Minicars

Maybe you're already aware of the major regulatory distinctions of cars in Japan: bigger cars with bigger engines get white license plates, smaller cars with smaller engines get yellow "kei" plates, and scooters and the like get even littler plates. But there's another, less common classification... or perhaps "loophole" is a more fitting term. It's called a ミニカー (minicar).


Minicars Defined
Minicars are little-engined things (that is, 50 cc or less) that also meet one of the following definitions:

-Having at least three wheels and an axle track of at least 51 cm, with or without an interior cabin
-Having at least four wheels and an interior cabin, and an axle track smaller than 51 cm
-Having exactly three wheels, an interior cabin, and an axle track smaller than 51 cm

...wait, what? Why go to the trouble of distinguishing the first and third definitions? Well, this is where the minicar gets tricky. See, some scooters (aka. mopeds, 原付 gentsuki) have three wheels. You may have seen them on the road delivering pizzas or takoyaki or whatever delivery food is in style in your region. They've got three wheels, a little awning and windshield to keep the rain out, and a lockbox on the back that can be filled up with delicious traveling foodstuffs. But the government wants to insist that these are not minicars. They're just heavily modified gentsuki.

License to Drive
And that means that only a gentsuki license (different from a car license in that it can more cheaply and easily obtained, at 16 years of age instead of 18) is required to drive them, a helmet is required while riding on one, and they must follow the special gentsuki driving restrictions such as always staying below 30 km/h and making hook turns at designated intersections.

(A minicar, on the other hand, requires a standard car license, no helmet, can run at up to 60 km/h if its engine can handle it, and may make right-hand turns as a car does.)

The standard license, by the way, is required because a minicar is potentially able to, unlike a gentsuki, have a round steering wheel, travel in reverse, and occupy a full lane while driving. And because of the license required, a minicar's driver must display the 初心者 (shoshinsha) mark if he or she has been driving on a standard license for less than a year.

Traffic Infractions
Driving a minicar thus also carries more legal responsibility than driving a scooter: Traffic infractions are handled the same as infractions in a white- or yellow-plate car. Penalties while on a gentsuki are lighter. And though gentsuki drivers are treated as pedestrians when they disengage their vehicle's engine and walk it, this is not the case for a minicar. Neither minicars nor gentsuki can legally carry passengers or drive on expressways.

Insurance and Tax
Minicars are cheaper to insure and are taxed less than normal cars, but they're a bit more expensive than their scooter counterparts. For comparison:

	1000cc White Plate	Kei Car	Minicar	50cc Scooter*
Auto Tax (Annual)	￥29,500	￥7,200	￥2,500	￥1,000
Weight Tax (3 yrs.)	￥37,800	￥13,200	None	None
Compulsory Insurance (3 yrs.)	￥39,260	￥31,540	￥13,400	￥13,400
Avg. Annual Tax	￥55,187	￥22,113	￥6,967	￥5,467

*Larger Class-2 (51-90cc) and Class-3 (91-125cc) gentsuki have slightly greater annual tax.

Neither the gentsuki nor the minicar require 車検証 (shakensho), eliminating need for obnoxious biennial 車検 (shaken) gamuts and verification of a parking space by your local police authority.

Minicars, to wrap things up, get a special blue license plate. I mean, come on. Blue! Plenty of Japanese people don't even know that color of plate exists! If you've ever wanted to own an ATV in Japan, this is the classification under which it will be licensed. Yes, it will therefore be legal to drive on the road (up to 60 km/h, hah) and no, apparently you're not legally required to have a helmet on.

Phew. The vast majority of this information comes thanks to this very informative page on distinctions among Japanese license plates. If you haven't already, be sure to check out our AccessJ post entitled "License Plate Trivia" as well.

UC Gift Cards/Vouchers

UC Gift Cards are what we'd call gift vouchers or certificates in the UK. It's a version of money which can only be spent in certain shops. UC's usage is pretty wide though, so if you have one, read on to see what to do with it.



This kind of card is distributed by many companies or institutions as a prize, compensation or refund. You can also buy them.

There's a site in Japanese with full details, and here are the basics in English (for the first time online).

