Impressions of daily life in Japan
Customer service is extremely important in Japan. Sometimes this leads to situations that seem a bit excessive in my eyes, like the amount of packaging they use or that time we saw a heater placed outside in the open air, to accommodate waiting customers. In Japan, it is very popular to eat out for lunch.... Continue Reading →
In Japan, there is vending machine for everything, apparently. I was so surprised to see a vending machine for umbrellas! Very convenient though. If you want to see other vending machines, I also wrote a post about a Japanese vending machine for beauty products.
I recently learned the Japanese saying 'Even a road of thousand miles begins with a single step'. In Japanese it reads 'Senri no michi mo ippo kara/ 千里の道も一歩から。' I picked it up watching the dorama 'Massan' that is currently airing on NHK. We are currently in that time of year where everyone evaluates the past... Continue Reading →
Oden is a typical winter dish from Japan. It consists of several ingredients like daikon, tofu, konnyaku, eggs, etc., stewed in a light, soy-flavoured broth. One of the many wonderful things about oden is that it is so cheap. Each piece of oden costs between 75 and 100 yen (between 0,5 and 0,7 euro). It... Continue Reading →
The Japanese are masters of customer service. Shops are always thinking of new ways to make things more convenient for their customers. A good example of this is when we bought our rice cooker. It was a heavy machine in a big box. Rather than giving us a giant plastic bag, they attached a handle... Continue Reading →
When living in Japan, you are constantly seeing funny English phrases everywhere. Many misunderstandings result from literally translating Japanese into English. Both languages have a totally different structure and many formal Japanese expressions have no English equivalent. If you speak a little Japanese, some of the strange English starts to make a lot more sense.... Continue Reading →
The Japans 