Leviathon
Apartment hunting
I’ve just signed a contract for a new apartment in Japan after a day of hunting via two different estate agents. One based in Ikebukuro, and the other in Iidabashi. Both were looking for me east of those locations, but the end results was markedly different.
The first way Lead Trust and the second Able.
In the end I signed with Able, however I first went to Lead Trust. Also recommended to me were Mini Mini, but in the end I didn’t go. They do apparently deal in quite a lot of very small, but cheap apartments and a English friend of mine said good things about the company. Lead Trust I didn’t get any recommendations about, but a Japanese friend found some apartments online via them so he booked an appointment for me. Able was recommended via a friend as having been used twice before with good results.
From my experience, don’t use Lead Trust. Their service was fine, although I didn’t like the fact that everything they showed me has two months gift money （礼金）when 1 month is common, but the apartments were OK and we got taken to three, the last of which was a newly refurbished, pretty large manshon（マンション） 3 minutes from a very convenient station. The price was good (1 month gift money), the location excellent. The final bill however was extortionate. Their agency fee was 1.05 months rent, which isn’t unusual but many agencies at this time of the year have a campaign for half price fees. The apartment also came with a cleaning fee (nearly half a month’s rent), for the previous tenant or for me, I don’t know, and an extra fee (1/4 month’s rent), I can’t remember what it was for, and then the thing which made me angry; a charge for a guarantor company even thou my Japanese friend sitting next to me was going to be the the guarantor. ‘But because you’re a foreigner the guarantor company is still required, even if you have a guarantor already’ they said. That’s an extra 1/2 month’s rent, please. Bollocks. I’m not entirely sure if that was a lie, but research online suggests this just isn’t the case. You only use a company if you haven’t got a Japanese that can do it. Maybe different landlords are picker than others, but the guy in the agency said ‘almost always’ this is so, which I do think is either ignorance or a lie.
Suffice to say, I didn’t sign. In any case, I still needed to see Able.
This estate agent was far better. Same service (I see why they charge so much, you get driven to each place by an agent), but with a better selection of apartments with lower initial fees. They had a campaign which was half price fees, and no cleaning fee or guarantor money. I got a new apartment in a nice location for work, for a lot less up front money. They even pushed the gift money down a bit on my request.
You can go with other companies who specialize in dealing with foreigners. I was recommended Tokyo Rent but they didn’t have anything in the area I wanted. There are others too. I expect rents to be higher with these companies or else quality lower.
A few things I learned.
1) Searching online isn’t as useful as I thought. The information of some apartments was just wrong. Campaign special prices that rise after 3 months, or just plain wrong. I don’t think there was a single one found online that we actually went to see. If you want the most accurate information go direct to an agency and get them to find places. You have to do it anyway.
2) Check the charges first. Obvious, but I really wasn’t expecting that guarantor charge or cleaning fee.
3) Learn to right your address, occupation and company address, in Kanji.
4) Generally you have to pay gift money. Places without tend to be higher rent.
There are other options. I could have rented a place with my company. It would have been furnished, although probably not cheaper for the location I wanted. No initial fees, of course, but if I move company I have to move apartment anyway. I could have got cheaper rent If I’d hunted more but I had a deadline and the place I finally found was very nice.
Now the hassle of moving my stuff, and cleaning this current apartment to within an inch of it’s life.
34th Grand Sumo Tournament
I went to see the 34th Grand Sumo Tournament at Ryogoku Stadium on Sunday. This was the first time for me, seeing live sumo, although as a kid I always used to watch it on Channel 4 in the UK. At that time however sumo was still pretty much a Japanese only sport, but now foreigners are coming to dominated the top ranks. You can Wikipedia for more info although the foreign born reference is out of date. This site shows a list of all wrestlers and states there are 57 active foreign fighters out of 703.
Two wrestlers going at it
Doesn’t sound a lot, but as you restrict to the higher ranks, the percentage goes up a bit. Although, I had gotten the impression that there was a crisis in sumo with the number of foreigners outweighing native Japanese. From looking at the stats I still see a great number of Japanese. Maybe it’s because the top rank, Yokozuna, has been dominated by foreigners for the last 10 years (see bottom of page).
