The first thing you will notice about Beijing is the cold. It will be cold – Chicago style cold. The second thing you will notice, or rather, your friend will, is that the people there speak Mandarin with a different accent than the one he is used to. He has a little trouble understanding them, and vice versa. You will not know this at the time, but this will be problematic. The third thing you will notice about Beijing, is the thick, brown haze that has descended on the city. This is pollution, and it hasn’t actually “descended” on the city, but instead, risen up from factories and the millions of cars crowding the streets – the fourth thing you’ll notice.
The fifth thing you will notice is that the people here are not as friendly as they were in Shanghai. In Shanghai, you’re friend will have joked and laughed with all types of people. When you get off the bus from the airport, and go to talk to the lounging cabbies for a ride to the hotel, they will be less than receptive. They will insist on charging you 50 RMB for what should be a 10 RMB trip. You won’t know for sure, but you will suspect that the “fifth thing you notice” is a direct result of the “second thing you notice.” You will not ride with these surly cab drivers. Instead, you will take all your luggage onto the crowded subway. That’ll teach them for trying to rip you off.
You will be staying at the Holiday Inn, but you will have difficulty communicating this to people. It turns out, Chinese works differently from Japanese. In Japan, almost all foreign words and names are katakanaized – ie said with a Japanese accent. The “Holiday Inn” is the “horidei innu”, “Hillary Clinton” is “hirari kurinton”, and the word “cup” is “kappu”. If you ever need to tell a taxi driver to get you somewhere you don’t know the Japanese word for, just say it in Engrish. Chinese is not like this. All foreign words are completely transformed into Chinese. You cannot even use your own name in China. You need a completely different Chinese name. They borrow nothing. Saying “Holiday Inn” in a Chinese accent will get you nowhere. Your friend figures to say the Chinese word for “holiday” followed by the Chinese word for “inn”. Success. Note: here, you must know Chinese for even the most basic level of communication.
You will be exhausted when you finally make it to the hotel. The hotel, like everything else in Beijing, will be in the process of renovation. (Everything that is not new must be made to look new when the Olympics come to town in the summer.) Because you will only be spending a day and a half in the city, you will attempt to plan extensively with the concierge. She will not know the best way to get places. She will not know when things open or close. She will not know what time buses leave. She will not know the things you will need to know in order to make a detailed, hour-by-hour plan. She will suggest that you take an organized tour. You will ignore her suggestion – she thinks you are a pussy. You will decide to wing it.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Shanghai (Part 4)
Streets – places for people to walk. You’ll pass by countless construction projects on your journey – many of them with bamboo scaffolding. If you don’t want to get hit by falling debris, look up when you walk.
Cars do not hold people back from the walking in the middle of the street. Bicyclists have little regard for both cars and pedestrians. If you don’t want to be hit by a biker, look ahead when you walk.
The street is also the best place to empty your throat and nasal passages. Why not work up a nice loogie and deposit it onto the street for everyone to see? Everyone else is doing it. One woman bypassed spitting altogether by simply blowing her nose onto the sidewalk – one nostril at a time. If you don’t want to step in mucus, look down when you walk.
Street vendors – these people gather wherever there are crowds. There are two types of street vendor. One sells cheap pieces of crap, the other sells fake designer items. The cheap piece-of-crap vendor will set up shop in a high traffic area – along a busy sidewalk or next to a tourist destination. There, he will demonstrate the wonders of his particular piece of crap. All the piece-of-crap vendors each sell a different type of crap, and there are only about five different types at any one time. Popular items include: little woven pieces of crap (the piece-of-crap vendor will tell you he made these by hand – this is a lie), light-up spinning tops, the magic dancing puff ball (its not magic – the piece-of-crap vendor/magician holds it with thin, translucent string – don’t fall for that crap), and the ever popular goo-ball-that-goes-splat-when-you-throw-it-against-something-hard- but-then-reconstitutes-itself-moments-later. This item is by far the most prevalent. As you pass by a piece-of-crap vendor trying to sell this particular piece of crap, you will receive a demonstration. When half a dozen of them are all sitting along the same sidewalk, you will receive half a dozen demonstrations. “Wow, it splats and then reconstitutes itself.” “Wow, it splats and then reconstitutes itself.” “Wow, it splats and then reconstitutes itself.” “Wow, it splats and then reconstitutes itself.” “I was impressed the first ten times, but your demonstration really sold me.”
