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  • Nakaminato Fish Market

    Nakaminato Fish Market

    那珂湊おさかな市場

    The Nakaminato Fish Market, just a stone’s throw from the famous Oarai Isosaki Shrine on the edge of a natural harbor, offers a fantastic variety of the freshest seafood possible. Make your choice early for great seafood in one of the restaurants arrayed in the abbreviated mall or even fresher offerings from the food stalls lined up near the waterfront.

    Fresh oysters at Nakaminato
    Fresh oysters the size of two hands clasped together

    The crowds form up early for both the restaurants and the food stalls, mingling with the hawkers, the purchasers and the forklifts carrying loads of ice to preserve the catch.

    Do yourself a favor: pass up the comforts of seating dining and savour the delicacies of the food stalls (屋台): fresh oysters the size of both your hands clasped together, crabs stewed in their shells and flatfish that are so fresh they’re still trying to leap out of the bucket. You can check the calendar to see what’s fresh at any given time. (Japanese only.)

    Access

    A 10-minute walk from Nakaminato Station on the Hitachinaka Kaihin Minato Line.

    Nakaminato Fish Market

  • Ashikaga Flower Park

    Ashikaga Flower Park

    あしかがフラワーパーク

    Ashikaga Flower Park is a flower theme park established in 1997 in Ashikaga, Tochigi. The park is renowned for its hundreds of wisteria, with the most famous being the 150-year-old “Hazama no Fuji (迫間のフジ),” which spreads over more than 1,000 square meters. Other wisteria are formed into tunnels up to 80 meters long which guests can pass through, a half dome resembling an orchestra shell, and walls which serve as backdrops for floral tableaux.

    Wisteria illumination

    Wisteria-covered bridge
    Wisteria-covered bridge

    The highlight of the year comes from mid-April through May with the blooming of the wisteria. The park remains open until 9 p.m. during the season and illuminates the wisteria in the evening to create a colorful fantasy in the dusk. The park can be very crowded at this season, particularly during the Golden Week holidays, and visitors should expect some waiting in line for parking spaces and admission.

    Year-round events

    To provide a beautiful and interesting experience throughout the year, Ashikaga Flower Park marks “Eight Floral Seasons” such as “Spring Flower Festival” and “Water Nymphs (Water Lilies)”. The basic details of the seasons are available at the park’s English page, but the full details are given in Japanese only.

    Other types of flowers at the park include Christmas rose, tulips, crocus, azaleas, hydrangea, sage and pansies.

    Orange Lily
    Orange Lily

    Admission and access

    The park is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with longer hours for some events such as the wisteria illumination. The admission price varies with the season and the condition of the flowers. At the peak it is ¥1,700 for adults and ¥800 for children. Check the website for details. Ashikaga Flower Park is about a 13-minute walk from the Tomita station (100 minutes from Tokyo via the Keihin Tohoku and JR Ryomo lines). Additional access information is available on the park’s website.

    Wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park

  • We count down from 108

    A friend asked how Japanese New Year’s traditions differ from those of the US, so Nana assigned me the task of explaining it.

    New Year's Decoration
    New Year’s Decoration

    The New Year’s celebration here is more like Christmas, Thanksgiving and spring cleaning rolled into one. Some people spend days cleaning, and set out new socks and underwear for the new year. People used to prepare food for a week so they didn’t have to cook during the holidays, but these days most people buy the food or have it delivered. Nana told me I needed a haircut.

    Mochi and Mikan
    Mochi rice cake and mikan orange

    Families gather together and children receive gifts of money. We put decorations like the one above on the door, on cars, and in places where water enters the home. The whole country “downs tools” for four days or so. (Actually there’s a lot to do these days, including early morning bargain sales on the 1st, but when I first arrived here only McDonalds and some convenience stores were open. Even the ATMs were turned off.) People eat special foods known as osechi (but neither Nana nor I care for it, so we have roast beef and other goodies), as well as soba (buckwheat noodles) and mochi (rice cakes) for luck. On the morning of the 1st, many people sit at home and watch TV for the sun rising over Mt. Fuji.

