Sai Sai Jaran Jaran is a featured series here on MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON from the members of the all-female band SILEN SIREN (aka Sai Sai) who visit various hot spots in Japan and experience different things, the Sai Sai way.   This month we’ll be following band bassist Ainyan, who is also responsible for having designed the band’s original character Sai Sai-kun and even handling the designs of the band’s official merchandise.   Ainyan loves writing with calligraphy pens. She also knows about and is interested in artistic calligraphy posted online. Teaching her calligraphy art today is calligrapher Yuki who showcases her work at events, and her skills have also been requested for projects. All that you need to produce calligraphy art is an ordinary Japanese calligraphy set. As well as a brush, ink, shijajiki mat and paper weight you’ll need watercolour equipment and coloured autograph card. The first step is to think of the character you want to write. If you can’t think of one you can flick through a Japanese dictionary. The thing to note about calligraphy art is that you’re free to write as you like! There’s no strict rules like in regular Japanese calligraphy. For example, you can hold the brush in any way you like, write in whatever style you like, and go over any lines you’ve already put on the paper. It’s important to think freely and express yourself in calligraphy art. Also, hanshi paper used for calligraphy has a glossy surface. With calligraphy art you want to let the colours run and spread, so Ainyan is using the back of the paper. Ainyan begins by challenging herself to writing the kanji麦 (mugi) which means ‘barley,’ a fundamental ingredient used in beer which Ainyan loves. Don’t think about the art side of things straight away. Just write it normally first. This is Ainyan’s first attempt at writing out mugi. Next is to think about how to write it in a more running style. She could write it in a patchier way, drip ink over it, have parts sticking out and so on. Ainyan goes ahead and splotches lots of ink on. She dips plenty of ink onto her brush, so much so that it’s dripping off, and begins writing in a large and thick style from the first stroke. She continues writing like that until the end without topping up her brush with more ink. Her final stroke comes completely off the paper! Ainyan was concerned that the top part of the kanji was too black and blotchy because of how much ink she used.   “What should I do so that the middle part doesn’t become blotchy?” she asked. “If you lift the brush up vertically, like it’s floating, then you can draw thinly,” the teacher replied. Ainyan learned while the teacher lent her a hand. Her second attempt at writing mugi has fairly thick strokes. You can feel the vigour in this piece. Taking into consideration what the teacher said, Ainyan gave it another shot. She dipped it into plenty of ink once more and began writing with strong strokes and keeping the brush upright to draw thin lines while adding variations. Compared to the first attempt, this version of mugi is slim and confident.   “I want to hang it up in an izakaya!” said Ainyan laughing. After having understood a bit about art penmanship, Ainyan moved onto another kanji. The one that came to mind was笑顔 (egao) meaning ‘smile.’ She starts out by drawing it in the way she likes. This is her first version of egao. The first kanji 笑 meaning ‘laugh’ is drawn like a face, while the 顔, meaning ‘face’ also has a face in the 頁 section of the kanji on the right. “If you know a kanji like this, then no matter how much you alter it you can still read it as ‘笑顔’ so it’s okay to change it as you please,” the teacher said. Next Ainyan thinks on how she can improve the piece.   “The ‘笑’ kanji looks like a dog so I might try to make it look a bit more like a dog. The ‘顔’ kanji has a lot of legs and looks like an octopus so I’ll make it an octopus!” she said. Ainyan begins making her kanji characters look like a dog and octopus while having the original to the side as reference. She made the strokes of the 笑 look like ears and fit in eyes and a nose to look like a dog. She also connected the 彦 part of 顔 to the 頁 part and made the face look more like an octopus face. Truly a work of calligraphy art! The next important step is to add colour. If you add too much water to your water colours they will fade when you add on the ink, so it’s important to layer the two by not using too much water. If it becomes patchy add just a little bit of water. Adding a border makes the white parts that are left look cute so Ainyan left part of the inside of the dog’s ear white. She used orange for the dog’s ear and red for the octopus’s legs. To top it all off, she painted a doggy paw print in a free space. Looks pretty good! Finally, Ainyan drew up a new and final copy on the coloured autograph paper by fixing up any small details and adding colour. Her first piece of calligraphy art is complete!   “I’m really satisfied I got to do something I was wanting to do!” she said with a smile – a 笑顔. Ainyan looked over pieces the teacher had created and was especially interested in the ones with blotted ink. She decided to challenge herself to making such a piece. The kanji she decided on was 愛 (ai) meaning ‘love’ which is also part of Ainyan’s own name.   Once again she readied plenty of ink and began with strong strokes. She drew the thin parts of the character while bringing out the details until she finished with a final strong stroke. She made the right part stroke of the 心 part of the kanji blurry. This effect is achieved by adding some water to the brush and pressing it onto the stroke you have already drawn that you want to make blurry. Her kanji is complete! The blurriness gives it a 3D effect. No painting tools were used and yet Ainyan was still able to create art from calligraphy. She made a final copy of this on coloured autograph card too. To make it even more arty Ainyan turned the final stroke into a love heart which she added water to for the blur effect. Ainyan wasn’t satisfied so she sprinkled ink around the heart for additional effect. To do this, you hold the brush horizontally and hit the end of the brush to make the ink sprinkle down. After checking the balance was right, Ainyan signed her completed piece. What a vibrant and lively piece of calligraphy art! But Ainyan wasn’t done just yet. To commemorate this month’s feature, she drew one for MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON (もしもしにっぽん)! She made the circle part of ぽ (po) a red sun which symbolizes the Japanese flag and made the ん (n) look like Mount Fuji. We are pinning this up at the MOSHI MOSHI BOX Harajuku Tourist Information Center, so be sure to look for it if ever you stop by to see us in Harajuku. Ainyan wrote so many! Here are her comments on what looked to be a hugely satisfying occasion. “Today was so much fun, it was over before I knew it! It’s enjoyable not having to follow a correct way. The more you write, the more you think to yourself, ‘I want to do it this way,’ so you never get tired of writing! It was fun being able to write freely. Even the teacher said things like ‘It’s good like this’ rather than ‘You should do it like this!’ It relieved my stress and I felt refreshed!”   In the next article, we will be joined by SILENT SIREN vocalist Suu. Look forward to seeing where she goes and what she gets up to!     Writer: Sayoko Ishii Photographer: Kayo Sekiguchi Translation: Joshua Kitosi-Isanga