Half a million stores and hotels across Japan accept these vouchers, including:

● Department stores Isetan Odakyu Department Store Kintetsu Seibu Sogo Daimaru Takashimaya Tokyu Department Store Hankyu Department Stores Matsuzakaya Marui Mitsukoshi ● Supermarkets Apita / Piago Ionic groups (イオン・マックスバリュ・ メガマート) Ito-Yokado Queen's Isetan JEUGIA Corporation Seiyu Daiei, Inc. Daimaru Peacock Tokyu Nagasakiya ベイシア リヴィン ● Shopping Center Ion Aeon OPA (most stores) Vivre Mitsui Outlet Park ● Home Center Kainz home セキチュー ホーマック Home Plaza Royal Home Center ● Convenience Stores Circle K Sunkus ● Drug Stores Tsuruha

● Clothes Stores Easy Order Hanabishi 英國屋 Eddie Bauer Japan F-One Ltd. ORIHICA Cabin Ginza Kane Matsu Ginza Yamagataya Sarasaya San-Ai Sun Shoes The Shoes Shiseido Ginza Ships Jun Island Shoes Shinshifuku no Konasu Diana Taka-Q Tamaya Chiyoda Shoes Take One Tokyo Delica New Steps Bingoya Mack House Mamina Marukawa Miki Mitsumine Mimatsu Women's Plaza Aoki Aoyama Right On Washinton Shoes ● Household Goods Obutsudan no Hasegawa Ondezu Kezu Denki Kojima Shimachu Juntendo Joshin Denki Sofmap DEODEO Tokyu Hands Nitori Bic 100 Man Volts Best Denki Matsuya Denki Mr Konsento Yamada Denki Yodobashi Camera Laox Co., Ltd. Loft ● Jewelry, Glasses etc Ai Megane I-PRIMO Kitamura Camera Tsutsumi Jewelry Rieju Ginza Heart-up Verite Mikimoto Megane no Store Megane no Super Megane no 愛眼  Megane Tanaka Megane Yonezawa Megane Parimiki

● Hobbies Sports Book Alpine Victoria HMV Kiddy Land James Shinseido Supersport Xebio Sports Authority Sports Depot Tarajima Ootoku Golf Futaki Himaraya Point-and-peg Honma Golf Maruzen ● Restaurants 安楽亭 Ume no Hana Kani Douraku Chain Kisoji Sapporo Kanimoto Don's Steak Denny's ● Travel Agents 一畑 Travel Services Odakyu Travel Keikyu Kankou Home Tour Smart Deal (except the OMC Smart Deal) Sun Travel Service ● Hotels Keio Plaza Hotel Hankyu Daiichi Diamond Hotel Imperial Hotel Tokyu Hotels (with some exceptions) Hyatt Regency Tokyo Hilton (with some exceptions) Four Seasons Hotel Chinzanso Prince Hotel Hotel Okura Grand Palace Hotel Hotel Nikko (with some exceptions) Hotel New Otani Mitsui Garden Hotel (with some exceptions) Miyako Hotel Washington Hotel

UC also does various other services, such as credit cards, ETC cards and all manner of other bits and pieces best tackled only if you can read Japanese well enough. You'd be better off with our guides on credit card applications and getting an ETC card.

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!

Converting Licence from Automatic to Manual

Most cars in Japan are automatic transmission, which could mean that, should you take a driving course in Japan, you may be inclined not to pay the extra for the manual classification.

However, you may regret that decision if you later require a change.


Unless you already had a driver's license in your home country (making you eligible to perform a license "conversion"), a regular motor vehicle licence in Japan is most often obtained through a full driving course. We posted some details on how to get a license from scratch in Japan last year.

For courses taught in English, such as those offered at Koyama Driving School, the automatic transmission course costs around 380,000 yen, while the manual is a little extra at 400,000 yen.

The 20,000 saved may seem like a good place to cut corners if your budget is tight. However, if you think there is any possibility that you will ever need or want license to drive a manual transmission vehicle, we strongly recommend that you opt for the MT course from the get go.

If you don't, but later inquire about adding MT certification to your AT-only license, you will find yourself on the receiving end of an email like this:

The course fee is 73,080 yen.You need to take 4-hour driving lessons minimum and practical test.It takes at least 3 days.

Ouch.

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.

