This may be old news but hell, it’s hilarious! Check out this motorcycle invented the Japanese LOL.

Those two little feet, goodness…lol. For a second there I thought they put little children in there or something! But that would be unlawful - mechanical feet, that’s what it is. :D

There are few rules about driving in Japan. If you’re a foreigner looking to hit the wheels on the street of Japan, you will need to check out a few things. It is crucial that the international driver’s license from your country is recognized by the Japanese government. The countries where its international license is recognized by Japan are: Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland. A recognized international driver’s license enables you to drive around Japan for up to 1 year before you have to get a Japanese driver’s license.

However, if you’re not from those four countries, you will need to get a Japanese driver’s license in order to drive in Japan. The process is relatively simple. Japan has an agreement with several countries around the world to ease the conversion to a Japanese Driver’s license. It enables a (valid) foreign driver’s license be converted into a Japanese one without taking any theory or practical exam. The countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

So, if you’re from one of these countries, you are cut out for a Japanese driver’s license :) You just need to get your foreign driver’s license translated into Japanese before taking it to the local license counter. An eye test and proof that you have been living at least 3 months in the country your drivers license was issued and you’re good to go. If you’re not from any of the countries listed above, like United States, China, Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain etc, you will have to take the practical and theory exam to obtain a Japanese Driver’s license.

However, driving within any city in Japan is rather useless because of the highly efficient public transportation that is offered. Most Japanese living near the city or in the city do not own a car OR a driver’s license. But I believe that it is practical to have it with you because you never know when you are going for a spontaneous trip off the beaten tracks :)

I really have to hand it to Japanese society how convenient a lot of things are. In how many other countries is it possible to grab a hot meal, deposit money into your bank account, pick up some toilet paper and a couple of beers, purchase a couple of tickets to the upcoming Red Hot Chili Peppers show, and book a hotel for after the show all in the same convenience store in the middle of the night?*

Japan also happens to have among the most convenient cell phone functions in the world. Japan has been to this day a pioneer in mobile web-browsing technology, and the result has been a world of convenience. Shopping, purchasing concert tickets, GPS, song downloading*, e-mail (including web mail such as Hotmail), weather reports, local restaurant reviews and information*, and train schedules and transfer information are among a wide variety of functions that I would love to see happen in the U.S.

Just imagine being able to get step by step directions on your phone on which trains you need to take to get from point A to point B, how long each train takes, the exact waiting time in between transferring trains, the exact arrival time of each train, and how much each leg of the trip is going to cost. Not only do you get directions but among those directions you are given several options varying in accordance to price and the overall travel time. Cheaper ticket but longer travel time, or getting there quickly at the expense of a little extra money—the decision is conveniently presented to you on a screen the size of the palm of your hand. To get an idea of what this service is like, you can check out the full website version of Norikae-Annai (Japanese for “transfer information”).

*Unfortunately, for a lot of the above mobile services I mentioned that I’m aware of and use myself, they are as far as I know only in Japanese. Again, if anyone knows of such services offered in English here in Japan, please drop a comment. Of course, there’s also the option of just learning Japanese… :)

In a movement similar to the early suburbanization of the United States after World War II, a lot of Japanese people—many of whom have kept their jobs in the big city (i.e. Utsunomiya and Tokyo)—have been increasingly opting to move out to places as far as Nishinasuno and Otawara (http://www.answers.com/topic/otawara-tochigi) in search of cheaper living costs, wider spaces, and an escape from the craziness of the city. It sheds a lot of light on the fact that for being such rural areas, there has actually been a lot of expansion, especially in recent years. Keio University did a study about 11 years ago on the suburbanization of Tokyo that captures quite well an emerging trend that again is strikingly similar to what has been going on in the U.S. I apologize to the English-speaking readers that the entire link is in Japanese, but the emphasis is really on the demographic maps that cover population trends in Tokyo over the past 80 years through 1985 (The subject of the study is “The Suburbanization of Tokyo”, or “Tokyo no Kougaika”). The blue colors indicate areas of low population density, red colors indicate areas of high density (the darker the blue, the less people there are, the redder the color, the more concentrated people are). The interesting thing is that as time progresses, it becomes very noticeable that not only are people spreading outward, but so are the population densities. What ultimately is happening is that central Tokyo—residentially speaking—is actually depleting while the outer suburbs are becoming the new areas that are filling up with people. If you want a firsthand sense of how many people that is, just wait until the last train at any major station in Tokyo on the weekend and watch how many people are rushing to catch the last ride back out to the suburbs (i.e. the Den-En-Toshi Line from Shibuya).

The K-Car is Japan’s latest mini car that is both affordable and purposeful. The one featuring is Nissan’s Pino and Otti. For daily things like grocery shopping, picking your kids up from school, driving to and fro work, the K Car just fulfills that purpose.

K-cars (the term comes from kei jidosha, or light vehicle) are very small and cheap to run. By Japanese law, they must be less than 4.4 meters in length and have an engine displacement of no more than 660cc, producing less than 64 horsepower.

