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Josiah's Japan Travelogue
Part 7: February 2008
Part 6: January 2008
Friday (1st): Green Isn't Always Great
Random Japan Comment: Keeping it Green
No I'm not talking about the color green, I'm talking about the environment. Japan certainly tries to be a very 'green' country, at least in some respects. First off, recycling. Since softdrinks are such a big thing here (as evidenced by all the vending machines) it's pretty easy to find special bins for soda cans and 'pet bottles' (plastic soft drink bottles). In fact, most vending machines, convenience stores, and larger grocery stores have a can/pet bottle bin right nearby. At convenience stores and large grocery stores you may also find bins for things like glass, tin cans, little plastic food trays, milk/juice cartoons, and newspapers, although exactly what's available varies by location. Garbage pickup also incorporates recycling. There's typically a whole garbage schedule that details what kinds of trash (bottles, cans, glass, newspapers, general burnable stuff, etc) you should put out on what days. A lot (but certainly not all) Japanese people take this type of stuff very seriously, going so far as to remove the lids and labels from bottles and cans to make sure that even the tiniest thing goes out with the right batch of garbage.
Japan is also very energy conscious, although that might have something to do with how overpriced electricity is (see previous complaints about my recent electric bills). Lights that automatically turn on and off when people enter or leave a room aren't too uncommon, clothes dryers are very rare (although that's only partly because of electricity, saving space in small apartments/houses is also part of it), as are (from what I can tell) dish washers. Although, considering that it's quite possible now a days to get combo washer/dryers and moderately sized dishwashers that really don't use all the much electricity, the whole practice seems rather dated to me.
In addition, there's a general lack of central heating and air conditioning (which I've mentioned before). Instead, each room will have its own aircon (a combo heater and air conditioner). That way, you can turn off the aircons in any rooms you're not currently using. This ensures that you use as little energy as possible for heating and air conditioning. Unfortunately, it also ensures that when you first enter a room you're quite likely to spend a decent amount of time freezing/burning while the aircon starts up and gets going. Not to mention that some cheap aircons (like the one in my apartment) are just plain bad and don't ever really work well. Also, the one aircon to room setup typically leaves smaller rooms (bathrooms, small kitchens, etc) and hallways without any sort of heating/air conditioning whatsoever. Take my school for example. Sure the classrooms are kept at a decent temperature but if you step out into the hallways or go to the bathroom you're going to get hit with a pretty major change. Actually, from what I've heard, a lot of older schools don't even have aircons in their classrooms, which could make for pretty miserable days during winter and late summer/early fall. My apartment is similar. Even when the aircon worked (it did a half decent job of keeping things cool in the summer), it only ever hit one room. The bathroom, kitchen, etc, weren't affected in the least. If you haven't guessed, I really dislike the lack of central heating/air conditioning.
One last thing, though I'm not sure if it quite fits into the 'green' category. Aside from bins for soft drink cans and pet bottles, Japan has a general lack of garbage cans. In the US, if you're walking down the street in any shopping or business area there's generally plenty of trash cans around if you need to get rid of something. In Japan, unless you happen to be near a convenience store or big grocery store that has a burnable waste bin outside (and not all of them do), you could be carrying your trash around for quite some time. Although, one important thing to keep in mind is that many little food stands that sell things with stuff that you'll have to throw away (say the little paper wrapper around an ice cream cone) have a bin right outside where you can put those, provided you hang around there until you're ready to throw whatever it is away. But anyway, there's been plenty of times when I've been stuck carrying a bag, plastic wrapper, or whatever, around all day because I couldn't find anywhere to throw it away. From what I've heard, the reasoning behind the lack of trash cans is that, if there's no trash cans around, there probably won't be any trash either so everything will look all nice and clean. Admittedly, Japan has a lot less litter than pretty much any other country I've visited, but I think that's due more to the Japanese mind-set and culture than to the lack of trash cans. From my experience the lack of trash cans encourages litter since people don't want to carry their trash around for who knows how long, something that can be quite noticeable in certain areas in Japan.

Sunday (3rd): Snow & Region Locks

I ended up staying home this Sunday. That wasn't my original plan but most of what I was going to do involved being outside and the weather forecast was showing a 95% percent chance of sleet. Plus, some stuff came up that I needed to take care of and that required a lot of time spent on the internet, so I figured it'd be best to just stay in my apartment and get things done. Turned out to be a good choice. I got a lot of stuff done and, though I'm not sure about sleet, it did snow pretty hard for most of the day (at least a couple inches worth), something that's pretty rare in this part of Japan. Since I spent the vast majority of the last few winters in Phoenix, where it never snows, it was a kinda nice change of scenery...when I was sitting in my apartment watching it through the window. Unfortunately, when I got ready to head to work this morning, I discovered that yesterday's snow had caused everything to ice over. That's bad enough when you're driving a car but even worse when you're stuck with a bike. Not only was my bike covered with ice, but also the sidewalks (which is where you usually bike in Japan), and some of the roads. I got about ten yards from my apartment building before my bike skidded and fell on what had appeared to be a fairly ice free stretch of road. Luckily, it was a pretty minor accident. The road was deserted and I had enough time to hop off before my bike fell over...but hopping off a moving object onto an icy road usually doesn't work too well and I ended up slipping on the ice and falling down anyway. Fortunately, the bike was fine, my clothes and backpack were fine, and I was ok aside from a sore arm. Had to walk my bike most of the way to work though. Right now I'm just hoping all the ice melts by Wednesday since walking to the Nogi board of education and my preschools would take forever (it's already a 25 minute bike ride).