The fake-item vendor is a different breed. The fake-item vendor does not actually have his wares on his person. Instead, he carries a piece of paper with pictures of the items he sells – mainly Rolex watches and Louie Vuitton bags. He will hassle you no matter what you are doing. Sitting in a moving taxi? No problem for the fake-item vendor. He will knock on the window to let you know that he is selling Rolexes. “I know we were on our way to the airport, honey, but this man is selling authentic Rolexes, right here on the street! And they’re so cheap!” If you are on foot, you might get into an actual dialogue. “You want buy. Real Rolex,” he will say. “I don’t want it,” you will say. “What don’t you want?” he will ask. “What you are selling,” your friend will reply. He will slash his prices in half for you, right there on the street. Why? Because you are his friend. Where is his product? Tell him that you are interested, and he will stealthy lead you away from the busy street corner you are standing on, to an abandoned-looking door in a nearby darkened alley. You will go up a flight or two of dimly lit stairs and walk down a small, crumpling hallway to a little room that contains all his stuff and several members of his family ready to sell it to you.
The Old Jewish Section – you will go across the city to a part of town were Jewish refugees fleeing from the Germans were sheltered during the war. There is a museum there that used to be a synagogue. When you get there, the museum will be closed for renovations and will be gated off. There will be a guard standing outside the gate. Your friend will talk to him. He will tell the guard that you are very sad to see that the museum is closed. You are Jewish, you were looking forward to this, and you are leaving tomorrow. The guard will let you in – and give you a tour. He will know some Hebrew words, but no English words. This will be strange. 
After the museum, you will wander around the neighborhood that used to hold twenty-five thousand Jewish refugees. An elderly man will approach you. For a small fee, he will give you a tour of the neighborhood. You accept. He will lead you around, showing you places where the Jewish community used to live and gather. No Jews remain in this neighborhood, but you will see several plaques commemorating their stay.
Shanghai (Part 3)
Temples – there are several famous temples in downtown Shanghai – though, not so famous that you won’t totally forget their names immediately after leaving.
The First Temple – The area surrounding this temple was recently renovated (surprise, surprise). There is now a large touristy area designed in the style of the original temple. Out of one of these structures will pour half a dozen people in Mickey Mouse costumes. Their presence will be unexplained. While gawking at the Mickey Mice(?), a middle-aged Chinese man will approach you and begin to explain about the recent development of this part of the city. After a bit more conversation, you will ask him what he does for work. He will show you. He will lead you to a tourist friendly area right next to the temple where he owns a pearl shop. There, you will learn about pearl farming. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds.
At the temple itself, you will be surprised by the number of people there. Several will be Japanese tourists. They will have nice cameras and say “Eeh!?” in unison. Despite the cold weather, there will be a mass of people standing in an enormous line for a taste of the (alleged) best dumplings in the world. Shanghai is famous for dumplings (earlier that morning you will be convinced of this when you have amazing dumplings at a place around the corner from your friend’s apartment – a dollar for eight, btw), and these are supposed to be the best in Shanghai. If the length of the line is any indication, they may very well be. But you will not wait in this line. You will have better things to do than stand in line all day, waiting for dumplings.
The Second Temple – going to this temple will be entirely uneventful. It will be cold, and you will not linger.
The Fabric Market – a three-story indoor market jam-packed with tailors. You will be looking for someone to make a suit for you, but will soon be overwhelmed. Almost all the shops will make suits, and all will look virtually the same. You will be looking for the best tailor at the lowest price, but you will realize that you know almost nothing about tailoring. So, you will judge the merits of each shop based on arbitrary criteria. How sure of him/herself is the salesperson? Is he/she desperate? How busy is the shop? How do those seams look? Your friend will become impatient with your indecision. Don’t worry. He’ll calm down soon enough. After much wandering around a labyrinth of hanging garments and pushy tailors, you will find someone who looks like they can do a good job – based on arbitrary criteria.
Fake Markets – The main attraction. There are several of these around the city. They range from somewhat tame to totally crazy. The craziest might be called “Chi Pu Lu,” you can’t remember. Picture a giant three-story shopping mall with narrow, labyrinth hallways overflowing with vendors. They pack the stores in like sardines. Thing is, most of them all get their wares from the same few factories, so they all have similar (if not the exact same stuff). Some combination of Spyder jackets, Rolex watches, Pink shirts and ties, Armani shirts and suits, and bootleg NDS games. There is little variation.
