JADJ on Facebook

I'm not huge on all these social media - Twitter, Facebook, Maddle (that last one may not be a real thing), but they seem to be all the rage among the kids these days. So I'm trying.

JADJ now has a Facebook page, so please check it out and like it. But only if you really like it. We don't need any liars.

Games, Japan, and Cash or Credit

I've told myself and numerous others that after I finish up in Japan, I'll return home and do my best to find a job unrelated to business. This despite the fact that I majored in Accounting and International Business back in university. I've always had at least a partial interest in money and finance, as far as I can remember.

Source: Wikipedia

Back when I used to play a lot of SNES roms, there was this one game called 大航海時代 II("Age of Discovery II"), in English Uncharted Waters II: New Horizons, which placed the player in the role of one of several selectable captains, each representing a different nationality. Depending on the captain, the main line of quests would differ, but the gameplay options were the same. No matter who you were, rather than follow the main quest to completion, you could always engage yourself in exploration, trading, piracy, privateering, or some combination. Whenever I played, I always found money the most appealing part of the game. As you traveled and time passed in-game, prices for various goods would fluctuate. Additionally, you could choose to capture enemy ships and either add them to your fleet or sell them off.

Back in the early days of MMORPGs, I tried my hand for a while at a game called Ultima Online. Although there were myriad dungeons and locales to explore, and many different skills to build, I found merchanting to be the most enjoyable use of my time. I belonged to a small guild of players with aspirations of growing to be both financially and numerically large and powerful. My friends and I spent hours and hours harvesting materials, crafting them into useful goods, and selling them on automated, player-owned vendors. Although there was a market for extremely rare decorative items, which we would sometimes attempt to find, the real money was to be made in real estate. Although we owned a few properties, I don't think we ever really had enough gold to be seriously buying and selling houses in prime locations. Our members were also an issue. If memory serves, each player could have several characters, but only one house (be it villa, tower, keep, castle, etc). We had such a small number of trustworthy, core members that holding houses for sale would have been an issue. Still, it was my first look at online video game markets driven by people just playing a game.

Similarly, when I played World of Warcraft I found the auction house to be one of those most interesting parts of the game. I was recently reminded of this reading one of Jake's articles over at Debt Sucks, "How Video Games Teach Money Management" (Man, this entry is just jam-packed full 'o links). My main character was a skinner and leatherworker, meaning that when I killed certain monsters or animals, I could take their skins (and sometimes scales) and craft them into armor patches or pieces of leather armor. I would often gather leather, either by skinning it myself or buying it at the auction house, and craft it into armor patches which I would then auction off for a profit. Sometimes the price of leather would jump and I'd make more money selling stockpiled leather than I would making and selling armor patches. It wasn't as profitable a trade as enchanting or smithing, but it was enjoyable for me. Sometimes I would also keep and eye on the prices of ingredients for other professions, and harvest and sell them if the price was high enough and I was capable of gathering them (for any WoW veterans reading this, I frequently farmed motes to make primals).

I find it rather interesting that these online, game economies can have so much real value. Although it would probably be rather difficult to make a living off of such toil, there are people who gather large sums of in-game gold and sell them in the real world for real money. Even independent of that, so many people (myself included) derive such a large amount of satisfaction from sitting around earning virtual money, which for 99% of people has no application outside of the game world.

To reign this rambling post in a little and come back to my original line of thought, although I'm not thrilled by the idea of working in the worlds of accounting or finance right now, there has always been a part of me that finds the workings of markets to be quite fascinating, and I can't deny the satisfaction I get out of making a nice-looking Excel spreadsheet. Perhaps I should think about becoming some sort of entrepreneur, despite the fact that I don't have a product or an idea for one at the moment...

Anyhow, lately I've been trying to renew my interest in money by reading some personal finance blogs. Two that I've come across and would like to recommend are Debt Sucks (previously mentioned) and Punch Debt in the Face. They both have some fascinating reading and a very personal feel, which I find appealing.

Allow me to segue once more. Reading and thinking about personal debt (of which I have a great deal in the form of student loans) brings one thing to mind for many people: credit cards. This got me thinking about one aspect of life in Japan that I have up until now been fairly critical of - the fact that Japan is a cash society. Credit cards are becoming slightly more common, and as such they're are being accepted in more and more places, yet still the norm remains to walk around with the equivalent of several hundred dollars in your wallet and pay in cash. Whipping out a 10,000 yen note (roughly $120 right now) at the convenience store to pay for that pack of gum isn't seen as dangerous or tacky - it's pretty damn normal.

Now Japan has its own financial problems. But perhaps this cash-carrying mentality has shielded them to some degree. I don't claim to be an expert on the topic, but I get the impression most Japanese individuals don't hold much credit card debt. Can't say the same for Americans, on average. I guess there are two sides to every coin.

