A 100 days in Japan
Sunday 5 May 2018 was our 100th day of living in Japan. We all need arbitrary milestones in our life and marking our first 100 days in Japan seemed good enough to me. So for this post, Wil and I have both answered the same set of questions about our first 100 days in Japan. We discussed the questions we should have but then wrote our answers separately.
So, here is our 100 day Q&A...
1. What is your favourite Japanese word that you have learnt so far?
Qiraat: "Tokidoki" which means "sometimes" as I really enjoy saying it.
Wil: I have always liked the number 9 - kokonotsu (九つ) - which become particularly fun when paired with coconut - kokonattsu (ココナッツ). I have sadly not yet had the opportunity to buy 9 coconuts and use the phrase “kokonattsu kokonotsu”.
2. Excluding family or friends, what do you miss the most about home?
Wil: Being able to easily tell whether the food I am looking to buy contains meat! Every trip to the supermarket or meal is a minor battle in trying to deduce whether what we like the look of is actually safe to eat. This has certainly become easier as our language skills and knowledge of Japanese cuisine have improved. But we always need to be cautious of secret meat in the unlikeliest of products...
Qiraat: Being able to eat healthily easily! Fruit is UNBELIEVABLY EXPENSIVE in Japan so it is lucky that I like bananas as they seem to be the only fruit that you can get here without getting a mortgage first. Vegetables are also more expensive than the UK but fall within the realm of affordability. The higher cost of fresh produce massively reduces the incentive to prepare snacks or cook meals at home as buying ready to eat meals (bento boxes, sushi, tempura etc..) from the supermarket or eating out are considerably cheaper (and less effort!).
On the food front I also miss meat substitutes. Fake-meat like Quorn isn't a concept here so it is hard and expensive to get your hands on meat substitutes. And there is only so much tofu I can have.
3. What is your favourite spot in Tokyo?
Qiraat: Gotokuji Temple. It is said that the temple is the origin of the maneki-neko (which literally means beckoning cat but is also known as the lucky or fortune cat). The temple is full of hundreds, probably thousands, of maneki-neko statues in various sizes. We actually first visited the temple when we came to Tokyo for our honeymoon but it continues to be my favourite spot in the city.
Wil: I have a particular soft spot for the suburbs to the west of the city centre (fortunately including where we live), which is mainly composed of distinct towns centred around stations in the midst of low rise, densely packed residential areas.
One of the larger towns in this area is called Kichijoji, which manages to combine the best of Tokyo into one manageable space. Highlights include Inokashira Park (replete with cherry blossom trees, swan pedalos, zoo and Studio Ghibli museum), ever-present temples, shops (of all shapes and size) and restaurants (including the Harmonica Yokocho winding alleys).
To be honest though, you can’t go wrong with anywhere on the Chuo mainline out of Shinjuku station.
4. What is your favourite destination outside of Tokyo that you have visited since moving to Japan?
Wil: We went on our first proper break here to Japan’s fourth main island, Shikoku. While I would recommend this lesser visited place as a whole, the day we spent in and around the valleys of the Yoshino river stood out in particular. Japan is a particularly mountainous country but the sheer density of stunning scenery, impressive infrastructure (bridges, dams etc) and attractions could have kept us occupied for far longer than we had available.
Qiraat: For a proper holiday it was Kochi prefecture. With glorious mountain landscapes, beautiful coastline, quiet beaches and a relaxed city (also called Kochi) this area of Japan was a fantastic place to spend a few days.
A very close second was Naoshima Island which is known for its modern art and sculptures but I picked Kochi for the variety of experiences it offered.
My favourite destination for a day trip from Tokyo was Kamakura. You can read my post about our trip to Kamakura here.
5. Who is your favourite Japanese mascot?
Qiraat: Japan is obsessed with mascots and the unlikeliest organisation or thing will have a masoct. My favourite so far is Udon-Nou, a mascot for Kagawa Prefecture that is famous for udon noodles. The mascot has has noodles for brains.
Wil: There are a ridiculous number to choose from but I think my current favourite is Barysan, the mascot of Imabari city in Ehime prefecture. He is giant, rotund, yellow chicken usually shown in a crown and holding a ship. Don’t just take my word for it - he also came first in Japan’s annual mascot grand prix in 2012!
6. What has been the biggest change in your lifestyle?
Wil:This is actually easy to answer. My day-to-day life here is surprisingly similar, especially having moved from from another huge city and carried on with the same job.
That said, the main change has been not being able to run my whole life via the internet when it comes to online services, shopping etc. Everyone tends to think of Japan as this technologically advanced land of the future. This was probably true in the 1980s but I often get the impression things (in certain areas) have progressed at a decidedly slower pace since then.
Examples include ATMs which ‘close’ at 9pm, paper forms at every turn, websites from the Clipart era, having used more cash in the last 3 months here than the last 5 years in the UK and paying utility bills over the counter at the local 7-11 store.
Qiraat: BEING ON A CAREER BREAK. I can literally do whatever I want everyday and it is utterly fantastic. I am extremely grateful for the very fortunate position I am in and am still thinking of new ways to make the most of the time that I have off work.
I am sure, one day I will feel the need to contribute to society again but for now I am very happy to have all this time to myself. Plus, even if I did want to and was able to able to get a job in Tokyo, the Japanese tax system penalises couples who are both working full time and creates an incentive for the second or lower earning spouse (which I definitely would be in Japan) to work part time or not work at all so I don't have much motivation to seek out employment opportunities.
