Here are some links I found pretty cool and wanted to pass along.

Here’s some cool rice paddy art. Way better than crop circles!

Some advice on studying Japanese. In the end, it’s all about what works best for you.

JPop group Perfume appeared live the other day, but what’s cool is they have a new single coming out in August.

The ANA Gundum plane looks a little boring. Maybe they’ll make a flashier design in the future.

Narita Sky is here! Get from Narita airport to Tokyo in 36 minutes (or your pizza is free!)

Make a hotel reservation in Japanese with this handy step by step guide.

Question:

Leah writes in – Am writing a short piece for Telegraph Expat on the new skype iphone/ipod app and wondered if you’d be interested in commenting on it, as an expat user? Would be good to know whether it’s been useful for you and your expat friends, and what you think of it!

Answer:

Sure I’ll tell you my thoughts on it. I think Skype for the iPhone is great! An iPhone/iPod is small enough to take anywhere, so now It’s easier than ever for me to Skype or call abroad. I use it daily when I’m on the go. My only complaint is that I haven’t been able to listen to any Skype voicemail on my iPhone.

Skype message about iPhone 3G mobile subscription

On a side note – Skype will be requiring a subscription in the future to use it on the cell phone network (3G) on the iPhone. I don’t like the idea of this since I already have a regular skype subscription with a phone number, but I use it frequently so depending on the price I might subscribe. It should still be free to skype to skype calling when you’re connected to a wifi hotspot.

The other day a huge tuna was caught off Japan and was sold for 3.2 million yen (36,700 dollars). That’s a hefty price tag, running around 7200 yen per kg. It was caught near the Nagasaki prefecture which is below Fukuoka and Saga prefectures. Here’s a quote (and picture) from the article (Google News).

A monster tuna caught off Japan turned heads at a Tokyo fish market Friday, where the 445 kilogram (981 pound) bluefin — the biggest caught here since 1986 — sold for 3.2 million yen (36,700 dollars).

“Many of the people who work at the market have never seen a tuna that big,” said an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which runs the Tsukiji fish market, the world’s biggest seafood market.

I’ve been to a few fish markets, including ones in other countries, but I’ve never been to the Tsukiji fish market. Apparently visitors are allowed to check out the market between 5am-6am while some auctioning is still going on. I heard it’s an interesting experience and it looks pretty impressive. Here are some photos from the market that I found on Flickr: The entrance, items for sale, a lot of fish, tentacles, and some large fish for sale. You can read more about the market here.

How do you get a job in Japan besides teaching English? What are wages and working conditions like for Americans and other foreigners living and working in Japan? These are a few questions I’m often asked. To help people out on their journey to living and working in Japan, Cornelius from Life in Japanimation wrote an interesting post regarding U.S. Government jobs in Japan.

He talks a little about the application process, hiring process, some visa info, and links to a great resource NAFjobs.org

If you want to learn more about government jobs in Japan, check out his post “Jobs in Japan”!

I’ve been following a blog called Channel-Ai for a quite some time. It has a lot of great information about the latest Jpop releases, translated interviews, news, and reviews. If you’re interested in learning more about Japanese Pop you should check out the site!

The first time I fell asleep on the train I was surrounded by mountains! There are no mountains on the train line near where I live so I knew I fell asleep. The good thing is I can hop off at a stop, cross over, and catch the train back at no extra charge because they don’t take your ticket until you leave the train station. I’ve always wondered what would happens if a person falls asleep on a Shinkansen (bullet train) and Sibylle Ito answered that over at her blog. Another interesting post at her blog is  Japanese manners: Info from an expert where she interviews an experienced trainer for Japanese culture/manner.

Falling asleep on a train

(image source here)

People like my “contact me” link on the blog! Every month I get asked some questions. A lot tend to be the same questions so I thought I’d share a few along with my answers. Here’s the first one. If you have more to add, feel free to do so in the comment section.

