Narrative Disorder » Making a Home in Nagoya, Japan

Narrative Disorder Redux

Danielle — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:43:10 +0000

The flattened boxes and packing material have finally been taken away, and everything except my desk, which was damaged and is being repaired and refinished, is in its new place, so I guess 'I'm still settling in' can no longer excuse a lack of blog posts. I find myself in the midst of a problem, though - about what should I blog?

The plan was to do our best to treat Sydney as though it were Japan and continue to travel, playing tourist in our own land, and continue to blog about life as an ex-pat wife, hopefully hitting on the odd issue that could be helpful to someone. It seemed a good plan; we lived here for 18months before we moved to Japan and it was, indeed, like moving to a foreign country (I genuinely found Japan easier), so clearly there were difficulties worth addressing. Now that we're here, however, the cost of living prevents us from being able to travel as we did in Japan, so travel and photography will be limited to the, not unattractive, metropolitan area. What is more, in the few months we've been here, I've found solutions to the main problems we had living here last time and, while I will eventually write those posts, there really aren't that many ways to say "Have lots of money" and "Don't live in The Shire".

Nevertheless, life is not lacking excitement, even if it is the kind of excitement which only that percentage of the population which identifies as 'writers' (and possibly musicians and other creatives) would define as such. Perhaps it's the lack of beautiful architecture luring me from my desk, and/or the removal of the constant, low-grade stress of living in a land in which you do not speak the language, but my narrative disorder has returned with a force I have not experienced for many years, perhaps even since high school. Characters are tramping through my head all night, scenes are playing like movies in my mind's eye, often from the moment I wake. When sitting down to write each weekday, my only creative angst derives from trying to unravel the big ball of scenes which seems to have replaced my brain. It's bliss!

All that is not to say that it's easy. No matter how quickly or slowly scenes come to mind, rarely do they come in order, and, despite the phrasing sometimes used to describe the process, nothing actually writes itself. What is different at the moment is that the scenes come so fast that it's all I can do to get them down, and there is simply no time for self-doubt. For years, I've understood intellectually the theory that you have to take off your editor's hat while writing your first draft. I've repeated the advice as mantras: "You can't edit what you haven't written"; "If it's worth doing well, it's worth doing badly till you learn", trying to convince myself not to second-guess as I go, but I've never before managed to achieve it. I'd like to think that I've reached some kind of personal and professional turning point, that this new state is the result of my continual practice and study of the craft, and that it will be, if not permanent, at least something I can call upon at will, but I daren't tempt the Gods by assuming such a thing.

And so, the answer to my original question becomes clear: the blog will return to its original subject - my Adventures in Wordcraft (I wonder if I still have any readers from when the blog was called that?) Whether this blissful state is permanent or not, I'll be doing everything I can to nurture it and, while I probably won't share my actual writing with you here, I will do my best to share anything that helps me to keep this state going. Off the top of my head, I can imagine posts might include: reviews of books on writing; alerts to a writer/agent/publisher whose blog or tweets I find inspiring; recommendations of tech that make reading or research easier; reviews of fountain pens and inks I use to slow down and create less frantically; or even a recipe for some comfort food to soothe a ragged, creative soul.

To those of you who came to this blog because it was about Japan, I want to say thank you for reading these past eighteen months, I hope I was able to help your own Japanese experiences in some small way. I have a few posts on Japan left in me, but only a few. Many of you are also writers and I hope you'll stick around to see where this goes, but I won't be surprised or upset if I see my subscriptions and views dropping substantially - it's quite a ride, the whole ex-pat jBlogger thing, even from the sidelines where I've been hanging out!

Of course, the most important way to nurture the muse is to answer its call to write, so chances are there will be awfully long gaps between posts, but I imagine only family, friends and writers will be watching for Narrative Disorder to go bold on their feed readers, so I'm sure I'll be forgiven.

From my desk to yours, happy writing!!

The Locusts are Coming!

Danielle — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:19:35 +0000

Urgh. Feeling very much in the midst of this at the moment.

We are pretty much in the same position as we were when I wrote this post from Sydney in Jun 2008 - the packers are coming on Tuesday morning at 9 (four hours after Brigid will be picked up for her trip to Aussie Quarantine) and we are in preparation limbo. Our days are a blur of decision making: Air, Sea or Plane?; Pack ourselves or leave for the packers?; If pack ourselves do we do it now or will we need it before Tuesday?; Do we even TRY to write "Air" and "Sea" in kanji on the stickers we are hoping will indicate to the packers that the various items are to go by air or sea - what if the kanji for "Air" is one stroke off the kanji for "The Depths of Hell"?

In Sydney, on packing day, we had four guys packing up our stuff, with no language barrier, and it was rather like trying to coordinate a locust plague. One guy might see you nearby and so ask you if you want your Grandmother's china treated as fragile while another might see you talking to the first and so, even though he's not TOTALLY sure, just make his own judgement based on your stickers with arrows and big black texta that the stuff IN this chest of drawers is to go by air but the chest of drawers itself is to go by sea - when you share a language, that's going to be right most of the time. Also, in Australia, if something seems just, well, stupid, an Aussie will - as politely as possible - ask you if you really meant that you wanted to ship your entire library by Air. This time, there will be five or six men who won't speak English, and one supervisor who will, but, in my experience with the Japanese so far, none of them will be so rude as to second-guess me even if they do wonder why Oku-sama has clearly written in kanji that she wants the piano sent to the Depths of Hell. Who is he to argue?

Today our goals are to organize which clothes will come with us and which will go by sea and organize the office - the latter seems an Herculean task atm but I am discovering that switching to tunnel vision and tackling a 30cm square area at a time eventually gets you there!

We will have internet till we leave and will leave the computers up till Monday (going by Air, no question) and hopefully at some stage between now and then I will have the time and energy to blog about our lovely, snowy New Year at Atsuta Shrine - but no promises, it may not happen till we are back in Australia and up and running with (what, in Australia, passes for) internet access.

Happy New Year to all!

Tip! Buying cooking knives in Japan

Danielle — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:50:59 +0000

Anyone who cooks even slightly, and probably many people who don’t, gives at least some thought to buying a knife or two when they come to Japan. It wouldn’t be stretching the metaphor too thin to equate a chef’s knives to a Samurai’s swords so it makes sense that many cooks dream of having knives forged using the same methods as those swords. Unlike electronic goods, or virtually anything else, in Japan you do actually save a LOT of money buying Japanese made knives here in comparison to buying them in the US or Australia – IF you go to the right place! A quick caveat: make sure you know what the importation rules are for your country before you buy them – you don’t want to find them confiscated at the other end! I’ll break this down into a few sections: Where to go Handy Japanese Phrases How to decide what to buy

