10% off!

Interesting–we just had a few small quakes here in Tokyo. One was very weak, just barely felt it. The other came as much as a minute or two later, and might even have been the same quake–but it was stronger and had more of an up-and-down motion to it. All I get on the quake sites is a 4.2 just off of Ogasawara Island, about 1000 km away. That doesn’t seem strong enough to account for what I felt here. But it seems that that’s the one.

Update: I thought so. The revised report says it was a 7.4 on the Richter scale, and now there’s a tsunami warning for the southern coast of Japan. The quake was felt as far north as Hokkaido.

Sachi and I are again on the lookout for a home. We started looking about a year ago, but ran into the problem of my not having Permanent Residency, thus kiboshing the house loan. I got my PR a few months back, but my busy schedule precluded gearing up for a search again. Now that the December break is here, we’ve started again. Previously we went down to Kanagawa to search on the Toyoko Line between Musashi-kosugi and Kikuna; this time we’re focusing on the area near Hibarigaoka, where we are currently staying.

Both times, we more or less randomly chose a realtor; without a specific recommendation, it’s a crap shoot anyway. The last time we found someone in Kosugi, and either there just weren’t many homes available in the area, or the realtor wasn’t very good. He showed us something like 3, maybe 4 houses per visit, and most were not very good at all.

The guy we found in Hibarigaoka is certainly putting a bit more effort into it–today we saw about a dozen properties, with some interesting prospects, spending about five hours running around the area. And unlike the Kosugi realtor, this guy didn’t waste our time with obvious dogs, like that house behind the railroad tracks. One or two were certainly questionable, but all had some potential merit.

Naturally, there is quite a bit of leeway in making the choice–very similar to finding an apartment, but some new wrinkles added in. We would like a new home, of course, but that always carries a premium. Closeness to a good train station and shopping is important. A quiet neighborhood is also very preferable. Our personal preference is for a room downstairs Sachi can use for her reflexology and aromatherapy work; to have a big enough LDK (living-dining-kitchen), at least 13-14 “jo” (tatami mats), a bedroom that hopefully is 7 mats or better, and one or two extra rooms–small is OK–for private work rooms for myself, and then another for Sachi if there’s on to spare (she would have the work room downstairs as well). It doesn’t matter to us if the LDK is on the 1st or 2nd floor. More important is getting sunshine and having enough closet and/or storage space. Space for a garden or even just a bit of leg room outside is a nice plus, but not necessary for us. And of course you have to consider whether that parking lot next door will become a construction site, with a building going up that will cut off your light and box your house in.

Of all the places, we were able to rule 3 or 4 right out. We saw two places near Higashi-kurume Station, which is just beyond our preferred zone; one was too small and strangely shaped, the other too far out. One was inside our zone and just barely within our walking-from-the-station comfort distance, but it was too far from any shops and high-tension power lines loomed too close for our comfort. One place we went to only because we were in the area, but we knew it was out before we even saw it. It was on a narrow road with no sidewalks, but tons of traffic, including frequent buses. The place was not only noisy, it frequently vibrated due to trucks roaring by outside. Pass.

Some were possible, but missed at least one key point, like a workroom for Sachi, or a big enough LDK. Most in this category simply didn’t interest us so much.

Of the original prospects, five remained as potential keepers, but none were particular standouts. One was an empty property, but less than 5 minute’s walk from Hibarigaoka. The land space is good–about 100m²–but zoning laws require that we use no more than 40% of the land area for the building, which in Japan is pretty restrictive, lots being as small as they are. Unless we built a 3-story home, we’d be restricted to no more than 80m² for the whole house–barely enough for us. The good point is the location–convenient to everything–and the fact that we can design our own house. One bad point is that it is down the street from a railroad crossing, which has a warning bell clanging almost constantly (trains come every few minutes most places in Tokyo). It also means more traffic than usual for the small and narrow street. The crossing is about 90m away. Sachi feels that it would not be so loud inside the house–but we couldn’t know for sure until we bought the land, built a house, and went inside.

