Well, it’s January 6, 2009 and the first week of the new year is almost over. Have you failed in your resolutions yet? I suppose I could I write a post about my New Year’s resolutions, but hey, that’s boring. So, I’ve decided to share with you some resolutions I’ve received by e-mail here at 7:10 to Tokyo from various members of the Tokyo community. Some of these actually brought a tear to my eye.

Here’s one from Kenji “Kakekomi” Tanaka, a mid-level salaryman from Nakano:

“I’ve decided to stop drinking so late so I can actually get up in the morning with enough time to get ready and get to the train station without having to barrel through crowds, knocking random strangers down in the process. I mean, I have to consider the people around me more, you know.”

Good on you, Kenji. It’s nice to know you realize how much of a complete dick you’ve been up to this point. Here’s hoping you’ll stick to your word and remain a changed man. And if not, here’s hoping that the next person you carelessly knock into is a borderline psychotic, overbullied salaryman with a newly formed chip on his shoulder and brass knuckles in his briefcase.
Anyway, good luck, Kenji, and thanks for the message.

Next, we hear from Hideki “Hakisou” Hara, a 21-year old Waseda University student:

“Last year’s resolution didn’t work out so well for me. I wanted to stop leaving big puddles of my vomit everywhere I went on drinking nights. OK, every night. Anyway, I started carrying around a backpack with a plastic inner-lining so that I could puke into it every time I was out drinking with my friends. Well, we’d usually start drinking around 6 p.m. and by 7:30 the bag would get full and I ended up having to dump it out two or three times a night. The only thing that really changed was that I ended up leaving 2 or 3 big puddles around instead of 9 or 10 small ones scattered throughout Takadanobaba or Shinjuku.
So, this year my resolution is much simpler. And, my buddies all agree that it’s a great idea. I’m going to start drinking more to build up more of a tolerance for alcohol. Then I won’t be getting sick so much.
Happy New Year, everybody!”

That’s great, Hideki. Actually, I heard that hydrogen sulfide gas helps you build up a real tolerance for alcohol. You should give it a try. Cheers!

OK, now here’s one from Bart “Subarashii Sensei” Stebbins:

“This year, I resolve to finally pass the JLPT with 1-kyu. I mean, I’m pretty pera-pera with the Nihongo, you know, but Japanese people still keep speaking to me in broken English all the time. And, I’m not talking just in the classroom, but also in the school lobby and in places like the international center near my apartment. I frustrates me sooo much because I can smoke them with my sugoi Japanese skills, but they just keep dumping their dame na eigo on me.
Well, if I can whip out my 1-kyu certificate every time they do this, they’ll have to acknowledge that I am truly a special gaijin and a Nihongo master.”

Wow, Bart… Did we work together a few years back?

Anyway, that’s all for today. I might post a few more reader resolutions before the weekend. Until then, stick to your guns and enjoy your shin-nenkais!

If you’re reading this on December 31st, have a great time ringing in the new year tonight! And, if it’s already 2009, Happy New Year!

If you’re doing it up in Tokyo tonight (the 31st), remember that the trains run all night and take advantage. Personally, I’ve caught a mother of a cold (possibly turned to pneumonia) so I’m going to watch the clock turn at home this year.

7:10 will be back with regular postings starting on Jan 5th. Until then, enjoy the holidays (if you’ve got ‘em) and don’t slack off on your New Year’s resolutions before the first week is over, you undisciplined bastards.

Best Wishes!

Two solid months of over-commercialized hype and Christmas is finally here in Tokyo. Yet, most of us have to work. Go figure. Well, when I set off for work today, I wasn’t too disappointed in not having the day off; this is the third Christmas in a row I’ve worked and I’m quite used to it. Besides, it was a slow day at the office without much to do. A few drinks and some light food at an izakaya after work with a couple of co-workers and then I was on my way home.

My current work assignment has me taking the Yamanote line from Shibuya to Shinjuku five nights a week sometime between the hours of 9:30 and midnight depending on my workload and/or after-work dinner and drinks. No different from what so many salarymen do every night here in Tokyo, right? I wouldn’t classify myself as a salaryman, but whether that’s realistic or me just living in denial, I don’t know.