Random Japan Comment: Region Lock
Actually, this has to do with pretty much the entire world, not just Japan, but I'm been getting some questions about it lately so I figured I might as well do a full write up here. See, when Super Mario Galaxy launched in Japan, and now that Super Smash Brothers Brawl is available (and won't be in the US for another month or so), I've had people asking if I'm going to get a Japanese copy of the games so I could play them early. Considering that neither game requires extensive Japanese skills to play (I'm steadily improving but something with a ton of very important text or dialogue, like a Final Fantasy game, would be more than I can handle right now), I would have considered getting a Japanese copy...except that I wouldn't be able to do anything with it besides stare at the box because of the region lock.
So what is a region lock? It's essentially a way to kill, or at least greatly deter, the importing of a variety of multimedia products from one country to another. It affects commercially released DVDs, Blu-Ray movies, and most video games systems, and prevents you from playing media from one region with a device from another region.
Basically, you first divide the world into regions (North America, Europe, Japan, etc). Then, when a disc is made for x region, some data is placed on the disc that tells the player what region it's from. Similarly, DVD players/drives, game systems, etc have something in the hardware that tells them what region they were designed for. If the disc isn't from the same region as the player, the player will refuse to load the disc. (Interestingly enough though, the way the world is divided up isn't consistent across all media types).
There are some ways around region lock. For example, it's possible to buy special DVD players that will play DVDs from any region. Also, really old game systems are usually also fairly easy to bypass since back then, instead of a real region lock, they just made it so a cartridge from one region wouldn't fit in the slot in another region's system, something that can be easily fixed with special converters or, in some cases, by simply shaving some excess plastic off the casing. Unfortunately, getting past the region locks in a newer game system (from around the original Playstation and on) or a normal DVD player can be rather difficult. Some game systems can be tricked with a swap disc (a special disc from the correct region that loads properly then gets switched with the other disc) but for most of them, and for DVD players, you'd actually need to open up the system and install a mod chip, which requires at least a bit of electrical know how and voids your warranty. Even worse, the newer game systems frequently update their software via the internet (you can disable it, but doing so may leave you unable to play the newest games or access certain features such as online play) and it's not unheard of for these updates to mess up, or in some cases completely break, modded systems. So, in most cases, if you want to safely enjoy movies or games from another region, you have to buy a whole new DVD player, game system, etc from that region.
So what doesn't have region locks? CDs for one. Also, all of Nintendo's handheld game systems (the Gameboy, GBC, GBA, and DS) and a few random (and mostly unheard of) systems. Then there's some game systems that are inconsistent. For example, the PSP region locks UMD movies but plays games from any region...unless said games are specifically region locked by the game's developer (something that at this point in time is extremely rare). The Xbox and Xbox 360 also leave it up to the developers, so a good chunk of their games aren't locked but some are. The PS3 is the same...but only for PS3 games. DVD movies, Blu-Ray movies, and PS1 and PS2 games are all locked. Though, instead of using DVD regions Blu-Ray created it's on, putting the US and Japan in the same region, so it's much more import friendly. But yeah, it's a bit complicated.
By now you're probably wondering what the point of region locks is in the first place. In many cases the language barrier isn't going to make a whole lot of people want to import things to begin with and even so, what's wrong with letting people important movies and games if they want to? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First off, sometimes movies and games are published by different companies in different regions. If you only buy from your region, it ensures that the local distributer gets the money for it instead of the foreign one. Region locks also act as an effective, though questionably legal, way of price fixing. For example, in Australia DVD movies typically cost 2 or 3 times as much as they do in the US. There was originally a half decent reason for the high prices (can't remember what it was though) but when that reason disappeared, the DVD companies figured that, as long as people were paying that much, they might as well keep the prices the same and increase their profits instead of passing the savings on to the consumers. In many cases it would actually be a decent amount cheaper for people in Australia to important DVDs from the US than to buy them there (and since they speak English, there wouldn't be any language issues). So what stopped a huge import market from forming? Region locks. Japan is in a somewhat similar situation. Many DVDs in Japan are very expensive, especially box sets. Even with the language barrier, there are some dual language DVDs they could import from the US (anime for example) for less than a quarter of what they'd pay for the Japanese version. But once again, region locks make the process a whole lot more complicated.
When it comes to video games, especially importing games from Japan to the US and vice versa, the prices are often close enough that importing new games wouldn't offer any significant savings. Also, with a few exceptions, the language barrier would prevent most people from importing games and those that did would probably focus more on the games that never received a commercial release in their home region anyway (Japan especially has a huge amount of games that are never released anywhere else), so region lock doesn't seem quite so necessary. Actually, the big thing with region locked game systems right now is to stop people in Europe from importing US games and systems. Video game systems especially tend to be considerably more expensive in Europe than the US (up to double the price in some cases, which is quite a lot when you're dealing with an item that costs several hundred dollars to begin with).
When all is said and done, the legality of region locking in most countries is questionable. In some countries, such as Australia, certain aspects of it have been successfully challenged in court (all new DVD players there are now required to be sold with a chip installed that bypasses the region lock). But, like the not exactly legal DRM (digital rights management) locks put into commercial DVDs and most music purchased online (MP3s, iTunes stuff, etc), it's probably not going to go away any time soon.

Friday (8th): Talking About Photos

Here's a few photos I took during the week.
First off, I think I mentioned this before but drinking is a very important social activity in Japan, especially among coworkers, giving overworked sarariman (salary men, ordinary office workers) an opportunity to unwind and break free of the usually very strict social hierarchy. But anyway, I'm not writing a whole thing on Japanese business practices today. So, as I was saying, drinking is a popular way for workers and college students to relax and unwind and also plays a role in parties and all that, a lot like in the US. Like the US, Japan has a minimum drinking age (20). So what do you do if you've got a kid who wants to drink but is too young? Why not let him/her pretend to be an adult with fake beer for kids? There's a couple different brands of the stuff. The name of the one in the photo translates to "Kids' Drink" but I think the other one is actually called "Kids' Beer". Naturally, there's no alcohol in it (it has a fizzy fruity taste) but it comes in a brown bottle, foams up a lot like beer, and has a similar color. Nothing like giving the kids an early start on a lifetime habit.
On Thursday, the 4th graders at my school had a special project, growing Japanese mushrooms. Each kid got a log (in most cases said logs were nearly as tall as they were) and, with some help from the people who brought all the equipment, drilled a bunch of holes in them, put little plugs of mushroom spores (and I'd assume some nutrients to keep the mushrooms healthy) in the holes, and hammered them in so they'd stay. From what I could understand of the instructions given, after that all you really have to do it splash water over the log every once in a while and wait for the mushrooms to grow. Although, you'll be doing quite a lot of waiting as the particular type of mushrooms used take two years to fully mature. Here's a log that's been sitting for quite a while. Although I'm not positive, I think the main point might have been that the mushrooms will finish growing right around the time when the current 4th Graders are ready to graduate from Elementary School.

