Tokyo

Tokyo means "Eastern Capital". It went from being a tiny little farming town called Edo during the early 1600's in the Kanto plain to one of the most populous cities in the world, with over a million people living there at the time Commodore Perry "invited" (read: forced) Japan to open the port of Tokyo to trade with the rest of world. Today the city has an unequaled modern look, probably as a result of enduring two massively destructive forces: The Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and intensive firebombings by US and allied forces during the second World War. The complete recovery of the city from both of these events can be taken as a metaphor for Japan as a whole. It is the showcase for a culture that has developed a seemingly unequaled resourcefulness from centuries of making do with the limited resources that accompany island life.

There is no parallel in my mind to this place. Although the air of Washington DC is regal, stately, and most definitely moving on a visceral level, it inspires emotions because it is the "seat of power for the free world", and you would have to be mad to not at least respect that (regardless of your political leanings).

San Fransisco has a vitality surging through it's streets. A heady mix of creativity and philosophical classiness. The memory of so many events that have impacted our countries fate is still fresh. But there is also an air of vanity present, as if the casual observer to the city is not good enough, as if you have to absolutely adore the city to understand it.

The vibe in Chicago is one of meerly maintaining. Oh don't get me wrong, there I like it well enough. But it's time has come and gone, as the wave of offshoring industry and manufacturing nears completion.

The only city I have personally visited that can even hold a candle to Tokyo is New York City (Didn't see that coming, did you?). In spite of being, big, and dirty, and the site of so much corruption, NYC manages to keep it's head above water and moving ahead. DC might be the seat of political power, but NYC is one of the rare spots in America where cultural power is manifest (I know that some would argue the same for good ole New Orleans, but I haven't been there...).

And although I will represent Brooklyn all day long ('sup Jess, Julia and Micah?), it just doesn't compare to Tokyo. Hands down, it is the most amazing city I have ever spent time in. Maybe it's because I am a country boy, having spent most of the last decade in towns under 50,000 in size. Maybe it's just because I haven't been to Paris, Rome or London. Or perhaps it's because walking in Tokyo is like a glimpse of what the future might be like. It is absolutely amazing how clean it is, with 35 million people living in the greater Tokyo area. The train system is actually nice to ride on, and surprisingly easy, even for someone who doesn't read a lick of Kanji.

My only complaint is that the trains stop running at 12:30, just when it feels like the city is picking up. I suppose I should have some great stories to tell about what I did there to make me feel this way, but the truth is that just being there is an experience in itself. I went out, had some drinks and dinner, saw some sights the next day, and then went home. But I have never felt such an intense desire to return to a place again and again and again. You can just there will always be something new waiting for you, no matter how many times you go. Alright enough of me prattling on like this, you want pictures right? This is about all that I have for now, more on the way...


Is it information overload if you don't know what it says? This is in the Shibuya section of town. Very hip, very trendy. I stood out like a sore thumb, and not just because I am about a foot or so taller than the rest of the population.


This is Jerome, friend of a friend, who has been in Japan for 7 years and has the digs on where to go for a good dinner and drinks at 11:00 at night.


The face is the only thing remaining from a statue of Daibutsu that was damaged in the 1923 quake.


Rockabilly isn't dead here. These people were getting down in a park in Ueno just for the heck of it. Not taking money or anything. I haven't seen coifs like these in a long time.


35 million people means 35 million umbrellas when it rains. And they all want a piece of my eyes, or in some cases, my chin.


I believe I've mentioned how nice the people are, right? It's just amazing how inviting some of them can be.


And it's good to know that drag queens are pretty much the same all over the world, flamboyant as hell.

Collecting trip

I had my first collecting trip of the summer over the weekend. Unfortunately there was very little in the way of entomopathogens, but the forest and weather were nice just the same. It was also fun to be out with a group of people as dorky as I am that know all the plants, birds, fungi etc. Looking for Cordyceps can be a challenge, because they are often very small and blend in with the background. This is only compounded by being in a new setting, such as I find myself in here. There are all kinds of things lying around on the forest floor that I am not used to seeing, so it takes an effort to not notice them so much and try to see the fungi I am looking for. Like I said, not too much of what I was looking for, but cool stuff never the less.

