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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Football in Japan


There's a lot of college and high school football. It's become quite popular in recent years. In fact, Japanese college teams and all-stars regularly play host to American college teams. There are more than two hundred college and high school football teams in Japan.

Japanese are interested in American football. Televised re-runs of American professional football games have good audiences in Japan. And many Japanese teams use videotapes of American pro games as part of their training.

In the past, Japanese considered themselves too small to play pro football, But recent generations have been growing taller. Now Japanese men are big and heavy enough to be good players, and quite good enough for professional leagues. The Japan Professional Football League , or J. League is the top professional association football  league in Japan.

Central Heating in Japan


Newer, more expensive homes, condos, and apartments do have central heating. But most Japanese have to use stoves in winter. They use kerosene, gas, or electric stoves and heaters, sometimes a combination of several types.

Many traditional homes are built without much insulation. And inside there are sliding walls made of rice paper. This type of home is hard to heat. But small rooms, like the ones in most apartments, are easy to heat.

Many people still use a traditional heating method called kotatsu. It's a floor heater, usually charcoal or electric, under a square frame shaped like a low table. On top is a quilt. You sit with your legs under the warm quilt.

Housing in Japan

Housing in Japan is expensive. Housing is extremely expensive, especially in the cities. There are two main factors. One is the scarcity of land. The other is that Japanese can't build real high-rise housing because of the danger of earthquakes. This makes the cost of land in Tokyo the highest in the world. In some residential areas the price per square foot is astronomical.

So the average worker can't afford to buy a house. It's harder than ever before. Until recently, if you were willing to commute a few hours a day, a small house was possible. Now, in the big cities, many people have given up on even that. It's easier in smaller cities and towns.

Most apartments are tiny by western standards. They also have better rental apartments and condos. They're called "mansion." They're larger and more comfortable, but the rents or purchase prices are very high.

Japanese Homes


The houses are either Japanese-style, western-style, or a combination. A Japanese-style house is built mainly of wood. It has interior sliding panels made of paper. Most rooms open onto a garden. The floors are covered with thick woven mats called tatami. A western-style house is usually wood and concrete, and it may have one Japanese-style room.


The better apartments and the condominiums are called "mansions." They're small by western standards. A "2LDK" mansion is typical. That's two bedrooms, a combination living-dinning room, a kitchen are, a bath, and a small balcony.


The regular apartments, the ones that are not considered "mansion," are extremely small. For example, an entire apartment might equal the space of a standard American living room. And a family of four might live there.





 

Is Japanese food hot?


No, it isn't. They don't use a lot of hot pepper and other spices. What they like most in food is freshness, delicacy, and beauty of presentation. They try to use the freshest ingredients available. The preparation should bring out the natural flavors. And the food should look beautiful as well as taste delicious.

Japanese use hot pepper sometimes, but not usually during the cooking itself. They prefer to add it afterwards at the table. They call it shichimi togarashi - actually red pepper combined with some other spices. They only add it to certain things, such as noodle dishes.

And, yes you can get hot food in Japan if you want it. They have good Indian, Korean, Indonesian, Szechuan, and other Asian restaurants in many large cities if they want hot food.

Is foreign food available in Japan?


Yes - you can get almost any kind of food in Japan, especially in the large cities. Most Japanese enjoy eating foreign food, so they have lots of restaurants where they can get it. For example, in Tokyo we can get French, Italian, Mexican, Spanish, Swiss, German, Scandianvian, Greek or Russian food. There's a lot of Asian food too - Chinese, Indian, Thai, Korean, Indonesian, Mongolian. And there's American food, of course.


There are western-style steak houses, and all kinds of fast food. They have McDonalds, Domino's Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken - even Haagen Dasz ice cream.

If you go shopping in Japanese supermarkets, you'll find many kinds of western food. Some western products are packaged for Japanese use, so you might see a familiar package with Japanese writing on it.

 

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Is Japanese food fattening?

Not really. You don't see many oveweight people in Japan. Japanese food has a good balance of essential vitamins, proteins, and minerals. They eat a lot of fish and also fresh vegetables and fruit in season. Aside from rice and noodles, they don't eat much starch. And compared to foreigners, they eat few sweets. On the whole, Japanese food is rather light.

Things like butter, milk and cheese are not part of native Japanese cuisine. They use them when they're having western food, but they don't have them with Japanese food. However, they do use a lot of eggs with Japanese food.

Japanese food has many good protein sources - chicken, fish, eggs, pork, and soybeans, for example. They don't eat as much beef in their daily diet as westerners do - its too expensive.

Do the Japanese really eat poisonous fish?


I mean the blowfish or globefish. They call it fugu in Japanese. Eating this fish can be deadly, causing death by paralysis. The poison is contained in the liver and ovaries. These organs have to be removed by a licensed fugu shef. Then the fish is perfectly safe to eat and is considered a great delicacy.

