Making the Most of It: Life as a JET in Hiroshima

I feel compelled to begin with a disclaimer:

Okay, sometimes I feel totally chuffed at my own mad computer skills (ha!) and at others (like today), I just find myself wondering whether I just imagined everything ... like did I completely hallucinate saving all my formatting and the order I put everything in ... or what?
While I think this is the worst jet-lag I have ever had, that still doesn't explain where my files have gone...

All the same, sooner than later is usually a good policy, even if it means continuing to inflict terrible abuse on my own inner perfectionist by posting what is essentially my old working draft.

Here it is in the rough (without clickable links, in no real order, unfinished, etc.), for now, to be returned to final revision status (better organized, tricked out, and amended) as time permits.

Thank you for bearing with me and please feel free to comment.
If you want to email me directly you can do so by clicking on the Super,ThanksForAsking link and going to my profile there.

I hope that those of you who were at Hiroshima Orientation on Wednesday, August 16, each got at least a little something out of the hour I was there.

Thanks to everyone and thanks especially to those of you who took the time to give me feedback.

peace,
flo


Hiroshima websites:

GetHiroshima is an invaluable resource run by extremely dedicated and genuinely nice people. If you ever have a question about anything at all in Hiroshima, just do a site search or post it in the classifieds section and you will very likely get the answers you need without much of a wait at all.

GetHiroshima also publishes a very useful map of Hiroshima city (updated quarterly) that you can find at a lot of different locations around the city.

They are always looking for contributors, so why not share your writing/artistic skills (plus add to your resume) and submit something?

Hiroshima Online
(just started within the last year by a long-term Hiroshima resident)

The Hiroshima Convention & Visitors Bureau website provides information on sight-seeing, lodging, etc.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan has an informative and concise article on Hiroshima.

Let your friends and family know how cool Hiroshima city is by sending them a link to a piece titled HipHiroshima from Bangkok Airways’ inflight magazine, FahThai (it ran in their first issue, January 2006).

For regularly updated Hiroshima Club information in Japanese:
sunloop

niteowl

The following are not oriented towards the Hiroshima/Chugoku Region, but full of interesting information about living and traveling here in Japan:

The Weekender: Japan’s Quality English Magazine

The Foreigner – Japan

JapanZine

If you have visitors coming, but you can’t meet them at the airport (Haneda, Narita, Osaka (Kansai), or Hiroshima) this website/PDF (published by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research) is an excellent bilingual resource which can direct your friends/family to you.

Hiroshima Travel:

One of the best ways to enjoy your life in Hiroshima is to travel within the prefecture and beyond. Not only will you see more of Japan, but the sense of accomplishment that you’ll feel in figuring out how to get places on your own is awesome. This is a great site to get you started on using the trains to your best advantage (be sure to follow “view a list of rail passes” and the “click for more details” links).

Unleash your Creativity!
Living in Japan is your chance to unleash your creativity – whether it be in your way with words, flair for fashion, talent for tunes, pursuit of painting or photography.

For Fashionistas: Hiroshima has no Harajuku fashion scene, but people do converge on Alice Garden behind Parco to either be seen or engage in fabulous people-watching.

For writers: The Dead Parrot’s Society meets monthly in Hiroshima City. You can email the club president, Robert via their website.

For musicians: Check out as many of the music venues and events as you can and once you figure out where you want to create your own scene or fit in, then just start talking to people about making arrangements to do your own thing. If you’ve got any measure of talent (acoustic or digital), it’s really easy to find outlets for artistic expression in Hiroshima. The city is big enough to have a wide variety of venues, but small enough that there’s still space for you. It sounds oxymoronic, but it’s true. One of the easiest ways in is to go to Koba (located on the 3rd floor of the building next to Stussy on Namiki Street). The Stussy store is on the northwest corner of the only intersection with a stoplight on Namiki (between Peace Boulevard and Parco). Bring a recording of your tunes/beats and ask the good folks there (Bom, Kenta, and Shinbara all speak English) where they think might be a good venue for your sounds.

For painters, photographers, visual artists.: Again, Koba is a good place to start. The owner, Bom, believes in supporting all kinds of artists, and if he likes your stuff, you can arrange a show at his restaurant/bar for free.

Also for free (maybe a very minimal usage fee), are your local community centers (kominkan or bunka centers). Use your art as a real means of communication and let people know that you’d like to have a show. Make flyers and not only will people come to see your work, you’ll meet people with similar interests in your area. Win win!

