Tsukuba-Dooba-Doo

Lets be honest with ourselves, fireworks are awesome.  I, personally, have never heard anybody speak to the contrary.  Try to imagine this conversation:


It's hard to wrap your head around what is going on here isn't it!?  That's because everyone who has been close enough to a good show loves fireworks!  Recently, I had a life changing fireworks experience at the Tsuchiura Fireworks Competition.

What makes the Tsuchiura Fireworks Competition so great is that it's just that: a competition.  The event serves as a one-two punch of advertising and entertainment.  Fireworks companies showcase the best that they have in order to entice big event organizers into hiring them.  An awesome byproduct of this is the privilege of witnessing brand spankin' new fireworks, never before seen.


Background
Fireworks in Japanese is 'hanabi' which literally means 'fire flower.'  Although it was the Chinese who invented fireworks some 2000 years ago, Japan has really embraced them. In fact, in the 1860s Tokyo got so amped about fireworks that they shot them off every single night over the course of two summer months each year.  Yeah, they're cool, but every night!?  No thanks.  Eventually they toned it down to a couple festivals per summer.

Another testament to their passion for blastin' is the world record 48" (4 feet) in diameter shell from the Niigata prefecture (pictured below).  This behemoth weighs about 900lbs and gets shot up over 1/2 mile high.  Once it reaches full bloom it spans slightly less than 1/2 mile!  Since they only launch these in Niigata, we weren't able to see this big boy in action. 


Our firework viewing venue
If you've been keeping up with the blog you will remember out friend, Junichi, and his wife, Kaoru, from Agape International Chapel.  They invited us to their apartment in Tsuchiura to view the show, which didn't start until 6:30.  We were told to come around 3:00 to beat the rush, but we decided to leave a little later.  It wasn't until we got close to the launch site that we realized why we should have left early...

Christianity in Japan
Less than 1% of Japan's population adheres to the Christian worldview.  Of those estimated 2 million Christians, the majority live on the west coast of the main island, Honshu.  This is credited to the 16th century European missionaries from Portugal.  However, before it could really gain a foothold in the area, Christians started being persecuted in the late 16th century.

The most notable event was the execution of 26 Franciscans by crucifixion on crosses outside Nagasaki.  Then in 1638, the Japanese government became strictly intolerant of Christian teaching which all but eliminated it.  This was an effort to further control the Japanese people as the emperor became their one and only god.  The silver lining came in 1853 when Japan became more open to Christianity.  One may argue, though, that true acceptance and growth began after WWII.  You can learn more here and here.


Katie and I had made several half-hearted attempts to find an English speaking church in Tsukuba.  After 5 months of Sunday day trips, listening to sermons via the internet, and lame excuses, we finally committed to attending the 10:30 church service at Agape International Chapel.  As with most of our Japanese 'firsts' this proved to be memorable in its own special way.

Another chapter in the 'Captain Heat Chronicles'
"Its our first Sunday and we're already running late!?" I said to myself as I rushed around the apartment and caught the time out of the corner of my eye.  The bike ride would take about 30 minutes and it was a viciously hot day in the middle of Japan's 'hottest summer in 100 years.'  No. Joke.  This fact necessitated packing sweat towels and hand fans with our bibles.  We would later find out this was not nearly enough ammunition to battle the overwhelming heat.  
 
The ride to church was hot.  I'm pretty sure Satan cranked up the heat and said "If you really want to get to church, you gotta ride through hell first! Wha hahahahaha!!!" ...or something like that.  What made matters worse was that we were trying to make up for lost time, which lead to riding faster.  Riding faster lead to riding harder.  Riding harder lead to becoming even hotter.  By the time we got to church we were pieces of sweaty, heat-radiating, flustered flesh.  Needless to say, my little dinky sweat rag got saturated before we even stepped in the door.


As soon as we walked in, worship music filled our ears and we were inundated with people handing us programs, visitor forms, and radios for the real time Japanese --> English translation. All the while our sweat dripped on everyone and everything we came into contact with.

Just as we sat down and tried to get our perspiration under control, it was time to stand up and say good morning to everyone. Seriously!?  I strived to maintain my composure as I perpetually gave out sweaty handshakes and hugs.  Of course, everyone was very kind and acted like they were talking to a normal looking couple.  This is despite the fact we looked like we took a quick dip in the river on the way to church.  However, every once in a while I could detect a slight hesitation when someone would place their hand on my damp shoulder...sorry man. 

More worship music followed the morning greeting.  Their music is quite similar to the modern Presbyterian music style I'm familiar with.  They have two projectors displaying the lyrics in Japanese characters, Romaji (alphabet letters so you can sing along), and an English translation of what the song is about.  You can view a video of them singing a song below.






A message followed the worship, which is where the real time translation comes into play.  We were given small radios with ear plugs.  A man sits in a 2nd floor booth and translates the sermons into English for the non-Japanese speaking members.  In fact, I would say that almost half of the church body consists of foreigners.  Most of these people are from places like Africa and Papua New Guinea.  The translation itself is an invaluable tool for us, since we obviously would have no idea what was being said otherwise.  

During the announcements at the end of the service, we were introduced to the whole church.  Katie and I were finally sweat free so we welcomed this opportunity to stand up and show the drier side of ourselves.  Speaking of dry, we wanted to stay that way a little while longer so we opted to stay and eat lunch with everyone at the church.