On nights when I’m not too tired, I find myself eavesdropping on various conversations taking place around me on the trains. Tonight, when I boarded the Yamanote at Shibuya, I found myself situated next to a group of middle-aged salaryman who had obviously just finished a bit of drinking themselves. As the train started to pull away from the station, their group conversation drew me in. Nothing deep, nothing really interesting at all; just the usual jabber. “Your face is getting fat, huh,” said a tall fellow to his slightly portly co-worker. “That’s the way it is. What can I do? Three end-of-the-year parties this week alone,” replied the chubby cohort. One of the other group members reached over and stroked the pudgy man’s chin and pinched a wrinkle of fat. His hand was quickly batted away but it returned again for a few pokes and jabs before the chubby man blurted out in mock anger, “What the hell are you doing?! Knock it off!” The teasing co-worker obliged and the conversation took a new direction.

The group of five chatted and chuckled, giving each other pushes or jabs from time to time, and it dawned on me that these guys weren’t just co-workers blowing off steam after a long day at work; they were a tight group that had a closeness I’ve never known with any group of co-workers I’ve had before. Yeah, some would say these guys are probably putting in way too many hours to accomplish what others could do in an eight-hour work day. Well, whatever… I’ve heard that story before. What these guys get done in a day of work has no bearing on the fact that they have a bond many of us who view this society while feeling all-too-often outside of everything don’t. If nothing really special happened today, at least I got to see some true nakama-ishiki (仲間意識).

Merry Christmas

If you watch Japanese TV often enough, you’ll become convinced that people here mostly like ridiculously stupid programming. With a glut of variety and game-show programs clogging up the airways most nights between 7pm and 11pm, it’s hard to conclude otherwise. The overwhelming (but quickly fleeting) popularity in recent years of TV personalities like Hard Gay (HG), Yoshio Kojima, Sekai no Nabeatsu, and Edo Harumi has led many foreign residents of Japan to fork over the money and pay high cable-TV bills, or just quit watching TV altogether.

Personally, I mostly watch Japanese TV programming; not because I see something in it that others don’t, but because I’m easily entertained and often enjoy watching ridiculously stupid TV shows. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate quality programming as well. Also, I myself subscribe to cable TV and pay a fair bit to watch it each month.

But anyway, this post isn’t about Japanese TV in general, it’s about a TV and music personality who has graduated from doing mostly silly, fluff TV to acting in a critically acclaimed dramatic movie. Masahiro Nakai (中居正広) is known best as the leader of SMAP, a Japanese boy band that is now entering middle age. As the leader of SMAP, Nakai plays the role of MC for the variety show SMAP x SMAP, which airs on Monday nights at 10pm here in Japan. He also hosts a few other shows on TV here and has been recently sporting a clean-shaven head.  Why? Was he trying to make some kind of fashion statement? That’s what I thought, but it turns out I was wrong.

Masahiro Nakai filmed a movie earlier this year that required him to go with the buzz cut. That film is called 私は貝になりたい (Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai), which translates to “I Want to Be a Shellfish.” Seems like a silly name for a movie, but the story is far from silly. In fact, it’s quite heavy. “Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai” is based on a Japanese TV drama that aired in 1959. It’s the story of a man who is drafted into military service by the Japanese government and is later arrested for a war crime after returning home to his family. He faces a military trial and is sentenced to death. One only has to watch the trailers for this movie to see that Nakai does some fine acting and captures the emotions his character faces.

“Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai” was released in theaters here in Japan and is still showing in some locations. Sure, it’ll likely be released on DVD within 3 or 4 months, but watching a powerful movie like this with a Japanese crowd just might be a worthwhile experience, especially if you can overhear some of the conversations that follow in the theater lobby just after everyone exits the auditorium. This may sound silly, but for foreigners living here in Japan now, or who have lived here previously, it should ring true that it’s not often you get to hear Japanese people engage in discussions with heavy topics. It’s not a matter of being incapable of having deep discussions, it’s just a matter of most Japanese people being unwilling to engage in them while out in public surrounded by strangers. But, when movies affect us, we are often compelled to discuss them immediately after viewing. This movie has that effect.

Kudos to Masahiro Nakai for branching out and showing that his talents run deeper than just goofing it up in variety shows and singing horribly on stage.

TokyoTopia is a website chock full of information about Tokyo and even Japan in general. The site is well put-together and is very useful for people who are either visiting Japan for the first time or have been here for awhile. There’s information ranging from train-riding etiquette to hotels and sightseeing.

And now, 7:10 to Tokyo has been featured at TokyoTopia in an interview with me. So, if you’re looking for another interesting site to browse, start by checking out my interview at TokyoTopia and explore the site from there. And, don’t forget to add TokyoTopia to your blogroll.

