The first thing about fight club is...

I have a bunch of other things that I've been meaning to write about... never got around to them yet, because knowing me, nothing is ever a short story. Instead I had a knee jerk reaction this evening with said movie "Fight Club." It would be the first time I saw this movie.

Fate, destiny, whatever; something was written in the sky that I would see this movie today. I would not know that the threads of fate had caught me and invisible hands would be guiding me. It all started with soap. Ah yes... soap.

A few days ago, I took a shower in my dorm (no, that is not to say that I do not shower daily). I don't particulary enjoy showering in the dorm but it is a somewhat necessary evil (I have a gym subscription that include a very, very nice japanese bath that I use instead from time to time... hell, that is my motivation to exercise sometimes). I left my bottle of shampoo and my soap case in the shower room. One day later, it would seem that my soap and shampoo has been tossed into some indiscriminate watse bin that I will never see. Fear not, I have a refill of Pantene Pro V in my room and 2 extra bars of soap. All I need was a soap dish and a cheap $2 bottle with pump to recitfy this problem, and so I did after running into the Japanese dollar store in the afternoon.

I went to classes, the afternoon waned into evening; I taught english afterwards and the evening turned to night. I returned home to unpack my backpack with said goods.


My bar of soap in a bamboo soap dish


And this was my desk right before I poured my shampoo into my newly acquired bottle

Moments before I can grab my scissors to open up the bag and pour the contents of shampoo into my bottle. I am called away by friends to watch Fight Club. It is the soap conspiring against me I tell you. Really, I'm not crazy; fitting that I should watch this movie.

The movie blew my mind, or in the case of Tyler Durden, his mouth. How do I describe this movie? The closest thing I can think of is a girl playing mind games on a boy. The story starts with the ending. It skips and jumps you but are forced to watch and listen. Nothing makes sense, but you are enthralled; and so, you are paralyzed. The movie is beyond mental manipulation, even after you realize it; you fight but you are still helplessly tricked. It is a cruel, ruthless power; I dream of controlling it... (I pity the students I used to teach; how I used to trick them with false answers and without them knowing they grew an intellectual backbone. I did what some of their professors failed to do-- I made them *think*).

So now I have returned to my room. My empty bottle of soap still sits on my desk. The fates are in the sky, laughing at their wonderful joke. It is 1:30 am now and it soon time for me to sleep. Will I fall asleep to awaken another person? I can't help but think as I gaze at my bed. Cruel trick indeed.

Goodnight.

Picture time

I hit the Matsushima islands last weekend with the volunteers. The Matsushima islands are said to be one of most beautiful places in Japan. So I brought my camera with me and off I went. Such as with cameras, one cannot really capture the essence of a place-- It's one of those "you have to be there" places.

Pictures here.

My neighbours are getting plastered this evening and are about to embark on a clubbing adventure right now. As for me, I just came back from the gym at about 10:00 pm, totally pooped and I've got a lab meeting tomorrow at 9:00 am. These lab people of mine are crazy, they have meetings every Saturday and work like dogs during the week. Very intense! I'll post more about my lab experience later on but for now... I need rest.

ZZzzzzz...

--Edit--

Hahahah! These people are hilariously drunk. One of them took out the fire extinguisher and fired it in the hallway not realizing what he was doing!

Next door:
"Holy $*%&( what the hell did you just do?"
"Ha ha ha I dunno, I just felt like it!"

Japanese Banks == BLAH

For a country that was once was the center of the banking world, their banking system leaves much more to be desired from the perspective of a Westerner. I am not going to pretend that I know why they do things the way they do, but I'll offer my perspectives on things here:

ATMs

ATMs in Japan close by 7:00 pm during week days. ATMs are open weekends but they charge you 100 yen (about $1) for withdraws on weekends. Why do they close them in the evenings? I haven't a clue. Considering that ATMs in Canada are open 24/7 and for even a minimalistic banking plan (I don't even know if those exist in Japan) you get 20 ATM/debit transactions for free.

Internet Banking

Internet banking does not come standard in Japan. In Canada it does. I've found that internet banking to be very handy when it comes to paying the credit card bills, university tuition and watching my pay cheques get electronically transferred into my bank account. It beats driving out to the bank all the time to use a klunky ATM to check how much cash you've got in your accounts. In Japan, most people don't neet internet banking of because how things are setup here (more on that later on). More over, you can *request* to have internet banking enabled, but they charge you 210 yen/month to use the service. My opinion is that it is cheaper to have a server running to deal with client requests 24/7 than to hire tellers that have to deal with customers all day. Also it's more conveniant for a customer to check things from home or where ever they are based at the time.