Another place, not too much farther out in the same neighborhood, is the very first place we saw. It’s about 12 minutes from the station, just a minute’s walk from a small shopping area with a good supermarket. The LDK is a tad too small, though acceptable. The LD part of it has a high ceiling with large windows high up to catch the light–almost too bright! The house is 2 stories, but there’s a small roof balcony–more attractive in summer, for certain. The front of the house has enough room to park a car sideways (we won’t have one, but Sachi’s customers might) and still leaves space for a bench or chairs or whatever, if we wanted to relax in front of the place. It’s almost perfect–but off just enough to make us hesitate. One other point is the cost–it’s a few tens of thousands of dollars beyond our hoped-for price.

Another place was the only used property we saw. The location is very good–less than 10 minutes to several nice shopping areas, including two major department stores and a good-sized and reasonably-priced supermarket. It has two very large rooms upstairs–almost too large–and a fairly spacious downstairs as well. The price is a few tens of thousands of dollars below our limit, and we could possibly even talk it down a bit more. The problem? It’s used. It smells moldy. Does that mold smell even ever come out? I’ve seen places that are renovated (“reformed,” as they say in Japan) and later re-acquire the mold smell. Also, the design is quirky; for example, in the LD area, there’s a raised three-mat tatami dais, which would be perfect if we were to put on puppet shows or something–but for us, it’s superfluous. Plus, there’s a post almost right in the middle of the room. I would hope it’s superfluous and not load-bearing, but if it’s superfluous, I can’t begin to guess why it’s there. If we got the place, there would definitely be quite a bit of remodeling done. I don’t know if remodeling usually entails new flooring and replacing every glass door and window with double-paned glass, but if that’s in the usual budget–and if that mold smell can be banished–the place would be great.

The two remaining places were in the next town over. Both were places pretty distant from shopping, not exactly convenient for anything. But the houses were both cheap and either were spacious or felt that way, in ways just about perfect for us. Had one of them been in a location we saw the previous three in, we probably would have gone for one of them. Both were very nicely made, the rooms were all just about right, and one of them–one I really liked–was in a very, very quiet area. But that one was also inconvenient for Sachi–distant supermarket, for one, and maybe hard to find for her customers for another.

It’s not as if we expected to find the perfect place in the first week or anything. We still have to try to get life insurance, which apparently is kind of a precursor for a loan, and then we have to get the loan approved. Heck, if we run into roadblocks with the loan, the whole idea might go down the drain.

But it’s a start.

The Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces have been known in the past to be somewhat, erm, unconventional in their public outreach efforts, such as the infamous dancing-sailors “Seaman Ship” commercial. This time, they’ve come up with an iPhone app to teach you the correct Naval salute, using the phone to test angle, speed, etc. Also, they have this cute video with comic overtones to show how to do it. Nicely done.

“Off” is perhaps one of the most intentionally abused prepositions in Japanese English. “Big Off,” “Off Sale,” “Hard Off,” etc. Here’s another one:

An interesting question to print on a trash can:

Then throw it away.

Just wanted to know if anyone reading this has tried WiMAX in Tokyo, knows how to deal with UQ, and can give advice. I am thinking of switching to the service, but their plans are, erm, rather “detailed.” Looks like with a one-year subscription you can get a good rate (¥3,880 per month), but cannot make out the technical details associated with it. They also have a “multiple devices” option, which I would need if Sachi uses the Internet at home while I use it away, but I can’t discern if by “device” they mean a device which changes the WiMAX signal to WiFi, or if they mean a device which gets on the WiFi network created by that device. Huge difference–we have half a dozen computers and mobile devices we would use with WiFi. There’s also a trial you can do for free–as you can imagine, with all these, there are so many details, dealing with just a web form is less than ideal.

I created a special temporary email address, shown in the image below (sorry, even temp addresses get scammed almost immediately); if you have any info, I’d very much appreciate it if you could let me know. Alternately, you could leave information in the comments. Naturally, when and if I get the service myself, I’ll be blogging on the experience.

Thanks!

There was a smallish quake a few minutes ago; the initial reading has it as a 4.2 on the Richter scale, and put the epicenter a few miles northeast of Chiba City. We felt it here as a short but solid jolt.

