Category: experiences

In my apartment – except for the entrance and the bathroom area – there is only a single door. I mean, a normal, Western style door that swings open and that even the Japanese call “DOA”, as opposed to the Japanese style sliding doors made from paper, called fusuma. All my tatami rooms are equipped with fusuma, but between the hallway and the kitchen/livingroom, there is said one single door, that separates my office space from my private living space.

Although the house is well designed so that the sun does not directly shine into my office during the summer, it still becomes quite hot. Now is the time when I have all my windows open, but even so the airflow through my office is minimal. Only in the evening, around sunset, there is usually a stronger breeze that cools down the apartment a little.

However, that breeze is also strong enough to cause that one single door to bang shut, which gives me a shock every time it happens. And even if I put something on the floor to prevent the bang, the door still closes, leaving me to quietly suffocate. So, I have to get up regularly to open that door again, just so that it can bang shut again…

Yesterday I’ve finally had enough and decided to fix that problem once and for all. So, today I went to the home centre to look for a solution. I love browsing the home centre and imagining all the creative stuff that could be done with all their goods…

Anyway, I found what I wanted, and after about 30 minutes of tool-less wrestling and wrangling, I had managed to install a little hook that is supposed to keep the door from banging shut again. I am extremely pleased with myself and right now, I am enjoying a nice, cool – and quiet – evening. Ah, what’s the next project going to be?

I’m back! I had a wonderful time in Korea with my old friend – and with her boys out of the house, we girls had a great time dancing. Or, more accurately, drinking…

The trip itself was not as smooth as I hoped it would be. From Kyoto to Kansai airport it is roughly a two hours trip, and I usually take a group taxi, as this is the most convenient way. This time on the way to the airport, there was only one more person to share the taxi with, but for some reason there was some delay, and we needed to wait for her quite a bit. Then, almost predictably, we ended up in the rush hour traffic jam somewhere before Osaka, but the driver was smart enough to get off the highway and to circumvent it on normal streets. However, as we did not make the usual stop somewhere in the middle, I guess we were still quite pressed for time.

On the airport, after the machine check-in, I unnecessarily spent about 20 minutes in the queue for those who wanted to check in luggage… Oh well, Terminal 2 is tiny anyway, and there was still enough time to eat some udon – the low-cost carrier I flew with does not even offer water during the flight, but then again, it’s only 90 minutes anyway.

Interestingly, I had quite some problems with my luggage check. For some reason I had to run my bag (already emptied of toiletries and the laptop) through the X-ray machine three times, and then they asked me if they could hand search it. I have no idea what triggered the whole thing, but in the end they took away my toothpaste, a 160 mg tube that was not even 1/4 full anymore: “The container is too big…”

On the way back from my friend’s place in central Korea, the highway bus was 30 minutes late and I panicked a little, but I did make my plane. I stood in line for the usual luggage check, and again, they checked my carry on bag three times and then finally conducted a manual search. My pencil-case was a problem (why I still don’t understand), and they took away the best of all my friend’s gifts. Or, they tried to do so – only over my dead body would I give up that 650 gram jar of Nutella!

So, to educate the rest of you: Nutella apparently counts as a liquid in Korea. And you are not allowed to bring it on board except in 100 ml containers. Thanks America! The young woman at the luggage check was very friendly – “I understand, but there are so many CCTV cameras here, I cannot let you have it!” – and suggested check-in, or sending it by mail, or repackaging. Being a bit pressed for time, I went for the first option and paid 3000 YEN extra; that was the most expensive jar of Nutella I ever received as a gift…

In the end, the plane was delayed just enough to make me worry about my taxi home, but I found the information on their homepage to be inaccurate. I finally made it home, dead tired, at about 1:30 on Sunday morning, and dropped into bed immediately; I only opened all the windows to thoroughly air my apartment during the night.

