Souvenirs from Japan 4

I tried many more food items from Japan. Below are some of it.

One of the famous brands one can get in Japanese Airport is Royce. It's one of the chocolate brands that I like very much. I like their Nama Chocolate, however it needed to be stored in a specific temperature of 10 degree Celsius or below. So it's not easy to get the Nama Chocolate. The one I got as a souvenir was not the type that needed to be refrigerated. Of the three flavours below, I like the Maccha the most and fruit flavour the least. 

Royce Bar Chocolate

Royce Bar Chocolate

The second one was the Ukai crackers 鵜飼せんべい from Nagara River 長良川, Gifu 岐阜. From the website, it claims that it is made from the eggs laid by the local chicken and flour from the Gifu prefecture. Truth to be told, this senbei is very hard, not for someone with weak teeth. Anyway, if one have the chance to visit Gifu, he or she could arrange to visit the cormorant fishing on the Nagara River. From what I read, it sounds very interesting. 

鵜飼せんべい

鵜飼せんべい

Souvenirs from Japan 3

A dear friend from Japan sent me a small package with some matcha sticks and a box of biscuits. I felt so warm with the gifts. I was familiar with coffee sticks, but for tea, I thought it's either in tea bags or loose tea leaves. I never thought it could come in powder form, further more, it came with milk! I didn't know the meaning of Au Lait before this, googled it up and found out that it means "served with milk".

This Hoshino Matcha Au Lait 八女抹茶が薫る『星の抹茶オーレ』is made from Matcha produced in Yame 八女市, Fukuoka. Inside a box, there're seven sticks and can be served cold or hot.

Hoshino Matcha Au Lait

On the packaging, there is even instructions on how to brew the matcha hot or cold style. Not bad huh!

Hoshino Matcha Au Lait

Hoshino Matcha Au Lait

I like hot drinks. So, I just made it hot.

matcha powder

Japan Pension: Tax Refund 脱退一時金に課される所得税の還付の申請

After I got back my 80% Japan pension, I procrastinated until my friend gave me an ultimatum, she would proceed with the 20% tax refund application and not waited for me. So, I found all the necessary documents and proceeded to apply for the remainder 20% of the pension that was deducted as the tax when I applied for the Japan Pension lump sum withdrawer.

First of all, one needed to find a willing friend or colleague to be the tax representative. I have a colleague in the area that I stayed in Japan before I came back to Malaysia*. The form here is needed to tell the tax office that one is appointing the person as one's tax representative 納税管理人. Just print out the first page and fill up the necessary items, the second page is not important.

form to appoint the tax representative

*To claim back this 20% tax refund, one needs to go back to the local tax office to submit the document. So, it's better to appoint a local person as the tax representative. My own assumption though, not sure true or not.

Getting a Driving License in Kumamoto

I recalled my miserable driving tests in Kumamoto when I read the article below. I failed three times and only passed the test on my fourth attempt. I know some people who renewed the international license every year at the original home country and used it to drive in Japan. However, it's not really legal. I once heard from a former colleague who studied in Japan for his degree, he was almost deported back for driving with a international license after two years in Japan. Since he was a student, the judge gave him a lenience sentence which was only fines. So, he borrowed money and paid off the fines, he said he had bread only for almost a year to pay off the debts. So, better get the license the proper way.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/driving-illegally-in-japan

First, I worked in Kumamoto City for a year and I took train to work. The second year, I had to transfer to Nakatsu in Oita 中津市、大分 which was not very convenient in terms of public transport. So, I had to take a driving test to drive in Japan. International driving licence is valid for the first year only. Since I had my original driving licence from Malaysia (pass on my second attempt because I forgot my seat belt the first time around), I could convert the license to a Japanese driving license, it is called 外国免許切替. However, for direct conversion, only a few countries are qualified, info here. 

For others, like a Malaysian driving license holder, I had to take a written test and driving test to convert my license to a Japanese license. It's a big discount compared to what the Japanese people had to do to get a fresh new driving license. To many Japanese, the written test was what they dreaded the most. It's a very difficult multiple questions test and many failed at first attempt. So, in Japan, there's tuition class for driving license written test. However, for this license conversion written test for foreign driving license holder, it's just a common sense 10 multiple choices questions. I personally found it easy. 

Souvenirs from Japan 2

I work in a Japanese company, so we have many visitors from Japan and they would normally bring some omiyage (souvenir) over, over the years, I had eaten many items from Japan and I found out that a lot of people would buy the similar items like below pictures. 