I had my first social-insurance health check in a long time yesterday. In Japan, you have two basic types of public health insurance: first, there’s shakai hoken, which you qualify for if you work more than 30 hours a week, and your employer pays into it along with a pension plan. Then there’s kokumin hoken, which you usually get if you don’t qualify for the first type, and which you have to pay for yourself and has no pension component. For years I’ve been on the latter type, but due to a local redefinition of work done outside the classroom and office, I’ve gotten onto the shakai hoken plan.

One of the fringe benefits of the plan is that the employer also spring for a yearly health check, where you go in and have a battery of tests carried out. I had this check-up years back–I don’t even remember when–but it was not quite as involved as it was this time, as they seem to have added a few new tests. Since it’s standard nationwide, large numbers of people are doing it all the time. So when you go in to have it done, it’s not like you’re doing it alone. When I went in for mine yesterday, I was with the afternoon group–about a hundred or more people. And that’s just the men’s floor.

When you come in, they take the forms you filled out, along with a sample you had to collect at home (ahem, you probably know what unpleasantness I’m talking about), and ask you to take a seat. Then they call you up to the desk and give you a number. You go in to the locker room, strip to your skivvies and change into two-piece jammies with the shirt being a tie-off. You then go back to the main room and sit in the seat with your number on it (I was #23), and wait for the tests to begin. They take urine and blood samples, measure your height and weight, take your blood pressure, give you a chest X-ray, an EKG, vision and hearing tests, and the thing where the doctor listens to your heart and breathing and asks to see your tongue. Between tests, you sit back in your chair, reading the usual waiting room magazine fare–unless you brought your own materials. I seemed to be the only one there who did that–I had my iPad, which was quite nice.

After all those standard tests, there’s one more they seem to throw in for fun: they put you on a motor-controlled X-ray platform starting at a 90-degree angle, so you begin standing up. They then give you a packet of seltzer which you you have to gulp down with what had to be a quarter-teaspoon of water, and then–without burping up any of the air that starts to build up in your stomach–you have to gulp down a large cup of gloopy white barium solution, which at least did not taste terrible, but nonetheless was hard to get down with your stomach bursting with gas. If you belch out any of the gas before the test is done, they make you drink more of the stuff.

But that’s just for starters. Once you have this explosive combination in your stomach, they then start rotating the platform, while demanding that you constantly roll over, again and again, in that small, restricted space, while they call for you to stop at various angles so they can take X-rays before telling you to roll over yet again. For giggles, they roll the platform at all angles, including one where you’re angling down head-first and it’s impossible to hang on without sliding [note to health center: friction pads on the handles would be nice], but they keep taking X-rays until you do. Then just to be thorough, a mechanical arm with a large pad on the end is extended to press down hard on your stomach–and you still better not belch out the gas.

One hopes this is some vital test, because if it’s not, then no way it’s worth it. At some point I gotta find out exactly what that was for. When I got off the stand, I asked the technician, “So am I ready for the Space Program?” He didn’t seem to get it. I then belched, long and loud.

Even that wasn’t the end of it. Despite giving no warning whatsoever in the pre-check materials, they then give you laxatives, so the radium doesn’t stay in your system. This being some time after they asked you to choose whether or not you would stick around an extra hour or two after the exams end to get a consultation with the doctor. I was glad I asked them to mail the results–though I found out that you can change your mind afterwards–because they gave no guarantees on when the laxatives would kick in.

As it happened, I chose correctly–they kicked in just as I arrived home. Had I stayed for the consultation, they easily could have kicked in while I was on the hour-long commute back. That would have been fun.

Further hilarity ensues when, after experiencing what Sachi branded as “the white craps,” you find that the barium solution is damned heavy, which results in your thanking the fact that you have a toilet brush.

Were it not for the barium thing, the check-up would be a breeze. With it, once a year seems a bit excessive.

More later, you probably have heard….

Update: OK, that was a 6.9 quake–about 500km south of us, in the Pacific Ocean off the Ogasawaras. Surprisingly, it was rated just a “3” on the Japanese scale here in Tokyo, and there is no tsunami warning as of yet.