Question:

Andrew wrote in – Man, this blog is great, I think I’ve read every post! Found this today, and I love it. Going to Japan has been my dream since I was like 10, and I love sites like this that detail personal experiences! It’s great to hear about your time in Japan and really adds realism to the dream

Was it expensive moving there? I’m 19 and living in the UK, and I currently have no idea what I’m doing with life :O I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever get to go (I need a better Job!) But your blog gives me hope my friend ^^ Keep up the good work!

Answer:

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you enjoy the posts that I’ve made. It was expensive to move to Japan because I had to sell everything I owned in the U.S. The other alternative would be storage (monthly fee) or keep stuff at my parents house (they wouldn’t like that). On top of that I had to have money to move into a new place. This included damage deposit that I would not get back, 1st months rent, last months rent, and money for setting up things like internet, electric, cell phone, and not to mention the $1400 plane ticket. I don’t remember clearly but I’d say a rough estimate of the first month cost around $8000-10000 USD, but this is for two people. If you budget well and are a minimalist, and if you had a job lined up, you could spend $3000-5000 USD depending on where you live. Then your monthly budget would be between $1000-2000 before including food. These figures are just estimates so you’d really have to break everything down to match your own personal tastes. But I have some friends that are English teachers making about $1600-2000 USD a month and they’re able to live in a decent place, have a cell phone, internet, and some have cable TV. So it is possible. Just remember that the apartments are very very tiny compared to Western style living.

If you move to Japan you should considering getting a job in advance. If you’re just doing some soul searching then you might consider going to Japan on an extended vacation instead of moving right away. One way to keep things affordable is to make some friends on www.couchsurfing.com and stay at somebody’s place for free.

Good luck with everything!

(I got the photo in this post from flickr)

A friend of mine created a site that teachers can use in the classroom, it’s basically web-based quizzes and surveys for students. Looks like it’s great for iPhones. It’s called MOARS (Mobile Audience Response System).

moars is designed to be used with students. This is not an iPhone app — the students use mobile web-based browsers to take quizzes and surveys. Even though the system is designed to be used with Safari on iPod Touch or iPhone, students have accessed the system from other mobile browsers.

Click here to check out MOARS (Mobile Audience Response System)

Another site teachers might find helpful is “captur.me” which is more low tech.

PaddleCaptur is a simple tool that teachers can use in their classrooms to help them capture the class’ understanding or opinions in an instant. Each students has a paddle-shaped flash card. When the teacher asks a question, she also provides up to four options for the answers. Students all use their Captur paddle to give their answers…

Check out the Captur website here.

For those that don’t know, “sakura” are the cherry blossoms that grace Japan every year. “Hanami” is a “flower viewing” which can be romantic but usually turns into a huge drunken party under the cherry blossoms far into the evening. And “Kyoto” is just some city in Japan. Alright, alright, Kyoto is a beautiful city full of culture that used to be Japan’s capital before Tokyo! But we’ll get to Kyoto later on…

Being an American, what amazes me about hanami is how people can reserve a spot in public place and people usually respect the reservation. Somebody will go to the park early and block off a section for their group with string and a note saying “reserved [this date] at [this time]“… and there usually isn’t any problem. Talk about courtesy! That’s like having nosebleed seats at a football game and not moving to the already reserved front row seats that are empty. In the U.S. after a while we’d move down to those awesome seats until the person who reserved those seats showed up, if ever.

Each person usually bring something to the party such as drinks, snacks, food, bento, and last year I made pizza at home and brought that . I always have fun at hanami parties because brings a mixture of friends together. Here’s a photo of a sakura tree in full bloom. For more pictures of the beautiful cherry blossoms and hanami action, check out Ben Does Japan where he goes to Kyoto to check things out.

A Friend's Chihuahua Loving the Sakura

Wow, I haven’t posted for quite some time! I’ve been traveling SE Asia for the last 9 months and haven’t been back to Japan since. I do have some interesting things to still share, and I’ve answered questions I’ve been emailed every 2 weeks so I hope to post some answers because I’ve been getting a lot of the same questions. Also I came across something interesting last week:  How to build your own Japanese Torii gate for your garden.