If you want to have a more formal show and you’re willing to shell out some serious cash to do it, Tengu Gallery (on the north side of Hondori, near Peace Park) is popular and many artists successfully sell their work there.

Another gallery that lets you lease space here in Hiroshima is Gallery 718.

If anyone else knows of other foreigner-friendly art venues, please let me know!

Art and Exhibition Space in Tokyo:
Design Festa is a freestyle International Art Event open to all artists, both professional and non-professional from all over the world to exhibit their creative talent. Design Festa is the biggest art event in Asia, with approximately 51,000 visitors and 6,000 exhibitors. (info taken directly from their website)

The next Design Festa event (vol. 24) will be held on December 2 (Sat) & 3 (Sun), 2006 at Tokyo Big Sight. If you want to exhibit, you can reserved a mini-booth for one day for as little as 10,500 yen. there are a lot of different options you can explore on your own via their website (different exhibition types/fashion/performance stages). The deadline for applications for the next Design Festa is September 27.

If you just want to go and look (it’s really a must-do if you have the time/money to go to Tokyo and you’re not taking the Japanese Proficiency Test), you can get tickets in advance for 800 yen for 1 day or 1500 yen for 2 days (Ticket PIA : P code 607-491 or LAWSON Ticket : L code 37369)

At the Design Festa Gallery (near JR Harajuku Station), you can show your work year-round (except on Design Festa Event weekends twice a year) in an 80x80cm space for the following rates:
1 piece 525 yen/day
1 piece for 3 consecutive weekdays 1050 yen
1 week 3,150 yen

Contact information: 03-3479-1442 or gallery@designfesta.com (I’m not totally sure about calling in English, but I’ve successfully made inquiries via email in English)

On Cameras and Photography:
From my experience here, whenever you take film to be processed for prints, you always get a free paper photo album. Very nice!

Japanese photo sizes are different than the print sizes I am familiar with in the U.S. (I know nothing about print sizes in any other countries).

For regular prints, you’ll usually be choosing from L (small), KG (medium-sized), and 2L/LL (a little large).

More specifically and especially for those of you who are interested in enlarging photos for gifts/exhibition or printing from slides, Akira Sakamoto posted the following information on photo.net:

Here are most basic and popular sizes and their corresponding names of print papers in Japan (sizes in milimeters, referred to website of Fuji Film)

Print papers for machine prints:
view print (57x86)
L (89x130)
LL (130x190)

For Fujichrome Super Digital prints (laser print on photo paper):
L (89x130)
2L (127x178)
6PW (pronounced: Waido Mutsu-Giri) (203x305)
4PW (pronounced: Waido Yotsu-Giri) (254x381)
Mutsu-Giri (203x254)
Yotsu-Giri (254x305)

Conventional manual prints:
6PW
4PW
kyabine ("cabinet" in french pronounciation) (130x180)
Mutsu-Giri
Yotsu-Giri
Dai-Yotsu-Giri (279x356)
Han-Giri (356x432)
Zen-Shi (nothing to do with Zen:-) (457x560)
Dai-Zen-Shi (508x610)

Camera Stores (in Hiroshima and beyond):

Saeda
Located on Rijo dori just south of Hondori in downtown Hiroshima (it’s a local chain so there are other locations around the city as well as in Itsukaichi, Kure, Fukuyama, and Miyoshi). The site is in Japanese, but this address will let you click on different locations for maps. From this page, you can click on the top right ホーム to get to the Saeda homepage if you’re interested.

Saeda has a point card, good prices, a great warranty on cameras (I asked lots of questions and was told that even if I dropped my Nikon D70s in the toilet within 3 years, I could take it back to the store to get worked on for free. Hopefully I won’t have to put that to the test.) They also have good sales on large prints. When I first started to go to the Hondori location, I found the staff fairly rude, but after many regular visits, I started to recognize which faces were consistently helpful and friendly.

Kitamura
Kitamura is a national chain, and there are more locations all over than any other large camera/processing store, so your point card can travel more. You can buy cameras/accessories/do processing/get prints at Kitamura.
I stopped using them even though they seem to have the lowest prices on enlargements because 1) none of their many locations are convenient for me and 2) I don’t like the way they handled my negatives/slide film. Others I know have not had any negative experiences.

Sigma (site in Japanese only)
Sigma is a processing/print lab in Hiroshima, on the west side of the street near the Funairi Saiwai-cho streetcar stop (near Joyfull). (I really don’t know if it’s at all associated with the lens/camera manufacturer) Sigma is a little more expensive than Saeda or Kitamura, but it is the only store I use for processing or printing my slide film (unless I need to make a lot of large prints and Saeda is having one of their sales on enlargements).

