The first time I saw spaghetti served like a sandwich on a bread roll in Japan, my thoughts went from culinary shock to sheer amazement. I learned then you could take two common items and put them together in a new form, you’ve got an invention.

The one below is not a new one, but it had been for me at that time. I saw the Japanese housewife trimming pretty blossoms off otherwise dead plants and placing them in water in a color contrasting bowl.

Japanese aesthetics

This is what I did today with a dead bouquet and an antique Imari bowl brought back from Japan. I enjoyed this part of recycling and recreating.
The Story of Imari: The Symbols and Mysteries of Antique Japanese Porcelain from Amazon.com

Underneath each beautiful wrapper, there was a small chocolate bar of medium quality. But the enclosed green packet contained wasabi- flavored choco balls. Unusual, but tasty with an interesting twist.

Sushi chocolates including wasabi chocolate balls

This box of chocolates costs about 500 Yen (the value declared for customs).

I had never seen sushi chocolates before. If I could get my hands on them, I would buy several boxes as they make nice presents for the many Japan aficionados I know.

I wonder if this product is available in Germany.

Nevertheless, the real antique shop signs could only be had from antique shops. On Sundays, when I wasn’t working, we would browse the antique shops around Kokura-ku and pick up an interesting antique (骨董品) here and there.

Advertising children's medicine

This store sign measures about 50 cm (20″) in width, and is carved from wood. Today it is hanging in our living room.

Advertising tea (茶)

This one measures about 60 cm (24″) in height, made from wood, and decorates another living room wall.

What a difference to these modern store fronts in Shibuya – Omotesando!

But Shoichi Fujimaki, a Japanese restaurateur and chef, has taken the art of ramen to new heights. Literally, as his creation of noodle heaven will cost a hefty 110 euro. The instant ramen soup takes three minutes in boiling water, Fujimaki’s version takes three days to prepare.

Considering the life span of food items, these ingredients must be getting antique (hence the price) by the time one gets to eat this concoction of 120 different ingredients.

Too expensive for me, but yet…. いただきます

Makes me wonder what I could do with a simple Bratwurst. Barbecue it for three days, spike it with more viands, add a balloon, and give it a name, such as Hanswurst (tomfool). We should consider turning street food into gourmet food ourselves.

In October 2009, a delegation of officials visited Dresden to study the church’s architecture. After having built a wooden replica, the task force got started on their chore of working in subzero temperatures and long nights. The snow festival runs from 05 Feb – 11 Feb 2010, and on 12 February it will get demolished after having been viewed by 2 million visitors.

Nothing unusual so far, but when Japan uses its military to work on civil projects, it strikes a different tone in Germany. 150 members, male and female, part of the communication unit, are rebuilding the Frauenkirche in snow, which has attracted the attention of the German media.

The Japanese military commander calls working in icy temperatures Abhärtungstraining (inurement practice).  In Japanese terms, this kind of work requiring endurance, is always greeted with がんばってね ! (Try hard!) and when we lived in Japan, we heard this on many occasions.

The German Tagesschau has a three minute video clip and photo gallery on its website about the Japanese soldiers rebuilding a 28-meter German church out of snow.

Germany’s surprise reaction is twofold; Germans have a hard time imagining using soldiers for civic art and subjecting its people to so-called inhumane working conditions.

The Japanese are very good in regards to thinking out-of-the box. Where else could you get married with three different religious ceremonies all performed in one day? Some Japanese women replace their long desired family addition with a puppy and parade it around in a stroller. Some grown women wear girly socks and braids, young women like to do cosplay, or last year’s trend of some men wearing bras for comfort. Others are shy and reserved in regular life, but a real talent on stage or a hit at the Karaoke bar.

The Japanese know how to reinvent themselves. In spite of spatial boundaries, the Japanese mind knows few limits when it comes to accepting new trends and modifying traditions in new ways.

Perception of good and bad working conditions differ greatly in both countries. This shows in the number of days and hours most Japanese are supposed to be at their workplace (work efficiency is be another story). Endurance is a valuable trait and needs to be taught early on.

When we lived in Japan, we had to get accustomed to seeing kindergartners walking around in shirts and shorts on cold winter mornings. The first time I saw this parade of half-naked little kids, the overcuddled German part of me was shocked at first. But I have come to see its benefits, especially since having returned to the land of the Strumpfhosenpolizei, which is at the opposite end of the cold endurance spectrum.

I just learned about this unusual fad this morning as one of my students asked me whether this would be a hoax or a believable story. Based on my three years of living in Japan, I immediately found this amusing, in some ways sooo Japanese and not surprising anymore. Nevertheless, I needed to double-check it first and found more information about this on Shine.

The Japanese are in some ways very unconventional. They can hold a wedding in Shinto tradition, then in a Hindu ceremony and last the Christian way, including white wedding dress, all on one day.

They sell cold spaghetti with tomato sauce on a bread roll. At first it might not look tasty, but then – don’t some of us enjoy pasta with bread on the side? The Japanese are unrestricted when it comes to concocting plain items in new fashions.