Sai Sai Jaran Jaran is a featured series on MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON where the members of all-female rock band SILENT SIREN visit hot spots and experience different things in Japan and relay their episode.   In this 3^rd entry, inquisitive band member and keyboard player Yukarun will be challenging herself to something ‘Japanese-y’ which she suggested back when this series debuted.   Let’s get to it. Time to get changed and head on out! This is a kimono rental shop "MOSHI MOSHI KIMONO SALON". Yukarun is searching for a design she likes. She has an unusually excited face.   Yukarun explained, “I’ve worn yukata before but this is my first experience wearing a kimono. I braced myself up to try wearing it like this!" Since the initiation of Sai Sai Jaran Jaran, the members have talked about wanting to do something beautiful and Japanese.   There’s a different enticement between the latest styles and traditional Japanese clothing. Yukarun, now donning her kimono, looks like the epitome of a Japanese woman, and has warped to a tea ceremony class "WAnokoto". That’s right, today’s theme is the tea ceremony! After learning the proper way to sit in the tea room, Yukarun’s exercises begin with a bow. She lowers her head slowly and deeply. Next, she places the Japanese sweet onto her kaishi, a piece of paper that’s tucked in the front of a kimono. While using the sweet cutter she eats the sweet bit by bit.   “The entire process is made up of strict movements for whatever you do, so it looks like it would take a long time to learn them all,” said Yukarun. After finishing the sweet, she drinks tea kindly prepared by the teacher. As a side note, it’s proper etiquette to finish eating the sweet by the time the tea is served.   “So you’re not supposed to have both the tea and sweet at the same time,” said Yukarun a little surprised. Of course, you have to follow the right steps when drinking the tea too.   Yukarun takes the teacup. She is in full concentration mode as she copies the teacher’s movements. The proper way to show that you have finished drinking the tea even involves making a certain sound with your mouth. Next, Yukarun will make tea herself. She pours matcha into the teacup, scoops up some hot water with the ladle and pours it in. She then prepares the tea using a tool called a chasen, or tea whisk. She holds the teacup carefully and presents the tea. The most beautiful side of the cup is the front. It’s hospitable to turn the beautiful design towards the guest when presenting the tea. To finish, Yukarun takes a photo with her sensei on the floor. The words written read ichigo ichie, meaning ‘treasure every meeting, for it will never recur.’ This moment, too, was one precious.   “This was my first time trying out the tea ceremony practices. It left a deep impression on me, so much so that I wanted to start commuting to the class. I think that by carefully learning each and every gesture, you can make the movements in your everyday life beautiful too. Hospitality is the basis, so you naturally come to handle things preciously, including yourself, your guest and the tools in your hands. It means you can mature as a person and it seems like an opportunity you can use in various places in your life!”     ■PROFILE SILENT SIREN is a four-member all-female band consisting of vocalist & guitarist Sumire “Suu” Yoshida, drummer Hinako “Hinanchu” Umemura, bassist Aina “Ainyan” Yamauchi, keyboardist Yukako “Yukarun” Kurosaka. The band were founded in 2010 by Umemura and Yoshida who are former models. In 2015, they performed their first solo concert at Nippon Budokan, making them the fastest Japanese all-female band in history to perform there after their major debut. Their album GIRLS POWER is selling to huge success. For the latest information, head on over to their official website: http://silent-siren.com/

