Leopalace Internet: LEO-NET

Leopalace apartments come wired with the company's own proprietary broadband Internet service, dubbed レオネット, or LEO-NET. This is, to me, is one of the apartments' biggest strengths, but it also highlights exactly how little control you have when you live in Leopalace.

Check out our AccessJ review below.

Internet Speed
Of course the first thing any Internet-nerd is going to want to know about is the connection speed. LEO-NET is broadband, and in my case fiber-optic, but some buildings may use ADSL. And remember, since it's proprietary, that means every other apartment in your building is using the same main line as you.

That said, the speeds were, in my experience, fine. I didn't dread downloading 100MB files like I did back on my terrible DSL connection in the States, but things over a couple gigs (like a Steam purchase or something) usually meant I'd be leaving the computer on overnight. Compared to other fiber-optics connections I used, it felt slow; I couldn't expect the several-megabit-per-second speeds I'd had on NTT Flets or whatever tiny regional company it was that strung cables into my university dorm room, intent on swaying me to their service with bright-minded catchphrases about their Internet being "本当にベリーファスト."

Anyway, if you're mainly concerned about things like watching Youtube, then no worries: LEO-NET buffers streaming video as soon as you hit the page.


Reliability
In my case, I could almost expect LEO-NET to be down for a few days every other month for maintenance or some problem with my building. I imagine this isn't representative of all buildings, as it turned out that there was some physical damage to the line, and some third-party company had to come out on more than one occasion to fix it. The modems are all proprietary, of course, and can't (easily) be replaced by something else you buy yourself. They aren't bad, but they don't seem to be built for continuous operation. If you leave yours on all the time (instead of turning it off each time you're done using the Internet), you may find that every few weeks computers will mysteriously stop connecting to it. Cycling the power on the modem should fix the problem.

Signing In & Compatible Devices

I had some qualms about LEO-NET, the first of which was that it requires you to sign in every time you want to use it on a freshly rebooted device. If you're turning your computer/console on after a complete shutdown, the first time you open up a browser window and try to navigate to a page a popup will trigger asking you for your LEO-NET username and password.


That username and password should have been provided to you from the realtor in your moving-in booklet. Mine was on a flimsy blue sheet of A4 paper. The username and password are both long strings of numbers. Because they are a pain to remember, I used a magic marker to scrawl mine down in big numerals on a piece of paper and hung that on the wall (so I could see it from anywhere in the room).

Regardless, nothing on the Internet is accessible until that login information has been entered. Aside from PCs (Windows, Linux, and Mac), I was also able to get a Playstation 3 to connect to LEO-NET. You have to open up the console's browser once after every boot-up to get the "popup," but after you enter your credentials there you can play online without any hitches.

As for entering the username and password each time, I think I eventually got an obscure Linux browser (Kazehakase, perhaps?) to remember the credentials and automatically log me in whenever I started that browser, but I never found a way to do the same with Firefox or Chome at the time. For the PS3, I just had to enter the username and password on the crappy on-screen keyboard each time I played.

Multiple Devices

My other major complaint with the default setup is that it only allows you to attach one device to the Internet at a time. A standard ethernet cable snakes out from behind the LEO-NET modem, and you can attach that in to one device. If your device doesn't have an Ethernet port (i.e. iPad), LEO-NET tells you that sorry, you're just S.O.L.


I never tried to hook up a wireless router to my LEO-NET modem. It may be possible, but I don't know how you'd configure your router settings. It may "just work" or it may require you to play around a bit with the internals. Either way, I assume that after you got your device connected to the modem, you'd still need to open up a browser and enter your credentials into that obnoxious HTML port popup. Devices unable to provide that login prompt may simply be unable to use the connection.

I did, however, make good use of a cheap $10, 5-port hub. With that and a small collection of short Ethernet cables, I was able to connect all my devices and have them online simultaneously. Yes, I had to enter login credentials on each of them every time I powered them on.


Ready to Go

Perhaps the biggest strength of LEO-NET is that it's already wired into your room and ready to go, even before you move in. At other apartments, you have to contact a provider, make sure they have main lines installed at your building, then schedule a day for them to come and run a smaller line up to your actual apartment. During peak moving times, the installers can be booked at all times of day for 3 or 4 weeks. That can mean a sizable gap between moving in and using the Internet. And if you insist on a Saturday installation (because, you know, you have a job), you may be stuck waiting for a month or two before they can come hook your apartment up. This is pretty obnoxious around moving time, when you might want Internet access at home to communicate with family, employers, or to shop online for furniture and stuff for your new place, and I think this is especially pertinent when you're moving into a new place abroad. LEO-NET preemptively knocks that problem out of the way for you.


