last report from Shibuya and the fish market

So, today I woke up very early to go get some photo shots at the Tsuki-ji fish market. When I woke up at about 5.30, I felt like an idiot for a little while. Come on, what is this? only 5 hours of sleep, just to take some photos? Then, slowly, I made up my mind, and decided to go... thinking that I wold have been the king of fools, I moved to the Nezu subway station, where in fact at 5 minutes to 6 there was very few people. The number of people increases briskly at the Okachimachi intersection. Boy, people go to work early in this city! At the Tsuki-shijo stop a number of people gets out, among which another 4-5 guys carrying heavy photography bags just like me.... ah, I am not alone, there are others with the Lonely planet guidebook :) So everybody moves stealthily towards the market, pretending to ignore the others.... It looks like we are all in one of those Benny Hill shorts :)

Well, the fish market was totally worth the move, even though I missed the auction phase (which ends at 6.30), the rest is great. Giant red tuna, both fresh and frozen, known and totally unknown kinds of fish, the most strangest shellfish I have ever seen, etc. Funnily enough, each stall where a number of rough and weary fishermen treat the animals and cut them with humongous knives in the shape of samurai's katanas, is severely controlled and managed by women. It can be one or two young girls, but most often they are old oba-san, wives or even mothers of the guys working in the front. I took several photos of these characters, all busy with their rigorous inside their tiny wooden case, amidst the noise and the voices of the traders, the fury of the small carts running in all directions, the tons of fish moving around. But I think it is not even worth describing in words, photos (hopefully) will be much nicer explanation of the atmosphere...

On my way back, the city was totally awaken, it was about 7.30. I stopped in a Coffe shop to have a real breakfast, with delicious ready-made pancakes with maple syrup and a decent cappuccino. And then I went back to the ryokan, and set myself for the bed. I slept for maybe 20', just to enjoy the idea that I just had woke up that morning, the fish-market thing being something of the yesterday. But the strange smell rising from my feet reminded me of the absolute necessity to take not just a simple shower... but to soak the feet in some suplhuric acid, or a stronger solution! In fact, I had put on my sandals to go to the market, and as one can easily imagine, the soil of the market was covered by about an inch of water, in which all kinds of other fluids mix and go. This is why most people were wearing knee-high rubber boots :)) OK, the sandal idea was not bad, only I had to throw away my sandals probably.

Then, I knew that there would have been the science meeting at 4pm, so I had not the full day to complete my list of to-do's. In fact, they reduced just to a few. I had to go to Ueno park, give again a look at the Toshogu (without taking new photos, I had plenty from the other time), then move on to the National Museum, to shop for some peculiar items. (I had them the other time I was here, but they all were left back in my .... previous life! so in order to have them back the only chioce is to buy new ones, and luckily the Museum shop still carries them ;) It is almost lunch time, and according to my Lonely planet (and to common sense) it should be worth going back to the fish market to find the best and freshest sushi in the world. I get rid of the too fancy Sushi Zanmai, which I fear should be a tourist trap, and head to one of the small sushi shops lining in front of the big market hall, and enter the one that gives me the nicest impression. And, wow!, it was the right choice. For a mere 3,600yen (22 euro) I can literally stuff myself with the greatest sushi meal ever! I went up a little with the price since I ordered separately some toro sushi, the highest quality of fat-belly tuna, but it was soooooo worth it! And I finished with one of those giant peaches they sell in the street, for a price going from 250 to 350yen. They are individually wrapped in a soft foamy plastic case, to keep them from hurting against each other or anything, and they are the sweetest you can find (I can remember better ones only in a small tiny village in Calabria, south of Italy, a few years back).

In my to-do list there was still Kyukyo-do missing, in Ginza. So I went there, and fired off my about 100euro in washi paper, hanging scrolls etc. One of the must of every Japan visit... And that was pretty much it.
The meeting at 4 (to which I arrived obviously late, I was there around 4.30 pretending I did a bad time calculation since I am living in Ueno now, about 1h30' away from the university... in fact I took my time and took another, necessary and relaxing shower in the ryokan), the meeting at 4.30 then, lasted until 9 in the night !!! Ah, the japanese... well, it was a wrap-up meeting just to check what I remembered after two weeks of vacation.

