Illiteracy

The next time you flip a package over to read the back, stop and glance over to the picture version of the instructions....if there are any.  Now imagine that you can't read the text and that those pictures are all you have to go by.  And you have a pretty good idea of how I often have to shop or cook.

I have developed a whole new appreciation for the field of Packaging Science since we've been here and whoever first came up with the idea of adding some pictures to written instructions is a saint in my book.  Usually I'm cooking when I have to figure this stuff out and I have resorted to just picking out the number of minutes/microwave wattage/degrees and crossing my fingers. (Side note: it's all Celcius and centimeters here.)

But hopefully the post title isn't a permanent state.... look for a post about the Japanese language and our lessons soon.

this can will create a force field around
your arm that will repell insects....
or it's bug spray



adding hot water to noodles in only six steps!

bugs + red bumps = bug bite ointment

Marketing 101

Listed below are familiar brands that are easily found here.  We think it's interesting to see which brands have successfully infiltrated the Japanese market.  Keep in mind though that for every one imported brand of a specific product, there are dozens of Japanese versions next to it on the shelf.  I've found some very tasty Japanese cookies, ice cream, juice, gum and candy.

Disclaimer: This is not a comprehensive or complete list....only what I've noted in passing.  I've been to about four different grocery stores, small to large in size and if I listed something here I've probably seen it in at least two of them.  Also you'll typically pay up to $5 more here for any of these, sometimes in a small package. 

• Cheetos, Doritos, Pringles and Ritz crackers
• Dannon Activia yogurt (here it is Dannon "Fit" "Bio" and comes honey, fig and kiwi flavors too)
• Dove, Pantene and Biore (all manner of products)
• Gillette razors
• Hershey's chocolate, M&M's and Snickers
• Heinz ketchup, French's mustard and Hellman's mayo
• Clorets and Stride gum
• Halls cough drops
• Borden ice cream
• Snyder's pretzels (only the flavors though, not the plain)
• Campbell's soup (variety is limited)
• Coke, Fanta and Canada Dry ginger ale
• Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Krispies
• Ocean Spray cranberry juice
• Skippy peanut butter
• Tide detergent

indeed.....

Heaven Must Look Just Like a Japanese Mall.....

A while back I promised some more in-depth photos of our local Aeon Mall so yesterday morning I took the nice camera over there and hit up the boutiques.  This post is photo-heavy but it's necessary to accurately illustrate why I can totally spend three hours every day in the mall.

I also did a little research on some of the shops because they were unfamiliar to me, although admittedly I haven't spent much time in the larger US malls.  From what I've gathered (and glimpsed in Tokyo), our little Ota Aeon Mall just scratches the surface of shopping in Japan....

Don't think this is all, I missed a bunch and there are more photos (and you can see them better) on Shutterfly.  Side note: For less exotic shopping, there is also a Gap, a Tommy Hilfiger, the Body Shop and a LUSH cosmetics store.

Petit Maison

LD Prime: popular Japanese chain

Honeys

L'est Rose: very frilly, expensive and French, I think

Drop and Drop: jewelry and beads

Heart Market: has the best name

Evangile: my favorite for silver jewelry and
accessories

no clue on the name but it's all socks and tights

Cloverleaf: you didn't think I would miss the shoes, did you?

Pinky & Dianne: a Japanese chain/brand originally
started by Americans 

Natural Beauty Basic: a popular (and reasonably
priced) Japanese chain

Firefly

Last night a friend and I went to a festival in the nearby city of Ashikaga.  The festival is small, and held every year for twenty days in June.  It is at the Nagusa Firefly Village, which as far as I can make out (my friend speaks good, but not fluent English so a little bit gets lost in translation) is a farm where fireflies are bred.  The farm is up in the mountains in a little valley and every night from about 8 to 9 dozens of fireflies come out over the little river running under the mountains.  People come and stand on a bridge and watch the "show".  Something about it reminded me a little of going to see Greenville's Roper Mountain light show at Christmas.  Except fireflies instead of Christmas lights.....

Since it's a small local festival there isn't much on the Internet about it, but I did find this site listing some Ashikaga attractions and if you read down the list it's there.  And a little info. here.  The girl I went with is from Ashikaga and actually grew up very near where the festival is held so that is how she knew about it.

