The
X-Pat Files - August 2007
(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 Post Office
2. Ice-Skating Rink and Pool
3. Family Photographer
4. Antique Dealer
5. Hot Springs
6. Swimming Holes for Summer
7. Meet and Greet Lunch
8. Michi Travel
9. English Speaking Orthodontist
10. Don't Fight a Losing Battle
**************************************************
1. The Post
Office
(Thank you to Roxanne Gwyn for
some of the
information contained within this submission)
At this time of year many expatriates return home and others take their
place. The Japanese Post Office is a port of call for those
coming, and those leaving. Not only does the post office deal
with mail, but it's also a kind of bank, and also deals with
insurance. The first two services are most frequently used by
expats, so we'll deal with them here.
Posting Items
Home
The Japanese Post Office provides a high level of quality in their
delivery and posting services. I once had the experience of being
"Post Office Master For the Day" at my local post office, and it was a
real eye-opener. At the beginning of each day, postal workers
chant a kind of post office code of ethics, and they really sound like
they mean it. I've only ever seen post office workers handle mail
with the utmost of respect, so if something that is well wrapped gets
broken enroute, it probably wasn't broken in Japan.
Wrapping items to send is always a quandry, but in Japan you can use
virtually anything to wrap your parcels, recycled paper bags, Japanese
washi, even newspaper if it has a clear label that is easy to read
(depending on the way you will be sending your parcel the label will be
provided anyway). There is a large range of suitable wrapping
materials available in the 100 yen shop - boxes, envelopes of all
different sizes and wrapping paper. Also in the post office, you
can buy very sturdy boxes and bags like the ones on this
page, if you're worried that the box or bag you already have won't
stand up to being posted.
When sending items home, there are many little
tricks to know that will make sending either cheaper or more
convenient. For example, if what you are writing is a greeting
card, then writing "Greeting Card" on the outside of the envelope may
get you a discount if the weight of the greeting card does not exceed
25 grams. Also, for items like Christmas Cards and other printed
matter, if you write "Printed Matter" on the outside of the envelope
and hand the items in unsealed, you'll be able to get the special rate
for printed matter or Insatsubutsu.
The Small Packet rate is great - Small items weighing up to 2 kg (and
not including a written letter on the inside of the box) can be sent at
lower than ordinary parcel rates. Just write "Small Packet " in the
upper left corner of the addressed side of the packet and bring it to
the counter where you will be asked to fill in a customs declaration
(in English). Literature for the blind, up to 7 kg of braille,
can be sent free of charge, by writing "Literature for the Blind" on
the package.
Basically when you send a parcel overseas (if it does not fit the small
packet requirements), you will be asked to decide if you want to send
your parcel by EMS, Airmail, or
SAL. The cheapest of these is SAL, which means Surface Air
Lift. SAL is not sea mail, but it's an economy air-mail that only
gets collected and sent when there are enough items to fill a
flight. Sometimes it can arrive almost as fast as airmail, but
you get no guarantee when you send it off. Airmail is one rank up
from SAL, and EMS is an express
mail service which is fully trackable over the internet. The EMS website includes all sorts of
information about shipping to different countries, a track and trace
system and a shipping calculator to help you make informed decisions.
Finally, there is strange little way of sending books home in something
that could only be described as a "book bag". What it is, is a
huge bag, that you can fill with books that have already been boxed, ie.
the books must be in a box, then the box must fit in the bag, then the
whole thing (bag and all) is sent to the destination. The books
must be bound, printed, published matter and cannot include notebooks,
loose leaves of printed matter or anything else. It is, however,
a very cheap way of sending books home. It is only available
through certain post offices, and even then it is not a very well-known
service and so depending on who serves you, the person might not know
about it. For example, Chuo Post Office in Naka Ward, only sees
about two or three of these deliveries per year, so if you want to try
and do this for yourself, you need to go to the biggest post office you
can find, ask around, ask around some more and then remember the name
of the person who finally gives you the information that you
need. At any rate, you need to go to the post office ahead of
time, so that you can find out how big the bag is, so that you can pack
the books in a box that will fit.
