I should have another entry in my blog about that experience. This weekend, I will be heading to Tokyo to experience the Tokyo Game Show, an exhibition of all the latest video games to be coming out over the next few years. I am greatly excited about this weekend as well. Well, back to studying and working. Until next time, true believers.

"Simple pleasures... are the last refuge of the complex" - Orson Wilde

(P.S. Mom, there is a Thomas Land in Japan. I really need to go there.)