Word of the Day

Hey guys-

One of my colleague left the company for another company.
It was for good and I am truly happy for his advancement in career but at the same time, I was quite sad to see him go, as he was kind of like a big brother in the office for me.

Before he left, earlier in the week, he taught me one word that he thought was so important and captures the beauty of Japanese language, which hit me as well so I would like to share that with you.

The word is "お陰さまです," (Okagesama Desu).

The word "Kage" means "shadow" in Japanese. So the directly translation would probably be like "your dear shadow."

"Shadow" in Japanese can mean a lot of things. like we use idioms like "he was supporting you in shadows," meaning "he was supporting you secretly or quietly or unnoticeable ways in the back."

But this idiom is used more as "thanks you" or "fortunately." It's not even a big word or anything special. In fact, it is used in a pretty light way a lot of times.

"Okagesama Desu." The mentality of this word is more for showing gratitude for those who have been supporting you in very non-obvious ways.

There are a lot of people who support us in very un-noticeable ways.

I think when we achieve great things or accomplish something, we are often tempted to credit ourselves.
True, in a competitive place, you have to find a way to shine and beat the race.

But this simple word, though people use it as a "thank you" linguistically, has its beauty in its mentality to remind us that we can never accomplish anything ourselves.

Yes, if you are a project manager, you should be the one in the spotlight. But when you are making a big presentation in front of these clients or management board or something, probably you are not the only one who worked on that presentation, especially if you are in a corporate setting.

You may have 3 bar charts in your slides, which 3 different people took 3 hours to come up with using complicated database.

In the eyes of audience, these may be just 3 bar charts. But you should never forget that these people also took time and effort to complete your slides.

It is quite easy to forget that there are army of people who are behind your back, when you are so blinded by the bright spotlight to make you shine.

"Okagesama Desu." That's what my colleague taught me.
And I will be forever in his debt to be reminded that I should never forget the fact that whatever I achieve, I could not have done it alone.

Oh there's also great read if you are interested in the relationship between "shadow" and japanese culture. It's called "In Praise of Shadows" It is a beautifully written essay and I highly recommend it!

Go away mucus.

Hey there.

I'm sick. I was SO sick yesterday that I could barely function to eat dinner, which was quite rare for me.

When I get sick, I usually get sore throat or headache but I usually function fine.

But this time, I have to blow my nose even at the platform of train station and spit out gross mucus every 20 seconds or so. On top of that, my head feels like I'm carrying a 3 tons of cow or something.

Anyway, so much about my symptoms.
When I had to spit out mucus every 20 seconds ( now it's more like every 1 minute. I'm getting much better!!), I was thinking how wasteful it is to use tissue for every shit that I spit out.

And then I remembered. Apparently there was a thing called "Mucus Jar" in Japan. In Japanese it's called "Tan-Tsubo" (たん壷). I was not sure if it was something mythical or real. I've only vaguely heard of it.

So what do I do? I googled.
And yes, there was.

As gross and disgusting as it sounds, in 1951, there was a law referring to this "Mucus Jar." In short, there were mucus jars in train stations, or even IN trains for people to spit out this bacteria-filled crap.

WHY???? Mainly to prevent the spread of tuberculosis, by having people spit out the contagious stuff into A JAR. Well...I guess it seemed like it was a pretty good idea...
But think about it. If there were such jars, obviously someone had to clean right???? Ew.

Instead, I present alternative solution.

How about personal mucus jars that are filled with chemicals that turns mucus into sand which is harmless. We can even use the sand as nutrient for plants.
Can someone invent stuff like that?

Instead of using tons of tissues, ultimately killing trees OR using mucus jars that may expose the jar cleaners to the evil tuberculosis bacterias, we can turn our gross shit to something that actually is nice. Pretty hybrid, no?

These jars, however, are not in stations or trains anymore, since tuberculosis is quite preventable in other ways now. THANK GOD.

Sorry if anyone read this before eating. I just had to share, cause the idea of mucus jars was too gross not to share.


I'm not sick anymore, by the way. Thanks for caring.
What, you forgot about the fact that I was sick cause the topic of this post was too gross. OH WELL! Sorry!

creative ad...?

