New Years in Japan

Today is the 31st of December and tomorrow is one of the biggest holidays in Japan; New Years. Many people in Japan celebrate New Years the same way we celebrate Christmas in the West. Most Japanese people return home and visit families and enjoy nice big meals.


On New Years Eve most people eat Soba (Toshikoshi Soba) end of the year soba. I will make soba tonight as well and maybe some dessert and wine to enjoy.

Finally Christmas has passed and I have entered my holiday

Hello,

I am finally over with work for the year. I can not concentrate on myself and try to cook delicious foods everyday for the holiday.

Yesterday, while going through youtube I found out one of my favourite youtubers actually has a cooking page. So, I decided to watch one of his videos and I found one video quite interesting in particular.

He made an apple pie using frozen pre-made pie crust that is sold at the grocery store in Japan. I had some apples left over so I decided to try out his recipe excluding the maple syrup and they came out great.


Here is a pic of my pies I baked. They came out really good and they were super easy to make. The total time was less then 45 minutes.

Shinookubo (Tokyo`s Korea Town)

As many of you might already know, I currently moved to Shinjuku and my house is quite close to Shinookubo. Shinookubo is the Korean area in Tokyo. I have been going there over the last 7 years but only recently has Shinookubo been popular among Japanese. When I first went to Shinookubo, I almost never saw any Japanese people most of the customers were Koreans. However, currently due to the Korean boom the streets are always packed with Japanese folks. So much, that I try my best to avoid Oookubo Street both on weekdays and weekends.

However, I have recently been addicted to Korean food. I have been there to eat twice in the last week.

If you ever have the chance to come to Tokyo, please stop by Shinokubo and enjoy the great food the many restaurants have to offer.

Here some pics of me from 10 years ago when I attended Japanese school. In those days, Shinookubo was not as popular as it is today. 

Japanese debit cards

When I first came to Japan there was no such thing as debit cards. There was only cash and credit cards and credit cards are almost impossible for foreigners to get in Japan. However, over the last few years internet shopping has become quite popular in Japan, thanks to Amazon and Rakuten. Thus, many banks are starting to get on the debit card wagon. The first company to introduce the debit card system was ebank now known as Rakuten bank. I have a debit card with them for a couple of years but I decided to cancel because I found the 210 yen  deposit and withdraw fee to be extremely expensive and a waste of money.

Now I have a debit card with Resona Bank. They are currently offering two types of debit cards. One is the JAL milage card (yes, you can earn miles by using your own money) the second is just a basic one. The JAL milage card does cost 1000 yen a year to have but it is worth it if you enjoy traveling.

I often use my card to make online purchases in Japan.

However, like most countries you have to be careful where you use your cards in Japan. Last week, I got a phone call from my bank informing me that my debit card info had been stolen and the bank had stopped my card. After researching further I found out that someone had tried to charge a total of 1,000,000 on my account. Luckily, I am poor and I don't have that kind of money in my account.


Anyhow, if you want a debit card in Japan there are options each have their pros and cons. If you are interested in getting a card refer to the links below. (japanese only)


http://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/card/debit/

http://www.resona-gr.co.jp/resonabank/kojin/service/hiraku/visa_debit/index.html