Ok, 2008 is almost over and it’s likely that most of the big news events of the year have already transpired. Yeah, there’s still time for some stressed-out high school kid to chop off the head of one of his/her parents. Or for a member of the Prime Minister’s cabinet to make an asinine verbal gaffe. But come on, even the whack-jobs and idiots are winding down and getting ready to chill for the winter holidays.

So, this brings me to my question: What was the biggest newsworthy event in Japan for you in the year 2008?

Was it the Akihabara stabbing rampage that left seven people dead and several others injured? No one’s going to forget this one any time soon. An angst-filled young man hated his life so much he decided everyone else had to pay, so he ran a rented truck over several daytime shoppers in Akihabara. And then, because just running over someone isn’t enough, he got out of the truck and stabbed some of them (at least one to death). He also stabbed to death a girl who was trying to help one of the victims struck by the vehicle.

How about the release of the McRib and Quarter Pounder by McDonalds Japan? I mean, more blog posts were dedicated to the appearance of the Quarter Pounder shop in Shibuya than you can shake your lard ass at. And yes, I’m one of those guilty of contributing a heart-clogging tribute to some of the food I wouldn’t piss on back home yet am all-too-happy to shove in my face here in the land of the rising sun.

Or, for you techies, was it the release of the iPhone here in Japan that really got your attention? Several of my good friends grabbed up theirs as soon as they went on sale in Tokyo. While proving very popular with the foreign crowd in Japan, the iPhone wasn’t as popular with Japanese people as was predicted it would be. Why? No emoji. You know, those fucking annoying little smiley faces and other animations that are included in every single e-mail you receive from one of your Japanese friends? Well, as you could’ve guessed, an emoji application is, or soon will be, available for the iPhone in Japan. Thank God, right?!

So, how about it? What was the most memorable Japan news of the  year 2008?

Here we go again… another “Where in Japan?” post. Shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone who has spent a fair bit of time living in the Kanto area. As before, guess all 5 locations where the photos were snapped and your blog will be featured in ‘JapanBlogger’ here at 7:10 to Tokyo. Here goes:

One of my favorite places

Haven’t been here in awhile

This guy has lots of fans

A victim of the banana diet?

Craptastic, campy joint in The Big Mikan

Remember, you must get every location right to win. Leave your answers in the ‘comments’ section below. Good luck.

Face it… You’re cheap and you’re an S.O.B.

And, you’re alright with that.

Otsukare, Amigo! The big day is finally here. Payday. You’ve been waiting for it for over a week and a half now, since the evening you realized you needed to borrow an ichi-man-yen bill from your drinking buddy to carry you through to this glorious afternoon. Over the past ten days you’ve lived on nothing but instant ramen and rice. Even furikake was a luxury for you during this dark period. But, you made it through.

So, what do you do first, now that the day of dreams is at hand? Pay your friend back, right? Hell no. You’ve got a fistful of yen in one hand and your keitai with suspended service in the other. You’ve got good times on your mind and moral responsibility will not get in the way of that for you, my friend. Your first task is to get down to Softbank and pay your past-due bill and your second is to send out a mass e-mail letting all your booze buds know that tonight, it’s beer and beef or die. That’s right, you devil; It’s yakiniku time.

So, where do you go to stuff your gut with meat and sling back a gallon of brew? Well, you’ve been thinking lately that it’s time to make a budget and stick to it, so Gyu-Kaku has become a luxury for you, my friend. So, then what? One of those cheap all-you-can-eat places in Kabuki-cho where the grills are too small and the heat is so low that you end up with a bellyful of uncooked meat and a bad case of the green apple two-step the next day? No way; those days are over for you, good sir. So, the solution is simple: An An.

You’re going to An An (安安) for all the right reasons: ￥290 nama biiru (not happoshu, either - we’re talking Asahi Super Dry, the Coors of Japanese beers), ￥290 kalbi, ￥290 roast, ￥390 harami, and the list goes on. And, since you’re sick of 90-minute or 2-hour time limits, An An is right up your alley; no time limits there, my meat-loving buddy; just beef and beer o’ plenty.

Yes, friend, you’re living abroad and making the most of your experience. And, in the process, you’re becoming a respectable world citizen. You’re a true renaissance man and some day you’ll write a book about your adventures in the land of the rising sun. So, here’s to you, good sir. You’ve proven to everyone that you can survive in the urban jungle that is Tokyo. And for that, we salute you.

An An Restaurant Location Page

Originally posted at The Pokerist

One aspect of living in Japan (or any other country, for that matter) that most foreigners don’t like in the least is dealing with immigration. A new policy regarding foreigners coming to visit or live in Japan is stated clearly in the U.S. Department of State’s website:

All foreign nationals entering Japan, with the exemption of certain categories listed below, are required to provide fingerprint scans and be photographed at the port of entry.

