Category: experiences

Yesterday a new era has begun with the ascension of Emperor Naruhito to the chrysanthemum throne of Japan. The era name  is Reiwa, and there is much hope that it will be just as peaceful as the preceding one.

Usually, the ascension of a new emperor is a somewhat solemn affair because it also means the death of the previous emperor, so you don’t really know whether to celebrate the occasion or not. This time, people were free to celebrate: They stayed up all night, celebrating at midnight at May 1st; they visited popular spots to watch the sun rise in the new era, which is a popular thing to do on New Year, by the way; or they visited the imperial palace in Tokyo to try catch a glimpse of the new emperor and his wife.

I’m wondering if and how things will change with the new emperor. I am especially curious which role the new empress will take. She didn’t have an easy time adjusting to the ceremonial overload in the palace, but now her status has changed and she may just be able to go out and expand her role beyond the traditional ones. Time will tell if she becomes just as beloved as the Michiko, Empress Emerita.

I must have mentioned it a number of times before, but still: Japanese efficiency never ceases to amaze me! In the beginning of April, I mentioned that I now need new pension and health insurance and that I went to the pension office to subscribe. The nice young lady told me it would take them 3 weeks to process my application, but they were even faster than this! I received all my paperwork back after two weeks and two days. As part of the paperwork, I received a nice blue insurance card and stickers that I can put on the card to indicate that I’m fine in receiving generic medication, something I have not decided yet.

Anyway, I’m now officially enrolled in national health insurance and pension plan. That meant that I needed to go to my ward office and cancel Kyoto city’s health insurance that I had until now, so I would not end up paying twice. I went there last Tuesday with some trepidation, because the last time I had had to go there, there was nobody who spoke English… But everything turned out to be super easy: I simply handed over both insurance cards, the clerk entered something into his computer, made a copy of both cards and returned the blue one to me: “Finished,” he said, and that was that. The whole procedure took less than 5 minutes, including the wait.

Still, I cannot help being a bit cynical now: Officially, I enrolled in national health insurance on April 11. Does that mean, I’ll have to pay the first 10 days of April to Kyoto city’s insurance while at the same time getting a reduction of national insurance for April? Honestly, given the way how Japanese are sticklers for even the tiniest details, I would not be surprised…

Happy Easter! Okay, yes, that was last weekend, but still I am very happy: I survived my chocolate-free time! And I actually did binge on chocolate on Easter Sunday… Here’s a recap of the last weeks:

It’s good to know that I can do things if I truly want them. That’s not big news, really, but it’s nice to have  a reminder every now and then. Interestingly, I did not have massive chocolate cravings during my fasting, but that may have been because I had the outlet of eating other sweets. I learned that I “need” chocolate when I’m feeling down, when I’m really stressed, or when I want to celebrate something. That’s not much news either since for me, chocolate is indeed the epitome of “sweets”. Other stuff just doesn’t cut it.

And that’s probably the reason why I didn’t lose any weight at all in the last weeks: I simply ate other sweets, and because I find them less satisfying, I ate more of those than I should have. Interesting to know for future reference. I’m not sure if I’ll do this challenge again next year – and then not eating any sweets – but we’ll see.

One good thing is that I could finally save all the 12 different Meiji chocolate wrappings that they have out at the moment. Each wrapping is different, they are called “my sweet request” and inside of the wrapping, there is a special wish written. On the one in the middle of the top row, it says “My dream is to live in a house with a pool”. I’m curious what the others have to say, but I’ll try not to eat them all at once. I know how to refrain by now. 😉

One of my English students is taking a break for a while, since she will have to do a great amount of preparations in the near future: Her daughter is getting married! It’s a pity somehow, because this would be my first close-up of a Japanese wedding, but I hope she will send an email every now and then to let me know how things are going.