I hope you enjoyed our series on Leopalace apartments or found it useful in your own preparations to move to Japan. If you have any more comments on your experiences using LEO-NET, or if you have any questions about it, let us know!

Leopalace Furnishings and Bathrooms

They advertise it like this.

Recently we've been looking at the ubiquitous pay-by-the-month Leopalace apartments of Japan. ALTs are often placed in these buildings, because their managing company (that is, the apartments' managing company) plays down a few rules of traditional Japanese real estate, including nixing the need for a guarantor and being friendly, or at least open, towards foreign tenants.

Today we'll take a look at the furnishings and bathroom setup of your standard, run-of-the-mill 1K Leopalace.

But it'll probably look like this.

Furnishings
The furniture and appliances in a Leopalace are cheap. Think entry-level Ikea. Everything in my room had a nice wood-grain finish over it, but an accident several months down the line revealed that behind a lot of that pretty finish is about two slabs of plywood separated by a half-inch of air. When I had to buy my own appliances later, I recognized the models from my time at Leopalace: They are the cheapest models sold by the big-name manufacturers. Expect to be stuck with the entry-level bachelor pad 20,000 yen refrigerator from Mitsubishi, a 14-inch (but flatscreen!) television, and the one-wash-setting 20,000 yen laundry machine from Panasonic. If anything breaks down though, Leopalace is obligated to send someone out to fix and/or replace them for you.

The floors, for me, were hardwood. It was nice, but I've always preferred carpet, and I found out really quickly that dropping anything hard on wooden floors marks them all up. So, I measured my floorspace, then went to my local department store to buy a rug large enough to fill the entire bedroom. For me: Perfect!

The table I had was a hinged thing attached to one of the walls in the bedroom. You could use the hinge to collapse it against the wall, which might be nice if you purchase your own table to use in there. Otherwise, the table will probably stay extended at all times. It's big enough to have a light dinner with a visitor, and the 1K apartments come with two chairs. That table represents about half of the precious flat, waist-high surface area in your apartment, and it was a bit of a chore to always have to rotate that space between a computer, pen and paper, books, and dishes, relegating the other concurrently-unused items to the floor, bed, or sink. Buying another small folding table or a wire shelf on rolling wheels will give you extra space to keep your stuff on.

I heard one website describe making coffee in the Leopalace kitchen on a difficulty level akin to skirmishes in the Middle East... or something like that. Mine was small, but I got over it. I bought some wire racks to place above the stove, giving me some much-needed shelf space. That's really the main problem with the kitchen--the entire counterspace is consumed by the sink and stovetop, so you don't have anywhere to put things down like ingredients, a cutting board, or the bowl you want to put your now-cooked food into. Finding some creative solutions, like shelves that support themselves with spring loaded legs pushing against the walls of your little kitchen-alcove, will greatly ease your life in a Leopalace kitchen. By the end of my stay, I thought I was almost going to miss it. (But... I don't. Nothing beats having proper counter space.)

Bathroom
Leopalace offers apartments that have a separate bathroom and toilet. However, I don't think this is always the case. If that matters to you, you'll want to check that point thoroughly. I do have the experience of living in another apartment where the bath and toilet come packed together, so I can tell you what that's like: It's a setup called "unit bath" in Japan, often also found in hotels, and it's usually a slightly elevated, box-like room in which you have a bathtub just large enough for someone to stand in and take one step forwards or backwards (or sit in by hugging your arms around knees bent up to your chin) on the right-hand side, and a simple Western-style toilet on the left-hand side. In between them is a sink. A lever on the sink allows you to route running water through the faucet (which is also used to fill the bathtub) and a shower with a flexible rubber hose. If I remembered to close the lid of the toilet before showering, I found it to be a livable arrangement. (If you don't close the lid, the toilet seat is freckled with water droplets.) I like to dry myself off, particularly my feet, inside the shower room so that I don't get wet footprints in the rest of the apartment or leave the shower rug drenched (and eventually moldy). The true "unit bath" setup sucks for this, because there's not a lot of space to stand and towel yourself off between the bathtub and the toilet.

In Leopalace apartments that don't have the toilet and bathtub together, the bath is usually in a partial "unit bath" arrangement. That is to say, your bathtub and shower are still inside the same kind of elevated, hermetically sealed box-room, there's just no toilet on the right-hand side taking up space. This leaves half of the room empty and available for you to buy a Japanese-style bath seat and an oke to pour water on yourself.

