７月１９日（日：to Tokyo 2nd trip）

Today was shinkansen to Tokyo day!

Lane started the day off with a チョココロネ (choko korone, chocolate coronet) I found at the convenience store. The anime Lucky Star has an episode where everyone talks about how each person chooses to eat these differently.

Lane with chocolate coronet breakfast

Once we were all packed up we went and grabbed the shinkansen to Tokyo. All of us bought box lunches for the journey, and Nick even had some ほろよい (horoyoi, the name of the drink but also the word meaning "tipsy") that he shared with us.

 not our shinkansen, but a shinkansen at the station

typhoon stormy view from the window

lunch

boxes

 YEAH!

Lane's

Nick's

Kitty and I got the same type

there was a tiny octopus in ours

 I don't think the boys found it very appetizing

りんごチューハイ
(ringo chuuhai)
apple chuhai

cola sour-flavored horoyoi

it was interesting

Drinking and eating publicly is a bit different in Japan than in the US. In the US, it is normal to carry around a bottle of soda or juice and drink it wherever you happen to be. In Japan, however, drinking even a soft drink tends to be sort of taboo unless you are sitting or standing still while you do it. Drinking as you walk or standing on the train is accepted by some but also looked down upon by others. As for alcohol, having a can of beer on the train is generally looked down upon, although the younger generations appear to be more accepting of it. On a shinkansen it appears to be normal. Since you usually ride for a long time, eating and drinking on the shinkansen is socially accepted.

Makeup is another such controversy. Older generations are somewhat offended by women using their time on the train to do their makeup, because it is viewed as a private activity to be done in the bathroom or another private space. Younger people are more likely to accept it or do it themselves.

Lane showed me a few of his kimmi dolls while we rode the train. They are really cute and sold in many places. He is collecting them.

Lane's favorite kimmi doll

very cute

Once we got to 品川駅 (shinagawa eki, Shinagawa Station) we rode the trains to 渋谷駅 (shibuya eki, Shibuya Station) to find the capsule hotel that my mom and I stayed in before. The trains in Tokyo have screens above the doors just like the ones in Osaka trains, but the screen actually shows the number of minutes it will take to get to each station from where the train is currently. It's very handy!

We checked in to our capsule hotel, me separate from the boys because there are two floors for men and one for women, and we rested a little before resuming adventures. The men's portion was, according to the boys, much less cushy than the women's floor. At least now I know why I have to pay a larger nightly fee than the men. Also, tonight is Sunday but the next two days will be weekdays, so the weekend night actually ended up being 1300 yen more expensive than the week nights!

In the capsule hotel, the men only had a public bathing area. Public baths are more common in Japan, and nudity is actually less of a concern than in the US. Culturally people are just less concerned about it than Americans are. So for Americans, the idea of taking a public bath can be daunting. Within Japan, however, it's widely accepted as normal.

The women's area had private bathing stalls. Only men were allowed to use the public bathing area, but I know of public bath houses that are not separated by gender. That just didn't happen to be the case at the capsule hotel.

The men's capsules also had the option for pornography on the tv. Oddly enough, the women had no such option. Japan has a tendency to be much more sexist than the US, and one of the misconceptions is that women are pure and don't really like sex, or something along those lines. It's a pretty messed up way of thinking.

When the 4 of us set out again, we wandered around Harajuku, the young people's area where my mom and I explored before. I got some pictures of the street and some shops, but one man kicked me out of his store angrily in English when I tried to take a picture. It was a metal/goth store with some really nice clothing. He had put up some signs saying no pictures in both English and Japanese, but I had not noticed them. I apologized and told him in Japanese I did not realize that pictures weren't allowed and I would not take any, but instead of replying to anything I said he insisted angrily "GET OUT" multiple times with rude gestures. The boys were kind enough to leave the store with me because they didn't seem to want to give him business after that. Nick said "he doesn't even understand what it means to be metal." Haha, right on.

weekend Harajuku

pretty cool shades

 accessories

cool underground rock n roll shop

owned by a nice lady who didn't yell GET OUT

After our shopping we went back to the capsule hotel and did some hanging out together in the common space on the 4th floor, the co-ed area. Kitty found a free magazine with some pretty cool information about beer and food in the area. After not too long we called it a night.