What I know so far: It’s an omiai wedding, meaning that when the couple had met for the very first time, they had done so for the express purpose of meeting a partner for marriage. In these kinds of arranged marriages (although the couple nowadays has full veto powers), things tend to go very quickly. These two met in the beginning of February, and the groom already wanted to get married on May 1st…

The groom was introduced to the bride’s parents only last week, and this weekend, the parents will meet. That the marriage will take place is already decided upon, now it’s just about the date and the type of wedding – traditional shinto or modern Japanese – that needs to be fixed.

To me, this seems a bit strange and very exciting at the same time. Not necessarily the way the couple met – I guess every single person ever has had friends play matchmaking on occasion – but the fact that it’s already clear that they will marry, after not even three months. I realize that there is something like “love on first sight”, but even so, this is a speed that I’m not used to. Western bias, I’m sure.

Sorry for being quite so whiny last week… We all have our ups and downs, and I’m feeling nicely up again, thanks to the last weekend! There were lots of things to do, and I feel perfectly energised.

On Friday, the weather was nice and the skies were blue, and the sakura were blooming… I did not go far, just around the corner to the river, but here’s a photo of this year’s sakura at Takanogawa:

Saturday was even more busy: First, I went to an exhibition about the faith of Kitano Tenmangu. A friend had leftover tickets, and I learnt about Sugawara no Michizane, a renowned Japanese scholar who lived in the Heian era and who is today revered as the God of learning (and enshrined in Kitano Tenmangu). A great number of treasures of the shrine were on display and even though I couldn’t read any of the descriptions, lest the centuries old documents, it was very interesting.

Then, I went to the Art Dive Festival, where a great number of young artists, artisans, and craftswomen were exhibiting their arts and crafts. There were lots of manga-style drawings, which are not really my thing, but also lovely other things like jewellery, crafts from paper and textiles… I ended up buying lovely earrings after going back and forth on them for three times or so… I’m happy about them, so that’s a plus.

And today, I received word from another friend that she will come over to Japan at the end of May, that makes three people already I haven’t seen in a while and will have great fun catching up with. And they will all come within a single month – it’s wonderful!

Yesterday was so NOT my day…

I had forgotten to make a facebook post for What’s Up in Kyoto, so I had to get up early to do it, and: facebook didn’t like me, or my browser didn’t like facebook and it shut down 5 times before I could finally publish the post. I don’t like facebook and this is not the first time that happened, but it was definitely a new record!

Then, I had to go to the bank to pay my taxes – and I needed three attempts to do so, all because of my own stupidity. I brought the forms along alright, but then I noticed that I had forgotten my hanko which I need to “sign” the transaction. Back home I went to fetch the hanko, just to realise the second time I was at the bank that I had forgotten my passbook, which is also needed for the transaction… On the third try, I finally made it, and when I was home at around noon will all the forms and stamps and passbook prints in place, I was already exhausted.

It was raining too, and I soaked through my sneakers in the morning already. On a normal day, this would have been a reason to go straight back to bed, but I had an appointment in the afternoon and couldn’t do that. Because it was raining, I had to take the bus to get to the appointment. This is a bus that only runs three times an hour, so I need to check the timetable every time I take it. And, for some reason or other, the online timetable was offline… I was lucky that I came at the right time for this one.

After the appointment, I had to go to several places in town for shopping, and I dropped by the Lindt Chocolate store to buy something for Easter. And of course, they offered me a free piece of chocolate – and matcha to boot. It was really difficult to decline (but I promised that I would be back in two weeks).

After that, I decided to have dinner at a restaurant nearby my home, and when it came to paying, I had prepared the wrong amount for the cashier. Not a big deal, really, but it was the last straw. I then went home, did not turn on the laptop but went straight to bed – at about eight. At least I had a stash of books at hand, but this was so far the one and only time I had a terrible craving for chocolate, just to soothe me for the terrible day I had…

Japanese efficiency is amazing! Yesterday, I ordered a new pack of “Manner Schnitten” from THE Japanese online retailer Rakuten. They said that delivery would take a day or two, and I thought, okay, Wednesday morning I’m home, so let’s have them delivered in the morning., it’ll be fine.

