Category Archives: Japan

10 reasons to go to Comic / Internet Cafe (Manga Kissa) in Japan

“I love Japanese comics/anime!” I’ve heard it from foreigners over and over. There is no doubt that Manga (comics) is a big part of Japanese culture.

“I love Japanese comic internet cafe (manga kissa)!”. However, I rarely hear it neither from foreigners nor Japanese.

As I believe Manga kissa has so many things to offer from around 20 years of experience, but seem to be unknown to many people, I will try to explain what it is, how I enjoy, and why I recommend it. I hope this will be useful for anyone who likes Japanese comics, culture and interesting/unique experience. I will also mention some of the manga I personally recommend.

Continue reading →

More Habits than Goal to achieve New Year Resolution

English, Español, Français, 日本語

You have done your best in 2018. You want to change and/or improve something in 2019. So it’s pretty normal to go ahead with new year resolution.

Losing weight, learning language, passing the exam, getting/changing job, You name it.

However, let me remind this unfortunate fact (I am taping the wood now)…out of 100 people who make resolution, 92 of them abandon their resolution. That leaves only 8% of successful people. If it’s true, something must be wrong with resolution making. So through the main point of this pointーmore habits than goalーI hope to contribute to improve this statistic in a long run.

Continue reading →

Arigato NattoーHow to Make Natto at Home Even in Africa

English, Español, Français, 日本語

Once you touch it, it will stick to you without leaving you. Usually people hate it at the first sight , but some people gradually start loving it and cannot even stand without it as it can be a great supporter of your life.

What is it? Is it what is so called a love?

No, it is Natto, fermented soy beans which is one of the cheapest and healthiest foods in Japan (you can buy 3 packs of Natto for 100 JPYーless than 1 USDーin most markets. In this article, let me share the importance of Natto and how to make it at home, which was successful even in Africa.

Continue reading →

How to exchange foreign currency

English, Español, Français, 日本語

When I travel foreign country, the first 5 phrases I try to learn in their language are:

Hello, Thank you, I am sorry, where is the bathroom? How much is it?

This entry deals with the field of the last phrase, in particular exchange of money. Although each country has their own culture, almost every country has monetary system, and because of the globalization, there are more and more needs of traveling and using foreign currency.

However, exchanging money is not a easy task, thus it is quite normal not to know the best way. That’s why this entry will try to take you to the journey to explore on (1) How to read the money exchange table, (2) Exchanging from local to foreign currency and (3) Vise versa (from foreign to local currency)
Continue reading →

Mongolia 2ーArrival

English, Español, Français, 日本語

Update: This post is the last and 5th part of Mongolian series. Please check part 1, part 3, part 4, and part 5

After deciding to leave Chile, it’s time to go to Mongolia!

First of all, I was going to go directly from Chile to Mongolia, but given that the destination is the other side of the planet, I made a decision to go to Japan first to prepare my self. Even Chingis Khaan managed to expand his empire with a lot of preparation (I think).

Before leaving Chile, I tried to meet as many close people as possible to eat out. At that time, I didn’t know that Chilean ingredients such as avocado (“Palta” in Chile), seafood and wine were that valuable, as I took them for granted. Especially since I was born and raised in Japan, I was used to seafood (for the next 3 years I really appreciated every opportunity to have sea food as Mongolia is landlocked country).

After all, we can appreciate the value of something when we lose it, be it health, salmon or Palta.

So I will briefly write about the path to arrive Mongolia.

Continue reading →

International aid day and personal interview

Did you know that the October 6th was International Aid day?

I didn’t know about it, although I am working in this field. Actually there are too many “international day of XXX”.

However, this year, an article about my interview was published on that day through Japanese job search magazine “My Navi”, titled《What we can do now for the world》

Continue reading →

Why Red, Yellow and Green ?

Do you like to see the tinted autumnal leaves?

I love it, and I don’t mind taking long night bus, walking a lot and/or climbing mountains to capture beautiful colors in my eyes.

Thinking about why I like those color changes, I think it’s because I like 3 color combinations Red Yellow and Green (hereafter referred as RYG), which I tend to use for designing my blog entry and work-related things. Those RYG colors can be seen not only in color change of leaves in the fall, but also in Rasta color and Trafic lights.

Then I started thinking if there was any secret behind this color combination, and I started learning about several different things: (1) Color system, (2) Meaning of Rasta color, (3) Origin of traffic lights as well as (4) Concept of colors in Japan.

Continue reading →