The X-Pat Files
April 2009
(Brought to you
by H&R Consultants)
The X-Pat
Files Community E-Newsletter provides a forum for the spread of
information useful for English speakers living in Aichi. You can use the
newsletter as an informational resource, and of course you can send in
information you would like to share.
This newsletter is a community service from
The Japan Real Estate and Relocation company, H&R Consultants (www.japanhomesearch.com), and is edited by Sue Conolly (http://web.mac.com/conolly).
Contents for This Edition
1. The X-Pat Files
2. Government Handout
3. Cross Cultural Adaptation
4. Discover Japan Camps
5. Kitchen Cheats
6. 2009 HOPE at the Hilton Week
7. Meet and Greet Luncheon
8. Endoscope Doctor
9. Cherry Blossom Travel
10. Morphology
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1. The
X-Pat Files
The X-Pat Files, as you may have noticed, is
a collection of articles each month, some donated, and some researched by a
central editor.
More than 1000 people subscribe to the X-Pat
Files, while others access it online and use the search function to find the
information that they need. There may be changes ahead for the X-Pat Files, so
stay tuned to see how the X-Pat Files newsletter and website will continue to
grow and change.
We would like to ask for you, the readers,
to take some time to think about what you would like to see in the X-Pat Files,
or what information you might like to donate.
In the past we’ve had:
l English speaking doctors and dentists
l English speaking hairdressers and
beauticians
l Products and services that are useful for
English speaking people
l Products and services that are useful for
ANY people, but are enhanced by the explanation they receive in the X-Pat Files
l Places to eat
l Places to travel
l Lifestyle information
l Information for those with pets
l Interesting Japanese cultural information
Information listed in the X-Pat Files serves
the foreign community in some way. It’s not paid advertising for the services
listed – rather it is based on third party recommendations of those
who’ve been there, and done that. For this reason, while information can never
be 100% guaranteed, it hopefully gives a good picture of what people are doing
to have a great quality of life here in Japan.
Comments and suggestions, and of course
submissions for the X-Pat Files are always welcome at info@xpat-files.com. The X-Pat Files is
what it is only thanks to the readership
who continue to live their lives in Japan and notice “Hey – I should
suggest this for the X-Pat Files!”.
Thank you for your continued support!
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2. Government Handouts
You may have heard rumour or seen on the
news about government handouts planned to help residents of Japan deal with the
economic stresses of the current climate. While each area is implemented
differently (and Nagoya being one of the slowest cities in Japan to actually
distribute the money – some say as late as June), the basic outline
remains the same, and foreign residents will also be invited to apply.
Apparently, in the mail, each and every one
of us (who have foreign registration at the local public office) will receive
information in Japanese (don’t throw it out!!). It looks certain that it will
be up to us to apply, providing bank details and a photocopy of our foreign
registration card – so don’t miss out on the opportunity to get a few
extra yen.
The system is called “Teigaku Kyuufu-kin” and under its terms, each person over the age
of 18 and under 65 is entitled to 12,000 yen, while each person under 18 or
over 65 is entitled to 20,000. So, for a family of two parents and two
children, the entitlement would be 20,000 + 20,000 + 12,000 + 12,000 = 64,000
yen.
In addition to this, if your family has
children, you may be entitled to another payment called “Kosodate Ouen Tokubetsu Teate”. Under this arrangement, households
with two or more children (aged three years before school age to high school
aged) can attract a payment of 36,000 yen for the second child onwards, for
every child less than school age. Sound confusing? Well, it probably is, since
it took me ten minutes to try and translate that from the Japanese!
OK, here are some links to help you work out
how the payment applies to your family and how you can get it. Print out the
Japanese pages and ask someone bilingual to help you work them out!
Official page in
Japanese from Nagoya City Hall
Kariya
City (in English, Portuguese, Chinese)
Kariya
City (more detailed, in Japanese)
This link from Kariya
City also shows an English explanation for filling out one of the
application forms but again, check with your local city office for specific
area information.