I have always gotten very friendly service there and they have a locker service so that if your processing/prints are ready after hours, they’ll give you a locker number and combination so you can pick up your stuff after 7pm. Highly recommended.

Yodobashi Camera (site in Japanese only)
Yodobashi offers online shopping in Japanese and if you go to a major city like Osaka, Fukuoka, Tokyo, or Sapporo, you can shop at a real store. Film/equipment/accessory prices on camera and computer equipment are very good and they also have a point card.

B&H Photo Video
B&H is a New York store with great prices on everything related to your audiovisual life. They ship to Japan, but if you order with a non-U.S. credit card, you’ll need to fax them a copy of the front and back of your card the first time you order before you can use it. Even if you don’t actually order from them, the site can be useful for researching prices and specs on equipment you may want to buy here in Japan.
Art and Stationery Supplies/Services:
Tokyu Hands on Aioi dori is great for one-stop shopping but be warned that it can get expensive.

Office 24 has cheaper photocopies and a great selection of pens/pencils. As the name would suggest, it’s open 24 hours.

There are also 2 Kinko’s/FedEx stores in the city: one on Rijo dori, south of Hondori, and another on the Hakushima streetcar line on the way to the Prefectural Art Museum.

Near the Prefectural Art Museum, there are a few art/frame shops you might want to check out.
アイデア (IDEA) Magazine
This is a gorgeous Japanese semi-bilingual art eye-candy magazine. It features amazing graphics/art and superior quality papers and printing. I’ve found it at various bookstores, but most consistently at HMV.

Art It: Art in Tokyo and Japan

Japanese/English bilingual art magazine with interviews, articles and information on contemporary art from/in Tokyo and the rest of Japan (and Asia). Available at HMV.










Tokion is an art & music magazine that used to be bilingual but is now only available here in Japanese and abroad in English (http://www.tokion.com/). First published only within Japan, Japanese artists are often featured.

The Telephone:
Especially if you don’t have an internet connection, the phone is your lifeline. If you don’t already have one in your house, go to the International Center (Crystal Building, 4th Floor)and get yourself a copy of the English Town Page phonebook. If they’re not available, ask and find out how/when you can get one. The listings for Hiroshima are fairly sparse, but personally, having a phone book in English feels kind of comforting to me.

The English Town Page website has all kinds of other information besides phone numbers (including a JR route search! very very useful!)

On the subject of phone books, once you learn the alphabet (Hiragana and Katakana), don’t be afraid to try using the Japanese white pages to find out useful information on your own. It can be frustrating and time-consuming, yes, but also intensely gratifying when you first successfully make a phone call to find out what time a store opens/closes.

Click for a list of useful phone numbers for Hiroshima City


Computer Stuff:
I think that internet access is essential to life here in Japan. Whether it’s for keeping in touch with friends and family via email, webcam, blogs, Skype; looking up the answers to grammar questions; getting ideas for teaching; reading/watching the news; downloading your favorite television shows, or all of the above, having your own computer and internet connection can make all the difference.

If you have to sit in the office all day or sit at a school all day with no discernible duties, then being able to surf on the internet or use your own computer to create lesson plans can make all the difference in the world in your overall quality of life and ability to create your own job satisfaction.

I helped a friend get a wireless PC card at DeoDeo (the main store across from Sogo) with unlimited monthly internet use for around 10,000 yen per month. Many schools have internet connections now, but you may have to worry about sharing computers, clearing your History, firewalls that limit your use of free email sites, etc.

Do some research and ask your JTEs, fellow JETs, your predecessors, store staff, I say just do anything you need to do to get yourself connected and online. When I was told that I needed to pay the 20,000 yen construction fee to get my old apartment wired for a high-speed connection, I paid it and never regretted it.

Yahoo BB is the most popular and users can also call other YahooBB users for free on their landlines. However, some apartments are wired in a way that YahooBB can’t be used. Ask ask and ask until you can find out what kinds of services are available to you where you live.

Of all the stores in Hiroshima, I have found that the DeoDeo Computer Store (on Hondori across from Lawson) has one employee who has been the most helpful in answering my questions. It actually really depends on who you talk to, but I’ve had the most luck there. Maybe other people have had better luck, but I wouldn’t even bother asking any questions at BestDenki stores. They have good prices but (again, this is only my opinion) terrible customer service.

When I’ve had questions about my mac, I’ve found the MacAddict Forums very useful.

