Airports

Why I wrote about airports?
Normally if you go to the south you fly KANSAI (and from there to commute to Osaka/Kyoto/Nara/Kobe…) or if your destination is Tokyo you fly to TOKYO Narita (and then you commute to Tokyo/Yokohama/Chiba…).

However, I would like to draw your attention to NAGOYA airport, which is attracting a lot of air traffic recently.

There are some carriers offering very affordable flights there. However, to place such airport in the map is tricky, and the tendence is to stick to the known ones. Nevertheless, with a 1.5 hours by shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka (fare around 8000 yen) and 1.45 hours to Tokyo (fare around 10000 yen), why not to save some bucks and fly there?

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Opening a bank account in Japan

There are good and bad news with respect to open a bank account in Japan. The good news: it is not that difficult. The bad news: a new regulation prohibits the banks to open a bank account to foreigners which have been living for less than 6 months in Japan.

The only exception to this rule is the Japan Post Bank. Any Post Office will open you a bank account, although you can only make deposits and withdrawals, no payments or bank transfer, during these first 6 months.

After that period, simply go to any local branch and present your ALIEN Registration Card and passport. You will need to indicate the max amount of money the account will hold. This number isn’t important, it does not involve any taxes, the maintenance fee is not affected… Hence, go for any number you fancy.

They usually issue a debt card along with the Passbook of the account. You can always upgrade to a credit card (=paying more). You can use either the debt card or the passbook to get money from the ATM (if it belongs to the same bank). Otherwise, only debt cards can be used. And remember… outside business hours, any ATM charges for its usage (even if it belongs to the same bank).

I do recommend the following banks

Mitsui Sumitomo (green as brand color)
UFJ Tokyo Mitsubishi (red as brand color)

There are more banks, but I can tell you, these are the most visible ones....

If you REALLY need an english speaking bank, then CITYBANK is your place (probably/maybe).

Ahh... some branches (and be carefull, I said branches, no banks), require a personal stamp to open the account. If this is the case, excuse yourself and leave. Look for another branch. It happened to me-> one office branch requested me a stamp, I went to another and they didn't...

ps. if you are short of cash, go to a convenience store (they open 24/7). They usually have their own ATM machines....
ps.2. If you have an international VISA or credit card, you can get money from the ATM located at the post offices....

Halal food in Japan

If you are Muslim and were worried about finding HALAL food in Japan, do not worry (so much). Thanks to an ever increasing Muslin population in Japan, mainly due to foreign people from middle East (I have met Egiptians, UAE, Iraq,Iran…) and Asian countries (mainly but not only Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangla Desh,…), HALAL food had become, I am not gonna say popular, but possible to find. There are some supermarkets/markets in which you can arrange meat deliveries.

http://baticrom.com/

http://www.faisalfood.com/shop/

http://mall.azhar.jp/ihf/mise

Besides, since the Japanese culinary tradition has a strong vegetarian base (owing to the Buddhism background and to the fact that they go mainly for fish rather than meat), you won’t have too many problems in bringing stuff to your table.

Big Universities even provide some HALAL dishes. I was surprised to find out in my cantina that they serve HALAL chicken (deep fried). I didn’t try it yet tough, because honestly, it looks too fatty…

However, and this is a general comment, be sure about the cooking process of the food. Even tough the food may be HALAL, the Japanese people are unaware of its meaning, and you may end up getting proper lamb seasoned with stock made out of Okinawan pork, simply because the cook thinks it tastes better…..

School bullying in Japan - Ijime

Bullying in Japan is a problem, it is a real problem. School bullying, called ijime in Japanese, affects many people, and has terrible consequences, such social ostracism, social and mental disorders, and eventually even suicidal tendencies.

Let me start by explaining a little story to illustrate this subject. Very recently in time, I was with my girlfriend in a train, after a day doing sightseeing in Kyoto. Right in front of us there were four Japanese teenagers, dressing the standard school uniform, joking aloud, having fun, well, pretty normal from the outside. At some stage, one of the students stand up, waved goodbye and left. One second after the doors of the wagon closed, two of the teenagers got serious and commanded the third student to sit a bit far away from them. And then it all started, all kind of silly comments, bad mouthing, nasty personal comments, aggressive behaviour… the third student simply kept sitting on his place, with a red flushed face mixed with anger and shame, and noiseless shed some tears… but didn’t move at all. We were of course very surprised and didn’t have time to react (we arrived to our destination), however, we decided if we ever witnessed anything like that, we would try to, at least, sit in between the bullies and the bullied (we are foreigners, and we can always play this card).

This experience illustrates three facts about the bullying in Japan, which can arguably be a bit different from the bullying in western countries (in my little experience)

• You never really know who the bullies are (in my primary and high school you could tell right away who were the ones teasing around). Even the well-mannered guys become complete beasts in here.
• The intensity of the bullying is intense. We are not talking about a fight, or just some comments… but a continuous and quite mean high intense mental bullying.
• The bullied, due to socio-cultural reasons, normally chooses to swallow down everything. No confrontation, no reaction, no rejection… they just swallow don’t the abuse (I would say the same kind of bullying when I was kid would led to either the guy leaving the place, or a charles-chaplin-like fist fight that would last for 3 seconds). No, here they swallow it down.