That's it for the photos but, on a somewhat related note (since I'm talking about photos and all), I think I might start looking into new cameras sometime soon. Although I like mine, it's been developing some problems over the last few months, which some of you may have noticed in my photos (although they're a lot more noticeable in the original photos than the scaled down versions I post here). First off, all my photos now have a strip along the top (or the side if I turn the camera) where the colors are a decent amount darker than in the rest of the picture. It covers maybe 5% of the photo and ranges from barely noticeable to moderately noticeable depending on what I'm photographing and the lighting. It's a bit annoying but I could live with it. The second, and, in my opinion, worst problem is that my camera has developed a habit of both blowing out (making too bright) and zebra striping (covering with vertical or horizontal stripes) bright areas and most white objects. While I can improve blown out areas in Photoshop, the zebra striping would be difficult to fully remove and it would be a very time consuming process. It started off barely noticeable but worsened after that and is extremely noticeable in some photos, something I find really annoying. Finally, and most minor, the viewing screen has become pretty unreliable in low light situations, with a whole bunch of static obscuring the image from time to time. Fortunately that's only the screen, it doesn't actually affect the photos, so it's not a really big deal for me. But, combined with the other two problems... I should also point out that all of these problems only started cropping up over the last few months (after I'd already been in Japan for a month or two). I even looked through a bunch of my old photos, just to make sure that this wasn't something I'd always had but never noticed before. Naturally I also triple checked all the camera settings and all that.
While I'm not too thrilled about the thought of paying for a new camera, my current one is about three years old so the newer ones do have a whole lot more megapixels and some nifty features that weren't around back when mine was made. Plus, I've always wanted a camera with a better zoom... So, unless the problems I've bene having with mine suddenly vanish, I'll definitely get a new one eventually. I'm not in a huge hurry but I figure that, as long as I'm in Japan, I could probably find a pretty good deal if I shopped around in Akihabara a bit so I think I'll do some research and take a look next time I'm there (probably in a week or two).

Sunday (10th): Final Yokohama Trip
If you were reading my last post, I'm definitely gonna be swinging by Akihabara to look at cameras next weekend. Most of my photos from today were so overexposed that I had to run the entire batch through basic level, color, and contrast correction in Photoshop. Fortunately that fixed them up just fine...except for that stupid zebra striping (especially in the sky). Gotta wonder why my camera is degrading through... I mean it worked perfectly till a few months ago and has been slowly getting worse since then. Anyway, on to my weekend report.

There were a couple more places I wanted to see in Yokohama so I decided to make one last day trip there before I head back to the US in April. Both of my destinations were a decent ways outside of central Yokohama so I had to do a bit more train riding combined with some buses and a bit of walking. Worth it though.
My first stop, Sankeien, a large public garden created in the early 1900's that features a lot of old historic buildings brought there from all over Japan. It's a very scenic place and, luckily, I got there on the first day of the ume (Japanese plum) blossom viewing season (guess I should be glad that the weather was bad last week). Speaking of the ume blossoms, here's a nice close up (luckily, one of my few zebra stripe free shots). And here's a few more pictures of different areas of the garden. There was more to do there than just look at the scenery. For example, here's a very old fashioned tea house that they open every year during the ume season, offering free barley tea to guests. There was also a small museum with art related to the garden and an old village leader's house from around 250 years ago that you could walk through (complete with a bunch of items from the time period). Not sure if this was quite that old, but it's a set of Girls' Day dolls (I mentioned Girls' Day in my big Japanese holiday list). Speaking of Girls' Day dolls, I spotted some for sale in a Toys R Us later that day. It's a good thing all anyone ever really needs is one set, prices ranged from about $500 to over $1000.
Anyway, there was also a few event type things going on that day at Sankeien. There was a small display of bonsai trees, some women doing traditional Japanese dances, and a group of people making mochi for a fund-raiser. Mochi is a very gluttonous (very stretchy, sticky, and chewy) type of Japanese rice 'cake'. As you can see from the photo, the process of making it involves putting the mochi in a big wooden container and pounding it with big wooden mallets. They were giving away mochi for however much people wanted to donate so I got some. As I said, it's a bit of a pain to chew (and very difficult to eat with a single toothpick) but not bad in general and pretty good with azuki paste.
And, before I move onto my next destination, here's one last nice close up shot of some flowers.
Once I'd finished up in the garden I headed off to Zoorasia, the Yokohama zoo. Now while Sankeien was a little bit out there (took me around half an hour and a combination of a train, a bus, and walking) from Yokohama station, Zoorasia was quite a bit more out of the way and required a 20 minute train ride plus another half hour or so on a bus. As far as zoos go, it was a fairly nice one (good layout, fairly nice enclosures for most of the animals, etc) and a lot bigger than I thought it would be. One cool thing about it is that, while they've got all your normal zoo animals, they also have a few pretty rare endangered species that you don't see at many zoos. There were some pretty neat types of monkeys I don't remember ever seeing before and, their mascot of sorts, an Okapi (looks kinda like a cross between a horse and a zebra). Unfortunately, my camera must not have been as fully charged that day as I thought it was (the one thing I never liked about it, even when it worked perfectly, is that it never displays the battery gauge unless it's almost out of power) and by the time I got to the zoo, it was running pretty low on battery power. I only managed to grab a handful of shots before it died and some of them turned out a bit rushed since I was trying to squeeze them in before running completely out of power. But here's a couple of the better ones, namely a clouded leopard and a red panda.
Once I'd finished at the zoo, I headed back to downtown Yokohama to browse a couple stores and get some supper and then it was back to Koga.

And that's it. Had Monday off too (it was a holiday) but I spent it hanging around my apartment getting some work done and enjoying the Canthan New Years event in Guild Wars.

Wednesday (13th): A Tricky Topic

It's freezing today (mainly due to the wind), and I'm starving so here's one quick RJC. Fair warning though, while I'm gonna do my best to keep this PG-ish, the subject matter is decidedly less kid friendly than usual.

