Shoes

 Japan does most everything well. Electronics, automobiles, trains, and unmanned space flight are all testament to Japanese hard work and ingenuity. 

Japan does two things poorly, bread and shoes. I will write about bread another time. Today I will write about shoes.

The Japanese shoe trade is bereft of innovation, customer choice, and and affordable products.

There were two television series that ran recently that both featured stories about running in tabi. Tabi are a style of socks with a split toe for wearing with sandals, or by themselves if they have a rubber sole. One of the series featured a story about a modern tabi manufacturer that was on the brink of failure, when they helped an injured runner overcome his problem by designing a running tabi just for him.

The second series was a story about an actual athlete, Kanakuri Shizo, who participated in the seventh and eighth Olympics. He ran in tabi that were made by a company in Tamana, Kumamoto.

As a result of the series' popularity, I expected to see a boom in running tabi and other minimalist shoes in general. In actuality, crickets.

What is on offer at shoe stores in my area is a selection of lower-tier, big brand name shoes. It's easy to find big name products at shops, but they are the poor quality range of shoes that these corporations make. I can find the higher quality shoes online, but I don't want to buy shoes online. 

The cost of shoes is also prohibitive. A reasonably good quality pair of running shoes from a reputable US maker sells for around ￥13,000 online at a US site. The identical pair of shoes from a Japanese website is priced at ￥33,000. That's more than twice the price for identical shoes.

My current solution is a pair of plastic clogs. The company who makes them now sells a version that is good for walking in, come in my size, and are affordable at about ￥6,000. 

Some people say that Japan has never been

a shoe culture. That's fine, but companies are not even trying. Japan has never been a space culture either, but Hayabusa and Hyabusa II have been magnificent successes. 

Shaving

 Most men in Japan shave their faces. I think that has been the custom for some time. Probably as an influence of Western culture, some men grew facial hair during the early part of the 20th Century.

I shave, not every day, but on days that I have to look presentable. I also shave my head as well as my face.

I started to shave when I was in high school. I used an old double-edged, safety razor that my grandfather used. Then I used an injector razor that happened to be in a drawer in the house.

I used my father's electric shaver for a while, but that didn't cut it. (Yes, a shaving joke.) I don't think they made them that shape anymore. It had a cord and was squarish, like a bar of soap.

Electric razors have always been my second choice for shaving. They are just another electric device that requires attention.

I prefer blade razors and soap, shaving soap if I can get it. They seem to give me a closer shave.

I have tried all kinds of bladed razors. First, I just used what was cheapest. Single bladed razors work best for me, though. As the razors went from one blade to two and more, I found that the small space between the blades gets clogged up with whiskers and soap. I use a metal-handled, single-bladed razor made by the Kai company. It does the trick, and they last.

Shaving soap is my favorite. I prefer it to shaving foam from a can, because the can is a total waste of resources. My fist experience with a shaving brush and soap sealed it for me. Warm suds on my face rather than cold, smelly stuff from a can anytime!

As I said, I shave my whole head. While I started losing my hair in middle age, I struggled to find barbers and hair styles that would work. None of them did, so I just cut it off. I messed around with an electric hair cutter, but again, just another electric device to maintain. Now I just lather up my head and shave it off.

Shaving my head as well as my face saves on a variety of concerns. I don't worry about going gray, having hair that's too long, hair gels or sprays, shampoo, rinse, conditioner, or about bald spots. I just shave a little move.

One thing I think Japan misses out on is men's shaving experience. There isn't enough attention paid to comfort, luxury. If there's an advertisement for men's shaving products, it's all about the product, a clean shave. Any shaver should be able to do that.

What I want is a focus on the warm, satisfying experience of shaving. Doing the job is only half of it. Warm, nice smelling foam, and the feeling of completion, being ready for the day, that should come along with it.

I'll write move about shaving in Japan, because I think it is part of the Japanese hair fetish. 

  

Coffee

 I've been a coffee addict for forty years or more. I've liked it for a very long time. My family were all coffee drinkers.

When I came to Japan I was pleasantly surprised by the cafes. There were small, dark, smoke-filled rooms all wood grain and velvet cushions. The coffee was good, and the food was what it was, nothing fancy.

The menu offered a variety of hot and cold coffee drinks as well as soft drinks and alcohol. It also had sandwiches, pasta, curry and a variety of cake.

A customer could sit and read the variety of magazines, newspapers, manga, or novels that the cafes always had on offer. No one was going to chase you out, because, for one reason, servers do not work for tips.

In the Nagoya area a majority of the working population eats their breakfast at cafes. "Morning," as it is known, is a meal offered before lunch. It includes various things, but mostly some combination of ham, eggs, bread, and a veggie salad, plus a cup of coffee. 

I think most of the people who frequent cafes in the afternoons are businessmen who need a quick meal and a cup of coffee, or retired people who want a place to meet their friends.

Recently franchise operations, like Tully's, Doutor, and Komeda have made serious dents in those old Showa period cafes. They offer a number of differences to the older types, standardized and recognized coffee and other drinks. They offer some food, but none of it  as good as the old cafes.