But in any case, Sunday’s 1-day tournament is outside the normal schedule for determining rank, and was won by a Japanese, apparently a feat last done 7 years ago.
Will they start this time?
The final was between a Bulgarian born Ozeki (2nd rank) by the name of Kotooshu, and a native Sekiwake (3rd rank) wrestler called Goeido. Goeido had made it past several higher ranked wrestlers, including toppling the reigning champion and Yokozuna in the semi-final, before tripping up the Bulgarian to claim the top prize, a hefty 円3,200,000 (about $36,000 dollars). Not bad for a days work, although in global sporting terms quite modest I suppose.
Bulgarian finalist
As could be expected from a drought of native champions, everyone was quite pleased when Goeido won, the post championship interview focusing on how great it was a native had won after so long. Although as in the best sumo tradition, the interviewer did most of the talking.
The sumo itself was much as I remember. A long preamble in which the opponents glare at each other and pretend to get ready to start, although you know full well they won’t at the sweeper guys haven’t even gotten out the way yet. Once they’ve done this 2 or 3 times, they start the match, which is usually over in 10 seconds. Although, you couldn’t feel bored as the matches continued one after another pretty much without rest, the ceremony of the whole event always allowing your eyes to be kept busy with something interesting, be it the guy who sings at the end of each
Keeping the ring tidy
bout, the sweepers keeping the ring clean and correct, the wrestlers themselves and their elaborate preparation, or magnificent dress of the referees.
Traditional crooner
We were there for about 2 hours, in not too shabby seats on the second floor. Although maybe next time I’ll fork out for the first floor cushion seats, so I can throw them at the ring when something happens I like (or not), as many people did for the final two bouts.
Mt. Fuji in winter
OK, time for the Mt. Fuji post. I didn’t climb it, but I went the closest I’m prepared to go, to Lake Kawaguchi, which offers extremely good views of Fuji for the price of a bus fare from Shinjuku or Tokyo stations. I recommend a view of the snow covered Fuji, although at this time of year the sun is a bit low which can make you squint looking at it from the Fuji 5 Lakes area as they are to the north east of Fuji. However there are other views from the south that can give your eyes a break. Having said that, I would recommend walking around the Lakes on a warm winter’s day, with Fuji as your backdrop. If you want to copy the plan of action, this is what you need.
1) Get to Shinjuku and go here (street view and website)
2) If you are planning a day trip, go early. I went for 7 and, from the handy timetable found here, you can choose which bus you are going to take there and back.
3) By a ticket. You can book online if you like, but out of season and Japanese national holidays I doubt you’ll find the bus full. Buy the ticket from the ticket office, (1700yen one way, you can’t buy a return you’ll be told, you buy it once there) and get on the bus.
4) Once at Kawaguchiko, follow the signs and go for a walk. The path around the lake lasts about 15km, and stops about half way so you have to follow the road the rest. The reason it stops is the view of Fuji goes behind a smaller mountain, but you are half way round the lake already so you might as well keep going. If you feel lazy there are buses that go around the lakes area. You could go to one of the other lakes if you have time, although the views are no more special, although with maybe less hotels, unless you are willing to travel to Yamanaka lake to the south.
5) Get a bite to eat somewhere after the long walk. There is nothing much around the station but a short walk away are some chain places.
6) Go home. Last buses are at 8ish although that is after an hour wait from the previous one. Also, it gets dark and cold come 5pm so probably best to leave by then anyway. The bus back wasn’t busy, although everyone did pile on once it stopped at at Mt Fuji funland
If you want other ideas on viewing Mt. Fuji, I was mulling over this page for a while. With limited time and the potential of getting lost, I chose the easy option, although climbing a mountain near Lake Yamanaka and watching the sunset did pass my mind, if I thought it wouldn’t die trying to get back in the dark.
More information on travel, including trains (more expensive as far as I can tell) can be found here.
Seasons greetings! We are all going to die!