Ecards are a good way to make sure your loved ones to know that you’re thinking of them without worrying about mailing time. Care2 is a site with Ecards that helps you to support the cause of your choosing as you send your love around the world.

Another good one is Birthday Alarm. Once you register, you get an email which lets you know when birthdays are coming up so you can send cards on time.

I never really watched TV before I came to Japan. However, since I’ve been here, I’ve found that watching TV in English really helps me to relax and laugh. Of course, getting together with new friends is great, but sometimes all the socializing can be tiring. If you just want to stay home and relax and give yourself a break from all the small talk or even if you want to share some at-home on-screen laughs with friends, then a satellite TV connection (SkyPerfect) or downloaded shows (http://www.mininova.org/ if you have/get a high-speed connection) can be great.

If you don’t have money to buy a computer right away, there are a few centrally-located media/internet cafes around (Hiroshima Mall Best Denki near Hiroshima Station has one and Popeye Media Café has a central location on Hondori and many others around the prefecture (http://www.mediacafe.jp/branch/chugoku.html has more information on different locations, along with maps, in Japanese).


Other Online Magazines I Love:
http://www.seedmagazine.com/ About Seedmagazine.com (from their website):
Seedmagazine.com aims to provide our readers with the most relevant, insightful and entertaining original science content on the web. Updated 6 days a week, our site includes everything from breaking news and in-depth features to columns and reviews
The print version is available at Kinokuniya.
http://www.salon.com/ (worth paying for membership, or you can just put up with the pop-up ads each time)

Not Safe For Work due to Adult Content:
http://www.nerve.com/ Here’s their mission statement (from their website):
Nerve exists because sex is beautiful and absurd, remarkably fun and reliably trauma-inducing. In short, it is a subject in need of a fearless, intelligent forum for both genders. We believe that women (men too, but especially women) have waited long enough for a smart, honest magazine on sex, with cliché-shattering prose and fiction as well as striking photographs of naked people that capture more than their flesh. You've waited long enough.

Books and Magazines in Print:
Hiroshima Library has books in English. There’s also a great little Children’s Library attached to the Children’s Museum between the baseball stadium and the Family Pool. The Manga Library at Hijiyama has a small section of bilingual manga (comics). The entire library system in Hiroshima is free and you can check out books for 2 weeks and then return them at any city library, no matter where you checked it out from – aside from the great little library at the International Lounge in the Peace Memorial Park (I may be wrong on this).

Both the International Lounge at Peace Memorial Park have new magazines and newspapers in English and provide loads of information on Prefectural and City events and sightseeing. They are also good places to meet people for language-exchange.

The Book Nook is a very small buy/sell bookstore that is basically the lounge of a conversation school called TheOutsiderZone. Book selection is limited, though you can sometimes get lucky. The main benefit of the BookNook (2nd floor location between the Kokusai Hotel and Lawson north of Hondori and south of Aioi dori) is that it’s a free, quiet escape from the elements with couches and free coffee (if you can find it: look for a very basic map on gethiroshima.com)

You can order books/music/DVDs from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.jp. Personally, I like to look for a book on Amazon.com first and then look to see if I can get it faster (and with free shipping in Japan) from Amazon.co.jp. Not all books are available directly through the Japanese site, so you may have to wait longer for them to be shipped from abroad.

Junkudo is a national chain which sells books in English. There are two locations in Hiroshima -- one in the Fukuya across from Hiroshima Station and another in the Diamond City mall (within walking distance from Tenjingawa station, one stop east of Hiroshima Station – or you can take the bus from Hiroshima Station)

Kinokoniya has both magazines and books in English. It is in the main Sogo building on the 6th floor.

HMV in Sunmall on Hondori (on the west side of Rijo dori/street) has a small selection of magazines in English), as does Tower Records in Parco.

Weather:
These two sites are in Japanese, but give you much more information than a lot of other foreign sites:
Tenki.jp for Southern Hiroshima Prefecture: http://www.tenki.jp/yoh/y6710.html
Tenki.jp for Northern Hiroshima Prefecture: http://www.tenki.jp/yoh/y6720.html
NHK National weather forecasts: http://www.nhk.or.jp/weather/ (Hiroshima is 広島)

Metric Conversions:
http://www.metric-conversions.org/

Earthquake Information:
Hiroshima doesn’t generally get very big earthquakes but there have been two during my time here that have made me cry. You’ve probably been told some general information on what to do in an earthquake, but I advise you to specifically ask the JTE in charge of you to tell you where you should go and who you should actually try to contact if there’s a really big one.

