All posts filed under: Japan

Buying a Car in Japan – Stage 2

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Once you have chosen the car you need to do some paperwork… First the car dealership takes a photocopy of your Japanese driver’s license and, in my case, my gaikokujin toroku shomeisho (certificate of alien registration – a.k.a gaijin card). You then need to get an inkan (personal seal) made, register it at the city office, then bring the inkan and the inkan toroku shomeisho (certificate of name stamp registration) to the car dealership. Also bring your gaikokujin toroku genpyo kisai jiko shomeisho (certified copy of registration) which shows your official address. Fill out the parking application paper, drawing a diagram of your local streets and the exact dimensions of the parking area at your house or apartment. If you are not the owner of the house you must also produce a piece of paper from the housing office with their official stamp to show you have parking permission. Parking applications must be taken to the local police station for processing although your car dealer may do this for you. This is all done to get a shako shoumei …

Buying a car in Japan – Stage 1

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Stage 1 – Find a car The first thing you will notice when trying to buy a used car in Japan is that almost nobody sells their own car. Old cars are scrapped or tend to be given away to a friend or relative. Cars that still have some value, are usually traded in when purchasing a new (or newer) model.   Outside of the foreign community, there seem to be very few private sales.  You don’t see cars with the Japanese equivalent of  FOR SALE signs in the window. Used car magazines and even internet auctions are almost entirely filled with cars being sold by dealers rather than individuals. Having to purchase from a used car dealer makes things more expensive, but does mean they can help you with Stage 2 – the labyrinthine process of producing and filling out the correct paperwork. I browsed through the various internet sites and a few cars caught my attention. These are a few of the cars that were of interest, but not quite what I wanted: Honda NSX …

Sefa Utaki – World Heritage Site

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In 2000, Sefa Utaki, along with Shuri Castle and several castle ruins from the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, was listed as UNESCO world heritage site. Sefa Utaki is the holiest place in Okinawa where the kikeo kimi high priestesses would perform rituals.  There are several places of worship hidden among the trees, but the most famous is at the triangle shaped opening. Water that dripped from  stalactites hanging from the rock faces was thought to be sacred.  Pots were positioned on the ground, and remain today catching the slow drip drip drip of holy water. Tourists rather than priestesses are the main visitors to Sefa Utaki now. I had to wait a while before I could get a tourist free wide angle shot.

24 hours with David Levene

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A couple of years ago I met David Levene a photographer for The Guardian. It was 5 in the morning and we were both  waiting to get in our respective hot air balloons while photographing the Bristol Balloon Festival. We had a good chat for an hour, and I said it would be great to meet again if he ever made if to Japan. I then got in my wicker basket and had my first (and only) balloon ride. It was a great experience and I got a few good photos.  A couple of months ago I got an email from David saying he was coming to Japan to get shots for the newspaper, particularly the two page center spreads, which are an amazing showcase for a photographer. Check out this short video to see the kind of work David does. (Then come right back!) David is in Japan for two weeks and came down to Okinawa for 24 hours to get some images of  Churaumi Aquarium I talked about in a previous post which …

Nakamura House, Okinawa

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Nakamura House is a traditional Okinawan house that dates back to the 15th Century. Its roof is covered with red clay tiles while the walls are made up of sliding wooden panels. The moveable walls can be opened to allow cooling breezes in the summer heat or closed and braced against wind and rain during typhoons. A shisa – lion dog – talisman sits on the roof protecting residents from evil spirits.  The house has eight rooms, many with the tatami flooring – the rectangular mats made of woven straw. Some rooms contain artifacts including traditional bingata kimono. The house is located in the northern part of Naha City on the main island of Okinawa. Nakamura House is open everyday from 9.00 to 17.30

Medium?

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I do some freelance work for Okinawa Living magazine, a publication produced by M.C.C.S. which introduces Okinawan and Japanese culture to American military members and their families. I have a base pass so that I can drop off my work and meet with the editors, but it also allows me to use the fast food restaurants while I am on the base. This is not insignificant because it means I can get veggie burgers from Burger King. The only other fast food chain that does a veggie burger in Japan is the Hard Rock Cafe, but the closest one is in Fukuoka a thousand or so miles away. I usually order the medium meal opting not to go large or king size. However on my last visit something interesting happened due to some clever/devious decision making on the part of Burger King. Burger King have decided to rename their sizes. King is now large. Large is now medium. Medium is now small. The portions however have not changed. When I ordered my medium meal, I …

Journalists, programmers and a robot

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Tokyo’s weather may not have been cooperating, but fortuitous timing meant that I could catch up with several fellow ex-pats now living in the metropolis. On the first night I was invited to The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Ginza and met photographers Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Alfie Goodrich along with Justin McCurry the Tokyo correspondent for The Guardian, Julian Ryall the Tokyo correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and Chris Dunn an International Trade Consultant. Great guys living really interesting lives. On the second night I met up with programmers Hector Garcia, Pietro Zuco and Ignacio Izquierdo and chatted about Flick’r and the ongoing computing revolution. Fascinating stuff and just in case you didn’t know… On my final morning Tokyo treated me to a special mix of sleet and wind, so I headed to Aoyama to meet ASIMO. ASIMO didn’t say much, but was probably aware that in the near future his offspring will rule the world and we shall all tremble in their wake….

Rainy days in Tokyo

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It was either cloudy, rainy or snowing the entire 3 days I was in Tokyo. This meant that the exterior architectural shots I wanted will have to wait for another visit. I did however visit the Tokyo International Forum to get some interior shots. The building was designed by architect Rafael Viñoly and completed in 1996. The glass and steel latticework (which looks a little like an upturned boat) fits the surrounding area far better than the similarly modern Kyoto train station.  

Myoko Ski Area

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I met up with my old friend Steve in Niigata, and after a day hanging out at his house we went to Myoko for a couple of days in the snow. Myoko is a ski area close to the Niigata Nagano border. Mt Myoko is the mountain the region gets its name from, and there are several small ski areas on different parts of the peak.  On the first day we went to Myoko Suginohara, the largest and busiest area. It was a Sunday and great weather so the slopes were quite crowded but it was good to be back on a snowboard again. After face planting off a jump, I also came to the grim realization that perhaps my skills have got a little rusty after a 7 year break. We stayed at The Hawk and Hare Inn in Akakura which is run by an American ninjutsu falconer (I couldn’t make this stuff up.). It had a really relaxing atmosphere with a roaring fire, a constant supply of hot tea and a variety of …

The joy and pain of rail travel in Japan.

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From Aomori my next stop was to visit my friend Steve in Niigata. I checked on hyperdia.com and found that I could take a limited express train from Aomori to Akita, change, then get another limited express train from Akita to Niigata. I would leave Aomori at 13.45, get the 16.34 from Akita and arrive in Niigata at 20.07. The cost for the ticket was ¥12,290. Things were going great, I spent the entire ride to Akita chatting to  Max a Japanese filmmaker  who now works in New York. At Akita station however, I was told that the train from Akita to Niigata was cancelled due to high winds.  The ticket office said that I would have to take an alternative route…   Rather than travel the 250km straight down the coast in three and a half hours (the green route), I would have to travel 900km from Akita all the way to Omiya near Tokyo and then up to Niigata (the red route). It would all be on bullet trains so if I got …