Hikaru no Go

I first learned of the game at a small cafe in the outskirts of Nagoya. Like many small cafes in Japan, there was a small collection of miscellaneous reading material available. So I casually picked up the first volume of the manga Hikaru no Go while waiting for my lunch. Later that same day, on my way home after work I stopped by a used book store and bought three more. I was hooked.

Not only was the story compelling (I eventually read the whole series and watched the anime… more than once! I highly recommend it by the way.), I was fascinated by the game itself. It sounds kind of corny, but when I played for the first time, it felt like I was taking part in something much bigger and more important than a ‘game’. It was an experience more akin to meditation.

a Go game in progress

Go has an aesthetic that is minimalist to the extreme; despite its Chinese origin, the game itself is culturally neutral. Fascinatingly, there are no arbitrary rules, except perhaps the rule that black goes first (more of a convention than a rule, if you ask me). Yet despite the simplicity of the rules—or rather, because of the simplicity—playing Go becomes a task so complex that today’s best computer software still struggles against high ranked players. Humans can still beat computers at Go not because of raw calculating power (at which we would surely be outmatched), but because we can sense both potential and danger in situations that are too wide open and vague to be calculable.

Sadly, I left Japan last autumn after a little over a year of frequent play, and Go is under-appreciated outside of Asia. Many people haven’t heard of the game and of those who have only a few know how to play. It’s my hope that this article will raise awareness of the game and maybe even inspire a few people to try it.

So, what is Go?

Go (from the Japanese term go or igo), also known as weiqi (Chinese) or baduk (Korean), was first played in China more than two millennia ago. It is a creative game played on a 19×19 grid where two players compete to surround a larger territory than their opponent. Note that by “creative”, I mean that the board starts empty, and players take turns adding one stone at a time.

Image at right: in Go, stones are captured if they are surrounded. So, White’s 3 stones are taken off the board if Black plays on the circled point. Simple, right? This is the basic rule on which the entire game is based.

Victory rests not only on a player’s reading ability, but also their strategic cunning, boldness, adaptability, instincts and sense of balance. In short, Go is a contest of many virtues. Furthermore, there is no need to annihilate your opponent; a single point win is a win all the same.

I won’t get into the rules of the game, because I think there are plenty of other sites on the internet that are already doing a great job of that. If you’re interested, here are some suggestions:

• The Interactive Way to Go (old site, but excellent starting point)
• Videos by the American Go Association (a little corny, but they get the job done)
• Introduction by the European Go Federation (a little harder to follow than the above sites, but more detail)
• Video Tutorials on YouTube (These are great videos for beginners. More serious and less corny than the AGA videos)

The Go World

Go is widely known and practiced in Asia, especially in China, Korea and Japan. These countries have large Go organizations, each employing hundreds of professional players. Children hardly in their teens can become well known professionals, and elite players can make a fortune by winning title matches and signing book deals. Weekly newspapers devoted to the game report on professional matches and offer tips for players.

I remember looking forward to Sunday afternoons in Japan, when NHK would air a professional game (complete with commentary by a host and lecturer who would explain the game as it was happening). Though the level of play was far too high for me to understand everything, it was still intriguing and strangely relaxing.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that in Asia, Go is given the attention and respect that in the west is only afforded to physical sports.

Let’s play Go!

If you live in Japan, South Korea, or China, check out your local Go salon, or head to your regional Go Association headquarters if you’re close enough. In my experience, go players are almost universally very friendly and accommodating to newcomers, so don’t be shy. We all love the game and want to see it spread.

Me vs. Yamashiro Hiroshi (9P)

If you live in America, you might have a tough time finding physical locations where players gather, but the American Go Association homepage provides an excellent list of local groupings across the US. Internet Go is also very popular. I play on KGS under the username LV3 (say hello if you see me!), but there are many other places to play such as Pandanet IGS (also on iPhone), Yuugen no Ma (Japanese only, available on Android, run by the Nihon Kiin a.k.a. Japanese Go Association), or Tygem (Korean origin with English available, with an iPad client).

If you live in Europe, I’m sorry but I can’t be much more help to you than to suggest the Internet Go options I already mentioned above, and also point you to the European Go Federation homepage. Good luck!

Final warnings

A word of warning to all of you: Go is a very seductive game. If you’re anything like me, you’ll get pulled in quick and it will be very hard to be just a casual player.

It’s also extremely satisfying, so it might be detrimental to your desire to do other things (like me when I stopped blogging!).

Other Go-related links

Here are some of my favorite Go links for you to check out, should you be so inclined.

• My Go Tumblog (Shameless self-promotion, I know. And I write in it in Japanese. Check it out anyway )
• Go article on Wikipedia (Great background information about the game.)
• Sensei’s Library (The quintessential Go link. Tons of information here.)
• Go Game Guru (The leading blog for Go news and other topics.)
• Gokifu.com (Professional Go game records. Lots of them. I love this site.)
• Life in 19×19 (The leading internet forum for Go players on the internet.)
• Gocommentary.com (Great video lessons for more advanced players.)
• Seattle Go Center (Possibly the best facility for Go in North America. I wish I could visit more often…)

Kangoku (監獄) means prison, and izakaya (居酒屋) is a Japanese style drinking restaurant.  So a kangoku izakaya is a Japanese restaurant/bar that has been styled to look like a prison! And if the thought of vicious felons and dirty prison cells doesn’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what will.

