Japanese High School Culture Festival (文化祭 Bunkasai)

If you can't see the video, please go here: http://youtu.be/B75SlPdYqVc

Japanese high schools are already very different from western schools. Students are quiet, they listen, but they have to learn by rote and drill lessons. They have to clean the school themselves, which I think is a great activity for distilling in them respect, you know, that thing completely missing from Western youth. There's other things as well, but as a reward the teachers let the students take control of the school for a weekend in summer. The result is the Culture festival, commonly referred to in Japan as the bunkasai. 

'Culture festival' is a very vague translation. The event covers the variety of games, shops and events that each school club and individual classes want to do.Then there are bands and other performances in the main hall or courtyard (depending on the school) and food stalls at the gates. Click the video above to see exactly what goes on in these events.

The decorated school entrance. It's different every year.

The event is open for two days. On the first day, Saturday, they open in the afternoon and its mainly a closed event for the school and family. Then on Sunday they open in the morning until afternoon for the public. Anyone can go, but it is usually family of students, teachers and the occasional students from other schools who maybe have friends there. Though it's entirely possible they are spies planting bugs and explosive devices in strategic locations.... 

Preparation for the event begins as early as May. Students have to think of what they want to do, confirm it with the student council, and book a room. Then, it is not uncommon at lunchtimes and after school, to find students practicing dance routines and singing in the corridors. I try to sneakily see what they are doing, but nobody wants to be labelled Pervert Teacher, so I don't take photos and sell them online or anything. The practicing continues through the holidays and then the festival is usually on the first weekend after school restarts. In the days leading up to it, some students will go to the gates of other schools and hand out leaflets for their own bunkasai, in a cheeky bit of competition. 

My Bunkasai haul from a previous year, minus all the food... errp!

The Friday before, lessons stop at lunch time, with the afternoon set aside for preparation.  On that day, students transform their classrooms into funfair attractions. They draw pictures on the chalkboards, make posters, tinsel, and whatever they need for their games. I love walking round and speaking to people. It's great to see what everyone is up to, find out their games, and see who wants me to visit. Then when I go, I usually spend a fair few coin on each of the events, but I do come away with a bag of random goodies.

So, does it look like fun? What stall would you hold for this festival?

Import Shop

If you can't see the video, please go here: http://youtu.be/BqPjVhszfNo 

When you've been in Japan for a while, or if you spend a lot of time cooking, you may find yourself craving some of the ingredients from back home, some of those things that Japan just doesn't have. You'll be very surprised at a Japanese person's reaction to beans on toast, for example. Don't despair at the differences though. There is an answer, and no, it's not smuggling canned goods back into the country or having your mum post you suspicious looking packages of baking flour. Go to the import shop!

The import shop is not a building that has been carried over from another country 'Up' stylee. No, it is in fact, a shop that is full of imports, much like a paper factory isn't made of paper either. Crazy, I know.

Inside, you can find allsorts of things. A lot of them will be from your home country, but most of them will be from other countries because, as much as it may shock Americans especially to hear this, there are other countries out there. Did you think you had just wandered into Chinatown or something? Take a look at our video above to see exactly what one import shop in Sendai has for sale, but rest assured that if you want something, you can probably find it there.

It's actually a very good place for cross cultural communication. For example, when I was growing up I loved Pez. However, they stopped selling them in the UK long ago and so I wasn't able to get any for quite a while (though I did have some willing American friends who sent me a few). Now, in Japan, I can go to the import shop and get plenty of Pez, though they are usually Disney, Hello Kitty or Thomas the Tank Engine for some reason. I'm still searching for that monkey pez. Hint, super strong hint. So it allows us to get items from other countries. Great for lovers of real Indian curry, mexican food and gravy!

There are two main import chain stores in Japan. The first is Jupiter, shown in the video. They have a lot of snacks, sweets and cooking ingredients. The other chain is Kaldei Coffee, which, wouldn't you know it, have a large selection of coffee. They also do gift wrapped selections for special holidays and events, and you can have a free cup of coffee to drink as you wander around the store. I often wander around just to get the free coffee, and I don't even like coffee!

