Not the most refined of topics but I thought I'd take the time to write about a style of toilet that has haunted my Asian travels. I call them squatters, I have no idea what the proper terminology would be for them. Any of you that have done some traveling will know what I'm talking about.
This style of toilet is situated in the ground. Really, it's quite a space saver. No need for all that extra porcelain to fashion out a seat. Another benefit is that it works out your legs. In order to use a squatter one needs to position their feet on either side of the toilet and then, well, squat. Make sure you're in a relatively comfortable position or you'll have a hell of a time getting back on your feet. People who have a poor sense of balance won't enjoy the experience.
The first time I was lucky enough to encounter a squatter was in Korea. We were at a highway rest stop and these were the only option. For someone who had only ever vaguely heard of the existence of these toilets, I viewed them with some apprehension. Which way to face? Where's the flush handle? (in one country I spent a good 5 minutes searching for a way to flush before finally realizing it didn't come with that option) For the uninitiated, you face the hood. The majority are perfectly clean and sanitary. I've gotten used to them but really, I merely tolerate their existence.
Someone once told me she thinks the best way to judge a country's modernity factor is by looking at the state and condition of the toilets. And you know what? You kind of can. Though I can't quite imagine seeing a headline reading: "2006 World Toilet Survey announces Switzerland is the best place to live, 4th year running."
Hey! This was my 50th post!
Monday, January 30, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Construction
One of the more puzzling things I've seen since coming to Japan is the seemingly endless construction work. On one of the local roads within my town the construction has been going on since November of last year and they're STILL at it! All this road work seems to have led nowhere. The street is in even worse condition than when they started what with the bumps and potholes that have magically appeared within it.On the 192, the road most used to get to Tokushima City from our end of Shikoku, construction decoratively dots the road, creating the need to detour into the oncoming lane. The 192 consists of a whopping 2 lanes so detours mean long waits while one lane is allowed to proceed. Depending on the time of day that you're traveling, the waits can be more frequent. The strange thing about all this is that they seem to be tearing and ripping apart perfectly fine roads, in order to repave and repaint the roads to a beautiful hue. They are still reconstructing a 1km stretch of road that was just fine as it was but now the road is made up of strips of faded gray asphalt to startlingly new, black asphalt.
Another thing about construction is that it seems to be a “make-work” program for the Japanese. A length of 300-500m features bright flashy lights, akin to what you would see in Las Vegas as well as at least 7 workers. 3 of these workers carry either white and red flags or a flashing red baton. Their job is primarily to guide traffic on either side of the yellow line. This is fine when the stretch of road is long but when it isn’t it hardly seems necessary to have that many people frantically waving white flags to tell you, yes, you can drive through.
People are also employed in large parking lots to guide traffic out. This seems like a nice gesture but for this Canadian who has managed to get out of sizable parking lots all on her lonesome, the attention is more annoying. You aren’t allowed to leave until these baton-holding officials give you the go ahead. They seem to think you need an awful lot of room to make a simple turn. I was made to wait and wait while several good chances went by. In the end I was ready to run over these men, while screaming with impatience.
It makes you wonder, isn’t there somewhere else all this funding for construction could be spent? Rather than needlessly repaving roads and having 3 people tell you you’re allowed to drive? Maybe it’s just me.
Another thing about construction is that it seems to be a “make-work” program for the Japanese. A length of 300-500m features bright flashy lights, akin to what you would see in Las Vegas as well as at least 7 workers. 3 of these workers carry either white and red flags or a flashing red baton. Their job is primarily to guide traffic on either side of the yellow line. This is fine when the stretch of road is long but when it isn’t it hardly seems necessary to have that many people frantically waving white flags to tell you, yes, you can drive through.
People are also employed in large parking lots to guide traffic out. This seems like a nice gesture but for this Canadian who has managed to get out of sizable parking lots all on her lonesome, the attention is more annoying. You aren’t allowed to leave until these baton-holding officials give you the go ahead. They seem to think you need an awful lot of room to make a simple turn. I was made to wait and wait while several good chances went by. In the end I was ready to run over these men, while screaming with impatience.