Credit Cards

The credit card system in Japan works differently compared to North America. I thought it was inconcievable that international credit companies like Visa and Mastercard had to divise different system for some countries in the world. But yet here it is, staring me in the face. There are some plusses and minuses of their credit card system. Let me give you a run down of how things work over here.

Applying for a credit card in Japan is fairly similar to the process you would go through in North America. The differences are that they require you to have a guarantor and they put a picture of you on your credit card. More about the guarantor first.

A guarantor is someone that is liable for your bills should you, in the unfortunate case, default your credit card payments. Through rain, snow, skeet or hail, they want that money they're owed whether it comes through your or your family or friend's hide. If you don't have a guarantor, that means no credit card for you. I don't know exactly when they instituted this system(or if it was always there), but I have a hunch it wasn't always built into the Japanese financial system and that it was put in place after the bad loan scandal that rocked the financial world of Japan.

From a foreigner's point of view, it feels that the banks are very closed to foreigners. Fortunately for the case of me, I'm on a Japanese government scholarship and in many cases professors are often willing to be guarantors for their students (note: guarantors are also required when you rent a place in Japan too!). I can only imagine how hard it would be for a foreigner to come to Japan with nothing and attempt to start a life... in short, I think it's close to impossible unless you have people on the inside.

I am inclined to think that people of a certain age should be responsible for their own finances instead of dragging other people into a mess should things go bad (ie: people here are probably risk adverse as a result). But knowing Japanese culture for what it is, this system is a deterrent for people from defaulting credit payments since it would bring either their friends or family into trouble. Instead of facing embarassment, I'm pretty sure they'd rather stay on the ball with their credit card payments.

"Smile!" The picture on the credit card is a security measure when it comes to using your credit card. It prevents forgery and becomes a little tougher to use a stolen credit card and complicates things a little for using counterfit credit cards in person. They also don't sign the recipt when making purchases with their credit card (ie. they verify you after looking at your picture, I assume).

Credit card payments

Credit cards are directly linked to your bank account and money is withdrawn out of your account automatically during the monthly payment date you specify on your credit card application. What this means is that credit cards are seen less as a short term loan but more of a time lagged debit transaction since you cannot carry debt on your credit card (and have interest applied) to the next month.

It also means that they have no system for you to pay in advance or even "load" your credit card with money should you decide to make large purchases. For instance, I could load my credit card with $2,500 and pay my university tuition through my credit card. As long as I pay my bills in advance or keep my debt below my credit limit, then I am OK to keep using my credit card for the month. Meaning that you could make more than $1,000 in purchases in a month even if you had a $1,000 credit limit just by paying it off before the end of the month.

To deal with this problem, the Japanese have come up with the solution that you can split bills for large ticket items into installments over several months at your request. Meaning I could split a $1,000 bill into 4 payments of $250 over 4 months so I can keep using my credit card for the current month. What this means is that you're effictively getting a loan with no interest when you split your bill into installments because the company which you made your purchase does not charge you interest. This is a nice thing compared to the "prime+rate" credit cards offer. I find that the North American system to be a little more handy since I typically pay for large ticket items up front instead of racking up debt and paying for purchase over several months (paying interest = bad).

Legal Documents

In North America we sign papers with a signature and that becomes a legal contract. In Japan they use stamps/seals (ie ink pad and stamp) to sign legal and financial documents. I feel a little insecure about the stamp system in Japan since seals can become a target for theft. Stamps offer a little less security compared to a signature since they are easier to create an exact replica of. I still don't use a stamp in Japan since I and most all other international students here got away with using signatures when opening our bank accounts.

Rob Me! I'm Loaded (not really)

Cheques in Japan are unheard of, credit cards are occasionally used and hard cash is often the way most transactions are settled. The Japanese typically carry atleast $100 bucks in their wallets if not more. I've even found myself used to the idea of walking around with $200 in my wallet without a second thought. Back in Canada, I'd carry at most $60 and typically $40 when I go out. Walk around with $50 in your wallet here and you'll feel like you're not carrying enough cash. The problem stems from that credit cards still haven't become the mode in which most people pay their bills. Rather than being caught off guard not being able to make large purchases when on the fly, it becomes standard to carry large denominations of cash. Also going to the bank machine everyday is somewhat tedious so people tend to make larger withdrawls.

