Subway Cockpit

This is the view of a Japanese Subway Train. Normally there is a curtain or a panel hiding the cockpit...today i was lucky as it was completely open... ;)

Maid Tradition

The above picture was taken at a local department store called "Loft". Some costumes are sold all the year long and not only during the "Carnival". The costumes one can find are typically (in order from the left) School girl 1, School Girl 2, Maid, Nurse, Maid 2 and the last one looks like a sexy wedding dress.

You might wonder, why do they sell those if it's not carnival? Well, as even some kids might read the blog, let's say that if in your country they "Play Doctor" here they play "Maid" ;)

For some information about Maids, You might find interesting what a Maid Café is... (nothing to do with nightclubs or Mens Clubs!!)...

Japanese Language Exercise

This is one of the images we get from time to time from teachers where we need to try to describe what are the differences between the first and the second image. In this case, how a city has changed over the years. The description had to contain adjectives explaining the changes, like became more "lively" (にぎやか - Nigiyaka) or "Dirty" ( きらい - Kirai). But what caught my attention was something in the river...

... Well, then i guess it's true that an image is worth 1000 words ;)

Anyway, the discussion went on and on, and apparently, the teacher was unable to give me an adjective for "Dead". So, he said I could say that he "became quiet". Well...i guess is true ... poor fella...

Panasonic Massage Chair!

This pic was shot in the Seiden Electronic Store. They have around 10 different massage chairs to try out ... i didn't let the chance to try some of them slip away ;)

So, here i went and tried 3 or 4 of them. There is a sign saying "Maximum 15 minutes"...well... too bad i cannot read japanese ;) ...

The best one, i felt it was this Panasonic chair, absolutely comfortable and with a nice display panel...

well... as you can see, not really simple to decipher...so i pushed the on button (The yellow one) and then the only one that i was able to understand with my little japanese "クイック５分" which is a Quick 5 minutes program.

I think there should be a way to set your body size, because the massage was kind of too low on my back...it didn't reach the top of my shoulders.

Maybe I should just schedule a weekly visit there and step-by-step try to learn how to use it ... ;)

Free Mask if you Dine

Taking advantage of the Flu, Some people sells masks overpriced and others, like the restaurant in the picture, offer a free mask if you dine here.

In the meantime, the mask-fever has come down. People riding the train and wearing the mask are less and less every day. I think today there were about 30% of the people wearing a mask.

Hopefully, with the total number of infection stable around 350, the emergency seems to have slown down a little. Even if the total infections worldwide are over 10,000 , we should not forget that those are the total infections summed up. Actual (still) infected people are for sure much less, as the time to recover using Tamiflu is around a week or so.

Well, let's hope is finally over :)

Funny Masks...

The above picture was published by Japan Today on Sunday. It looks like some people took the best side of the fact they had to wear masks.

The Sister City of Kobe "Tianjin" in China gave, as a present, 100,000 Face masks with a Chinese Flag and a note saying "Tianjin supports Kobe"... but for the time being, I don't know where those masks are...as I haven't seen them around so far...(Full article here).

Mobile Phone Barcode Scanner

What if...walking on the street, looking in the library or in stores, you come across an information, a restaurant name or any link to a website which you might want to check later for more information?

Back in europe, we would take a piece of paper or make a new note in our phone and copy the website name. How long would it take? well, it depends how long the web address .is..and if we copy it correctly.

In Japan, they use bar codes. See the paper above, is a small flayer from the bookstore. Let's imagine we would like to look up some information, how would Japanese do?

Step 1) Open the Bar code scanner application (every mobile phone has it) and take a picture of the it...

The bar code is immediately translated into the full website address and can now be stored for later usage. Along with the website address, even some additional information regarding the website and/or special offers...

You might think that you never had the need to write down a website in Europe, while walking on the street. Yes, you are right..me neither! but.. In japan, there are so many ads and special offers everywhere, that soon or later, you might find this application useful.