Are you white? You must have money. Prepare to be followed around by guys working on commission for getting foreigners into stores. These guys will not – absolutely not – leave you alone. They are like angry bees – they will follow you until you have left the hive, and put about a quarter mile between you and it. If you weren’t at all interested in buying, you wouldn’t be there, right?
Not only will people follow you around, every vendor you pass will try to yell encouragment to get you into their store. Once you stop walking to actually take a look at what they’re selling, they don’t leave you alone. Here’s a sample interaction – abbreviated for your sanity. You’re browsing. A pushy sales girl comes at you with an item you don’t really want but maybe could be persuaded to buy. She says its normally $25, but she’ll give it to you for $20. You must look like a nice guy – or a sucker. You say no thanks, you’re just looking. She lowers the price to $17. You repeat. She asks you to name your price – hands you the calculator (all numbers are punched into a calculator – never spoken). You type in $7 – you don’t even really want this thing. She calls you crazy – tells you to be serious. You take the calculator back – type in $7 again. She goes down to $13. You say no thanks. She starts getting upset. Goes to $9 – final offer. You walk away. She chases you – gives you your price. You give up. She gives up. You didn’t even want this thing and now you’re spending five bucks on it. She’s upset because she really wanted to sell it to you for $20 or at least $13. A good compromise leaves everyone angry.
All the vendors speak English, but during some of the fiercer negotiations, it helps to have a friend who speaks Chinese. Once your friend starts speaking Chinese to them, they became much more willing to lower their prices. “You get a discount because your friend speaks Chinese,” they will say. You could spend all day arguing with these people.
The First Temple – The area surrounding this temple was recently renovated (surprise, surprise). There is now a large touristy area designed in the style of the original temple. Out of one of these structures will pour half a dozen people in Mickey Mouse costumes. Their presence will be unexplained. While gawking at the Mickey Mice(?), a middle-aged Chinese man will approach you and begin to explain about the recent development of this part of the city. After a bit more conversation, you will ask him what he does for work. He will show you. He will lead you to a tourist friendly area right next to the temple where he owns a pearl shop. There, you will learn about pearl farming. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds. 
At the temple itself, you will be surprised by the number of people there. Several will be Japanese tourists. They will have nice cameras and say “Eeh!?” in unison. Despite the cold weather, there will be a mass of people standing in an enormous line for a taste of the (alleged) best dumplings in the world. Shanghai is famous for dumplings (earlier that morning you will be convinced of this when you have amazing dumplings at a place around the corner from your friend’s apartment – a dollar for eight, btw), and these are supposed to be the best in Shanghai. If the length of the line is any indication, they may very well be. But you will not wait in this line. You will have better things to do than stand in line all day, waiting for dumplings. 
The Second Temple – going to this temple will be entirely uneventful. It will be cold, and you will not linger.
The Fabric Market – a three-story indoor market jam-packed with tailors. You will be looking for someone to make a suit for you, but will soon be overwhelmed. Almost all the shops will make suits, and all will look virtually the same. You will be looking for the best tailor at the lowest price, but you will realize that you know almost nothing about tailoring. So, you will judge the merits of each shop based on arbitrary criteria. How sure of him/herself is the salesperson? Is he/she desperate? How busy is the shop? How do those seams look? Your friend will become impatient with your indecision. Don’t worry. He’ll calm down soon enough. After much wandering around a labyrinth of hanging garments and pushy tailors, you will find someone who looks like they can do a good job – based on arbitrary criteria.
Fake Markets – The main attraction. There are several of these around the city. They range from somewhat tame to totally crazy. The craziest might be called “Chi Pu Lu,” you can’t remember. Picture a giant three-story shopping mall with narrow, labyrinth hallways overflowing with vendors. They pack the stores in like sardines. Thing is, most of them all get their wares from the same few factories, so they all have similar (if not the exact same stuff). Some combination of Spyder jackets, Rolex watches, Pink shirts and ties, Armani shirts and suits, and bootleg NDS games. There is little variation.