So, don't worry too much. If you are craving something in Japan, you can get it from the right place, but it might be a little more expensive. Don't buy regular Japanese stuff here!  I also still recommend that you bring as much toothpaste and deodorant from home as you can. Those are terribly weak in Japan.

The Hundred Yen Store

If you can't see the video above, please go here: http://youtu.be/2yGp9hsp-ac

What can I say about this blog entry that hasn't already been said? Well, pretty much everything, because I haven't said anything yet. All I need to say is very short though. If you come to Japan and there is something you need to buy, go to the hundred yen store. I'm not even going to ask you what it is you want. Just go.

The hundred yen store, as you can see in the video, has pretty much everything. Okay, they have been short of nuclear powered time-travelling robot maids suspiciously often, but you will not believe the range of goods this shop sells. Everything from snacks and ready meals, to party hats and money tins, from garden hoes  and pet collars, to stationary and kitchen cleaners, it's there.

Now you might think that not every hundred yen store is as big as the one we explore in the video, and you would be right, but don't worry because even the smallest store has an amazing variety of goodies. In terms of storage, it's as close as we'll get to Doraemon's 4th dimensional pocket for at least a century. 

You might also be thinking that all the bargain store goods are cheap rubbish. Fear not. Although there is undoubtedly better quality goods from a brand store or specialist, the quality of these items is well beyond what a layman might need. It is also well beyond the (frankly speaking) shitty bargain stores in the west.

As such, the hundred yen store is the perfect place to go when you first move to Japan. It will have everything you need to furnish your home at a reasonable price and will save you a lot of time, energy and money. Of course, if you stay in Japan and explore your city, you will find better specialised stores with their own bargains and advantages, but until you have that time, 100 yen store it is! I visited there almost every day when I first came here and I still go there often when there is a little household knick knack I need or a cheap prize for students.

Have you ever been to a 100 yen store? What's the strangest thing you saw there?

Japanese style bars / pubs: Izakaya

If you can't see the video, go here: http://youtu.be/pe0EMLeYH1I

This topic wasn't on our schedule, but we found ourselves in an Izakaya on a quiet night and Nat said "Hey, we could make a video now". So we did. And there was much rejoicing. 

So what is an Izakaya? In short, it's the main, traditional watering holes in Japan. This country has a lot of bars and I'd be more surprised than an aeroplane pilot who finds a bunny in his headlights if you can go to a Japanese city and not find a British themed or styled pub. You might even find one that's a major gaijin (foreigner) hangout and make some new friends... or run from new enemies. You know, whatever your social circle. So, yes, Japanese folk can drink like the rest of us... well, at least they have the opportunity. However, it is a borrowed Western idea, just like McDonald's (except beer actually improves your health), just like baseball, just like some other cool similie I can't think of right now. Don't judge me! 

Izakaya are the true Japanese style establishments that primarily exist to ply the customers with alcohol just as long as they ply the owners with money. So, in it's basic principal it is also the same. However, there are many differences. So here they are in handy list format:

• Greetings and shoes: Don't be surprised if the waitresses bow and greet you at the door and then ask you to take off your shoes. If they don't take your shoes at the door then they will probably ask you to when you enter the private room.

• Private rooms: You can sit at a counter in some places (it is cheaper) and you can sit at an open table if you like, just like a regular restaurant, but Izakaya also have private areas marked out by sliding doors and in here you are in your own little drinking world. Have a look at our video to see how it works. The awesome thing is the staff can move the walls and doors around to make different sized rooms based on requirements. Confuses the hell out of drunk foreigners.

• Food: At most, in the west, we would scoff some crisps, nuts or mini-pizzas (in those posh gaffs), but Izakaya are very close to being restaurants. They offer a full menu and often a huge variety. Though some may specialize in certain types of food. You'll have to shop around to find one with a menu you like, but be adventurous. There are some strange but fantastic foods. I swear once I picked stuff at random and I got fresh baby squid on ice. Of course they have normal food too. Also, because Japanese think it is bad to drink on an empty stomach, you will be forced to accept a small dish of snacks on your arrival, along with your towel. This is not free! But you can't refuse it either. Otherwise ninjas jump out of the walls and take you away.... no one knows what happens next.... 

• Drinks: They have all the usual and all the types of Japanese drinks such as sake (rice wine), shochu (potato or rice spirit), umeshu (plum wine). 

