Bills, Bills, Bills

Paying utility bills in Japan is a little different.  When you get a bill it has a bar code on it.  To pay it you go to the 7-Eleven (which are everywhere) and give it to the cashier.  She/he will scan it with a bar code reader and then you just give him/her the cash (I don't think 7-Elevens take debit/credit cards here, some places are cash only).  Then he/she will tear off the stub and stamp it "paid" with the date.  I don't know for sure that you can only do this at 7-Eleven (as opposed to the other convenience stores) but I would bet on it.  Somehow 7-Eleven cornered the market on bill-paying, I think.  Although there isn't any kind of fee they charge, they just get the benefit of your being forced to go in their store.

We keep being told that all of our bills should be automatically deducted from our checking account but they still keep showing up in the mailbox.  I can't read them, except I can usually tell from the logo whether it's electricity, phone, etc.  And I can make out the amount.  So basically anything that shows up with a bar code I go pay.  Sometimes they send you "pre-notices" of a bill that isn't actually the bill but those don't have bar codes.

unpaid, with bar code

paid and stamped

Update: You can pay bills at other convenience stores.  Some of the bills even have the logos of the stores you can pay them at on the back.

The Paper & Cardboard Mystery

So the handouts I was given about recycling the garbage clearly read that paper and cardboard (including newspapers and magazines) are collected on the 4th Wednesday of the month.  I missed the first two 4th Wednesdays because I just flaked out ......or so I thought. 

Yesterday was the third 4th Wednesday and I was determined to get rid of our paper and cardboard or die trying.  I stalked the garbage spot at the curb all Tuesday afternoon (because the bins and nets actually go out the night before and as soon as they're there it's on) to no avail.  So I set the alarm and shuffled out there early Wednesday morning.  Nothing.  Then I laid in wait for my next-door neighbor......when she got home I pounced and quizzed her about how the heck one gets rid of one's paper around here! 

Turns out, the handout is a lie in regards to paper and cardboard.  They are not collected at all except occasionally by high-school students coming door-to-door (why they do this I have no idea).  What you have to do is take it to the local community center and dump it in a designated location.  My neighbor, who like most Japanese folk is so kind and helpful, loaded me up in her car and took me over to the community center and showed me exactly where to put my paper and cardboard.  And get this, you can do it any time.  Let me tell you, no one has ever been so excited about the prospect of taking out their trash.

Today I drove over there and finally got rid of our paper and cardboard.....I took some photos to commemorate.

what three months of paper and cardboard looks like

the section of the community center for recycling

  mystery solved

Baking Japan

(Sorry, this is going to be one of my more boring posts, but I do have a couple of readers who are on their way to expat with us soon and I know they'll be fascinated...)

Since I have some extra time on my hands I wanted to do more baking while we are here.  Unfortunately, as I shopped, I found that baking supplies are one of the hardest things to locate/translate here.  Most baking supply packages don't have handy pictures of the item or what you do with it.  You have be be able to read it.  Boo.

But after almost three months (!) my baking cabinet is finally in order.  (As for what I'm making with all of this, I'm thinking of starting a "recipes" page soon....maybe.) I had to resort to ordering several things but thanks to the wonderful blog Surviving in Japan I knew about the Foreign Buyer's Club and Tengu Natural Foods.  Both of these websites ship imported foods from right here in Japan.  Below is an idea of what is available here and what isn't.

What I Found Easily

• butter, eggs and whole/low-fat milk, of course (but unsalted/fake butter and fake eggs I don't know about)
• white and brown sugar
• spices (except for onion powder, garlic powder and ground cumin, oddly)
• flour (although it is really hard to translate and I suspect it's all rice flour, so I just gave up and ordered some all-purpose)
• vegetable and olive oil
• vanilla
• baking chocolate
• sea salt
• lemon juice
• the only fresh herbs readily available are basil, parsley, mint, oregano, chives and rosemary
• fruits, but some things come and go
• yogurt

What I Had to Hunt/Get at the Imported Foods Store/Excessively Run Through Google Translator

• cocoa
• baking powder
• cornstarch
• cornmeal
• shortening
• powdered sugar (although I found it AFTER I ordered it)
• shredded coconut (saw it, didn't buy it....ick...)
• ready-made frosting (As for ready-to-bake cookies, pie crusts, etc.......forget it.  Scratch, baby.)

