Got invited to the wedding

I have been to many Japanese weddings. And I have to agree it has been a quite different experience compared to my home country. While only few of the weddings I really loved to go because I was really close friend to the couple and was happy to see them together, some of the weddings offered quite a interesting insights into this increasingly rare phenomenon in Japan.

For first wedding, I had to give a lot of thought to how much should I pay as a gift. Some of the wedding invitations make it easy for you by simply asking you certain amount as 'participation fees'. This was not the case. So I went to Google. And found that even Japanese people themselves need guides to intricacies of the ceremony.

For example,

This site (in Japanese) lists out details of manners at wedding or how you should fold the gift voucher or how you should avoid any numbers indicating 4 (pronounced same as the letter for death) or 9 (pronounced same as the letter for sufferings) and much more.
http://www.kekkon-j.com/manual/syugi/manner.html

For reference, here is the translated version of how much you should pay as gift.

To Whom	Your Age			Invited as couple?			Region
				No		Yes
	20s	30s	40s	Husband Only	Wife Only		Kanto	Kansai
Collegue	30,000	30,000	-	30,000	30,000	-	30,000	30,000
Subordinate	30,000	30,000	30,000	30,000	-	50,000	30,000	30,000
Brother/Sister	100,000	100,000	-	-	-	100,000	30,000	100,000
Nephew/Niece	-	50,000	100,000	50,000	30,000	100,000	50,000	100,000
Cousin	30,000	30,000	30,000	30,000	30,000	50,000	30,000	30,000
Other relatives	-	-	30,000	50,000	-	100,000	50,000	50,000
Friend/Acquaintance	30,000	30,000	20,000	30,000	30,000	50,000	30,000	30,000

※ I have absolutely no idea about the logic behind this or some of the inexplicable hyphens in the table.

Some fun and some gloom facts about wedding and marriages in Japan :

• After the wedding ceremony, generally couple receives gifts from the guests one by one. Many times, the groom has to toast with each group of guests. To avoid getting drunk, a small bucket is placed by his side so that he can throw away excess of drinks and just take sips. I have seen this.
• Traditional Japanese wedding dresses have cranes displayed on them which are symbolic to lifetime fidelity. Although I haven't seen much of this. I was referring to cranes, not the fidelity ;)
• Average cost of wedding in Japan (as of 2011) is from 3.5 to 4.5 million JPY with around 50 guests.
• Having wedding outside Japan is around 30% cheaper than in Japan.
• Dwindling couples: Very recent survey has shown that singles and those who never want to get married in Japan are all time high.

Another surprising thing for me was getting invited in the first place for couple of weddings I was invited. As I bearly knew the guy or the girl. But I later found out that strength of your bond with the Shinpu: 新婦 or Shinro: 新郎 (Bride or Groom) has nothing or very less to do with whether you get the invitation or not. I respectfully declined citing some inconvenience with my schedule but this also reminds me comments from one of my Japanese friend.

"One of my friend divorced in 6 months, I paid 50,000 in their wedding and for what? Now I have decided never to attend any wedding. It's a waste of money"

I hope you don't have to attend such weddings and also that your brother/sister, nephew/niece doesn't get married in Kansai ;)

Have you ever tried Chicken

To many of non-vegetarians, this sounds as a stupid question. It would to me! So I thought untill recently. Till I found this restaurant in central Tokyo which presents the Chicken in it's totally different way. I am sure you have never tried Chicken "this way".

"Chicken Heart" : Sounds lame but was tasty.

Left Top: Hatsumoto - Base of Heart

Right Top: Hatsumaru - Heart with blood vessels still attached.

Left bottom: Hatsuhimo - Blood vessels from around heart

Right bottom: Hatsu - Heart

Left: Shirako - Testes. If you get a chance, let me know how was it.

Right: Chouchin - Ovaries. Only interested in eggs. Not the nest.

 Left: Megimo - Spleen. Was'nt bad.

