• Shinjuku Terrace City Illumination 2008 [新宿テラスシティイルミネーション2008]
• Midtown Christmas 2008 Illumination) [ミッドタウンクリスマス2008イルミネーション]
• Ikebukuro Christmas Illumination [池袋クリスマスイルミネーッション]
• Shinjuku Southern Lights [SHINJUKUサザンライツ2008-2009]
• Roppongi Hills Artelligent Christmas 2008 [六本木ヒルズArtelligent Christmas 2008]
• Tokyo Bright Christmas 2008
• Shibuya [渋谷]
• LIGHTOPIA 2008 [光都東京2008]
• Narita Airport Terminal 2 [成田空港第2ビル]

• Koganei Park [小金井公園]
• Rikugi-en Gardens [六義園]
• Mohri Garden [毛利庭園]
• Tonogayato-teien Garden [殿ヶ谷戸庭園]
  

I have decided to create a new category on my blog titled "Japan." The reason is because I've thus far tied all my ramblings on Japan in my "Multimedia" category, which made sense when I was referring to a slideshow of what I was saying, but becomes disambiguated when I am talking about Japan in general, which is what I am going to do here.

Today, 14 August 2007, there was a Life!Travel article on Japan that I feel is endemic about many people who try to write about Japan - they know too little about the place to even begin to describe it. I mean seriously, the reporter couldn't even speak Japanese! It reminds me of how Today likes to use its Senior Chinese Correspondents to critique Japan, and which contain tons of mistakes that stem from the fact that these people are working from translations. It's just like the Abe statement on comfort women. According to a scholarly forum that I subscribe too, he never actually said that there was no evidence to prove that comfort women were coerced - this was a New York Times booboo. What he said in the original Japanese, apparently, was that there is evidence to show that many comfort women joined the "profession" willingly. Not debating the fact that maybe as a politician he shouldn't say things like that, I feel that if you're going to criticize anyone, you should at least refer to the original text. And cases of lost in translation seem to be why Japan is always maligned in so many areas.

Anyway, I have many things to take issue with concerning what I feel is a superficial travel article in the Straits Times. I think that even the Lonely Planet more comprehensively documents the places she has been to, and I myself have been to all but one - Arima Hot Springs. Naturally, many of these things are subjective, and I am quibbling. Well, let's see what she writes. First, she states that shopping in Osaka is more than you can handle, which is fair enough. The electronics shops she refers to are located all in Den Den Town (which is reached by Subway on the Sakaisuji Line, and is not in the immediate area of Umeda or Osaka if you're thinking of train stations) of course, which for some reason was omitted. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but when you say Osaka to a Japanese, you are assumed as referring to the area around the 3 Umeda Station private rail lines. JR Osaka itself is set in the middle of a red-light district - I was going there for a conference, ahem, and I had to wind through tons of Japanese soaplands before I finally reached the conference venue.

The Osaka Aquarium (above left) description is fine I guess, although once again simplified. It is actually part of a larger area called Tempozan Harbor Village (and even higher up, the Osaka Bay Area), which houses one of the largest Ferris Wheels in the world (above right), with the pamphlet also touting it as the first one in Japan to be air-conditioned or something. I'm not going to dig through the large number of pamphlets I've amassed over the years, so don't cite me on this. :P Next, Osaka Castle. Man, I can't believe that she sings the praises of Osaka Castle, going to the extent of saying that it looks old. It has an air-conditioned interior and an elevator man! This ferroconcrete replication of what once was, and which I must have had to go 6 or 7 times because articles like hers glamorize the place and force me to take people there. Seriously, there are something like 12 original castles left in Japan, and you'd do better to see the famous 4 (which I've done by the way): Himeji, Matsumoto, Hikone, and Inuyama. If you're in Kansai, either Himeji or Hikone are accessible to you.

Umeda Sky Building (above left) the reporter mentions for having a nice sunset. I didn't hear about this one, but it's popular because you get to "walk into the sky." The observatory is open-air (above right), which seriously gives you the chills, in a nice way of course. And as with any observatory, they usually tout the night cityscape, which makes her sunset reference of great interest to me. As for the yakuza, hmm, I heard that they all wear white now. Oh well...