It makes you wonder, isn’t there somewhere else all this funding for construction could be spent? Rather than needlessly repaving roads and having 3 people tell you you’re allowed to drive? Maybe it’s just me.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Kyoto
Hi all, I'm on an unexpected break at work. A student canceled and now I have an extra hour and a half to fiddle around with. So, I'll try and finish my blogs about the vacation. On to Kyoto...
Before coming to Japan, I really wanted to see Kyoto. Why? Well, a kind of stupid reason but I had read "Memoirs of a Geisha" and then later, "Geisha of Gion" (do you see a trend here?) and I wanted to see where all these things took place. That and Kyoto is reputed to be a place of historical and natural beauty so there you go.
The drive from Himeji to Kyoto took about half a day. Kyoto roads weren't quite as congested as I'd thought they'd be. It took some maneuvering on small alley roads but we eventually found the ryokan where we'd made a reservation to stay. A ryokan is a Japanese style inn. I found it to be like a Japanese style hostel with more room space and amenities. The washrooms are shared as is the shower/bath. The bath is the fun part. They prepare it for you and call when it's ready. Always soap and rinse yourself off thoroughly before stepping into a Japanese bath. It's not meant for scrubbing. But I'm getting off topic.
The lady was very welcoming and showed us to our room then served us tea and a snack afterwards. After drinking, eating and examining the bath robes that were laid on the futons for our use, we headed out to explore Kyoto at night. Basically we had dinner and tooled around this enormous shopping area. My city-starved self was overwhelmed at all the consumer goods. I wanted to buy everything.
Highlights of Kyoto for me included seeing Gion (the setting of the aforementioned books) and the Golden Pavilion. Gion is part modern night-life and part traditional tea-house. The north side of Gion sports expensive coffee shops, neon lights promoting bars and a lot of well dressed people milling around. The south side is much darker though not creepily so. The streets where the more traditional ochaya (teahouses) are are much less busy than modern Gion. Apparently, you can't even get into a teahouse unless invited by an already established customer. A night in a teahouse includes entertainment by geisha or geikos and usually a very expensive sumptuous meal. From what I've read these parties can cost well in excess of 2000 dollars. A bit too pricey for fun in my opinion. Give me ramen and an 18 dollar movie and I'm happy.
I spotted who I thought was a geisha while roaming around the teahouses. Her hair was done up in a traditonal style and she wore a kimono under her long winter cloak. What did I do after spotting said geisha? The intelligent foreigner thing to do of course, I stalked her, dragging my companions along with me. We could only follow so far as she ducked into a teahouse where we were unable to go. That was my excitement in Gion.
The following day, we took our little Minica and went to Kinkakuji which literally translates to "Golden Temple" but is better known to English speakers as the Golden Pavilion. The entry fee was 400 yen and worth every penny in my opinion. The temple is situated on a very peaceful zen-like pond with very lush trees surrounding it. The temple itself is...GOLD. Not entirely gold but a good portion of it is modeled in gold. After taking various shots of the temple you could walk on the path up to a small but pretty waterfall. Further still you could fall prey to the souvenir stands selling all sorts of knick-knacks. This I did quite gleefully, having been rather prudent with my cash up till then.
The remainder of the trip involved a lot of driving (back to Shikoku) and falling asleep only to be startled into wakefulness by Will's voice saying: "Uh, I need to know where I'm going now." (I was the navigator, being the passenger) We celebrated the New Year quietly at home which was nice since we hadn't been able to be together the year before.
Talk to you all soon, cheers.
Before coming to Japan, I really wanted to see Kyoto. Why? Well, a kind of stupid reason but I had read "Memoirs of a Geisha" and then later, "Geisha of Gion" (do you see a trend here?) and I wanted to see where all these things took place. That and Kyoto is reputed to be a place of historical and natural beauty so there you go.
The drive from Himeji to Kyoto took about half a day. Kyoto roads weren't quite as congested as I'd thought they'd be. It took some maneuvering on small alley roads but we eventually found the ryokan where we'd made a reservation to stay. A ryokan is a Japanese style inn. I found it to be like a Japanese style hostel with more room space and amenities. The washrooms are shared as is the shower/bath. The bath is the fun part. They prepare it for you and call when it's ready. Always soap and rinse yourself off thoroughly before stepping into a Japanese bath. It's not meant for scrubbing. But I'm getting off topic.