Debit cards do work in Japan. I have so far used it once so far, but I find myself paying for most of my purchases in cash.

Banking Companies

The interesting thing about Banks in Japan is that, unless they're being operated by a large company, they are not very consolidated. The banking industry is quite fragmented. Sendai is served by 2 major banks, one is called "The Bank of Sendai" and the other bank is known as "The 77 bank" (it's called the 77 bank because it's the 77th bank opened in Japan). Bank accounts are granted to people living in the catchment area of "major banks." If you move, you are required to close your account and transfer your funds to the new bank within the catchment area of your new residence. Debit transactions are not unified between banks. Meaning that I can only make debit transactions from local banks within my catchment area (my area being most of the North-Eastern part of Japan).

There is a way around this however. In Japan, the post office runs a national financial system, much to my surprise. People are able to make accounts with postal offices and operate them like an ordinary bank account. Postal accounts do not offer loans or financial package; it's as bare bones as you get. The nice thing about opening a postal bank account is that post offices are found throughout all of Japan, meaning if you are in a different part of Japan, you can pop by the local post office and make a withdraw from your account from there.

Comments

I think that the Japanese financial system is in need of improvments considering how fragmented and the number of institutions needed for average banking needs and lack of certain services of which I've been used to in North America . A unified network for financial transactions is definately needed when it comes to doing business or travelling to different parts of Japan. ATM hours should definately be increased since these are automatic machines... as for their credit system. I've applied for a credit card a week ago and it's on the way over to me. I'll understand more about the intracacies of their credit system after I start using it and then I'll pass my opinion on it.

Party Time

I didn't know if I was going to do a b-day party this year while in Japan. My b-day fell onto a weekday, people were busy, I didn't know any nice places to hit downtown and nearly no one knew that it was my b-day... I let the idea slide for a few days and then decided "what the hell, I'm doing a party and I'm going to do it on Saturday" so on Friday morning and set the date for Saturday evening and started getting things together (I don't know if I'm "good" or "bad" at organization....)

On Friday at noon, I was sending e-mails out (both on the cell and through the computer), by the evening I had 1/2 the food, the perfect excuse to go buy a used blender off another person at the dorm (works like new), a table top electric stove and an extention cord. I'd be doing a dessert party. Crepes, mango pudding and shakes were on the menu and whatever anyone else in the dorm wanted to make and bring. I booked a meeting room for the party and by a stroke of luck 2 people were planning on holding parties on Saturday. One video game party in the evening and a fireworks party in the afternoon. I told the fireworks guy to bring everyone to the party after they were done with their party and told the video game guy that I booked the meeting room with plenty of space for the video game party. What erupted the next day was pretty crazy.

By 6:00 pm, I was told that 3 TVs, one very large flat screen monitor, an Xbox, game cube, Dreamcast and playstation 2 had been setup in the room. As for me, I was frantically getting the crepe mix ready, frying up apples and chopping bananas for crepe toppings. 6:40, friends from the lab arrive and told me they wanted to pitch in and buy snacks and food for the party, 7:00 pm people were gathering... by 7:30 the show was on the road and we had about 20+ people pile in into the room.


Video game consoles... I couldn't take a picture of all of them at once! Just imagine the carnage of all TVs (and extra stereo systems brought out) blaring video game noises. It was preeety sweet!


Crepes in action


Cinnamon apples and chopped bananas anyone?

Diego brought in a Columbian dessert and a friend from Taiwan baked me a totally kick ass cake. The people living at the dorm are short of amazing in so many ways.

11 pm, my lease on the room had run out and it was time to clean up. Cleaning is usually a solitary job for the party host. But nope, I was helped by an army of people that turned what could have been a 2 hour ordeal into a 30 minute cakewalk. Tables were folded, chairs returned. Plates magically washed and returned (we had a reserve of plates for party occasions stored at the dorm), garbage thrown out and all. By the end of the party I gave an ending speech thanking everyone that came out and had a good time (in Japan they're big on team work speaches and giving a round of applause at the end of a large event... which is a very nice touch over here).


The cake which we saved for last and the clean up crew together

I went back to my room and realized I had some cleaning to do:


My room after the party!

Finished cleaning by about 1:30 am and finally off to bed. It was a kick ass evening.