Here we are starting out hike.



Some of the fungi we did see.



Here is Sassegawa-san. She works in my lab and has a unique way of keeping mosquitoes at bay. What she has in her hand is a mosquito coil burning in an incense burner attached to her belt. I had never seen this before, but I guess that it works.



The place that we were collecting is on the mountain just outside of town. I use the word "mountain" loosely here, since it is only about 867 m (right around 2500 feet for those of you that don't know metric). Still it's very pretty forest and you can take a bus there and go for a hike.

The mountain also sports a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the indigenous religion to Japan, and the adherents revere prominent aspects of nature, such as Tsukuba-san, as sacred. The temple here is a representation of that reverence. That is also why there is a gate at the beginning of the trail in that first picture.



Here I am with one of the workers at the temple, a friend of Sassegawa-san, which is why we were able to get our pictures taken. The woman on the left is a researcher from Thailand.



Coming soon: Tales of Tokyo

Life in Tsukuba

Gentle reader,

I am now safely established in my host institution. That would be the research branch of the National Museum of Science and Nature (formerly The National Science Museum or TNS) located in Tsukuba, science city. My host researcher is exceedingly nice, as are most Japanese. He met me at the central train station in Tokyo so that I wouldn't have to try navigating the cavernous expanses of that building. And it is a seriously huge building. It apparently services about 740,000 people a day. Think about that, almost a million people passing through its doors every day. I have more stories about trains in Tokyo, but that will have to wait for another post....

So my room is nice, but pretty small. It has all of the accoutrements one could require: sink, hotplate, microwave, washer/dryer, TV and I even fit on the bed. It doesn't get much sun, and the alarm clock doesn't work, so it is entirely too easy to oversleep. But there is a nice wooded area that my little porch opens out onto, so that is nice.

Here in Tsukuba the dominant industry is, well... science, as the name would imply. There are two major universities, and more research institutions than I could name, some of which other EAPSI fellows are working at, so we have a support group here. I wouldn't say that a support group is needed, but there are definitely some differences between life here and life in the states. There is of course, the language. Although I had an intensive three day training during the orientation, that basically only equips you with enough Japanese to be dangerous. I can ask for directions, but not interpret the results. There is also the issue of footware. They really do take the removal of shoes upon entering a building seriously here. Here is what I do when I leave my room in the morning to go to work: put on the house slippers (which couldn't fit if they had to, way too small!). I walk to the lobby of the building I stay in, put on street shoes, walk across the parking lot to where the lab is, enter the building, put on another pair of slippers (I went out and bought a pair that fits) and then go to the lab. If I need to go to the bathroom, there is a separate pair of slippers for that. If I need to use the clean room (where we deal with materials that need to be kept sterile) there is a separate pair of slippers for that. I probably change footware 15 times a day. No fooling. If I forget something in the room, I do it all again. There is the temptation to just fore go all of this when no one is looking, but when in Rome....

Tsukuba itself is actually kind of dull. So much so that they built an express train line just to haul get people out of here fast and into Tokyo where there is more to do than one human life could ever hope to contain. But the people I am around daily are great and it makes for a nice work environment. Coupled with the lack of other distractions, I should be able to get a lot done. Especially when you consider that the total holdings for Cordyceps and its close relatives number well above seven hundred. I will never get through all of them, but I have made a hit list of the important ones for me.

And that is pretty much it for Tsukuba. There is a mountain (well, a really big hill) nearby that is great for hiking. We went collecting there over the weekend, but that will be another post as well. I know, the suspense is killing you!!!!

photos and stories

Hello friends and neighbors. Sorry if it has been awhile since my last post but things have been pretty busy here in Japan. We have been staying at the campus of the Graduate School for Advanced Studies, otherwise known as Sokendai. It is a pretty cool campus, and has one of the largest solar panel arrays I have ever seen in my life. Check out the picture below. That roof is literally covered in panels and it isn't the only building like that.


