Edojin is the journal of Rémi's stay in Japan. He obtained a working holiday visa with a plan to stay in the country for up to a year, moving in October 2009. Everyday, he will explore the culture, meet the people, and learn the language while sharing his experience with the world in writing, photos, and videos. This site is presented by Rémi's personal site, Rémino.
I didn’t have much time to write recently, so I recorded the video above last week explaining why and what I’ve been doing recently. It’s been weeks since I gave an update about my life in Japan. In fact, I’ve been so occupied with work that I forgot to post the video here after recording it. Let’s just hope you can tolerate hearing me talk for half an hour! To those who already watched the video via my YouTube account, thank you!
The Japanese love Kit Kat. One theory as to why the chocolate bars are so famous is the name sounds a bit like the saying “Kitsu katsu!,” meaning “I’ll win!” However, I have a better theory: it’s chocolate.
Although the famous crispy wafer is sold in many countries around the world, the largest variety with the most unique kinds can only be found in Japan. There are a wide range of flavours from the typical fruity sorts like strawberry and blueberry to the typical Japanese tastes like wasabi and green tea. There’s even a red wine flavour to strike your fancy!
Minmin brought a kind of Kit Kat that was particularly interesting. Not because it was so different, but because it was so familiar.
Maple Kit Kat. The package indicates the wafers are covered in white chocolate mixed with a small amount of real maple sugar from Quebec. Indeed, it tastes like the sweet real thing.
The addictive sugary treat brought a question to my mind. Eastern Canada is the world’s capital of maple syrup, and its cost here is a lot higher. Yet, here I am, letting the maple chocolate melt in my mouth while none of my friends back home can get a hold of one. It’s hard to believe that Canadians came up with maple syrup, but not the maple-flavoured Kit Kat!
We can only hope that, someday, Canadians will treat their own maple syrup just as well as the Japanese does.
Tomorrow will be my 90th day in Japan. Three months since I’ve moved in this country from Ottawa on October 23rd. This means my first working-holiday visa is half done and I’ll have to go renew it for another six months ideally before April.
Time sure flies! I barely had a chance to truly enjoy myself here. Since I moved in my new apartment last month, most of my time was occupied by the holidays and chores I have to do for my new life. Towards the end of December, I changed my address on my foreigner registration card. No need for a new card, fortunately; the lady at the city office simply wrote my new address at the back. I also ordered my custom-made hanko stamp at a nearby department store which was ready for pick-up only a few days after.
Both the change of address and the hanko were useful at validating my identity to open a bank account at the local post office at to sign, or rather to stamp, the required forms. Apparently, since the privatization of the postal service, Japan Post, formerly the Postal Services Agency, became the privately-owned Japan Post Group (Nihon Yuusei Kousha, 日本郵政公社) in 2007 and operates a few companies including Japan Post Services (Nihon Yuubin, 日本郵便) offering post and courier services, and Japan Post Bank (Yuucho Ginko, ゆうちょ銀行), which offers banking services under the same roof of any Japan Post office. There are many post offices and many of them now have ATMs. Quite convenient, but I find that ATMs in Japan not to be 24-hour interesting; like those machines need to sleep every night.
This month has been mostly spent on work for two projects due this month. And I was worried my freelance Web development wouldn’t be enough… I haven’t got many opportunities to go do something outside and meet many friends lately. Frankly, I want this to change as soon as next month and I wish to spend more of my limited time exploring this country and to be with my girlfriend.
Someone in Japan just came up with a new way to eat chips without you ever touching them, not making your greasy hands greasier.
If only Billy Mays was still with us. I can imagine his loud voice pitching the Potechi no Te, or the Potato Chip Hand:
(Cut to scene in black and white of people having a hard time thinking.)
Did this ever happen to you? You like eating chips, but your hands are full of germs. You wash your hands with soap for hours and hours, but eating those chips will just make your hands greasy, undoing all your hard work.
(Cut to Billy Mays, radiant and smiling.)
Hi! Billy Mays here with another great product. It’s the Potato Chip Hand and it will solve all of your grease problems.
(Billy shows the product with confidence to the camera in his strong left hand. Cut to various scenes showing the usage of the product.)
It’s a short stick that fits in your hand with a little plastic hand at the end. All you have to do, is to reach to a potato chip with your plastic hand, put it around the chip, and press the button on the stick to firmly grab the potato chip. And thanks to the No Touch Table System (NTTS), just put the chip into your mouth with the help of the stick, and it’s done. Enjoying hand-free potato chip snacking has never been easier.
Other similar devices will crush the chips into hundred pieces. But not this one! With its No Broken Clutch System (NBCS), the plastic fingers will put just enough pressure to hold the chip in place, without breaking it.
When you’re done, the Finger Easy Cleaning System (FECS) will make it easy to clean the Potato Chip Hand. Simply tap the button a few times to move the fingers, and you’re done!
The Potato Chip Hand is great for all occasions that requires you to eat potato chips! Plus, it has the Billy Mays warranty.
I don’t know how much it costs, but Billy Mays would probably sell it for $19.99, with a second one free. Besides, he sold the Gopher, which now feels like the big brother of this little plastic stick. I wonder if this tiny back scratcher will take on in Japan. It probably would in North America, where everyone is getting fat on chips.
We just didn’t bother counting them. They are just many of them and we were worried they might go bad before we can eat them all. My girlfriend came up with the perfect solution: drink them.
So, we went out, bought ourselves a juicer and in the next morning, I squeezed a good dozen mandarines to pour two glasses of delicious fresh pulpy mandarine juice. A part of a complete breakfast!
It’s a lot sweeter than what I expected. And although I usually don’t like pulp, I loved the one in our juice.
I wish I could fill a glass for you. We still have many mandarines left. However, packing the juice in a sealed container and having it shipped to your place before it goes bad is probably impossible. This is why you’ll have to enjoy the juicy photos I have for you today! (Please don’t try to print those pictures and squeeze the paper sheets in a juicer. Who knows what may come out.)
Here’s the only thing remotely related to Japan in this post, your Japanese pun of the day:
「蜜柑ジュースは未完です。」 Mikan juusu wa mikan desu. “The mandarin juice isn’t ready.”
(Many people will smack you in Japan for doing a pun. I’ll elaborate on this later. In the meantime, wear a safety helmet when saying one here. You’ve been warned.)
