Marco Garcia Archives - Page 10 of 11 - Marco Garcia Photography

the samurai fish guy

Last year my buddy Diego from Paris (he’s actually not French but Canadian but grew up in Texas, hence…) came to visit us in Tokyo last year in October. He’d never been to Japan before so it was his firs time in Asia and we had a great time running around Tokyo and seeing things as tourist. Different restaurants, temples, shrines, etc…it was totally fun to drink beer with a college buddy in a foreign land.

One morning we decided to take the 5AM subway to the Tsukiji wholesale fish market, the largest in the world. I mean its huge. Hundreds of different fish and other things that crawl in the sea (also swim) around that most of us would never thing of eating (sea cucumber, anyone?) But its a great experience to see.

The market is known for having a early morning tuna auction where they sell these huge sushi grade tunas for massive amounts of money. I am talking about thousands and thousands of dollars. From a quick internet search, one tuna sold for more close to $200,000! That’s some expensive sushi. its not gonna be a tuna sandwich anytime soon. I never seen the auction as its too tough to get there from where my father in law’s home is as the trains start at 5Am as does the auction. Don’t care to spend $100 to take a taxi to this event so…I’ve always gone later in the morning, not that 6AM is late.

As Diego and I walked around the market, we saw this tattooed guy slicing up a fish and Diego started to take pictures. The fish guy, was a bit tough looking, and tattoos mean something in Japan and his sleeves were very prominent. I knew better than to mess with him as did Diego but he noticed us. He looked at us crossed eyed and called us over. What caught my eye was this huge sword, rather a huge knife he used to cut fish. And as he beckoned us closer to him, I feared some chef would be serving fatty Americans at some market somewhere. Our samurai friend didn’t speak English nor did we speak enough Japanese to beg forgiveness and spare our lives.

Note…In recent years, Tsukiji has been besieged by foreign tourist, such as us, getting in the way, and mucking up the market one way or another.

Hence, I feared we would be sashimi. But we end up poorly communicating and our new friend ends up he was in a great mood and took a liking to us. He decided to cut off some very very very VERY (did I say very) fresh tuna from I think was from the eye area of the fish, poured some soy sauce, and insisted we eat super fresh sashimi with him. It was incredible. Its not often someone goes to a slaughterhouse and is served a burger so we got treated like kings. Amazing experience. The fish guys at the market actually hate all the foreign visitors so we were very surprised at how our host took care of us. After our quick breakfast, Diego was curious about the big knives he was using so the samurai let Diego hold the cutting knife and I snapped the photo.

Diego was so impressed with this photo and the experience that he talked about it almost every time we would chat about Japan. He begged me to go back to the market one day to see our friend, give him the picture and possibly a small gift of sake or something. I promised I would.

So…on this trip I made the early morning pilgrimage to Tsukiji to find our samurai friend. I walked around a bit and wasn’t sure where I’d find him but I knew eventually I would. I went to one of the same areas in the market and asked this one girl working in a booth of a fish market if she spoke English. Luckily enough she said yes. I showed her the picture and asked if she knew this guy. She screamed “Mo-chan!” (-chan is the endearing way Japanese address a close friend, child, etc…kinda like the way we would call a friend a nickname.) Miwa, the girl I met, actually knew M0-chan because Mo-chan was standing right next to her! I found the shop. Mo-chan, whose name is Moizuni, gave me that crossed eyed look but after he saw the photo he instantly recognized Diego and remembered that moment. Mo-chan bowed half a dozen times and was shocked I, rather we remembered him, and made a special trip to deliver the photo along with a small bottle of sake to him. He was rather touched and quiet surprised by our care in making sure we thanked him for his one day of kindness.

Miwa took our picture together and as of this writing, I don’t think Diego has seen it yet but I think he will be very happy to know Mo-chan remembered him. Sadly, Mo-chan and Miwa said their day’s catch was thin so no free and fresh sashimi. But now that I’m number one friend, I am sure next time I go back to see them at Okie Fish at Tsukiji, I am sure the soy sauce will flow again.

A quick one on “engrish…”

All the years I’ve come to Japan I can’t help but to marvel in their mistakes in English. Don’t get me wrong, its not like I can read, write, or speak Japanese but English, well, its fairly universal. Its the common currency among travelers. I’m in Kyoto and I’ve met a Czech, a German, a couple from Spain, a guy from Korea, and a girl from France. We could all speak English. Basic, simple English. Where is…What time is it…What is this…???? Simple. The average Japanese can probably eat a few words of this and that but thats it. And when it comes to writing English…I mean…how can you get password wrong?

Sure…D is next to F but don’t you think someone would have noticed? Passworf. Unbelievable…

I got a picture in my archive from an elevator where they spelled Lobby…robby. I always call Honolulu Honoruru but I’ve found Japanese can’t pronounce R as there is no one named Robert and instant noodles are not Larmen. Its Ramen! ” Ho! Lobert…rike eat ramen?”—Wait! Thats da kine Hawaiian!

I’ll catch some more pictures of bad engrish in a post in the future…

And the other thing about Black peoples…

This wouldn’t pass in America. NO WAY. They’d riot and smash the store but in Japan…HEY ITS HIP.

In Kobe I saw a guy with a ‘fro that would make any Black American ashamed. It was perfect. Even his tan was done to perfection. I thought he was black. I thought he could even be Japegro! But no, he was a straight Japanese guy…a cool cat at that. Maybe the brotha gots some bourbon.

If you want to hang with the cool peoples in Nara, Japan, you gots to go to Black Music and Bourbon.

I didn’t but sure wish I had.

August 6th

In Hiroshima, Japan today…August 6th. It is 65 years to the day.