Kangoku Inshoku 42 Bou is the name of this peculiarly-themed izakaya, located in Sakae, Nagoya. With dinner courses ranging from around 2000 to 3000 yen and a nomihoudai (all you can drink) for 1000 yen, you can enjoy izakaya food similar to what you would find anywhere else, but from the comfort of a dark and spooky prison cell.

But why stop with just a prison izakaya when you can have a haunted prison izakaya! Kangoku 42 is decorated throughout with skeletons, chains, red blood-like splatters on the wall and other stereotypical haunted-house decor. It’s no wonder this place is so popular with the ladies, eh? (no, seriously, it is really popular with ladies)

At 8:00pm, there is even a nightly horror show. The entire restaurant goes dark (it’s dark to begin with, mind you, but once the show starts you can forget about eating for a while), and a spooky soundtrack starts playing. Gunshots fire off somewhere, flashes of light bounce off the marred concrete walls as an eerie voice narrates a deathly tale of… actually I was on the 2nd floor so I didn’t get a good view and I didn’t really know what was going on. Then the staff put on scary outfits and go around to the tables trying their best to spook all the customers.

It’s pricey (as are most izakayas), but an interesting experience. Might be good for dates. Definitely a great place for Halloween parties.

Come on, you know you want to… your table is waiting, prisoner! mwahahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!

Here’s a google map for everyone:

View Larger Map
PS. For some reason they only have Heineken beer. Drink of choice for prisoners? (and exiles? *looks south*)

Japan Blog Matsuri

I’ve submitted this post to be included in the April 2010 Japan blog matsuri. This month’s Matsuri, about secret Japan, is hosted by Gakuranman, thanks!

iPhone-chan (or as I call my iPhone: ai-chan) tries to detect words contextually (I think…), but any non-standard character usages you manage to get into the system are quickly forgotten.

Fortunately, there’s a workaround. And don’t worry, you don’t need to jailbreak your phone to get it to work.

The answer? use the iPhone address book.

When typing in Japanese, your iPhone uses names and readings from your address book as a kind of second dictionary for its text auto-complete. This was a very smart way to program the iPhone since the most common reason to use non-standard kanji/words to begin with is because they’re used that way in a proper name (which, if it’s someone/someplace/somewhere you know, would probably be in your address book anyway).

1. The first word you want to enter (kanji)
2. The reading for the first word that you want to use to access it
3. The second word (in this case, a custom kaomoji)
4. The reading to bring up the second word

Of course, this is great news for us. It means we can create dummy entries in our address book for words we want to register in the iPhone dictionary. You can use both the first and last name fields to enter your custom words, meaning you can register 2 words per entry.

The downside is that this creates an entry in your address book that weighs your address book down with irrelevant information. So it’s your call; if there’s a word you use often that you want to be in your dictionary, consider using this method. But be warned that overdoing it will leave you with a really untidy address book.

Works like a charm.

There are a couple 辞書登録 (dictionary registration) apps at the (Japanese) iTunes app store but all they all use this same principle of adding to the address book. They just try to make the process of adding and removing words easier.

There is, however, one Japanese jailbreak app which add words and phrases directly to the iPhone. But unless you really need the functionality and you’re pretty good with both computers and Japanese, sticking with the address book workaround is probably your better option.

You may have already set up your IME and have some experience using it (if not, please check out Greggman.com’s excellent guide to installing/setting up your IME). However, it’s common for foreigners to overlook some of the finer points of its usage. This article aims to provide novice IME users with an introduction to some of the intermediate and advanced features literally waiting at their fingertips, providing a basis for improved typing efficiency, problem solving and expanded usage.

For this article I’ll presume that:

1. You have your IME installed, set up and ready to use
2. You have a basic understanding of how to use it (how to make hiragana appear when you type, how to convert a word to kanji)
3. You have a basic understanding of hiragana/katakana and Japanese phonetics
4. You are a Windows user (sorry Mac and Linux folks)

Tip 1: Easy IME on/off toggle

English Keyboards: ALT + Tilde. (This is a tilde: ~. It’s usually on the top left corner of your keyboard, right below the escape key.)
Japanese Keyboards: 半角／全角／漢字 (Top left key of the keyboard, below the escape key. ALT not needed.)

This is a very basic tip but one of the most important. Everyone needs to start here. Clicking around on your language bar to change the IME mode is just a waste of time; use this quick shortcut whenever you need to toggle your IME.

Tip 2: Reconverting

Reconverting (再変換 – saihenkan). So you’re proof-reading an email or something you wrote in Japanese and notice you accidentally entered the kanji 慎重 when you wanted 身長 (meanings are different but both are read: shinchou). There’s two ways to fix this; you could delete the incorrect characters and type it in again (a minimum of 12 keystrokes), or you could reconvert it.

“Reconverting” is essentially calling back the kanji selection list for a word that has already been entered. Sounds useful, eh? To do this, simply select the word you want to change, right click and choose “Reconversion.” Voila! You’ve got your list back.

On Japanese computers this option does not appear on the right click menu so you must use the 変換 key (usually to the right of the space bar on Japanese keyboards) to initiate a reconvert.

NOTE 1: Reconverting via right-click isn’t possible in all settings.  If your IME is on but you don’t get the reconvert option, try copying the text into a different application (eg. Wordpad).