HI!!!!!


I was flattered to find quite a few view counts of my last post after my long absence.


It definitely pumped me up to start blogging about.... ehhhhh random crap that I see/come up with/ think about/ hear or even dream about again. 


But really my excuse was probably way too lame so I'm not going to keep my hopes up about attracting too many readers... 
BUT I SWEAR I WAS SO SO OVERWHELMED BY WORK!!!!!! 


It's funny because when I physically talk a lot, which I did for the first month of my full-employment, I tend to not talk to myself too much. Like I'm doing right now. Obviously, I didn't talk to real people much today. 








What? Yuri, your excuse is still too lame, now shut the fudge up??? 


No, I can't. I'm sorry..... 


What??? then why don't you either stop talking to real people OR stop mumbling to yourself completely so you can focus on one thing at a time???




HEEEEHHHH, good idea mate. But that is going to make me socially inept soooooo no. 










ANYWAYS. Today I would like to talk about this creative advertisement(?) that I saw in Shinagawa station couple weeks back. 


For those who are not familiar with Shinagawa station, it is one of the central stations in Tokyo, which is a nearby station from my house. 
It's pretty scary in the morning, since there are probably 1,123,940,946 people walking to the SAME direction towards to their offices. We have a lot of office buildings around the station.
Unfortunately, I go against the heavy current of 12039846570870976543 people every morning when I go TOWARDS the station. 
GO AHEAD OFFICE PEOPLE, DROWN ME HERE. NOW.


YURI GET BACK TO THE MAIN POINT!!!! sorry. 


So yeah, in a ginormous station, there was an ad for Sony. I saw this around 6pm after coming back from work. Here are some photos. 

NOW everybody, find differences between the two photos. 

hmmm, what? yeah there's a guy in front of the box on the bottom photo. true true. 

What? ok fine, the angle of the photos is different. yup the screen is showing different things. great!!!

NO, YOU BLIND, THE GUY INSIDE HAS MOVED, GODDAMN IT. 

There was a real human inside this glass box in the MIDDLE of the station. 

No idea how long he had been in there or FOR WHAT PURPOSE, but he was there. 

Viewing something through that robotic, futuristic, and kind of unstylish headset thing. 

It's called HMZ, 3-D TV set. 

WOW. REALLY. 

The 3-D movies have been in some serious trends but now TV??? 

WITH THAT HEADSET??

Apparently, that headset itself IS like a TV and you can enjoy watching 3-D Spider-Man through by wearing it. How cool.

And it's only $799.99, £799.99 or ￥59,800!!!! WHAT A BARGAIN!!!! 

My suggestion?? We should all buy them and gather up in one room and watch a movie through that headset TOGETHER. 

No, no, it doesn't matter if we all look dorky or maybe even a little creepy. 

I feel like Sony kind of left out that movie watching is also a group activity/entertainment for some people... including me. 

Of course, for those who like watching movie regardless, this headset should be quite ecstatic. 

Good job on the advertisement though Sony!! 

But I must say the guy inside the glass box looked a little... mmm weird. that's all. 

Why I stopped Blogging

Ya'll probably wondering why I haven't updated my blog for the longest time.

What? I know you Yuri you are just plain lazy rotten little thing...?


Well... I got no excuse... I'm sorry....

BUT HEY!!!! I GOT NEWS!!

I STARTED WORKING!!!!!!!!! wheeeeee!!!

What? That's still not good reason to stop blogging.??

With all respects, you know WHAT, you're right. I'm so rotten.


But really I started working, like really working, like wake up at 7:30 am in the morning and come home at 6:30 pm in the evening working, I realized how EXHAUSTING real work is. DAMN IT.

Now I miss my 4 months long bum life terribly!!!

But the real problem with me blogging is that my blog is way too frigging long.

WAY TOO LONG. I WRITE TOO MUCH.

SHUSH YURI SHUSH! STOP TALKING AND SHUT UP!

but all these words come up and I just can't stop once I start writing.
Hence, I stopped blogging cause it's just gonna disrupt my sleep.

SO, from now on, I will try to cut down on my blabber and condense my contents...

