A typical Life

Have you ever had a hard time locating an address in Japan? Japanese addresses can very confusing to foreigners and if you have ever tried to find one on a map it can be very frustrating. I have found a tool that allows you to map an address in Japan - it’s called diddlefinger and it has an easy to use interface in English!

Here is an example of an address in Japan:

7-1,7-chome, Yatsu, Narashino-City, Chiba (This happens to be for Yuzawaya a craft store I plan on visiting often)

Here’s how diddlefinger works (the default city is Tokyo but other cities are available by using the drop down box in the upper right hand corner):

Step 1 - Click “English Address Search”and the following box will appear:

Step 2 - Enter the shi or city - in this case Narashino (a box will drop down so that you can pick the correct item)
Step 3 - Enter the Ku or Ward (in this case it was not necessary)
Step 4- Enter the area - in this case Yatsu
Step 5 - Enter the address - in this case 7-1
Step 6 - Click Map

You have done it! You can zoom in and out and recenter the map with your mouse. But there’s more, if you check the detail box you will then see the main station names in English. Click on the small train icon closest to your address and it will provide you the name of the station and often the line it is on - now you can figure out how to get there.

Do you want to know how far your address is away from the station or other landmark? If so, just click on the address that you just found and a white dialog box will open. Check the set as home point box and save (the bubble turns magenta). Then go anywhere else on the map and double click - you will get a new (white) bubble. Click on that and you can export a link or find out how far it is from your home point as the crow flies. You can also click on Satellite to see a view with landmarks, etc.

I think that this is a very handy tool that I will be putting to good use when I get to Japan. I hope that you find it useful too.

Baseball was imported to Japan from the Unites States as early as 1872 but wasn’t organized until 1934 with the creation of the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club. The Japanese Baseball League was formed in 1937, consisting of eight teams, played until 1949 (except 1945, presumably because WWII). Starting in 1950, the Japanese Baseball League became Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as we now know it. The NPB site has compiled an interesting photo essay to celebrate its 70 year history in 2004. It’s worth taking a look at just for the photos but the translation is somewhat lacking.

Currently there are a total of twelve teams divided into two leagues. Each team plays 144 regular season games between April and October. The teams in each league are as follows (the Kanji will help you follow your team in the standings, but more on that in a later post):

Central League
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (日本ハム)
Seibu Lions (グッドウィル)
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (ソフトバンク)
Chiba Lotte Marines (ロ ッ テ)
Orix Buffaloes (サーパス)
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (楽天)

Pacific League
Chunichi Dragons (中日)
Hanshin Tigers (阪神)
Tokyo Yakult Swallows (ヤクルト)
Yomiuri Giants (巨人)
Hiroshima Carp (広島)
Yokohama BayStars (湘南)

An English translation ( via AltaVista Babel Fish Translation)
of each teams site may be reached by clicking on the team name.

The Pacific League, like the American League in the United States, uses the designated hitter while the Central League, like the National League, does not. Teams are allowed to have up to four foreigners on the roster. Wayne Gaczyk wrote an article for the Japan Times listing the 62 foriegn players and coaches that will participate in 2008. You will note that some teams have signed more than four players which would require some of them to spend some time in the minor leagues (more about the minor leagues in a future post).

Schedules for the upcoming season are available via JapanBall. This site also offers a lot of other information and even provides links to baseball news stories from Japan. Take a look around, you can even book a tour to come see Japanese baseball for yourself this fall.

Mark your calendars, here some of the key dates for the 2008 Japanese baseball season:

• February 1st - Spring training starts (about two weeks earlier that in the United States)
• February 23rd through March 23rd - Pre-Season Exhibition Games
• March 20th through October 1st - Regular Season Games
• May 2oth through June 22nd - Inter-league Play
• July 31st - August 1st - All Star Break
• November 1st through 9th - Japan Series
• November 1st through the 20th (approximately) - Fall Camp or Practice

Some interesting tidbits about Japanese baseball:

• Unlike in the US, if a game is tied after twelve innings of play, or exceeds the allotted time frame, the game is called and remains a tie in the record books.
• Instead of singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the 7th inning stretch the fans release screeching balloons into the air - it’s quite a site!
• Each team has it’s own cheering section and they wave flags and banners, beat drums and are constantly cheering throughout the game. Each player has his own song or chant that the fan club sings each time he comes to the plate. These cheering sections are very loud and take fan participation to a whole new level!

Now the countdown begins….23 days until the first baseball game of 2008!

My next post in this series will be on the minor league or 2nd team system in Japan. In the meantime if you have any questions or want me to cover anything in the series please leave me a comment.

So far I’ve written a lot about Japan and my memories of our last stay and now it’s time to reveal the reason that I will be coming to Japan….Baseball!

Baseball took me to Japan from 1994-1998 and now it is brining me back. I loved living in Japan and I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do so again.

If you have read my about me page you will remember that I claim to be a baseball fan. Now you know why and it was not always the case - I married into the game and now I love it! When I first started watching the game I had no idea about the various strategies that made the seemingly simple game so complex. Baseball is a game for everyone from a kid who can understand three strikes and you’re out to a statistician who loves to analyze match ups, batting averages and everything in between.

