Feathered Friends

Owl Cafes.

This is by far one of the coolest things I have been to. They first opened up in Tokyo and very recently mere weeks or perhaps a month ago, they now have a shop in Osaka in Tenmabashi.
Lucky for me, this shop was not well advertised or known about so I could get in no problem. No ridiculous wait or reservations. But I do not expect it to stay like that for long. Once more people realize what and where it is, there will be an insurmountable surge of people coming.

So how it works is well first you either need to arrive either just before the hour, or a bit in advance to make sure to put your name on the waiting list for the next hour. You see, this cafe goes hour by hour. That's right. You have a whole hour to play with owls. Once you get inside, they will give you a few instructions, such as sanitizing your hands and where to touch the owls, and apologizing in advance if they make a mess on your clothing. I'm talking about poop. The head, neck, and back are generally ok areas for petting, but you should avoid the wings, around the eyes and the fuzzy parts of the feet. Those feet. The cutest fluffiest things ever. So ok, you have now been prepped in Owl 101. And now you need to order your drink. This is a cafe after all! You have the usual list of drink choices like coffees, juices, sodas, wine and beer.
And now! Now, you get to play with the owls. They are perched around a fenced in portion of the room. They rest along a fake grass matted perch with their legs roped to it to prevent flying away. So you can just walk up and pet any one of them. There are perhaps 9 owls of a bunch of different species for the 20 or so people allowed in per time. There are more than 9 owls of course, but some are resting and are look-only, and some are babies that are not yet trained and are blocked in by protective plastic.
You can not only pet the owls, you

can also hold them. They will rest on your arm, shoulder, or even head. The staff will help to situate you so that the owls are spaced out from one another appropriately (don't wanting them squabbling amongst themselves now do we?) and will get you the necessary gloves as needed for the larger variety of owl and will help you to appropriately grip the lead.
But what if these feathered buddies take flight? Well, if you are gripping the rope correctly, then they won't be going too far. The safe are always at a helpful distance just in case of these situations. They gently push on the owls chest and lift it to get its feet firmly back onto your arm and into an upright position. No harm done. A misconception that I had was that these beasties would be heavy, but remember they are birds and can fly, and therefore are much lighter than appearances and when they take flight it is not like a tremendous force pulling on your arm. Startling none the less, but it won't be knocking you down.
But if it flies away and you lose your grip on the lead? Well it isn't going too far the cafe is entirely enclosed and there are curtains pulled over the windows. The latter bit is necessary as if any of you have had birds would know, sometimes they just don't know what is window and what is real. So to prevent these majestic creatures from self harm and head diving straight to a window (also to prevent outside eyes from prying and try to give the place a more personal atmosphere and some mysterious allure) all the windows are blocked from view by a type of scroll curtain. And if your beastie got away, the staff are trained in that too. They merely, go fetch it, take control of the lead (which is really long so I can't imagine a situation where it would be unreachable) and cox the owl down onto their hand. It did happen more than once, and was never a problem. The owls were then returned to the people who were formerly holding them instead of being retired for the evening. Which was pretty awesome in itself that the staff did not take away from the experience. This is not to say they weren't retired after our session. But owls are birds. And birds fly. So It is nature for these guys to stretch a little.
Petting session closes about 5 minutes before your hour is up. And the staff are really polite in telling you to take your last pictures and finish your drinks and ushering you out of the fenced area. This gives the owls a break before the next session.
Once you return to your seats, you will find your drinks which are very thoughtfully covered so that no debris from battle will get inside.

Then it is time to pay up and peace out. You drink and the entirety of the session costs a total of 1000 yen. About 10 bucks. You can also peruse and purchase any of their knick knacks they have at hand, or if you are really well off and attached to one of the owls, they are for purchase as well for an incredible price.

Here is another article on the store if you want to read more on it!
http://petslady.com/articles/osaka_owl_cafe_real_hoot_63295

Do you have a moment to talk about Jesus Christ?

For whatever reason you don't escape these people when you leave the United States. And I am constantly surprised by their audaciousness. Especially in Japan.

First of all let me tell you, Japanese people like to be left alone. If you don't know them, they don't really want you to talk to them. I mean of course there are exceptions to everything. And I don't mean that if you are lost and asking them to point you in the right direction or if the next bus stop is Nijo Castle, that you will be greatly upsetting them. They are extremely polite and will most of the time be more than helpful in setting you straight. 