BUT IT'S SO HARRRRRRDDDDD. see? all I wanted to say in this post was,
"i'm sorry i stopped blogging. it's because i'm too wordy and lazy."

there you have it.

my blog is going to be like that from now on. although quite unlikely.
if you would like shortened version on my blabber follow me at

yuriistweeting on twitter.


but twitter requires me more thinking that blogging. how ironic.

but a french mathmatician called Blaise Pascal  once said in his letter,

"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

It takes so much more time and effort to write short and concisely eh?

Wait.... does that mean I'm without effort and too dumb....???

WHATEVER BLAISE.

see you next post in... a few days.... I promise.... this time....

Driver's License Boot Camp.

That's right, you heard me. I said I would talk about it in last post.

Driver's License Boot Camp.

Did I just hear a loud "HUH??" from you?

Well, I don't blame you. Not this time.

Even if you live in Japan for a long time, if you are not really part of local community (for various reasons, maybe you are foreigners, went to American schools, etc etc), you might not know the existence of this camp. Hell, if you have never lived in Japan, you would probably never understand this concept from just the name of it.


It's pretty straight forward though.
It's a camp for those people who want to learn how to drive.

That's all!!! See you guys til next post!!!......

What? Too simple? Explain more?
Ay fine. I will do, since I promised that I would...

okaaaaayyy. So some of you may know, in Japan, to get a driver's license is quite lengthy and expensive. Pretty much everyone who is a first timer needs to go to driving school to learn how to drive in school's property with this special car that has sub-brake and sub-accelerator in the passenger seat. All the while you are practicing, instructor is sitting next to you the whole time.
You will also have to take classes to learn all these rules of driving and also some ethic classes to prepare for you to be a driver with a manner.... well it's mostly to prepare you for the written test OBVIOUSLY. Then you take the written AND road test to get the freaking permit. THEN you can drive on the normal road WITH instructor next to you. After like 20 hours of driving, you are finally allowed to take the road test to just GRADUATE the driving school. After you graduate, you have to take the final written test at your local police center or whatever and FINALLY GET THE LICENSE.






God, I hate writing so much. My head hurts now. Can I quit now? What? You haven't even talked about the camp part? UGHHHHH FINEEEEE. But now you get how lengthy it is.

SO the whole point of this camp is to do ALLLLLLL that stuff in only 2 weeks!!! You can indeed do all that in local driving school but it's harder to do, especially during summer vacation, since it could be crowded and harder to make reservation for each lesson/class. And in metro area like Tokyo, it's more expensive.

How expensive???


About.......Three F$%king Thousand Dollars.

I'm not exaggerating. And that amount is calculated as if 1 dollar is 100 yen. Right now 1dollar is about 80 yen or less so that would make it a little shy of $4,000.

Ridiculous right? Yeah I agree too. I'm sure there is a cheaper, more manual way to get a license on your own, but typically people go to schools and pay that much.

Boot camp is a little cheaper, since you usually go to country side and stay there fore 2 weeks and take classes intensively. They also provides you accommodation (usually business hotels) and  3 meals per day (through meal coupon kind of thing). Everything included it was $2400 per person ($1.00 = 100 Yen). Good deal right? Since it's a country side, it's quite nice to relax and people are generally nice... Some people say you can make friends with other camp kids. But being anti-social, I didn't make a single friend. Thank god I went with my sister.

I went to Niigata by the way.

No, no worries about radiation. well.... at least for now.

Did I get a license in the end???



YES.


So a piece of advice from me?

Get a driver's license elsewhere in the world and convert that into Japanese one.
You would save tons.

I should have f$%king gotten a license when I was in states...

How to turn yourself into a Japanese girl

WTF you may shout.

But I've been back in Tokyo for 2 weeks now
and have been feeling waaaaay out of place the WHOLE TIME .

BECAUSE! I TOTALLY, when I mean totally, it's not the half-ass "um toootalliiieeee,"
but FOR REAL do not look like a Japanese girl.

Why? Well, I have too much swag.... excuse me, but I just do not look like rest of them.
Obviously, Japanese female population does not consist of clones, so they are different individuals.
But they all look like a part of... I don't know... like a clan?
To me they look all the same for some reason, especially those who are around late teens to mid 30s??