The calm after the storm
Lunch was amazing.  Not only was the food delicious, but we were able to truly meet people.  We talked with both the translator and his wife, Junichi and Kaolu.  We found out that Junichi got his MS from Columbia University and Kaoru might be the nicest person I've ever met.  We also met our good friend, Akira.  He and I connected instantaneously.  So much so that he invited Katie and I over to his house that night to have dinner and meet his wife.  

After lunch we rode through Satan's inferno once more to get back to the Ninomiya House.  At least this time we were able to go slower and cool off when we got home. 

I think its about high time to break away from the usual "we went here, we saw those, I embarrassed myself by saying this, Katie looked good doing that, ect, ect."  Don't you? (pause for head nod...) Good!

Today I'm going to shed some American light on the Japanese banking system.  It may not sound like a rip-roaring thrill ride full of death-defying stunts and fecal matter, but I dare you to be uninterested.  The first Japanese bank opened in the year... just kidding, I won't go into all of that.  If you really want to know about the history of Japanese banks go here.  I'm going to start from when Matt and I opened our accounts at Joyo Bank.


Oh ya, It's a Japanese Bank
Chihiro (AIST's babysitter for us), Matt, and I arrived at the Joyo Bank building just before they opened the doors for the day.  In true 'Japanese-people-are-super-respectful-of-each-other' fashion, the very second that the clock hit 9:00, the security doors rolled up and there were three nicely dressed women bowing and smiling as they greeted us.  That was a good start.  However, we quickly realized Chihiro would have to do almost everything because:

1. Our names had to be in Katakana (one of the three Japanese character sets).  My name, Seth Ryan Walker, translates to "Sesu Raian Uoka" or "セス　ライアン　ウオーカー."
2. Our signatures had to fit into a quarter inch circle.  Rather than having hand written signatures, everyone carries a personalized signature stamp around with them to endorse documents.  We didn't/don't have these so we had to sign microscopically small.
   
3. Other information such as address and place of employment was written in a combination of all three character sets (Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana...shesh...)  It does make since though.  It's not like the Bank of America would let someone from Saudi Arabia sign in Arabic.  

The rest of the experience was pretty standard. We exchanged all of our money except one of my $1 bills.  It was too wrinkled :(  I received an ATM card and a 'passbook.'  The ATM card can only be used at ATMs to deposit/withdraw money.  Passbooks are similar to checkbooks in that they keep track of your transactions and account balances.  The awesome thing is that you slide your passbook into the ATM and the machine prints everything on your book for you.  No thinking involved.

While more businesses are starting to have credit card machines, I would say 90% of transactions are in cash only.  In fact, even when we make reservations with things like hotels, its based on the honor system.  You aren't financially tied to that reservation in any way.  This partially negates the need for a debit card and, possibly by Japanese logic, online banking.  Here is where things get less awesome for me.


Big Problem in Little Japan
Joyo bank doesn't have online banking. I repeat: Joyo bank does not have online banking!  This is a foreign concept to me since my American bank, USAA, is almost strictly online.  The English section of Joyo's website has little more than annual reports.  The Japanese portion of their website has loan information, financial advice, corporate assistance, investor relations, and careers...but you can't access your account with them.  Ok, ok, before you go accusing me of being a spoiled tech snob or something consider this: I have lived in Japan for 6 months and have not come up with a reasonable way to transfer funds between here and the U.S. at all. This is a big problem when you consider this conundrum:


See the problem?  We've figured out a solution to this particular situation, but only because my bosses are very kind and willing to bend over backwards for Matt and me.  

What is the deal with ATM operating hours!?
With fear of sounding like Jerry Seinfeld, "I mean, come on, what is the deal with Japanese ATM operating hours!?"  I would be as bold as to say that ATMs are the lifeblood of most Japanese nationals.  They are everywhere and you would think they would be open 24 hours a day.  Bank offices are operated by humans, thus there are reasonable operating hours.  Those people probably have children to go home to.  The problem is that ATMs are usually only open from about 8am-6pm also!  I don't think that at 6 o' clock ATMs put on their hats, grab their leather briefcases, and go home to their little vending machine children (although its fun to imagine). 


If you can find an ATM that is open after the regular operating hours, you get charged an extra fee.  You also get charged fees for weekend withdraws.  This means you best run to the ATM after work and pull out all of the money you need for the weekend...or you'll be sorry.     

Let me step off of my soapbox though, because there is a silver lining.  For example, the simplicity of using cash all of the time has grown on me.  It is much easier to live on a budget this way.  Also, marrying cash-only to strict-ATM-hours begets planning.  This system all but forces Katie and I to plan our meals and weekend spending more.  Being that we are both pretty type-A, the extra planning isn't terribly difficult for us.  I'm very glad I have a Japanese bank account because life would be much more difficult without it.  Plus, AIST set us up with direct deposit so I'm not complaining there.

So there you have it, a little glimpse into Eastern banking, Joyo style.   

-Seth

Well none of us finished our fish sticks but we tried it and no one threw up, but  there were lots of gagging.  We marched back to our bus and headed to the onsen! “Oh yeah” Chelsae and I thought getting naked with a bunch of women that we have just met including our new pastor…awkward! 

To be honest every women there was naked so it wasn’t awkward at all.  It was really nice and I could tell a difference in my skin and hair almost instantly.  Another nice thing is that when Chelsae, Reagan, and I would get into a new onsen pool the Japanese women would  politly get up an leave our pool.  We told each other its because they know how awkward it is for foreigners, they did not want to make us feel more uncomfortable.