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.

I just bought a Sony DSC-T70. Mainly because it’s small, it’s fast, it has internal zoom, and I’m satisfied with the image quality. The menu is pretty slick. There are nice icons, lots of Katakana, and I also downloaded the English manual form Sony’s website. All it took to get used to it was going through the settings, reading the Katakana, and memorizing a little of the manual. Now I’m golden and I’ve saved about $50. I mean… um… ¥5000…

If you’re interested in this camera:
You can download the English manual and get specs here.
You can read a review here.

And here’s a nice hands on review.

I thought I took a picture of a salon, but I can’t find it. So here’s a repost from my salon that failed post.

I studied about 2 hours every day and learned almost everything in a week. The next class was way easier to understand and I wrote about half in English, half in Hiragana and it was pretty sweet to be able to read Japanese. It’s like reading some cryptic language… and I feel cool… and now I totally sound like a foreigner by saying that. But it’s all good because now I can read things like “udon” and “karaage” and that’s a step in the right direction in my book.

The next week I focused on kya, gya, and characters like that, so it took about 2 weeks to learn everything. Am I a pro? No. I’m pretty slow when reading words and sometimes I have to think about what the character is but it’s a start! I decided to stop studying and dedicate time to work and our wedding that’s coming up. I still look at my flash cards I made every day and have read things every day so it’s still staying fresh, I’m just not studying every day. That should change on June 1st through!

The memberships I’ve found in Japan vary from 6500-10,000 Yen (about $65-100 USD) per month. The hours are 9am-9pm or similar, and I’d rather be at the gym by 7am. There are strange rules like every Thursday it’s closed, or if you pay less you can only be there 1-9pm on the weekdays, or you can have a weekend only memberhsip for 6500, and all holidays the gym is closed. Also you can only pay through a bank account, so you have to open one at the bank they use.

photo credit: takeratta

So let’s break this down… You can’t go on holidays, you can’t go on certain days (like a Thursday, or every other Monday), you can only go around 9am-9pm. What I just mentioned is 8900-10,000 yen per month. So let’s say 10,000 to be safe after taxes and bank fees. If you spend 2 hours total in a gym and go 3 times a week which comes to 24 hours per month you end up paying 416 ($4) per hour to go to the gym. What!? That’s insane. I also asked how much the employees make at one place and they said they start at 800 yen per hour. What!?

By the way, I went to all gyms within a 15 minute walk. Most were full of physically fit people. However I stopped at a place in Fukuoka called American Gym and all of the people inside were freakin’ HUGE! It was an older gym, darker with only a few windows, and felt like people were training for the Strongman competition. Check out the picture of the sign taken by e-chan.

I did some searching, I did some asking, and I visited the very helpful foreigners center in Fukuoka called The Rainbow Center. I found out that each ward has a community center with a gym, basketball court, and other things. My ward’s community center has a small gym with decent equipment. It’s open from 9-9 as well and if you go when it’s open the equipment is available and you don’t have to deal with many people. The price on this… 260 Yen for two hours. That’s what I’m talking about! If you go 3 times a week per month you’re looking at 3120 Yen. It costs an extra 30 yen to use the extremely small locker so everybody just puts their gym bag in the corner of the workout area which is cool with me. This is one of the many deals I’ve found in Japan so far.

Here’s a picture of Gold’s Gym here in Japan taken by charlton_b. It’s always interesting seeing things here that I’ve seen in America.

This is a picture of the urinals. I haven’t seen a mini urinal yet, they’re all huge and they start from the floor and go up about 1 meter or so.

This next one is the style I’m used to, the 2nd is traditional Japanese (or Asian?) style, and the 3rd and 4th are of a public toilet near the river which look pretty sweet (except the litter around it). I was going share the pictures of these two entrances because I thought they look cool, but I thought I’d snap the other ones too so people can see a difference in styles.