    Ofuda
    Ofuda
    Some people gather at temples on New Year’s Eve to be one of 108 people to ring in the New Year on the temple bell. The 108 rings are to chase away the evil spirits of the year that is ending. And then millions visit the temples in the first few days of the New Year to pray for luck, to purchase ofuda for the home to ward off evil spirits, and to return the previous year’s totems to be burned in the temple’s flame.

    New Year’s nengajo are a very important part of the holiday. The post office hires extra workers to deliver all the cards on the 1st. If you fall behind and your card isn’t delivered until the 2nd, then then recipient knows you didn’t think of them until you received their card. You can buy cards at the post office with the postage included, and a lottery number printed on one side, with the backs blank so you can print your own picture or greeting. (But Nana doesn’t do the postcards, so we have it easy … )

    On New Year’s Eve, lots of families watch a long musical show called Kohaku which features the hits of the year and old favorites. Overall, it’s one of the most boring programs ever conceived for television ..

    Lumber yards put up large panels of wood painted with the animal representing the New Year (rooster, this year).

  • No, the *other* great musical from the ’60s

    I don’t remember how it got started, but during dinner tonight Nana suddenly blurted out that she didn’t like musicals, except for that really great one from the ’60s.

    Me:
    Hair
    Nana:
    No
    Me:
    Jesus Christ Superstar
    Nana:
    No!

    After a few tries, she hit on it.

    Nana:
    Cabaret!
    Me:
    Yeah, that’s a good ‘un.

    (Yes, I know. I know!)

    Then she tried to remember the other musical she liked.

    Nana:
    You know, the other great musical from the ’60s!
    Me:
    Hmm … West Side Story?
    Nana (scornfully):
    No!

    Wow. Sixties. OK, challenge accepted.

    Me:
    Cats? (I know this is not from the ’60s, OK?)
    Nana:
    No! I hate Cats!
    Me:
    They’re actually not bad, fricasseed with a little soy sauce … Sixties? Got it! Fiddler on the Roof!
    Nana:
    Nooooo!
    Me (sings):
    A fiddler on the roof/A most unlikely sight/He fiddles ev’ry day/He fiddles ev’ry night …
    Nana:
    No!
    Me:
    South Pacific. Mikado.

    Yes, at this point I’m just fuckin’ with her. … Meanwhile, she’s checking the closet for CDs of the soundtrack.

    Me:
    That one about the dancers. One/Singular sensation/la da di da da di da …
    Nana:
    Huh-uh
    Me:
    A Chorus Line
    Nana:
    No, I said!
    Me
    (gives up) …
    Nana:
    I got it! Carmen!
    Me (scornfully):
    That’s opera, not a musical.
    Nana:
    A musical!
    Me:
    Read my lips: オ。ペ。ラ。

    OK, I’m not Mr. Broadway. Could be … what do I know? She goes out to the balcony to indulge her tobacco fetish.

    Nana (opening the sliding glass door):
    You’re right. Opera.
    Me:
    Where did you see it? The Met?
    Nana:
    Yeah, it was the Met.
    Me:

    What I said: Opera.

    Nana:
    Because I got the tickets from Norman.
    Me:
    That’s right. He was with the Met.
    Nana:
    Yeah. Opera. He used to work for the Met.
    Me:
    Heard from him lately?
    Nana:
    Only pictures from our friends on facebook.
    Me:
    Carmen. The other great musical from the ’60s.
  • Well, that’s one win

    A client wants to see if we can make his site more mobile-friendly (and hence improve his Google page score) without actually changing the design (a very attractive job by Greg Buckingham). I’ve built the site on a well established mobile-friendly framework, so the question becomes one of whether I’ve done something to nullify that, or if the site content (much of which predates the mobile web) is messing things up.

    I started looking into it and pretty quickly recalled that I’d set it to be a fixed rather than a responsive layout. So that’s an obvious place to start.

    Rather than mess with a live client site, my next step was to set up a test site and start modifying it to match the appearance of the current site without affecting the mobile-friendliness. There’s a newer version of the Zen framework, so I went with that. And in raw form, as promised, it has a perfect mobile score.