You may have noticed from the above links
that there is a distinct lack of information available in English for the
cities I’ve listed. Here is one outline of the Teigaku
Kyuufu-kin system from another city not in this area – please note
that the application deadlines won’t be correct for your area.
According to Nagakute’s foreign
resident information page, there is also a number you can call for comprehensive
information in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Tagalog about
various foreign resident application procedures (hopefully including this
one!). That number is 052-223-7336, or 052-223-7337.
As always, please do your homework on your
entitlements before you apply – the local public office is always best
for this.
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3. Adjusting
Cross-culturally – it’s harder than I thought
Thank you to Eileen
Nielsen for this submission
This was the move you had been looking
forward to. Living in Japan sounded exotic, unusual and adventurous. Maybe you
could learn a new language, visit interesting places and make new friends. It
was even your chance not to have to work. Free time, what a concept! But it
hadn’t work out the way you thought.
After the initial excitement wears off,
living cross-culturally can leave you feeling disoriented, depressed and
frustrated. The adjustment can be very challenging. Here are some simple hints
to help you as you transition.
1.
Learning
to live cross-culturally is a process that takes time. Don’t be too hard on
yourself. You will eventually adjust.
2.
Find
your niche. Locating a group of other expats to be friends with is essential.
It will help you feel connected and less out of place.
3.
The
odds are you won’t ever be bilingual, but take the time to learn some basic
Japanese. It will help you get around and enable you to understand Japanese people
and culture a little better.
4.
Making
one or two close Japanese friends is a great way of getting to know the culture
and finding your way around. It will also help you feel more at home here.
5.
If
you get in over your head in some situation, ask for help. Most Japanese speak
some English, and are very willing to help.
Living in new country can be very
overwhelming, but staying positive and taking a few pro-active steps can go a
long way to helping you adjust to your new life here. Someday you will look
back on this experience as one of the best of your life.
Eileen is a counselor
who has lived in Japan for the last 18 years with her husband and 3 children.
Contact: eileennielsen@hotmail.com
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4. Discover Japan
Camps
Thank you to Linda
Polgar for this submission
Some of your readers may be interested to
know about great summer camps, bicycle trips and winter ski trips organized by
a company called Discover Japan (http://www.discoverjapan.co.jp/).
David Green, who runs the company, was an
elementary school teacher for many years and his wife still is so they know how
to interact with kids and how to engage them. He has run a family ski trip to
Nagano in February for 25 years now and has run biking trips and summer school
and summer camp out of his lodge in Chiba on the seashore. They know how to
keep kids happy and what families need to make trips enjoyable.
My kids and I do the ski trip every year and
my kids have attended the summer camps. Please contact him and learn more about
what Discover Japan has to offer.
2899-1 Seto, Chikura-cho Minami Boso
Chiba 295-0004 Japan
Tel/Fax 0470-44-0639
Mobile 090-7716-0102
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5. Kitchen Cheats
Home cooking is becoming more popular as the
economy sags, but some people just aren’t used to standing in the kitchen, and
others don’t mind cooking but find it hard to come up with new recipe ideas
that will fit into their busy schedule.
Enter, the kitchen cheats!
The shelves of Japanese supermarkets are
literally lined with boxes and boxes of easy-to-use cooking flavours that one
need only add to the prescribed ingredients (listed on the back of the box) in
order to have a meal that will go with rice.
These boxes are very easy to use, even if
you don’t read Japanese, because the meal is pictured on the front of the box,
and ingredients and preparation instructions are also often illustrated on the
back. It only takes a little courage to try these boxes once – and you
will be addicted for life to these tasty and easy to prepare meals.
Here are a few of them to get you started:
Curry Roux
Curry rice, while very different from Indian
curry, is a fallback menu item for any Japanese mother with a family to feed.
It’s not spicy as you imagine curry might be, so is a winner with kids (it
usually comes in three levels of spiciness, again, illustrated somewhere on the
box). The finished product generally consists of some kind of meat, onions,
potatoes, and maybe one or two other varieties of vegetables such as carrots or
mushrooms. You can put pretty much any vegetable in curry, so it’s a super easy
way to get kids to eat their vegetables, and then come back for more! When
shopping, buy the roux first and then simply turn over the box to find a list
of the rest of the ingredients you’ll need.