One of the items was KitKat, there're many "Japan only" KitKat. I used to like the matcha KitKat. Recently, there's even a flavour for sakura. Nice! 

Kit Kat Otona no Amasa オトノの甘さ

Below KitKat is quite special. The bake-able KitKat in cheese cake flavour. I have seen an article in Rocketnews24  that it could be baked. But I didn't do that, of course, I just got a few of it, too troublesome to do that. I ate it just out of the packaging and didn't get stomach ache. Hahaha! Very special product. 

bakeable Kit Kat in cheesecake flavour

Souvenirs from Japan

There are many things to buy in Japan as souvenir. However, most of the time, I would stick to food items because it is cheaper and easier to distribute to colleagues. Due to the 'omiyage 御土産' tradition, most Japanese people will buy souvenir for colleagues, I ate a lot of omiyage during my two years working in Japan. Well, I also bought packets of souvenirs during my travel for my colleagues. (contribute back!)

*omiyage = something like local produce

Due to that omiyage tradition too, one can find many nicely packed cookies or sweets (菓子) in beautiful boxes in the shops in tourist attractions. Normally, it came in 30 pieces per box. The one I bought range from 5 pieces to 40 pieces. One box normally costs around 1050 yen. From 1st April 2014, the sales tax will increase from 5% to 8%, so it would probably costs 1080 yen per box or the retailers will absorb the cost themselves, which I think is very unlikely!

Below photo shows some normal souvenirs. Normally, one can find similar products like below photo, boxes of cookies wrapped in cute packaging related to the place one is visiting. In Kumamoto, the normal (not so expensive and affordable with high quantity) souvenirs are cookies wrapped in packaging with Kumamon photo. This is the type people normally buy to give to colleagues. 

souvenir from Kumamoto (utilises Kumamon)

Postcard

I was not the kind of person who would send out postcard during travel, however, my travel mates love to send postcards. So, I sent out a few postcards too, mainly to myself and my parents. Nowadays, when looking back at these postcards, reminiscence back the journeys, I feel calm.

In Japan, to send a postcard to a domestic address, one just need to buy a 50 yen stamp. To send out a normal postcard to another country, the stamp needed is a 70 yen stamp. Stamp is very easy to get in Japan, just go into any post-office (some even open on Sunday) or convenience store and ask for 'kitte' or 'sutanpu'. The funny thing is I always said the wrong word, instead of 'kitte', I would ask for 50yen or 70yen 'kippu', then the convenience store staff would look confuse and he or she would ask around, somehow, someone would be able to guess what I want, hahaha! 

*kitte = 切手 (stamp in Japanese)

*sutampu = the way stamp is pronounced in Japan

*kippu = 切符 (ticket in Japanese)

Japan Pension: Lump Sum Withdrawer Payments

I worked in Japan for two years and I paid taxes and from the salary, pension was deducted as well. Since I am back to Malaysia, I wanted to claim back the money deducted for the pension earlier. So, I applied for it and got back 80% of the total amount, 20% was taken out by the Japanese government as tax. To get back the 20%, one needs to have a friend or acquaintance in Japan who is willing to go to the local tax office to settle the procedures. 

*Local tax office - the tax office in the city 市 / district 区 where you paid resident tax before. So, let's say I stayed in Kumamoto Shi before and I have a friend in Hokkaido, he or she will have to go all the way south from Hokkaido to Kumamoto Shi to settle all the paperworks for me. So, unless the amount is very big, normally people will just let go of the 20%. It is just not worth the trouble. 

Nengajo 年賀状

Four more days and 2014 will come. With the advancement of technology, no more hand written greeting cards, and no more SMS greetings. However, now we can get tonnes of greetings from friends in Facebook, Line, WeChat, Whatsapp and so on. Come to think of it, we actually save a lot of money on cards and SMS, it's not so bad. Although I don't mind the digital greetings, it's still quite heatwarming to receive greeting cards by mail!

In Japan, almost everybody still send out nengajo 年賀状 (greeting cards) to family members, friends and acquaintances every new year. Interestingly, no matter how early one sends out the nengajo, the recipient will only receive the greeting card on 1st of January. JP post will employ many temporary workers to handle all those nengajo. However, the cut off date is 25th December if one wants the recipient to receive the nengajo on 1st January. If one sends out the nengajo after Christmas, there will be no guarantee that the recipients will get the nengajo on the 1st day of the year.