We have a similar barcode in switzerland and we use it for e-tickets for the train. You can buy an e-ticket from internet and a barcode is sent to you by mail or MMS. You can either keep it in your phone or print it. You can then show it to the train attendant. He would then use his own scanner to validate it. Too bad that when i've tried it, the train attendand had a very hard time to scan the code out of my mobile phone... luckily i had a printed version too ;)...

Shower Fridge = Fresh Vegetables!

Ever happened to go to the supermarket, look for fresh vegetables and find that they are as dry as if they have been grown in the Sahara?

Well, this is about to change. The fridge above has a built-in water spray that continuously showers the vegetables and keep them wet.

I took a look at the vegetables, and they, indeed, look nice and juicy.... especially the salad!...yum...

Do you want a Pet?

As you might already know, japanese apartments are really small, therefore having a pet like a dog or a cat, might be a little bit difficult. So, here we are... Ants Capital comes handy!

Put the pouder in the supplied vase, add water, heat it up in the microwave and the whole turns into some kind of colored jelly.

Now, you can get out in the garden, find few ants, and there we go! You got your own pet. You can now look how ants build their new home. I don't know exactly what they eat, but maybe they can eat the jelly...no idea...

I spoke about this with my sister, and she said that something similar is on sale in Europe as well, so not really something new, but still interesting.

But wait... two other things ;)

If you want to go for the "Professional" Version, the above is the one tested by nasa into space. Now, i really wonder, how many of their customers might find it handy to have a space-travel-proof vase?... no idea, but in any case, if you plan to move off-world, you can bring it with you ;)...

If all your friends got already "Ants Capital" or the "Antorium", well, you have another chance. Here the "Holoholo". A small acquarium for growing... shrimps. The one in the picture is quite big, but if you have space problems, i've seen other versions as small as a small jelly vase, that you can keep in your pocket so that you can take a look of your pet anytime...anywhere.

So, pet lovers out there, if you are not allowed to have cats or dogs ... you still have a chance to get a...different pet. ;)

Japanese Rice Balls

This is the packaging for a japanese rice ball. Don't ask me why they call it "Rice Ball" even if it's triangle-shaped, i have no idea.

Anyway, This kind of "snack" is really common in japan. In europe we use sandwiches, here they use rice balls. Various flavors are available: Mayo and Tuna, Mayo and Chicken, Onion and Tuna, Fish balls, and so on. Their expire date is up 2-3 days after production date.

So, there is one big problem with rice balls...and not easy to solve: They are covered with a paper of dried seaweed to make it more tasty. The problem is that you cannot cover the rice ball with seawed at production time, or the seaweed would become completely wet and elastic (instead of dry and crispy as it should be).

I found very ingenious how the solved the problem. They put the riceball on the inner side, then there is a thin plastic layer, then the seaweed, then the outside plastic layer.

Sounds easy, but how do you then make sure that you can quickly cover the rice ball with the seaweed without touching the riceball or the seaweed with your (dirty) hands?... well, they found the following way, which in 3 moves, not only easily opens the plastic wrap, but does the whole thing for you...check it out!

Here the instructions:

Read from right to left: (1) Pull the central band (2) all the way to the opposite side and then (3) pull apart the two remaining triangles.

Here, for you, i did the test :)


Pull the side triangles...

And here the final product, without even breaking the frail seaweed!

Influenza Week continues...

These are my friends from the Brass band in Kobe. Tuesday night, everyone was wearing a mask. It is the same everywhere now. About 80% of the population, still wearing masks.

In the meantime, the flu cases in Kobe and Osaka are around 280 and seems to stay that way. It didn't grow exponentially. I guess my "forced" holiday from school will be over soon.

Tonight i went to the movie theater to watch the last movie of Dan Brown "Angels and Demons" the sequel of the Da Vinci Code. At the ticket office, all personnel was wearing masks. At the food counter there was a bottle of gel to disinfect your hands; the same in the toilets.

Coming home after the movie (at around 9.30 PM) on the train i took the following picture that should give you an idea about the current usage of masks...

Kobe Fire Department!

Today, i went out for a walk to explore new streets and i came across the Kobe Fire department. Wonder how their gear looks like? here we go!

