Moving.

As you can tell, my posts are getting sparser as I am about to move from one part of America to another.

So let me tell you a little about moving and apartments in Japan.

First of all, if you are not Japanese, you can't get a regular apartment without a guarantee from a Japanese citizen. There are some exceptions: a few apartment complexes might make the guarantee for you if they are foreigner-oriented, or they are gaijin houses (usually small apartments with communal toilets and baths).

If you have a guarantee, or just want to try your luck, bring money - LOTS.

You have to pay 礼金 (reikin), or key money - this is a non-refundable deposit equivalent to 2-3 month of rent. It is 礼 (rei) which means it is a thank you to your wonderful apartment owner for being so nice as to provide you with a living space. Yes, Japanese actually think like this. Your landlord might also require you to repay it every 2 years, or evict you.

You have to pay a 敷金　(shikikin)/保証金 (hoshoukin), the same as a deposit, and can range from 1-4 months of rent, as the trend of using reikin is slowly decreasing. This will be refunded if YOU clean the apartment (replace the tatami mats, carpet, wallpaper, and fusuma). Otherwise the hoshoukin will go to fix this. There is a good chance that upon leaving the apartment when the landlord inspects, he'll find a spot of mildew and choose to keep the money.

Finally, you have the 家賃 (yachin), or the rent. This usually depends on where you live, how close it is to the train station, and how good your 紹介 (shokai - introduction) was. If you have a very influential member of the community introduce and recommend you to a landlord, you can get away with murder. I knew a Canadian girl who had literally over 3,000 sq. ft of apartment on a building and had huge parties of gaijin EVERY WEEKEND - she paid 5man yen ($500) a month. The only reason she got it was because she was hot and both the vice chief of police and a member of the city council liked her, A LOT. One drunken excursion with the landlord, and this girl got apartment space reserved for commercial use, at a fraction of the price.

Around $500, btw, is a very good number for a foreigner. If a landlord wants more, just say you had seen another apt. for $500 in the same area. The landlord might drop the price. $500 is an excellent price, and you should pay about $1500 to $2000 15-20man yen, for your first payment of deposits and rent.

And remember, be a good renter. I knew an Australian fellow in Kyoto that was so rambunctious, his landlord actually burned down his own apt. building to collect insurance money and flush the guy out of the apartment (or so it was said). A landlord can't evict you until contract renewal (usually 2 years), in most cases.

CHINTAI, btw, is a great place to find apartment info if you can read Japanese.

PS: I was farting around with Chintai, and I found that my old apartment is up for rent! Feel free to apply. Since I, a foreigner, have already been there, maybe the landlord will allow another gaijin to live in beautiful Arashiyama, Kyoto!

I owe you man...

Japanese care about indebtedness and reciprocity, in other words, what they technically owe other people in terms of social obligation, and how much they need to return to be socially acceptable to others. In other words - Japanese have two Valentine's days!

WHAT!?!?!??!

Suppose you are middle level management in a Japanese firm, and Valentine's day rolls around. DON'T GIVE CANDY TO ANYONE! Instead, sit back and relax while an inordinate amount of chocolate is given to you by every female member of the staff. And don't misinterpret it, they're only doing it because it is social obligation (giri - 義理). In fact, all of that sugar-laden sweetness is called giri-choko　(義理チョコ) or obligation chocolate. (Notice, there are no men in this picture)


Wait one month, and White Day arrives on March the 14th. This is when all the men give Giri-choko to all the female members of the staff. Again, NO ROMANCE NECESSARY.

Weird isn't it. But what I REALLY wanted to teach were two phrases:

Osewa ni narimashita - お世話になりました - I'm indebted to you.
Osewa ni shite kurete (familiar)/ kudasatte (formal) arigatou (gozaimasu) お世話にして「くれて・下さって」ありがとう（ございます） - Thank you for taking care of me (or the situation that has direct relation to me)

Osewa （お世話） literally is an indebtedness that you have incurred directly or indirectly due to someone helping you with a problem, or indirectly aiding you (like showing your lost son where home was). It is a very usable phrase, and even when a Japanese person helps you find you way from Ikebukuro to Shibuya by train, remember the phrase: Domo, osewa ni narimashita.