Where to go

Kappabashi, specifically Kappabashi Dogugai Dori between Kototoi Dori and Asakusa Dori, and its side-streets, is the place Tokyo restaurant and cafe suppliers go to get all the hardware they could possibly need, whether it’s cooking supplies, ceramic ware, bento trays, enamelware, plastic utensils and storage, or four foot tall,ornamental (I assume) cheese graters – and it’s where you should go, too. Even if you aren’t shopping for knives, if you have any interest in ceramics or home wares, plan at least a half a day there. It is a dedicated supply area, though, so bring water and expect to have to go elsewhere to eat as there’s not much around. Also expect the occasional store person to grunt “20 minimum” at you in some of the shops – but only some, most are happy for the tourist trade. The district is easily walking distance from Tawaramachi, Ueno, Iriya and Asakusa Stations. So, where to go for the knives? THE BIG SECRET: Don’t buy your knives on the main street!! As I said, Kappabashi Dogugai Dori is the main street that you will turn down when you get there and you will soon come across plenty of knife shops with many of the brands you know (including some German ones) and the prices don’t look so bad – a bit cheaper than they would be in the States but not impressively so. These guys are very welcoming of tourists and so they should be because I’d say tourists would be the only people who don’t know that they are spending soo much more if they buy there than if they just went up the street a bit more and round the corner! If you keep heading down the K. Dogugai Dori you will find Kappabashi Hondori – a very small street which doesn’t look like much but it’s the place to go. Turn East up Kappabashi Hondori and just a couple of doors up you will find the tiny, but chock-full-o-knives, Union Commerce knife shop. In Union Commerce we found the same knives that we saw in the main street for 50 to 120 US dollars LESS. Yes the extreme examples were on sale but, and here’s the trick, some of it will always be on sale because there is another little knife shop directly across the street and their blackboards and posters were clearly competing with each other! I can’t tell you what the customer service was like in the shop across the road because I didn’t do much else but peek at the sales board but it’s probably worth a look inside. At Union the staff (owners?) are passionate about knives and have seemingly endless patience for broken Japanese and charades! I left very happy with my beautiful sleek black boxes having saved approximately 450 USD over the five that I bought. If you are looking for a hand-crafted knife (as against the hand-finished or entirely factory made ones which are, obviously, cheaper) I believe (through a friend’s friend who is a chef in Tokyo and did so himself) you can order them through Union but if you’re going to spend that much then hire yourself someone to translate for you when you go!

Handy Japanese Phrases

Hocho= Knife (you will also hear the word ‘bocho’ if you are listening well – this is the same word but ‘h’ is turned to ‘b’ after some syllables for easier pronunciation) [Brand name] no hocho = [Brand name"] knife. Use this if there is a particular brand of knife you are looking for (though I suggest you have some flexibility unless you’ve really done your research!) e.g., Shun no hocho; Misono no hocho; Maku (Mac) no hocho Misete kudasai (Meesehtay koodahsigh) = Please show me. You can use this any time, it’s very handy when shopping, just point to what you want to see and say “Misete kudasai” with a bit of a question in your voice and they will bring the item for you to see more closely. You now have a sentence, btw, Misono no hocho, misete kudasai? = Could you please show me a/the Misono knife/knives? (no plural in Japanese) Kore o kudasai (koray oh koodahsigh) = Please give me this one (or I’ll take this one) Use this after you’ve done all your exploring and decided on a knife that you want to buy. Try not to use this one before you are ready to buy – use “misete kudasai” if you want them to just show you a knife so that they don’t get confused. Note: “kore” means “this” or “this one just here that I am pointing to right at the moment, see?” and is used when the thing is close enough to touch – store people will often point and say “kore?” to confirm it’s the one you want – to which you can nod and say “hai” (yes) or, if you want to sound clever, “Hai, sore” (which means yes, that one just out of my reach and close to you over there ) to (toh) = and. As in “kore to kore to kore to kore o kudasai” because, seriously, who can buy one knife? Kirenaga (keeraynahgah) = a term which means the length of time that a blade will hold an edge. Using this term got me a big smile and guided toward another shelf of knives entirely – the Damascus steel ones, see below for why Honyaki Another type of forging which uses only one high carbon steel. These knives have longer kirenaga but are less flexible and so more easily damaged. They also need oiling and greater care because they are, obviously, not stainless. These knives are more expensive than kasumi knives because this process is less common because of the precision required. The knives made with this process tend to be the traditional and professional Japanese knives (like the Usuba) and often have an edge on one side only, and so are usable only by either right or left handed person, AND require a curved cutting motion which takes both instruction and time to perfect. Kasumi This is a type of forging in which a high carbon steel and iron are used so that the knife has strength and flexibility – this is the process by which samurai swords were made. Knives made with this method of forging don’t hold their edge as long as Honyaki but they need less care to be kept sharp, too so, especially for a non professional, it evens out. NOTE: There is a Japanese knife brand named after this process so if you ask for “kasumi” you are likely to be shown these – not that it’s a problem they are very good knives at a very reasonable price (in Japan lol). San Mai = Damascus/Damascened Steel This is another kasumi forging method which uses layers of laminated steel, and achieves a very pretty but also stronger and longer kirenaga result (still not as long as Honyaki but better than plain kasumi). The knife companies seem to be bringing Damascus into the home knife ranges whereas previously it was much more of a specialized blade (particularly popular with assassins blades, from my web research lol). There is a great post on the forging style on a bladesmith’s blog, here. I can only imagine that either they have found a way to make it more commercially viable or the home enthusiast market has just expanded to make it so, and considering the number of people who recently watched the final of “Masterchef” in Australia, that is a definite possibility. I mentioned that it makes for a very pretty metal, this is because you can see the different layers of metal in the end result – as you can see in this shot that Superman took when I brought my knives home and he went into enthusiastic-husband mode

How to decide what to buy

When talking about knives, a lot of talk focuses on the blade but the most important thing about choosing a knife is actually the handling of the knife, and that’s a very personal thing. Hence the rather tortured heading of this section – I’m not going to recommend any particular knives just give some suggestions (from an enthusiastic amateur cook) on what to take into account. The right knife for the right job This might seem obvious, but it’s actually a safety issue to have the right knife for the job. A good pairing knife will have a slightly different centre of balance to a chef’s knife, not just because the blade is smaller but because of the way it is used. A great list of all the Japanese knife types with links to individual descriptions can be found here. If you can only afford one good knife then either a Chef’s knife or a Santoku is the best way to go – the Santoku being the more Japanese of the two, obviously. “Santoku” means “three graces” meaning that it can be used for meat, fish and vegetables. The Santoku was developed after the Japanese were exposed to the European chef’s knife and saw the utility of a single knife which could do everything. A pairing knife for topping & tailing beans and peeling etc… is a good second knife if you have to choose, so that you have a safer option for smaller jobs. The right knife for the right kitchen! A confession. When I went to Kappabashi, I fully intended on buying a professional knife: a Misono UX10 to be precise. At the shops on the main street, the store men nodded with a smile and said “besto knife” and praised my good taste. In Union Commerce, the store man gave me that fond, grandfatherly smile (which is only a hair away from patronizing but an important hair), picked one off the shelf and handed it to me. I nearly dropped it. The thing was soooo heavy and the blade was almost 2 feet long – just the BLADE, the whole thing was almost 3 feet long – that’s longer than the width of the bench on which I would use it! I asked if there was a smaller one – and he giggled and said “Profeshonal hocho”. There is no shame in buying a knife made for the home kitchen – that’s what you are going to use it for. There are lots of companies that put as much quality into their home kitchen knives as they do their pro stuff. A home kitchen doesn’t need the same durability as a knife that is being used eight hours a day, every day (or second day if the chef alternates sets) and so can also get away with being a little more design friendly (in the same way that at home you can use much nicer pans than would be financially viable in a working kitchen.) Be open to brands you haven’t heard of Which brings me to the issue of which brand knife to buy. As I said, I’m not actually going to recommend any specific series of knives but if you’re reading this article, and continuing through this section then I’m going to assume you are going to be doing all the research on good quality blades from the various brands available. Try to remember there are going to be brands here in Japan that you might not have heard of but are equally good or better than those you may have so what you want to do is know your stuff about blades rather than having brand blindness. It’s the knife series you want to research, not the brand. Why? It’s the same with any products that have professional and amateur markets, a company might corner the market in quality on, say, full-frame cameras but not put anywhere near the same quality into their mini-digital ones – amateurs buy them because of the reputation within the pro community and are usually disappointed (while at the same time thinking no other brand is likely to be better which is by far not the case). So, while you’re researching take your notes on the reviews of the specific series of knives, don’t just assume all knives from a brand are going to be great. In the end, forget the blade… Sacrilege? Not really. Once you are looking at the quality series across the brands, the practical differences are so minor that it really won’t matter; after all, you’re not using them solidly eight hours a day. What matters is how it feels in your hand. One of the things you will notice about most Japanese knives is that most have plain, wooden, very straight handles rather than the ergonomic handles of Western knives. These handles are also very light and make for a knife with a lot more weight in the blade than Westerners would be used to judging as ‘good’. Shun and some other Japanese knives strike a balance by using similar materials to Western companies, addressing the balance issue but keeping the shape. Other Japanese companies address the comfort issue by copying the Western shapes but using extremely light materials (like pressed linen) so that the Japanese-style balance is achieved. In my exploration I found that Mac, Misono and Kasumi seemed to err on the side of Western handle shapes and balance (which makes sense since they do sell a lot of knives in the West); this, as well as the extra weight of the knife overall, was the reason for my final choice – the Mac Damascus series. My friend chose some Kasumi blades because she enjoyed the balance and she prefers lighter knives. A final recommendation: Nothing to do with the knives, really, but if you do have a passion for cookware and home wares, consider making it the focus of a couple of days in Tokyo. I took the Shinkansen in one morning met a girlfriend who lived just outside of Tokyo (another expat I now miss) and we got ourselves a lovely room for the night and spent two whole days just exploring Kappabashi. My knives now are not only a wonderful treat every time I use them but also a memory of a lovely time spent sharing a passion with a friend.

