Things To Do: Shiga Prefecture

Shiga houses Biwako, or Biwa Lake - a large and beautiful getaway very close to Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and Gifu.

Here's a map with virtually everything worth doing in the prefecture.

Just like our other maps, this is a work in progress, so please let us know of any places you have been or know about which should be added. Thanks.


View Things to do in Shiga-ken (www.accessj.com) in a larger map

WS: Intro for New JHS Students

When your kids come up from elementary to JHS, you want to ease them in. I really don't know how well JHS teachers do that, but when I worked at both levels I came up with a simple idea for English.

Elementary kids, in my experience, loved stories. Even if they didn't understand it all, every time I read (and acted) The Hungry Caterpillar they were left begging for more.

So, I wrote a story about the JHS textbook characters. The one I wrote is linked below, but obviously only applies to my particular book. If you don't use New Crown then you can just substitute your book's characters/make up your own.

Anyway here it is.

As a suppliment to the story I have taken photos (scan if you can) of the characters from the books, blown them up and magnetised them. I stick these on the board when they're involved and use a "thinking hard" A3 card for the NNNNNNNNNN bits. It's just covered in question marks in bright colours etc. Anything else will only add to the fun.

Obviously ham it up and emphasise the key words (which they may know). You should really have your JTE translating as well, though, to keep things smooth.

After that you can play the Newspaper game with the script:

• Give each group a copy.
• Then call out and write on the board/show a flashcard of a random word from it.
• Students race to find the word in the text and put their hand up.
• Check it, award points, repeat

The great thing is that they don't need to know any of the words or even how to read, and it gets them used to looking at English text.

Job Spotlight: www.top-us.com

TOP is a recruitment consultant that specializes in Japanese-English bilingual job positions with (usually large) Japanese firms. They advertise positions both within Japan and across the U.S., and they have branches in Tokyo as well as 5 major U.S. cities. Their listings also include some English- or Japanese-language-only jobs.



If you are looking for a job where you can use your Japanese skills, and particularly a job outside of the English teaching industry, TOP is a good place to start. (In regards to Japanese skill, expect to need at least JLPT-2/N-2 to be considered for bilingual spots. An equivalent or higher BJT score is better.) You can search and inquire about job listings through their website, but if possible, I would recommend contacting them by phone or arranging a visit to their office. Recruiting agencies need to get a full picture of who you are and your available skillset in order to pair you with jobs where you are likely to pass the initial screening and proceed to interviews.

I am a big fan of recruiting agencies and the services they provide to job-seekers. Agencies take a cut whenever they match an applicant to a job opening; that cut is paid by the hiring company, not the applicant. So, use of an agency is free for the job-seeker. (If you encounter a recruiting agency that doesn't offer you its services for free, something's up. It might be better to look elsewhere.) You need only invest time to speak with the agency and demonstrate your eagerness to find a new job. Have a good handle on your strengths and weaknesses and fields of interest.

A good agent will not only introduce jobs to you but guide you through the application process, offering you opinions on how to strengthen your resume and coaching you on how to handle interview questions. I found this kind of help indispensable in my own search.

And, the caliber of jobs you can apply for through an agency is, in my opinion, usually greater than that of jobs you can find on your own. Big name companies often entrust their initial applicant search to recruiting agencies; this makes it the agency's job to weed out inappropriate applicants, saving the company time. Because of this, some of the highest quality openings may only be advertised through the safe annals of an agency, meaning people only looking in newspapers and online miss out on them.
By the way, the listings on an agency's website often don't cover all the positions the agency has to fill. This is, again, why I recommend calling an office or asking them if you can visit in person. By just having a conversation with an agent, he or she may remember some other open position that could work for you.

Finally, TOP specifically is an interesting find because of their offices outside of Japan. Even if you're in the U.S., their numbers and offices are available to introduce job-seekers to positions within Japan. TOP's listings are maintained in English, and the company appears just as interested in finding native-English speakers with fluent Japanese as they are in finding native-Japanese speakers with study abroad experience. If you are interested, be sure to check them out.

Recycling in Japan: a Guide

It's a bit of a cliche to go on about Japan's efficiency, cleanliness or tendency to recycle obsessively. But if you live here then you've probably have a few headaches sorting your rubbish.

For that reason, AccessJ has put together a guide to help you find your recycling feet, a post to consider when determining living costs in Japan.

Depending on where you live, you will have different rules governing your recycling. If you live in Kamikatsu you will have 44 types of sorting to do!

You'll need to check with your local city office for exact details, although you should be given some sort of Japanese (or English if you get lucky) guide and schedule when you register for your gaijin card. This is usually very detailed, containing pictorial guides for many hard to identify items.

