Bureaucracy

In Japan, you practically need to write your address and phone number on three papers and put your personal 'hanko' stamp on each of them and then wait one week for your application to be processed to be allowed to go to the toilet. Then there's two additional papers to sign for using the toiler paper. Well not really, but almost.

I'll be returning to Sweden during the Christmas vacation for a few weeks.
Since I'm studying here, I'm holding a visa for staying in Japan until the end of March next year when the new school term starts and then I'll have to renew my visa. However if you're leaving the country for and coming back, you'll have to get a re-entry permission visa, even though you're having a valid visa. I'm not a big fan of excessive bureaucracy so it got me grumbling a bit, but at least it didn't seem that complicated, only it'd cost 3000 yen (>200kr).

So I got on my bicycle and rode down to the immigration bureau building, fill out two papers and show my foreigner registration card and passport. The man wearing a suit in the very official looking building tells me I have to go to the basement floor and pay the re-entry fee to receive a stamp that I put on another paper and fill out to prove that I've paid the fee for the visa.
At least it's a big relief that I can understand enough Japanese to understand these kind of instructions and even fill out the paper in Japanese and write my address in Japanese. Of course, you can't expect the staff at the city's immigration bureau to speak English, no way, this is Japan.

Anyway, I get in the elevator and go to the basement floor, expecting to see another office with official looking people wearing suits. Coming out from the elevator, there's a guard with a uniform sitting at a small desk, bowing to me and pointing out the way, so far everything as expected. I walk by the guard and continue 30 meters, finding a.. Seiko mart convenience store! Look back towards the guard, who nods towards me and points towards the convenience store with his hand. Why is there an absolutely normal convenience store, like those you see absolutely everywhere in Japan, selling official visa application stamps and papers in the basement of the immigration bureau? Anyway, the young typical convenience store clerk girls shouts their typical 'welcome' in Japanese and I get in and buy my official stamps.
After a little while, it starts making sense. Japan takes their bureaucracy seriously, but what their really fanatic about is consuming. You have to be able to buy anything at any time with good service.

I get in the elevator and go back up to the first guy, hand over my papers, hoping he'll check them for a while, put an official looking re-entry visa paper in my passport with a few stamps on and things'll be settled. Of course it wasn't that easy, I had totally missed out that I need a paper from my school that they allow me to leave the country during the vacation. At least the immigration guy with the suit told me my application papers were correctly written and I can just hand them over again as they are when I come back, hope so.

So, next step were going to school and filling out an application paper for getting the paper proving that they allow me to leave Japan during the vacation. At least I have no problem remembering how to write my address in Japanese after filling out all these papers. Also I had to write the reason for leaving the country and hand over a copy of the flight tickets, which of course was impossible since I have an e-ticket, but could be solved by e-mailing the e-ticket info to the school. Then I just had to wait one week for receiving my very official looking 'The school allows this student to leave Japan during the vacation'-paper with a couple of stamps and signatures on.
Tomorrow is time for round two at the immigration bureau.

If they finally allow me to leave the country, they'll be taking my fingerprints and photo when reentering, as the politicians have decided recently that all foreigners entering the country are potential terrorists. Not that there has ever been an act of terrorism by foreigners in Japan, but the main reason they've given is to prevent terrorism. One would think they should have checked up already if I'm a terrorist or not when they gave me a visa to live in the country..
Well they do take their bureaucracy seriously...

Studying, studying

I've finished the 'beginner level' of Japanese a while ago and am an intermediate student now, which means I should know enough survive daily life, feels very good.
The new book we've started studying a month and a half ago or so actually has real texts, compared to the beginner level studies which are just basic sentences and exercises presenting the new grammar. Feels nice when you notice you can actually begin to understand real texts written in 'normal written Japanese'. Of course, the kanji characters used in the texts are only those we've studied so far, about 650 or so.

Also the listening exercise have become normal daily spoken Japanese between Japanese people. Not exactly about space science, but Japanese people speaking to friends (normal, non-polite langauge that is) is fast as hell and quite tricky since they leave out half of the words and the remaining words gets cut off halfway cause it's faster that way. The polite language and conversation between people who are not close friends is alot easier to pick up.

Took the JLPT, the Japanese language proficiency test (日本語能力試験) last week. It's the one big test for non-Japanese people used to measure Japanese language proficiency, practically necessary to take if you want to get any job where more or less advanced knowledge of the Japanese language is requred. The JLPT comes in 4 levels, where 4 is the easiest one and level 1 is the most difficult. Level 3 & 4 are quite useless, since they only cover basic Japanese. Often level 1 is required, sometimes level 2 is alright.

I took the level 3 test, which is for people who have learned all the basic Japanese required. Had previously bought the last years test and taken at home, which was very easy, I could practically nail every question on that one, with a few exceptions. This year's test was kind of in another division of trickiness though. However reaching the passing rate of 60% correct answers shouldn't be any problem though.