Sai Sai Jaran Jaran is an official series here on MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON where the members of all-female band SILEN SIREN leave it to their curiosity to visit different hot spots in Japan. From this second installment onwards, the members will each individually visit the places they’re interested in going.   Our top batter for #2 is the band’s leader and drummer, Hinanchu. She was born in Tokyo, but she realised there are so many streets in the capital she has never visited before. So she took it upon herself to head to Tsukishima which is somewhere not that familiar to her. The first stop she happened upon was Sumiyoshi Shrine. Going to shrines is a regular hobby for Hinanchu; when the band heads on tour in Japan, she finds herself visiting shrines of each region as a morning activity. Sumiyoshi Shrine is located in Tsukudajima which is within walking distance of Tsukishima. Being located in Tsukudajima―which is known as the birthplace of tsukudani, or food boiled down in soy―the shrine was situated at the entrance of a port during the Edo Period. It gained faith amongst many people including those in the shipping industry and wholesale stores associated with them as a holy place for security and protection at sea. Whenever Hinanchu goes to a shrine she always collections a goshuin shrine stamp for her goshuincho stamp book which she brought on this visit too! Her stamp book began at Ise Grand Shrine which she visited with her spirituality fortune-teller friend CHIE. She collected two stamps on this trip: one for Sumiyoshi Shrine and one for Ryuu Shrine which was in close proximity. Hinanchu never fails to get herself an omikuji when she goes to a shrine, which are strips of paper that tell your fortune. “It’s good to pray for what you wish for when opening an omikuji,” she kindly taught us.   Right now, she’s thinking of moving house, so she asked the question in her mind whether it’s a good idea to move or not while opening her fortune. Her result was chu-kichi, or ‘Middle Blessing,’ which is only one off the highest good fortune. Regarding whether to move or not, the fortune gave her a subtle answer: she can if she likes but there’s no rush. Perhaps it’s not time to move yet?     After finishing up at the shrine, the next place on the list was Tsukishima Monja Street. Tsukishima has a staggering 75 shops serving monja (also monjayaki), which is a pan-fried batter made with various ingredients. The restaurant Hinanchu stopped by was Okame Hyottoko. Okame are popular monja makers, boasting three shops in Tsukishima. They order in fresh ingredients from markets and serve up classic monja and monja with a twist. Sauces and mayonnaise aren’t Hinanchu’s strong point. Although she was born in Tokyo, she’s very rarely eaten monja before. Her aim on this trip is to become able to explain to people exactly what monja is all about! She begins making her monja. She ordered the ‘Mochi Mentaiko’ (¥1,400). When cooking monja, you first lay out your ingredients on the iron plate and then chop up the vegetables with spatulas. “I bet people skilled at making monja are popular,” she comments. You’re plenty popular! After spreading the ingredients out into a round shape, you form a well in the middle and pour in your batter. Hinanchu performed skillfully without ripping the well! Next, you fry it as it is, and once it’s browned you’re done. Add cheese to make it stringy. Delicious♡ She also had fun challenging herself to frying the ‘Mix Ten’ okonomiyaki (¥1,100). It’s quite a skill to execute. They also have Salted Beef Ribs (¥1,200) and Beef Tan Butter (¥1,200) on the teppanyaki menu too. Meat is Hinanchu’s favourite kind of food, so she was very excited! Okame cater to customers from around the world with their multilingual menus. You can get a menu in English, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian. They even have free Wi-Fi which travelers and tourists in Japan will be happy with. Hinanchu was very satisfied getting to eat so much! So, can you explain what monja are now? “Monja is a food to make with people in a circle and add ingredients you want to eat. It was a wonderful dish that will have you getting along with someone through that joint-effort!” “Tsukishima is a town I haven’t visited that much even though I live in Tokyo. When my foreign friends come I want to take them there!” exclaims Hinanchu. The Tsukishima trip ended with much satisfaction and a full belly.   Look forward to the next installment of Sai Sai Jaran Jaran. Which member will it be next and where will they be going?     ■PROFILESILENT SIREN SILENT SIREN is a four-member all-female band consisting of vocalist & guitarist Sumire “Suu” Yoshida, drummer Hinako “Hinanchu” Umemura, bassist Aina “Ainyan” Yamauchi, keyboardist Yukako “Yukarun” Kurosaka. The band were founded in 2010 by Umemura and Yoshida who are former models. In 2015, they performed their first solo concert at Nippon Budokan, making them the fastest Japanese all-female band in history to perform there after their major debut. Their album GIRLS POWER is selling to huge success. For the latest information, head on over to their official website: http://silent-siren.com/  

