Yokohama Vibe

JLPT N3

2011-12-10T10:38:00.001+09:00

I took the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Heh, bit of a contrast to taking the JLPT here in Australia, and in Japan. There were only four other people taking my level; in Japan, there was a huge room full of people and a very 'university exam' sort of feeling.

You are strictly forbidden to share the content of a JLPT test online, so I won't be doing that. But here's a brief overview of how the test was structured:

Section 1: vocab and kanji. We had 30 minutes for this, and there were five sections. For example, one section had a sentence with underlined kanji words, and you had to choose the hiragana reading for that kanji. Another section had a vocabulary word, and you had to choose the sentence that used that word correctly in context.

Section 2: grammar and reading, lasting 70 minutes. The grammar section includes grammar questions, some 'put the words in the correct order' questions, and a 'choose the correct grammar to fill in the blanks in this story' questions. There are several short and medium-length readings with comprehension questions. This tends to be the section that people find difficult; you can't be too slow at reading, and you need to know a reasonable amount of kanji, vocab and grammar to do well.

Section 3: listening, which takes about 40 minutes. There are several listening sections; some have you choose pictures that correspond to the correct answer; some have you choose sentences; others have nothing written on the page but you must listen and then choose the right answer by listening. Listenings are played only once each.

We had a short break between each section.

All in all, the experience and test style were similar to the old JLPT level 3 that I took several years ago. The main difference from the old tests - and the one they advertise - is that they are trying to test practical/communicative skill a bit more. Obviously, this is difficult to do in a multiple-choice paper test, but some of the ways they did this were:

a grammar section where you must organise words into the correct order in a sentence
listening questions where you must choose what language a person would actually use in a given situation (for example, if you're greeting a customer, or offering to help someone, what expression would you use?)
having a 'real world' reading text (where you must find relevant information in a brochure or timetable, etc)

I think these are nice additions. This sort of thing comes more naturally to you if you have lived in Japan and learned most of your Japanese in real world situations anyway.

So how did I do? I think I did pretty well. My weakest section was probably grammar/reading. I had enough time to read (reading is the area I practised most, pre-test). But I didn't have time to re-read, and I tend to miss questions if I can't re-read a text carefully. The problem I have with reading is that I tend to dither between two answers that seem like they could both be correct; I've obviously overlooked a nuance or misunderstood a particular word, so I can't confidently pinpoint the correct answer.

In this recent post I mentioned the study materials I'd been using. How well did they prepare me for the actual test? They were okay; I think they set a slightly higher standard than the real test required. The 'sample test' book was useful as it helped me work out what grammar points I needed to study. Then I referred to the grammar book ('Sou Matome') to check the meaning/use of those points.

The reading book ('Jitsuryoku Up!') was useful, and the most interesting to study with. I mentioned that this reading book had quite difficult readings, as none of the kanji had furigana, and they used some quite difficult words. The real test did have more furigana than that book; you still needed to be able to read quite a few kanji, but you weren't expected to know all of them. So in regard to kanji, the real test was easier than in Jitsuryoku Up. The complexity of the texts was similar, though.

It also seemed like the real test's kanji/vocab section was easier than any sample test I had taken. Actually, this happened to me last time I took the JLPT. Each time, I did several sample tests, and didn't do very well on the kanji/vocab - always lots of answers I was completely guessing. On the real test, it seemed like they were not testing at quite such a high level and the words were more familiar. Perhaps I just got lucky both times. Anyway, I think it's always better to do sample tests that are more difficult than the real thing; that way, the real test won't come as a shock.

Useful Japanese phrases (that are difficult to translate)

2011-09-13T21:16:00.000+09:00

There are some useful, commonly-heard Japanese words and phrases for which there is no perfect English equivalent. When I was in Japan, and talking to Japanese people in English, I used a lot of these words because they were culturally appropriate, or because they expressed my meaning more accurately than English could. (Or just because they're fun to say. ^_^)

itadakimasu! This is something Japanese people say right before eating a meal. In subtitles, it's often translated as 'bon appetit!' I don't know if it can really be translated. Maybe a combination of 'thanks for the food', 'I'm going to start eating now', etc.
Have you heard of 'keigo'? 'Keigo' is especially polite Japanese. When speaking very politely - for example, to a customer - Japanese speak differently and even use some different verbs. 'itadakimasu' is a polite, humble way of saying receive, accept, take, eat, drink, etc. So it's literally saying 'I (humbly) accept this food'. Although it sounds very polite, it's common, everyday Japanese and you can use it when eating out casually with friends too.

gochisousama (or more politely, gochisousama deshita) Just as you say 'itadakimasu' when starting a meal, you can say 'gochisousama deshita' after finishing. It literally means 'it was a feast!' but you can use it to mean a combination of 'that was great', 'thanks for the meal', 'I'm finished', etc.

irasshaimase! is the common greeting in shops. It means 'welcome'. You will hear this all the time from shop and restaurant staff. You don't have to reply to it.The verb 'irasshaimasu' is another keigo (very polite) verb meaning 'come, go, be'. So I guess it means 'come in' or something, in a very polite way.

osaki ni (or more politely, osaki ni shitsurei shimasu) You can say this if you do something before someone else. For example, if you are the first person to start eating something, or if you leave before someone else, you can say this as a way of excusing your bad behaviour. ^_^'Osaki ni' literally means 'before', and 'shitsurei shimasu' is like 'I'm rude' or 'please excuse me'.

ojama shimasu! 'Ojama' means something like 'intrusion' or 'nuisance'. You can say this when you enter somebody else's house. Even if they're your friend and they invited you, you can say this as you walk in, like 'oh, sorry to intrude'. Basically doesn't mean much beyond 'I'm coming in now!'

otsukaresama (or more politely, otsukaresama desu or otsukaresama deshita) Co-workers often say this to each other. It can be said at the end of a working day, or after a big effort/project at something, or just as a general sort of greeting throughout the day. It means something like 'we're/you're working hard', 'you must be tired', 'you've worked hard', 'we're working hard', 'keep up the good work'. It's a nice, and simple way, to acknowledge someone else's work and effort.'tsukare' means 'tired', and the 'o' and 'sama' make it more polite. This is a polite way to acknowledge someone else's tiredness. I learned this expression quickly, as in the department store where I worked, any time any staff member met another in the corridor or elevator, they'd greet each other with 'otsukaresama desu!'

shou ga nai (or shikata ga nai) This expression means something like 'it can't be helped', 'we can't do anything about it' or 'oh well'. It indicates a sort of resignation and acceptance of a situation. Some people say this is a fairly typical attitude of Japanese in the workplace; a lot of people shoulder overtime or unfair work pressure with a 'shou ga nai' attitude, instead of complaining or fighting for their rights. A fair assessment? I don't know, but some companies do seem to assume their employees will take such an attitude.

genki This word can be translated to mean 'cheerful', 'happy', 'healthy', 'energetic', etc. If you ask someone 'genki desu ka?', you're asking if they're well. But because 'genki' encapsulates several different ideas, there's no perfect English equivalent. You can use it to describe someone who is perky and bubbly, or a child who is running around screaming, or a person who is healthy, or students who are actively participating in something...

mendokusai This is often translated by dictionaries as 'troublesome'. I usually translate it as 'it's a pain'. If something is a 'mendokusai', it's annoying or tedious to do, a pain, a disagreeable duty.

mottainai This means something like 'wasteful', but seems to be used to mean 'waste not, want not'.

sasuga This means 'what you'd expect'. For example, if your friend, who is very smart, gets the highest score in the class, you could say 'sasuga!' ('that's typical of you' or 'that'd be right') to show you are not surprised!

toriaezu This means 'at first' or 'to begin with'. It's often used in ordering, as in 'toriaezu, nama bi-ru' (for now, draft beer).

yoroshiku onegaishimasu A big one! This is a kind of greeting that people use a lot, especially at the beginning of a new relationship. For example, if you're a new employee, you will say this to people you meet, and they'll say it back to you. If you're a new student at a school, if you have to stand up in front of the class and introduce yourself, you'll say this. If you start a project and you need to ask people to work with you on it, you'll say this.

We really have no English equivalent; in these situations we'd just say 'nice to meet you', 'I look forward to working with you', 'I look forward to meeting all of you', 'I hope for your cooperation', etc. 'Yoroshiku' literally means 'well' or 'properly', and 'onegaishimasu' means 'please'. It really means something like 'please treat me well' or 'let's work happily together' or 'let's have a good relationship'.

You can say it more casually as simply 'yoroshiku', and this can also mean something like 'best regards'.

Random Pictures (8)

2011-08-31T23:33:00.000+09:00

If it is not immediately obvious, this is a piece of very freshly made senbei (rice cracker) with octopus in it. ('Oh, of course!') When I say it's 'freshly made', what I mean is that at this stall, the staff actually put the senbei mixture down, put a fat, juicy, fresh octopus tentacle on there, and then apply the equivalent of a vice to crush it into paper thinness! If you want to try this (it was pretty good!), they are specialties of Enoshima island.

I'm not sure if this thing is supposed to be cute or supposed to be nightmare fuel for young children. Either way, I'm about as close to it as I wanna be.

Sorry for the poor image quality on this one. Here are Street Fighter 'combination' meals. Get it? Combination? Ha ha ha. Sadly I had already eaten when I came upon this restaurant, so I will probably never get to eat the same beef fried rice that Cammy likes. ^_^

Random Pictures (7)

2011-08-20T23:20:00.000+09:00

Well... you can't say they didn't give you a choice.

I first mentioned this diner, Bubby's, way back in my first month of blogging (see entry). I finally got a picture of the sign! As I mentioned, this is a pie cafe, and has a very homey, American-style 'mom's home cooking' kind of vibe. And as we all know, all American family restaurants include just a little bit of profanity.

Yeah, buy them a nice chew toy instead.

Random English

2011-08-18T12:38:00.009+09:00

Japanese music often uses random English words. You'll be listening to a verse and chorus in only Japanese, and suddenly the singer will bust out 'only you forever', or 'I'm just a woman', in English. I suppose these words serve a decorative purpose...?

Sometimes, a Japanese artist will sing half their song - or a whole song - in English. How well this works depends considerably on the skills of the artist.

Monkey Magic, Orange Range

Listen to the song and try to imagine what they're saying...

The first time I heard their version of this song, I didn't even realise they were singing English. Sure, it didn't sound quite Japanese, but the pron was SO bad I wasn't sure. This is what I heard:

Punkama ei gadda mountain da
A punky is monkey got at the top
He knew every magic bisu unto the sun
This gaja everyone could hack some for

(Actual lyrics:
Born from an egg on a mountain top
The punkiest monkey that ever popped
He knew every magic trick under the sun
To tease the gods and everyone and have some fun)

Treat or Goblins, Megumi Hayashibara

Listen to the song.

'Monkey Magic' is my pick for 'most poorly pronounced English in a song' I've heard, but 'Treat or Goblins', which is an anime theme song, gets my pick for 'weirdest and most nonsensical English in a song'.

When she sang the English parts, I could tell there was something strange about them - they didn't sound like Japanese - but I had no idea what she was saying or what language it was. After I looked up the lyrics, I wasn't surprised.

Patch, patch with something red, like a maraschino cherry, and frozen
cranberry.
Chut, chut with someone hot, like an equilitarian, and Yam-yngdourian.
Fad, fad with something cool, like a hidden luminary, and will-o-the-wisp, too.

Yeah.

A week of eating

2011-08-14T12:00:00.025+09:00

Since I like food so much, I thought I'd show you my week of good food in Tokyo and Kanagawa. ^_^ Prices are approximate since I don't really remember.

From Tonkatsu Wako (a chain)

This is tonkatsu - deep-fried, breaded pork. This set, which cost about ¥1200, came with ro-su tonkatsu (pork loin), two ebi fry (shrimp), rice, shredded cabbage, miso soup and pickles. This particular picture was taken in Kawasaki's underground mall, Azalea.

When you eat here, there are staff on hand to refill your cabbage (although it's quite a mound to begin with). I don't know why but I find that funny.

From Khazana, on B1F of Queen's Square in Minato Mirai, Yokohama

Mmm! There is a lot of good Indian food in Japan, mostly in small shops run by Indian staff. This particular place has a lunch buffet for about ¥1200 (1400?) yen per person. A good deal, because it's delicious. ^_^

From an Italian restaurant in La Citadella, Kawasaki

Italian food in Japan is a mixed bag. In general, foreign food in Japan is quite good - Indian, Thai and Chinese, for example - but there are loads of 'cafes' with really dismal, insipid pastas (not to mention pastas with really strange ingredient choices). If you find a real Italian restaurant that is trying to serve proper Italian food, however, the food is often quite good. Pizza, in Japan, is often really nice - simple, with fewer toppings (so long as you avoid the Domino's-style monstrosities where they top pizzas with entire hot dogs, wheels of Camembert cheese or foie gras -_-).

La Citadella in Kawasaki is an 'Italian town' with several good Italian restaurants. In this picture, the pizza and pasta were about ¥1000 each.

From Sawasdee, outside Daiei mall in Yokosuka

This Thai set meal was only about ¥800 and included the main (gapao), salad, noodle soup, dessert and a drink. I'd certainly recommend this restaurant if you're in the area.

From a restaurant near Fujisawa station

This is part of a Chinese meal I shared with a friend. You can get these sorts of dishes anywhere; there are masses of Chinese restaurants in Kanagawa. Each dish was about ¥800-1000. That pork and 'piman' (small peppers) dish is one of my favourite dishes to order.

From a soba restaurant in Atre, Ebisu

Finally, some more Japanese food. This is 'zarusoba', served cold and topped with nori (seaweed). Soba is a good accompaniment for tempura, since it tastes so wholesome, while tempura is more greasy. This particular tempura dish includes a prawn, okra, eggplant and fish. You take the soba and dip it in sauce before eating it. This is a very standard sort of dish; I got it for perhaps ¥1000. Note that cold soba is a very typical summer dish, so that in winter, there may be fewer of them on the menu.

From a department store around Yokohama station

Speaking of soba, here's soba in a different form - hot, in broth. This was a 'mini oyakodon set' which cost about ¥900. Oyakodon is a donburi (rice bowl dish) with an egg/chicken mix on rice. The 'oyako' in 'oyakodon' literally means 'parent child'. I know, it's a disgusting name!

Oyakodon's flavour is really nice and the juice flavours the rice underneath, but oyakodon often has the problem of using really fatty chicken pieces. This particular oyakodon was quite hard to eat. -_- Also, despite the title 'mini oyakodon' - where both the oyakodon and soba are in serving sizes smaller than normal - this was a huge meal!

These last three are examples of izakaya food. Izakayas, you may recall, are Japanese-style restaurants where you order lots of little dishes to share, and booze flows freely. A typical dish is ¥400-600 yen. I couldn't post all the dishes we had, but the first one is mackerel sashimi, the second edamame (soy beans) and the third is deep-fried tofu.

Batsu game

2011-08-09T11:53:00.000+09:00

In Western countries, when you mark answers as 'correct', you use a tick. Wrong answers are marked with a cross.

In Japan, correct answers are marked with a circle ('maru') or a cross ('batsu'). I've even seen Japanese teachers of English check students' writing by circling correct words and sentences in red pen. In Australia, if you circled a word in red pen, it would mean the answer was incorrect, so I guess there's a small cultural difference there.

Anyway, 'batsu' means 'cross mark', but it can also mean 'punishment', and that's where the 'batsu game' comes from.

A 'batsu game' is like a 'fun' way of punishing someone. For example, if you're playing a game in class and one student gets out or loses, the other students might make them do a 'batsu game', like singing in front of everyone, or making a weird face, eating something strange, or showing off some unique skill. It's a popular exercise on game shows. I've seen teachers do it too, punishing other teachers who were late for staff meetings. ^_^

JLPT N3 study materials

2011-08-05T16:12:00.000+09:00

[Update: I have just taken the test; I wrote more about it here.]

I am studying to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, level N3. There are quite a few different textbooks and study materials published in Japan, which you can find in English-language sections of large bookstores.

As a general rule, these textbooks are not exciting. They are all rather serious, black-and-white affairs with lots of sample test questions and example sentences in them. Many of them focus on specific skills or sections of the JLPT. Some are written solely in Japanese; others have perfunctory explanations in English/Chinese/Korean.

I will review the books that I personally have been using.

実力アップ!日本語能力試験N3読む

Layout/contents: This book has a focus on reading skills (there are other books in the series focusing on listening etc). There are lots of example reading passages with questions such as you'd find on the test. The first collection of readings focuses on grammar and completing sentences with the correct words. The second section focuses on reading comprehension for short, medium and long pieces of text. The third section focuses on identifying important information from 'real world' texts like timetables or recipes.

There are a few rather random pages with lists of grammar or vocabulary on particular themes (eg, a list of different university majors, or a list of words containing the kanji 不). Texts are also followed by a short list of potentially unfamiliar vocabulary. For each reading, there is also an answer page which includes furigana readings for kanji. And there are explanations of the correct and incorrect answers (in English and Chinese), so you can hopefully understand why you got it right or wrong.

My opinion: This book is somewhat challenging, especially if you don't know a lot of the N3 kanji yet; a lot of the 'learning' is retrospective (ie, after you've attempted the reading, you find out the answers and try to understand the grammar/kanji more clearly). I think it's a really good resource. It's also arranged from simpler to more difficult readings, which is an added bonus.

短期マスター日本語能力試験ドリル N3

Layout/contents: This textbook, which comes with a listening CD, is a collection of sample questions to help you practise for the JLPT. It includes questions in all the categories of the real test, and finishes with a sample test you can take. It includes answers and transcriptions of the listening tasks.

My opinion: This book serves its purpose well enough - it's a chance to test yourself and see how you might perform on the real test. As a study material, well, you might get some use out of it if you do it with a teacher, who can explain to you the parts you have trouble with. This book doesn't have any explanations, definitions, or reasons why answers are right or wrong.

As I've never taken the JLPT, I can't assess how well this book approximates the real test. I did find the readings somewhat easier than the previous book I reviewed; this book's readings had a lot more furigana help for reading kanji. Will the real test have the furigana? I'm not sure.

日本語総まとめ問題集

Contents/layout: This book is a couple of years out of date, purchased before the new JLPT was introduced. There are, however, books in this series for the new JLPT levels, with different books for different skills (vocabulary, kanji, grammar, etc). This particular book is for grammar. It's divided into 'weeks', each 'day' covering three or four grammar points with a few example sentences and usage notes. Grammar points are often grouped according to similar meaning, or grammar points that have a particular word in common.

At the end of each 'day' is a short quiz, and at the end of each 'week' is a longer review quiz. Explanations/translations of sentences are in English, Chinese and Korean.

My opinion: I really have tried valiantly to study with this book, but it's difficult. As a reference re. what grammar might be needed for the JLPT 2, it's very useful. However, you can't simply work through it as a textbook and expect to retain much; it's relentless in giving one new grammar point after another. There are review quizzes, yes, but not enough; so many grammar points are introduced in each week that you'll need to do a lot of reviewing of each day as you go along. Also, grouping grammar points by similar meaning - or having a word in common - makes it very easy to confuse them.

To use this book, you have to supplement it with your own study ideas; find some creative way to use it so it will stick; for example, reviewing and drilling endlessly, making flashcards, or writing masses of example sentences using each grammar point. This is a very dry way of studying.

At least, this is my own experience; on JLPT study sites, many people have recommended this book as a study resource, so clearly other people have been able to benefit from it.

漢字マスターN３

Contents/layout: This book introduces four kanji per page, with their readings, and spaces to write the kanji (stroke order is not given). The rest of the page is given over to 'reading' questions (you read sentences which use the four kanji in various ways, and must identify how you would read the kanji, in hiragana) and 'writing' questions (you read sentences where the key words are written in hiragana, and you must write the kanji).

Kanji are grouped according to topic. After one unit - five pages of kanji (ie, 20 kanji) - there is another reading/writing review quiz. And after every two units (ie, 40 kanji), there's another two review quizzes. These review quizzes/tests include longer reading passages. There's also a review test after unit 11 and unit 20.

My opinion: This is a really good layout for a kanji book. It is a bit repetitive, but there's plenty of review built in. The reading and writing exercises are very practical. It's great to have kanji in different forms in sentences. For example, you learn the kanji 拾, and then you'll read it in sentences in forms like 拾う (hirou - to pick up), 拾得物 (shuutokubutsu - found article) and 拾万円 (juumanen - 100,000 yen). Also, the sentences themselves are very useful and often allow you to deduce the meaning of unknown words in them. So much more helpful than just reading kanji/words in isolation.

The only downside to the book is, if you haven't really studied kanji writing prior to N3, a lot of the 'writing' section will be difficult. That's because the writing questions include lots of other kanji in compounds and therefore assumes some prior knowledge. For example, you learn the kanji 活, and then there's a question asking how to write かつどう in kanji (活動）. By this level you will have probably encountered this word, but if you haven't previously learned/remembered how to write 動 (which is not covered in this book), you will have to check the 'answers' section and copy it down. It's probably good practice, though. ^_^

City Spotlight: Minato Mirai

2011-07-28T15:52:00.000+09:00

I can't believe I've had this blog so long without ever posting much about Minato Mirai. This is probably the number 1 destination for tourists visiting Yokohama.

Minato Mirai means 'Future Harbour' (minato = harbour), and it's just that - a harbour, with lots of modern buildings and development. The architecture and landscape is distinctive; if you see a picture of it, you immediately know 'this is Yokohama'.

For example, you have the Landmark Tower. This is essentially the tallest 'proper' building in Japan, barring a couple of towers like Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Sky Tree. By the Landmark Tower is Queen's Square, a series of three buildings that taper downwards, getting steadily shorter and narrower. There's also the hotel, Intercontinental Yokohama, which stands right on the harbour's edge and has a distinctive sail-like shape.

View from near Landmark Tower in cherry blossom time. Here's the Nippon Maru (a ship which also houses a maritime museum; behind it can be seen the Intercontinental and Cosmo World)

If you walk out of Sakuragicho station and stand looking at the harbour, on your left you'll see Colette Mare, the Landmark Tower, Queen's Square, Intercontinental Yokohama, and then Cosmo World, a theme park, followed by World Porters, a department store. You can also walk to World Porters across 'Kishamichi', a footbridge; it's a nice walk.

Colette Mare and Landmark Tower, as seen from outside Sakuragicho station

The image at the top of the screen, which is my picture for this blog, was taken in Minato Mirai. You can see the three Queen's Square buildings, and the Cosmo World Ferris wheel.

If you continue walking from World Porters, you'll get to 'Akarenga' (the 'Red Brick Warehouse'), past the cruise ship terminal, and eventually, to Yamashita Park and Chinatown. If you like walking a lot, you could therefore do one big walking trail of most of Yokohama's tourist attractions. If you want to explore each area properly, I would recommend doing Minato Mirai on one day and the whole Chinatown area on another day, just so you can spend more time in each place without getting footsore. If it's a weekend and the weather is nice, the whole area will be lively and full of people enjoying themselves.

Some of the things you can do here:
-go up to the top of the Landmark Tower to enjoy a view of Yokohama from above
-go to the art museum (go to the space between the Landmark Tower and first Queen's Square building, then walk for a minute or two away from the harbour.)
-go on rides at Cosmo World, or play arcade games. The huge Ferris wheel - 'Cosmo clock' - is a good tourist attraction
-go shopping - Colette Mare and World Porters are particularly good for this, in terms of number and range of stores
-catch a movie at Colette Mare or World Porters
-go to Manyo no Yu - it's a building behind World Porters and Cosmo World - where you can have a real hot spring experience in Yokohama. The water is real hot spring water, piped in from Atami and Yugawara. It's more expensive than a run-of-the-mill onsen, but you can experience several different types of bath, including a shared-sex foot bath on the top of the building, where you can see a great view over the harbour.
-sit and relax on the grass on Kishamichi or outside the Nippon Maru (ship out front of the Landmark Tower).
-take a boat ride; for example, boats go from Minato Mirai to Yamashita Park.

Colette Mare is a new building - it wasn't there a year ago. It literally filled a gap in the market. There weren't many good shops right by Sakuragicho station. Yes, Landmark Tower and Queen's Square have shops, and quite a few of them, but these buildings, though cool, have a rather vast, cavernous feel - they don't have the same density of shops as your typical department store. And Landmark doesn't have many shops to appeal to the average Joe. But your tastes may differ.

Minato Mirai is nice for a variety of reasons, but for me, its number one advantage is you feel like you can get some fresh air and open space, which is important when you live in a huge metropolis like the Greater Tokyo area. While there are a lot of buildings around the harbour, it's one of the few places in the city where you can actually sit near the ocean and look out and not feel claustrophobic. There are places to sit on the grass, places to stroll around, places to have a nice coffee.

To see it, go to JR Sakuragicho station (on the Keihin-Tohoku/Negishi line and Yokohama line). You can also go to 'Minato Mirai' station (on the Minato Mirai line), which is located in the basement of the Queen's Square buildings.

Japanese Pet Peeve: Squeak squeak

2011-07-24T15:45:00.002+09:00

Have you ever been to a Christmas lunch or toddler's birthday party where someone gives a small child a toy that makes a loud, annoying noise? The mother smiles and thanks the giver, with a slight note of strain in her face. She knows she will be hearing that toy drum/musical truck/whistle/jackhammer sound effect, over and over again, over the months to come.

In Japan I have noticed a product that would make me feel this way: squeaky shoes. These are shoes for toddlers that emit a loud squeaking sound with every step. Imagine someone squeezing a rubber ducky. Now, as small children tend to run around a lot, imagine them squeezing that ducky relentlessly for minutes at a time. Not pleasant for anyone who happens to be in the same restaurant or shop.

I can only imagine that the logic for buying such shoes is to be able to have an idea of where your child is at all times. In such crowded cities, it might be useful to be able to hear when your small child is running off somewhere. At least, I hope this is the reason, and it's not a 'cute' fashion choice. I have to admire the patience of mothers who can tolerate it!