Random Japan Comment: Adult Material
Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not going to be reviewing dirty magazines or anything. I'll try to keep this as PG as I can and it's a fairly useful thing to know if you're planning to travel in Japan so just stick with me here.
Asia in general has a different view on nudity and sex than the US and in general it's even a bit looser than Europe's attitude in some respects (although not in others). While Japan's morals and standards have changed considerably over the last couple hundred years due to increasing Westernization, they still take a much laxer view of 'adult stuff' than the US.
In the US, adult material is usually something you'd find in tightly shuttered, dingy looking shops, either tucked back away from other buildings or in a lousy part of town. At least that's the feel I get from the ones I've spotted while driving. But the point is, with a few exceptions, it's all kept in its own special stores and it's not something most people particularly want to be seen with.
While I'd say Japanese TV is typically a lot cleaner than European in regards to nudity and sex, adult material in general is more accepted. As in, a lot of people consider it a normal thing for people (particularly men) to be interested in those kinds of materials so they doesn't have as much of the negative stigma attached to them as they does in the US. Dirty books, magazines, movies, cards, figurines, etc can be found in many ordinary stores that also sell plenty of regular (non adult) products (although there's usually much less, if any, questionable material in big chain stores). Keep in mind, I'm not talking about the occasional partial nudity found in some PG-13-ish anime/manga, but light porn and worse. Many stores that sell that kind of stuff have a dedicated section for it, usually a separate floor or an area cut off by pink curtains, complete with a whole bunch of ' no one under 18 allowed' signs. But some don't bother with the signs and a few (mostly smaller places without a whole lot of room) have adult stuff mixed right in with their normal products. There's been a few times I've accidently walked into the adult section of a store due to lack of warning signs so if you're easily offended, or have kids with you, be careful.
This is especially something to keep in mind if you're going in a lot of anime/manga/figurine type stores as some of them, mostly due to space constraints (you'd be surprised how small and cramped some Japanese stores are), just mix adult stuff in with everything else. Usually if you run into some adult stuff by accident there isn't anything that bad about it (there's typically a limit to what goes on DVD cases, magazine covers, etc) but once in a while you might inadvertently come across something pretty explicit. If you just hit up big stores touristy shops this is something you'll probably never notice, but if you're going to be combing Akihabara for some rare anime item, you have been warned.
One other thing, as long as I'm on the subject... Since there's less negative stigma around adult material and the people who buy it (within reason anyway, there's a line between what's considered 'natural interest' and perversion), people browsing the stuff in stores seem pretty casual about it as do the other customers who see them browsing (this applies to both men and women). Also, once in a great while (twice for me so far), you might even spot someone reading a questionable magazine on a train.
So to summarize, adult stuff is more accepted in Japan than the US (and possibly Europe in some, but not all, aspects). While it's easy enough to avoid most of the time, in some shops (particularly of the small anime/manga/game/DVD variety) it can be difficult, if not impossible, to completely avoid items ranging anywhere from mildly suggestive to extremely explicit. So if you've got kids or just don't want to see that kind of stuff, be careful.

Well, that's probably going to lead to a whole lot of awkward e-mails but I thought I should cover it, just because of the major culture clash compared to the US.

Saturday (16th): Karaoke
Not a particularly big event, but Saturday night I went out for karaoke with a couple people from the congregation I go to. It was fun since I got a chance to talk to them a bit more than usual and karaoke in general is fun. I even did a couple of songs in Japanese. Couldn't read all the kanji but I'd listened to them enough that I more or less had the lyrics memorized. If you're curious, the Japanese songs I did were Hikari by Utada Hikaru (which is the Japanese version of the theme song from the first Kingdom Hearts) and Asu he no Brilliant Road by Angela (the opening theme for the anime Stellvia). So we did karaoke for a while and got some dinner and that was it. Not a lot to write about but I enjoyed it.

Sunday (17th): All Around Tokyo
Here's an update on my camera situation. Though my camera is way out of warranty, I decided to go ahead and e-mail Canon to see if they had any advice. Turns out, one of the parts used in the model camera I have is defective, though the problem is fairly uncommon (usually only appearing if the camera is exposed to a very hot and humid environment for a while (like say, Japan in August and September)). Because of that, they're gonna repair it for free, which I certainly wasn't expecting. I'm not entirely sure if fixing that one part will solve all the problems I've been having but it's something and, as long as they've got the camera in their factory, they might just go ahead and repair anything else that's wrong with it. However, no matter how successful the repair is, that still leaves me without a camera for quite a while. I might have been able to wait until getting back to the US to send it in but considering that the last couple of times I've used it (my last Yokohama trip and yesterday) my camera has been making a weird clicking sound and most of the pictures have been really washed out (though fixed with Photoshop before you guys saw them), I figure it's best to send it in before it gets even worse. So anyway, combine the lack of a camera with the fact that I've been wanting a camera with better zoom and low light performance, and I decided to go ahead and get a new one anyway and either keep my old one as a spare or sell it once it's fixed. I hit up Akihabara today to look at cameras so I'll talk about that in its proper place.

