Author: Iris

Don’t Panic!

Warning of increased electricity billTogether with my last electricity bill I received, in the beginning of December, an extra leaflet that warned that the next bill in January would most likely be much higher than usual. The leaflet was reassuring and explained the three reasons for this:

  • the increasingly cold weather requiring more (electrical) heating
  • the New Year holidays during which more people would stay home
  • and, also due to the holidays, an increased billing cycle

It was nice to tell me, but since the leaflet was in Japanese, probably every household had received it, which I find interesting. Shouldn’t the Japanese know these things? Anyway, there was no reason to panic, and I felt well prepared.

Until today, that is, when the latest bill arrived. It was more than twice as high as the last one! I was quite shocked, because although I am wearing several layers of warm clothing at home, I am still feeling cold, especially in the evenings. Of course, I am only heating a single room – the office, where I spend most of my time – but I have to admit that I do not heed the electricity company’s advice of 20 degrees is enough. Perhaps it is for the Japanese who seem to be more tolerant to cold in general, and maybe it is for those who cannot sit still for more than 5 minutes. But for this particular European leading, nay, celebrating, a sedentary lifestyle…

Anyway, since it is my own choice between a small bill or warm feet, I know which way to go. Besides, I figure that it’ll even out again in summer, where I will forgo aircondition…

Kagami Biraki

Japanese kagamimochiAs promised a week ago, I actually did eat the kagami mochi yesterday, on the day of kagami biraki, the breaking of the mirror. When I opened the package, the mochi appeared clean with a shiny surface and a consistency a bit like that of a wax candle. It also had a similar taste, so that did not bode well for my cooking experiment.

Friends suggested that I cut off the hard outer shell of the mochi, but since I had left it in the package, it was clean and comparatively soft, so I did not do this. I did cut the two layers apart though, although I have read somewhere that cutting the mochi at all should be avoided for some reasons clouded in superstition. As I have a gas range, I could at least cook the mochi the recommended way – by simply frying it over open fire. In the beginning it was too hard to put a chopstick through, so I just stuck it onto a knife and held it over the flames.

For a while nothing happened, but then I could hear some crackling sound and the outer shell started to crack and crumble. Small pieces could be torn off and they were nice and crisp – and hot – and the inner part of the mochi was soft and sticky. Soon this part dried out and became crispy as well, so it was a little like eating chips.

While the consistency did improve, the taste did not, unfortunately. I had anticipated this and had prepared a nice salad to go with it, so it was fine. In hindsight, I should have probably put some soy sauce onto the mochi pieces before eating them, but obviously only a real Japanese would think of that. No photo of the finished meal this time, since I was busy frying and eating and I have not yet grown a third arm to hold a camera at the same time. Maybe next time…

Uji

Uji is a small city between Kyoto and Nara with about 185.000 inhabitants. It lies on the Uji river, an important waterway of olden times, which one can travel up until Lake Biwa. The first settlement in Uji was established in the 4th century, and in the 7th century the first bridge across the river was built.

The town, with its mountains coming up to the river, was a popular destination for outings of the nobility that lived in Kyoto and served in the palace there. The last ten chapters of the most famous Japanese novel – the Genji Monogatari, which was written around 1000 CE – take place in Uji. Some people claim it was even written there when Murasaki Shikibu retreated to a monastery for a while, but then others dispute her having written those chapters altogether. There are at least two statues of Murasaki near the river, and a museum devoted entirely to the Genji Monogatari.Genji monogatari statue at Uji river.The most famous attraction of Uji, however, is Byodo-in temple. It was originally a villa, built in 998 by a high-ranking court official, but only some 50 years later it was turned into a Buddhist temple by his son. The main hall or Phoenix hall, is supposed to resemble the palace in the Land of Happiness. It is a bit hard to see in the photo below, but the building is essentially a T-shaped structure, where the left and right parts of the horizontal stroke represent the wings, and the vertical stroke the tail of a phoenix. Where the two strokes meet, the head of the bird is supposed to be, and there is placed a large statue of Amida Buddha.Byodo-in templeByodo-in was designated as UNESCO World Heritage in 1994, and an image of it is prominently featured on the 10 YEN coin. One of the phoenixes on the roof – national treasures, by the way – is depicted on the 10.000 YEN bill of Japan. There is a large museum in Byodo-in showing Buddhist art that was made for and used in the temple. Even if you don’t buy the extra ticked to get you into the main hall, you can still get a feeling for how it would look inside.Phoenix on the roof of Byodo-in templeOn crossing the river, there are the two main shrines of Uji, the Uji shrine at the bank of the river, and the Ujigami shrine a bit up the hill. Until the Meiji restoration, they were a unit, but now they are separate entities; and in 1994, Ujigami shrine was also registered as UNESCO World Heritage. Entrance of Ujigami shrine