Baseball

2011-07-18T13:39:00.001+09:00

Before I begin this post on sport, I would like to offer a hearty congratulations to Japan's women's soccer team, Japan Nadeshiko, for winning the World Cup!

I watched the first half of the match in an izakaya, but had to drag myself to bed (well, it was almost 5am). When I went to bed it looked like America would win, so I was super chuffed to turn on my TV this morning. Go girls!

The other day I went to Meiji Jingu stadium to see the Tokyo Yakult Swallows play the Chunichi Dragons (Nagoya's team). (Yes, there is a baseball team named after fermented milk. If you look at other baseball team names, you'll realise it could be much worse. The Nippon Ham Fighters, for example.)

This photo is of Yokohama stadium, during a Swallows - Bay Stars match.

In Japan there are two main baseball leagues: the Central League and the Pacific League.

The Central League is probably a bit more prominent/popular. Its teams are the Chunichi Dragons (Nagoya), Hanshin Tigers (Osaka - well, close enough), Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Yokohama Bay Stars, and the Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo).

The Pacific League comprises the Chiba Lotte Marines, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Orix Buffaloes (Osaka), Saitama Seibu Lions, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Yes, there is a lot of unsubtle product placement going on in these team names.

If you're in Japan in summer, you should check out a baseball game. Even if you're not that into sports, it is a very interesting and very Japanese experience.

I have never seen any baseball other than Japanese games, so I can't tell you much about Japanese baseball and how it compares to American baseball. American friends have described Japanese baseball as conservative, and not that exciting. What I do enjoy, though, is the act of participating in Japanese-style ouen, or cheering.

There are some ouen leaders, who orchestrate cheers with whistles and signs. Seriously! While your team is at bat, some dude will hold up a sign to show what cheer you should do next (the signs say things like 'go go let's go' and 'kattobase!' (which means something like 'slam a home run!'). Whistles set the pace. There's a team with trumpets and the like to play the cheer songs. The more popular or established players all have their own particular cheer songs.

In the case of the Swallows, cheers are done using plastic cheer bats with Swallows colours and designs - you hit them together in lieu of clapping (which is just as well, because it would be a lot of clapping; while your team is at bat there is no rest in the cheering). If the Swallows get a home run, all hell breaks loose - or rather, out come the umbrellas, for a rousing rendition of 'Tokyo Ondo'. (Check it out on YouTube.

Tokyo Ondo is the Swallows winning song. It used to, to my great amusement, open with the words 'screw you Yomiuri!' because the Swallows are long-time rivals of the more popular Tokyo team, the Yomiuri Giants. This lyric has officially been changed to a more 'gentle' version, but a lot of fans still sing the original. ^_^

Each team has its own little idiosyncracies in terms of cheering, but it's a good workout for the fans. In fact I often get so distracted by watching the fans that I forget to focus on the game, ha ha ha. Funnily enough, cheering in unison like this is actually great fun and really adds to the atmosphere of the game.

You can get tickets ahead of time from ticket machines, like in Lawson convenience stores. You can also go to discount ticket booths, which can be found in many shopping malls around Tokyo and Kanagawa.

A Day In: Ebisu

2011-07-15T23:38:00.001+09:00

I had a few hours to spend, and thought I'd go to Shibuya. But actually, apart from shopping and eating, there's not much to do in Shibuya. What was my plan? Go to Starbucks - where they're so busy they can only serve one size of drink, and there's never a seat - and watch the pedestrians cross the 'scramble' crossing? I have done just that several times, but I decided to go to Ebisu instead.

These lanterns say 'Ebisu Ondo' ('Ebisu Marching Song'). I'm not sure what that means. There might be a festival later.

Ebisu is a fairly unremarkable small hub in Tokyo; one of many. It's on the JR lines, also the Tokyo metro (Hibiya line). The station is surrounded by department store; in this case the Atre building. There are lots of streets with small shops and restaurants and bars all around.

I chose Ebisu because of Yebisu Garden Place. ('Yebisu' is the old spelling of Ebisu, but is pronounced the same. The area was actually named after Yebisu beer.) This is a complex with a few buildings, department store, a beer museum and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Yebisu Garden Place

To get to Ebisu from Kawasaki or Yokohama, you can take the JR Tokaido or Keihin-Tohoku lines to Shinagawa, then transfer to the Yamanote line. From Yokohama, you could also take the Tokyu Toyoko line and transfer to the Hibiya line at Nakameguro.

I arrive in Ebisu and start by going in search of coffee. There's a cafe and sandwich shop right near the outside west exit ticket gates. It's pretty hot inside; the cafe is presumably following power-saving measures. Nice coffee, though.

Going back to the east exit side of the station, I follow the signs to Yebisu Garden Place. There are tunnels with moving walkways to speed your progress; it takes about 5 minutes to walk there from the station.

It's a hot day. I'd like to eat lunch somewhere... but I can't find a place. In the so-called 'restaurant floor', there are two restaurants - one is an izakaya full of businessmen socialising, the other is a ramen shop. I find a Burger King, and a cafe with fairly feeble-looking Italian food, and... not really anything else.

I go into Krispy Kreme as a temporary measure. I ask for one original glazed donut. Apparently they are having some kind of celebration and giving 'presents' to customers. The 'present' is a free original glazed donut. So... the lady gives me my donut and refuses payment. If I end up spending no money there at all, can I even be considered a customer?...

It strikes me that Krispy Kreme is getting quite ubiquitous now. I remember when there were only two or three of them around, and the opening of a new store was a big deal; there'd be ridiculous lines of people waiting to buy. Now I see branches all over the place.

I go to the photography museum. I have been here once before, and I really liked it. They have exhibitions which change periodically. I think there can be up to three exhibitions at a time, but today there's only two. You can buy a single ticket or a combination, and see both exhibitions. I choose to see one exhibition (700yen), that of the 'World's Press' - acclaimed photographs by press members from news stories last year.

It is a very good exhibition. Although some photos are of fun subjects, like festivals or interesting cultural oddities, generally speaking, it's not a light exhibition. It's quite something to see a year of tragedies laid out one after another. Here's an oil spill; here are pictures of overcrowding in Sierra Leone's prisons; floods in Pakistan; bodies of people killed in a Tibetan earthquake; illegal abortion methods in Kenya; a man failing to rescue his friend from drowning...

You see the suffering of the world, and it feels very far removed from the place you are. There are lots of images of poverty and desolation. When you are in the heart of safe, sunny Tokyo, with well-dressed people walking around you, in a clean and well-lit building, all that grief seems a world away.

Then you see the display of photographs from this year's tsunami, and it reminds you that nobody is immune, and tragedy can strike anywhere. Suffering does not belong only to developing countries.

Anyway, if you appreciate photography, I would definitely recommend this museum. I should think of something else to say, because it seems tasteless to segue immediately from human suffering to what I had for lunch. -_-

As I mentioned before, one of the other main attractions of Yebisu Garden Place is the Yebisu Beer Museum. I have previously mentioned Kirin Beer Village, in Yokohama. Kirin has nicer surrounds and a free tour with free tastings. However, it's a bit inconvenient to get to, and the tour is only in Japanese and is rather dry. Yebisu Beer Museum is more conveniently located, and has more interesting displays (assuming you do the tour). You can also buy beer jelly. No, I don't know why you'd want to.

For lunch, I go back to Atre and have soba and tempura with cheap beer. For some reason, this particular restaurant seems to be the most popular one on the restaurant floor. Soba and tempura is a good combination, I think. The unhealthiness of the tempura is somewhat mitigated by the more wholesome soba.

After this, from the west exit of Ebisu station, I see a sign for the 'Yamatane Museum of Art'. I've never heard of it before, but it seems to be fairly nearby, so I walk. It's a really hot day, and the sun is beating down quite fiercely. What should be a short, easy walk is rather a drag.

When I finally get there, I find that it is a museum of Japanese art. Just as a personal preference, I don't really care for ukiyo-e art. I mean, it's pretty and evocative, and I'm sure many people get a lot from it, but I don't feel much when I look at it. Just, 'oh, that's nice, some mountains. Oh, this one is obviously spring. Oh, more mountains.'

This exhibition is not just ukiyo-e, though; it's a collection of paintings, most of them from the last century, of landscapes showing the beauty of Japanese nature. As is common in Japanese art, the seasons are a predominant theme and, yes, there are lots of mountains. I enjoy it, though. Although I haven't visited a lot of the places in these paintings, it does show the natural beauty of the Japan I love.

It is not a very large exhibition, considering the entrance fee of 1000 yen, but it's not bad and may be a good place to visit if you're in the area and have an interest in Japanese art.

I go back to the station, stopping at the Segafredo cafe in the Ebisu Prime building. (A good chain, by the way, but only in Tokyo and further north. None in Yokohama.) I think I drink too much coffee in the summer heat, since I'm always wanting to go inside airconditioned places. ^_^

On returning to the station, I have one final place to visit: Good Day Books. This is right outside Ebisu station, and has a big collection of second-hand English-language books. The prices are not especially low - not like a Book Off - but what makes this store great is its variety. There are a lot of books you just can't find new in Japan, and this store also has a good collection of Japanese language study books. I recommend it!

Saving electricity

2011-07-14T11:55:00.001+09:00

In the Greater Tokyo area, there is not a lot of visible difference since the tsunami. A lot of shops and restaurants have donation tins where you can give to the earthquake appeal. Friends have told me about damage that happened; for example, some older buildings in the Yokohama station area, and a ceiling collapsing in Kawasaki Muza. But to the casual observer walking around, there's no damage visible down this area.

One thing you will see a lot of, though, is 'saving electricity' notices.

Since power is now being conserved, a lot of businesses have this sort of sign displayed. Specific examples include:
-air conditioning off, or restricted to certain areas (for example, malls with uncooled corridors but cooled shops, trains where the air con was only switched on after the trains got crowded; most of the airport - a huge, airy space which would no doubt take a lot of power to cool - didn't have air con)
-escalators not running, especially where there is more than one escalator for each direction
-hand dryers disabled in bathrooms
-sports matches finishing earlier
-modified train timetables

Shopping in Kawasaki

2011-07-10T10:11:00.003+09:00

Well, my first day back in Japan (I do love Japan ^_^) and I spent the day in Kawasaki, shopping. I've already written 'a day in' Kawasaki posts (see here and here), as well as 'Kawasaki city spotlight' posts (see here and here). So I thought this time I'd write about 'things I bought today in Kawasaki'. ^_^

I include some prices so you can get a feel for how much things cost here (prices would be similar in Yokohama or Tokyo). The current exchange rate is 100 yen = $1.15 (Australian) but I will just roughly translate the prices.

Books

At Maruzen in LaZona (near west exit of Kawasaki station, go down to the bottom floor), I bought these books:

Kanji for intermediate level (￥1890, $22). It is a functional book and looks practical. It doesn't look exciting. I have never seen a single Japanese textbook that is anything other than completely boring and uninspiring visually. (To be fair, most of the English textbooks published in Japan are similarly uninspiring.) I hope to take level N3 of the JLPT at the end of the year.

A Geek in Japan (￥1890, $22). I've been following Hector Garcia's blog, Kirai Net for a long time. He posts interesting content and great photos of his experiences in Japan. This is his book; I had planned to order it online, but I found it in Maruzen. It is not a re-hash of his blog posts, but a guide book full of great photos, with lots of information about Japanese culture, travel information, and some geeky stuff (despite the title, this book is certainly not only about geeky stuff but much broader ^_^).

If this was Australia, a nice-looking book like 'A Geek in Japan' would definitely be at least $40, so I'm really glad to come to Japan. So many cheap books. ^_^

Book Off

At Book Off in Kawasaki More's (across the road from the east exit of Kawasaki station, on the 3rd floor), I bought these CDs by nobodyknows+, Going Under Ground, Bonnie Pink, The Yellow Monkey and Hitomi Yaida. I don't know if they'll be good, but I like other songs by these artists, so...
Considering how expensive new CDs are here (often close to ￥3000/$34 each), second-hand CDs are super cheap. And second-hand CD shops abound. In the case of Book Off, there are different sections with different prices; all of these were from the ￥250 ($2.90) section.

At this Book Off, you can also find an English book section (prices generally range from ￥150 - ￥500 per book, but may be more for particularly large/nice books). You can also find cheap video games (in Japanese only). For comparison, I found Pokemon Diamond for ￥950 ($11). In second-hand game stores in Australia, I've never seen it for less than $55!

I also got the iTunes card from Yodo-

Sorry, pause to say that there's an earthquake happening at the moment. It's lasted a full minute! The hangers in my wardrobe are bumping against the wall. It's gentle, so nothing too scary, but I must admit I feel differently about earthquakes since the recent disasters. Before, I found the small tremors rather fun, since they were only small, but now they are a reminder of how nasty things could potentially get.

Anyway, got the iTunes card from Yodobashi so I can download Japanese music. But Japanese iTunes is not like the English one. English iTunes has pretty much any English song you can think of, while Japanese iTunes has a much more select range; even quite famous songs are not necessarily on there.

Speaking of music, I did drop into Tower Records (in Cinecitta, in the 'Tower of Pisa' building near the movie ticket box office). It's a nice way to check out the latest Jpop releases, since they have lots of music listening stations set up, where you can listen to albums on headphones. I plan to get the new album by 'Unison Square Garden' before I leave, but I feel like I already spent way too much money today...

Shoes

I got the shoes in Azalea, Kawasaki's underground mall, just outside the east exit of the station. This mall has seasonal displays and temporary sales in the centre - I've seen them sell traditional Japanese cultural paraphenalia, second-hand books, fruit and vegetables - depending on the week. And they often have a section where they sell cheap clothes and shoes; that's where I got these. They are not especially great but I needed a pair of comfortable sandals for the hot, humid weather here. Cost about ￥4800 ($55). There are many cheaper pairs around, so I plan to buy a few more pairs before returning home.

Azalea is always my pick for reasonably-priced clothes in Kawasaki. In general I'm not a big fan of Japanese fashion, at least for myself. Having pale skin and dark hair, the pale pastel colours don't favour my complexion, and not having a willowy figure, I do not want big, baggy clothes that hang on me like sackcloth. Also, there are a lot of fashions that are in roughly the same pattern and fabric as pyjamas.

What I do love buying in Japan are shoes. Having rather small feet, and coming from a city with ridiculously expensive footwear, I love Japan. I can't help feeling amused to see the shelves of shoes where 'M' - medium - is '23.0cm - 23.5cm'. That's an Australian size 6 or 6.5, folks.

Supermarket stuff

Well, I don't need to go into much detail here. This stuff is from the supermarket in LaZona (ground floor). I got salad (boasting '12 types of vegetable', but it's half cabbage, as most supermarket salads are) and beans to snack on, because I feel like eating out in Japan, it's difficult to find dishes that have many vegetables. I don't know if home cooking is different, but think of all the main types of Japanese restaurant - soba and udon, ramen, tonkatsu, sushi, curry, donburi - and very few of these dishes have vegetables. Nabe, I guess, but this is summer and I don't want to eat nabe.

The beans and salad were about ￥200 ($2.20) apiece (for pretty tiny servings). The apple juice was nice and cheap at ￥148 ($1.70). The two-minute noodles were about ￥100 ($1.15), the nori (seaweed slices) ￥138 (for a lot of pieces!)...

I like these 'granola' bars. I doubt they are especially healthy, but they're tasty. I discovered them when I was living in Nagoya and needed some alternative to muesli bars (which don't exist here).

The bread - ￥138 for three slices - is from the bakery in the supermarket. The bread is super soft, but you can actually taste the sugar in it. It's really not very good for you. I must try to find some tasty, but less outrageously unhealthy, bread today. ^_^

100 yen shop stuff

There was a great 100yen shop in Kawasaki Le-Front, on the 9th floor. It's no more, but there's a new one on the 7th floor. It's okay... and the sorts of things you can buy at a 100 yen shop are pretty good, I think. Back-up headphones, socks, gift bags, a camera case, post-it notes, hair ties, blah blah. I hope to buy lots more sockettes, the little foot covers that fit inside shoes.

Everything 105 yen (including tax), or $1.15. Nothing to note, except that little notebook with the hamster on it. It's actually a kanji practice book for kids; inside, it's not a lined notebook, but ruled into grids, so kids can practise writing kanji in the boxes. Hopefully, if I have a book dedicated to kanji, I will actually use it. Ha ha ha...

Traveller tips - money

2011-07-06T20:46:00.002+09:00

Japan is a cash-based society. There are ATMs all over the place, like in convenience stores and outside banks, but most of them only allow you to use Japanese bank cards, ie to make withdrawals from a Japanese bank account. At the airport, of course, you can find ATMs that will let you withdraw from overseas accounts.

If you need more money once you're in the city, you can find a post office. A lot of post offices have ATMs where you can use international credit cards, while most other ATMs - and I have tried a LOT of them - don't.*

*(I have successfully used my card in at least a dozen countries, from Egypt to Guatemala, Singapore to Norway. Japan was the only place I've found that had foreigner-unfriendly ATMs as the default.)

7-11 also often has international card-compatitble ATMs.

You should be aware that many ATMs actually have operating hours and may be closed/inaccessible at night.

Withdrawing from an international ATM generally incurs a currency conversion fee and a withdrawal fee, but this is usually still cheaper than converting your money at a currency exchange.

You can find currency exchanges around major cities in Japan, especially in very touristy places or in the most major banks, but they're not exactly ubiquitous. You have to seek them out, probably look up online where to find them.

Nonetheless, when it comes to money, do what's comfortable for you.

Traveller tips - Kawasaki and Yokohama hotels

2011-07-03T18:28:00.006+09:00

Since I'm in the middle of planning my trip, I thought I'd share my process with you. ^_^

Hotels

I love this website: Jalan Net. Compared with English sites, you can find a much wider variety of hotels there, book them online, earn points which can be used in the future, and you can usually find things that are much cheaper than the standard range of 'international' hotels on English sites.

The problem? It's all in Japanese. Happily, with the help of Denshi Jisho, I have enough Japanese to work my way through it, but if you have no Japanese at all, it might be too difficult.

I've been in four different hotels in Kawasaki. The Nikko was the best, but then my company was paying for it at the time. ^_^ For cheaper ones, my favourite so far is 'Hotel The Crane', or at least, I had a good experience both times I stayed there. In my experience, service is efficient, rooms are fairly small but in good condition, but it's not far from the station, there's a bathroom, heater/air con, toiletries and Internet in the room (it's not a hostel, though the prices are cheap), you can get plans that include a simple breakfast, etc. Booking online, you can easily stay for 4000 - 5000 yen ($45-$55) a night.

A nice thing about travelling solo in Japan is that they often have single rooms and you are generally expected to pay per person. Like if you stay in a ryokan; often, one person or two can share the same room, yet each person will pay the same amount no matter its occupancy, which means it's no more expensive to stay there as a single than as a pair. In Japan, when searching hotels, I find it is a lot easier to find single rooms for single-friendly prices.

Staying in Kawasaki is nice too, because Kawasaki itself is a cool city, yet it's a bit less expensive to stay there than in Yokohama and Tokyo. But if you take the Tokaido line for ten minutes in either direction, you'll be in Yokohama or Tokyo.

Hostels in Yokohama

If you want cheap digs in Yokohama, there's a particular district which has a lot of hostels. It's near Ishikawacho station, about ten minutes walk from Chinatown and Motomachi. The street itself is not exactly pretty, but it's in easy walking distance of some nice places. Prices are quite good - you can pay 3000 yen a night! - but you'll get small rooms, shared showers and toilets, showers may be coin-operated, etc.

I have personally stayed at 'A Silk Tree' and 'Yokohama Hostel Village'. They're both cheap and good value for money; rooms are pretty small and basic, but that's what you'd expect, right? Location-wise, those two hostels are on opposite sides of the same street. I would recommend the Hostel Village; it just felt nicer. If you're into socialising in hostels, it's also a better bet. Silk Tree felt a bit drab and quiet, with no real public spaces.

Unless I'm on a really strict budget, I prefer to stay in Kawasaki because it's more lively and more central (also, my friends live there). If you're going to Yokohama station, it actually takes the same amount of time from Kawasaki station than from these hostels near Ishikawacho.

Japanese accommodation

I've mentioned before that I really like staying in ryokan (Japanese-style traditional inns) but I haven't recommended them in the case of Kawasaki and Yokohama. It's not that they don't exist - I assume there must be a few of them - but these are not really 'traditional' cities. If you go to a city like Kyoto, Nara, or Hakone, you feel it's a bit more traditional and natural; if you stay in a ryokan there, you feel like you're indulging in local culture. In Kawasaki or Yokohama, well, I guess you could do it if you wanted to, but since ryokan are often more expensive than regular hotels, I'd rather save them for a relaxing town with a fitting atmosphere. Also, it's really nice to stay in ryokan in towns that have an onsen (hot spring) culture, so you can enjoy the real hot spring baths.

Out of curiosity, I just did a perfunctory search for ryokan in Kawasaki or Yokohama, and the ryokan that came up tended to be rather far from the metropolises that surround Kawasaki and Yokohama stations. As I said, there probably are some in the cities themselves, but I don't know of any personally.

One thing you could do if you want a more Japanese experience is that a lot of hotels and hostels offer a choice of Western-style rooms (with beds, carpets, etc) or Japanese-style rooms (with futons, tatami mats, etc). They're usually the same price, so perhaps you could specify that you'd like a Japanese-style room, so long as you don't mind more sitting on the floor. ^_^

Trip!

2011-07-03T11:52:00.000+09:00

I take a pause from posting from my old diary to say that I will be back in Kawasaki, my old stomping ground, next week on holiday. If it inspires me, then, I might have some new material. If I don't post, it means I'm having too much fun to blog. ^_^

Church

2011-07-01T22:42:00.000+09:00

One thing I thought I'd write about is my church in Yokohama. I don't know how typical this church was - I'd say probably not very! - but in case you're interested to hear about church-going in Japan...

I found the church online; it was an ordinary, I guess you'd say Protestant, church. The reason I chose it was because it was multinational and bilingual - I didn't want to go to a church with only other ex-pats, since I was living in Japan, but nor did I want to go with only Japanese, where I wouldn't understand anything.

In that sense, this was perfect; there was a good mix of Japanese and international people attending. The church was led/run by Japanese Hawaiians, who spoke fluent English and Japanese. They gave the church a unique flavour; a lot of people wearing Hawaiian shirts, wearing leis, doing the shaka sign during the messages, etc. It gave it a nice, laid-back feel.

The church had one other quirk, which was that it didn't have a fixed location. There were four or five different venues, and the church moved from place to place according to the week and the venue availability. I got to see some new streets in Yokohama this way. ^_^

The meetings were bilingual. This manifested itself in three main ways:
-overhead projections were in both languages. For example, if we sang a song, there would be perhaps a couple of verses in English, then a Japanese version of the same.
-messages were translated. For example, the pastor would speak in Japanese, and have an assistant translating after every couple of sentences.
-when they handed out message notes, they had copies in both English and Japanese

You might think that it would be disjointed to have messages translated. But the translators were good at their job, and I rather liked it. First, it was good Japanese practice. Then, it meant the messages were usually kept a bit more direct and simple, rather than roaming into obscure theological tangents. Also, hearing a message at a slower pace, bit by bit, gave you more time to think about what you were hearing.

I liked this church. I only went for a few months, but it was a friendly place that seemed to preach the truth. This blog post is not meant to be an ad, but I might as well post the link, since I would recommend it: New Hope Yokohama.

Early impressions (6)

2011-06-30T00:28:00.006+09:00

Every day in Japan there are 10001 things that are different from Australia. It's impossible to register them all, and before long you don't notice them at all. But there are just so many. I mean, just talking about the five minute walk to the train station makes me think of lots of things that are different from home.

There are vending machines everywhere; I pass at least eight on my short walk to the station. They sell both hot and cold drinks, in the same machine. It might sound strange to buy a bottle of hot green tea, or a hot can of cafe latte. But I've done it more than once. Around train stations, the vending machines often have sensors so that you can use your train pass to purchase drinks.

Now these train passes are really pretty cool. You buy a card and put credit on it, and it saves you buying tickets every time you use a train. You just touch it to the ticket gate - you don't even have to remove it from your wallet, 'cos the ticket gate can sense the pass through your wallet. They work on multiple train lines, and you can also set them as a commuter pass.

Back to vending machines... a lot of them sell cigarettes. Under 20s are not supposed to buy them (the age of adulthood is 20 in Japan) - but of course there is no regulation whatsoever in place to prevent 12-year-olds buying cigarettes if they so choose. Japan is actually a smoker's heaven, and the cigarettes are also relatively cheap. It's rare to find a cafe where you can't smoke at all. Usually there is a smoking and non-smoking section, but several times I have had to drink my coffee while inhaling smoke. You get used to it, I guess... I've also seen 'smoker's rooms' around the place, which always looks pretty funny to me. There's one right outside Yokohama station, it reminds me of a glass aquarium where the exhibit animals are cigarette smokers, haha...

On the way to or from the train station, you might choose to avail yourself of one of the ubiquitious 'conbeni' (convenience stores). Convenience stores are like mini supermarkets. You can pay bills there - bills arrive at your address with barcodes on them, you just take them into your local conbeni and pay them, it takes all of twenty seconds. I pay all my utility bills, my mobile phone bill, my upcoming Internet bill, etc... recently I bought an airfare (to Sapporo) and was given the option of paying at a convenience store...

Japan really is a cash-based society. People don't use credit cards that often, and when you see, for example, their bill-paying system, you can understand why. I guess it's also a very safe society, so it's safer to carry around more money. I've heard a few people mention losing wallets and having had them returned.

Just looking around a simple convenience store will yield many things unrecognisable to Western eyes. There are lots of bento - boxes of cutely packaged, various Japanese foods - and lots of other little pre-packaged foods. Sometimes I buy a pack of cooked rice, and they'll heat it for you.