All-female band SILENT SIREN announced a new article feature on MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON in February. In this new series they leave it to their curiosity and visit different hot spots in Japan. For the first entry, they headed to Dancing Crab, a popular restaurant where you can enjoy eating seafood with your hands. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this place an‘eating attraction’!     Before sitting down to eat the food, wash your hands with the handwash machine in the restaurant. The machine is decorated with a pink coloured ribbon curtain(until 4/15) and serves as a premonition of the ‘eating festival’ that’s about to start.     Upon arriving at their seats, the nimble staff quickly laid out a sheet which bears the restaurant’s logo. The rolled paper sheets do not make everything look disorderly – they conceal the table in an instant. There’s a thrilling feeling to it as if watching some kind of magic show. Plates do not arrive. Instead, this sheet is where each piece of food will be placed!   When the drinks arrived, the lights dimmed, and high-tension music began playing. It was as if something was about to happen – all four of them had bewildered looks on their faces. When the lights changed do something like that of being in a club, the staff member, dressed in a skirt, suddenly turned into a dancer and began performing. The customers and staff become one, and for just this one moment, everybody in there became party people! Dance time strikes once every hour, so if you’re there you’ll definitely be able to experience it. In any case, their dancing was agile and skillful.     SILENT SIREN raised their drinks and enjoyed the dance too. Their pre-meal mood rose to excitement.   Suu: “The sudden performance surrounded the customers and really took me by surprise, but it felt like I was at a diner overseas.”   Ainyan: “They have crab headbands too! Besides the food the entertainment is exciting as well.”     The staff gave a high-five and came to the table.   Yukarun: “It’s like enjoying an attraction!”   Hinanchu: “You can share a fun and exciting time together so being at a table with friends will deepen your relationship more.”       After dance time, the first item of the lunch course arrived – a classic Caeser salad. Cheese is sprinkled all over.     Time to eat!   Of course, the salad is eaten by hand too.   Yukarun: “It might be easier to eat with your hands than with a fork. Perhaps it’s because the lettuce is big, so it’s easy to grab.”   The lettuce even looks crunchy. Biting into it lets out a crisp sound.       The lunch menu set comes with pasta, potatoes and all-you-can eat bread. Today's  bread comes in two flavours: plain and garlic. Flavors change depends on the day. Everything is brought to tables on a serving trolley by stuff carrying. It even came with soup.     Then, the main dish arrived! The combo bag for the lunch meal “Ichioshi! Zeitaku Zuwaigani Course” (¥2,778) is released excitingly onto the table from a vinyl bag. Steam rose into the air together with a hearty fragrance of seafood and spicy sauce. Each of the members clapped involuntarily as their five senses were tickled.   There are 4 kinds of sauce. They went with the popular signature sauce. It’s an original Cajun sauce combination of onion, garlic and Cajun spice infused tomato puree mixed with fish sauce (the secret ingredient).     All that’s left was to tuck in. Yukarun was fixated on Suu who took apart the crab with real skill.   Yukarun: “Mm! It’s quite hot, isn’t it?”     Ainyan: “Look, look. My hands are covered in sauce (laughs). I wanna go back to being a kid again.”     As well as snow crab, they also include milky crab and watarigani. The variety of crabs change each time.   Hinanchu: “I wonder what kind of crab this is?”     Just when they thought the seafood they’d be eating with their hands would be cool, it actually arrived piping hot!   Suu: “Hot! But it’s nicer like that, isn’t it?”       Biting into the crab wildly!   Yukarun: “Amazingly delicious♪”   Ainyan and the crab’s looong legs!   Eating the bread, pasta and potatoes together with sauce makes it taste good! As well as crab there was also thickly sliced prawns, octopus, mussels, corn, potatoes, carrots, and bacon. This is the restaurant’s way of filling you up so that you don’t grow tired of just eating seafood.   There isn’t just seafood though. They also ordered a portion of friend pepper chicken (¥640).   The juicy meat melts as it enters your mouth.   The members were totally immersed in their extraordinary day of eating food by hand. They were fully concentrated on peeling the skin of the crab!   “Thank you for the delicious meal!”   At the start, the four members were surprised and timid when eating, but they soon opened up and by the end of it all, they weren’t at all bothered about their sauce-soaked fingers, they tucked into their food, engrossed. The exciting experience raised SILENT SIREN’s friendship. Where will they head to next? Look forward to the next entry!        