I wasn’t going to talk about it and I was going to fix the problem, but just two days after I noticed this, my fiancee mentioned that I’m getting skinny. She says she wants me to eat more and either get some extra baggage (aka fat) or bulk up. For now I’ll just eat more and after the wedding I’ll hit the gym. I’m 1.9m (6’2″) and 78kg (172lbs). Within a month I hope to stop tall-skinny trend and start working my way back up to 86kg (190lbs). By the way I was 86.5kg when I moved to Japan.

I can’t believe it’s in 26 days! In about 20 days some guests from America will arrive so that gives us a little less than three weeks to finish everything up. I know we can handle it and I’ll be memorizing itinerary to help everything go smoothly, but I still need to finalize my vows, I need to write a speech for the reception as well as a few other things I want to say, and memorize some lyrics of a Japanese song for one of our duets (luckily I have the easy part!). We’ve added some events to our wedding, removed some, added some new things.

Mai’s good friend in Tokyo is a designer and has been working on a unique wedding dress since September. I haven’t seen it of course but I hear it looks amazing so far.

How do other foreigners have their wedding in Japan? I’m not quite sure. So far I’ve seen the traditional Japanese wedding with full kimono and I’ve seen the ‘western style’ type of wedding at a chapel or restaurant with a reception dinner following. We’ll be having a western style with a touch of Steve and Mai and our closest friends and relatives will be attending. I’ll probably post some pictures next month.

I’ve seen some pictures of the trees, I heard they’re beautiful, I heard they’re romantic, I heard they’re magical, but I didn’t hear about the crazy drunken madness at night! We went to experience Hanami (flower viewing, enjoying tasty bento similar to this) at Ohori koen (means… Ohori park). I thought I was in for a romantic sakura viewing… but in fact… it was more of a fun time packed full of people, mostly drunk office workers, with some romantic moments in the quiet areas (near the temple).

The road to the park was lined up with vendors selling things from chocholate covered bananas to takoyoki (a grilled octopus dish). There were some families with kids running around having a good time and couples eating bento together, and then… there were tons of drunk people with sake, sho chu, and grills. Apparently the people under the trees brought tarps in advance and 1-2 people reserved their spot. Each cluster seemed to stay within their group of people which is good when family + drunk people are mixed.

We took some pictures but most of them ended up blurry and I took a lot of video which I haven’t taken off the camera. Here are a few of the decent pictures from that night.

If I had to sum up this experience in one sentance I’d say… it was like a tailgating party for the sakura football game. Ahh… good times, good times.

]]> http://www.japanitup.com/my-cherry-blossom-viewing/feed/ 5 http://www.japanitup.com/im-not-on-vacation-any-more/ http://www.japanitup.com/im-not-on-vacation-any-more/#comments Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:32:31 +0000 Steve http://www.japanitup.com/im-not-on-vacation-any-more-376/ It’s time to learn Japanese.

I’ve been in Japan for a little over 6 months and I like the country a lot. It feels like I’m in another world, a much different feeling I get from traveling to other countries. My main barrier is that I don’t speak the language and that makes it difficult to do simple things like make dinner plans, learn about current events in the area, or even get the help I might need when shopping. I’d say I know about 50 words at one given time (sometimes I learn new ones but forget others) and that helps, but it’s not good enough. My sentances are basic too. People are probably tired of me asking if they’re good, the weather is nice, and I’ll have a draft a beer.

I picked up a book of some basic vocabulary the last time I was at Costco, and an Australian friend gave me a Hiragana book as a gift which I’ve tried out and then became lazy.

My goal is to learn Hiragana in about 3 months, so I’ve set a goal of August 1st. And I plan on studying vocabulary as much as I study Hiragana. I know I can do this if I hit the books every day.