There are the usual things you would find in Western convenience stores... cheese, drinks, chips and chocolate, a bakery section... Every time I see the so-called 'bakery' section of my conbeni, I think of something my friends did before I left Australia. As a joke, we all brought the worst and funniest food items we could find - the kind of thing you see in a supermarket and think 'who BUYS that?!' I tell you what, I would win that competition with the contents of the conbeni bakery section. I will be the disgusting food QUEEN! I mean, they have strawberry sandwiches. With actual strawberries and cream smushed in there. But the 'sandwich' bread doesn't even look like bread. I can't describe it...

There's a small section selling money envelopes; they're quite distinctive-looking and have little ribbon threads on them. In Japanese culture, if you give anything, the wrapping is important, and I guess so is discretion. So if you give a gift, it's always wrapped in a nice way. If you give money, it's always in an envelope. For example, I will pay my shamisen teacher by putting money in an envelope. I bought blank envelopes though; for all I know, the ones with writing on them say 'condolences on your loss' or 'congratulations on your wedding'...

There's also a section of comic books. Lots of people read manga (Japanese comics) in Japan, including adults. You often see businessmen reading them on trains; there's no stigma of them being 'for children' (though of course there are lots of manga produced for children). There also seem to be quite a few girly magazines (as in, soft porn) in the conbeni. Sometimes I'm slightly disturbed by the covers of various manga magazines and girly magazines - lots of pictures of girls bursting out of skimpy tops. I've heard that porn is popular and not that stigmatised in Japan. I know I've unwittingly stumbled across it in various unexpected stores and places, though fortunately never anything hard-core.

Anyway, obviously not all the manga and magazines in conbeni are porn, I just can't help noticing those that are, they kind of draw the attention. -_- In Japan, it's normal for people in bookstores to stand and browse the books. It's quite funny to go into a bookstore and see thirty or forty people all standing holding magazines, for example. In Australia, if you did that, surely someone would tell you 'this is not a library'.. hahah...

What else... there are so many different things, just on one street. The garbage system. Confusing, with different types of garbage being collected almost every day of the week. There are posters on lamp posts announcing the days of collection. Garbage has to be tied up in transparent plastic bags so they can see that you are throwing out the right type of garbage. Garbage usually ends up in masses of plastic bags, bound by nets, tied to signposts on the street.

Lots of the small, locally owned shops, seem a lot smaller than any stores in Australia.

Coffee shops. Coffee is very popular in Japan. But coffee shops and cafes are not the same thing, and I have learned to read the signs. There are several places selling coffee on my way to the train station, but I will only drink lattes or cappuccinos. (There are no such things as 'flat whites' here.) This is because Japanese coffee tends to be Strong Espresso. You can get it with milk, but then it becomes Strong Espresso With A Teaspoon Of UHF Crema. Like, I had a coffee at Subway once and couldn't quite believe what came out of the machine. Imagine drinking four or five shots of espresso in one cup. It was horrifying!

Anyway, quite a few places do have cappuccinos and lattes - though there are plenty of coffee shops that don't. Cappuccinos are interesting, as you never know exactly what it will be... sometimes they come topped with chocolate, sometimes with cinnamon, and sometimes with nothing at all. Often with lattes and cappuccinos, I find the froth to be a bit too foamy and bubbly for my taste (okay, I'm a sad, over-fussy coffee snob) so my favourite has become (guiltily...) Starbucks. Starbucks coffees here seem to be a little smaller and stronger than in Oz, so they're much nicer, and have a good consistency of froth. In my defense, though I may patronise Starbucks almost every day, I have at least tried cappuccinos at virtually every possible cafe and fast food restaurant in the area...

Cafes also have a wide variety of other drinks, most of them look sickly sweet, things like 'creme brulee lattes' and 'caramel cream lattes'. I have never seen a Japanese person order a cappuccino or cafe latte at a cafe - it's always strong black coffee, or one of the sickly-sweet conconctions.

One non-coffee drink I am quite partial is the matcha latte. (Matcha is the really traditional Japanese green tea - the kind they do 'tea ceremony' with. It is thick and dark green, slightly bitter, and looks foamy, like soap bubbles. I don't like the taste as much as 'ordinary' green tea, but it's okay.) Matcha lattes are pretty good! It comes with cream, so it's like drinking a hot cocoa... except it's matcha... hmmm...

Early impressions (5)

2011-06-24T00:10:00.050+09:00

More of my diary from when I first came to Japan (three years ago). Sorry that these are the only posts I make now, but since I'm not in Japan at the moment, I don't have the inspiration to write much that's new. ^_^

This post shows a nice contrast to my post on taking trains. In that post, I said that actually, taking trains in Japan is reasonably simple... but advised readers to procure a map. This old diary entry of mine proves why a map is a good thing. (It also helps if you're not a person like me, who hates asking people for help. Hahaha.)

***

Going to Roppongi, aka 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'

[I wrote this on Christmas Eve as a way of venting my frustration. It's probably rather laborious to read, so just imagine doing it!... This is an entirely accurate representation of my worst experience on Japanese trains. :)]

What a day...

This morning I set out for Sakuragicho to enjoy the sunshine. (I love the word 'Sakuragicho'. It just rolls off the tongue.) It was nice too. My plan was to then go to the immigration office in Ishikawacho - I brought my visa papers - and then finish the day by seeing the Christmas lights in Roppongi. (Roppongi is in Tokyo.) Remembering what happened the last times I went into Tokyo, I made sure to bring my train line maps with me. I knew from experience it can be difficult to negotiate the train system if you don't have your own maps.

In Sakuragicho

As it turned out, I forgot to bring my passport, so I couldn't go to Ishikawacho. Instead I came home to get it, decided I didn't have enough time to get back before the immigration office closed, and by that time had started developing a cold. So I decided to chill out until the evening when I went into Roppongi.

As I got on my first train to go to Roppongi, I realised that I didn't have my train maps. Drat! I'd put them in the bag with my visa papers - because I had thought I would be taking that bag with me to Roppongi - but then left it at home. Nice going! You did it again! I was having a really triumphant day with remembering things...

After that, I made just about every mistake it was possible to make!

Anyway, this is the process I took to try to get to Roppongi without a train map:

I took the Yokohama line to Higashi-Kanagawa and then changed to the Keihin-Tohoku line.

I took the Keihin-Tohoku line to Oimachi because I had a vague memory that the train line I wanted went from near there.

It didn't. But by the time I realised that, I was in the Saikyo line station, so I didn't want to go back to JR Oimachi to get back on the Keihin-Tohoku. This Saikyo station at least had a map on the wall. Roppongi wasn't on it. The only thing I knew for sure was that Roppongi was a Tokyo Metro station connected to the Hibiya Line, so I decided the only course was to get myself to a station I *knew* was connected to the Tokyo Metro, so I could at least see a subway map. I didn't recognise any of the stations on the Saikyo line as being on the Metro system. Thus, I took the Saikyo Line to Osaki so I could change to another line.

In Osaki I changed trains. I had to decide whether to go to Shibuya or Shinjuku, as I knew they are both connected to the Tokyo Metro. However, the Osaki map, not being a Tokyo Metro station, didn't have Tokyo Metro stops printed. So I didn't know which Metro train lines connected through Shibuya and Shinjuku. I (wrongly) 'remembered' that Yoyogi was on the Hibiya line, and Yoyogi is near Shibuya, so I went to Shibuya. As it turns out, Shinjuku would have taken me to a line connecting directly to Roppongi. But Shibuya didn't.

At Shibuya, I had a choice between walking to the Ginza or the Hanzomon lines. I knew that there was another line connecting directly to Roppongi apart from the Hibiya line, and I knew for a fact that it wasn't the Ginza line, and I couldn't remember what it was - so maybe it was the Hanzomon line? So I walked to Hanzomon Metro station, which was, of course, further away.
You must realise it took me all this travel time simply to get myself standing in front of a Tokyo Metro map.
Once at the Hanzomon line, all the train maps had English on them, except the map of the Tokyo Metro - the one I wanted to consult. By a Freak Chance, I recognised the kanji for 'Roppongi' - it's made up of three of the few kanji I know - and realised that I had to take the Ginza line and then change in Ginza. Drat!

So I walked back where I'd come from, to the Ginza line, and took the Ginza line all the way to Ginza.

In Ginza, I changed to the Hibiya line and took it for a few minutes.

FINALLY ARRIVED IN ROPPONGI AFTER TWO WHOLE HOURS AND SIX WHOLE TRAINS.

And don't forget, every time I leave a train station to change trains, it's costing me the fare of a subway ticket! -_-

I realise this whole affair makes me sound really incompetent, but the fact is this: because Tokyo is connected by multiple rail networks, often you can NOT find a map you need and so you have to just randomly go somewhere and hope you end up able to get to the right place. I don't know what people do. You might say 'well, if you left your rail maps at home, why didn't you pick up another one at the station?' They don't HAVE them! Or if they do, they're hidden somewhere!

My main fault was in not deciding to just go to a station where I *knew* there was a Tokyo Metro stop, to begin with, and imagining that Oimachi connected when it didn't (actually the stop I wanted was Hamamatsucho, so don't ask me how I got those names confused...).

This was the first time in Japan I ever thought 'I wish I had my car!' It would have been nice to have been able to just drive home, comfortably, in the warm, without having to stand in trains, get off and on, off and on...

Roppongi Hills was okay. They had nice Christmas lights, and a small German 'market', and some carol singers. I had a hot bowl of Chinese soup. It's not quite my scene though. I never like designer shops; in fact, designer things and rampant commercialisation actually kind of annoy me. Also, it's funny to see how my attitude changes when I have a cold and I'm annoyed after spending two hours catching six trains to get somewhere!

You see, Christmas Eve is a time for lovers, and there were soooo many young couples around. Ordinarily I'd be like 'ohh! That's so sweet! Isn't this nice, all these cute young couples!' But with a runny nose and my head all stuffed up, I was like 'geez... there are too many people here... all this lovey-dovey stuff is getting on my nerves... have a bit of self-respect, girls... and don't buy such expensive jewellery, you don't need it...'

Hahah...

Anyway, coming home was much more straightforward, as I'd seen every possible Tokyo train map by this stage. I still had to make a number of choices on my journey home, but this time I learned my lesson and made the right decisions. The lesson is: if presented with a choice between a) an unknown option that *may* be quicker/more direct, and b) a known option which may be slower but will definitely get you to the right destination - always, ALWAYS choose B!

Even a 'straightforward' route home from Tokyo can look like this:

I took the Hibiya line to the end of the line as I could see a way to end up at Kikuna, a station on the Yokohama line.

The Hibiya line went through Ebisu. The announcement said that this station 'connected to JR line'. Yes? Which JR line? It's kind of a relevent detail, you know! So, not knowing if it would be a JR line that I wanted, I stayed put.

At Naka-Meguro I stopped to get on the Tokyu Toyoko line. The first train that came along was an Express train. Well, I didn't know if Express would include Kikuna (I was 95% sure it would, but by now I was a broken woman, unable to face the possibility of getting it wrong yet again), so I had to wait for the next train.

The next train, unfortunately, didn't go all the way to Kikuna. So I had to get off halfway and wait for the next train (along with everyone else on that train). The next train, unfortunately, was a Ltd Express. Again, I didn't know if it would include Kikuna so I had to wait for the next local train AGAIN. (To be fair, the trains are not far apart. But it is absolutely, completely FREEZING tonight, so not much fun waiting on platforms outside.)

Finally arrived in Kikuna. Changed trains to the Yokohama Line and finally returned home.

Yeesh! I should have just stayed home!

***

[Update, 2011: Just to comment on this, express and limited express trains DO stop at Kikuna. At the time I wasn't familiar with station maps and the features of the stations I was to frequent, so I didn't know how to check. I think I was reluctant to ask anyone for help because at that time, my Japanese was very basic, and I had had a lot of rather demoralising experiences in train stations failing to communicate and ending up more confused than when I started.

I can also report that what most Japanese people do in situations like these is check train timetables on their mobile phones. Failing that, of course they would ask the station staff, like a sensible person. Also, I believe train maps can be gotten from many stations; at least from major stations; but you have to go to the information counter and request them; they are not just sitting around for the taking.]

Early impressions (4)

2011-06-18T00:06:00.000+09:00

More from my diary when I first came to Japan.

***

I saw a sign that said: "It is keep off per classification yard."
What?

***

In a tourist magazine I read the following disclaimer:
"The publisher bears no responsibility for the contents of this publication."
Then who does?

***

There was this show teaching English. They had an English guy teaching English. The irony is that though the English teacher was teaching correct English, the subtitle guy subtitled it wrongly. Eg:
"Singing song is fun."
"Riding wave is fun."
Should really help to improve Japanese people's English...

***

Every time I find something bearable to have on TV in the background, the show changes into something really irritating. I gradually become aware of hyperactive Japanese guys shouting at each other, and have to resume channel-surfing...

***

The other day I went to the bathroom and found this message in the cubicle:
"HOW TO FLUSH THE TOILET: The toilet will automatically flush when you place your palm at the point." (There was an accompanying illustration.) Only in Japan do you need instructions on how to flush a toilet. I've never seen so many different ways of doing it. Quite often it will just do it, seemingly randomly, of its own accord. Whether you're finished or not!

Early impressions (3)

2011-06-10T23:59:00.001+09:00

More of my diary when I first came to Japan.

***

It's getting really cold now. It will get quite a bit colder than this, though. Today I tried to find a nice warm, padded jacket - everyone wears them here - but they all make me look like the Michelin Man.

I've been trying out origami; I bought a book of patterns. It's fun. What I like about it is that you can't rush it, or do other things at the same time. I'm used to surfing the 'net while typing an email while listening to music while channel surfing on TV... But with origami, you have to sit and focus on what you're doing.

I realised that the main reason I'm shy about going into restaurants by myself isn't primarily because I'm shy about speaking Japanese. I just don't like going into restaurants by myself. I mean, even in Australia. Restaurants are social places.

What I am enjoying are frozen dinners, supermarket meals, and convenience store meals. That sounds bad... but they're so good and cheap! For dinner tonight, I had some gyoza (Chinese dumplings - 'jiao zi' in Chinese), a small frozen pizza, some Vietnamese cold rolls, a slice of baked cheesecake and a mini Kit Kat. Okay, I ate too much...

The convenience store has a selection of pre-packaged meals that they'll heat up for you. There are some really good rice dishes, and some pasta dishes, and this nice udon laksa... it's like, sure, if I tried, I could probably cook meals slightly better than the convenience store meals. But these meals are like $4 or $5 and require No Preparation Time From Me. When you get home at 10pm, you don't feel like cooking anything but the most simple stir-fry...

I do have a few bad temptations, as far as food goes. There are some really delicious frozen cream-based pasta meals that I like. I cook them in my toaster oven and slather them with parmesan. One of these meals costs under $4 and it's very filling; not like Australian frozen dinners where you always need something else to supplement the meal...

(I'm finding that most things here are cheaper than back home. I never thought of Australia as an expensive country, but it seems that with the strength of our dollar, we are more expensive.)

Then there's the chocolate croissants, but actually these aren't such a temptation as the bakeries nearest work are not so great; I only eat one when I haven't eaten breakfast and have no time to eat something decent.

Gyoza are a huge temptation. I always loved jiao zi but never found them often back home. In Japan they're everywhere. And they're soooo good... but they're fried in a lot of oil...

I'm also eating burgers a little more often than back home. My usual lunch is at Subway, but some days after an afternoon of teaching, my 'hamu to chedda cheezu tosuto' just isn't enough, so I get a Becker's Burger... they're so good...

I don't know why I'm rambling on about food... it's not like I'm hungry, having eaten so much... I always say you shouldn't go into a supermarket when you're hungry. That's probably why I ended up buying far too much this evening. I bought about eight things I felt like eating and only got through half of them, hahah...

What did I do today, apart from go to church? Hmmm... I came back through Yokohama station and tried to go shopping to buy a padded jacket... it really is so cold... I'm wearing the kind of clothes I would wear for winter in Australia, and the cold just bites through them like I'm not wearing them at all.

The shopping centres around Yokohama station are labyrinthine... I get so lost. I bought a few bits and pieces, including - I'm ashamed to say - more food. I bought Tim Tams (I'm such a sad Australian... you can only find them in specialty shops, but I've found a few of them...). I found Time Out bars as well! And green curry sauce... mmm... I want to eat Thai green curry, enough that I will actually be motivated to cook it. I haven't had it since I moved here. I also bought an Indian curry sauce which looks good. The only curry I've had here is 'curry rice', a peculiarly Japanese invention which, while not bad, is just not the same. I have a rice cooker, but I think I'll just buy pre-cooked steamed rice from the convenience store.

(Convenience stores really are convenient. There are three within three minutes' walk of my house. I even pay my utilities bills at the 'conbeni'.)

You can really find most foods here if you put your mind to it. Though sometimes only a particular variety of a food is common.

For example, virtually all Italian restaurants serve these huge but anaemic spaghetti dishes with a meagre sprinkle of mushrooms or clams or small bacon pieces or whatever... I find the sauces a bit disappointing. I'd love a rich, hearty, tomato-ey lasagna full of mushrooms and onion... mmm... or maybe penne pasta bake... some type of pasta other than spaghetti...

Another example is bread. Virtually all bread is white, and very thickly sliced. It's fresh and delicious. But it's bloating, especially in the morning. I'm so used to eating multigrain bread, which I prefer, that I struggle to eat breakfast at all now. So now I am buying rye bread, the only other option available. It's very similar to white bread - in Australia it probably wouldn't be called rye at all - but slightly more palatable.

Generally I'm eating about as wide a variety of food here as I would back home. And to be honest I don't eat that much Japanese food; only when I eat out with others. When I'm really hungry, I want something filling and hearty, and sometimes Japanese food just doesn't fit the bill. I do love Japanese noodles though, and I like nabe and shabu shabu (both forms of Japanese hotpot).

Okay, I'm really sounding food obsessed... what else did I do today... then I came back home, ate (too much) dinner, *finally* got rid of my HUGE bag of cardboard boxes and papers (this kind of garbage is only collected once a month, so they have been waiting a long time), had a bath, and spent a couple of hours surfing the web collecting idioms and proverbs for use in teaching.

Japanese people love baths, they are for relaxation as well as washing, and nearly all Japanese people love going to hot springs and the like. I've never been big on baths but I'm kind of getting into it, mostly because it's so cold...

Students really have trouble with my accent when I say the sound 'ni-'. For example, a whole class of people were stumped by the simple question "did you have a late night?" They kept repeating the word 'nought?' 'nate?' in confusion. Then again last week, a student couldn't understand me when I said "the ninth floor".

When my co-worker with his 'standard American' accent, says these words, everyone understands. We both tried out saying them to the Japanese staff. To the two of us, they sound so similar, but to Japanese people, apparently not!

I made a resolution today to study Japanese for an average of half an hour a day, each day this week. I am being Too Lazy.

Teaching English for the first time: general advice

2011-06-06T19:49:00.000+09:00

This continues from my first post about teaching English and my post about lesson planning.

Here are some additional, general pieces of advice.

Control your language

One very important skill you will learn 'on the job' is how to grade your own language. You will need to learn how to speak more clearly, to use simpler grammar and vocabulary, and to explain things clearly, with examples.

A lot of students say they can't understand their new foreign teacher. The new teacher, without realising it, is firing off sentences far too quickly, without understanding what students will and won't understand.

This is a problem for many a beginning teacher. We use heaps of idioms and figures of speech in our everyday speaking, without even realising it. It does take some practice, but once you get used to it, you can modulate your language according to each new student. If you see a new student and you don't know their level, you can greet them with very simple English. If they respond in a halting way, you'll know to keep your language very simple. If they speak smoothly and confidently, you can ask your next questions a little more naturally, and give more information yourself. After a few exchanged sentences, you can get a very rough feel for the kind of level of English you can use with that student.

Some tips for speaking to low-level students:
-For low level students, stick to simple questions. If they're struggling a lot, offer example answers. ('Where are you from?' (pause) 'Are you from Yokohama? Tokyo?')
-Say a few words and then pause to give time to process. It takes a while for beginners to mentally translate sentences.
-Smooth the way by using example words that are same in Japanese and English (burger, beer, Japanese city names). Obviously works less well if you don't know any Japanese or which words are similar!

As you get more experience, you'll get more of a feel for things students will and won't know. But bear in mind that most of your students will have learned English through classes and textbooks, so even higher level students may not have very good grasp of idioms.

Keep your instructions clear

Similar to 'controlling your language', when you explain tasks to students, keep it simple and to the point. For lower level students, use gestures and examples to help show your meaning. Also, keep the students with you as you explain the important things.

Example bad explanation: 'Okay, I'd like you guys to form pairs and practise page 50 from the textbook, one of you is gonna ask the other the questions from the top half of the page, and the other is gonna ask the bottom questions; after you finish I want you to solve this puzzle using the answers from the previously answered questions. Okay?'

Example good explanation: 'Okay, please open your book. Look at page 50.' (hold up the book to show the page, wait for students to open)
'Now, you are partners.' (gesturing to each student, putting them in pairs with your gesture) 'You're A, B. A, B.'
'Student A. Please ask your partner these questions.' (gesture to the questions)
'Student B. Please ask your partner these questions.' (gesture)
-(get students to do the exercise)-
'Okay! Now, look at the bottom of the page, here. (gesture) What's the answer to this puzzle?...

Notice the short sentences, the pauses for students to follow you, the gestures, and the delivering key information only at the appropriate moment. Of course, with higher-level classes, you don't want to dumb it down this much, and you can reduce the number of gestures. Still, even with them, you don't want to clutter your most important explanations with lots of unnecessary talking; they'll be straining to work out exactly what you're asking and to get the most important info.

If the exercise is not completely straightforward, you may also want to demonstrate how to do the exercise, by pairing up with a partner and asking them the first question or two from the exercise.

If you are totally new to teaching, I'd recommend actually practising this style of speaking yourself before going in front of a class. You might think 'oh, that sounds so easy', but until you're used to it, you'll likely find yourself putting in lots of 'well, let's see here...'s and 'what I'm gonna ask you to do's and 'oh and if you wouldn't mind...'s. Similarly, you could practise how you would explain the difference between two words, or the meaning of certain vocab words, in a really simple and clear way.

Check students' understanding

After you have explained something, unless the meaning could not possibly be misunderstood, check the students understand it!

For example, if you've just explained the difference between 'his' and 'him', write up a few short example sentences on the board, with gaps ('This is ___ book', 'I talked to ___ yesterday', etc). Get students to try to supply the missing words.

Or if you have just given students an exercise to do, you can check their understanding. 'So, what are you going to write?' 'Are you going to write, or just speak?'

Speaking together

Get students to work in pairs or small groups. Give them as much speaking time as possible. Unless you have a small class, try to limit activities where you ask every member of the class a question, or get every person to report back on what they talked about. Students in pairs get to talk more, and practise more.

If you are doing pairwork, and you have an odd number of students, you must decide whether to make a group of three, or to partner one of the students yourself. If you do the former, try to arrange it so that different people make a group of 3 in each activity. (Obviously, students in a group of 3 get less individual time to talk/practise.) If you do the latter, again, try to partner yourself with different students for different activities, and take pauses to check on the progress of other students.

Drilling

Don't be shy about drilling the students. It might seem boring to you, to have them repeat the same sentences several times. But if you've ever learned a language, you'll know that sometimes you just need to get your mouth used to saying the words!

Correcting students

When students are doing freer conversation, try not to interject and correct their every utterance. In my experience, Japanese students usually *do* want to be corrected if they are making errors, but choose your battles, so as not to discourage them with excessive corrections. If they can't express themselves or really foul up some language, correct them, but if they just leave out a 'the' or 'a', let it slide (unless 'the' and 'a' is the point of the lesson).

When you correct students, here are some handy ideas:

Get them to 'see' the error for themselves. For example, repeat back their error, emphasising the wrong word. ('He HAVE a car?') Or ask a question about it. ('You HAVE WORKED in Osaka last year? Do you work there now? No? Okay, how can we say this?')

Get them to repeat the correct sentence.

After the exercise has finished, put a few sentences you overheard on the board. Get students to look at them themselves and work out which are correct and incorrect.

If someone is making a common error, or several people make the same error, write it up on the board and get students to correct it and think about what the correct English is.

In my experience, many Japanese students have struggled with English learning precisely because they are not confident about just practising whatever language they think of, taking risks, making mistakes. In school, a lot of them practised endless reading and grammar, without much conversation practice. This means that what a lot of students most need is the chance to speak a lot and improve their fluency. Of course they should be helped to speak *correctly*, but be careful you don't correct them SO much that they can't get any flow going.

Nobody is speaking!

It depends on your class. Some classes will be a buzz of confident energy, where conversation flows freely. In other classes, getting any response from anybody will be like pulling teeth. What do you do in this situation?

I can tell you there is no easy answer, but some tips:
-get students speaking in pairs simultaneously; if several people are talking at the same time, nobody feels self-conscious about their voice being heard by the whole class.
-limit the number of questions you ask the class as a whole. Or, ask the questions, but provide the answer within a few seconds.*
-if their silence stems from lack of creativity or ideas, put up some ideas on the board.
-teach them how to ask a variety of questions. Teach them how to answer, and then add extra information. (Eg, if someone asks 'do you like video games?', don't just say 'yes'. You would go on to talk about what games you like, how often you play, etc.)

-make sure their silence is not caused by total lack of comprehension of the material. If students are in a class that is far too advanced for them (unfortunately, a common occurrence, at least in my experience), there may not be much you can do, except try to schedule bits of respite in the lesson where students can freely use language they *do* know confidently to talk about familiar topics.

*(This is not always recommended; sometimes students genuinely need a long time to understand the question and formulate an answer. You want to give these students the time to think it through. But in other cases, students just don't want to speak out in front of a whole class, especially when they are not confident about their answer. If you have such a class, don't spend half an hour fruitlessly waiting for answers to questions.)