Are you white? You must have money. Prepare to be followed around by guys working on commission for getting foreigners into stores. These guys will not – absolutely not – leave you alone. They are like angry bees – they will follow you until you have left the hive, and put about a quarter mile between you and it. If you weren’t at all interested in buying, you wouldn’t be there, right?
Not only will people follow you around, every vendor you pass will try to yell encouragment to get you into their store. Once you stop walking to actually take a look at what they’re selling, they don’t leave you alone. Here’s a sample interaction – abbreviated for your sanity. You’re browsing. A pushy sales girl comes at you with an item you don’t really want but maybe could be persuaded to buy. She says its normally $25, but she’ll give it to you for $20. You must look like a nice guy – or a sucker. You say no thanks, you’re just looking. She lowers the price to $17. You repeat. She asks you to name your price – hands you the calculator (all numbers are punched into a calculator – never spoken). You type in $7 – you don’t even really want this thing. She calls you crazy – tells you to be serious. You take the calculator back – type in $7 again. She goes down to $13. You say no thanks. She starts getting upset. Goes to $9 – final offer. You walk away. She chases you – gives you your price. You give up. She gives up. You didn’t even want this thing and now you’re spending five bucks on it. She’s upset because she really wanted to sell it to you for $20 or at least $13. A good compromise leaves everyone angry.
All the vendors speak English, but during some of the fiercer negotiations, it helps to have a friend who speaks Chinese. Once your friend starts speaking Chinese to them, they became much more willing to lower their prices. “You get a discount because your friend speaks Chinese,” they will say. You could spend all day arguing with these people.
Shanghai (Part 2)
[I'm having trouble uploading pictures. That's what's holding me up. I may just put up text and try to add the pictures later, but then you miss out on half the fun...]
Walking around – Walking around the city, you will be surprised by the remarkable number of name-brand shops in Shanghai. Some of them are very high end, and the prices are just as high as they are in the states. Who buys this stuff? There must be some very very wealthy Chinese people in Shanghai, because the vast majority of Chinese are poor. You can live so cheaply in China. Food costs almost nothing (a dollar for a meal), transportation costs almost nothing, and housing is inexpensive. Most people don’t make a lot, but it is more than enough to live on. So, who’s buying these Louis Vatton bags, and Rolex watches, and Armani suits (real ones) which easily cost the average Chinese person’s yearly salary?
The Bund – an area of the city next to the river that the French and British controlled before the war. You will buy tickets to a New Years party here. Later, you will go to this party. There will only be foreigners at the party. Only foreigners celebrate the solar New Years in Shanghai. There are many foreigners. All the buildings along the Bund will be packed with partying foreigners.
Subways – At 25 cents per ride, the subway is by far the cheapest way to get around the city. The subways in Shanghai are all brand new, and they, like everything else, are under construction. The city is constantly building and opening new lines. During your visit, at least one new subway line will open. Because of the opening ceremony, all the usual exits will be blocked by policemen. You will have trouble leaving. Bring a sandwich.
Coming from Japan, you will be surprised to see people talking on the subway. This is normal. Why don’t they sit in silence or crumple into themselves to fall asleep? Aren’t they embarrassed to call attention to themselves by engaging in loud, overt conversation? No, they are not.
Walking around – Walking around the city, you will be surprised by the remarkable number of name-brand shops in Shanghai. Some of them are very high end, and the prices are just as high as they are in the states. Who buys this stuff? There must be some very very wealthy Chinese people in Shanghai, because the vast majority of Chinese are poor. You can live so cheaply in China. Food costs almost nothing (a dollar for a meal), transportation costs almost nothing, and housing is inexpensive. Most people don’t make a lot, but it is more than enough to live on. So, who’s buying these Louis Vatton bags, and Rolex watches, and Armani suits (real ones) which easily cost the average Chinese person’s yearly salary?
The Bund – an area of the city next to the river that the French and British controlled before the war. You will buy tickets to a New Years party here. Later, you will go to this party. There will only be foreigners at the party. Only foreigners celebrate the solar New Years in Shanghai. There are many foreigners. All the buildings along the Bund will be packed with partying foreigners. 
Subways – At 25 cents per ride, the subway is by far the cheapest way to get around the city. The subways in Shanghai are all brand new, and they, like everything else, are under construction. The city is constantly building and opening new lines. During your visit, at least one new subway line will open. Because of the opening ceremony, all the usual exits will be blocked by policemen. You will have trouble leaving. Bring a sandwich.