７月１８日（土）

 [Warning for sensitive readers: Later in this post I show pictures of ridiculous "lingerie." If for some reason you don't want to see funny underwear -modeled in picture on the package-, I'll warn you again when you are about to scroll down to those pictures.]

Today Nick, Kitty, Lane and I went shopping in Osaka. Even before we got done with the trains we saw two girls dressed at Mario and Luigi, and Kitty asked them to let us take their picture. So cute!

Mario and Luigi!

they have Anpanman character purses hanging around their necks

We were looking some at men's bags and men's fashion mainly for Nick, and also for 座布団 (zabuton, floor seat cushions) for me. Japanese fashion tends to be somewhat European-inspired. There are many types of shoulder bags for men, so it is more common for men to carry bags in Japan than in the United States, where men make use of spacious pockets more than bags. We saw some arcades along the way.

arcades are too cute here

make them stop

We didn't find a bag or clothing items for Nick, but we did find four zabuton for me. I have a Korean tea table, and I want to be able to entertain friends comfortably at it when I return to the US.

At one men's store we found a funny display with two different figures in the display windows resembling オバマ大統領 (obama daitouryou, President Obama). I took a picture and one of the staff talked to me about the displays. It turns out he attends the university I did two years ago: small world.

clothing store Obama

We also went to ドンキホーテ (don kihoute, Don Quixote), a quite varied shop aimed at foreign travelers looking to bring souvenirs back to their home countries. I managed to find 2 kinds of strange Kit-Kats that I will bring home for friends! It's a crazy store with many things on many floors, so Kitty and I got a little carried away and left Nick and Lane waiting for us outside. We laughed about funny underwear for quite a while, pictures will come at the end of this post.

Nick bought some takoyaki (dough balls cooked with octopus, in case you don't remember) that he was kind enough to share with us. 

 

Finally, we decided we needed to do some laundry, so Nick and Kitty came with me to a コインランドリー (koin randorii, coin laundry) near my share house after dropping by the hotel to get their things. We were all really impressed with the 洗濯機 (sentakuki, washing machines) at the coin laundry. First off, there were large machines that did washing AND drying, one after the other, and even added 洗剤 (senzai, detergent) automatically! The machines were spacious enough for all three loads so we split the price by throwing all our things in together.

huge washing/drying machines

The coin laundry is only a minute walk from my share house so we hung around my house and drank 梅酒 (umeshu, plum wine) as we waited. We noticed only after completing our laundry that there was also a shoe washing machine specifically designed for washing sneakers. We were all impressed and kind of wanted to wash our shoes, but it was already past 2am. Tired but with clean clothes, the three of us walked 40 minutes with our suitcases back to the boys' hotel where Lane was waiting so we could head out to Tokyo the shinkansen together the next morning.

 

 shoe washing machine

[Finally, I am going to end on a silly note with the funny Japanese underwear. Don't scroll past this point if you don't want to see them.]

hahahahahaah

７月１７日（金：祇園祭 Gion Matsuri)

Today, my 3 friends and I went to 祇園祭 (gion matsuri, Gion Festival) with Etsushi! Nick, Kitty and I used the internet to learn how to wear 浴衣 (yukata, light summer clothing with the appearance of a kimono) and got ready for the festival with Lane. As an unprepared foreigner, I found I was missing two strips of fabric I needed to tie my yukata in-place under the 帯 (obi, belt). So, the boys helped me improvise by giving me the free ear buds they had received on Hawaiian Airlines to use as replacements. I tied my yukata shut with ear bud chords, in a pinch. We all thought it was pretty funny.

 yukata time!

It turns out women's obi are more complex to tie than men's. Women's obi end up looking like a bow, and after tying has to be shifted to the back. Men's obi are also complex but end in a somewhat ornate knot in the front, are thinner, and are worn lower on the waist than women's obi.

