Humidity and cleaning the bathroom

Japan is a very humid country, especially in the summer. If you're in central Japan, for example Tokyo, in July-August, don't expect to be able to walk more than 10 meters without being soaked in sweat. Japanese people call this 蒸し暑い (mushi-atsui), pretty much meaning humid and hot.
That was a big reason for me to go to Sapporo, on Hokkaido in the north of Japan. The climate is quite a bit cooler and a lot less humid here, also it's always windy which is nice in the summer, but not so nice in the winter.
However compared to Sweden, even Sapporo is a lot more humid, which has some consequences.

• Everything here in Japan is packed in lots of plastics. If you buy a pack of cookies, of course it comes in a plastic bag like anywhere in the world, but here, each cookie is in a small plastic bag of it's own also, or there's one of those small bags included that absorbs moisture, that only comes in shoe boxes in Sweden. Partly because of the humidity but also because Japanese people are obsessed with having all food very fresh.
  It becomes a lot of plastics, I am telling you. Just too bad that you can only throw away plastics once per week here in Japan. All refuse is sorted into burnables, non-burnable and plastics and has specific days when you're allowed to throw it. So you need to keep your garbage in your apartment until the day when it's supposed to be thrown.
  

• Here in Sapporo, the laundry might be dry after about 24 hours if you're lucky. Sometimes 24 hours is not enough. I wonder if it's possible at all to get your laundry dry in southern Japan in the summer?

• There's always some funny pink stuff growing on the floor in our bathroom. The Japanese bathrooms are entirely made of plastic and has a bath tub and a shower next to it. Japanese people love taking a bath, but showering in the bath tub is not okay. Anyway, the floor's surface in our bath room is not even, which is good since a perfectly flat plastic surface would be a lot more slippery. However, the cute little pink colored stuff loves the small bumps in the floor, combined with the humidity and no window in the bathroom, it's obviously very good conditions to grow quickly, and it's an absolute pain in the ass to get rid of. We have some kind of bathroom cleaner, on the bottle it says you're supposed to just spray it on, wait a few minutes and wash with water and you're bathroom is clean (not that I can read it at all, but my girlfriend says so). Hah! More than one hour of rubbing the floor like a maniac with a sponge is what it takes to get rid of the pink bastards. And within a week they'll be back again...
  

夏休み！Summer vacation in Sapporo!

Celebrated the beginning of my summer vacation last night by paying a visit to the Sapporo beer festival that started this weekend, an absolutely huge party with a great atmosphere that goes on every day for 3 weeks!

The festival has 6 big areas, each with a capacity of a few thousand people. The big Japanese beer breweries; Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory has one area each, and then there's one area with international beers and one area with German beers.

If there would be a 3 weeks beer festival in central Stockholm with capacity of maybe 10 000 people (rough estimate) I am sure it would turn into a war field. The Japanese people really like drinking but tend to go home earlier and behave more responsibly than drunken people in Sweden do.

Though Sapporo might seem like a quite ordinary modern city at first, with not so many beautiful buildings (for a person coming from an old European city at least), it's actually a really nice place to stay.

There is just lots and lots of festivals of all kinds throughout the year in Sapporo. In the summer, other than the beer festival, there are also more traditional Japanese festivals with dancing and music. In the winter, Sapporo hosts the world famous Sapporo Snow Festival, with lots of huge snow and ice sculptures. Also, the city is kept very clean and very much in order, all this adding up to the feeling that there really is lots of things done to make the citizens thrive. It works very well for me at least. Probably this is the reason why Sapporo seems to have a quite young population.

Of course, in Japan, it's not okay to have one month of vacation and just relax, actually it seems like it's a sin if you have more than a couple of hours to relax per week, you should always be busy. So I've got a huge pile of papers to complete and new kanji to study during my summer holiday. As if that wasn't enough, they've put a test on the first lesson the first day after the summer holiday.

Finally, some more photos from the beer festival!



Waitress girl with silly hat.




Party!



Group photo with friends.. And some random Japanese people who were just passing by and decided they wanted to be in the photo as well.

Earthquakes

Took myself a little blog vacation kind of.. Felt lazy to write anything and been busy as usual. Lots of kanji characters to learn and grammar to study.

I guess everyone heard about the powerful earthquake in the Niigata prefecture of Japan, causing a lot of devastation.
My first thought was, probably it was mostly the old traditional Japanese houses that collapsed, not built to resist earthquakes, and the fire at the nuclear power plant didn't seem so serious either.