Some men like to have their thirty-something wives wear Snoopy socks and braid their hair to satisfy their Roricon (derived from Lolita Complex), more on wiki here. At first I used to laugh about this seemingly childish way of dressing up in public. Then it dawned on me that some Japanese actually had fewer inhibitions compared to us Westerners. What some might reserve for the bedroom, some Japanese show in public.

So when Cosplay (derived from Costume Play) became popular as a way of dressing up, I figured it was just a continuation of the Roricon. Even then, some enjoyable fads do get old after a while and there is always a new generation of young Japanese minds. So now we have arrived at the stage where some men like to wear bras to work. I hope it makes them cut better deals without having to snap their bra strap. But then again, this won’t be the end of setting new fashion trends either.

So, my message is: Embrace life the Japanese way. This way your life may never get dull nor predictable.

Why take the straight tour in life? Just follow these signs.

FLEA MARKET at the

Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama

Yokohama, Tsuzuki-ku,

Chigasaki-minami 2-4-1

on Sat 04 April 2009 from 11:00 – 16:00

(A 10-minute walk from Naka-machidai train station/blue Yokohama subway line)

Please note:

1) Parking is limited and therefore the use of public transportation is recommended (the police frequently checks for parking violators).
2) Bring a hearty appetite – cake, German style sausages and beer will also be for sale.
3) In case of rain, the flea market will be moved indoors.

In this video clip you get to see last Saturday’s outing, organized by Midori, with a group of about 20 Japanese pulling the traditional hand-cart with Kohl and Pinkel and its other necessary complements. The video clip is in German, with bits and pieces of Japanese as well.

Midori seems to be the perfect guide for this activity as her first name stands for the color green in Japanese. The label for this group activity has been chosen as well: kyabetsu arnuki (kyabetsu is the distorted Japanese version of cabbage and aruki derives from the verb aruku: walk).

Midori’s outing was a success and I am sure more will follow!

I had been waiting for my e-ticket to arrive to apply for this travel authorisation beforehand. As of now this method of application is still on a voluntary basis until January 2009.

My travel agent just sent me the USA-Einreiseformular (US entry permit application), which instructs me  to fill it out and submit to the ground personnel before the departure. This made me shiver. Why? Well, I want to know beforehand – while still in Germany – that my paperwork is good enough for entry. I travel with my daughter ( a minor) and a non-English speaking sibling. If my entry got refused and I’d be put on the next plane back, this would leave two stranded folks in New York City.

Why do I want to take extra precaution? For one – I am married to a U.S. citizen and residing in Germany. So entering the United States will put me in the highest risk category for illegal immigration as I have no green card and immigration believes that non-green card spouses would like to stay longer than permitted. Number two – my daughter is a U.S. citizen, which puts my tourist intent in double jeopardy. Immigration officials only do their job and try to fish out anyone looking to stay beyond their limited time. I have no intention to stay more than four days in the United States.

We are what we experience, so here goes my real-life fairy tale:

Once upon a time, in the last millennium, there lived a fairly young German wife with her U.S. American husband in a far away land called Japan. They were so happy when their son was born and they were so proud of him and wanted to take him to the kingdom where his father had been born and raised. His paternal grandparents wanted to hold their first-born son who would carry on the family name. (Back in those days, those things were still important.)

So they planned on taking their son across the Pacific Ocean to be held once by his grandparents for a couple of weeks before the family would continue across the Atlantic Ocean to take on a new post in another old country.

Luckily the couple inquired at a Japanese outpost of the kingdom to learn whether traveling with a one-way pass for the wife would be enough to enter the kingdom. The Consul yet told them there might be trouble as the guards watching the kingdom gate would get suspicious with anyone showing up with a one-way pass. The kingdom thinks of itself so highly and believes it to be so beautiful that once you have entered it, you will never want to leave again.

And because the wife was married to a citizen of that kingdom, then it was assumed she would definitely stay without proper permission from the king. She was advised she was in the same risk category as some dark haired people who liked to swim across the river or sneak through the border at night.

The couple felt very discouraged and tried to think of a way to show the baby to the aging grandparents.

One night they had an idea. If the problem lay with a one-way pass, surely a two-way pass would be sufficient to enter the country for a short visit. The two-way pass would definitely prove the intent of leaving again. Again the couple inquired at the outpost station and were told that a two-way pass held better chances to get in. But still, the couple had no proof of the new post in Germany as in those days, contracts and such were delivered by postal courier only and those sometimes took a while.

So the couple packed up their belongings and traveled via Taipei/Taiwan and Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia to Frankfurt/Germany. Then they went to a travel merchant and bought a two-way pass for entering the kingdom.

Two days later they crossed the Atlantic Ocean to meet the child’s grandparents and everyone was overjoyed.

All together, they had to travel 27,000 km because the kingdom’s guards thought the wife to be a prime risk for illegal immigration.

The wife’s kingdom never questioned her husband’s entry on a one-way ticket.

-The End-

The moral of the story: Always travel with your complete paperwork, but be prepared for the unexpected.

The filigree lattice of a dead leaf

There is really nothing you must be. And there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have. And there is nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains the earth gets wet.

– Japanese Zen Scroll –