Oh no! The Gyoza Statue!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.10.07 – 17:54 -
It is a sad, sad time for 餃子 (gyoza) lovers everywhere. The statue of liberty of the 餃子 world was destroyed today when workers were trying to move it for some construction work.
The 餃子像 (gyozazou) as is like the ハチ公 (Hachikou) of 宇都宮 (Utsunomiya) station. 宇都宮 is the big town in 栃木県 (Tochigi-ken), the next door neighbors to my ふるさと (furusato), 群馬県 (Gunma-ken). The gyoza there is excellent, and as an honor to the excellent gyoza there, this statue was erected sometime in the mid-nineties.
And now it is gone. I doubt they will repair it since it isn’t even noteworthy enough to have its own Wikipedia entry. Oh well, at least there still will be good 餃子 there.
The image here is of my pilgrimage to the statue. Maybe we can all do the Care Bear stare and repair it with love.
If you can stand the sight of the broken statue, go read the Yomiuri Online article. I can hardly bear to watch…
Tags: art, care bear, Chinese food, 田舎, destroyed, 餃子, food, gyoza, inaka, sad, statue
Posted in food | 3 Comments »
Shovel Shamisen
Written by Jeshii on 2008.10.07 – 12:00 -I always wanted to buy a shamisen, but then I heard someone say you could make one from a shovel. I saw the ones made from cans in Okinawa and thought, “That sounds like a plan!”
So when I went looking for instructions, much to my surprise, none of them had any strings.
Yes, Shovel Shamisen is a sham. It’s basically just air guitar with a shovel and a bottle opener for a pick.
…at least, that’s what I thought, until I saw 館岡屏風山さん (Tateoka-san [Sorry, can't read his first name...]) playing:
…and the apparent world champion 城まさお (Jou Masao):
They actually are playing something! Listen to that rhythm. すばらしい！
Tags: air guitar, 田舎, enka, enkai, inaka, instruments, music, shamisen, shovel, video, 宴会, 演歌
Posted in music | 2 Comments »
Crying Out Love, In the Center of the Cabbage Field
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.20 – 12:00 -First, some back story. There was a movie a few years back called 世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ (sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu; “Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World”). It was a real tear jerker about a guy having a kind of mid-life crisis about his dead high school sweetheart… Oh man…
Anyway (*sniff*), the following clip is about this place in my old digs, 群馬県 (Gunma-ken) in 嬬恋村 (Tsumagoi-mura, literally “Wife (Mistress?) Love Village”) where you can stand on a platform in a cabbage field (Gunma is known for growning cabbage) and yell out your love for your wife. In the video, they call it キャベツ畑の中心で、愛をさけぶ, or Crying Out Love, In the Center of the Cabbage Field.
I thought this was cute. The couple featured is a little odd… but I totally dig it. The 80-something year old was the cutest by far.
This seems to be a popular thing for Japanese guys… they won’t say 愛している (aishiteiru) or 好き (suki) on a daily basis, but will yell it out at certain special moments… or at least, the dramas have me believe such.
Tags: cabbage, gunma, inaka, love, marriage, society, video
Posted in society | No Comments »
I hate this village!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.08.22 – 15:40 -No, this isn’t an emo post about living in the country side of Japan. 
This is a post about the song 俺ら東京行ぐだ (ora tokyo sa igu da) by 吉幾三 (Yoshi Ikuzou).
This song is awesome. Released in 1984, it is about living in this little village with none of the modern amenities of life and wanting to move to Tokyo. It is sung in Tohoku-style language, which gives it this awesome campy feeling. While most people in 1984 thought it was a fun poke at the countryside and it ended up as a big hit, many of the local agricultural villages took offense and protested it.
It was also part of the birth of rap in Japan… as odd as that may sound.
As an American, the song reminds me of Gilligan’s Island… you know, “no phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury.” But it also has the Beverly Hillbillies chic with the ideas of raising cows and driving a horse cart through Tokyo. XD
My translation of the lyrics can be found after the jump.
Tags: enka, IKZO, inaka, lyrics, music, nicovideo, video
Posted in music | 3 Comments »
