Noise pollution

In Canada, the typical street noises usually involve traffic, neighbours doing something outside, the occasional siren, maybe a car alarm or some construction. In Japan, these sounds exist, but they are joined with another: voice announcements.

I can't be sure, but I think the only time I heard someone using a microphone just out on the street in Canada (not at a concert or some event) was one time back when I was living in Hamilton. Some guy was standing on top of an upturned milk crate preaching while his kid sold bibles next to him at the corner in front of Jackson Square.

Then it struck me as odd: microphones or megaphones really don't belong out on the streets unless you're at a parade (or some other event which has been cleared with the city). One lone guy with a megaphone selling his beliefs is just strange.

Here though, there are frequent voice announcements. Not only does our city have daily announcements at 3 in the afternoon and again at sunset to tell children to go home (or something), but there will be someone announcing something within earshot of our apartment a few times a week.

Usually, it's someone with a truck and a pre-recorded announcement driving by, but the other day, I heard one that was especially clear and seemed nearby. So I looked out the window and saw a woman with a megaphone in the parking lot for the neighbouring building. She finished her announcement and moved to the parking lot for our building to repeat the same announcement.  Then she moved to the next parking lot to repeat the same message.

If we go downtown, it's pretty common to see people with megaphones standing near tables outside train stations selling something (or trying to get votes, it's not clear) or for people to stand on boxes or ladders outside shops encouraging potential customers to come in.

It's not just the people advertising that do this either. The firetrucks include voice announcements asking people to move out of the way and thanking them for doing so. This is in addition to the sirens which should be pretty clear indications that one should get out of the way.  There are some trucks with turn signals that indicate their turning direction audibly as well, but not all of them. 

This is all still pretty strange to me. I'm used to cities that don't care to let children know when it's time to go home. I'm used to laws that tell people they can't use megaphones without a permit to just run around and advertise whatever.

Happoshu: the not-beer "beer"

Beer is a drink we all know and love (though perhaps love can be a strong word for all of its various incarnations) made of fermented malts. Japan has a tax on malt and beverages made with it. The result is that actual beer (the kind that gets labeled ビール here) can cost a fair bit more than other alcoholic beverages with a similar percentage of alcohol.

In response, companies began making products that taste similar to beer, but with less malts or none at all called happoshu. These will cost much less than beer, but they are typically designed to taste very similar to beer. They are also much better than some of the popular beers in Japan (e.g. Asahi Super Dry) although they are nowhere near as good as some of the nice beers here (e.g. Yona Yona).

Happoshu seems to get an unnecessarily bad reputation in English-language sources for some reason though. Personally, if I'm at a store with a limited beer selection, where all the beers are this light kind of beer that's supposed to have a broad appeal, I'll generally go for the happoshu because it's similar enough and a lot cheaper. Unless I'm in the mood for a fruity drink, then it's chuhai time.

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Sorry for the sporadic posting this month. Our internet has been a little fishy and sometimes decides it doesn't want to load Blogger at times when I want to write and post things. I'll aim for more frequent posts for the next couple of weeks, but I can't promise a super regular schedule because I don't know if I'll actually be able to post when I want to.

IC cards and you

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Japan is a cash-based society. There is one notable and interesting exception to this, however. While stores will often not accept credit cards, they will sometimes accept integrated circuit (IC) cards, especially if they are in or near a train station.

IC cards are essentially little plastic cards that one loads up with cash, which one then spends later. Their primary purpose is for use on public transportation in Japan since they are accepted in many places and mean that one does not have to calculate the fare (because train fare is a combination of start up fee + distance charge) and buy tickets for every part of the journey.  Instead, one can just wave their card at a card reader and have the appropriate fare deducted from the card.

Moar hanami!

Last week the sakura trees were in full bloom so of course, I took more pictures.

I wasn't sure that these were sakura until I saw a tree with a label on them (yes, some of the trees around here have little signs on them indicating species). I thought that the flowers were only white, but apparently, they can also be dark pink.

And a very pretty pink too.