The process of making the curry starts
with sautéeing chopped vegetables and meat in some kind of oil.
Once the meat has been browned and the onions softened, water is added and
brought to a boil. The ingredients are then simmered under low heat
for about 20 minutes (as per instructions on the box) or longer if more tender
meat is desired. The stove is then turned off while the roux blocks are broken
up and put into the curry. Then the curry is heated again over a low flame
while blocks dissolve (stirring the pot the whole time).
From start to finish the whole process takes
about half an hour, which coincidentally is as long as it takes for a rice
cooker to prepare rice. Curry is served on top of the rice.
A story about how Japanese curry became
popular and transformed into what it is today, can be found on the S&B English website,
as can a list of
products (not just curry) that are available in the supermarket for making
your life in the kitchen a whole lot easier.
Other Roux
It’s not just curry that you can buy as a
roux. Look also for stew (white stew, pumpkin stew) and something called
Hayashi Rice. The name (apparently) comes from the English word “hashed” and
refers to the type of meat that it used – thinly sliced beef which will
cook easily. The taste is a little like Beef bourguignon but again, it’s a
Japanese spin on the recipe.
Hayashi rice is made with about 200 grams of
thinly sliced beef, 3 onions and 700 ml of water (according to the box of roux
I have in my pantry). Like curry, the meat and onions are cooked slightly in
oil first, before they are boiled for 15 minutes, and the roux is added last,
before being simmered for about 10 more minutes.
Any of these roux recipes, be they curry,
stew, or Hayashi rice, are served on a bed of freshly cooked white rice, which
can have brown rice or zakkoku (grains) added to the mix if you’re aiming for
dietary fibre.
Liquid Packet Mixes
(such as Cook-Do)
Made by Ajinomoto, Cook Do is probably not
free of MSG. But it is free of hassle! Buy a box of these and the ingredients
that are illustrated on the other side of the box, and prepare (again,
according to the illustrated guide) in about ten minutes. Here are just a few
of the boxes I’ve tried:
Cook Do Pork and
Peppers in a Sweet Hot Miso Sauce (red box, with a number 18 on the bottom) – 200 grams of
pork, 2 green peppers, asparagus, 1 red pepper, green onions (negi). Shallow
fry in a wok or frying pan and add the sauce at the end before heating through
and serving on rice.
Cook Do Mabo-Dofu
(Tofu with ground mince)
(blue box, with a number 7 on the bottom) – 1 block of tofu, 80 grams of
minced meat, green onions (negi). Cook the meat in a fry pan and add the sauce.
Add the tofu cut up into cubes, and stir in. At the end, add the thickening
agent (a white powder) and stir until thick. Serve on rice. This dish also
comes in an eggplant version, called Mabo-Nasu.
Cook Do Chin Jao Ro Su (Chinese stirfry) (green box, with a number 10 on the bottom)
– 150 grams of meat (beef or pork), six small green peppers, takenoko (bamboo shoots) in water, and
corn starch for thickening. Cut up all ingredients as shown on box, then
stirfy, then add the sauce and thicken. Nothing could be easier! And as usual,
serve on rice.
Super Salads
Salads are as easy as 1-2-3 when you’ve got
the right dressing. Of course there are all the dressings available in the
familiar bottles (and many of these have English somewhere on the label) but
here is one that you might not recognize. It is an easy, nutritious and
absolutely delicious salad that can stand on its own or with rice, or as a
side-salad to something else.
Banbanji Chicken Salad (dressing comes in a box, illustrated with
chicken salad with a brown sauce) – I use the Marumiya version but it
also comes in a Cook Do version in a blue box. You can use anything you like
for the salad part (shredded cucumber, lettuce, tomato, sprouts), and for the
chicken, buy the thin slivers of sasami chicken meat that have no fat on them.
Boil the chicken, and pull apart the meat in shards, pile it on top of the
salad (as it is in the illustration) and pour over the delicious sauce. The flavour
is like a sesame, garlicky, creamy trip to heaven.
