(Him) Japan is ranked no. 5 when it comes to population density, but how crowded does it really feel? Overall Japan has a population density of 336 persons per square kilometer, given the uneven distribution of the metropolitan areas and the rural areas (like in most countries), that figure does not seem bad once you go to the rural areas. Once you go into Tokyo metropolitan area that figure spikes to 5,937 which means nothing until you are actually there during Obon, a Japanese holiday. Be sure to see our previous post on Tokyo Summer Land, and that is not even too bad :/
Overall I love Japan, apparently it is not so crowded during non-summer months and people are usually young very nice and interesting. Even so, keep in mind that If you find yourself here during the summer don't think that just because it is raining or it is an odd hour of the day people won't be at a certain place, you are wrong, there will be hundreds of other people thinking the exact same thing you are :)On the bright side, if you come here with a group of friends there will always be interesting natives to socialize with, just make sure you at least give Japanese language a try!
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(HER ●) @ Don Quijote (aka DONKI, a discount chain store where you can find anything) in Yokohama, I found half of the 2nd floor full of FAKE EYELASHES. Lovely! SUGOI! I have been wearing fake eyelashes since 6th grade. I used to have trouble finding the best ones since there weren't many companies making them, but now I see very high competition! Through my 9-10 years of experience with fake lashes I have learnt that the key to beautiful looking fake eyelashes is the GLUE.
Japanese fake lashes have a thick base (where the fake hair starts) so it tends to take time for the lashes to get flexible so that it fits the shape of your eye (I think Japanese lashes have a thick base just for better quality. I used to be able to use a pair of Japanese lashes for 6 months). Thick bases are good for quality, but sometimes the lashes get too heavy, or the base starts hurting your eyelid. The lashes I've bought in the US tend to have a thinner base making it flexible and easier for use, but of course they don't last long as long. Fake eyelashes are extremely popular now in Japan from various age groups (even 50+ year olds!) due to the great variety and types they sell. They are also easily accessible since even pharmacies and convenience stores sell them! The cheapest fake eye lashes you can find is probably at Donki, where 1 pair is only 99 YEN (1USD). They also have packs of several lashes for a great price too! Below is a song by Moriyama Naotarou, a famous Japanese singer singing "Hana" (flower). Japan has many cute and stylish iPhone covers! In Boston I see that the iPhone covers are more concentrated on durability. Most of these cute and stylish iPhone covers sold in Japan are less durable. Yes, Boston sells similar types of covers but I find the quality to be very poor (you can see the glue that they used to stick on the stones) and despite the quality looking poor, they are usually quite pricey compared to Japanese ones I usually find. This cover I bought was only 1,900YEN (20USD)! They offer a great variety of colours and design everywhere in Tokyo/Yokohama for different kinds of phones.
The 1-day-all-you-can-ride-tokyo-metro pass is definitely worth paying 710YEN for. It can absolutely take you ANYWHERE in Tokyo. Not only anywhere but also very quickly. We found ourselves jumping into the train once we got to the platform every time. No wait time! You can purchase these passes on the subway ticket machines or from an employee.