For those of you that love the game in America and want to learn more about the game in Japan I am working on a series of posts that will act as a primer of sorts which I hope will allow you to get more familiar with the game in Japan and understand a little about the world that I live in….It’s not a typical life but it’s never boring!

Spring training starts on February 1st in Japan and I will start this weekly series on Thursday with some history of the game in Japan and an overview of the various teams that make up Nippon Professional Baseball (the link is in Japanese - so if you can’t read Kanji you will be very frustrated if you click it….).

Let’s play ball!

I just shipped my hubby off to Japan and now I am looking forward to joining him in a month. Over the last few weeks I have been pondering how to get the most out of the experience of living in Japan and I came across this quote from QuoteGrarden:

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.” James Michener

This has always been my philosophy and I think that I will post this on my fridge in Japan. It will remind me to make the most of this awesome opportunity that has been given to me - even on the frustrating days!

The countdown to Japan continues in our world and it’s all starting to come together! Yesterday I showed you the satellite image of our location and today I can share some photos of the actual apartment.

Here is the building:

The living room is kind of small and I am wondering if my husband will be able to stretch out comfortably on the loveseat?

There is a wide balcony around most of the living area - here is the view (you can see a bit of the Pacific Ocean in the background):

This is the kitchen (no oven which I assumed but I was hoping to have one anyway…):

We have a total of three bedrooms and even a den that has been set up with a desk for my surfing and blogging! This apartment is much larger than the norm in Japan for which I am very thankful!

It’s getting more real to me everyday and now I’m envious that my husband gets to go a month before me. My only consolation is that he will be freezing his butt off while I am home in balmy Hawaii…

Well my hubbies departure is finally set for Sunday afternoon and I am working hard to help him get ready to go. A week ago we didn’t even have the date settled and I wondered if we would ever get to Japan. The contact is almost done - just a few minor wording issues and it will all be official once it is signed in Japan.

We got our visas form the Japan Consulate as promised and there were no significant problems. However, they did assume that I was American (my husband is American) when they applied for the certificate of eligibility even though I provided a copy of my Canadian passport. So now I have a visa with a note in Japanese explaining the error and was told by the consulate that there should be no problems when I try to enter Japan - we’ll see?

The date of the first meeting was finalized after many emails and phone calls and the luggage issue is also resolved. It turns out that someone will be driving to Kamogawa and will take the luggage with him. So my hubby saved a few days sitting in a basically empty apartment in chilly Chiba before hitting the road for a month.

We finally go our address in Japan - I searched this address on diddlefinger and you can see a map of our location in Chiba here. The satellite image is much more interesting so make sure to click that tab in the upper left hand corner.

I’ve ordered some Yen from the bank, a stock of medicine for hubby and purchased all of the omiyage (gifts) so he’s almost ready to go. Now I have a month to take care of everything else before I head off….

I recently read an article in The Japan Times titled “Canadian Garden of Unity and Reconciliation“. On its face it is a touching story of the dedication of a garden built on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada (my home province). Rumiko Kanesaka, a Japanese national, married a Canadian and moved with him back to Canada in 1994. They settled on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and heard stories about a thriving community of Japanese that had existed prior to WWII. She then discovered that the 77 Japanese residents of Salt Spring Island had faced extreme intolerance and ultimately internment, ordered by the Canadian government. One of these people was Mary Murakami Kitagawa who was a speaker at the April 2006 Japan Garden Society meeting (group behind the garden discussed in the article).

Having grown up in British Columbia, the internment of the Japanese was not something that I recall having heard about in school and I wanted to learn more. Mary Murakami Kitagawa and the other 76 Japanese residents of Salt Spring Island became part of a group of 20,881 people, 13,309 who were Canadian citizens by birth, that were interred during the war years. Here are the highlights of her story:

In February 1942 any person of Japanese origin were ordered into ‘protected areas’ with only a single suitcase. The protected area that the Murakami’s were taken to was a renovated horse barn where troughs were used for toilets and straw for mattress. They went there without their father; he was sent to a labor camp that helped build the Trans Canada Highway.

Two weeks later they were sent to the interior of British Columbia and approximately two months later they were told that they could reunite with their father if they moved to Alberta to work on the sugar beet farms. They relocated and at some point they were sent back to British Columbia.

They then heard of Order in Council 469, dated January 1943, which allowed for the liquidation of all property which had been in protective custody. This included the families property on Salt Spring Island.

In March 1945 the family received an order to leave British Columbia for good or be ‘repatriated’ back to Japan. Repatriated is the word that Mary Murakami Kitagawa takes issue with since she was born in Canada and rephrased it to deported. On May 2, 1947 a ship set sail for war devastated Japan with 3,964 Japanese Canadians on board for ‘repatriation’.  The Murakami’s chose to move back to Alberta and opened a restaurant.

In April 1949, Japanese Canadians regained the right to live anywhere in Canada.

In 1954 the Murakami’s finally saved enough money to move back to Salt Spring Island. They came back, purchased a home and continued to purchase land over the years but never the land that they owned prior to the war.