By the way, the floors inside these rooms (even the ones with a toilet attached) are plastic and have drains, so you can take a shower standing inside or outside of the bathtub, although in the toilet-included variety it's much easier to stand in it.

Whew! That was a fair amount to move through. In the comments below, let us know of your own experiences in Leopalaces and any questions you have about living in one. Check out next week's article for details on Leopalace's included Internet connection service.

Living in a Leopalace Apartment

My last apartment in Japan was a Leopalace. These are becoming a more common setup for ALTs in Japan, and many people seem to be curious about what the buildings and facilities are like. Although I'm sure my experience won't be representative of every Leopalace in Japan, I'll be sharing some of my memories of the place in this brief set of articles.

To begin with, I'll address my personal experiences with and opinions on noise, insulation, price, and guarantors.




Noise
In my building, the walls weren't thick enough to block out very noisy neighbors, but neither were they paper thin. I could have a friend over and talk in a normal voice or Skype home and not appear to bother other people in the building. However, I did have a neighbor who came home at 1 or 2 am rather frequently and was either on the phone or bringing a boyfriend in tow. Against the otherwise completely silent backdrop of rural Japan, I could hear their vocal rumblings through my walls well enough to be woken up a few times, although never clearly enough to understand any words being said.

Insulation

The tiny "1K" (that means: bedroom + kitchen-in-the-entryway) Leopalace setup, which is the most common type--although I've also seen 3-room family setups, is pretty good in terms of insulation. The door to the outside world is usually made of metal, which lets in all the cold during wintertime, but between that door and your bedroom should be another wooden door. When that bedroom door is closed, you'll have a nice, cozy living space. Running a computer and just sitting emanating heat from your body is enough to carry these tiny rooms through cooler months, and in anything more extreme than that, turning on the heater or air conditioner brings about almost immediate results.

Price
I was able to get used to living in my place easily, and I think that's the most important quality of an apartment. However, I've gotta say that the pricing on Leopalace apartments is steep. The building I stayed in was new and in exceptionally good condition, but even so, other 1K apartments in my backwoods area were running for 10,000 to 20,000 less per month. Of course apartments rented on a monthly-basis (instead of with annual contracts) are generally a bit more pricey, but I think another part of Leopalace's pricing rationale is that you're paying for the amenities inside the room--rented furniture, appliances, and a provided Internet connection.

Guarantors
A big draw of Leopalace for foreign tenants is that they do not, in principle, require you to have a traditional Japanese-style guarantor to move into one of their facilities. In my case, the apartment had been arranged through work. However, later, when I wanted to arrange for my own private parking space, it was easy for me to walk in to the local Leopalace agency and sign up for one without a guarantor present. (They did ask for me to provide contact information for my closest relative in my home country, however.) And don't think that's because it was "just a parking space." It's true of apartments as well. (I sure as hell needed a traditional Japanese-style guarantor to get my next parking space, by the way.)

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll continue this series with detailed articles on furnishings and Internet connections in Leopalace apartments. Be sure to check them out. We as always welcome comments, and particularly would like to hear from readers who have experience living in Leopalaces. What is/was it like? Is the description here accurate? Any DIY tips on how to make the most of the cookie-cutter floorplans?

Local Event Guides

When it gets to the weekend, hanging out at home or revisiting the same pub for the umpteenth time can be a drag. Why not use the Internet to find something new to do? Any Google search can pull up a number of websites with local event guides, of course, but why spend your time wading through all those garbage sites to find the few that regularly update and have events you might actually want to attend when we'll introduce two to you right here today!

One of my personal favorite event guides is the JR West and JR East sister-site combination "Odekake-Net" and "Eki-Net." Their starting pages aren't much to gloat about. Although Odekake-Net gives you a large friendly map of western Japan on its home page, this isn't what you actually want to be clicking on. And Eki-Net's layout is just another Yahoo! Japan style mess of thumbnails and text. For the real gold of these sites, follow the directions below:

Odekake-Net
That large map on the front page will give you some good info about famous locations to visit in Japan, but the far more impressive, constantly-updated list of events is more easily accessed from the pull-down menus at the bottom of the site. Under the button labeled イベント検索, pick the prefecture or region you're staying in or visiting, and you'll find a friendly and useful list of seasonal events going on around you. The list includes items like festivals, flower shows, and museum exhibits, along with their running times, entrance fees, and addresses of their locations. It's provided me with some nice day trip ideas, and you might find it useful for date ideas or planning family outings as well.