Then, I stopped again in Shibuya, to do the last sister-related shopping. And could watch again some of that tokyoite nightlife that it is impossible to follow, for someone like me (and, must admit, of my age... I sort of find myself a little out of place in such an environment, albeit there are around a number of not-so-young, and even middle-aged (meaning 'older than me') salarymen mixed in the crowd). Although I think I got some understanding of the youth-pop-urban culture that is developing here, it is something so distant ahead, and projected so far away in time that I think to myself, when such pop customs will make it to the western Europe I will be probably gone. However, the Shibuya-girls are there again, and since I browsed for some information (and got myself some local papers and manga!), I can see the big big difference between the far more developed youngsters here than in Kyoto, and those in Nara which compared to Kyoto's seem quite like country villagers.

Well, I am happy I learned a lot about such young-pop culture. For example, a very characteristic feature is that they shorten and contract words mixing from japanese and english words, such as pokèmon (= pocket monsters), lolicon (= lolita complex, the strange but not criminal obsession of the japanese for young schoolgirls), cosplay (= costume players, teenagers fond of anime and manga who dress up like their favourite fantasy characters). Then, I learned that sunburn, oakwood-shade suntan (faked, of course, obtained with dark skin creams) is totally out of fashion today. The big cry now is long hair waving in ample bouclées (for both girls and boys); girls wear flimsy knee-long coveralls with lots of laces and ribbons, while boys wear their jeans literally below the ass, showing more than half of their brief-covered buttocks. So, the shops in Shibuya are comparatively stocked full with ribbons, knee-high socks, and the fanciest briefs, which of course become the most visible part once the jeans are carefully placed below the belt. Large, bee-like jet-black sunglasses wrapping all-around the face are a must, as much as a boy's hairstyling looking as if someone just gave you a hard slap in the face (kept in place by at least a pound of hair gel and a huge hairspray). Apparently, another trend of the summer is to wear the shirt "as tight as possible", so as to show everyone just how padded your bra is. Apparently, lots of kids in the boring suburbs of Japan dream of coming to Shibuya because it is like totally the most cool place and stuff. They copy the fashions and read the magazines about Shibuya, but most of them never make it here. And of course there is the massage thing. While walking along Bunkamura, Meiji-dori etc., you are often spoiled by some girls offering you a massage, but the kind of smile they give you lets you know that they are obviously offering something else too.

And I learned about the "Manga kissa" and the "Maid cafés". Only from the two guides, unfortunately, since I had not time to give these a try, maybe next time. Manga kissa are a place where you can watch dvds, Playstation games, hook up to the internet, read manga of course, but unexpectedly, you can also spend the night there; Lonely planet suggests it as a last resort, when missing the midnight train, apparently you can get a private cubicle where to surf the internet and get a night nap safely, since the local staff supervise the whole thing. And the Maid Cafés, very popular around the "electric market" area of Akihabara, are bars with acid colours and manga-style decoration, where young girls dressed as soubrettes, with high heels, substantial make-up and soft-headed wigs, welcome you saying 'Welcome home, master'. You can read mangas (again!), play games and get some cuddle from the girls for a small money (however, other forms of 'contact' are strictly forbidden). Apparently, such kind of bars are very popular among the more timid and job-spoiled Japanese youngsters, who need some place to fill their needs of affection and kindness. Pretty much on the same note as the Nekobukuro, the hotel where people can play for an hour with a cat, since for most people living in tiny apartment it is impossible to fulfil the desire to have a pet at home.
Japan, the place where people are REALLY different!

However, in all such fantastic modernity, I often think about who would still remember of the past. Yes, scholars may still keep studying the old ages and the shogun and the bushido. And in Europe, literates can still discuss about Shakespeare and Dante. But who, in this modern world, will be able to retain the taste and the feeling for listening to their words? who will still be attracted to reading Homer, or Eurypides? who will stil care for listening to a song by Sainte-Colombe, or an ancient baroque opera, besides the unwitting crowds of tourists that fill up summer arenas to watch the last boring show of Bohéme or Carmen? Maybe some of such things will just be gone forever. Maybe some of them were never truly understood. But the sad thing is that for centuries such things were retained as excellent, and were passed on with care from one generation to the next. And today, our generation is so proud and so mindless of itself, that in the matter of just a few years all those shining and dark, fruitful and obscure past, will probably disappear. Or be marketed into gadgets, which is even worse.

Then, left to the airport, and it was early morning again. On my way to the Nezu subway, I noticed the serviceman in helmet and yellow phosphorescent stripes who sat at the corner of the stairs to protect people... he must have been there for the whole night. I saw this man yesterday night, coming here around midnight. He is set to stay there to grab falling people, since in that station the incoming trains produce huge wind currents (that is true!), and some elderly people may fall down the stairs. Japanese are a prevident and careful society.

OK, then. Farewell, Japan!