Since I wanted to look at cameras, and haven't browsed around Akihabara for a while anyway, I headed to Tokyo. I also hadn't been to the always awesome o-keiba-jo flea market in quite a while so that went on my list too. I've mentioned it before. It's a enormous flea market (biggest in Tokyo) that's held most weekends in the parking lot of the o-keiba-jo horse racing track. If you're ever in Tokyo on a weekend it's really a most see. There's an enormous variety of stuff for sale (just about everything really) and, since it's a flea market, most of the stuff is really cheap. For example, while I was there I picked up: three music CDs, two Playstation games (old DDR versions, since I can never have too many different songs), a complete set of M.A.R. figurines, and a pack of AAA batteries. Total cost: 1050 yen (about $9 at the current exchange rate). And, being a flea market, the selection changes a bit every time so you never know what you might find. Lots of fun to browse.
Quick note. On the way back from o-keiba-jo, I discovered that the Hammamatsuchou train station (where you have to get on the monorail to go to o-keiba-jo) has a book store with the largest selection of current English books that I've seen in Japan so far. Unfortunately, it was also a bit on the expensive side so I didn't end up getting any.
Moving on... When I took my brother to Tokyo Tower back in December, I noticed that, instead of taking the elevator, you could climb the outdoor staircase all the way up to the main observatory (note, the stairs are closed on certain days and when the weather is really bad). I've been wanting to give that a try and, since I was in the area anyway (from Hammamatsuchou it's about a 10-15 minute walk to Tokyo Tower) I decided to do it. BTW: to take the stairs, after buying a ticket for the viewing area and entering the building, ignore the elevators and use the regular stairs (you might have to switch staircases at one point) to get to the 5th floor where the little kiddy rides are. Look around there and you'll find the stairs leading up to the observatory. The stairs are mostly outside (though completely fenced in so there's so risk of falling off the tower). They're not super steep and, though you're climbing quite a ways up, it's really not too bad of a climb as long as you're in somewhat decent shape. Took me maybe 15 minutes to make it all the way up going at a normal pace, though I stopped a couple times to take some pictures along the way. The view is nice, although you've got an chainlink fence obscuring it (but no windows, so if you aim carefully you can get some nice photos from certain spots), and you get a good look at the construction of the tower. When you make it to the top of the stairs you also get a little card to prove that you climbed the whole thing. And, if climbing up the stairs wasn't enough of a workout for you, there's another staircase you can take all the way down once you're done in the observatory (though you could also take the elevator). I climbed both ways. The stairs are pretty much the same but you get some different views at times. By the time I'd finished climbing up and down the tower I was pretty hungry so I stopped for lunch (there's a lot of restaurants on the second floor of Tokyo Tower) before heading to my final destination.
My main goal in Akihabara was to see what kind of prices I could find on cameras and memory cards (my current camera uses CF cards, while most new models use SD or Memory Sticks), though I ended up browsing a lot of anime and game stores while I was at it. Since I'm going to be sending my current camera in for repairs, I was prepared to buy a new one right then if I could find the one I wanted at a decent price. I'd already done some research on my favorite tech review site and decided on the Panasonic Lumix DMZ-TZ3. My first stop was Yodobashi Camera. Not always the cheapest place, but they've got a great selection and lots of international models (as in, multi-language menus, manuals, and warranties). My plan was to use Yodobashi's price as a base (while figuring in all the points I'd get on my card) and then see if I could find a better deal anywhere else. But things didn't go quite as I planned. While I was looking for the TZ3, I stumbled across the Canon Powershot SX100 IS. It's a pretty new model (new enough that my favorite tech site hadn't reviewed it yet) and, though a bit more expensive than the TZ3, was still within my price range and had some nifty features that the TZ3 didn't. So I marked down the prices for the cameras and memory cards then started walking around Akihabara to see what I could find. Problem was, while the SX100 looked interesting, I'd never buy a camera without doing some research on it first. Unfortunately, it was too late to call the US and ask my family to look it up for me and my rent-a-phone plan doesn't seem to include internet access. For a while I was thinking that I'd have to just content myself with price checking for now, live without a camera for the week (doing some research in the meantime), and then try to run to Akihabara Saturday night and get a camera then so I'd have it in time for my next Sunday trip. But, while browsing, I came across an internet/manga cafe (I'll do a RJC on them soon) and, since it was only 210 yen for half an hour (heck of a lot cheaper than the internet cafes I went to in Europe a few years back), I stopped there, did some research online, and decided to get the SX100 instead of the TZ3.
I looked around different shops for a while but couldn't find anywhere that beat Yodobashi's price for the camera itself (at least not after factoring in my point card). I did, however, find a good memory card for a really great price. Speaking of which, there's a few little shops in Akihabara with pretty incredible prices on various types of memory cards and USB flash drives from lots of different brands. So I got the card there and the camera at Yodobashi. Now I've got some time to read the manual and play with it before my next excursion. Look for some photos with it either later this week or early next week.
One last thing. While I was in Akihabara, I also tried a kabob stand. Well, that's what the sign says but it's not shish-kabobs. The stands are actually a bit of a chain around Tokyo and I've been meaning to give it a try some time. Basically what you're getting is a pita stuffed with beef, vegetables, and your choice of sauce. The odd thing is the beef. Basically they've got a large 'pillar' of beef (maybe eight inches wide and about two or three feet high) spinning around on a skewer and they shave chunks off of it when needed. A bit strange to look at but it tasted pretty good. I really should try and get a picture sometime...