The most interesting part of the whole trip was the special paperwork I had to go through as a resident of Japan. Usually, when entering Japan (and many other countries), you have to fill in a “disembarkation card for foreigners”, giving your personal data and details about the trip.

As a resident of Japan I don’t need to do this anymore. However, those like me living in Japan and intending to return have to fill in an “embarkation card for foreign residents” on their way out of the country. It is essentially the same thing, a piece of paper stapled to your passport, and you have to retain it during your trip abroad until you reenter Japan, where the paper will be removed again.

On top of this, everybody who enters Japan has to fill in a customs form. This time, because I have asked that all my boxes from Germany are delivered, I had to fill in two forms – one for customs at the airport and one for me, or rather: my shipping agency. It was straightforward, the officer was friendly, although he gulped a little when I told him the number of boxes that would be coming. I hope I did not make any mistakes, Japanese bureaucrats can be very literal…

Even though the trip was not very relaxing, the time spent with my friend was certainly worth it. We had great food together and talked a lot and we drank wine and had chocolate. I met some friends, did some shopping, and I could even finish some administrative stuff. Altogether, a very nice holiday indeed!

I know how this must sound, coming from the woman who has just spent 5 months hunting for the perfect washing machine…, but I am really not that particular a person! These days I try to buy Japanese products and patronise small local shops, because I think that if I expect to make a living in Japan among, from, and with the Japanese people, it’s just fair to give back to the local economy and not some international corporation that manages to not pay any taxes anywhere…

Beyond that, however, most of the things I buy I choose from a strictly functional point of view. Every electrical appliance I have bought, both for my office and the household in general, is from a different manufacturer. I don’t mind that my kitchen is not all of a piece, with a fridge that has a Swarovski-stone encrusted front with pink flowers, as seen in Korea, for example (yes, I am serious!)

The same with clothing: I don’t care for brand names at all. It is difficult enough to find clothes that I like, that fit, and that come at a reasonable price. The second criterion is even more difficult to fulfill here in Asia for somebody who is somewhat more… what’s the word again? … ah: voluptuous… than the average. Besides, as long as all those high fashion designers measure their clothing on 14-year-old stick figures, they obviously don’t want me as their customer anyway.

Similar with hygiene products: I buy whatever is cheapest whenever I need new toilet paper, tooth paste, shampoo, hand soap, dish detergent… If you’re not allergic to any ingredients, you can get away with that, and I don’t see the point in buying toilet paper with flowery print and lemon smell if the one without does the same trick at half the price…

There are only a few things I am extremely particular about, food for example. I buy Nutella, not any of those local chocolate spread imitations. Years of experience and unsuccessful tryouts have proved me right. I also buy European wine and cheese, and not the American versions, even if that means that my food bill is three times as high; I don’t drink that much wine anyway – not since I have discovered sparkling sake…

One other thing I am extremely picky about is: tooth brushes. For more than 20 years now, I have been buying only a particular brand of tooth brushes, one that is only available in Austria. Whenever I visit Austria, I buy a year’s supply of them, which usually makes the cashier look at me in a peculiar way… Unfortunately, I haven’t been in Austria for a long time now, so I was reduced to buying local, but I did not like them at all…

Somehow, I came to talk about the subject with an Austrian friend of mine – who promptly said he would go out and go shopping for me. And lo and behold: A package with a six month’s supply of my favourite tooth brushes arrived in the mail yesterday… Thank you so much! You’ve made my day! Oh, those little joys…

To my greatest shame I have to confess: I caved in. I gave up. Five months of trying and working and seeking – and I just couldn’t go on any more. So, after a drama similar to the one with me getting internet, I finally went out last Friday – and bought a washing machine.

Oh. I probably should be explaining this in a bit more detail…

Altogether, I have been living in Asia now for six years. And all through this time I used local washing machines, often second-hand models. The standard Asian washing machine is a top loader machine, the main feature of which is that it is not capable of heating water like the European ones are. Meaning: it uses whatever temperature the water has as it comes from the tap, whether it be luke warm 25 degrees in summer or almost freezing 10 degrees in winter.

