Check this out...we're living in the land of crazies!

Students pray lucky charms do trick

Temples, zoos, teams tap superstitions to sell talismans to entrance examinees

By SETSUKO KAMIYA

Staff writer

Some challenges in life can only be overcome through one's own efforts. But it never hurts to have a bit of luck.

At least that's how students facing high school and university entrance examinations feel around this time of year as they prepare for tests that could set the course of their lives.

On these occasions, many entrance exam hopefuls and their families visit shrines and temples to pray and pick up a good luck charm, hoping it will help them get into the school of their choice.

But as even this may not be enough to help some overcome their enormous anxiety, some businesses have seized on the opportunity and are cashing in on the game of luck, selling products ranging from good luck snacks to animal droppings that are supposed to bring good tidings.

From early January through the end of March — entrance exam season — Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd.'s long-selling Karl corn puff is marketed as Ukarl.

The product's name is temporarily changed because Ukarl sounds similar to the Japanese verb "ukaru," or to pass.

The package is designed to look like a good luck charm, while the snack's signature character, Uncle Karl, is transformed into a Shinto priest, praying for examinees to pass their exams.

According to Meiji Seika, the firm has been marketing Ukarl since 2001. It was a hit from the start with students and their families.

"In the past, we've received letters from consumers thanking us because they ate Ukarl and made it to the schools they were aiming for," a Meiji Seika spokesman said.

The popular, long-selling chocolate biscuit Koala no March by Lotte Co., Meiji Seika's rival, now comes with a special package in which its koala characters are turned into red and white "daruma" wish dolls.

Unlike Karl, the snack does not have any sound in its name that connotes good luck. Instead, it is the koala itself that brings the good fortune, according to the firm, noting that while koalas spend most of their time sleeping in trees, they never fall.

Exam hopefuls, too, hope to cling to the tree of victory.

It's not just Lotte that is cashing in on the trend. Several zoos nationwide also believe koalas are considered good luck, although some take it to an extreme level.

Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya earlier this month distributed a hand-made paper bookmark made partly from koala droppings.

While it may sound ridiculous, the droppings are actually the key ingredient because luck in Japanese is pronounced "un," which sounds similar to "unchi," or "poo" in the vocabulary of Japanese children.

Nor does it smell as bad as it sounds, because the eucalyptus fiber — extracted from the droppings and sterilized — is mixed with fiber from recycled paper.

The bookmark says: "Although koalas sleep in trees for 18 to 20 hours a day, they never fall. This (bookmark) contains the 'luck' of koalas, so it will bring good fortune. Use this bookmark as you prepare for the entrance exams. All the animals at the zoo are praying for your success."

According to Kazuhito Ito of the zoo, the bookmarks were first distributed last year for free, and stocks ran out immediately.

To meet demand, the zoo this year increased the number of bookmarks to 500 from last year's 300, but stocks still ran out on Jan. 4, when they were distributed again for free.

At Ishikawa Zoo in Ishikawa Prefecture, orangutans are believed to bring good luck. Since 2005, the zoo has been giving away pin buttons with a picture of their male orangutan, Brotos, who is good at walking on tightropes and never falls off.

"People who come to get the pins are mostly grandparents who want to send it to their grandchildren who are facing entrance exams," said Shinichi Takeda, a spokesman for Ishikawa Zoo.

J. League soccer team Omiya Ardija this month began marketing its own good luck charms.

The team believes it is lucky because it has managed to escape being relegated from Division One to Division Two for four straight years.

Hoping their "perseverance" will give the examinees strength, each of the team's good luck charms contains a ticket that was prepared for a match they would have had to play if they had dropped into Division Two.

Because they were able to remain in the top division,the tickets were not used.

A total of 500 good luck charms were sold in five days after going on sale Jan. 6. Due to the high demand, the team is currently accepting orders for 1,000 more charms, according to the team spokesman.

The good luck charms, which bear the kanji "katsu" (victory), went on sale after they were prayed for at a shrine near the team headquarters in the city of Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, he said.

"It's actually not just our supporters or examinees and their parents anymore, but company employees also buy them, apparently with the hope that their companies will hold on amid the bad economy," he said.

Himeji Castle - we almost missed you...maybe.