However, here in Shinjuku, it felt pretty major. The building (we are on the 6th floor) swung as hard as I can remember any quake I have been in. It went on for quite some time, too, that and the swaying nature letting us know it was distant. But had that hit us directly, I would have expected that to be rated at least a “4” on the Japanese scale.

Sorry I was so short in the original post, I was in the middle of work….

…this is an excellent example of misleading reporting. It may be that when the total numbers are tallied after a few weeks and sales have leveled out, the Galaxy may still be outselling the iPhone. The point is, don’t jump the gun, and question whatever news stories you see.

And, right on cue, the new week’s sales rankings for smartphones in Japan are out–and the 16GB iPhone is now #1. The 32 GB iPhone is now #2.

The Galaxy S? Dropped to #5.

Like I said, jumping the gun with partial figures out of the full context is, to say the least, not a safe or accurate thing to do.

Again–as with the previous posting–I am not making any statement about the superiority or quality of either phone. I’m just saying, question stories that you see in the news. They’re not always accurate.

Update / Side Note: Samsung released the 7-inch Galaxy Tab along with the Galaxy S. The Tab was supposed to be the first serious tablet rival to the iPad, despite charging $600 for a 7“ tablet relative to Apple’s $630 for a 10” tablet. And it’s getting kinda panned in the press. The best reviews say it’s likable but still has “a ways to go,” while the less-generous reviews call it “unfit for humans.”

There’s always the next time.

The big story in Japan’s smartphone world this week: the brand-new Android-driven Galaxy-S phone outsold the iPhone! The news is being trumpeted all over the place, especially on Android sites. The problem: it’s not true, or at it’s very best, it’s highly misleading.

It’s kind of like the story that you see pop up from time to time about how the Sony Walkman outsells the iPod–but then you read more carefully and see that it’s only an aberration caused by a refresh in the iPod line, which is marked by both depletion of iPod stock and customers holding off on buying an iPod until the new model is released. At which time the Walkman fades back into its normal spot.

The Galaxy S is currently being marketed extremely heavily in Japan. You see the ads everywhere, the ones with Darth Vader and Imperial Stormtroopers hawking the device. I can’t say how many times I’ve seen the commercial, which heavily advertises the ability to play Flash video (not only becoming less meaningful as so many sites transition to H264, but also a battery-drainer), and the touchscreen with pinch-and-zoom capabilities (wow, that’s new).

So one would expect that it sells well initially, but even that doesn’t propel it above the iPhone, primarily because the iPhone, in the rankings being referred to, is divided into two “products” by capacity (16 GB version and 32 GB version), whereas the Galaxy is rated as a single product. As the Chosun Ilbo points out, the two iPhones taken as a single product outrank the Galaxy S–despite the fact that the iPhone 4 has been out for 18 weeks (during which time it has occupied to top two spots on the chart) and the Galaxy S is experiencing debut-week numbers.

Not that it’s any big deal, but this is an excellent example of misleading reporting. It may be that when the total numbers are tallied after a few weeks and sales have leveled out, the Galaxy may still be outselling the iPhone. The point is, don’t jump the gun, and question whatever news stories you see.

A few minutes ago, a 4.5 or 4.7 magnitude quake hit about 45 km. north-north-east of us here in Nishi-Tokyo. It was fairly strong here and rolled for about a half minute. The epicenter was just north of Saitama in Ibaraki.

A quake measuring maybe 4.2 on the Richter scale just hit about 50 km northeast of us here in Nishi-Tokyo. Could feel it fairly well, a long, rolling quake. Looks like it was located about 15-20 km northwest of Tsukuba, in Ibaraki prefecture.

My very first day in Japan, some 27 years ago, I saw one of these machines on the street and stood there for a few minutes, staring at it and trying to figure out what the heck it was selling. I can only guss what Japanese people walking by must have thought of this foreign guy on the street staring intently at a condom vending machine. Of course, at that time, my Japanese wasn’t as good, and there was no English on the machine or the packaging to help me out.