Ground zero felt surreal. As if it really didn’t happen…as if it was only seen on grainy black and white images on old war footage. We associate Enola Gay with OMD, not Paul Tibbets. So long ago yet its just around the corner.

A clear blue sky, 43 seconds to detonate.

Just a pretty picture

Its not that often I’ll snap a shot of a rainbow but this one stood out? Why? Well, I don’t know. Rainbows are those things anyone can shoot. Anyone with half a brain and a point and shoot cam can make magic. Yet, I turned, like all the tourist standing in Ala Moana that afternoon, and snapped away.

Beyond that…its just a rainbow.

Not about photography…

Every so often, I have to blog about something non photo related.

Today’s subject…futbol and the world cup!

Nationalism is good.

And its even better when you follow the World Cup! Only a global event event like this can bring dark feelings of patriotic song, memories of past wars, and historic games in which your country revenged a past debt from decades ago. As for the US, our collective soccer history really starts in the 1990’s when the US held the ’94 World Cup but it still gives many Americans the chance to paint the flag on the face, drink loads of beer early in the afternoon, and hoot the ol’ war chant U-S-A! U-S-A! We really can’t lay claim to a North vs South game where slavery is on the line or even a USA vs whom every we’ve gone to war with in the past. Imagine the game strategy against Vietnam…carpet bomb the backfield, bomb the neighbors, try to win the hearts-and-minds of the opposing fans, and then have the US soccer federation tell the team to lose the game because the rating are low on ESPN. We have played games like US vs Iran (or as I recall the Great Satan vs the Ayatollah’s rock and rollahs) but they just don’t have that historical feeling like watching England vs Argentina where memories of the Faulkland Islands ring clear. Yet US soccer is still fun to watch regardless of their historic shortcomings and past. No I take that back, that Iran game at the ’98 WC was pretty heavy. I recall all the Iranians having heavy mustaches.

For the past few weeks, I’ve drank loads of coffee as the games start as early as 4 AM in HNL, and I have wrapped myself in the feel good Americanism of Team USA. Forget about our failing financial woes, our pointless war in Afghanistan, our leaderless nation not doing enough to clean up the Gulf oil spill…ITS WORLD CUP TIME! Its time to wave the flag! Sing at the top of our lungs: WE ARE PROUD TO BE AMERICANS! (where at least we know we’re free at this point from VAT taxes, a forced national health care, etc…) We are free right NOW and we should paint our faces in red-white-and blue and sing the joys of the athletic nationalism.

I can’t say most Americans are always proud to be American. Hell, Michelle Obama stated not too long ago…” For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m proud of my country.” I guess she’s not watching enough soccer. But we should all feel proud when our national athletes take the field and do battle for our collective pride. Billy Clinton was down at one of the USA games and when interviewed after the game, he was hoarse and teary eyed. Bill did America proud!

Sadly, the US is out. The mediocre Americans lost to a slightly stronger Ghana whose many players all work in the top leagues in Europe. Only a few Americans play near the pinnacle of top flight European football but most still play for second and third tier teams or work in the MLS in the States. By far the best and brightest (?) athletes converge at the big three sports in the US leaving soccer for moms, SUV’s and suburban white kids. We can’t say the US is out for a lack of trying. I mean some of the best games were played by the US. Just listen to Spanish announcer Andres Cantor call the game for the US against Algeria in the first round. Landon Donovan scored an overtime winner that still puts chills down my spine where I see that last second golazo. You can listen to it here in espanol from youtube.com.

But the US team just isn’t good enough to compete beyond the first round and knock out stages. Criticism has come from all sides stating we have a average domestic coach, players are not good enough, etc. I’m also reading the US soccer federation will now create better outreach programs to pull kids from the greater American gene pool. What does that mean? It means soccer will try to move into the ghetto and el barrio and pull kids who would normally go to football, basketball and baseball. Good. Imagine if soccer were to steal an Eli Manning, a Kobe Bryant, or an Oscar Dela Hoya? We’d, like most other sports, dominate. My friend David has always said why not get a 6’6 center from a basketball team and train him just to stand in front of the opponent’s net and jump up and hit the ball with his head? That’s more or less what Peter Crouch does for England?

And besides with all the immigration that floods legally and illegally into our country, we’re bound to have some Diego Milito from Argentina or a some other Latin, Eastern Europe or African star show up.

Alas, most of my teams are out. From America, to the country of my heritage (Mexico) the the country of my language (England) and now the country of my wife (Japan.) I’ve got nothing. I could start to dwell in the roots of my background (Portugal and Spain) but now Portugal is out leaving Spain with the only thread to really cling. I could never really pull myself to cheer for a national team that wasn’t mine or I didn’t have some connection to but at this point, the world cup is over. I’ll still wake up and watch the Germany Argentina game or the Brazil Netherlands game but in reality, its no fun. The nationalism is gone. No more chanting yes we can as we did and we found out we really couldn’t.

Besides, I miffed at the poor handling of major mistakes by FIFA for not allowing goal line technology to be employed. England had a goal taken away and Argentina was clearly off sides against Mexico causing the Mexicans to return to a game where an obvious injustice had been done. The US had a game winning goal taken away by a ref from Mali. Did anyone ask if the ref might have anti US bias? The US doesn’t have the best image in the third world. And besides, might that ref have Al Qaida sympathies?

Either way, another World Cup is just about done and I’m feeling depressed and blue. So much emotion goes into each game and it hurts to see “my” team loose. Eh–enough of this because soon enough, English Premier League will start in August and the drama will begin all over at the club level. All the big stars will go back to their multi-ethnic teams and makes loads of money again. Christano Ronaldo, who did absolutely terrible in this Cup, will go back to his millions in Spain and loads of screaming fans.

One sad note, the English, who were absolutely terrible in this world cup, were missing Beckham. What fun he would have brought to the atmosphere of a dying English side.