KFC Instead of Turkey for Chritsmas

The Star Metro Central highlights that turkey may not be easily available during Christmas time due to stringent halal certification. When I read about that, I am thinking that even if turkey is not available, KFC is abundant here, they can learn from the Japanese where the Christmas dinner is often made of KFC set meals.

When I first heard that Japanese eat KFC for Christmas, I felt strange, although I am not a Christian, I strongly associate Christmas with turkey. But, it's true, even weeks before Christmas, posters on the Christmas Set Meals could be seen around the KFC Japanese stores. A Japanese colleague even told me that sometimes, people queued for hours for this, Wow!

Four Seasons in Japan (or More Precisely in Kyushu, Japan)

I lived in a city (Kumamoto City 熊本市 in Kumamoto Prefecture) and town (Nakatsu 中津市 in Oita Prefecture) in Japan. To me, Kumamoto City is an ideal city to stay. It's not too crowded and not so rural with all the necessary public transports and shopping malls. I visited Tokyo before and I felt the environment was too crowded to my liking, while my second home, Nakatsu was a bit 'kampung'. There're paddy fields in front and behind my apartment building! During summer time, whether you like it or not, the insects chirping will accompany you the whole night.

Both places gave me a very good safety sense, I felt safe even when I went out at the middle of the night alone. In Nakatsu, there's even no street light outside my apartment and there's a small graveyard nearby. Well, it's so well maintained that I didn't feel it's creepy to live so near to a deceased resting place. Anyway, sometimes I would go out on the middle of the night to buy things in the convenience shop on a bicycle and I totally enjoyed the quietness, it was kind of dark though, have to be really careful not to drop into a drain. One of my friends joked that we are just the temporary tenant who stay in a place, but the deceased is the permanent resident of a place. Good point!

Another plus point when living in a foreign country is I got the chance to experience four seasons, especially winter. However, me and another friend, Dila is done with winter now, still ok with autumn and spring though! Winter was too cold for us, no matter how thick we wore, plus the uniqlo heat tech, plus woolly socks, plus woolly gloves, plus heat pads (2 - one for each pocket), beanies, etc. The cold was chilling to the bones! Snows, when I first laid my eyes on the white snow, I felt very exciting, after awhile, I started to get tired about the slippery road and monotonous white. Autumn and spring was awesome, spring with the flowers and autumn with the read leaves.

Well, below are the photos that I have taken from my apartments in Kumamoto and Nakatsu. I missed the views.

Kumamoto
I stayed in the 8th floor, so I could get a pretty good view from the balcony. 

view from my apartment in Kumamoto (4 seasons)

Interesting Cups from Daiso

In Japan, I would get my kitchen items from Daiso or Seria (100 yen shop). Well, not only it's cheap (Japan standard), the design is good and very often, very cute! So, I would end up with something most of the time after I visited 100 yen shop.

Well, I bought 2 cups from Daiso, not for drinking though. I stayed alone and didn't have guests coming to my house. I bought it for the phrases and words on the cup.

Interesting cups from Daiso

Hanami はなみ 花見

7th April 2012

When doing 5S on my photos, I came across this album, Hanami. Hanami (花見) means flower viewing in Japanese. Every year, during sakura season, Japanese will go cherry flower viewing with families, friends or colleagues. My colleague invited me and I happily joined. Well, when I first heard about 'Hanami', I thought it's 'Hanabi', and I told her that I thought Hanabi is a summer activity. She laughed so hard. "It's 'Hanami' 花見, not 'hanabi' 花火" She explained to me.

Anyway, on that day, I went to Heisei Park 平成公園 by train. I only realized after reaching there that the place was quite near, accessible by bicycle from my house! During that day, Heisei Park was having Sakura Festival, so there were performances and games for kids. A lot of people chose that day to 'hanami'. So, on that field, a lot of people can be seen laid down their sheet and picnic under the sakura tree.

Sakura Festival 桜まつり

Praying for Success in Exam

Exams are big in Asia. In Japan, temples or shrines make big bucks just by offering prayers and charms to the students. In any shrines in Japan, I think we can find a lot of charms (not free, of course!), ranging from safety, love, good luck, exam, etc. Well, hard work is necessary, but sometimes, luck is important. (^^♪

Train stations also offered this kind of services for exam candidates, I saw the notice in Kumamoto Station 熊本駅 and Nakatsu Station中津駅. I was kind of in awe when I noticed that!

The photo below shows a notice for exam candidates in Nakatsu Station. The notice was about the handling out of amulets that have been blessed in a local shrine. That's sweet! Sometimes, holding this kind of amulets make people calmer, less anxious, especially during exam time.  