Of course it was dark, and you aren't supposed to disturb the fireflies with camera flashes but I did get a few (bad) shots of the festival entrance.

red, white and blue lanterns show the way up the mountain

food vendors and an eating area at the entrance to the valley

Box Lunch

So there's a take-out bento box store about  a mile or two from our house.  It's the perfect distance for a bike ride, plus you get lunch or dinner at the end.  Bento boxes are very popular here, they are basically box lunches, but really pretty/cute and with Japanese food in them.   Kids take them for school lunches so in the supermarket you see lots of cutesy bento boxes and cutesy food to go in them (kinda like Lunchables).

The place near our house is a Hokka-Hokka Tei shop....I think this is one of the most popular take-out bento chains in Japan.  For sure it is just about the only Japanese "restaurant" we willingly choose to go to on a regular basis.  It's tasty and easy to order (you can just point at the box you want and say "this one please").  Chad likes the fried chicken and I love the tonkatsu [tone-COT-sue] which is breaded pork with a really good sweet sauce.  The photo below is the tonkatsu one I usually get for dinner.

clockwise from upper left: Japanese pickles, rice with sesame seeds and a
pickled plum, tonkatsu with sauce and mayo, a fried chicken nugget, a sausage,
a fried shrimp and finally potato salad on the lettuce......basically I eat the meat and rice

Green Thumb

the little red food cart has a picture of an octopus on it.....
needless to say I haven't approached it.....

Today I drove over to my second most favorite place here in Ota (Aeon Mall is #1).  Cainz (rhymes with Heinz) Home Center is a Japanese chain store kinda like Bed Bath & Beyond but bigger and with a garden department.....and a large selection of chopsticks.  It's about a 10-minute drive and requires going right through downtown Ota, but as my love of shopping (and particular weakness for garden departments) is greater than my fear of wrecking the car I couldn't resist a long, leisurely trip.

there were Rhinoceros beetles for sale....not sure what's
up with that......

did I mention I'll probably go back again this week?

few things make me happier than potting plants

Spa Day

Yesterday I went to a traditional Japanese onsen [ON-sin] with a Japanese girl so she could show me how it's done.  Onsens are basically spas but with a...er, twist that I'll get to in a moment.  They are built on top of the many natural hot springs that are here in Japan.   They consist of a lot of indoor hot tubs (to use the American term) that are different temperatures or have different color water (one today was colored pink) or maybe have jets in them.  There are also outdoor rock pools with steamy hot water that you can go in.  There is a sauna too.  Japanese people believe that regular trips to an onsen is good for your health.  Annexed to this particular onsen was a more American-like spa (facials, massages, manicures etc.) and a restaurant.

So the twist is that you have to go in totally naked.  No, I'm not kidding.  (Men and women are separated of course.)  You take a shower first in a communal shower room with little stools to sit on under the spray.  After you take your shower, you can enjoy the indoor or outdoor pools and/or the sauna pretty much all day long. The cost was about $7.50.

I was there for about an hour (we tried almost all the different "pools") and came out kinda dazed.  Relaxed, but dazed.  The water is hot.  And I had never been in a sauna at all before much less a naked Japanese one.  It's kind of like what I imagine a nudist colony would be like...when everyone is naked, it seems almost normal.

At any rate, of course I couldn't take my camera but I did do some Internet searches for photos of onsens similar to the one I went to.  The onsen shown on this blog is very very close.  Also here and here.

Footloose

Yesterday morning we both went and got iPhones.  We had to have a company rep. go with us as translator and we had to take our "alien registration cards" (kind of like a social security card but for foreigners).  Other than that the process wasn't very exciting or different than it is in the States.

But now that I have a camera phone I can surreptitiously take (and post) pictures of some of the getups people wear out in public around here.  Those are, in my opinion, a little different.  First let me be clear -- there are a lot of cute clothes here.  And for the most part Japanese women really know how to wear them.  (FYI, I will mostly be reporting on what the 20-30 year old female crowd is wearing.  Write what you know, right?)

