Why is Japan awesome? There are many reasons and here’s another one to add to the list. Already sliced butter! Who thinks of this stuff, seriously? They should give it it’s own name. I’d name it Awesome Butter. Pre-sliced butter has changed my life.
Archive for the 'More in Japan' Category
This is my first year missing a Thanksgiving feast in the U.S. Do I care? Not so much. It’s always been a nice extended vacation from work or school and a chance to get drunk with friends and family while eating dry turkey… and then left over dry turkey for another week, bleh. That reminds me… something interesting I’ve noticed over the years is how people in America love the holidays because of food. My friends and I have always talked about home cooked meals, eating this, and eating that, but it was only around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why is that? Why don’t Americans prepare good food on a regular basis? Hamburger Helper, easy cook instant dinners, what is up with that!? Luckily my fiancee is the best cook I’ve ever known and her meals can put a 5-star restaurant to shame! So in the sake of Thanksgiving I am going to share some pictures of two delicious lunches, Bento, that I’ve recently enjoyed. Continue reading ‘Thanksgiving in Japan?’
Today I’m going to talk about being home sick and one of the ultimate things Japan has to offer for foreigners. At times in your life when you’re on an extended vacation or living in another country there will be times when you’ll miss ‘back home.’ You’ll miss your friends and family, but on the flip side you’ll make new friends where you are. You’ll miss the English language, but you now have the best opportunity to learn a new and exciting language. You’ll miss some foods, but the trade off is getting to experience new foods you normally wouldn’t find in a grocery store or restaurant back home. Where ever you are there are pros and cons of each place and each situation in life. Great things about Japan include customer service, amazing food, trendy people, easy weekend getaway to Seoul, year round snowboarding, but then the things I miss from America include Skittles and the big misses are a big fridge and shoes that fit me (so far I’ve found size 28 everywhere but I wear size 31, ouch!).
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!
You’ve probably heard that things in Japan are small. Cars, clothes, roads, houses, and apartments. I wouldn’t call Japanese apartments small, but I would say they’re cozy. Do you really need a huge place to live anyway? As long as it has what you need and you spend your free time out on the town or cuddling with a hot chick (or whoever) to watch a movie. Now there’s a lot to renting an apartment but I’ll talk more about that sometime For now I’ll give you a few pros and cons of Japanese apartments as well as some youtube vids so you can tour a few places. Here are some things I’ve discovered in the last two weeks.
The Good:
- Sliding doors are cool
- You usually get a balcony
- Washing machines fit nicely in the bathroom area
- Shower room is huge
- You don’t need a car where I live, so you save money on the car, gas, parking, and you get free exercise.
- If your apartment is capable, you can get hooked up with fiber optic internet.
- Mirrors in the bathroom area have an anti fog button. That is totally kick ass.
- The “tankless water heater” is great for showers. You turn it on when you need it and you never run out of hot water.
The bad:
- If you’re getting no help from your job or friends in Japan you’ll need about $5,000 USD to rent an apartment. You’ll be paying the landlord some stupid fees you won’t get back + first months rent + some other things to furnish your apartment. If you factor the landlord fees into your average monthly rent then it becomes affordable I guess. If your monthly rent is $800 USD you can expect to have a down payment around $4,000 for rent + fees. Then you’ll need to furnish your place and it can cost $1,000+. That part is lame when you compare it to the US.
- You can easily hear your neighbors
- Small closets + small rooms = not enough place for your clothes
- Small bathroom area + washing machine = not enough space for bathroom stuff.
- No hot water unless you turn on the hot water heater and then waste water waiting for it to become warm. This means washing your face in cold water because you’ll get lazy.
- If you have a car, parking space can be expensive depending on where you live. I’ve seen it range from 0 to 20,000 yen per month.
- If you mark the wall or dent a door you’re going to lose your ass when you move out. You’ll be charged 500-1,000 Yen per pin tack hole you put in the wall.
- They don’t come with a refrigerator, washing machine, oven range, or light fixtures (that’s something new to me)
Part 1 of 3 - Dying in Japan: I’ve been feeling sick since the middle of September (when we got our dog) and I’ve been thinking I was allergic to her. Anyway after we moved to our new place I’ve had a few days where I feel like I’m dying even when I wasn’t around the dog. I’d have a stuffy nose, a runny nose, sneezing, nasal drip, hot flashes, cold chills. It was insane. So last week I went to the allergist (I’ll talk about that later) and yesterday I got the diagnosis. I’m not allergic to dogs or pollen in the area but I’m allergic to house dust and dust mites. Naaaaasty.