What I Had to Order/Come Up with a Substitute

• wheat flour
• chocolate chips
• oats
• baking soda
• stock/broth
• vinegars (other than rice)
• buttermilk and/or heavy creams
• bread crumbs (I can't find panko--aka japanese bread crumbs--it's here somewhere but it's hiding from me....fortunately it's easy to make)

TA-DA!  (hey...I'm a housewife...this is what I do now... ;)

oh, and the giant bucket in the photo is rice.  because this
is Japan and rice doesn't come in bags smaller than 10 lbs.

Doctor Doctor

On Friday Chad took the day off so we could go into Tokyo and visit a doctor for a checkup and some new prescriptions. (Although conveniently, I came down with a terrible summer cold a few days before our appointment.)

Tokyo Medical and Surgical Clinic

I picked the Tokyo Medical and Surgical Clinic for our appointment.  Of course there are plenty of clinics here in Ota and we were provided with a list of ones with doctors that speak English.  However, you have to be careful because while the doctor may speak some English, it is rare that the nurses and receptionists do.  A while back I tried to make an appointment at one of those---it did not go well at all.  The receptionist spoke no English and all I could make out was her telling me I need to get a Japanese-speaking friend to help me.  But although we have plenty of helpful friends and co-workers here who I'm sure wouldn't mind, Chad and I are way too independent to ask someone to go to a doctor's appointment with us. 

The other option was to go into the city where there are many options for English-speaking clinics and doctors.  (In case you're wondering about what we would do in an emergency, we have been provided numbers for emergency translators and I'm pretty sure the equivalent of 911 here has English-speaking operators. Also our company rep is awesome and I would totally call her in a second in such a situation.)  Anyway, at Tokyo Medical our doctor was British and very nice.  She gave us some good information on how to get our regular medications here and looked us over and gave me some prescriptions for my cold.  There was a pharmacy conveniently located on the ground floor where we got my prescriptions filled and made sure our other meds would be available quickly when we need them.

A major plus to Tokyo Medical is that it is located right across the street from....Tokyo Tower!  Even though I felt like a zombie I still wanted to go up and spread my germs across the city.  So we bought tickets and did a quick trip up.  We didn't check out all the souvenir shops or the attractions in the ground floor (did you know there's an aquarium and wax museum there?)  but that's the nice thing about living here....we can always go back!

After that we went to a hotdog place called Doggie's Diner for lunch (somewhere south of Roppongi).  The hotdogs were OK, still not quite right, but I think that's just the way it's going to be here.

this is from a little landing between the
two observation decks...I liked it because you
can see the tower parts when you look out

there are several "look down" windows

odaiba and the rainbow bridge--the pamphlets they give
you are really good and show you what is in each direction...
but it was too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji

Doggy's Diner...it was decorated 50's
diner style...note the American flag



my plain hotdog came with miso soup and a salad with
a lump of tuna on top...you gotta love Japan

Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket....

There's a small local grocery store a few miles from our house and I've ventured out on my bicycle a couple of times to get groceries.  A few tips for grocery shopping on a bicycle:

1. Keep the size of your basket in mind always, because that is how many groceries you can get.  Period.

2. When your basket is stuffed full of groceries, your balance will be affected.

3. And last, but not least, pad your basket and watch out for potholes or you will break a couple of eggs on the way home.

Yamaguchi doesn't have a lot of imported brands but they
have staples like bread, eggs, butter, milk, etc.

and I think they have better fruits and veggies than
Japanese Wal-Mart (aka Aeon)

but Japanese supermarkets tend to only carry the fruit that
is in season.....more on that later

I'd Like to Have....



...a yellow flower wall...

....but instead I have white lilies....



...and an infestation of giant caterpillars....
but not on the lilies....fortunately.

Pool Party

This past weekend we went to a barbecue with some of Chad's co-workers. It was pretty much like an American barbecue, but with some slightly different food....I only took the point-and-shoot so the photos aren't that great, but at least I remembered the battery this time!

kids in the "pool"

eventually all the guys got thrown in the pool....

it was a very international party...Japan, China, France,
Thailand, Scotland and the US were represented

very intently learning how to make dumplings....

Japanese octopus balls, French-style salami,
Japanese beef and Thai wings, among
other things (I took brownies)

labeled chopsticks and cup bottoms...very efficient

Ocean Day

this is NOT Japan, it was taken on an island off the coast of
Georgia, but it's the last time I was at the ocean

Today we're celebrating Ocean Day, also known as Marine Day, which is one of Japan's national holidays.  The purpose of the holiday is to have "a day of gratitude for the blessings of the oceans and to hope for the economic prosperity of maritime Japan". A little bit about the history of Ocean Day......