One could say that bullying is almost institutionalized in Japan, mainly due to the little effort from the teachers to detect and stop it (or even lack of will to do so…).

So, how does this affect you?

Well, I think you have to worry about ijime / bullying if you have kids. And let me define kids : boys and girls that are been raised here (do not worry if you are sending your teenager son or daughter for a year in a Japanese high school , that situation is different, and from what I have seen first hand after meeting some people in such programs, a very rewarding experience).

I met here a chilean guy with background in education science and a son with her Japanese wife, than indicated me that the best way to avoid such situations is directly placing your kids in international schools, were the exposure to many cultures, people, races, etc and the (presumably) international experience of the teachers will drastically reduce the chances that your kids will suffer from bullying. And don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean that Japanese schools are the only focus… but… well… you know… the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and if you don’t want an apple falling on your head…

There are many international schools (from kindergarten to high school) in mayor Japanese cities. Find some lists in these links

http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/international_schools.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_Japan

http://www.dmoz.org/Reference/Education/International/International_Schools/Asia/Japan/

OK OK, I don’t mean to scare anyone. But this is a serious issue in Japan, and it happens (unfortunately) very often. My advise here is: carefully consider if you want your kid being raised in a Japanese school (it has pros as well), have a close relation with the teachers (you can monitor your kid’s behaviour and detect changes in his behaviour), and do not let them (kids) become too Japanese when it comes to social interactions.

This is a tricky issue, and I am telling you, a reason for leaving if it happens to you (your kid).

ps. My intention with this post is not to analyze the reasons, nor to give a solution... simply point out that the problem exist, and that you should be aware if you have kids of your own.

Building your travel itinerary

Public transport works fine in Japan. It is fast, clean, safe and (in my opinion) cheap for what you get. And they take you everywhere.

Here, the best website for building your travel itinerary within Japan: just provide departure and arrival station, and eventually other minor data, and you will have it.

JORUDAN

Shinkansen (bullet train->Route,schedules and fees), links the mayor cities in the main island. It is probably the best option if you are hoping around Tokyo/Osaka/Kobe/Hiroshima (mayor tourist places).

However, unless you have the JR pass, the shinkansen may be out of budget. For this reason, you may be also interest in night buses. They are cheap (one third of the train price), clean and safe. I tried them and it is a very suitable alternative honestly.

This is the company that I usually use: clean, friendly and 100% time keepers: 123bus.jp

Introduction and whereabouts of this blog

Hi guys,

My name is JJ and I am living in Japan since 2006, when I first came to work at Osaka University as researcher. It has been so far a very pleasant and challenging experience. I am originally from Spain, actually from Barcelona. However, prior to come to Japan I spent four years in the Netherlands, in the southern city of Eindhoven (you either know it because you like soccer –PSV Eindhoven- or you know it is the city-of-origin of Philips (PSV actually means Philips Sport Vereniging - Philips Sports Union)....

The point being…

Well, yes, the point is that before coming to Japan I did know little about this country. After googling, and browsing some websites and blogs, I did find in fact a lot of info about Japan, but mostly related to personal experiences (I climbed Fuji) or cultural shocks (I ate raw fish). Very little about practical facts, such how difficult is to rent an apartment, living cost, taxes, transportation, etc…. To make it short: all you want to know of a country besides what is written in a Lonely Planet guide (which I actually suggest to get before going to any country).

OK OK, I may have exaggerated a bit… I did find in fact some people that wrote down their experiences, but… mostly of the foreigners living here and with English skills are either American/Australian/NewZealanders/Canadians. What does it mean? Well, if you ask to the average American foreigner what he/she thinks about the size of a standard Japanese apartment he/she will say ‘They are VERY small’ (in comparison to a standard American house).

So, what happened here? I, a guy used to take the bus and the metro to go to the school and commuting for hour and a half in Barcelona, the guy used to ride his bike around the Netherlands to get to the job on time, the guy used to small shared apartments, found none but little comfort in the internet about how his life would be in Japan.

The truth?...

The truth is: I experienced of course a certain degree of cultural shock… and many things that happen around me on everyday basis are still exotic and fascinating (at least one per day..). However, I had to go through some bad experiences, which happened mainly because lack of information (from my side), and unawareness of customs, traditions, etc…

This blog

And that’s why I would like to start this blog. I simply feel like writing down all these little things that if I would have known before would have saved me some headaches, sleepless-nights, hours wasted in public offices, misunderstandings…. My intention is hence to write about daily life, working/employment aspects, cultural differences, practical facts, etc… and also about tourism and sightseeing tips for the people that is planning to have a nice time here.

Finally

Don’t get the wrong idea – I am no God: I may be wrong on many things that I will write down, sometimes because my cultural background is different to yours, sometimes because I am a moron… My only truly good advice is: if you are coming over Japan, gather as many information as you can, and if you are already here, share it with the rest of the world.

This is a very nice country, and I hope this little effort from my part will help you out to enjoy it a little bit more if possible.

Cheers,