Eki-Net
For you Eastern-Japaners, the event list is located along the right side of Eki-Net's starting page. It has a similar pull-down menu, labeled 祭り・イベントはこちら♪ and with a similar location selection set-up. Click on your prefecture and then hit "検索" to get the same type of event list as Odekake-Net offers: You'll be able to find out how long each event is running, how much it costs, and exactly where it is.

If you have any favorite event guides that you use in Japan, please let us know. We're always interested in expanding our horizons, too!

Cheap Car Navi/GPS Units in Japan

Looking for GPS? Been put off by stories of paying 70,000+? Well, we have the cheaper options covered, just for you.

The answer is Amazon.co.jp, of course! Although you can find some cheaper units in big department, garages or electronics stores like Yamada Denki, the price will still be significantly more than 20,000. On Amazon you can find the real budget options, and better deals on what you see in the shops.

You can see the most popular Navi units here. I actually recently purchased what is currently number two. It isn't the absolute cheapest (which is this little fella at about 6,500yen), but in terms of size and positive reviews, it seemed like the best option:

This is a great unit. All the documentation is in English and the price is great at about 14,000yen.

More

• The difference between the expensive Navis and these is that this type is designed to sit on your dashboard, while the expensive ones are really a souped-up entertainment system which is installed into the dash of your car (like this beast for 93,000yen), featuring Bluetooth, CD/MD/DVD capabilities, TV etc etc.
• One problem you may come across is that map data and options are almost universally Japanese. If you have something to refer to and can read hiragana and katakana, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Map data IS available in English, and you may get lucky with your unit - check the manufacturers website for details.
• A good feature of the newer portable GPS units is that the map data is read from an SD card, so you can update it very, very easily. Some of the in-car units require, if not a specialist, the purchase of a new data CD (very expensive).
• Other very cheap units come from manufacturer Space Machine

English Language Newspapers

There are several Japanese papers available in English, although they are often supplemented with articles from other English-speaking countries' newspapers. Some are also aimed more at Japanese people practicing English than English readers. This blog will give an overview of the most popular print and eNewspapers available.

Import Duties on Taxable Goods

Thinking of buying something from abroad? There's a good chance you won't be charged any import duties if it's a small item, but if the value is declared and the object isn't a gift, be prepared to shell out some cash for the privilege.



Here's the smallprint of the customs duty arrangement, but the key point is this:

In 2007, the average applied rate for all goods is 1.8 percent. Specifically, 10.1 percent for agricultural products, 4.6 percent for fish and fish products, and 1.7 percent for wood, pulp, paper and furniture.

Also, some things (such as watersports equipment properly labelled as such) don't have to pay fees. A full list of what does and doesn't require payment is available here (current as of 2011). When I say full, I mean it. Everything from ash to spacecraft.

But anyway, if you've bought something small from eBay you won't have much to worry about. Even if you get charged it will be a pretty small amount. I recently spent 150,000 on diving products from America, and was charged 3,200yen on arrival. Not a bad percentage, despite the fact that it should have been free according to the website.

Dialects in Japan (map)

Japanese learners beware: Japan has some vastly different dialects. This post features a map of where the most prominent variations apply. Yay!



This image came from an interesting thread on Reddit Japan. They didn't mention where they found it, so all credit to them for posting. Check out the thread for a discussion of some of the specific language differences.

Click to enlarge.

Suicide Helplines in Japan

If living in Japan, or other things, are causing abnormal amounts of unhappy feelings, here are some numbers of people who can help.

These three sets of details are taken from suicide.org - a website with databases for many international countries' helplines and counselling services.

Befrienders International, Tokyo
Contact by: Face to Face - Phone - Letter:
Hotline: +81 (0) 3 5286 9090
Website: www1.odn.ne.jp/~ceq16010
Hours:
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun: 20:00 - 06:00

BI Suicide Prevention Centre, Osaka
Contact by: Face to Face - Phone - Letter:
Hotline: +81 (0) 6 4395 4343
Website: spc-osaka.org
Hours:
Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun: 00:00 - 23:00

Tokyo English Lifeline
5-4 22 rm 302, Minami Aoyama
Minao Ku
107-0062
TOKYO
Contact by: Face to Face - Phone
Hotline: Counselling: 03 5774 0992
Hotline: Face to Face: 03 3498 0231
Website: telljp.com

Live International TV in Japan

Missing your favorite rugby matches, Wimbledon or wheelchair athletics? Need your fix of Neighbours on BBC1? Desperately need to watch your social and mental inferiors kick a ball and fall over deliberately?

