Until recently I thought tanuki (usually rendered in katakana, タヌキ, in Japan) were a mythological creature. It turns out there are real raccoon dogs in Japan although I haven’t seen one. The renditions you see in, and in front of, shops in Japan don’t look much like the real thing though. The real thing looks pretty much like a raccoon.

My kids really liked the tanuki statues they encountered frequently in Japan. So much so that we purchased one, and it has rested on my son’s shelf at home in Oregon ever since.

During the past week Gail has posted a couple of well-crafted blog entries dealing with a part of the tanuki anatomy my kids never recognized as such. For more on tanuki 金玉 see her posts here and here.

Posted on July 9th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: people, tanuki. Comments: 2

“The ryokan I stayed in that night was an unusual one… Before I took a bath, the very attractive twenty-three-year-old daughter of the ryokan went with me for a stroll in the elegant garden, where we watched the black carp swimming about in their pond and netted the one I was to dine on. Later on, in the bathroom, I noticed a black carp staring glumly at me from out of a glass tank set into the wall. It struck me as a perverse idea to have the dinner survey the diner like this, and although I couldn’t absolutely swear it was the same fish, I spent less time wallowing in the tub than I might have if the tank had contained a couple of tiddlers.

But there was another reason for skipping smartly back to my room: the daughter had promised to serve me dinner. We sat with the screens ajar, she in a sleek dark dress, me in the ryokan’s extra-large yukata, and talked for a long time… We drank a good few cups of sake as I nibbled my carp, and by the time the girl had cleared away the dishes, had seated herself again on the soft cushion opposite me, and resumed the story of her life in a voice that grew more melodious the more sake I sipped, I had begun to sense the possibility of a tasty sequel to the meal.

Woe to that carp (since I am convinced now it was the occupant of the bathroom tank that I had been blithely dipping in mustard sauce)! Because that half-digested creature chose this extremely critical moment–this delicate irretrievable moment of deciding how to maneuver a mattress out of a wall cupboard without appearing overly forward–to have his own back with a vengeance.

‘Isn’t it quiet,’ I murmured to the girl and farted louder than I have ever farted in my life. The girl dissolved in helpless giggles and disappeared rapidly in the direction of her sitting room. I hurled my own mattress down onto the tatami. Her brother served me breakfast.”

(Alan Booth in The Roads to Sata p. 168-169)

Posted on July 7th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: alan booth, book quotes, kids, people. Comments: 3

Although no one voted for the Pet Squirrel picture in my recent blog entry, it was the winner when I posed the same question on Facebook. Today’s photo is another angle on the pet squirrel that was roaming the grounds of Castle Himeji a couple years ago.

Posted on June 26th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kids, people, pets. Comments: 3

Sometimes you take a picture of something not knowing why or even what it is you are looking at. Then, later, you are glad you did. Such is the case with this photograph of Saigo Takamori’s statue that I took in Ueno Park.

It wasn’t until I read Looking for the Lost that I was able to learn who Saigo was and what he did. (I had seen The Last Samurai but didn’t make the connection.) As I read Alan Booth‘s words I remembered taking this picture of his statue.

In Looking for the Lost, Booth retraces Saigo’s steps (as best he could given that some of the paths have been completely overgrown with vegetation and snakes).

Next time I’m in Ueno Park I’ll be able to tell my kids a story or two about Saigo and the Satsuma Rebellion instead of just staring blankly at his statue. This bronze statue, by the way, has been standing in Ueno Park for over 110 years now.

Posted on May 4th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: alan booth, people, Tokyo, ueno. Comments: 1

I spied this little guy spying me on a bus in Kyoto. I don’t think he had ever seen a gaijin before and, from the look on his face, I’m not sure he ever wanted to see one again.

Being in Japan as a 6’4″ light-haired foreigner is a unique experience. Adults tend to ignore your presence after an ever-so-brief glimpse, and the kids can’t take their eyes off you. You’re always the elephant in the room that can’t be ignored, yet everyone over the age of about 17 tries their darnedest to.

Posted on April 24th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kids, people. Comments: 4