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.

Hanami has started!

Last week, I started getting excited about hanami and the budding of the sakura (cherry) trees. Well, they're still budding, but the ume (plum) trees have already started blooming. We went for a walk on the weekend and found some in the park near our house.

They're pretty from afar.

Useful phrases in Japanese #1

My Japanese is still at a state that could best be described as somewhere between "non-existent" and "severely broken". I can read some of the language although for the most part I can either pronounce it because it's written in kana or I can understand it because it's one of the kanji I have learned, but typically not both.

However, I do know a little and some of the little I know includes useful phrases so you can go about life without being a total jerk. I thought I'd start sharing some of those in installments.

Today, I'll discuss what is possibly the most useful word in Japanese.

Sumimasen (すみません)

This word can be used for anything from getting a waiter's attention to apologizing to thanking someone or trying to plow your way through a crowded train station (it's a flexible word). If you are going to visit Japan and only learn one word before coming here, this is probably it.

In cases like getting attention, it's a bit like "excuse me" and is acceptable to use in restaurants, when requesting assistance or generally on the street (e.g. if you see someone drop something). In cases where you're moving through a crowd the meaning can vary between "excuse me" and "sorry" depending whether you're just cutting through or whether you're (lightly) bumping into anyone. It can also mean "thank you" in the sense of "thank you for doing me a favour" (e.g. "thank you for finding that thing I dropped").

Note that while "sumimasen" is fine for lightly bumping into someone, if you totally plow into someone because neither of you were looking where you were going, you probably want to use "gomennasai" (ごめんなさい) a few times instead of "sumimasen" since it's more apologetic. If it's both of your fault, the person you plowed into will probably also apologize profusely.

Hanami is coming!

Those little buds will become awesomeness!

Hanami (花 = hana = flower, 見= mi = see/viewing) is a custom that seems to consist of going somewhere nice, having a picnic and watching the cherry blossoms. It's not supposed to start around here for for a little more than a week, but I'm excited for it already.

Odd suggestions from cracker companies

Since we've been having a fair bit of hummus lately, daid and I have been buying a bunch of crackers. These are not native to Japan and the cracker companies seem to include some "interesting" marketing strategies on their boxes.

For the most part, these involve strange suggestions for what to pair with the crackers. I mean, who over the age of five wouldn't love to eat some Ritz crackers plain with some milk or juice?

The box on the left also suggests topping crackers with cream cheese and
coloured sprinkles or marshmallows. The box on the right suggests potato
salad as a possible cracker topping.