合格祈願

Japanese Calligraphy Class 書道教室

December 2011

My colleague told me about a Japanese calligraphy class 書道教室 in Kumamoto City Community Center for foreigners. Since I had nothing to do on weekend, I decided to join that class. All the teachers were volunteers. They were very kind and funny. It's an activity to make a calendar using Japanese calligraphy, there were 3 classes.

1st Class: learn to draw something using ink brushes
2nd Class: learn to write kanji 漢字 using ink brushes
3rd Class: carve on a mold to make stamp

Kumamoto City Community Center 熊本市中央公民館

Freebies as a form of advertisement

After I came back to Malaysia after two yeas in Japan and looking at the various pamphlets and photocopied promotion papers, I felt that it is such a waste! For me, I seldom read it, normally it will just go into the recycle bin waiting to be sold to paper lama man. In Japan, although there are promotion papers too, there are many that utilise free tissue paper as a promotion method. At least people have to look at the cover before they take out a piece of tissue!

Free tissue paper (promote a place in Saga hoping to be listed in UNESCO  list)

Mind Our Japanese

In The Star, every week, there will be a column named "mind our English". I remembered that readers used to send photos of signs, banners, etc with wrong spelling or grammar error. It provides a good laugh and reminds myself not to make the same mistake.

When I went to Busan, Korea for a short trip. I saw signs with wrong Japanese words, so I took the photos. There are a lot of Japanese tourist there and most of the shopkeepers can speak Japanese. However, I think most understand conversational Japanese only, not the written words.

Below are the photos of wrong katagana 片仮名 (the one in green cloud) used in signboards near Busan Hotel.

karaoke カラオケ (the カ is wrong with one more dot)

morning set モーニングセット (the ソ is supposedly ン)

\When I started to learn Japanese, my teacher kept reminding us not to mix ン (n) and ソ (so) because both look quite the same. Well, this is a very good example!

Election in Japan

While the election in Malaysia have been dragging on for almost a year now (I think even the fortune tellers were running out of months to predict), Japanese will have their election on 16th December 2012. My colleague told me that she will vote on that day and she seemed very enthusiastic. 

16th December 2012 - Election day in Japan

I only felt the election heat today when I saw the current Japan Prime Minister's photo in advertisement next to summary of a Chinese online romance novel. It was above the hair removal advertisement too. I actually laughed out loud! The campaigning is on almost every website I go from various political parties. Gone were the days when the politicians had to go door to door to meet the voters. Now, they are campaigning online.

election campaign next to summary of romance novel

Packing of the Fragile Glass Bottle

I bought two bottles of spice paste from a spice shop. Since that were glass bottles, the shop assistant wrapped it up with brown paper. It is called good customer service! When it is rainy day, some shops will wrap up the paper bag too. One of my friends said that, the customer service in Japan is, "贴到心里面去了!" which means the customer service is so good that it touch the heart. I really shared her sentiment. 

packing with brown paper

extra service with packing

Pocket Money of Salary men サラリーマンの小遣い

Read in JapanToday about pocket money of salary men, due to the economic conditions, the pocket money level falls to same level as 30 years ago. Pocket money in Japanese is kozukai 小遣い, normally for married couple, the husband will hand over all of his salary to the wife, and the wife will give the husband pocket money after she do all the calculations on all the household expenses, kids, schools, loans, etc. So, the salary men's kozukai is a useful economic barometer, Shinsei Bank have been doing the survey from 1979. So, I googled for more titbits on this interesting topic, another article from JapanToday too, the most interesting part was the comments. So funny!

A comment from Shoganakunai: Unfortunately like many stories on Japan, this fails to take into account the shadow economy. Although most salarymen may receive a pitiful kozukai- it is not their only source of income. A large % of salarymen hold multiple bank accounts and arrange with their HR department to split a small percentage off into the secondary account which acts as their entertainment cash account. Ask your Nihonjin male colleagues if they are aware of this and you'll see. The wives in these cases never get to see the original gross salary. I remember when my Japanese boss discovered only on pay-day that the company was henceforth sending his monthly payslip directly home by mail instead of delivered to his desk. His horror was only matched by how fast he went home to intercept the payslip... But lest you think Japanese salarymen are all bad and deceptive, it is a common practice for wives to spin off a small % themselves into their own private account. Originally to protect themselves in case of a divorce, its more often used to fuel those handbag expenses.... again ask your female SAHM friends and see if they'll confess after a couple of drinks. Neither get reported in the general media though...