Both the prayer hall of the shrine – the image right below – as well as the main hall are Japanese national treasures. Ujigami shrine, built around 1060 as a guardian shrine to Byodo-in temple, is the oldest original shinto shrine in Japan, quite a feat in a country where many so-called ancient buildings have burnt down and were rebuilt several times.Prayer hall of Ujigami Shrine

Another thing Uji is famous for its green tea. It is one of the first places of Japan where matcha green tea was cultivated, and from the 12th century until today, the quality is excellent. On the road from Uji station to Byodo-in temple, there are numerous shops that sell anything tea related, be it ever so vaguely: matcha chocolate and cookies, matcha Baumkuchen and soba,… but also utensils for Japanese tea ceremony, and cups and beakers. There are numerous different types of green tea, of course, from the cheap daily varieties to the expensive ones served only at tea ceremonies on special occasions. But, this is a topic for another time…

Cheap

My accountant visited my office today and finished taxes for last year. Japan seems to have a rather complicated system as to when you have to pay what and to whom:

Japanese currencyThere are corporate taxes to be paid to three different tax offices: the national, the prefectural, and the city tax office. The paperwork has to be filed one month after the end of the company’s fiscal year, and the money must be paid within 3 months of the end of the fiscal year, which in my case makes the latter date some time in May.

Then there is social security – health insurance and pension – for which you have to file the paperwork on 31st of July. Labour insurance is separate from this and has to be filed by the 10th of July. As I don’t have employees, I can choose whether I pay this myself or via the company; paying it myself means that this is cheaper for the time being, so I’ll keep doing this as long as possible.

And then there is personal or employee income tax which we have just finished to calculate. Just like everywhere else, there is an employer’s share and an employee’s share. Usually, the employer withholds both parts each month and the employee only gets the net amount and does not have to worry about anything. And usually, the employer pays those taxes to the tax office each month.

But, Japan is different! What is happening is that my company withholds the employer’s tax contribution each month from the salary of my employee – myself. The company now collects all those taxes and is only required to pay it to the tax office twice a year – on January 20th and July 10th. And the employee has to pay their share individually once a year, and again, there is the national tax due in February and the prefectural and city tax due in June.

Are you confused now? Me too! I’m very happy my accountant has it all under control. And I am even more happy about the results concerning the employer’s contribution for last year, since I only have to pay some 2000 YEN employer’s contribution, and some 4000 YEN employee’s contribution. Now, talk about cheap!

Japanese New Year Traditions

There must be a million and one New Year’s traditions in Japan, and I have resolved to try at least one new one each year. I did not ring any bells this (or rather: last) year, but I did go out to Shimogamo Shrine for hatsumode, and I bought a new general luck and happiness charm there for this year. On top of that, I have bought a kagami mochi this year:

Japanese kagamimochiIt generally consists of two layers of flattened mochi rice cakes, a Japanese bitter orange called daidai on top, and is decorated at least with a two-coloured bow that is considered lucky. The two mochi pieces are supposed to symbolise the old and new year, the moon and the sun, or yin and yang; whereas the daidai symbolises the continuation of a family from one generation to the next. My friends simply said that the two layers of mochi are meant to double the luck that comes into the household.

Kagami mochi are sold at the end of the year and are usually displayed in the household’s shinto altar until January 11th, when they are ritually broken apart in a ceremony called kagami biraki and are eaten. This is meant to ask the gods for good fortune during the coming year. Yes, the mochi are edible and according to my friends you just cut off the hard (and probably dusty) outer part and then fry them and that they are quite tasty – as far as mochi go, I guess.

Kagami mochi can have different sizes, the largest ones are usually those placed at the altars of shrines. Mine is a rather small affair, and the daidai on top is made from plastic. As you can see, the whole thing is wrapped in plastic as well, which is a good thing because I placed it near my entrance (I don’t have a shinto altar in my home) and I do indeed intend to try and eat it!

With the new year comes a new format for the blog. Since I have started working and am rather busy, I have much less time to go out and have fun with the Japanese and their culture. And I think that writing about my daily routines is quite dull (one reason I never kept a diary), and so is reading about it. So, I will reduce my personal posts to two per week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, I will restart my weekend posts about all things Japanese that are hopefully of more general interest. I hope you’ll keep enjoying the blog!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year of the monkey everybody!
May the new year make all your dreams come true!

