Paper Museum and Sugamo - January 27th

On our last outing of the semester, we meet up to ride the Arakawa line, one of the last two trolleys in the city. Our first destination is the paper museum near Ouji station (not like the board game). We had to wait for some of the students to show up, so we played on a playground nearby. At the top of one of the towers was a collection of crudely drawn genitals and vulgar words. I had inadvertantly stumbled upon Japanese sex education...

We continued to play while we waited for the last student to show up, and when the teacher appeared with Jessica in tow, we coaxed her to actually slide down the tall slide on the playground. She was petrified, and used her hands as brakes on the sides to slow her descent. The steel slide was extremely smooth, and after sensei squeaked her way to the ground, I jumped on it and surfed down on my feet, proving my bravery via foolishness.

With all of the students from both classes gathered (we were going with the level 6 students as well), we entered the paper museum, and was led by the kind curator to a room where he and a few other people explained the paper-making process, and that we were going to be making our own postcards that day. Apparently, the fibers present in milk cartons are particularly long and durable, so by boiling those to separate the fibers, they create a thick opaque oatmeal mush, which we then pour over a screen to make the paper. I placed a maple leaf into the mixture to embed it into my postcard. So impressed was I by the novelty of making my own paper, that I ended up buying my own kit. Now all I need are a few milk cartons and some time to kill.

After marvelling over our postcards, we were led around the museum and given a brief history of paper, including prints of some old books and leaf sutras, as well as parts of machines used to make paper. One interesting thing I learned was that cigarette paper was made out of hemp, because it burns slower than other papers. I couldn't help but wonder where they get the hemp to make the paper for American cigarettes, since it's illegal in the States.

We bid the curator goodbye, and got back on the rails to go to Sugamo, also known as "Grandma's Harajuku." Our assignment was to find at least one old lady and interview her about Sugamo. Hans and I walked around for a while and eventually found ourselves on the main temple grounds, where there was a crowd of old patrons lined up to wash a buddha statue. The statue is a major attraction in the area, and gets a very steady stream of visitors who rub the statue down all day long. Everyone at the temple looked pretty intent on their business with the statue, so we were pretty sure we wouldn't find anyone willing to let us interview them. We continued down the street and suddenly Hans grabbed my arm. He motioned to an old lady in a wheelchair with bright purple hair. "Lets interview her, she looks nice."

And she was. We introduced ourselves, and she and her daughter automatically awarded us with sembei crackers. They were really sweet, but it was their first time at Sugamo as well, so the questions we prepared were pretty useless. Nevertheless, we had a fun time talking to them, and learned what little they knew about the area, and the infamous "red undies," which are only available there. Rumor has it that wearing these panties will raise your body temperature, and are thus very common among older folks. Color theory at work?

We bid the ladies adieu, and went back to wandering around the streets. We were done with out work for the day, and still had some business to attend to about our upcoming trip to Taiwan.