Monday 31 March 2008

Chinese Herbal Medicine 漢方

I had asked a Chinese friend for some advice on getting Chinese herbal medicine in Tokyo a while ago and he had, very kindly, researched me a little list of clinics practicing this alternative form of medicine who spoke Chinese (a bit easier to for me to handle than in Japanese).

He recommended going to one in Omori [大森] not too far outside the Yamanote line [山手線] on the south west end of Tokyo. Mainly because he was under the impression that they spoke Chinese and most importantly, they accepted National Health Insurance - which gives a hefty discount if you have a low income (including students) so you only need to pay 30% of the full consultation fee. It also gave a discount on most of the items that they prescribe; be it western treatments or herbal remedies. This is quite unusual, as the Japanese Government don't really seem to recognise as a valid form of treatment and thus does not usually qualify for government subsidy. Anyway, this clinic does, so that's good. Apparently, the use of Chinese Herbal medicine is on the rise, here it's known as kanpo [漢方 かんぽう].

If you are a new patient you have to attend on a certain day of the week (not the weekend, but the clinic is open on Saturdays for returning patients) presumably so that you get seen by a particular doctor. The doctor that I saw did speak a little Chinese, but his English was significantly better. He'd apparently studied in China for 6 months.

It was a bit of a trial to fill out the questionnaire that I was given at the reception, on the account that it was in Japanese, but the receptionist said that what I couldn't fill out the doctor would confirm with me later. Basically it was full of questions about your bodily functions, your digestive system, sleeping habits, general temperament, how your body reacts to food and so on. He also did the whole poking of my stomach thing and tapping of my belly to see if I were hollow. After the interview we were told to wait outside while he composed the list of herbs he thought I should have.

The consultation cost 1020yen, and I requested to have the medicine in herb form, the other choice being powder form - which is quicker to prepare, but apparently less potent. The prescription was obtained from a very conveniently placed dispensing pharmacy around the corner, which appeared to deal in only herbal remedies. We watched the guy pull out all the drawers that contained the things I was meant to have, then measure out the amounts and pour them into a long oblong tray thing, and then pull a lever. This was apparently to split the herbs into equal portions. I had enough for 14 days, one pack a day, to be taken in the morning and evening after a meal. The medicine was already put into stewing bags... just like huge, compost filled, teabags, much better than the stuff I used to get from Malaysia which involved a lot more direct ingestion of the herbs than I really liked. It cost me less than 2000yen...which I think is pretty cheap, as I'm pretty sure that mum paid a lot more than that for me when we used to go to the famous Chinese Doctor in China Town, London all those years ago when I was a kid.


The overgrown teabag and the boiling medicine

The medicine was a lot yellower than the stuff I'm used to, and definitely more bitter, eurgh!

Saturday 29 March 2008

Rikugien Garden 六義園

Weeping SakuraLast Sunday we made use of the glorious sunny weather to look around our ward a bit more... with the aid of the tour guide booklet that Greg found (previously mentioned HERE) and we headed off to a garden which he had been interested in seeing... Rikugien [六義園] - 6 poem gardens; A National Historical Site depicting scenes from famous poems. It cost a mere 300 yen to get in (and there are discounts if you are a junior high student, OAP or in a group)

It was quite busy, with lots of people enjoying the lovely views on a sunny day, even if the sakura [桜] trees weren't yet in full bloom...we even saw a camera crew filming a sakura tree which had bloomed a little earlier than its neighbours.

The main star of the hanami [花見] was a weeping sakura, with banners proclaiming the night-time veiwing festivities that would take place when it will be in full bloom.

It's quite a big garden and we took a leisurely walk around, stopping mainly to look at the feeding frenzy at the edge of the pond.

The koi carp have definitely made a connection between people standing at the edge of the water and a high probability of feeding. They always amass by bridges and where they can see people standing by the water side. We watched massive koi push ducks and a poor little turtle out of the way to fight for the food being thrown in. The koi often ended up mouthing other koi heading for the same bit of food when they missed the target. The little black ducks managed to dash in some times and grab bread before the koi managed to attack, but the poor little turtle was always bullied out of the way by the swarm of koi. At one point he was pushed completely out of sight, and only managed to surface after a long submergence quite away from the melee.

Some photos for your delectation.....



Sakura time in Bunkyo ku

Sakura [桜] is currently in full bloom in Tokyo, a good week ahead of the JMA's predictions. So this weekend was jam-packed with people trying to enjoy the cherry blossom and the sunny weather. A street just a few blocks away from our apartment, is dedicated to hanami [花見] - cherry blossom viewing, the very wide central reservation, which is a kind of long narrow walkway with a little manmade stream running down it, is flanked by Sakura trees on both sides of the road.


The road was even closed for the day, so that people could happily mingle about
under the blossom laden branches...


Children were splashing in the little stream, which is usually turned off, under the watchful eye of parents picnicing under the shade of the blossom trees. People had brought plastic sheeting to sit on, and one family had even set up a picnic table and chairs, busy having a proper lunch. Others had settled with sitting on the floor, upturning boxes for tables and bringing portable gas stoves for cooking. Big groups of youger people sat around playing drinking games further up the hill. There was also a live brass band...and the first thing that we heard them play was the theme tune for the Death Star....

