Lavatory cleaning at school!
Did you clean the restrooms when your were in elementary school?

So, in your country, do the students clean the class rooms or is it the janitor's job?
In Japan, elementary/junior high school students have cleaning duties at their school.
Of course starting from grade 1.
Not only do they sweep but they usually use a wet cloth(Zoukin 雑巾) to wipe the floors as well.  When entering  schools in Japan, you will notice the children changing shoes to indoor shoes(uwabaki　上履き).  Although they wear room shoes, the dust and eraser debris piles up.  Time for cleaning is in the schedule every day.

Today, I found an article in The Japan Times, that lavatory cleaning will be one of the tasks from next April(School year begins from April) for students in all the Yokohama city's 500 public elementary, junior high and high schools.  This is a change since 1985.  Before 1985, students used to clean toilets.  After janitors took over the job of cleaning since 1985, the lavatories increasingly accumulated garbage and graffiti.
As a solution, came this change.  A school survey  showed 88 percent of the children from the third through sicth grades responded that they have been making a more conscious effort to keep lavatories clean.  

Yokohama may seem unique in its taking of lavatory cleanup chores to children, in reality most public schools nationwide(Japan)  consider this task a responsibility of students.  The  School Toilet Study  Group, established by six toilet-affiliated companies, reported that 62 percent of all elementary scholls and 78  percent of juniour high schools have their students clean the lavatories, according to a survey carried out in August, 2009.   And A Yahoo Japan survey last year found 92 percent of the public supports this activity, both at the elementary and junior high school level.

As for the indoor shoes, my kids bring back their indoor shoes every Friday to wash.

Two of the popular stores 

for foreigners when they visit Japan

See-through 13.3 inches　TV for 18,700 yen

Don Quijote　ドン・キホーテ, the fun shop to find all kinds of inexpensive products from costumes to TVs.  With more than 218 franchise, they sell more than 480,856 million yen as of June, 2009.  This winter season, my friend can go there to find Santa Claus costumes, and also buys her kids yogurt, 10 kg rice for 2970 yen and Sake for her husband and tells her husband she saw a good sofa!  She can order her Osechi there too!

100 Yen shop, the shop that sells products that are mainly all 100 yen. (Now, they have products that are 300 yen, too)  Many of you know this kind of shop since it's found all over the world. So I'm not going to write about this.

Gobo(牛蒡)

Japanese food is good for you. Except sometimes high in salt.
Let me introduce gobo, burdock today.

Burdock(English: edible burdok, French: grande bardane comestible) also known as Bardane, Clotburr, Beggars Buttons and Gypsy Rhubarb.

Gobo(edible burdok) is a very commen root that is eaten in Japan.  We use burdok in Tempura, Nimono, salad, etc.  My kid's favorite is fried burdock.  Becomes like potato chips, crispy!  I often haven complimented by foreign guest when they try the burdock Tempura.  Burdock is sliced or cut into sticks in the size of matches and deep fried with Tempura flour.  For most foreigners eating burdock is new to them.  Burdock is from the Northern part of the Eurasian Continent.  It is said to come from China before the 9th century.  Before, It seemed that burdock is only cultivated in Japan to eat.  Nowadays, it is also cultivated in other asian countries to export to Japan. 

Japanese know that gobo is very good for your digestions.  

For more information about the health benefits of burdock,  please take a look at this link.

We rarely see the burdock flower since burdock is harvested before the flower blooms. 

Men, don't choose the wrong flowers for your Japanese ladies/friends!

Taboos on flowers in Japan

Once, I received flowers but didn't make me happy... and I like flowers.  The flowers were Bukka(仏花).  Bukka are flowers for graves or family buddhist atar.  Hey! I'm not dead yet!


Flowers seems to be the perfect gift but be careful in Japan.  These Bukka are available at the florists especially in August when we have Higan(the Buddhist memorial services centering on the spring and autumn equinox).  
You can recognize that the flowers are Bukka since it uses bright colors.  These are some of the names of the flowers used for Bukka.  Chrysanthemums,  Z. elegans, iris, gladiolus, Chinese lantern plant.  Or to double check, why not just ask? 

Other taboos about flowers in Japan. 
To bring or to send a friend in the hospital.
DO NOT GIVE...

1. Plants with pots which have roots on them. :Makes people think the patient also will stay long because of the roots. 
2. White, blue, purple, flowers :Makes people think those colors are for the deceased. 
3. Red flowers Red can make people think blood.
4. Flowers with strong scent : Just not appropriate for the ill/hurt
5. Cyclamen: Cy or shi(し、死)　is death in Japanese、ｃ or ku(く、苦)　means suffer in Japanese
6. Camellia :Camellia drops it's flower after it is done blooming and Japanese feel uncomfortable when ill.
7. Hydrangea :Hydrangea loses it's color as time passes and makes people think negative. 

