Gomi no hi! ゴミの日

Yep, gomi no hi. And in Japan, almost every day is gomi no hi! I’m talking about, of course, trash day…. But as anybody who lives in Japan knows, trash day is really trash day(s), because we have to sort our trash into many different piles and each pile is picked up on a different day. And maybe at a different place as well. When I moved into my house the landlord handed me a trash book. A few pages are shown in the photo below. It talks about all the different types of trash, how to sort it, where to put it out, what type of bag to use for each type of trash (they color code them), and where to buy stickers if you need them to take trash away that’s not on the list.

For me, Tuesdays and Fridays are burnable trash day, in the red bag, and put in the net in front of the house three doors down. Every first and third Monday of the month are cardboard day (and heaven forbid it falls on a holiday!) Wrapped in recycled string of course. And dropped near the park. Wednesday is plastic bottle day, along with glass bottles and aluminum foil- all in separate bags and dropped at the corner! Wednesday is also clear plastics day, in the blue bag, and that gets dropped in front of our house. And once a month, I can’t remember which day, is recyclables.


Trash data

At first it was a daunting task. But honestly, after 4 years I am almost used to it. Of course, every time you move it has to be learned all over again.

The town I lived in before, I had to write my name on the bag. And if it was not done properly, the garbage men would bring it back to my house so I could try all over again. There is really no escaping it. If you are going to live in Japan, get used to sorting, folding, cutting cardboard, bundling papers, and recycling.

Learning Kanji

For me, Japanese has been excruciatingly difficult to learn. One of the most challenging aspects to the language, as anybody who has studied it would probably agree, is Kanji, which are pictographs that are used to write words.

As I write this post it is the rainy season in Japan. The rainy season in Japanese is known as tsuyu – which is written as 梅雨 using kanji.

The first character is ume (梅), which means “plum”. The second character is ame (雨), which means “rain”. Plums bloom in the spring, which is when the rainy season in Japan occurs. But look again at the kanji. 梅 can be read as either “tsu” or “ume”. 雨 can be read as either “ame” or “yu”.

Here is an interesting article that discusses the reason for this.

But the point is that each kanji has multiple readings. What makes it super challenging for foreigners to learn is that native Japanese speakers already know the meanings of words like ame, ume, and tsuyu. So when Japanese speakers learn the kanji, they have words that they can associate it with. It’s still a lot of memorization and children in Japanese schools spend years learning how to read and write. Non-native Japanese speakers who try to learn both the kanji and the words together have a more challenging task in front of them.

So all of that being said, is it worth it to learn kanji if you are going to visit Japan? The answer is yes… you don’t have to be a kanji master, but knowing some kanji will make your visit a lot easier. Signs and menus use kanji, most Japanese use kanji to write their names, and knowing a little bit will make your visit much more enjoyable.

There are apps you can download that teach kanji, will let you start at a beginner level, and provide features like flash cards to help you study. If you are looking to try and learn some kanji, I recommend either “Shirabe Jisho” or “Kanjistar” – both are available on the Apple Store.

Learning kanji is not for the faint of heart… but it’s not impossible either. It will only take a few hours and a little practice to learn some basics, although it could take years to master.

Hello Kitty!

Today I was at the station waiting for the bullet train (also known as the Shinkansen) when I saw the Hello Kitty train pull into the station going the other direction.​

I actually rode it once. You just have to be lucky enough to catch it when it gets to the station. They have a little display set up in the front car for little kids. The rest of the train is like any other one, except they have Hello Kitty stickers and decals.

I never really understood the attraction to Hello Kitty or some of the other cute mascots they have running around Japan. But whoever is inventing these mascots is making a fortune.

But sometimes things backfire. Do you know the story of Tritium, the Radioactive Bunny Mascot who TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) introduced to convince people it was okay to release just a little treated contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean?… and I’m not kidding…. Here is a link to the story.

If you go back to the video of the Hello Kitty train video and listen at the beginning you will hear some bird song. Those are not real birds – they are recordings of birds of prey that are piped into the station to keep birds away from the trains. When a bullet train traveling at 200mph hits a bird it can mean major damage to the train – not to mention what happens to the bird.

Right before the train pulled in I saw a little sparrow hopping along the track. I guess he wasn’t buying the decoy. I feel bad for the little guy when he goes back into the wild. Probably tells all his sparrow friends not to worry about those noises. Then they all get eaten. It’s actually pretty sad when you think about it.

Welcome/ようこそ

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I call this site Transition to Japan. My goal is to introduce you to life in Japan by sharing some stories, providing information about the people, the language, the food, the culture, and the history of the country.

My goal is to build a bridge that allows a better understanding of cultures. I want to reach those Westerners who are interested in Ja-sense people and culture, and also those Japanese who are interested in Western culture and thinking.

This is not a meant to be exclusively a food blog, or a travel blog or a language blog – but over time I see this site as having the potential to become a portal with easy access to those type of sites.

Japan is a magical place that transforms people and nobody who visits comes away unchanged. Anyone who has ever visited Japan has stories to tell. So let’s share!

Please come by as often as you like. I will continue to add content and links that I hope that you will enjoy.