mokudekiru

So here goes my Japan Blog Matsuri virginity… (where jbloggers all over make a post around a particular theme each month… July = WEIRD Japan).

The best weird thing about Kobe, Japan, is, without question, the butt statue, and its associated interaction phenomenon.

Located right beside Sannomiya station in the heart of Kobe, the butt statue is a popular meeting place for Kobe kids, or place to hang out and chat on your keitai.

Behold:

Several questions come to mind.

Why the torsos and butts?
Why in front of the Häagen-Dazs?
Why the giant Meg Ryan advertisement? (At least, it was there for the whole year I lived there. I don’t know what’s there now. Anyone care to update me?)

And, the Phenomenon:
To a Kobe native, the butt statue is *invisible*. You can always spot an outsider as someone who walks by the butt statue and notices its existence (and usually stares inquisitively for quite a while). I will never forget telling my host mom I was to meet someone at the butt statue, and she hadn’t realized it existed until I pointed it out.

The butts are invisible…

“If you look closely, you can see huge river crabs with hair growing out of their legs, frozen in place like stones.”

Ew.

In my mind, at least, hair and crustaceans should never mix.

This semester I’m taking a seminar-style class in Japanese translation. We’ve only met once so far, and we’re currently reading “Kinosaki Nite” (「城の崎にて」in Japanese) by Naoya Shiga, an essay/story from 1917, about him spending time recovering from an injury in Kinosaki, which is across the mountains on the north side of Hyogo prefecture:

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To summarize the essay, as I did in an IM conversation a few days ago, while I was still in the middle of reading it, it’s about, “this dude being all broody about how he almost died but didn’t, even though his grandparents did, and he sees a bee that lies dead on the windowsill for days even though all the other bees are busy working, and he sees these people kill a mouse, and then he accidentally kills a newt and he feels weird about all of this”

So in class, when we got to the line translated at the beginning of the post, 「そしてなおよく見ると、足に毛が生えた大きな川蟹が石のように凝然としているのをみつけることがある。」we discussed this image of hairy-legged crabs and were all presumably briefly grossed out, imagining this, but soon moved on with the passage.

However, when I went home to my RSS feeds, I was surprised to see none other than the hairy-legged crab itself!

Photo credit: Amy Nakazawa of Blue Lotus

These crabs were frozen in place, as well. More literally than the ones in the river though, I do believe. And more readily edible.

I think hairy crabs are out to get me. While I am hundreds of miles from any natural water, they have found me where they know I’d be waiting: in class, and on the internet.

Yeah I probably should talk about the Maroon Bells trip, the Manitou Incline, or preparations to leave Colorado (happens tomorrow), but most importantly… Google Maps Japan Street View!!

And what’s the first thing I look up??

the Sannomiya butt statue, of course!