NOTE 2: On a Japanese computer, you could alternatively use the space bar instead of the 変換 key to initiate a reconvert, but keep in mind that if you’re in English input mode this method will simply replace your text with an empty space. (you should really be using the 変換 key anyway)

Reconverting is also useful for finding the reading to a word you don’t know: copy and paste the unknown word into Notepad or another text editor and reconvert it (the hiragana/katakana will appear on the conversion list box as shown in the image above).

Poweruser tip: if you notice your mistake immediately after you’ve entered it (after you hit enter and the underline goes away), you can use CTRL + Backspace to do a quick reconvert.

Tip 3: Use special characters

This is a fun tip. Having an IME makes it much easier to use the special characters that are available on most computers nowadays. I’m talking about things like arrows, stars, hearts, shapes and more. While these characters don’t always display properly on every computer and in every software environment, they are becoming more usable all the time and are particularly well supported in Japan (because Japanese has so many characters, fonts are fewer and special character sets and more standardized).

To type a special character, you simply need to know the keyword that will call it up in your IME. Here’s a table showing some of the major keywords and a sample of the characters they give you access to (this table is by no means exhaustive, there are many other keywords out there):

Note: Characters in blue require the symbols dictionary to be activated, see Tip #4.

Tip 4: Use more special characters

Out of the box your IME has some symbols, but if you want to use any of the ones from the table above that I’ve colored in blue, you’ll need the symbols dictionary activated. Here’s how:

Tip 5: Mini hiragana characters

The hiragana characters あいうえおやゆよつ and corresponding katakana アイウエオヤユヨツ can all be sized down at will to meet your needs. Simply prefix the sound as you would type it normally with an L (for “little”). For example, L + U = ぅ. This only works with the vowel characters, ya/yu/yo and tsu ( in Japanese these are the only characters you should ever find opportunity to make small.)

Alternatively, you can downsize these characters by converting them (eg. “u” + spacebar), but prefixing the character is a much better option because it allows you to size as you type, which allows your IME’s parsing activity continue interrupted.

Tip 6: Zu and Zu, Ji and Ji

In Hepburn romanization, hiragana ず and づ (and katakana ズ and ヅ) are both “zu.” However, if you want to type 続く (tsuzuku) with your IME, typing t s u z u k u will not work. Why? Because according to your IME, zu is always ず, but the correct character in this case is づ. The keystrokes to bring up this character is du (since T-line sounds become D-sounds with the ゛ added). The same is true of the difference between じ and ぢ.

Tip 7: Save keystrokes with non-Hepburn typing

Your IME supports Hepburn (except as noted in tip #6). But since you need to get used to du and di instead of zu and ji, you might as well take advantage of the opportunity to ditch a couple more Hepburn habits. It seems like very petty keystroke savings but trust me, once you get used to it you will not want to go back.

• TSU　⇒ TU (Hepburn ⇒ Shortcut)
• CHI　⇒ TI
• SHI ⇒ SI

I use the above shortcuts, but still prefer the Hepburn ji/ja/ju/jo for じ/じゃ/じゅ/じょ ( which would be zya/zyu/zyo otherwise), since in these cases the non-Hepburn method doesn’t offer me any keystroke savings and the Z key is less convenient than the J key.

Tip 8: Force the N character

Say you want to type the word 勧誘, which in romaji is kan’yuu. Hey, what’s that apostrophe doing in the middle of the word? It’s there to show that the word is read かん + ゆう and not か + にゅう. It may seem like a small difference to you but in Japanese this is actually a pretty big deal. In cases when you need to make this distinction as you type in Japanese, you can tell your IME that you want to use the ん character by hitting N twice consecutively. So to type 勧誘 your keystrokes would be k a n n y u u.

Tip 9: Register custom words

The IME has some built in functionality for detecting which conversions you use most and prioritizing them, and detecting non-standard conversions you use and automating them. However, there may be cases where it would be easier to just add a certain word to your IME’s dictionary. For example, if your boss or coworker has a name with a rare kanji reading, or if you and your friends use a certain niche word that’s not in the dictionary. Do this:

1. The reading for the word. Put the hiragana in here
2. The kanji you want to come up.
3. Part of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.)
4. User comment (optional)

Tip 10: Shift the parsing range

A common source of IME headaches is when a word you want to type is for one reason or another not parsed (split into parts) correctly, preventing you from easily bringing up the particular kanji that you need. This can drive you crazy trying to fix it if you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, the solution is pretty easy:

In cases such as this, you can adjust your IME’s parsing range manually by using Shift + Left/Right. This will move the right-hand delimiter of the currently selected parse range.

By the way typing ハート (type: h a – t o) gives you the following symbols (if you have the symbols dictionary on [Tip #4]): ❤❦❥♡♥❧

Tip 11: Force katakana input

As brought up in the previous tip, by default your IME tries to parse your input for starts and stops of words based on its dictionary. And it’s surprisingly good at it too. But if you’re trying to type a romanized version of someone’s personal name or a company name (anything your dictionary doesn’t know), this can lead to some pretty ugly results. For example, if you’re trying to enlighten a Japanese person about the greatest comedy of all time:

Sure, you could go back part by part and change those kanji into katakana manually, but why not eradicate the problem at its root? To avoid awkward conversions like this, there is a katakana only input mode. Here’s how to toggle it:

On English keyboards: CTRL + Caps Lock to begin Katakana mode. ALT + Caps Lock to return to hiragana.
On Japanese keyboards: use the 無変換 key (next to the space bar)

Just don’t forget that you need to toggle it off again when you’re done.