But if you are trying to push your religious opinions on them, it is not looked upon as favorably. Those poor Japanese women are just too polite to tell you to take a hike, so they will let whomever yammer on about all sorts of things. And will then do anything just to get you to leave them well enough alone. They will even thank you for whatever stuff you are trying to push in their hands. However, this tactic only works when you target them alone or at their homes. Otherwise, if you are a politician or a worker with you own set of flyers that you are trying to hand them at some station or other, you will get cold shouldered and brushed passed, or at the very least your flyer will be accepted only to make it into the nearest trashcan. Which is not so near. The local trashcan is actually an endangered species in Japan and is rarely found, and as such, flyers are more commonly not accepted due to the lack of dust boxes in the vicinity. 

But perhaps this is my ever more Japanese mindset speaking when I say that it is extremely rude to impose upon and accost people on the street trying to force your ideas upon them. Especially when Japan is about 70% non-religious. And the majority of the remaining percentage devote themselves to Shintoism or Buddhism, and an even smaller percentage, Christianity.

And the super weird part about these people who violate my personal space, and waste my time, and knock on my door is that they are the most persistent people you will ever meet. They really do not want to take no for an answer and will keep pushing you until you have their book or pamphlet in your hand. I had one lady try to keep pushing a book at me right when I left school one time and it was all in Japanese. It was for one of the numerous cults in Japan that parade around as religions. If you don't know what I am talking about, check out either the news from 20 years back with the Saran gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system or the recent book called 1Q84 by Haruhi Murakami, or just look on the outside of a great number of home where you see their support posters everywhere. Those large hideous pieces of paper featuring some aging, unpleasant stern looking Japanese man or less frequently, woman, that wholly detract from the nice ascetic otherwise beautiful outside appearance of the home. And it is illegal to rip them down, and still more surprising, no one ever does. Well, this lady kept pushing me and I was like 'Lady, Thank you, but no, I don't even read Japanese.' And she kept pushing and then I decided that the best mode of action would be to turn off my Japanese understanding switch, revert to English and be like ' Well I am sorry. Hope that all works out for you. I am going to get going now. Bye!' She persisted a little longer, but with me walking quickly and plainly ignoring her, her will for the chase was short lived.

Other people who are an interesting factor in Japanese frontier of the bothersome people who approach just about anyone, are the Latter Day Saints. Yeah. Apparently moving half way around the world is not far enough to be rid of them. They still come to your door too. And they train themselves to speak a bit of Japanese to convey their message to the wonderful people of Japan. Apparently, it has been said that Japan is one of their largest markets for finding followers...not that I work for a company that supports this group or anything... To spot them is rather easy, as they parade around in pairs and are pretty in-discriminant in their prey. They are more modestly rather than fashionably dressed with these little name tags which is how you can tell them apart from the masses and then know well enough the counter movements you need to make to necessarily avoid them. They will also be porting around some sort of satchel filled with the lords words or works, or pamphlets, you know, the usual marketing. And if you are happily in a relationship with God, it is not enough to persuade them because you are obviously in the wrong one. 

So the best way to avoid them is to clearly just avoid their vicinity. But what if they come to your home? This is troublesome. I just don't like opening my door for anyone who is not giving me money or not a friend. So you can spy at them from your peep hole, but in addition, not living in an apartment without an exterior gate is advisable. If you live in a gated apartment, they obviously cannot come and knock on your door, though they can ring you bell and chat with you over the intercom until you buzz them in or hang up. They know this and thus this type of building acts as a repellent for them. But if you do not live in an apartment with an exterior door to prevent unwanted people from coming into the main building, your door is fair game for them. 

Want to know just one more piece of information? If you open your door, they are allowed to come inside. At least as far as the area where shoes are acceptable are allowed. This is pretty much just the entry way. A very small area. Never the less, a frightening article to know. I have never had to deal with this personally. Most people are too polite to intrude so much. I just read up on it when I was dealing with the people from the NHK. So good luck in fending them off. Equip yourself suitably! 

Welcome to Japan

Somehow hearing this never gets old.

