Japanese Garbage Day Blues

Sorting garbage is one of the worst things about living in Japan. Japan has made almost every day a different kind of Garbage Day and there are so many different things to remember about every kind of garbage that you know this system wouldn't work at all in any other country.

Every area of Japan has completely different garbage days, division systems and garbage rules . Japanese Garbage is loosely divided into three categories. Burnable garbage (燃えるごみ moeru gomi) , unburnable garbage (燃えないごみ) and recyclable garbage (資源ごみ shigen gomi). On top of this, there are other special days for cans (缶), plastic (ペットボトル /プラスチック) , glass (瓶) and large waste (粗大ごみ).

At the last place I lived, here were the rules. 燃えるごみ is taken out every Monday and Thursday. 燃えないごみ is taken out every Tuesday and Friday. 資源ごみ is taken out every second and fourth Wednesday. 粗大ごみ is taken out on the last Thursday and the first Tuesday of every month. Easy, right? And you can't put your garbage out the night before. You have to put it out that morning before 8 AM. So if you want to stay at your friend's house on the last Tuesday of the month, you have to realize that your 資源ごみ will be sitting in your house for the next two weeks because you missed the day. If it's 8:02 AM, you missed the garbage day. Better luck in two weeks, man.

Another great thing is that the garbage must be put into different bags. These bags (指定ごみ袋 shitei gomi-bukuro) can be purchased at certain convenience stores. They are marked with the name of the type of garbage and they have a special color for each type of garbage.

Ridiculous Garbage Story
Once, I had the 燃えるごみ all sorted out and ready to go, but when I looked in the drawer, I found I had run out of the special translucent 燃えるごみ bags and had only the blue ones left. I put the 燃えるごみ in the clear blue bag figuring that as long as it was all sorted 燃えるごみ it wouldn't matter what color the trash bag was. But it did. I was not allowed to put the bag in the garbage. (The man guarding the trash area made that big X DAME!! sign with his hands when he saw me coming with the wrong color) I had to run to the convenience store to buy the right colored bag. By the time I came back and transferred the trash, it was 5 past 8:00 and I had missed Garbage Day.

Your neighbors are all super serious about it. If you accidentally leave a lid on your old tea bottle (the lids and wrappers go in the 燃えないごみ section and the bottle part goes in the ペットボトル section and both are taken out on different days and in different bags) your neighbors will complain. I have never had this happen, but I heard that in rural areas, all residents must write their names on the trash bags and if there's any trash that has been sorted in the wrong way, it is personally returned to you by your neighbors.

Also, once the trash is out of your house, anyone can open it up and sort through it.
If you're getting rid of any secret/embarrassing things this is good to remember.

Also, you know that blue net that the plastic / recyclable garbage gets put out under? Don't touch the net with your bare hands (or if you must, wash them thoroughly afterwards) because the blue net is sprayed every other day with a really powerful chemical to keep germs / cockroaches away from the garbage area. My neighbors use special gloves to touch it.

A few days, I've slept in on garbage day and discreetly thrown my garbage away at the convenience store garbage cans. I know this isn't great, but I just can't keep bags of garbage sitting in my house. It's too depressing. At least I always sort it, though.

Is this as ridiculous to you as it is to me? I hate garbage days.

New New New

This month, everything feels really fresh. New house, new roommates, new co-workers, new Japanese school and a bunch of new friends. I liked the way things were, but I really like starting things all over again.I am really going to miss living with my these roommates, though. They were the cutest and nicest girls. They were really easy to live with and really welcoming to me when I first moved from Tokyo. We'll still be friends, though. I'm going out with Emi on April 7th.

"I love Tofugu and Koichi" Post #567

Thank you to Koichi from Tofugu.com for making this useful PDF file on Japanese particles. He doesn't write as often as some other people, but every time he writes anything, it's always witty and relevant. I want him to teach me Japanese, but I don't know how to use eduFire and cannot learn.

If you want Koichi to teach you Japanese in interactive video form, go to tofugu.com and sign up on eduFire. He'd probably be a great teacher and he's always putting free things like this online. And he's funny.