In December, right before Christmas vacation, we found out from a friend that Himeji Castle was scheduled to close for refurbishment for a lengthy but unspecified time, from an unspecified date at some stage in 2009. This kind of vague confusion is not uncommon for us here in Japan, where we're often left guessing and trying to fill in the pieces of a kind of puzzle. "Where is the station?" we may ask, in an attempt at Japanese; but in reply we may hear countless different phrases; leading Ross and I to 'powwow' shortly after speaking any Japanese to someone: 'Ok, did you catch that first part? Did he say go right and then walk straight and turn at the zoo or go turn left, go straight then turn right at the kindergarten? I guess we'll just walk for awhile and turn if we see a toddler or a tiger." Powwow successful. In any case, for a long time Ross and I had been intending to see Himeji Castle, a huge old castle about an hour from where we live. Based on the information that the closure would occur in 2009 sometime, we decided to go to the castle, with out friends Rachel and KJ on one of our last days off before 2008 ended. The day was cold but beautifully sunny and dry for winter, so we had chosen really a perfect day to explore the castle, the grounds, a garden nearby, and Himeji town itself. We arrived in the early afternoon, and walked from Himeji station toward the looming castle. The castle is huge and can apparently be seen from any part of Himeji city, so we didn't bother with a map and just headed towards it. The castle is known for being 'THE castle' to visit in Japan, because unlike the extremely boring Osaka Castle (rebuilt sometime in the seventies and featuring an outside elevator), this castle has maintained both the inside and outside to look as much like the original as possible. The castle was amazing from start to finish: lots of incredible architecture and artifacts to look at, opportunities to clumsily fall down stairs in Japanese slippers, and chances to pretend we were alive when women were thrown down wells because they revealed secret plots and were then framed for stealing dishware. Excellent. It took us a long time to explore the castle but I still insisted that we follow it up with a wander through the nearby Japanese Gardens. Despite everyone else offering that winter perhaps isn't the ideal time to viewing these gardens, I was adamant, having read in the handy tourist brochure that the gardens offered 'something in all seasons'. The brochure lied. Unless you count the dead twigs and leaves, floating (dead) carp fish and the men cleaning the gardens..... I guess we should have asked the crazy old man at the castle entrance his thoughts on the gardens. He hovered for a good ten minutes as we purchased our tickets and prepared to enter the castle; then approached us as we looked at the information board to get an idea about the castle from the outset. The man then kindly took us aside and pointed out important information about the castle's history, explaining carefully to us various intricate details about the castle. This was all very nice, but odd when you consider that he was simply reading aloud (and clumsily at that) the ENGLISH information board, and paraphrasing and defining ENGLISH words to us...my favourite was when he read some of the board aloud then modelled applying makeup to his face to explain the 'cosmetic' reconstruction of some of the buildings that was already explained in writing. Ah Japan. Full of elderly men with nothing better to do than amuse us. Enjoy the photos.