Coming from Japan, you will be surprised to see people talking on the subway. This is normal. Why don’t they sit in silence or crumple into themselves to fall asleep? Aren’t they embarrassed to call attention to themselves by engaging in loud, overt conversation? No, they are not.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Shanghai (Part 1)
The People’s Square - a large park in the center of the city containing several museums and several more “colorful” locals.
The first thing you will notice is a crowd of Chinese people gathered around, what appears to be, a policeman arguing with a woman in a wheelchair. Upon closer inspection, you will discover that the crowd is gathered around a policeman and a woman in a wheelchair screaming at each other. The crowd has nothing to do with the dispute. They have nothing to do at all. In China, you will discover, there are many Chinese people who just sort of mill about. After ten minutes or so, the policeman will acquiesce (or maybe it is the woman in the wheelchair who gives in) and he will wheel her into a nearby building. Robbed of entertainment, the crowd will slowly disperse.
Be sure to visit the urban planning museum. There, they have a giant scale model of the city as it will look in 2020. It will be enormous. To achieve this ambitious goal, there are construction projects everywhere. Everywhere. Skyscrapers are going up at an incredible rate. “What was here before this skyscraper/skyscraper-construction-site?” you will wonder. An old neighborhood. “Where are the former residents?” They have been relocated to a new skyscraper/skyscraper-construction-site. The plan is to, by 2020, demolish virtually every old building in the city and replace it with a giant, shiny, new one.
Walking around the park, you will encounter a number of young people who will say “hello” and want to speak English with you. Other guide books warn about these people. Many want to sell you things. Stay away from anyone that extends an invitation to a friend’s “tea ceremony”. However, most of the people you will meet will be university students, or recent graduates, who just wanted someone to practice their English with. Your friend will take these opportunities to turn it around and practice Chinese. His Chinese will be excellent, but you will be a poor judge of this. It will all sound like Chinese to you. Though, Chinese people will have no trouble understanding him.
Saturday afternoons at the People’s Square are not to be missed. Wandering through the Square, you will stumble upon a large gathering of Chinese people, from middle-age to old age, talking in small groups. Wading into the crowd, you will notice this on one of the shrubs.
Your friend will then recognize what this is. The flyers on the shrubs each contain a picture of and assorted stats about a young Chinese man or woman. The mingling old people are their parents and grandparents. They are trying to arrange marriages. Poking around to take pictures, one of the women will come up to you. She will have with her pictures of her daughter in various outfits. The pictures will be professionally done. This woman will not be joking in any way. She will not be behaving ironically or sarcastically. She will want you to marry her daughter. As you humor this woman – trying not to lead her on – a crowd will form around. Your friend will step in to speak with this woman in her native tongue. She will give you her “business” card. If you ever become interested in marrying her daughter, you can email her. You will keep this card. More Chinese parents will approach you. You will be a hot commodity. Escaping at this point is advisable.
The first thing you will notice is a crowd of Chinese people gathered around, what appears to be, a policeman arguing with a woman in a wheelchair. Upon closer inspection, you will discover that the crowd is gathered around a policeman and a woman in a wheelchair screaming at each other. The crowd has nothing to do with the dispute. They have nothing to do at all. In China, you will discover, there are many Chinese people who just sort of mill about. After ten minutes or so, the policeman will acquiesce (or maybe it is the woman in the wheelchair who gives in) and he will wheel her into a nearby building. Robbed of entertainment, the crowd will slowly disperse.
Be sure to visit the urban planning museum. There, they have a giant scale model of the city as it will look in 2020. It will be enormous. To achieve this ambitious goal, there are construction projects everywhere. Everywhere. Skyscrapers are going up at an incredible rate. “What was here before this skyscraper/skyscraper-construction-site?” you will wonder. An old neighborhood. “Where are the former residents?” They have been relocated to a new skyscraper/skyscraper-construction-site. The plan is to, by 2020, demolish virtually every old building in the city and replace it with a giant, shiny, new one.
Walking around the park, you will encounter a number of young people who will say “hello” and want to speak English with you. Other guide books warn about these people. Many want to sell you things. Stay away from anyone that extends an invitation to a friend’s “tea ceremony”. However, most of the people you will meet will be university students, or recent graduates, who just wanted someone to practice their English with. Your friend will take these opportunities to turn it around and practice Chinese. His Chinese will be excellent, but you will be a poor judge of this. It will all sound like Chinese to you. Though, Chinese people will have no trouble understanding him.