The JLPT is known for having quite big differences of difficulty from year to year and is said to be more difficult every other year, which seems to be quite right. Kind of like they look at the statistics for the test and notice the average score was a bit high/low this year and decide to make it more tricky/easy for the next year.

My goal right now is skipping the level 2 and going straight for the level 1 in one year from now. The level 1 is however absolutely in a class of it's own when it comes to difficulty. The level 2 is supposed to be a quite manageable test if you know Japanese quite well and the passing rate on the test is 60%. The level 1, however, is even tricky for Japanese people and requires 70% correct answers. Most people who manage it are Chinese people who already know the kanji characters, or Koreans who have a language with very similar grammar.

But on the other hand, I love challenges and I've managed to learn a big part of the necessary Japanese in 8 months and one third of the necessary kanji. Also, I'm can match any of the Asian students in my class when it comes to using grammar, so why shouldn't I be able to reach the level 1 in 12 months from now? About 1200 kanji to go... And after all, the JLPT is supposed to be easier next year. 頑張れ！

In the meantime, it's becoming increasingly difficult to remember all those not-so-often-used Swedish and English words and sometimes even in which order the words are supposed to come. I guess I'll be coming back to Sweden with mad skills in the Japanese language, but having to take a Swedish for immigrants course.

A thought about cabbage after a long time..

I'll have to apologize about my non-existing blogging the last couple of months. I'm having a great time in Japan with school and everything and had a great summer vacation with a trip to Kyoto. Haven't really felt much like writing anything, and when I do have felt like writing something, there's always 5 other interesting options to consider.
Thinking I should try writing shorter text and maybe I'll bother updating more often..
Looking at other blogs, at least in Sweden, the way to become popular is to write as stupid as possible and throw dirt on everyone else, especially famous people. Ahm well, I'm not really into that stuff, I will just try to wake up this blog again in my own way. Hope anyone bothers reading it.

Oh and just something I've been thinking about the last month or so..
The small small bugs that appear in the cabbage when it's getting old, can anyone tell me where they come from?
I keep the cabbage in plastic and not outside or anything, so it's not so likely the small bugs come from outside, so the bugs are in the cabbage when you buy it, right?
However, when the cabbage is still fresh, it's impossible to see any trace of eggs or small bugs, meaning they're probably too tiny to see. Then the next question is; do they disappear when you wash the cabbage with water a bit? If they're really tiny eggs and possibly inside the cabbage itself, probably they don't wash away that easily I guess. So my theory that you're eating these really tiny eggs everytime you eat cabbage, makes sense, right?

Doesn't really bother me, I'm not sensitive and can't see it anyway, but would be nice if someone could answer where these tiny little cabbage bugs come from. If anyone still checks out this blog that is.
Oh, and I'm happy to receive any requests on topics to write about from anyone who has interest in Japan or life over here in anyway. It'll give me some motivation to write something.

Life as a housewife in Japan and the world's most ugly building

Since I'm having summer vacation right now and my girlfriend is working long days, I've kind of experienced the life of being a Japanese housewife lately. I mean, I couldn't really have her start doing the laundry and cleaning the apartment when she come home after working 11 hours when I have the whole day off, so now I'm taking care of all this stuff lately.
Probably I should have tried getting a job for the summer and make some well-needed money, but haven't been in Japan for that long yet, so it's nice to have some time off. I figured I'll probably just be getting more and more busy in the future.
While it's nice to have time to relax, I had no idea how easy it is to get busy all day with just doing some cleaning and going to the supermarket and studying a bit.

One thing I've noticed now and even had time to document is that the world's probably most ugly building happens to be right outside my window! In Sweden and especially in an old city like Stockholm, the government is very restrictive about letting companies build new buildings. Hell, you're practically not even allowed to put up a sign anywhere in Stockholm. While it's good to preserve the uniqueness of an old beautiful city, it means not enough places are built for people to live and it gets kind of too conservative sometimes. Things seem to start happening to renew and expand Stockholm more quickly lately though.

In a young city in Japan like Sapporo, it's kind of the opposite. It seems any kind of building can be built anytime anywhere. It creates a kind of uplifting chaos. A mix of all kinds of buildings packed together on a small space. It's not very beautiful though, but it somehow makes me happy. Kind of an uplifting chaos.
You can find lots and lots of enormous shopping malls and the commercialism in Japan is like nothing I've seen anywhere. I've been to the United States two times, which is supposed to be the home of commercialism and I've been to quite a few other countries, but nothing even comes close to Japan.

Anyway, I took some photos from my balcony, thought it might be interesting, and surely, isn't that pink/white striped building the most ugly thing you have ever seen?