 
She then heads to Kobe, which in my opinion, isn't really a fun place to be. I've climbed up to Venus Bridge (above right) successfully once...quite scary at night to do alone. The first time I went, I quit halfway up the slope (above left). I couldn't see clearly, but it began ominously when I encountered this giant dog(?) rummaging through the garbage at the base. It was very dark, and visibility was limited to just 1 or 2 meters ahead, just like if you visit the old Changi Hospital. Anyway, I managed to drag a friend along the second time, although we did head there earlier while there was still light. There's a ropeway climbing up the mountain further east, although I've never tried that. I wonder how the reporter got there, hmm.

 
As the reporter says, Venus Bridge has all those locks that couples place there to symbolize their eternal union. Me and my friend were joking wryly about how the estranged might come and here to unlock all of them, thereby exacting a small measure of consolation by wreacking havoc on all other happy couple. Hmm..... Well, to return to the main point, apart from this, Kobe itself really doesn't have anything in the way of Japanese-oriented sites I think. The Teddy Bear Museum and American House hardly count.

I did discover this Japanese Garden, Soraku-en (相楽園), that was free for foreigners when I visited a couple years back (pics of the entrance and interior proceeding paragraph); just flash your passport. The Kobe Port Area is also supposed to be a fun place (which I avoid as another dating area that makes no sense to go alone...Venus Bridge was a personal challenge, so it doesn't count). Oh and again, when you talk about Kobe, you usually think of JR Sannomiya Station, which is at the center of things.

Then she heads to Kyoto. I love Kyoto - I've been there 7 - 8 times as well as I still have stuff I want to see. And yes, I have been to Arashiyama and Ryoan-ji. And when she refers to these, it's almost as though she is copying the stuff off someone's blog or something, and who got his/her info off some tourist brochure. For Ryoan-ji, you can forget it if you want to meditate at the rock garden since there is an endless flow of students on their (研修旅行), or study trips. I believe that the Lonely Planet states another garden either up north or down south of JR Kyoto Station which offers a more quiet alternative, if meditation is your aim of course. And to be honest, the rocks in both places looked the same to me, which is why I can be classified as unenlightened I guess. But it is Nonomi that she gets wrong the most. Maybe there's a Nonomi Shrine, I don't know, but the famous one I went to was Nonomiya-Shrine, with the bamboo grove and all (see pics proceeding paragraph). This place is famous for two reasons. The first is that the princess in the Japanese Imperial Family used to come here either for training or purification (probably both; once again, I'm too lazy to dig through the source material, so you can read the sign board when you are there) before taking up her role as the chief shrine maiden at Ise Shrine. Second, this place is also famous for, and I'm quoting them, as the only shrine in Japan selling a Tale of Genji amulet, which I proudly own too. I can't remember exactly the relation between the two, but I think that the shrine was mentioned in Murasaki Shikibu's work.

Yah, so anyway, I have mixed feelings about the Straits Times' continued coverage of Japan. It's good that my favorite country gets this kind of exposure, but I don't like this exposure to be superficial. I wish that people would get to know more about the things and places that they see there, although this usually requires you to speak Japanese. This is where the coverage of the Straits Times fails - it uses reporters who appear to be fronted by layman Japanese guides (the real tour guides are really schooled on the sights though). There are pros and cons to this really. Japanese would naturally know intrinsically the lay of the land better than us foreigners, but just like how I can't recite the history of the Straits Settlement to you, you can't expect them to be experts on their own country. This is simply natural - human beings are least able to vocalize the things that have become second nature to them. Usually, a stay abroad is required to elucidate the social and cultural mores that work heuristically. And, I always find that with Japanese leading the way, I always end up knowing less because they end up doing everything. This is probably why the reporter, when visiting the aquarium, probably only knew about the aquarium and little else. Of course, if I'm with my Japanese friends, the place becomes secondary so the point is moot. Japan is made up by the country and its people, and if I meet a friend, it is them who I am more interested in. There is no comparison here really - their offer of friendship takes utmost precedence; who cares where we're going to, it's just an activity to allow us to spend some quality time together. The moral then? Travel with an academic who is a Japan Specialist, hehe.