Disclaimer: Most of what I know about Japan's history comes from Wikipedia and James Clavell's Shogun.

First some background.....in ancient Japan, the only boats that were built were small and made for fishing in fairly shallow waters.  Japanese people didn't build big ships made for long ocean voyages.  That's why you never hear about Japan colonizing far off lands.  They sat on these islands and waited for the world to come to them.  Long story short, eventually the English, Portuguese and Dutch showed up with their big fancy ships.  The Japanese were intrigued (and also figured they should get a navy what with all these foreigners showing up all the time) so deals were struck and Japan learned about ship-building and navigation.

In 1876 the Emperor took a ride around Japan in an iron steamship that was built in England.  He didn't go too far, but it was still a pretty big deal.  In 1941 July 20th--the day he safely landed in Yokohama-- was designated Marine Memorial Day.  In 1996 it was declared a national holiday (Chad has the day off!) and a few years later it was moved to the third Monday in July. 

There aren't too many actual celebrations that go on, seems like most people just take a small vacation that often involves going to the beach, or a lake/river.  We will be doing nothing (barring some laundry and grocery shopping) but we have an adventure planned for next weekend so check back!

Facelift

As I'm sure you've noticed, Tokyo D'Esposito got a little facelift today.  I was never happy with the old format and it was always temporary....hopefully I can be satisfied with this one for awhile.  Hope you all enjoy!

Movie Night

A couple of night ago we watched a Japanese movie (the dubbed-in-English version) called "My Neighbor Totoro".  It's an animated kid's movie but don't let that dissuade you from watching it.  It's about two young sisters that move to the country with their dad and have adventures.    It was a little trippy in spots but very good....the animation is gorgeous and it looks exactly like Japan down to the last flower.  Here's the trailer:

Little Shop of Horrors

One interesting (to me) aspect of the insane humidity here is that it is just tropical enough for carnivorous plants to thrive.  Garden departments here always have an assortment of Venus flytraps, pitcher plants and even some sundews and bladderworts ( I totally had to look those up to identify them).  And they're not like those pitiful, half-dead flytraps that sometimes show up in the Wal-Mart garden department back home.  These are big, healthy killers.

I had eyed them for awhile but last week I broke down and brought a couple of the smaller ones home.  Because I couldn't resist the novelty when you have no garbage disposal (that has gone to #1 on this list, btw) and can only throw away food scraps twice a week, you are in a constant battle against gnats and flies.  I am by no means a clean freak, but I can do a darn good imitation of one, especially when I see gnats.  Hopefully my new little friends are gonna help me out.

death traps....check out that crazy scary pitcher plant

this photo is right after I got it...it has
already put out another flytrap since

Ethnic Food Explanation

When we were in Tokyo this weekend we hunted down yet another Mexican restaurant and tried it out.  This time it was Salsita's in the Hiro area.  It was pretty good, about equal to Junkadelic food-wise but much more respectable-looking.  We'd go back.

It occurs to me that people might be wondering why the obsession with Mexican food in particular.  The answer is simple, we love it (me especially) and we're used to having a lot of restaurants to choose from.  That's not the case here.  There is about half a shelf of Mexican food supplies in Japanese Wal-Mart and I make tacos for dinner often.  But that's not the same as restaurant Mexican.

Another favorite is Italian food but fortunately it's a favorite of Japanese people too.  There are Italian restaurants everywhere and we have a couple here in Ota we go to regularly.  The supermarket has plenty of pasta and sauce available.  Thai, Indian and Chinese restaurants/supplies are pretty easy to find but those aren't particular favorites of mine ours.  I think we could find French and Korean food without too much trouble as well.  If we want American food, we can just head over to McDonald's, KFC or Subway in the mall.

We do have a hotdog situation we're working on....what they sell in the supermarket as "hotdogs" look like sausages and the one place in town that has them refers to them as "German" hotdogs which looks and sounds sketchy.  We're researching hotdog options in Tokyo for our next trip so stay tuned!

Shop 'Til You Drop

This past Saturday we went to the Ginza area in Tokyo.  We had to go to the Apple store as we had an appointment at the Genius Bar to discuss Chad's iPhone issue.  They ended up just handing him a new iPhone (no kidding, it was awesome) and we were out in about ten minutes.  Unfortunately I forgot to put the battery in the camera and Chad erased his new iPhone after we got home so no photos this trip.