The lady was very welcoming and showed us to our room then served us tea and a snack afterwards. After drinking, eating and examining the bath robes that were laid on the futons for our use, we headed out to explore Kyoto at night. Basically we had dinner and tooled around this enormous shopping area. My city-starved self was overwhelmed at all the consumer goods. I wanted to buy everything.
Highlights of Kyoto for me included seeing Gion (the setting of the aforementioned books) and the Golden Pavilion. Gion is part modern night-life and part traditional tea-house. The north side of Gion sports expensive coffee shops, neon lights promoting bars and a lot of well dressed people milling around. The south side is much darker though not creepily so. The streets where the more traditional ochaya (teahouses) are are much less busy than modern Gion. Apparently, you can't even get into a teahouse unless invited by an already established customer. A night in a teahouse includes entertainment by geisha or geikos and usually a very expensive sumptuous meal. From what I've read these parties can cost well in excess of 2000 dollars. A bit too pricey for fun in my opinion. Give me ramen and an 18 dollar movie and I'm happy.
I spotted who I thought was a geisha while roaming around the teahouses. Her hair was done up in a traditonal style and she wore a kimono under her long winter cloak. What did I do after spotting said geisha? The intelligent foreigner thing to do of course, I stalked her, dragging my companions along with me. We could only follow so far as she ducked into a teahouse where we were unable to go. That was my excitement in Gion.
The following day, we took our little Minica and went to Kinkakuji which literally translates to "Golden Temple" but is better known to English speakers as the Golden Pavilion. The entry fee was 400 yen and worth every penny in my opinion. The temple is situated on a very peaceful zen-like pond with very lush trees surrounding it. The temple itself is...GOLD. Not entirely gold but a good portion of it is modeled in gold. After taking various shots of the temple you could walk on the path up to a small but pretty waterfall. Further still you could fall prey to the souvenir stands selling all sorts of knick-knacks. This I did quite gleefully, having been rather prudent with my cash up till then.
The remainder of the trip involved a lot of driving (back to Shikoku) and falling asleep only to be startled into wakefulness by Will's voice saying: "Uh, I need to know where I'm going now." (I was the navigator, being the passenger) We celebrated the New Year quietly at home which was nice since we hadn't been able to be together the year before.
Talk to you all soon, cheers.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Kure, Hiroshima and Himeji
Sorry 'bout the lack of updates folks (for those of you who are following this blog). I started one about the winter vacation, copied the text then deleted it only to find I couldn't seem to paste what I'd copied. Argh! So I'm starting from scratch again.
My winter holiday began on Dec.23, or the Emperor's Birthday which a national holiday here. On Christmas Eve Will and I set out on the road in our little, yet trusty kei car to Kure (a 30 min train ride from Hiroshima). No, I didn't choose Kure for the hell of it, I have friends who live there. What would've been a 3 hour drive back in Canada took almost 6 here. For one thing, the car can't go over 80km/h comfortably for more than 10 minutes and for another traffic is slllooooww. At one point we gave up the non-toll, but non-moving, highway in favor of the zippiness of the rather pricey expressway.
Once in Kure, we met up with my friends, ate dinner, exchanged presents, slept and woke up bright and early to meet another friend in Hiroshima. Once altogether, we had a healthy McDonald's breakfast then set off for Peace Memorial Park, the site of the A-bomb dome. This structure survived the point-blank blast though a lot of the walls were seared off. It was strange to be looking at a building destroyed the way it was. Basically parts of it just melted away.
The A-bomb dome is located in Peace Memorial Park which also houses the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This museum details the creation of Hiroshima as a city as well as the creation of "Little Boy" better known as the atomic bomb. Hiroshima was one of four possible target sites, all candidates being more or less intact unlike other air-raid ravaged cities. Why choose a city that's intact? To observe the effects of course. Kind of like a deadly, huge-scale science experiment. Other sections of the museum showed pictures of the after-effects on humans and objects. A particularly affecting picture shows a watch, frozen at 8:15, the time the atomic bomb detonated above Hiroshima. I won't go into details about the pictures of human suffering. All I can say is there was worse shown in the War Crimes Museum in Ho Chi Minh.