Update (April 14): After the comments and encouragement you guys left I’ve learned about a new book, new methods, and some new websites so I’ve decided to update my goal. I’ve been very motivated and went to a 90 minute Japanese conversation lesson on Saturday. The teacher was speaking Japanese and using Hiragana and Katakana to explain things which tells me I need to speed things up! So I’ve set a new goal of learning Hiragana in 3 weeks  like claytonian mentioned, which is May 2nd. Then I’ll focus on Katakana.

Something that I find interesting is even though construction can be happening downtown in multiple locations, I don’t seem to notice it. That’s because they usually block off the construction site wtih some type of wall or gate that surrounds the entire area. I’ve seen some cheap plastic walls, some expensive plastic walls with windows, and some wooden walls. I snapped some pics on a Sunday, so no workers were harmed in the photographing.

Here’s a picture of some type of portable wall

Ooo! This is the heavy duty wall with VIP windows!

I’m VIP, here’s proof, I’m looking through the window.

And here’s another construction location. It looks like they’re escavating dinosaurs.

So here we are… going into the Starbucks that’s inside Tsutaya.

For the record… Tsutaya is pretty sweet. It’s 6 stories and you can rent DVDs, CDs, buy them, get books and magazines, and enjoy some Starbucks. The DVD releases that have been out for a while usually run on a special that’s 4 DVDs for 1000 Yen. I’d say about $9-10 US.

Here’s kind of a cool photo

And here’s a picture I took from Starbucks of Starbucks across the street while enjoying some coffee with some friends.

By having so many Starbucks so close to me I’d have to say

1. It’s kind of crazy in my opinion
2. They are is busy and the city is big
3. I love it!

Nobody has spoken English to me at Starbucks so far. So how do I order? First thing I did was listen. I listened to other people ordering coffee and just repeated what they say. A lot of the items sound similar to the way I say it in English. I also asked my fiancee about a few items. And if it’s busy I usually order as good as I can and point to the pictures at the same time. So far so good!

I’ve enjoyed my visit to all Starbucks in Japan so far. Sure, they don’t use a $20,000 coffee maker, but they do good work. They’re all very clean, casual, and the employees are very very friendly. One location (which I took a picture of) has screwed up orders taken from a native Japanese speaking customer 3 out of 4 times so far but the other locations are perfect. I do go to smaller cafes but I do like chain shops and restaurants because you get what you expect, meaning I can order a latte from the U.S. or in Japan from a chain and it’ll taste the same. To me that’s a good thing when I don’t have time to hope my money and satisfaction will work out in my favor. I’m a big fan of not wasting money. I do like the inexpensive instant coffee here in Japan, but treating yourself to a 410 yen latte is always nice.

Interested in more info? Here’s the Starbucks Japan website in English. If you’re interested in knowing some prices, just check their beverage lineup or look at some samples below.

Caffè Latte Cost:
Short 240cc = 280yen || Tall 360cc = 330yen
Grande 480cc = 380yen || Venti® 590cc = 430yen

Coffee of the Day:
Short 240cc = 310yen || Tall 360cc = 360yen
Grande 480cc = 410yen || Venti® 590cc =460yen

Because it was too much chocolate to handle, my fiancee gave me a gift on the 13th, and then one on the 14th. On the 13th she hand made a chocolate parfait! It was amazing! It looked and tasted like it was expensive and hand crafted by a chef. It contained chocolate, ice cream, more chocolate, cake, chocolate covered crispy things, and strawberry Pocky. Oh, and hand whipped whip cream! Here are a few pictures (sorry for the blurriness, I’m not used to my friends camera yet). It was delicious.

On Valentine’s Day she gave me a wonderfully wrapped gift. It looked expensive and the presentation was great, so at first I thought she bought it at some expensive shop. She told me that she hand made the chocolate using ‘an idea’ but no recipe and a few ingredients she thought would work. And she wrapped it herself.

Here’s my blurry picture of the chocolates when I opened the cute basket they were in.

And finally here are the chocolates she made. They were powered with cocoa and had a very rich taste. It wasn’t a dark chocolate taste, and wasn’t a milk chocolate taste, it felt like a truffle when I ate it, but it was nothing I’ve tasted before.