Four-member girls band SILENT SIREN, also known as “Sai Sai,” begin a new regular feature here on MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON! Get a rare glimpse into the band off stage in a light you’ve never seen them in before.

At first glance, this group of girls, who are also popular fashion leaders, are seemingly just cute and sweet girls. But when they hit the stage, they display a truly high energy performance. That gap is SILENT SIREN’s weapon, a truth well-known by fans too. With that being the case, this new article series will showcase just that – the private B-side of Sai Sai, something you normally would never get to see. For this first entry – dubbed Part 0 – we report the scene at SILENT SIREN’s meeting where they decide what the theme of this series should be!

 

Hinanchu: “For the first article, how about we all go and find somewhere to cover about? We’d be able to refresh ourselves.”

 

Suu: “Yeah. We’ll make a plan, go somewhere together. It’ll be like celebrating our birthdays.”

 

Hinanchu: “We don’t have simple girly get-togethers, do we? We could do something like pick a dress code and take some Instagram pics. It might be cool to venture choosing matching outfits to wear for the places we go to in this article series.”

Ainyan: “You’re right. So, we’ll find a place that’s hot right now in Tokyo and introduce it the Sai Sai way.”

 

Yukarun: “People overseas will be reading too, so it might be good to plan something Japanese-y. We talked about wanting to eat breakfast in Tsukiji, right?”

 

Ainyan: “If we’re doing that, then I wanna wear Japanese style clothes. Since we haven’t had many opportunities to wear kimono together either. We can take some gorgeous photos!”

 

Hinanchu: “Sounds good. We could also go to a coffee shop wearing retro style fashion!”

Yukarun: “Retro fashion? That could be something new. Us all wearing shirtdresses and glasses.”

 

Suu: “That’ll bring out a different vibe for Sai Sai than usual. The theme’s easy to understand. If we do something active, I wanna play ping pong.”

 

Ainyan: “Retro style ping pong, that’s a thing, right? Should we go then? We can wear a reddish-brown jersey, too (laughs).”

 

Hinanchu: “What else. How about Spocha? On TV we did some unusual kind of yoga.”

 

Yukarun: “That’s right! Aerial yoga. You use a cloth suspended from the ceiling like a swing and move your whole body. That was fun.”

Suu: “I’m interested in ice skating too. There’s ice rinks you can skate at all year round, not just in winter. We could skate at an ecological synthetic ice rank or something.”

 

Ainyan: “You all love exercise, don’t you? Do you remember we did bouldering too?”

 

Suu: “It really hurt my muscles, but I was glad I did it!”

 

Ainyan: “Yukarun, you were pretty good at bouldering.”

 

Yukarun: “Huh? I was no good at all (laughs).”

 

Ainyan: “Oh, really? It might be cool if we have a fun article where we go all out with exercise. That, or maybe we could handmake something. We experienced doing tie-dye from Thailand. The bright colours and gorgeous dye really left an impression on me.”

 

Suu: “Yeah, that was so worth it!”

 

Ainyan: “I want to try ceramics too. You can even actually use the things you make for yourself. Flower arranging too. We talked about wearing kimono earlier. How about combining that with flower arranging? It’s very Japanese, and something people overseas might be interested in! By the way, what should the title be? What sounds us?”

Hinanchu: “Sai Sai Sanpo? Nah, that doesn’t stick… Sai Sai Jaran Jaran!”

 

Suu: “What does jaran mean?”

 

Hinanchu: “It’s Indonesian and means ‘to stroll.’ In this series we’re all together, and each of us go to different places, right? It sounds good too. The meaning will get across to the people of Indonesia (laughs).”

 

Yukarun: “Right, so one plan can be to wear an Indonesian style outfit to go and eat Indonesian food!”

 

Suu: “Yeah, our commemorative first entry can be to eat delicious food and be happy! Ah, I wanna eat bakso!”

 

Hinanchu: “If we ever go to Indonesia, we absolutely have to go and eat our favourite Indonesian food! Those meatballs taste so good! Are there any restaurants in Japan where you can eat bakso?”

 

Ainyan: “I think the boom is coming even to Japan. That, or we can go to a place where we eat with our hands! They have those kind of restaurants, don’t they?”

Suu: “I know what you mean! It’d be fun if we can experience that kind of food culture in Japan.”

 

Hinanchu: “We still have a long way to go with this series!”

 

Yurukan: “I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of plans we put to action!”

 

Ainyan: “Look forward to the next entry!”