Here's how you can keep up to date.


VIPBox is a website residing in the grey area of streamed audiovisual content. The site itself is legal because, in it's own words:

VIPBox is an Internet Service Provider offering a platform which merely displays links to audiovisual content located on servers of third parties and provided and/or transmitted by third parties. VIPBox does not host nor transmit any audiovisual content itself and does not control nor influence such content.

Put another way, watching the streamed content on there may not be considered legal, depending on your region and other factors. If you think that some sports giant is going to come crashing down on you, you may want to skip this one.

Anyway, there you can watch all your favourite sports, and also TV from the US/UK.

International Supermarkets and Other Home Comforts

I have written before about getting your Japan fix in the UK. But what about getting your home comforts whilst in Japan?

I have learned to live with (and sometimes love) the Japanese alternative of most things: teabags, chocolate, shampoo etc.

But there are certain English (and presumably other nationality) products which are just better than the Japanese counterpart! Mainly toothpaste, deodorant, HobNobs and face-wash. I know there are some sites out there bent on convincing would-be ex-pats into thinking that the toothpaste and deodorant problem is just a rumour... well it's not! I have not found a single brand of toothpaste which doesn't make me gag (my students use a toothpaste in a fetching gray shade...yuck), and the deodorant is like sprinkling flavoured water on yourself.

To get these home comforts, and a few other luxuries (e.g. a good, spicy curry paste) we have mainly been relying on few and far between home visits, friends and family on holiday or other ex-pats willing to bring back things when they are on a trip back.

There are however many international supermarkets in Japan; stocking everything from English biscuits to American root beer, a range of international liquor, not to mention the hundreds of things you didn't even know you missed!

Beware: Japanese toothpaste

This informative website, exploring all the delicious things Japan has to offer also features a list of international supermarkets in the Tokyo area and beyond.

Another way to get these home comforts is by ordering online.

However this can prove difficult, if not impossible for some food items. The meat guy stocks some of the things you might be craving, such as couscous and specialities like pumpkin pie to meet your thanksgiving needs (and proper size and shape steaks).

The flying pig, and yoyomarket, also stock imported food including frozen and chilled goods,  as well as electrical items, books, and personal items, as does The Deli, which will also order in an extensive selection of American produce.

Finally, you can find shops outside of Japan who deliver here. This is slightly more difficult as there are, of course, customs regulations preventing the import of certain items (cheese for example, and certain medications). I have used Direct chemist in the past to purchase toiletries and vitamins (which can be incredibly expensive in Japan), and as noted in a previous article, Health Span UK and Nature's Best also ship vitamins and minerals.

If you can recommend anywhere else to buy food and toiletries online (and which deliver to Japan) please let us know in the comment box below.

Peach out.

Turn Your Books into eBooks for 100yen!

If you have a physical book you would prefer to have as a digital book, then we have the perfect service for you.

Read on for more details and the link!


ScaNow.jp will scan your 350 page or less book for 100 yen. Not only that, but their website is in English (sort of).

You will have to pay (a little) extra if you would like the .pdf on a disc instead of downloaded, want the cover scanned too, etc. but most people will be happy with the 100yen option.

Process

• Fill out the online form and pay (they accept PayPal, amongst other methods).
• Send the company your book, or get an online shop to deliver directly to ScaNow.
• They scan it and send you the file within 1-3 working days.

More

• If you want your book back again, you'll need to pay postage and may find that it just isn't worth it.
• Files are watermarked, presumably to prevent piracy. So watch your back if you share with friends.
• Most of the other pay-option are things you can do yourself for free, such as changing the file name, or scanning the front and back covers.

Buying Clothes and Shoes in Japan

If you are slightly larger or differently built than the average Japanese person, you will quickly find you have very limited choice when it comes to clothes and shoes. Even in Tokyo and other big cities you can have trouble.


Shoes
Japanese shoe sizes come in two forms, S,M,L,LL or cm.

Womens shoe sizes (cm)
XS - 22.5
S - 23
M - 23.5
L - 24
LL - 24.5

The largest size women's shoe you will usually find is usually 24.5cm or LL (though some places stock 3L or even 4L). That's a UK 6 or US 8.

Men's shoes tend to go up to 28 or 29cm. You'll need to search hard or be lucky to find shoes over 27cm, although they are out there (especially in big foreign brand shops like the Nike store, and outlet centres).