New Year's Card 2016I continue to embrace Japanese traditions. The above is the nengajo New Year’s card I sent out this, or rather: last year. I cannot ascertain this, but apparently the long stroke leading to the right symbolises the tail of the monkey… It was hard to find a card that I considered serious enough, monkeys obviously inspire people’s silliness. For example, I found a nengajo showing a banana – and nothing else… A bit too much silliness for me, to be honest.

Since this year I also (had to) send nengajo to business connections (essentially my lawyer and my accountant), I asked a Japanese friend how to do them properly. Well, the right hand corner of the front has to show one of the standard phrases, and the addresses on the back (both mine and the one of the recipient) have to be written in Kanji as well… I only wrote eight cards this year, but for these reasons I laboured for more than 2 hours! I have received some nengajo today as well, and as I can see that my business connections printed their cards, I will consider this as an option for next year.

Tenno Tanjobi

Once again it’s the Emperor’s birthday today – and a Japanese national holiday in its honour. There are a few things I need to take care of before Christmas, so I don’t have anything planned. I might have a special birthday chocolate to help celebrating though…

chocolate cakes

 

Happy Birthday Your Majesty!

 

Warmth

window frost Slowly but surely, it is getting cold here. Both last winter and last summer were relatively mild with not too extreme temperatures, but somehow I am worried that I will not be that lucky this winter. Right now, it has 9 degrees outside – and 10 degrees in my bedroom. And for next weekend, the weather forecast promises around 0 degrees during the night…

My new apartment is in parts better, in parts equally bad as the old house I lived in before. My office – the room where I spend most of my days in – has only 9 square metres as opposed to the 12 of the old room. There are also no cracks in the walls and all the windows are closing tight here. Unfortunately, the windows still only have single glazing, and there is no insulation whatsoever either on the inside or the outside of my walls, which are not even 20 cm of concrete, with wallpaper on one side. And even new houses are still built like this – I don’t get it…

The Japanese solution to the issue is either air-conditioning (if you reverse the airflow, it is getting warm inside) or, mostly, space heaters. For larger rooms they use liquid gas, but in a normal apartment many people use electric heaters. Obviously, this increases people’s energy consumption, which, with most of the nuclear plants still down, is not encouraged. The solution to that came with my last electricity bill: a nice flyer suggesting: “Oh, just heat your room to 20 degrees only!” So, either the Japanese are a very active people who never sit down during winter time, or they are actively trying to kill me…

For now, I heat my office only, to about 22 degrees, and I am just wearing a bit thicker sweaters and a bit warmer socks. I have also closed all the doors in my apartment to prevent draughts, and I have added sticky foam padding to strategic places where the fusuma sliding doors are not closing properly (they never do). And today I went out to buy a second space heater, mostly so that the friend who’s visiting next week will have her own. We’ll see how it goes – and for how long…

Bonenkai

Yesterday, I went to two bonenkai, year-end parties. Such a party usually takes place some time in December, and is an opportunity for friends or colleagues to go out and, well, get drunk. It is one of those times when even the Japanese let their hair down.

My first bonenkai was with my English students, we simply met in the afternoon in one of my favourite cafes and had some ice cream. Only one of them had known about the place before, and I have the impression that the rest enjoyed the food – mission accomplished! I even received a little present: a package of red rice – rice with adzuki beans – something that is eaten on special occasions only.

Christmas Market Osaka 2015Afterwards, I went straight to another meeting with a friend of mine, and we had a real bonenkai dinner, although a slightly unconventional one: I took my friend down to Osaka, where until December 25 there is a German Christmas Market. Apparently, the Umeda Sky Building near Osaka Station houses the German Consulate of Osaka, and thus, on the plaza outside (or rather, underneath) there has been a German style Christmas Market for years already.

We had a blast – and an enormous amount of food! There were a number of stalls with food imported from Germany: Würstel! Laugenbrezen! Spätzle! Bratkartoffeln! Leberkässemmerln! And of course, lots and lots of Glühwein… The only food I found a bit overpriced were the cookies – 600 YEN for 8 Spekulatius is too much, even if you can only buy them there. The market had quite a good size, there was a large Christmas tree in the middle where people were performing Christmas songs (English ones, unfortunately), there was an Advent wreath and a small train and a carousel for children. There were also stalls selling Christmas items, but I did not find anything I wanted to have; I was looking at a nice traditional nutcracker though, but not for 11.000 YEN, sorry.

My friend, being from Eastern Europe, had never seen a Christmas Market like this before, and he followed my every step with respect to food and drinks. Once we were not hungry any more and had enough Glühwein for the night, we left and made our way down to the river, where until January 17 there is one of the main displays of the Osaka Festival of the Lights. We strolled along the river and underneath the lights near Osaka City Hall, the night was relatively warm (or was that the Glühwein?) and it was a very nice ending to a very nice evening.