Money, Money, Money
The first thing to know about Japanese Post Office ATM machines, is
that most of them act as an International
ATM Service that accepts foreign Visa, American Express,
Mastercard, Diners Club International, Plus, Cirrus and Maestro cards
for withdrawal of cash. The second thing to know, is that these
machines are bilingual, and so a perfect tool for the travellers moving
around the country. Wherever there is a post office, there is
money.
The Post Office is like a regular bank where you can get an account,
into which your salary can be paid and from which bills can be
deducted. They even have a savings account from which interest
payments are donated directly to overseas charity. It doesn't add
up to much interest, but if enough people do it....
The other way a Post Office is useful is to send
money to people (or to yourself) overseas. There are two ways
that you can do it - remittance
to the payee's address or account
to account. Both are convenient, and they used to be cheaper
than sending money through a bank, although the flat rate seems to be
2500 yen now, which is on par with many banks.
All in all, I believe that post offices in Japan are pleasant places -
the postal workers seem happier than those I have seen in other
countries, they will usually try to be helpful if only in Japanese, and
if nothing else there are always pretty stamps to collect (the Japanese
Post Office has a fantastic range of collectable stamps such as these
ones that renew every season).
One final note for those of you who worry that the Japanese system of
addressing is going to mess with mail from overseas getting to its
destination in Japan. The Japanese Post Office are so used to the
Western form of addressing, and the Japanese form of addressing, and
any form of addressing at all, they simply will deliver
everything! I had a friend who used to teach kids with
intellectual disabilities in the US. A letter came to him one
day, addressed by one of his students in a way that only a professional in a post
office could decipher. Despite having extremely messed up and
scanty, incorrect addressing information, the letter reached him - very
late, but intact (after having travelled several other places around
the country perhaps!).
**************************************************
2.
Ice Skating Rink and Pool
(Thank you to Sheri
Yasue
for this submission)
There is a new ice-skating rink and indoor swimming pool
at the old Expo site in Nagakute. Take the Higashiyama subway
line (yellow) to the end of the line at Fujigaoka and then change to
the Linimo and go to Aichikyuhaku-kinen-koen Station (Expo Memorial
Park Station). Walk to the edge of the park and look to the big
buildings down the hill on your right.
The ice skating rink is open from 10am to 6pm from April to September
(it closes at 5:30 pm the rest of the year). Admission fees are
1400 yen for adults and 800 yen for children, and skate rental is 300
yen extra. Multi-use tickets are also available; 11 tickets for
the price of ten. There are also special rates, for those who
wish to use the skating rink outside of hours for the purposes of
training (such as figure skating).
The indoor pool is open from 1pm to 6pm on weekdays and 10am to 6pm on
weekends, from April to September. Over the summer holidays, the
pool opens from 10am even on weekdays. Admission fees are 1000
yen for adults and 400 yen for children. Babies in diapers are
not allowed in the pool, and children under 130cm tall may not go on
the waterslide.
**************************************************
3. Family Photographer
(Thank you to Joan Stewart
for this submission)
Want to capture your time in Japan with some great family photos?
A
wonderful photographer named Solveig Boergen does fabulous photos of
children and families. Solveig is a joy to work with and her
artistic
sense is outstanding. She is multilingual (German, English and
Japanese) and is based in Niigata, but travels to other places in Japan
as requested. She spent a week in Nagoya in June taking photos of
various folks here and we were all thrilled with her work. If she
gets
enough requests, she’ll make a trip to Nagoya whenever she can.
As
they say, a picture paints a thousand words, so instead of me trying to
describe her work, take a look at her blog: http://solveigboergen.blogspot.com/
(a sample from our family’s session is in her “Boy oh Boy” blog entry
and you may find others you know also!) and her website: http://www.starphotography-jp.com/
Her contact information is listed in both places and she only takes
clients through referrals, so tell her that Joan Stewart or the X-Pat
files sent you!
**************************************************
4. Antique Dealer
(Thank you to Marie
Langlois for this submission)
I
have a friend here who's an antique dealer. He goes to auctions,
buys
a lot of antiques, moves them to his warehouse, sorts them out, fixes
some of them up, packs them and ships them off in containers to L.A.
and Oregon, where there's shops that sell the stuff. He buys some
really nice things and just acquired a new, much bigger
warehouse.