Ps. Thanks to everyone in Canada that wised me a happy b-day. Wish you guys were here :)

Switching places

I'm over here working on getting a scooter in Japan. When I stumbled onto this little blog from a Japanese guy in Vancouver called (and rightfuly so) "happy days" there's a post in there on a dozen mangoes for only $6 bucks... YES that's 50 cents for a mango in Vancouver. I pay 100 yen for a mango that's about half the volume of what we have back in Canada. Oh how I am going to miss gorging myself on fruits this summer. I'll make do... somehow :)

For the Merry Month of May

I've been sitting on these numbers since last week, just been a little lazy on looking at them. My predictions for expenditures for the next month were close for food and goods expenditures.

Expenditures:

Food - 28,988
Goods - 14,849
Transport - 2,390
Service - 35,750
Room - 20,317
Entertainment - 15,300

Figures:


Pie Chart

Historgram

Comments:

Food expenditures for the last month worked out to 935 yen/day which is on par with food consumption expectations. Translation, I'm spending about $11/day for my 3 basic meals, drinks and plenty of snacks plus occasional eating out for lunch.

Goods expenditures for this month was 14,849, which dropped significantly compared to the 35,467 yen spent last month. This correlates largely to one time expenditures of house hold items. The drop in expenditures were in line with the 20,000 yen drop in costs I was expecting from the previous month.

Transport of 2,390 was mainly due to bus fare locally and subway transportation while I was in Nagoya. I've lopped the cost of transportation of the ferry from Sendai to Nagoya under entertainment since the trip, was of course, for entertainment purposes.

Service expenditures at 35,750. The double whammy for this month... and no, I haven't been paying for "massages" :) I spent nearly 20,000 on a gym membership at the local work out facility... (very, very nice facilities) which included a 5,000 entrance fee and a 7,000 monthly fee (2 month paid at first). Sounds pricey but for a swimming pool, weight room (good equipment), a horde of good staff and spotters, a driving range on the roof (complete with clubs and $1 for 40 balls), a scuba diving pool (first lesson free), free yoga and aerobics classes and a squash court. Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good deal and a great excuse to stay in shape. Total weight loss since coming to Japan is approximately 8 pounds... about 3.6 kg ish (depending on when I decide to tank 1 liter of water which weighs 1 kg). I've also shelled out for this months cell phone plan and 10,000 yen for this year's health insurance. I'm expecting next month's service fees are going to drop by about 20,000 yen.

Room costs at 20,317. Lesson learned: DON'T use normal long distance calling in Japan. 2 hours of calling cost me 7,000 yen or about $77 bucks. Ouch and that totally jacked up my room expenses from the usual 12,000 yen ish amount. Nothing really much to report there.

Entertainment costs at 15,300. It means that I'm starting to have a little fun over here :) A few outings here and there and costs for ferry to Nagoya are included here.

Grand total damage done to the bank account: 117,594 yen. We're looking about $1,370 for the month. I blew an extra $500 for the month on services and entertainment. So it looks like last month's predictions that costs would stay constant were off.

In general, housing costs and food costs are probably the easiest to predict. I am expecting service costs to settle down over the next full months once I've determines all the services I'll be needing. Expenditures on Goods and entertainment can be a little unpredictable depending if I decide to make large purchases or plan on hitting a significant trip for the month.

Seriously, grow up

I was reading the news today-- I like keeping tab on home.. as most other international students like to do over here and I came across a little article that made me do a double take just because one line was really disturbing.

www.canada.com on the topic of some liberal backbenchers pushing through their own agenda for their own "Christian interests." Don't get me wrong, I don't have any beef with Christians, I have plenty of friends that are and we get along perfectly fine. But the following excerpt was exceptionally troubling:

- Churches do not have to marry same-sex couples.

- Justices of the peace will not be forced to perform civil marriages against their religious principles.

- Faith-based schools and charities will not be punished for denouncing gay marriage.

The first 2 points I'm fine with, perfectly respectable but that last point is a big no-no. First off, it violates the rule of separation of state and religion in the sense that the government is giving immunity to Christian religious communities to push/denounce whatever they please for their own agenda. What's next for religious agendas? Government sanction for Christian schools to denounce things like evolution, big bang theory and etc? They don't need a government sanction to do what they want-- they can do whatever they want already but don't go crying for immunity because they don't want to deal with backlash. It's sick to imagine that some religious institutions want tolerance and want to go as far as they can with their own intolerance.

The Crocodiles

2 weeks ago, I got a bike and It's heaven on 2 wheels. A 40 min walk to University is reduced to 15 mins on bike, but that isn't what this post is about.