Sometimes you do everything you can and they still don't talk much (in my experience, the worst situation is where you have a class of 3 shy people, because you can't just put them in pairs and get them to ignore their other classmates).

Random Pictures (6)

2011-06-02T13:32:00.000+09:00

Wow. The Japanese diet is known for being quite healthy, while we Westerners are thought to enjoy junk food a little too much for our own good. But I have never seen such a gargantuan stack of calories in Australia.

This is a sculpture at the Sapporo Snow Festival. The character is called Marimokkori, and is a popular character from Hokkaido, also popular with children. I thought 'oh, I have a dirty mind, that creature looks like it's got a boner, ha ha of course that can't be the case'. No. It really does.

I saw this billboard while waiting for a train in Kikuna. And no, I don't know what it is, either.

[By the way, if you have been a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed how rarely I have been posting lately. That's because I'm actually back in Australia at the moment - these last few posts were pre-written - and running out of things to say. If I ever go back to Japan, I'm sure I will post more actively again, but for now, this blog will be coming to a bit of a hiatus.]

Early impressions (2)

2011-05-31T23:54:00.007+09:00

As I mentioned, this series of posts will include diary entries I made when I first came to Japan.

***

(Dec 2007)

Last week I went outside the department store building where I work, to get my usual coffee, and what did I find but a full gospel choir! There were about 80 of them, Japanese people, but singing English Christmas carols and some popular gospel tunes ('Joyful Joyful' was one, I seem to remember). They were really good! With the faster songs they even did the whole swaying, clapping gospel choir thing.

Lots of passers-by were stopping and smiling. It was very infectious.

***

I got a haircut on the weekend. To get there I went along Motomachi street, near Chinatown. This street is pretty cool. It reminds me of a street in Paris or Sydney (okay, so Paris and Sydney are pretty different...)... the road is small, quiet, and one-way, and the street is lined with designer stores. Of course I didn't buy any designer goods but I had a nice cappuccino and salami pesto sandwich in a nice bakery.

The hairdresser was cool; the teacher I replaced had recommended him. I will go back to him because the service was so good, I feel like I am already 'his' customer.

When I first went into the salon, he was making endless small talk with his client. After he was done with her, he started with me - a continual stream of questions and conversation. It was fun, and I couldn't help thinking - hairdressers really are the same all over the world.

The hairdresser speaks English, but punctuated with the most 'anou's and 'sou ka's I've ever heard... a lot of Japanese people use the occasional Japanese word or phrase when they are thinking - 'etouuu' ('uhh...') is common. My manager often says 'nandarou...' (which means something like 'let me think...').

I have one really beginner student who sometimes simply says Japanese sentences instead of English ones, because she simply lacks the words. I'm pretty proud of myself - one student said he went to a casino, and she asked me a question in Japanese. I translated it 'how much money did you lose?' I could understand enough Japanese to work out what she wanted to say.

I can understand pretty well all of the train announcements now. 'mamonaku' means 'presently'. 'kakueki teesha' means 'local train'. 'Omiya-yuki' means 'bound for Omiya'. Then there's 'doa ga shimarimasu - go-chui kudasai' ('the doors are closing - take care please')

***

Reading hiragana and katakana has proved more difficult than I first imagined. I had pretty well learned the hiragana when I left Australia, and a few katakana. In my first week in Kyoto I kept looking up the hiragana and katakana on signs to practise and learn the characters I didn't remember. Since then I have intermittently practised reading hiragana and katakana in my textbook, on signs, and from children's books.

Despite all this, I still haven't *mastered* them. I still have to *think*. I guess some things, you can't just learn by osmosis. You have to study them properly, until you really know them. Just because you're surrounded by Japanese characters all day, it doesn't mean you'll magically learn them all without any real effort.

The one thing I do seem to be gradually improving in without studying, is numbers - I understand them more quickly. Sometimes now, I can understand how much money someone is asking for, without looking. Haha... but not that often...

The other day I got a letter. I thought it was for the previous resident, as the label was all in Japanese. But actually it was for me (from my insurer). Seems I don't even recognise my own name any more. I've had to write my name in katakana a few times now... and write my year of birth in terms of the Emperor's reign.

Did you know that? I was pretty surprised! On official documents, you write your birthdate as the year of the Emperor's reign. For example, if you were born in 1980, you were born in the year '55'... the 55th year of the previous Emperor's rule. This year is 19 - the 19th year of the current Emperor. My train pass had 19/12/11 as the end date - meaning 11 Dec 2007... who would have thought?

Teaching English for the first time: planning a lesson

2011-05-30T19:48:00.005+09:00

(See my earlier blog post on teaching English for the first time in Japan. It has some more general tips.)

So... you're a brand-new teacher. You're given a textbook with a grammar point for the day, and you have no teaching experience, and you're going to teach a 50-hour conversation class.

Here's an idea for how you could teach a lesson. For the sake of a concrete example, let's imagine we are teaching 'present continuous' (I am going, he is eating).

1. Warm-up: give students a few minutes to chat - maybe give them a random conversation topic - or some kind of vocabulary game.

[In this case, I might get them to talk about hobbies or give them a vocab game to think up different verbs. It will be useful for the lesson to come.]

2. Introduce the language of the class: this could take the form of setting up a situation and getting students to comment on it (see this previous post), reading a small article, looking at a dialogue, etc.

[In the case of present continuous, I'd try doing a simple activity, like miming reading. I'd ask students, 'what am I doing?' and get them to answer me. If they can't give me a correct sentence, I'd provide it ('you are reading') and get them to repeat it.
Then I'd do another gesture, like eating, and get them all to say what I'm doing. Repeat a couple more times. I'd write the sentence on the board ('you are __ing').
Get them to practise the exercise with each other (eg, one person acts a gesture, the other guesses).
I'd put up words like 'I' and 'he' and ask them to give me the sentence (I AM _ing, he IS _ing'), get them to repeat, write it on the board. If the class is not having too much trouble with the material thus presented, also cover questions (at least, 'what are you doing?', 'what is he doing?' etc)
Drill key sentences (get students to repeat them, correct their intonation etc).]

3. Get more exposure to the language point using material from the textbook.

[For example, try a listening activity, or practise reading a dialogue together.]

4. Practise the language point a bit more actively, but still in a controlled way. For example, use a questionnaire or survey.

[I might put students in pairs to do a worksheet with pictures of people doing different things (each student has a different paper). Students ask each other what the people on their sheet are doing.]

5. Practise the language in freer conversation. Set up a situation where students can have a more natural conversation, or roleplay practise.

[I might have students pretend to call each other on the phone, and ask each other what they (and their family) are doing... it might be nice to have students practise a varient of what they did in the listening activity or dialogue. Another thing I like to do for present continuous is, if possible, take the students into a public area and get them to, in pairs and while speaking, make a list of things they see people doing.]

This is not a perfect lesson, nor is it one-size-fits-all. A lot of Japanese English conversation schools use a lesson structure a little like this. It's a bit formulaic, and you'll need to inject some personality into it to make it interesting, but it can work quite well. If you have absolutely no idea where to start, you could use this 'formula' as a basis for planning your own lesson. Then after the lesson, think about what went well and what didn't. If you taught it again, what would you change?

If you are teaching 'functional language' (eg, instead of using a particular grammar point, general English for 'ordering at a restaurant' or 'disagreeing with someone', you can follow the same steps, but one nice idea - so long as you haven't got real beginners - is getting students to practise roleplaying at the *start* of the lesson - eg, 'here are your menus, try ordering from them' - so you can see what they do and don't know. Then you can get some ideas from them for language, and put them on the board, as well as teaching them new expressions and ideas. This is also nice for helping students feel like they learned something, and could do something new at the end of the lesson than at the beginning.)

Lesson order

Whatever you decide to do, if you are a new teacher, I would recommend a 'safe' general lesson order of: introducing language point, drilling (students repeat examples of the language), controlled practice and free practice.

'Controlled' practice refers to speaking practice where you are kind of 'forced' to use the language point in a fairly structured way. For example, a questionnaire or textbook exercise where students must ask and answer questions, using the language point. 'Free' practice' is where students talk, or do a roleplay or conversation, where they can use the language point where appropriate.

The difference here is that in controlled practice, students don't need to think very creatively, or come up with their own ideas - they are focusing on making the sentences correctly and being accurate. Then in the freer practice, improving fluency, using the language appropriately in conversation, and thinking of your own ideas is important.

It's important, though, to give students a good amount of time to use the language, not just studying how to make sentences.

Thinking about the language

Another thing I would recommend is, if you are a new teacher, take a few minutes to think about the language point you're going to teach. This doesn't come easily at first, but with time...

If you are at a Japanese-style English conversation school, you've likely got a textbook with clearly defined units and language points, which students study at home before coming to class; the teacher is not expected to spend much time 'teaching' grammar or language. Still, questions may come up and it's good to know what you will and won't cover. Also, if you give each language point some consideration, you will build up your understanding of English and how different pieces of language work, which will really enrich your teaching.

As an example, with present continuous, think about:

-How is it formed? (I am _ing, he/she/it IS __ing, you/they/we ARE _ing)

-What are some uses of this language? Are we going to cover all of them in class? (For example, 'I am eating dinner now, please call me later' is talking about an action happening *right now*. 'I am working hard these days' is talking about a recent activity, but you are not necessarily doing it at this moment. 'I am going out tonight' is a future activity.)

Unless you have a higher level class, or you are doing a review of something the students should already know, I'd recommend focusing on one main use per class. Then you can design activities practising that use a lot, so students can really understand it and use it.

-Are there any pitfalls with this language? (Yes; we generally don't use present continuous for 'state' verbs, that is, verbs that show a state rather than an activity. Examples are be, know, love. We don't usually say 'I am knowing him' or 'he is being a doctor'. There are exceptions, but better to cover in a more advanced class.)

I have one more post on the theme of teaching English: see my next post.

Early impressions (part 1)

2011-05-26T23:54:00.000+09:00

I was reading back through old journals of mine and I found some entries I'd written early in my stay in Japan. These posts were written in my first few months living in Yokohama (mostly early 2008). I thought I'd post some of them for you, since, although the content is old for me, it may be new for people who haven't spent much time in Japan. ^_^

***

Random cultural observations:

In an elevator, one guy held back for a moment to let two others leave first. Those two men bowed to him and said 'sumimasen' ('excuse me'), before leaving.

After living here so long, it's easier for me to kneel, sitting on my feet. Before I could only do it for a few seconds.

All women carry handkerchiefs. They are not for blowing your nose; rather, for drying your hands in a public restroom. I knew this before but I only noticed recently that I was constantly the only person drying my hands on my coat.

In Western countries, 'yes' is a tick. In Japan, it's a circle. A teacher at my school always goes through students' work and circles the correct sentences in red pen. To me it looks like she's marking them wrong.

Also, some gestures are different. To gesture 'come here', you wave your palm down, which to us can actually look like the gesture for 'go away'. Also, to gesture "me", instead of touching your chest, you point to your nose.

Crabs are gestured by making 'scissors' with your index and middle fingers. Cats are gestured by making one hand into a fist - a 'paw' - and holding it to your face like a maneki neko.

This doesn't always happen, but if you're out in a group and someone is ordering food for the table, you can often expect them to order WAY too much. And then when it comes, they won't eat it quickly. Food often sits on the table getting cold while people are talking, and nobody ever eats the last piece.

People often ask you if you're cold, when it isn't cold. And people almost always leave their coats on while riding trains and doing their shopping, even though it's far too warm for comfort.

Random Pictures (5)

2011-05-22T12:10:00.001+09:00

In our first picture today we have a square melon. Very nice, eh? So is the price tag: 15,000 yen. That's over AU $160. Believe it or not, this is far from being one of the most expensive 'gift fruits' on offer. I'm telling you, these things had better taste like ambrosia.

This is a crane game. The prizes are these little characters shaped like poo. Lovely.

I spotted this cute, friendly, not-creepy-at-all fellow in a children's play area in Omiya, in Saitama prefecture.
If you need me, I'll be under my bed.

Weird food

2011-05-05T13:01:00.000+09:00

There's a lot of weird food in Japan. I mean a lot. I'm not just talking about things like natto with a raw egg mixed into it, or pizza with corn on it.

Japan is a country that loves its food. Every town and area seems to be famous for some specialty food item. Every season, cafes and restaurants bring out seasonal menus (for example, autumnal dishes feature mushrooms, chestnuts, etc). New and short-time-only! snacks are constantly coming out. And there are lots of little restaurants, cafes and shops focusing on selling a particular, niche type of product.

Let's look at some examples I saw last year.

Cone pizza

It's a pizza, in cone shape.

From the sign, it appears that this means much, much more pizza sauce and cheese can be added to the pizza. What a good idea.

Though I wouldn't expect it to be as nice as a regular pizza, I may actually try this just to see what it's like.

Canned oden

If you don't know what oden is, it's disgusting even when 'fresh'. Basically, take various unidentifiable processed cakes, made from fish paste, konnyaku, tofu - and eggs - and simmer them in a hot vat for hours until they are soggy and smell bad.

You'll find these oden trays, particularly in winter, sometimes even in convenience stores.

I guess someone found sodden fish cakes attractive enough to try to sell them in a tin.

By the way, underneath, it says 'atataka-i', which means this canned abomination comes heated.

Weird bakery items

Japanese bakeries are nice because you can find a wide variety of small snacks. However, a lot of those snacks have weird surprises hidden inside, which is one of the best incentives for learning to read katakana quickly.

Recently I bought a kind of hot dog from a bakery, and started eating it, when I realised it had fish eggs in it. FISH EGGS in my HOT DOG.

Hamburger pizza

What I mean by this is a pizza with eight individual hamburger patties on the top of it.

I have seen many other examples of 'chucking random items of food onto a pizza'. Such as a pizza topped with chicken nuggets. Or potato wedges. Or an entire wheel of camembert cheese. >_<

Ice dogs

What this is is a cheap, low-grade hot dog bun, with cheap, low-grade soft serve icecream inside.

It's a SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM HOT DOG.

I might actually be up for this if the quality of the bread didn't scream '6 for 100 yen, reduced for quick sale'. But I could not eat that bread without anything more substantial on it to mask the taste...

Mitsuike Park

2011-04-29T10:42:00.001+09:00

In my last post I said that Mitsuike Park was my pick for a great place to see cherry blossoms. But I didn't post any pictures of it. So here are some pictures of Mitsuike Park in cherry blossom time.

The picture full of people having hanami was taken on a weekend; the others on a weekday.

I haven't been to this park in other seasons, but I'm sure it's beautiful year-round. My pictures have focused on the cherry trees, but there are lots of other flowers and trees and grassy areas.

Entrance to the park is free. There's not much by way of shops or cafes nearby or in the park (actually I didn't find any), though of course there are the usual drinks vending machines.

You can take a bus there from Tsurumi or Shin-Yokohama station - bus 104 and get off at stop Mitsuike Koen Kitamon (Mitsuike Park North Gate). If I recall correctly, the bus I took was from Tsurumi bound for Kawasaki, and it took about 15 minutes from Tsurumi. (Sorry; it's been a couple of years since I went there by bus.)

Cherry blossoms

2011-04-23T10:41:00.001+09:00

Meguro River cherry blossoms

Hanami season has just ended in Yokohama, so I thought I'd do a post about cherry blossoms.

Japan is famous for cherry blossoms, and rightly so. They're everywhere! While the trees are in bloom, ordinary, drab landscapes suddenly transform into visions of beautiful. You suddenly realise how many cherry trees there are about. Most parks have them, because a popular social event in Japan is the 'hanami' or 'cherry blossom viewing party'. These can be as simple as three or four people sitting in a park with beers, or a huge company group all gathering with masses of supplies and food and booze. (Booze is a pretty consistent factor in hanami. ^_^)

Cherry trees are usually at their peak for about a week, but the total window of possible hanami is usually 2-3 weeks. It varies; for example, if the blossoms start to come out, and then the weather turns super cold, they will bloom more slowly and last longer. If the blossoms start to bloom and then it's very warm, or there's a lot of rain and wind, naturally the life of the blossoms will be sped up.

Also, even within a city, different locations may have trees blooming at different times.

If you want to go to Japan for cherry blossom season, it's difficult to time perfectly, but it's well worth it. It changes from year to year, but usually the last week of March and the first two weeks of April are prime cherry blossom times for Tokyo and Yokohama.

I'm going to list the places I have been for hanami or just taking pictures of cherry trees. Any of these places could be wonderful if you go when the sky is blue and the trees are at their peak, but here are my thoughts.

In Kawasaki city There are a couple of places I know; firstly, right next to the train station rails, between Kawasaki Le-Front and the tracks, there's a row of trees which are rather pretty. Also, if you walk from Keikyu Kawasaki toward the race course, you'll find a small shrine, and there are a few cherry trees here. I wouldn't particularly recommend these spots, but they're good if you happen to be in the city.

Kawasaki Daishi and surrounds Kawasaki Daishi is a large, popular shrine to visit. The park nearby is large and full of cherry trees, so it's a popular hanami spot in spring. It's nice, and you may even be able to tie it in with a visit to the, erm, unique Kanamara festival.

Kawasaki Daishi

Odawara Castle If you travel south of Yokohama, you can hit Odawara, a small castle town. The castle itself is a reconstruction, but still pretty. This is quite a famous cherry blossom viewing spot, and no wonder. On the grounds is a lake (?river) with a street lined with cherry trees; very picturesque.

Mitsuike Park It's in Tsurumi - you'll have to take a bus or taxi - but it was one of the most impressive cherry blossom displays I saw; the park is large, and the park was full of them. This place is popular for hanami, but because it's so large, you should be able to find a place. There's a lot of nature in general, too - it's not just a small, stunted city park with lots of asphalt. I wrote a little more about this park (with pictures) in my next blog post.

Yumemigasaki This park, in Kawasaki, is not all that impressive for cherry trees. There are a few, but not many. Still, I've been there for hanami a couple of times; I think my friends choose it because it's not very popular for hanami and we can always get a good place. There's also a small, free zoo nearby.

Ueno Park This famous park in Tokyo is a famous hanami spot. This is where you see the junior businessmen sadly sitting in the rain on their tarps, protecting the prime hanami spots for their company. The corridors of cherry trees are very beautiful though. You can also buy festival food here.

Ueno Park

Meguro Along the Meguro river in Meguro, Tokyo, are masses of cherry trees. This is another of those places that made me just stare and go 'wow!' I wouldn't come here for hanami - the pavements are not that wide, and it's a bit urban - but it's a great place to walk.

Sakuragicho In Minato Mirai, Yokohama (well, 'Sakuragicho' means 'Cherry tree town', after all). This is not a great place for cherry trees, but there *are* a bunch of them along the bridge to World Porters/Cosmo World. Also a few near the Landmark Tower.

Okurayama A park in Yokohama (Okurayama is on the Tokyu Toyoko line, and the park is right near the station). The cherry blossoms are quite good - not great - but actually this park is more known for its plum blossoms. Plum blossoms come out earlier than cherry blossoms.

Okurayama

Of course there are other famous hanami spots around Tokyo and Yokohama, but these are the ones I have personally visited in the three springs I spent in Japan. ^_^ As for my personal recommendations... I think Mitsuike Park is the most impressive, but you should also visit the Meguro River and Ueno (Ueno's hanami are a bit of a Tokyo institution). If you'd like a day trip, Odawara is also nice.

Doala

2011-04-16T12:34:00.000+09:00

What would you suppose would be the famous mascot character of a baseball team called the 'Chunichi Dragons'?

That's right, it's a giant blue koala called 'Doala'. This character is a popular mascot, and a famous 'face' of Nagoya.

I was amused the other day, passing by a Japanese curry shop, to see that they were selling Doala curry.

I don't know, I think I'd prefer beef...

Lining up

2011-04-12T10:59:00.000+09:00

Back when I was teaching in Nagoya, late last year, I asked my students my usual Monday morning question, 'what did you do on the weekend?'

One student's reply: 'I lined up 6 hours to buy Arashi goods.'

Arashi is a popular boy band. I am a fairly open-minded person. Although I personally probably wouldn't spend half a day lining up to see a famous person or get concert tickets, I can understand that some people might want to.

However, please note what she actually said: she lined up to BUY ARASHI-RELATED MERCHANDISE. The band did not appear in person at all. Apparently this merchandise was specialised for their Nagoya appearance, which somehow made it so desirable that thousands of young girls would line up for 6 hours or more. She said the sale was at Nagoya Dome, and people were lining up from OZONE station. o_O

I have mentioned before that many Japanese people seem to have more patience for lining up, particularly for a product that is considered to have a reputation or is for a limited time. This is a nice little illustration of the principle at work.

Nagoya-ryori

2011-04-09T13:15:00.001+09:00

Nagoya is known for its food. I wasn't overly impressed - I thought the restaurants there lacked variety - but I'll give you a small features on Nagoya food.

Miso katsu
Katsu is deep-fried, breaded pork. When it's good quality (ie, not all gristly), it's actually delicious. The oil gleams on it beautifully. ^_^ Miso katsu is katsu with a thick, dark miso sauce on it. People describe the taste as 'koi', which, roughly translated, means 'heavy' or 'rich'. It is quite a strong taste, though not bad. I wouldn't recommend getting a large dish of it unless you're sure you like it.

Hitsumabushi
This is an eel donburi dish, ie, eel on rice. If you like eel, and rice, you will probably enjoy it. ^_^

Ten musubi
The 'ten' is from 'tempura', and the 'musubi' means rice ball. Basically this is a sushi roll with tempura inside. I like tempura, so I like this reasonably well, but I do find it a rather odd combination.

Miso nikomi udon
This name is a struggle to say quickly. ^_^ This is an udon (noodle) dish with miso flavouring and lots of vegetables. Miso seems to be a bit of a specialty of Nagoya cuisine.

Miso nikomi udon. Yes, that's an egg. Yes, it does look disgusting.

How does it taste? Hmm... not as bad as it looks. That dark brown colouring is from miso, and the whole dish tastes strongly of miso. It is also 'koi' (strong) and a bit salty. I don't really recommend it.

Tebasaki
These are fried chicken wings. Basically, they just taste like fried chicken wings, but they are very tasty, if a bit fiddly to eat. You can see tebasaki in the picture at the top of this entry.

Useful everyday kanji - out and about

2011-03-25T10:50:00.001+09:00

Here are a few handy kanji if you're out and about.

洋 ('you') means 'Western'. Two useful places to know this kanji are in a bathroom (where it denotes Western-style toilets, ie non-squat toilets) and a bookstore, where it indicate the foreign book section.

番 ('ban') means 'number'. 一番 means 'number one'.

店 ('mise') means 'shop'. At the end of a word (as part of a compound) it is usually said 'ten', like 売店 ('baiten'; shop, stand).

市 ('shi') means 'city'. Other useful address-related kanji include 町 ('chou' - 'town' or 'neighbourhood') 区 ('ku' - ward) and 県 ('ken' - prefecture).

For doors, elevators and buttons:

押す (osu, push)

引く (hiku, pull)

閉 (close)

開 (open)

For stores:

営業中 (eigyouchuu) - open (literally 'in the middle of business' or 'in the middle of sales')

準備中 (junbichuu) - closed (literally 'in the middle of preparation')

This kanji 営業 (eigyou) is handy because it's also used in 'operating hours' (営業時間 eigyoujikan) or 'operating days' (営業日 eigyoubi) on shops and restaurants.

Earthquake (update)

2011-03-14T09:58:00.000+09:00

Please note, I'm not a news source. But I do have a bunch of friends in Japan, and here are some of the things people in Tokyo and Yokohama have been saying today:

-The atmosphere on the streets is calm. However, supermarkets have been quickly selling out of everything. Shelves are bare.

-Japanese TV is focusing on broadcasting information about upcoming blackouts, scheduled for short blocks in certain areas. For example, a particular ward might lose power for 3 - 4 hours at a time. Some trains will not be running due to the blackouts. The TV hasn't been airing quite as much footage of the destruction in Fukushima, possibly hoping to avoid panic?

-One report said that these blackouts are predicted to last through April. I don't know if this is accurate though.

-People are not being encouraged to return to work just yet. With trains often not running, people are mostly staying where they are.

-A nuclear power plant in Fukushima has developed a leak, and many people were evacuated from the area to avoid exposure to radiation.

Earthquake

2011-03-13T10:43:00.000+09:00

I am not living in Japan any more - these last few posts you've seen were pre-written - so I have fortunately missed the big earthquake.

As you know, there was an earthquake of magnitude around 8.8, which hit the coast north-east of Japan, creating a huge tsunami and causing a lot of damage. The biggest city nearest the quake was Sendai, in the Tohoku region.

I am relieved to say that, as far as I can tell, my friends in Kawasaki and Yokohama seem to be okay. In those areas, buildings were evacuated and the earthquake was strongly felt, but it didn't cause a lot of damage; they were too far from the quake. Japan has quite strict rules about earthquake preparedness, and I believe buildings must be constructed to certain standards. Phone networks were down and train lines stopped, as there were a lot of aftershocks.

It sounded pretty scary and I hope things will settle down and there will not be another large quake, as I heard they were predicting.

I send my thoughts and good wishes to the people in Japan suffering from this disaster. :(

You can go now

2011-03-08T21:05:00.000+09:00

Sometimes I see people doing jobs that nobody should have to do. In many cases their entire function could be replaced by a box, a sign, or a traffic light. In some cases, the function is already being done by a box, sign or traffic light, and the person is completely superfluous.

Examples of such jobs, which usually make me feel sorry for the person doing them:

People standing on a street corner holding an advertisement on a pole.

People waving pedestrians across the street.

People standing next to construction work waving people around the cones.

People trying to hand out brochures to pedestrians.

