Today is the first day after a five day long weekend: Silver Week.
Monday was respect for the aged day.
Wednesday was autumn equinox day (a traditional day for visiting the cemetry
and Tuesday was an act of government benevolence in part movitvated by a desire to stimulate the economy. With 1000Y 'all you can drive' road tolls, a massive reduction on what they had been, there were no doubt hopes that people would pack their cars and travel across the country spending money the whole way.
The holidays are very welcome, though if there could just be incentive for people to actually take the holidays that they are already entitled to, demand would be spread more evenly through the year.
But the cliche of kicking gift horses springs to mind...
We endeavoured to make the best of the rare 5 days off.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
buying beans
Thursday, September 10, 2009
buying beans
Yesterday I tried to buy lentils. 3 supermarkets and 1 foreign food shop later I was still empty handed - actually I had my hands full but not with lentils. (I spent a good 20 mins in one shop with no staff on hand looking for yeast - Australian supermarket logic I expect would have it with flour. I eventually found someone to ask and found it in the home cooking section with hundreds and thousands, choc bits and maple syrup... )
In search of lentils and Indian curry paste - I trotted off to Okachimachi - the market area where Rory had 'piggy shoulders' so as not to get squashed in the new year crowds and Dad emphatically suggested keeping a hand on one:s wallet... Lentils and dahl were easily found, Indian curry paste a little more problematic - I could get vindaloo or madras but had something a bit milder in mind....
I had a doner kebab in Okachimachi - another chalk up for the not much has changed column. The same Turkish man was there and was so surprised to see me again he gave me a free drink.... hmmm... me thinks I eat too many kebabs....
It seems like NHK H1N1 warnings are not making a huge impact in this part of Tokyo - masks were few and far between on the Keihin Tohoku line. Perhaps tomorrow on the subway will be a different story.
buying beans
Yesterday I tried to buy lentils. 3 supermarkets and 1 foreign food shop later I was still empty handed - actually I had my hands full but not with lentils. (I spent a good 20 mins in one shop with no staff on hand looking for yeast - Australian supermarket logic I expect would have it with flour. I eventually found someone to ask and found it in the home cooking section with hundreds and thousands, choc bits and maple syrup... )
In search of lentils and Indian curry paste - I trotted off to Okachimachi - the market area where Rory had 'piggy shoulders' so as not to get squashed in the new year crowds and Dad emphatically suggested keeping a hand on one:s wallet... Lentils and dahl were easily found, Indian curry paste a little more problematic - I could get vindaloo or madras but had something a bit milder in mind....
I had a doner kebab in Okachimachi - another chalk up for the not much has changed column. The same Turkish man was there and was so surprised to see me again he gave me a free drink.... hmmm... me thinks I eat too many kebabs....
It seems like NHK H1N1 warnings are not making a huge impact in this part of Tokyo - masks were few and far between on the Keihin Tohoku line. Perhaps tomorrow on the subway will be a different story.
The flu
Sept 9
The H1N1 flu is being taken very seriously here.
Last night's TV news had pictures of intensive care wards at the children's hospital in westmead (if I were being cynical I could suggest that it confirms in people:s minds that it is foreign disease despite a number of schools in Japan having been closed as a result of the flu.)
Measures being taken seem a little extreme, not especially grounded in science and extend into the private domain more than would be tolerated in many places.
Kozy's husband's company have effectively forbidden overeas travel - too bad if you'd booked your summer trip to Guam.... They all have their temperature taken at the gate as they enter the office as well as having to wear masks inside the office and on the train to work.... Some companies are requiring employees to submit their temperatures to the company before leaving home for work in the morning... Work place cafeterias are having seats removed so no one need sit opposite another. A positive is that public toilets now all have to have soap - a big improvement.
Concern about the flu spreading however doesn't seem to have extended to reducing the amount of spitting esp from older men. A handwashing campaign also wouldn:t go astray....
Corrections
1. butter has gone up
2. the garbage Nazis have apparently moved on to ensuring that labels have been removed from PET bottles...
Posted by Cecilia at 6:13 PM
The H1N1 flu is being taken very seriously here.
Last night's TV news had pictures of intensive care wards at the children's hospital in westmead (if I were being cynical I could suggest that it confirms in people:s minds that it is foreign disease despite a number of schools in Japan having been closed as a result of the flu.)
Measures being taken seem a little extreme, not especially grounded in science and extend into the private domain more than would be tolerated in many places.
Kozy's husband's company have effectively forbidden overeas travel - too bad if you'd booked your summer trip to Guam.... They all have their temperature taken at the gate as they enter the office as well as having to wear masks inside the office and on the train to work.... Some companies are requiring employees to submit their temperatures to the company before leaving home for work in the morning... Work place cafeterias are having seats removed so no one need sit opposite another. A positive is that public toilets now all have to have soap - a big improvement.
Concern about the flu spreading however doesn't seem to have extended to reducing the amount of spitting esp from older men. A handwashing campaign also wouldn:t go astray....
Corrections
1. butter has gone up
2. the garbage Nazis have apparently moved on to ensuring that labels have been removed from PET bottles...