• Towel: Wipe your hands! Wipe them!

• Cute slave: The waitress is at the mercy of you and your magic summoning button all night. Use it wisely, and be nice to the girl. She has to put up with a lot.

• Sharing: The western man's drink time snack is his treasure, take it without permission and be at the wrath of his insatiable drunken cravings. However, in an Izakaya, the idea is to share. Some dishes will be very small and compliment one another. Others, like the chips (french fries - see the video) will be very large and meant to be shared. The idea is that people order bits of whatever they like and then you sample a different set of whatever you like on the table, while you are chatting, singing, dancing and insulting a fellow gaijin's home country and choice in women. Or something. 

So now I have tempted you, how do you find them? Well, like I said, they are everywhere. If you can find any building with bars and restaurants in it, there will be an Izakaya but it can be hard to tell exactly which is which. You could keep an eye out for the kanji that says Izakaya (居酒屋).

The easiest way however, is to let someone show you. Around any meal time that isn't breakfast, but especially at night, there will be plenty of people in Izakaya uniform (or super thick winter coats, if it is winter) carrying a menu. As you walk near them they will shove the menu in your path and spout a sales pitch. That's your cue! Nod enthusiastically! Speak to them if you can. They work for the Izakaya and they will take you to their restaurant. If you want a certain something or you see something on their menu, tell the worker and they will likely call it down to the Izakaya on a secret radio and warn the others you are coming. They will probably show you to an elevator if it isn't on the ground floor, and then you can laugh as the same person sees you off and then runs all the way up (or down) the steps to greet you when you get off the elevator and show you inside. They do that sometimes. It depends how many workers there are. Feel free to discuss deals and special offers with these people. It is their job to entice people inside, and that is often why they will be girls. 

There is another type of person who wanders the street at night, looking for customers, and that is not an Izakaya worker, but karaoke. You can usually tell them apart as the karaoke name will be branded on their clothing. 

So that's it! Take some friends, have a party, enjoy your Izakaya!

Have you ever been to one? What was the strangest or most amazing food you ate there?

The Differences between Japanese and Western Homes

If you can't see the video, go here: http://youtu.be/qWHaenUe1Vs

So, let's imagine you've just arrived in Japan, maybe to work as a teacher or for some other company, or maybe you've been lucky enough to be handed a Japanese apartment to live in for a totally different reason. No, I'm not suggesting you are accomplice to certain illegal murder/aaprtment squatting tactics.... because how the hell would you get in this country? Ok, so reasons aside, you have an aprtment in Japan. Your company has driven you to the door, shown you how the lock on the front door works (because you are foreign, maybe you don't have keys in your country) but then they have dumped you inside and left you to your own devices. This is it. Your life in Japan starts now. This is a very real situation and one I experienced myself. Though my boss was kind enough to set up my internet, but then his company tried to rape me of 20% of my wages. Evil!

You might be a bit confused. Yes, I used the word 'rape' in entirely the wrong context but just go with it. You might also be confused about some of the things in your apartment. It looks similar....but strange somehow. Let us help you.

Entrance!

• Genkan: or 'entrance' as it is known in less crazy countries. Looks like concrete and is the only place you can wear outside shoes. So take them off here. Might have a cupboard for shoes.
  

Kitchen!

• Mini-boiler: floats mysteriously over your kitchen sink and provides undrinkable torrent of adjustably hot water through a bendy tap. Cold, drinkable water comes from a tap, but I'd recommend a tap fitting water filter anyway. Good for cleaning pots and washing hair.

• NO oven! Japanese just don't roast and bake very much! They make toast and the occasional batch of cookies. On the bright side, no hulking monstrosity taking up lots of room in your tiny kitchen.

• NO flat surface for cutting and preparing vegetables ever! Even if you buy one it will disappear! A folding table to fit into the space beside the washing machine is good though, if you cna avoid losing it.
  
  

  
  

  

  This is my house

  
  

Bathroom(s)

• Toilet: It might sing, it might dance (and open the lid for you), it might spray your bum, but highly unlikely unless you are working for a rich company. Probably it will be normal, but asian ones are just troughs that you squat over. Gives users strong legs and humility. Has psycologically sickening unusable tap on top and two options for flushing; 大　big and 小 small. Also, should have special shoes for this room only unless you like guests laughing at you.