Right: Tsubo - Preen Gland. Hmm. Do let me know.

"Chicken Eggs", before they are known to outside world as "Eggs". Most of it tasted like softly cooked egg white

Menu (although in Japanese) explains in details, location of that part in Chicken, it's taste and how it is cooked. Nice!

Here is the link for this restaurant : http://mi-mo.jp/store.php?iid=0013&tid=00000282

My rating? 4 stars out of 5. I took out one star only for comparatively slower service than usual for Japan.

Escape of the fake Rhino

Just read a interesting news on BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16950361

I wish I was there at the time of "Rhino's" escape. Wondering who wrote the script. This "Rhino" seems to be quite subdued. Somone should put a chapter on "unexpected event" in that script.

Anyway, it was a funny and yet understandable to watch how serious was everyone, even the spectators.

Law against the obesity??

Came across this bizarre coverage of "how Japanese government forces their citizens to do things". Although old, this video is stereotype one sided coverage given for Japan in western media.

Even though the title of this video is sarcastic, the tone of the reporter (who is not even Japanese herself) is that the Japan government has made waistline measure a legal limit and blah blah blah....


I understand that general impression is that Japanese are very slim and women are even slimmer. But let's not take away the credit to the efforts they put into being healthy and fit. I have worked in Japanese companies for quite long to understand that these medical checks are nothing but routine checks under superb national medical care system. Now this report may talk about NEC and it's employee health care system but NEC is not Japan. Also, there are some benefits that a company gets if it's employees are in-general fit and not having any diseases just because their lifestyles are not healthy. But I see not harm in it.

Being slim is certainly not discussed in government here but it is indeed a social requirement. In this diligent society, being obese is seen as a sign of irresponsibility (which in my personal opinion is right except if you have any health conditions) and laziness. Although, not everybody in Japan thinks in so much details but in a tightly knit and coherent society like Japanese, its hard to justify the company (or society) to foot the bill for your high BP and cholesterol by not having control over what you eat, not exercising or drinking too much. It is as obvious for a Japanese society to expect slim people around as it is for western to expect obese people. (Some people may find this as offensive but even slightly obese people REALLY turn heads in Japan)

Comparatively, men tend live unhealthy lifestyle anywhere in the world but looking slim and beautiful is a routine for many Japanese women. It is so much woven into their daily lives that it has formed a marketing key-word in Japanese: 女磨き (Onna Migaki).

Besides all these social factors against obesity, Japanese diet is one of among the best balanced diet with thousands of years of history behind it as compared to meat centric diet of the west.

I brand this type of reporting, conveniently ignoring all other factors to put across one narrow vision as gap-filling reports. When you actually don't have any significant stories to fill in your on-air time or newspaper pages, you fill those gap with such a low quality reporting.

Unfortunately I have seen this kind of reporting in many western countries lately. Serious issues like Fukushima-crisis were also given one-sided coverage, giving rise to countless rumors. Hope that readers are wise enough to check multiple sources and don't rush in forming opinion.

Party for singles

Thank god I am through all this, but Goukon （合コン）is a huge deal for any aspiring single in Japan. Especially this time of the year (year end and beginning) is also the time when you have good excuse to arrange such parties.

Gokon is a slang word, originally meaning party but has taken closer meaning of speed dating dinner lately. Usually, it starts with one or few people wanting to have such party. More participants are 'recruited' using their connections. It's absolutely OK even if most of the participants don't know each other. In fact, that is even better. Also it's common sense to keep the sex ratio of participants to 1:1 and typically size of the party is from 4 to 10 participants. At one of the Japanese client's place I worked for, there was a roster for desiring participants and during any party there have to be at least 2-3 'outsiders'.