My New Year's

Here I am, freshly back from spending New Year's in Yamaguchi prefecture (山口県) with Yoshie's family. They were really nice - fed me, took me sightseeing, ferried me back and forth to the train station. Yamaguchi is the western-most prefecture in the Chugoku region, and according to this map I found, the only pink part of Japan.

Image from Wikipedia

It was my first "Japanese" New Year's, as my first year was spent at home, probably sleeping, and last year I went to Tokyo and hung around with foreigners (whee!). It was pretty much what I had heard it would be. On New Year's Eve, we sat down at the kotatsu table and ate a variety of stuff - salad, soba soup, sashimi, etc. It was pretty tasty. Then we watched TV for about five hours. This was my least favorite part of the trip.

See, in Japan there is a popular kind of TV show called "batsu game." I believe the Simpsons parodied it once - the family traveled to Japan and in order to get home again they had to appear on a game show to try to win some money. But once there, the host explained to them that while American gameshows reward success, Japanese ones punish failure. These penalty games are shows in which contestants, who are usually comedians, must try to avoid messing up and being punished. As you can imagine, they fail frequently, and most of the penalties are physical. There's one popular kind, which is what we watched for about five hours, in which the contestants must participate in some tasks without laughing, or they are punished. Sometimes they just sit around and talk, trying to make each other laugh. I kid you not, there were some segments of this show where the comedians were sitting around a table playing with what looked like a Japanese Ken doll, trying to make each other laugh. When they inevitably did, some guys wearing ski masks and fatigues would run in and hit them in the butt with what looked like a hard rubber bat. This was funny for about 30 minutes for me, then got old quickly. 

There was also one part of the show were some guys in black bodysuits would run after them, and if caught they would have to undergo some kind of physical abuse. One penalty was standing under a window and having them put some blunt fish-hook looking implements in their nose while some guy on the second floor reeled. Another was a machine that kicked them in the balls.

I know slap-stick humor is big in Japan, but after a certain point it gets to be a little disgusting. You'd think getting hit in the groin (or even the butt) a few times could cause some permanent damage. But still, people laugh. Maybe if you know the comedians you can better appreciate their reactions (or their punishment). I know I'd like to see SMAP on a batsu game.

Around 11:30 we walked to a nearby shrine and Yoshie and her parents said a prayer and got their fortunes once midnight hit. It was cold, but they had a big bonfire going outside the shrine.

Hatsumode

It was a good trip overall - nice experience to have. I think the coolest part of the trip was when we visited this little town where hawks were hanging around waiting for food. Friggin hawks, sitting around like crows or seagulls. People would buy bread at nearby stores and throw pieces into the air, and the hawks would swoop by and grab them. That's where I saw the most badass thing, possibly ever: Yoshie's father ripped off a piece of bread, held it above his head, and just looked at us cooly as a hawk flew by and grabbed it out of his hand.

So it was a good experience, but man, Japanese-style New Year's can be a challenge if you're either not big on Japanese food or not big on Japanese TV.

December Blog Matsuri!

Welcome to the December 2011 Japan Blog Matusri! I'm very pleased to be this month's host, and would just like to quickly thank Nick of Japan Soc for keeping it going, and all those who participated this month. The theme for this time was "Japan Firsts." All right, let's see what we have.

First off, this is a little unconventional, but it's the holidays so let's not be too nitpicky. Christina wrote in about her first Japan experience, so I'll host that right here:

"I first went to Japan when I was fourteen, and then again at fifteen. The second trip was the time I had...wait for it...ever participated in a giant group dance while wearing a turban. Seriously. I was living in Okinawa and my sister was doing a traditional Okinawan dance, Eisa, for her school festival and I got to be a part of it. It was insane. And I can still do the dance, 3+ years later."

Thanks, Christina!

My First Cooking Class...and It's in Japanese!

Next, a very delicious entry from QQ's Adventures in Japan. Her first cooking class, with a twist. If the pictures are any indication, she has a future in the culinary arts.

Hajimete Desu!

Rene over at Shoujiki Shindoi brings us a collection of her Japan firsts, from TV to JLPT. We wish you luck and safe travels in your trip next year, Rene!

J-RPG or My First Japan Experience

Blog Japon features a post about a topic near and dear to my heart - video games. They can indeed be a good tool (or incentive) for learning the language.

The Western Sentai Invasion of the 1990's

Sanjo-chan over at Centakume gives us a look at her gateway into the realm of J-Land - sentai (戦隊), which is a Japanese word roughly meaning "fighting force." Ah, Power Rangers was just coming into popularity when I was growing up. Meee-mories.

Japan Firsts

Haiku Girl reflects upon some of her own Japan Firsts, along with the reason why she came to be interested in Japan. Can you guess? Shenmue makes a guest appearance but turns out not to be the reason why Haiku Girl came to be fascinated by Japan.