Yes, I mean the pink/white striped apartment building in the foreground, what were the architect thinking about? Can someone explain to me? (Christian maybe?). The tall building in the background is the JR Tower at the Sapporo station.



It actually looks slightly better (less bad) by night.




Also from our balcony, to the north. A pachinko hall. Meaning a place where people can go when they feel like wasting their money on watching small metal balls bouncing around and smoking too many cigarettes. I've never tried it, probably never will.



Bonus: Fireworks over the Sapporo Factory (huge shopping mall) to the south, also taken from our house but not our flat.

My school and some advice on studying in Japan

On request, here's a post about the school I am attending and my thoughts about it.

The name of the school is Japanese Language Institute of Sapporo, in Japanese 札幌国際日本語学院　（Sapporo kokusai nihongo gakuin), it's located close to the Maruyama park in the west of Sapporo, a few subway stops from the most central parts.
The school fee is 646,800 yen per year, which is about the same for all Japanese language schools in Japan, some are slightly cheaper and some are slightly more expensive.

There are 4 classes per day (Mon-Friday), 45 minutes each with short breaks in between. I start school at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and finish at 4.25, there are also morning classes for those who have studied a bit longer.

The pros:

The teachers are good. Of course, some are worse and some are better, but in general, they hold a good standard.

The books we use are good, a bit too much of the polite language and too little of how you actually communicate usually with friends and others of your same age, but that's the way it is at all language schools in Japan I've heard. After all, it also is very important to be polite in Japan, and you will start learning how to speak to friends as well after a couple of months. It will be a bit frustrating in the beginning though.

The cons:

When you sign the contract and accept the school's rules, it says everything you need for the course is included in the school fee, no extra purchases will be necessary. It's not entirely true. While the text/exercise book and kanji book is included, the grammar book is not, you'll have to buy it. In the first 10-15 chapters or so, the grammar is not that complicated, so you can manage with just the explanation that the teacher gives during the lessons. After that, the tempo gets a bit higher and the grammar a bit more tricky, and for me it's impossible to see how to follow without a book giving grammatical explanations in English.
The book's not that expensive though (around 2000 yen if i remember correctly), just I don't like signing a contract where it says everything's included in the school fee, but it's not.

When I started the course, the class consisted of 12-14 students, now as more people have joined, there's 20-22 students and the classroom is packed. Quite many in a small class room, a little bit tiring, but quite alright.

Finally, no soap or hand towels at the toilet at school. Sure, they want to save money, but at least soap? Even the public toilets here usually have soap.

These are no big issues to me however. I came here to learn Japanese and it's going well so far and I'm having a good time. That's what matters.

If you're from Sweden and thinking of attending the same school, one thing worth mentioning is that it really is becoming a lot of Swedes here now. When I started, we were 8 Swedes, now there's about 10-12 Swedes. Might even be the second biggest group after the Chinese students. While I don't mind Swedish people, it will be negative for your learning if you only hang out with other Swedish people after school and speak Swedish everyday.
But all that is completely up to you of course. The school provides you with good conditions for learning Japanese properly, but if you don't use the language regularly outside of school, it will take a lot longer time to learn and will be easier to forget. Your brain will not start thinking in the Japanese language.

So my advice is, go out to the bar, have a few beers and forget that you can hardly speak Japanese. Meet some Japanese people, make friends and use those few words that you have learned. Another good idea is to meet a Japanese girl/boyfriend.

If you're a shy person that feels very worried about trying to speak in a language you just started learning and tends to take the safe alternatives, like speaking those languages you already know, I would say the best thing is to specifically search for a school where there's no one who speaks your language. The smaller towns in Japan probably have less western students and the Asian students usually don't speak English well, and certainly not Swedish..

Useful links for searching language schools in Japan.
http://www.aikgroup.co.jp/j-school/index.htm
http://www.nisshinkyo.org/ (Click top left corner for English language).

The 'ganbatte' mentality

Something I've noticed is that an important part of the Japanese culture is to always do your best. When it comes to working, studying and especially when helping other people or providing a service for someone. It's all about how hard you try.

My challenge to you is to bother reading through this whole long text. Ganbatte kudasai!

There's a Japanese phrase that's very often used, 'ganbatte kudasai' (頑張って　下さい). 'Kudasai' just means 'please' and can be left out, so don't focus on that word too much.
This phrase is used in pretty much exactly the same contexts as in one would say 'good luck' in English. For example, before taking a test, facing a difficult task or to a person who's striving hard to reach her goals.
However, the meaning of this word (verb) 'ganbatte' is more close to 'please do your best/try your hardest' than good luck.

This captures something interesting and vital about the Japanese mentality. If you'll think strictly about the difference in the languages, it's like people in an English-speaking country (Swedish as well) would settle with just hoping that luck will give you that little extra push that you need, while the Japanese encourages to do your absolute best to manage.
'Good luck' is usually answered with 'thank you'.
In Japanese, the response to 'ganbatte kudasai' (please try your best) is usually 'hai, ganbarimasu' (yes, I am trying/will try my best) accompanied with a small bow.