Even the restaurants in Japan are also customized to suit the atmosphere of Gokon. From menu to even interiors. Gokon is arranged in Izakaya (Japanese style drinking bars) or any typical restaurants meant for Gokon. If you haven't been to any Gokon, note that it's dutch and girls usually pay lesser portion. Also if you imagine that since it is kind of 'date' the restaurant atmosphere will be calm and romantic, you are mistaken. Although it is a kind of date, Gokons rarely take place in such restaurants. Unless of course it is matter of 4 people participating in. Usually, it takes place in not too noisy but not too romantic restaurants.

Some of the keywords you will hear often in this context are
Sakura: Yes it's a flower name. But in Gokon context it means a decoy. It's person brought in, just to fill up the place or make sex ratio even. He or she may not be interested in the Gokon or even may be married already. Sometimes it's kind of unsaid favor made to the inviting person because they could not fill the spot and Gokon itself may not take place without it. I have done it few times.

Kanji （幹事）: It is not the word for Japanese script but means someone who arranges everything about the party; an organizer or manager in a sense. He looks after everything from choosing the restaurant, notifying everyone to seeing that everyone pays.

What happens at the dinner time itself is similar to typical dinner date. Girls and boys introduce each other and then afterwards it is you and your mingling skill. But iPhone Apps are assisting in everything these days.

本音サーチャー Honne Search (Real Voice/Intention) : It 'analyzes' the real intention behind your voice when you speak to it.

合コン勘定 Gokon kanjo: Easy calculator which considers how much more you charge to seniors or how less you charge to female participants.

If you get a chance to get invited, do enjoy the romantic side of Japan! Who knows, you may even find your soul mate!!

It's complicated

Washing my ass was never so complicated for me!!

This is the control panel of the real toilet in Japan. Yes! Toilets have control panels. I know, that many of you must have seen lot of forwarded emails depicting complicated futuristic toilets but this is real! Many of you in Japan must have seen this too.

I could guess the last row alright. It's *pink* and not for males. But why do you have to put so much thought and details in washing your ass? Does somebody really complain on whether the shower (again, choice of this word is debatable) was too mild or too powerful??

"Hey look! It was too mild. I had to use traditional ways! What's the use of toilet? x△@x#*"
Or
"It was so strong that I felt violated" (For some, this may not be actually a complaint)
Or
"I got confused between second and third row and now all my **** is wet!! How am I supposed to walk around?? @x&△x*#"
Or
"It was so perfect!! I want to use it even when I am not sh***ing!"

At least I have never heard of that kind of conversation! God forbid if these are real complaints or feedback. I can only imagine the burden on the person sitting at the other end of the call getting further details.

And there is more! To 'maintain' this toilet, there is another panel behind! I don't even want to see that. But besides all the humor, finding right kind of button was indeed a great user experience! ;)

Good weather for photography

First of all, Happy New Year to all of my blog readers!! It was a colder than usual year end this time. I hope all of you had a great holidays and wish you a happy and prosperous new year!

After getting my digital SLR, I have been reading about photography and experimenting a lot! Today I clicked this photo. It was a nice weather I could see till quite far over the horizon.

On the left side of the photo is Yokohama Landmark Tower. The red color of the sky is not a result of any editing or filter. I clicked the photo in following mode.

Lens:                55-250mm
Shutter Speed:  1/40
Aperture:          5.6
ISO:                 1600
White Balance:  Flash (I guess it was AWB)

I have to say, I got my camera in just about right time. This is the timing when skies are most clear in Japan. Also, Snow and subsequently Spring is waiting for me couple of months down the line, when I will have (hopefully) mastered basics of the digital photography.

There is neither dearth of good photographers or photography clubs in Japan, nor equipment, locations and subjects to shoot. I hope to utilize best of all..

Let's get social : mixi

mixi is the largest social networking site in Japan. Unfortunately I see some dark clouds over the horizon for them.

I was on this site almost as soon as it was launched in 2004. But it's restrictive features have always kept me from being a addict (or at least a frequent user). Of course this site is only meant for Japanese users from beginning, but again that is one of the policy I find very narrow minded.