Friday (22nd): Manga Cafes and Apartments

Random Japan Comment: Manga Cafes (& Renting Apartments)
Manga cafes, also called internet cafes and magazine cafes, can be pretty useful if you're visiting Japan on a budget or just didn't bring a laptop. First off, they often have large signs (quite a lot of which have English words) so keep an eye out for manga, internet, or magazine cafes. They're not super common but they don't seem to be all that hard to find in bigger cities (haven't seen many in smaller places though), especially in big electronics or shopping areas (Akihabara, Ueno, etc).
So what's is a manga cafe anyway? Well, it's essentially an internet cafe but they work a bit differently than the net cafes I've seen in the US and Europe. First off, instead of a large room full of computers, everyone gets a little, and completely private, room with a desk, computer, and chair. Computer menus and stuff are in Japanese but Windows is Windows no matter what language it's in so it doesn't matter much. The computers will generally have broadband and the usual productivity programs (like MS Office) installed along with some popular MMOs (online games) and the like. If you're going to a manga cafe specifically to play an MMO though, keep in mind that by popular MMOs I mean ones that are popular in Japan, so they might not have WoW or whatever one you're looking for. Take a look at at the cafe's signs and see if one says which games they have installed.
Next up comes the manga and magazine part. Sure you're renting a cubicle with a computer, but that doesn't mean you have to use the computer. Most cafes will have an area (typically right near the entrance) with a bunch of shelves of manga graphic novels, magazines, and sometimes even DVDs, that you can take up to your cubicle. Keep in mind though that all that stuff is going to be in Japanese.
So you've got your internet, manga, and magazines, but why the cafe? Well, it's quite possible that, while using all that other stuff, you might get hungry. While some manga cafe's might have real cafes in them, the ones I've seen handle the food issue with vending machines (usually near the entrance with all the manga and stuff). Naturally there's softdrink machines (it's hard to walk more than a block or two in Japan without running into some of those) but there's also vending machines that you can get an actual hot meal out of. Want some fries? How about ramen, spaghetti, or onigiri (rice balls)? You can get them out of a vending machine. Weird but convenient.
So manga cafes are certainly useful if you need to get on the internet or just use a computer for a while. But why are they useful for budget travelers? Well, let's talk about costs and payment. Unsurprisingly, in manga cafes the amount you pay is determined by how long you stay. The smallest unit of time is typically 30 minutes and the price per hour (or half hour) goes down the longer you stay (so while you might pay 500 yen for an hour, two hours may only cost 800 yen, or something like that). When you go in you'll usually give the guy at the counter an estimate of how long you're going to stay and pay the price for that amount of time. You'll get a paper with the number of your cubicle and your starting time. When you're done you take the paper back to the guy. If you went over your time limit, you'll pay the difference then.
The thing is though, manga cafes in Japan are actually really cheap. When I needed to do a little extra research on cameras last Sunday in Akihabara, half an hour cost me only 210 yen (less than $2), heck of a lot less than when I was in Europe a few years back. And, since they're typically open 24 hours a day, if you're on a budget and traveling light, you could save some money by staying overnight in manga cafe instead of a hotel. Sure you won't get a bed, private bathroom, or any of that stuff, but the computer chairs are pretty comfortable and most of the cafes have showers you can use (seriously). Of course the big draw (or more like the only draw) is the price. Judging from the prices I've seen, 12 hours in a manga cafe will usually only cost about half what you'd pay for a night in a capsule hotel (which I plan to try out and talk about sometime in the near future) and a third or less of the price for a cheap regular hotel room.
In fact, they're so cheap that I've even heard stories about people who have lived in manga cafes for a while. Which I can actually believe. For one thing, when you take into account that there's no utility bills to pay, a month in a manga cafe wouldn't cost much more than I pay each month for my apartment (actually less than I've been paying lately thanks to my ridiculous electric bills). Heck, if you can keep all your stuff in a backpack or something and take it to school/work during the day so you only have to pay for nights at the cafe, it'd be a whole lot cheaper.
Plus, renting a new apartment in Japan is a ridiculously expensive experience. I didn't have to deal with it cause the company that hired me has a deal with Leopalace 21 (the apartment chain that myself and many of Joytalk's other ALTs get stuck in). Most companies that hire foreign language teachers have a similar setup, which is good. But for everyone who doesn't have some sort of company housing deal (or the money to buy their own house), renting an apartment isn't easy. Aside from finding an available one (which I've heard can be fairly difficult in many parts of Japan), between the realtor's fee (you'll usually need a realtor because available apartments are so hard to find, or just cause the realtor has a deal with the landlord), security deposit (which you won't necessarily get back when you leave the apartment), advance rent payment (you usually need to pay the first month or two in advance), and key money (a large, completely nonrefundable, and not exactly legal amount of money that most landlords expect new renters to give them), you could easily end up having to lay out the equivalent of 6-8 months rent right at the start. And, as you could probably tell from the breakdown above, most of that money doesn't go towards rent and you're unlikely to see any of it ever again. So while the monthly rent for an apartment may be reasonable enough, you need a heck of a lot of cash on hand before you can move in. Makes manga cafes sound a lot more attractive doesn't it?
But anyway, even if you're not looking to save money, manga cafes can be a great place to drop in if you need to get on the internet or just get out of all the hustle bustle for a little while.

Monday (25th): Odaiba, Take 2
So, I had this whole trip planned out for Sunday but there was a 90% chance of snow all day at the place I was going to go. Plus, as mentioned in Friday's update, I was behind on a lot of stuff and burnt out and all that. So I decided to put off my plans, stay home on Sunday, and get things done. That worked out pretty well and, while I didn't get caught up on everything I'm working on, I got a lot of it done, which is a relief. Should be able to finish up the rest at a fairly leisurely pace over the course of the week.
Moving on, I had taken today as a paid personal day because, A: I had three of them left so I figured I might as well use some; and B: I don't have any classes half the time on Mondays anyway. I had some errands to do in Tokyo, one of which couldn't be done on weekends, so this seemed like a good day for that. Plus I combo'd it with some other things I'd been wanting to do in Tokyo.
Though I didn't go to any particularly great photo spots, I ended up taking a ton of pictures anyway so I could give my new camera a good test. Over all, I like it a lot. The only real annoyances are that the flash takes a long time to recharge (fortunately, the camera does very well without the flash most of the time (hardly ever needed to use it, as opposed to my old camera which needed the flash anytime I wasn't in really bright sunlight)), and there's a lot of noise on higher ISO settings (fortunately, the camera has great image stabilization and you can usually get perfectly good shots on pretty low ISO settings, even in dark areas). However, I knew about said problems before I bought the camera (thanks to the research I did) and both are easy enough to deal with if you know about them. Since it was my first day out with the camera, I took lots of pictures in all sorts of different areas and played with the settings a lot. Kinda glad now that I wasn't photographing anything particularly amazing on my first day with the camera since playing with the settings so much, while useful in figuring out how to best configure the camera, screwed up some of my shots. But now I have a much better idea of what settings to use next time (though it'll probably be quite a while before I truly master my new camera, considering that my old one was a straight up point and shoot and this one has a full set of manual controls available if/when I want them). It also focuses a little differently, so that took some getting used to as well.