Also, Nick and Kitty beat me out on the full ensemble, because they also wore 下駄 (geta, wooden clogs) with their yukata. I was too cheap to buy geta and too lazy to wear them anyway, so the default was regular street shoes.

We met Etsushi at 三条駅 (sanjyou eki, Sanjo Station) and he was pretty surprised to see 3 of us had decided to wear yukata. He told us even though he's Japanese he has never worn a yukata before. The typhoon weather was really coming in so it was raining pretty consistently outside, but fortunately Lane gave me a two-person umbrella he had mistakenly bought and we all brought umbrellas with us.

this is Etsushi's photograph

left to right: Nick, Lane, me, Kitty

Here are some amazing pictures from Gion Matsuri! Fewer people than usual came because of the weather so we could see well, and many of the viewers were other foreign people.

there were signs before each float
they seem to each be from a different shrine
although perhaps I am wrong

float with heavily made up children

 fan bearers

human dolls

bell ringers

 everything ビニールでおおわれている (biniiru de oowareteiru, covered in plastic)

marchers with their umbrellas

 more fan bearers, removing water from their fans

people pulling the floats

 creepy 妖怪 (youkai, ghost/phantom) costumes

weird youkai performance

After watching most of the parade we went to 一蘭 (Ichiran), a Chinese-style ramen restaurant that generally appeals to foreigners. At this and many other restaurants, especially noodle places, you order using a machine to select what you would like to eat, and after paying at the machine, it gives you a meal ticket with your order on it to present to the staff.

this is a picture of another order machine

not the one at Ichiran

At Ichiran there was also an option sheet giving you the ability to chose the softness of your noodles, the oiliness of your broth, and various aspects of your ramen order. We were to give these to the staff with our meal tickets. The five us us waited some time for eating spaces next to each other. Basically, Ichiran is organized so that each person sits at the bar with folding walls on each side of the seating space. But even after 10 minutes waiting there were not 5 places next to each other open, so we split into a group of 2 (me and Kitty) and a group of 3 (Etsushi, Nick and Lane).

this light-up seating chart impressed us as we waited

At many restaurants in Japan there is an order button on the table. Always look for it carefully before you wait forever to order. Kitty tried to order a 替玉 (kaedama, second portion of noodles) but we did not notice the button, so we tried to call the staff through the curtain put between the bar and the servers' area. I took a picture after the staff informed us to its location.

ご注文 (gochuumon, order) button

Once we enjoyed delicious ramen, the boys, Etsushi and I headed to 伏見稲荷 (Fushimi Inari) on the train. Unfortunately, the rain closed the path up the mountain. So with soaked feet we went to Starbucks near Kamogawa and sat for some time to dry off.

Nick, Kitty, and Lane on the train

Love Lane's face

these are wish tablets where you write your wish

like ema

and the wishes are conveyed to the gods

The rain was so consistent we decided to stay inside longer and do a couple hours of karaoke to kill time. We all thought of plenty of songs to sing - both Japanese and English and often in groups - and had a really great time! Plus the place gave you all you can drink cocktails included, so we got to drink as well.

There was more parade fun going on when we got out of karaoke at night. It was still raining but lighter. Everything was still covered in plastic, and some of the poor men in light festival wear had skipped plastic raincoats and were drenched. We had to wait for some of the floats.

night float

parade

 horse rider

and another one

waiting

 night float

Once the parade seemed to have calmed down, we went back to the station and parted ways. It was an awesome day.

７月１６日（木: my mom's last day）

There was a typhoon warning today! Fortunately the weather seemed fine as mom and I rode the shinkansen from Shinagawa back to Shin-Osaka. I made a mistake and got on a slower shinkansen that only brought us part of the way, but we just got off at the last stop and rode the next shinkansen the rest of the way. The signs at the stations can be a little confusing at times, so try to check the signs carefully so as to save time.

typhoon train!

typhooooooon traiiiiiiin

let's all ride the typhoon train

Many stations, especially hubs, have lockers of various sizes. Payment has to be made in 100-yen coins, but usually there is a change machine nearby. So we dropped our suitcases in lockers and shopped around the station before heading to the airport.

station lockers

 change machine

両替 (ryougai, change)

In the station we had おにぎり (onigiri, rice balls) from the convenience store, which my mom had been eager to try, and どら焼き (dorayaki, azuki bean paste cooked inside pancake batter).