I was out yesterday biking around town and dropped by the Library to pick up an event pamphlet to find out that there is going to be a street music festival today. Excellent, so out I went today to check it out. I turns out to be a fund raiser for handicapped and disabled people... and wow, it was a HUGE event. With over 7~8 stages with performances running through the whole day MCs for every stage and a crap load of booths (think sort of Richmond Night Market, which should be starting up now). Props for these people for organization.

I milled about the event for a while looking for something to catch my ear... and after an hour of walking around to different stages I run into something out of the blue that was really cool. A 3 piece band comprised with an electric guitar, a funky percussion *box* and a Japanese "Shyamisen" (Japanese traditional 3 string guitar) playing some funky fusion of blues and traditional music. They're called the the "Crocodiles" (play on words but it's actually 'black child dial') Totally blew my mind. They had 2 concerts that day, the first I caught by chance at noon because one of the musical groups couldn't make it and they stood in and really liked their music. Their real scheduled performance was set fot 3:40 so I attended that one after doing some shopping down town at the Japanese dollar store (yay dollar store).


Girl to left playing a box that sounds like a snare drum, base drum and cymbal all in one! Very interesting instrument. The guy in the center is playing the 3 stringed Japanese guitar.


The guy to the right is playing the electric guitar. Excellent player.

At the end of performance they announced that they're going to be releasing a CD later this or next month. No definate dates set yet but these guys are on my radar. Their webpage here. Samples of their music are at the bottom. Recorded versions are a pale comparison to a live performance.

Which also reminds me, the Vancouver folk music festival should be happening next month. To those of you that've never gone, I suggest checking it out. I had a blast, fun people, good music and good times.

In Canada it's "Be Happy"

These were the words echoed by another Canadian student at my university when a Japanese teacher asked him "what do Canadian parents tell their children?" The Japanese teacher then asked me whether if this was true or not. As far as I know, I think it's pretty true.

In Japan it's "Don't cause others trouble." Such is the cultural rift between Japanese and western culture. From this perspective, I think it's very true too. Even sometimes apologizing and saying "thank you" is nearly synonomus. Hold the door out for someone and they'll bow their head down and say "Excuse me."

People have a hard time asking other people for favors too. They always start off with a "um.. are you busy?" (esp girls). I'm also slated to give an english class to some of the volunteers on June 16th because I thought it would be cool to do something nice for these people that have done so much for me. I get an e-mail back from one of the volunteer asking what I would like in "gratitude"? People, it's the other way around! I get an e-mail back from the volunteer that it's sort of a culture thing that it's bad to take without giving something immediately in return.

Dispite sometimes being a little over polite sometimes, the Japanese in general are really friendly. Though sometimes I miss the "yo, what's up" rugged feeling of Canada :)

Radio!?

I make too many assumptions...

On Wedensday I decided to go out and buy myself a radio to listen to Japanese music. Population of Vancouver 500,000 people. Population in GVRD approx 2 million. Sendai city populcation 1 million. Vancouver has atleast 6 major FM radio stations that I can think of the top of my head (well I had 6 FM stations programmed into the radio back when I was in Canada). With general numbers in my head, I dediced to head out and buy myself a stereo set for about $100. A pretty allright price for a stereo, but I was also leaning towards getting myself a nice set of computer speakers. For only about $70 CAD you can get a pair of some really nice speakers + subwoofer. I decided to comprimise and go with the stereo set since I could plug it into my laptop and play music off that as well.

So after buying the radio set, I play with the system to realize that Sendai only has 3 radio stations. One of which I can barely get any signal to. The other 2 stations offer some music, but they talk like crazy and are loaded with commercials. I guess the number of radio stations isn't a function of population. Wonder what these people do instead of listening to the radio. Watch TV? I get the feeling that they're a little limited when it comes to TV programming.

Wow, you people back at home are totally spoiled when it comes to radio service. Well, it's not all bad... I get to listen to Japanese voices all day. It might just be good for me :)

Drunk from an engagement party

Holy cow, I've never gone bar hopping before but yeah I am drunk after hitting 2 bars (if you can call that bar hopping) and trying to type this out. A secretary is getting married to a recently graduated phd. Another one is going out with a current post doc. A new batch of secretaries came to the office since before I arrived at the lab and I have been bestowed the honor of introducing one of the single secretaries to a lucky Canadian should the occasion arise.