One thing I'd like to say before we get started. This was my first time doing any serious photographing with my new camera. As such, I was playing with the settings a lot and still trying to get the hang of all the new modes, features, etc, so if some of the pictures look a bit off, that's why.
Like I already mentioned, I had some errands to do in Tokyo, one which couldn't be done on weekends, and since I had taken Monday as a personal day (since I have some to spare), it seemed like a good time to get those out of the way and hit some more sites in Tokyo (since it's nearly impossible to run out of things to see in Tokyo). I'm not going to go into detail about my errands (since that'd be boring) but one of them involved getting some kabuki tickets for when my mom comes to visit (kabuki is a traditional form of Japanese theater). The theater, where you need to go to get advance tickets, is in Ginza and it really sticks out (I overexposed some parts of that pic a bit but hey, no zebra striping now).
Moving on... Once I'd finished my errands I headed to Odaiba to see some stuff I'd missed last time. Speaking of Odaiba, this shot came out pretty well, especially considering I took it looking through the window of a moving train. But anyway, first off I wanted to spend some time as Muscle Park. I saw it last time I was at Odaiba but didn't have time to do anything besides look back then. Basically, it's a small theme park of sorts inside the Decks Mall. There's something like 20 or 30 different games divided up into categories that are all based around physical or mental fitness, you can even win prizes (though nothing amazing) if you do particularly well. You can buy tickets for individual games or just buy a whole bunch (like enough for half the games or all the games) and get a discount. I got the 'enough tickets for every thing' package and gave it a whirl. Oh yeah, useful note. Odaiba (and all attractions there in) are a lot less crowded on weekdays than on weekends. On the downside, because of that some places have less staff working on weekdays, so you might end up waiting around a while anyway.
Quick rundown of the areas... The target games test your aim. There's darts, frisbee, soccer, throwing baseballs, hitting baseballs, and bowling. Each game had around nine separate targets and your goal was to hit as many as possible. I did horrible at soccer (no surprise there since I never really played) and darts (which I used to be ok at but stopped playing since my mom get tired of all the holes my brother and I made in the garage wall when we missed the target). I was ok with the frisbee, great at hitting the baseballs (but not aiming them so they hit the targets), and was able to throw the baseballs all the way from the pitcher's mound to the batter's box (same distance as on a real field) at a decent speed and height (but my aim suffered a bit at that distance). My best target game was bowling, where I did fairly well (though not quite good enough for a prize). Then there's the balance and agility section. It's actually a series of three games where you get an overall score at the end. First off you have to run around and hit a series of buttons several times in a row as fast as you can. That's more my type of thing and I did pretty well. Next up, a voice called out different instructions (right arm, left foot, etc) and you had to hit the corresponding target as fast as you could and try to get as many as possible in one minute. Did really well on that one (fell just shy of getting the max score). There was also the balance game, which involves you standing on a large disc that's balanced on a point (a motorized one, just to make it harder) and trying to keep the disc flat and yourself upright. Didn't do so well on that. My personal balance is great (as in I wouldn't have fallen over) but I had trouble keeping the disc level enough. After that were the mind games, which were comprised of concentration (try to memorize the cards then match the pairs as quickly as you can once they flip), number battle (click on the randomly arranged numbers in order from 1 on up as fast as you can), and body clock (try to estimate 10, 20 and 30 seconds in your head). I did moderately well on concentration and number battle. I think I would have done pretty well on body clock (I did a couple of practice rounds with my watch while waiting in line) but must have missed something in the instructions cause I couldn't tell when the count was supposed to start. There was also section of two person games, a few random games, and, the big attraction, a recreation of part of a Sasuke course (Sasuke is a Japanese obstacle course TV show that's shown on G4 TV in the US under the name Ninja Warrior). I always thought I could do pretty well on the first two rounds of Sasuke (which focus on speed, agility, and balance). Unfortunately, the Muscle Park course was based on stage three, which is mostly arm strength and grip (things I'm fairly average with). I made it past the first part ok (left part of the photo; hanging from a bicycle type thing while working the pedals with your arms), completely failed the second section like I thought I would (right part of the photo; it involved crossing a 20-30 foot gap with nothing but a half inch ledge that you hang from by your fingers), made some progress on the third (far back; hanging from a chin up bar and forcing it up into higher brackets without touching the ground), and made it all the way to the end of the last section (right side of the photo; hanging from a bar and using your momentum to slide it across a gap) but couldn't quite make the jump to the platform. Really not bad for a first try I suppose, especially since my exercise routine tends to focus far more on legs than arms.
Overall it was a fun, though slightly expensive, way to spend a few hours. My pack of tickets also came with a discount coupon for Muscle Park's Monster Burger (of all the photos I took that day, I think this one came out the best, the detail in the 8 megapixel version is amazing). Definitely the tallest hamburger I've ever seen, though I think the total mass is less than say Ruby Tuesday's Colossal Burger. But yeah, way too tall to smash into your mouth. But that's ok since it's actually meant to be taken apart as you eat it since it's more like several stacked sandwiches than one big burger. On top you've got a sweet french toast type layer, next is a chicken burger, then a salad sandwich, then a hamburger, and finally an extra piece of bread on the bottom.
Once I'd finished up at Muscle Park I moved on to Pallet Town, which I didn't get to on my last visit. It's the name for part of Odaiba comprised of Toyota's MegaWeb buildings, the Venus Fort mall, and a couple other things like Odaiba's giant ferris wheel (which I've mentioned before). MegaWeb is broken up into several sections but is mostly a showcase for lots and lots of Toyota cars (this picture shows maybe a quarter of one floor). The main building has all the newest models plus some concept cars, race cars, and a few car related activities (test drives, sorta, reflex tests, and the ultimate Gran Turismo setup (if you don't know, GT is a very realistic racing game series made by Sony)). One of the other MegaWeb buildings, which I came across later in the day, focused on old classic cars (about the photo, I found out I could take some nice low light shots without having to the use the flash on my camera or a super high ISO setting, as long as I didn't mind blurring any moving people who happened to be in the shot).
The Venus Fort Mall is several floors. The lowest level is the most ordinary of the bunch, had an arcade and a weird variety store though, among other things. There were also lots of stores selling dog clothes. Seriously, I spotted four different dog clothing stores scattered around Venus Fort, three of which were on that floor. Oh, and the strollers in that photo, dogs, not babies.
The other floors, however, reminded me of the malls inside those fancy theme hotels in Las Vegas. Yep, just like Vegas... There were a lot of fancy clothing store and plenty of restaurants (many of which were surprisingly reasonably priced) but there was some other stuff too like this LEGO store. This LEGO store was particularly awesome because a lot of the display models (the stuff built by employees and/or fans) had an anime/manga/game spin to them. For example, note Son Goku (the monkey king, not the Dragon Ball version) in the first photo and the silhouette from the Final Fantasy VI Logo in the second. And that was only one side of the display case...
As I was leaving, I was quite surprised to see that the sky had actually cleared up enough that you could see Mt. Fuji. Now keep in mind that though Mt. Fuji is technically visible from Tokyo and the surrounding areas if you're got a good vantage point (even the area where I live, in the right spot), between the clouds and the haze/smog/etc you can hardly ever actually see it from most of those locations (this is only like my 3rd or 4th time). There were some buildings in the way but I still managed to get a few decent photos (thank you 10x zoom) before heading home.