Interesting thing, the police car's warning lights on the roof...are...extensible. When they stop traffic, they can rise them about 1 meter above their car, so that they get better visibility. I don't have a picture yet, because taking pictures of policemen...well...you know, i don't want to risk to get in trouble ;)... but who knows, maybe someday i will get lucky ;)

Golden Melon

I know, I know...i posted a lot of expensive fruits and vegetables before, but guys! This melon is 3,980 Yen (EUR 32 ; USD 37; CHF 44) ...is for sure the most expensive melon i've ever seen ;)...

But... check it out... Single Boxed with Engraved name in Golden characters on the box...

Huge Food!

About once a week, I can afford to eat out. This week was time to pay a visit to one of the restaurant near Sannomiya station that i've been wondering about for a while. Everytime i passed in front of the window, there was the big display of this Fried Pork Steak and the Huge Garlic Bread.

Well... i'm not young anymore...so i could just manage to eat half of it. Kind of greasy and heavy ... but well...once in a while ... why not?...

This is called "Katsu" in japanese. Normally the size is about 1/3 and they serve it with in many different ways, like vegetables, curry, rice and so on...

Worth a try!

Pandemic Alert level from 5 to 6 (highest)

This morning at 10.43 AM "Japan Today" posted the latest news on the flu in Japan. From the 4 cases of saturday, we are now at 130 confirmed cases. Besides school, Movie Theater might be closed soon as well.

The Pandemic alert level was today raised from 5 to 6 (the highest level).

Read full story

"Stay at home and study Hard!" - The school

Yesterday (Sunday) one of the school's Staff visited the dormitory to check on us. Despite the recommendation to stay home...guess what...i was the only one here ;). All my roommates where out.

One of them is quite happy. Since the school is closed, he can work everyday and get some more money...well, i guess it was not really the purpose of the quarantine, but they can't chain us to our beds...can they?

One of the requirements of the school, is that we send an email every day before 12.00 to confirm our health status and tell them if anything is wrong. The email should contain Name, Class and any symptoms we might have.

I was reading about this new Flu and the normal Flu. So far there have been about 80 casualties. Normal Flu causes yearly between 250-500,000 deaths worldwide of which 63,000 in 2001 in USA alone. It seems the risk is that this Flu might mutate into a more aggressive version.

At this moment, there is high demand of face masks, which saturday, after the last announcements, were completely sold out. Yesterday at the train station, the number of people wearing them was way greater than any other day before.

On saturday night i've seen a couple of classes of High School students at the station. ALL of them wearing masks. I think the school required them to do so. It was at that moment that i've realized that the thing was becoming big...

In any case, , let's hope it is over soon.

Today, is the first sunny day after a lot of rain. I'm not really wishing for the summer to come as in japan summertime can be really hot and humid, so i will just say "nice to see some sunshine again" ;)

Swine Flu Hits Kobe

This weekend was supposed to be the festival for the School Anniversary. We planned to cook some food and have a party on sunday.

This morning at 11 AM, about 1 hour before we were planning to go and buy groceries, we got a phone call from the school that the event for this weekend has been cancelled and that classes for next week have been suspended. Apparently 3 High School Students and their teacher were found positive for the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Unfortunately at this point, there is no information on how many others got it. I think it will take few days to know if it's under control or not. The problem is that the students didn't leave the country, therefore they suspect that they caught the virus in Japan, as apparently they didn't have contact with the ones that got it in Osaka (1 hour from kobe).

There is no emergency right now, but i guess some level of precaution will be necessary...

How to NOT loose your Kid !

I got this picture few days ago. It sure looks cute. Besides, check the picture, it even has little wings :).

This is one of the few ways to keep an eye on your kid. There is one more high tech though...

Docomo, is one of the main mobile phone providers in japan (it was first few years ago, but the agressive competitors, brought SoftBank mobile to get more than 50% of the market share).

One of the services by Docomo, is called "imadoco". The word is a nice play of words. "Ima Doko" in japanese means "Now, where?". Parents can subscribe to this service and have the phone provider send them an email if their kids go out a certain range or out of a predetermined zone. Besides parents, this service can be shared with friends, that, of course, need to approve it first.