    Now to make some changes. OK, the new framework does away with direct editing of the CSS in favor of SASS, which is a good move, really. So I have to install some tools to work with that. The host where I have my test site doesn’t give me the ability to install these tools, so I fired up my virtual linux box. Re-created the test site (after doing a fairly big upgrade of the OS — it’s been a couple of months since I’d used it). And then installed the tools. For good measure, copied in the site logo for a start. And …

    Nothing. Nada. Zip.

    Checked the selinux settings. Cleared up all the notices. Again.

    Zero.

    Went into the server logs. SEGMENTATION FAULT.

    What in the nine billion names of God? Installing the developer tools hoses the OS?

    This sounds like a good opportunity to work on something else for a while. Like this blog. I’ve had an issue since I set it up that while the site was at www.guyjeansjapan.com, the admin pages were at guyjeansjapan.com (sans ‘www’). This has caused various issues. For example, previewing didn’t work. The site stats wouldn’t load. And every so often when I was trying to accomplish something, I’d get logged out and the browser wouldn’t remember my credentials to log me in again.

    There’s a place in the control panel for these settings, but they were disabled. So I searched around until I found a config file hack that did the trick. Back in business now. Everything works as expected.

    While I was at it I found a like/dislike button plug-in. This was a request from Nana. Also some sharing settings that I’m not sure how much use I’ll make of, since I keep facebook in a different browser and have it blocked from this one.

    Pity the client’s not paying me to sort out my own blog. (On the other hand, the mobile friendly work is all speculation at this point, as I haven’t yet given him an estimate for the job.)

  • In Japan, Woody Allen would need new source material

    Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday.Woody Allen

    We had the kitchen faucet replaced last year. If I recall correctly, it was on a Sunday.

    Anyway, we had called the plumber because the old faucet was leaking, and we hoped he could just replace a bushing or something. But he said the faucet was too worn, and he sold us a new one. He had everything he needed on the spot, and even took a credit card. I thought that was pretty impressive service.

    Lately, though, Nana noticed that the faucet was leaking. Thursday was a holiday, so she spent some time digging through the papers to come up with the warranty on the faucet — two years, so we were still covered. She called the plumber.

    And he came immediately.

    On a holiday.

    He had a look at the faucet and decided that it was the manufacturer’s responsibility. So Nana called the manufacturer (again, on a holiday), and scheduled one of their people to come today.

    Saturday.

    She asked him to arrive before noon as she was going somewhere in the afternoon. (This was a deception. She wanted to watch her drama at 1.)

    (Nana says the drama starts at 1:05.)

    The plumber from the manufacturer arrived a few minutes before noon, in the pouring rain. He got to work right away. It took some time but he found the culprit: an O-ring that he replaced and then tested to make sure it was sealing properly. He explained to Nana in some detail how the O-ring had failed.

    Total bill for two plumbers to visit, one on a national holiday and one on a Saturday: Zip. Nada. Rien. サービス. All under warranty.

    Of course, this kind of service doesn’t come cheap. The initial replacement last year was kind of expensive, and it was more for the labor than the faucet.

    Newly repaired faucet
    Newly repaired faucet
  • Also true of many sports figures

    I was at dinner last night at a Shinjuku izakaya with Nana and a couple of older women, one of whom used to run a yakitori restaurant in the neighborhood.

    At the next table were a couple of younger women. And when Nana got up to use the restroom, one of the older women at my table turned to these two and started a conversation.

    I don’t remember what was said before the ball was handed to me, but the following was totally a logical progression from that (I swear):

    Me:
    So how long have you been in Japan?

    (This is one of my jokes as it’s a standard question from Japanese meeting a foreigner.)

    Young Lady No. 1:
    Well …
    Me:
    I’ll bet I’ve been here longer.
    Young Lady No. 1:
    Really?
    Me:
    I’ve been here since 1989.
    Young Lady No. 1:
    You’re right! That’s longer than me!
    Young Lady No. 2:
    Me too!