In my town we have three trash pickup days per week. Two for combustible garbage (food, clothes etc), and one for plastics. Once every two weeks they also pick up other trash - paper/card, non-recyclables, cans and large objects. Large objects require some disassembley (no loose parts allowed) and a sticker (which must be bought from a supermarket or convenience store). Once a month there is a deposit point for glass and PET bottles. It's a little walk from my place, and you have to get down there before 9am on a Saturday. Other things, like polystyrene food trays and milk cartons, must be deposited at local supermarkets.

The bags for recycling are pretty expensive (40-60yen each), but this money presumably goes into the recycling process.

Sorting your rubbish can be a bit confusing, but most, if not all, products will carry one of these tags:

	Paper (紙, Kami)
	Plastic (プラ, Pura)
	Aluminium (アルミ, Arumi)
	Steel (スチール, Suchiiru)
	PET bottles

Sometimes the product will have several of the above and indicate which part belongs in which category. For example, a small carton of fruit juice will have the straw and box treated separately; and a box of Pocky will have the card outer and plastic inner separately identified.

Consult your guide/city office on how to correctly bag these things and when to put them out. It differs because some places burn more categories; allowing them to be bagged together.

Remember that it is "ok" to (i.e. most people do sometimes) dump stuff at 7-11 or other convenience stores, within reason. Filling up their PET bin is a bit cheeky, but dumping 5 bottles or a large envelope filled with cardboard packaging won't raise any eyebrows. However, they usually have no place for burnables unless you count the little bin in the women's toilets (although some will simply have an "other" bin which is for pretty much anything).

Sample
Here is what we have to sort and recycle (separately) in our small mountain city:

• Paper
• Card
• Milk cartons
• Steel and aluminium cans
• Recyclable plastics
• Non-recyclable plastics and others
• Polystyrene food trays
• Burnable food waste, clothes etc.
• Glass/broken glass
• PET bottles/lids
• Large, disassembled items
• Batteries

More

• This healthy obsession with waste-not want-not is an important part of Japanese daily life. The axiom "mottainai" is used on a daily basis to remind us to not waste anything. This finds it's way to meals, too (unfortunately). So don't be surprised if your coworkers/students make a big deal of you leaving or giving away any food. I even had to provide a doctor's note proving my allergy to milk before I was allowed to cancel the order with my school lunch.
• The Japanese Containers and Packaging Recycling Association has a surprisingly interesting (English) rundown of the recycling process, including what your rubbish is set to become in the future (did you know PET bottles are turned into public service uniforms?) It also has a lot of impressive statistics of the amounts and changing costs of recycled materials.
• BBC News has an interesting short video piece about Kamikatsu.

Japan Radiation Checker

Here's a map I found for checking the radiation levels across Japan.

A lot of people seem concerned, so here it is.

Save on Apartment Rent and Deposits

So, we talked a bit about the kinds of fees that factor into the property deposit on a new apartment in Japan. The general conclusion is that it is easy to burn through a lot of money setting yourself up. Here, we introduce some tips to help you save a few of those ichi-man yen notes from the fire.

As we alluded in our last article, one of the first places to start looking to save money is the agent fee, the chuukai tesuuryou (仲介手数料). The trick here is to shop around with agencies until you find one running a sale campaign.

Often, agencies will quietly offer deals like 50% off the 仲介手数料 for everyone or elimination of the 仲介手数料 if you meet a certain demographic, like students or females or young professionals. The campaigns aren't necessarily by company but by shop, so the downtown branch of a company may give you a better deal than the suburb branch of the same company. You won't find out about these campaigns unless you contact shops directly or drive past them and look for campaign signs on the windows.

Once you have found one shop that will offer you a campaign discount, you can use it as leverage to get other shops to give you the same discount. When I looked for an apartment, I found out about a 50% campaign at one local shop, then mentioned the campaign to other shops I visited. I just asked if they would be willing to match the price, and in most cases received very prompt, positive responses.

If you have time (and really, you should give yourself a lot of time for apartment searching), take it slow. Stretch out negotiations over a couple days, even if you've identified the building you like. Ask the agency, a couple times if necessary, "Can't you talk to the landlord again?" "Don't you think you could make this a little cheaper?" "Wouldn't it be possible to cut the shikikin out in exchange for 3,000 yen more per month?" (This last one is a deal I often read in ads, and it is sometimes negotiable even if it is not listed in an ad.)

If your heart is set on a specific building, run its address through Google or search for it on competitors' sites. Properties are usually cross-listed across multiple sites. The landlord just wants it rented, he's not exclusive to Apamanshop or Minimini or whoever else. You shouldn't be exclusive either. Make sure your agent is offering you the best price of the ones listed by different agencies online. One agency may have marked the rent up differently than another. Or, the landlord may have listed it with different shikikin or reikin requirements on different sites.

As soon as you find a better price, call your real estate agent. Keep on top of him (or her)! Even if you have to pester him. Remember, his job is to find you a good apartment. (And he will make bank if you sign on something.) Make it his job to get you the best price on the property, too! Whatever you agree on now will be with you for months or years to come.