Today, in the early afternoon, when I came home from my Japanese class, I found a slip in my letterbox that they had already tried to deliver my package at around 11 – less than 24 hours after my order! And when I called the delivery driver to tell him that I was home now and if he could please try again, it took him barely 20 minutes to stand at my doorstep again.

The efficiency is absolutely fascinating, I am greatly impressed! The parcel was handed to the delivery service in Fukuoka yesterday at 15:07, and they tried the first delivery today already at 11:02, that’s 20 hours only. Wow! My friend says that’s normal, she says if she doesn’t get her stuff within 2 days or so she starts worrying that something might have gone wrong…

Today was not my day, and that’s putting it mildly…

First, I received an email from my friend who’s helping with the What’s up in Kyoto highlights. The museum that I had planned for next month has declined our offer of highlighting, very politely of course, but it’s still a no. Back to square one.

Second, I spent about an hour at the bank trying to transfer money to my account in Austria, and in the end, I was unsuccessful. I forgot – yet again – “My Number”, a sort of personal identification you now need for any kind of international banking. Plus, they want to know where the money came from, what I’m doing with it and that that other account is truly mine. All of which I have already told them before – several times – but they’ll just need to check again for good measure. I did mention before that the Japanese love paperwork, didn’t I?

Third, I went to another little museum that might be another highlight option, but this turned out to be more of a gallery. They are not totally uninteresting, but probably not what I’m looking for after all. I’m a bit unsure whether to feature them, and tomorrow I will visit another museum  and see what they have to offer.

Fourth, after two disappointments in a row, I decided to try out a new cafe in town that sports a large advertisement talking about “Big Apple pie”. Since I’m not allowed to eat chocolate, I’m happy to try that – the next time it’s open, because today they were closed.

Fifth, I then decided to go home, but not without buying one of those interesting “sweet potatoes”, which actually are pastries made with white anko (the only type of anko I like) and have a nice, cinnamon-flavoured dough outside. They are a small handful only, and very, very delicious. but again, the store was closed today, and I had to go home empty-handed.

See, this would be one of the moments where I would be reaching for my jar of Nutella. But of course, Lent and promises and stuff…

*sigh* I’m glad this day – which was definitely not one of my highlights – is over. Tomorrow will be better. I hope.

Hi, my name is Iris, and I’m a paper addict. Yes, you hear that right: I love paper and the things that are made from them.

Mainly books, of course. There is nothing more wonderful than the smell of a freshly printed book or magazine or even newspaper. My favourite book smell is emanated by the Springer LNCS (Lecture notes on Computer Science) series, right when the books come out of the plastic wrapping from shipping. The smooth, glossy pages are wonderful, but the smell…

I have met many nerds and their vast libraries, and pretty much all of us are very protective of our books. Every time I see somebody dog-earing a book or, even worse, marking in it, I have to exercise great restraint not to become homicidal… But that’s a topic for another time. Because here, I want to talk about paper, and my love for paper goes beyond books.

I love letter paper and can hardly pass by postcards in the museums I am visiting (even though I’m not writing many of either these days). And I love notebooks. Notebooks of all sizes, of all prices, from the lovely paperblanks to standard notebooks for school, whether squared or lined or blank.

And the nice thing about Japan is that the Japanese seem to share my enthusiasm for paper. Many people still have paper diaries, even though pretty much everybody carries a smartphone these days. Bookstores are always full with people of all ages, and so are libraries. And there are many stationary shops selling notebooks, and: They come in all colors. I love making colorful statements too, so I couldn’t resist (and yes, I did try) getting the whole septcouleur notebook collection:

Lovely, aren’t they? Even though they only come lined, whereas I prefer squared paper (the mathematician in me, I guess), but they’re still great. Now I just need to give myself permission to actually use them.

Because, the interesting thing is, that while I still do a lot of “real” writing on paper, most of it is not meant to be kept, so I use scrap paper or the back of old flyers for example. I do hope I can break this habit somehow so I can use my new notebooks – maybe I should just start writing more interesting stuff? (I actually did already, but more on that one later ;-))