We have been treated very well here, especially in terms of the food. I guess that I told most of you that I was going to abandon the veggie ways once I got here, and that has opened up a world of possibilities. Why would I do that? Well, I personally feel as though it would be like walking through the MoMMA in NYC and only looking at the sculptures. There are simply too many new food experiences here and I can't deny them.


In addition to the great food, Sokendai is blessed with one of the most impressive views..... on the planet? Well, I won't go there, but it's pretty amazing none the less.



The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the group funding this whole thing, put together a home stay with a Japanese family for this past weekend. That was a truly memorable experience. My family lived in Yokohama, which is just outside of Tokyo. Most of my interactions were with the wife, Mariko. There are several reasons for this. The first is that she was the only one who spoke English well enough to carry on conversation. The next is that the husband, Kiyoshi, was at work most of the time. And when I say most of the time, I mean all of the time. This man left for work at 8:00 or so week days and didn't get home until midnight. He does this six days a week. Apparently this is the norm for many families here. Seeing this type of family structure, it is not hard to see why the typical gender roles are so entrained in the culture. Mariko does all of the cooking, all of the cleaning, all of the tending to the children. And I honestly can say, I don't blame Kiyoshi at all for relenquishing those duties to her, in fact I think that is the only way that one could possibly raise a family under such conditions. This is not to say that he is inattentive. He was very kind to me, and also very loving to his children, it was actually quite touching to see them interact.

As for the children, they are not unlike children in America. They watch TV, the youngest fights over the controls for the video game, they play dodge ball in the park and get grumpy when tired. There were three in my family, Ayana (2) Atsushi (11) and Misaki (9). The two oldest studied English in school, but were too shy or stubborn to speak with me. Sadly, I am dependent upon the investment other people have made in my native tongue to speak with them here.


Today, I had one of my first experiences "out in the real Japan", and what trip to an Asian country wouldn't be complete without a visit to a giant statue of a Buddah, or Daibutsu as he is known here. The statue we saw today was really impressive, to say the least. The crowds were huge, as I am sure that you can imagine, but most of the people were tourists, doing exactly what I was doing. It was really impressive to be in the presence of a statue that is about 800 years old, and has survived a massive tsunami that washed away many of the surrounding buildings, as well as many earthquakes. This is of course to say nothing of the humble and benevolent power the statue represents. I confess it was a little weird to be "inside" this statue, given all that I indicated above. That is right, for a mere 20 yen you can go inside the Buddah. I don't know why this is significant either, I asked and all I got was the answer I expected, for good luck.



It is said that the light of the world emits from the head of Daibutsu, and indeed this statue was adorned with a massive ingot of silver to represent this. I made some attempt to capture this...



Feeling thankful for the opportunity to stand in the presence of such an austere statue, I made sure to give a reverent bow before departing. It is truly a powerful place, in spite of all the crowds.

after the arrival

I made it to Japan!!! Already the differences are apparent. For example, it took me about ten minutes or so just to find the link that would allow me to post on this silly thing because all of the characters are in Japanese. And yet, there are random english words sprinkled here and there. TV commercials, store names. I guess most of it centers on commerce. And then there is MTVJapan. Redman and 50 Cent videos interspersed with local artists.

More fun TV stuff. Knight Rider and Columbo with Japanese voices dubbed over. I'm sorry, but they just didn't pick the right voice for Kit. However, Columbo had the classic gravelly quality that we all know and love. Then the animated cartoons actually look as if they are saying the sounds that you here.

Another interesting aspect of Japan are the "Love Hotels". Let's see how can I put this delicately... They have variable rates, depending upon how long you want to spend there. Apparently this fills an important social need, since many people in their still live with their parents, or have a house full of extended family. You don't necessarily want to be getting it on while aunt Akiko is in the next room doing laundry. Why do I bring this up? There was one across the street from the hotel we stayed at last night. The name? Christmas Chapel Hotel, complete with Santa's all over it and great big Christmas tree. Don't worry, pictures will follow shortly.