What time did to Japan

No one entity can escape the grasp of time, not even the Land of the Rising Run. This particular topic caught my attention as I was flipping the pages of a well written piece of work called 昔と今の日本 which literally translates to the Old & Current Japan. I am unable to do an entire book review (obviously due to copyright reasons) but I can at least an insight on what you can expect from a book such as this. It's probably the first Japanese book I've ever finish up until now. Ranging from Japanese otakus to historian, I believe this book will provide a sense of value on time and how it affects Japan and its people.

1. Fertility and replacement rate

It's no surprise that despite the advanced medical care they posses, it doesn't change the fact that Japan is well known for their low birth rate and high population or elderly. But it wasn't always like that. In 1930, the birth rate was a solid 4.7 per one adult female. That number just hit rock bottom to a mere 1.3 coming into the 21st century. Not to mention the total fertility rate (TFR) - the number of children a women bear in her lifetime is far below the replacement rate. This aging community and sexless couples was a huge factor in the decreasing population up until this point. Many would argue on why this drastic change occurred with some claiming it was due to the number of independent women who chose career over childbirth while some of the single men refuse to leave their parent's house.

In order to to prevent the declining rate of population, in average, one female must give birth to 2.1 babies which is still well short from the current 1.3. It's a long shot but several measures have been taken by the Japanese government which includes loosening the regulation on childcare provider and making it easier for women to return to work after labour.

(Quick trivia : despite being known for the low fertility rate, Japan has never made it to the "top 10" countries with the lowest fertility rate)

2. Number of  graduates

Among 100 Japanese student, 97 students made it into high school and 50 of them made them into university. It was enough for them to earn them a spot in the top 5 country with the most college graduation rate. That is the current Japan we know today... Going back 50 years ago, the number of people who made it to school, 60...and only a mere 10 person was able to graduate from university. Like most places, it was consider a luxury back then to successfully pass a university entrance exam compared to the current state we live in.

However, there exist a trend now where students are choosing to work without pursuing higher education (beginning at the age of 16-18). As for the pros and cons, I'll leave it for some other day (feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section)

3. Consumed product


Currently, statistics shows that the average Japanese now consumes 92 gram of fish compared to the previous 86 grams per day in 1970. Being an island itself, Japan is not unfamiliar with seafood and aquatic vegetation.  However, consumption of meat saw a huge rise instead, going from 36 gram per day to 77 gram per day. We can thank the revolution of agriculture for this. The poultry section on the other hand, saw a huge increase as well as people consume dairy product (milk, cheese, yogurt) more in the 21st century (253 gram/day) compare to 1930's Japan (173 gram/day)

However, not known to many, Japan are heavily reliant on imported meat due to their low self sufficiency rate. Japan's food self sufficiency rate on a calorie basis is the lowest among 12 developed countries cited in an international comparison released by the farm ministry in 2003. Expert cite many factors that have contributed to the decline. One common explanation is the radical change in the eating habits of Japanese and in the food industry after World War II

On the bright side Japan's self sufficiency rate for rice, eggs, whale meat and mandarin oranges exceeds 90 percent. However the rate for essential ingredients for Japanese cuisine, including soy beans is a mere 5 percent, and is just 13 percent for daily necessities like cooking oil.

My first month storage

Interesting places to visit (Kobe)

Hello guys, I'm just
This time I'm just sharing about the time I went Kobe. This was more of a gathering for me and my friends who are studying in the Kansai region. This trip was also made during the Golden Week since it's one of the few rare ocassion where everyone has a holiday at the same time.

Getting from Nara to Kobe was not really that hard but it took longer that expected. But situated in the middle of where all of our schools are, just the right spot for our gathering. All of us met up at JR Kobe Station and for a train station, it was huuuuge, enough to be a mall itself. Apparently it's called Umie and it's one of the main shopping complex around here. Needless to say, all of us took our time shopping there and gather back again in GODIVA

GODIVA, chocolate paradise

After that, we straight to probably what seems to be the must visit place in Kobe called Harborland. Just like any other harbour, you can see ferries around and lookout tower as well. Now that I think about it, that was probably the first ocean I've seen here in Japan.From here you can see the Kobe Port Tower, the icon of this place, right next to Kobe Maritime Museum. Didn't enter any of those two cus probably spent too much time at the mall.

