Where does the time ago, again!
Work
I've been promoted to a new position, also in IT. I work a lot more with Linux servers now, which is fantastic.
The new position means I am no longer on a two week rotating schedule, it has been nice being able to go to bed around the same time each day, wake up around the same time, and not have to switch to overnights every two weeks. I also work regular hours 5 days a week, instead of 12 hour shifts 3-4 days a week.
There is lots to learn, the company is working on transition to a modern IT environment with SRE roles and etc, so not only do I need to learn how to be a System Administrator, I will then also need to pivot into SRE stuff eventually.
I purchased a voucher for an IT exam last year that I still need to take (RHCE). It was $500 USD, but if I pass (when I pass?) work will cover it. It expires in August, so I am taking it near the end of June. If I fail, I get a free retake which is valid for a year from the day I failed, so either way it will be fine.
Visiting Japan
Between my old position and new position, I took all my vacation and went to Japan for about a month.
ERE related things, I stayed in a homestay for the first week (Homestay.com, be careful if the person doesn't have a lot of reviews, I saw people with no reviews, and eventually people went to stay with them and had a bad experience. In the end, I could only fine 1 homestay for the entire month I bounced around Japan), saving enormous amounts of money compared to a hotel and I got to practice a bit of Japanese with my host family. I tried to stay in hostels and cheap hotels or airbnbs otherwise.
Couchsurfing is kind of a dead platform, at least in Japan. I joined and was forced to pay $100 for the year to use it, and then I wasn't able to drum up anything from it.
I booked an airbnb that was more like an apartment in Osaka, with a kitchen, as I had planned to make some meals while there. In the end though, I discovered that they didn't really stock the kitchen with enough dishes, pots, and pans to do real cooking. And then, I was just a few minutes walk from 3 different vegan restaurants in Osaka, so the kitchen didn't see much use. The bigger fridge meant I could enjoy fruits and soy milk for breakfast though.
Most of the things I wanted to do were cheap. Museums and Temples were cheap or free, eating out was pretty inexpensive, although I eventually got into the habit of going to a discount grocery store and picking up things for breakfast and and on-the-go snacks. Because of the weak yen, things seem very cheap at corner stores. Don't let it fool you though, discount grocery stores were hard to find in Tokyo, but outside of Tokyo it was much easier and everything was even less expensive.
Given that I don't drink or go to night clubs, my evenings were inexpensive, I would go for walks/wander the streets, watch TV in the hotel to practice Japanese, read books, plan my trip for the next day, etc.
On Thrifting in Japan
Books
In general, used books are very cheap in Japan and are almost always in very good condition. They are, of course, mostly in Japanese. I saw the peculiar scenario of people rating a particular location of BOOK-OFF (a chain of second hand book stores) as 1 star because there were no English books for sale. I am not sure what they expected in Japan.
One plan I had was to purchase used children's books and manga at BOOK-OFF and read while on the move and then sell the books back to BOOK-OFF and get more. I also brought some Japanese books that I had already read, or was never going to read and had picked up thrifting here in Canada.
My plan was wrenched because they would not let me sell books to them, because I did not have a resident card. I read online (after getting rejected) that sometimes the particular store doesn't care or ask, but I tried one and didn't want to waste more time bouncing around to different stores and getting rejected. So, I donated the books I brought to a local library, a bit of a difficult conversation to have in Japanese
. I didn't want to have this same difficult conversation over and over again, and they told me if they didn't need the books they would dispose of them, so it wasn't what I wanted.
The obvious way around this is to take a Japanese friend, but it's easier to plan that if you know that ahead of time.
So, instead I waited until the trip was almost over, and headed to a BOOK-OFF or two and stocked up on second hand textbooks, children's books, and manga for cheap. I also got two boxsets of DVDs for cheap that I will use to study Japanese as well. The textbooks are unused. The manga looks unread. I will probably destroy these things in the process of studying with them.
Clothing
Everything I saw before going to Japan was that Japan was an excellent place to thrift for clothing.
After going, I strongly disagree. Thrifting for clothing in Japan is very expensive. I bought a second hand pair of jeans for $60! Sure, they were Levi's, but I could get second hand Levi's here for $15. Almost every thrift store I went to was what we might call a boutique thrift store here in Canada. Everything was brand names, well organized and very expensive for my taste.
Aside about the jeans
(At the time, I thought I was really going to need more jeans, because I had packed two pairs of jeans, but the one I was going to wear ripped before I got to Japan, so I had to switch out one of the packed pairs and arrive in Japan with just two pairs of jeans (the one I transited there in, and the other packed). What ended up happening is that I bought another two pairs of jeans used, and then the weather proceed to be unseasonably warm for almost my entire trip, and so I mostly used shorts...)
I wanted that Value Village/Savers/Goodwill/Salvation Army experience and prices. The closest I could come was BOOK-OFF SUPER BAZAAR. The problem was the clothing was still a bit expensive, and the secondary problem was that most of the clothing was too small for me
.
If/When I go back to Japan, I would not bother with thrifting clothing.
The only thing I managed was that my 6 year old shoes had worn through at the heel and was letting water wick up into my shoe when it rained. So at the Super Bazaar I managed to find some used Nikes that were in decent shape. They were $30 CAD. This was near the end of my trip, so I could have waited until I returned to Canada, but I thought it would be fun to have something that I thrifted from Japan be something I use everyday for the next X years.
My previous pair of shoes were $40 CAD new, hopefully these Nikes last a long time
. I had been searching the entire trip for shoes. Most places had brand name shoes for like $200 CAD a pair. At a discount sports store in Akashi, I found a very cheap pair of shoes that seemed like a good match, but the line up for cash was so long that I gave up. Similarly, they had cheap shoes at Donki, but I didn't want to wait in the long lines at Donki just for shoes at the beginning of my trip.