Many large car parks have an attendant out the front. His job is to indicate to a car when they can drive out the exit, or to indicate to a pedestrian when they can walk past the exit. I don't mean he does this on festival days or days of incredibly high traffic, I mean he does this all the time, even though a driver should clearly be able to identify for him or herself whether there is a pedestrian walking in front of her car.

Sometimes you even have assistants stationed at traffic lights or random side streets to tell people when to walk and stop. I admit I find these ones a bit irritating. I am an adult; I know how to cross the street by myself.

They have these on the street near my university. I was told they were there to make sure the students *did* stop to let traffic through occasionally, otherwise there might be a constant stream of students crossing the road. Okay, but most of the streets *don't* have an attendant, and I have often seen students stop en masse to let traffic pass - all of their own volition! Wow!

I must admire the work ethic of these guys. I'm sure it's soul-crushingly boring work, but most of them are quite diligent, waving with gusto and a very efficient-sounding shout of 'okay, you can go now!'

Cream puffs

2011-03-04T23:37:00.001+09:00

Beard Papa's is a 'chou cream' (cream puff) chain in Japan. You'll recognise them by the smell of heaven itself.

The cream puff 'shells' are very freshly baked on site, and they fill them with a delicious custard cream when you order them, so they aren't soggy. If you eat them soon after buying them, they are crisp and fresh.

You can get different types of shell, like normal 'chou pie', 'cookie chou' and 'Paris Brest'. I recommend cookie chou. ^_^ Every month or so they usually have a special 'short-time-only' filling as an alternative to the regular custard cream. In late autumn, they had chestnut cream; then last month they had sweet potato. I'm not sure what it is now.

There are not many Beard Papa's in Yokohama. There used to be one in Yokohama station, but I think it's closed, as their website doesn't list it any more. I always went to the one in the basement of Kawasaki BE, in Kawasaki. In Nagoya I go to the Beard Papa's at Atsuta AEON mall.

According to their website, there's also a Beard Papa's in LalaPort (nearest station, Kamoi, on the Yokohama line). There's one at the shopping centre at Kamiooka station (Yokohama subway blue line or Keikyuu line). And there's one in Tressa, near Mitsuike Park in Tsurumi.

Random pictures (4)

2011-02-27T22:32:00.000+09:00

Apparently Dilbert's pointy-haired boss has taken up dentistry.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

This is exactly what it looks like - half a loaf of bread with icecream and syrup on the top.

Enjoy.

This ridiculous-looking creature is the mascot character of Nagoya's public transport system. (Don't you know that everything in Japan has a mascot character?) Nagoya seems to have a preponderance of ugly mascot creatures, but nothing is as bad as Nara's Sento-kun.

How to use shinkansen tickets

2011-02-23T00:08:00.000+09:00

Every time I took a shinkansen, I seemed to do something wrong and would get 'beeped' by a ticket gate, requiring the assistance of various rail staff. I think I've finally figured it out, so I'll share the benefit of my experience with you. ^_^

To ride a shinkansen, you need two tickets. One of these connects you from one city zone to another city zone (eg, from Nagoya city zone to Tokyo city zone). Let's call this the 'city ticket'. The other has your seat reservation. Let's call this the 'seat ticket'.

[You can also get 'non-reserved' seats, which means you don't have a set seat but must sit in the non-reserved car. This is risky as you might not get a seat at all. The price difference between a reserved and non-reserved seat is pretty small, so if you know for sure which train you want to take, you might as well just buy a reserved ticket.]

You will use the city ticket when travelling between two cities, eg Nagoya and Tokyo. See, if you get a shinkansen ticket from Nagoya station to Shinagawa station (in Tokyo), what it actually means is you can travel from anywhere in Nagoya city to anywhere in Tokyo city (but you must use JR train lines).

You will use the seat ticket merely when entering and leaving the shinkansen gates.

Let me give you a concrete example.

You are travelling from Kanayama, in Nagoya, to Shibuya, in Tokyo. The shinkansen travels from Nagoya station to Shinagawa station.

1. When you go to JR Kanayama station, put in the 'city ticket' and go to Nagoya station.

2. Transfer to the shinkansen within Nagoya station (do not exit the main station), and put both shinkansen tickets in the ticket machine. (You can put them both in at the same time, one on top of the other.) Do not lose these, as the conductor will check them on the train, and you need both of them to exit.

3. When you get to Shinagawa, transfer to the JR lines (do not exit the main station). Put both shinkansen tickets in the machine. Now your 'seat ticket' will be eaten, as you have finished with the shinkansen. You will get your 'city ticket' back.

4. Go to Shibuya, and you can use your 'city ticket' to exit the final JR ticket gate at Shibuya station.

Where it gets (even more) complicated is if, for example, you are using a Suica card or travelling outside the designated city zones.

For example, let's imagine I'm going from Kanayama station (in Nagoya) to Kawasaki (which is near Tokyo, but not in the Tokyo city zone). Steps 1 - 3 above remain the same. However, once you get to step 4, the ticket gate won't let you out. This is because you've left the Tokyo city zone, and you have to
pay the fare from Tokyo to Kawasaki. To remedy that situation, at Kawasaki station, put your shinkansen 'city ticket' in the 'fare adjustment' machine, and you can pay the extra 150 yen.

This situation also applies if you are going somewhere within Tokyo city, but using the subway. Your shinkansen tickets will only cover JR lines. If you change from the JR line, you have to pay for your own ticket on the new line.

What if you're using a charge card?

Okay, let's imagine I'm going to use my Suica card and travel from Kawasaki back to Nagoya. At Kawasaki station, I would use only my Suica to enter Kawasaki station. Then at Shinagawa station, I would transfer to the shinkansen line, using my Suica AND two shinkansen tickets. The Suica would deduct the fare from Kawasaki to Shinagawa, while the two shinkansen tickets would register that you've entered Shinagawa station.

(If you have cumbersome luggage, it requires some sleight of hand to scan your Suica card and put your two shinkansen tickets in the machine simultaneously...)

I hope that makes sense, and covers the main situations. :)

City Spotlight: Akihabara (part 2)

2011-02-18T23:51:00.000+09:00

Figurine shops

This is my biggest interest as I was fond of anime in the past, and anime figurines are not something you can readily find (at least in the same volume) in most stores in Japan or Australia.

In Japan, they are called 'figures'.

A good-quality figure ^_^

There are quite a few figurine shops in Akihabara. Some sell other products, others specialise in figurines. Figurines range from the 100-yen kind - for example, the kind you get from gachapon machines - in little plastic bags, to large, expensive boxed products worth tens of thousands.

A lot of figurine shops will have the best, most expensive (or mass-produced) figurines in boxes. Mid-range figurines will be in glass cases - you may need to ask an the attendant to get them. Cheaper figurines will be in small plastic bags, though even some of the cheaper figurines can look quite decent. They usually fall in the 100 - 1500 yen range, these cheap ones.

The characters are often grouped roughly according to category (eg, 'girl's anime', 'Gundams', etc). The stores usually have a haphazard feel to them, where you find yourself taking your time looking through lots of characters to find ones you want.

Some figurines are designed to stand up on their own; some are keychains or phone straps; some have moveable parts; many have to be 'built' by the buyer (as simple as sticking the legs into the torso).

My 'cheap' Cammy. With detachable arms and hair. ^_^

Another type of figurine store is one where individual people can get a case, and sell their own figurines, via the store, to the public. You'll recognise these stores by their randomness; each glass case can have quite an eclectic mix of characters, seemingly unrelated. Although you can find some unique items here, you may be able to find the same figures in other stores for cheaper prices.

My personal favourite store is Kotobukiya - right near Akihabara station - it sells a variety of video game and anime merchandise, Akihabara souvenirs, and the upstairs section has a decent variety of figurines. ^_^

Finding things

Be aware that while this is otaku (geek) heaven, it *is* Japan. There may be manga stores with several floors of different manga and doujinshi (fan-made manga), but it will, naturally, be in Japanese. There may be video game stores with masses of cheap titles, but they will all be in Japanese and localised for Japanese consoles. Personally, I have seen almost no English material in Akihabara.

Another thing is that although there is a lot of character merchandise around, obviously, the most popular or most recent shows and games have the most merchandise. Also, although at first glance there seems to be a dazzling variety, a lot of shops actually have the same items and same characters.

You will be in luck if you like Gundam, Evangelion, One Piece, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy 7, Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto... apart from the opportunity to make figurines of sexy or cute female characters, 'guy's anime' are definitely more popular.

I remember that when I was a kid, I liked 'Fushigi Yuugi' and 'Magic Knight Rayearth'. I thought they were pretty famous/popular in their time (more than 10 years ago), but I couldn't find one figurine or item for any of the characters in any shop. Not that I was particularly looking, but I always recognise characters I know. Now I wonder if it's partly because these were anime popular with girls, so there is less call for them with male customers of the shops.

Not family friendly

There's also a good deal of weird stuff around. I do not go to Akiba to seek out naked animated characters, but it's impossible to avoid them. There are a lot of female characters with grotesquely swollen breasts (every time I see them I think, 'ouch, that's gotta be causing some back problems'). There are also many cutesy, sometimes alarmingly young-looking girls with flushed, coy, 'oh, don't touch me there!' expressions. (If you have seen them, you'll know what I'm talking about. Anime mouse pads make a lot of use of this, as do figurines and posters. I will not provide links to examples. -_-)

Occasionally you'll accidentally wander into some place and feel ashamed to be in there. Since the more valuable merchandise in Akiba is in glass cases, to be bought on request, I wonder how anyone could deal with the shame of actually asking for one of these items. -_-

On other occasions you'll find yourself in a shop, and there's nothing openly graphic in there, but you feel a vague sense of uneasiness. I found myself in a shop containing nothing but merchandise with cute young girl characters - nothing unseemly, just generic cute characters I didn't know, but looking like any children's comic - yet the shop was full of adult men.

Anyway, I don't want to give the impression that all of Akiba is grotty, but I wouldn't recommend taking your children shopping in this area.

City Spotlight: Akihabara (part 1)

2011-02-14T22:36:00.000+09:00

Akihabara ('Akiba' for short) is an area of Tokyo which is a nerd mecca. If you have any interest in electronics, video games, anime, manga or collectable figurines, I recommend checking it out. If you don't, then there isn't really that much for you here. If you want an area with some geeky stuff but a variety of other stores and entertainment, try Ikebukuro instead.

In line with geek interests, Akiba's shops lean very much toward cute or sexy female characters, and also giant robots like Gundam. Akiba also caters to fans of real people, especially cute young girl groups such as AKB48, but most of what you see are anime, manga or game characters. As you might expect, this is an area that attracts a lot more guys than girls.

For me personally, the things I especially like doing at Akiba are: getting kebabs from the kebab men outside the station, looking at figurines, looking at the wacky gifts and souvenirs, going in the retro video game stores, and having a coffee at Starbucks or Excelsior.

You can also buy anime or game music, specialised electronic parts, computers and computer equipment - there are a couple of big-name generic electronics 'department stores' as well as lots of smaller shops.

Location

Akihabara is in Tokyo; it's north of Tokyo station, not far from Ueno. It's on the JR Yamanote, Keihin-Tohoku and Sobu lines, as well as Tokyo Metro's Hibiya line and the Tsukuba Express.

Akiba's main street

If you take the Electric Town exit, you'll come to a main street lined with gingko trees. This has some of the major electronics stores as well as other geeky shops. There's also a cluster of shops immediately around the station. If you cross the main road you'll find another cluster of streets with other electronics and hobby shops.

If you take the opposite Showa-dori exit, there's a big Yodobashi Camera store.

Peculiarities

One specialty of Akihabara is the 'maid cafes'. These are cafes where the waitresses are dressed as cute maids, and act a little cutesy... well, that's it, really. Some of them are really just like normal cafes, but the waitresses wear French maid's costumes. I visited a maid cafe in Akihabara once; there was nothing untoward about it, and it had a mixture of male and female guests. Others, I have heard, may involve more interactivity or quirks like maids playing children's games with the customers or giving massages or something.

Ad for a maid cafe. You can often see maid girls on the street trying to attract customers.

Another feature of Akiba is that it has quite a few weird and wacky gift and souvenir shops. There are some souvenirs and snacks you can't readily find in 'ordinary' Japanese souvenir shops. You can buy canned oden. (Why would you want any oden at all?) You can get cookies with maids on them. You can buy snacks with the Prime Minister on them. You can buy cans of bread with anime characters on them. (Yes, canned bread. Yes, it really does sound disgusting, doesn't it?)

I will continue with more geekiness in the next post. ^_^

Karaoke recommendations

2011-02-10T21:22:00.000+09:00

While on the subject of karaoke, if you're looking for some Japanese songs to learn/sing, here are some of my favourites. I chose ones that I thought were popular and well-known, fun to sing, and not too fast to read. Mind you, if you are a total beginner at reading Japanese, they will still be too fast.

If you don't like singing karaoke, I still recommend giving these songs a listen. ^_^

I have included the Japanese song title and artist. I tried to put it here as you'd find it on a karaoke selector. For example, 'Kiseki' is usually written in hiragana.

Male artists

Ue o muite arukou (I look up as I walk), Sakamoto Kyuu

上を向いて歩こう, 坂本九

Apparently this song was actually released in Western countries under the name 'Sukiyaki', but good luck finding that on karaoke selectors. This song is an oldie and very well-known, has a pleasant melody, is not too long, and is at a tempo convenient for reading.

I don't know why they called it 'sukiyaki'. If you didn't know, this is a nostalgic sort of song about loneliness and the passing seasons, while 'sukiyaki' is a hotpot dish. I heard this title was chosen just because 'sukiyaki' sounded recognisably Japanese to the Western ear. It's a bit like releasing the Beatles 'Yesterday' in Japan, only calling it 'Hamburger'.

Linda Linda, The Blue Hearts

リンダリンダ, ザ・ブルーハーツ (often 'The Blue Hearts' is written in romaji))

This song has repetition - one good thing - a very easy chorus (can you sing 'Linda Linda' over and over again? I thought so) and if you have Japanese friends with you, you can possibly get them all shouting along and jumping up and down on the seats (if they are anything like my friends anyway ^^;;).

I think the words are easy to remember, so give it a go. ^_^

I also like The Blue Hearts' 'Train Train' - another good 'group song' that everyone shouts along to - but it has more lyrics, and *way* too fast for me!

Ashita ga aru sa (There's always tomorrow), the Ulfuls

明日があるさ, ウルフルズ

This song has been done by a few groups, I believe, but my version of choice is the Ulfuls. They're great. ^_^ Actually, this was first done by Kyu Sakamoto, who did 'Ue o muite arukou' mentioned above. This is a fun, catchy song, and has a repeating chorus that's easy to join in with.

Speaking of the Ulfuls, I also enjoy their Guts da ze!, Banzai! Suki de yokatta and Eenen, the first two of which are particularly well-known, but all are more difficult to sing than Ashita ga aru sa. ^_^

Kiseki (Miracle), GreEEeeEEEEen

きせき, GReeeeN

I can't remember how many 'e's in Greeeeeeeen so I added a few for good measure. ^_^ Okay, it's four. This song is SO popular and a really good Jpop song. It's not high on my list of personal favourites - I find the melody a bit monotonous to sing for an entire song, and I don't know it well, and the speed is just slightly challenging for me. If you're not too slow at reading Japanese, it should be okay.

Speaking of GReeeeN, their song 'Michi' is one of my favourite Japanese songs at the moment. I heard of this song when a friend sang it at karaoke. See, karaoke is good. I found out about lots of new songs from it. ^_^

Female artists

The male songs I listed above are also comfortable for a girl's range, in my opinion.

Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara (As though enveloped by kindness)

やさしさに包まれたなら

As a girl, I love this song; it fits my range so nicely, and it's a really pretty, mellow song, very sweet and uplifting to sing. This is the 'theme song' for the famous Ghibli movie 'Majou no takkyubin', in English 'Kiki's Delivery Service'.

It has been done by various artists; the movie version by Arai Yumi (荒井由実).

Rirura riruha (Real life, real heart), Kimura Kaela

リルラリルハ、木村カエラ

Kaela Kimura is popular at the moment, and this song is bright and fun to sing. I heard of it through the Ouendan games. Linda Linda is also in Ouendan.

English songs

If you are wondering about English songs that are popular at karaoke, I have heard a lot of: 'Take me home country roads' (I never heard this song before I came to Japan), 'I was made to love you' (a Queen song I had never heard of before I came to Japan), many Beatles songs, the Titanic song...

In my group, 'Under the Bridge', 'Livin on a Prayer' and 'Sweet Child o Mine' also seem to get a lot of currency, but I don't know if that's indicative of Japan as a whole, ha ha ha.

Karaoke kanji guide

2011-02-05T22:08:00.000+09:00

If you should find yourself doing karaoke with a Japanese-only monitor, here are some handy kanji. (I apologise that this is a bit vague and incomplete. Truthfully, I can't read all the words myself - and on some monitors the actual words differ - but no matter what karaoke selector I use, I can recognise the key screens, and here is how. ^^;)

When you turn it on, you'll usually have to select an option to go to the song catalogue, and then you'll be presented with a few options.

歌手名 means 'singer'. Search by artist.
曲名 is the other main choice and means 'song'. Search by song title.
新曲 is another common option, it means 'new songs'.

Let's imagine you chose to search by song title. You'll be presented with a screen full of Japanese characters. If you want to sing a song with a Japanese title, all well and good.

The four buttons at the bottom are 'return', 'change to English characters', 'delete last character' and 'search'.

At the bottom of the screen will be a <=> button with the character for 'English' (英), which will take you to the English alphabet. You can change back by pressing the かな button.

When you are inputting your song title, usually you cannot enter spaces, so just type the title in as one word. If you make a mistake, look for the button at the bottom with '１字' in it, it will delete a character.

The search button is usually in the bottom right, will likely say 探す (さがす), or 'search'. Once you've pressed this, you'll get the search results. 次 (next) and 前 (previous) will take you forward or back a page.

If you change your mind at any point, usually in the bottom left corner is a button saying 戻る (もどる), 'return' or 'back'.

Once you've selected a song (the select button's usually in the bottom right of the screen), it'll show you the song and its first line, so you can confirm that's the song you wanted.

On this screen you can see the song info, including the song number (if you were entering the number from the song book, rather than typing in the song name). At the bottom, the button at the left is もどる (back) and on the right is the 'select' button.

You can also fiddle with the key, which I don't recommend, as you tend to waste half the song messing about with it. You'll know you've successfully input your song, as on the karaoke screen, the song you entered will briefly flash on the top of the screen.

Should you become disheartened while singing your piece, there'll be a button on the monitor, red in colour, including the kanji for stop (止), which cancels the current song.

Oh, one other tip, usually the first song will deafen you. You have to change the volume on the machine under the TV itself. Avoid the dials with sharps or flats # on them, they change the key. Volume is 音, there may also be labels for music and マイク (mic).

Some karaoke selectors may differ from this layout, but most of the ones I've tried have followed it. Oh yeah, and karaoke rooms also have books of songs, so you can also find the 'foreign songs' section and enter the relevant number of the tune you wanna sing.

Good at using chopsticks

2011-01-30T12:41:00.000+09:00

One comment you often hear from foreigners after living in Japan for a while, is that Japanese people like to compliment them on their chopstick skills.

'Wow, you can use chopsticks!'
'You use chopsticks very well!'
'O-hashi jouzu desu ne!'

Some of my friends who have lived in Japan longer than me are quite fed up with this by now. They say it always makes them want to say, 'wow, you can use a knife and fork, well done!'

Of course, the chopsticks compliment is just a friendly thing to say, and not meant in a patronising way. It's just that so many people react in exactly the same way. Do they think that foreigners can't use chopsticks? Or that using chopsticks is really difficult to master? Because you can say 'I've lived in Japan for four years', then five minutes later, people will still express surprise at your ability to use chopsticks. I tell you, I'd express much, much more surprise if someone had lived in Japan for four years without learning to use chopsticks.

In my case, I fumble even using a knife and fork. Though I eat with chopsticks almost every day, I rarely even receive this common compliment. When I do, I always feel rather proud, ha ha ha. The thing is, though, learning to use chopsticks is not very hard. Even for an uncoordinated person like me, it took me a couple of days to get functional, perhaps a few weeks to get good at picking up small or slippery things. Most of my Australian friends, who've never lived in Asia, can use chopsticks.

The thing that amuses me is when, I have been talking to people only in Japanese for some time, and *then* they see me use chopsticks and exclaim 'wow, you can eat with chopsticks!' As a hint, the former skill takes much more effort to develop than the latter!

Japanese Pet Peeve: Shopping

2011-01-27T20:04:00.001+09:00

I should preface this by saying that I mostly dislike shopping in general, not only in Japan. I could make a 'pet peeve' list about shopping for any location. However, today I'll focus on shopping in big cities in Japan.

The crowds

Going to a popular shopping spot on a weekend is no joke. Most of them have absolutely ridiculous numbers of people. If you go anywhere near lunch time, people will be sitting outside restaurants, lining up waiting for a place. People will line up half an hour to buy a particularly popular brand of donut or cake.

Every shop you go into will become a labyrinth in which every potential exit is blocked by human bodies. In general, shops are not spacious even when empty of people, so there are an awful lot of logjams. Going in for a casual browse becomes very frustrating.

I've realised how lucky I was in Yokohama to have Mondays off.

Shouting

This is absolutely the worst thing. Unlike in most of Asia, Japanese shopkeepers don't badger you to buy things. However, they do a lot of general, random shouting.

'Welcome!'

'Please look around!'

'How about some takoyaki? It's delicious!'

'Come and see these great specials!'

Girls' clothes shops are the worst in this regard, because there is obviously some kind of shopkeeper training course that teaches girls how to adopt the loudest, most nasal voice possible. I can't convey how awful this is if you haven't heard it for yourself. If you're within 10m of one when she shouts 'irasshaimase!! douzo goran kudasai!', you'll get a fright. Sometimes these girls are so piercing I actually wince in pain; it's all I can do not to clap my hands over my ears.

Food stores are also full of shouting, but are generally less nasal, featuring lots of men bellowing in the most gung-ho manner possible. In food halls, there can be quite a cacophony from competing stalls.

In pretty well every kind of store, the staff will say 'irasshaimase' (which basically means 'welcome' and doesn't require a response) when you walk past them. In some stores, where the staff are busy laying out stock or folding clothes, they will just shout 'irasshaimase' at random intervals, whether there is someone new nearby or not. When you leave, someone will usually say or shout 'arigatou gozaimashita!' (thank you!).

This in itself is fine, it just depends on the manner in which it is said; sometimes it's said in such an aggressive voice that it doesn't make me feel welcome at all!

The music

Another pet peeve is that some stores have their own jingle or advertising slogan, which will be repeated again and again over the speakers.

'Nanaco de kao kao seven seven! Seven Eleven, ii kibun!'

'One price shop! One price shop de gozaimasu!'

'Tako tako tako! Tako tako tako!'

This is just about bearable if you're in the shop for less than one minute. I don't know how the sales staff can work there without going stark, staring mad.

My current supermarket is quite bad. Most of the supermarket is blessed with a repetitive, perky jingle. Imagine the chorus of 'This is the Day that the Lord Has Made' played on the tin whistle, converted into midi format, and played on loop, all day every day. However, different parts of the supermarket have different annoying jingles. While waiting at the checkout you get to listen to the 'takoyaki odango' song, which I always leave the store singing. -_-

The good

To be fair, there are also good points about shopping in Japan. Indeed, in most cases, I actually prefer shopping in Japan to shopping anywhere else.

Some products are cheaper than back home. In particular, books, shoes and alcohol. ^_^ There are more shopping venues to choose from, and sales assistants are usually pretty helpful. For me as a short, fairly small person, it's easier to find nice-fitting, reasonably-priced trousers and shoes.

When you walk around shopping areas, you can also find a lot of interesting things, like odd food, funny posters, or products you don't find back home. Today I saw a Japanese sword store, with swords selling for around $10,000 each. There are lots of cute gift stores, and food shopping is fun. 100 yen stores have a lot of good stuff with which you can equip your apartment.

The good shopping spots are in interesting hub areas, usually easy to access by train, so when you go shopping you feel like you're in the hum of Japanese life.

Muji

2011-01-24T12:44:00.000+09:00

It took me forever to remember the name of this store: 無印良品, or 'Mujirushi Ryouhin'. You can recognise the four kanji in crimson on a white background. It's a popular lifestyle store. Muji sells a variety of products such as clothes, food, decorations, furniture, and various household items.

I call it the Store of Beige, because when you go there, absolutely everything is in varying shades of brown, beige and grey. Have a look at their online store if you don't believe me. ^_^

Everything is quite mass-produced and basic and functional. It's like IKEA, only more beige. ^_^

Noises

2011-01-20T19:42:00.000+09:00

This is something that must differ a lot by the luck of your personal experience, but in my own experience, Japan is quiet privately and noisy publicly.

I have lived in three different buildings in three different cities, and lived in apartment blocks with thin walls, surrounded by other tenants. I've always been astonished by how little noise I hear from anyone. Nobody plays loud music, or loud TV, nobody holds loud parties, nobody has fights. I think in 18 months of living in one building, the only time I ever heard my neighbours was when one of them had a cold and was coughing a bit.

With all these people living so close together, an equivalent situation in Australia is almost unthinkable.

Now, the lack of parties/loud conversations is probably related to the small size of the apartments; people don't tend to entertain in them very much. And I'm sure there are plenty of noisy or inconsiderate Japanese neighbours out there. But my impression is still that at home, my neighbours are quieter than Australians would be.

Outside of home, however, is another story. Loud, constant train announcements, frequently set at too high a volume. Muzak in public spaces. Stores with annoying jingles. Ads playing. People shouting out the day's specials. Garbage trucks trawling the neighbourhood playing their theme song. Constant, loud announcements over department store speakers. Politicians blasting announcements from megaphones on cars. Shopkeepers bellowing out 'irasshaimase!!' (welcome) as you walk past.