Convenience stores have also begun to offer a variety of good coffee drinks for a very low price. A small cup of coffee costs around a dollar, where the same size cup of coffee might cost three to four dollars at a cafe. Customers can buy goods or services there, and have a good cup of coffee, a latte, or an number of other hot or cold coffee drinks for a reasonable price. 

If you like to make your own coffee, you are covered, too. You can buy coffee beans of different varieties, roasted to your specifications in many places. I live in a relatively rural community, and I can get a bag of freshly roasted coffee beans at a cafe just ten minutes away from my house. If I wanted to have a larger selection, I could go to the nearest department store and buy a bag of beans from their large selection of freshly roasted coffee. 

At home we drink Peace Coffee from Peace Winds Japan (PWJ). PWJ is an NGO that helps people around the world. One of their projects is coffee production in East Timor. They have helped the people there to establish their own coffee growing operations that supply coffee to people all over the world. 

It appears that more people drink tea than coffee here. That means that there we really have the best of both worlds here, high quality tea as well as coffee. 

Homeless Animals

 Every weekday, I wake up at 5:00 to go to a shelter that houses homeless dogs and cats. I walk two dogs every morning, four on the rare occasion.

The animals are there for various reasons, mostly because they have been discarded by a human. Some were born without a home. Each one has a different story.

There are many animals that end up in a shelter like ours, but there are many more that end up in pounds that kill unclaimed animals. There are even more that live their brief lives on the brink of starvation, pregnant, injured, sick, and unloved. 

There is a mountain nearby where people go to dispose of unwanted animals. They take them there, dump them out of their cars, and drive away. The animals have to fend for themselves, but most eventually succumb to hunger, disease, or injury.

Our group goes there to try to rescue some of the animals. We take the ones we can catch, clean them up, get them medical attention, and work to find them permanent homes.

There are so  many stories, so many animals. Most of them find good homes. Some of them are not fit to be with humans. They are not mean, on the contrary, they are too afraid of people to ever want contact with humans. We take care of those dogs and cats through out their lives.

Many of the dogs recently have come to us from breeders, where they used the female dogs to make puppies to sell at pet shops. The females are tired out by ten years old. In the past, those dogs would just have been killed, but now they come to us. 

We don't need any more dogs or cats to be sold at pet shops. There are so many animals that want to have a forever home.

I don't own any of the dogs I walk, and I think that is a great relationship. They own themselves, and I help to give them the life they were denied at some point. My guess is that
they would like nothing better than to live in a home where they could give and get care and love.

Use a Utility Bicycle in Japan

 Utility bicycles are the best bicycles for commuting in Japan. They are sturdy, safe, and secure. 

Utility bicycles are sturdy to a fault. This also makes them quite heavy unless you get an aluminum frame. I have a steel frame, and it is heavy. If I want to load it into my truck, I have to either use a ramp and push it, or lift it up over the side. I can lift it, but it is hefty. On the other hand, I never have to worry about the integrity of the frame.

Every thing about these bikes is meant to last. Many high school students park them out in the elements in front of train stations, because they use them as part of their commute to school. They either ride from home to the station or from the station to school. Bikes are left exposed to the elements. They are often blown over in windy weather, and aside from a mix-up with a car, I have never seen any part of a utility bicycle dented or bent. 

In the past it was common to hear a bicycle making a clunk-clunk sound  as it rolled by. The chain requires regular lubrication, but if neglected the chain would rust. This was especially true of the type in the photo below where the chain is completely encased in a metal covering. The chain would rust into a bent position, and make a noise every time it made a revolution, striking against the inside of the cover. 

Current models have replaced chains with a belt drive. Belt drives are cleaner, lighter, cheaper, smoother, quieter and require less maintenance or adjustment than chains. My bicycle is an older model with a chain. I don't mind that, because I enjoy tinkering with mine, but for people who would otherwise neglect their chains or who do not enjoy getting their hands dirty, belt drive is the answer.

Utility bicycles come equipped with a light in front and reflectors on the spokes, on the frame at the rear of the bicycle, and on each of the pedals. Modern lights turn themselves on when it becomes dark enough, and they are charged by a generator in the front hub. That eliminates the need to reach down to the front tire and flip the switch that puts the generator in contact with the rim or tire. If it is dark, the light comes on. 

Japan has a reputation for being a crime-free country, and that is true, except for bicycles and umbrellas. If it is unlocked and unattended, someone is going to snatch it, take it where they want to go, and ditch it. Any utility bicycle you might buy these days comes with a locking system where, when you lock the rear wheel, the front wheel is also locked. This effectively gives you two locks for the effort of one. You can also register and insure your bicycle when you buy it, which puts it into a system that records bikes that are stolen. This makes it easier for the authorities to return stolen property, or for the owner to use insurance to replace one. 

Bicycles are great transportation, and for the daily commute they cannot be bested. Most of them come with a rear rack and a handlebar basket. They are built with the busy rider in mind, who does not have the time or will to maintain a bicycle that is coated in road grime. My stur
dy, safe and secure ride has never let me down.