Part 2 of 3 - The Doctors Visit: I had an appointment scheduled at the allergist. When we went there was a HUGE crowd of people outside and all of the traffic stopped. We found out that the Emperor was driving through (Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Genkai Island to encourage residents who have suffered in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake that hit the island.) We stood around for about 15 minutes and they slowed their roll and waved while they passed by. That was pretty cool because we were about 5 meters away. After we experienced this we headed to the allergist to party it up. First we sat in the regular waiting area. When my name was called we were upgraded to some other seats that I’ll call ‘business class’ and 10 minutes later we were upgraded to ‘first class’ which was right next to the doctor. It was strange. 3 minutes later I was upgraded to VIP! That’s right, the patient chair that reminded me of the dentist. He spoke to my finacee to get information and talk about allergy things while randomly sticking things in my ears and nose without warning. It was a crazy experience. After he decided to take blood tests I was sent to the “after party” which is this chair where I stuck two tubes up my nose and breathed in some mist for about 5 minutes. After that I went to ‘detox’ where they drew my blood and then we were on our way with a prescription for some antihistamine. Continue reading ‘Going to the Doctor’
Some people use a futon in the bedroom laying on tatami and then they put it away during the day. Others have a couch that converts to a bed. But I have found the ultimate solution today! Seems pretty cool and very uncomfortable which is the Japanese way (futon = not comfortable, small cards = not comfortable for tall people, etc) Check this out.
It’s a 2+1 [Chairs + Table]
The young singles ratio is getting increase in the society. These people live alone in small apartment in the city. They would like to have multipurpose furniture for using small room efficiently. There are two chairs and on table. Ordinary these are two chairs and table. But When they watch TV. It can be Sofa. And when they go to sleep. It is going to be a single bed.
Today we did some searching on Google Maps (good luck, it’s in Japanese, I don’t know what’s going on there). Within walking distance of where I live there are approximately 1056 Izakayas (most offer ‘all you can drink’ specials) and 470 Ramen Shops (the food of awesomeness). Pretty crazy! I heard that an Izakaya is a great place to relax and practice speaking Japanese with people. I plan on doing that some day… when I can speak more than 10 words. Nice!
Estimated expenses:
At the Izakaya you’ll spend about 3,000 Yen for food + all you can drink. Some place have specials such as all you can drink for 2 hours for 1,500 Yen per person if you’re with a group.
At the ramen shop you can eat for 400-650 yen. You can get noodle refills in Fukuoka (just say “kae dama kudasai”) for 50-150 yen.
An izakaya is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. The food is usually more substantial than those offered in other types of drinking establishments in Japan such as bars or snacks. They are popular, casual and relatively cheap places for after-work drinking.
Ramen is a Japanese dish of noodles served in broth that originated in China. It tends to be served in a meat-based broth, and uses toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, kamaboko, green onions, and even corn. Almost every locality or prefecture in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu ramen of Kyushu to the miso ramen of Hokkaido.
Photo credits: izakaya-all-you-can-drink.jpg by w00kie http://flickr.com/photos/w00kie/1062155634/
Does this exist in other countries? I’m talking about Love Hotels. There are different themed rooms to choose from, they make money (nearly 3 trillion yen in annual sales), but the downside is they’ve been associated with with gangs and red-light districts. Booooo 
I read about Love Hotel investing today on Yahoo:
Japan’s secretive love hotels are opening up to European investors as one player in the sector prepares for a debut on London’s stock market this month.
Japan Leisure Hotels, which owns five love hotels worth some 21 million pounds ($43.68 million USD) in Japan, hopes to lure investors to its IPO with an 8 percent dividend and promises of fast growth — shedding light on a sector that is often associated with sleaze and organized crime.
Japan’s 25,000 or so love hotels have long provided discreet hideaways for couples, some featuring Karaoke machines or vibrating beds. Guernsey-based Japan Leisure Hotels rents out rooms for short stays lasting only a few hours, but the company’s director believes this system doesn’t just appeal to thrill-seekers…
This might get long so I’m going to give you a breakdown of what I’ll be talking about: Today’s listed exchange rate, today’s Mastercard exchange rate, 2% currency conversion fee, adding this all up you’ll see my true conversion rate.
I know some people have been curious about the conversion rate when you withdrawal from an ATM using your Visa Debit Card or Mastercard Debit Card. MC and Visa are supposed to give you fair exchange rates from what I’ve heard. Today I used my Mastercard to withdrawl funds from my U.S. bank and here’s the breakdown of charges and rates.
Today’s USD to Yen rate from www.xe.com is
1 USD = 114. .735 JPY
The actual rate I received
1 USD = 114.23 JPY
Not bad! But then my bank charged me 1% to do the currency conversion and Mastercard (as well as Visa) charges a 1% fee. So if I withdrawal 11,000 Yen my account would reflect a $96.30 withdrawal amount, a bank fee of $0.96 and a Mastercard fee of $0.96. That means for 11,000 Yen I was actually hit for $98.22 and in reality if you include the 2% in fees my true exchange rate from the ATM resulted in 112Yen per $1 USD.
Is this a good deal? Continue reading ‘ATM Currency Conversion’
One of the things I love about Japan >>> “Sonna no kankei nee! Sonna no kankei nee!” Oh hellz yeah! Yoshio Kojima (å°å³¶ よã—㊠from Wikipedia) is the guy that’s on TV a lot saying that and freaking out in a small bathing suit. Do I know what he’s talking about? Nope. Good times. Here’s a video I found and I don’t know how long it’ll work. Maybe forever, maybe for 1 hour.
(Vid is from Daily Motion)
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