Koborebanashi

Trivia, Tidbits and Tales about Japan

Category: General

  • The Year Through a Rice Field: February

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    Once or twice a week, I have to walk past quite a large rice field. As the year progresses, it’s always fascinating to see how the seasons change, as reflected in the rice field.

    Right now, the field is bare. It’s just brown earth with a few dead stalks, presumably from last year’s rice plants, mixed into the soil. Now we’re in February, though, it won’t be too long before the farmers start to flood their fields and then plant their rice seedlings.

    Thinking about it, rice planting must be- or, at least, have been- a back-breaking job. Nowadays it’s done mainly by a little planting machine on which the farmer rides. (By the way, the machines are apparently incredibly expensive, especially given that realistically, they’re used once a year.) But I’d say that even now, in the corners of fields and places where the planting machine can’t get to, the job is still back-breaking because the farmer has to plant every single rice plant by hand, individually. You can see why more and more people are retiring from rice cultivation, and why fewer and fewer young people are choosing it as a job.

    It’s a real shame, really. And maybe it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, but it’s noticeable how much the rice fields- in this area, at least- have declined in number over the past few decades.

    Saijo, where I live, is famous for sake. In fact, it’s one of the three largest sake-producing regions in Japan. It’s always said that it’s partly because of the water, partly because of the climate, and partly because of the rice. But it really is quite noticeable, and in a way quite amazing, how much the rice fields have declined in number. You have to wonder how much longer rice farming will be a viable thing in these parts, and that begs the question, will there come a time when Higashihiroshima City is no longer renowned for its sake?

  • Tonomi Station

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    I used to love Tonomi Station because it was old, a little bit ramshackle, but it was how it had always been, and it was wonderful. But a few years ago, the station building was completely rebuilt. It’s very bright and airy, and really it is a much nicer building, but it’s much simpler and it lacks the rundown, old-fashioned charm of the original station building.

    And then on platform three (which is actually the only other platform) there used to be a big wooden shelter, almost as big as a barn in a way, with seats inside it, but now that’s gone completely, and all that’s left is just three rows of seats out in the open on the platform, which is fair enough, but if it’s raining, you can’t use them at all. At least on platform one, there is the station building which provides shelter. It’s progress in one way, I suppose, but, in another way, very much not so. Sometimes with the JR Sanyo Line west of Iwakuni, I get the feeling that for the lesser stations, it really is a case of managed decline. I very much hope that I’m wrong.

  • Alternative Fashion?

    I’ve just seen a young man on the tram in Hiroshima, with a huge roll of masking tape on his arm, like an outsized bangle.

    I’m sorry, I’m not even going to attempt to ponder why this might be. I just hope he’s heading to do some DIY or something. The alternative… Well, I dread to think!

  • Hiroden Video Game?

    Oh my goodness. I’m normally listening to music or a podcast, so I’ve never noticed before, but the current chimes before announcements on Hiroshima trams makes it sound like you’ve reached a whole new level on a video game.

    So… Is Hiroshima Station the final boss?

  • Supermarkets’ Secret Signals

    I noticed a long time ago that the supermarket near where I live plays ‘Singing In the Rain’ as background music when it’s raining. I assume that it’s some sort of signal to the staff, or it might even be for the customers.
    Anyway, I found out today (don’t ask how!) that it’s not just the local supermarket, and in fact that there are a whole range of signals sent by music in supermarkets. I suppose it’s like a non-verbal version of the London Underground’s ‘Inspector Sands’.
    Taking Ito-Yokado (a supermarket chain in Japan) as an example, the following tunes mean different things:
    – Daydream Believer, by The Monkees, is played when there’s nothing special happening;
    – Help!, by The Beatles, can be played by checkout staff to call for extra help on the tills when there are large numbers of customers waiting;
    – Carmen, by Georges Bizet, indicates robberies or other crimes in the store;
    – And (this is one you never want to hear), Symphony No. 5 (1st Movement), by Beethoven (da-da-da-DUM), indicates a bomb threat!
    Finally, there’s one probably targeted at customers rather than staff. Rhythm of the Rain, by The Cascades, informs shoppers that it’s raining.
    So, if you’re in a supermarket in Japan, and you hear a rain-related song, you’ll likely need an umbrella when you leave. On the other hand, if you hear Beethoven, it might be a good idea to leave as quickly as you can!