The fact that you need to have a registered mobile mail address in Japan to get an account is most baffling of all. (See 'mixi hates foreigners'). Mixi has been adamant to change this policy even after other social networks like MySpace and Facebook have really became viral and spreading like wild fire even in Japan.

This site is a classic example of what I call restrictive business mentality of Japanese. I have always maintained that Japanese businesses which deal with the service industry or people (Personal banking, insurance, Airlines, retail and now social networking etc) are unfortunately too much focused on doing things 'The Japanese Way'.

That is another topic but the point is mixi was way ahead of other social networks in a sense of opportunity and timing to take of as a global network. But it missed the bus by self imposing restrictive policies and not thinking in more global way.

When Facebook took off in west, there were even critics saying that Facebook will fail remarkably in Japan. The trend seems to have gone other way. I myself know that almost all of my Japanese friends are now on Facebook. No language or culture barrier! And unfortunately for mixi, it's share is declining every day.

Declining fortune? (Source: 2011 Social Network Analysis Report)

Being here in Japan for more than a decade now, it's sad to see that except for very few, most Japanese corporations failed to have wider vision of their future. As a sliver lining, strong Japanese Yen has literally forced many companies to look outside Japan. Let's hope it is a beginning of a new chapter in Japanese corporate world.

Canon EOS 60D from kakaku.com

Finally it was delivered yesterday.

I ordered my first Digital SLR last week from kakaku.com. After much deliberation, research, comparisons and reading many reviews, I settled for Canon EOS 60D. In my opinion this particular model is a very good mix of close to professional features and ease of operations needed by beginners for a reasonable cost.



This was my first purchase through kakaku.com and for those who can read Japanese or get help, I suggest that kakaku.com is a great site which can save you around 20% to 30% on most of the items. For those who would rather touch and feel the purchase they are making, you still have an option of going to any big electronics shop like Yodobashi Camera or Biccamera and see the gadget there. Then you can come back to kakaku and choose the best deal. I have seen some foreigner painstakingly noting down prices of things they want at Akihabara but this site will save you a lot of time for sure.

I found that some of the nice features of kakaku.com are ease of use (if you know Japanese of course), wide range of products (almost any consumer goods) and wide range of dealers (from amazon to your local electronic shop). You can compare the products easily and can navigate to the purchase form right there.

Paying is easy too, most of the shops have online order forms and have option of Cash on Delivery. Although the dealer may charge nominal fees (somewhere around 1% of the purchase) if you choose COD.

By the way, this is the first photo I took!

My first experiment with panning. Not too great and had to take almost 15 shots to get that one right, but I found some of the points I need to improve already!

Look forward to some armature clicks.

Shochu Ads

Last month, I was with my colleagues in a Tachinomiya (立飲み屋:A standing bar). And I saw these posters.

All these posters are mainly advertisements for Shochu but most Izakaya (居酒屋: Traditional Japanese bars) and Japanese restaurants (especially old ones) have these type of posters for Sake and Beer too.

I find it intriguing that there is similarity among these pictures, wherever you go in Japan. As if all these posters  belong to particular class of art or as if they are work of a single artist!

Faces of the models, their hairstyles and typical clothing, fuzzy colors and borderlines, specific font for text all are similar. I wonder if these posters have kind of history as well...

You know you are here for long time...

I was going through my old stuff  as a part of year-end routine of massive house cleaning ritual in Japan and found these. Wow! I thought. It really made me feel the flow of time.

My first mobile in Japan.
J-Phone(later transformed to vodafone) sanyo model:

My second phone by Sharp.
Larger screens and 3-4 Mbps mobile camera were in vogue; The name 'J-Phone' is history but Vodafone is still hanging in.

Next similar, but more powerful from Toshiba.
Softbank has taken over and Vodafone is out of Japan. Looking at this now, I wonder why I carried such monsters.

Shifted to iPhone 3G; One Button Revolution!!
Proud to be among first users of iPhone in Japan. Thanks Mr. Son and Steve!