About halfway up the road, we came across a temporary petting zoo, where various farm animals were penned and being harrased by some very eager children...

Bunnies trying to hide from the petting frenzy and larger farm animals in a seperate pen next door.

For some reason there was also a lone ferret and two petrified looking chipmunk like creatures in cages...the chipmonks were obviously too cute not to photograph, and we were treated to the lovely sight of four young girls trying to digitally capture the chipmunks on their individual mobile phones...

some sumo wrestlers taking a picnic?


How to reserve a place under the sakura...
Some people had even gone to the lengths of 'reserving' their place for when they would turn up later that day. Presumably, with the foresight to come the night before to ensure that they would get the place they wanted. Better yet, the Japanese being the great people that they are, actually respect the notices that people put up. I some how doubt that this kind of courtesy will catch on in the UK...


Some people enjoying the sakura...
On our way closer to the metro station, to finally get some lunch, we came across some people dressed up to promote the festivities that were going to happen on Sunday. The sax player was trailing behind the two ladies in kimonos playing out a nice jolly tune, while the ladies walked ahead; one playing percussion and the other handing out leaflets...

Fuuuuuuuuuuuccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk*

* please excuse the profanity.
Gory news guys... Three people dead just down the road from where I live... another horrific murder in Tokyo, but this time very VERY close to home. link HERE.

"Three dead in Tokyo family stabbing: police

TOKYO (AFP) — A 42-year-old Japanese man stabbed his parents and his wife to death, and also seriously injured his two sons during a family dispute in a quiet Tokyo neighbourhood, police and reports said Friday"

QUIET!?!? it WAS until this morning, when on my cycle to uni I was met by unusually busy traffic down our road, which was odd for a start, then camera crews and news teams crowded around city car park (also odd), with the other side of the block of the same building flanked by two, very serious looking, policemen.

...anyway, as exciting as that is, I have to go to bed now.

night night.

Monday 24 March 2008

Spanish Weekender

Not only did we watch a Spanish movie, La Orphanata, but we ended up going to a very nice Spanish restaurant, about 10mins walk from our apartment.

The restaurant was a great deal more up-market than the attire that we chose to wear to the restaurant... our lax choice of attire didn't seem to make a difference though. We had some nice red wine to start off the meal and then we spent a good while trying to figure out the menu...



We had some tasty bread to nibble on while we waited for the food to arrive, mine had disappeared within minutes, only to be refilled by a very attentive waiter :) The gaspachio, cold tomatoey soup thing, arrived in a tiny glass only to disappear quicker than the bread. The tapas arrived on a waffle-ish looking plate, with each sample of tapas neatly arranged in one of each of the 9 sections. It was tasty, just a bit sad that the portions were very Japanese-sized much like the Spanish omelette which came next. This was very nicely cooked, with slices of potato evenly distributed throughout the egg and well cooked all the way through.

Next to arrive was the lamb, a rare food to find in Japan; which meant that it was top on the list to be ordered. The lamb was excellent! the chops were deliciously seasoned and cooked to perfection, the inside still a little bloody.

Last up, came the paella, and my poor translation of the Japanese menu thought that it was large prawns...and I guess it wasnt too far off because a small lobster was on top of the dish. Very tasty, but completely overshadowed by the tastiness of the lamb before...

...thank you Greg!

...meanwhile at the cat cafe...

Last Saturday, we finally made it to a cat cafe - with a lot of help from Phone....who booked us a reservation...

This Cat cafe was not to far from Akihabara [秋葉原]...but we happened to walk from a completely different station...our 'appointment' was from 2pm to 3pm...The cats lead very busy lives and were booked out for 4pm...

We entered a small fortress, with the feline equivalent to an air-lock system, presumably to prevent the cats from escaping...(or being sucked forcibly into the outside world-THIS would have been great to watch!) Shoes off then hands washed (Personally, I think they should have washed the cats before I petted them... but I guess the cats wouldn't think that that was fair), we were ready to pet cats! hurrah!

....'Hurrah' probably wasn't the concept passing through the cats in the room...most of them were busy trying to hide from the annoying humans who were demanding a lot of attention and diligently getting on with the very important business of sleeping. Particularly, one sandy coloured friend...

Cat Sleeping in a basket 1 Cat waiting for its tummy to be tickled

Rick-kun, despite the sign on his basket, didn't seem to mind being disturbed for a bit of petting...in fact he seemed to like it so much that he left his little basket, by-passing Greg's lap and headed for my lap for a better pet. After a mere minute of having Rick-kun, happily nestled in my lap, I started sneezing...It was not a good sign... the longer Rick-kun stayed on my lap, the worse my new cat allergy was getting... Ignoring my cat allergy, Rick-kun stayed on my lap, much to the surprise of the cat cafe owners...who told me that he never usually sits on peoples laps...and so went on to congratulate him for being such a clever cat...