When I opened the gift I felt overwhelmed and a little teary eyed when I ate the first piece because I know she spent all of that time and effort to prepare everything and that’s very special to me. Even when it’s not a holiday she often does special things like this to show me how she feels about me, and she is the first person in my life to ever do this. She’s so great. This was the best Valentine’s Day ever.

What does Ishiyaki Imo mean? I asked this very same question and here’s the answer broken down. Ishi = stone, Yaki = grilled, Imo = sweet potato.

My Imagination: Now here’s what I was thinking about this truck before I saw it. I figured it was a pickup truck, some guy that cooks them on the back of his truck, and he sings his song out of a megaphone, he’s a happy guy that just loves giving out sweet potatoes late at night and apparently the job is fun and exciting. He drives fast because he wants to cover the entire city.

The Reality: Not quite what I was thinking. From my experience, an older guy drives either a truck or a van. He’s not singing, he’s playing a recording over a megaphone and this explaines why the song is perfect every time he drives by my place. He does drive slow, which means I’m just not running fast enough (time to hit the gym?). He has cooking gear on his truck but when I went all of the potatoes were ready to go. I spent 400 Yen ($3.75 at the time) for a big hot potato. And big as in huge, it looked like they gave me the biggest one in the sweet potato field. Good thing I was hungry!

The potato was hot and it I enjoyed it. Just eating a hot sweet potato is quite different from The Outback Steakhouse version back in the U.S. which is smothered in butter and cinnamon and maybe some sugar.

Here are a picture from the truck.

Here’s an Ishiyaki-Imo old school setup which I’ve never seen in person (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Here’s a YouTube video I found. The song doesn’t have as nice of a melody as the truck Fukuoka, the truck is slow and not busy, but it’s cool to check out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMdEWJi1o48[/youtube]

Good stuff.

The picture above is a QR Code. I see them everywhere here, even at McDonalds. They’re on buildings, billboards, magazine ads, product packages, etc. You take a picture with your cell phone and it brings up information or a website.

From Wikipedia: A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.

The picture of the shochu bottles above were explained to me as a “bottle keep” and from my understanding these are unfinished bottles of alcohol. If a person comes in (probably with a group) and orders a bottle but they don’t finish it the restaurant will put the person’s name on it so that person can enjoy the tasty beverage which they’ve already paid for during their next visit. That’s awesome!

The picture above is a package of coffee creamer. I consider it a powdered coffee creamer refill since I fill up my jar from this package. What’s so different about it? Well it has a dotted line and you’re supposed to cut all the way across. When you cut it all the way across only this small portion is opened so you can conveniently pour the contents out. How awesome is that? In the U.S. if you do this you have an opening the full size of the package.

The picture above is a refill pack of shampoo. In the U.S. there are refills jugs or really huge bottles of shampoo so I think the Japan version is interesting and I think it’s more convenient.

The above picture is an umbrella holder. They are everywhere here. Most large stores don’t have an umbrella holder but instead they offer plastic bags you can use to cover your umbrella so you don’t get any of the products wet. I don’t come from a state that has much rainfall so seeing a lot of people carrying umbrellas was new to me. And a place to put your umbrella and trust that nobody will want a free “upgrade” from theirs (or from none) is different.

The above picture is a Lawson convenience store. Convenience stores are commonly called “Conbinis” in Japan (sounds like cone-beanie). There are conbinis everywhere in Japan. It’s insane. None sell gasoline like the American version and the staff is very nice (again, unlike the American version). Stores are really clean and they have a ton of items including ready to eat fried chicken and other random fried things that I’ve eaten but can’t tell what they are. They’re often used as landmarks too when you’re trying to navigate through town.