After Apple we wandered around Ginza for awhile slack-jawed at all the stores available there.  Ginza is the high-end shopping district of Tokyo.  Streets lined with Cartier, Bulgari, Pucci, Burberry, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, etc......I am way too cheap to actually go into most of these places, but I like to know they're there.....you know, just in case we win the lottery.  (The title of this post was almost "Chad's Worst Nightmare"--his suggestion.)

When I finished slobbering all over the Chanel window we headed over to Printemps (a French department store I'd always wanted to visit) where I purchased myself a very Japanese accessory.  I got a parasol!  It is insanely hot right now and most women walking around in the sun have a parasol for some shade.  (Needless to say, tanning is NOT popular here....one day I'll do a post about all the "whitening" creams that are available.)  There were also a lot of other Japanese department stores around the area that we didn't have time to visit.

At any rate, we soon left for home but I've been working up the nerve to ride my bike down to our little local Niragawa Station and hop the train into Tokyo by myself (this is what we tried this time--it worked fine but you have to change trains in Ashikaga).  Ginza was some powerful motivation....we also got ourselves PASMO cards which makes public transportation way easier (it's just a card you reload with money that serves as a permanent subway/train ticket).  When I do, you can be sure I'll document the whole trip with lots of photos!

Shake, Rattle and Roll....Over

We've had a couple of decent little quakes here recently....this one made the TV wiggle during breakfast this morning.  It was about 15 seconds too...that's pretty long.

This one was at 3:30am a few nights ago.  We both remember waking up, but we didn't grunt unintelligibly at one another as we sometimes do in acknowledgement of the nighttime quakes:

Chad: Uftqk?
Me: Urg.
Both: Zzzzzz.

Now THAT'S Good Service

Before we came we had heard that service workers in Japan really went above and beyond.   At first I didn't really see it but as time goes on I've come to appreciate some subtle differences.  It's all in the details...

• If you buy anything frozen in the supermarket they'll offer you dry ice to pack it in for the trip home.
• Book stores wrap your books in covers for you (so no one knows what you're reading...?).
• At gas stations the attendant (full-service only here) will give you a damp cloth to wipe your hands, steering wheel and dashboard while they fill your tank. 
• If you buy ready-made food, especially at a convenience store, they may offer to heat it in their microwave.  Also you get tiny cute spoons or chopsticks.
• Except for at the supermarket, where you do your own bagging, the cashier will do an extremely meticulous job of wrapping and bagging your purchases.  They tape the bags shut when they're done.
• If you buy plants, they may give you cardboard cartons to protect your car.
• The guys who delivered our shipment brought in all the boxes, sorted them into rooms, unpacked everything and took the boxes out with them. (Maybe this is typical for relocation, I don't know...I was amazed they unpacked it all.)

from my collection of covered books

Tokyo Weekend, Part Two

one lone swan in the moat

Before we took a rest Saturday afternoon we made one more stop across the street from our hotel.  We walked over to the Imperial Palace gardens (past the very palace-like moat and stone wall) and took some photos.  The palace is where the Emperor and Empress of Japan (who are adorable, btw) live with their family.  You can't go in the palace or even close to it, but you can walk through the extensive gardens surrounding it.  I think on a couple of days in the year (New Years and the Emperor's birthday, maybe?) you can go closer than usual---those are popular days for visits.

After some picture-taking we headed back to the hotel for awhile.  Then we went back to Naka-Meguro to try to get some of that elusive Mexican food.  Fortunately we enjoyed walking through the area (since we did it several times) because it was quaint and everything stayed open really late.  The streets were lined with hat shops, vegetable stands, clothes boutiques, tiny restaurants, tiny drugstores and antique shops.  Finally, we managed to get into the hopping Junkadelic for some burritos and Coronas.  It was pretty good...not the quality of Mexican food you find in South Carolina but it hit the spot.

One thing I was looking forward to was seeing Tokyo all lit up at night like you see in pictures.  However, once it got dark we realized we were going to be disappointed.  Since the goverment is asking everyone to save energy only the most necessary lights are kept on at night.  So it's not all that spectacular, although we were staying in the quieter Chiyoda area rather than some of the hotspots which may have made a difference.  But we noticed a lot of Christmas-type lights and bare bulbs on the streets of Naka-Meguro that weren't lit up either.  Hopefully we'll be here long enough to see everything light back up again.