And my current phone is iPhone 4S. I find no reason to run away from Apple. Just that looking back, I feel how mobile users have come long way...

Slow life

Life Philosophy T-Shirt found in one of the supermarkets in Tokyo

Nomikai topics - Your blood type

If you go for nomikai (飲み会:Literally 'drinking party') often with your Japanese friends/colleagues, there are  so called 'FAQ's you will certainly come across.

What is Your Blood Type?

Blood group based fortune telling（血液型占い） is a national pastime in Japan. Initially I thought how can there be only 4 types of people in the world, but it is not about 4 types. It is more about attributing certain traits to the people with certain blood type. Here are some of those traits

Type A:

• Very particular, meticulous and with sense of responsibility about any thing they do.
• Do not take much risks.
• As a shortcoming, these types may get too much involved and think in too many details.
• Takes time to convey his/her romantic feelings. So forming relationship may take time.

Author's comments: Since you are in Japan, if you are guessed to be A, take it as a compliment.

Type B:

• Easily interested in many things and gets into action but easily gets bored too.
• Fickle. Not a great team player. Individualistic and creative.
• Easily falls in or out of love.

Author's comments: Most looked down upon type to be in relationship with. If you are B, you have lot of 'damage control' to do.

Type AB:

• Obviously mix of AB. 'Dedication' from A and 'Quick Action' from B makes them successful in most of their tasks.
• Even while in relationship, tends to keep certain distance with boyfriend/girlfriend.
• Sometimes gives a deep thought to own actions but sometimes dives into action straightway (Mix of A and B?).

Author's comments: I still don't see how a person can be self contradictory,

Type O:

• Is dependable and has leadership qualities.
• Does not give a thorough thought before actions. Sometimes regrets for his actions later.
• Tends to be in more romantic or dramatic relationship.
• Makes clear differences between 'them' and 'us'.

Author's comments: Seriously??


So, that was about the 'blood type talk' that you may hear a lot over Japanese dinners with young and middle-aged people. Although in Japanese, there are even books on this type of fortune telling.

Disclaimer: This post is under 'Humor' label since author thinks about any type of fortune telling as a waste of time. No offense! Sometimes I waste my time too, but in other ways.

Dragon Quest

I am not a great fan of video games but recently, I was intrigued to find this crowd at Akihabara enjoying the free wireless range for Dragon Quest players. It was late afternoon and still quite hot outside, but these hard core fans won't let it go!

Generous Bus

Found on a bus in Yokohama

Try at least once: Fish overies

This wasn't that bad. In fact my overly pampered taste buds could not register any taste at all. You may feel awkward by its slimy touch though.

This dish is offered in many places (fish may be different) as shown in this picture.

You can see the yellow bunch in the center. That's what you eat. Of course you can have the fish too and at least for me, the fish had great taste compared to ovaries. You can take out the overies  in separate dish and put some soy sauce （Shoyu - 醤油）on the top.

Name: I forgot the fish name but these are the ovaries of fish, uncooked.
Place: An Izakaya (Japanese restaurant) near Atami station.
 
I would appriciate if someone can tell me about the fish.

Mount Fuji

I am sure there are many blogs, articles on this topic but since the official season of climbing has started I just want to share my experiences when I climbed it last year.

It was my second time climbing Mt. Fuji. There is a saying in Japan that "If you haven't climbed Mt Fuji even once, you are fool. If you are climbing it twice, you are a fool". Well, I decided to be a fool and prepared for the climb based on my first experience.

There are loads of articles on internet on how to prepare for the climb. You can find some useful information here.

Me and my friends started climbing at 8 PM on a Friday and except for few minutes break to catch our breaths we reached till 8th station smoothly. The top of the mountain was in sight and I thought we will easily make it before sunrise. But after 8th station, situation was worse than a crowded escalator in any metro station in Tokyo. It wasn't moving at all. Somehow we crossed 9th station and the sky turned deep blue from black and then orange towards east. We could almost see faces of people lining up at the top to watch sunrise but I decided to take a good spot right there and watch the sunrise. It was a good decision because ever after watching sunrise it took us another 45 minutes to cover 10 minutes distance. Anyway the crowd was all calm and orderly as usual unlike any place in world.

