Useful everyday kanji - out and about

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)

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

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

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

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)

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

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. :)