It's A Thin Line...
Hello and welcome to 'The Wises Do Japan'. We've never 'blogged' before, but then we've never moved to Japan before either, which is precisely what we did in August 2006. Friends have asked us to keep them posted about our progress as we tackle living in Kobe for the next two years, armed only with a desperately poor grasp of Japanese and a Lonely Planet phrasebook, so here goes...
May 11th is Mother's Day in Japan and boy, are we spoilt for choice when it comes to gift ideas.
For instance, how can mum fail to be thrilled by the prospect of packing off the little poppets to school with a Happy Meal? We're talking about brightening up that bento box by literally putting a grin on their onigiri. Taking twee to a new culinary dimension, those nice people at Nico make all this possible, and more.
Or how about this? An alarm clock that proves that time stands still for no-one. Hit the snooze button and get back to catching those zzzzs. But 10 minutes later the little sod does a runner and you have to chase it around the room to turn it off. By which time you're wide awake of course, or extremely irritated...
Many years ago, there was an old chap who ran a noodle shop. He lived by himself, with just a cat for company. He loved this cat just as if it were a real child. But times were not good for noodles (astonishing enough, in a country where there are still a gazillion ramen-ya - or maybe his noodles were just rank bad). In order to repay the kindness shown by her master, the cat transformed herself into a young female singer. She called herself Okei and sang Okei Bushi (Okei's song) in a mournful tone. You can hear it for yourself here (just select track 5. Sado Okesa). Instantly, her sweet voice (sic) became famous and the noodle shop was raking it in.
Most Japanese are familiar with the legend of Okei and "Sado Okesa" has become a traditional folk song, although some might say that it still sounds more like the cat singing.
So why the convoluted introduction? Well it's Golden Week, and we've just visited Sado Island - the home of that lucky old noodle vendor and his moggy. Sado is a fair old schlep from Kobe. It's in the Sea of Japan, north-west of Niigata, over 300 miles away.