In general you see a lot of chic French-ish fashion that's very girly.  The only thing about the clothes here that has taken me aback at all has to do with footwear.   First, it is still a part of the culture here to take your shoes off before entering some places.  Mainly other peoples houses and Japanese restaurants.  I have been to at least three Japanese restaurants where I had to leave my shoes at the door.  I believe this is the reason why you rarely see women without socks, tights or pantyhose.  That's right, everyday just-going-to-the-grocery-store pantyhose.....often with high-heel open-toed sandals and shorts or a miniskirt.  (For those that don't know, I abhor pantyhose and was horrified to see them worn with shorts and sandals.)  Tights and knee-high (yes, school-girl style) socks are also often worn with high-heeled open-toed sandals.  And yes, I know you do see this style sometimes in the States, but trust me, not nearly as often as you see it here. 

While I absolutely refuse to put on shorts, sandals and pantyhose to go to the grocery store, I will concede to not wandering around a Japanese restaurant or house barefooted.  So I bought another common (and pretty cute) item worn by Japanese women.  I have no idea what they call them, but I refer to them as "socklets".  These are typically worn with close-toed flats or pumps.  (Yes, I am very observant regarding footwear, so what?)  They come in pretty patterns and give me some options in regards to shoes worn out only to be taken off.....  Next week look for some more posts about fashion and hopefully some spy-photos....

they don't all have the band
around the ankle

another style

Wheels

the fit

Yesterday Chad got to go pick up his "new" 2007 Honda Fit.  Up until then we had been driving a Toyota that the company rented for us.  Here in Japan, you can't drive your new car off the lot.  So while Chad went (with one of his helpful Japanese co-workers as a translator)and signed the contract a couple of weeks ago, he just got to pick it up yesterday.  In the meantime, we had to go get (in multiple transactions of the maximum limit) cash from the ATM machine at 7-Eleven (Citibank doesn't have a branch anywhere near here).  To buy a car here you have to pay the full amount in cash.  You can go to a lending agency and get a loan, which you would then pay back to the lending agency in increments.  But you are going to walk out of the lending agency with a fat stack of bills to take to the car dealer.  Walking around with that much cash on you is pretty freaky.

on the way to work

Right now we are both driving with international driver's licenses procured from AAA in Greenville.  These are good for a year and then we have to take the Japanese driver's exam, which by all accounts is terrifyingly difficult.  I am not looking forward to the exam at all (Chad will do it first) but since we have pretty much decided to get me a car too, I doubt I'll be able to avoid it.



But hopefully I'll have the incentive of a super cute Japanese K-car.  K-cars are what we Americans would call compact cars and they are very popular here.  They are tiny and often candy-colored and come in interesting shapes.  You can get tax cuts for buying one (because they use less gas I think) and they even have special K-car parking spots.  I love and covet them....

forget "Land of the Rising Sun"......Japan is
"Land of the Cute Cars"

hard to tell in the photo, but it's lavender....

My Ride

This past Saturday I drove over to Japanese Wal-Mart and bought myself a bicycle.  I had it delivered to my house yesterday.  And if you're thinking "Big deal, it can't be that hard, surely store clerks speak some English, right?" you would be WRONG.  In Tokyo, maybe.  Here in Ota, store clerks, delivery men and waiters do not, as a rule, speak any English.  So I had our Japanese teacher review the words for "please deliver" with me and talk me through the bicycle purchasing process and then off I went.  Between the nice store clerk, my still-limited knowledge of Japanese and some charades I pulled it off.  (For the record, that's how most of our communication goes down these days.)

Anyway, my new bicycle is a standard Japanese model.  It has a key, lights (powered by my pedaling, of course), a bell and a basket.  Baskets are pretty standard on Japanese bikes  because, wait for it... bikes are actually a legitimate mode of transportation here.   As in you need a basket so you have a place to put your groceries.  And as a legitimate mode of transportation all bicycles must be registered with the government....I didn't realize that until after I bought it but fortunately when you buy a new one the store does it for you.  When I was buying it I just obediently wrote down my contact info. wherever she told me to....apparently one of the times I was "registering" it.