  • Maths on the Tram

    I was on a tram in Hiroshima today. It was a fairly full tram, and just by where I was standing, there was a family: mother, father, and son.

    The son was studying math, by the look of it for junior high school entrance exams. Why you would do that on a tram is anyone’s guess, but that’s what he was doing.

    Now when Japanese children do maths, they quite often write the math with their finger in the air. Actually, they do that when they’re writing Japanese characters (and practicing English, for that matter) as well.

    But what was really quite cute about the situation on the tram was that the young boy was using his father’s back as a sort of slate, or whatever you want to call it, on which to write the equations he was trying to solve.

    And the father? Well, he was just taking it all in his stride.

  • Newspaper Bins: Now, Just Heritage Items

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    At stations on JR West (and, I think, other JR areas), it’s quite common to see rubbish bins for newspapers and magazines.

    Now, given how many people spend all their time on the train using their smartphones (and by extension, not reading newspapers or magazines), I wonder how many people actually use those bins these days. I mean, there must be some, but you just don’t generally see people reading on the train so much these days.

    It’s nice that stations still have these bins, but in fact, it’s just harking back to an age that’s basically disappeared now. It’s a shame, really.

  • Crackballs!

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    If you’ve ever been to a bank or a convenience store in Japan, you might have noticed, tucked away behind the counter but still easily accessible (to the staff, that is), some orange balls. If you look more carefully, you’ll see that they’re actually clear balls filled with some sort of orange liquid. Any idea what they might be?

    Well, let me tell you. They’re actually to protect against crimes. They’re called ‘bohan colour balls’ (crime prevention colour balls), but I prefer the alternative (and far more attention-grabbing) ‘crackball’. Whatever the name, the idea is that staff can throw the balls at any criminals who are trying to escape.

    Good idea, but it raises one question (actually, several): do the staff actually practice throwing these balls? How do they learn to aim? What if they hit a completely innocent bystander? The whole ‘orange ball’ system just seems very prone to mistakes, let’s put it that way.

    I certainly wouldn’t have any confidence that I would be able to hit anyone who’d just stolen something from my shop or, worse still, from my bank… but maybe that’s just me.

    Footnote: It appears that people possibly do practice throwing the balls. There’s even a website (unfortunately only in Japanese, but then again, why would it be in any other language?) explaining everything you could ever want to know (and quite possibly more) about how to use the balls.

  • The Latest ‘Character Shinkansen’ Train

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    For a few years now, JR West seems to have been into ‘character’ Shinkansen: Shinkansen trains in a livery that evokes the character in question.
    The first of these was the Evangelion 500-series Shinkansen (still the best, in my opinion), and then came the Hello Kitty Shinkansen (which is great if you like kawaii).
    And now there’s a third ‘character’ Shinkansen: the ONE PIECE train. Actually, there are going to be three of these ONE PIECE Shinkansen, unveiled roughly one month apart. Only the first train, in the ‘Setouchi Blue’ livery, is running yet. The remaining two trains are due to be unveiled in May and June respectively.
    The Setouchi Blue train makes one round trip between Hakata and Shin-Osaka a day (at present), and it’s quite striking. If you’re waiting for a Shinkansen somewhere between Hakata and Shin-Osaka, keep an eye out for this train!

  • Easter’s Low Profile in Japanese Culture

    It’s Easter this weekend. I’m expecting some chocolate from the UK in the post any day now.
    But one thing intrigues me. Why isn’t Easter bigger in Japan?
    Looking at it superficially, the answer is obvious. Easter is a Christian festival, and Japan isn’t a Christian country. But just look at Valentine’s Day, admittedly not particularly Christian. It’s huge in Japan, perhaps even more so than in the Western countries where it originated.
    And then there’s Hallowe’en. There might not be so much trick-or-treating or dressing up, but there are whole shelves of Hallowe’en chocolate and sweets on sale in the supermarket in the weeks before the end of October.
    On the face of it, Easter should be a perfect festival for Japan: it has chocolate, and it has the all-important kawaii factor in the form of cute Easter rabbits. It should be up there with Christmas as a major Western day absorbed into Japanese culture.
    And yet each year, Easter passes basically unnoticed in Japan. I wonder why?