• Bath: thin and tall, no leg room, has a pathetic shower on the side that dribbles hot water and gushes ice cold water like you might actually want it (which you don't in winter); clean yourself sat under the shower on a plastic stool, then soak in the steaming bath

• No bathroom sink: except that atrocious one on top of the toilet with no hot water. Get used to cleaning teeth and washing in the kitchen sink!

• No heating: ever!
  
  

  

  Totally floating in my own living room. Mirror's Edge y'all

Living Room!

• Tatami: Hard, cold, expensive and difficult to replace floor covering that only seems to exist to make measuring rooms easier (1 tatami, 2 tatami... 8 tatami room, etc.). Take care of it by padding any furnitures' bases or buying a rug! Nice for pets in summer, but give me a hard wood floor any day.

• Sliding doors: everywhere! Fun and space saving. Don't pull too hard or your entire wall might come down. Can be rearranged easily.

• Paper doors: looks very asian but not practical in any way at all ever. Make your apartment look messy until you replace them only to break them again the next day. Like Internet Explorer these shoudl be replaced as soon as you realise you have them.

• Paper walls (practically): neighbours hear everything you do, you hear everything they do... everything! Plan accordingly, keep music and TV down, buy headphones. Useless for heavy pictures.

• Cupboards: look exactly like doors to other rooms. Be careful, it might go to the neighbour's place.

• Skirting board: massive gap behind it, great for holding up pictures, photos and greetings cards.

• Ceilings and door frames: very very low. Tall people, beware!

This blog is not meant to be any kind of guide to getting an apartment asshat could easily make up four or five blogs on its own. No, this is merely to orientate you on moving in, and I have deliberately kept it brief because there is no point repeating what is in the video. If I wrote about these topics it would be too long for you too read. I know because I wrote it and then I deleted it.

I'm sure we'll cover buying and renting property on another day. All I shall say for now is to try and look after your apartment if you want to get any of your security deposit back. In some places they will always take a chunk of it for cleaning - even if you are meticulous - because its tradition, and to question tradition is to question our existence, and if we question our existence we might find out we have no reason to exist, and in knowing we have no reason to exist, we might cease to exist, and then there would be no more chocolate covered potato chips so the non-existent world would mourn. So just accept it and look after your place to get back as much money as you possibly can.

We'll see you next time with another episode, possibly outside. I don't know yet. Depends on if it stops snowing. In the meantime, all comments or questions are welcome, including any suggestions of what topics to cover? What do you think the newbie to Japan ought to know?

How to Stay Warm in Japan's Winter: Kotatsu!

If you can't see the video, please go here: http://youtu.be/DW1mtWCF3zQ

We got our first noticable snowfall of the winter today. It has been a lot lighter this year. That's not to say it hasn't been cold this year because ooooooh boy! Even my brass monkeys think that it's brass monkeys here! That's why we decided to finally buy a kotatsu.

Now, "what is a kotatsu?" you may well ask. If you're familiar with Japan at all you probably know already. Even if you aren't you have probably seen them in anime or dramas. In short, a kotatsu is a heated Japanese table, but it is so much more than that; it's dreams, it's heaven, it's a sound night's sleep and a way to avoid frostbite.

I'll warn you now, whether you have already arrived in Japan or you are planning on coming here and living in the future, Japanese houses are rubbish for insulation. Absolutely rubbish. If houses were light party snacks, Japanese houses would be swiss cheese.... in the arctic. For serious. Let's say you are in a Japanese house and it's cold, so you decide to put the air conditioner on. Then after a while it gets toasty, so you turn it off again. If you do that your house will be arctic cold again in under half an hour. I am not exaggerating. So the Japanese have many useful devices for keeping warm. The kotatsu is one of them.

You can get many different types, just like you can any table. You could buy a coffee table kotatsu, or a study desk kotatsu, or a dining table kotatsu, the key element that makes it different is...well, the element! The heating element. Under the table top there will be some form of heating device. Cheaper kotatsus will have large clunky heaters that glow red and you will always bang your knee on the guard casing, where as the most expensive ones will have a super-thin, flat heating pad that spans the table underside from end to end. The middle of the range will be a nice compact heater that should keep you warm without too much trouble. We got the latter.

