watashi to tokyo

Healthcare insurance. How much?

All residents in Japan have to have some healthcare insurance or join a healthcare insurance proivider. Basically people can join to KOKUHO (National health insurance). Foreigners who are living in Japan can join too. (If you are an office worker, most large companies will have private insurance. Here is the Sony health insurance site.) Or they join a concerted health insurance association for their industry. This site explains well. Speaking of me, I am office worker, and my company joined the "Tokyo Denshi Kenpo Insurance" (Tokyo technology industry health insurance) association, they give us this type of insurance ID card. When we go to hospital, we have to take this. How much do you need to pay for insurance? It depends on the insurance type, the association, your salary and age. I suppose it would be around 3,000 yen - 8,000 yen per month.

Last week, my American friend had to go hospital, but he had not joined any health insurance scheme yet. It means he has to pay the actual cost. He talked to the doctor, had two X-rays taken, and got medicine for the next two weeks. Then in total he paid around 15,000 yen. Wow expensive! But he said "wow cheaper than I suppose, without insurance, it was pretty nice price". Really? In that case, I would pay 5,000 yen because I have to pay 30% of actual cost in my health insurance. However I have to feel that 5,000 yen is expensive though.

Anyway the association makes us get a health check once a year. And yesterday I got my results for this year which I took in March. They checked blood ( neutral fat, cholesterol, blood pressure, red cell, white cell, GOP, GTP etc.), a chest X-ray, barium study, supersonic ray for system, dipstick test, audiological test, eye test. Since I am a woman, also I got screening for cancer of the cervix and a mammogram. All these checks cost 3,000 yen for me. I think this is reasonable. What do you think?

Sometime I watched the news, people who have cancer gave up trying to be treated in the U.S, and on the other hand in Sweden people can get good treatment. Personally, I don't feel any inconvenience now, but when I get older, 25% of Japanese will be over 65 yeas old in 2015. Health insurance and pension credit issue is really serious for us.

Tomica collection is a history of Japanese cars

When I was a kid, I liked to play with Lego with my brother. I don't know how many we had in total: we lost them all. I wish I had them now -- it would be relaxing to build something after work... yes, with a cup of whiskey! :-P I really wanted to go to Lego Land one time.

Tomy is an old Japanese toy maker. Have you ever seen this "pop up pirate"? Yes that is one of Tomy's toys. Their mini car series called Tomica are well-known as toys for little boys but also as a collector's item for adults. They sell very few kinds of cars in the UK, and in the US, this site said Tomy ended the US car line in the 80s.

In Japan they started to sell Tomica in 1970, and even now they release a new car every month. When you see their archive pages, you can experience Japanese car history. I did not know that there were FairLady Z police car in 1971. My brother's first car is very old Silvia 2000ZSE-X, and he had a big accident. :-( The HONDA NSX was released in 1990, and a few days ago Honda announced they will end the model this year. Tomica Limited and Tomica S-Limited series are high grade lines. I think it is a lovely gift to give the same model as your dad or friend drove before.

Tomy opened the Tomica shop inside Tokyo station on August 10th. Since it is not a big place, it is very easy to look around. A little double Decker which I bought in London is one of my treasures. A little taxi car may be a memento of your travels in Tokyo.

We can swim in river in Tokyo

I must say most rivers in Tokyo are dirty. Tokyo is trying to clean them, but still it is not enough. In Meguro, a chocolate factory is near the Meguro river. In summer time, we have to smell a mixture of poo and chocolate. It is really horrible. Here is the research data about water quality in Tokyo by the bureau of the Environment. Unfortunately the result of the research is in Japanese. (I am always upset about this type of half measures!!) The letters indicate the average level of the result. Yes most of them are C. Yes, Megurogawa was ranked D. In lower parts you will find a few AA.