UNIQLOCK!

UNIQLO (short for UNIQue CLOthes) is one of those Japanese commercial monstrosities that is yet cool to wear even though its everywhere. The store follows the same pattern as OLD NAVY in America, cheap clothes with establish patterns.

UNIQLO started around the early 2000's and I still have jeans and an awesome black blazer that I bought for around $25 at the Shinkyogoku store in Kyoto. Their ability to design fundamental clothing for a cheap price makes them immensely popular with the youth in Japan, and it's quite strange that it hasn't caught on like wildfire here.

They also have a freaking awesome clock that you can widget on your blog.



I'll widget it later... Lemme know if you need help throwing it on your blog.

Tanabata Time

I remember when I was in my Japanese 102 (1st year second semester) class at OCC, my wonderful, yet strict teacher taught me the tune to Tanabata and brought a bamboo branch that she had bought from Yaohan (before it went bankrupt).

It goes something like this:

Sasa no ha saara sara
Bamboo-grass leaves swish swish

Nokiba ni yureru
Rustling at the eaves' edge

Ohoshi-sama kira kira
All the stars twinkle and twinkle

Kin-gin sunago
Fine gold and silver sand



Get a colored piece of paper, write your wish on it, and tie it to some bamboo! If you have any other questions, Wikipedia has some good stuffas does Yumeji.

タル占い Fortune-telling barrel

Near where I used to live in beautiful Arashiyama, Kyoto was a medium-sized Jinja (shrine) by the name of Matsuo. It's one of the oldest shrines in Kyoto, and originates when a major samurai of the Emperor of the time (I think it was Kammu) stopped under a waterfall and noticed a turtle resting at the base of the falls. Well, this was about the time the capital of Japan was being shifted from Nagaoka-Tenjin to Kyoto, nearly 1300 years ago.

The purity of the water was remarkable (as it is everywhere else in Kyoto), so the samurai immediately recommended a shrine be built there to commend the pure spirit inherent in the water. Matsuo Taisha (or large shrine) was built and it remains a place of blessing to local miso and sake producers.




ALL SAKE (I especially like the barrel of Hanshin Tigers sake over there on the right, second row.



There is sake everywhere, and the most fun comes during Hatsumode (the first shrine visit of the year) when they bring out a mixed liquor filled with gold leaf.　This is the shrine to the god of Japanese sake.



One interesting thing about Matsuo Taisha is that there is a "barrel fortune-telling" yatai (stand) during Hatsumode.





You basically take a cumbersome arrow and shoot it at a barrel with all but a small circle cut out and a gong behind it. If you hit the edge of the barrel, you get a "kichi" charm (good luck), but if you hit the very middle and the gong, you get a special "daikichi" (very good luck) charm that also serves as a cell phone strap. My wife and I both shot it - my wife got kichi and I got daikichi. My wife lovingly looked in my eyes that day and told me I was a "yareba dekiru otoko" (a guy who can stand up and do it). Now I wonder if I'm that same guy, there isn't a Taru-uranai (fortune telling barrel) to tell her so!

Learn to be a ninja...

When Americans think about Japan, the first thing they imagine are samurai and ninja. Well, I've been to the OFFICIAL ninja museum in Iga-Sano in Nara (maybe it's in Mie, I forgot). Anyway the greatest thing about going there - if you are a train aficionado - is the single line Kintetsu track that goes there from Iga-Kobe station on the Osaka line, the official NINJA TRAIN:



After a hour ride to Iga Sano Station, you disembark to the official Iga-style Ninja museum. It's not as cheesy as you would think, they show all of the ways ninjas hid inside houses and the implements and devices they used in order to assassinate their targets.





The most interesting aspect of the ninjas is the finger strength necessary. I remember they had one exhibit that stated a ninja need to lift a 100 lb. rice bale with their pinkie finger in order to have the clutching strength to climb a castle wall. If castle owners were a bit smarter, perhaps they'd find a better way of making walls then this:



At least fill in the cracks with some mortar, you silly daimyo! You're practically inviting the ninjas inside!!