Posted by Cecilia at 6:13 PM
Back in Japan
After almost a year and a half away, I am back in Tokyo; little in the local area has changed.
The recession continues with prices of grocery items much as they were when I came here in 2002. If anything rice prices have gone down rather than up in that time. 5kg of prewashed Akita komachi rice was 1698Y tonight, less than 2002. Imported goods at the supermarket also seem to be similarly priced - camembert - one of my benchmark items along with rice, Glico's puddings, butter and spaghetti remains the same.... It's hard to understand how it can be so when compared with Aus. where prices (and wages) have increased significantly over this decade.The bicycle police are still about and I managed to get a ticket on the first day of being here....fortunately being Japan the ticket is just a warning not to do it again and that 4000Yen (50 dollar) fines can be applied.The earthquake reporting system is still efficient. There was a rumble this morning and flicking on the TV I could read the message giving the location, the intensity (on the Japanese scale) and that there was no danger of tsunami. The trains are still clean, on time and efficient and ticket prices also have not moved since sometime before 2001. Akihabara station is being revamped. The disabled access esp at railway stations has improved dramatically and it was joy coming back from the airport not to have to carry luggage up or down steps anywhere until we got back to the apartment.
There have been changes, but mostly they are subtle. Jujo has 2 Indian restaurants now - a sign of the times internationally I think as Indians look for opportunities overseas - but the much loved Korean barbeque has gone.The old red brick buildings next door, that used to belong to the self defence force, have been turned into a library - I have yet to go in and have a look but it seemed very well patronised on the weekend.The rubbish system has changed - now most things have become burnable rubbish even styrofoam.... aaarrghhhh. Memories of the poisonous odour of styrofoam burning on the campus in China make me very suspicious of any claims that it is a burnable product. I doubt the incinerator filtering system could be good enough to burn everything without expelling dioxins etc into the atmosphere at unacceptable levels. The upside is that the days of rubbish Nazis sorting through people"s rubbish are probably over.
After Thailand, Cambodia and even Aus, the population here is noticeably old. I was reading the other day that the population of children has declined every year for the past 28 years.There have been changes in the laws regarding foreigners. Foreigners are now going to have to be registered with government health insurance to be allowed to renew visas for living here. % It has ended up that being registered with national health is not going to be obligatory - it seems like there was a lot of money pumped into the campaign to quash it by foreign (US) insurance companies.
If I understand correctly foreigner ID cards are apparently going to be linked across all government departments which means the immigration dept now need to be notified if you change job, place of abode, use medical services etc. It's much higher level of surveillance. Adults don't have the option of dual citizenship. As I venture further afield other differences will no doubt become apparent.Now to start on a mission to get someone to employ me to teach history....
The recession continues with prices of grocery items much as they were when I came here in 2002. If anything rice prices have gone down rather than up in that time. 5kg of prewashed Akita komachi rice was 1698Y tonight, less than 2002. Imported goods at the supermarket also seem to be similarly priced - camembert - one of my benchmark items along with rice, Glico's puddings, butter and spaghetti remains the same.... It's hard to understand how it can be so when compared with Aus. where prices (and wages) have increased significantly over this decade.The bicycle police are still about and I managed to get a ticket on the first day of being here....fortunately being Japan the ticket is just a warning not to do it again and that 4000Yen (50 dollar) fines can be applied.The earthquake reporting system is still efficient. There was a rumble this morning and flicking on the TV I could read the message giving the location, the intensity (on the Japanese scale) and that there was no danger of tsunami. The trains are still clean, on time and efficient and ticket prices also have not moved since sometime before 2001. Akihabara station is being revamped. The disabled access esp at railway stations has improved dramatically and it was joy coming back from the airport not to have to carry luggage up or down steps anywhere until we got back to the apartment.
There have been changes, but mostly they are subtle. Jujo has 2 Indian restaurants now - a sign of the times internationally I think as Indians look for opportunities overseas - but the much loved Korean barbeque has gone.The old red brick buildings next door, that used to belong to the self defence force, have been turned into a library - I have yet to go in and have a look but it seemed very well patronised on the weekend.The rubbish system has changed - now most things have become burnable rubbish even styrofoam.... aaarrghhhh. Memories of the poisonous odour of styrofoam burning on the campus in China make me very suspicious of any claims that it is a burnable product. I doubt the incinerator filtering system could be good enough to burn everything without expelling dioxins etc into the atmosphere at unacceptable levels. The upside is that the days of rubbish Nazis sorting through people"s rubbish are probably over.
After Thailand, Cambodia and even Aus, the population here is noticeably old. I was reading the other day that the population of children has declined every year for the past 28 years.There have been changes in the laws regarding foreigners. Foreigners are now going to have to be registered with government health insurance to be allowed to renew visas for living here. % It has ended up that being registered with national health is not going to be obligatory - it seems like there was a lot of money pumped into the campaign to quash it by foreign (US) insurance companies.
If I understand correctly foreigner ID cards are apparently going to be linked across all government departments which means the immigration dept now need to be notified if you change job, place of abode, use medical services etc. It's much higher level of surveillance. Adults don't have the option of dual citizenship. As I venture further afield other differences will no doubt become apparent.Now to start on a mission to get someone to employ me to teach history....
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