So far I've felt a couple of very small earthquakes here in Sapporo. It's kind of like sitting on a diesel bus not so far from where the engine is located while it's idling at a red light. Vibrating a bit. Haven't made me worried really. Modern buildings like the one I live in should be built to resist quite big earthquakes, right?

After reading this article (in Swedish) though, my thought is 'how the hell can they build the world's biggest nuclear power plant in the world's most seismologically active (is that correctly spelled?) country and not make sure it can handle a powerful earthquake?

According to the article, Japan's regulations for nuclear power plants used to be that they need to resist earthquakes of up to 6,5 on the Richter scale, however last year these regulations were changed. Now, the companies operating the power plants themselves can set the regulations, which then has to be approved by the government.
Also, it says this earthquake was 2,5 times more powerful than what the power plant was built to handle.

Okay, you can't trust the newspaper reports completely, but it sounds like complete madness to me. I thought everyone knew that nuclear power plants can be very dangerous unless strict safety and security regulations are observed.
Makes me think, if they don't build the nuclear power plants earthquake-safe to save some money, why should my house be? On the other hand, the Swedish nuclear power plants had a lot of safety issues lately and we don't even have the risk of earthquakes.
It's all about the money. Why bother about a small risk of some kind of incident if we can say a few yen? Kind of reminds me of the situation at my job before leaving Sweden.

Or maybe we simply just don't have a chance anyway if mother Earth decides to shake us hard enough, no matter how good engineering. Well nothing I can do about it anyway, so no need to worry. Of course, the earthquake is big news here also, but people in general don't seem worried or chocked really, I guess they're used to it.

If you want to read daily news from Japan in English, I can recommend Mainichi Daily News.

Swedish Midsommar (midsummer) on Hokkaido

There's a place about 30 minutes by train from Sapporo called 'Sweden Hills', which is a town on the countryside consisting entirely of Swedish style red houses with white corners. About 2000 people live there, only Sweden-loving Japanese people though, no swedes.

Went there the weekend before the last one for Swedish midsummer celebrations, it was a very surrealistic experiences for sure.. Not only because it was one week too early, but because here in Japan I run into the most traditional midsummer celebrations I have ever taken part in.

Firstly, it is kind of chocking for a Swede to arrive at a place on the Japanese countryside which is a more or less exact copy of the Swedish countryside; Swedish houses with Swedish flags (some Japanese flags also, but from what I can recall they were in minority), just mostly the cars in front of the houses were Japanese brands instead of Volvo.

Secondly, for young people from Stockholm (probably most young people in the rest of Sweden also), the Swedish midsummer mostly means eating lots and lots of food and drinking too much beer and Swedish style schnapps and then it all ends in a big fog of drunkenness.
The Japanese people however, were taking their midsommar celebrations a bit more serious than that. Many of them wearing the traditional Swedish folk costumes, they had raised the maypole, and of course learned all the traditional Swedish midsommar dances, including 'the small frogs'. They had even made some folk musicians from Dalarna (province in countryside Sweden) come and play the midsommar songs. Other than that, we were only a few Swedes there.

I was mostly sitting in amazement, laughing and watching the activities going on. Also, I'm very happy I could buy some proper rye bread (which I of course finished in a couple of days). The white bread you find everywhere in Japan is just terrible for us Swedes.

Of course, I forgot to bring my camera, but at least took a few photos with my mobile phone camera, not too bad quality eh?



Japanese people wearing Swedish folk costume.




Swedish maypole.




My girlfriend and one of the hundreds of Swedish houses.


Update: If you want more info about Sweden hills, visit their website at http://www.swedenhills.com. It's only in Japanese though.

Is Japan really that expensive?

I know many people believe that Japan is so expensive that you can hardly survive here, so I figured I should give you some information on that based on my experience.

Compared to Sweden, practically everything is cheaper here in Sapporo, especially compared to Stockholm.

Rent for a newly built apartment with 2 rooms and kitchen and furniture included:
64 000 yen/month (currently about 3770 Swedish kronor)
A small apartment for 1 person, usually without furniture, will be about 30 000-40 000 yen/month. If you're lucky it's quite possible to find one with furniture included though.
Gas, water and electricity is not included.
I paid 6000-8000 yen per month for the gas when I stayed at a dormitory. The gas is used for heating the apartment and for heating the water. At my current apartment, there's an electric water heater though, which I certainly hope is cheaper. It's supposed to be at least.

For food, I've calculated that I eat for about 500-700 yen per day when I eat at home, and I eat a lot compared to most people.