For information on the latest earthquakes around the world: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ If you feel an earthquake and you want to know more about it, the first thing you should do (if you’re not actually in any danger) is turn on the TV. NHK will have a news banner at the top of the screen within minutes telling you the location of the epicenter and the Japanese magnitudes.

For more information on the differences between the Richter scale and the Japanese scale, go to http://geology.about.com/od/quakemags/

Shoe shopping for men and women:
If you have family/friends in the U.S., then Zappos is your friend. (I’m sorry I don’t know of any great sites that ship to here!) Zappos has free shipping both ways within the U.S. and a great tool on their site that lets you see shoes from all angles. And you can return your shoes for any reason (unworn, of course) within 365 days.
http://www.zappos.com/
Of course, if you’re lucky enough to have Japanese-sized feet, that’s wonderful, but even though I have very Japanese-average 23.5cm feet, I don’t necessarily always want the styles or materials (so much pleather!) available here.

A site that does ship to Japan is LLBean (http://www.llbean.com/). While you may find their clothes/shoes are pretty utilitarian, men especially may find that shopping for taller sizes here pretty difficult, so a pair of LLBean pants or a shirt could mean the difference between wearing something tattered and stained or something new.

For tall women here in Hiroshima, Zara (just east of Tokyu Hands on Aioi dori) has longer lengths in pants/trousers.

For inexpensive everyday clothes, Uniqlo is the Gap of Japan (different from Gap in that they sell yukata in summer!). There’s one on the 2nd floor of Sunmall and other locations around the prefecture. More monochromatic is Mujirushi – with stores in Parco, AlPark, and Diamond City. Gap does have a wider variety of sizes than many other stores here – located in Parco and at AlPark.

For women’s lingerie, there’s no shortage of little boutiques around, but many women find the excessive padding of bras unnecessary and annoying. Victoria’s Secret ships to Japan, though shipping expenses are high so you might want to get together with some girlfriends and place an order together.



Websites for JETs/ex-pats/English teachers:
jetsetjapan

http://www.ithinkimlost.com/

http://www.bigdaikon.com/

2005 JET AA Southeast U.S. Chapter PDF


Teaching Resources:

These are excellent resources:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/

Game ideas and song sheets available for free:
http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ (Flashcards and worksheets are only accessible with paid membership of $25)

A fee-based site ($29.99/6 months) with printable images for flashcards:
http://www.esl-images.com/index.asp

Crayola has a great website with tons of things you can print out for kids’ classes (could also be good for ESL activities with junior and senior high school students):
http://www.crayola.com/

Links to sites for teaching children:
http://www.davidenglishhouse.com/linkskids.html

Lessons, games, quizzes, forums, chat, lesson plans, jobs & more:
http://www.englishclub.com/index.htm

Printable phonics activities:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/clusters/print/index.shtml

Many many materials for Teaching and Learning:
http://eleaston.com/

A nice list of links to sites for ESL educators:
http://www.education-world.com/foreign_lang/classroom/esl.shtml

May be helpful if someone asks you about the origin/meaning of a phrase and you draw a total blank:
http://members.aol.com/morelandc/HaveOrigins.htm

Articles for students educators and tools for writers (a little more esoteric):
http://www.virtualsalt.com/

Global slang and dialects directory:
http://www.aussieslang.com/directory/default.asp


Newspapers:
Almost every major newspaper now has an online version in addition to the print version, so you can keep up with news from back home.
The major Japanese newspapers are:
The Daily Yomiuri http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/ (click on “English”)
The Mainichi/Daily News http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/ (now associated with msn)
The Japan Times http://www.japantimes.co.jp/

I recommend The Daily Yomiuri because there deadline for submissions is the latest, ensuring that the newspaper that comes to your door has the most recent news available in print.

Miscellaneous Reference Sites:
Here’s the site for Google’s language tools:
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

There are lots of dictionaries available online, but I find that the one I use most often is The American Heritage Dictionary http://www.bartleby.com/61/

If you want to know exactly how much you’re earning/spending/saving:
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html
http://www.xe.com/ucc/ (more currencies)

If you have questions about the mail in Japan:
http://www.post.japanpost.jp/english/fee/

If you want to know about paper sizes in Japan:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html

If World Weather interests you
http://www.worldweather.com/

Time Zone Converter:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

For calling internationally (Country Codes):
http://www.countrycallingcodes.com/

For making free calls from computer to computer:
http://www.skype.com (or you can use SkypeOut to make calls to real telephones very very cheaply)

Camping and Hiking in Japan:
An easy place to buy camping/hiking/climbing gear in the city is Kojitsu – it’s a basement store just off of Hondori near the Lawson closer to Parco.
Sports Authority (at Diamond city and in Ujina) both sell Coleman and Captain Stag brands.
Your local DIY store (like DIK) probably sells some basic camping/BBQ equipment as well.

