Company Jackets

Since the weather has gotten cooler company jackets are out in full force. With the economic issues, the heat has been turned off in the hallways but no one can complain when given a jacket to keep warm. It seams that the engineers from each company in Japan have a signature jacket provided by their company. These jackets are required uniform in the labs, but commonly seen throughout the office.

With this arrangement it is easy to identify, contract workers, suppliers, and customers without having to squint to see their badges. I dislike the fit of my jacket, but follow the When in Rome rule and occasionally wear it. For many of my coworkers the company jacket seams to be a way to show company pride, from what I gather they are just a letter away from a varsity jacket.

Heiwa Park

The past two weekends, three if you count brushing by, I walked to Heiwa Park. Heiwa is a cemetery park in Nagoya which reportedly became the site for approximately 200,000 gravestones during the reconstruction of Nagoya. Thus far I have explored only the northern area of the 362 acres (only 1/3 of the size of Independence Oaks). The information online about the park in minimal, but I did find this website.Lots and lots of gravestones, they reach to the horizon in this photo.

I still havnt figured out how it works that the center of the park is not green space.These stairs leading up to Heiwa-Do monument are a hot spot for exercise extremists.

Midpoint

I'd say that I was surprised to find that I have reached the midpoint of my time in Japan, but I have been keeping a graph to track the time so this milestone didn't exactly sneak up on me. The past six months haven't moved extraordinarily fast or slow and I am satisfied with my experience thus far.

Combating White Bread

Japanese bread it not appealing to me, it is bleached white bread cut in thick squishy slices. The loaves shown below probably only have five slices.Using my trusty cast iron skillet I have gotten into the habit of making English muffins. The batch below has a few too many raisins, but they still taste delicious toasted in the fish broiler.

Apartment Complex Names

Many of the apartment buildings in my neighborhood are named in English. Many of them could stand to be edited.

Central Heat

Did I get lucky and leave MI during an exceptionally cold Winter? Or have I forgotten how much complaining it takes to make it though MI Winter? I get messages from people in MI about how cold it is and how much snow is on the ground more than once a week. My response: it may be a whole lot colder there than it is in Nagoya, but at least you have central heat. In my apartment I have two boxes on the wall, one in the bedroom and one in the living area, that function as air conditioners in the summer and heaters in the winter. The problem with the boxes is that they only adjust the temperature in a small area and do so at an outrageously high electricity cost. This means that my bathroom never gets warm. A few days this week it has been cold enough that I could see my breath while brushing my teeth before bed.

Stove Top & Fish Broiler Cooking 12

Ricotta eggplant bake. The inspiration was a Real Simple recipe, but of course I had to adapt it by cooking the eggplant on the stove, then using my fish broiler to melt the cheese.Perhaps if I included a photo of the stove top & fish broiler my pride in these creations would make more sense.

Good Week

Thursday was my Birthday so last night L, M, Y, N, T, N, and N took me out to dinner at a German fondue restaurant near Sakae station.
I cant remember ever receiving so many gifts for my Birthday. Thank you for the kindness and the Lipstick, muffins, mittens, dishes, purse, shopping bag, wine, peanut butter, Japanese pottery doll set, movie tickets, Starbucks card, hair towel, Junior Mints, candles, Sigg water bottle, vegetarian sausage, hair ties, place mats, dishes, chocolate pretzels, and T-shirt.

Wall of Flowers

While walking around the neighborhood I found this building covered in two stories of flowers... In Winter!

Bowling Second Time Around

On the night before Rebecca left she had the brilliant idea to go bowling. M&L were in so the four of us headed to Hoshigaoka Bowl.

I bowled my first turkey and Rebecca captured my excitement.

To Do List

The other day I ran across a Nagoya Tourist Map. I am turning this map into my year in Nagoya to do list.

Monotony is Setting In

All I’ve got today is a complaint about the office cafeteria, which in fact isn’t that bad. Everyday it’s the same, check out the glass display case of food available that day, pick up a yellow tray and grab some blue chopsticks. (Go Blue!) While the color of the chopsticks is the same, the lengths are often not. As if it isn’t hard enough for me to eat slippery noodles with chopsticks, I‘ve often got to do it with mismatched lengths.

Street Sign

So given the curve radius you should calculate a safe speed?

Noh Drama

This afternoon A, M and I went to a Noh traditional theater performance in Toyota city. I had anticipated that it might not be easy to get through, and I was correct by the end of the second act a large portion of the audience was nodding off. Rather than straight across the stage and audience were arranged in an L shape.I am certain that I was the youngest member of the audience and that the sum of A, M and my ages was equal to the average age of the other members of the crowd. All in all it was a great experience that I don't need to repeat.

Trash Complication

After being woken up early this morning by water pipe construction happening on the road below my balcony I then had the unfortunate experience of finding a dead bird when I stepped outside to see what all the noise was about. First I felt sorry for the bird, but my next thought was, 'now, what type of trash classification does a dead bird fall into?' In my condo complex at home I don't even have curbside recycling, but here I've got an annoyingly large number of categories that trash must be sorted into. Burnable, Non-Burnable, Paper containers, Plastic packaging, PET bottles, glass, metal containers...I am pretty confident that the bird is Burnable. In 6 months this extensive level of sorting trash still hasn't become second nature and I often end up with daily piles of trash needing to be sorted.

Parking Lot Shrine Update

This morning when I arrived at my parking lot, at the usual time, there was a group of approximately 30 people headed into the Shrine. I haven't seen anyone near it for the past two months and Wikipedia reveals no Shinto holidays today, so what's the occasion?