Japanese Moths

Moths are wicked cool! Right?

Well, Japan has a large number of pretty exotic looking baby moths (caterpillars to you and me), some of which are even poisonous. They turn into a wide variety of pretty swanky looking adult moths (i.e. moths), too.

Luckily for the moth enthusiast, there is a website devoted to detailing each and every Japanese species. It's in Japanese, but not hard to work out.



Here it is: みんなで作る日本産蛾類図鑑
The site lists 80 species groups of moth, a few of the coolest varieties of which are included here for your pleasure. It also has reams of data for you moth buffs out there.

Epicopeia hainesii hainesii

Cyanea Syntypistis Izuensis

Neomicropteryx Kazusan

More

• You may think some of these look like butterflies. Well, yes, they do. The differences between moths and butterflies are very minor, the most significant being that when at rest moths spread their wings, while butterflies hold them upright and together.
• The picture at the top of this entry is the awesomely named Nemophora Metalica.

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?

Free Origami Cut-out Kewpies!

Not got an origami Kewpie? No? Never fear, you can have one for free!



There are tons to choose from on the Kewpie website.

The coloured bars above the different Kewpies are categories, each containing a large selection of the weird baby in different outfits.

Click みる (see) to view the one you want, and then ダウンロードする (download) to download the .pdf.

Print out, fold, awesome!

The options at the top of the page offer various other free things, like calendars, screensavers, etc. Woo!

Being an ALT #18: What to Keep in Your Desk

Over time teaching I've accumulated a lot of stuff in my desk. Most of it is papers, textbook samples, student grades, past exams, articles and publications about English, and Japanese learning resources. But there are a few odds and ends around me that I probably didn't expect I'd use with such regularity before I got into the job.

Here are a few of the things that maybe not everyone associates with teaching or lesson planning, but which I now find essential or which have helped me out in tight situations:

Mug -- If you're a coffee or tea drinker it probably seems natural to have a mug handy, but I used to wonder why people always keep mugs around in office environments. Even though I still prefer water over coffee or tea, I can agree it's nice to have a cup of something at your desk after a day's worth of lectures and speaking activities. A nice hot cup soup in winter is a real brightener.

Sweat Rags -- Kind of gross, but you'll soon realise why most Japanese people carry litle flannels in their pockets. The combat the summer humidity and inevitable flood of sweat, purpose-made mini-towels with cute characters on will be very handy.

Hand Lotion -- In a normal week, I go through six or seven sticks of chalk. I try to stick to coated chalk to keep as much off my fingers as I can, but if you've done much blackboard writing you know that little smudges of it always somehow end up all over your hands anyway (and on your papers, your books, and your clothes). I keep a tube of hand lotion around to ward off that obnoxious dry finger feeling that accompanies continued chalk usage. This also combats the cracked skin of cold, dry winters.

Snacks -- An old coworker of mine used to use an entire drawer of her 3-drawer desk for the purpose of storing snacks, from cookies to potato chips. That's a bit extreme, if you ask me, but there's definite merit in having a pick-me-up ready after a hard class. When you're staying after to do lesson prep, a great choice to hold yourself over is a packet of powdered soup.

Uchiwa -- These, along with folding fans, are the traditional Japanese answer to summer's ovenlike classrooms, usually without air conditioning and occasionally without even electric fans. Along with cooling you down, they're useful for bopping (with utmost aggression and spite) your more rambunctious students over the head.

Wet Tissues -- This is another important summer item for me. The "facial paper" or "body paper" put out by brands like Gatsby and Adidas is really useful on summer mornings and after club or sports events. I actually keep these in my bag as well as my desk: They double as an antibacterial oshibori when you can't find a sink to wash your hands.

Headphones -- These depend on your workplace. In some schools, it's not a big deal for a teacher to listen to music while correcting quizzes or drudging through the monotony that is final exam multiple-choice-section corrections, as long as they don't do it overtly in front of students. These also come in handy when you're checking the content of bundled CDs or anything with audio output on your otherwise probably-always-muted PC.

Painkillers -- Not an everyday item for anyone's teaching, I hope, I keep these around for days on which classes or club are particularly brutal, or for when I start coming down with a cold, etc., during working hours.