There are many kinds of snacks containing あんこ (anko, azuki bean paste) in Japan. A famous variety is called たい焼き (taiyaki) and is like dorayaki but shaped like a fish. Another that usually contains red bean paste is 大福 (daifuku), azuki bean paste in mochi dough. There's also アンパン (anpan, azuki bean paste bread), which is just anko inside a bun. There's a children's cartoon called アンパンマン (anpanman, anko bread man). He's a superhero who fights with his friends against バイキンマン (baikinman, germ man) and saves the day from his evil plots.

My mom's flight was actually pushed forward because of the 台風 (taifuu, typhoon), but since free wifi is so hard to come by in Japan, we were caught unawares upon our arrival to the airport. My mom made it to her flight regardless, and I headed back to Hirakata City.

The way home became very rainy because of the typhoon, so I asked my 3 friends who had just arrived in Hirakata the day before to let me crash at their hotel by the station. My share house is a 45-minute walk from the station and the buses had stopped running because it was late, so with my suitcase the walk was looking impossible. Despite the small size of the hotel room we made the sleepover work and had a lot of fun exchanging Japan stories (my friends had gone to Hiroshima and Nagasaki before meeting me in Osaka) before bed.

Just for fun, I want to introduce you to my favorite canned coffee in Japan.

Wonda's Morning Shot

It's sweet and delicious!

Travel tips:

15. Check signs carefully so as to save time. Maybe even ask questions to station attendants to make sure you are going where you need to be going.

特別なブログ：予算化 (Special Post: Budgeting)

I wanted to write a little about how I budget for a trip, because I thought it might provide some ideas on how to try to keep international (or domestic) travel as cheap as possible.

Unfortunately, flying from the United States to Japan and vice-versa is very expensive. Personally I found my tickets on Cheap-O Air, but some friends also did well using kayak.com. We all ended up through our different search methods riding Hawaiian Airlines on our trips to and from Japan. I would also recommend this airline for service: they give you a pillow and blanket, they feed you well, and their service is great.

To fly domestically within Japan or to close international destinations in China or Korea, I would recommend Peach Aviation. One thing to keep in mind using them is that they penny-and-dime you. The price of the flight is not the only fee you pay, you also pay a small fee for the seat you select on the flight, and every piece of baggage you check. The seat fee varies based on the type of seat you choose, so if you are really trying to save every little bit you can choose the cheapest seats at about 200 yen (approx. $1.50). Baggage is cheaper if you pay for your check luggage online beforehand, but you can change the reservation of baggage at any time. So if you don't know how much baggage you want to check when you reserve your flight, you can go online and add number of bags to check at a later time. You also get an allowance of one carry-on item and one personal item, so if you can avoid checking baggage at all that will be cheapest. Reserving your check luggage online saves you about 1/3 of the baggage fee. Make sure to look at the weight and size limits of carry on bags before you assume you that you will not need to check luggage.

Another thing about Peach is they have sales regularly. The sales usually only last a couple of days, but if you sign up to receive email from them you will hear when the sales are. If you have a route in mind you can buy the tickets a few months ahead of time on sale and end up with very cheap tickets.

As for hotels and transportation, the nice thing about Japan is the trains are very well-organized and efficient. You can look up routes ahead of time on hyperdia.com and probably avoid expensive use of a taxi unless you have too much luggage to carry on the trains. As mentioned in an earlier post you can also buy the Japan Rail Pass if you plan to ride a lot of shinkansen. You can look at times and prices of shinkansen tickets on shinkansen.co.jp although price pages are only in Japanese.

So, on to the real point: how to budget. When planning a trip first assess the minimum and maximum amounts you want to spend. If its international travel, first calculate the amounts in your own country's currency and then use a converter online to put it in the foreign currency's terms. How I have been keeping track is that I took the amounts I knew in advance that I would pay like flights and housing, and subtracted those from the amounts I wanted to spend overall. Then, I took my minimum (with the known expenses subtracted) and divided it by the number of days I would be abroad. That number became my daily allowance for trains, food, souvenirs, entry fees to museums, etc.