The Purple Sumo of Naeba

Lee-san at LoneleePlanet shares his first time skiing with us. Skiing can indeed be a humbling experience for noobs (I myself have only gone once), but being in a beautiful place can certainly make for an enjoyable and memorable time.

Japan Firsts: Yakuza

 Proudly representing JADJ, Joe weaves a tale about his first (drunken) encounter with Japanese mobsters. The lesson I came away with? That all Yakuza want is your respect...and some beer.

Mt. Fuji Pictures

Finally, Xamuel's submission of his first trip to Mt. Fuji. Some beautiful pictures and some Enrish, too. I still have to get out there one of these days...

Well, that about does it. Another matsuri and another year successfully come and gone (never seen a year that hasn't). We hope you had a great 2010 and wish you a happy and healthy 2011. 良いお年を！Next month's matsuri will be hosted by MarieLo at A Bag of Sweet Delights. Our next matsuri will be held over at Lonelee Planet, by our one and old Reesan. よろしくお願いします！

Let us entertain you!

As another year comes to a close, I've been thinking recently about not only what course my life will take in 2011, but what I can do to improve the blog. According to Google Analytics, we're getting quite a few readers on a regular basis these days. In business, it's often not that wise an idea to ask the customer what he wants, as he often doesn't know. Despite that, I'm going to give it a go.

What do you think? Is there anything you'd like to see more or less of? Any kind of new content that you'd like us to take a whack at? Please leave us a comment and let us know what you're thinking!

Also, please be encouraged to check out the poll on the right-hand sidebar and leave your feedback.

Oh, and for you procrastinators out there, don't forget about the Blog Matsuri deadline!

Healing waters

At my part-time school, there are three vice principals - each is in charge of a different shift. Just a couple hours ago, two of them walked into the lounge area. One of them set down a pail of water on the floor and walked away. The other one sat down, leaned over, and put his hands in the water. He continued to sit there, slumped over with his hands in the bucket. I kept reading my book and pretended not to notice.

A little while later, one of the teachers came by to retrieve a printout from the nearby printer. The following conversation ensued:

Teacher: Oh, did you hurt your hand?
VP: No, but I'm not feeling very well.
Teacher: Ah. I have some cold medicine at my desk - do you want some?
VP: I'm ok with this, thanks.
Teacher: Ok...um, is that going to help?
VP: Yeah, it looks like it will.
Teacher: Ah...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds some of these unconventional healing methods a little less likely to help than just taking some medicine.

Merry Christmas!

And happy other holidays for those of you who celebrate them.

Japanese Firsts: Yakuza

I'm very excited to be able to contribute to the 2010 December Blog Matsuri. This is a first for me and coincidentally the topic of this month's Matsuri is Japanese Firsts. The Japanese First I'll be talking about is my run in with the Yakuza. I'm hoping this will be a Japanese Last as well. I'm going to give away the ending now and say I survived.

Everyone knows about the Yakuza. If you're an avid video game player or movie watcher and someone mentions Japan, you will picture the following things in this order: robots, ninja, samurai, and the Yakuza. And maybe also school girls. I'm not here to judge.

I knew very little about the Yakuza when I visited Tokyo with my friends a couple years ago. I knew that they still retained, or at least said they retained, the honor of the time of samurai. I knew they were famous for often missing part of their little finger, lost as punishment for some dishonor. I also heard that many have large tattoos across their back of carp and/or dragons. That was the extent of my knowledge. With just missing little fingers and back tattoos to go on, unless a Yakuza guy wanted to pinky swear or decided to walk around the streets of Tokyo without his shirt during the cold Japanese autumn, I'd never know he was Yakuza by just looking at him.

My friends and I had spent the night going to bars and singing karaoke in Tokyo's Shibuya district. I was having a great time, but my friends were falling asleep. Early in the AM they decided to catch the first train back to our hotel. This being my first time living it up in Tokyo I decided to see what sort of debauchery was going on very early on a Sunday morning. I wandered around trying to find someone else in the same state of mind as me, namely full of caffeine and alcohol. It seemed hopeless and I was preparing to catch the subway back when I spotted a group of about 7 or 8 young Japanese guys sitting in front of a convenience store drinking some beer. One of my favorite pastimes is randomly hanging out with strangers in Japan. I thought I might as well sit down and join them, though at this point I was new to Japan and my Japanese ability was nearly non-existent.