There, I’ve said it.

Danielle — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:45:06 +0000

We’re returning to Sydney January 8th 2010. I haven’t written about leaving Japan yet because, frankly, I’m quite sad about it but some boxes have arrived (for what purpose we aren’t quite sure) and the packing company is coming Tuesday to estimate how much space we’ll need on a container so I guess it’s about time. I can’t quite bring myself to write the ‘what I’ll miss’ post so I’ll wait a little more on that one and, for today, just outline what our friends and family will probably want to know. We’ve known since I was in New Zealand that it was doubtful that we would get even the 24 of the 18-24 months that was flagged when we left and 18 months was confirmed fairly soon after. After that, where we would go next was the big question. There was a small chance of Bangkok which would have been an adventure, for sure, but would have been HORRENDOUSLY hot and humid, so we weren’t too upset when it was taken out of the equation. The Australian arm of “Anonymous Car Manufacturing Concern (ACMC)” want Superman back for the implementation of the software that he has been over here developing but the big question was: would we be going home (to Melbourne) or to Sydney? Answer: Sydney. That was about when I began fighting off a mild depression. I think I’ve said before that we didn’t do Sydney well during the 18 months we were there before coming to Nagoya. Knowing that, I try not to make sweeping judgments about the city as a whole and we are determined to try harder and do better this time but there is one thing which there is no denying will make it difficult – location. Unlike in Melbourne, where ACMC is in Port Melbourne and we lived in Melbourne itself (right on the Grand Prix track for those who know Albert Park Lake), in Sydney, ACMC is in what is known as The Shire. It’s literally as far South from the centre of the city as its possible to be and still be in Sydney (though most Sydney-ites look at you funny when you say you live there and don’t really consider it part of Sydney.) Because of its distance from the city, there are actually some really good galleries (which often have small runs of the same exhibitions in the city - that’s how regional it is) and people are used to making their own entertainment so there are lots of recreation clubs and creative courses etc… but finding things to do is not exactly as obvious as it would be if we were closer to the city. Why not live closer to the city? It’s just not viable. Sydney’s public transport is bad enough if you live close in and it’s literally non-existent to ACMC. Driving in Sydney is also hellish, understandable with such appalling public transport, and getting across town for virtually anything is just not worth considering, let alone work every day. Superman doesn’t want to have to travel for more than 30 minutes on those roads which means living within what, in Melbourne, would be more like 15 minutes drive. Since we will only have one car, we also need to be somewhere near his work so that I can drop him off and pick him up easily on days that I need to shop (for which I need to drive a fair way to be able to get “exotic” things like ginger still young enough to have juice left in it or name-grain brown bread, like rye or whole.) So, what will we do? One thing that the Shire does have is water; it is surrounded by beautiful bays and inlets and has a coast on the ocean – real ocean. So the aim is to live close to and/or with a great view of the ocean or at least one of the waterways. Not being sporting (or, frankly, even sunlight) types, the most we are likely to do with the water is look at it or walk beside it (though Superman is dabbling with the idea of learning to surf) but just being able to do those two things will make life, and sitting at home writing, much nicer than if we are even a block away from it. There is also a lovely open-air mall in Cronulla which has a secondhand bookshop (GOD I hope it’s still there because it was the only one for miles,) some street cafes, a cinema and a decent green grocer and butcher, so we will also be hoping to live within walking distance of that. A local photography club meets in some rooms above the mall and I’m hoping that they will be as welcoming to visitors as their website says they are. That might be as much of the clubs and courses I will be able to handle, though – the beauty of living close to the city is that you can choose when to dip your toe into a play, a concert, an exhibition or even a short course without any ongoing commitment. For those of us who lean toward the hermitic and find get-togethers once every two months perfectly adequate to feel in touch with humanity, once a fortnight can be a little tough to manage. When will we find this magical apartment (because we don’t DO gardens)? Some time after January 8th, after which we will have a month in a serviced apartment while we house-hunt. Brigid will be in quarantine for at least 30 days, so we don’t have to worry too much about her, thank goodness. It would be nice to have it all organized before we leave, so that we aren’t going into such an unknown, but at least having a month rather than only a week (as we thought we would have in early December) will give us a little more ability to pick and choose – not that renting is really like that. For the time being, I am in that limbo time when I have a desire to organize everything so that it’s not weighing on my mind but can’t actually do much because we’re not packing anything ourselves except what will be packed into our travelling luggage which, of course, is what we need to live with every day. Of course, the other thing The Shire has that I do tend to miss here is bird life (of the non-enormous-raven-type) and I like to think that my friend the cocky, pictured above, might just find me again

The Down Side

Danielle — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:09:43 +0000

This post has been milling about my mind for a while but particularly this month as today approached. I am sure it will not be worded as well as it could be but you will have to forgive me, you will see why below. There are many wonderful things about being an ex-pat, though perhaps I should say “mobile ex-pat” to distinguish we who live in a new country for a year or two (or three) from those “immigrant ex-pats” who have made a permanent home in one particular country. Most obviously, the opportunity to experience living in a country for at least a full cycle of seasons and celebrations, rather than being restricted to a week or two as a tourist, is extraordinary. Even if one only learns a little about the local culture, we learn things about ourselves and our home countries (and our relationship with our home countries) that we could not have done had we stayed home. But one of the things which I have appreciated the most was something that, in all my reading and intellectual preparation, I did not expect: the friendships you make with other ex-pats.