Saturday afternoons at the People’s Square are not to be missed. Wandering through the Square, you will stumble upon a large gathering of Chinese people, from middle-age to old age, talking in small groups. Wading into the crowd, you will notice this on one of the shrubs. Your friend will then recognize what this is. The flyers on the shrubs each contain a picture of and assorted stats about a young Chinese man or woman. The mingling old people are their parents and grandparents. They are trying to arrange marriages. Poking around to take pictures, one of the women will come up to you. She will have with her pictures of her daughter in various outfits. The pictures will be professionally done. This woman will not be joking in any way. She will not be behaving ironically or sarcastically. She will want you to marry her daughter. As you humor this woman – trying not to lead her on – a crowd will form around. Your friend will step in to speak with this woman in her native tongue. She will give you her “business” card. If you ever become interested in marrying her daughter, you can email her. You will keep this card. More Chinese parents will approach you. You will be a hot commodity. Escaping at this point is advisable.
China
[Ok. It took way to long to post about my trip to China. So, I'm finally gonna post some stuff now. There's still a lot to come. So... that's be soon.]
So, I recently came back from a 10-day trip to China. I met up with Cole in Shanghai, stayed there through New Years, then went up to Beijing for a little, and then went down to Hong Kong for the rest of the trip. It was great.
After traveling all day on Friday, I arrived in Shanghai at about 8 pm (and yes, I got another kosher meal on the way over). Cole was there at the airport to meet me. I hadn’t been in his presence for five months, but we skype often enough that it felt like no time had passed.
Immediately after getting off the plane, I realized I wasn’t in Japan anymore. First thing I noticed: no katakana. I rely on katakana so much to get around Japan – I read it on everything (its just English in disguise). In China, it’s all kanji. I can read, like, three kanji.
The first thing we did, after dropping my stuff at Cole’s apartment (which is amazing, by the way – huge, two-bedroom, two-bath, study, furnished, with an amazing view, and a maid service), was go out to eat. Chinese food is great (as one of the teachers in my school said before I left, “Chinese food is very very delicious, but very very greasy"). The Chinese all know that foreigners love kung pow chicken. We got kung pow chicken. It was very very delicious. I kept having to fight back the urge to speak Japanese. Just little things like saying “thank you” to the waitress, and stuff.
[This first person stuff is boring me… I’m gonna switch to a more entertaining style (more entertaining for me to write). Sorry…]
So, I recently came back from a 10-day trip to China. I met up with Cole in Shanghai, stayed there through New Years, then went up to Beijing for a little, and then went down to Hong Kong for the rest of the trip. It was great.
After traveling all day on Friday, I arrived in Shanghai at about 8 pm (and yes, I got another kosher meal on the way over). Cole was there at the airport to meet me. I hadn’t been in his presence for five months, but we skype often enough that it felt like no time had passed.
Immediately after getting off the plane, I realized I wasn’t in Japan anymore. First thing I noticed: no katakana. I rely on katakana so much to get around Japan – I read it on everything (its just English in disguise). In China, it’s all kanji. I can read, like, three kanji.
The first thing we did, after dropping my stuff at Cole’s apartment (which is amazing, by the way – huge, two-bedroom, two-bath, study, furnished, with an amazing view, and a maid service), was go out to eat. Chinese food is great (as one of the teachers in my school said before I left, “Chinese food is very very delicious, but very very greasy"). The Chinese all know that foreigners love kung pow chicken. We got kung pow chicken. It was very very delicious. I kept having to fight back the urge to speak Japanese. Just little things like saying “thank you” to the waitress, and stuff.
[This first person stuff is boring me… I’m gonna switch to a more entertaining style (more entertaining for me to write). Sorry…]
Someone Call the IWC!
I just ate some whale meat! I swear, I didn’t kill the thing. It just showed up in the school lunch today. I’m sorry!
So, I was in the tea room today, and the tea lady and another teacher said that we were having “kujira” for lunch. Kujira is whale. “Ahh!” I thought. “Oh,” I said, “isn’t that a bit expensive for school lunch?” (We can’t even get beef for school lunch because it is prohibitively expensive.)
