Visiting Japan on a Budget While Becoming Fluent in Japanese

I'm super excited about this post! This post is done by my guest blogger, Japanese Talk Online. This is my first time collaborating with another blogger so I'm really happy to be introducing her to my readers. We met through a mutual reader/friend and our passion for educating people about Japan made it easy for us to work together. I hope to do more collaborations with her in the future. I'll have her bio and contact down below, but for now let's get on with the blog!

Fathers in Japan

That's right! It's Father's Day, and so I'll be telling you about the father's role in a Japanese household. I have previously done a blog post about mothers in Japan, so it's only right that I talk about the fathers now. As a brief recap, mothers are typically the ones who take care of the house and kids. They will make all decisions regarding these things. If you'd like to learn more about this topic you can click here to go to my blog post on mothers in Japan.

So after reading my blog post on moms you may be wondering what is left for the dads. It may sound simple to most people but it's a very important task that helps the family a lot, and that task is working a job. Yep, the dads need to work.

Japan has a different work mentality than any other country. The people take pride in their work and strive to always do better. If you asked a young Japanese person if they saw their dads a lot when they were little they'd probably tell you something like "I'd barely see him." That's completely normal in Japan. The reason for this is because of the work mentality I was talking about. It is understood that the fathers will go to work early and come home late. I remember my own father would come home at about 5 o'clock in the evening. He'd eat dinner with the family and we would all be in the living room watching the television together. In Japan, dads won't come home until about 9 o'clock at night. There are several reason for this. First, the wives except their husbands to come home at late hours. If the men come home early it is a sign that they have not worked hard enough. Second reason, after work hours are over in the office or field it is appropriate to go out drinking with your boss and coworkers. This is except of an employee and it also gives the employee a good word for himself with his boss. It is important to get good with the boss as it could possibly lead to better opportunities at work. Lastly, a father could be coming home late from work because of the work hours in general. It is common for some employees to stay at work until the boss leaves. Even if the employee has finished all their work for the day they'd look for more work to do until their boss is ready to leave. Once the boss is ready to leave the work place the employees will follow.

Father spending time with his family.

Now, even though the work life is a bit hard and keeps the fathers away from their families it's not like the children never see their dads. There are sometimes weekends off and then there are vacations and holidays. The quality time they do spend with their family is typically a good experience. They'll either stay at home and spend time together or go out. Families go out to shopping malls and museums to spend time with each other. There are even times families will go on vacation to resorts. Dads in Japan try to create memories with their families while balancing a hard and sometimes stressful job in order to supply and take care of their families.

I hope you learned a bit about Japanese dads and what they go through in order to take care of their families. It's a dad's duty to take care of their family no matter what country they are from. But with the unique Japanese work mentality Japanese dads have to work around their jobs.

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Fast Food Places to Try in Japan

When you travel to Japan you probably plan on eating more traditional, notable foods that are distinct to the country. Why would you spend money on a plane ticket to Japan just to eat food you can get in your own country? Well, that's because Japan does things differently with their food. Their own cuisine and culture influences other foods they've taken from other countries. So, is it worth visiting well-known fast food chains while in Japan? Yes, and I'll tell you why!

McDonald's

Probably one of the most well-known fast food chains around the world. McDonald's in Japan is an experience in itself. Not only does the quality of McDonald's food seems better in Japan, but they have menu items that are not common in other countries. On the Japan menu, they have teriyaki burgers which is always a nice option if you want a different kind of hamburger. And they also have a menu item called Shaka Shaka Chicken which is a thin fried chicken breast that comes in a paper pouch. You can order it with any of the available seasonings put pour into the bag and shake the chicken to coat it with the selected seasoning. Not only do they have different permanent items but McDonald's Japan has great seasonal items such as items available during cherry blossom season in the spring. So check out a McDonald's when you get to Japan, it's an experience.

Mos Burger

I said fast food chains, but I said nothing about American chains only. Mos Burger is a Japanese chain that sells typically items such as burgers, fries, nuggets, hot dogs, and onion rings. Of course it's not going to be just any regular hamburger. There are different kinds of hamburgers due to the use of Japanese ingredients. Mos Burger has a teriyaki burger, a spicy miso burger, and a katsu burger. These are just a few of their burgers on their menu that are distinct to Japan. If you ever get the chance to go to Mos Burger I suggest trying their onion rings. They have some of the best onion rings I've ever tasted. Here is my order at Mos Burger: A teriyaki burger with an order of onion rings and a melon soda. I get this all the time. It's so delicious!

KFC

The fast food chain for all chicken lovers. KFC is extremely popular in Japan. The chicken dishes are very good, with the chicken being very tasty and juicy (nothing is worse than dry chicken). But the reason for KFC's popularity in Japan is due to its Christmas dinners. On Christmas Eve it is customary to stand in a long line to get a chicken meal for Christmas. A long time ago, Japan didn't celebrate Christmas. It was two foreigners in Japan who were looking for a Christmas turkey substitute. Their best option was KFC chicken. This tradition spread across Japan as the holiday was beginning to be celebrated. Now Christmas is highly marketed in Japan with KFC as the face of Christmas.

Coco Ichibanya

This is another Japanese fast food chain that I highly recommend trying. Coco Ichibanya is a Japanese curry house. Japanese curry is a thick curry over rice. Coco Ichibanya has many different kinds of curry to try from the typical pork or chicken katsu to other kinds such as cheese curry and sausage curry. Not only do they have many curry options but another option to consider is the level of heat. You can get medium curry which has no level of spice. The scale of spiciness is from 1-10. Curry starts to get pretty spicy at level 3, but is still enjoyable. Level 5 or 6 will start to make you sweat. Level 10, well, it'll make you cry and probably go to the bathroom. You would be getting level 10 curry on a dare or something because you will not be able to taste the curry due to how spicy it is. Coco Ichibanya is available in the U.S., with chains in Hawaii and California.

I hope you'll try these fast food chains in Japan. It's a different experience than what you're probably used to. These are my favorite ones, so you'll definitely find something you'll like.

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Stories from Japan- Arashiyama's Bamboo Forest

While studying in Japan I made it my goal to experience as much of Japan as possible. Since the study abroad program was stationed in Kyoto it was pretty easy to explore all of Kyoto. One of the areas I explored and my favorite is Arashiyama. On this particular day that I was in Arashiyama a group of us were trying to go to Monkey Mountain where we could feed the monkeys but it closed early. So we decided to walk around the Arashiyama area to figure something else out.