Even the most self-sufficient person who moves to a new city and culture (and, as we discovered in Sydney, that need not be in another country) needs a support network in a similar way that we do when we have a child or experience a massive life change like divorce. Most people forge their close, lasting friendships in the fires of the playground or Uni lecture halls (or the avoidance thereof) and so it’s understandable that those living where they grew up have little need to seek out new friendships – whatever the language barrier. It makes sense, then, that the first and possibly majority of friends that you make when you arrive in a country will be other ex-pats who either have been or are going through the same process. Those who have been here a while remember what it is like to be in the position of needing help for things which seem so basic they are almost childish and so they look out for newbies and, even if it is the first and only conversation you will ever have, share their advice generously. Obviously, if you find you have something other than “how to live in..” in common then you have the makings of a lovely friendship but if not, well that’s cool, too, the advice is almost always obligation free!

So, why so friendly? Well, some of it is possibly down to the fact that anyone willing to move their whole life to another country is likely not to be too much of a shrinking violet but it is also because mobile ex-pats can’t just settle into one group because, well, people are always leaving.

And that’s the down side.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you will remember that we were part of a group of 176 ICTs of not-quite-anonymous-car-manufacturing-concern who arrived in the same week. A day or two after we arrived, around thirty of us were taken to Immigration to apply for our re-entry permits en masse. After the wait for our number in order to line up and submit our forms we then scattered ourselves around the waiting room chairs to wait for our number in order to line up and receive our permits. Superman saw R playing with his DS and asked about it and the boys chatted for a bit and then A told R (this is silly they deserve silly anonymity names like everyone else so lets call them Caesar and Augusta ) So, Augusta told Caesar that she was going to get a drink at the konbini and, well brought up as she is, asked us if we would like anything while she was there. Now, I am usually painfully shy socially and so my first response was to say “Oh thanks, I’m fine” and then it occurred to me that I didn’t want to be like that here so I quickly added “but I’ll keep you company” and jumped up and went with her before I could notice what I was doing and freeze in fear. Augusta will be surprised at this (I think) but that was actually kind of nerve-racking for me, such a simple thing I know but I was incredibly nervous! We discussed drinks a little (she didn’t drink coffee, just like Superman) and made our purchases and by the time we returned to our seats we were chatting away. A few minutes after that we had exchanged phone numbers (and Augusta had taken our photos to use as our IDs on her swish phone.)

A couple of weeks later, NZ K had invited us to the quiz at Red Rock and we invited them to join us and the (very successful) ANZUS Alliance was born. In the next weeks dinner parties were had; plans were made to go out together with our matching DSLRs; decisions to stay indoors with the aircon till Summer was over were supported; Rock Band and Wii were played; mutually loved films were watched and favourite TV shows were swapped and fallen in love with. When the heat was over, we began venturing out together, happily spending hours together in the car driving to and from Meiji Mura, Kyoto, Nara and Takayama where we spent a wonderful weekend together staying in a traditional Gassho inn. In February we found we were at Yuki Matsuri at the same time and spent two lovely days exploring Sapporo, where they helped us build our first snowman (outside the brewery, where else!), and blowing glass in Otaru. Just last Sunday, to celebrate Augusta’s birthday, they took us to karaoke (my first time) and actually managed to get me not just to sing one song in front of them (painfully shy, remember, I don’t sing without at least 80 people to hide within) but to belt out “Love Shack” and “Whip it!” with utter glee!

It was in October in Takayama that Superman and I tentatively suggested we spend the inn’s post-curfew hours playing one of the board games we’d brought along. We bashfully gave them a choice and they leapt upon our favourite BECAUSE it looked so complicated and had so many pieces that it took an hour to set it up following the very specific rules. Truly, this geeky couple had found their geeky match! Many, many more afternoons, evenings and wee hours were wiled away playing Arkham Horror (we have the setup down to 15 minutes with out need to refer to the rules!)

To say that the last year wouldn’t have been the same without them is understatement in the extreme. I’m sure we’d have been fine if we hadn’t met them but we wouldn’t have had so much FUN and I know I wouldn’t have gotten through some of the down times without Augusta on the other end of the phone. We seem to let off steam the same way, we both enjoy some good, solid venting but all the while knowing and laughing at how whiney we are being and so never sinking into that “isn’t Japan stEWpid!” thing that so many ex-pats so easily do (thinking about it, that is a character trait of each of the close friends I’ve made here.)

Augusta leaves today. She has missed her family even more than she expected and is returning to an exciting new adventure and so I am happy for her and wish her all the luck and love in the world but I will miss her terribly, as I will miss Caesar when he follows in a month (with all the moving work done for him in advance, lucky bugger!) We will still Twitter and Flickr and email and Skype, they will have somewhere to crash wherever we happen to be living whenever they can make a trip, whether it be in a year or ten years from now, and we know vice versa applies. Still, it’s sad.

Thank you for everything, guys, don’t you go getting lost in time and space on us!

For those missing out, a virtual Hanami…

Danielle — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:22:47 +0000

When we first came to Nagoya to find a home here it was late May and it was the Summer green of the trees in the street, which filled the view from the study window, that sold me on our house. The bark of those trees also filled me with a quiet hope - I suspected they were some kind of stone fruit tree, all of which have beautiful blossoms. Well, the verdict is in - not only are they stone fruit but Sakura, Japanese Cherry trees and their blossoms are magnificent!

The view from my study window was just too beautiful today and I took my camera out for a play in the sunlight. The flickr slideshow is below, there are around 50 shots you can full screen it for your own virtual hanami experience. I hope you enjoy it.

Technorati Tags: hanami,cherry blossoms,japan,spring,flowers

Kyoto by Day

Danielle — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:30:26 +0000

Our last day in Kyoto was Sunday and the weather finally cleared so it was both safe and worthwhile to get the dslr out. We strolled Gion again (still sweet but not half as romantic as in lantern light) and failed to see the Imperial palace (it seems you have to make a booking in advance - be warned) but enjoyed a walk in the surrounding park where the cherry blossoms were just beginning to bloom. We also went to the International Manga Museum which was essentially a huge manga library in an old primary school with added exhibitions and an artists' and cosplayers' hang out. The slideshow below contains no photos of the latter hehe. Resolution should be high enough for you to full screen it - enjoy!

On Japan Post and how to have a package re-delivered!