THE AGE RANGE IS TOO WIDE GODDAMN IT.

Anyways.
So, after some observations, I have discovered some of the "patterns" that this clan of girls have to look like each other.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that is a bad thing.
It's a mere culture shock that I am re-experiencing after returning from NYC
where "individualism" and "being different" is SO emphasized.
What? Yuri you are frigging Jap so why are you so detached from your own frigging culture?

eeehhhmm.... whatever.

Here we go with the How To:

1. Look white. I mean white, like Caucasian. The paler skin the better.
   Dye your hair, brown or light brown. If you wanna look like a wild jap girl, go with blonde. If you prefer you can have fake colored contact lenses.If you are already Caucasian? MMMMM Skip this step.If you are tan like me or have dark skin tone? EEHHHHH smear yourselves with pale make up.
   
2. Put appropriate make-up. Have loads of mascara on. Or get eye lash extension to elongate them. But eyeliner all over. Put loads of gloss. Shave off your eyebrows and pencil them with brown/light brown.
   
3. Be skinny. enough said.
   
4. Wear appropriate clothing. If you want to look sweet, wear lacy floral cutesy romantic clothes.
   If you want to look conservative, layer and layer and layer. Wear leggings under skirt. Long sleeve shirt under everything. All year around.
   If you want to look wild, wear shorts and a tshirt with Japanglish or sequins. Wear skyhigh heels.
   
5. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Walk/stand with duck feet. This is essential people!!!! Consciously put your both toes inward when walking or standing. When walking, walk with REALLY small steps. Please.
   
6. Talk with high, child-like voice. Don't forget to cover your mouth when laughing.
   
7. Take picture appropriately. Slightly look up, pout your lips, and make peace-sign with your hand and put it next to your FACE.
   
8. (Optional) Avoid talking about anything intellectual. it's not lady-like to talk about politics or economy. talk about....eehhhmmm.... your brand-new gigantic teddy bear key chain.

Am I criticizing these girls??? No, of course not. 

I am not saying they aren't intellectual or are too much of conformists either. 

I am really just listing up all these similarities that came up through my careful observations. 

Do I look like this? No, I don't. 

Do I want to look like them?? ....maybe I will give it a try. maybe.... if I'm desperate to make friends...

I am also not saying that ALL Japanese female population is like this. 

Of course some enjoy their own personal styles that are completely off this list. 

BUT anyone who has been to Japan or visited Japan would not... more like CANNOT deny that these characteristics are painfully apparent in Japanese youths. cuz IT'S TRUUUEEEEE!!!!!

So you want to look like a Japanese girl? 

Kimono, cosplay, harajuku-girl-looks aren't gonna cut it, my friend. 

You better take this list and use it as a Japanese female style bible. 

Let us cut the expenses of "being healthy."

You know what I realized recently??

Being healthy is extremely expensive.
Yuri, DUH...??

I'm sorry...

But really I just understood the cost of being healthy.
Aside from health care and insurance and all things political,
if you are consciously trying to be healthy, it's gonna cost ya.

For example: um...gym?
It's freaking expensive!!!
I used to go to this crappy place on 14th st and 2nd avenue and that cost me $50/month!!!
I mean, it is quite cheap for a gym but still!!!!! $50 just to be physically active and have your muscles toned.

What??? You can just run around outside??
Good point. But that's only if you live in a place with some amazing weather ALL YEAR AROUND.
Who runs around when it's like - 400 degrees outside!!?!?? only freaks. NOT ME. thank you very much.

And just fyi I hate gym. I HATE GYM. I just don't like working out i suppose.
But I just don't like the smell of it, sound of it and some creepy old men of it. jk about last one. no, not really.

So what does Yuri do when she needs to stay active?
WELL I used to live on 5th floor walk-up so I thought that would suffice my physical activeness. kind of.
Believe me, one round-trip of those stairs is quite intense.
Especially when you forget something at home and run back up and down and then run to subway station.

HOWEVER, I moved back to Tokyo where my apartment building has elevators like any other civilized places, I don't get my daily dose of work out.
NOW WHAT WOULD YURI DO??