Niras Bankoc is the best hostel in Bangkok, Thailand

Niras Bankoc is the kind of hostel that is so nice you feel bad even calling it a hostel. The only thing that felt like a hostel was the price. From the moment we found the place, we loved it. Niras Bankoc is affordable, super clean, very safe, conveniently located and beautiful. The building is a heritage house from 1869. It's all made of teak wood and has been in the same family for 90 years. It's just beautiful.

There's also a cafe in the lobby area. The cafe serves delicious espresso, which is pretty expensive and rare to find in Japan. I drank it every day. The cups they use are also quite nice. Niras Bankoc in a pretty, local area of "Koh Rattanakosin" near a bunch of vegetable shops, noodle soup shops and Buddhist shops. Niras Bankoc is also right next to so many places you need to go see if you're a visitor. I was able to walk to Khaosan Road, Grand Palace, Wat PhraKaew (Emerald Buddha), Wat Ratchanaddaram (Temple) from my hostel.

"Niras" is a type of Thai poem that travelers used to compose. "Bankoc" is the old name for Bangkok. The house has been in the same family for generations, so they wanted to give the hostel a name that would reflect the old Bangkok in the same way as the house does. All of these pictures are of the hostel. (Yes, it actually does have a gramophone.)The best part of this hostel, though, was the outstanding family that owns the place. First, we met Bo, the daughter-in-law of the owners. She is sweet and friendly and very helpful. She wrote us taxi directions in Thai, called cabs for us, recommended restaurants and just chatted with us. She is beautiful and makes good coffee. Her husband speaks fluent Japanese and is very handsome. He used to live in Japan as an international student. There are also other staff members and they're all very cute and helpful.

The mother and father at Niras Bankoc ended up feeling like my relatives. I almost cried when it was time to leave. On my last day, I was alone. I looked around town for some durian fruit. I can't buy it in Japan and it's my favorite, so I wanted to try it for the last time. Finally, it got dark and I didn't want to walk around alone anymore. I went back to the hotel and talked to the mother for a while. She told me she loves durian fruit, too.Then, the father offered to drive us to a night market so we could get some fresh durian before I left! This could never happen in a regular hostel or hotel. We piled into his comfortable car like a family and drove to the market together. I was so shocked and happy. This was probably the most memorable experience I had in Bangkok, and it was on my last day. Here is a video of the man in the market cutting the Niras-Bankoc-mother and I some Durian.


If you stay at the Niras Bankoc hostel, please make sure you meet the family. Please mention that you found their hostel from this website. I really hope that my website will bring nice customers to them in the future. They deserve all the good business they can get, because they really went beyond the normal hostel duties for me.

Niras Bankoc Boutique Hostel & Coffee

204 – 206 Mahachai Road
Sumranrat Phra-Nakorn
Bangkok, Thailand 10200

Phone : (66) 8 – 9140 – 7737
Fax : (66) 2 – 221 – 4442

Email : contact@nirasbankoc.com

and...

Mr. Aohgart is the best taxi driver in Thailand.

Since most of the taxi drivers we rode with in Bangkok were dishonest and sometimes scary, I'm going to give you the name and number of an excellent, honest, kind taxi driver we used when we were in Bangkok. He doesn't speak English, but he speaks Thai, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese. If you stay at Niras Bankoc, you can ask the receptionist to call him and ask him to come to the hostel. You can also ask the receptionist to write some directions out in Thai.

Mr. Aohgart

Taxi number 156

087-808-1122

Thailand: The good things, the bad things, the surprising things

The good things about Thailand:
-The excellent, hot weather
-The wonderful massages that cost less than a cup of coffee back home (per hour)
-The friendly and hospitable Thai people
-One beautiful beach that our Thai friend recommended. It isn't in the Lonely Planet and there wasn't anybody there but a few quiet French families and some Thai couples.
-Best durian in the world so far
-Coconut curries and spicy soups
-Great company-Staying at the best hostel I have ever stayed at in my life. I'll make a whole post about that later when I have more time. If you ever go to Bangkok, there is no way you can stay anywhere but Niras Bankoc. It's a beautifully restored, safe, clean, family-owned place with the nicest staff in the world. I couldn't believe it was a hostel. It looks like a hotel and the owners treat you like guests in their home.
-I have a full-on love affair with really bad quality fake designer goods. I think they are the funniest things. I love my Dior by R. Singh shirt. I love my Louis Vuitton underwear (does Louis Vuitton actually even make underwear?) and I love this new Chanel bikini I got in Thailand for 300 yen (3 CND)I'm not one to post bikini pictures on the internet, but I'm sorry. This bikini is just too hilarious. The Chanel is in silver glitter-paint.