Today was holiday. I went to Musashi_Itukaichi in west Tokyo. Almost one hour from Shinjuku Station, very close to Tachikawa too. In Musachi Itsukaishi, we can enjoy wild nature. Then we can enjoy swimming in the AA ranked river Akigawa. Swiming, Fising, BBQ on the river side, and if you have tent, of course you can enjoy camping too.

mimikaki_ear scratchers

Mimikaki - Japanese Ear Scratchers!!??!!
It is said that around 80% of Japanese and Chinese people's earwax is dry, but 90% of North Americans and some Europeans like the Germans is wet. Some of you might have never seen or heard of dry earwax. Sorry, I know this is kind of an unusual and even down right dirty topic! But can you imagine if we approached earwax like we do dandruff?

At any rate, it's hard to swab dry earwax with cotton Q-tips. Maybe that's why we Japanese use this kind of small spoon-like tool to clean our ears. You might have some concerns about putting such a hard looking object in your ear. Actually, it's really quite comfortable,safe and feels like a little stiff scratch where you can't usually reach, like giving your pet a soothing scratch in those hard to reach places.

To tell you the truth, it's an irresistible feeling. My American friend was so happy when I gave it to him. Come to think of it, historicallin Japan, many Japanese men would rest their head on their loved one's lap and have her scratch inside the man's ear! It truly is a most satisfying pleasure.

The Varieties Of Ear-Scratchers
In Japan there are countless types of ear scratchers (Mimikaki), for example, some are cute and inexpensive and some are quite expensive. There is an expensive variety a with an ornamental top and made of various kinds of materials.
Ear-scratchers are also sold as speciality souvenirsat many locations in Japan.

That's right, they are more than just souvenirs but can also becollector's items!. Naturally there are Hello kitty mimikaki collection, My Neighbour Totoro Ear-Scratchers and Pokomon ear-scratchers, and natural and man made attractions in Japan; Mount Fuji and the Tokyo Tower.

Japanese BBQ sauce

Do you know Umeboshi? It is a super salty plum. For the Japanese, Umeboshi is a kind of "soul" food, because umeboshi is a  traditional food related to rice. We eat rice with Umeboshi, a rice ball, Hinomaru Bento, which is a very Japanese food. Like I said, it is super salty. Why? It's for taste and Umeboshi is used to sterilize and preserve food. Anyway all Japanese salivate just when we hear the word Umeboshi.

Umeboshi works as seasoning or sauce too. Umeshiso Pasta, pork roll, spring roll, yakitori, dressing for salads etc. By the way I introduce a BBQ recipe that a Japanese American friend sent me. He lives in NY and he knows about alcohol, especially Japanese Sake very well. Here is th recipe.

Marinade:
1 tsp Ginger
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Sake
1 tsp Light Miso Paste
1 tsp Rice Vinegar

Ume-Boshi BBQ Sauce:
1 tsp Ginger
3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1/2 cup Sake
3 tbsp Light Miso Paste
1 tbsp finely chopped Shiso Leaves
1/2 cup Sugar
3 tbsp Marin
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
5 tbsp Ume-boshi Puree (remove pits and puree it in a food processor)

2 Racks of Baby Back Ribs
Steps:
Mix the marinade ingredients and rub it on the ribs
Marinate the ribs overnight
Combine the BBQ sauce ingredients in a food process and puree.
Smoke the ribs for 2 hours and brush the Ume-Boshi BBQ sauce when grilling.

He introduced this recipe in his nice website azianbrewere too. Please check it out.

The new natural diet method in Japan

My coworker, who's 45 years old, eats Tokoroten before his lunch every day. I asked why? He replied that it is popular as a new diet method, he has lost 2 kg already after two weeks. Hmm I did not know that, so as a health geek, of course I checked it out.