The rest of Hiroshima was walking and taking in a few gardens and one rather mundane castle. (I think I've seen too many Asian castles). The next day we spent in Kure relaxing before taking off for Himeji, famous for its enormous castle, which even this jaded viewer enjoyed.
Himeji Castle is big, even as castles go. One of our first stops was Princess Sen's Quarters. This Princess was first married at 7 to a guy who off and committed suicide. She then met and married the love of her life, Honda Tadatoki and lived in Himeji Castle.
Although the rooms were large and the Princess pretty much had use of the entire building, I couldn't help thinking that, with the bars on the windows and soldiers keeping watch at intermittent posts, it would've been more like living in a glorified prison. The main tower was interesting. Six stories tall and each successive story is smaller than the one beneath it. The bottom floor's walls contained many pegs meant to hold swords and other weapons. The top floor housed a shrine that was moved into the castle after the building took over its former spot.
In order to go into the castle, you had to take off your shoes, put on slippers, then carry your shoes around in a white plastic bag. I think some of the grandeur of the castle was lost on me because I was focusing more on the increasing numbness of my feet. I recommend visiting Himeji in the springtime when the temperature is more agreeable.
Alright, I'm running out of steam. Stay tuned for my take on Kyoto...
My winter holiday began on Dec.23, or the Emperor's Birthday which a national holiday here. On Christmas Eve Will and I set out on the road in our little, yet trusty kei car to Kure (a 30 min train ride from Hiroshima). No, I didn't choose Kure for the hell of it, I have friends who live there. What would've been a 3 hour drive back in Canada took almost 6 here. For one thing, the car can't go over 80km/h comfortably for more than 10 minutes and for another traffic is slllooooww. At one point we gave up the non-toll, but non-moving, highway in favor of the zippiness of the rather pricey expressway.
Once in Kure, we met up with my friends, ate dinner, exchanged presents, slept and woke up bright and early to meet another friend in Hiroshima. Once altogether, we had a healthy McDonald's breakfast then set off for Peace Memorial Park, the site of the A-bomb dome. This structure survived the point-blank blast though a lot of the walls were seared off. It was strange to be looking at a building destroyed the way it was. Basically parts of it just melted away.
The A-bomb dome is located in Peace Memorial Park which also houses the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This museum details the creation of Hiroshima as a city as well as the creation of "Little Boy" better known as the atomic bomb. Hiroshima was one of four possible target sites, all candidates being more or less intact unlike other air-raid ravaged cities. Why choose a city that's intact? To observe the effects of course. Kind of like a deadly, huge-scale science experiment. Other sections of the museum showed pictures of the after-effects on humans and objects. A particularly affecting picture shows a watch, frozen at 8:15, the time the atomic bomb detonated above Hiroshima. I won't go into details about the pictures of human suffering. All I can say is there was worse shown in the War Crimes Museum in Ho Chi Minh.
The rest of Hiroshima was walking and taking in a few gardens and one rather mundane castle. (I think I've seen too many Asian castles). The next day we spent in Kure relaxing before taking off for Himeji, famous for its enormous castle, which even this jaded viewer enjoyed.
Himeji Castle is big, even as castles go. One of our first stops was Princess Sen's Quarters. This Princess was first married at 7 to a guy who off and committed suicide. She then met and married the love of her life, Honda Tadatoki and lived in Himeji Castle.
Although the rooms were large and the Princess pretty much had use of the entire building, I couldn't help thinking that, with the bars on the windows and soldiers keeping watch at intermittent posts, it would've been more like living in a glorified prison. The main tower was interesting. Six stories tall and each successive story is smaller than the one beneath it. The bottom floor's walls contained many pegs meant to hold swords and other weapons. The top floor housed a shrine that was moved into the castle after the building took over its former spot.
In order to go into the castle, you had to take off your shoes, put on slippers, then carry your shoes around in a white plastic bag. I think some of the grandeur of the castle was lost on me because I was focusing more on the increasing numbness of my feet. I recommend visiting Himeji in the springtime when the temperature is more agreeable.
Alright, I'm running out of steam. Stay tuned for my take on Kyoto...
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