Just a few minutes’ walk in a westerly direction from the south exit of Hibarigaoka, you can find what appears to be a small pocket of very, very well-off people. Kind of like a mini-Atherton, to those of you familiar with the south SF Bay Area. You get your first hint when you see the uncharacteristic (for Tokyo) heavy tree cover.

Then you start seeing the very nice houses, for Japan:

Many of them have a surplus of space–actually, a bit cramped by American standards, but a gate and parking space like this, in Tokyo, is absolutely a status sign:

And another interesting sign of status: American mail boxes. We saw quite a few in this area, though they are pretty rare in Japan.

I can’t even begin to guess what some of these plots–maybe as much as 1/4-acre–might be worth. But I am guessing it is a lot.

Who wouldn’t want a peek inside of Mel’s Brain?

Of course, a closer cropping might give a hint:

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Yesterday, Sachi and I took a few hours off to walk down to the local Matsuri. These happen pretty often in Japan, sometimes sponsored by the city, but usually taking place at a neighborhood shrine. This one was at Tanashi Jinja:

There was the central shrine area, where people came to pray:

Quite a few young parents came to bless their newborn children:

There was even what looked to be a Sumo ring around the side, though I think it was used more for traditional music and dancing, which we missed out on:

These are “Ema,” wooden tokens marking the prayers of shrine-goers:

Now, on one side of the matsuri, there was the traditional…

…And on the other side, just as traditional… and for many, the real reason to go:

Vendor stalls!!

Right in the gate, Sachi found some dried plums and tomatoes she couldn’t resist–and you can tell from the vendor’s face that he knows he’s got a sale.

Samples of grilled mushroom and garlic, anyone?

And what says “traditional Japanese festival” better than candied apples? Okay, maybe not–but I have been seeing these more and more.

With the tree-lined setting, it was actually quite nice, kind of a faux-touristy taste of an Edo Japan market street.

Potatoes on sale, with vats of butter at your disposal–help yourself! And add some more salt if you feel like it.

Step right up, three darts for three dollars, hit the target and get some Lilo and Stitch crap!

We’re having fun!

And who wouldn’t have fun, what with this traditional–and now, it is traditional in Japan–treat of candy-coated bananas:

Also with sprinkles!

Fried chicken in a cup…

…and pork (theoretically) on a stick! Sachi lives for the Frankfurters.

Of course, no matsuri would be complete without Takoyaki, grilled octopus in a veggie batter.

These are also common, Ooban-yaki cakes–bean paste and custard grilled fresh:

Too much fun for some…

Here’s another matsuri staple: Kingyo sukui, fishing for Goldfish. You always know there’s a local festival when you see a family coming home, the parents guarding the packaged cotton candy while the kids grasp plastic baggies with their new pets.

Sachi just loves the Takuan tsukemono, yellow pickled radish. I can’t stand the smell myself, but I have cinnamon incense for that purpose.

After the chicken and the franks, we got some pretty good yakitori, including a stick of buta bara (pork ribs), seen here in after-and-before stages.

And, we call it a day.

Went to CEATEC today. Lots of cool stuff. Heard one piece of news that may make me change over: WiMAX, already tempting as an Internet-everywhere solution for $50/mo. for (theoretically) 40 Mbps, will be converting to WiMAX version 2 in 2012. The speed of the new wide-coverage wireless Internet? 330 Mbps. Yep–three times faster than current fiber-optic speeds offered in Japan. (Again, theoretically.) And it’ll work when you’re at high speed, like when the bullet train you’re on is going faster than 300 km/hr.

The portable, battery-powered WiFi converters (which take the WiMAX signal and translate it into WiFi emanating from your backpack or pocket) also are available, meaning you can have a mobile WiFi signal with you all the time (that you’re not underground) for your laptop, iPad, and even the iPhone if you want to keep the data plan charges to a minimum.

More on this later.

I have long held that in Japan, you can stop almost anywhere on any street and spot at least half a dozen cigarette butts in various stages of decomposition. While Japan is a relatively clean country, and although smoking rates have fallen in recent years, cigarette butts remain the #1 litter problem in the country.

