Rice and Ramen

After a very restful two days off, it was back to work. Dark clouds were looming, so I brought an umbrella and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't rain. Today turned out to be quite busy, which was a welcome change of pace from my usual hour-long sitting respites. First thing in the morning (literally two or three minutes after I arrived at the office) it was off to the 21st Century Museum again with a young reporter named Mr. Serizawa. There were two new, temporary exhibits that we were examining: one on clocks, and one on a contemporary group of artists who were doing paintings of the Kanazawa area et. al. The clock exhibit was rather eclectic. It had a mix of antique, vintage, and modern clocks. Many of the old ones had interesting mechanical movements: one was a dog whose eyes rolled individually to tell the hour and the minute, another was a vertical clock that had a mouse gradually hoisted up it until it reached 1 and then it fell back down (Hickory Dickory Dock, anyone?)...

Today--my first true day off--I spent back at the 21st Century Art Museum. Some of you may be tired of hearing about it by now, but there were such fascinating new exhibits that I couldn't resist a return visit. Accompanied by Nick (well, I sort of highly encouraged his attendance because this museum is awesome) I went through the whole museum again. It's truly a bummer that so many of the exhibits prohibit photography, because there's really no way to describe all the crazy new things. There was one exhibit that was a space rover with high-heeled shoes behind it to make imprints on a fake moon surface. It was accompanied by a pop video and song about partying where no man has partied before and taking charge of your life. Think wacky costumes and autotune. There was an exhibit that turned the radio frequency of a dying star into music boxes, that played tinkling, cacophonous songs. There was an exhibit of discarded fast food toys sorted by type and color that spr...

Before I dive in to what I've done these past few days, I'd like to just comment on what I've observed of Japanese companies (at least of the newspaper variety). With every new reporter and official photographer I'm paired with, I ask them how long they've been working for the company and if they enjoy it and if they wanted/were interested in journalism when they were younger. Most people say they've been working for the company anywhere from 4-8 years, but their responses for the second two questions are often less than enthusiastic. Most people say the job has some fun parts; others just say it's downright a pain. None of them were interested in journalism when they were younger--they all just said "I applied for jobs after college and this is what I got" more or less. The atmosphere in the office is also difficult to describe. At some points it's very relaxed, but at others it seems quite tense and stressful--many people with pinched faces...

Long time no see everyone. Or write, rather. Lots to tell over these past days so I'm just going to dive into it. On Tuesday I arrived at work at 10am and waited until Morita-san, the reporter I was going to shadow for the day, arrived. Together we walked to the Ishikawa Cultural Center to report on a photography exhibit by the local photographer Gen Minamishima. He had a series of rose photographs on display, and he was very kind. (He even took a photo with me that went on his facebook page--surprisingly my host family's daughter is friends with him so she recognized me in the photo!) Then under Morita's guidance I took a few photos for the article--the important thing, she said, was that the photo should give a sense of what's going on and should also have some action in it. So I couldn't just take a photo of the empty exhibit, but should include some people viewing a photograph. Some of you might have noticed that Tuesday-Thursday is three days, not 1.5, a...

This has been one of the most dizzying, confusing, exciting, and intimidating days of my time in Japan. I thought that reading manga or watching anime or even talking to other adults about their jobs had given me some idea of what the working company world in Japan is like, and I did have an idea to a small extent, but the full-on company inundation was rather overwhelming. Let me start at the beginning. I had a late start today so I wasn't expected in the office until noon. I took the time to admire the very offical-looking office building: This is the third largest building in Kanazawa and houses the Hokkoku newspaper, a hospital, a performance hall, and a golf club, among other things. At noon I was met by my liason, Mr. Yasuda who took me around the building and generally put me at ease. At two we drove to the Ishikawa prefectural government building where Zoey and I had a very formal meeting with the head of the government. I had a three minute speech, mostl...

I have survived (and enjoyed) my first weekend back in Kanazawa. The bullet train pulled into the newly revamped Kanazawa station at precisely 1:59pm--exactly one minute before the annual Kanazawa festival--Hyakumangoku--was slated to begin. As we left the station, dragging our suitcases, the rhythmic pounding of taiko drums was already filling the air and the area around the station was utterly packed. Flashback to the parade...I didn't stick around to watch most of it this year. Instead I avoided most of the crowds and walked with Nick, who's also in JE at Yale, around Kenrokuen garden, which was blissfully deserted. After spending the night at the ANA Crowne Plaza hotel (which was mandated by the prefecture) I met up with my host family this morning. Luckily I have the same host family that I did last summer, so I already feel right at home in the same room and with their puppy. Mostly their puppy. For lunch we went out to kaitenzushi--conveyor belt sushi--where...

I had meant to write this post yesterday while still in Tokyo instead of on a bullet train to Kanazawa, but I fell asleep on the floor at 8pm and didn't wake up until midnight so now will just have to do. (And thus this post lacks a creative title.)Yesterday Zoey and I had a full day of exploration in Tokyo--so the fact that we each woke up naturally around 6:30am didn't hurt in the slightest. We ended up grabbing breakfast at a nearby coffee shop where I had something called an "egg suratto" which, according to the menu, originated in Los Angeles. Go figure. It's a poached egg over mashed potatoes with some sort of beef gravy. It was actually delicious...it's hard to beat egg yolk and potato, really. Then Zoey and I successfully navigated the confusing Tokyo train system to make our way to the Tokyo Sky Tree (it involved several transfers from the Tokyo Metro train system to the JR train system and then some). It was cloudy, unfortunately, but ...