Jordan,

Howslife? Wow, so you're already married now? Congratulations! (hope you were talking about last December 26th, not the one of 2006) So how does it feel? So did you have to arrange a lot? What style wedding is it? I've got a friend who is about to get married, but he's getting headaches of all of it (his fiancee is very, very specific about all of the things). But I do hope that you're enjoying/enjoyed it. Did you have a bachelorsparty?

It seems I missed one column! I actually didn't expect one, so that was a surprise.I just saw it this morning, when I was looking for your friend code of Mario Kart DS. Yesterday I've gotten a Nintendo DS from a friend (he's kind of crazy to give such an expensive gift!) with Mario Kart, so now I can join the battles too! Need to get the WiFi to work though at my university!

I see you have tea in your kitchen (and nothing else interesting - I hope you eat well!), is it Chinese or Japanese? I've bought Japanese tea a while ago, which isn't like the Western or Chinese tea, but some sort of (bean?) paste (I've got a green and red one). Well, I believe it's tea! I've seen in an anime that you prepare it differently, can you tell something more about this? (sorry, too lazy to Google this one!).

So, I like that "photo corner" you've got on your wall. I might do something like that too! It seems also that your sleeping place is high (how do you call that?), but you still have a futon. It's quite efficient, as you've got more place to store stuff. How common are futons in Japan? Do everybody have them, or does it only seem like that?

Oh and before I forget, now I see your house, do every Japanese room really have that standard dimension (forgot that it was)? Ehhmmm, what I mean is that I heard that the floor can be devided in six parts - not sure though - where you place those floor mats (don't know how they are called). My little sister told me when she was playing Animal Crossing (because you could choose that type of floor too).

You've talked about beer, so can you tell me what's up with that Japanese beer? For some reason, in the movies I see, they drink beer in shots (I might be confusing it for something else?). So they have a bottle en a small glass and then take shots and refill it every time, right?

By the way, when you're done in Japan - I mean, you're going back to the USA for good, what'll happen with Japandemonium? Will you still be writing the column, gathering news and answering letters, or will they try to find somebody else?

Well, that's it... See you next year I guess, and please be careful with fireworks! Don't forget to tell us more about your wedding!

Douggie

PS. Are those comics in your bathroom?

"We all know that birds fly, but now can you tell me where they are actually flying to??"

See? I TOLD you that you'd miss a column one of these days. It was bound to happen.

As for your questions, I didn't do much of the planning for my wedding; my mother did most of it. Since I live in Japan, she handled the bulk of the planning, and the rest of it we did over the phone. It was quite easy, and we were only planning for a small wedding. Including Caroline and me, we only had 20 people there. And I did not do a bachelor party, but I am doing one kind of this summer for my other wedding. I'm going to go to either the New River Gorge or the Red River Gorge with my brother and spend a week rock climbing, mountain biking, and possibly rafting if we're at the New. I never was much for bars or other typical bachelor party events...

At this point, I suppose I should explain that bit about two weddings. I'm actually having another in the Vietnamese style. We had this one sooner than later so I can work on getting Texas state residency so I can apply to law school faster. That and I just wanted to be married to her as soon as possible, so we'll have two ceremonies. This is not unheard of for Vietnamese that marry Americans. My wife and I have a mutual friend that is Vietnamese, and she just had her second wedding on Jan 3. That couple has been married for almost a year before having that ceremony.

As for more details, you can expect them soon. I'll do a special report when I'm not so pressed for time or backlogged with news.

Since you had a lot of questions about my apartment, I guess I'll move to there. My kitchen IS pretty basic. I don't do a lot of cooking due to my work hours. I normally only cook on weekends, so I don't need much in there. I do drink tea that I bring over from America though. My wife buys it in the Asian part of Houston and sends it to me. It's a lot cheaper to drink that tea than to buy it here. Tea can be a bit expensive, so I take any opportunity to have cheap tea that tastes good. In your case, just add water to the tea, and you should be OK.

As for the bathroom, those were in fact a couple books of manga. I had Trigun and XXXHolic in there. I also read Negima and Deathnote, but I read all my manga in English. Well, I DO sometimes read Negima in Japanese, but that's only when I buy my bento and they have the magazine out that it's printed in. I've been following the story in Japan and reading each book as it comes out in America. I suppose it's kind of spoiler, but that's ok. I don't mind.

The upper area you ask about is called a loft, and it has been VERY useful. I do keep my futon up there, and in winter, it's the best place to be. Since you asked about dividing rooms up, it is common to measure a room's size in the number of tatami that will be put in it. Typical room sizes are six or eight tatami. Mine is a bit small to be six, so I'd say I'm around four to five tatami. And since I mentioned futon, not everyone sleeps on them in Japan. Some people prefer western beds now, but many still use traditional mats.

For your last question, the beverage is actually sake. Interestingly enough, it is technically a rice beer, even though people refer to it as rice wine. The reason it is called rice wine is because it is similar to wine in alcoholic content, and the quality is as varied as that of wine. But since it is a beverage brewed from fermented grain, it is technically a very strong beer. The bottle you saw is called a bizen, and the small cups are called sakazuki.

Thanks for writing!

Question: did you go to aheHa for the armin van buuren show on... hmm. what was day that. November 23rd or 24th? I just noticed the apartment shots and you look a LOT like one of the other foreigners on the train that I noticed. At least, that's where I think I saw the person in question. I have hair that looks like fire so you probably would have remembered.

anyways, just thought i'd check. would be random if that's the case :)

--kim

Nope! That wasn't me, but from the sounds of it, this guy must be very handsome. I had to confirm the dates, but I was in Niihama on the day in question. I wasn't anywhere close to a train.

