Category: experiences

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 ;-))

Sorry for not writing (again), I have been extremely busy the last week (again). And then on top of that, there were a number of appointments I had as well…

One of them was a party in Osaka. Do you remember Kyotogram – the facebook page I wrote for? The department moved back to Osaka about 9 months ago, and now, the department head is quitting his job. He already has a new one in Nagoya – working for Legoland Japan. He seems to be very excited about the new challenge, and challenge indeed it is – whereas Lego is a huge brand in Europe, it is not well-known in Japan. So, as the managing director for “everything digital”, he will be first and foremost responsible to raise the awareness of Lego in Japan.

With the department head gone, the whole department is disintegrating. One of the programmers has already left, “Junior” will leave next month as well to become a copywriter in an advertisement company. Then there is my friend, whom I have met a few weeks back because she wanted to talk about going self-employed (Don’t do it!). Only a single one of the department is not planning on leaving (or so he claims), and he will be responsible to push the single thing that came out of the Kyoto adventure forward.

It’s a pity to see things falling apart. Even I am sorry about this, how hard must this be for the head of the department? I feel for him and hope that he’ll have more long-term success up in Nagoya. Good luck, shitsucho!

Last Sunday afternoon, while I was busy working, it rang on my door. When I opened, I got worried: There was a policeman with a small file in his hands and an inquisitive look on his face.

It was pretty harmless though, because once he had made sure that I was indeed the person living here, he explained why he had come. Once a year, the local Koban – a very small type of police station with only a handful of officers – sends out their officers into their neighborhood to visit every household. There, they make a list of the people who live there and then ask for a contact person in case of emergency.

The idea is that if you had an accident for example, and you would need assistance (going to a hospital), the police would call that contact person for you so you don’t have to face things on your own. For most people, this is a family member, like a spouse or parent. Since I have no family in Japan, I gave the name and number of a friend of mine. The officer assured me that this information would be kept only at the local koban, and not entered into an online database or even into a computer. Just the paper, ma’am (Japanese LOVE paperwork).

Since then, I have asked a couple of friends whether this is usual, and they said yes, this was normal all over Japan. It is one way of showing concern for the citizens, and also a way for the officers in the Koban to know their neighborhood.

I think this is a smart idea, especially for people who live alone or have no family nearby. When you have an accident at home, your neighbors probably know whom to call, but if you’re collapsing on a trip somewhere, then at there is that knowledge that there is a phone number somewhere at a safe place. Always good to know that you’re not completely alone. 

As you all know – because I have complained about it often enough – there is a construction site next door, where the shopping mall is enlarged considerably. Every time I pass by, I marvel at the efficiency of the work crew and how quickly they are getting things done. By now they are starting to erect the steel frame, and they are very fast in doing so. I took the photo below last week, and they have already put up a new section.

One of the guys guarding the gates knows me already and we chat every now and then when I try to get a closer look. He said that the new mall is supposed to open in December this year, and by the looks of it, they are going to achieve this.

I wish I could be just as fast and efficient as they are. Guess I need to work on that a bit more…

What is wrong with Japanese dentists? I have been living here for five years, and I’m already on my third dentist. and now it seems I need a fourth! I am not complaining about the work they are doing, it’s not as if I could judge that anyway. My teeth are functional, and they do not hurt, so I guess they are fine from a technical professional point of view.

The problem is that they appear to have serious troubles with ethical behaviour towards their patients. Let’s examine the evidence provided by my three dentists:

The first one I went to went with me into the tiny X-ray room, and while putting the lead apron on me said: “You are a beautiful woman”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those #metoo crazed women who scream sexual harassment at every corner and would now need 15 years of therapy to get over this incident. I like men, and I like receiving compliments. However, I don’t like getting them in an inappropriate situation like this, where I am not free to respond in any way I might wish to. I let dentist #1 fix the broken tooth and did not return.

The second one I went to – an expensive private doctor – loved his “treatment plans”. You would go there with a problem, and after having a close look at it he would come up with a written, English (!) treatment plan that you had to sign before he would start the procedure. Nothing wrong with that – if you have the possibility to decline. Which there wasn’t. Because once he had handed you your personalised treatment plan with your name on it plus a pen, the doctor would leave you in charge of his assistant, who barely spoke English and couldn’t really answer any follow-up questions. I signed one treatment plan, but did not let me bully into agreeing to another one.

When I found the third one, he seemed to be quite alright, and I have gone there for several procedures. The only annoying thing was that everything took at least three visits, but that’s a minor thing. The last time I went, I had another broken tooth requiring an inlay. I also told him that I had lost a filling a while ago and that I wanted this one fixed too. he looked at it and said it was an easy “drill & fill” job. First of all, I had to more or less force him to it on y third visit instead of having to come again. And what I got was this: A new filling replacing the lost one. Plus a replacement for the filling of a neighboring tooth that had nothing wrong with it other than being made of a type of metal he does not approve of. I did not ask for that. I was not asked about it, either.

So: What is wrong with Japanese dentists?

I believe these three instances are serious ethical issues: sexual harassment, bullying, unwanted procedures. Has “informed consent” not trickled through to Japan just yet? I cannot go to a dentist – or any other doctor for that matter – whom I cannot trust to put MY interests first, after all, this is MY body. How come these people can keep working in the long run? Am I the only patient with these experiences? Am I the only one to complain?