New Year - Crazy Man in a Red Dress

"Moronic Gaijin Murdered: Elderly Japanese Man lures foreigners with promise of costumes" This was the headline i had running through my mind as i sat on the tatami living room floor in the middle of Fujidera, wondering exactly what I was doing and how my New Year and turned out quite like this..... On New Year's Eve, KJ and Rachel and Ross and I went to the South of Osaka to a temple town called Fujidera with the intention of taking part in the New Year's Eve festivities, namely the ringing of a bell 108 times. We're still not entirely clear on why the bell is rung 108 times, just that if you get there and line up early enough you could be one of the lucky bell ringers. We were not one of those lucky 108, but we still had a pretty wild New Year's Eve. We arrived at the temple at about quarter to midnight and were standing on the temple steps, taking in the crowd and the ambience of the night (and the ludicrously long line to ring the bell) when an older Japanese man dressed in what looked like a red dressing gown came to us and in a way that seemed almost like he'd been expecting us said 'Hello, hello welcome! Please wait. Please wait, I have a gift for you.' He then proceeded to gift us with the complimentary chopsticks being given out by the temple to everyone. Ross noticed it was ten seconds to midnight and we quietly counted down before being interrupted by the strange man who, with a call of 'Let us enjoy together', led us around the temple grounds, introducing us to strangers, explaining bits and pieces about the temple to us and then leading us away from the temple grounds to the neighbouring shrine. We walked the streets of Fujidera with the strange man, mildly amused by his antics and still, at this point, believing he was in some way connected to the temple or the official evening's festivities. At the shrine he taught us to pray, encouraged us to drink sake and introduced us to the town mayor before disappearing momentarily and returning with a group of nine other foreigners from a mixture of places including Poland, Korea and China. At this point, he whipped out a wooden paddle, held it in the air and beckoned for us to follow him back to the temple. So, the thirteen of us complied and KJ remarked, 'I think he's collecting foreigners.' We followed him back to the temple, smiling amicably to the Japanese who pointed out to each other our motley group. At the temple, three Chinese men asked if they could take photos with our strange costumed leader and he agreed, but not without including all of us in their photos too! So we posed for strangers photos then invited these three foreign men to join us too. And so there were 16. 16 foreigners huddled around the strange man in red as he confused us with his attempts in a combination of Japanese and English to offer us New Year greetings and encouraging words. He then looked thoughtful, counted us all several times then proclaimed that today, the first day of the New Year was a special day, and that his office was nearby...and would we like to accompany him to his nearby office to dress in costumes like his so that we can take photos? Why, of course! said us foreigners, and we obediently followed our fearless leader through the darkened streets of Fujidera to his small hutlike home. We all tumbled into his home, running on a combination of confusion, nervous energy and sheer adrenaline from the ridiculousness of the situation. We squeezed ourselves into his tatami room and huddled together in the cold, watching as our crazy host revealed the several trapdoors hidden in his home - at this point I gasped laughingly (though nervously) 'That's where the last lot of foreigners are buried'. The strange man began to bring piles of clothes to us, assigning them to different individuals, leaving some on the floor to be chosen by lucky individuals. The 'costumes' were a strange combination of dressing gowns, floral women's dresses, strange shaped hat made from neckties and bringhtly coloured petticoats, none of which looked 'authentically' Japanese (or authentically anything really). Some, such as Ross and KJ, were 'knighted' with their own wooden paddles and assigned specific costumes (they ended up looking like Robin Hood and Friar Tuck) whilst others, such as Rachel and myself has to crawl on the floor, beating the other foreigners to the array of other costumes. Rachel wore two skirts, one on each leg and both surprised and disappointed our strange Japanese host, who was very precise about the costumes and ordered me to tie Rachel's 'Japanese costume' (a lemon yellow women's shirt dress circa 1955) correctly. We giggled our shivered in the cold as we donned our ludicrous outfits, posed for photos and gave self introductions, all the while pondering how we had gotten ourselves into this situation. It was at this point that anything resembling normalcy from the evening flew out the window as from every hiding spot in ther room came numerous and varying bottles of alcohol; Irish Whiskey, bottles of wine, huge bottles of Japanese beer and one scant bag of rice crackers. One by one the bottles were retrieved from hidey holes as open mouthed we stared and gave each other 'what the hell is going on' sideways glances. I'm not sure exactly when the 'funny' left the evening...perhaps when one of the Korean girls started to convulse and look very ill and was ushered from the building (but not before being MADE to pose for photos by our host!) but at one point, it all seemed very strange and we started to make movements to leave. I had since given up the fantasies that this man was going to kill us all, and had simply decided he was al ovely old man. A lovely lonely crazy old man. Then, as we stood up to leave, all the lights blacked out, and as a quick reflex I rallied the troops: 'Rachel, Ross, KJ, take off your ridiculous costumes, we're all going to be killed.' Of course, the crazy old man's house had simply blown a fuse, and all was quickly restored, but by then it definitely felt like it was time to leave! We picked up our bags, accepted the man's gift of an envelope of raw pistachio nuts and instructions on how to prepare them, and trudged off into the night. I can hear you now as you read: "Allie? Could all this really be true?" The answer is "Yes, my friends, it is. Check out the photos...and the looks of sheer terror and hysteria...that prove it."