Simple: I LOVE YOGA. really I love it.
Let's say the exercise really suits my body type.
Treadmill just doesn't cut it for me.
In fact, last summer I went to gym everyday and ran for like 40 minutes AND ate healthy
AND I FRIGGING GAINED WEIGHT.
Apparently my body absorbs food a lot more when I do cardio. Not sure. That's my theory anyway.

But YOGA, really helped me few years back.
I did yoga everyday for 2 weeks and I lost significant amount of weight
when I went to summer school for my junior year summer...I think.
I am also naturally quite flexible so yoga does not pain me much.

ANOTHER BUUUTTTTTT!!!
Yoga classes are EXPENSIVEEE!!! WTFFFF!!
One class is like $20 bucks (about 2,000 yen?) PER CLASS MINIMUM!!!
Some places charge you good $40 per class. EFF!!

So REALLY, what would Yuri do???

Well, one word. YOUTUBE.
Through youtube I found this amazing site that shows you all the full-length yoga class for free!!!
Apparently they need some donations to keep the site running...
Maybe I will donate when I'm in a much more generous mood...

But for now, THANKS YOGAYAK!!!
Wait, does everyone know about this site??
Am I like waaaaay behind all these phenomenon??

....Whatever.

For those who want to enjoy the free classes,
Go to: http://yogayak.com/

The website design is quite terrible and needs some help,
but it's good enough for me just to watch the classes..
I've been doing this for past 3 days. Let's see how long this new hobby of mine will last.
I will update you on that. Or not. Maybe. Will see. Whatever.

Self-sustainable survival skills...

New York City....

Ohhhh you finally listened to my wish and made recent days so warm....

It's about goddamn time!!! GOSH!

As my graduation day getting closer and closer, I am concerned for the future of unemployment...

What's gonna happen to the wooooooooooorrrrrrrrllllllllllllllldddddddddd!!!

With static economic and worldwide natural disasters and political crisis and disgusting reality show galores, I think world is heading to a crazy place.

But you guys all know that you can still live (relatively) comfortably without being employed right?

How, you may ask. Let me answer you.

The answer.... find a sugar daddy/mama. 

JKJKJK!!!!

This post is dedicated to Japanese homeless people.

If you have lived in Japan for long enough, 

you have probably seen those nomads in parks, closed train stations and roofed building entrance. 

I have seen plenty of documentary about those people when I was in high school.

I didn't think about those shows very much, but recently something reminded me of those. 

I must say, Japanese homeless people are quite self-sufficient and sustainable. 

No, they don't beg on the train or on the side walk, 

shaking cups from the fast food places (occasionally singing and yelling). 

Instead, they build their "temporary houses" out of mainly cardboards and some other disposed materials like lumber or plastic sheets.Some guys go to the extent of finding broken electronic like radio or TV, fix them and  hell, they use those!!! What the heck!! That skill itself can already get you a job!

They also collect cans for recycling (it gives them i think a dime per can or so) and old magazines to re-sell them on the streets.

Some homeless, in spring season, get paid to reserve a spot for people going to Hanami (refer to my previous post). They basically get a spot from like 2 days before the weekend, stay there until party arrives.
Intensity much?

It's almost like a lifestyle.
Yes, the nomads-kind of life style.

There are so many facilities like comic cafe, which provides you with a small compartment (well, for those fanatic comic readers who stay there for hours and read) that has bathroom you can shower (!) for like couple dollars per hour. Obviously, many homeless take advantage of this system.

Well, at least they take care of their personal hygiene!!!

So I'm just putting this out there for those who are concerned about the future of the job market and employment.

AFRAID NOT, THOU LOST LAMBS.

You can always come to Japan and enjoy this nomad-type lifestyle! (or we can call it modern lost gypsies.)

I really think these self-sufficient homeless should do workshop in NYC and teach those cup shakers some skills.

I think NYC will somehow start smelling much better.

Another reason to feast... just because it's spring time.

 IT'S FINALLY SPRING!!!!!

These trees are planted near my apartment.

They used to look like skeleton, without flowers or leaves.

But look at them now!!!

All flowery and colorful and cheery and springy!!!

How beautifuuulllll..

To celebrate this flower blossoming occasion, one must.... FEAST!!!!