I remember going to a tropical beach in Okinawa, and a ski slope in Niigata, and even these natural places had speakers playing bland pop music interspersed with occasional announcements!

I think Japanese people must have a higher tolerance for noise than I do, because I find that even a simple trip to the supermarket can really jangle my nerves. I suppose if you hear it from a young age, you get used to it.

I plan to do a 'pet peeve' post about shopping, so I'll save more of my griping for then. ^_^

Random Pictures (3)

2011-01-16T22:31:00.000+09:00

I don't know just what is happening in this picture. But that elevator is clearly taking malicious pleasure in that property damage.

His perhaps slightly less well-known residence.

Anybody want a bucket-sized parfait?

With, like, an entire pudding, brownie, fruit salad and three scoops of icecream on top?

You know, just to tide you over until you get home or something?

Japanese English

2011-01-14T21:07:00.002+09:00

Anyone who has taught English in Japan will soon become familiar with the idea of 'Japanese English'. Japanese has many, many 'loan words' from English and some from other European languages.

In some cases, though the word has been rendered in the Japanese syllabary, the resemblance to its original is obvious, and it's possible to quickly recognise the meaning. Examples include 'ke-ki' (cake), 'ko-hi' (coffee), 'ba-ga-' (burger) and 'sarada' (salad).

In other cases, the loan word has taken on a form or use that makes it unintelligible, unnatural, or incorrect, to English ears.

Some examples I often hear:

'wear' instead of 'clothes'. 'I bought some new wear'.

'chou cream' (sounds like 'shoe cream'), instead of 'cream puff'.

'soft cream' instead of 'soft serve' (icecream).

'range' instead of 'stove'. In Japanese, 'stove' is a heater or fireplace. In Japanese, 'denshi range' means 'microwave' ('denshi' means 'electronic').

'high tension', which I think means 'excited'.

'one piece' instead of 'tunic top' or 'dress' (in English we don't really have a good equivalent word for a long top, so kudos to the Japanese for creating one)

'challenge' as a verb, as in - 'I will challenge this test'

'present' as a verb instead of 'give a present', as in - 'He presents me this cake'

noun + 'up' used as a verb, meaning 'improve my ___' eg, 'I want to level up' or 'I want to career up'.

'room' instead of 'apartment' (as in 'I cleaned my room', meaning 'I cleaned my apartment')

'mansion' instead of 'apartment'... an amusing change, an apartment is called a mansion in Japanese

'sand' instead of 'sandwich'. Japanese often shorten words, so it's not that unusual, but it sounds funny to me to eat a 'cookie sand'.

'goods' as an all-purpose word for products or merchandise, like 'I bought some Disney goods'

'hamburg' to mean 'hamburger patty'. In Japan, hamburger patties are often served as meat dishes in their own right, rather than in a hamburger bun.

'pierce' instead of 'earring'.

'claim' instead of 'complain' or 'complaint'.

'hormone' (actually horumon), which really means offal or entrails.

Wigs

2011-01-10T21:59:00.000+09:00

Another post about accessories. ^_^ I had vaguely noticed that some accessory shops sold a variety of wigs, most of them with varying shades of brown or black hair. I was curious about the market for these, so I asked my students.

One girl thought they were for junior high school students. She said that the students probably had to have normal black hair for school, but some might have brown, dyed hair. In that case, they could wear the wigs to school and escape censure. (Obviously my student did not express this in these words. ^^;)

Another thought they would be useful for job hunting. Again, job hunting requires a fairly strict adherence to a certain look - in which dyed hair has no part - so students could wear a black wig to hide their dyed hair while going job hunting.

I'm sure some of the wigs I've seen in shops haven't been black though.

Tails

2011-01-07T22:53:00.000+09:00

Recently I have been seeing, in shops and on people, fur tail accessories. They have probably been around for ages and I've just never noticed. What they are is, well, thick, soft tails. I've seen them for 5000 yen (about $60) per tail. Often made of real fur, for example fox fur, they are clipped to your bag, or possibly your waist.

Why not just go the whole hog and tie it to your backside? It might have a kind of 'sexy cosplay' effect, especially combined with the popular fur-topped boots.

I'm thinking of getting two and seeing if they will help me to fly.

Job hunting

2011-01-06T23:13:00.000+09:00

As I've mentioned, I currently work at a university. Some of my female third-year students are in the process of 'job hunting'. This seems like a full-time job in itself. The following information is what my students told me, so bear in mind it may not be true for all universities.

The third-year students (in a four-year degree), have fewer classes because of the time demands created by their job hunting. Basically, job hunting involves attending constant 'job explanations' by different companies, and also various job expos and job fairs. Many students have travelled the country to attend particular 'explanations', some going as far as Fukuoka, and many to Osaka or Tokyo.

All this requires a lot of filling out forms, getting pictures taken, and even getting a video of yourself presenting yourself. One student said she has applied for about 40 different companies this year.

It's not quite like 'okay, I studied economics, so I will apply for this bank and this financial planning institution, because they are looking for people with my particular knowledge set'. It seems like any student can apply for these companies, because the job is not necessarily a specialised role for a particular major, just a 'company employee'. In general, some universities' students might get a slightly higher consideration than others, based on the prestige of the university.

Because the economic situation is still not good, competition for people entering the job market is strong, and it's difficult to get just what you want.

Job hunters also have to attend practice interviews and 'group discussion' sessions, where they practise answering the kind of questions interviewers ask, especially those designed to test creative thinking, problem solving, and your general composure under pressure.

Even for these practice interviews, students must wear suits. The uniform of the job hunter is a suit - invariably, a black suit, with white shirt - and conventional, black hair (no colour). My job-hunting students appear in suits more days than not; it's astonishing how many 'job hunting'-related duties they have to fulfill.

It all looks rather stressful and when I see a hallway full of nervously waiting, black-suited students, I always feel glad that my early job-hunting days are behind me.

Zannen sale

2011-01-03T20:57:00.000+09:00

This is a little out of date now, but I just remembered. This year, Nagoya's baseball team, the Chunichi Dragons, won the Central League. (At this point, Dragons merchandise abounded, and the theme song was played not a little.) They then played the Lotte Marines in the Japan Series, and lost.

The part that I enjoyed: stores in Nagoya, en masse, held a 'zannen sale' to commemorate the LOSS of their city's team!

'Zannen' is a Japanese word, generally meaning 'too bad', or 'that's a shame'. According to Denshi Jisho, it also means 'bad luck, regret'. I love that they hold a 'regret sale'. Apparently it's a routine thing. I think this should catch on all over the world.

My friend tells me that the stores were bound to hold a sale, win or lose; if the Dragons had won, the 'omedetou sale' (congratulations sale) would have been more extravagant, with better specials.

Supermarket items (2)

2010-12-30T22:20:00.000+09:00

Here are more items I bought from the supermarket.

By the way, please don't imagine that I only buy crap. I do have fresh fruit and vegetables in my house, I promise! I just didn't happen to buy any on that particular outing.

This 'stick donut' is from the bakery connected to my local supermarket. As far as donuts go, it's not greasy, but rather cakey and crunchy. It's nice as a not-excessively-sweet dessert. 98 yen ($1.20). It was a toss-up between this donut and an apple pie, same price. Donut won because I knew I could eat it without wanting cream on it. ^_^

Margarine. In Australia I used to get an olive-oil-based spread, so coming to Japan, I found the smell and taste of proper margarine a bit hard to get used to again. I like this brand fairly well. At 300 yen, it's one of the pricier ones (for 180g; a pretty typical size, and smaller than the typical Australian tub of margarine). I have tried cheaper brands, and also brands that claim to be low in fat, but their margariney smell was so cheap and bad it made me feel a bit sick. So I stick with this Koiwai brand.

Not being able to read most labels, I don't know where Japanese margarines stand in terms of cholesterol, unsaturated fats, etc. This brand I buy claims to be 'healthy type' margarine, but goodness knows what that means, if anything.

Frozen pasta. I wouldn't say this is good, but to be honest, it equals most of the carbonaras I've had in restaurants here. (In Japan, cream-based pastas are usually insipid. Imagine a bowl of pasta to which someone has added milk and a little cream, with half a dozen sad pieces of bacon or mushroom.) It was only 200 yen ($2.40) for a packet. If I empty half a jar of parmesan cheese onto it, it scrubs up well.

Tirol chocolates. These are little chocolates, in a pack of 8. Only 80 yen ($1). I was encouraged to try them after reading the Japanese Snack Blog. Their flavours were 'castella' (a type of cake), 'white chocolate and cookie', 'coffee' and 'milk'. They were all okay, I guess. I like trying Tirol chocolates because they're very small and they have loads of different kinds; you can often buy them individually or in variety packs, so it's easy to sample new flavours.

Frozen pizza. You probably can't see from the size of this picture, but it does have corn on it, in notorious Japanese style. Not much though. ^_^ Cost about 300 yen ($3.50) for two pizzas.

Packet of tissues. I didn't buy this. People stand on the street and give them out for free; they have advertising on them. I've received seven or eight packages in the last two months. If you are interested, this particular package is advertising an 'exciting weekend' at a local pachinko parlour. I certainly shan't be going.

Sansai vegetables. Let me give you a close-up.

These are 'mountain vegetables'. I don't know exactly what they are; they look rather exotic and wild, and include a mix of greens and mushrooms. They are popular in soba and udon noodle dishes. In many small restaurants you can buy a bowl of sansai soba for as cheap as 300 yen. It's my favourite kind of soba.

This package of sansai vegetables was about 100 yen ($1.20). I shall add them to soba; they'll make a tasty and easy way to add some veggies to my diet.*

*(I don't know how you are supposed to cook hot soba in broth like the restaurants do, but I just boiled the water, chucked in the soba noodles and sansai vegetables, and waited a couple of minutes. Then I drained half of the water, added liberal amounts of tsuyu (soba sauce) and ate it. It tasted good, anyway. ^_^)

Useful everyday kanji - eating and drinking

2010-12-28T18:32:00.002+09:00

Quite a few food and drink names, particularly in fast food joints, are written in katakana. I recommend brushing up! However, here are some handy kanji.

酒 means 'alcohol'. Very nice kanji to learn. ^_^ You'll see this on convenience stores too, to show that they have alcohol for sale.

焼肉 (yakiniku) is Korean barbecue. You might think that's not very important, but I'm here to tell you otherwise. Ha ha ha. But they are good kanji in their own right and seen quite often; '焼' means 'grilled' or 'fried', and is also found in yakitori; 肉 means 'meat'.

飲み物 (nomimono) is 'drink'. The verb 'to drink' is 飲む.

食事 (shokuji) is 'meal'. Both these kanji are very useful. The first (食 'shoku') is also 食べる, 'to eat', 食べ物 (tabemono, 'food') or 食品 (shokuhin), meaning 'food (goods)' or 'groceries'.

The second, (事 'ji') is also 'koto', meaning 'thing'. It's in heaps of important words, such as 仕事 ('shigoto', job).

込 means 'included'. So if you order a meal and it says ドリンク込, it means 'drink included'.

果汁 ('kajuu') means 'fruit juice'. You will see it on drinks to show how much actual juice is contained, so when you see 'apple juice' with '果汁10%' you'll know it's not that good after all. ^_^ By the way, that second kanji 汁 can also be pronounced 'shiru', meaning 'soup', such as misoshiru, miso soup.

Clothes shopping

2010-12-25T23:39:00.000+09:00

About clothes shopping (for girls) in Japan. If you go to a girl's clothing shop, clothing may be on the small size, but if you go to a 'family department store' like Jusco, where older ladies often go, you can find cheaper clothes in a wider variety of sizes (though perhaps less stylish).

Now it's winter. The fashion tends toward baggy tops over undertops with high necks or turtlenecks. Mostly you don't see a lot of skin-tight tops on Japanese girls. They tend to wear baggier, looser tops which are quite modest in terms of showing skin. This look is quite fetching on slim Japanese girls, where it hangs flatteringly on their slight frames. It is not flattering on me. If I stick my arms out, I feel like I'm about as wide as I am tall, ha ha ha.

Tunic tops (in Japan, called a 'one piece') are popular. Lots of girls are wearing short shorts or skirts with black tights and boots, often topped with fur. Jeans are also popular, of course. Sweaters with pom poms and/or wintery designs (snowflakes, reindeer, etc) are also popular. Tartan and plaid coats are popular. Some girls wear scarves or earmuffs.

Musical petrol tanker

2010-12-20T20:27:00.000+09:00

I mentioned the yakiimo truck and the garbage truck. Recently I noticed a third noise polluter - it was a petrol tanker, playing ads and a cute jingle. I couldn't understand what it was saying, but a musical petrol tanker is really quite singular.

My friend thinks it was probably selling kerosene to people...?

Christmas

2010-12-18T22:33:00.001+09:00

Christmas is almost upon us. You might suppose that Japan - which is not a Christian nation and does not make a national holiday out of Christmas - would hardly bother to celebrate it at all. However, Western holidays are appropriated with enthusiasm, particularly when there is a marketing and/or decorating opportunity associated with it. ^_^

On November 1st, it's down with the Hallowe'en decorations and up with the Christmas. Some stores will start their soul-destroying Christmas carols at this time; others wait until December. Unfortunately there are many, many carols, usually in English, although Japanese versions of many carols also exist.

In Japan, New Year is the biggest holiday, and has some parallels with our Christmas - it's often spent with family, people go to religious buildings, (in Japan's case, Shinto shrines), people send New Year's cards, children get gifts (money), loads of people have time off and travel.

Christmas in Japan, on the other hand, is more of a romantic holiday for couples. Even more than Valentine's Day, it's a time when young singletons will sigh and wish they had a special someone to spend Christmas with. Apparently Christmas is a popular day for weddings.

However, Christmas Day is still celebrated to some extent by the populace at large. Some people exchange gifts and many parents give gifts to their children, although less excessively than in the West. It's common to have Christmas cake, although Japanese-style Christmas cake is just regular cake decorated with Christmasy themes, rather the rich, heavy fruitcake we would call Christmas cake.

Many popular city hotspots will features 'illuminations' (Christmas lights) which people will go to see in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Some businesses may have Christmas parties (though the 'year end' parties are more of an ingrained phenomenon).

Another custom is to eat chicken on Christmas Day. This is a huge, huge day for KFC. I'm not joking. The places are packed; people pre-order buckets of chicken more than a month in advance. Colonel Sanders will be outside each store wearing his Santa costume. In Japan, it's like 'what do you associate with Christmas? Well, there's Santa Claus... couples... KFC...'

In my case, I'm going back to Australia for the holiday period. Yay summer! I've written a few posts' backlog to post in my absence. I hope you all have a nice Christmas and New Year. ^_^

Supermarket items (1)

2010-12-16T22:14:00.000+09:00

As mentioned in this post, I thought I'd post about the items I bought from the supermarket that day. Note that prices are just what I happened to pay that day, and the actual price varies depending on store and area. ^_^

This apple juice is the long-life kind. I can't drink fresh juice fast enough. However, fresh juice is cheaper than in Australia, you can easily get 1L for about 120 yen ($1.50). This ?800g bottle was 300 yen ($3.50). Hmm... I didn't realise it was only 800g. That seems overpriced to me. I should switch back to fresh!

When buying juice, the key kanji are 果汁 (kajuu, it means 'fruit juice'). If you see 果汁100% it means 100% fruit juice.

Chu-hi. This is like a soft drink with alcohol. It's similar in taste to a Vodka Cruiser or a Smirnoff lemon drink, I guess. The alcohol in chu-his is usually shochu. You can also get 'STRONG' chu-his which have 8% alcohol. Regular chu-his can be anywhere from 4-7% alcohol. This one here is 6%, which I think is a good balance. The STRONG ones are really good, I must admit, if you want to get drunk quickly. Not that I would advocate such a thing, obviously. Drink responsibly.

This grapefruit chu-hi (果汁 3%), also, is labelled 'zero'. Usually that is in reference to calories, but this drink does not have 0 calories, so I don't really understand... I have a wee bit of a weakness for chu-his. At my supermarket they're only 98 yen ($1.20) for a 350ml can. Japanese alcohol is generally *much* cheaper than Australian.

Gouda cheese. I mentioned in my supermarket post that decent cheese is hard to come by. According to this post on the Japanese Snack Reviews blog, Japanese people eat far more processed cheese (relative to natural cheese) than any other country. I am not at all surprised to hear that.

Neither of the supermarkets I frequent sell nice cheese, so when was in an unfamiliar supermarket and saw this gouda cheese - an old favourite from Yokohama days - I snatched it up. It tastes good. ^_^ Similar to what we'd call 'tasty cheese' in Australia.

It was about 180 yen ($2.10) for 50g. For point of comparison, Coles (in Australia) is currently selling a 750g block of Tasty Cheese for $7. If you bought 750g of this gouda, it'd cost over $30.

Karubi-don. This was from the ready-made meal section of the supermarket. Basically it's gyuudon, but with karubi (a type of beef, popular in yakiniku ^_^) - beef on rice. Yummy. You can probably see in this picture that there's bright pink stuff in the corner. This is beni shouga, a pickled ginger that is a popular condiment in yakisoba, curry rice and various other dishes. It tastes very sour. Happily, I managed to eat all of this karubi-don without getting any beni shouga in my mouth. ^_^

Meiji chocolate. Recently I've been enjoying Japanese Snack Reviews. Since reading it, I've felt inspired to try the odd snack and sweet that I wouldn't usually buy. I have a bad habit of finding something I like and then buying it again and again. And despite living in Japan, I'm constantly eating Tim Tams.

This was about 100 yen ($1.20). After trying this chocolate, I would say: I like Tim Tams better. Hahaha. This chocolate is slightly bitter for my taste. More bitter than I would imagine 'milk' chocolate to be. I do like the packaging though. Japanese chocolate bars look really cool and stylish, I think. They make me think of the chocolate bars in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I bought other items today, and shall post about them in due course. ^_^

A Day In: Kawasaki (again)

2010-12-16T09:23:00.001+09:00

I went back to Kawasaki for the weekend, and how I enjoyed it! For me, even more than Yokohama, Kawasaki feels like home. For a general overview of places in Kawasaki, see this post and this one.

I suppose for most people, Kawasaki just feels like any Japanese city. There are too many bicycles, and old drunk guys and a red light district. But I do like it better than any other place. I suppose that's mostly because it's full of good memories for me, but also, its layout feels satisfying.

For example, while Kawasaki station is a hub of three train lines, the station itself is compact; there is only one exit, and it's impossible to get lost. The department stores and entertainment areas are all immediately around the station. In Yokohama station or Nagoya station, the department stores are rather a mess of underground and above-ground all mixed up into one immense labyrinth. Even now, while I can find my way around in Yokohama station, I can't remember which mall is which.

In Kawasaki, everything is distinct; you can tell the stores apart and most of the department stores are not underground. In LaZona and Citadella you have nice outdoor public spaces where there are often free concerts. There are lots of places for karaoke, games or movies, and all my favourite chains and franchises are in the area, from Krispy Kreme to five different Starbucks. There are lots of different stores, including large electronics stores, bookstores and so on, and everything is nearby. There's a
good variety of different food, not only Japanese.

Yes, I like Kawasaki a lot. You could say that as you get further from the station, some of the areas get a bit dodgy, but I've never felt it unsafe.

One of my only pet peeves with Kawasaki is the bicycles; people ride them on crowded, narrow pedestrian streets where they really shouldn't. The streets are half-jammed with parked bicycles, and in the space left, there are lots of pedestrians walking. But people still don't get off their bikes. I've never seen anyone get hit, but it's a bit of a miracle.

Kawasaki bicycles.

I went back to Kawasaki last weekend. I always feel great happiness at going there, like 'I'm going home'. As far as I could tell, all of the things I mentioned in the aforementioned blog posts are still valid. There are a few new things. For example, Saika-ya (the department store I described as the least interesting) now has a big Kaldi Coffee, which has lots of import foods. There are a few different stores here and there. The clothes and accessories store at the entrance to Citadella, for example, is now a kushi katsu (fried pork on skewers) restaurant.

Cinecitta, in Citadella

Since it's coming up to Christmas, Le Front had Christmas characters on its front steps, and Cinecitta was lit up with Christmas lights (in Japan, 'illuminations'). In Citadella there was an open-air ice skating rink.
Considering the temperature on Saturday was a pleasant 17 degrees, this seemed a little premature, but oh well. I'd never seen an ice skating rink in Kawasaki before, although I know there is an indoor one near Higashi-Kanagawa station in Yokohama nearby.

While in Kawasaki this time, I went to the Peruvian restaurant, Inti Raimi, which is a little down the street which runs between Muza and La Zona. It has good food and is reasonably priced.

I also went to Salvatore / Crystal Jade, a rather odd fusion of Italian food and Chinese food, which is in Citadella. Within the restaurant there are two kitchens, and both types of cooking are good quality. They have a wood oven for their pizza. Sitting in this restaurant, you can order from either menu. I gave my friends leave to order anything they liked - they had the Italian menu open, and it's full of delicious things, so I couldn't imagine they could find anything I didn't like.

The dishes they chose included deep-fried chicken cartilage, and a dish of motsu (entrails). Hah! It amazes me that so many people like eating chicken cartilage (which tastes exactly as you would imagine), or that anyone would think to seek out cartilage and entrails on a menu. But we also had many delicious things. :)

Salvatore pizza (nothing weird on this one, only deliciousness ^_^)

Japanese supermarkets

2010-12-13T18:08:00.000+09:00

Compared to your average Aussie supermarket:

Japanese supermarkets have a better range of fresh tofu, seafood, rice crackers, seaweed and two-minute noodles ^_^

Japanese supermarkets tend to sell smaller cuts/amounts of meat, rather than large steaks, big sausages, etc

There's usually a big section of curry sauces and pastes, but virtually all of them are for Japanese-style curry. Some larger supermarkets, or supermarkets with lots of international foods, will sell other kinds of curry paste. My current supermarket, though not at all small, has only Japanese curry. I can't believe how many different pastes there are when they all taste pretty much the same.

Generally speaking, obviously, it's cheaper to 'eat Japanese'. The cheapest food you can make yourself is probably soba or udon. You can get a package of fresh soba for, like, 40 yen.

Japanese supermarkets have a ready-to-eat food section, which typically includes a sushi section, a deep-fried section, a bento section, and various salads and other miscellaneous items. You can often buy just-cooked fried rice, yakisoba, spring rolls, gyoza, tempura, katsu, yakitori, and many more.

Japanese supermarkets have a poor selection of good cheeses. For someone like me, who likes a mature cheese with a bit of bite, there is very limited selection. Apart from the occasional wheel of Camembert, you'll mostly get 'cheddar' or 'natural cheese' (?like cheddar but with even less flavour?), but not mature cheddar.

Japanese frozen food tends to come in smaller packages. A frozen meal in Japan is quite a bit cheaper than its equivalent in Australia.

There's usually a good range of vegetables. Some of this is the same as you'll find in Australia. For example, it's easy to find broccoli, potatoes, onions, carrots, beans, etc. but Japan has various fruits, vegetables and mushrooms that I've rarely/never seen in Australia, such as piman (green peppers), negi (scallions), hakusai (Chinese cabbage), daikon (giant radish), nashi (Japanese pears), etc.

Japan has a similar range of fruits to Australia, but fruits tend to be massive and rather expensive.

Fruits and vegetables as usually sold 'per unit' (eg, 150 yen for one broccoli) or in bags, unlike in Australia where you usually take as much as you want and pay per weight.

Most of the bread section is made up of packaged, not-very-fresh-looking, junky snacks, and white bread. Even bread purporting to be 'rye' or 'wholemeal' is usually pretty white. Hahaha. Some supermarkets have a bakery - a store separate from the rest of the supermarket - on site, where you can buy fresh bakery goods.

When you buy at the checkout, clerks usually put your items into a basket and give you a plastic bag or two (here in Nagoya, you are expected to bring your own bags). Then you take the basket to the nearby counters and bag your own groceries. Sometimes the clerk will give you chopsticks if you've bought a ready-made meal.

Rice tends to be sold in very large bags. The assumption is you're going to be using a lot of it. I have a 2kg bag in my kitchen - the smallest available - which is not being used because I realised Japanese rice gets very gluggy when not cooked in a rice cooker, which I don't have.

Japanese supermarkets tend to have a lot of very irritating jingles playing. Sometimes there are different jingles in different parts of the store, or sometimes they are the store's theme song playing at regular intervals throughout the whole store. I don't know how anyone can work in a store in Japan without going mad.

I went to three supermarkets today on my way home. Soon I might post about my purchases, because I'm sure you're all dying to know. ^_^

Duffy

2010-12-10T20:37:00.001+09:00

Did you know that Mickey Mouse has a teddy bear?

Well, he does, and his name is Duffy. This character is sold en masse at Tokyo Disney Sea.

Why am I writing about this? I teach at a university, and I can not believe how many female students have Duffy toys. Everywhere you go you see girls with little Duffy stuffed toy accessories hanging off their bags. One of my students has seven of them.

There are, of course, 'seasonal' and 'themed' Duffys (Duffies?), which one can rotate according to the time of year. Aforementioned girl with seven Duffys did have a Hallowe'en Duffy on her bag; now some girls are busting out the Christmas ones.

I have also just noticed that there is a female version of Duffy, called Shelly May. Basically identical except she has some pointy eyelashes and wears skirts. I've seen several girls with twin Christmas bears - this year's Christmas Duffy and Shelly May - hanging from their bags.

Disney Land and Disney Sea are extremely popular here. I could write reams on this subject. I'm not sure why this particular teddy bear is flavour of the year, but it could be worse. At least Duffy is cute, in a bland and benign sort of way. Better by far than those creepy Cubic Mouth products. Excuse me, I think I have to go hide under my bed...

Winter handbags

2010-12-08T20:48:00.000+09:00

I was shopping for a new handbag the other day and noticed that most handbags were decidedly 'wintery' in appearance. By that I mean that many of them were edged with fur or wool, many were made from the same tartan material as this season's coats, some were knitted. They looked warm and cuddly.