Tip 12: Temporary English mode

If you’d like to mix an English word or sentence into your Japanese typing for whatever reason, you don’t need to toggle your IME. Begin an inline, temporary English input mode by starting any word with a capital letter. You’ll be able to type in English as usual except with your trusty IME underline. Use the Enter key to close out the inline English segment and return to normal Japanese input.

Important: On non-Japanese keyboards, you should convert your Japanese input before entering temporary English mode. This is because once in temporary English mode, you lose the ability to use your space bar to convert Japanese. On Japanese keyboards this isn’t a problem because you can still use the designated Convert (変換) key.

But recently I came across a very interesting deal the JR Tokai Tours offers: ぷらっとこだま (Puratto Kodama). I’m not the first to blog about this discounted ticket program, but it really is a great offer and deserves repeating, and I’ll also elaborate on things a little, since I actually tried out the program myself.

How much do you save?

Here’s a table showing the prices of tickets between stations. Typically you save between 2000 and 4000 yen off the usual fare (2000 to 7000 on the Green car seats), but exactly how much depends on when, where and how you choose to travel.

Note that there are different prices for regular seats versus seats on the “Green” cars (which are roomier and more comfortable, kind of like a shinkansen “First-class”), and also for busier times of year. The busy periods (2010) are from April 27 to May 6 (Golden week), and August 11 to 20 (Obon).

Table for Regular reserved seats
(busy period prices in parentheses)

Table for Green car seats
(busy period prices in parenthesis)

Note that because this offer is given by JR Tokai tours, you can’t use it outside of their section of the Shinkansen (bullet trains). Basically, you have to get on and off somewhere on or between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka.

Where do you get Puratto Kodama?

You can buy them online or at your nearest JR Tokai Tours office.

Buying online, you need to reserve your seat at least 5 days in advance. Why? Because they need to send you the tickets via postal mail (to a Japanese address). You also need to be able to navigate through a Japanese website.

a Puratto Kodama ticket

If you buy the tickets from a tour office, you can purchase them up until the day before. Important: You can’t buy same-day tickets. Also, these tickets are quite limited, so consider availability and plan ahead as much as you can. If you dilly-dally getting your ticket, you might end up with a smoking or non-smoking seat that you didn’t want, or you not be able to get a seat at all. Personally, I got my tickets 4 days in advance and from a tour office, and they were already running out of regular non-smoking seats, and that was for a train well outside their busier hours.

How do you use them?

Actually, the Puratto Kodama isn’t a “ticket” per say, you can’t just put it in the ticket wicket and walk on through; you have to show your Puratto Kodama “boarding slip” (乗車票) to the staff at the gate, who will stamp your pass and let you through, and you have to show it to the staff at the gate again when you get off at your destination.

When you get your tickets they will come in a little envelope with a map of each station showing which entries have staff available who can check your slip. In reality, you don’t need to worry about the station layouts unless you’re really pressed for time either to catch your ride or connect to the next one.

After you get on the train the staff will sooner or later come down the isle and ask to see your ticket, so show them the Puratto Kodama slip just as you would a regular ticket. They’ll check your seat and move on.

What’s the catch?

There are a few major drawbacks to using Puratto Kodama tickets as opposed to regular shinkansen tickets.

• You have to use the slower, older Kodama-class trains. They’re still much faster and more comfortable than buses, but they do take a bit longer than the other shinkansen (mostly because they stop at more stations).
  • Tokyo to Shin-Osaka via Nozomi : 2 hours, 36 minutes
  • Tokyo to Shin-Osaka via Hikari : 2 hours, 57 minutes
  • Tokyo to Shin-Osaka via Kodama : 3 hours, 57 minutes
• You have to be on the right train at the right time. JR has a rule that allows people who miss their train to get on a free-seat (自由席) on a later train. But if you’re using a Puratto Kodama ticket and you miss your train, you’re screwed.
• You have to get on and off at one of the major stations along the JR Tokaido Shinkansen line. So for example, you couldn’t buy a ticket from Osaka to Atami or Fuji-Shi (even though the train stops there), you’d have to buy it to Shizuoka, and then ride a different train from Shizuoka.

So basically, to save on money you’re sacrificing some flexibility and speed.

Perks

a Puratto free drink coupon

One neat perk of using the Puratto Kodama tickets is that you get a free drink out of the deal! Be sure not to confuse the drink coupon with your boarding slip, since they look almost identical. You can use the free drink coupon at most of the kiosks at the station or on the platforms, or at the on-train service cart that goes up and down the aisle every so often.

You get either a free 500ml soft drink (a 20-ounce bottle), or a 350ml can of beer. For a 100 yen extra you can have a glass of wine.

Bonus Shinkansen Tip

If the train looks empty, don’t be shy to move around. The worst that could happen is the staff asks you to go back to your assigned seat, or someone gets on the train with a reservation for the seat you’re using and you have to give it up to them. When I rode with the Puratto ticket, I sat a few rows off where I should have been since the train was really empty (my assigned seat was next to a chubby Japanese guy who was munching loudly on potato chips and playing Nintendo DS). When the staff came to check my ticket he didn’t say anything.

If you want to be extra sneaky about changing seats, wait until after they come and check your ticket.