Maybe if you stop by Niihama, you'll spot me for real, but thanks for writing!

Heya,

Thanks so much for the xmas post, it was a fun way to relax at the end of the night and the pictures of your (teensy:) apartment made me realize just how much I take mine for granted. But, much more importantly, Omedetou Gozaimasu on your wedding! I wish you two all the happiness in the world in your new life together, a Dai Kichi for married bliss;P

Elysse

BTW, love the plushies;)

Thanks for writing in. So far, our wedding has been a happy one. I hope it continues to be even better when I move back to America in a few weeks. Also, glad you like the plushies. This is only PART of my collection; I left most of them at home in America. I only took four of them originally, and I have acquired the others since then. When I go to New Orleans, I will merge my plushie collection with my wife's, and then we'll have enough plushies to take over the world... I think. Maybe.

At any rate, thanks for emailing, and I hope you had happy holidays!

I was reading your latest Japandemonium column and noticed about the apology response question. That led me to this one:

Is there a Japanese response equivalent to "you're welcome" when one says "arigatou/doomo arigatou"?

Joanna

"You're welcome" translates to "Dou itashimashita" in Japanese. Literally, it means 'It was nothing.'

If you have another question, feel free to send it on in, and thanks for writing!

Merri Kurimasu, or something like that. Anyway I was just wondering what the name of the giant white paper fan is that people are always being hit with in anime. And where can I buy one?

Thanks

Tom-kun

I knew that answer to that at one point, but I had to google it to remember. After looking through about 10000000000 pages, I finally found my answer. It is called a harisen, but I'm not sure where you could buy one. I suppose you could make it. Most people in Japan don't actually have one; it's only a gag used in anime and comedy sketches.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas, and thanks for writing!

Heya j, I felt bad that you only got one letter last time and i do have some question regarding the whole teaching position you have there...

I know you've probably talked about every aspect of it before so many times but ya know how sometimes you'll just let things pass by you without any thought... i just finished my first semester at college and i wasn't really motivated at all so i feel like if i had an actual goal i was working towards (teaching english over there) then i would be able to fight through it all. I don't even really need you to lecture me on it maybe just give me a couple links regarding the pre reqs? Also i do have a question i bet no one's asked you, what do you wear when you teach and where did you get it?? I'm not a big suit guy ya know so i figured i should ask :) Oh ya and approx how much did you make as a C1 then?

MEIRI KURISUMASU!!!

-barooboodoo

PS: Ever heard of a jazz singer, kojima mayumi?? nintendo used one of her songs for a commercial a while back over here...

I found my job through GEOS by searching online for a position. The hiring process was kind of hard. Initially, I sent in a resume and was offered an interview. Then I had to fly to New York for it, and it was three days long. Few months later, I found myself in Japan making 250,000 yen per month. I'm paid in yen, so my salary fluctuates with the exchange rate. After taxes and rent, I cleared around 200,000 yen each month.

As for pre-requisites, the only thing they require is a bachelor's degree in the field of your choice. It can be anything from accounting to zoology as long as you have the drive to go over here and teach. Well, they also require you to be a good teacher, but I suppose that's a given.

And finally, I AM required to wear a suit every day, but I don't wear my jacket unless it's cold or a visitor is in the school.

Oh, and I've never heard of that musician, but I'll look into her. I need to stock up on music before I go. I'll hit her up. Thanks for the tip!

Hope that answers your questions. Thanks for writing!

I was thinking of buying a PSP, and then I remembered your number from a long time ago. I thought I'd give you a call since you know all about electronics and video games and stuff. If I buy a Japanese PSP, will it play games from other countries? Will I be able to charge it in New Zealand? Also, what about the DS? Will it play other games too?

Elder Brown

I wasn't expecting this question, but since some people might find this information useful, I'll print it. The PSP and DS are completely region free for games. I've tested this with games from both regions on systems from both regions, and they play with no problems. While the games are region free, the UMD movies for the PSP are not. They will be have to come from the region where you buy it.

In other region news, the PS3 is nearly abolishing region codes since Blu-Ray will only have three regions. North America and Japan will finally be in the same region as far as the PS3 is concerned, and SOME of the Xbox 360 games are region free. But I have yet to test that out. My 360 is in America.

As for the other half of your question, charging your handheld shouldn't be too hard. You have two options. You can buy a charger from that region, or you can just replace the end of your cable. From past experience, I know that you have other sony hardware, and they all use a cable with a figure-eight block at the end. It turns out that it doesn't matter what this originally came from; they are all essentially the same. To test this, I swapped power cables with my PS2, my camera, my PSP, and my TV. All cables worked with all systems. The only hitch is that each region has a slightly different shape on the end. North American machines have a square side and a round side, but Japanese is round on both sides. This is probably to ensure that the electricity goes in the right way in North America similar to the way that some electronics have one prong that is larger on the plug. If yours doesn't fit, you can just take a pair of nail clippers and trim it so it does. Just be sure you plug it in the right way, but I don't know if it would hurt anything if it were upside down. I left my Japanese power cable in my apartment when I visited my wife in August, and we had to trim down her PS1 cable to fit in my PS2. I assume it was either plugged in right, or it doesn't matter either way.

The other option is to buy a travel plug adaptor. That should do the trick as well.

Thanks for calling!