Danielle — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:04:11 +0000

Since moving to Nagoya I have, I'm sure like many other expats, become fairly reliant on the Japan Postal Service and they just never let me down! I think I've mentioned before how much faster Amazon orders arrive here than in Australia but I think that is partly due to orders probably waiting Stateside until there are enough orders for Australia to justify putting them on a plane - many more planes and airlines coming to Japan than Oz. Nevertheless I am now convinced that, once they hit Japan, packages take far less time getting around than in Australia or possibly anywhere! That's a big statement, I know, but I'm basing it on experience. I recently placed a large order of (it turned out wonderful) clothes from the States, they company sent me an email to say it had been shipped and to allow 1-3 WEEKS for international delilvery - obviously the time frame they feel necessary to quote based on their experience. It was at my door 5 days after shipping! So how do they do it? Like the train system here, the postal service just works like any customer would hope it works - frequently and seamlessly. Deliveries here to our inner east suburb are twice a day on weekdays and once on Saturdays AND Sundays - so that's a speed-up right there, more delivery days = more sorting = less time sitting around in piles. Deliveries keep going right up until 9pm, too. It's also wonderfully regular - my morning delivery is always btn 10:30 and 10:45 so I know not to be in the shower or doing anything where I can't here the doorbell around that time and I can also plan my day around that if I am expecting a package. In fact I have ordered so many books from Amazon that last delivery the conversation with the postie was the following: "Many, many books. You like a lot to read, yes?" I agreed at which he smiled and said confidently while writing it down at the same time, "Ru Shi Na, yes? I remember today! Please sign." If I am not home when they arrive they will try again later that day and if I am still not home, they will leave a slip of card in the mailbox which looks like this: This is an "Undeliverable Item Notice" and means that a package which required your signature or personal delivery was unable to be delivered and is now at your district post office. SO - what do you do with it? A third of the way down you will see some hand written dates - the top date is the day it was dropped off/delivery was attempted and the second date, is the expiry date or the date until which it will be held (I'm not sure what happens if you don't pick it up). The last couple of times I got these I went to the district post office and found the package counter and picked them up myself and I was planning to with this one but just hadn't managed to get there. So I flipped the card over and went to the web address on the back and got to the English page. It explained that you can arrange a re-delivery either by calling the number on the back or filling in the box which makes up the bottom half of the front of the card and posting it back to them. I decided to give the latter a go and was pondering the old kanji-or-romaji question when I noticed the small print in English at the very bottom of the back of the card: "A postal item addressed to you is being held at our delivery center. Please contact us. Should need help in English please call: 0570-046-111" After giggling at myself for a while remembering the time I had painstakingly used my denshi jishou to translate the kanji of first one of these that I got, I gave them a call. Before anyone real answers a robot will tell you that you are being charged for every 20 seconds of the call and give you a chance to hang up. The customer service officer that I got was fluent, fast and efficient so I felt it was fully worth it. She asked me for my name and then to tell her the package identity number (I think that's the phrase she used) anyway it wasn't the 6 digit number in the top left above the bar code but rather the 2 digit number which the postie had circled in the list of options in the middle of the card (which I assume says what kind of package it is.) Armed with my name and this info, she pulled it up on her computer, verified she had my address right (asking me for the details of my block number and apartment number I assume for security) and then asked when I would like it delivered. Here's where the culture clash showed up (note it was 5:35 pm when I called) Me: "Well I can be home tomorrow morning if it's not too late to organize." She: "Um well if you'd like..." There was a hesitation so I offered: "Or the afternoon or evening - any time tomorrow would be lovely if it's possible." She: "Well, because... I can have it delivered between 7 and 9 tonight, if you will be home." Me: "Really?!!!!!! Yes! That would be wonderful!" So here I am waiting for my package - I know which book it is so no big surprise though I'm eager to get my hands on it. If only I'd seen that small print earlier I could have had it days ago! Update: It arrived at 8:03 right in the middle of the time-frame

Technorati Tags: Japan Post,Re-delivery,package delivery japan

Merry Nagoya!

Danielle — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:00:23 +0000

One of my local Supermarkets is called Paré Marché and at the moment its walls are littered with posters wishing us "Merry Paré Marché!" Stores all over the city have similar posters and I'm not quite sure whether they are misunderstanding the phrasing or just approaching the whole issue of the commercial overload of this festival with an unusual frankness. Skepticism aside, Nagoya itself is all dressed up for Yule and looking gorgeous! Every street is lined with bunting which I'm told that, come December 25th, will disappear faster than the best elves could magic them away! The city's main light show is several stories high above the entrance to Nagoya Station and I joined many of my fellow Nagoyans madly snapping pictures one evening. I don't know if there was a narration I couldn't hear somewhere (and wouldn't have understood anyway) so I don't know if there was a story as such but the lights were definitely prettinesses worth recording. I think you should be able to click on the thumbnails to enlarge each photo (and again to close them - swish, if it works.)

Our hosts introduce themselves.

By the power of sparkles...

The book grows LARGE

It's a pop-up book!

A magical city appears

And the magical city celebrates shopping!!!

Looking out my Japanese Window

Danielle — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:15:44 +0000

Shane at The Nihon Sun put a call out to those of us living in Japan to post a picture of the view from our windows and so I thought I'd use this gentle, almost-tagging to ease back into blogging after the break I have taken recently. I have been assessing the role that procrastination plays in my life (substantial) and attempting to tackle it and decided that, while I enjoy blogging and won't be giving it up, my fiction writing has to take centre stage and I have to stop giving into my fears and using my blog to feel like I am 'writing'! So, in that spirit, and I'm sure to the relief of any family or friends who feel obliged to read my posts, this will be the first of many much shorter posts which, hopefully, will get to their point even faster than this one! As some of you will remember, this was the view from the study which sold me on the apartment in which we now live: And this was the view a few days ago: It is cold here now. Blissfully, crisply chill in a way I've never experienced in Australia - even in the alps during snow season it's not quite like this. The light, of which there are many, many less hours, is brighter and the man in the moon, laying drunkenly on his side as he does here, is whiter. I am still holding out hope that in the Spring I will be able to present you with the same view with some blossoms on at least two of the trees which I am convinced are prunuses (pruni? prunii? bah - Latin!) To put that view into more of a context I took this one standing back a little: So now you know where I sit and write my little posts, think my Pollyanna thoughts and procrastinate my days away no longer!

November Japan Blog Matsuri

Danielle — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:58:32 +0000

As the hostess of this month's Matsuri, I posed the question: What has Japan taught you about yourself or your home country? A few brave souls took on the challenge, dug deep and provided us with the posts outlined below. If you submitted your post via the blog widget and did not also put a link on my original matsuri post on this blog my apologies but it will have been lost in a system I seem unable to navigate ( I received no email and cannot find any listing anywhere) so please do email me or add your link in a comment on the original posting and I will gladly update this post to include it

Alex at Bad at Japan shared his self realization about the way he works

and gives us an insight about how he plays with others!

Jason focused his Random Thoughts on both the physical and psychological changes he has undergone because of his big move to Japan.

Liv who eats her pigeons gave us a wonderful interpretation of the culture shock process as growing up all over again

Over at The Soul of Japan, Tony warns us never to take anything for granted in Japan but reminds us that this also includes the good things - take time to stop and smell the onsen salts!

Nick's entry at The Long Countdown had him looking back at England (at risking his mother's wrath!)

Shane at The Nihon Sun has found that she has learned to live a more simple and less frantic life with an increased awareness of everyday beauty - something we could all learn to do.

Sheena at Girlish/Sheena in Japan shares what she learned about being American in the wake of Obama's election and the reactions of some the Japanese around her.

My apologies for the tardiness of this post, I've been unavoidably off the grid for the last week or so and will probably continue to be so for a little while after this post is up.