In this diet, you drink a small cup of Kanten or Tokoroten before your regular meal. That is all. Kanten or Tokoroten? Well, you may think Kanten and Tokoroten are same stuff agar agar. Some sites say "way to make is different" or "a kind of material (Seaweed) is different" but I don't think these are a big difference. The difference between them would be "how to serve", we eat Tokoroten like this itself (in Kanto area with sour sauce, in Kansan area with sweet sauce. One difference between east and west.) We eat kanten like this with other fruits, muosse, sweetbeans-anko and also use agar (kanten) powder as a coagulating agent.

Anyway the boom began with a TV show. AruAru Daijiten is a popular TV show about health and wellness, and they had a Kanten / Tokoroten special last month. In the TV show they introduced this UK medical magazine's research. Kanten / Tokoroten have 7 effects for your health.

1. Relief of constipation : 81.2% of them is fiber. wow what a rich fiber food!
2. Calory is zero : yes zero. Because they are made from sea weed.
3. Feel full long time: Fibers move slowly in your stomach without absorption.
4. Refrain absorption of sugar. Your sugar in blood rise very slowly.
5. Decrease cholesterole
6. Burn your fat out without excersice.
7. Rise your body metabolism because of peristaltic motion of your bowl.
   Wow perfect! Actually on the TV show, people who ate Kanten for only two weeks had a really good result with their blood pressure, weight and cholesterol.

Okay I will start to eat Tokoroten and Kanten, it is very easy to get anywhere in Japan. Tokoroten is apparently better for dieting because like I said, in Kanto we eat it with sour sauce. It means Tokoroten is very close to a zero calorie food. If you are in Japan, or come to Japan, please try it at Japanese style cafe. Here is my magazine part 1 & part 2.

And if you try this at home, here are some sweet recipes. Awayuki, Mousse, Coconut jelly! Sounds delicious right? You want to know a lower calorie recipe? I understand, this is soup jelly. And this is a basic jelly recipe, you can use soup stock and vegetables as you want. Try it!

A Japanese standard notebook

KOKUYO is the biggest stationery maker in Japan. I think all Japanese will have used their long selling "campus note" at least once in their life. Here is a TV ad of this Campus note. Actually they say this notepad has been loved by eveybody for over 30 yeas. I talked about KOKUYO in this Kadokeshi topic in my diary. Since I hardly use pencils in my life, I hardly use erasers. But I love to go stationery shops and I am still a little excited to find something pretty.

Every year KOKUYO has a design award. This is the 2004 result list, the Grand Prix winner is this, and I like this idea: a "drape wall", you can put things on all the wires and also use it as a memo board. These are the 2003 award results. The Grand Prix winner is great. The top of the cap is round and big, so it is easy to push off. And also the cap can stand up like a tumble doll, so it is easy to put the cap back on. The tiny shape is a universal design concept. The pen is good too. This pen is attched to your finger, so you don't need to hold a pen to write. This cutter idea became a real product and I have it as a novelty of KDD. And this is the result from 2002. Ah! Kadokeshi was one of award winners that year. The Grand Prix winner is a stapler, you can set it on the desk and push with one hand. Another winner was an easy turn over note, and these push pins. All of them became real products and we can buy them, like this, this, and this. This is very nice idea for KOKUYO and also new product designers! By the way, I like this KESHI PIYO ad. Click the white button.

Make it dramatic more!

There are many topics to talk about in Tokyo. For example Ishihara san, woops! He did it again. However I have a cold. My throat hurts, orz... Such a day, I will pick a happy topic and jump onto my futon!.

"Gekiga" is "dramatic pictures manga." Golgo 13 is the biggest one. Golgo is a great sniper, in that comic, and many important assasinations in this world were Golgo13's job. (ha ha ha stupid). Anyway my lovely nifty portalz made this, Let's change the illustrations in a shop panel into "gegkiga looks like". Yes, like I said before, there are hundreds of -well_known and unknown-characters, in this country. So it is easy to find a target to do that to. This is original boy in "now we are under construction, sorry for inconvenient" panel. Then this is Gekiga way. Ha ha! This is a woman who is saying "we need your help, here is part time job info", then this is in Gekiga way. This is a guy who appears on Izakaya "wara wara" panel, and he should be like this. Ah uhhh. Here is more. I like such silly things.