(Translation: Lloyd used his blog as an excuse to order delivery pizza 5 times in one month.)

Anyway, let’s start with the unique way that Japan handles its delivery pizza business…

By delivery only

Pizza in Japan is basically delivery-only

In Japan, you can’t really go out for pizza. If you try to track down your local pizza place by address… you’ll find a site something like you see in this picture of a Pizza-la in Nagoya (Osu), and it will probably be in a more residential area than a commercial one. Inside, there’s a little space for you to stand and pay money (for takeout), but no place to sit down. Japanese pizza chains are pizza factories in the very literal sense of the word.

Delivery itself is handled by a mostly-young, mostly-male team of delivery staff, who speed around their store’s designated territory delivering pizzas that were ordered online or over the phone.

a Japanese pizza delivery scooter

Because young adults in Japan typically do not have their own vehicles to use to deliver, the dispatch of hot pizzas to hungry customers is done on motor-bikes like the one above.  I’d love to have one of those to zip back and forth to work… They’re like scooters but they’re better because they have a place to hold something and you’re protected from the rain.

Yummy Japanese Pizza!

How would you like a “Crab and Shrimp Mayo King” pizza? no? how does “Potato & Curry with Tartar Sauce” sound? I could really go for a “Berauma Omochi Chicken” pizza, myself. Japanese pizza has some of the most unique combinations imaginable, and even if they sound strange they usually are actually really tasty. Yes, you can find almost anything on a pizza here in Japan. …almost

Who doesn’t like Hawaiian pizza?

The Japanese don’t like Hawaiian pizza, that’s who! Even though they’re perfectly fine putting a sunny-side-up egg or a full unsliced sausage on a pizza, for some reason they think pineapple is weird because it’s “sweet” and “a fruit.” Psh! Tsk! Bah!

Hawaiian pizza is thoroughly discriminated against, too… If it’s to be found at all, it’s near the bottom of the menu. Pizza-la includes it only in their “Children’s menu” section. Pizza Hut, which is otherwise a bastion of American-style pizza arrangement, doesn’t even offer it. RAAAAGGGGEEEE!!!!

…Corn?

In contrast, Japanese have a strange fascination with adding corn to their pizza, of all things. Even the little instant pizzas that you get from 100 yen stores always come with a few pieces of corn (I’ll guess it’s partly there for aesthetic). It puzzles me a little bit but… well, whatever… it’s not bad, I guess.

5 Pizza Reviews

Over the new year while I hid myself away in my apartment and became one with Final Fantasy XIII, and during that time I ordered out for pizza 3 times (that’s in a span of 6 days), and I had another pizza about a week later and another after that with a coupon a friend gave me. In the order that I devoured these, here’s what I got and what I thought.

1.

The Pizza: Large Half-and-Half Giga Meat + Chiki-Teri (Chicken Teriyaki)

Yes, that’s broccoli on the pizza. No, I’m not kidding, seriously: broccoli. Oh, and the white stuff? That’s mayonnaise (Japanese mayo, mind you, not that white paste that gets passed off as mayonnaise in America… but that’s another blog post). Yep, this is the kind of perverted stuff that Japanese like to do to pizza. Strange? a little. Delicious? Hell yeah!

2.

The pizza: Medium Hawaiian Delight

Although they push it down to the kids menu, Pizza-la provides expatriates the only real Hawaiian pizza on this island. It was so delicious I forgot to take pictures before I dove in…

3.

The pizza: Large UFO (4-mix), Berauma Omochi Chiken x Spicy Tuna x Hawaiian x Super combo with sausage crust.

Aoki’s is the most exotic of the major pizza chains in Japan. They have the most unique menu, and they’re the only place that will allow you to mix and match 4 pizzas from their regular menu with their “UFO” deal (other pizza chains only let you do half and half). Aoki’s is great if you’re looking for a delicious pizza that is also kind of an adventure.

One interesting tidbit about Aoki’s: they don’t cut the pizza all the way to the edge of the crust on purpose, to hold the pizza together for delivery. However, I think they should cut it… Domino’s, and Pizza Hut and Pizza-la all managed to deliver the pizza just fine with the slices.

Some of Aoki’s seasonal or regional specialties and limited edition pizzas don’t even resemble pizza…

4.

The pizza: Large half-and-half Super Korean Purukogi + Bacon Mushroom with cheesy roll crust.

Japanese Pizza Hut is probably the most “American”-style pizza out of this bunch. Their menu has some Japanese favorites like seafood and mayonnaise, but nothing too outrageous. Pizza hut is also the most generous with their tomato sauce (other pizza places tend to be a little lacking).

I highly recommend checking out their Super Korean Purukogi, by the way. My local pizza hut has a half price day every month (on some of their menu, take-out only), and I always get the Purukogi.

5.

The pizza: Large Seafood Italiana

Yeah, I know I’ve already tried a Pizza-la pizza, but a friend of mine gave me a coupon for Pizza-la so I decided to get a second opinion. This seafood pizza comes with shrimp, shellfish and squid, among other things.

Ordering Pizza Online

I could have called in my orders, but for this blog I decided to do everything online. All four of these pizza delivery chains allow you to order online.

Screenshots (Feb 12, 2010)

Domino’s (left) – Pizza-La (right)

Pizza Hut (left) – Aoki’s (right)

Although Aoki’s pizza’s online ordering system was down yesterday when I went to take a screenshot, it was working over New Year’s holiday when I made my order. Even then, though their order system was outsourced to a pretty primitive looking 3rd party website. I hope Aoki’s gets their online act together soon.