Watching "NEWS ZERO" - a news show on NTV( http://www.ntv.co.jp/zero/ ). News channels still show the effects of the tsunami which hit back in March. Parents in the severely affected areas of Japan worry about their children as they seem to have been traumatized by the tsunami. Children play "Tsunami" with their small cars as they vividly remember the time when the tsunami devastated their entire town. Most children also have lost the opportunity to go to school as their school was destroyed. Many of those who stayed in the severely affected areas have lost their closest friends as most families chose to move to different prefectures in Japan. Preschools seem to be working hard to get those children back together as going to school seems help give children hope. According to NEWS ZERO, even parents in Tokyo are still worried about the radioactivity in the air, in the soil, and in the water. One of the parents being interviewed said that when she calls the radiation information center all they say is that there is no need to worry. Who knows if that is 100% true? They set up a group for parents in Tokyo who have the same concerns and decided to act upon the radioactivity that still remain in the city. They have been trying to get rid of the radiation by washing it away with water (for radiation that remains on the concrete). They have also tried to replace the surface soil (which contains high radiation) with the soil that lies underneath to prevent children from getting affected. Overall, they have seen great improvement with the levels of radioactivity - in Fukushima prefecture they saw the radioactivity levels decreased by 75%. They really are trying hard to get back the comfortable lifestyle they had. On a happier note, Japan has very reasonably priced and great quality makeup everywhere! I usually go to a pharmacy or Don Quijote which is a discount chain store. From the left, lip gloss/stick, eye shadow, eye liner, mirror, and top coat for nails - All of this for only 6,500 yen! ($80 with today's rate) First off - the liquid eyeliner. The line comes out black as charcoal. I usually use Clinique's cream eye liner since it never comes off (even when I was snorkeling and swimming in Okinawa), but this eye liner made me change my mind. To be honest, I get lazy sometimes with the brush that comes with the cream eye liner. I forget to wipe it as I am in a hurry, it hardens up and it gets harder to use. This eyeliner comes out black-BLACK the moment it touches my skin, and it just does not come off! You may think then it must be hard to remove? No! hot water that is hotter than 40 celsius will remove this eye liner easily. You don't even need eye make up remover...and it only costs 1,500 yen ($19 at rate now). Lastly, the top coat for nails. Gel nails are very popular here in Japan right now (I think they call it Shellac in the US?). The shiny plumpness is just adorable to have on your nails (The photo shows an example of gel nail here in Japan). It makes your nail art look brand new for weeks on, and most of all, it doesn't wear off like normal manicure! Getting your nails done could become pricy here in Japan. I remember paying more than $150 once just for gel nails + design once. So what if I feel like getting simple gel nails myself at home? For only 900 yen ($11 at today's rate), you can get a gel nail top coat which really turns your nails beautiful! All you have to do is colour your nails yourself, and use this as a top coat. It dries very fast! In a few seconds after applying the top coat, you will be able to touch your nail and feel the plump gel. I always fail doing my nails at home since I start touching things while my nails are not completely dry. This top coat has changed my life! I took a shower few minutes after application and my nails came out completely fine :) (check out the pic for the result) By the way, did you know Groupon doesn't have a good reputation here in Japan anymore? ●When he and I first landed here in Japan at Narita airport, the first thing we realized was the great effort in conserving energy. At terminal one of Narita airport they closed off one of the two exit gates resulting in half of the arriving section of the airport to be dark and closed off. It seemed odd looking at those efforts for me since I had never in my life seen Narita airport dark as I saw.
My mother was warning me how hot Japan is - even in stores and malls due to the energy conservation efforts (they are trying to set the AC temperature to 27 Celsius or 28 celsius when normally they set it to 23 celsius to 24 Celsius or even colder!). I was afraid that he was going to have go experience a hot summer wherever he went in Japan, but the stores and malls are not deadly hot, it is still nice and cool, thank god. large malls are just setting the temperature higher in large public areas in the mall. In addition, Yokohama and Tokyo are every cool right now due to the typhoon that is passing by :) Other than that, whenever we go to stations, malls, parks, etc, we see that every other light in large hall ways are turned off, big signs that usually are lit very brightly are off, which results in everything in Yokohama and Tokyo to be slightly darker. I personally like it this way, I always thought that the busy areas if Tokyo (e.g. Ginza, Shibuya) and Yokohama (Yokohama station area) are always just too BRIGHT!!!! So what are the negatives of these energy conservation efforts? People are given warnings that they really have to be careful of heat strokes since the number of deaths resulting from heat strokes is going up, and crime seems to be going up (specifically mugging) around