Technorati Tags: Japan Blog Matsuri,Japan,Expat

Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question

Danielle — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:13:47 +0000

The subject of learning Japanese while one is living here can get a little heated. There are those who don't want to learn the language at all, for various reasons and there are those (many of them in the blogosphere) who think none of those reasons could possibly be legitimate and subscribe to the wtf-of course-you-should-learn-the-language-what-are-you-some-arrogant-jumped-up-tourist-learn-the-language-or-gtf-out-of-the-country opinion. Though I lean towards the learning the language side, the latter opinion is a touch harsh and, if examined honestly, based more on principle than practicality. So, I thought I'd explore the question of how much, or little, Japanese one really needs to live here from a practical and perhaps a little more compassionate point of view. To calm those reading this who are already sitting with tight chests, faces growing red and poised to skip straight to the bottom and flame me in a comment I'll get this over with: OF COURSE there is no such thing as too much Japanese. And, also of course, utterly refusing to learn any Japanese and expecting everyone to understand your language (even if it is English) in all situations and doing the good ol' shouting-slowly-as-if-they-are-deaf-or-stupid is plain boorish - there's no excuse for it. But, as always, I want to pay respect to the people at whom these blog posts are mostly aimed - the expat wives, people often forgotten by the young buck gaijin blogger crowd (and I say that with affection ) who blithely rant about being here voluntarily and about what "should" be done. Expat wives and their families are here for a finite amount of time, the average being three years but that is exaggerated by a small number of people who stay for much longer periods (and somehow remain on the ICT roll instead of being transferred permanently, lucky buggers!) I have only met two ICT's here (remember 176 of them arrived just in the week we did) who are here for more than two years and many are here for 1 year (some 6 months but you don't get to bring your family for that small a stint). Fact: you will not become fluent in that period of time even if you put an inordinate amount of time into it - and most expat wives don't actually have that much time. Most expat wives are, or suddenly find themselves happily on the brink of being, mothers. They have a husband who is basically absent, thanks to the hours they work here, and children to help settle in to this new country who had, potentially, only just got settled and made friends in the previous one. Spending more time than necessary learning a language which you have no chance at becoming fluent in, is just plain impractical unless you passionately want to do it and no one should be made to feel guilty if they don't. Better to work out what you need to know to help you live well here and focus on that. That being said, let me give one little suggestion which may actually be a bonus for an expat wife with children. If your children are going to learn Japanese at school you have, I think, something that those of us without children don't have - the best teacher in the world! If you get right in there with them, learn Hiragana with them and follow along with their work you will be likely to pick up a lot and you'll have a great bonding experience. Every kid uprooted from home would, I'm sure, love the opportunity to teach Mum or Dad a thing or two - so why not Japanese! So on with the advice! *Note - I originally had a LOT of kana in this post but unfortunately it seems Live Writer could not input it properly to WordPress and I have no idea how to find out why not Sorry. Doesn't everyone speak English over there anyway? The simple answer is: speak English, no. I am told that every Japanese high school graduate will have completed at least five years of English language study - this does not translate into speaking English. Both anecdotal evidence and discussions with Japanese tell me that those five years are spent learning to read and write English with very little, if any, emphasis on speaking or listening to the language which means that most Japanese are quite timid about speaking English, especially if they have given it a try and found you didn't understand (exactly the same as us in Japanese, ne?) I noted in Tokyo that many more people were far more fluent in spoken English and were appropriately more confident in speaking it - but these were mostly people who had been hired for their English skill, at the hotel for example. Nevertheless, it is surprising how little you really need to use Japanese at all if you are just living your life as usual - shopping and keeping the family going. With charades and a basic smattering of phrases and an ear and mouth tuned to "katakana Engrish" you can get along fine for everyday excursions (as long as you know you can call on a translation service in an emergency - most consultant companies which move you over here will give you details on that.) Where to start? Katakana As I outlined in a post several months ago there are actually three types of the "Japanese writing": Katakana; Hiragana and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are the two alphabets which are the straight out phonetic scripts - which means if you learn them you will be able to pronounce anything you see written in them by simply sounding them out. Except for a few extra combinations of symbols in Katakana, the syllables both scripts represent are the same, the difference between them is purely visual (katakana being somewhat more angular) but only those words considered to be natively, or "purely" Japanese are written in Hiragana. Katakana is used to write those words which are borrowed from other cultures whether English, French, Chinese or even Swedish. So, why start with Katakana? First, katakana is EVERYWHERE. It's very trendy, or so it seems, to use the non-Japanese word for things, even where there is a legitimate Japanese word - especially in restaurants and cafes and other such tourist frequented places. Shop and company names, even if they are Japanese, are more often in katakana it seems - the first katakana that I read without thinking was Bic Camera and I'm sure I'm not alone in that! So it's very useful to find shops and such. Second, if you can read katakana there is a huge chance that you will, after rolling it round your tongue for a bit, realise that it is actually an English word and you know what it means! For example in a restaurant you might see ko-ra (cola) and ko-hee, hoto, aisu(coffee, hot, iced) or even ba-ga (burger.) And this is why I suggest katakana before Hiragana - even if you are lucky enough to see a word spelled completely in Hiragana rather than a combination of Hiragana and kanji, you still need to translate the word - not so with katakana! If you know a little French, you'll be even better off, in Nagoya at least it seems there is a lot. Finally, I have a third, more subtle reason for you: you will be training your ear. No matter how little Japanese you intend to learn, you will want to be able to hear people clearly, at the least to recognise your own name! There will be phrases repeated at you that you will want to pick up eventually so that you can respond properly - for example being asked if you have your loyalty card or whether you want hashi for your konbini lunch and whether you want it heated for you. If you don't want to spend your entire stint in Japan in a fog of Charlie Brown's teacher-style "Wah wah wah"ing, you will want to tune your ear to the syllables being spoken. In my opinion, the best way to tune your ear is to hear your own language spoken with a heavy accent so that you have a reference point from which to work when you strive to change your mouth shapes to achieve the sounds of the other language - katakana gives you exactly that! If you spend sometime getting used to the extra vowels the Japanese insert into their spoken English and the changes from 'v' to 'b' and 'h' to 'f' etc... you will also be able to make yourself better understood as the Japanese may recognise words they were taught to read rather than pronounce. For a great site to help you drill your katakana, in various types of font, too, you can go to Real Kana What about Hiragana and Kanji, then? Well, if you found learning katakana easy and relatively painless then, by all means, learn Hiragana but it will be fairly useless to you without learning kanji, too. I know Hiragana but I have not yet begun to learn any kanji and so I could spend hours on trains reading "kanji imasu"?"kanji imasen" so the most I know is that there is something that I could do or something that is somehow in the negative but I have no idea what because the rest of the verb is in kanji! So my advice is that Hiragana and kanji can be put in the "only needed if I'm going to learn the language" column. You will come across various kanji in your day to day life (like on the stop signs for example) and you will learn them because you will be prompted to ask about them and then you will have the context required to make the memory stick. There must be some words I really need to know? Of course there are and here's a list of things to learn before you arrive (if possible.) Numbers The Japanese have a basic set of numbers which you should learn into the thousands and tens of thousands for money. When it comes to counting things, though, the Japanese have different variations on the number words which go with different suffixes depending on what it is you are counting. Don't worry too much about it as you will gradually pick up the correct counting suffixes as you go (you learn that the suffix for "floor", as in second floor, is "kai" very quickly as your lift announces each floor it stops on in your hotel!) To start with, though, learn the basic counting which children are first taught and which will be okay to cover everything until you learn better - the basic starts with "hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu," that's one, two, three of something where "ichi, ni, san" is just one, two, three. Money. Leaving the actual exchange rates aside, the Japanese don't really have the equivalent of the word "dollar" and instead count in "en" (which is where 'yen' comes from) and is the equivalent to a cent (meaning it is the base currency). You will need to get used to dealing in hundreds of yen instead of dollars and thousands of yen instead of tens of dollars etc... but it is fairly easy as it is straight numbers with en on the end. Supermarket shopping will really help you with this - not just in the obvious way when working out your payment at the end but the check out person will say the price of each item they have just scanned as it comes up - even if they scan 6 of the same things in a row they will say the price six times - so if you listen and watch the price coming up you will get used tot he money really quickly! The Usual Pleasantries Such as: (note - once again apologies for the lack of kana, when it comes to the Romaji, English letters, a twofold warning - first, I haven't learned my Japanese using romaji and two, there are different ways to write things so it may be different to what you are used to - this is one of the reasons I refuse to learn Japanese in romaji, with kana there is less confusion about pronunciation.) Good morning = ohaio gozaimasu - used till about 11am Good day = konnichi wa - any time is cool Good Evening = konban wa - use after 5ish or sundown Please (as in please do sthg for me) = onegaishimasu Please (as in please give sthg to me) = kudasai Please (as in please, do come in or feel free to do sthg) = douzo - as in "please do come inside" or "please do take my seat" if you are offering a seat to an elderly person on a train - in these cases you only need the word douzo and the gesture toward the inside or the seat. I'm sorry (for doing something wrong) = komenasai - a bow works well with this one ... as with all of these really lol Excuse me/Thank you (for going to such trouble for me) = sumimasen - use this when pushing through a crowd as "excuse me" or as a "thank you" if someone picks up something you have dropped or puts themselves out in some courteous way Thank you = (doumo) arigatou (gozaimasu) - add gozaimasu to be polite, i.e, all the time, and all three to be extra polite (as far as I understand) Do you speak English? Eigo ga hanasemasuka? I don't speak Japanese. Nihongo ga hanasemasen. There will be countless other phrases you will gradually learn during your stay and it will be made easier if you have tuned your ear by learning katakana. A Last note on addresses You will note fairly quickly that the Japanese address system is difficult, to say the least. The system is based around blocks rather than street names and numbers and all but the largest of Japanese roads have no name at all. This is why when you manage to ask someone where something is they will give you a long list of directions and buildings it is near. I suggest that you have your address written in Kanji and keep it with you on either business type cards or even in a small notebook which you carry everywhere so that you can just show it to people when you need it. This still may not help, though, I have found that many people (particularly taxi drivers) don't know how to find our address even when looking at the kanji and so it is best to just tell them the station nearby and the name of the biggest road and then wave madly saying migi! (right!) or hidari! (left!) and then Hai! Ima! (Yes! Now!) So get to know the routes to your house that you might need to guide a taxi along! I think that will do for yet another ridiculously long post! I hope it is useful and that it has put your mind to rest if you were losing sleep about the language issue. If anyone who has been through the move has any other thoughts or phrases to add - please do pop them in the comments - every bit helps!