Lots of older teachers at your schools are very likely hiking enthusiasts. Even if you have nothing else in common, letting people know that you enjoy hiking and you’d someone to show you good places to hike will probably get you invited for an early-morning start to some beautiful places. Popular trails tend to get very crowded during the fall when the leaves are at their best. Going early can be a good way to avoid the ant-like throngs, but since so many people seem so adept at early starts here, staying late can sometimes be the key to enjoying a site with fewer people.

From my experience, most of the camping that my Japanese co-workers engage in is Auto-camping – which means that you pay to drive your car to a site and pitch your tent on a very small site right next to your neighbor. I’ve had better luck pitching my tent on beaches and driving around in the countryside to find out-of-the-way mountain spots that suit me. Unlike in Texas, people aren’t carrying around shotguns waiting to shoot trespassers, so as long as you’re quiet, no one will probably even notice that you’re there and the worst that would happen is needing to say you’re sorry for the intrusion.

There are some good climbing spots west of Hiroshima city (in Otake, for example) and there’s a climbing wall at Green Arena. As always, be persistent in asking around and you’ll find out what you need to know and probably make some friends in the process.

Especially if you’re living in the city, I think it’s important to make a point of getting out and visiting your country kin – the mountains and beaches here are beautiful – and if you go and stay with friends in the inaka (countryside) from time to time, you’ll make better friends and you won’t resent it when they want to come and stay with you in the city. Some of my best memories of life here in Japan are as a JET, living in relative inaka, and going to house parties/BBQs out to experience other friends’ versions of inaka.

If you like to mix music with your camping, there are several parties to look out for: the Full Moon Party at Miyajima in September, the Kaze-no-Matsuri in September, the Niji-no-Misaki Matsuri at Aso in May, and the New Moon Party at Miyajima in June. These are all super chill events that welcome families.

If you live outside the city and you’re stuck waiting until your first train out, then you do have a few urban “camping” options:
** There are many love hotels (many of which are named after fruits and vegetables) along riversides that you can spot looking south from near Peace Park (the main lights usually turn off when no more rooms are available)
** There are two different capsule hotels in Nagarekawa (the drinking/red-light district downtown) – one for women and one for men, across from each other (sorry I don’t the names!)
** Media Café Popeye is an internet café open all night long and you can even shower there for cheaper than getting a hotel (downtown locations on Hondori and Ebisu dori)
** Many large karaoke places are open until dawn (cheaper than a hotel and you can order food!)
** Chain Izakaya restaurants like Shirokiya are open until 5 – giving you only an hour or two to wander around waiting for your train
** There are a few bars which regularly stay open until dawn (I’ll give you hints: one has an impressive CD collection and another serves popcorn)
** I’ve seen many Japanese men fall asleep at ramen counters – you could try that, too!

Other sports/outdoor activities:
Hiroshima city has lots of martial arts groups, running clubs, football clubs (both kinds), basketball clubs, a Capoeira group (http://www.geocities.jp/nativa_hiroshima/), and
more. Even if you live outside the city and have no desire to constantly travel to pursue your interests, persistent inquiries will yield results. Be prepared to travel a little. Naturally, lots of high schools offer a wider range of sports clubs than junior high or elementary schools. If you really want to do something and you know that a school in your area has a club, ask around and see if you can participate once a week. It may entail more cultural immersion, but if you’re up for it, that can mean more language skills for you in the long run. If you keep running into brick walls, see what you can do about making your own group and make it happen on your own. People might travel to you. This applies to absolutely anything you want to do here.

on Japanese film:
http://www.ryuganji.net

On food/eating in general and being a vegetarian in Hiroshima:
While it can be intensely gratifying to cook for yourself, it can be frustrating to search for the ingredients you want or to not understand the foods available here.