No, but seriously we might. As you may well know, Japan has a lot of earthquakes. When I first came here in March there were a couple of months where earthquakes kept popping up a couple of times a week. Nothing serious, more a ‘Welcome to Japan! Here’s an little earthquake or two for starters.’ Of course, that wets the appetite for doom and disaster so I here are my top 5 ways most impressive ways we are all going to die one day.
1) The Great Tokai Earthquake of the 21st Century
While not so bad for Tokyo (and probably Chiba, where I am, will escape severe damage), the Tokai earthquake predicted to hit Shizuoka prefecture anytime soon is a big worry for Japan.
The figure to the left is one of the major fault lines passing close to the mainland of Japan; the Nankai trough. It’s a subduction zone with the Philippine plate pushing itself under the Eurasian plate. The section marked A below is the one pertaining to the Tokai earthquake. It hasn’t ruptured for over 150 years (the last being in 1854), and is well overdue a predicted minimum M8 earthquake, centered somewhere in the Shizuoka prefecture.
If this one goes, which some scientists gave a 35-45% chance this decade, then it will cause massive destruction far worse than the Kobe earthquake of 1995. While Kobe was a different type of earthquake, and less powerful at only M7.4, it is useful as a comparison, noting that a 1 point increase in magnitude is a ~32x increase in power.
http://www.e-quakes.pref.shizuoka.jp/english/guide_01.html
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake_tokai/
http://geology.about.com/od/eq_prediction/a/aa_tokaiquake.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nankai_megathrust_earthquakes
2) The Great Kanto Earthquake of the 21st Century
Not afraid of just one devastating once in a lifetime earthquake, well Japan has two lined up. Emanating from a related but separate faultline, the Great Kanto earthquake, affecting Tokyo rather more directly, is also overdue. In 1923 it killed over 100,000 people. Nowadays, while the deaths will probably be a lot less, the economic damage to Japan, and potentially the entire world, could be dire. There is an anime series on the subject of death in Tokyo by earthquake too. Check it out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_Great_Kant%C5%8D_earthquake
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10704
3) Mt Fuji Eruption
Earthquakes? Meer shaking of the ground. What you really want for death and destruction is an active volcano. While not a very active volcano, the last eruptions being over 300 years ago, the constant threat is always there that eventually Fuji-san will get angry again and belch lava and ash all over Tokyo, prevailing winds coating everything to the east of the volcano. In fact, it has been reported that Fuji is overdue, and that its last eruption, in 1707, was two months after the great Tokai earthquake of that year. Although, it has to be said that the rip in 1854 didn’t set off Fuji, it’s a sobering thought that both might happen at the same time. What does that mean for Tokyo? According to the ash map, between 1-4cm of the grey stuff if the 1707 eruption is anything to go by.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_eruptions_of_Mount_Fuji
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060717-mount-fuji.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dei_eruption_of_Mount_Fuji
http://www.japanprobe.com/2006/07/18/will-mr-fuji-erupt-soon/
4) Tidal Wave
Not content with its own natural disasters, the east coast of Japan could be affected by someone else’s problem. A magnitude 9 earthquake is coming to the west coast of America. The cascadia earthquake may generate a tsunami that will hit Japan and in certain places could cause, going from the past reconstructions, a 2-5m wave. Although this is a minor point compared with the devastation that will affect the US west coast’s major cities.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/050103_cascadia_tsunami.html
http://geology.about.com/od/quake_preparedness/a/aa_cascadiaEQ.htm
http://environment.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment/natural-disasters/earthquake-technology.html
5) Bicycle death
Probably the most fearsome of the lot; crazy obaasan on bicycles. These lean, mean death machines combine two-wheeled destruction from behind with a near super-sonic battle cry. They are to be feared with a terror far greater than the combined power of the Kanto and Toukai earthquakes and Fuji blowing all in the same month (which could happen in theory).
Autumn leaves (紅葉）
Today I have mostly been looking at the pretty colours of the leaves.
The Japanese love to do this. My Japanese teacher drove 600km around Tokyo on a motorbike to go see the leaves. I on the other hand popped along to Matsudo City (松戸市）and the 本土時 (Hondoji) Temple.