I just love it when walking down where ever, especially in a touristy area and a strange old Japanese man just says 'Welcome to Japan' all grandiosely. It is quite frankly really adorable. Sure I have been here for two years and counting, but I just love it. And it happens quite frequently. And it is always these little old men who are very likely retired and probably speak exactly no English with graying or white hair. They are walking along, and spot me, or any happy gaijin, and look up, afix an endearing pleasent grin to their faces and say 'Welcome to Japan' with an 'l' and not an 'r'. And it is just the most heart warming thing I have ever encountered.
There are a good many people who actually do not want us here. All the right wing crap and stuff. But these little old men are totally worth 100 of those guys.

If you ever want this to happen to you, travel in either small groups or alone. And have a happy or pleasant demeanor.

Money Matters

Japanese people are a little weird when it comes to just about everything. One of the things I have recently learned is that money is just another one of those things.

First of all. I had the grave misunderstanding of being in this exact scenario. When you open your wallet and coins, coins everywhere, just go in a downward tumult toward the floor. So what would you do to minimize the damage? You don't want these little buggers to go sprawling everywhere now. I mean sure in America it isn't so bad. What did you have? Three or Four quarters and about eight dozen pennies. Eh who cares. It is like a dollar. And you wanted those pennies gone anyways. No one will be sadder if you don' pick up two or nine of them. In fact kids love finding those little suckers. Well here too. People would love to find your coins. Since You could very easily have twenty dollars in change. In Japan the one dollar and the five dollar are in coin format so if you spill them, you could really be letting loose a very nice chunk of change. So again, what do you do?
You step on them. You aren't letting those crafty little buggers escape you, no! You need those things for this here ticket machine.
You good sir or madam have just made a grave error. That there action is nicely frowned upon by the good and gentle Japanese folk. It is very disrespectful to the money you see. And in Japan you must respect all things. So you don't step on your money. You just let it roll all over the floor and have to rely on the goodness of Japanese people to either ignore you are most often happens or the kind stranger or two who help you out and pick up a piece or two and hand it back to you. Otherwise you just have to look like a giant oaf of a dog sniffing for a place to poo chasing your money around and picking it up.

The next lesson is a subtle one. One that I am not even sure most Japanese people either know they do or why they do it. This one is much more simply and not a huge social fallacy if you neglect to partake in it. This one is simply the way you carry money around in your wallet. First off, most Japanese people don't like to fold their money, and have been tending toward those longer wallets that keep the bills crisp. Even the men. And they still stick them in their back pockets. It is like a thieves paradise. Though I mean usually there is a chain or something connecting them to a belt loop. Or that murse(man-purse) they carry around like its cool. The other thing is to put the money in your wallet head first. Meaning the head of who ever happens to be on the bill you are inserting would be diving into the riches of your wallet. That way when you take him, depending on the way you hold your wallet, he will come out facing the direction of the cashier.
I cannot even fathom why they really do this. So many silly rules for me to go and mess up about this culture

Let's make a Baby

So this is something I have found I am pretty passionate about. So this might be long. Or short. Depends on how irritated I get. The long let me rant for hours. Or the short I am so irritated I can' even type straight anymore. Just to warn you.

So Japanese women are sooooo much better than the high schoolers in America who don't really look twice at getting knocked up. Yeah sure some do, but I feel like morals are degrading as a whole. And that some women are just meant to live lives such as those in story books like The Giver, as breeders. They were just here on this earth to reproduce and not really support or impact it at all.
At least in Japan you don't have high schoolers getting knocked up every couple of months. But that is about all I can say for them. In America, I am kind of proud of the fact that when you get knocked up, for a large part, women don't feel the need to marry their baby-daddy. I think that is a good thing. Sure the child should have a solid mother and father figure in their lives, but I still feel that if you want to marry it is a very important thing and you should try to live in love for the remainder of your lives. I can't claim to be super Christian or anything, but perhaps that one fact was ingrained in me pretty good when I was younger. Now, living with someone as if you are married, much like the French do, for all goals and purposes pretty much carrying about as if you are married. I am all for that. And if you break up? No divorce. No worries. And you can go live with the next person of your hearts desire. Not saying that it wouldn't be slightly detrimental for any child, but at least it isn't divorce and you don't have to have bitter fights and arguments and lawyers and such. That stuff is wretched. This isn't to say that that isn't how it normally it, but more and more recently, in teens and young adults and even my mom said something to this effect, that it was more commonly acceptable to not marry and just live with a partner (or not) and just live your lives. Though personally, if you ask me, she is saying that so I won't go off and get married in Japan and threaten to live here forever.