You’ll notice as you walk around the
supermarket with your tiny little trolley, that the way of shopping in Japan is
a little different from that of the west. People tend not to stock up on
everything, instead they shop more often (sometimes daily) to get the best and
freshest ingredients that don’t have to be stored. One way of adopting this
habit (and not going mad) is to know exactly what you want before you go in, so
to stock up on these packet mixes to keep at home, is like keeping a short and
stress-free shopping list in your pantry. Just choose the appropriate box, work
out what you need, and be in and out of that supermarket in record time!
Happy cooking!
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6. 2009 HOPE at the Hilton Week: April 12th
– April 19th
HOPE
International Development Agency
HOPE International
and the Nagoya Hilton are proud to join forces again this year to bring you the
5th annual HOPE at the Hilton Week, and the annual HOPE Travel &
Leisure Auction. There are many prizes and events all week long, all for a good
cause: bringing clean water to those who need it the most. Check out the info
below to find out how you can get involved.
2009
HOPE TRAVEL & LEISURE AUCTION – www.hope-auction.com
April 12th
– 19th
Go online or
on-sight at the Hilton all week to bid on a selection of great prizes which
includes packages at over 40 Hilton hotels worldwide, mountain getaways in
Nagano, a TREK bicycle and so much more! As well, every bid placed in person at
the Hilton will result in your name being entered in a raffle with the grand
prize being two (2) business class tickets on United Airlines from Japan to the
US! Items are viewable on-line, and bidding will start on April 12th.
New items are being added all the time, so be sure to check back regularly!
CHARITY
CUT
April 13th,
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Top stylists from
around Nagoya will be on hand to cut your hair - all for ¥2000! 100% of
the proceeds will help the poor. Call for a reservation now: 052-204-0530.
Walk-ins may also be available on the day...come on by, eat lunch at The Terrace Brasserie (2nd floor
– 5% of your bill donated to HOPE) and check it out!
RELAX
FOR CHARITY
April 14th,
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Enjoy a half hour
foot reflexology massage or shoulder & neck massage and "Relax for
Charity" with professional massagers.
Make your
reservation with HOPE office (052-204-0530) now as places will be limited.
FAMILY
DAY
April 18th,
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Why not spend an
afternoon with the interactive display of clean water, and learn all about this
precious resource? Complete the clean water quiz and you or someone in your
family could be the lucky winners of a top prize! It’s the perfect way to spend
a day with the whole family, learn something new, and support a great cause,
all at the same time.
There are many other
great events and activities all week long, so be sure to visit the HOPE at the
Hilton Week website at www.hope-auction.com
for all the details.
All in all a great
opportunity to help the poor, and have fun while you're at it!
Additional
information on HOPE available at www.hope.or.jp.
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7. Meet and Greet at
HOPE at the Hilton
Thank you to Joey Tan
for this submission
Are you new to town? Do you want to get out
and meet new people? Or do you just want a nice lunch in a quiet,
relaxing atmosphere where you can chat with new friends and old friends? The
Meet & Greet lunch is held on the second Tuesday of the month, this month
at Hilton Hotel in conjunction with HOPE at the Hilton Week. HOPE is a
nonprofit organization that helps in various charities. Check out their
website:
http://www.hope.or.jp/en/index.php
Date: Tuesday, 14th of
April
Time: 11:30 am
Place: Hilton Hotel,
Seasons Restaurant
Price: 2500 yen for
buffet lunch and a drink (Pay at the door on the way in)
Please RSVP by Friday the 10th of April. RSVP
to Joey Tan by e-mail to joeywltan@gmail.com.
There is a play area for kids so they are
welcome. However, that I must ask for an RSVP for kids as well so that Hilton
can cater for the correct number of people.
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8. Endoscope Clinic
Nishiyama Danchi
clinic is the place to go if you need an
endoscope or a colonscope. The friendly doctor and nurses are
just a start. The procedures are very western, e.g. you can drink the concoction etc.,
in your own home and then go to the clinic and give you a sedative
before the procedure. With the endoscope you have a choice of the camera entering through
your nose or throat, the nose is much better! They will let you lay down after the
procedure for your stomach to settle, much better than leaving
straight away and cramping while you drive.