Now, "won't all this lovely heat escape?" you may also ask. After my fearful introduction I can see why you might be concerned, but worry not because kotatsu come with (or require on separate purchase) a futon (thick blanket) that forms a curtain around the table edge and keeps the heat inside. All you need do is insert your cold little legs into the warm space and experience what chocolate feels like on the tongue of a hot girl in an expensive sweet commercial. You can also buy special padded seats for sitting at the shorter kotatsu, or any seat of your choice will do. If you are worried that while your legs are warm the rest of you is cold, don't, because that warmth spreads up your body and makes you feel like you are in a dry, hot bath.

There is one more difference in your choice of price range. Cheaper kotasu will have an on/off switch, but others have a control panel attached to the electric cable. This will allow you to moderate the degree of heat required and more expensive models are fit with a timer. That allows you to safely fall asleep and not dehydrate or have your legs spontaneously combust, because there in lies the problem with the kotatsu. It's so lovely and comfortable that people fall asleep and doze, so work doesn't get done and people don't want to move at all.

I've also encountered the problem that sitting at the kotatsu for a long period of time gives me a bad back, but maybe I just need better seating.

You can get kotatsu from many home stores and even online at Amazon if you wish (we are in no way endorsed by Amazon). Many deliver for free and require little assembly. Though please watch our video to find out how I manage to muck up putting ours together even though it has only 6 screws and 6 separate parts.

In our next blog we'll be taking a more general look at the differences you'll first notice in Japanese homes, so stick around. In the meantime, if you have any comments or there is any topic you want us to cover, please leave a comment below. Don't forget to subscribe for future episodes!

Christmas Eve, a Day For Lovers in Japan

If you can't see the video, go here: http://youtu.be/JVFQ5ckYrSY

It's still Christmas! And there is still plenty to talk about this holiday season in Japan. Christmas Eve, for example, could hardly be any more different.

Most people hate Christmas Eve right? Either you are an adult and its the day when you have to rush around doing last minute jobs like shopping for that awkward uncle, cooking cakes, and meeting long lost relatives at the train station or you are a child and you desperately want time to go faster so Santa can hurry up and bring you everything your little heart desires.

Well, in Japan, Christmas Eve is the big holiday. On Christmas Day itself they do nothing. Little kids get presents from Santa, but that's it. No big deal is made really, and it's honestly quite depressing to go out on Christmas Day to find that everything is open as normal and the streets are busy with people. I really miss the quiet, private mystery of the world on Christmas Day, knowing that everyone else is inside their homes, spending time with family.

So what happens on Christmas Eve to make it so different? It's a day for lovers. In fact. It's a better Valentine's Day than Valentine's Day, mainly because that holiday is downgraded to a cringeworthy tribute to how shy the Japanese male is, but more on that in February. On Christmas Eve, couples spend the day together. They might have a lunch, and go on a date during the day, maybe play games or take photos together if they are teenagers, or mature couples will book a meal in a restaurant and be more romantic. They exchange gifts and you might even see some hand holding. That's quite a big deal here.

The only requisite is that couples should eat chicken on this day. I don't know why. Perhaps it comes from the western tradition of eating turkey and it got confused in translation a little, but that's how it is. So forget going to KFC on that day. The queues are massive!

The thing is if you go outside on December 24th in Japan you will see couples everywhere. Everywhere! More than tribbles! More than hairs on a piece of sucked candy dropped on the floor of a pet salon. So it's a terrible day for those trying to escape reminders of a lost love or those who are alone. I've had students complain to me how much they hate it because they are always alone and they dread Christmas. It's quite sad really.

After the day, things calm down, children get a few presents from Santa and maybe some families go out for a meal, but it really is a normal day. In fact, I know that some high school students (and possibly others) go to school on Christmas Day! They will never know that special feeling of Christmas. I didn't have that this year, but we did have a great Christmas, we opened nice presents, had an all-you-can-eat lunch, watched a genius taiko drummer that drew a huge crowd, sang karaoke, and met Darth Vader. You really can't top that. Go Japan!