But guys, I'm not saying this just because I want to feast.

It's a legit festivity in Japan, which is called "Hanami"

--> direct translation, "flower viewing." 

Despite the highly unoriginal name for the event, it is a big deal in Japan.

It usually involves viewing hundreds of cherry blossoms under the tree, eating, drinking, and being obnoxious. 

Sounds silly?? YOU BET NOT.

In Japan, we even have blossom forecast, where the weather cast predicts WHEN the flowers are going to bloom and WHERE.

Some people even pay homeless people to reserve the spot under the trees, especially in popular parks/gardens.

You still think it's silly????!!!

Well just google image Hanami.

There should be thousands of photos that show gorgeous trees with full pale pink blossoms...

There are so many of them that it looks like there is a pink fog in the air for miles....

Oh how poetic. 

But you probably can guess that I, being a feast lover, am much more concerned about what to eat.

There is a saying in Japanese "dumplings rather than flowers," indicating that people are more interested in the feast part, rather than the flowers.

Well DUHHHH-----.

But do not misunderstand me that this even is just another reason for people to get obnoxious...

It is actually a thousand years old tradition, started around Heian period (early 700A.C.). 

It is quite cultural...cherry blossom is also a symbol of Japan... a fragile, delicate and breath taking flowers have always been the subject of poems, paintings, and heck tattoo patterns. 

Anyways, Hanami is still one of my favorite feasts of all time.

Having a good time with your friends and family under the cherry trees full of flowers, that only last for couple of weeks...

This might be just another reason for people to get together.
But don't you think it's quite a sophisticated reason to feast? 

How to get through the difficult times...

As many of you have heard, the biggest earthquake in Japanese history and huge tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan.

I am, like everyone else, devastated by this horrific event and tragedies that are sweeping across the country.

I am though, surprised by how my country really kept it under control even in this chaotic situation.
Many people kept calm under the panic, even taking videos during the shake, and efficiently evacuated after.
Many social network sites (like facebook and twitter) were used to confirm the safety of people, to share the information, and to cheer each other up.

The trains started running a few hours after the shakes.
What was even more fascinating was that people, under tremendous stress, fear, and grief,
still lined up to get into these public transportation. And it was the same for grocery stores.
Some walked home for hours, again, in line, with an order.
I saw strangers comforting others, posts that thanked other nations for the aids and support.

I have always been critical towards my home country for its passiveness and cowardliness.

But this event truly has changed my perspectives on Japan.
Japan and its people were able to keep the inner strength and the sense of harmony with others,
which are very much the cores of its cultural values, even after the disaster.

I admit that there are a lot of issues that Japan needs to work on.
But I am hopeful that Japan will be able to get through anything,
after seeing some amazing stuff online and on the news.
I have never felt so helpless and far from Japan,
but at the same time, I have never felt so much love and the pride for my own country.

I hope other nations can take something away from this event, in order to tackle future natural disasters.
It is time like this, that you really need to stay together and help each other, to get through the difficult times.

My deepest condolences to those who are affected by this event.
And my sincere gratitudes for those who showed support and concerns.

Let's wish for happy wonderful marriages to come...

It's March!!! Beginning of the Spring!! And Spring means...??? Fertility season! Just kidding. well, not really.


By the way, did you guys know that March 1st was World Pancake Day?
And of course, me, being obsessed with food, did not eat any pancake.
Tears...


What about March 3rd?? Do you know what this day is??
Hint: fertility.

The answer is.....











World Date Day! Just kidding again.
It's Girls' Day !! (called Hinamatsuri in Japanese)

On girls' day, typically, households with daughters displays these dolls.

Aren't they beautiful???
These represent a marriage ceremony from Heian Period (like around A.D. 800 - 1000 in Japan)







 We put out these dolls maybe a week or two before March 3rd to wish those girls happy wonderful marriages.


BUT you need to take down the dolls as soon as March 3rd ends.

Because the later you take down the dolls, the later the marriages would be.

No wonder all these dads were always so reluctant to store them away.
Not for their laziness, but rather the sad nature of fatherhood towards their daughters....

AAAAND you eat something like this to celebrate!

MMMMM yum....