I walked up to the group, which caused them to stop talking and look at me. I smiled, and used the little Japanese I knew to say good morning and introduce myself. They seemed to think this was pretty funny. I struck up a conversation with two of the guys who were sitting a little outside of the group. Before they could introduce themselves some other guy said their names were Hotdog and Ketchup. I'm doubting that was their real names but from then on, that's what they were known as. I ended up sitting down near them. They were being friendly but kept nervously glancing at one guy in the center of everyone else. I didn't get his name, actually no one told me their real names, but for this story I'll call the guy in the center Yoshi. Yoshi was the smallest guy in the group but for some reason everyone seemed a bit afraid of him. He appeared upset at me joining them. He kept talking quietly to the people around him, who nodded whenever he talked, all the while stealing glances at me. It was then that I first thought that this didn't seem like a normal group of guys. It was also then that I remembered hearing Yakuza don't always take too kindly to foreigners in Japan. Due to my poor Japanese I didn't understand what he was saying, but I got the distinct impression that he was talking about how they were going to jump me in a minute. Hotdog and Ketchup looked nervous. I asked them what was going on. Hotdog looked at me and said, "It would be a good idea to buy him a drink. Like, right now." I decided to take Hotdog's advice and went into the convenience store and got the best beer they had, a Sapporo. While in there I wondered what the heck I just got myself into.

I came out of the convenience store and gave Yoshi the beer. He looked at it, looked at me, cracked it open and took a swig. He smiled, not a very friendly smile but enough to make me think my offer was sufficient. Yoshi turned to the guy next to him and told him to get everyone drinks. The guy immediately obeyed. Yoshi asked me a couple questions such as what I thought about Tokyo and Japan and Japanese food and the like. I just said that Japan is the best, I love Japan, every country should be like Japan. Yoshi seemed to think these were acceptable answers. The guy came back with drinks and handed them out. He gave Yoshi another beer and a bottle of whiskey. Yoshi handed the bottle of whiskey to me and said how he heard foreigners can really handle their alcohol. Oh crap, I thought, he's going to make me drink this whole thing. Yoshi said "Kanpai!" and everyone took a drink. I took a little sip. Yoshi looked at me and said "More, more!" OK, I thought. I took a real swig. He seemed pleased about this. I noticed other guys secretly pouring out their beers on the ground. Genius, I thought, and poured out discreet amounts of whiskey whenever Yoshi wasn't looking.

I went back to sitting with Hotdog and Ketchup. The mood was significantly lighter now, and I no longer felt like I was about to suffer bodily injury. We talked for awhile, sometimes some random other guys of the group would ask me a couple questions. I was a complete shutterbug on that trip, so I thought that since we all seemed to be getting along, I should get a picture with everyone. I pulled out my mobile phone and asked if it would be OK to take a picture. Everyone said at once, "No, no, not of him. Not of him” referring to Yoshi. They said it was OK to get a picture of me, Hotdog, and Ketchup though, who I guess were low on the totem pole or not Yakuza at all. Here's that picture.

Hotdog is the one wielding the hot dog in a threatening manner and I'm the non-blurry white guy.

After another 20 or so minutes talking with Hotdog and Ketchup some of the other guys brought me into their conversation. They kept asking me a question which I didn't understand. Hotdog translated and said to me, "Do you respect him?" gesturing to Yoshi. I said yes. The guys asked again and Hotdog said, "Do you REALLY respect him?" I said that of course I did.

After awhile Yoshi decided it was time for everyone to go. Everyone stood. I said my goodbyes. Yoshi faced me and everyone quietly watched. He gave me a small bow. Everyone looked at me for my response. I got the feeling I was expected to be humble about this so I bowed back and said “Doumo arigatou gozaimashita," which is 'thank you very much'. Yoshi seemed pleased with that so he waved everyone to follow him and they left. I headed in the opposite direction in a bit of a round-about way to the station.

And there ends my experience with the Yakuza. You might be wondering how I KNOW they were Yakuza. Well, it's true I didn't ask them. I didn't notice any fingers missing or see any tattoos. But my powerful deductive reasoning tells me they were. Also, this story would be far less interesting if they were just some guys and Yoshi was the birthday boy.

J-Word Play #14 (Answer)

This month's special riddle was:

ぎんこういんの好きな食べ物は何でしょう？

Answer

朱肉 or お金もち (red ink or money mochi)

I suppose this was a tricky one! The riddle can have two meanings depending on how you read it. ぎんこういん can be read as 銀行員(bank staff or banker) or 銀行印(bank stamp). If read the first way, bankers like お金もち, which is a pun that can be either money mochi or rich people. If read the second way, stamps need red ink in order to be of use. It just so happens that the kanji for red ink includes the kanji for meat. Ta-da!

Unfortunately there were no winners this time around. I'll carry the prize over 'til next time, so check back in!

New domain

Always wanted to own (or rent, as the case may be) one of these things. This blog can now also be accessed via www.jadij.com. [Fanfare]

Yup, today I'm toying with things a bit. Well...so this post wasn't a complete waste of your time, this just in: Japanese people love rice!