Well, i'm not sure how much this service is used but sure can lead to some privacy issues ;)...

Do you feel like having a Mac Pork ?

Well, this sure sounds funny in italian ;)... And for sure few jokes will find their way around the name of this Burger. In any case, as you can see... there is a price drop for the McPork lovers out there :)

Japan is Hightech...but...

Here a picture of a...really small car. Looks like a vintage Smart ;). Normally these cars are not really common. Nowadays even smallest cars are super high-tech and looks much more modern.

What is really common everywhere, is the look and style of electricity Poles. They didn't change a bit since 10 years ago when i saw them the first time.

What suprises me, is that they are all on the outside. In switzerland, normally all cables and components are hidden underground. I think the reason is that, since the streets are crowded with houses, is much easier to see where cables are than open up the street each time...

What sure is...walking under those poles with that huge stuff hanging over your head...well... kind of risky ;)...

Got Milk? ...just 50%...

Now a quiz for you. You see above 2 boxes of milk. Leaving out the writing, name and so on, can you tell the difference between the two?

...ready?...did you find out? The difference is...the small half circle punch on the rigth box upper left side.

I was really curious about milk. The price range is high and the choice of milk is huge. You have some 10-15 different kind of milk. And the price ranges from 140 yen to 290 yen for 1 liter (CHF 1.80 to CHF 3.50).

So, i've asked a native what is that difference. The answer was plain and simple. "The expensive one, the one with the cut, is real milk". Real milk? I really had to ask a few times before i could figure out what "Real Milk" meant.

Apparently, the cheapest milk is made with 50% of real milk and 50% of milk pouder. Real milk is 100% fresh milk. In addition, the milk here seems to expire quite quickly, in about two weeks. In switzerland we have UHT milk that can be kept for 3-4 months, even outside the fridge. The difference is that UHT Milk (Ultra High Temperature) had been heaten up for few seconds, to kill all the germs but preserve the quality of the milk and ease the storage.

Since there is no way i'm paying 290 yen for 1 liter of milk, i'm going for the time being for the half real milk. The taste is ok. I wouldn't have noticed if i wasn't told.

In any case, next time you travel to japan and want real milk, just remember to look for the milk box with the pierced ear...

Back to the Origin!

It was about time! One month and few days without Italian food and finally i let it go. Above the goodies I bought with the sum of 3,000 Yen (35 Swiss Francs). 750 gr of pasta (3x250gr), 7dl of Extra virgin olive oil, one vase of "Pesto" and some pickles for Pasta salad.

I discussed with some people back in europe about the cost of living a few days ago. Here, compared to europe, local food is still cheaper...at least compared to switzerland. Of course Import goods like the above ones or import clothes, are very expensive. Is the same with asian food in switzerland.

Anyway, here a shot of the first italian dish :)

The taste was ok, but the pasta taste was strange. I don't know if it is the pasta type or the water i cooked the pasta in.

In japan, tab water has a strange taste. I think it is because of some substance in the water to kill germs or so. The taste is some kind of Chlorine, the one used in swimming pools. I'm not sure is the water, because i didn't feel it that strong when cooking rice (For rice, since the water is 100% absorbed by the rice, i normally used bottled water, but once, i've run out of water, so i used the tab water).

Anyway, i cooked and eaten 250gr of raw pasta in one shot...so i guess for a while... it should do ;)

Green Tea Farm !

I've always wondered, were Green Tea grows and how it looks like. I've tried Green Tea for the first time in 1996 in Germany. Some people like it, others don't, but still, it was interesting to find out...

Green tea grows as plants, like the one above. Light Green leaves, means this year leaves. Old leaves are kind of dark green. The ones needed for the tea, are the most young ones. The leaves to be picked for Tea are the biggest ones...and i've soon discovered that you can pick small leaves, in group of three, to make green tea tempura. Green Tea tempura means that you actually put the leaves in the tempura cream and then deep fry them. We do something similar in europe with Pumpking flowers, just to give you a rough idea....

Lucky enough, after training, i became an expert (or almost)...and I was ready for the analysis of the leaves and their picking...