Six years with those machines made me hate them, hate them thoroughly. First of all, I have the impression that top loaders treat the laundry much more roughly than necessary – many of my t-shirts now have at least one tiny hole somewhere. Second, it seems to me that they are not washing as cleanly as possible – clearly, cold water does not clean as well as hot one, no matter how much detergent you are using. And third, they use way too much water for my taste.

So, when I moved to my new apartment in February, with the intention of staying in Japan for good, I decided that I would treat myself to a decent European washing machine, a beautiful front loader with a variety of programs with hot water up to 90 degrees Celsius. It may be more expensive than the standard I thought, but as a good machine will last for 10 years and more, this is not an issue. And thus began my journey…

Firstly, I went to Yodobashi Camera. When I bought the fridge and the gas range, I already checked the aisle with the washing machines and I was not happy with what I saw: Most of the machines were top loaders, and the few front loaders they had could not heat water either. “No point in buying these” I thought and moved on.

Secondly, I contacted a German friend of mine who has been living in Tokyo for more than 30 years. She said she was using a local model, but she could track down an *insert German top brand here* shop in Tokyo where they would sell the German machines I wanted. I took a trip to Tokyo and together with my friend we visited the store. The experience was rather … disillusioning.

The cheapest model they had cost 300.000 YEN. Then they wanted 100.000 YEN for delivery and installation. And then they estimated 250.000 YEN on top of that for remodeling my bathroom. This was needed because their machines run on 230 V and Japan has only 100 V, so the electric wiring would need to be strengthened, and possibly the floor too. I declined. I mean, I don’t mind expensive, but I do mind extortion. Hence, no advertisement for them here…

Thirdly, I let the whole thing slip for a while. With my visa and the company I had enough decisions to make. Only in the beginning of this month I picked up the loose ends again – all the while lugging my dirty underwear to the nearest laundromat. I found out that Panasonic (remember, that’s a Japanese company) manufactures beautiful European style washing machines, and they sell them everywhere all over the planet – just not in Japan.

I went so far as to coerce a friend of mine to call Panasonic and ask if they would sell those machines in Japan, or if it was possible to import them from any place where they are sold, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia… for example. The man on the other end said, well, we don’t sell them here, and it’s not allowed to import them (as they are not certified for Japan). And even if there was a way to import those washing machines, he would not know, and even if he know, he was not allowed to tell us. Which left us with the two options that a) either he really did not know anything about importing those things, or b) he did, but thought it better not to talk about that on a company phone. Unfortunately, we’ll never find out…

Fourthly, my visa arrived, and I figured that with all my stuff still in Germany awaiting shipment, I could just as easily add a German washing machine to all the boxes. It would have cost me only 150.000 YEN, with 150.000 YEN for an independent workman to fix the bathroom, and free delivery and installation.

I had already contacted a white goods store near my shipping company, but then another friend of mine told me that she had tried to bring her old washing machine when she moved from Europe to Asia, and that she had to throw it away after all – and did I know that there was a different electric frequency in Asia? Well, I did not, and I since found out that Europe runs on 50 Hz electric frequency, and most of Asia on 60 Hz. Most of Asia, notice the big exception: Northern Japan, which also runs on 50 Hz. Unfortunately I have no plans moving to Tokyo…

Frantic phone calls and searches on- and offline ensued. The German manufacturer said it was better to buy their machine in Japan. The abovementioned shop in Tokyo said that they had the frequency problem all sorted out and it would not be an issue. We found frequency converters who would do the trick of changing the 100V/60Hz coming out of my socket to the 230V/50Hz the machine would require, but they are expensive (60.000 YEN and up), heavy (at least 20 kg), and hard to get.

In the end, I did not dare to import a machine where I could not have been absolutely sure that it would work here. Besides, I thought that while it would be fine for me to renovate the bathroom in my own house/apartment, there’s not much point in doing so in a rental one – and my landlord would not have paid a thing (understandably).