This is a notable place for viewing the lovely red and yellows of the autumn change in colour, before the weather really does get frigid. We’ve had a few cold snaps recently here in Japan but considering it’s a week before December, the fact the temperature has been getting to 18′ during the day still surprises me in a country with 4 seasons, if at least contrasted with England which has been cold and miserable for weeks now.
Anyway, I saw lots of Japanese pointing their SLR cameras on full zoom at a single leaf, and lots of trees with countless ephemeral leaves lest a week away from drifting to the ground. They don’t seem to cause the trains to be late either, which is nice.
Here are some pictures.
You must unlearn all that you have learnt
Japanese annoys me sometimes, especially now. Apart from trying to use interesting and colourful grammar expressions in prep for JLPT2 only to have them all corrected to 〜たら or some other form I studied years ago (OK, I give up, I’ll just learn to read these new forms and just say ‘when’ for everything in conversation), I’m also coming across bad habits I’m having to unlearn and fundamental problems of which the nuance is becoming very difficult to grasp. I’ll share three points with you today. Please feel free to shoot them down in flames and then vaporize the ashes, it’ll learn me.
1) だ vs です
Read this – http://www.guidetojapanese.org/polite.html#part5
Then read this – http://www.guidetojapanese.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3567
We are always taught that です is the polite form of だ.
That’s not true thou. The second author confuses です with other polite forms hence he feels they are equivalent, I think.
です is, as far as I’m aware, just a way of making a sentence polite for the most part. As the first author explains. It seems that way from my experience too. One such example was today when a receptionist replied back to me ‘I’m fine desu yo’. Here desu and yo seem to have no meaning other than to politen and emphasize the English sentence, which is already correctly is-afied.
だ on the other hand has many uses, some of which would be ‘is’, but one of which is not ‘is’. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been corrected when putting a だ at the end of a sentence thinking it’s a substitute for です。Even if I’m right some times, I’m wrong so many others to the point that a rule we learn at the start that だ＝です meaning wise if not politeness wise is kinda counter productive.
2) はい = yes
I have a feeling I have to stop saying はい when a shop assistant asks if I want a bag. I’m thinking they only know I want one because I nod viciously while saying it
http://home.att.net/~keiichiro/gokai/eng/yesno.html
http://www.thirteenmonths.com/jp02_winterwonderland.htm
http://hobby_elec.piclist.com/e_japanese3_8.htm
Hai can mean a lot of things, one of them I heard a long time ago is ‘yes, I’m listening’, rather than ‘yes, in answer to your question’. It’s possible I’m just proving to the shop assistant that I’m not deaf. I’m sure my ‘hai’ has not a hint of a question tone and yet for some reason they’ve occasionally looked at me confused. At least until I nod.
3) 〜ている / 〜ていた
I have a further feeling that this doesn’t mean the same as the present/past continuous in English. There as so many places were that rule breaks down crying to the embarrassment of all around it. I’m fine with the verbs that do use continuous forms in English but not in Japanese, and those which use ‘〜ている’ in Japanese but not present continuous in English (the famous 犬が死んでいる＊ for the Japanese dog that’s been dead for hours while its English counterpart writhes in agony, his final minutes ticking endlessly on before he snuffs it – as in ‘The dog is dying’). I’m also down with using it for other people’s actions, as the past continuous seems to be used for a lot. But it’s still damn confusing having my past sentences corrected to a ‘continuous form’ with no rhyme or reason, at least to mine eyes.
Investigations continue.
PLEASE HELP ME
（＊）Or is it 犬は死んでいる。This is another thing I’ve been wrestling with recently. See this blog post and replies by native speakers.
Disclaimer. In trying to make this interesting to read I may have been too liberal with the irony ketchup. I am English. I find it amusing to use sarcasm and irony. By the way, they are not the same thing, Japanese language. Don’t look away, I’m talking to you!
お好み焼き(okonomiyaki) – Japanese food
I love okonomiyaki.
if you don’t know what that is, wikipedia is your friend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki
A quick summary would be, it’s a pancake like dish served in two main styles, Osaka style (kansai) and Hiroshima style. (I don’t count Monjakayi – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monjayaki – it’s just a mess)
Having just been to Hiroshima, I’ve now sampled both and the grand debate over which is better can now be settled, once and for all.