This is one of those times where I think 'well, maybe it is like that in Australia and I don't remember 'cos I've been away too long'. But I don't think we have handbags so obviously designed to complement winter clothes?

Commuter passes

2010-12-07T19:36:00.000+09:00

If you frequently commute between two train stations, it's worthwhile investing in a commuter pass, available from certain stations and ticket machines. You specify a starting and ending station, and travel between them is covered by your card/ticket. This means you can just use your pass every day without having to buy tickets every time you travel.

For example, when I was living in Yokohama, if I had been paying for daily tickets 5 days a week to and from work, I would have paid over 8400 yen per 4 weeks. But I paid about 6300 yen for a monthly commuter pass. Not only is it a decent saving, bear in mind you can travel between any of the stations on your commute at any time, including weekends, for free.

Often your company will pay for this pass.

In the Tokyo/Yokohama area, you can use a Suica or similar card as both your commuter pass, and a general 'credit' ticket for any train. So let's say you have a commuter pass set up between Yokohama and Tokyo stations. And you've put a random 5000 yen on the card. If you travel from Yokohama to Kawasaki (a station between Yokohama and Tokyo), it's free. But if you travel from Yokohama to Akihabara (a station further than Tokyo), your card will automatically have the extra money deducted.

One thing I was wondering was how much gets deducted. When I had a Suica, I never remembered to check; I couldn't remember how much I had on my card when I went in or out of the station. Now I live in Nagoya so I decided to try.

In Nagoya, if you use the subway, you cannot use Suica. You have to get a commuter pass which is like a ticket, a little card. You can't add extra credit to this ticket, nor can you use it when departing from a station not on your commute. However, if you leave from a station on your commute, and travel to a station which is not, at the other end you can put your card in the 'fare adjustment machine' and buy a ticket to cover the balance.

What I wanted to check was:
Say the fare from my station to Sakae (on my commute) is 200 yen.
The fare from my station to Kamimaezu (not on my commute) is 230 yen.
And the fare from Sakae to Kamimaezu is 200 yen.

If I travelled from my station to Kamimaezu, would I be charged 30 - the total difference - or 200 yen - the fare from Sakae to Kamimaezu? Nobody could tell me.

I tried it, and needless to say, I was indeed charged the full 200 yen.

Trucks

2010-12-05T20:20:00.000+09:00

I remember coming home from work once, and there was unfamiliar music playing in my neighbourhood, with a kind of wailing chant. It sounded rather like the Muslim call to prayer, and very solemn. My first thought was that there might have been a funeral or perhaps monks were chanting some ancient rite.

Then I realised what they were saying - 'yakiimo-o-o! yakiimo-o-o!'

It was a sweet potato truck.

These trucks cruise around the neighbourhood playing their jingle to attract customers, much like icecream trucks do in the West. The yakiimo man actually has a kind of fire burner on his truck to roast/grill the sweet potatoes.

The odd thing is that in Japan, the trucks that play bright, happy music are garbage trucks; the trucks that sound like a funeral dirge are selling delicious snacks.

I remembered this because right now as I sit in my room, the exact same tune is playing outside. The yakiimo man was in the neighbourhood last week and this; perhaps he has begun because it is winter, and sweet potatoes are popular winter foods.

Random pictures (2)

2010-12-04T21:57:00.000+09:00

Bon Jovi slot machine. I don't know if the machine plays 'Livin' on a Prayer', but if it did, you probably wouldn't hear it over the din in the pachinko parlour.

Someone decided to take their rabbit for a walk. In a public crowded space.

It may not be clear, but this rabbit is On A Leash.

Chewing gum vending machine. When the half dozen stores immediately around it - also selling gum - are not enough.

Useful everyday kanji - trains

2010-12-01T21:30:00.001+09:00

Since I am taking an interest in kanji myself at the moment, I thought I'd start this little series on kanji for everyday life. As I've said before, I am not an expert, and please note that most of these kanji have several different 'readings' (that is, ways to pronounce them); I haven't always listed them all.

If you're in Japan for any length of time, you'll see most of these kanji a lot. Seeing them frequently will help you remember them.

Train stations

駅 (eki) means station.
車 (sha) means 'car' or 'vehicle'. This is a very good kanji to learn. It can also be pronounced kuruma, which means 'car'. 電車 (densha) means 'train'. You'll also see the 車 on train carriages to tell which car number it is.

入口 (iriguchi) means entrance, and
出口 (deguchi) means exit. The kanji 入 and 出 are useful to learn as they appear in many words. By itself, 口 (kuchi) means 'mouth'.

東 (higashi) means 'east'
西 (nishi) means 'west
北 (kita) means 'north'
南 (minami) means 'south'
Usually, train station exits are labelled as 'north exit', etc, so this may be handy.

Note that the pronunciation of kanji can change depending on the word they are in. For example, many kanji have a different pronunciation when they are a standalone word, or when they are in a compound word.
For example, 東北 is not pronounced 'higashikita', but 'touhoku'. Touhoku is the name of a region in the north-east of the main island of Japan. The Keihin-Touhoku/Negishi line is an important JR train line in Yokohama.

各駅 (kakueki) - a 'kakueki teisha' is a 'local train', ie one that stops at every station. If you take trains, this is probably one of the first words you'll learn, as you'll hear constant announcements like 'kakueki teisha mairimasu' (the local train is coming), stand behind the yellow line, etc.
In some areas, local trains are called 普通 (futsuu) - like 'normal' trains.
快速 (kaisoku) - a 'rapid train', which skips some minor stations
急行 (kyuukou) - an 'express train', which only stops at major stations

線 (sen) means 'line'. As in English, it can have the dual meaning of 'stripe' ('please stand behind the yellow line') and 'train line' (please change here for the Keihin-Touhoku line).

Campaign

2010-11-29T18:16:00.000+09:00

When you hear the word 'campaign', what comes to mind? A political campaign? A military campaign?

To give you some idea of its use in Japan, a cafe near the station is currently having a 'walnut campaign'.

I don't think those walnuts are planning an insurrection or striving to be elected to public office. It just means the cafe is temporarily selling products featuring walnut. 'Campaign' is often used when products are on special, or a particular range is being highlighted.

Even though I have seen this use of the English word 'campaign' many times, I still laugh every time I walk past that sign.

Vegemite

2010-11-27T22:04:00.000+09:00

Yes!! I finally found Vegemite in Nagoya. (If you care, in the import food store near Maruei in Sakae.) My breakfasts have just been improved 150%. ^_^

It's perfect timing 'cos I was planning a one-off lesson on 'Australia' next week. Boy, are my students in for a treat. And so am I.

I always get a kick out of seeing students' horrified reactions to our national treasure. ^_^

Date and time

2010-11-25T20:30:00.000+09:00

Dates in Japan are usually printed month, day. Or year, month, day.

This is the exact opposite of Australia, which is day, month, year. And different again from America, the most commonly used standard online. So in any given week I am presented with dates in any of the three formats. It wasn't so bad when I had been living in Japan for a solid period of time, but this year I've been moving all over the place and I can't keep them straight any more.

What tips me over into the realm of confusion is that in Japan, the year is sometimes given in 'Japanese era' time. In Japan, they use the usual 1995, 2000, 2010, etc. They also use years that correspond to how long the current emperor has been reigning. Our current era is the Heisei period, which began in 1989, and this year, 2010, is Heisei 22.

The Heisei year isn't used so often. It may be used on special occasions or official documents. I had to use it when applying for a bank account. The roadworks on my street announced its expected end date in Heisei format. Every time I see a date in Heisei format I think 'now is that this year or next year?' I can never remember the Heisei year (I know that's pretty sad, considering it is only one number and only changes once a year).

The not-very-exciting point of this is that today I was cooking some vegetables and I saw the expiry date, 11 3 21. I immediately thought 'it's in Heisei format! Arggh, it expired November 3rd'.
'Hang on, is this year Heisei 21 or 22? I'd better check the Internet!'
'Oh, there's no way they expired last year. Obviously they expire in March next year.'
'Duh, Japanese dates are year-month-day.'

(Those are some long life veggies.)

Kouyou in Nagoya

2010-11-23T21:59:00.000+09:00

Recently I posted about kouyou, or autumn leaves. Now here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks, taken around Nagoya.

The first two are from an ordinary park in my neighbourhood; the latter two are from Higashiyama Park. I don't have any specific recommendations for kouyou spots, because anywhere with trees is beautiful. Even ordinary city streets may become beautiful when they are lined with gingko trees (they turn yellow).

Two large parks in Nagoya are: around Atsuta shrine and Higashiyama Park. Or head into Gifu prefecture, which is a natural wonderland.

Truthfully, I didn't like Higashiyama Park so much for kouyou; the trees are mostly on the far sides of the park, and you may have to walk quite a bit (around the zoo or to get to the Botanic Gardens) to get to the best part. There were posters all around Nagoya advertising the red momiji (Japanese maples) in Higashiyama Park but I didn't find them.

Weather

2010-11-21T21:34:00.000+09:00

If you want to travel to Japan, I think any time is good. ^_^ All times of year have their advantage. The following applies to the main tourist destinations, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto and Osaka. Obviously things are different in the far north, far south, mountainous regions, etc.

In terms of pure nice weather, I think May and October are the best. April and November are a bit cooler but you can see cherry blossoms and autumn leaves, respectively. June isn't too bad regarding temperature, but it is the rainy season. Personally, I love July and August, but most people think it's too hot. Not great weather for very active, energetic sightseeing, anyway.

Right now we're enjoying the last of the pleasant, clear, but not cold weather. I would call it 't-shirt weather' - I was wearing a t-shirt all day today - but I was the only person doing so. In a place with thousands of people, I didn't see a single Japanese people in short sleeves. I think I've mentioned before that Japanese people tend to dress according to the season. Or perhaps they just feel the cold more.

Winter (December - February)

Gets rather cold. You may get the odd day of snow, but generally, Tokyo is not freezing. Good season for hitting the mountains and doing winter sports. You can enjoy winter hotpots. Also a good time to see Mt Fuji (the air is clearer so visibility is better). The weeks leading up to New Year become popular for big, drunken company 'year-end' parties. The New Year week isn't the best for travelling, as it's a holiday week in Japan.

Spring (March - May)

Spring is mostly cool and rainy. March is generally pretty cold and (if I remember correctly??) the trees haven't fully started to become green again. Cherry blossom season usually starts in late March or early April, and even the most unremarkable suburban areas become temporarily ablaze with beauty. May is a nice time of year, weather-wise. The first week of May is 'Golden Week', where most people have holidays, so it may be an inconvenient time to travel.

Summer (June - August)

June is the rainy season, which is humid. July and August are consistently hot and humid. This is a good time of year for summer festivals, including fireworks. Lots of people in yukata, and beer gardens opening around the place. I like summer in Japan, but most people find it oppressive.

Autumn (September - November)

In terms of weather, autumn is probably the most comfortable. Cooler than summer, warmer than winter, less rainy than spring. In November, you can also see beautiful autumn leaves. From late November, the landscapes start to look less beautiful as many trees have lost their leaves, or are in the middle of doing so.

Random pictures

2010-11-20T11:51:00.000+09:00

Living in Japan, on a regular basis I see things that make me smile. I don't think most of them are actually intended to be funny, but from time to time, I shall post a few of them.

If you wanna throw out your garbage, you'd better put some thought into it.

Those deer in Nara are gonna Kick Your Ass.

This mobile phone strap is Snoopy pinioned to a ball of takoyaki.

This was given away free with bottles of soda.

It seems a weird juxtaposition to me.

Are we supposed to imagine that Snoopy will make a delicious topping?

Heeee?!!

2010-11-17T12:34:00.000+09:00

One thing you'll quickly notice in Japan is that when people are surprised, they make a sound like 'hehhhh?!' The younger or more outgoing the person, the louder, longer and more dramatic this sound is.

It's very fun to say. I've picked up the habit myself.

The thing that amuses me, especially with young girls, is that their 'Heeeee' usually sounds so very excessively surprised, far more than the news warrants.

This week I got some prime 'heeeee' reactions from students for such startling revelations as:
-I don't really like omu-rice
-I don't like fish eggs
-I don't like shopping

You can see they are pretty easily shocked. Hahaha.

Kouyou

2010-11-12T21:25:00.002+09:00

Autumn leaves, Nagano city

In Nagoya - and, I assume, Kyoto, Tokyo, Yokohama, etc - it's just now getting to prime kouyou (autumn leaf viewing) time. Kouyou is not quite as celebrated as hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in spring, but it's still important. Stores everywhere put up autumnal decor of coloured maple leaves, and people flock to gardens, parks, mountains and other natural spots to see the beauty of the changing leaves, which is quite lovely.

[Update: I went to Tokyo a month after writing this, and it seems that kouyou in Nagoya is earlier than in Tokyo. While the deciduous trees were almost completely bare in Nagoya, in Tokyo some of the slower trees, like gingko, still had touches of green.]

(The kanji for kouyou (紅葉) means 'deep red leaves'. Actually, the 'kou' ('deep red') in 'kouyou' is the same character in koucha (what we would call ordinary 'black tea', and a standard drink at restaurants here). Since black tea is actually a deep red colour, this would make more sense, right?)

In Yokohama, if you want to see kouyou without going far, I recommend a good stroll down Nihon-odori, from Kannai station - the gingko trees are resplendent in yellow - and down to Yamashita Park along the harbourfront. Sankei-en is a good spot too, and great if you're wanting a more traditional Japanese-style garden.

If you're in Japan yourself, why not make the most of the generally bright, clear weather at this time of year, and go find some nature?

I've not taken many kouyou shots this year, so here are a few from Yokohama.

Nihon-odori. It may not look so great in this shot, but there are a lot of trees on this street, and the leaves were absolutely pouring off them. This was in early December.

Yamashita Park.

Sankei-en Park. It was overcast so I took it in 'antique' mode. ^_^

Pocky Day

2010-11-11T21:47:00.000+09:00

Happy Pocky Day!

What is Pocky Day?

It's November 11th, 11 / 11. Because the elevens look like Pocky sticks! What a good opportunity to randomly sell more snacks. Pocky are little biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate or strawberry or... well, there are far too many toppings to list.

Incidentally, it's also Remembrance Day, but obviously that pales in significance.

Japanese Pet Peeve: Taking trains

2010-11-10T12:01:00.000+09:00

Wow, I'm getting quite a nice little collection of these 'Japanese pet peeves', aren't I. Hahaha. I suppose when I was in the honeymoon period of living here, I didn't have so many, but now more things are getting on my nerves.

Japanese trains are very good and in general I like commuting by train. Spending so much time doing so, however, means that I naturally have some small pet peeves regarding them.

The 'get on the bloody train!!' phenomenon

When waiting for a train, Japanese commuter stand in line on the platform, and board in a fairly orderly fashion. As you're getting on, the 'doors are closing' sound is blaring warningly, and there's always someone just in front of you who feels they have all the time in the world, and casually step on, deciding to stop right in the doorway so nobody can get on behind them. I know the train is crowded, but while there is a line behind you and only a few seconds for us all to get on, please push right into the crowd so that we don't risk getting shut in the doors.*

*(Incidentally, I have only gotten stuck in a train door once, and that had more to do with how much alcohol I'd consumed, rather than slow fellow passengers.)

The 'just one more' phenomenon

Once everyone has got on, and everyone has manoeuvred themselves into a position on the train where they're not inappropriately touching anyone else, and you've gotten the coveted spot immediately next to the door, the 'doors are closing' sound will sound... and sound... and sound... and at the last second someone else will leap on, forcing everyone into one another. If the 'doors are closing' sound lasts particularly long, this may be three or four people. This happens every time without fail.

The 'changing platforms phalanx'

When you change trains, there's sometimes an escalator that only goes one way. In my current commute, people going down onto the platform must take the stairs, while people going up can take the stairs or escalator.

What happens is that you have about 1000 people, who came off the previous train, all trying to get down this narrow staircase at the same time, forming an impenetrable phalanx of human bodies, creating a logjam. Meanwhile you can *hear* the 8:11 train pulling up, you can see it only metres away, but there's no way you're gonna get to it in time.

Hahaha... it sounds annoying, but truthfully, by the time you've gotten down and walked the length of the platform, the 8:13 train is pulling in. That's a good thing about Japanese trains. I just can't believe there are so many passengers though, that they can run trains *every two minutes*, yet each one of these trains is wall-to-wall people.

Food Spotlight: Yakiniku

2010-11-07T22:31:00.004+09:00

Yakiniku, ah!
A-ah, yakiniku, ah!
Yakiniku, ah!

(See this page for origin of this haiku, which I have so masterfully adapted.)

When it comes to delicious food in Japan, I can't think of anything that makes me happier than yakiniku. It's a good social meal, and every time I finish it I come away saying 'ahh, ureshii' (I'm so happy). ^_^

Yakiniku (焼肉, literally 'grilled meat') actually originates from Korea, and is also called Korean barbecue. It's quite popular in Japan. When you go to a yakiniku restaurant, there will be a grill on your table, usually a charcoal barbecue. You can then order a variety of meats or vegetables to barbecue on the grill.

My favourite yakiniku restaurant is 'An An' 安安. This is a chain; I used to go to the one near Kawasaki station - if you exit La Zona and go down the street past Muza, it's near a Lawson, I think). I favour 'An An' because it's the cheapest I've found, and alcohol is pretty cheap too.

This becomes a consideration because yakiniku is not a cheap eat. If you're with another budget-minded person, you can keep the costs down. However, I have never been to yakiniku with a Japanese person who has ever said, 'well, dish _x_ costs _y_, so we probably shouldn't get two of them'. Everyone I've been to yakiniku with has ordered with reckless abandon. ^_^

Your menu will have a variety of different meats and cuts. Some types of meat can be quite fatty (this seems to suit Japanese tastes), and there are also types of offal. Beef and pork are common, and you can usually find some kind of seafood. One dish of meat is usually pretty small - with perhaps 6-8 small, thin slices of meat to fry - so you can sample a few different sorts. Usually you'll put a few different things on at once, wait for them to cook, then dip them in a sauce, the most common being soy sauce-based.

SO GOOD!!

In this picture you can see: a dish of meat waiting to be cooked (almost empty ^_^), a dish of Korean-style vegetables (salad), the grill in action, and a lemon sawa (a cold alcoholic beverage is an important accompaniment ^_^). In front of me are a couple of small dishes; one has sauce and is to dip the cooked meat; the other is for personal helpings of salad etc.

Since you are slowly cooking a few bits at a time, you can savour each item, and it lends itself to a long meal. That's why it's a good social opportunity. ^_^

For those of you who don't like fatty meat or offal, here are my personal recommendations:

karubi (galbi) - short ribs? but doesn't have bones
ro-su (roast) - loin, tends to be less fatty than most
harami - meat around diaphragm - though it could be considered 'offal', it tastes good, not like other offal
ton (tounge) - usually eaten with lemon juice, this is actually pretty good, if you cook it really dark ^_^
vegetables. For example, onions, piman (green peppers), cabbage, carrots, corn, mushrooms. Since they usually aren't really marinated, they will get burnt rather black before they cook properly, but they make a nice bit of variety to having only meat.
salad. Again, a cold salad - I recommend Korean vegetables - can help refresh you when you're eating nothing but grilled meat.

At An An, the restaurant I've been to most, you can get mushrooms or corn in a foil packet with butter. You wrap the foil tightly and put it on the grill. As it cooks, the butter makes the mushrooms or corn soft and juicy and delicious.

It's nice later in the meal to have some bibimbap (a Korean rice dish with kimchi and other Korean vegetables), spicy soups, or plain white rice. This is one reason it's good to go to yakiniku with a larger group, so you can sample more things without breaking the bank.

Another reason I particularly like yakiniku is that Japanese cuisine tends not to have much red meat in it. After weeks of eating noodles, seafood and rice balls, sometimes you just crave a good barbecue. ^_^

If you are a vegetarian, however, there probably won't be much to excite you. You can order vegetables and fry them (although you'll be frying them on the same grill that's covered in juices from the meat), also salads and rice are available.

I've just been to yakiniku tonight, so I'm feeling very contented with life. ^_^

Apples

2010-11-07T22:02:00.000+09:00

As I was eating an apple the other day (from the 'apple festival' ^_^), a friend commented it was funny to see me just biting into the apple like that. She said that in Japan, it's very rare to just bite into apples. They peel them and cut them up. Apparently this is partly due to concern about the potential of pesticides in the skin.

Wow... and I always liked apples because they were so low-maintenance.

Incidentally, quite a few people here also do this with grapes, peeling each individual grape. When I hear of this, I get Diana Krall's voice in my head... 'peel me a grape...'

This blog

2010-11-06T12:27:00.001+09:00

For anyone who's found this blog recently, just a word of introduction: I'm an Australian and I've lived in Japan for over two years; mostly in Yokohama, but I'm currently in Nagoya. I've also spent a lot of time in Kawasaki and Tokyo.

Right now, most of my posts are about Japan in general, but I aim to post a bit more about Nagoya and other towns in the region, as I explore them.

If you have any questions or requests for posts, feel free to comment any time. Cheers. ^_^

In search of a good cappuccino

2010-11-05T18:51:00.000+09:00

I like coffee; in particular, cappuccinos. This is one area in which Japan does not really shine. In Australia, virtually every restaurant, cafe and fast food place now sells espresso coffee made from beans and with a coffee machine. In Japan, it's very common for even coffee shops not to have a coffee machine, but to only sell 'black coffee', 'coffee au lait', etc.

This post is totally subjective and many people may disagree, but for anyone with similar tastes, here are my recommendations and opinions regarding coffee in Japan. ^_^

Franchises

There are a bunch of chain cafes in Japan which sell average-priced cappuccinos. I would rank them in this order, from best to worst:

Good:

1) Starbucks
2) Excelsior
3) Tully's
4) Krispy Kreme

Of the above, Starbucks is the easiest to find, which is why I frequently seek out Starbucks everywhere I go. In Australia I was all 'no, I want to support local business', etc, but in Japan, there is no better alternative to Starbucks.
I would put 'Cafe Colorado' in the 'good' category too, but their coffee is much more expensive, so I didn't list it here at all.

Mediocre:

5) Cafe de crie
6) Beck's Coffee Shop
7) Doutor
8) Various bakeries and pastry shops like Choco-cro, drink bars like at Jonathan's or Gusto

What these ones have in common is that they are cheaper in price, not topped with chocolate (it's either cinnamon or nothing), the foam is less creamy/smooth and more foamy/bubbly, and the coffee either tastes like it's come from a vending machine (drink bars) or is very weak, like drinking warm milk (Doutour).

I have found one-off cafes with good, reasonably-priced coffee. Examples are 'Bubby's Pies' in Sakuragicho, Yokohama, and 'Cesari' in Osu Kannon, Nagoya. However, generally, if you don't go to a franchise, the coffee is either disgusting or expensive. Many non-franchise cafes and restaurants have cappuccinos for 500 yen or more. I've seen cappuccinos for 750 yen at some places. That's so much! And these are not necessarily amazing, exclusive cafes in ritzy locations; sometimes they're in some generic department store basement.

Other coffees

Moving away from cappuccinos, I have tried a variety of other coffees in Japan. In general, I have disliked all hot coffees I've ever had, period. They are strong and bitter and taste nasty. I really think Japanese tastes are very different from mine. I always think this when I go to Kaldi Coffee. This is a great specialty store which has lots of cool imported products (I go there for Tim Tams and curry pastes ^_^), also selling coffee. They're always giving out free samples of coffee, which are so mouth-puckeringly awful I can't keep the grimace off my face, yet there's always a line of people waiting for them.

Anyway, if it comes to hot coffee, I make mine at home with a plunger. I use cheap Maxim's ground coffee - only about 250 yen (AU $3) for a 200g bag, yet tastes just fine.

I like Japanese-style iced coffee, which is just black coffee in a glass with ice in it. To this you can add creamer and gum syrup (liquid sugar which is stronger and dissolves more easily). I find I can more easily get iced coffee to suit my taste regarding strength/sweetness, than I can with hot coffee.

Japanese-style iced coffee, with a 'cake set'. Yum! ^_^

If you order 'set meals' in Japan, you are frequently given a choice of drinks: hot or iced coffee, hot or iced (black) tea. Usually no choice of espresso drinks with milk.

Vending machines

I asked my co-workers if there was anywhere on the campus I could buy hot coffee (I wasn't expecting cappuccinos, but anything). They looked each other, unsure. "Well, it's early October," said one, "so the vending machines haven't stocked hot coffee yet..."

In Australia it would be absolutely unthinkable to have a university campus without hot, coffee-machine coffee. I'm sure mine had at least four places you could get cappuccinos and fresh-made espresso-style coffee. However, in Japan, many places don't have them.

In Japan, you can buy cans or bottles of hot *or* cold coffee from vending machines. Most vending machines only stock hot drinks in the colder months of the year. I can say that all hot and cold coffees I've had from vending machines have been disgusting; very sugary and tasting of chemicals.

One thing I have gotten into, though, are cold cafe lattes, found in convenience stores and so on. My favourite brand is 'Mt Rainier', especially the 'espresso' type (there's also 'non-sugar', 'no-fat' and 'normal' cafe latte flavours). They're sold in cups with straws, and the labels look like Starbucks labels (for a while I thought I was buying Starbucks drinks). They're much cheaper than buying espresso coffee from cafes - about 140 yen per cup - and I get one every day. *love* I wish I could get easy access to nice, hot coffee for the colder months, but I will continue to enjoy these drinks as long as I am here. ^_^

Caffeine

While on the subject of coffee, I'll also point out that decaf coffee is a rarity here. The only place I've seen it is at Starbucks, and you can't get decaf cappuccinos etc, only decaf blend coffee.