Ah yes, the picture above is a vending machine. Why is this so different? Well… they are everywhere. Within a 3 minute walk I will see at least 4. Some are sneaky and are hiding around the corner. Some have hot and cold drinks. I’ve even seen one that sells are regular size + large size for the same price. Some even make noises and it makes me feel that they’re taunting me. You can get coffee, tea, soda, juice, and I haven’t looked but I wouldn’t be surprised if you can get soup and milk.

Those are all the pictures I have right now. I hope you enjoyed them, and stay tuned for more!

Along with some tips I’m going to share some pictures I took of the subway on a rainy, cold, Friday afternoon around 2pm. It wasn’t a busy time and the station I was at doesn’t seem to be as busy as bigger stations.

Tip #1 – If somebody falls onto the track, hit this button! (Press the red button below in case a person fall sinto the track area. Trains will stop automatically. FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY!)

Tips beyond “Tip #1″ in no particular order:

Getting a ticket:
Look at the fare chart above the machine. Find your destination, the number below the destination is how much Yen it’ll cost you. Put in your money in the machine and click the button that shows that amount. There’s usually an English option on the machine. Get your ticket and change from the tray. If your purchase a wrong ticket by mistake you can insert the ticket into the refund slot and your money will be returned. I think in Tokyo you can buy the ticket at a ticket counter. Also: See if you have to make any connections (meaning you start at point A, change trains at point B, change again at point C, and arrive at the final destination). If you make a train change you might want to write down the names of those places so you don’t forget.

Next, take your ticket, put it into this machine that’s a gate area (or Automatic Ticket Gate, usually green) and grab the ticket when it spits it out at the end. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you should watch other people do it. It’s pretty simple.

Now head to your track number. You’ll know which track number you should take by looking at the station names under the number or on the wall. They’ll say which direction that train is heading by giving names of upcoming stations. If you’re going to the aiport you’ll see CITYNAME Kuko… I think… wait behind the white line with arrows pointing to where the train doors will be. When the train arrives let people out and then go in.

( Oh yeah, this information board above also shows the estimated arrival time, and a picture of the train which changes position and reflects it’s progress)

Some tips on riding in the train -

• Don’t eat or drink in the train.
• If you have an ipod, turn down the volume so others can’t hear it.
• If you’re uncomfortable, just stand the whole time.
• Don’t sit in the designated areas for elderly, pregnant, etc. There’s a sign showing this.
• Designated areas are in the waiting area for the train as well.

If you need additional help, you can call the Japan Railways’s English-language telephone service at 03-3423-0111 or visit their website.
Operation time can vary. Usually early morning to late at night (something like 5:30am – 11:30pm). And the time between trains can run 3-4 minutes during rush/peak times and 4-9 minutes during the off peak times.

Fares usually depend on distance travelled. You can expect to spend 200-400 Yen one way. Here’s an example fare chart:

• 200 Yen – 0 – 3 km
• 250 Yen – 3 – 7 km
• 290 Yen – 7 – 11 km
• 320 Yen – 11- 14 km
• 360 Yen – 14+ km

You can also buy prepaid cards and 1-Day passes. A one day pass can cost as little as 600 yen, or up to 1600 yen for the Tokyo super duper combo all transport one day pass. (Don’t ask for a super duper combo, I made that name up).

You can get a map of the Tokyo subway system here (PDF version of the 1st picture I posted)
You can get a subway map of Fukuoka here
If you’re looking for a different city, I recommend searching google using a phrase similar to “CITYNAME japan metro subway map” or visiting UrbanRail.net

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Almost all bottles listed are 750ml. Ones that are 700ml will be compared to the USD 750ml price. I’ll show you the actual price of alcohol in Yen from a liquor store in Japan and I’ll also list the estimated price in U.S. Dollars from what you’d find in a U.S. liquor store. From my extensive research I feel the Yen price is accurate and it’s what you’ll find at most stores. Ok, no more blah blah blah. Let’s get our drink on!