Foreigners wanting to buy these kinds of things in Japan
could get them from him much cheaper than in a shop. He has
everything
from A - Z, furniture, ceramics, kimono, iron teapots or whatever they
are, bronze Buddha Statues, antique toys, swords, all kinds of scrolls,
Buddhist stuff, old comics, Shunga (old
erotic prints) etc. He's always finding something cool and
different
at the auctions. It's interesting just to look around his
warehouse
which he's thinking of turning into a bit of a showroom. He even
gets
old war photos sometimes.
Also, because his warehouse is so big, if someone wanted to buy a large
piece of furniture and keep it there for a while or even until they
moved home, he's able to store it. He knows a lot about his
subject, so is a good resource for anyone wanting to know more about
Japanese antiques.
It's something to look into if you're interested. His name is
Justin Ginther and his email is ginther_justin@hotmail.com.
**************************************************
5. Hot Spring Inn
This is going to sound strange, but one really lovely
thing to plan for a summer holiday is a trip to a hot spring.
Many hot springs are located high in the mountains, so the air is
cooler, and most of these have beautiful outside baths, which provide
you with the opportunity to soak in hot water and then be exposed to
the cool mountain air in turn.
One of my favourite hot springs in Japan is Fukuchi Onsen, which you
get to by going through the beautiful mountain town of Takayama, a
treat in itself. You can have a look at the general area by
checking out the maps on:
http://www.hida.jp/english/
Fukuchi Onsen is in the north area of this map, in the Okuhida Onsen
area. Also in this area are ropeways that take you further into
the cool mountain air again, and there is camping too. When I
went there in mid-summer, campers were chilling their beer in the
river, which was icy cold.
The place I stay when in Fukuchi Onsen is
Yumoto Choza (official Japanese website),
which is a lovely old onsen ryokan which has been built
using old materials from farm houses in the area. A simple
English write up of this inn can be found at:
http://www.onsenexpress.com/site/display/displayonsen.php?displayonsen=86&onsenregion=1
When I recently took a friend of mine to this lovely inn, she was not
comfortable with public nudity but the beauty of this place is that is
does have three private baths, each with an inside and an outside
section so it's a way to get the good feelings of the hot spring water
without the blush factor. However, please don't write off the
larger men's and women's segregated baths - there is nothing nicer than
soaking in a beautiful outside pool, and some lasting friendships have
started from conversations in the bath!
If you don't want to go as far as Takayama and you have a car,
Sugishima (official Japanese website),
a single-inn onsen in Itadori
Village in Gifu is a good option (2 hours by bus from Gifu Station, you
can get there in a car in much less time!). So much nicer than
the huge onsen towns like Gero, the charm of this beautiful place lies
in its isolation, the antiques lining the halls, the spacious rooms and
the great service. The food is pretty special too, and you get so
much of it that you can pick and choose. Again, there are outside
private baths that you can reserve, although it would be a shame to
mixed the larger public bathing areas.
http://www.onsenexpress.com/site/display/displayonsen.php?displayonsen=85&onsenregion=0
One tip: most people, once they "take the plunge" and go public,
find that when they hit the hot water all the embarrassment melts
away. The total lack of self-conciousness in the other bathers
helps you finally to be free from your own hang-ups, and that in itself
is worth the experience.
**************************************************
6. Swimming Holes this Summer
It is so very hot in Nagoya over the summer, but get out
of your air-conditioned house and into some water. There are
great theme parks that have huge swimming areas (like Nagakute Spa Land and Nihon Monkey Park to name
two big ones) and there are absolutely fantastic (and cheap!) indoor
pools with wave pools and slides, like Komaki
Water Park, White Wave 21
in Nishio and Arco Kiyosu.
For a really comprehensive list of pools and their phone numbers (along
with some rules you will be expected to follow in a Japanese swimming
pool), take a look at the June
2006 X-Pat Files.
What could be cheaper than a public pool? Why, a river of course!
Iwayado
is a park, a river, a free pool and generally a Japanese summer
paradise in the bushlands of Seto City. Little shops sell kakigori and beach sandals, and you
can get lunch there or take a picnic. Paddle in the river (depth
about 20 to 60cm), or
swim in the free pool which is mysteriously located right next to the
river. Parking costs 500 yen, but if you get there early enough
in the morning you don't have to pay and you also get a great parking
space. Parking runs out very, very quickly in summer, so get in
quickly! To get there, take Route 248 from Nagoya towards
Seto. Turn right at the light called "Shinano-cho 6".