What's expensive at the supermarket are some vegetables and fruits, like kiwi and melons for example. They're really tasty though, so if you just buy them sometimes, it's worth it. Don't get addicted though.
Some nice department stores sell the exclusive melons for many thousands of yen, it's nothing people buy regularly though, usually people buy as a gift.
Stick to the moyashi (bean sprouts) and you can reduce your budget seriously, one quite big pack is about 25-30 yen (~1,7 kr) and they are incredibly good.

At the restaurant, a lunch menu can be about 600-1000 yen (35-60kr), and dinner, totally depending on where and what you eat of course, but on a typical Japanese style restaurant 900-1700 yen.
If you want to party, the all you can eat and drink offers is a good alternative. Costs about 2500-3000 yen for 2 hours of free eating and drinking.
In general, all restaurants hold a very high standard (compared to Sweden at least).

If you meet a nice girl/boy and need a double size bed, it's about 74 000 yen (4350 kr) for a nice one from Mujirushi (Muji in Sweden) including mattress.

A new bike: 10 000-15 000 yen (590-890 kr), an old bike: 3000-5000 yen.

Taking the subway: 160-300 yen per trip, depending on how far you go.

Electronic gadgets, clothes and shoes are all cheaper than in Sweden. Some things alot cheaper, some pretty much the same.

Of course, if you'll go to Tokyo or Osaka, most things will be slightly more expensive and the rent probably alot higher and you'll probably have to spend alot of time on the train to and from school.

The polite Japanese

I guess most people have heard that Japanese people are extremely polite and helpful. It's definitely true. Probably they're the best mannered people in the world, here it's almost like a crime to not be polite and helpful. Also the service in stores is outstanding, I appreciate it alot. Which is not so good since it makes me spend more money than I want to. I'm lucky that everything's cheaper than in Sweden at least.

Ask someone on the street where to find something and they'll completely stop what they're currently doing and do all they can to help you. If they don't have a clue either where to find what you're looking for, usually they won't say 'I'm sorry, I can't help you' (well it happens sometimes that they do), instead they'll call somebody who knows or just do anything they can to help you.
If they still can't solve your problem, they'll start bowing and apologizing time after time.

In Japan, people tend to say thanks or i am sorry if there's even just the slightest chance that someone could have been offended in any way. It's like it's always better to say it than not to, just to be on the safe side.
So, if you're only going to learn one japanese word, learn 'sumimasen'. An extremely versatile word meaning excuse me/i am sorry/thank you. You'll get very far with that word only.

However, I've found that on one occasion the Swedes are actually more polite; holding the door for the person behind you.

In Sweden, it's kind of rude to not cast a quick glance over you shoulder to see if there's a person right behind you when entering for example a department. And if there is, just put your arm out and hold the door a little bit when you enter, so it doesn't close right onto the person behind you. Practically everyone does that.

Here, in general, people don't hold the door for the person coming up behind. Maybe because the Japanese usually seem kind of stressed? I don't know, haven't managed to figure it out yet. Doesn't really make sense since on all other occasions, the japanese always take their time to be polite and helpful no matter how stressed they seem to be.

On the other hand, I can live with people not holding the door since it's very much compensated by their good manners on all other occasions. Like people not speaking on their cell phones or listening to loud music in the subway for example. That's just incredibly annoying in Sweden.

I've always wanted to live in a mansion...

And I thought I'd have more time to use the Internet after moving and having an Internet connection at home, HAH!

Been really busy with buying stuff and sorting things out with the new apartment, which is really nice by the way and the house is brand new actually. The rent's 64000 yen per month, which is about 3900 swedish kronor. Not too much for a brand new Mansion, is it?

Eeh? What's he talking about? Mansion?! Isn't that like a huge villa with 10 rooms, servants and a garden?
Well, I thought so too, but as you might know, things are often a bit different in Japan...
Over here, a mansion is simply an apartment with more than one room.

Anyway, our mansion has two rooms and kitchen and came with furniture and washing machine included, not so far from the city's central station. So, not expensive compared to Stockholm at least..

Also had an exam at school the this week, so I've been studying quite a bit. Got the result on Friday, the exam consisted of 4 parts;
1. grammar 2. reading comprehension 3. words and kanji 4. listening comprehension.
I got 100 out of 100 points on all the first three parts, perfect in other words. This big exam was easier than the tests we have regularly.
The listening part didn't turn out that well though, I got 79 out of 100 points, which is not that good. That part was quite difficult and it was the last part, which wasn't so good for me. As some people back home might know, when I'm a bit tired, I'm not a good listener at all.