Friday (29th): Photos & Businessmen in Japan

Here's a few random pics before I get to today's RJC. First up, here's a couple pictures of me with some of the students from my 5 year old preschool class. There's a lot more kids than that, but the teacher wanted to just have 3 or 4 kids per photo and it'd get kinda repetitious if I posted all of them here. And if you're wondering what's with the poses, it's not a Japanese thing, we're doing positions from the Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes song, which was one of the first things I taught the kids (and still a big favorite). I'll be getting pics of my 4 and 3 year old classes sometime over the next couple of weeks too so keep an eye out for those.
And here's a couple of pictures from the paper airplane contest some of the kids at Nogi Elementary had over recess a couple days ago. The goal was to make your own plane and see whose could fly the furthest. Quite a lot of kids give it a go. The winner? The 6th grade teacher (who threw a plane for fun), that was pretty funny.

Random Japan Comment: Sarariman & Japanese Business Life
A sarariman, or salary man if you want to say it the proper English way (as opposed to the somewhat mangled Japanese way), is what you call your typical businessman in Japan. You know, the kind of guy who wears a business suit, works in a cubicle in some big company every day, and all that. Just your normal white collar worker (Or is it white? I never could remember which color was which). A woman can be a sarariman too (although there might be another term) but in Japan men still make up the vast majority of office workers.
When reading, keep in mind that even though I'm focusing on big companies here, quite a lot of what I'm going to say applies to most businesses and jobs in Japan (with the exception of people who are self employed and some part time jobs). Also, quite a lot of it applies to your higher ranking employees (upper management, etc) too. So anyway, why am I writing about ordinary office workers? Well, let's go over what life is like for a typical sarariman. Compare what I say here to businessmen in the US or where ever you live.
Naturally, most companies are centered in large cities like Tokyo. Because of space, housing in big cities in Japan tends to be expensive and cramped so quite a lot of businessmen and their families live in smaller towns nearby and commute to work. Lots of 'bedroom communities' surround many of Japan's large cities (rather boring towns comprised mostly of apartment buildings and houses, since people just go into the city for most stuff). Anyway, your average sarariman commutes to work (mostly using the train/subway/bus systems) each day. Typical commuting time can range anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours (with the average being an hour or more if I remember right). Keep in mind that's each way, every day, often on trains that are so crowded you've barely got room to stand (never ride the trains, subways, or buses in Japan during rush hour if you can avoid it (usually early morning going towards big cities and mid to late evening leaving said cities)).
Although it's not as prevalent as it used to be, many people in Japan work at one company for their entire life. Company loyalty is a big part of Japanese culture. Basically, you do your job, agree with whatever the company says, do what they want you to do, and always agree with your peers and superiors, and in return the company gives you a job until you retire. Another important aspect of Japanese culture and business life is group harmony. I'll go more in-depth about that in another RJC but in the company setting it basically translates to 'be respectful of your superiors, obey them without question, get along well with your peers, and don't go against the group (even if you've got a good reason to do so)'. You are, however, permitted to treat your "inferiors" rather rudely, although that's not really encouraged, it's just not usually penalized either.
Being loyal to the company also means working hard for the company. Unfortunately, the Japanese tend to define working hard by the amount of time you physically spend at work, as opposed to how much work you actually get done while you're there. As such, it's not uncommon for a typical Japanese businessman to work 10-14 hour days five or six days a week. Although all that extra time doesn't necessarily mean they get much more work done than they would in an eight hour day; from what I've heard there's often a lot of procrastinating involved so they don't completely work themselves to death. And, while they could request overtime pay for all those hours, most people don't because it wouldn't be looked upon too favorably (you're supposed to be working late because of your loyalty to the company, not because you want more money). If you work long hours other employees will generally look upon you favorably, not so much if you disappear as soon as the clock hits 5 (the main exception to this is foreigners; they know we do things differently in other countries so many Japanese people are ok with foreigners leaving work at the end of normal business hours).
Just to give an example of this, in a book I got before coming here about adjusting to life in Japan, one of the author's friends decided to try an experiment at his company. One day he went to work, stayed there really late, but did absolutely nothing productive for the entire day. When he left, everyone praised him for working so hard. Another day he went to work, worked really hard, and left right at quitting time. That day everyone criticized him for shirking his duties. See, as I think I've mentioned before, appearances are very important in Japan. If you're at the office all day, it certainly looks like you're working hard. Problem is, appearances are so important that they're sometimes confused with (and actually elevated above) actual performance and results.
So anyway, our average sarariman puts on his suit (speaking of which, most Japanese businessmen seem to wear nearly identical suits), has a moderate to long commute to work, and stays at work really late. So what comes next? The trip home, right? Well, not quite... After a long day at work, it's quite common for company employees to go out to eat, drink, and unwind. And, while it's technically optional, skipping out on the whole socializing time isn't looked at too favorably. On the one hand, it does give the businessmen a chance to unwind and gives a brief freedom from the strict social hierarchy in many Japanese companies. On the other hand, it's basically adding to an already really long work day.
It's quite common for a sarariman to leave home before his family wakes up, return after they're all asleep, and be too burnt out to do much besides sleep during the weekend. Also, some companies have a tendency to shuffle employees between various branches with no say and little warning on the part of the employees being transferred. In some cases, their family won't even go with them so that their children's education (which is considered extremely extremely important in Japan) isn't interrupted by the move. So yeah, family relations can be rather strained at times.
Of course, not all jobs in Japan are like that, though the penchant for working far longer than necessary seems to be pretty pervasive. For example, I'm at Nogi Elementary for nearly 9 hours a day (I get there slightly after most of the kids arrive and leave a hour or two (depending on the day) after them) but the homeroom teachers, secretaries, and vice principle, always arrive a lot earlier and stay a lot later than I do.
The interesting thing is, despite how bad many Japanese workers have things, most of them don't actually realize it (well, in some situations anyway, it's becoming fairly accepted that the sarariman life isn't all that great). Even if they do realize it, they don't really try to change (say, leave work earlier even when the company says its ok) because the whole "overwork" ethic and company loyalty is so deeply ingrained that they feel like it's something they have to do. Definitely a lot different than the US. Look for some of these subjects to be touched on a bit more when I do a RJC on the Japanese mind-set vs the US mind-set.

So yeah, even if say Nintendo or Square Enix offered me a job in Japan I'd be rather hesitant to accept (for more reasons than just moving half way around the world for the foreseeable future)...

Part 6: January 2008




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