Japanese eat fugu only in special fugu restaurants. You shouldn't eat fugu unless it's been prepared by a licensed fugu chef. Each year some people die from eating fugu that has been prepared by a non-professional.


It is expensive because training the chefs is expensive. They have to pass oral, written, and practical exams to get licensed. Your life can depend on their skill. Also, the presentation of the fugu sashimi is very elaborate - this adds to the excitement of eating it, and to the expense.

Do Japanese really eat raw fish?


Yes, they do. Most Japanese like it a lot. They call it sashimi. I know that it seems strange to most foreigners at first. But once they taste it they usually like it. It doesn't taste "fishy" at all - just fresh and delicious. Fish used for sashimi has to be very fresh - maybe that's why it's so good.

They use almost any kind of fish for sashimi. Tuna, flounder, shrimp, abalone, squid, octopus. Many others too. Some kinds, like shrimp and octopus, may be cooked slightly.

How do they eat sashimi?
They dip the thinly-sliced fish fillet in soy sauce and a little hot green horseradish. Another way to eat raw fish is on top of bite-size ovals of vinegar-flavored rice. It's called nigiri-zushi.

Have you ever eaten WHALE MEAT?


Yes, I have. (or, No, I haven't.) Most Japanese have eaten whale meat at one time or another. Whale protein used to be an important part of their diet. At least five percent of all the meat they ate, including fish and fowl, came from the whale. It was used in different ways - as steak, in sausage, even sliced as sashimi. But this is changing.

Is that because of the restrictions on whaling?

Yes. Japan has tried to abide by international agreements: first the lower quotas, and then the moratorium.

Don't you think it's cruel to kill whales?
They understand westerners' feeling that whales are a special category of mammals that should be protected. But they always thought of them just as a source of protein. Remember, they don't have the land for large herds of beef cattle that many western countries do.

Beef in Japan


Beef is so expensive that few people can afford to buy much. A pound of sirloin can cost between fifteen and twently dollars in Japan. That's between thirty-five and forty dollars a kilo. And that's the price in a supermarket. You can imagine how much it costs to order beef in a restaurant. To them, beef in other countries is really inexpensive.

Although they do have beef cattle in Japan, it's costly to raise them. They have to import the feed grain. They don't have the large areas of pasture land necessary for large-scale beef production. That is why it's so expensive in Japan.


Most people like pork and chicken. And since they both cost much less than beef, they eat them much more often. But still the price of pork and chicken in Japan is about double what it costs in the United States or Europe.

Coffee in Japan


Yes, Japanese drink coffee. Japanese are tea-drinkers, but they drink a lot of coffee too. They usually like it thicker and stronger than in the States - it's more like European-style coffee. Although many people brew fresh coffee at homes, others use instant coffee. They can get the western brands as well as Japanese brands in any supermarket.

Coffee is not usually served in japanese-style restaurants. But you can get coffee whereever western food is served. And there are coffee shops everywhere in the cities.

The coffee shops are probably more European than American. They're more for relaxing over a cup of coffee than for grabbing a fast snack. You can sit in the coffee shop for a long time - even read a book there, and you won't be asked to leave.

Dessert in Japan


Japanese don't eat dessert the way people in other countries do. Dessert is not part of a typical Japanese meal. But they do like fresh fruit in season. They might have a mandarin orange, a few strawerries, a small piece of melon, or a few slices of apple at the end of a meal. You could call that their dessert.


There are many western-style desserts available in restaurants. They have ice cream or sherbet available for dessert. And you can get cakes and pies and similar things in bakeries. But they'd probably have that kind of thing with coffee or tea - not after a meal.


There are many kinds of traditional Japanese sweets, like sweet bean paste and sweet rice-flour cakes. But they eat them with tea, or when guests come, for example. They're more for between meals than for dessert.

Fruits in Japan


Japanese fruits are basically temperate-climate fruits, with a few exceptions. In summer they have peaches, plums, loquats, cherries, and watermelons. In fall they have really good persimmons, grapes, pears, and a special kind of pear called nashi. In winter there are apples and mandarin oranges, In late winter and early spring there are big, beautiful strawberries.

Japanese import bananas, pineapples, grapefruit, and lemons. And they import some kinds of oranges, like navel oranges and temple oranges.


It's expensive. And, it depends on the fruit and where you buy it. Good melons, for example, are expensive. You could pay fifteen dollars or more for a muskmelon at a neighborhood store. Or you could pay a hundred dollars for a gift box of two melons and a bunch of grapes at a Ginza fruit shop.

Do the Japanese drink whiskey?