Aside from that, one of the Professors is in a long distance relationship with his g/f and after a few beers the girls ascertained that he calles her everyday after work. Lots of cooing incured. The fiance of the secretary couldn't make it out to the party tonight but sent an e-mail to the cell phone of one of the students which was read outloud... causing one of the girls at the party to cry.

I the people at my lab are totally tight, it's pretty damn cool. As for me, 5 hours later after eating and drinking... my head is swimming. Lights out!

Zzzzz...

Cell Phones in Japan

In accordance with Japanese culture, I went out and got myself a cell phone in Japan a little while ago with Japan's Docomo carrier. With a student discount, I got a $70 cell phone, plus memory card, Lithium Ion battery and charger for practically free. The phone comes equipped with a 2 mega pixel camera, color screen (with a flip and reversible screen), mini flash (white LED), internet and a crap load of functions.


Front side

Back side (with camera)

Cell phone open

Reversed screen

One function I'm particularly fond of is their phone book where I can store phone numbers, e-mail and a *picture* of the person so I don't forget who that person is (also the picture of that person flashes on to my screen when they call my cell which is a pretty nice touch). In comparison to Canada, cell phones are *incredibly* cheap. The cell phone I was using before comming out to Japan, no camera and limited functions (though small) ran $150.

One thing I realized about using a cell phone in Japan is that it can get pretty damn expensive. I'm on a 60 minute plan/month for about 4,000 yen/mo. That's about a $50 subscription. In Canada I could pay the same amount, get 500 minutes from this Telus plan. For avid users in Japan, that cost can go up to $100/month, easy.

The nice side of things of my plan is that I can be anywhere in Japan and use my cell phone and pay the same rate, where as using my cell in Canada to call long distance within the country will cost me 25 cents/minute. It's bit of a give and take.

But here's the backward part though, people use e-mail on their cell phones like crazy (Japan's got the blackberry beat since a long, long time ago). Even with my cell phone, I have an e-mail address that I can send and revieve e-mail. I am still working on getting used to typing on the cell phone, slowly getting there. With that said cell phone e-mail in Japan is a primary mode of comminication for many youths in Japan.

According to some students I've talked to, arranging say like a get together starts off as an e-mail to friends, people that are interested might get called or get further e-mails to confirm details. All of this is done with minimal cell phone calling.

In Canada, I usually tend to either arrange get together just by calling people straight up from my phone (land line or cell). Well, that's atleast how it works with my friends. Sometimes a get together can happen within 30 minutes with 7 people, other times I'm calling around to set something up for next week. Yes, I do use e-mail sometimes too but some friends have a nasty habit of not checking and not getting back to me.

The reason why people in Japan prefer to use e-mail is that they worry if they're interrupting something if they call their friends during the day. So far from what I have observed from my experiences in Japan is that people hardly use voice mail. When I'm in a situation where I can't take calls, I shut the cell off or leave it in silent mode, easy as that... but you know, it's a cultural thing :).

Trip to Nagoya

Allright so this is where I was during the first week of May. In Japan the first week of May is what is known as Golden Week, a series of national holidays all lined up. So during this week Shyam and myself met up with a fellow volunteer, Kuni from the @home club (a student run international club at the university I'm at) to spend the golden week there with friends (well more like contacts... he's never met these people before, but they're part of an international club at the university at Kobe) and we all stayed at Kuni's place and hung out during the break.

What ensued might you ask? Well, we had BBQs, drinking, cards, Super Nintendo (actually "Super Famicom" in Japanese) games, Bamboo Shoot hunting, Fireworks and more. I had a great time in Nagoya and ended up on a quick tour of the city before our ferry left on the last day. The people from Kobe were great friendly people so an all round good time was had. Check out the photos here :)

George Lucas in Love

With the Star Wars movie not due to be out for another few in Japan (comes out in June) I am here left reading all the other reviews that are posted on the net. With all the waiting, a short film released 5 years ago under the title "George Lucas in Love" I caught on the net was most humorous shot blending "Shakespeare in Love" to the back drop to the birth of the Star Wars movie. Ugh, it pains me that with my res connection, that I can't even get a decent speed to a P2P network because of the silly way things are routed here. C'est la vive.

Dining with Friends and New Quests

Living in res is pretty nice. Though I don't think I take advantage of res life enough. Need to get out of the room more often and get together with people. I've been out at the gym late at night or spending too much time at the lab surfing the web/studying in my off hours.

