Gacha, Our Life Posted by eriko1 on Mar 7, 2022
If you have been to Japan, you might have seen Gachapon. It is also known as gacha, gashapon, or gachagacha. Gacha is a name trademarked by Takara Tomy A.R.T., while Gachapon/gashapon are names trademarked by Bandai. The general name for this is capsule toy – not very exciting! Whatever the names are, they refer to…
Renting an apartment in Japan Posted by eriko1 on Feb 28, 2022
In the post-COVID-19 time, you may have a chance to go to Japan, and you need to find a place to live. If you are an expatriate (駐在員 chuuzaiin), your company can hopefully handle all these headaches (頭痛 zutsuu) of finding a home and dealing with the Japanese real estate (不動産 fudousan) practice. If you…
Vending Machines – an Important Part of Japanese Culture Posted by eriko1 on Feb 24, 2022
What do you think many international visitors are most surprised and impressed with when visiting Japan? Combini (convenience stores). You guessed it. It has been well-known, but the Tokyo Olympics put the Japanese combini in the major international media. Another thing – maybe vending machines (自動販売機 jidouhanbaiki). They are everywhere. I mean, everywhere. In 2020, there…
About Unique Japanese Valentine’s Day Posted by eriko1 on Jan 27, 2022
What is the biggest event in February (二月 nigatsu)? Setsubun (節分), which falls on February 3? For the entire nation, it may be. Setsubun means to divide seasons (季節 kisetsu), dividing the winter and the spring (2/4). On Setsubun, people throw roasted soybeans at Oni, a demon (鬼), shouting ” Out with the demons. In…
Year of the Tiger – a year of Growth and Beginning Posted by eriko1 on Jan 22, 2022
Belated happy new year! This is a year of the Tiger. Tiger in Japanese is written as 虎（tora）but for Zodiac, it is written as 寅. I have learned that there are many versions of animal zodiacs (十二支 Junishi) in the world with some differences in animals. We adopted (導入する dounyusuru) Zodiac from China. But there…
Christmas in Japan Posted by eriko1 on Dec 20, 2021
I know I should write something about New Year in Japan. But I wrote about 年賀状, 除夜の鐘 ,福袋andお節 present and past last year. So I am going to focus on Christmas in Japan. https://blogs.transparent.com/japanese/new-years-cards-年賀状/ https://blogs.transparent.com/japanese/a-month-even-a-priest-must-run-part-1/ https://blogs.transparent.com/japanese/a-month-even-a-priest-must-run-part-２/ For a non-Christian country, Christmas is a huge event even though it is not a holiday (祭日saijitsu) in Japan…
Job Hunting for College Students (就活) Part 2 Posted by eriko1 on Dec 7, 2021
Here is part 2 of job hunting Japanese style (see Part 1). So what happens if you did not get a job before you graduate from college? Here are two options. You graduate from college and continue to look for a job = 就職浪人(shushoku ronin). 浪人 (ronin) is a wandering samurai without a lord. So…