Welcome to the Gaijin Life blog

Gaijin life is  my first blog, in this blog I want to share my passion for the wonderful country of the rising sun.

Here you can learn about anyaspect of Japan. Places to visit, dishes to eat , little things that can help you  and personal experiences of my freinds and me.

I hope you will enjoy this blog.

Email: gaijinlife@ymail.com

Twitter: @agaijinlife

http://twitter.com/agaijinlife

I dedicate this blog to all my friends supporting me and to my mom and best friend that past away in 2008 after losing the battle against cancer.

“Bento and Kyara-Ben” Character Designed Lunch Box

The Japanese people often take their home made “bento”, take out lunch boxes, to school, work and picnics.

A “bento” usually made with rice, fish, meat, and vegetables, and it is nutritiously balanced.

And since the Japanese people care if their “bento” look pretty, making “bento” is like an art project.

There are various “bento” accessories sold at stores. You can sometimes find a whole rack with bento stuff!

The mothers of kindergarten children love to make “kyara-ben (character bento)”, for their children.

“Kyara-ben” food is decorated anime/manga characters, or animals.

There are even “kyara-ben” contests, where mothers make incredibly cute food art to complete.

Not only do people make “bento” at home but “Bento” are also available at many places such as bento stores, convenience stores, supermarkets, department stores, and train stations.

From Japanstyle2010

http://www.japanstyle.info/

Traditional japanese house

Picture of the day

May 05th 2010

 

These are picture taken not far from my house in kobe, I do pass in front of this house a lot and always loved the wall so I had to make it the pic of the day!

Kobe Sanomiya

Picture of the day

May 03, 2010

 

Nice city and mountain view taken near Sanomiya in Kobe

Ikea Japan

If you’re a gaijin living in Japan, going to shop at Ikea should be on your to do list, in the first week of your arrival in Japan. Why?　Simply because you will be able to find a lot of product and furniture that you might need to comfortably live in Japan at a price that will not kill your wallet on the spot.

Ikea was introduced in Japan in 1974, the company launched a franchising deal in 1974, only to beat a retreat in 1986. The exact reasons of the retreat are not clear but it is mostly said that it was because the japanese housing market really did not match the company products.  The Ikea CEO said; ” He attributed IKEA’s failure two decades ago to the fact that the company was not ready for the demanding Japanese market — and that Japanese customers were not ready for the do-it-yourself style that defines IKEA.”

20 years past and extensive reasearch were done by the Ikea corporation, to first understand the Japanese life style and also the Japanese needs.

So with all that the first modern Ikea store was open in Funabashi in 2006 followed by the seconde one in Yokohama also in 2006 and 3 other location in 2008: Kobe port island, shin-Misato Saitama and Tsuruhama. All stores are a massive 40,000 m2 which in Japan is incredibly big for a store.

IKEA in Kobe

A view from my house

Picture of the day

May 2nd 2010

This a view of a Chinese buddhist temple, taken from the balcony of my house in Kobe

Kobe Ikuta jinja and Sourakuen

Picture of the day for

May 1st 2010

This is Kobe Ikuta Jinja on the first day of the Golden week 2010

 

 Kobe Sorakuen

 

Gan-ban-yoku: Hot Stone Spa

Hot stone spa, a bath without water has been popular among Japanese women.

Hot stone spa is called “gan-ban-yoku” in Japanese and it’s a bath towel sized stone slab made of granite or silica, and slab commonly embedded into a hard floor.

The bather wears gown or whatever comfortable and lies on the stone bath.

The temperature of the bath is between 40 to 42 degrees centigrade, which is not so hot but body gradually gets sweaty and improves the circulation; therefore, it’s said that gan-ban-yoku has detoxification effect and helps to lose weight.

Since gan-ban-yoku became popular about five years ago, a lot of  gan-ban-yoku spas have appeared in Japan.

Some hot stone spas provide beauty treatments or yoga classes too.

This is a gan-ban-yoku from a Japanese style hotel in Hakone.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BABE_Unsss&hd=1

From Japanstyle2010

http://www.japanstyle.info/

Announcement

To all my friends and readers

I would like to apologize for not posting often lately, only Japanstyle2010 has being posting in the past weeks. The reason for that is: I’m getting married next month and I have so many things to take care of.

But be sure to know that I will resume posting 4 or more post a week around mid May. Plus i will bring even more things to gaijinlife.com

Thank you all for your support

Yugo

Kaomoji (^_^) — Japanese emoticons (^ 0 ^ )/

The Japanese people love to use emoticons, kaomoji, in texts, emails and chatting. They are even used in manga too.
Here are the examples. Just know that kaomoji are horizontal!

Smile(^_^), Laugh(^ o ^), Wink(^_-), Shy(*^_^*), Blushed(#^_^#), Cry(T_T), Cry(T o T), Lost(*_*),Confused(@_@), Sorry(prostrating) m( _ _ )m.

Since hiragana, katakana and kanji can be used to create faces, the variations of kaomoji are numberless.

For Kaomoji lovers, using them just on computers and cell phones are not enough! They want to use them on papers too!
So a Japanese company released an outrageous product for them.

It’s called “Kaomoji Dial Stamp” and there are 20 kinds of signs on it to make over 2000 kaomoji.

Since I have weakness for such nonsense products, I bought and used it right away!

In the box there are the stamp and a piece of paper shown kaomoji examples.

Mmm…I only know a couple of them.

(T_T) “Crying”
m(_ _)m “I’m sorry (prostrating)”

Turn the each serrated dial and make face.

These are how they look.

This stamp is sold well in Japan but I wonder when and how people use this.

You can make your original face and put on anything anywhere you like!
Tell your feeling with this stamp (^o^)/

From Japanstyle2010

http://www.japanstyle.info/

Weekly castle picture from Japanese Castle Explorer no1

The first thing I’d like to do is to say a big thank you to the Gaijin life blog for the opportunity for me to do what I love doing, and that is talking about Japanese Castles.

Who am I? I’m Daniel O’Grady of the Japanese Castle Explorer website

I’m an Aussie and have been living here in Japan since 2001.

Well, the cherry blossoms are blooming all over Japan right now, and I was lucky enough to get myself to Kurume Castle just the other day. The city of Kurume is located in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu and interestingly, it is also the home of Brigestone tire company.

Little remains of Kurume Castle today, just sections of its stonework and moat. No matter its current state, the castle ruins look stunning with its flowers of Spring, under the blue sky.