Yes, every holiday should come with yummy food.
They also have Boys Day (although known as Children's Day now in Japan) on May 5th.

May 5th is a national holiday though, while Girls' day is NOT!


SEXISM!




Anyways, I am not going into that topic now... Maybe sometime...

Happy Girls Day everyone!

Let's wish for another good year to come...

Many may think that most people Japanese people are Buddhists. Beautiful temples and monks and Kyoto and all that sorts of "Japanese culture" may lure you into thinking that Japanese people practice this almost masochistic religion. If you have thought so, wrong-.

In my opinion, Japan is one of the most multi-religious country, well maybe non-religious country.

Most people do funerals in Buddhist style, but many people get married in a Christian style, but then many people go to Shinto shrine when they want something come true, but then Christmas and Valentine's is also huge... yeah in short, it's pretty messed up.

I'm not saying that Japanese people are not spiritual though. I just think that sudden flow of the Western culture after WWII and the collapse of the emperor-worship (spread by propaganda of military during war) may have been a big factor in the current situation where people cannot clearly claim their religion.

Anyways, being part of multi-religious country, I went to a Shinto shrine nearby my house to wish for a good year to come. Traditionally you should do it (it's called Hatsumoude) in the first 3 days of New Years but oh well. At least I went yeah?

Here's how to do it correctly...

 This is what a shrine looks like typically... This is rather local small one. There is a huge one where there are tens of thousands people go in New Years. I think smaller ones have better chance of getting your wishes heard.

 Before you pray though, you should wash your hands and mouth by this water. Yes, we are all dirty humans. Ya'll should get cleaned up.

 So you bow twice before the alter, throw in the coin, and shake this rope back and forth in order to....

 WAKE UP GOOOOOD to have him make your wish come true...

Now you know what to do next time you go to Shrine, that's only if you are into multi-religion.

Madonna's Must-Have.

HI! WELCOME! to Yuri's Ultimate Random Guide.Here's my very first post for this blog and  I think the topic of this post is quite appropriate for this blog: Japanese Toilet.

It's random, yes, and it has something to do with Japan...back to my roots, yes.

Anyways, many of you may know (if you have visited or lived in japan) that Japanese toilet is geared with automatic bidet...! what is bidet? well, you can wiki it but in short, it's a place for people in the bathroom to wash their bottom after finishing their business (#2). It's been a tradition for many countries (India and Italy, well so far I only know two). But Japan has been practicing this in their ultra modern way since 1980...!!!!

It's widely known as "Washlet," a registered trademark of TOTO (World's largest toilet manufacturer. wow). It was exported to U.S. in 1960s for medical use but was developed to suit the regular household use after the manufacturer seeing its potential. (Source: wikipedia)

Ok, so how does amazing thing work??

This is what a toilet with washlet typically looks like...

Look at how sleek and smooth and pretty it is...

 This is the control panel for the washlet. Each button says, "Stop" "Butt" "Bidet" and "Soft". I'm not quite sure what "Butt" and "Soft" do to you, but I'm sure it's something quite amazing. Latter three has a on/off movement feature, which I think lets the splash of water move up n down for thorough wash.







OMG IT EVEN OPENS!!!!

All these buttons let you choose the temperature of your toilet seat (YES, TEMPERATURE. you know, in freezing winter, you're like "OMG OUCH" when you sit on the cold ceramic toilet seat right? NO MORE OUCH with TOTO)

Last but not least.... THE WATER SPLASHING NOZZLE. (nozzle is the technical term for the parts that shoot out  the water. I'm not sure if the term was created before snoop dogg)

When you sit, finish your business, and press the buttons on the control panel, this nozzle comes out forward to target a particular part between your butt cheeks. It will shower that part as long as you are satisfied, in order to wash off all that crap, literally.




Did you get a glimpse of this amazing machine that's in almost every household of japan?? Even when you are in toilet, Japanese modern culture will not let you down. From what I heard, Madonna fell in love with this machine and she installed it on every toilet she has at home. Don't know how many that is. Probably 2343500 toilets. I would do the same too, if I were Madonna.

Well, hope you enjoy my random guide and hopefully you got some useful random info. See you til next post...