Last night had dinner with Diego and Misha, whipped up some yakisoba (Japanese Fried Noodles), boiled beef and pork with sauce, fried gyoza, chopped veggies and pineapples for dessert. Next time around, it's Diego's treat for dinner. I'm hoping for some Columbian food if he can find ingredients.

Before comming to Japan, I brought a cook book of cool recipies so I can whip up some nice dinners from time to time with friends. The only problem is that in Japan ingredients here are a little different. Beef is a little pricey here going for $2.50 for 100 grams depending on where it comes from. Chicken and pork are by far the cheapest meats. They're a little lacking in the herbs and spices department so it's a little trickey to season foods with things like dill, orgeno and etc. Pepper is really expensive here. I bought 30 grams of the stuff for 300 yen. Close to $3.50.

I've been having a hankering to make some potato salad with macaroni. A small bag of macaroni (140g) costs about $1.60. Pricey no? That and their mayonnaise here is flavoured differently, it has more of a tangy taste compared to the ones back in Canada. Looking for some "normal" mayonnaise but it looks like that isn't happening.

Well that isn't to say that the Japanese is lacking totally in the food department. They do have some really nice foods here. I've been eating things like ochyazuke which like a rice soup made with green tea, seasoning and seaweed. Soba is really cheap and the sauces are nice and cheap. A rack of 16 small gyozas goes for about $2, so it isn't all bad. Really good ramen (like with soft noodles) go for $2.50 for a pack of 3. Throw in a boiled egg, sliced meats and bean sprouts and you've got a complete meal :)

Hot Spring Adventures

Allright finally I can post pictures again. New album is up: Trip to Ichinobo Hot Springs. The hot springs resourt was located about 1 hour out of the main city by car, so we met up in front of the dorm with the volunteers and were off on our merry way. For 2000 yen (About 22 bucks) for entrance and lunch, we got to sit back and relax at a pretty darn nice resourt. I can't wait for the winter where I can sit in the springs surrounded in Snow, now that'll be quite the site.

Spent the day today cleaning the room and doing shopping. I finally have a bike as of wedensday. Since the last month, I must have clocked atleast 80 km on foot min from all the walking. A 40 min walk to the University is shortened down to 15 mins... holy crap, I totally feel the difference. Since walking everyday, I've lost 4 lbs since getting in to Japan. That's allright, I just want to replace it all with muscle :)

More pictures on the way soon!

Living Expenses in Japan

I began taking data a few days after I started living in residence in Japan to figure out what it costs to live in Japan. Since I was living in Canada and at home, I never really knew how much it costs to live on my own. For the past month, I've been collecting data on all personal expenditures and categorized them. I am also currently working on my report writing skills in Japanese and working on a short report which I am going to translate in to Japanese. Excerpts from my short report follows:

Procedure

Expenditures are separated into 6 categories: Food, Goods, Transportation, Room, Services and Entertainment. A brief summary of each category is provided below:

Food -- Groceries, Restaurant expenses, snacks
Goods -- Any objects purchased
Transportation -- Bus, Train, Taxi, Ferry, Gas,
Room -- Rental fee, Utilities, Repairs
Services -- Cell Phone, Internet, Washing machines, gym subscription
Entertainment -- Movies, Travel, Sports, events

Expenses are recorded by date in an Excel Spreadsheet with the type, description, cost and notes on the expenses are noted.

An excel script is used to calculate the total cost for each category and the results are presented in a pie and bar graphs.

Results

The break down of expenses is the following:

Food - 27,225 yen
Goods - 35,467 yen
Transportation - 1,780 yen
Services - 650 yen
Room - 13,752
Entertainment - 4,945 yen

Discussion

3 weeks of data for the month of April (22 days) has been collected and probably represents the majority of expenditures for this month. A total of 83,819 yen was spent this month.

Food expenditures were 1,237.5 yen/day. During the first month, it took approximately 10 days for me to purchase cooking utensils resulting in me eating out during the first 10 days. I expect food expenditures for the next month to drop to 1,000 yen/day for the next month.

Goods expenditures totaled 35,467 yen. Non consumable goods including items such as a microwave, rice cooker, plates, eating utensils and etc amounted to 26,354 yen for this month. Goods expenses for next month are expected to drop by approximately 20,000 yen for next month now that most one time costs have been paid.

Transportation costs for the month were 1,780. Costs for transportation this month were mainly due to bussing out of Downtown Sendai after purchasing many goods. Transportation costs are low and are expected to stay at approximately this level next month.