 

You don't see many roads, nor car in Nara

 

Something you don't see everyday

Iconic watchtower

     After taking some pictures all around the all famous harbour, we took a trip to the much more packed street they called Kobe Nankanmachi AKA Kobe Chinatown. Well, technically I'm a Chinese but seeing my people's culture spread like butter even here, just makes me glad to be one (that feeling doesn't come often). And it is also here where we had our try on the famous Kobe beef eeeeeveryone has been talking about. The hype bout it makes it the wait in line more bearable. We had it in the form of burger since we just had our lunch there but that 1000 yen burger was worth the money. I'm not a big fan of beef myself but even I could tell that meat was definitely one of a kind.

rush hour?

even spiderman can't help it

Of course there were other delicacy that our senpai said were good such as pau (steamed buns) and whatnot but news came that a new cheese tart shop called Pablo just opened recently and as one of us ran heading there, the rest of us just follow suit. If GODIVA was the chocolate paradise, PABLO would be the cheesecake paradise, period. That was just good how the tarts was for me. Feeling the steamy cheese cream scorching my taste buds was just orgasmatic.

Next we took a break from eating, and took a few bus and train trips here and there looking for Mt. Rokko. Nothing extreme, just waited for a cable car at the foot of the mountain and after some smooth ride in about 10 minutes, there we were at the top of the Rokka mountain ranges. The view from above, just to put it short, is like a window to Kobe itself. (sorry as you've probably known, I'm a shitty photographer so can't really take a nice scenic view of it, will probably work on it in the future) But regardleass, the view from up there was phenomenal. Greenery surrounding the hills and up further you can see the city itself and also the ocean that stretches after that.

After that we just head back to the city and had our dinner there plus a few last shopping before we say our goodbyes to our friends whom we might not see again until summer break.

                              

Best place for ramen, Ichiran Ramen

 If I had to say something about Kobe, it's that unlike other areas i've been too, finding unusual stuff here might not be easy (Like the countless deer in Nara, or the bamboo forest in Kyoto) but you can bet that the simple things they have here, will blow you away. You can find beef burger all around the world but I doubt any of them holds a candle to Kobe's own beef. The scenery they have there, their food  etc have not dissapoint me so far.

Mid Autumn Festival

For those of you who do not know, the Mid Autumn Festival is just around the corner. From where I come from (Malaysia for those of you wondering...) they call it Lantern Festival. As the name implies it is normally held in the middle of autumn and this year, should be around 15 September. However, this year would be the first year I'd celebrate it overseas (Japan for those of you wondering..)

Full moon

It is this time of the month where people harvest their crops. This began as people merely worshiping the Mountain Gods after the harvest as sign of gratitude. However, there is a much more interesting tale that people believed to be the origin of this tradition.

Long ago, people believed that there were ten sun that rose above and cause disaster to the people. However a hero named Hou Yi, armed with his bow and arrow shot down nine of them, leaving one for sunlight to provide heat and light for the people. He was then presented with the elixir of immortality. However he decided not to consume it, choosing to stay by his wife Chang'e and left the elixir in her safekeeping. Knowing this, his apprentice, tried to steal the elixir. Yi's wife, trying to prevent this, consume the elixir herself and became immortal which caused her to fly all the way up. She chose moon as her new home, wanting to stay near to his lover. Hearing this, Hou Yi wa saddened and gave offerings in the form of fruits and cake to her since that day. The people who soon learned about this sympathized with Hou Yi chose to participate in the sacrifice to Chang.

This year would be the first time I spend this festive season away from home. However, like how the glass is always half full, this is the opportunity for me to finally play my role in introducing this tradition to foreigner (Japanese in case you're new here). And also, I have friends whom I can enjoy celebrating this annual festival with me (in case you  guys are reading) so no regrets here at all :)

A trip by the river

3 ways to NOT learn a new language

     

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela 

  