The rest of the cats were mainly hiding, the favourite places being behind the curtain or in the window. I assume the window was the prime location, on account of it being quite out of the reach of the paying customers and the glorious warmth of the sun.

Me with a cat on my lap Attack!!! - from the beast behind the curtain Cats cleaning each other Two cats looking in a mug Why did you take that away?
By the time our appointment with the cats was up, there was already a QUEUE of people outside waiting to come in! The cats only had a little time to try and inspect the stuff the humans left behind... in the hope of finding some more interesting things to eat that dry cat nibbles. The poor little grey cat looked a bit bewildered when the owner removed the mug of interest...

An interesting afternoon, listening to humans miaow at cats and play with cat toys only for the cats look at them blankly or just outright ignore them.

Monday 17 March 2008

Walking tours of Bunkyo Ku

Last Sunday, Greg and I took advantage of the lovely sunny weather and tried to find some of the sights in our local area, recommended by a booklet that Greg picked up from the Ward office...

We took the bike and made our way to Gokokuji Temple [護国寺], taking a walk around the cemetery

A very nice tree, outside the entrance.

...some plum blossom has already started to bloom...indicating the start of Sakura [桜] season (cherry blossom)




We wondered around the cemetery for a bit then we headed towards a crazy shaped cathedral, St. Mary's Cathedral. I did manage to get us lost on the way...and we ended up asking a Japanese person (who took the very much appreciated initiative to answer in english) to point us in the right direction. Very impressive from the outside, but very dark and depressing on the inside (probably due to the fact we got there around 4pm and the sun was setting...) . Anyway, the huge sweeping concrete walls felt a bit oppressive from the inside.


MMMmmmMmmmmm Concreeette

After the Cathedral we tried to find one of the parks the map indicated (we got a bit distracted by a cat sitting on a wall on the way there...which was busy being photographed by a japanese dude+face mask on his mobile phone.) The cat, who didn't seem to like his new found fame then sauntered off into the distance to avoid the glare of the cameras.
" Leave me alone you crazy Humans! Have you not seen a cat before?!"

Unfortunately, when we got to the park, it was already shut, so we were going to head for some food, when we happened to pass another garden mentioned in the guide...which turned out to be the Gardens attached to a 5star hotel [Chinzan-So, 椿山荘]. It was a very nice garden, it even had some stone statues which had been moved from Kyoto (and another place which I can't remember). It looked like a nice place to go for Sakura [桜] it also had a very nice 3-tiered pagoda in it...


The crappy photos were taken from my mobile whilst the nice photos were taken by Greg...

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Engrish by the Jap-pap-panese...

..not that my Japanese could be any better...but I loved these emails soo much I *had* to post them:

Email 1

"Dear Mr.Ivan Gratchev


It is good only because of X-ray diffraction in case of the purpose
is to know of the name of the mineral.
For instance, SiO2<>

The charge of this X-ray diffraction is 40,000 yen/sample.

However, it is assumption to understand element information such as Si, O, and
Cl in the sample.


example of analyzing this X-ray diffraction"

I think there has been a bit too much reliance on an automatic translating program... and it gets better...

Email 2

"Dear Mr.Ivan Gratchev


It consented.

Your data wanting it was understood.

Though time hangs a little in the analysis
It makes an effort to obtain data in March.

With best regards,
Suzuzk"


Monday 3 March 2008

Jazz...


23rd Feb after catching up with Greg and Aaron at the Bunkyo-ku cultural festival (where they were stars of the show and the cameras followed the two male gaijins around for most of the morning) we acquired an Amy, and then spent a good few hours trying to decide what to do for the evening....

To stem Amy's chronic boredom disease, Greg cunningly suggested a Jazz club in Ikebukuro...so we all toodled down to Miles' cafe to have a listen to their Jam session.

It was a little trek from the station, and down in the basement of an unsuspecting building. We pressed the button for B1...and waled out straight into the room where the Jam session was going on. A guy, who looked like he was in charge, seemed a bit confused that we were there...and tried to direct us to B2 (where the proper Jazz musicians play for more money) but we assured him that we were where we wanted to be...and we just wanted to spectate. We paid our 1000yen each (and got our 1000Miles - ie... its worth 1000yen in drinks; there were two prices for drinks: 500miles and 1000miles and a tiny bar at the back of the long Jamming room from whence the drinks were served). We were served our drinks by another customer, who happened to be behind the bar...and kind enough to give the weird foreigners drinks. The guy we paid money to at the beginning spent the rest of the night being very VERY hospitable...giving us snacks and more drinks for free... he also explained how the people currently playing were beginners to Jazz and that more experienced people played later on (including him).

It turned out to be more of a lesson and a place to practice (I doubt many apartments would be too happy with you belting out on your sax whilst you tried to practice your Jazz skills...and the Jam sessions let you practice without upsetting your neighbors...) . The night got better and better, with one guy (a skilled piano player) switching to a kids toy (a rudimentary keyboard thing which he blew into at one end to make a sound) to join in with the music making. He was damned good. It was great fun. we'll have to go back.