Service costs for this month were only 650 yen for this month which only included usage of the washing machines at the dormitory. An internet connection and cell phone service has been acquired and billing of these services will not occur until next month. Services costs are expected to rise by 8,000 yen for next month.

Room costs are expected to be slightly higher for next month as long distance charges have not been added to this month's rental costs. Long distance charges were approximately 6,000 yen for 2 hours calling to Canada (very expensive). With internet, long distance charges are expected to drop after next month via internet calling.

Entertainment costs equated to 4,945 yen for this month. This cost included a trip to the Ichinobo hot springs and a birthday party for a friend at the Dormitory. Entertainment costs for this month are low since I do not know many places to go to in Sendai and I have been very busy getting settled in. Entertainment costs are expected to rise.

Conclusion

One time costs from purchase of goods were high for this month, while costs for entertainment and services were low and will begin next month. Food costs are predicted to be approximately the same for next month since I am able to cook meals at home. I expect the total cost for next month to be approximately the same, further data will be collected and then tabulated for the coming month.

----End Report----

Some notes, the dorm I am living at has insanely cheap rent. Talking about $100/month with basic utilities. Not bad at all, especially for Japan compared to the average price of renting a room in Vancouver (cheap) is $400 then you add on utilities. Definitely a great perk for living in Japan.

I already working on the cost list for next month and it's going to be about the same (if not more) than April's expenditures. Time will tell. Already went on a trip to Nagoya which I have yet to tell about :) Grr image station! Downloaded their software already, going to try and upload through that.

Anyways, hope everyone is having a good time... internet is still dead at home grrr! :P

University Chicks

I've just recently been slated to do a talk on Canada and my experiences to a class of Japanese University studying english after being asked by one of the volunteers. The presentation is slated to happen in 2 weeks. So here I am laying the ground work for the presentation.

One topic I am planning to cover is university life in Canada, how our university system works, what it's like studying in Canada and etc... etc. I decided to draw up the UBC admissions website to give the admissions requirements a quick run through to see if anything has changed since the time I've been admitted into Universtiy. Then I hit the statistics page with some interesting results in terms of gender distributions. The webpage is here.

Some numbers to note:

Faculty of arts (all years)

Males 3,757
Females 6,823

Faculty of Science (all years)

Males 3,291
Females 3,700

Faculty of Education (all years)

Males 724
Females 1,574

Faculty of Agricultural Science (all years)

Males 276
Females 824

First Year Admission (All departments)

Males 3108
Females 4075

Females nearly double males in Arts, there are approximately 5% more females in Science than Males, there are approximately 2x more females in Education and about 3x more females in Agricultural science. Over first year admissions indicate that 56% are females and 44% are females. Male-female ratios in Medicine and Commerce are roughly equal and Engineering is still male dominated.

Personally, I didn't think that there would be that much more females in Arts and the number of females enrolled in agricultural sciences caught me off guard. The rest of the numbers are somewhat in line with the impression of male-female distribution I had at UBC.

Unfortunately, I don't have numbers on me about female enrollment at Japanese universities on hand, though I did get a pamphlet of enrollment statistics of females in Engineering at Tohoku University and the numbers are remarkably lower than the 19% enrollment of females in Engineering at UBC, I'm looking more like at about 7% from a rough estimate. Analysis is forth comming if/when I can find some data :)

Getting Physical

One thing that is manditory in Japan is a physical examination. While in University, I`ve never had a physical examination... actually my first real physical examination in my entire life was right before comming to Japan to make sure that I was A-Ok (seriously, I am!). Examination was quick and painless, they took a quick x-ray shot of my chest and then whipped me over to another room to have my height,weight and blood presure checked. Finally, I was shuttled into a room where a doc prodded at my cheeks (ie. pulled them down), asked me to swallow while he had his thumbs on my throat and that was it.

Results:

BPM=60/min
BMI:21.5
Blood Pressure=107/63

Wikipedia says that I`m at a good weight and my blood pressure is in the low section (which is good). Heart rate is supposedly low, so that`s also a good thing. I am quite alive and kicking :)

Grrrr! Fie on you imagestation

Been a pretty busy last week and a bit (was out of town too) and I've got lots of pictures to post.. just that image station right now is being a bum and not accepting them at the moment. And no, I'm not violating the terms of their service by posting copyrighted, violent, pornographic... etc etc material. So what's the deal with that? I'm not really sure. But yes, I am still alive and kicking :)