I remember back in the 80’s seeing a Japanese letter-to-the-editor translated and published in the English paper, in which an older Japanese woman complained about people eating while walking in the streets, the main criticism being that such behavior prompted littering. At the time, I thought that while this could be true, I didn’t (and still don’t) see many people in Japan eating while walking–but you saw (and still see) people smoking and walking all the time, and using the street as an ash tray–rather liberally, I might add. It’s not just butts, either. I have seen, more than once, a smoker crumpling up and tossing on the ground an empty cigarette pack as he walked up to a vending machine to buy a new pack, even though the machine had a built-in trash receptacle.

I was reminded of that this morning when walking to the train station. A guy in front of me slowed down suddenly and so I started to go around him–and almost got hit with a lit cigarette as the guy flicked it away, behind him and to the right, without any attempt to glance at where he was flicking. I made an annoyed sound as I passed him and he started and immediately apologized as I passed–but the thing is, that did not represent an isolated action. That’s habit. In Japan, they call it poi sute, “poi” being the onomatopoetic sound for flicking something away, and “sute” being short for throwing trash away.

Which is not to say that many smokers in Japan are not polite or considerate; many, of course, are. But the ones who are not do stand out a tad. Using the street indiscriminately as an ashtray remains a strong habit. On my way into school, prompted by the near-miss with the flicked butt, I did a few random stop-and-counts, and got the same depressing results as always. I even spotted a lit cigarette on the street, the owner no longer in sight. Whether he (or she, though maybe 2/3rds+ of Japanese smokers are men) dropped it by mistake or wastefully discarded it before it was even partly smoked I don’t know–but it makes for good art at the top of the post. I snapped the shot and then ground it out. It may have been dropped or thrown from a vehicle; despite having ashtrays, many drivers in Japan still discard to the street, something which more than annoys me when driving a scooter.

Japan is less of a “smoker’s paradise” than it was before, but still remains more than a little friendly to the nicotine-inclined. Back in the 80’s, it was horrific–I remember the 10-hour flights over the Pacific where smoking was allowed, making the “non-smoking” areas rather a poor joke, especially the seats close to the smoking area. Smoking was allowed on trains, in all offices–well, really, everywhere. Even at home it was hard to get away from it, as smoke pours from the windows and balconies of neighbors. I bought a dining room table used once, and wondered what the reek was after I got it home; it took months before the smoke smell stopped being a pain.

Even after smoking was banned on trains in Japan (though until recently and, for all I know, still today, smoking is allowed on some cars on long-distance trains), the platforms were still havens. Recently, they are much better, but even as of 5 years ago, smokers defiantly disregarded the smoking areas. I think it’s mostly better now that most platforms allow no smoking at all.

Non-smoking areas in eateries were just as bad a joke, with the border between sections more a matter of imagination than of actual segregation–but that remains mostly true even today, with most normal restaurants being smoker-friendly and “non-smoking” areas, when they are offered, still (a) not significantly separate enough to make them actually smokeless, and (b) more often than not in the bad seating areas. McDonald’s has, for a long time, relegated non-smokers to the poorer seating areas. If there are seats in the basement and on the 2nd floor, there was usually no question about the smokers getting the 2nd-floor area, with the non-smokers usually getting only half of the basement–which is to say, not really any space at all.

Beginning the change to non-smoking establishments were places like Starbucks, which completely banned smoking inside, and later some Subway sandwich chains. McDonald’s started to get a bit better more often, and now plans to ban smoking at one-third of its outlets as they are renovated over the next several years. (But only one-third, and slowly; the shops near train stations will remain smoking areas.) Some places, like Narita Airport, and even a prefecture now (Kanagawa) are beginning to impose eatery bans and other restrictions. Many busy streets in Tokyo ban smoking among pedestrians, thought the ban is still ignored and even the smoking wardens (usually pairs wearing no-smoking bibs) rarely if ever fine anyone for breaking the rules. The photos taken above, including my discarded-butt count, were on a no-smoking street.

Nobody is pretending that the paradise is no more, but the smokers here are beginning to feel the pinch more and more.