Big Pile of Red Pens -- You'll end up taking your pen home in your pocket, removing it there, and forgetting it next day. You have been warned.

And of course various things to improvise games with - dice, chopsticks, stones, cards etc. We'll look at emergency resources some other time.

Have anything special you keep in your desk? Let us know in the comments below!

Being an ALT series: 

Part #1: Teaching English in Japan 

Part #2: Your Role

Part #3: A Typical Day

Part #4: Planning Classes 

Part #5: Getting Drunk on Duty (the Enkai) 

Part #6: 4 Japanese Teachers You May Have to Work With

Part #7: Physical Resources

Part #8: Making Activities

Part #9: Hopping Between Schools

Part #10: More School Hopping

Part #11: Getting Molested At School

Part #12: It Is Really This Easy?
Part #13: Brushing Your Teeth At School
Part #14: Demo Lessons

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

Wholesalers and Buying in Bulk in Japan

Our US readers are most likely familiar with the business of consumer wholesaling. For those ex-pats in Japan longing to buy kilogram loads of bagels, you aren't entirely out of luck.


For those of who don't know about the wholesale business, this is a store where you pay a monthly or annual membership in order to buy cheap, bulk quantity goods in addition to other perks. Chains such as Costco, BJs, and Sam's Club all fall under this classification. This mode of shopping may seem out of place in a place like Japan that generally eschews the American "bigger is better" shopping ethos, but in fact there are a good variety of wholesalers avaliable.

Gyoumuyo (業務用)
The most common type of Japanese wholesaler/bulk goods retailer is known as gyomu-yo supa (業務用スーパー) or gyomuyo shohin (業務用商品). This literally translates to "business-use super market" and "business goods" respectively. Basically, any product labeled gyomuyo (業務用) means "business use" or "institutional use" and in Japan that often translates to bulk quantities. If you have a lot of mouths to feed or just like eating a lot of one specific thing, these retailers can save you a bit of cash.

Many towns and cities have all sorts of gyomuyo shops, although the vast majority specialize in food and some even double as regular supermarkets. In addition to getting your hands on several kilos of coffee, gyoumuyo shops often have imported goodies that are hard to come by otherwise, in addition to an odd ball selection of alcohol, cheese, and what not. However, these shops are often located in out-of-way areas and are not as well advertised so get ready to Google.

For some odd reason, liquor stores in Japan often carry business size frozen goods, so that is often a good place to start looking.

The good news is that very few of these stores require an annual membership fee.

Orodonshi-ya (卸問屋)
An oroshidon-ya (卸問屋) is basically the equivalent of a wholesaler found in Western countries. However, this term covers a wide variety of consumer and non-consumer goods. What most of these stores have in common is that they all require an annual paid membership.


Costco has taken advantage of Japan's retail enterprise deregulation and has been busy setting up US-style bulk goods stores across Japan. Most are concentrated in and around big cities, and like the US version require an annual paid membership card. However, your Costco membership is applicable to all outlets world-wide. The Japanese outlets stock many of the same brands found in the US and just about everything is sold in bulk. 


Other big Japanese outlets include SSOK and Marudai (both located in Kansai). These wholesalers are more akin to a "consumer club" wherein your buy a membership for access to cheap, direct-from-the-manufacturer brand goods. They mainly sell clothing although they do have a smaller selection of bulk and imported goods as well. 


Other Options
So you are stuck on top of a mountain hours away from the biggest city. What is a poor foreigner to do to get his bulk frozen olive fix? Luckily some entrepreneurs have been hard at work solving this problem and have come up with The Flying Pig. Long story short, you can place an order online and the gentlemen at The Flying Pig will go and buy your stuff at Costco and ship it to you thereby saving you a long trek and a membership fee. Of course, you have to pay shipping and a bit of a mark up but its worth it if there are some bulk goods you are craving. 



There are online wholesalers as well and internet shopping portals such as Yahoo Japan Shopping and Rakuten all have gyomuyo goods for sale if you don't mind paying for shipping. Just type in 業務用 after your product of choice and you might find that it is also available in bulk.

Whey Protein in Japan

Want to buy some whey protein for maximum macho muscle madness? Or some other reason? As with so many things, AccessJ has got you covered.