Taking the daily allowance, I made a note in my phone with the days of the week and the daily allowance listed next to each one. As I go through the week I subtract what I spend from the day it is. At the end of the week I reset my daily balance. I also keep an "excess" or "deficit" section at the bottom so I can add a day's unspent allowance to my future spending power, or keep an eye on my overspending. At the end of a week, I reset the daily allowance next to the days of the week.

If my explanation doesn't make sense, here's an example.

Monday:

Tuesday: 2150

Wednesday: 4300

Thursday: 4300

Friday: 4300

Saturday: 4300

Sunday: 4300

Deficit:
3070


In this case my daily allowance is 4300 yen and it is Tuesday. The deficit is an overall accumulation from previous weeks, it is not reset weekly because it represents my deviation from my expectations for the trip overall.

That, in a nutshell, is how I budget. I think it is important to leave yourself some wiggle-room financially because you might encounter unforeseen situations or emergencies where you need to spend more than you anticipated. You also might find an expensive souvenir or activity that you just cannot pass up. Try to keep any deficit you accumulate always under the difference between your minimum and maximum allocations, so that you do not overspend on your trip. For example, if you want to spend between 400,000 yen and 500,000 yen during your whole trip, never let your deficit go above 100,000 yen (the difference) to be safe.

I hope this post might provide people who plan to budget for a trip with some new tactics for their own style of budgeting.

特別なブログ：住所の書き方 (Special post: how to address letters)

There are two types of addressing I will cover today: business letters and personal letters.

When you address an envelope in Japan bound for Japan, you write vertically. Write the name of the business or person you want to reach in the middle of the front of the envelope, the address in the upper right corner under the zip code boxes. (The 7 small red boxes at the top of envelopes is meant for the recipient's zip code.) The first line of the address will be far right, and any extra lines will go to the left of the first line.

For a letter bound for a business, you will write the name of the business and then add 御中 (onchuu) to the end.

For a letter bound for a person, you will write the person's name in the order family name then first name, and add 様 (sama, Mr./Ms.).

I want to note one mistake I made before

I wrote 行 instead of 御中

Regardless, that was what I was instructed by the JLPT office

Although I am unsure as to why, it should send

Then, still on the back of the envelope, write the return address vertically in the top right corner. it doesn't matter if it is a business or person's address in how you write this part.

Here is a breakdown:
(prefecture) (city) (town or ward) (house #)

In an example case:
山口県 (yamaguchi-ken, Yamaguchi Prefecture)
岩国市 (iwakuni-shi, Iwakuni City)
麻里布町 (marifu-machi, Marifu Town)
２丁目１−２０ (2 choume 1-20)

The address is actually for a Mister Donut, so the result would be:
Mister Donut 御中
740-0018
山口県岩国市麻里布町２丁目１−２０

Writing a return address follows the same pattern, except you don't add any honorific after your own name. Even in Japan if you do not have a Japanese name, it is best to write vertically but in English lettering.

When addressing international mail, always put the name of the country under both recipient and return addresses in all capital letters.


There are still some variations you may want to be aware of:

1. 県 (-ken) is the indication for prefecture except in the cases of Tokyo and Osaka. Tokyo Prefecture is 東京都 (toukyou-to), and Osaka Prefecture is 大阪府 (oosaka-fu).
2. Not all addresses are alike so some addresses may show a city（市, -shi）and then a town（町, -machi/-chou）, but others may show a city and a ward（区, -ku）.
3. There are two ways to express a house number. One uses 丁目 (choume, chome -when written in English) after the first number like ２丁目１−２０. The other option is ２−１−２０.
4. There is a symbol in Japan that always indicates a zip code, I will attach the image below. On most envelopes there is a space where you should write the zip, so you will not need to write it. On envelopes that don't have it, adding it horizontally above the address lines with the symbol is best.

this symbol does not need to be written in red on envelopes

it also indicates post offices on signage in Japan

Please feel free to ask me if you have further questions.