The bad things about Thailand:
-So many prostitutes
-So many drugs, cracked out people and used needles
-Getting attacked and almost robbed
-So many scams! Taxi scams especially.

The surprising things about Thailand:
-Did you know that young people in Bangkok dress like they're on Facehunter / Cobrasnake? (in a good way) Bangkok has the best and cheapest and hands-down most stylish selection of clothing in the world. It's all reworked vintage and crazy t-shirts with silkscreen prints that are not cheesy at all and fit perfectly. I'll show you more pictures later, but here's one shirt I got there for a CND dollar.-The young Thai people also dress really stylishly. Young people in Thailand dress like they're waiting for their picture to be taken in Omotesando and they do it for cheap. Apparently, Bangkok is a great place to go for dancing, too. I went to this small, outside bar where they were playing The Smiths and later King Crimson. It was such a great surprise.-The people were the happiest-looking people I’ve ever seen. Even just going about their regular daily duties, Thai people smile and sing to themselves. People laugh all the time and always wanting to greet you. There was a sweetness in people’s faces that seemed almost childlike. That was a really nice part of Thailand. I’ve never been anywhere like it.-Thai Ladyboys. Transsexuals are also a big part of Thai culture. In Thailand, they are completely accepted. Nobody notices the transsexuals except the tourists. They are just the third sex. Walking down the road, you see so many that half the time, it’s like a guessing game. I read about this before I came, but I didn't expect it to be such an everyday thing. It seemed like there was one in every five groups of people who walked by. Everyone was just really nonchalant about it, which was so nice. We went to a drag show one night in Ko Samui .- Thai food is actually quite light an healthy if you stay away from the coconuts. (which I did not do) This girl makes the best soup curry and she's also really cute. If you go to Bangkok, I'll tell you where the store is. The soup curry is really light and watery with tons of chili and peanuts.

I'm not sure if I'll go back to Thailand, but I am very glad I went.

Bangkok is a bit dangerous

Bangkok was really wonderful but very dangerous. Bangkok is the most dangerous city in the world to me. It’s strange, because Bangkok doesn’t really have a dangerous image. I have been to Nairobi (Kenya) and Shenzhen (China) and these places have bad reputations for robbery and violence. They are supposed to be more dangerous than Bangkok, but nothing bad ever happened to me in either of those places. Bangkok, though, was really stressful for me.

The first night there, I was walking home with my friend and during our 5 minute walk, a man on a motorcycle drove up behind me and grabbed my bag. Luckily he missed, but he got my back and clawed it open with his fingernails. I was so scared and bleeding. Right after it happened, I was really shocked. At first, I just didn’t realize what happened and then when I started to feel pain in my back, my hands started shaking. That was the worst part of the trip. I still have scratch marks all over my back.

The picture above is from the exact spot where the man scratched me.

Thailand - Bangkok and Ko Samui

I just got back from Thailand. I got a surprise work-at-home week and decided to make it a work-in-Thailand week after I found a super cheap ticket and a great friend to go with. That's why I haven't been posting anything or writing to anyone. Sorry if you worried about me, and thanks to everyone who sent me emails.I went to Bangkok and Ko Samui. The picture above is of Ko Samui. I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back to Thailand, but it was definitely an interesting experience. Some of the things I expected were true. The food was obviously wonderful. I ate curries, chilli soups, spring rolls and durian. I ate papaya with salt and pepper. I drank coconut juice straight from the coconut.I used spray sunscreen for the first time in my life and it was a big mistake. I need the cream so that I can see where I've missed. I need to actually see where isn't white, or I'll miss spots everywhere. The spray sunscreen was SPF 30 so I put it on all over my body but missed so many places and can out with a weird, polka-dotted peel/ burn/ tan/ white. Thailand has perfect weather. I was only out out there on the beach for 20 minutes before getting under an umbrella but I got badly burned for the first time since I was a child. I wish you could see my legs. From the knees down, I look like a red and white and brown dalmatian.