The cheapest place to buy your stuff is Amazon.co.jp. There you can find 3kg of flavoured protein powder for just over 7,000yen. That's almost 5,000yen less than the same product in Xebio. It's also one of the lowest calorie choices on the market (if that is something you care about).

You can get chocolate flavour, and milk flavour.

Of course, if you have some criteria other than price and calorie content, there are choices for you, too. Here are a couple, or you can just run your own search on Amazon.

Savas Whey Protein, which is just over 8,000yen for 2.5kg.
Savas Weight Down, which is a low-cal soy protein alternative at about 4,000yen for 1.2kg
Kentai 100% Whey, which is a muscle-building higher-calorie choice (400kcal per 100g) and around 5,000yen per kg.
Big-in-Japan brand DNS has numerous 100% whey flavours at about 10,000yen per 3kg.

Don't forget your shaker bottle!

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• AccessJ is not trying to get you to buy this protein to make money. I buy a bag of this stuff (cheapest) every month or so. It's perfect.

Maggie Sensei's Job Hunting Vocab

It's been a while since we wrote about job hunting here, although it always seems a continuing point of consternation for some number of our readers. If you're like me, anyway, when you're out of a job or nearing the end of a contract, finding a new job is always on the mind.

Recently I happened across another resource that you may find useful. Maggie Sensei's short, but helpful guide to Job Hunting in Japan comes from a blog whose humor is just a little bit over the top for me, but nonetheless its info is solid, and I'd sincerely like to see it more widely circulated. Maggie has put together an excellent guide to common terminology you'll encounter in the Japanese job-searching world, as well as resume examples and a compendium of questions you're likely to hear from traditional Japanese interviewers. Don't miss this page. In fact, don't miss the entire blog. It's a new site (about the same age as AccessJ, in fact) filled with quality, detailed lessons on a wide variety of Japanese language subjects.

Furthermore, remember to check out the resources we've put together here at AccessJ. On the most basic level, we've prepared Japanese resume (履歴書) forms that you can download, and some of our own lists of job hunting vocabulary, including detailed explanations on meaning and usage of the terms. Take a look also at our Job Spotlight series; many of the jobs in the posts are relisted annually, so if one appears to be in season, we think it's certainly worth checking out.

Any good resources of your own to share? Let us know about them in the comments!

WS: "He is Mr Dom" 1st G JHS

When it come to the "Who is this...?" question and he/she answers, I use this sheet.



It's pretty self-explanatory, and works in the same way as my sheet for my "It's Ming's bike" sheet.

Students use the picture hints on sheet one to work out who they should be writing about, then write a "He is Mr Dom type sentence in the box.

That's it.

Takes about 15 mins with explanation.

So, here's the handout for download. It's a .docx, so if your computer (like so many in Japan) is still living in the dark ages, you'll need this .doc version. However, you can't edit the pictures in the latter, so you'll have to paste something on top of the deliberately obnoxious picture of me (I don't usually dress like that). Sorry. Blame Microsoft.

This is my own work, so please don't redistribute elsewhere without permission or credit :D

Over-the-Counter Drugs in Japan

Nothing is worse than getting sick in a far-away land and having to drag yourself off to a doctor. Following our recent medical theme, today's feature we will explain the world of Japanese over the counter (OTC) medications (一般用医薬品 ippan-yo iyakuhin).

Drug Classifications
There are three main classifications of OTC drugs

• Type 1 Drugs (第一類医薬品 dai-ichi-rui iyakuhin）-- These drugs are classified as having side effects that could "interfere with daily life" as well as the potential for serious health risks if used improperly. A pharmacist must be on hand to dispense these drugs and give adiquit advice about side effects and necessary precautions. 

• Type 2 Drugs (第二類医薬品 dai-ni-rui iyakuhin)-- These drugs are classified as having potential side effects that can interfere with daily but not with the severity of Type 1 medication. A pharmacist or a "registered seller" (登録販売者 toroku hanbai-sha) must be on staff to sell these drugs and provide consultation if necessary.

• Type 3 Drugs (第三類医薬品 dai-san-rui iyakuhin)-- These drugs are consider to have non serious side effects and, in most cases, won't impair one's functionality in any major way. A pharmacist or a "registered seller"  must be on staff to sell these drugs and provide consultation if necessary.