Fifthly, I finally went out last Friday to buy a washing machine. And lo and behold, I found a Panasonic front loader that is able to heat water (15, 40, 60 degrees), only one of two models currently out there. It is an enormous thing more than 1 m high and looks as if you could shoot it up to the IRS laden with supplies. It has 10 kg capacity – apparently the Japanese like to wash their futons at home – which means that I will probably need to wash only once a month; it’s good that it comes with a built-in dryer so I will not run out of clothing in the winter…

The whole thing came at a price of 225.000 YEN, plus 3.200 YEN delivery and installation – which was only that expensive because my building does not have an elevator – and costs for bathroom remodeling of 432 YEN. The reason for the latter is that my bathroom has a very flat tub installed in which the washing machine is usually placed. In case there is a leak, the water will be contained in the tub and drain away without flooding the whole bathroom. Unfortunately, the tub is very old and the machine is too wide to fit in – by about 10 mm.

My neighbour had the same problem and he said I could just buy bricks or wooden blocks on which to place the machine half inside and half outside of the tub, and you can see on the photo below that this is exactly what I did. The people installing the machine were not particularly happy, but by then I was not ready to give in any more, and in the end we managed. So far I have done two loads of laundry and I am, let’s say, not totally dissatisfied. However, every time I have to go to the bathroom now I get a little shock at the sight of that UFO taking up so much space in there…

It was dark when I came home the other day. I went straight to my office and turned on the lights. As I did so, something brown moved in the top corner opposite the door, and it terrified me for a split second (I might even have shrieked a little) and the thought flashed through my mind: My goodness, a spider – and a large one, like those in the old house… Half a second later my brain gave the all-clear: Relax, it’s just a gecko!

I like geckos, they have such intelligent faces, but I still prefer them outside. Thankfully, he panicked just as I had done and moved down to the floor. Once I got him to untangle from the cables underneath my desk, he swiftly moved on to the livingroom where he settled in a corner on the floor. Hoping he would stay there for a  moment or two, I fetched a tissue, picked him up and with an “it was nice, but please don’t call again” I finally put him out on the balcony.

It is a bit unclear how he could have come into the apartment. Although I have my windows open now, it’s just those parts that have a screen, and he could not have come in there. However, I had done some laundry that day and put it out on the balcony to dry. When I brought in the laundry again, I left the screen open for a while – I guess the little gecko slipped in then. They are very fast indeed, and I wonder when I would have noticed him had he not chosen such an obvious spot in my office as his hunting ground…

Curious what animals can make it to the 5th floor. As long as it’s geckos I don’t mind, and I like the birds perched on my balcony in the morning. Spiders would me more of an issue, and I am terrified of cockroaches finding their way into my kitchen. Since that evening, whenever I turn on the lights in a room, I carefully check the walls and ceiling for intruders of the animal kingdom. Let’s hope there will be no further surprises…

Yesterday, I have finally received my new zairyu residence card! It is valid for one year and allows me to work as “Business Manager”. I have to say, I feel extremely grown up! Now it’s time to start doing what I promised to do in exchange for the visa. 😉

Interestingly, it comes with additional paperwork. Technically, the visa I have is “multiple entry”, meaning that during its term of validity, I can go abroad as often as I like and still retain the visa. Usually, you get a stamp into your passport stating exactly that, but not in Japan. The Japanese, ever fond of yet another piece of paperwork, require you to fill in a form at every departure. The form is called “Embarkation card for Reentrant” and you need to tick a box that says “departure with special reentry permission” if you are a resident in Japan (tourists don’t need this). Apparently, this will be stapled to your passport – effectively in exchange for the “Disembarkation card” everybody gets when entering Japan. I really hope I will not forget this next time I am going abroad…

However, for now I’m not going abroad, but I will visit this year’s yoiyama tonight. It seems there’s a typhoon approaching, and tomorrow may be raining…

Last Saturday, the adult members (i.e., 3 people) of the soroban school I am visiting took a trip down to Osaka to visit a soroban museum. It is run by an old soroban teacher who is even more enthousiastic about soroban than mine, which I found hardly possible. Although the museum is very small – it is just two rooms on the second floor above his school room – the owner says that he has more than 1000 soroban, and he collects anything that is in any way soroban related, be it ever so slightly.