As for the others, they all offer pretty much the same ordering experience. You locate which store you need to order into by searching your postal code, then select and order your pizza and you’re done. Domino’s takes credit cards but none of the sites require payment before delivery.

Here’s a quick table I’ve compiled to compare these 4 chains and their sites…

	Pizza Hut http://www.pizzahut.jp/	Domino’s http://www.dominos.jp/	Pizza-La http://www.pizza-la.co.jp/	Aoki’s Pizza http://www.aokispizza.co.jp/
Requires Registration to order?	no	yes	no	n/a (site wasn’t working)
Large pizza size?	31cm / 10 slices	36cm / 12 slices	36cm / 12 slices	35cm / 12 slices
Medium pizza size?	25cm / 8 slices	25cm / 8 slices	25cm / 8 slices	25cm / 8 slices
Mix and match?	Half & Half only	Half & Half only	Half & Half only	Half & Half or 4-way (UFO)
Online deal	Free drinks (tea)	5% discount*	Free side dish	Free drink or side dish
Menu in English?	Pizza names only	Downloadable	Yes (link)	No
Hawaiian???!	No	Yes, with corn.	Yes!!!	Yes, but HUGE pineapple chunks
Overall online order experience	★★★★	★★★★★	★★★	★
Overall pizza satisfaction	★★★	★★★★	★★★	★★★★★
Unique touch	Adequate pizza sauce	Style and selection	Scratch card game	Epic Japanese pizza
Weak point	Large size is small	A little pricey	Poor selection	Crappy website

* Domino’s also offers a free 1-liter coca-cola coupon on their site and you can win other coupons that you can use right away by playing their flash games.

Which do I recommend?

Now that I’ve tried all four, I can see that they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Which one I recommend depends on what the pizza objective is:

• Exotic and delicious? = Aoki’s
  • All around, Aoki’s offers a superb pizza with excellent options, and out of the box they are absolutely beautiful works of art.
• I WANT MEEEEEAAAAT!!! = Domino’s
  • Domino’s also offers a wonderful pizza and is the most generous with their toppings.
• Hawaiian = Pizza-La
  • Something about Pizza-La’s menu items just don’t appeal to me. They all look good, but when I actually go to order I feel like there’s only a couple I would really pay for. But, they offer a good Hawaiian pizza with no surprises.
• Half-price day pizza = Pizza Hut
  • In terms of pizza, Pizza Hut doesn’t have much to say in their defense other than that they use more sauce. But if you’re in Japan and your local Pizza Hut offers a half-price day (not all do), then plan ahead and get yourself one of their Purukogi pizzas!

Prices

Pizza in Japan is very expensive by western standards. A medium pizza typically runs 2000 to 2500 yen ($22-27 USD), a large pizza will cost 2900-3600 and up. Dominos has a reputation as the most expensive and certainly their top end is higher (Large Prime Seafood = 3950 yen) than other chains, but most of the pizzas on their menu don’t vary much when compared to other chains.

…But remember!

In Japan, you don’t need to tip the driver.

Japan Blog Matsuri!

イッツ・ア・祭り～ぃ！ I’ve entered this blog post in this month’s JapanSoc Japan Blog Matsuri! This month’s host is Muza-chan’s Gate to Japan! (Thank you, Muza-chan!)

Let’s all celebrate this month’s Matsuri with a delicious pizza!

Nooooooooooo!!!!! But, but, but… I downloaded it from the US store… I pay for my apps and songs (songs which I wouldn’t have known about if it weren’t for Pandora!) with US dollars using my US credit card and… I’m a US citizen!!! I couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed.

It turns out, because of copyright licensing issues, Pandora blocks access from IPs that are outside the United States. Fortunately there exists a way to use Pandora anyway.

The technology is called VPN (Virtual Private Network). Primarily intended to increase information security when browsing the internet, VPNs act as a proxy between you and everything you connect to, so if your VPN is located in the US, then Pandora will think you are accessing from within the US. ラッキー！

iPhone supports 3 different VPN protocols, and the ones we are interested are L2TP and PP2p. Don’t worry, I don’t know what that means either.

Set up your VPN

First you’ll need an account on a VPN server that is based inside the US. Hotspotshield offers a free L2TP VPN specifically intended for iPhone. Click the link to go to the site, where they provide you all the information you need to get your VPN set up. It takes 5 minutes.

After you have your VPN information set up, just switch it on in your settings. Once the little VPN logo shows in your iPhone status bar, open Pandora and you’ll be able to use it without any problems at all. Woohooo!!!

However…

You’ll probably notice that when connecting from Japan, Hotspotshield’s free VPN frequently disconnects–every 20 minutes or so. It holds a signal about as well as Stephen Hawking holds a cup of coffee. And since Pandora checks your IP after every few songs, if you don’t have a stable VPN, Pandora can be a bother to use. You get what you pay for.

You’ll notice on my VPN list I have a Witopia account. For $40 a year (a mere $3.33 a month), they offer a PP2p (setup is identical to L2TP) service that will hold its ground much more reliably than the free L2TP from Hotspotshield. It’s not perfect: I usually get one disconnect shortly after I start using it each day, but once I reconnect after that I can use it for several hours at a time without a disconnect.