Ladies, ... how many magazines do you read?  And husbands, do you know which magazines your wife picks up at the book store lately?

Magazines are targeted to certain people...
This time I would like to introduce a magazine "Very".  This magazine seems to be targeted to the ladies in their 30's, probably married, may have children, and who are in the middle class and above.

In this magazine, I found articles of  "Inter Mama" , Moms which stands for moms who sends their children to international schools in Japan.  These moms are perceived as the sophisticated, fashionable, right on the trend with food, interior goods, kid's toys, etc. And of course knows a lot about foreign countries including where to shop, which lounge in the airport has what and many many things that ladies like.  Akogare (憧れ)、meaning envy is the word which average Japanese women have for Inter Mamas.

One thing that worried me in one of the article was that Japanese first graders have been losing their self esteem by around 60 percent till they become 5th or 6th graders.  The word self esteem can be translated but there is no word that exactly explains it in Japanese.  Knowing that it is very important, I am sad to say it is not taken seriously in the Japanese society as in the US.  This article wrote about Abraham Harold Maslow's theory. That human beings want ...

1. physiological need
2. safety need
3. social need/love and belonging
4. esteem
5. self actualization                     

The 4th need, esteem is the one that they were referring to with the elementary school kids.      

I myself have felt this necessity when I just came back to Japan after years in the US.  To able to like yourself although you might not fit in the circumstances.  I assume there are quite a few things that can be an obstacle when kids in the elementary school want self esteem.  Parents might scold them, after all the bad economic situation, parents themselves are striving for their own self-esteem coping with the stress and pressure from the society.  Also, the Japanese tend to be serious which makes it hard to giggle, play around, joke around, relieve stress by hugging each other, etc.  

As a mother of 3 children, this article was a good reminder to always be positive about your own child and show that to the children.  I believe that saying only good things can change the thoughts of the children too.                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Kudaranai Things?　くだらないもの？

I love small cute things just like the key chain you see on the left. Adorable! And look at the sock purse on the picture below.  Hey, I can surprise my sister taking that out of my bag and say "No, it's not my kid's(my child is 1 year old and wears the same size sock) sock, it's my purse!"

I showed these pictures to my sister. And what she said was, "Kudaranai yo Onechan." (What she meant was...Sister, this is something useless it's cute but it's a waste of money.)  Well, knowing that I replied, "Well, that's why I took pictures and didn't buy them at ikspiari..."

Kudaranai くだらない　means trifling; trivial; insignificant; silly; absurd; useless; worthless; trashy in goo dictionary. 

Greenｔea nowadays...
Not bitter like the Japanese traditional tea ceremonies.

Nana's green tea website

Below, is a part of an article from about.com
Today, scientific research in both Asia and the west is providing hard evidence for the health benefits long associated with drinking green tea. For example, in 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of an epidemiological study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of esophageal cancer in Chinese men and women by nearly sixty percent. University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that a compound in green tea inhibits the growth of cancer cells. There is also research indicating that drinking green tea lowers total cholesterol levels, as well as improving the ratio of good (HDL) cholesterol to bad (LDL) cholesterol.

To sum up, here are just a few medical conditions in which drinking green tea is reputed to be helpful:

What makes green tea so special?

•  cancer
• rheumatoid arthritis
• high cholesterol levels
• cariovascular diseaseinfection
• impaired immune function

The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant: besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke.

Links are being made between the effects of drinking green tea and the "French Paradox." For years, researchers were puzzled by the fact that, despite consuming a diet rich in fat, the French have a lower incidence of heart disease than Americans. The answer was found to lie in red wine, which contains resveratrol, a polyphenol that limits the negative effects of smoking and a fatty diet. In a 1997 study, researchers from the University of Kansas determined that EGCG is twice as powerful as resveratrol, which may explain why the rate of heart disease among Japanese men is quite low, even though approximately seventy-five percent are smokers.

Why don't other Chinese teas have similar health-giving properties? Green, oolong, and black teas all come from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. What sets green tea apart is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the EGCG compound from being oxidized. By contrast, black and oolong tea leaves are made from fermented leaves, which results in the EGCG being converted into other compounds that are not nearly as effective in preventing and fighting various diseases.

Other Benefits

New evidence is emerging that green tea can even help dieters. In November, 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.

Green tea can even help prevent tooth decay! Just as its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning, it can also kill the bacteria that causes dental plaque. Meanwhile, skin preparations containing green tea - from deodorants to creams - are starting to appear on the market.

Harmful Effects?

To date, the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia due to the fact that it contains caffeine. However, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee: there are approximately thirty to sixty mg. of caffeine in six - eight ounces of tea, compared to over one-hundred mg. in eight ounces of coffee.