This recently instituted policy has been met with criticism by many, but after several months of being in place, no major problems have been reported with regard to this new rule, nor have there been many major publicized complaints by foreigners residing here in the land ‘o wa. In fact, where Japan visitors thought there would be an inordinate amount of time waiting for entry at airports, there has actually been a fair bit of reporting that lines move quite smoothly and efficiently.

However, for those visiting regional immigration bureaus in Japan, things can often be frustrating. For example, for a government agency that is meant to manage visits to Japan by foreigners, there is a surprising lack of foreign-language-speaking people working at its bureaus. And, as is common in many countries, the usual bureaucratic annoyances are definitely in place in Japan’s immigration agency. However, when you combine these annoyances with a maddening inflexibility on the part of so many Japanese workers in general, immigration experiences can sometimes be torturous. A commonly reported experience is being told to follow general procedures when the foreigner in question clearly has a special situation. Often in these cases, the foreigner, at the time of some application, asks the immigration official to consider his or her special circumstances, but is told that he/she must apply in the general way. Then, when the immigration officers working on the case confirm that there are indeed special circumstances involved, they inform the applicant that he or she must start the application process over again by using the relevant form applicable to his/her special circumstances. Not the height of efficiency, is it?

Personally, I ran into trouble with Japanese Immigration this year when applying for visa renewal. Having been through the process several times before, I was used to the process going fairly smoothly. However, this time, things didn’t go smoothly at all. Usually, from the time I submit my application it takes about 2 weeks to get the postcard in the mail that says I can go down to pick up the new visa. This year, after 4 weeks went by, I became concerned that something was wrong, either with my application paperwork or something else. I inquired several times as to why the process was taking so long, but was always met with “Sorry, I can’t discuss your application with you.” They couldn’t discuss my application with me? I mean, it was my fucking application. Why couldn’t they discuss it with me? Well, eventually I found out that someone had made a nasty phone call to Immigration (for reasons I can’t begin to fathom) and on the strength of that one individual’s phone call, I was forced to wait for over 2 months wondering if I would ever get a renewal visa. I was so stressed out by the time my previous visa was set to expire, I ended up losing a lot of sleep and felt quite negative about my life in Japan in general. Just as the old visa did expire, I received the postcard in the mail and went down to pick up my new visa. Good news? Yes. Was I thankful to Immigration? Hell no.

It’s not that I feel I’m entitled to receive permission to reside in Japan, it’s just that I felt discriminated against and I find that Japanese Immigration is clearly an agency that has no interest in making foreigners feel welcome at all. In fact, it seems as if they’d like us to know just how unwelcome they feel we are.

Finally, many foreigners living and working in Japan would like to know why some individuals are granted 3-year visas while others just 1-year visas. There don’t seem to be any clear-cut guidelines that spell out which foreigners are eligible for the 3-year visas, and most people are convinced it’s just up to the whims of regional immigration officials. Another frustrating aspect of dealing with Immigration here.

How about you? Have you had any maddening experiences with Japan Immigration? Any horror stories?

Why is this boat docked in Yokohama harbor? Maybe the immigration officers who normally man it are back at the office flipping 10-yen coins to see who gets 3-year visas and who gets 1-year ones.

In Japan, everyone loves a good matsuri. There are several famous ones in Tokyo alone, including the Sanja Matsuri and the Koenji Awadori Matsuri. What is it that people enjoy about a good matsuri so much? Is it the dancing? The food? The traditional things people wear? I guess it’s just a combination of all those things and more.

So, now you’re thinking yeah, I want to get in on the next big matsuri, right? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret; it’s happening right now. Where, you ask? Didn’t you know?…

Your neighborhood Sukiya, you dope! That’s right! It’s the gyu-don matsuri and it’s going on until the 8th of this month.

Ok, so now you’re thinking that I’ve completely lost it, right? Well, maybe you’re right. But, I can’t hide the fact that I love Sukiya, especially their 3-cheese curry and 3-cheese gyu-don. And, now that you can get 3-cheese gyu-don for under ￥400 yen during the matsuri, I’m freakin’ ecstatic. I shit you not, I’m stopping in nearly every night for dinner at Sukiya this week.

It’s fine if you think my taste is in my ass, and that it’ll be difficult to take another one of my future restaurant recommendations seriously, but if you’ve never tried Sukiya before, you really should; it’s the best Japanese junk food there is.

For a look at Sukiya’s menu, click here.
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