I don't know if this is true, but my personal theory is that Japanese people are less susceptible to caffeine. After all, Japanese people drink tea - lots of tea - from a young age. Cold, hot, green, black, oolong - even children drink tea quite a lot. I think cold tea is considerably more popular a beverage than soda. At Japanese restaurants, tea is often served with the meal rather than water. And I have never heard a Japanese person say 'oh, I won't have this tea because it's late and I won't sleep'.

Therefore, my theory is that after a lifetime of tea consumption, Japanese people are pretty resilient against the effects of caffeine, so they don't feel the need to seek out caffeine-free beverages.

A Day in: Kobe

2010-11-04T21:33:00.001+09:00

A couple of weeks ago I visited Kobe for the first time. Kobe is the sixth-largest city in Japan - smaller than Tokyo, Nagoya and Yokohama, but larger than Kawasaki. Kobe is known as a fairly pleasant city to live in, quite modern, with a harbour and some foreign influence. In these respects, it's not unlike Yokohama.

When I went to Kobe, I did a lot of walking! First, from Sannomiya station (20 minutes from Osaka), I went to Kitanocho, an area with lots of historical foreign residences. It was all built up and down hills, with the mountains immediately behind, creating a nice natural backdrop. The area itself was lovely, and full of little cafes, snack and souvenir shops.

This is a Starbucks with class ^_^

After exploring Kitanocho (no, I didn't go to the Starbucks, but I found a nice French restaurant/cafe on the same street), I went back down to Sannomiya station. Checking the maps, it seemed like only a 400m walk from the station to the Chinatown/harbour area, so I decided not to take the train. Of course, after walking for 400m, I soon found a sign telling me the harbour was 1.2km away. This kind of confusion happens to me often in Japan. Am I really so bad at reading maps and signs, or are they just toying with me? Hahaha...

Anyway, I still walked down to Chinatown, past a floral clock and a park. The Chinatown was mostly concentrated on one street, but it was pretty cool. They had stalls selling shumai (dumplings), nikuman (steamed meat buns) karaage (deep-fried chicken), harumaki (spring rolls) and other treats. Om nom nom. I enjoyed some freshly prepared shumai.

Finally I made it to Meriken Park, a park overlooking the harbour. In this park is a memorial for the great Kobe earthquake of 1995. I just sat and watched some dudes riding stunt bikes.

I made my way on to Harborland, which had nice views. This complex reminded me of Darling Harbour in Sydney, or possibly Decks in Odaiba, Tokyo.

Kobe harbour

There were lots of great department stores in this area, with interesting novelty stores and funky layouts and decor, like little canals. I stopped at a cafe for coffee and cheesecake; their specialty of the house was a unique 'Denmark-style cheesecake'. I don't know what the Danish would have thought of this thing, but it came out with *hot melted cheese* all over it. Underneath it was a kind of generic, Japanese-style spongy cheesecake. It wasn't bad, per se, but rather unexpected.

I enjoyed my day in Kobe. And I did feel like Kobe was Yokohama's western cousin. In both cities, you have:

the area with cool little cafes, former foreign residential areas with European architecture' (in Yokohama: Motomachi/Yamate; in Kobe: Kitanocho)
the harbourside, with nice places to sit, and lots of shops (in Yokohama: Minato Mirai, in Kobe: Harborland and Meriken Park)
the 'bigger neighbour' city which is an easy train ride away (Yokohama has Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka)
Chinatown (the Yokohama one is much bigger, but the Kobe one has more emphasis on street stalls selling hot snacks, which was nice ^_^)
a generally bright, modern feel with lots of shiny, tall buildings

Actually, I liked Kobe very much, and I thought that if I wanted to try living in a new place in Japan, I'd probably choose Kobe. It seemed much livelier than Nagoya, and I found lots of nice cafes, bakeries and patisseries, as well as many department stores, some open spaces, and nice restaurants.

Travelling Alone

2010-11-03T18:51:00.000+09:00

I've travelled quite a bit in Japan, both with myself, and with other people. Everyone has different travel styles. In my case, I think that any destination can be fun if you are with fun people, but if I'm travelling alone, I'm more careful to go to interesting places that will be fun to explore even by myself. As an example, I loved visiting Izu peninsula with my friends, but if I went by myself, I think I'd be less interested.

That said, here's my list of cities/regions I have been to that I think would be interesting to visit even by myself, and places I would prefer to go with someone else. I don't mean to say that, say, Tokyo wouldn't be more fun with other people, or that you couldn't enjoy Nagano by yourself. This is purely subjective. For example, I don't really care to go to festivals or hot springs by myself, whereas I'm quite happy wandering around shopping streets or pretty natural areas alone.

By yourself:
Tokyo
Yokohama
Enoshima (good day trip from Tokyo/Yokohama)
Kawasaki
Hakone
Kyoto
Osaka
Kobe
Nara
Hiroshima / Miyajima

With other people:
Sapporo Snow Festival (note: I went here by myself, and it was *really good*, definitely worth a visit even if you're travelling by yourself; but a festival is really the kind of place where it's more fun with friends)
Izu peninsula (good weekend trip from Tokyo/Yokohama)
Okinawa
Nagano
Niigata
Nikko
Mt Fuji
Gifu, seeing ukai etc

Nagoya City Spotlight: Osu Kannon shopping area

2010-11-03T18:28:00.000+09:00

I'm feeling pretty chuffed because I finally found a lively area of Nagoya with the kind of 'shopping street' atmosphere I like. It's the Osu Kannon shopping area. This is the kind of place where I actually enjoy shopping - a few streets of shopping arcades, with random clothing, electronics stores, and a variety of food.

A variety of food!! People tell me food in Nagoya is good. Is it? It might be good if you like eating ramen, tempura or katsu for *every* meal. I like these things too, but at my university, noodles and donburi are all there is, so when I eat out, I want something different. I was chuffed to find good pizza restaurants, cafes with light meals, a kebab place, fresh-made, delicious hamburgers, tacos, Brazilian food, as well as Japanese restaurants.

Also, as someone who is very fond of coffee, it's a blessing to go somewhere and be able to buy reasonably-priced cappuccinos without having to make a beeline for Starbucks every time. Actually, there is a Starbucks, near Kamimaezu station, but I could find cappuccinos that *weren't* 500 yen each.

There were two places attracting particularly long lines of customers. One was a taiyaki stall near Osu Kannon shrine; the other was a pizza restaurant called Cesari. Though the pizza looked delicious, I couldn't be bothered lining up so long for it, but I did go into the cafe side for a cappuccino (okay, I may have had two). The 'panini set' and 'cake set' deals were pretty good (I got cake and coffee for 600 yen), and the cappuccino was the best I've had in Japan, let alone Nagoya. They also had a deal where if you drink your cappuccino standing at the counter, Italian-style, it's only 200 yen (as opposed to the usual 400). Their desserts looked pretty appealing too.

I am labouring this place a bit because it's so much better value than most cafes I've seen, and I really did like the coffee. Also, the huge queue for the pizza - a queue that never got smaller over several hours - speaks for itself.

Anyway, I'm not saying the Osu Kannon shopping area is wildly exciting and must-see - it's just a few shopping streets - but it's certainly my favourite place in Nagoya so far. The clothes shopping is a bit cheaper than in Sakae, and you can see a nice shrine. If you're in the area and would like to go there yourself, take the subway to Kamimaezu or Osu Kannon stations. ^_^

Bargains, bargains

2010-11-02T22:00:00.000+09:00

Was looking at my local supermarket's catalogue. The section on meat was labelled 'meat fair' (in Japanese characters), and the apples for sale were not just apples for sale, no, they were an 'apple festival'.

If an 'apple festival' means paying ￥498 (AU $6) for a bag of five apples, I don't see much call for celebration. In fact, the same apples were being sold last week at ￥498 for six apples. Perhaps the catalogue is not intended to show this week's bargains, but rather steer you away from the bum deals.

Chocolate-covered potato chips

2010-10-31T11:17:00.001+09:00

Omiyage is big business in Japan. Every town or city of any size or importance has a store selling boxes of packaged sweets, cakes, cookies, dried squid, or whatever the town is supposed to be famous for. People buy these as souvenirs to bring back to co-workers and associates. It's a nice custom when not taken to extremes, though I always feel bad for the people in those stores staggering under the weight of eight or nine boxes and obligations. ^_^

What you see here are Royce's chocolate-covered potato chips. They are omiyage from Hokkaido; Royce have a number of other chocolatey products, but this is probably their most well-known.

I was given these as a gift this time, though I have had them before. I'd say they are good for a novelty. The chocolate on its own is sweet and fairly nice; the chips are satisfyingly crunchy, and also oily and salty. I love chips and I love chocolate, but together? The whole 'sweet and salty' combination was just too weird for me, and I didn't like them.

That, and the fact that any time I try to eat them, even eating half a dozen gives me stomach pains. I speak as someone who has, in the last 24 hours, eaten two cream puffs, a Tim Tam, a slice of pizza, a donut, a cookie and a strawberry cream cheese tart, with impunity. However, I know some people like them, so I would recommend at least trying them for the novelty. ^_^

Weekend trip

2010-10-25T22:33:00.002+09:00

I went away for the weekend to visit Osaka, Nara and Kobe. I took the Willer bus as a cheaper alternative to the shinkansen. I'd recommend it if you're going from Nagoya to Osaka; it's somewhat longer than the train ride but the scenery is nice, if you're not in a hurry. If you book at least a couple of weeks in advance you can get a small discount.

This same bus company does quite a few routes around Japan, including overnight buses, which might be a good option if you want to travel overland without such high prices as the shinkansen.

Osaka, Nara and Kobe are, I think, all places where you could see the main spots in a day each. Of course if you stayed longer you could do them more justice and see more in each, but I felt like I got a good taster of the highlights of each. (As opposed to Kyoto, which is also in the area; I think it's better to give Kyoto at least 2-3 days.)

For three cities that are so near each other - very easy and quite cheap to travel to Nara and Kobe from Osaka - the three are quite different. Nara offers old-style Japanese charm, with lots of little meandering streets with Japanese-style architecture, small cafes, temples, shrines, gardens. Kobe is more of a bright, modern harbour city, which reminded me quite a bit of Yokohama and struck me as a good place to live. Osaka is a lively city of tall buildings, second only to Tokyo as a hub of business, nightlife and energy.

Travelling around there reminded me again how lucky I am to be living in Japan, where I can go out my own front door and see places like these without even taking a plane.

Ukai

2010-10-24T21:32:00.000+09:00

Ukai, or cormorant fishing, on the Nagara river

Fireworks light up the night sky. All around me, people look up from their elaborate bento dinner boxes, turning around for a better look out the back of the boat. The ukai is beginning, and it's the last one of the year.

Ukai is cormorant fishing, a tradition dating back 1300 years. I am in Gifu city, capital of Gifu prefecture, and the cormorant fishing is the town's major tourist draw.

The sightseeing boats

In ukai, cormorants go out with a fishing boat. They've been trained to catch fish, with a ring around their necks to prevent their swallowing them. Each boat is manned by three or four men: the master, who supervises the birds, hauling them back onto the boat when they get a catch. There's also someone to take care of the fire, an assistant, in the middle, and a helmsman at the back.

Here in Gifu, there are six boats that set out each evening, each boat with a fire bobbing from the bow, sending sparks out into the night. The job of cormorant master is passed down through families, and the current masters are a mix of young and old. Every day, the order of boats to set out is determined by lot, as the first boat to leave gets best pick of the fish.

We in the tourist boats wait by the riverbank for the ukai boats to pass. We were sent off with enthusiastic taiko drumming by some local kids, and waited on the boat, eating and drinking and watching a passing boat of girls dancing with fans.

The fireworks mark the beginning of the the ukai, and it's not long before we see the boats themselves. The cormorants are tethered to the boats, which are gliding slowly along in the water, and bobbing, diving and swimming around in a mess of dark shapes. Every now and then, the master will dive forward to grab one of them out of the water and wrest a fish from its beak, before throwing it back in.

These cormorants don't have a bad deal. It takes time to train cormorants to fish; the fisherman obviously want to take good care of them. They're brought in from another prefecture, which sells cormorants to those 12 locations in Japan that practise cormorant fishing. They only wear the neck rings while fishing, and the fishing itself took less than an hour. Their lifespan is far higher than those of wild cormorants.

The fish themselves are sold to the hotels along the Nagara river bank, and they don't go cheap! I heard they can fetch 7000 yen per fish!

If you're interested in seeing ukai for yourself, well, you've missed the ukai season in Gifu for this year (it was May 11 - October 15), but there may be other places you can see it.

Regarding this ukai in Gifu, it costs around 3000-3300 yen. You can choose from three departure times. If you go with your friends and want to make a fun night of it, choose an earlier time and bring food and booze; you can enjoy more of a festival atmosphere. If you just want to see the ukai, you can take the later slot; all three departures will observe the same ukai. I think it was worth seeing, but the actual time we spent able to see the boats clearly was only a few minutes.

One other good thing about Gifu is that it's not that difficult to get to the ukai site. Gifu is only 20 minutes from Nagoya; then the bus to Nagarabashi (the stop nearest the ukai fishing) is another 15 minutes. This bus is easy to find - platform 11 at Gifu station - and the site easy to find from Nagarabashi bus stop.

Promoted ^_^

2010-10-20T22:20:00.001+09:00

I was teaching a class on 'describing appearance' the other day, and getting students to describe me.

'Am I short, or tall?' I asked. (NB: I am a little under 5'2".)

They looked thoughtful. 'Middle height,' one said at last, and the others all agreed.

It was the first time I've been considered medium height. I suppose I am, here. I felt quite chuffed at my promotion. ^_^

Buses

2010-10-20T22:16:00.000+09:00

I haven't taken buses as often as I've taken trains, but there are two main kinds: the kind where the bus has a flat fee, and you pay as you get on, and the kind where the fee increases the longer you ride.

From my experience, city buses in Kawasaki and Yokohama are the former, 'flat fee' type, but in more countryside places, the latter is more common. When I went to Nikko, Hakone, Izu and Gifu, I encountered the second type.

With the 'changing fare' buses, you usually take a ticket as you get on the bus. You may enter through the middle on some buses, and exit via the front. This ticket will have a number on it; if you look at the front of the bus, there'll be a list of numbers with fares below them. This shows the current fare for people who got on at your stop.

So, for example, if your ticket has a '3' on it, look on the board for '3' and it might have '200' (yen) under it. As you travel, this will likely increase, sometimes alarmingly. Hahaha. I've paid more than 1500 yen on some such buses.

I usually screw up when I go to pay and put my money in the wrong place; it seems like the bus driver doesn't really check the tickets at all. I think you're supposed to just chuck coins and ticket in the same, big slot at the top.

Another pitfall about bus travel is that minor bus stops often have no romaji (English characters) on them at all, though major bus stops, and the buses themselves, should.

Despite this, in general, buses in Japan are much easier to ride than in Australia. In my city, at least, there is no guidance whatsoever as to where you currently are, where you might stop next, and where you should get out. In Japan there's a constant narration, telling you what the next stop is; some buses also have screens telling you the next stop.

The bus I was on the other day also had a TV screen playing ads. Leonardo DiCaprio was advertising Bridgestone tires. I mean, that's cool and all, but I don't really see the natural connection between Leo and Bridgestone...?

Photos

2010-10-19T22:31:00.049+09:00

Japanese people have a bit of a reputation for taking pictures. Is this justified? I think they do take more pictures than the average Westerner, though not more than the average Westerner living in Japan. There are a few photography trends I've noticed (some of which are not unique to Japanese people).

First, people are more likely to take photos with their phone than with a camera, unless they are actively sightseeing or at a special occasion.

Second, never offer to take a group picture, or you'll get an avalanche of 'oh, with my camera too, please?'s.

Third, people *do* do the peace sign a lot, especially youngish people. I'm afraid I have also caught this disease.

Fourth, Japan has a phenomenon called 'puri kura' (print club), where you go into a little photo booth with your friends and take pictures of yourself lightened to eerie, otherworldly paleness, then debase them with random little hearts, words, flowers and other bling. It's fun. ^_^ Most easily found in game centres (video arcades), but if you have no Japanese, good luck, because most of the machines have time limits, so by the time you realise the screen has told you to go around the side to edit your pictures, you'll have lost your chance, ha ha ha. (speaking from experience now)

Fifth, there is a rather nice culture here where if someone takes a picture of you at some event, or a picture of the two of you together, they will often print off a copy to give you. This is made easier by the 'instant photo print' machines, found particularly in electronics stores, but in other places too.

An odd aspect of this, however, is that people will print and give you even photos of yourself that are grotesquely unflattering, blurry or poorly shot. I really do appreciate the thought, but there are occasions where it would be kinder to keep those photos to yourself, ha ha ha.

Women Only

2010-10-17T22:30:00.000+09:00

The other day I was riding to work in the women's-only car, and a man got in. He was running in at the last second, relieved to make it onto the train before the doors closed. It took him about half a second to realise: 'oh...' and his shoulders sagged.

He turned to face the door. There was a notice on the door explaining that this was a women's-only car during peak hours. The man made a point of reading this sign, following the words with his finger. The car was such a packed mass of women that he had no chance to make his way through to the next car without attracting more attention.

I felt bad for the poor guy. Next stop and he was out and across the platform like a hare.

A lot of trains have certain cars designated 'women's-only' during peak hours. They say this is to deal with unwanted pervy attention from gropers. I don't know that intentional groping is really the big issue; I think it's more just a matter of making both sexes feel more comfortable. Men don't have to deal with the awkward 'aaagh, where do I put my hands' and accusing looks, women don't have to travel to work pressed against the body of some random businessman. These trains do get very crowded.

Toilets

2010-10-13T22:04:00.000+09:00

One of the exciting things about coming to Japan is the toilets.

Well, okay, there are an awful lot of squalid and smelly 'squat' toilets, which inspire considerably less joy. But Japan is also the home of the Washlet, an all-singing, all-dancing toilet with heated seat...

A standard model

Anyway, I'm blathering. Basically, toilets in Japan come in three kinds: squat toilets, normal toilets, and high-tech electronic toilets with control panels. The most basic of these latter come with some kind of bidet. The sophisticated ones have more buttons than the Apollo 11.

A fairly typical design might have four main buttons - 'stop', 'bum', 'bidet' and 'fake flushing sound', to mask the sound of your shame. There will also be buttons to increase the water pressure from 'weak' (='bracing') to 'strong' (='enema').

Useful toilet kanji:
止 = stop (you should identify this BEFORE pressing any other button)
弱 = weak
強 = strong

This is my own toilet!! In my own apartment! Isn't it exciting!!

Other key buttons should be illustrated with handy pictures. ^_^

Other toilet functions I've encountered include being able to select the position of the bidet nozzles, massage seats and other buttons I've never dared press. Fully utilising some of these toilets could become a kind of ongoing hobby.

One other funky function of many toilets is their 'no touch', 'eco' system where a sensor detects that you've gotten up, and flushes the toilet automatically. What this invariably means is the toilet will flush about three seconds before you're ready, forcing you to wait and then flush it again. It may even flush multiple times before you're ready. And it really gets going if you're just going into the cubicle to change your clothes. I don't quite understand how that makes the toilet 'eco'.

The alternative is that the sensor doesn't detect anything at all. The absence of a touch button robs you of any power to do anything but walk back and forth between door and toilet, sitting down and standing up again, hoping something you do will trigger it.

Taking trains

2010-10-09T21:56:00.000+09:00

If you live in a Japanese city you will soon become familiar with trains as a mode of transport. Of course you can also take buses, but buses mostly run within fairly local areas; they're good for taking you to areas not near stations, but they aren't a good way to cross a city.

If you're coming to Japan for the first time, one of the first things I recommend doing is picking up a metro map from the airport or a major train station.

Be aware that Tokyo, and Yokohama, have more than one railway company. You have JR (Japan Rail), which operates trains all over the country; they also have lots of stations throughout Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture. Many cities also have their own subway, like the Yokohama City Subway, and the Tokyo metro. So if you pick up a Tokyo metro map, it may not have all the JR stations on it; likewise, a JR map may not have subway stations on it. Also, if you have a special pass that allows you unlimited use of a particular line - JR or metro or whatever - you probably won't be able to use it on other lines.

How to ride a train

1. Check the map and fare

It shouldn't be too hard. Let's imagine you're at Yokohama station and using JR. You go to the ticket machines and there is a big JR map above them, showing the different stations and the fee for each. (Occasionally at less important stations, this map will be all in kanji, and you're screwed. Hahaha...)

You see that it will cost you 450 yen and that either the Tokaido line or Keihin-Tohoku lines will take you there. The Tokaido line has considerably fewer stops between Yokohama and Tokyo, so it will obviously be faster (though they run less frequently and there may then be less opportunity of getting a seat).

2. Buy a ticket and check the route

Now you know the fare, you can put your 450 yen in the ticket machine and buy a ticket.

If you do not have a map or a clue where you're going, you will want to check the map to see some of the other stations in the direction you want to go. Once you get in the station, it's more difficult to find full railway line maps (though they are inside the trains themselves), and if you're going to a smaller station, it might not be immediately obviously which direction train you should take, since most trains and platforms are labelled with two or three main stations in that direction, eg 'for Kawasaki, Shinagawa, Omiya' or 'for Kannai, Ofuna'.

(If you use trains regularly, you might want to buy a card like Suica or Pasmo. That way, rather than buying a ticket every time you go to a station, you can put credit on the card and swipe it over the card reader on ticket gates. These can also be used in selected vending machines, buses and stores bearing the Suica/Pasmo logos.

If you plan a lot of travel in one day, day pass tickets are also possible.)

3. Go to your platform and check the type of train

Then put the ticket in the ticket gate - take it as you go through - and now you can go to your platform. Check the signs for your platform and destination. Sometimes, as with the Tokaido line, one train line will have more than one platform, and occasionally, one platform may have more than one train line (or lines that change their name after a particular station).

Once you're on the platform, you can find maps of the line you are on. You might have to walk up and down the platform to find one, but they do exist. These maps should also show the route of the local trains (stop at every station), rapid trains (stop at some stations), limited express trains (stop at major stations), etc. This is important as if you're not going to a major station, the rapid/limited express trains may not stop there.

One other point is that some kinds of trains, including some limited express trains, require reserved seating and therefore an extra fee. If this is the case there will usually be a ticket machine on the platform itself. The Tokaido line has regular trains with 'green cars' for those wanting the comfort of a guaranteed seat; these green cars require a reserved seat and extra fee, but you can ride on a regular car for no extra fee.

4. Changing train lines

If you have to change train lines, it's not too difficult. Unless you're changing to a different railway (eg, JR to Keikyu, Yokohama Subway to JR), you shouldn't need a new ticket or to exit through any gates, but can change within the station on the same ticket you originally purchased.

5. Getting out

Once you get out, put your ticket in the machine again, and the machine will eat it.

Incidentally, you can enter a station on the cheapest possible ticket, and then travel anywhere you like. If you've gone further than the price of your ticket - eg, you changed your mind and went further than you expected - the gates won't let you out until you've paid the balance. But you can easily pay on exit. There are 'fare adjustment machines' inside train stations, in which you can top up your ticket (or Suica/Pasmo) so you can get out.

Train times

First trains usually start running at or after 5am. Last trains are often around midnight, maybe as late as 1am. It depends where you're taking it from. A station near the end of the line will obviously have a later 'last train' than one near the beginning. Also, some last trains don't go all the way to the end of the line. And if you're changing trains, you gotta be aware of the time of your last last train! I speak from experience. Taxis are expensive in Japan, and if you get stranded too far from your station, you might end up sleeping in an Internet cafe or doing all-night karaoke (again, I speak from experience ^_^).

In short

I made taking trains sound more complex than it is. Actually, taking trains in Japan is *usually* quite simple, provided you know where you are going and what lines to take. Again, I strongly advise getting a map, or at least checking carefully where you're going before entering the station. And make sure what kind of train you are getting on, whether it's a local or rapid...

Links

I've plugged these site a couple of times before, but check out Hyperdia, through which you can plug in any two station names in the country and it will give you the possible routes, cost and travel times between them.

Japan-Guide also has a good section on transportation, for example, Transportation in Tokyo.

Japanese Pet Peeve: Feeling the sun on your skin... or not

2010-10-07T21:54:00.000+09:00

I went on a Japanese cruise ship, and one thing I noticed was that very few of the Japanese passengers actually used the swimming pool. When I asked them why, their answers were either 'I'm too shy', or 'I don't want to get the sun on my skin'.

If you live in Japan, you will notice that even in warm weather, many ladies will wear long sleeves that cover their skin. Some also carry umbrellas, even if they are only walking a couple of blocks in the sunshine.

In Japan, white skin is the beauty ideal, rather than tans (although this is less true for men). So I'm not sure whether the sun safety ideal is a result of health concerns about UV and skin cancer, or a desire to prevent cosmetic effects like a tan, freckles or wrinkles.

I currently work at a university. The weather has been gorgeous all week - about 26 and sunny every day - but one thing I've noticed is that, in striking contrast with Australian universities (and Australian *anywhere*, really), nobody was sitting outside. There is outdoor seating available, it's just that I'm always the only one enjoying it. I brought this up with my students and they agreed they didn't sit outside. Why? 'The UV,' they said.

Coming from the Land of Skin Cancer, Australia, I appreciate that this is very sensible, and much better than the opposite extreme of lying in full sun for hours to get a tan. However, I feel like we should enjoy nice weather when it comes up. That's why it's a pet peeve of mine - it feels like overcautiousness to me - especially when you feel you can't walk outside with your skin exposed to the sun for even one minute. Or swim in a pool on a 35 degree day (why not put on sunscreen? And lie in the shade after you've finished swimming?) My culture has instilled in me a sense that when the weather is nice, you should be out there enjoying it.

The other day it was cloudy, with no sunshine, but it certainly wasn't raining. We went down to a river in the countryside. A lady was clambering over the rocks while holding an umbrella aloft. To protect her from the non-existent sun. For some reason, I found this sight depressing.