The following books are all either fully bilingual or feature the Japanese writing of food names/ingredients and have been useful to me:

A Guide to Food Buying in Japan by Carolyn R. Krouse (ISBN 0-8048-3472-5)
A Dictionary of Japanese Food by Richard Hosking (ISBN 0-8048-2042-2)
Japanese Family-Style Recipes by Urakami Hiroko (ISBN 4-7700-2962-4)
100 Recipes from Japanese Cooking by Hata Kouichiro and Kondou Kazuki (ISBN 4-7700-2079-1)
The Elegant Art of Japanese Food and Manners by Teruaki Tamura (ISBN 4-89361-184-4)

I’ve also put together this list of websites which I hope will help you in your food shopping and preparation.

Japanese Cuisine Glossary:
http://japanesefood.about.com/library/blgloAB.htm

Obachan’s Kitchen & Balcony Garden is a blog featuring frequently updated pictures of Japanese food, recipes, and writing (all in English)
http://kokonuggetyumyum.blogspot.com/

Through this links page you can find many many other Japanese food blogs and recipes:
http://web.mac.com/lucasburns/iWeb/nihonnoryori/Links.html

This is a great site and the address below will get you started on a super refreshing recipe for summer:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=recipe&dbid=64
(I made it using only what I had in the house at the time – and even without the tomato, scallions, or ginger, it was still wonderfully cooling in the summer heat) I’ll give you the recipe here for those of you starting off without internet, but I suggest going to the site later so you can see exactly how healthy it really is for you!

Cucumber, Seaweed Salad (from the world’s healthiest foods website)

This salad is a very nutritious accompaniment to many main dishes without having to spend much time or effort. It gives you an easy and tasty way to enjoy the healthy benefits of seaweed more often.

Cucumber, Seaweed Salad Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

* 1 TBS dried hijiki seaweed
* 3 cups cucumber, peeled, seeds scooped out and sliced
* 1 medium tomato, seeds and excess pulp removed, sliced
* 1 TBS minced scallion green or green onions
* Dressing
* 3 TBS rice vinegar
* 2 TBS soy sauce
* 1/2 TBS finely minced fresh ginger
* 1/2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
* extra virgin olive oil to taste
* Salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:


1. Rinse and soak hijiki in warm water while preparing rest of ingredients.
2. Peel cucumber and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds with a small spoon and slice thin.
3. Cut tomato in half crosswise and squeeze out seeds. Quarter and cut out excess pulp. Cut into slices about 1⁄4 inch wide.
4. Whisk rest of ingredients together. Squeeze out excess water from seaweed. Chop if necessary. You don't want hijiki pieces to be too large. Toss everything together and serve immediately.

Serves 2


Healthy Cooking Tips:

This salad is best salted right before serving. The salt will draw out the water from the cucumbers and dilute the flavor.

http://www.recipezaar.com/
http://www.cooks.com/
http://allrecipes.com/


For the foods you know from back home:
http://www.fbcusa.com (there’s a brit shop and aussie shop)

Jupiter is a store that sells a wide variety of foreign foods – located in Shareo (underground shopping in downtown Hiroshima) and on the Shinkansen (bullet train) side of Hiroshima Station.
Yamaya is mostly a discount liquor store, but they also have a decent selection of canned/dry/instant foreign foods with locations around the city (and maybe elsewhere? ask around)
The basement of Sogo also has a small selection of foreign foods.
Peter Pan on Hondori and the Sony Plaza store on the 2nd floor of the A’qua section between the old and new Sogo buildings also have foreign sweets, snacks, some Old El Paso products, and foreign cosmetics and stationery products.

Vegetarian and Organic Shopping:
http://www.ambikajapan.com/ (you get a free bollywood dvd with every order)
http://www.alishan.jp/shop/nfoscomm/catalog/

Vegetarian and Organic Websites:
http://www.fatfreevegan.com/
http://www.vegparadise.com/


Japanese food:
Sushi & Sake http://www.sushiandtofu.com/ This website has lots of information about sake. You can also go to http://www.sushiandtofu.com/recipes/recipesArchives.htm for a list of Japanese recipes)

Bento.com: http://www.bento.com/ (click on “Japanese cuisines” for recipes and vocabulary)

eGForums is the the EGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters’ forum on Japanese food: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showforum=19

Authentic Japanese Food http://www.authenticjapanesefood.com/index.php
This website introduces you to essential Japanese ingredients and gives recipes, too.

Food shopping in Hiroshima:
Andersen on Hondori has a good selection of cheeses and great bread. You can order bread in advance to be made fresh for you on the day you request. This can be useful, if say, you really like the Variety Grain Bread (which is often sold out if you go there late in the day) but you live in the countryside and you know you are going to be in the city on a specific day).