But in Japan. Oh Japan.
In the last 3 completely Japanese weddings that I have been made aware of, all three of them had knocked up their girlfriends first. They feel a certain sort of obligation to the unborn. They don't want it to turn out like John Snow. A bastard loved by no one. Right. Not completely true. Regardless. They feel like pregnancy is an excuse to get married. And even if they want to get married beforehand, they will wait until they put a baby in her belly before breaking out the marriage proposals. Honestly, how lackluster. What the test is positive? Then let's get you fitted for a gown. I guess we are walking down the aisle. What should be the most romantic time of your life, suddenly turns into a chore and an obligation. And suddenly you are too fat for dress fittings and you are supporting a huge baby bump and that honeymoon special time is suddenly dashed because you already had it and now have to wake up to either vomit or feed the baby.
The last couple I know wanted to get married, but waited for the excuse of pregnancy to decide to do so. Their wedding party is this weekend. She is 5 months. Also they have known each other less than a year. In the time I have been in Japan, he was dating someone else first for way longer than his current girl and when they broke up he was devastated and wanted to get back together. I met him around a year ago as they just started dating (2 weeks) and he was making some comments towards me that he really shouldn't have in presence of a significant other. I mean nothing too bad. And here we are now. A year later....
There is no romance in Japan. Just people who don't love each other making babies.
I know that was a terrible thing to say. Terrible and true. You will find no hand holding in Japan. No public kissing. No 'I love you's' no over the top ohmygosh proposals. This is not a country for romance. All the women and men are reserved, yet in secret love reading about all these cute over the top little romances in their mangas. Know what doesn't happen in their mangas? Unexpected pregnancy and obligatory marriage. But what can you expect from a country with hardly any sex education and women's contraception not being easily availble and super expensive. Not to mention they look down on you for having it.
To expand upon the our romance issue, let me supply you with a lovely little example I got to witness first hand last weekend I was in Kyushu and saw a couple. She was perhaps 6-7 months pregnant. They were going over rocky terrain, up and down hills, stairs, slippery areas next to a waterfall, and all sorts of stuff  on their way to a sacred shrine (Amano Iwato Jinjya). He supported her, exactly not at all. She is carrying your prodigy around inside her for 6-7 months so far, I think you owe it to her to watch out for her and care a little. But that is just me. I was flabbergasted at lack of  effort.
Before you go about thinking that oh maybe she was just independent, and perhaps she was, this is the thought you have about a country where most adult women either have no job or pretty easily replaceable meaningless jobs by 30 so that they can pop out them babies. In fact, companies prefer not to hire women over here out of college. The reason being is that once they are trained and finally have the routine and have been working 2 or 3 years, they will be looking and getting married and then quitting and then the company has to spend time training and hiring new people to fill those spots and production levels decrease for a while.  Sure it is discrimination, but pretty true discrimination. Of the three purely Japanese marriages I mentioned that I knew of personally, none of the women currently work. Sure that is because one is pregnant, one just had a child and well, so did the other one. But the first of those marriages, she quit her job the day after he proposed. Yup. Guess it is about that time, eh? Finally bagged me a man, guess I don't have to work no more!

I honestly can't decide whose mentality is worse.
The men's who completely disrespect women by using pregnancy as an excuse to get married or think of it as an obligation. If you didn't want said obligation. Then it is your, and solely your responsibility to wrap it. Women don't want to risk that social stigma of contraceptives and have to pay a shit ton for it. But men, men have no excuse for not buying condoms.
Or women, who think that the whole point in life is to find a man and breed. Perhaps that is exactly what it was 200 years ago. But not in the present day. They are making and maintaining their own insipid archetype.
Or perhaps just everyone who thinks that love is not a necessity or prerequisite for baby making. And for some perhaps it isn't. But in Japan apparently just about anyone will do. Know them about 6 months? Better get working on making that belly round. I know a couple who even broke up because the girl wanted no children due to the fact her was a strong carrier for certain undesirable traits, and the man did. So he broke up with her. No love there. Only the biological clock saying BABY TIME for the young buck.