Forty years after the end of the war the Canadian Government awarded $21,000 CDN dollars, a pittance, to each individual directly wronged.

Mary’s touching and informative first hand video account of the internment and the family’s experiences through 1997 can be found on The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Digital Archives Website. Many other related videos can also be found there.

Two women of Japanese ancestry, born thousands of miles apart, Rumiko Kanesaka and Mary Murakami Kitagawa, both ended up on Salt Spring Island by choice. One of them took a longer and much harder road to get there but they both understand the concept of tolerance and understanding and helped to bring the Garden of Unity and Reconciliation into being as members of the Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring Island.

How inspiring.

Sources:

“Canadian Garden of Unity and Reconciliation“. The Japan Times. Published January 19, 2008.
“Relocation to Redress: The Internment of the Japanese Canadians “. The CBC Digital Archives Website. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Last updated: 29 Nov. 2006. Various video clips and articles on the subject.
“Japanese Internment - British Columbia wages war against Japanese Canadians“. The CBC Digital Archives Website. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Last updated: 29 Nov. 2006.
“Japanese Interment: Banished and Beyond Tears” . The Canadian Encyclopedia.

This weeks quote is from the Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman.

“What is the difference between love and obsession? Didn’t both make you stay up all night, wandering the streets, a victim of your own imagination, your own heartbeat? Didn’t you fall into both, headfirst into quicksand? Wasn’t every man a fool and every woman a slave?

Love was like rain: it turned to ice, or it disappeared. Now you saw it, now you couldn’t find it no matter how hard you might search. Love evaporated, obsession was realer; it hurt, like a pin in you bottom, an stone in your shoe. A morning phone call filled with regret. A letter that said ‘Dear you, goodbye from me’. Obsession tasted like something familiar. Something you’d known your whole life. It settled and lurked; it stayed with you.”

I’m not so sure that I agree that obsession is longer lasting, it’s just results in more intense feelings for what is usually a shorter period of time. Love morphs from passionate obsession into something softer and longer lasting - if you’re lucky!

What do you think?

Nick Ramsay, the man behind LongCountdown and JapanSoc was kind enough to review my blog. He said some kind things and is looking forward to comparisons between our current stay in Japan and our stay from 1994-1998. Here is an excerpt from his review:

“…it will be very interesting to hear if Japan of 2008 lives up to her memories from the early ’90s. Shane has promised some exciting things for her blog, and I will be following along, anxious to hear her stories of fingerprinting at immigration and the demise of 100 yen shops in the wake of China’s bustling economy.”

Nick’s full review can be read here and I will try not to disappoint him and all of the other Japan bloggers out there who put such effort into helping us all understand Japan better.

LongCountdown covers many aspects of life in Japan from annual predictions to bicycle bells. You never know what he’ll be blogging about but it’s usually a good read. JapanSoc is a budding social networking site which I am enjoying a lot. I have found a lot of well thought out content and a couple of sites that I hadn’t seen before - if you are interested in what’s going on in Japan you really should check it out!

Thanks Nick!

I have traveled and lived in different places for periods of time before but moving to a foreign country is a whole different ball of wax! The last time I moved to Japan was back in 1994 and I have forgotten all of the little things that I missed from home.

What do I need to take with me? What comforts of home will I miss most? My experience has taught me that these are questions that can’t be easily answered and that the answers don’t become apparent until you’ve been living somewhere for a while. I am very fortunate in that my husbands’ company will be providing a fully furnished apartment for us so I don’t need to worry about furniture, house wares, etc.

So I’m off to Japan for most of next two years and here are a few things that I know. As an average size Caucasian woman with size 81/2 feet I will have a hard time finding clothes and shoes in Japan, books are expensive (I love to read!) and if the foods that my husband and I crave from home are even available I will likely have to travel some distance, and pay a lot of Yen, to get them.

Also, most of the places where I have lived have had very moderate climates. I have very few winter clothes and Japan has cold weather! The first snow this year was yesterday in Chiba….

Here is my short list of must haves (definitely not in order of importance):

Computer for Internet surfing & chatting, email, blogging and just general sanity…

My new D-SLR digital camera to capture all of the wonderful sights I will get to see…

Some photos of people who are dear to me…

Clothes - I’ve been shopping and scored some pretty good deals on winter clothes and splurged on a beautiful leather coat that I can’t wait to wear!

Comfortable, yet stylish shoes – is that even possible? I will also need to cover both warm and cold weather, dressy and casual situations and a lot of walking.

A small stash of comfort foods from home?

Toiletries that I can’t live without that I’m not sure I can get in Japan…

Japanese travel guide, language books & dictionary…

Electricity/plug converters for hi-tech devices. Other devices, like my blow dryer, will work fine with Japanese electricity…

Books – as many as will fit in my suitcase without putting me over the airline weight limits! I will also have to check out Amazon in Japan.

Playing cards/cribbage board/board games – maybe?

Now I just have to control myself and not over pack! I’ve done that before only to have to bring something home without having used it at all. This is my conundrum given that I won’t be able to buy clothes it Japan. I guess there is always mail order to friends and family in the states….

Am I missing anything important? What would you bring?