It took about 40 minutes or so to pick a basket full...

a basket like this, after drying, yields about half fist of dried tea. So, after picking, the longer process is to treat the leaves. First you need to take a big bunch of leaves and just...smash them in your hand. You actually try to squeeze them into a ball and roll them for a while, so that all the leaves becomes small balls. While doing so, you let some fall on a hot plate...

The procedure of rolling and drying has to be repeated multiple times and it will take about one hour of manual work before the leaves are completely dry.

Once done, the leaves, should look like the ones below...

When they get this look, they are ready for storage...or .... tea! Tea made from just-dried leaves have a nicer taste, kind of sweet compared with other green tea you normally buy.

I'm not a big fan of Tea, I usually like more to have coffee, but, next time i will take a sip of green tea, at least, i know how it's made and i might appreciate it a little more :)...

Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge 1.9 KM

On the way to the strawberry picking place, I crossed the world's longest suspended bridge. it's lenght is 1991 meters and connects the city of Kobe on the Mainland of Japan with the Island of Awaji. It is really an impressive bridge. I took the picture above myself and stiched it togheter, but a better view is give by the aerial picture below...

During the earthquake of Kobe in 1995 the lenght of the bridge had to be adjusted of 1 meter because the two towers moved.

To note is that this bridge had been constructed to support 150-kilometer-distant, 8.5-Richter-magnitude earthquakes. The one in kobe in 1995 was of 7.2 magnitude at 16 km that's the reason it caused so much damage (usually earthquakes are over 60 km in depth). (But i will tell you more on earthquakes on another post, to tell you about my visit at the earthquake musem of some time ago...)

The road has 6 lanes, and the toll cost to cross the bridge is about 2300 yen (27 Swiss Francs). It was opened in 1998 after 10 years (!!) of construction work... nice job! ;)

Strawberry Day!

Last week, during the Japanese Golden Week, i went strawberry Picking in Awaji, which is an island off Osaka.

The japanese language, doesn't have a word for "Darling" or "Dear" but, believe it or not, they have a very specific word for "Strawberry Picking" that you might find in the dictionary.

The Japanese word is "苺狩り" (いちごがり) pronounced "ichigo-gari". The interesting thing, is that the dictionary definition says "an outing to a strawberry farm - to pick strawberries". So, it's not just a word, but a well known activity ;).

Breaking down the word for ichigo-gari we get "苺" (ichigo) which means "strawberry", and we get "狩り" (gari) which means... "Hunt". Wow that sure was funny... Ichigo Hunting...

But, as soon as i got there, there we go, the strawberry plants!

You cannot see it in the picture, but about half way there is a rope with a sign saying "Don't trespass this Rope". It means, you can pick only on this side and not the nice red and juicy strawberries on the other side. Well, after about 30 minutes, they removed the rope and moved it a little farther. I think they want to control areas where strawberries are picked.

But, if adults could not cross the rope, someone could. I got really serious competition out there, and believe me, really hungry as well... so, let's the strawberry hunt begin!

After 15 minutes, i got my first basket full of strawberries. After a while, i finished them all. The rule is simple: you pay 1,500 yen (18 swiss francs) and can pick as many as you can eat. You are not allowed to take them home, but it's an "All you can heat strawberry" entrance...

I managed to eat about 1 basket and half. I think should have been about 1.5 kg strawberries... in about 1 hour and half... they were really good and sweet :p... only downside of this adventure... i spent the next two days with some digestive problems. I think maybe was the water i washed them with...or just...too many strawberries in one time ...but anyhow...i survived it ;) and it was really worth it!

...and...I even made a little new friend :)

(Lunch) Vending Machines...

Here it is. The meal in box. From this machine you can buy Hot Dogs, French Fries, Fish Nuggets, Rice balls and other food. I didn't try it and there was no people queuing in front of it. I didn't even see anyone looking at it while i was staring at it... so i'm not sure how much succesfull is... but...

... Next to it, there was the Ice Cream vending machine (below)...and...apparently, looked more appetizing to the customer choosing the ice cream ;)