6
minutes by bus from Hoshigaoka Station, 2km by car from Takabari IC
Address:
1-36 Nishizato-cho, Meito-ku, Nagoya
Ph: 052-701-1121
URL: http://www.nishiyamadanchi.jp/
(Japanese, with basic English navigation)
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9.
Cherry Blossom Travel
Nagoya resident Lowell Sheppard once wrote a
book about his travels
north in Japan by bicycle, chasing the cherry blossom as it bloomed up the
length of the country. If he did that this year he might be pleasantly surprised
that the cherry blossoms are blooming earlier this year, but a cold snap has
kept them from opening too quickly, prolonging this most Japanese of seasons.
I have introduced the Cherry Blossom Forecast
website here on the X-Pat Files before, and in past
issues I’ve also outlined some places in Nagoya where you can enjoy the
hanami party mood that overtakes Japan.
Why not jump on a train and find a party in
a town far from here?
Kyoto is an obvious choice
for cherry blossom viewing, and the best time to go is NOW. Take a walk up the
Philosopher’s Path, or weep with joy at the weeping cherry blossoms in Heian
Shrine. Just outside of Heian Shrine is the Okazaki Canal, a river of pink
cherry trees with boat tours very popular during this season. The cherry trees
on Arashiyama are legendary. The season is set to end around April 7th.
Sometimes referred to as “Little Kyoto”, Kanazawa is also a perfect choice
for spring. Kenrokuen
is one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan, and the little streets and
canals around the city are charming. From the bridges of Asano River to the
mountain Utatsuyama, Kanazawa is filled with pink during this season. Best
viewing is estimated to be between the 3rd and 11th of
April.
If you want to see something really special, why not make an effort
to visit one of the three greatest cherry blossom trees, designated as national
treasure? There’s one that is over 1500 years old in Motosu City, Gifu
Prefecture… not such a drive from Nagoya, so why not make a day trip out of it?
Another real treasure is in Jisso Temple in Hokuto
City in Yamanashi – that one is approximately 2000 years old. The
Miharu Takizakura in Miharu,
Fukushima is a youngster at only 1000 years old. These grandparents of
grandparents of the cherry blossom tree are revered and looked after lovingly,
supported by beams which keep their branches from sagging and breaking.
If you’ve got nothing going on during Golden
Week, why not book yourself a flight to Hokkaido and see the road that
consistently gets listed at the top of the 100 most beautiful cherry blossom
spots in Japan? Located in Shizunai
in Hokkaido, Nijukkendoro is an 8km long road lines with more than 2,000
Hokkaido Mountain Cherry Trees. And if you’re wondering just where is this list
of the 100 most beautiful places appears in English, here
it is along with a list of popular spots in Nagoya (and notice, number 54
and 55 on the top 100 list are located in Nagoya and are shown in bold print).
Have fun in this most pink of Japanese
seasons!
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10.
Morphology
Sue Conolly
According to Wikipedia, Morphology may mean:
Morphology (linguistics), the study of the structure and content of
word forms
Morphology (biology), the study of the form or shape of an
organism or part thereof
Morphology (astronomy), the shape of astronomical objects such as
nebulae or galaxies
Morphology
(folkloristics), the structure
of narratives such as folk tales
Geomorphology, the study of landforms
Mathematical
morphology, a theoretical
model based on lattice theory, used for digital image processing
River morphology, the field of science dealing with changes
of river planform
Morphology (materials
science), the study of
shape, size, texture etc of physical objects.
So, if morphology is basically the study of
form, and how parts combine to make a whole (and let’s not forget the verb “to
morph” which denotes change inspired by the changing parts of a whole), then
what can “Morphology” possibly mean for our personal landscapes?