Asian conscious boom of shampoo

Ha ha ha Great!! A French cosmetics maker has made "MANGA LOOK". I can't understand French, but appearenty the MANGA LOOK is a hard hair spray which can make your hair set like Manga heroes and heroines. Please click "Avec Manga Look link". Actually the Manga hero has a strange hair style. Now you can make your hair like Goku!!

By the way, How much does it cost to cut your hair? I go to a Hair Salon in Meguro, I always ask the same guy to cut my hair. He knows my hair style history, what style suited me before, what colour my hair was coloured with last time etc,.. The hair cut costs around 4500 yen with shampoo. Hair colour costs 4000 yen for a temporary colour, permanent colouring will be around 8000 yen and over. Some hair salons set a rank for hair beauticians. Most high rank beauticians are called hair stylists. They are supposed to have not only good technique, but also sense for trends. I remember we had strange craze a few years ago, some hair stylists were called "carismatic beautician" in beauty magazines, and it was seen as status-giving to be cut by them. Kimutaku played such a charismatic beautician in a tragic love story on TV.

Speaking of shampoo, I like Pantene, it seems to match to my hair. As for foreign makers, Dove, Pantene, Mods Hair and Wella are easy to find in every shop. For Japanese shampoo I use Shiseido Macherri (TV ad). We have an Asian consciousness boom these days. Asiense is shampoo that includes oriental herbs which are good for Asian women's hair. Zhang Ziyi appears in the TV Ad, you can check it out here. Well I don't like these TV ads. Comparison or a keen sense of rivalry are used widely. I can't understand why they make them in such a way. Ah my American friend laughed to see Kanbo Naive Shampoo. We Japanese use the word Naive for good meanings, like very it's very sensitive

Ajinomoto!

This Ajinomoto TV ad is funny. Please check it out. Anyway do you know what is Ajinomoto?

I wonder this depends on each culture, countries. In Japan, we say our tongue can sense 5 tastes, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour and "UMAMI". I can't find exactly English word for UMAMI. Acutally UMAMI taste was found by Japanese proffeccesser, I heard in foreign countires it is called UMAMI. We can sense UMAMI itself, but particular feature of UMAMI is bringing out the flavor of the taste. We use 3 kinds of food to make this UMAMI for Japanese food. Have you ever seen Iron cheff? If so, you would remember Japanese iron cheff make soup (DASHI) by a mountain of dried-bonito flake. That is the ONE, three kinds of UMAMI come from each of dried-bonito flake, dried kelp, and mashroom like dried Shitake. You can pick one and make combine the best match soup (DASHI) for food what you cook. In East and East Asia are area which has UMAMI food culture. However resouce is defferent. In China, they use dried bearded clam, dried shrimp,ligament of scallop, chicken soup, port bone soup, and some more vegetables. And I think basically western soup stock does not use dried seafood. Even though recourse are different, those UMAMI are come from "monosodium glutaminate" and "inosinic acid". Dried Kerp, ligament of scallop, chicken bone, their UMAMI comes from monosodium glutaminate elements.

Anyway AJINOMOTO is a Japanese company which their main product is a seasining named AGF. It's unique seasoning to make this UMAMI, white powder isteslf isn't tasty at all. Anyway as a food products, Ajinomoto is used all over the world. I think this is rare case as Japanese food. (Maybe Nisshin Cup noodle and Ajinomoto only? Pocky is not so worldwide). So sometimes they had to learn difficulty of food business in the world. Ajinomoto said they make "Ajinomoto" from sugarcane. However they had recall because they found out pork fat enzyme was included in Indonesia.Of course it is forbidden one in Islamic law. And Ajinomoto knew it of course but their check was not enought to use ingredient.*