The next morning, because of a little incident involving Chad's iPhone the previous night, we headed to the cell phone store in Shibuya.  We didn't spend much time there because we were exhausted and on a mission but I took a few photos.  Shibuya stood out to me because the streets were tree-lined.....some articles you read say it's a financial district and others say it's a party town.   Who knows.....after Chad finished at the cell phone store we hopped on the subway and headed back home.  But....I think we're making a trip to Ginza next weekend (about that dang phone) so check back!
  

the Imperial Palace at sunset across the
Nijubashi Bridge

Imperial Palace gardens

Junkadelic was a total hole in the wall....when closed
they pull down metal shutters and it looks abandoned

Shibuya...that is a condom store on the right....

Shibuya...just like downtown Greenville,
right?  ;D

Tokyo Weekend, Part One

This past weekend we wanted to go to Tokyo and couldn't agree on whether to go to the Imperial Palace (me) or Roppongi (Chad).  So we spent Saturday night in a hotel and did both!  (Our justification was that our 3rd anniversary was a few weeks ago and we did nothing to celebrate.)

We did so much that I can't cram it all in one post so I'll spread it across two.....we stayed at the Peninsula Hotel which turned out to be really nice and well worth the cost. The service was great and the room was great (there was a TV to watch while in the bathtub...fancy ;)).

On Saturday we went to Roppongi first for a little while and just looked around.  Roppongi is known for being where foreigners go in Tokyo.  There is an Outback, Tony Roma's, TGIFriday's etc....also a lot of bars and nightlife.  Supposedly it's like Chinatown in New York but Americatown in Tokyo instead.  But honestly other than the restaurants, and there being a few more foreigners wandering around, it wasn't all that American.  The views were great though, especially of Tokyo Tower.  (The Tower is supposedly super crowded on weekends so I'm lobbying for a future weekday trip to actually go up in it.)

I already mentioned the problem with finding Mexican food in Japan but Chad did some research and located what someone said was the best Mexican restaurant in the city.  It was way out in a 'burb called Naka-Meguro on the west side of the city.  So we traipsed out there for lunch to find that they are open for dinner only.....we ended up going back to Roppongi and wandering, starved and forlorn, into the Hard Rock Cafe like a couple of tourists. But I had a cheeseburger for lunch that tasted like America. The Hard Rock Cafe was crawling with Americans.  More than I've seen since we've been here.  The menu was in English and all the waiters spoke it perfectly....it was a little bizarre.

After that we had a rest in the room and checked out the pool and then continued our adventures (we didn't give up on that Mexican food).  More photos on Shutterfly and come back tomorrow for the rest of the tale!

me next to a rose sculpture in Roppongi Hills...you can just see 
Tokyo Tower to the left above the trees

we had a nice view of the Sky Tree
from our room

there's also a giant spider sculpture
in Roppongi Hills

Naka-Meguro was a quaint little town

the peninsula hotel

i love Tokyo Tower

a dude was selling cute bonsai from a cart on the street

Happy 4th of July!!

I've gotten a lot of feedback from everyone saying how awesome life in Japan seems to be. And for the most part it is pretty awesome. ;) However, before you all start applying for visas, here are some things to consider (roughly in order of most to least annoying and subject to change):

My Top Ten Least Favorite Things About Japan

1. The government is eventually going to make me take their ridiculous driving test to continue to drive on their ridiculously narrow roads.
2. (Rice) paddy fields breed mosquitos like crazy.
3. The humidity is wreaking havoc on my skin.
4. I can't go to the library.
5. Mexican/Southwestern restaurants are virtually nonexistant outside the largest cities and even there they are notoriously bad. I'd pay $50 for a Moe's burrito right now.
6. $25 for a couple of American hotdogs. More if they are Skin's hotdogs.
7. Imagine trying to.....give a delivery man directions to your house....order a pizza on the phone....get your McDonald's hamburger without onions...ask an attendant why the turnstile won't take the train ticket you just bought....tell a door-to-door salesperson to go away.....make a doctor's appointment....all in Japanese.
8. The cashiers at the grocery store are super stingy with plastic bags to carry your purchases in. No matter how much you buy they rarely give you more than two and then look at you like you're a greedy American.  (They give you the bags, but you bag it yourself.)
9. I can only throw away paper once a month.
10. Did I mention it's hot, humid and buggy?

In the name of fairness I'll follow soon with a post of my favorite things about Japan but for today...Hooray for the USA in all it's wide-roaded, Mexican restaurant-ed glory! ;D