Please note that in my case being on a career break does not equate to being a housewife. Wil will definitely vouch for that.
7. What has been the biggest culture shock?
Qiraat: To be honest I don't think I have experienced culture shock in Japan or not yet anyway! I think we had a pretty good sense of what to expect based on our trip in 2016 and our research in the run-up to our move to Tokyo. The fact that Japan was so different to the UK (and most other cultures) was precisely the reason we chose to move to Japan.
So the culture shock hasn't got me but the one thing that has been worse than I had expected is living with such a large time difference to the UK. Japan is 9 hours ahead of the UK in the winter and 8 hours ahead in the summer and although it is not impossible to have a chat with people back home the window for communication isn't that long. But hey, I chose to move to "the land of the rising sun" so I don't know what I expected but maybe I'll pick Scandinavia for our next international move.
Wil: Having lived in the UK for my life to date, it is an odd feeling to only ever understand about 5% of what is going on in most situations. I have experienced this on holiday before, but never for an extended period nor in a place culturally dense and different as Japan.
(If you ask this again in a few months time, then I sure my answer to this will be “the heat”.)
8. What is your favourite “Japanesey” purchase? (We added the word “Japanesey” to this question as otherwise I think we would both pick our sofa which is the comfiest thing we have ever sat on.)
Wil: My choice is not one thing but rather my ever expanding collection of darumas. These bright red, semi-spherical, hollow ‘dolls’ are traditionally made of paper mache. They are also a ubiquitous icon and souvenir across Japan, making it all to easy to acquire ones of many different sizes, shapes and colours. This is the crew so far.
Qiraat: A maneki-neko (whch literally means beckoning cat) shaped cushion. The maneki-neko is also known as the lucky or fortune cat. My cushion is about a foot tall and one side is white and one side is black and it sits on the aforementioned sofa.
9. What is the one aspect of Japanese life that you wish the UK had?
Qiraat: Japan is ridiculously safe and society functions on the basis that everybody will do the right thing and therefore people can be trusted. Day to day, this translates to being able to leave your laptop, phone, purse out on a table unattended in cafe or a public place. I just wouldn't do that in the UK. Being able to do this also has the added bonus of not needing to awkwardly turn to the people sitting near you in a cafe and say "do you mind keeping an eye on my things, please?" as you nipped to the loo.
Wil: When walking around the UK, I would very rarely come across a street which was noticeably in need of a clean. However, living in Japan has raised my expectations in this respect. Even in the centre of a metropolis as large as Tokyo, I am constantly amazed by how spotless everywhere is. We regularly see teams of volunteers, or just homeowners on their own road, sweeping litter to make sure everything is pristine.
Given this, it is perhaps surprising that you will struggle to find public bins anywhere. Instead, the onus is to take everything home with you and dispose of it accordingly (Qiraat can do a separate post on the intricacies of home recycling.)
10. What is the one aspect of British life that you wish Japan had?
Wil: I wish that Japan had the same trends on packaging reduction and plastic usage in everyday life. It is quite jarring to come from the UK to a place where groceries are wrapped in bags within bags (and ice packs if at a fancy place), and even the smallest purchase will be bagged unless you vigilantly remember to turn down the bag. While Japan is all over the Reuse and Recycle environmental mantras, Reduce still has some way to go.
Qiraat: Diversity! Japan is really is ridiculously homogenous and I think 98.5% of the population is ethnically Japanese. Spotting a non-Japanese resident in Japan (especially once you are outside of Tokyo) shouldn't be as rare as it is.
11. What was the best meal you have had in Japan?
Wil: The food is one of the main reasons we wanted to move to Japan, and our time here so far has borne this out. If I had to pick just one meal, I would go for the vegetarian ‘kaiseki’ meal we did for Qiraat’s birthday. This is a traditional, formal Japanese meal consisting of seven small courses covering a range of cooking styles and techniques.
A shout-out has to go to the various street food bits which has sustained us during our travels - consistently delicious and reasonably priced.
Qiraat: On the taste and atmosphere front, this is a toss-up between the meal I had with Wil for my birthday and the first izakaya (Japanese style pubs that do great food) meal that Wil and I braved on our own without a local Japanese speaker. But as I have to pick one, I am going to go with the izakaya meal because I expected the birthday meal to be great whereas we didn't know what to expect from the izakaya. We had to put our Japanese to the test and we had no idea how good the non-meat options would be.
As it was a Saturday night, the izakaya was really lively and busy but we were lucky to get counter seats so got to see what the chefs were up to. We relied on their recommendations which massively paid off. We had a delicious array of dishes including seared mackerel, sashimi, an avocado and tuna dish and the best beansprouts I have ever had. Who knew the humble beansprout could be elevated to such great heights.
Setting the scene for as I wrote this blog:
Location: We started writing the post at Shirahama (a beach in Kochi prefecture) but then finished it at home.
Weather: It was a sunny hot day when we started and finished the post.
Soundtrack: Beach sounds and then Wil was playing the FT Politics podcast. Wil wanted it clarified that he is not a Financial Times reader and that his only interaction with the Financial Times is him listening to this podcast.
Bonus fact: Wil and I both started using Instagram when we moved to Japan. In our first 100 days I posted on 171 occasions and Wil posted 96 times.