If you have larger feet than this, or yours are an unusual shape (wide or flat) then your best bet may be bringing/having them sent from home. Or ordering online. Jonathan pointed out in the comments the existence of a Japanese online store called Kutsu no Hikari - check it out.

Clothes
The average sized European man should be OK in Japan for clothes. Men over 5ft 11 might struggle with trousers but T-shirts, shorts and jackets should be mostly fine. One of our writers is well over 6ft but has no problem with T-shirts, and has even managed to find a few pairs of sports trousers almost long enough.

The portly gentleman, however, will have problems. Clothes are rarely above size LL (smaller than a Western XL), although there are specialist stores out there (can't comment on style or price).

Clothes for women are a little more tricky due to the different average body shape of Japanese ladies.

Those above a UK 12/14 or US 10/12 will have trouble. And those smaller ladies with ample hips, bums or boobs will also have problems.

Chain stores from the West such as H&M have started popping up, and sell the same catalogue of goods as at home, although they usually only stock a few pieces in larger sizes.

Another good thing to stock up on whilst at home, or to buy online, are bras. Those with boobs larger than a UK D will find it impossible to find bras here. And even those who can fit into Japanese bras may find them uncomfortable, which is another thing we will be looking at soon.

I say Po-tay-to... Endless Varieties of Potatoes in Japan

In language school, I learned one word for "potato" in Japanese: ジャガイモ (jagaimo). Turns out, real life isn't as simple as language school would have you believe. In Japanese supermarkets, I've rarely seen the vegetable actually labeled with the word I learned as a student, and the varieties popular in Japan look just different enough from the ones I'm used to at home that at first I had to ask someone in the shop: "Do you have any... ジャガイモ?"

So, what are potatoes called in supermarkets? What varieties are popular here? And what are the differences between them? Read on to find out!


I imagine this situation to be akin to an ESL learner proudly knowing the word "apple" only to walk into a shop and find labels like "Granny Smith" and "Red Delicious." They both look like apples, but what's the difference between them?

Well, if you pick up something that looks like a potato, your curry dinner will probably turn out all right. But, the two most popular varieties of potatoes sold in Japan have different properties that suits each of them to different dishes. Those varieties are called だんしゃくいも (男爵芋, danshakuimo) and メークイン (meekuin). Abroad, they're known as "Irish Cobbler" and "May Queen," respectively.

だんしゃく(いも) are the little round potatoes that usually come in bags of 7 or 8. They're the most common variety in Japan, and if your supermarket only sells one, it's probably this. These potatoes are considered best suited for dishes like potato salad or mashed potatoes. They have an earthy smell and a rustic, potato-ey taste, especially right after harvest. (When you make curry with fresh だんしゃく, it smells heavily of potatoes.) They're popular with farmers because they mature quickly and can be stored for long periods with little degradation in quality. On the other hand, they're tiny things and a pain to use if your dish requires peeled potatoes. Once peeled, they must be used quickly or they discolor. Also, when they sprout, the sprouts run deep inside the potato, making them harder to remove.

メークイン potatoes, on the other hand, are a larger, egg-shaped variety that may look more familiar to readers. Because of their larger size, they're often sold in packs of 3 or 4. These potatoes don't break up as easily as だんしゃく when they're boiled, and thus they're considered better for curries and stews. They have a sweet taste, and their larger size makes them easier to peel. Sprouts are also very shallow and easy to remove. Storing them increases their sweetness, but they spoil, especially if exposed to direct sunlight, more quickly than だんしゃく.

By the way, another label you are very likely to encounter in the supermarket is ばれいしょ (bareisho), usually in hiragana, but it also has kanji: 馬鈴薯. This word is not a variety of potato: It's just another word for potato coming from the dialect of Hokkaido. It's kind of like saying "spud" in US English. Because だんしゃく are often the only variety of potato sold at a small shop (under a sign reading ばれいしょ), it's easy to mistake this word as a variety name for those little round guys.

Finally, although we've introduced the two most popular varieties of potatoes here, they aren't the only types sold in Japan. If you're interested in learning more, here's a list of other potato varieties in Japan. The site is in Japanese only, but its data is arranged in handy columns, including characteristics or cooking suggestions for each type on the right.

How Japanese Addresses Work

Today I StumbledUpon a video so clear and accurate that there was nothing I could do but post it, unedited, on AccessJ. Many thanks to Derek Sivers for this informative and entertaining creation.