Follow this road, and look for the sign to Iwayado on the left (sorry,
the sign will be in Japanese so print out this map and take
it with you). The park will be a ten minute drive along this
road. For those taking public transport (not recommended!), it is
a 30 minute hike from the bus stop "Shinano Hon-machi" from Owari-Seto
Station on the Meitetsu Seto Line. The buses don't run very
often, please ask at the station when you get there.
Yumori Park in
Nakatsugawa also has a campsite
and at 700 meters above sea level is a nice place to get away from the
summer heat. With depths of between 10cm and 90cm, it is also a
lovely swimming hole for the entire family. Print out the Japanese Map with
you before you go - it's about 30km away from Nakatsugawa Interchange
on the Chuo Expressway which runs to Nagano.
Riverpark Mami in Tsu (Mie Prefecture) has water
up to 6 meters deep and so is for those who are more adventurous in the
outdoors. You can jump from a rock above (about 5 meters!) and
plunge into the cool waters below. Be careful, however, depending
on where you are in the river the currents can be strong.
Accessable via Hisai Interchange on the Ise Expressway, or via train,
10 minutes walk from Ieki Station on the Meisho Line which runs from
Matsuzaka to Ise.
In addition to the above, there are many, many parks and public
facilities in this area that allow children to bash about in the
water. Get in the car, and just drive to the nearest big green
area on your map, and you're likely to find such a place. Take a
change of clothes for the kids, or just let them dry out in the sun on
the way home! Here are some such parks to get you started (click
on the links for maps in Japanese - print them out and take them with
you so you can ask the way)
Morikoro
Park (Nagakute - near Aichikyuhaku-kinen-koen Station on the Linimo)
Akatsukayama
Park (Toyokawa - 20 minutes drive from Toyokawa Station)
Todagawa Kodomo
Land (Minami Ward - bus from Takabata Station on the Higashiyama
line)
Kainan Kodomo
no Kuni (taxi from Yatomi or Kintetsu Yatomi Stations)
Obu
Midori Park (Obu City)
Shiki
no Mori (Komaki, not near any station)
Handa
Undo Park (Handa City - not near any station)
Sante Park Tahara
(Tahara-cho - near Mikawa Tahara Station)
Oasis Park
(near Kawashima Parking Area on the Tokai Hokuriku Highway)
**************************************************
7. Meet and Greet Luncheon and
Playgroup for Babies
(thank you to Helen
Braithwaite and Misty Johnson for information contained within
this submission)
Two events that make a young expat mother's life all the richer - the
Meet and Greet luncheon (not just
for mothers!) and the Baby/Toddler Group.
Meet and Greet
Date: Tuesday, 7th August (please note: the 2nd Tuesday of this month
falls in Obon)
Time: 11:30am
Place: Shooters Sports Bar and Grill, Fushimi (http://www.shooters-nagoya.com)
Price: 1500 yen for buffet lunch and a drink.
RSVP: to Helen Braithwaite at helenjbraithwaite@gmail.com as soon as
possible but by Saturday the 4th of August at
the latest. RSVP will not be possible by phone this month.
For those of you who are new to Nagoya please come and join us for
lunch. Meet and Greet lunch is the ideal place to make new
friends, have a chat and find out what is going on in Nagoya.
Shooters has a relaxed atmosphere and is closed during the day except
for our event, so we have the run of the place. This means that
it is a VERY easy event for mothers with babies or small
children. It also means, however, that I must ask for an RSVP so
that Shooters can cater for the correct number of people.
Baby and Toddler Group
Provides opportunity to meet kids of the same age for future play
dates.
Meets: 2nd & 4th Thursdays
Time: 11am-2pm
Place: Members' homes
Please contact Misty Johnson for information on the upcoming play
dates.
Phone: 050-5206-2375
Email: mistysuejohnson@yahoo.com
**************************************************
8. Travel Japan
Michi Travel Japan is
a small company providing custom travel tours and specialized services
throughout Japan. Based in Tokyo, the company provides services
in other parts of Japan as well.
http://www.michitravel.com/
As an example of what they do, there is group tour they are
conducting this month in the ancient captial of Kyoto from August 23rd
to 26th. Prices are inclusive of accommodation and transport, and
while those on the website reflect travel from Tokyo, prices from
Nagoya will be available upon request.