In addition to the above mentioned category, there is another classification of drugs known as i-yakubu gaihin (医薬部外品) shitei i-yakubu gaihin (指定医薬部外品). In English, these are ofter refered to as "quasi-drugs" or "supplements." This category includes vitamin drinks, nutritional supplements, cough drops, and all those energy tonics. These can be sold in any establishment including convenience stores and super markets.


Buying Drugs
As we have discussed in the previous article covering prescription drugs, pharmacies are plentiful in Japan and there is a solid chance that your local grocery or home center store has a non-prescription drug section, too.

But you may notice that these sections of the grocery store periodically get fenced off. This happens whenever a registered seller is not on staff since it is not legal to sell Type 2 and Type 3 drugs without a registered staffer on hand. Even 24 hour chains will generally close these sections off after 9 or 10 pm or so, so don't bank on getting pills for those late night headaches.

Unlike many North American and European countries, the sales of drugs over the internet are still strictly regulated. Currently, online drug stores can only sell Type 3 drugs and quasi-drugs. The sale of Type 2 drugs are limited to specially designated outlying islands and remote areas. The sale of Type 1 drugs over the internet is strictly forbidden.

Type 1 drugs usually only are available on request. In other words, you're going to have to ask for it at the counter - bring along enough Japanese to do so.

If you are worried about what's in your drugs, or what they may do, check out our article on side-effects and ingredients.


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• Pharmaceutical sales in Japan have long been a highly regulated affair. Until the recently passed Revised Pharmaceutical Law came into effect, you weren't allowed to sell so much as an aspirin without a pharmacist on hand.
• Price wise, OTC drugs in Japan are generally significantly more expensive than the USA but probably closer to prices found in Europe.
• Japanese OTC drugs are usually weaker than their Western counterparts. So, double check the dosage of something you have taken elsewhere before.

And that is all for drug and health. Keep on checking back regularly for more great information on all kinds of topics and don't forget to peek back at our coverage of Japanese health insurance, doctors, and dentists if you are still lost.

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.

Virtual Travel in Japan

Earlier this year, NHK unveiled their "Michishiru" interactive map site, a virtual tour guide of places and events all over Japan, introduced through streaming video segments of NHK on-location footage. The site targets a Japanese audience, as a way to find out about different destinations to visit within Japan.

However, it also makes for good intermediate-to-advanced Japanese listening practice, and even travelers who don't read or speak Japanese well will find that the intuitive interface and videos speak quite well for themselves.

Just drag and zoom the map around to any part of Japan you're interested in and click on one of the "Play" icons for a virtual tour of it!

Check out the site here: NHK映像マップみちしる

WS: "I want to be a..." 2nd G JHS

Just over half-way through second grade junior high, students learn about future job aspirations. Lucky for them, I made an awesome sheet about it!!!!!!!!!


Well, here's the teaching handout to download. It's in .docx format, so it you're using a (seriously) outdated Office package (I know many schools still are), here's a .doc version for download, too. The .doc one cannot be edited. Sorry, that's how Microsoft work.

It's pretty self-explanatory to Westerners but some Japanese have no idea how a flow chart works, so you'll find most of your time spent explaining and checking the meaning of the sheet:

1. Explain the concept
1. Make pairs
2. Winner of janken interviews the other student first
3. Winner asks "Do you want to..." and then the text from the first box
4. A "Yes, I do" answer means follow the arrow to the right, and a "No" to the left, and so on
5. The final letter reached through the interview has a corresponding job title on the back of the sheet
2. Get students to volunteer to translate each sentence on the front of the sheet, and then check comprehension of all the job titles on the back (you may want to change "International Playboy" if your students are more innocent than my loads of bad-asses.
3. Do the sheet. The doing only takes 10 mins max, but then you can ask students what their partner's want to be etc to fill more time.

Total time: 20-30 minutes depending on the level.

You can also have students draw by hand their own version if you want to fill the rest of the lesson.

That's it, see you next week.

PS: This is my original work. Please don't redistribute through some other site passing it off as your own. There was a Russian guy who actually published and sold a collection of people's worksheets from esl-printables.com. If anyone tries that kind of nonsense with me the D-Man gon get you..