The first room houses the collection of soroban. There are old ones from China and Russia (which look more than the abacuses we have in Europe), and all sorts of soroban that are either made from an interesting material or have some story to them. We saw soroban made from pearls, glass, ivory, and  a very expensive one from tiger’s eye.

There was a rather beaten up soroban that survived a tsunami somewhere, was found in a rice paddy afterwards, and had its history carved into the back of it. There were beautiful soroban from China with ivory inlay in the back or in metal boxes, a brand new binary soroban. Also, two soroban with integrated pocket calculators (or is it the other way around?) made by Sharp, and three different types of soroban for blind people.On top of that, the first room houses everything that depicts a soroban in one way or the other; from paintings and noren curtains to clocks and lamps, netsuke and jewelry, and of course, toys. It was a wonderland of soroban related things, and I still think I may have missed something. The second room was more of a study with a small, traditionally Japanese work place, and a library containing exclusively books about soroban. Not just textbooks (some of which dated back to the Edo period), but even art books where at least one of the images somewhere showed a soroban. Altogether we spent about two hours in the museum, and at the risk of sounding extremely nerdy, we really enjoyed ourselves there. Afterwards the owner invited us to dinner and coffee, and of course we kept on talking about soroban all through the evening. Isn’t it nice if you have a hobby like this?

As I have mentioned in my post from last week’s Monday, the apartment building opposite my own has been prepared for renovation. Nothing much happened last week after the scaffolding was put up in the pouring rain, but this week, finally, work has begun.

On Monday and Tuesday two workers were busy doing something to the roof and the facade of the building that seemed to be sandblasting. It was very noisy, took the best of two days, and now the colour of the roof has turned from a shiny black into a dull grey. I cannot see the facade, as it is behind the scaffolding which is now covered in grey protective sheets, but I would assume that something similar happened there.

As I said, this work was extremely noisy, and the noise was almost constant. And although it is rather cool at the moment for this time of the year (only around 30 degrees), the humidity is high enough that open windows are very pleasant, no, almost a necessity. By early afternoon on Monday I’ve had enough, packed my stuff and went to a cafe that is close by but far enough as to not be affected by the noise. It was a good decision – I got quite a lot done that afternoon!

When they started again yesterday morning, I was all but packed to go out to a library for the day – when it started pouring down and I decided to stay home after all and move to the bedroom at the back of the apartment instead. I thought I could endure the noise for one more day, and indeed they seemed to finish yesterday in the early afternoon.

However, it never rains but it pours… Yesterday around noon, another company has started to tear down a wall on the other end of the parking lot that lies just underneath my balcony… And as this is a very old (and beautiful too, let me state that) brick wall, more than three metres high and maybe eight or more metres long, this will take quite a while for people yelling at each other, jack-hammering, throwing bricks onto lorries… (*)

It seems there will be noise going on for quite a while, and there is not much I can do about it other than fleeing to some cafe or library, if I want to get some work done. I hope they are finished soon…

(*) Fun fact: The parking lot underneath my balcony is a private one, only people who live in our houses (and their guests) are allowed to park here, which means there is a chain at the entrance. It is mostly empty, many people don’t seem to drive their cars on a daily basis. Also, the parking lot exits onto a very quiet, straight, one-way road that is mostly used by cyclists. However, one of the about 10 people tearing down the wall is standing there with a signalling stick to make sure all cars get in and out safely. Talk about job-creating measures…