Winter Vacation - Takayama

Winter vacation started on Christmas Day and went for about two weeks. Ross and I had planned a trip to Takayama for four days, a chance to see part of rural Japan, relax and (hopefully) see snow fall. Takayama is a mountain town in Gifu Prefecture and is known as 'little Kyoto'. It reminded me of Ballarat, a big small town, with lots of old stores, little laneways and great shopping. Takayama is famous for its festivals held twice a year in Spring and Autumn, but is also known for its incredible cold climate, fabulous views of the Japanese Alps and the nearby hot springs. We left the morning after Christmas and took several local trains (lots of complicated switching but a very inexpensive way to go!) to get there. We were hoping the whole time for there to be snow, but students had told us to be wary that with all the climate change confusion, there may not be. :( About an hour from Osaka we hit Maibara, a mountain town just out of Kyoto. Looking out the window Ross noticed some small white flakes, very few of them floating in the air outside the train and said 'SNOW'. It was seriously an amazing sight - really exciting for us Aussies. As our train kept going we passed through town after town that was lightly blanketed in snow and we couldn't help ourselves; jumping out of the train quickly as it stopped to take our first snow photos! When we headed out of this region there was no snow, so again we were worried about Takayama. We accidentally took a wrong train and had to backtrack, making ourselves about an hour and a half later, and since in Winter the sun has been setting at five, we arrived in Takayama in pitch black darkness..............and SNOW> The entire town was thicky coated in snow that fell all over us and our luggage as we trundled through the town searching for our inn. We stayed in a really cute old Japanese inn with lovely hosts. It was a lovely, old fashioned, cosy place with fabulous food and an amazing old Japanese fireplace. We had organised to eat dinner the first night at the inn, mainly because of my error in judgment for our Shodoshima trip, where we ended up walking for 3km to find food. It was such a desperate situation that we planned ahead this time! The inn food also promised the famous Hida Beef from the region so we HAD to try it! It was a great meal and while we decided we wanted to try eating at other local restaurants in the area so we could try all the 'famous foods', we ended up booking in for breakfast each day. In our time in Japan, we have learned that each area is 'famous' for something, usually food. When talking with students at ECC, if we mention an area we've travelled to, they usually scratch their head, look thoughtful and say 'Ah, famous for.....' The 'famous fors' end up being anything from Kobe beef to Hokkaido rockmelons. But the Japanese are incredibly well trained - famous foods are known by everyone and in order to taste them you actually have to go to the area. They cannot be bought anywhere else. It's ridiculous. But fun. :) We settled into our room then headed out to take photos and play in the snow. It was hilarious walking in knee deep snow but i had bought $12 gumboots specifically for this and they were not going to waste. It must have been hilarious for the Japanese passersby, two westerners going out of their way to walk in the piles of snow on the side of the road. Japanese snow is difficult to ignore though - its as soft and fluffy and clean as the stuff of cartoons. We loved it. Our first day in Takayama we headed to the Hida no Sato old village area, a fifteen minute walk from our inn that took us about three hours. At first we responsibly walked along the roadside, but were quickly drawn in by the snow off the beaten track! This was a more confusing route since we couldn't tell what was road, what was garden, what was rice field (yes, I did fall in - thank goodness for gumboots- my new slogan; I'm going to make bumper stickers if you're interested), what was a path, what was a gutter, what was a private property such as an inn where monks hosted you, welcomed you and lead you to your room (whoops Ross) and what was the actual Hida no Sato. I kept referring to the map I had, exclaiming 'We're here' then realising we were still just in the streets of Takayama. Snow can be very confusing. We ended up hiking in what we have now come to call 'Narnia' where a forest was coated in incredibly beautiful, deep white snow. Finally we ended up at the Hida no Sato old village where we toured old farmhouses and read about life in a Japanese snow village - kind of like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, I guess; a whole lot of restored buildings are arranged so that you can walk through them, like an old village. It was a lovely place to visit and really, really interesting. The second day was spent meandering through 'the old town', the section of Takayama city that sits on one side of a huge river canal where all of the old buildings are preserved and even the convenience stores are made to look old and authentic. :) We walked in the falling snow to the market outside the temple where local wares, fresh fruit, and New Years food was on sale. We ate orchard apples and wandered through the town soaking up the atmosphere and freezing our bums off! We warmed up with coffee in a cute cafe, wandered through some cute stores and ate food from street vendors before heading to a craft centre where we could make our own souvenirs. Ross made a snow globe (apprently a childhood dream) and I painted a mug which initially seemed like a great idea...I guess we'll see when the horrid-piece-of-crappiness-that-was-ridiculously-difficult-to-paint-an intricate-snowflake-pattern-on-after-all-who'd-have-thought arrives in the mail in a month's time. The third day was a bit of a bummer in that Ross had somehow pulled his neck and back out (couldn't possibly have been the futons on the floor and the rice pillows we slept on, could it?!) so we decided to seek out an onsen hot spring near the inn so that we could relax and Ross could recuperate. We read in a touristy booklet (which until this point had been very reliable) that the Kur Alp Hot Spring in the mountains overlooking Takayama was a great place to soak in a natural hot spring while overlooking the Japanese Alps. Despite Ross' head tilting to one side in a very embarassing way and my own head tilting similarly and sympathetically, we hiked up the mountain to Kur Alp. I feel that the tacky Swiss inspired name of the place should have tipped us off to the quality of the establishment, or perhaps the stifled laughter of the storekeepers we asked for directions...but at that point 'Old Leany' (as I had come to cruelly call my husband) and I were quite dedicated to Kur Alp and we pressed on. When we arrived and immediately recognised a place frighteningly similar to Ringwood Pool we still weren't going to give up, so ten minutes later we emerged from the change rooms wearing our hired swimming costumes: me in a very highcut racing suit and Ross in an incredibly tight pair of ancient greying mauve swimming trunks that may have been a deep shade of purple back in the eighties. We had hiked a considerable distance to go to a chlorinated local pool with a view of the alps...that was blocked my a very larke blue concrete wall and foggy, dirty windows. Hilarious...now. Horrendous at the time! We hiked back into town after valiantly trying to enjoy ourselves only to discover that directly opposite our inn was a very large, very luxurious natural hot spring. We used their free foot bath (an odd experience as it really felt as though we were a pair of idiotic foreigners sitting in the decorative rock pool at the front of the hotel until some Japanese people joined us) then we entered the hot spring and basked in the natural heat while the snow surrounded us. Beautiful. We headed home from Takayama as the snow stopped falling and began to melt, and when we asked about how long Takayama had had snow, we found out it had started the night before we arrived. Lucky us. :)