Yes, they do. Japanese traditional drink is sake. That's rice wine, not whiskey. But they can get almost every kind of whiskey in Japan. Some kinds are more expensive than in the West, but it is available, and people do drink it. They have good Japanese whiskey too.

There are a lot of bars in Japan. They have all sorts of drinking places: Japanese -style, western-style, sometimes both together.

Is sake strong?

It's only about 16 percent alcohol, or 32 proof. But westerners seem to think it's much stronger than wine. They drink it hot and straight or chilled and straight, but some westerners like it on the rocks to dilute it.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Water, milk, fruits and vegetables in Japan

Is the water safe to drink?

Yes. Tourists don't have to worry about drinking the tap water in Japan It's perfectly safe. Their  drinking water is like the water in the United States or in Westen european countries. If you drink the tap water there, you can drink it in Japan. If you prefer bottled water in general, you can find that in Japan too. But you don't need to boil tap water or add tablets to purify it.


What about the milk?

That's quite all right too. The milk is pasteurized and safe to drink. Milk and milk products sold commercially are prepared under sanitary conditions. It's the same as in other advanced countries.




And the fruits and vegetables? 
The same as with milk and water - you don't have to boil or soak fruits or vegetables before using them. The standards of cleanliness are high. The risks of food contamination are about what they'd be in the States or Western Europe.


How often do Japanese use soy sauce?

All the time. Japanese keep it on the table as westerners do salt and pepper. And they reach for it automatically when the food is served. It's an essential part of a Japanese meal - as basic as rice. Many people use it on western food too. There are jokes about Japanese who carry their own soy sauce in pocket containers when traveling abroad.

How do they use it?
At the table, in two basic ways. They might pour it directly onto the food, like pickles for example. Or they might pour some into a tiny sauce dish and dip pieces of food into it.

Do they every cook with soy sauce?
Yes, shoyu as Japanese call it, is a basic ingredient in many dishes. Suiyaki, yakitori, and teriyaki are some of the dishes that use shoyu in the cooking or preparation. And shoyu can be used as one of the ingredients for marinating before cooking.

How often do Japanese eat rice?

It depends on the individual. In the past, most Japanese ate rice three times a day. These days, they're eating it less often. Rice still is Japanese staple food. But many of them now eat a western breakfast - toast and eggs instead of rice, fish, and pickles. And they might eat noodles for lunch instead of rice. But most people still eat rice with dinner every night.

How do they cook rice?
Most people have an electric rice cooker - for Japanese it's an essential appliance. First, you wash the rice well, and then put it with the water into the cooker. You turn it on to start the process, and the cooker turns off automatically when the rice is done. Almost all cookers have a thermal device which keeps the rice warm all day.

Do they eat a lot of rice?
Yes, when they eat it, they do eat a lot of it. Most Japanese eat more rice at a time than westerners do. Three or four refills of a rice-bowl would not be unusual, especially for men or teenagers.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How often do Japanese use chopsticks?


Japanese use chopsticks whenever they eat Japanese food. For some people, that's all the time. And they use chopsticks for Chinese and some other kinds of Asian food too. But if they're eating western-style food they usually use knives, forks, and spoons. At some meals you might see a table set with both shopsticks and western utensils.

It's not difficult to use chopsticks for Japanese, they've been doing it all their lives. It's quite natural. And Japanese chopsticks are easy to use - they're shorter than the Chinese kind, and somewhat lighter.

Japanese keep the food from slipping off. It's just a matter of practice. But one caution - it's much easier to use chopsticks made of plain wood or bamboo. Those made of ivory or lacquered ones can be difficult for beginners - too slippery.

Literacy rate in Japan!

It's close to one hundred percent - perhaps the highest literacy rate in the world. And Japanese do read a lot. They have one of the world's highest ratios of newspaper circulation to population. And they have the world's largest number and variety of weekly and monthly magazines. Also, Japan ranks fourth in the world in the number of books published each year.

All this reading take place almost everywhere. People read at home, of course. And expecially while waiting in line or getting from one place to another. The commuter trains are filled with people reading newspapers books, and magazines.

There are a lot of bookstores in Japan, especially in the cities. There are secondhand books available too. Japanese are avid book buyers. And there's probably more browsing in book stores in Japan than anywhere else in the world.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Tipping in Japan

Tipping for standard service is not a Japanese custom. It's very different from the practice in western countries. They don't tip waiters or cab drivers, for example. These people are paid for their work. They're proud of doing a good job, and they don't expect anything extra from the customer.

Some employees of western-style hotels are getting used to westerners' tipping them. They don't always refuse the tip, but they don't expect it. And now western-style hotels add a service charge to the bill.

Japanese may tip for special service. If someone does something for them that's really extra, then they tip to show appreciation. But it's not expected for standard good service.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Do Japanese bargain in Japan?