While the car is suppose to be a mini K-nomical car, representatives of the cars said that you actually get a lot of space in the car - as it is wide and high, making a lot of space for even the taller people to sit comfortably without crouching like a shrimp. In terms of style, this is where the distinction between the Pino and Otti comes in. The Otti is deemed as “genderless” thus making it more suitable for a more business-like feel. The Pino is funkier and its package specifically targets young women more. The cars go from ¥700,000 and up, which is comparatively cheaper than the rest.

Source: Metropolis

Ha, sometimes when you read about Japan for so long, and after you’ve lived there for a while, the “everyday” things have really become everyday and not strange at all. Then you come home and get asked odd questions and you think “Yeah, of course!” but then you realise that it’s not that normal at all. It’s very Japanese. It just became normal for you.

I was reminded of this when I read this entry in Lisa Katayama’s blog:

People are always asking me if it’s true that gasoline comes from the sky in Japan. Yes, it is, they come out of those pumps hanging from the ceiling light, which advertises regular or high-octane gas. And you don’t have to do a thing at the gas station, either, cuz the guys in red do it all for you–fill up your tank, wipe your mirrors, squeegee your windows, and stop oncoming traffic to direct you out of the gas station.

I didn’t drive in Japan so I didn’t think about it too much. I guess that, given the premium they have on space in Japan, this is the only method they can adopt. One thing I did notice about petrol stations in Japan though is that they’re relatively uncommon. Here in Australia, you can find intersections that have petrol stations on three out of the four corners. In Japan, it actually took me a while before I spotted one.

As for the awesome service you receive, well, I’d say that’s not so unusual for a country where you’ll be greeted with “IRRASHAIMASSE!” (Welcome!) each time you enter a store.

Link:
TOKYOMANGO

One thing that will almost guarantee a double-take from first-time foreigners in Japan is that some of the pedestrian crossings play music when the light is green. The most common tune that they play is “Toryanse” which is a children’s song. The lyrics (translated) go as follows:

Let me pass, let me pass
What is this narrow pathway here?
It’s the narrow pathway of the Tenjin shrine
Please allow me to pass through
Those without good reason shall not pass
To celebrate this child’s 7th birthday
I’ve come to dedicate my offering
Going in may be fine but returning would be scary
It’s scary but
Let me pass, let me pass

Let me pass, it’s green and safe to go, hehe.

I’ve tracked down a video of one of the pedestrians crossings near Kyoto Station in action. For some reason, the pitch of the song is higher in crossings in Tokyo than in Kyoto. Go figure.

You can also find a midi of the song here.

Link:
Wikipedia’s article on Toryanse

East Japan Railways - also known as JR EAST, also known as  plain ol’ JR - have done something to make me happy in my organic cotton pants. They’re currently testing a system which uses the movement of passengers through their ticket gates to generate electricity. The vibrations caused by people walking through and over special plates create an electrical field which light up a lamp on the ticket gate.

Doesn’t sound like much yet, but hopefully this is the start of making the railways in Japan more environmentally friendly. If that energy could be used simplyto power the ticket gates, that would be a huge saving in electricity.

Link:
Pink Tentacle

Looking for a cheap bike? Know that bikes are plague to most neighborhood in Tokyo. There’s too many of them. Hundreds of illegaly parked bikes are taken by your city services every months.
Most of those bikes go unclaimed as it would require their owner to pay a fee to retrieve them.
So what does the city office do about that? They sell it.
In Nakano city, there’s a lottery for unclaimed bikes, the entry is free and if you win you can buy a bike for 7900yen. Those are not fancy bikes (they would be claimed otherwise) but they are refurbished and cleaned by the “Silver Human Resources Center”. Yep, the bored obaachans of your neighborhood are put to use.
I guess the process is different with every ku, but you should check it out at your local city office or at their English webpage.
Here’s a list of the English sites for the 23 ku of Tokyo (except for Nerima and Katsuchika which are too backwards to have an English website).

When you’re travelling via the train network in Japan, and you’re not exactly sure where you’re going or how much you’re supposed to pay, the Fare Adjustment Machine is here to save the day!

Hysterically funny rhymes aside, a foreigner (particularly a foreigner with no Japanese skills) can have a real problem getting around, since the rail network maps tend to look like abstract artwork and in many places, the train stations are written in kanji. Kanji! Not even hiragana to aid the young Japanese kids who haven’t learnt the 2000+ kanji character set yet!

So, in many instances, you won’t know how much you’re supposed to pay for your trip. If this is the case, buy the cheapest ticket available. This is generally done by slotting coins into the ticket machine until the lowest fare is highlighted. Then, once you have reached your destination, slot your ticket into the Fare Adjustment Machines, which are usually well marked, even in English. The machine will tell you how much extra you need to pay for the distance you’ve travelled.

The machines don’t always give instructions in English, but it’s not too hard to guess how much you are required to pay from the amount displayed on the screen. Also, if there is no adjustment required, then the machine will refuse to take coins.

When you have paid, the machine will give you a new ticket and chew up the old one. Put this new ticket into the gate (don’t expect it to come out again) and you’re free from the train network!

Links:
Tokyo Metro - I think this may be a train otaku’s personal website. It’s about the Metro (subway) system but does provide lots of photos of tickets, ticket machines, gates and fare adjustment machines, so in case you’ve never seen one before, now you know what to look for. In English too, strangely enough.