Back in Japan - PART TWO - Applying to Interac

So after a few years neither here nor there, muddling through various jobs and playing a lot of FIFA, I finally made it to Japan! In this post I'll go through what it was like to apply to Interac.

Let's jump right in!

Back in Japan - PART ONE - the story so far

After a very long hiatus - Totally Japan is back in action! I moved back to Japan in March 2018 to work with Interac as an ALT.

Quite a lot to talk about! Let's dive right in :)

I have a YouTube Channel!

Japan has weird fees and pricing systems

Hey guys! I'm back!

I wanted to talk about something that I remembered while doing some online shopping for a friend today. My friend, who recently moved to Japan to teach, asked me to find him the best deal for a WIMAX router (essentially a portable wireless router). I look through the (almost intentionally) convoluted fee structure and eventually find the 'joining fee'. Take a look at this:

Japanese-speaking 'foreigners' getting ignored, and 'silent translators' in Japan

So this is just a little trip down memory lane, venting about how 'foreign-looking' people who speak Japanese in a group are routinely ignored, while the 'Asian-looking' people who DON'T speak Japanese are addressed as the representatives of a small group.

Not sure what I'm talking about?

TJB is getting a new look!

Hey guys, this is just a quick message to say that in the next few days I'll be updating the look of Totally Japan Blog to make it easier to navigate and generally nicer to look at :)

If you have any feedback about what you like/dislike about the current layout of the site, please let me know in a comment, and please do the same once I've updated it!

All the best!

Do you need a japanese electronic dictionary?

If you've ever been to Japan, or if you've been to university lectures popular with Chinese students, you'll know what an electronic dictionary looks like. If you don't.... then take a look at this photo!
An electronic dictionary is... well... an electronic dictionary :) It's a little computer which includes a number of dictionaries (Japanese-Japanese, Japanese-English, English-Japanese, English-English) among other things which I'll outline in the post - but the question is: do YOU really need one?

Japan here I come!!!!!!

About to get on the plane to Tokyo!!!

Watch this space, I have like a 3 million year flight ahead of me :-)

Peace!
Seb

Manners On Japanese Trains

When in Japan whether you're a tourist, a student or a long term resident, you should be aware that you will stand out like a sore thumb if you act inappropriately while riding the many trains that zip in and out of Japan's busy cities. I'm not talking about getting naked or attacking people! Some of the stuff in this post you won't find in travel guides for Japan or the cultural sections of Japanese textbooks so read carefully and take note!

What's the secret to learning Japanese?

In the age of 30-day, quick-fix, sexy abs flashy programmes that promise you the world for a small fee of all your money per month, a lot of people want to know about the next big thing in terms of being able to do this or do that. 

A lot of people see someone with decent Japanese and ask, 

"Woah... How can I become that good at Japanese? What's their secret?"

Get Anki (and burn your flashcards)

Do you use flashcards to learn and memorise things like vocabulary and individual kanji? Isn't it annoying how you can never keep track of what you know well and what you need more practice on? Don't you find it irritating how, as you add more cards to your pile, it just becomes an unmanageable mess? And then your mum spills her coffee all over them and you have to start from square one?!

Well.. if you're sitting there thinking, "Hmm.. Yep, that sounds like me!", I'd like to introduce you to a revolutionary piece of software called Anki. 

iOS for Japanese - The Romaji Keyboard

In this post, I'll be showing you the ins and outs of the Japanese Romaji Keyboard on your iOS device. Using the Romaji Keyboard is great because it can be used by beginners from a very early point as long as you are at least familiar with all of the hiragana and katakana characters. 

I'll show you how to type your first Japanese word, and I'll also show you how to avoid one of the most common problems encountered when typing in Japanese. 

How to install Japanese onto your iOS device

Your iOS device, whether it's an iPhone, an iPod Touch or an iPad, can be transformed into a tool to help you learn Japanese in just a few easy steps! 

Here's how to install Japanese keyboards onto your iOS device!

Goals, Goals, Goals!

If you're just beginning to learn Japanese, having fluency in your mind at the start is a dangerous game to play unless:

1) You are moving / have moved to Japan and are immersed in the culture and the language. 

2) You are one of those very rare but lucky people who have a real gift for learning languages and can make huge gains in a very short space of time (i.e. not me)

If you find yourself outside of the two groups mentioned above, it's much better to trust the tortoise - "Slow and steady wins the race!"

The top 5 ways to sleep on a Japanese train

Bet he hasn't missed his stop!

Following my post explaining why Japanese sleep on trains, I thought it might be a good idea to give you a run down of the most popular sleeping positions adopted by the locals. After all, everybody sleeps on the train! You just have to know how to do it without looking like a fool! So without further delay, here are the top 5 ways to sleep on a Japanese train.

Why do Japanese people sleep on the train?

I’ve officially been in Japan for a year now and one thing that has had me puzzled all along is the phenomenon of people sleeping on trains. It’s hardly uncommon to get on a train in the morning and see a whole row of people fast asleep. The way in which Japanese people can fall into (and come out of) a deep sleep so quickly is simply amazing!

That's what it's all about!

If you’re like me, you’ve seen these people and you’ve been green with envy. If you’re like me, you already know that you simply can't allow yourself to fall asleep on the train for cultural and psychological reasons. It's not really common to sleep on the train in the West (or at least in the UK) but when you consider the next few points, it’s quite easy to see why sleeping on the train is both safe and socially acceptable in Japan!

"Your Japanese is very good!"... really?

Is this is how Japanese people view foreigners?

We all know that Japanese people are well known for their kind nature, but are your Japanese skills really as good as they make them out to be? The answer to that question is a tricky one and there are a few reasons why this causes so much confusion among learners of the Japanese language.

The Chopstick Ultimatum

This will definitely happen to you at least once in a Japanese shop selling food as long as you look remotely non-Asian, but the frequency at which it occurs will vary depending on your level of Japanese, as well as whether you are dressed like a tourist or someone who might possibly be living in Japan for the medium to long term. Usually they will want to avoid any potential risk of the beginnings of a disastrous English conversation, but the ones with a more courage will pop the big question....

What are you looking at?

The Japanese Konbini

Having moved into my company apartment with no internet access and possessing a bank account of which the funds are rapidly drying up, I’ve had plenty of time to sit here and (aside from doing basically nothing) reflect on some funny but also fantastic things about Japan. Although I’ve been here for the best part of a year now, it’s taken me this long to sit down and really take in everything that has happened over the past eleven months. 

No Conbini is complete without countless signs and posters!

I hope that anybody who currently lives (or has ever lived) in Japan can relate to this and have a small chuckle! For those of you who have not yet been to the land of the Rising Sun, I hope that this will act as a primer for the kind of environment you will experience! I’ve got plenty to talk about but let’s just focus mainly on two funny and strange (but interesting!) things about the Japanese convenience store!