There wasn't a new entry for some time now, but the reason will become clear in the next issues.
As it's normal in conversations, we start by talking about the weather.
At the moment it's again crazy in Kôbe. One example: Last week in the morning of one day the were real strong winds in the dimension of a small storm. During the day it stopped and got very warm, up to 10-12° in the shade, true spring, while during the night the temperature dropped and it started to snow, and in fact that heavily, that even several centimetre of snow lay on the trees and everything and even stayed until the morning.
By the way it makes for a beautiful picture: Several centimetres of snow on green deciduous trees and shrubs/ bushes.
In Harborland the companies had a nice idea for the Olympic Games in Beijing/ Peking. The put up life-sized figures, which are in the middle of doing traditional Olympic sports, yet they are figures of famous persons for the time of the Three Kingdoms in China (around 3rd century a.D.). More or less asking the question: What would the Olympic Games look like if the Chinese would have invented them (and what they have called it)? Completed by explanations of the original sports and the personalities.
During a train drive I also saw an ad for Franz Lehar's operetta "The Merry Widow". Calling me surprised would be a nice way of saying it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture ...
Small anecdote: The two Germans and me were out in the city for dinner one evening, and while we were walking down the street, a Korean stopped and asked us, if we would know a nice club in the vicinity. Imagine this: You are in a foreign city, want to ask for directions, and on purpose address exactly the people, who are the only ones obviously not from that city, even not from that country! And yet it is understandable, since it were Koreans and we were talked to in English, since apparently none of their group could speak Japanese, so they took to the people, who most likely could speak English.
The following paragraph is once again only interesting to Gamer, the other readers can move on the daily column.
Recently I visited Nipponbashi, also called Den Den Town (Electric Electric Town) in Ôsaka. What Akihabara is for Tôkyô, Den Den is for Ôsaka: A heaven for Otaku, Gamer and everyone in love with technical stuff and electronics. In that I want to highlight my visit to two Retro-shops, which sell computer games, magazines etc. from old times, which are next to impossible to find at home. There's nearly everything from PlayStation, Dreamcast, Neo Geo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo, Master System and and and, to old games from the Arcade-times of the 80s and everything, while used, is original and in top condition!
Here's a photo from the SNES aisle
Final Fantasy SNES Parade
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2, never released outside of Japan)
And a small(!) part of the NES (in Japan Famicom - Family Computer) games section
Disadvantage: All games are of course only in Japanese
Advantage: One can find rare jewels and everything is really dirt-cheap! Honestly, games which go for several hundred euro in English or German on Ebay, one can get here for a few Euro, e.g. Dreamcast Grandia 2: 1.80 €; Shenmue: 8 Euro
(edit: These days the also have more "newer" stuff like PS2 and DS. And while, thanks to the Internet, it has gotten way easier to get those games, they still have two huge advantages: Next to all of the stuff is in near mint-condition and it is still very cheap. Plus, although it has been nearly 10 years since my first visit, the selection is still massive.)
Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:
Another round of questions from our readers:
What do Japanese do in their (sparse) free-time?
Hard to answer. At this point I would NOT call the sport-clubs of the pupils and students as well as the going-out for drinks of the businessmen, free-time.
Then they actually do the things Europeans do as well: First and foremost meeting up with friends, going shopping and playing computer games. And depending on the season they visit traditional festivities, for instance fireworks during summer.
Are all things in Japan really much more expensive?
No, it is just split differently. Luxury goods and food are even a good part cheaper than at home, in exchange things of daily life, especially if one has a family, are considerably more expensive. The author himself needs less money for living here than in Austria, because he has no family and does not need many of those things, and since the Euro is very strong at the moment (edit: please remember, back in 2007).
The cliche of the excessively expensive Japan stems from the fact, that one nearly only gets to see Tôkyô (on TV etc.) and in capitals especially in the inner cities life is always more expensive. Japan also only has 5% VAT. (edit: Now it is 8%, slated to increase to 10% in April 2017).
And fitting: What about prices for clothes in Japan?
On average clothes are more expensive, in exchange one can land some bargains with fashion stuff (if one finds its size), yet caution: if one takes from the wrong stand, one can easily get a heart attack when taking a look at the price tag. Shoes are, especially when on sale, often way cheaper. Apropos sale: There are things on offer year round they are not that much dependent on "sales".
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