Client testimonials on the company's website testify to the
service that foreign clients have received.
**************************************************
9. English
Speaking Orthodontist
(Thank you to Christina Moorehead for this
submission)
If you are seeking straight teeth for yourself or
for your children, then Dr. Mukai of Kasugai is your orthodontist. When
it became apparent that our 9 (now 10) year old son desperately needed
braces, we were referred to Dr. Mukai by our dentist at the Fairy
Dental Clinic (another excellent, English-speaking dental resource in
Kasugai - see his listing
in the X-Pat Files). While we had no idea at first that Dr. Mukai spoke
English, we were delighted to discover that he is a fluent English
speaker.
Dr. Mukai's office is equipped with the latest dental and orthodontic
technology including digital x-rays and photography . He clearly
explains the course of treatment and offers reasonable payment plans.
He accepts major credit cards, bank transfers, and cash payments.
Within a year our son's teeth had improved dramatically. We highly
recommend Dr. Mukai.
His office is
located blocks from Kasugai station (JR Chuo line), above a Geo video
rental shop. His phone number is 0568-56-5605, and his URL is http://www.ymki.jp/index.html
(Japanese only).
**************************************************
10. Don't Fight a Losing Battle
Sue Conolly
I have recently been involved in a battle with a mobile phone company
and a delivery service in the US. I am travelling to New York
tomorrow, and needed a mobile phone. When I looked on the
internet I saw that I could order one online to be sent to my Brooklyn
address. It was going to take 7 - 10 working days, so I ordered
it in the week before I was going to travel so that I would be there
when it arrived. However, when I checked the track and trace on
the package (also over the internet) it soon became obvious that the
package was coming a lot faster than expected, and I would not be there
to accept it.
Sent into a panic by thoughts of a mobile phone left on the doorstep of
a vacant New York address, I called the delivery company. They
told me, I had to call the mobile phone company. Which I
did. To save you the whole boring story, about 30 phone calls to
each company later the mobile phone is indeed, sitting as feared
outside a vacant house in Brooklyn. There was nothing I could
have done about it. I paid $20 for the phone, and probably more
than double that in phone calls trying to chase it.
This morning, I decided to let go of the phone. Somebody might
have taken the phone by now, they might have activated it and called
their girlfriend. I don't care. It's a pre-paid phone, and
$20 is not worth my sanity.
It reminds me of another experience I had in Japan. I was
returning videos that were overdue, but did not have enough money with
me for the overdue fine. In my home country, overdue fines are
not taken seriously and you don't really
have to pay them on that day (or even the next time you rent a
video). However, here in Japan I was told that if I wanted to go
to the bank to withdraw the money to pay the fine, I would have to take
the videos with me. It was Sunday in the countryside. I did
not know whether or not I would find a bank that was open. Taking
the videos home with me again would incrue a further fine for each of
the videos for one extra night. I did not want to take those videos with
me. I argued until I was blue in the face. The young guy
behind the counter kept getting paid his hourly wage while he argued on
with me, the rules of the video shop on his side. There was no
way that I was leaving that shop without the videos. Finally, I
did get to a bank that day, I did come back and I did return the videos
without an extra fine. I threw my video shop membership card
across the counter and told them that I would never come to this video shop
again! (Did I detect a note of relief from this poor boy who
would never again have to be subjected to this particular cranky
gaijin?)
So this is the thing; I spent all this time, all this emotional energy,
and I lost my membership card of a very good video shop. In these
past few days, what is otherwise a dream coming true (going to New York
for the first time, seeing a Broadway musical and going backstage,
joining the crowds at a Yankees/White Sox game!!) was marred by a huge
and useless phone bill, round and round conversations with
voice-recognition software and clueless, frustrated customer service
representatives who always wished me, at the end of our futile
negotiations, "Have a Nice Day!".
Tomorrow I will have a much nicer day. I have learned to
prioritize the joy of the moment over the pointlessness of beaurocracy.
**************************************************
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.
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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
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