Here in Ota cars are more popular than they are in other places in Japan.  Chad is bringing his home today and I will be acquiring one in the future (although it will be hard to top the excitment of getting my bicycle).  So I'd say about 75% of the people riding bikes around here are teenagers and seniors.  (That is another fun aspect of driving, by the way....dodging little old Japanese ladies on bicycles.)  However, I plan to ride my bike as much as possible--I've already been to the post office twice on it.   Unfortunately I have no photos of me on my new ride because the other house photographer doesn't get home until after dark.....so this is all I've got....

the lock is funny, it just puts a bar through the spokes so
the wheel won't turn

Farther Afield

pretty day in the park

 I'm getting an exciting delivery later today but will wait to post about it until I can take some photos (the suspense!). Here's a hint: I bought something that I haven't had for about 15 years....

While I wait, here are some photos I took a couple of neighborhoods over. There is a little park and some really nice houses. Right now it's one of my favorite walks (and that's another hint). ;)

I like this picnic area



this photo of one of the yards turned out really well....I promise I actually
took it.... albeit with my fancy camera

Barbecue, Japanese-Style

Ever since Chad visited Japan in 2005, he has talked about about an awesome meal he had involving grilled meat.  Last night we convinced a couple of his Japanese co-workers to take us out to a yakiniku restaurant.  (We have to be a little careful going to restaurants by ourselves because if they do not have an English menu, or one with really good pictures, we can't really figure out what to order quickly.) 

Anyway, our "guides" told us it is actually Korean and it doesn't seem to be an very popular type of food here.  We had to drive about 20 minutes to get to a nice yakiniku restaurant (apparently you can find some cheap, dirty ones).  The gimmick with yakiniku is that you have a little grill built into your table and you order dishes of raw meat (mostly beef and pork, including some innards) and grill them yourself.  You get different kinds of sauces like miso and soy and a big dish of lettuce to make wraps if you want.  It was very, very good.

beef tongue, really tasty with some lemon juice

What's Cookin'?

For the first few weeks we were here we only had Japanese TV (now we have American TV again but that is a long, boring story about electronic gizmos). Anyway, I watched a good bit of Japanese soap operas, and informercials and talk shows. But my favorite was a cooking show in English called Your Japanese Kitchen. Harumi Kurihara is the host. She is the Japanese Martha Stewart, minus the affectations and the insider trading scandal.

Since I can only cook so many "American" dinners here (because ingredients are scarce, expensive or just a pain to decipher in Japanese) I thought I'd try to incorporate a few Japanese meals. So I got two of Harumi's English books on Amazon. Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking is specifically written for "western tastes". I'll let you all know how it goes.....

Take Me Riding in the Car

In a day or two we'll get Chad's new car and then I'll post some about Japanese cars. For now I'll just say they are on my list of favorite things about Japan. ;)

A little bit about driving here: Driving on left side of the road isn't too bad, mostly you just have to relearn how to stay between the lines. A lot of the residential roads are really, really narrow. Parking is a pain - it's like parking in a funhouse. And a lot of the standard road signs are totally different from those in the States. Oh, and the turn signal and windshield wipers are switched - imagine having to think about using your turn signal.

you can't really pull out far enough to look left & right, so
you use these mirrors at smaller intersections

this is a stop sign...it says "tomare",
which actually translates to "stop sign"

The Cleanest Garbage in the World

Here is a post I've been wanting to do for awhile now, but I just now got all the pictures together....for everyone who wondered what I was going to do with myself while were here.....the answer is "take out the garbage".

Recycling is mandatory here and it is pretty intense. There are about 11 categories into which you have to divide your garbage. Most of it is considered "recyclable", in which case you have to clean it before you throw it out and sometimes you even have to de-label it (like plastic bottles, for example). There are different days during the month in which you put different types of garbage on the curb (and everyone on your street puts it in the same spot). For example, every 1st and 3rd Monday is the day to put most of the recyclables on the curb. Sometimes it is a little hard to figure out where something goes, and we've seen some stuff on the curb that we were pretty sure was in the wrong place. I think it is even a little hard for the Japanese people sometimes....

As you can imagine, all this takes up some time and space. I am really glad we have a big house because we have plenty of cubby holes in which to shove our trash while we wait for the next designated day. Missing a day is really bad because you can end up an unwilling hoarder....I also had to buy about six trash cans (to go with the two that were here when we arrived) to keep it all straight.

my recyling shrine

Categories:

1. organic matter

2. glass

3. plastic wrapping

4. plastic bottles

5. hazardous materials (batteries, broken glass etc.)

