Smoking

There are a few things you should know about smoking in Japan:

1) Cigarettes are CHEAP!!!  Compared to the $20AUD prices per packet of cigarettes in Australia, feeding your habit in Japan is a relatively cheap affair with decks of 20 coming in at 410yen each (at current exchange rates, that's roughly $4AUD).

2) You can buy cigarettes from vending machines.  You do need a TASPO card however (kind of like an ID card specifically for these kinds of machines).  Without one of these cards, you can also buy cigarettes at convenience stores, supermarkets and specialty cigarette shops that are usually set up in high-traffic nightlife areas.

3) Smoking is still very common in Japan, especially amongst men/salarymen.

4) Smoking indoors is still allowed.  In Japan it is not unusual to find small little "smoking rooms" inside most large public buildings, for example in shopping centres, train stations, hotels or airports etc.  Some restaurants still inexplicably have smoking and non-smoking sections.  Most (if not all?) bars are smoking.  Oddly enough, the only place you're really allowed to light up is in the middle of the street.  It is considered dangerous for people to be walking around with lit cigarettes and local governments in many cities have set up "tobacco stands" for the use of smokers - fully signposted areas complete with ashtrays, back from the majority of foot traffic on the pavements..

5) Passive smoking seems virtually unheard of in Japan.  Here it seems mostly about the rights of the smokers, not the rights of the non-smokers.  For example, a group of people can decide to go to karaoke whereupon they will be led to a private room equipped with multiple ashtrays.  It is not uncommon for the few smokers in the room to then light up as they please, while the rest of the group passive smokes along with them.  Likewise, leaving your seat at a smoking-allowed restaurant, to go outside for a cigarette so as not to bother your non-smoking table neighbours, is often looked upon as pure absurdity.

Onigiri (Japanese rice 'balls')

On my way back from the After JET Conference in Yokohama in February, I discovered the joys of onigiri (rice balls) and have completely fallen in love with the convenient little snack.  Bereft that it took me so damn long to clue up to, I have been wasting no time in munching them down since.  Even going so far as to try making my own at home, in prep for when I return to Australia and will have to otherwise go without.  Here I shall explain the mysteries of onigiri...

The most common place to find onigiri is lurking in the refrigerated section of your local combini (convenience store).  They are generally the size of your palm and are essentially a portion of rice, usually with some sort of filling inside, all wrapped in a sheet of seaweed or nori.  Most onigiri cost 105yen each, about equivalent to 1AUD.  They are perfect little snack foods to keep in your handbag, as they are individually wrapped and take about 30 seconds to consume.

How to Eat an Onigiri:

This is what onigiri looks like straight off the shelf.  This one is "sea chicken with mayo" which is a Japanese way of saying there's 'tuna mayo' filling inside the rice.  It is individually wrapped so that the seaweed outside doesn't touch the rice (or else it will get soggy) and costs 105yen.

The first step is to grab the plastic tab at the top of the triangle and pull it down, ripping the label.  You should rip the plastic all the way around the rice ball, leaving two separate pieces of plastic wrap on each side of the triangle.  In case you are stuck at this point, you should notice some numbers printed on the onigiri.  This indicates the steps through which you should remove the wrapping.

Next, you should carefully remove the plastic wrap labelled "2".  This is a dual layered wrapper, with one layer reaching in between the rice and the seaweed and the other forming the outer packaging of the onigiri.  You must be careful here not to tear the crispy seaweed sheet.

Repeat the process with the other side labelled "3".

Discard the wrappers and munch into your onigiri.  The nori wrap should be firm and crispy, the rice soft and fluffy and in this case, the tuna mayo should be creamy and hidden inside.  Devour with relish and don't hesitate to reload - one onigiri is never enough!

Things I'm Excited For Today...

It was pointed out to me recently that life on the JET program is about constantly living in the future, counting down to upcoming events and ticking the days off until the next big adventure with glee.  I have to admit, a lot of the time, this is completely true.  Rather than living content in the present, I often find myself casting my mind ahead to the weekend, holiday plans, my next pay-check...  So, here is my top ten list of things I'm most excited for as of today, in no particular order:

1) In Golden Week, my Mum and my stepdad Mark will be coming to Japan for a holiday/visit.  I've been booking flights, accommodation, entertainment tickets etc for months now and with only a couple of weeks until they finally touch down, I am beyond excited!  Trip highlights will include a Hanshin Tigers baseball game at Koshien stadium, a Kobe beef lunch, bringing them to school, taking a trip to Disneyland and the chance to get dressed up as maiko (Japanese geisha-in-training) and have our pictures taken.

2) Getting home to Aust and buying myself a super-comfy queen-sized bed!  And an office-worthy coffee machine.  Yum.

3) The weekend!

4) Teaching classes again next week after a 3-week hiatus due to closing ceremonies, school holidays, opening ceremonies etc.

5) The Tokushima AJET annual Touch Rugby Tournament in May.  It's a good chance to catch up with JETs from all over Shikoku and indeed Japan, to play some sport and eat some BBQ food and generally just drink/socialise all weekend long.

6) Warm weather, hopefully not too far away!

7) An upcoming trip to Taipei that I have planned with the boy. Holidays FTW.

8) The Tokushima Black Tie Ball.  Last year my friend Lisa and I organised this gala event and though I've passed the reins off to a fellow JET this year, I'm still pretty excited to don a fancy frock and swan around a classy hotel with my friends.

9) The Chinese F1 on this Sunday!

10) An early payday next Friday.  Getting paid monthly sucks yo!

Sumo

After missing out in 2012, heading to Osaka to watch the Sumo Grand Tournament was high on my To Do List this year.  Sumo only happens 6 times a year and tickets for our closest tourney went on sale in January so a bunch of us jumped on the opening day sales opportunity to make a weekend of it.

Being the end of the school year, most of us had enkai (work drinking/dinner party) plans on the Friday night, but we each managed to straggle across to Osaka by bus on the Saturday.  We met up at the Bodymaker Colosseum at 3pm though and weaved through the crowds (who were there hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite Sumo stars) to enter the venue.  We were kindly escorted up to our seats by a handsome young usher and sat down to a pretty awesome view (especially for the $35AUD ticket price!).

The Sumo matches themselves were over fairly quickly, each battle lasting only mere minutes.  But the spectacle of the show and the smashing falls some of the guys took made it worth every second.  Some of the wrestlers were huge and surprisingly, many of them were also foreign.  Apparently, competitors must square up with the others in their division at least once during the course of the tournament.  Since we visited on Day 13, we were able to distinguish the pecking order - with a mammoth guy called Hakuho sitting undefeated at 13/0.  Between matches, some Sumo wrestlers performed in rather intimidating and highly stylized ceremonies - it was a sight to behold!

Unfortunately, the day was over far too quickly, with the lights raised and crowds spilling out of the colosseum by 6.30pm.  I left feeling rather buzzed (thanks to the cheap beers available from the souvenir kiosks dotted around the dome) and ruing the fact that we'd decided to get there so late in the day.  Oh well, Sumo in Japan?  Cross it off the list!