Eventually it paid off since I could click amazing sunrise and moonset pictures from the same spot.

After enjoying some more hours at the top of Japan and enjoying extraordinarily pricy curry rice and noodles we decided to call it a day and get down. The descent is the worst part of this. It feels like forever. Something like a mirage. You see the end of the trail till your eyes can reach and once you reach there, the trail still goes on and on.

A word of caution: One of my friend and his wife nearly got stranded on their way back because they reached late and started their descent too late. Fortunately they met a Japanese person who helped them get back to nearest city and stay there overnight. Their first climb became a horror story to tell instead of a good memory. Study the routes well and call it quits if you can't make it within planned time. People have died here. Not to mention the horrible Aokigahara forest at the mountain base.

If you take basic precautions and read the instructions very well, Mt. Fuji is certainly a place to visit while in Japan.



Summer gifts

Rainy season is officially over! Hot and humid summer is here to stay for couple of months.
Summer is the period of various festivals. It is also the time when you send gift packs to your friends, family and colleagues. Since I first came to Japan, wonderful gift packets and the whole range of items presented as gifts have  always amazed me.

Assorted beer cans, cooking oils, soya sauce (shoyu) in summer gift packages

 High quality meat is also a  nice summer gift.

These are very few examples of what is available in summer gift packs. Of course wine, sake, coffee, green tea, cold drinks, dried fish, cookies are also available from wide choices of other gifts.


For me, when I see these in the super markets it's the feeling that time for hanabi (firework) is close!!

Time to go digital

For those with analogue TV sets, they will lose the TV transmission from 24th July

We bought our digital TV last year when Japan government was offering certain points as a way to promote more eco-friendly products and revive the economy.

Eco points were going to be halved after December 2010. So we rushed to Yodobashi camera in early November and decided on 40 inches Sharp AQUOS. Eco points + Yodobashi camera discount got me almost 50% off. It has proved a good choice so far.

For those who missed on the digitalization wave or have just arrived in Japan, here are some tips:

• Don't go for any second hand TV set unless you are certain that the TV is capable of digital transmission. You will notice a mark on right hand top of the screen saying アナログ  meaning Analogue.

• For most of the mansion the antenna for digital transmission should be taken care by building management company.

• If you are not sure about what will happen with your current TV set, first talk to your mansion superintendent or if you live in a single story house refer to this.

By the way here is the comparison in digital and analogue quality for those interested.

Analogue Transmission

And the digital transmission

You may not notice the difference immediately but if you click and enlarge the pictures and compare them overlapping you will know what I mean.

Google plus

Google+ is here!! Eventually a social networking site from Google, as expected!!

I am on facebook. Not that I am going to move to Google+ immediately but I certainly want to have a look at what GOOGLE has come up with.

I immediately took a demo. Here are 2 features I found interesting.

Google Plus tour screen

Circles (You can group your contacts using circles)

Well this is exactly I found Facebook lacked in clarity during its initial days. In real life, you don’t share everything about you with everyone you know. There are circles and circles within circles! With facebook, you can do that eventually by using groups but it wasn’t intuitive took me little time figuring it out.

Huddle (You can start a SMS conversation with a group)

Although many smart phones allow you to do it already, I haven’t seen this functionality in any social networking yet.

On the contrary “Hangouts” is something I felt not good from a point of view of keeping your users interested. I said that because as in real life, if these hangouts are public, and someone you really don’t want in, tries to jump in then the spirit of hangout gets killed. I am really interested in how this feature is received.

Although the site is not open it for everyone yet, you can register your email address to be kept posted.

Facebook is certainly picking up in Japan against some local social networking sites. Will be interesting to see how Google plus performs here.

I am looking forward to it.