Using the Toilet in Japan

The second most terrifying thing that you will inevitably have to do in Japan is use the toilet.

The Japanese are very 'in-to' their control pads.  There are control pads for the floor, the bath tub, the air conditioning, the motion detecting lights, the drier room and also the toilet.

It is a bit daunting at first, because once you sit down, there is a proximity sensor in the seat, which detects your presence and starts to run the 'deodorizing' system, which as best I can tell is just a vent which sprays some freshening agent every so often ... however being in the delicate situation that you are in, it is a little unnerving to hear noises of things moving around beneath you.

Once you get over this, you realize that the seat is nice and warm, thanks to the heating circuits that are installed in the seat.

After you have finished your business, there are many options for refreshing your backside before you continue on your day.  Some of the picture descriptions look downright terrifying, but I can assure you that they are all rather pleasant.  You simply need to trust that no matter what you hear happening, you will emerge safely from the experience (unless you decide to stand up early, in which case you will spray water everywhere).  True to form, you can adjust the water pressure, and temperature of the backside bath, as well as position the nozzle to where you feel you need it the most, or if you prefer you can engage an oscillating program, which covers all of the bases.

After you have completed your task and stand up, the proximity sensor detects that you are no longer near the commode & flushes it automatically for you.  Also, there is a faucet located on top of the toilet, so you can wash your hands without ever having to touch the water controls.

All in all, it's a pretty slick system, I am seriously considering digging my toilet up and bringing it back with me to the US.  I think that I could install it in a public place & make a lot of money selling people the chance to use it.  What do you guy's think?

Throwing Away Trash in Japan

This is by far the most terrifying thing that I have had to do in Japan.  It doesn't seem like it should be very complicated, however in Japan, people take their rubbish very seriously.

One of the first things that you notice about Japan is that it is incredibly clean.  Even in the city where I live, it is rare to find garbage on the streets, and invariably, every morning on my way to work, I run into the same store keepers meticulously cleaning the side walk and even the street in front of their stores.

The second thing you notice about Japan is that there are no trash cans ... anywhere.  Not on the streets, not in the stores, not even in the restrooms ... so how is it possible that they can keep it so clean, if there is no where to throw out a piece of gum?  Well, the answer is that they hold on to their trash & throw it away at home.  Instead of spitting their gum into a tree, or on the street, the Japanese roll it up into a paper & throw it away when they get home.  That is an incredible concept for anyone who has walked in basically any city in the US and has seen all of the exhausted gum on the streets and sidewalks for your friends and neighbors to step in ...

Once you get home however, the process is nothing but straight forward.  They have (and I am not exaggerating) 13 different types of trash.  Each needs to be separated into unique piles / bags, and disposed of on a different day of the week.  There are paper cartons, paper cartons with aluminum lining, plastic products, plastic containers, PET bottles, metal containers, burnable trash, non burnable trash, pressurized spray bottles ... and so on ... each with it's own set of unique instructions on how to bundle and dispose of it.  It is quite a daunting task.

The next fun part is that if you don't separate your trash well enough, it will be returned to you, free of charge, for you to try again next week.  Fortunately that hasn't happened to me yet, and I hope it never does, but I have heard stories from some other people who it has happened to.

At any rate, it seems to work well & it is nice in some ways that they try to recycle so much stuff ... I just hope that I can maintain my record & not have to re package my refuse for the duration of my stay...

My Life in Japan without a Car

After 2 weeks of commuting in Japan on a daily basis, I have reached the conclusion that I don't need to have a car ... well at least not based on my current situation.  Public transportation in Japan is so convenient, that it is crazy.  Despite the fact that my commute time has increased from basically 20 min to a little more than an hour, I can't really say that I have noticed much.

In the mornings, the trains are very frequent (roughly once every 8 minutes) so you never really wait too long.  Plus, if you miss a train, you can stop and grab a coffee to make up the difference in time.  I get on the train early enough that it's possible for me to find a seat & that means that I can use the time to study my Japanese, which means that usually I have to figure out how to say the thing that I couldn't say yesterday.  It is definitely helping, and even if it is longer, it's much more relaxing to sit on a train & not think about where you are going, than it is to drive & constantly be yelling at the people around you (at least that is usually how it works when I drive ...)

On the way home, you have to be a little flexible, because the trains aren't as frequent, but as long as you can time your exit from work to meet the train schedule, it's basically no problem.  On the way home, usually I have been reading a book for pleasure.  I would like to be able to study some Japanese, however my brain is way too tired for that at the end of the day ...