No. They don't have the custom of bargaining with small merchants and shopkeepers that you find in other countries in Asia. The prices in japanese shops are firm. The clerk or storekeeper would be smewhat offended if a customer tried to haggle. Japanese in general don't like to argue about prices, especially in public.

There are some reward for a good customer. It's called omake. This is the custom of a small shopkeeper giving something extra to the customer. But the important thing is that they never ask for it. It's up to the shopkeeper to decide when and for whom to do it.

Well, omake might be a bit more of whatever the customer is buying. For example, if you're buying fruit, the clerk might throw in a few extra pieces. Or you might be given a tiny discount, or a small gift of something else that's sold there.

Do Japanese smoke a lot??


Yes and no. Japanese smoke more than Americans do, but less than they used to. The no-smoking movement began later in Japan than it did in the States. But Japanese are trying to catch up. They're designating more no-smoking areas in public places, and their cigarette packages carry the health-hazard warning.


Japanese are becoing sensitive to the issue. On the whole, they are trying to be more sensitive to others. Before lighting a cigarette, they might ask if anyone minds. In the past, this would have been rare. And the health concerns are there, many japanese have stopped smoking.


Non-smokers are not militant like in the States. Few Japanese would ask someone in a public place to put out a cigarette, and people aren't suing the tobacco companies.

Rush Hours in Japan


Rush hours in japan are very crowded. Trains begin to fill shortly after seven AM, and the peak is between eight and nine AM. Major train stations and their platforms are full of people. The trains are so crowded that the expression "packed like sardines" isn't an ex-aggeration. At some platforms, station personnel routinely help the passeengers board the trains safely by pushing them through the doors from behind. The evening rush hour is between five and six thirty, and conditions are much better than in the morning.


Yes, it's really that crowded. Foreigners living in Japan are amazed at their rush hour commuter trains. Once you're on the train, you're packed in so tightly that you dont even need to hold onto anything. There's no danger of falling.


Roads are very crowded too. Traffic is especially bad between eight and nice thirty. But even after that, heavy traffic continues all day in big cities like Tokyo. There are just too many cars for limited streets and highways. If you absolutely must be on time for something, you either start very early or go by train or subway instead of by car or cab.

Subways in Japan


Japanese have subway systems in the major cities like Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kobe, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. The existing systems are being expanded all the time. And new ones are being built too. Japan's subways are the primary means of urban commuter transportation. They're expecially convenient because they link up with commuter railroads. And they're fast, clean, and efficient.


Most people think they are easy to use. There are detailed maps of the various systems at the station entrances. Many foreigners learn their way around very quickly. Stations have signs in Roman letters, or romaji, which helps.


And yes, they're really clean and safe. Japanese don't have much vandalism on the subways. And there's little crime in Japan in general. So you can ride the subways quite safely, even late at night. And they're relatively comfortable, except maybe during rush hour.

Japanese Cab Drivers


The cab drivers do not usually speak English. Few japanese cab drivers speak English. But there's no problem. Just tell the desk clerk at your hotel where you want to go. Ask him or her to write it in Japanese on a piece of paper. Then give the paper to the cab driver to read.

How can we pay if the drivers don't speak english?
That's easy. All cabs must have meters. You can just read the meter to see how much you owe.

Are the cab drivers used to foreigners?
Many of them are. But you should remember two things when you take a cab. Don't open or close the door yourself - the driver does it automatically. And you might not be taken right to your destination. You might have to walk a block or two from a main road after you're let off.

Nursery Schools in Japan


There are many nursery schools in Japan. But they don't have as many as in some western countries. That's probably because they have fewer working mothers. Japanese mothers have traditionally stayed home to take care of their young children themselves. But this has been changing. Many people now send their children to nursery schools as soon as they're old enough.


Most of the nursery schools are private. But there are also some public sponsored nursery schools. And some of the nursery schools will keep the children all day for the convenience of working mothers.

Is it easy to find a good nursery schools?
That depends on where you live and what's available in your neighborhood. It's true that some nursery schools are much better than others. And these days some nursery schools are really prep schools to help children get into good kindergartens.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Transportation in Japan


The average family usually have one car. Two-car families are relatively rare in Japanese cities. One reason is the expense. Another is space. Most japanese cities are crowded, and there's not much space for parking cars. The main streets have heavy traffic, and the residential streets are often narrow and winding. In order to own a car, you have to prove that you have an off-street parking space.


This really does limit car ownership. Even if you do have a place to keep one car, finding a second space is very difficult. It is posible to rent a parking space, of couse. But that could cost hundreds of dollars a month. In rural areas, where space is available, two-car families are more common.

Public transportation is good - very good. Having just one car or even no car at all isn't usually a problem in Japan. Public transportation is fast and convenient. Japanese have good buses, subways, and commuter trains. And many taxis are available.