Donki
Officially called Don Quijote, it is a popular discount store chain in Japan. You see many people making a big fuss about this store online and how cheap it is. For everything I was looking at, to me it seemed about the same price as you would find in Canada at Wal-Mart or Old Navy, or for things like make up and skin care products, I saw the same products and prices at drug stores in Japan. Additionally, their suitcases are expensive, just go to Ginza Karen.
Similarly, any discount grocery store will have lots of cheap snacks and junk food like Donki does, with maybe a bit more selection.
I think what actually makes Donki popular is that everything is in one store and they have Tax Free counters for tourists.
Tax Free
By Law, you are supposed to bring your passport with you where ever you go in Japan, a police officer can request to look at your passport and entry stamp. It seems most people do not know this, because the amount of reviews I see that comment "bring your passport for tax free shopping".
Anyways, some stores have the option for you to purchase items without tax, if you spend over 5000 yen. If those items are consumable in some way (food, make up, skin care products, etc) though, they put them in a special plastic bag that you are not allowed to open until you leave Japan. The government has an electronic system where they connect your passport to everything you purchase tax free, and when you are leaving Japan, they might pull you aside and as to review your tax free purchases.
The downside is that typically, there is only tax free shopping in stores/locations in busy tourist areas, where I suspect prices are higher anyways.
Misc Tips
Luggage and Packing
I brought my wife's carry on suitcase and a travel backpack she bought for me for xmas on Amazon that opens like a suitcase. This was more than enough for the month, and the size of the suitcase and nature of the backpack meant I didn't need a luggage forwarding service (more below).
At the end of the trip though, I went to Ginza Karen (name of the store) and bought my own luggage for cheap, maybe $70 CAD. (Tax free, bring your passport
) It was cheaper than what I could find in Canada, and my plan is mainly to use it for our trips to Brazil to see my wife's family. Every time we go there, my wife brings lots of gifts for our nieces and nephew, and my wife's grandmother showers us in linens and other things she sews. And of course, clothing and books are cheap there because of the currency exchange. I tend to just buy my clothing in Brazil, although since I won't go this year, I bought some essentials in Japan.
If you are only going for a week or two and staying in Tokyo/Osaka with some day trips and you plan on doing lots of shopping, if you already own two suitcases, just pack the smaller one with your stuff, and then pack it into the larger suitcase.
If you are staying for longer, pack light and use laundromats. I found the ones I went to were very clean and the machines were huge and worked well.
IC Cards
IC Cards are used to pay for public transit in Japan. This includes tickets for the shinkansen. You can also use them to pay for things at some corner stores and other places.
You might discover that Suica no longer has tourist IC cards available for purchase at Narita (the budget airport for Tokyo). Pasmo however, still offers their tourist IC card there, and they have waived the setup fee of the card.
I used the Pasmo card the entire trip and I had no problems. My card expired the day I left, but the day it expires on, it is still active. I ran it on a low balance the last few days of my trip, and when I got to the airport (by train) I went to the fare adjustment machine and it told me exactly how much more money I needed to pay for the journey, so I dumped in all the coins I had and was able to 0 out my card.
Narita Airport
Narita is the budget airport for Tokyo, but it is also very far away from Tokyo.
Many sources online put up a big stink at how inconvenient it is to take one of the express trains (and then regular trains there after to get to your hotel) and notes there might not be a lot of room. They often recommend taking a highway bus, which is more expense.
I took the express train both from and to the airport, no issues, the express train was basically empty both times (around 9PM leaving and 9-10AM going).
However, if the difference in price between a flight to Narita and Haneda is like $100-$200, you might save money by going to Haneda instead, double check the costs of transit from both airports before buying.
Luggage Forwarding Services and Trains
Online, they generally make a big fuss about how difficult it is to bring your luggage on the train, that you should just pay for a luggage forwarding service instead.
In this human's opinion, if you pack light and bring the smallest suitcase/backpack combo you can manage, it is very easy to take a local or express train with your luggage. You might have to pay more for an oversized luggage seat on the Shinkansen, but in my experience almost all the trains I took were empty and there was lots of overhead room. I had my wife's carry on sized luggage and a backpack designed to pack clothing.
If you had a giant suitcase, well I guess then it wouldn't fit.
When I was leaving, with now my own suitcase + the carry on suitcase + my backpack, that was a bit more annoying, but still, nothing you can't handle.
Airplane v. Train
Flights between cities in Japan are cheap, often cheaper than the bullet train. I ended up taking the bullet train anyways, because once you factor in the cost of getting to the airport and the time spent waiting for security and etc, the train is cheaper and better use of your time. (Besides, if you use a domestic flight, you will be forced to use a luggage forwarding service
)
If you can get a flight between two cities where the airport is very close to downtown, it might be worth it, but between Tokyo and Osaka, for example, all the budget airlines are at Nartia, so that is already quite a distance and expense on top of your plane ticket.
It takes a while to get used to train travel this way though. A few times I was in a train station buying a ticket and the next train was leaving in 10 minutes, but I wasn't sure if I would make it, and so get tickets for the train after. Then I would stand at the platform and watch the train I thought I wouldn't make it to sit there for 7 minutes before leaving.
The bullet trains I rode, the amount of space you get is shocking, compared to a plane. It is very easy to do actual work on a bullet train, in my opinion. It's like being in a coffee shop for a few hours.
That was longer than expected, I'll post about other things another day
, I will try to become more regular in my postings
. Looking to recreate, but bigger, stronger, made out of synthetic material so it is water resistant)