Admittedly, there are some places where I am planning to go, that are not really accessible by public transportation.  In these circumstances, I can simply rent a car for a weekend in order to accomplish my goals.  It is a little bit of a hassle, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's an unwelcome compromise.

The side benefit to this, is that I am walking a lot more than I used to.  Even after only 2 weeks, I am noticing that I have more energy & I am actually in better condition for the other activities that I do (playing soccer, running ... etc ...).  I guess it makes a big difference, but I figure I'm walking an extra 3 to 4 miles per day than I used to.

At any rate, I haven't driven a car in 2 weeks & I'm loving every minute of it!!!

Taking a Bath in Japan

In the United States (or anywhere else for that matter) I’ve often been in the kitchen preparing breakfast when I suddenly realize that what I really want is a nice bath.  Then, I quickly realize that I am in the kitchen, and the bath tub was in the bath room, so in order for me to achieve my goal, I would have to walk all the way to the tub, turn on the water, wait for it to heat up to an appropriate temperature, then allow the tub to fill … but not too far and return to the kitchen to eat something (because now I realize that I am starving) and then slip into the tub and enjoy my bath.

In Japan, the situation is quite different.  In Japan, you can fill up your bath tub directly from the kitchen.  Not only can you fill it up, but you can also determine precisely what temperature you would like your water to be at, precision to 1°C.  Furthermore, no need to worry about the tub overflowing, because you simply select the volume of water that you’d like to put in the tub, within 1L.  I can see this being very useful.

Obviously I am overreacting just a little bit, but I think that it’s actually a pretty good concept, one that we should consider importing to the US.  The real reason for this key pad is that there is no hot water unless you flip the switch and turn the water heater on.  This is a particularly interesting idea for someone like me, who will only need the hot water for about 30 min per day … Ultimately, it will save me a lot of ¥ on the gas and electricity bills, but more importantly I am not wasting energy keeping a pool of water hot that I might not use for days.

The water heats up pretty quickly, within a minute or two of when you turn it on, but you have a lot of control over the temperature.  This is very helpful once you determine what you want for a bath / shower temp.  Also, if you are just washing some dishes, there is no need to make it as hot.

At any rate, this was an interesting discovery, and one that I plan to make a lot of use out of.

Let’s Have Fun Cooking with シーチキン (Seachicken)

That’s right sports fans, it’s time for some Seachicken.  Today I made my first real trip to the grocery store to pick up some essentials, and start to fill my refrigerator (which is awesome by the way …).  Going to the supermarket is usually one of my favorite activities, and I’m sure that it will re-gain such an auspicious title, when I figure out what everything is.

For one thing, the produce is relatively harmless … it’s pretty hard to make a carrot look like an onion, but I guess anything is possible.  Actually, the produce is quite good at my local small market, I’m not sure why that surprised me, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Meat is a little more dangerous, but still not outside of the comfort zone.  It’s pretty easy to tell the difference between beef, chicken and pork (for one … just look at the price … beef is really expensive) but it’s a little more difficult to distinguish between the different cuts of each meat.  I think I will adopt the guess test and revise method to solve this problem.

Things start to get tricky when you get into oils and sauces.  Soy sauce is easy to spot, because it’s everywhere.  There are 1万 (10,000) different kinds of cooking oils, peanut oil, vegetable oil, some other kind of oil … and so on.  Moving to the packaged foods you can find some really interesting things.  Squid jerky, which is actually quite good despite the terrifying appearance.

Fortunately some of the items are translated into english, however there appears to have been something that wasn’t quite communicated properly.  That brings us to シーチキン.  This is the Japanese name for canned tuna, perhaps that is where the “Chicken of the Sea” brand came from.  I’m not sure.

If you move to the personal hygene section, you can find even more interesting translations.  I managed to pick up some skin milk, which is some sort of lotion.  Also, it is possible to find my favorite products, hair liquid and hair tonic.  I’m not sure entirely what they are, but I am very fond of hair liquid, which has a nice tingling sensation when you put it on your head.  I’m sure eventually that my hair will fall out, but at least they will smell good.

I promised myself that each time I go to the grocery store I would try something strange.  Today, I did a bit of cheating, and I tried a green tea ice cream bar.  I strongly recommend green tea flavored ice cream to anyone, however I knew that it was good based on some previous experiences.  More to follow ...