I’m not affiliated with Witopia in any way other than being their customer and am getting no compensation or benefit for recommending them. Yes, there are other VPNs out there that might be better, and I could get a refund from Witopia (they have a 30-day money back guarantee) and go try some of the others, but their VPN is sufficiently problem free for me that I don’t feel an urge to go through the work of trying another.

Make it even better

Even a rare disconnect can be frustrating if you are using a non-Jailbroken iPhone, because this means you need to exit Pandora… go into settings… general… network… turn the vpn on… wait for the connect… … … go back to Pandora… blah blah blah… However, with a jailbroken iPhone, you can get SBSettings (anyone jailbreaking their iPhone should really have this anyway), and a VPN switch plugin for SBSettings. Once you’ve got these, you simply swipe your finger across the iPhone status bar to open it, and press one button to (re)activate your VPN. You don’t even need to leave Pandora!

(My SBS Settings panel (Glasklart theme) with the VPN switch)

So, the magical formula for enjoying Pandora on your Japanese iPhone is: Quality US-based VPN + Jailbreak (SBSettings + SBSettings VPN Toggle). Enjoy!

One last thing

Starting December 2009, Softbank began limiting bandwidth for heavy data users on their 3G network. This applies to users who exceed about 1.2GB of data transfer per month. One hour of Pandora will run you about 15-30 megabytes of transfer depending on how many songs you skip, so keep that in mind as you enjoy your tunes.  (Original press release in Japanese)

No, there’s no relationship to maid cafes or anything like that. It’s not even really a place to get a cup of coffee (though they do offer a small selection food and drinks). It’s a “cafe”  more in the sense of an internet cafe and the usage system is almost identical, except instead of a room full of computers you buy time to go into a room full of cats.

Meow, as a cat lover this was purrfectly right up my alley (sorry, but I wanted to get all the puns out of the way early), so I went to check it out one morning.

Everyone gets an introductory tour on their first visit, so I guess that would be a good place for me to start the blog too.

Reception Area (left). Private rooms (right).

Hand-wash area.

This is the first floor. You enter the cat cafe, take off your shoes and put on slippers, then you get your time slip that records when you entered the cafe and whether you asked for any of the hourly package plans (you can get a special deal for 1 or 2 hour blocks). Then, you proceed to the handwash area (so you don’t give your germs to kitty).

Right next to the handwash room are all the private rooms. If you choose to pay for a private room you get to choose your room/cat and you have them all to yourself for as long as you are in the room. Not sure if all that includes a guarantee that the cat will be playful/awake or not…

Anyway, I didn’t elect for a private session so let’s go upstairs toward the play room.

Stairwell (left). Relaxation area for drinking and reading–humans only (right).

The cafe has a really nice atmosphere, that stairwell especially makes you feel like you’re in someone’s house rather than at a business. In fact, I’m pretty sure this place IS a renovated part of the owner’s house.

At last! The playroom (careful, the cats don’t miss a chance to run out the room when you open the door)!

Kitteh!!!

I got here right as the cafe opened, and it looks like some of the staff were just recovering from a hard night of… whatever it is cats do at night.

Yawning (left). Hung over (middle). Sleeping in (right).

早速、「ふれあい」してみましょう！

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnddddd!!!!!

What? Okay, well… here’s more pictures of cats!

Cats in their natural habitat (left). Tom (right).

I was at the cafe for around 50 minutes and payed just under 1000 yen when I left. I didn’t order any drinks or snacks or anything but I did get a soda from the drink bar (which you are required to pay for even if you don’t use).  All in all it was a refreshing and relaxing time and a new experience.

The cats were rather subdued (in all fairness however, cats are almost always very calm) but there was some ball chasing action in the play room. I’m sure the cats would be very excited if you brought them one of the treats which are sold in the ガチャポン (gachapon : coin operated capsule toy machines) outside the play room and downstairs.

Verdict

I will probably go back and may even go for a 2 hour pack! I love cats, and apparently the boy cat team and girl cat team take turns in the play room every hour or so, so if I went back I could see even more adorable little critters. If you love cats, you might enjoy a cat cafe too!

There are actually four cat cafes altogether in Nagoya (see links at the bottom of the post), but judging by the websites I have seen, the one I visited (Neko Manma) seems to be the best put together (I haven’t tried any of the others, so I don’t know for sure though), and it’s in a more residential area so it’s not crowded with people. Their website claims that they are Nagoya’s 最大級 (saidaikyuu) cat cafe, which means the largest.

More pictures

Storefront (left). Cat-related reading materials (middle). The secret cat area (right).

Lolcats!

And now, to fulfill my lifelong dream of authoring my very own lolcats!

Tada!

Neko Manma Cafe

If you’re in Nagoya and you like cats, go check this place out! It’s about a 10 minute walk from Gokiso station (kind of in the Seiyu direction, for those of you who know where that is already). Be sure to check out Neko Manma Cafe’s official website too. Here’s a google map for anyone interested.

View Larger Map

Links to Cat Cafes in Nagoya

• 猫まんま (Neko Manma). Station: 御器所/Gokiso
• なーごなーご (Na-go Na-go). Station: 御器所/Gokiso
• キャットストリート (Cat Street). Station: 栄/Sakae
• 猫のまほう (Neko no Mahou). Station: 伏見/Fushimi

Like many foreigners in Japan, my credit card’s billing address is in my home country (US), so I’m not able to access the Japanese app store. Well, not without some fiddling around, at least (check out Wide Island View’s article: How to access Japan-only apps for more info…). In any case I haven’t gotten around to trying to access the Japanese app store yet, so for this article I’ll keep things simple: all these apps can be downloaded from the US app store.

