Fieldtrips!
So last Friday was "Yokohama Day" which meant that we got to choose one of four places to visit and the center would pay our way in. After that we were free to wander about as we wished. Pretty nice! The four choices were the Yokohama Cultural Museum, the Yokohama Nautical Museum, the Yokohama Newspaper and Broadcasting Museum which were handily in the same building, and the Yokohama Literature Museum.
I, along with several other girls in the class who are into anthropological/modernist research subjects decided on the newspaper museum since both museums also had archives that we were wanting to raid for our own purposes.
The museum itself was ok. It was interesting to see the development of "news culture" and how a culture figures out how to make newspapers profitable. But honestly I don't care that much. Me and a girl from class with a similar sense of humor basically just made jokes about MacArthur and had an involved discussion of whether MacArthur or Stalin were worse in the low hanging fruit department as far as mockery went. I was on the MacArthur side because there is less really horrible baggage involved, but she made the point that the baggage made the mirth more transgressive and therefore better (for a given value of better). She may have had a point but I remain unconvinced! Especially since MacArthur and his tendency to wear his pants at around chest level is also funny to look at.
For your edification and visual reference I present everyone's favorite picture of General MacArthur and the Emperor.
This picture does not really do MacArthur justice because it is missing the awesome pipe. But it will have to do.
Ok I decided the pipe was vital. It's such a great pipe.
Anyway, once we were done in the museum we tried to find our way to the archive but this was difficult because the museum was on the 3rd and 5th floors and the archive was on the 4th floor and there were NO STAIRS to the fourth floor. Thanks Japan! Also we got shanghaied by museum volunteers who wanted us to make our own newspapers. So we did that. And then we finally found the fourth floor. The archive looks really good. Lots of newspapers from pretty far back, but, like many archives, it has some draconian rules regarding use of the search function, handling of the materials, and printing. Also, the search function only allows for a search of author, title, and issue, which is not so useful unless you know exactly what you are looking for. Still, I'll have to remember it's there.
After we checked the place out, we were basically so tired from trying to figure out where the fourth floor was that we decided to go home without checking out the broadcast library. We also had the sneaking suspicion that it would be even harder to navigate without a specific goal in mind. Next time!
Saturday and Sunday passed uneventfully, as did most of the rest of the week, except for Wednesday when I went to see Inception (it's pretty good!) and Thursday when I was STRUCK DOWN by ramen. See, there is this ramen place close to where I live that always has a line and I and a friend who is really into ramen decided that we HAD to check it out. I am not that into ramen but I AM curious, not to mention resentful of people getting to try cool things while I miss out. The layout of the place was your standard tiny Japanese restaurant. A single counter that could seat maybe 10 people where everyone sits, with the kitchen - complete with giant vat o'noodles - directly behind it. Since demand is so high, you are basically expected to eat as fast as possible and not stop for chitchat, so people who go together don't even bother with trying to sit next to each other, you just take the next available seat and eat it up. It's actually quite eerie because all you hear is other people slurping up noodles. There was only one kind of ramen, so choosing wasn't too hard, and you got your meal ticket out of a vending machine at the front of the shop anyway so the entire process was definitely set up to maximum efficiency.
The friend I went with is super tall and has one of those bottomless pits for stomachs so he finished first, but I made a pretty good showing. Sadly, I was hampered by the fact that I have never learned how to properly slurp my noodles. Although I can get noise to come out, the noodles refuse to be slurped up and just kind of sit there without moving. I never would have guessed that slurping required skill! Since I could not slurp, the noodles remained too hot for me to eat for a crippling length of time and really hurt my endgame.
The ramen itself was quite good, especially the broth. I don't think it was better than delicious KZ ramen place, but I can't be sure because it's been a while. Sadly, the secret to its deliciousness turned out to be massive quantities of fat, as my stomach realized later that night. So basically I felt pretty gross for the next two days. Man, this trip just has not been good for mah belleh.