6. cartons

7. cardboard

8. styrofoam

9. paper

10. aluminum cans

11. "mixed paper" (carbon paper, photo paper etc.)

at the curb you sort it into nets and bins

Dorking Out in Tokyo

This past weekend we went into Tokyo again. This time we went by ourselves, and although we had to ask for help a few times and we wandered around in circles a little bit, we made it there and back again. About getting there: first we drive about 10 minutes to the nearest station with an express train into the city, then we take the train for about an hour into the outskirts of the city. After that we can get on the subway and go wherever we want.

We went to Akihabara (Akiba) first. Akiba is the electronic district of Tokyo, famous for electronic stores, gaming and maid cafes. Maid cafes are kind of like Hooters for Japanese nerds.  After that we went to Jimbocho, which has been the bookseller's district of Tokyo for decades.  Dozens of bookstores....and if you look hard enough you can find English books. I found a couple of aisles of them at Sanseido Bookstore (the bookstore in the local mall also has a couple of shelves of English books, for the record.)

By the time we got home (we were gone 9am to 5pm) we were exhausted. I learned to not plan too much for a day trip into the city. I think you could live there your whole life and never see the whole city..... Hopefully we can plan to stay a full weekend soon and get in some real sightseeing. Check out Shutterfly for a lot more photos!

akiba skyline

in a trance

the maids stand on all the street corners
and try to lure poor suckers into the cafes

bookstores as far as the eye can see

Interesting Things About My House

1. Our doorbell has an intercom and video camera. So you can see and talk to your visitors from the living room. (I would totally give this up to have a garbage disposal.)

2. Our downstairs toilet is heated (awesome) and has a bidet (not so awesome). The upstairs toilet is just heated.

3. There are strange compartments under our kitchen floor.

4. My oven has a tray just for cooking/steaming fish. (Unused and likely to stay that way.)

5. You adjust the water temperature with a unit on the wall. One for upstairs, one downstairs.





How Did I Get Home!?

Since we've been here, we have been out three times with other company employees and spouses.  All three times involved dinner at a local Japanese restaurant/bar and lots of alcohol.  (Also smoke....unfortunately smoking is much more popular here and you don't see the smoking limitations that have become popular in the US.)

There is no "legal limit" of alcohol consumption here so if you have been drinking at all you can't drive for 12 hours.  Japanese people seem to be very conscientious about this although I have read that drunk driving does happen.  Designated drivers don't seem to be the thing to do....  Instead you call (or you stagger up to the bartender and ask him to) a daiko [die-ko] to drive you home.  Daikos are dudes that hang out around the bars and will drive you home in your own car for a small fee.  The daiko will get a taxi to follow him to your house and then the taxi will take the daiko back to whatever alley he waits in between trips.  We've experienced this twice while riding with other couples (the third time we went out I managed to get away with drinking ginger ale and thus was our "daiko") and it's a little strange.

Sorry no photos....hopefully one day I can get some of the "red-light district" of Ota (including the "SexyPubs" aka Japanese strip clubs).  It's pretty seedy interesting. ;)

Meet and Greet



free prize: cherry blossom bath herbs and a change purse

When we arrived our company representative told us that when you move into a new neighborhood it is traditional to go around and bribe meet all your neighbors. You are supposed to take a small present and introduce yourself. When I asked for gift suggestions, she said small, decorative soaps were a good idea. So while we were in Tokyo, we went to this awesome chain store called Tokyu Hands and bought soaps. Tokyu Hands is kind of like a combo Target and Hobby Lobby but bigger and way better. They even gave me a free prize because I bought so much dang soap (we have fourteen neighbors).   My Internet research says this is an old custom that a lot of young Japanese people do not do anymore. 

 

The next weekend our next door neighbor was kind enough to go around with us and introduce us to all the other neighbors. Everyone was very nice and welcoming and we met lots of dogs and cats. Everything from a tiny pink-bowed Poodle to a fat Shiba Inu (the most popular dog here by far) that rolled over on our feet.

not so nice: our next door neighbor's dog (also a Shiba Inu)
- he hates us and we're told he DOES bite

this is Goro....he thinks our yard is his too