I don't know that song.

Sono uta ha shiranai no desu.

Since most non-rowers (and many rowers…though I doubt any rowers are reading this) do not want to hear about rowing all of the time, I’m imposing a rule on myself that I can write about rowing in every other post. So today, I’m going to talk about music (but not the time I got asked by one of the music majors to come sing with them in the choir when she heard me coxing. That would be writing about rowing).

Sometimes, songs are popular in one country but not another. As a thirteen year old quasi-American, I loved Billy Joel. When I moved back to Japan, I tried to find like-minded people. I’d find them every so often, but they’d all say “I love ‘Honesty!’” I’d never heard of the song, and I’d say so, and they’d look at me funny. 

It’s a song in the album 52^nd Street, and while acclaimed, it wasn’t phenomenally popular, and it wasn’t in the US release of the Greatest Hits album available at the time, which is why I didn’t really know about it. It was popular in 1980 or thereabouts, when I didn’t listen to very much music. Apparently it was used in a commercial or something in Japan, and it WAS in the Japan release of the Greatest Hits album.

When I recently went to Indonesia for work stuff, people would ask me where I was from (after they figured out I wasn’t an ethnic Chinese Indonesian), and I would say Japan, and then they would say, “I know a Japanese song! ‘Kokoro no Tomo!’” and they’d break into song.

I would have to smile uncomfortably because I’d never heard the song before in my entire life. I have now heard it three times, all in Indonesia. At first, I thought it was because my knowledge of Japanese popular culture older than 1986 was nonexistent, but I grilled my co-workers and found that they’d never heard of it either. Mayumi Itsuwa is very well-known, but for other songs.

So if you know of any songs that are popular one country but not another, please share, and we can trade “being annoyed because people thought we were strange, when it was a case of unbalanced popularity” stories.

Its usual state

Honrai no sugata

I have to write something that's not rowing because this is not a rowing blog.

A while back, I went to Indonesia for work stuff. Both the temperatures and the food were hot. I love the interesting combinations of flavors and scents in Indonesian food. Lots of stir-fried vegetables (love!) and fried meat and fish (love!) with interesting sauces (love!). One of the more interesting (but less delicious) things I tried was this:

(TMI alert) It's beef lung. The lung didn't taste like much of anything, but I could taste the cooked blood that was in the lung. I dipped it in one of the sauces and it didn't bother me as much, but once was enough.

Indonesia is predominantly Sunni Muslim, so we encountered very little alcohol while we were there, which was just fine with me. Flavored shaved ices with fruit seemed to be a big thing, and I ate a lot of those. They were great.

Girls doing the peacock dance. They were so beautiful!

I was gifted with a batik tunic, and when I wore it…hotel staff spoke to me in English. I wore my Uniqlo ankle-length (it's probably mid-calf length on most people) dress, and hotel staff spoke to me in Indonesian, so I got the chance to say "Saya tiduk bisa bicara Bahasa Indonesia!" (I can't speak Indonesian!) This is different from when I was in Vietnam and I wore an ao dai. 

The Indonesian language seems to use a pitch accent, and the vowels and consonants aren't very difficult. It's probably a lot easier to learn than Mandarin Chinese or Vietnamese.

Jakarta doesn't look very different from Tokyo, especially at night…they could probably use a good subway system, though.

And when I got back, the book I'd ordered from Amazon had arrived, and I read it, and I started thinking about that time when rowing was important to me. 

What did you do last weekend?

Shuumatsu nani wo shita?
This is a picture taken by the Pumpkin Daddy this past weekend. To my American friends, the background scenery probably looks just downright wrong. To my Japanese friends, the view of Tokyo Bay and Rainbow Bridge probably looks familiar. The Pumpkin Family went to Tokyo this past weekend. It was a bus tour sponsored by the Pumpkin Daddy's workplace. We went to the Edo Museum, which shows life in Edo. Edo is what Tokyo was called before the Meiji restoration in 1868. The scene shown is of childbirth. You can see the midwife giving the baby its first bath. The new mother was supposed to remain in a sitting position for seven days, to prevent excess blood flow to the upper body. Many mothers would become sick after giving birth (well, I don't think I'd like staying in a sitting position for a week, even while sleeping, and that I'd become at least a little sick if I did. Thank goodness for modern obstetrics...) The museum looked pretty interesting, but we spent most of the time chasing the Pumpkin Princess and making sure she didn't crawl on the exhibits you were not supposed to be crawling on. Next stop, Tsukiji, home of the largest fish market in the world. And the freshest sushi in the world. There are two pieces missing on this platter. The Pumpkin Daddy and I both started eating before remembering to take a picture. It wasn't cheap, but totally worth it. The only drawback was that the place wasn't all that kid-friendly, and there was no good place to change diapers. From there, the bus took us to the harbor where this boat came for us.

This looks like a futuristic protozoan. It's a new vessel, designed by Leiji Matsumoto, a cartoonist popular in the 70s who has done mostly SF type stuff considered classics. The Pumpkin Princess spent much of the ride asleep. We got to Odaiba, where the above Statue of Liberty was to be found, did some walking around, and watched a street performer. Then it was a mad dash to get to the bus on time. We got home too late for me to start cooking, so we headed to our usual pasta place. Pretty exhausting day, and I was really amazed when the Pumpkin Princess got up at 6 the next morning.