Osaka style
With Osaka style you do it yourself, mixing a prepared bowl of ingredients together and then slapping it on the hot plate in a pancake type way. Turning it over once in a while you cook it until it’s as brown as you wish it to be, then take it off, sprinkle fish bits and seaweed on it, as well as a nice coating of okonomiyaki special sauce (which I hate) and mayonnaise.
The sauce is the apparent key to it all, as an amazed shop owner asked me ’本当に美味しい？’, which I translate as ‘You eat it without the sauce? Disgusting, surely?’.
My favourite has to be octopus (タコ), closely followed by a cheese version (チーズ), and a pizza version (ピザ). The last one may only come from my local okonomiyaki place, I don’t know. It’s nice thou.
Hiroshima style
In Hiroshima they don’t mix the ingredients and, by default, layer it with soba noodles. I don’t like soba noodles however they do a version with udon noodles which was better for me. Again, no sauce as it’s horrid, although the end result tends to be a bit dry unless you have it. However, mayonnaise came to the rescue and made for a tasty meal. You can mix and match ingredients as you like, with a similar range of toppings as with the Osaka style. However they cook it for you due to the layering of ingredients which would make it a bit tricky for the customers to do it themselves. As a local specialty on top of a specialty, you can have a oyster one too, which my Japanese friend spooged himself over.
Behind the Parco department store in Hiroshima is the I presume famous okonomiyaki village. There are 4 floors of nothing but okonomiyaki shops (maybe 40 or so in total), all bustling for your attention in a clearly overcrowded market like arena. However none of them seemed to do the oyster version, which a shop a door or two down on the first floor did (the one in the photo).
Overall, which do I prefer?
Osaka style wins. You cook it yourself, which is fun, and it’s moister and comes in a few more varieties as far as I can tell. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the noodles I suppose, although I’m sure if the sauce wasn’t so unpalatable to me things might be different.
If you are in Japan, please go sample some okonomiyaki. There are chain stores all around Tokyo as well as a similar number of private establishments.
Links
はじめまして
Hello. Alex has kindly given me a bit of blog space on the learnjapanesepod.com site so I shall endeavor to use it to write about all things Japan and Japanese. For the usual bit of background, I will say that I’m an English teacher in Japan. I arrived March 2009 and live and work in and around Chiba. I used to work in IT, and will probably go back to that eventually, maybe in Japan. I’ve been studying Japanese for about 5 years (evening classes – this is my first time in Japan and it shows) and will take the JLPT level 2 test (again) this December. I also studied a Masters at SOAS, London, majoring in Japanese history. My dissertation was on Second World War Japanese propaganda.
That’s my background.
Useful sites I use for studying Japanese are these.
http://smart.fm/home
Great site for studying vocab. Has a lot of lists already created by people however you can create your own.
http://lang-8.com/
Write a diary and have native speakers correct it and give you notes. You do the same to theirs.
http://www.thinkmac.co.uk/ikanji/
I use the iKanji touch person on my iPhone. Great tool for studying Kanji on the train.
I also go to free lessons.
http://www.mcic.or.jp/e_index.htm
Free one to one lessons from volunteers. Most of my teachers friends who live around Chiba do this. As long as you are clear about how you want to study, it’s good. They are usually not trained teachers so chatting is what I get out of it, with correction.
I also go to the Tsudanuma Kouminkan for a group lesson. More structured and a better teacher. You can hear a podcast mentioning this kind of class and giving more information. I think it’s a fun friday podcast.
That’s about it. I usually write a diary 3/4 times a week, based around a theme (with themed vocab) or a set of grammar points I want to practise (don’t just write things – you’ll normally write what you can already do pretty well). I also take vocab from lessons, diary corrections, reading Manga (currently reading Inu Yasha – it’s a bit too hard), JLPT books and emails with friends and use that in SmartFM, taking the Kanji from that vocab and putting it into iKanji. It kinda of all melds together nicely. Listening to Anime or TV helps, although I prefer the former as you can rewind and dictate for better practice. And Japanese TV is bizarrely bad.
Anyway. More to come. よろしくお願いします。
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