If you’re vegetarian and you want to eat out, there are several good Indian restaurants in town – you can decide which ones you like, everyone seems to have a different favorite: Tandoor in Pacela, Nanak near Hondori, Spicy Bar Lal’s near Hondori, Ganesh has several locations; falafel at Churi in Nagarekawa; Italian restaurants almost always have non-meat dishes and better salads; Kemby’s and The Shack both have a few vegetarian options; there are tofu restaurants in both Fukuya department stores (at Hiroshima station and downtown) and one in Hijiyama (sorry, the name escapes me -- near the Contemporary Art Museum); all rotating sushi restaurants offer non-fish options (cucumber rolls, pickle rolls, natto, egg, sometimes avocado), Creative Sushi Nobu on Rijo dori (south of Peace Boulevard on the west side) can fix you up with California rolls (English-speaking chef), Warung Matahari near the covered Takanobashi shopping street is an Indonesian restaurant with a killer papaya salad; Tabeni Kinsaiya offers great lunch sets (all-vegetarian all-the-time) between Yokogawa Station and the Yokogawa 1-chome streetcar stops (on the west side of the streetcar street); and there’s always okonomiyaki which is really easily made vegetarian (niku nashi kudasai). Two of my favorites are Lopez (English –speaking chef) near Yokogawa station and Atom (has an English menu) on the 4th floor of Okonomi-Mura near Parco.

Health Issues:
You really can’t underestimate the toll that acclimating to your new life in Hiroshima can take on your health. Eating new foods, adjusting to a different climate, being away from family and friends, and dealing with your new working environment, can all get you sick. The best way to not get sick is simply to not overdo things. If you’re feeling rundown, just don’t go out until you feel more well-rested.

I’m actually looking for better doctors than I’ve been seeing for the past few years, so if anyone finds a General Practictioner, Dentist, or Gynecologist that they’re really happy with, please let me know!! I won’t give names here, but I’ve found that the medical attention I’ve received here in the city has been depressingly impersonal – and sometimes even incompetent. I don’t want to be negative, but really, please do let me know if you find someone good!

Impersonal or not, sometimes a visit to the doctor really is warranted, so don’t be afraid to go and even drag along a JTE or Japanese-speaking friend if necessary. One thing to remember is that medication dispensed through a doctor’s prescription is significantly cheaper than when you go to a pharmacy on your own.

Birth Control for Women:
http://www.inhousepharmacy.com/bcp-hormones/tricilest.html
Friends and I have used this website for years without any trouble from customs authorities.

Yoga:
When I first got here to Japan, it took me a while to find friends I was really comfortable with. This actually turned out to be a blessing because I picked up the yoga books I’d brought over from the U.S. and became more flexible. Yoga helps you to increase flexibility both literally and metaphorically as it teaches you to meditate on your life.

To help you get started or to encourage you in your practice while you are away from organized classes:

http://www.yogajournal.com/
This is an excellent website which not only breaks down the Asanas (poses) for you, but also has a non-intrusive weekly e-newsletter edited by Andrea Kowalski, who used to teach Kundalini yoga in Okinawa.

I’m not a big Nike fan, but I did get an excellent yoga mat at the Nike store on Hondori. Yoga mats can also be found at Sports Authority, at Tokyu Hands, and at a variety of other sporting and discount stores.

My two favorite yoga books for practice (they’re the ones that got me started):

Richard Hittleman's Yoga: 28 Day Exercise Plan by Richard Hittleman (originally published in 1972)
All you need is space for a mat to do yoga at home. Especially if you’re stuck in the countryside without access to yoga classes, this book gives you 28 days of guided self-practice that starts slowly and advances day-by-day. It includes advanced breathing exercises that will serve you well in dealing with stress. I really can’t recommend this book highly enough. I like the emphasis on only doing what your body is ready to handle. If something is too difficult for you, the author makes suggestions for easier poses. Overall the tone is positive and the 70s photos and leotards make me smile every time!

The Sivananda Companion to Yoga by Sivanda Yoga Center
This book gave me my introduction to Sun Salutations. I find that they are the easiest way to just do one bit of yoga when you’re short on time and energy to help you get focused, energized, and more relaxed.

You can also go to GetHiroshima to find a good review for Neila, a Hatha Yoga teacher in Hiroshima City.

For smokers: Those of you who enjoy hand-rolled cigarettes (like Drum) or cigars, there is a tobacco shop near Hiroshima station. I’m sorry I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s right across from the big pachinko parlor, near the fruit and vegetable market (also a great place to get cheap and fresh locally grown vegetables).