Friday was Tokyo Day! I went to Yasukuni Jinja, voted "Shrine Most Likely To Cause World War III" fifty years running! But I'll leave that for later.
I, along with several other girls in the class who are into anthropological/modernist research subjects decided on the newspaper museum since both museums also had archives that we were wanting to raid for our own purposes.
The museum itself was ok. It was interesting to see the development of "news culture" and how a culture figures out how to make newspapers profitable. But honestly I don't care that much. Me and a girl from class with a similar sense of humor basically just made jokes about MacArthur and had an involved discussion of whether MacArthur or Stalin were worse in the low hanging fruit department as far as mockery went. I was on the MacArthur side because there is less really horrible baggage involved, but she made the point that the baggage made the mirth more transgressive and therefore better (for a given value of better). She may have had a point but I remain unconvinced! Especially since MacArthur and his tendency to wear his pants at around chest level is also funny to look at.
For your edification and visual reference I present everyone's favorite picture of General MacArthur and the Emperor.
This picture does not really do MacArthur justice because it is missing the awesome pipe. But it will have to do.
Ok I decided the pipe was vital. It's such a great pipe.
Anyway, once we were done in the museum we tried to find our way to the archive but this was difficult because the museum was on the 3rd and 5th floors and the archive was on the 4th floor and there were NO STAIRS to the fourth floor. Thanks Japan! Also we got shanghaied by museum volunteers who wanted us to make our own newspapers. So we did that. And then we finally found the fourth floor. The archive looks really good. Lots of newspapers from pretty far back, but, like many archives, it has some draconian rules regarding use of the search function, handling of the materials, and printing. Also, the search function only allows for a search of author, title, and issue, which is not so useful unless you know exactly what you are looking for. Still, I'll have to remember it's there.
After we checked the place out, we were basically so tired from trying to figure out where the fourth floor was that we decided to go home without checking out the broadcast library. We also had the sneaking suspicion that it would be even harder to navigate without a specific goal in mind. Next time!
Saturday and Sunday passed uneventfully, as did most of the rest of the week, except for Wednesday when I went to see Inception (it's pretty good!) and Thursday when I was STRUCK DOWN by ramen. See, there is this ramen place close to where I live that always has a line and I and a friend who is really into ramen decided that we HAD to check it out. I am not that into ramen but I AM curious, not to mention resentful of people getting to try cool things while I miss out. The layout of the place was your standard tiny Japanese restaurant. A single counter that could seat maybe 10 people where everyone sits, with the kitchen - complete with giant vat o'noodles - directly behind it. Since demand is so high, you are basically expected to eat as fast as possible and not stop for chitchat, so people who go together don't even bother with trying to sit next to each other, you just take the next available seat and eat it up. It's actually quite eerie because all you hear is other people slurping up noodles. There was only one kind of ramen, so choosing wasn't too hard, and you got your meal ticket out of a vending machine at the front of the shop anyway so the entire process was definitely set up to maximum efficiency.
The friend I went with is super tall and has one of those bottomless pits for stomachs so he finished first, but I made a pretty good showing. Sadly, I was hampered by the fact that I have never learned how to properly slurp my noodles. Although I can get noise to come out, the noodles refuse to be slurped up and just kind of sit there without moving. I never would have guessed that slurping required skill! Since I could not slurp, the noodles remained too hot for me to eat for a crippling length of time and really hurt my endgame.
The ramen itself was quite good, especially the broth. I don't think it was better than delicious KZ ramen place, but I can't be sure because it's been a while. Sadly, the secret to its deliciousness turned out to be massive quantities of fat, as my stomach realized later that night. So basically I felt pretty gross for the next two days. Man, this trip just has not been good for mah belleh.
Friday was Tokyo Day! I went to Yasukuni Jinja, voted "Shrine Most Likely To Cause World War III" fifty years running! But I'll leave that for later.