	Grey Goose Vodka (750ml) http://www.greygoosevodka.com/ Cost in Japanese Yen: 3200 (comparable) Estimated U.S. Dollars: $35
	Absolut Vodka (750ml) http://www.absolut.com/ Cost in Yen: 1190 (cheaper!) Estimated USD: $23 ** Absolut Vodka Flavored ** (Citron, Melon, etc) ** Cost in Yen: 2289 (comparable) ** Estimated USD: $23

	SKYY Vodka (750ml) http://www.skyy.com/ Cost in Yen: 1187 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $18
	Tanqueray (750ml) http://www.tanqueray.com/ Cost in Yen: 1391 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $21
	Bombay Sapphire (750ml) http://www.bombaysapphire.com/ Cost in Yen: 1490 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $25
	Crown Royal (750ml) http://www.crownroyal.com/ Cost in Yen: 1932 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $27
	Captain Morgan Spiced Rum (750ml) http://www.captainmorgan.com/ Cost in Yen: 1180 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $20
	Jägermeister (700ml) http://www.jagermeister.com/ Cost in Yen: 1660 (comparable) Estimated USD: $18
	Baileys (750ml) http://www.baileys.com/ Cost in Yen: 1300 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $23
	Jack Daniel’s (700ml) http://www.jackdaniels.com/ Cost in Yen: 1980 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $24
	Jameson Whiskey (700ml) http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/ Cost in Yen: 1850 (cheaper) Estimated USD: $26

As you can see, most hard liquor is cheaper in Japan vs the U.S. (20-50% cheaper). Some strange things I’ve noticed is that certain brands only carry 700ml compared to the U.S. version of 750ml. Also some brands that have a variety of flavors, like Absolut, charge more for the flavored bottles. I’d prefer a nice Absolut Mandarin with some Orange Juice but hey for 1100 Yen (about $10) price difference I’ll stick to the non flavored variety.

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Here are a few that really stood out to me.

1. Exchanging Business Cards
   It’s very important that yours be crisp, clean, and presentable; you will be handing them out often. A card should be offered with both hands, and received with either your right hand or with both. Look at it long enough to convey that you’re processing the presenter’s name and rank and the importance of his or her title-even if you don’t know what it means. You can show it to your concierge later for a full translation.
2. The Art of the Bow
   There are three types of bows in Japan; you’ll be using the first almost exclusively. Here’s who they’re for”¦
   • 115 degrees (a quick dip of the head and shoulders)|
     For neighbors and friends.
   • 230 degrees
     For saying good morning to a colleague, thanking a boss for assigning you a task, or entering an important meeting.
   • 345 degrees (really bending at the waist)
     For the president of a company, when showing deep appreciation or sympathy, or upon greeting the emperor. This one is reserved for rare occasions and is considered disturbing or disingenuous when overused
3. Dress up for a bit
   Fashion is fairly Western in Japan, but “you don’t see many-how should I say it-mature men in T-shirts and shorts,” Fautt says. A polo shirt is about as casual as it gets. Women should go easy on the tank tops
4. Never eat or drink while walking
   Although vending machines are ubiquitous, locals buy their soda, drink it by the machine, throw the empty away, and continue on their way. No one eats while walking, and public consumption of alcohol is even worse. “Walking around with a beer makes you look like an idiot,” Fautt says.

I’ve been here for over 2 months now and for the record Japan kicks ass! For those of you that are foreigners living in Japan… just remember one phrase… ALL YOU CAN DRINK. That’s right! Screw the Skittles and the fridge nonsense, and I’ll order my shoes online, and then I’ll hit up the ‘all you can drink’ with some friends for about $20. None of my American friends can believe it exists and hopefully they’ll get to experience it sometime next year. Oh hellz yeah!

Sidenote: For those people that don’t consume mass amounts of alcohol (shame on you), feel free to use the alternative phrase… “FIBER OPTIC INTERNET!” that’s 100mbps (30-60mbps is what you can expect) for about $45 USD a month. Oh hellz yeah again!