residential areas which are now darker than usual in the night. What are the benefits of these efforts? First off, obviously the fact that we are able to avoid blackouts due to the lack of energy from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Other than that, I think there are many business opportunities that open up. I see many products being sold which focus on cooling people down. For example, large pads which contain cooling gel inside which you lay on and help you keep cool throughout the night (it also comes with a pillow version), neck towels which are made out of special material that soaks water and in turn makes it ice cold. People wrap these around their necks. We have also seen clothing which keeps you cool and dry (specifically from UNIQLO). On TV, they constantly show us how we can conserve energy and other tricks on how to stay cool with a higher AC temperature setting.(Japanese TV is extremely informative on EVERY channel, we will expand more on this later) Ive never seen people in Japan so conscious about conserving and I feel like people and large businesses are starting to realize how important energy is for us. Large businesses are also promoting the fact that they are conserving as much energy as they can through TV commercials and the Internet. I guess it is a great chance for them to improve their image!:) So how would you conserve energy? ●With every passing day we get closer to our trip day (July 6, 2011), and with nightly injections of Miyazaki masterpieces such as My Neighbor Totoro or Howl’s Moving Castle our bottled excitement becomes overwhelming, but how to liberate this excitement? Lately I have been selling a lot of my higher priced possessions such as my Yamaha Keyboard, or M-Audio 25 Key MIDI controller on eBay to save up for the trip and also to feed my beginner DSLR kit. Another way of venting this excitement is to improve our website. You might have noticed our enhanced pages and improved design, our new Q & A page, Resources page, our guava colored links, and ginormous navigation links. Our Q & A, will be a helpful and hopefully comic way to display some of the differences from Japanese culture and a way for our readers (you) to ask questions about Japan and us.
We have also added something that distinguishes when she and I write. A blue dot ● will represent when I write something and a pink dot ● when she writes. We are hoping to provide different thoughts and experiences from a gaijin and from a Japanese native. On a separate note, thanks Weebly for providing users like us a chance to sharpen up our HTML/CSS skills in a n00b and controlled environment; that is for me at least, she is a seasoned Computer Science major. Has anybody tried out Wordpress? Any suggestions on our website design or pages that you would find useful? ●Ohayo Gozaimasu! For people who do not know, in Japanese offices, people say “Ohayo Gozaimasu” (Good Morning) no matter what time of the day it is, yes even in the night. I remember the first time I worked at McDonalds in Japan I got in trouble for saying “Konbanwa” (Good evening), since it may not be evening for those people who work night shifts. At the time, having worked at McDonalds as a high schooler was something most people would be proud of, I am not sure if that has changed. McDonalds is known to be a very strict employer in Japan - For example I had to dye my hair back to black before I started working, I got in trouble numerous times for being slow (we had to basically jog behind the cashier to show the customers we are being as fast as we can), for leaning against the cashier, wearing too much make up (that day I wore a little bit of blush and a little bit of mascara :( ). So future employers like to see McDonalds listed as your past employer. Anyway, while he is going crazy selling on eBay, I just keep on day-dreaming about where I want to take him, what I want to show him and what I forgot to show him during our last two week trip to Japan. I can day-dream any time, but what I am having trouble with is actually visiting Japanese travel websites and finding good travel packages. Especially for the two of us to visit Okinawa. So far, I have used H.I.S (his-j.com), JTB travel (jtb.co.jp), and Travel.jp (travel.co.jp/domtour). These sites are in Japanese and I’m pretty sure they don’t have English translations, but they offer great prices for travel packages which usually include everything and they offer diverse choices. We are still looking for a good package, so hopefully we can give you more information on Okinawa soon. As for our flight, last time we used All Nippon Airways (ANA, ana.co.jp). We both loved it. The food on the airplane was delicious and service was outstanding. This time, we are going to try out Japan Air Lines (JAL, jal.co.jp) - just because I have a lot of mileage accumulated and after one more flight I will have enough mileage to bump up a class. I personally have not had good experiences with JAL at the airport but during the flight they are an amazing airline with great service. I do have to give them credit as when snow storms hit Boston last winter, my flight from Boston to NYC was delayed a couple of hours, then the JAL crew waited for the all of us who were on the delayed flights and picked us up at our respective gate. What a relief! Other than that, their “Sakura Lounge” (only for classes above Economy) is amazing. All you can drink + all you can eat + wi-fi + shower, etc. Perfecto! What do you recommend for research on travel packages and tours within Japan? Also, would you add or take out anything from our Journey plan? Enjoy, and thanks for joining us! |