Friends and family... Please be understanding right now. I just moved into a new house and my job has been really busy lately. I haven't had much time for the internet, but I'm still happy and healthy so don't worry about me. I'm just really busy.

ただいま... I went to Thailand...

I am really happy to be back in Japan.

What is a Host Club?

So many of you guys write to me about host clubs. I don't really know much about them because I've never been. I have a friend whose boyfriend was a former host and a few of my students have been hosts. That's it. This is a great short documentary about host club culture in Osaka. It might be from a movie called "The Great Happiness Space" about host clubs in Osaka. If you've been to one of these places, leave a comment.
This girl has a fantastic blog, and if you can ignore the unfortunate title, please check it out.
She is a foreign girl who has gone to a bunch of host clubs and rates them.
She can be really funny and though her blog is long with no pictures, it's really worth reading.

It's not a competition

Do you guys notice this when you read travel blogs from people living abroad (usually in Asian countries)? I am finding so many of the same thing in different people's blogs.

Recently I've been reading a bunch of travel blogs because I want to find out where else I should go while I am in Asia. I've been mostly reading about Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan because those are the places I'd most like to go.

Western guys writes about life in whatever country he is living in and talks about how hot the women are in the country and how adorable etc etc etc lots of pictures. Then he will write about how the guys in that country are these small, unattractive people who can't handle alcohol and smoke too much and don't respect women.

Western girls writes about life in whatever country she is living in and talks about how the girls in that country act too cutesy and have no ability to think for themselves, wear too much makeup, fall all over any white guy, talk in an annoying baby voice, etc etc etc.

I think these people who constantly find fault with people of the same sex have some problems with their self-confidence. I think that people who write like this see others as their competition. If you go to any country and can't find a single person of the same sex who you could possibly be friends with or even respect, I think that says more about you than it does about the people in the country.

This post is so obvious.
I just had to say something about people like this.
There are too many of them living here.

The Japanese Vegan Child

I made friends with a vegetarian couple who live on a farm in Hyogo. They don't eat eggs, dairy products or meat. They are the first vegetarian Japanese people I've met, so I have been really excited and happy. The wife is a macrobiotic cook. The husband is really awesome and interesting. The baby is the cutest kid in the world, as you can see.For the past week, I have been hanging out really often with this little guy. He's 4 years old and so sweet! Last week, we took him to the beach and to the aquarium. We also took him to a merry-go-round park. He's really different from most children here. There are so many things that make him different. He's not very shy. He started asking me questions and talking to me right away. He isn't afraid to sit on my lap or ask me to read to him.
He's very polite to strangers. He does a little bow when he meets someone for the first time, and he always tells the waiter "that meal was delicious" before leaving the restaurant.
He and his dad taught me how to play KARUTO, a kind of Japanese card game that's like the "go fish" or "memory" of Japan in that every kid can play it. I recommend getting a set of KARUTO cards and playing it with friends if you have foreign friends or kid friends or really nice Japanese friends who are nice enough to play a kid's game with you to help your Japanese improve.
I love this kid!!

Learn Kanji using www.readthekanji.com

READ THE KANJI This site is the absolute best way to prepare for the JLPT test. I feel that I learn more and more Kanji every time I use it. Signing up is very easy and you don't have to even enter your email address. Singing up just gives you your own user name so that you can see your own statistics and progress broken down per session and per month.

You choose whether you want to prepare for JLPT level 4, 3, 2 or 1 and it will quiz you accordingly. It's so easy and simple to use. There's no timer, so you can feel free to take a break or do it while you're busy doing other things. I do it a few times a day. While I'm waiting for the kettle to boil, while I'm replying to texts from friends or while I'm on a break at work I can practice the Kanji on this site for a short while.

It's completely free, but if you use it often you can make a donation to thank the people who made it. Please let me know how this site helps you. I hope it will help you learn Kanji as much as it's been helping me.

Art Kanji picture by Alexis James