Technorati Tags: Nihongo,Learning Japanese,Moving to Japan,expat wife

Moving to Japan Tips: Stuff. To Bring or Not to Bring…

Danielle — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:48:11 +0000

As with any house move the greatest stress, I find, comes with the juggling act that is needing to leave packing to the last minute because, frankly, you are using your stuff to live! When moving overseas, particularly for a finite amount of time based on a project or some such, there is (more often than not) the extra stress created by the fact that you have to choose what to bring and what to leave behind in storage. This article strives to help you with that. Please do add your own thoughts to the comments if you've been through it, too - "moving to japan" is one of the most common key phrases that link people to this site and I'm sure it will be much appreciated!

Tip 1: Find out your shipping options early and take your own time.

The first thing to do as early as possible is to find out what your shipping options will be. If a sea shipment is not a possibility for you then, frankly, that takes a little pressure off since it rules out bringing anything really substantial and cuts down your need to make a decision but, then again, you won't be able to bring anything substantial... If you are being transferred by your company you will no doubt at least have an air shipment but it is likely to be fairly small: whatever you can fit into about the size of 4 standard (tea chest size) boxes seems to have been common to the couples that moved over with us - hopefully if you have children you will have more and/or a sea shipment option. Whatever your options, most international shipping needs to be professionally packed for insurance and import reasons so you will likely have at least one consultant come to your house to assess how much stuff you have and give your company (or you if you're self-funding) an estimate. They will want to book it as soon as your company calls them because they may be competing for the business but here's an important tip: Don't be hassled into doing it until you feel you can give them a fairly precise idea of what you want to take because you will be held to that quote with very little leeway. When they call you, ask them what they were told would be the ballpark - at the least they will know whether they are quoting for a sea shipment as well as air freight. After you've asked your questions, make the appointment within a week to be fair but to give you time to do what you need to do. Which leads us to:

Deciding what to bring.

So, how to decide what to bring? Well, I'm going to give you a list of things you may have trouble finding when you get here but beyond that I'm going to reiterate my advice from my previous post in the series: however humble or temporary it is going to be, create a home for yourself - you'll need it.

Tip 2: Take an unabashed emotional inventory

The study the day the sea shipment arrived!

Before you get into the nitty gritty, make some time for yourself and a cup of tea, grab a pen and paper and sit quietly for a bit. Ask yourself what stuff makes your home home. We're talking emotionally here and it's totally valid and will be worth the time however rushed you feel you are. Now is not the time to be tough with yourself or build some ideal about not needing 'stuff' to be happy - just be gentle and honest with yourself. My husband was honestly happy to leave all his books behind, if he needed something to read he'd buy something new. On the other hand, I knew that I had to have at least some books with me - it was partly rational as most of the books that I'd consider "mine" are non-fiction and are references for my writing projects but it was also hugely emotional: my books are part of what is home for me. I also realized that it was important to have my Grandmother's china with me - it's not hugely valuable or several generations old but it was hers and came to me via my Aunt and its one of the few family things I have - we barely use it but it's here and I'm glad it is.

Don't forget, too, that it's not just about what you would miss having around if you were feeling down - think about what you do when you celebrate, too. Do you always toast with particular glasses? Do you have special Christmas decorations you've had since a child? I have a what I call my festival tree which is a cone shaped "tree" made in Africa of vines woven together and then dried which was made as a Christmas tree but which I decorate for all sorts of occasions - people think it's weird as hell but it came with us! Of course you should also ask the rest of your family to think about that, too. If they poo-poo you and you can't convince them it's important then maybe take some guesses yourself about what is special to them, though it's best to have it from them of course. If you come up with a huge list then you will probably have to cull it so think hard about what is really important to you.

Tip 3: Things you might find hard to get in Japan

Okay now down to what the practical among you will find the most important - list time.

Furniture (Sea Shipment):

Really only two suggestions here - everything else you will be able to lease in some form without too much trouble. Your double (or larger) bed. Obviously if you can't have a sea shipment or you've one of the many apartments or houses in which a double bed would not fit then this is impossible but if you have a good bed that suits your back give HUGE consideration to bringing it. If you've been on a trip to Japan already you'll have noticed that the beds in hotels are very hard and so are most beds in Japan - and I don't mean firm and supportive, I mean H A R D. Unless you have a few thousand dollars (US $) that you are happy to spend on a bed just for use over here or can spend most of your furniture lease budget on it, any bed that you lease or buy on the cheap here will be a) probably two single beds locked together and/or b) a very firm mattress sitting on a wooden box with a single, stiff, metal-reinforced wooden board underneath - no slats, no yielding to your body at all. A traditional futon in a room with tatami matting may genuinely be better for your back since tatami has more yield than the boards I've seen under mattresses - and is something to consider, too, anyway. Bookshelves If you won't have more than a few (say 20) books then again this doesn't matter but if you do, and you have a sea shipment, consider bringing enough for the books you are bringing (keeping in mind the size of your new home, of course.) There are some ingenious space solutions here for books and CDs etc which are shelves but they are mostly quite chunky and won't hold books much larger than a DVD case.