   Rio 2016 has made headlines all over the world for the past few weeks and after a splendid introduction of Tokyo 2020, people are already excited about it 4 years before its opening. The rise in the number of tourist during that year is something to look forward to, not to mention the increase in the number of the people who will begin attending Japanese class in preparation for that. Here are some head-start tips for you guys out there:-                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

some of them are rather good at it

  
1. Don't believe everything you hear                                                                                                                        By that I mean, don't expect yourself to improve on the language you are trying to learn just by listening to their "top tracks". Much like the well know meme, where anime otakus can memorize soundtracks of every anime they have watched but DON'T think for a second that they can strike a conversation with a Japanese just because of that. Song lyrics in normal conversation isn't as cool as it sounds. So as a reminder, stop lying to yourself and treat the songs as entertainment and not as an educational tool.                                                                                                                                                    
2. Drop the fancy word                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  One thing I've noticed is that, it's not uncommon to someone to trying improve his/her language by buying a book filled with idioms an proverbs.... and expect to use it in an exam or an interview. I'll be honest, just like some of them, I've used to carry the same habit when writing essays in exam. It only became clear to me when after friend of mine mimic my learning habit did I realize how ridiculous that sounds. I mean, yea sure you might impress a guy or two but please....out of respect for the language and everyone using it, "study your tools well before buying them". Like you don't just strike a simple "hello" to anyone and just spit a "every cloud has a silver lining" in the middle of the conversation. Don't get me wrong, of course I'm not blaming them for doing so. I understand, I've been there and done that but that's why I know how ridiculous that sounds, and it would be a sin not to point that out to them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
3. Literal translation spoils the fun                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     This is a no brainer but still people often made that mistake. What do I mean by that is :-  not everything in English (or any other language as far as anyone is concern) can be literally translate to Japanese on its own and vice versa. Sure you can search a dictionary to find the meaning of a Japanese word but know that, culture and social norm affects language more than people realise. There are terms in Japanese that no matter how, can never be translate correctly into other language simply because of social difference. For example :- people say otsukaresama desu to their colleague after a hard day of work which helps display gratitude. Now try to put that into English term...it's alright, I know you can't (or prove me wrong and comment your answers)                                                                                                                      
   

As for HOW to learn a language, I'm sure there are tons of posts with better content than I can offer for now. (For those of you wondering, I've taken DELF, TOEIC and JLPT up to now) I know it's not much (my qualifications) but I hope the contents can be of some use, good luck !!!

Interesting place to visit (Nara)

As some of you might know, I'm currently studying abroad in Japan and during my first few months there, of course I'd taken the golden opportunity to traveled to some place(just to share some). I'm currently studying in Nara prefecture and it would take about one hour by train to get to famous travel destinations such as Kyoto, Kobe etc...Of course for those who knows their map, getting to Tokyo is kinda a pain (even with shinkansen (bullet train) it would take 2-3 hours).

Probably the first spot I visited would be Nara itself. It's a good thing my Japanese teacher was willing to be our tour guide for the day. It was during the Golden Week when this happened. We gathered at Nara eki (train station) in the morning, around 9 am plus and meet up with our sensei over there.

First we took a trip to a temple (Btw, there are like a LOT of shrines and temples here) called Koufuku-ji. One of the main attraction would probably the pagoda (cone like building). Didn't expect to find one here though. Another trivia about it, is that the place is under the UNESCO World Heritage List. The details about the place such as history and architecture, I'll leave it to Mr. Google for those of you
who are interested in those sorts of details (sorry, I wasn't paying much attention during the tour). Entrance is not really cheap to be honest, at least not for me.

Keep in mind that Kofuku-ji Temple can be separated into the Eastern Golden Hall and the National Treasure Hall which is given entry upon buying respective tickets. Up to the point of the pagoda is free though. And of course you can choose to enter either the Eastern Golden Hall or the National Treasure Hall or both, each with their own ticket price. I was charged 800 yen in total for both places. Long story short, it was mostly ancient statues related to Buddhist and that sort. And of course photography is prohibited in the temple so, sorry for no pictures on that. But I'm guessing those of you who hold an interest in these sort of historical artifact should definitely put this into your bucket list (or another one I'm going to share later) Btw, be sure to drop Sarusawa pond as well to get a magnificent view of the temple and also a place to chill.

Next, we head to probably, the main attraction in Nara, Nara Park itself. Herd of deers inhabiting the area, it's truly a sight to behold you can't find anywhere else in Japan, or even the world. There are a few stalls selling senbei (rice crackers) to be fed to the deers for the price of 150 yen. You'll be surprised how many deers will coming dashing towards you the moment you hold this in front of them. And just like rumors said, they DO bow down to you in request of the rice crackers you might have on your hand

            

To be continued....(sorry guys for stopping here don't feel like writing everything in one post, strains my eyes but hope you enjoy my story up to this point)