Too Cute

This Mini Cooper belongs to my neighbors and while I wouldn't want to own one I think this one is just too cute.It is particularly fun when when they park it sideways in front of their garage.

QR Codes

Open any of the advertisement magazines that I receive daily and it will be filled with QR Codes. QR codes are 2D bar codes that can store information such as text, a URL, contact information, etc.Many cell phones, including mine, prior to the camera being destroyed, recognize QR codes. I suspect this is what makes them so popular in advertisements. I created the QR code above, at one of the numerous free websites devoted to that purpose, it says "Alice."

Automated Call Center

A few days ago I wanted to make some adjustments to my cellular phone plan, lucky for me my carrier, SoftBank, has an English Customer Service number. What surprised me was that the number was completely automated and used the same female voice that I'd hear if I reached a similar Service Center at home. The amusing thing was that this automated representative didn't speak correct English, of course her pronunciation was perfect, but the grammar was not. She just kept telling me that she was "sorry for your waiting."

And what are you going to do with that car?

I've found the speed limits here to be quite slow. The highest speed limit I have seen here is 80km/hr and the highest speed I encounter on my way to work is 50km/hr*, and that's on the toll road. What someone is going to do with a Lamborghini here is a mystery to me.
*And most people are driving 100km/hr plus.
80km/hr=49.7mph
50km/hr=31mph

Social Stud

Mathematics & Science will make you a Social Stud!

Selling Less Cars Leads to More Traffic?

Economic Slowdown　⇒　Reduced Car Sales ⇒ Production Cuts ⇒ OT Limits ⇒　Huge Traffic Jams as everyone in my office is forced to arrive and leave the office at the same time. Today in my team's after lunch meeting we were informed that we would be divided into groups allowed to arrive at 7:30 or 9:30. In an office with a set arrival time of 8:30 and bells that support the schedule ringing all day long, it will be an interesting office culture change. Prior to this announcement a new lane was added in and out of the plant, and all lanes were designated as one direction during arrival and departure times, but apparently neither of these changes had enough effect.

Stove Top & Fish Broiler Cooking 11

Spinach, leak and shrimp risotto. It was my first attempt making risotto and it took quite a bit longer than I had expected to cook, but the result was worth the wait.While I was waiting for the risotto to cook, I was able to make desert. Grilled fresh figs topped with fresh whipped cream, whipped by hand since I don't have an electric mixer.

七草の節句

Yesterday was a Japanese festival called Nanakusa-no-sekku. The festival consists of preparing and eating Nanakusa-gayu a rice porridge with seven herb flavorings, Daikon radish, Oenanthe, Cudweed, Shepperd's Purse, Chickweed, Lapsana, and Turnip. According to Wikipedia participating in Nanakusa-no-sekku is meant to bring good health and longevity, according to my friends, who introduced me to the event, there is no purpose behind it, just tradition.

It is a bit of a bummer to be back at work after the 10 day Winter vacation, but one of the upsides is all the Omiyage that my coworkers brought back from their travels. On Tuesday, my first day back in the office, I received 4 snacks and a few more have been handed out since then. Over the break yet another economic/environmental cutback was made in my office. The restroom hand dryers have been turned off and now display a sign that explains this logic. Rumor has it that they will be off for a minimum of three years. This may be the push I need to start using my handkerchiefs.

International Postage

I've mailed a few packages since I've been here. There is a 24 hour post office on my way home from work and only about 1.5 km from my home. I've learned that the customs declaration that you fill out will make a big difference in the cost. The orange form, on the right, seams to cost about 1/3 less than the green form. The shipping time for the orange form is also surprisingly quick, in my experience, about 2-5 days.

Vending Machines

If there's one thing we don't need in my office (or in Japan in general) its more beverage vending machines. When I left the office one night this week I was saddened to see that the fake tree in the employee entrance lobby had been replaced by yet another vending machine. I used to sneak under that tree to get past the crowd (of skinny people) waiting for the elevator so I could take the stairs, it will be missed.

Months

Japanese month names are rather boring, January - ichi gatsu or first month and so forth. A made me this list to teach me the old style names for the Japanese months that actually have meanings based on what is happening in nature during that month.

Kyoto Take Two

On Friday Rebecca and I headed to Kyoto intending to see Ryoan-ji, Nijo Castle, Kyomizu, and Fushimi Inari. Unfortunately we were unable to see Kyomizu due to intense amounts of, what I suspect was, New Years traffic.

On the drive I saw Japanese snow for the first time.Ryoan-ji famous for its dry rock garden.
Nijo Castle famous for its Nightingale floors designed to catch intruders.

Praying for good luck in the coming year at Fushimi Inari which is famous for its thousands of tori gates.

Why Did I Think This Was a Good Idea?

It is Japanese tradition to visit a shrine on New Years Day to pray for good luck in the coming year. I wanted Rebecca to see Atsuta Shrine while she was in Japan so I decided we could see the shrine and experience important Japanese culture in one event if we went on New Years Day. Bad idea, it was wall-to-wall-peopleRebecca, who did more research than I did, tells me that the white paper tied to the trees are any bad fortunes received during the shrine visit.

Meito-Ku Historic Walking Tour

On Wednesday Rebecca and I went on the Meito-ku historic walking tour, which came highly recommended by my Mom. Who knew all this was so accessible in my ward of the city?

Happy New Year

Happy 2009!Last night Rebecca and I hosted a light dinner for M&L before we all headed out to Shooters, an American style restaurant/bar in Nagoya.