Finally, when you sit down at the negotiating table, the agent may talk about other fees that I haven't covered here or in the other guides. Be wary and ask questions about each one. I have been offered things like the "Anshin Life Plan," which was a 30,000 biannual investment claiming to insure me if I lost my key or had a backed up sink. On closer inspection, turns out the "Anshin Life Plan" only covers the cost of someone coming out to the apartment and opening the door or unclogging the leak, and the renter still ends up footing a key replacement or cleanup bill. I was initially told the plan was mandatory for my apartment, but when I expressed doubt about the coverage, the agent made a ten second phone call and came back to pronounce, "We can take it off."

Nuclear Event Explained (for kids)

The best explanation you'll see/hear about Fukushima power plant. I hope this calms some of you down, too.

WS: "Will you..." JHS 2nd Grade

This is another edition of the Teacher Bingo idea I used in my "Did you...", "Do you know how to..." and "Can you" sheets, and is another example of not being afraid to reuse ideas.

The rules are the same: Students decide whether you will or won't do something today. When they've finished, get them to ask you one-by-one. During the asking, they play bingo with their answers vs. your answers. Bingo gets a sticker or something.

Lasts about 20 minutes.

Here's the sheet.

As always, have as much fun as you like with this, but please don't redistribute it as your own.

Nagano City's Hidden Chausuyama Dinosaur Park (and Zoo)

Right next to the zoo in Nagano is the greatest surprise find of my time in Japan: the dinosaur park! And best of all, it's free!

A great stop for all the family if you're visiting, and a fantastic remedy to the boring visa trip for those of you stationed in Nagano prefecture.

The name is a little misleading, I guess. There are no fossils or anything cool like that (although the associated buildings were closed when I went). What IS there is a pretty large collection of life-sized models, scattered around the scenic hilltop park. Some of them have ladders to get inside, slides down the tail, swings from the mouth etc. It's pretty harmless fun for all ages.

There's a picnic area, and various walks through the surroundings.

Connected to the park, near the upper parking area, is Nagano Chausuyama Zoo. I didn't go in, but it reportedly has 57 species of animals and charges a mere 500 yen entry (and only 100 for kids). It also looks like you might see a porcupine wandering freely around the grounds.

The dinosaur park is open all year round (as there is no gate, but there looked like there was a closed gift shop and potentially a small museum when I went), but the zoo is closed mid-January until the end of February.

It's a little confusing to find thanks to sporadic English signs, so here's a map.


View Chausuyama Dinosaur Park and Zoo in a larger map

More
There are a lot of other things to do in Nagano city and the surrounding area, so be sure to check out our Nagano Prefecture clickable map for the full range of options.

Donate for Free Through AccessJ

AccessJ will donate 100% of the revenue generated on this site to victims of the quake and those organisations helping them, as well as 100% of what we have earned so far this year (unfortunately not that much money).

We make money through out advertisements, so you can help just by clicking the adverts on the right-hand side of the screen. If you enter your details after clicking we will earn substantially more (up to 1 or 2 dollars a time), and it won't cost you anything.

Quake: Shimoina Donation Drive

A friend of mine sent me this today. I know a lot of people in Shimoina, so here's a donation guide for those people.


If you know of any other drives in your area/town, let me know so I can post it here

1fl Shimoina Regional Office (下伊那地方事務所)

2-678 Outemachi, Iida (〒395-0034 飯田市追手町2-678) - downtown Iida

Phone: 026-235-7410

Email: tohokushien@pref.nagano.lg.jp

From 8:30am till 7pm (donations are accepted on weekends and holidays too, but I suggest you to call them.)

The campaign started on March 16th and will last a whole month.

The map: click here

Website: http://www.pref.nagano.lg.jp/kikikan/jishin-gien.htm

1. Water (PET bottles 500ml, 1l, 2l)

2. Instant food (Cup Noodles, Microwave Rice (arufa kome), other instant food products - didn't know how exactly to translate the middle kanji :blush:)

3. Powdered Milk (for babies)

4. Sanitary (menstrual) pads

5. Diapers (for babies)

6. Diapers for old or disabled people

7. (Urinary) Incontinence pads 

8. Masks

9. Toilet paper

10. Tissue boxes

11. Wet tissues

12. Hokkairo (pocket/body heating pads)

13. Batteries (1-4)

14. Blankets - new or dry cleaned (I'm sure they'd accept any clean blankets)

15. (Blue) Hootch i.e. Tarpaulin

Quake: Foreigner Office Contact Details and Radioactivity Reports

A friend of mine sent this over from her consulate today. It's from the embassy, so it's going to be the most reliable information you can find right now.

There are two pdfs:

Contact information for local offices in Tohoku District (dealing with foreigners)
Official report on radiation levels (today's)