I'd say that telling someone to please try their best in English often would have a slightly bad sound, as if accusing the person of not trying hard enough. That's not the case at all in Japan. Here, the most important thing is that you try hard and it's actually polite to encourage someone to do so. In the same way as it's polite to wish someone good luck in English.
You can also say 'yoku ganbarimashita' to someone (also accompanied by a bow), meaning 'you did try your best'. This phrase would in English quite surely have a slightly negative sound as in; 'you did try [but it wasn't good enough].' In Japanese it's just a way of showing respect for another person's efforts.

Of course, this difference in the languages doesn't mean that all English speaking people rely on having good luck while the Japanese push themselves to the limits, but all those small differences in the language are also part of the culture and found in everyday life, I assure you.

I guess many people have heard about the Japanese's long working hours, practically non-existing holidays and willingness to work hard. I can't say anything else than that from my experience so far, it all seems to be true.
Back home in Sweden, a job is first and foremost a way of making money to make sure you can eat food and pay the rent. Your family is the most important thing, on second place is usually your friends, free-time and hobbies and on third place is work. For some people, work might be number 2, and for a few people it might be the most important thing, it's not very common in Sweden though.

In Japan, signing that full-time contract doesn't mean you'll be working from 9 to 5 every day as it might actually say on the contract. To me, it seems more like you're signing the contract for selling your soul.
Not only will you be expected to work until the work is done, not until the hour written on your contract, which probably means very long days, you'll usually be expected to do it without any extra overtime payment and might have to work in the weekends as well. Vacations are short and even if you might be allowed to take vacation in theory, it's not really okay to do so as long as your superiors and colleagues don't take any vacation.
When you do manage to finish work for the day, you're often expected to go out and have a few drinks with your colleagues, even if your family is waiting for you at home. The group and being a part of it is a very important thing in Japan, so choosing to go home to your family instead of going out with your colleagues might mean you become an outsider at work and ruin your chances to make a career at the company.
(Edit: The Japanese companies are required to pay overtime salary for overtime work according to the law, I've heard that often they don't do it anyway though).

I do like that it's important to try your best and usually people will notice that you try hard and give you credits for it.
For example, I consider myself to be a quite ambitious student. I have decided to spend time and money on learning Japanese and it's something I want to do. For me, that means I will want to focus 100% on studying. So I prefer to do my homework and studies carefully rather than finishing it quickly so I can spend time relaxing or hanging out with friends, usually I'll have some time for that anyway. In Japan, the more ambitious students are given credits by the teachers for their efforts which the less ambitious students are not, as opposed to Sweden where the obsession of treating everyone equally has gone so far that it's absurd. A bit of competitiveness is something I think is very good.

However, studying is one thing. It's something I do because I want to learn Japanese. The question is just, when my studies has been finished, if I find a job here, am I willing to sign that contract for selling my soul to a Japanese company? After staying only a few months here, I'm getting a bit worried there's this risk my brain has turned 'ganbatte' enough after a few years.
Or maybe I'll rather go back to Sweden, find a job and enjoy my 5 weeks of vacation per year.

Finally, some examples on how this mentality takes shape.

Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, especially when providing a service for someone, it's very important to show that you do your best, which means the service at stores or restaurants in Japan is outstanding.

There's an enormous pride taken in doing your job properly, even if you have a crappy job like standing outside a parking lot with a funny flashing neon red-colored stick and directing the traffic. Even if there are hardly any cars coming and there's more than plenty of signs put up already, those guys will stand straight and make an elegant circular motion in the air with the neon stick with an enormous grace. In Sweden, we don't have those guys with the neon sticks, but if we would, probably they'd at least be looking bored and tired. In southern Europe, they would probably be sitting on a chair and sleeping at work.

One of few digitalized guys with a neon stick making sure no one parks in front of a building in Tokyo. Usually they are real guys.

If you go to a store in Japan you will notice that the staff is often running inside the store if they're going somewhere. Actually, often they'll be taking such small steps running that it's quite obviously a slower way of moving than if they'd be walking quickly. It seems to be more about showing the customers that they really are on their toes and do their best rather than getting as quickly as possible from point A to point B. The gas stations in Japan are really serious about their service though. There, it's not about fake-running, working at a gas station in Japan really means running between the cars, polishing, bowing and a lot of shouting polite phrases.

The most funny thing is how quickly you start adjusting yourself to all kinds of routines and rituals. Probably my friends will ask me what the hell I am doing when I get back to Sweden.

(For non-Swedes; yes you read it correctly, 5 weeks of vacation per year is normal in Sweden).

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...