Appliances (Sea or Air):

Obviously if you come from a country with a different electrical standard (which basically means anywhere other than the US as far as I know) you will want to lease as many of your appliances as you can because you won't be able to use them back home. We decided some things were worth bringing over and getting a big transformer to power them. Computers and peripherals: First of all, our furniture leasing wouldn't cover computer gear anyway and our consultant said that was "normal" so don't expect to be able to lease the latest whiz bang stuff because you are in Japan. Also, if you get a computer here it will have a Japanese OS and need compatible software and it's more of a big deal than you'd think. So consider bringing your computer gear in one of your shipments. We chose to fill 3 of our 4 air shipment boxes with our computer rigs - we couldn't wait 6 weeks for them to come by Sea! (note: it's interesting to ask people what they put in the air shipment - it can be very telling and if you find someone with the same stuff you know you have something in common!) Ironing board This sounds silly but Japanese ironing boards tend to be the table top type and the surface itself is also very small so, if you plan to iron Westerner size clothes and want to be able to stand up straight while you do it - put your ironing board in your sea shipment or sweet talk the movers into finding some way to pack it into the air shipment!

Consumables (a little by Air, a lot by Sea)

There are several drug-store type things we were warned to bring and we have been soo glad we did! I suggest you pack about 6 months worth of these supplies - many Gaijin stock up on annual trips home and/or arrange for families and friends to send care packages at regular intervals. Deodorant Starting with the one that makes some blush to get it out of the way. We were advised by many that Japanese deodorant is "useless" and when you are struggling with the heat and mugginess of the Japanese Summer it's the last thing you want to worry about. Since being here I think I have realised why the Japanese deodorants seem inferior - they don't seem to use anti-perspirants. Most "deodorants" in Australia and the US (from my experience) are actually anti-perspirant deodorants - that is they control sweating as well as odour. I have not yet seen anything that was more than just a deodorant here (and the couple I've tried seem to do the job they are meant to do perfectly well) so that is probably the issue - nothing to do with Asian skin or being used to the heat! Medications Prescription meds: Obviously if you or anyone in your family is on regular medication you can arrange with your doctor to get a special prescription for more than the usual amount of medication that is usually allowed at once to ship it over (in Australia anyway). Just make sure you pack a copy of the prescription into the box with the medication and do not open a single one of the packets - do that and you should be fine. Cold and Flu Tablets/Pain killers: Again we were advised that cold and flu tablets available here were not as effective as the ones in Australia, I'm still not sure if it is true but we did pack a bunch of stuff like aspirin (soluble aspirin is something I haven't found here yet), panadeine, naprogesic and lemsip. It wasn't that I had a lack of faith in Japanese pharmaceuticals but more because I knew that we were likely to be in need of such medications at some point waaaay before my language was good enough for navigating the chemist to be anything but miserable! Shampoo and Conditioners/Cosmetics - this is for the girls (unless you're Japanese) There's just no getting round it, different races have different hair and I'd advise that unless you have Asian hair you either make sure you have uncoloured, untreated hair when you come here and use the most basic of products you can find or you bring your own. I didn't and I've really regretted it this last couple of weeks as I struggle to find something to replace the single bottles I arrived with. What does "struggled mean?" My hair is slightly coloured a little darker than my natural dark ash blonde hair so at home I'd use a colour care for the UV but something light that didn't weigh it down. I picked up a Vidal Sassoon colour care here and I have been washing sticky gunk out of my hair for days! Seriously: 18 washes and rinses, the last 6 with plain body soap and it's only just coming out! For asian hair to be coloured at all it has to be stripped to the point where my causcasian hair would probably have broken off and so their colour care conditioner is literally loaded with sticky product to coat it and weigh it down. When it comes to cosmetics the only thing I'd say is that if you have quite sensitive or dry skin you may have a few, but not too many, issues here. The homogeneity of the society means that, like with the shampoo, they only have to cater to a small range of skin types so a) there isn't much for Irish skin and b) as a point of commercial differentiation the cosmetics companies seem to resort to scent much of the time so if you are sensitive to that it can be hard.IF you have oily or acne ridden skin you are in luck - the Japanese seem to struggle with this greatly and there are all sorts of products to help out! There are some lovely things here, though - matching skin colour shouldn't be a huge problem for anyone because the Japanese can tan astoundingly dark but also prefer to keep the skin as pale as possible. At either end of the scale you won't be able to get the really cheap discount stuff at the bulk stores (which includes SKII and great brands) but you will probably find a skin tone match if you're happy to pay full price. Well! I think that about covers everything - it's a long post but actually if you count it all up there's not that much that you can't get here. If you just focus on making sure you have what you really need both physically and emotionally you should do fine! Again, I'd urge anyone with experience to feel free to add your tips to the comments section and to those just starting this adventure - good luck and try to remind yourself every now and then that you're coming to live in Japan! Japan! This is exciting!!

A colourful surprise.

Danielle — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:25:29 +0000

Opening the blinds today to take advantage of the bliss that is a day cool enough to open the windows, I was met with a lovely surprise! I had thought that the variegated grass plants in our tiny terrace garden were just for greenery but it turns out they are for lilac-ery too!

On being an expat wife and making friends in Nagoya

Danielle — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:43:52 +0000

For months before coming to Japan I read blogs of ex-pats living here to give me some insight into what the experience might be like. Since arriving, I have become involved in a small online community of ex-pat bloggers. I have now 'met' and communicated with many of those bloggers I used to read and it's been both fun and a great support. One of those bloggers is Shane (of the blogs The Tokyo Traveller and A typical life) who, like me, is not an English teacher or married to a Japanese citizen (mind you she is female so that one is less likely anyway teehee) but the wife of a man who is working here. Shane recently saw a comment I had made on Twitter and shared an old blog post with me on being an ex-pat wife and the assumptions many people make about we strangely old fashioned creatures. I related to it immediately and was quite touched by it and so I thought I'd link it here. Shane has had the gig longer than I and has obviously got her act together while I am still finding my way/identity here. I don't have the multiple international households to run and don't have enough visitors to be run off my feet like Shane has been the last couple of months (hope you're enjoying the rest now, Shane ^_^) However, moving to Japan doesn't mean that I've suddenly started to see "shopping" as an activity in itself nor do I desperately need to know where the closest "international" food store is so that I can find "real" food, the Japanese supermarket does me fine. Nor do I want to spend my social life with other ex-pats simply because they are not Japanese, occasionally taking a class in some "quaint little Japanese traditional craft" as one's tightly controlled 'cultural experience' once a month (with said ex-pat acquaintances, preferably in the safety of the home of one of us, of course). Certainly, there are many ex-pat wives who live their lives in essentially this way (especially in Tokyo) and I imagine falling into this life is a great way of insulating yourself from the stress of changing cultures constantly. If one develops a life wherein you arrive in a country and become part of 'the foreign wives club' which is amazingly similar to the club anywhere else then I'm sure it's a wonderful support for many but it is just not my scene. Maybe one day it will be but, for the moment at least, I am not trying to emulate my life in my home country and so need to buffer myself against everything I therefore feel I am lacking. That does not mean I'm trying to be pseudo-Japanese, either - as the wonderful people who gave us our inter-cultural training before we left said "You want to be a first class Australian not a second-class Japanese." All that being said, due to language and not working, I don't have that much opportunity to meet Japanese people and the friends I have made so far are ex-pats (some are ex-pat wives) but they are people with whom I share interests and with whom I can have a good conversation and a good laugh because we have things in common other than that we are strangers here. To quote another of my online community in his comments on Shane's post: "...my foreign friends here in Japan are cool people who would be my friends back home, too." Obviously being a foreigner and new to Japan is a great ice-breaker and it does make it easier to find new friends than it is being at home, but it can't be the only thing you have to talk about - for my money anyway. Technorati Tags: ex-pat wife,japan,living in Japan,friends in Japan