When I first came to Japan at the tender age
of eighteen, I threw myself into English teaching. So enthusiastic was I that I
soon was “writing curriculum” for the English conversation school for which I
worked. I put “writing curriculum” in parenthesis because of course, when I
look back at those same lesson plans now (as I study for my Masters in ESL), I
can see clearly my rough and ragged first clumsy attempts at sharing the
English language. I can’t help but think of my own personal morphology –
the parts that have gone before to make my whole.
Here is a very (extremely) abridged list:
l English teacher persona I created when I was
impossibly young
l Various part-time jobs at university –
from convenience store clerk to telephone counselor
l working for the YMCA and having the
brilliant idea of conducting overseas study tours
l karma whipping me senseless after I left
that job in the lurch
l the advent of children (that’s a biggun’)
l the deep dark truthful mirror of marriage
l the sense of balance I had to lose in order
to find it, working as a relocation consultant
l coming to terms with not being able to get
everything right as a counselor/coach
l battling the demons of my know-it-all
persona on the X-Pat Files
l the gut-wrenching humility I had to learn
the hard way by working on a book project
l coming full circle to the English teacher
persona and rediscovering my love of books
As I said, it’s an extremely abridged list.
It does not take into account the YMCA student I ran into the other day in my
local supermarket – the girl who came on my Australian trips twice and
who now has two children of her own. It doesn’t take into account my local
hairdresser, who sometimes lends me DVDs from her extensive personal library,
while also dishing out advice, which is always timely (if not always helpful).
It doesn’t take into account that time my neighbour and her child took us on a
mountain vegetable hike, helping us to commune with nature (all the while
living in our super-convenient house with no garden). It doesn’t take into
account my argument with the video shop clerk that one time, or the meaningful
conversation with the perfect stranger in the public bath that other time. It
doesn’t show the experiences I’ve had thanks to having kids in Japanese
daycare, or thanks to having kids in Japanese elementary school, or
International School. It’s missing the lazy Sundays, the busy Saturdays, the
public holidays, and all the other days that came between.
In other words, each and every tiny little
experience (as well as each whopping great big experience) has shaped who I am
today, and who I will become tomorrow.
And please note the list contains not one
shred of evidence from my childhood. It lacks the trip I took to my Dad’s
school library during summer vacation to tape poetry-readings and sing-a-long
songs with my cousin and aunt. It doesn’t tell you the first part-time job
working with Dad, or the second part-time job I had at the music store. It
doesn’t tell of the pain I went through being fired from that music shop job,
or of the pangs I still feel when traveling down that same street where the
music shop no longer exists. It doesn’t tell of the first house I lived in with
enough bedrooms for our expanding and contracting family, and the second home I
loved with all the pets, and the backyard just big enough to relax in the sun.
The girl next door with whom I sneaked off to the pool is missing from that
list, as is the bushland across the road from our house which later became my
personal sanctuary.
All of this, and more – it is me, and
yet it is not all of me, because at least part of the story is as yet untold.
The economy is the latest on my list of woes – but in emotional terms it
feels no more desperate than the time when I lost the job in the music store
for which I was probably paid six dollars an hour.
I am reminded of a Leunig cartoon, from
the excellent book “The
Travelling Leunig”.
Let it go. Let it out.
Let it all unravel.
Let it free and it can be
A path on which to travel.
One thing moves into the next, that next
thing leads on to another. Not one minute is wasted, not one true regret clouds
my vision of the whole picture. While I may cringe when choosing to focus on
any one given part of my personal morphology, when I am honest I would have to
say that given the chance, I would not rewrite the book any other way. Not one
page of it, not one word.
**************************************************
That’s it for this edition of the
newsletter. We hope you found it informative - please let us know what you
would like to see in future editions, and we will attempt to address your
issues.
If you need to find some information
from a previous edition, please try the search function on http://www.xpat-files.com. Carrying out a text search with key
words will take you directly to previous editions of the newsletter in which
information appeared.
A disclaimer - While we do try to check
submissions when they come to me, we do not take responsibility for the
accuracy of any donated information. Nor do we take responsibility if
your experience of places and services you find through this newsletter are not
as rewarding as they were for the person who originally sent in the
information. Obviously everyone`s experience is different.
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