Ok, a little background. Japanese people eat whale meat, but only very rarely. Traditionally, whale meat was a delicacy, but recently it has become enormously expensive.
Ok, more background. Japan is a member of the IWC (International Whaling Commission) which monitors and sets (non-binding) standards for commercial whaling. In 1986, in the face of a lot of “Save the Whales” signs, the IWC passed a moratorium on all commercial whaling – effectively reducing yearly catch quotas to zero. Because of this, some countries (like Canada) left the IWC, and others, like Norway, simply exempted itself from the ban (with no penalty, I might add). There is a little loophole in the ban that allows whaling for “scientific purposes.” This is where Japan comes in. Japan complies with the moratorium, but still continues active whaling under the auspices of “research.” They say they can learn only learn certain things about the whales if they kill them and cut them up. Most Western scientists think this is BS. Did I mention that a stipulation of the exemption for scientific research is that none of the whale meat can go to waste? Jackpot! Kill the whales for “science” and then sell the meat. Everyone gets what they want. Japanese whalers get their profit, and the few people in Japan who want whale meat get their whale meat. Way to work the loopholes.
So, this is how whale meat comes to Japan. There’s not very much of it, and its very expensive, so you’d almost never see it in supermarkets or at regular restaurants. So, how did it make its way into my school lunch? I was told that this whale meat was “special” whale meat that is only available for schools. So, whomever the nutritionist bought the meat from must have been greatly discounting the price. Here’s my theory: the whalers make a small portion of their catch available, for almost no money, to schools. That way, they give a generation of children (from whose diet whale meat is completely disappearing) a taste for kujira. That doesn’t sound so crazy, does it? If no one is exposed to whale meat, no one will want to buy whale meat, and the whalers will be out of work. They have to occasionally give a common folk a taste of their goods.
So, that was my moral dilemma for the day. First, whether or not to protest. When I decided against that, whether or not to eat it. Which I inevitably did… It really didn’t taste all that different from beef… or horse for that matter. Yeah, they eat horse here too.
So, I was in the tea room today, and the tea lady and another teacher said that we were having “kujira” for lunch. Kujira is whale. “Ahh!” I thought. “Oh,” I said, “isn’t that a bit expensive for school lunch?” (We can’t even get beef for school lunch because it is prohibitively expensive.)
Ok, a little background. Japanese people eat whale meat, but only very rarely. Traditionally, whale meat was a delicacy, but recently it has become enormously expensive.
Ok, more background. Japan is a member of the IWC (International Whaling Commission) which monitors and sets (non-binding) standards for commercial whaling. In 1986, in the face of a lot of “Save the Whales” signs, the IWC passed a moratorium on all commercial whaling – effectively reducing yearly catch quotas to zero. Because of this, some countries (like Canada) left the IWC, and others, like Norway, simply exempted itself from the ban (with no penalty, I might add). There is a little loophole in the ban that allows whaling for “scientific purposes.” This is where Japan comes in. Japan complies with the moratorium, but still continues active whaling under the auspices of “research.” They say they can learn only learn certain things about the whales if they kill them and cut them up. Most Western scientists think this is BS. Did I mention that a stipulation of the exemption for scientific research is that none of the whale meat can go to waste? Jackpot! Kill the whales for “science” and then sell the meat. Everyone gets what they want. Japanese whalers get their profit, and the few people in Japan who want whale meat get their whale meat. Way to work the loopholes.
So, this is how whale meat comes to Japan. There’s not very much of it, and its very expensive, so you’d almost never see it in supermarkets or at regular restaurants. So, how did it make its way into my school lunch? I was told that this whale meat was “special” whale meat that is only available for schools. So, whomever the nutritionist bought the meat from must have been greatly discounting the price. Here’s my theory: the whalers make a small portion of their catch available, for almost no money, to schools. That way, they give a generation of children (from whose diet whale meat is completely disappearing) a taste for kujira. That doesn’t sound so crazy, does it? If no one is exposed to whale meat, no one will want to buy whale meat, and the whalers will be out of work. They have to occasionally give a common folk a taste of their goods.
So, that was my moral dilemma for the day. First, whether or not to protest. When I decided against that, whether or not to eat it. Which I inevitably did… It really didn’t taste all that different from beef… or horse for that matter. Yeah, they eat horse here too.
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