1. 乗換案内 (Norikae Annai)

Developer: Jorudan Co., Ltd.
Price: FREE
App Store: Get Norikae Annai at the iTunes store
uquery link: Norikae Annai

This one’s a no-brainer. Next to phone calls and email, finding train times is one of the most important functions that a mobile device in Japan needs to be able to execute. While on most traditional Japanese phones this is achieved by bookmarking the site, then visiting it whenever you need information, this iPhone application streamlines the process.

Screenshots

Note: Good train-finding services in Japan are only available in Japanese. This app is not an exception.

If you’re a traveler just visiting Tokyo for a few days, try the English-capable app Tokyo Underground for navigating around inner Tokyo (it’s more of a guide than a train finder). However I can’t offer any detailed opinion on it since I haven’t tried it (I don’t live in Tokyo).

2. QR コード (QR Code)

Developer: Ryo Shimizu
Price: FREE (Pay-version upgrade $0.99)
App Store: Get QR Code at the iTunes store
uquery link: QR コード

Japan has two mobile traditions that other countries have yet to really pick up on. One is infrared (赤外線) data transfer (for swapping contact information quickly) and the other is QR codes. While the iPhone doesn’t have infrared capabilities, you can get this app which will whip up a QR Code containing your contact information for someone with a traditional Japanese mobile phone to scan (don’t worry, Japanese mobile phones are light-years ahead of current iPhone apps for being able to successfully decode QRs).

While primarily useful for giving your contact information, you may also want to read some QR data from time to time and my experience (I’ve tried about 5 different apps) is that this app also offers the most reliable reader. See the screenshots below for proof that it works.

Screenshots

The paid version of this app offers you the ability to do stuff with the information read from a QR code. For example, if it reads someone’s contact info, you’ll have the option to add that to your address book… or if the QR code contains a web URL, you’ll be able to jump to the URL automatically. In the free version it just shows you the raw data. Since I use the app primarily to give my contact info to others, I haven’t upgraded yet.

3. 顔文字挿入 (FaceMail)

Developer: n1system ltd.
Price: FREE (Pay-version upgrade $3.99)
App Store: Get FaceMail Free at the iTunes store
uquery link: 顔文字挿入Free

＼(^o^)／ わぁいわぁい！！iPhoneで顔文字が使える～！
(゜∀゜)　え？何・・・？　(￣□￣;)!!　3.99ドル！！！高ぇ。
(●д●) 困っちゃうな・・・。

If you like to use Japanese kaomoji (faces made using various characters), then this is the app for you. You start drafting an email with this app and can insert various faces from different categories, and then either copy and paste them into another app or send your email draft with faces to your regular email app to finish.

Screenshots

You get access to some faces (such as the ones I used above) for free, but a much bigger selection with the pay version and you can even add your own custom faces. I really want this app but I’m not sure yet if I want it enough to pay $4 for it. Might wait for it to go on sale or something… hmmm…

4. らじおたっち (LadioTouch)

Developer: Kawauso.com
Price: FREE
App Store: Get LadioTouch at the iTunes store
uquery link: らじおたっち

It’s no Pandora but at least this Japanese internet radio app doesn’t give me any problems because of my region. (If anyone knows of a better Japanese internet radio app, please let me know)

Screenshots

I’m not an expert on internet radio so this comparison might be completely wrong… but the way it works reminds me of how shoutcast radio stations felt like 8 years ago or so. You can’t skip songs, and you might have to check through a few channels before you get a decent signal and something that is actually playing music rather than talk radio. Although on the other hand Japanese talk radio could be a good way to improve your Japanese…

I wonder if this app works outside Japan?

5. SkyBook

Developer: aill
Price: $3.99
App Store: Get SkyBook at the iTunes store
uquery link: SkyBook

What you say?! 7000 Japanese classic short stories and novels by authors like Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, Natsume Soseki, Dasai Osamu and Mori Ougai?! On iPhone?! YES, please!!

This app allows you to search and download from a huge collection of free (= copyright expired or copyright released by author) fiction and non-fiction titles at Japan’s Aozora Bunko (the 7000 titles are not automatically available to you for offline reading, you have to download them from within the app). But in fact what SkyBook does is not what sets it apart, as there are a number of apps that access the same collection in the same way (some for free). The beauty of this app is how well organized and presented it is. Books you download get placed on a nice slide-able bookshelf and you get great options for customizing your view (although I like the default settings best). Searching Aozora with SkyBook is also much less painstaking than with some of the other apps.

Screenshots

As a bonus tip, if you come across a word you don’t know or can’t read, touch it for two seconds to open up a search dialog for the word that goes to Goo’s dictionary (= the dictionary.com of Japan). You can look up the word quickly and then go right back to reading without ever closing the app, beautiful! This app is a must-have among must-haves for anyone with sufficient Japanese reading skill.

6. 大辞林 (Daijirin)

Developer: MONOKAKIDO Co., Ltd.
Price: $21.99
App Store: Get Daijirin at the iTunes store
uquery link: 大辞林

This app gives me an otaku-gasm every time I open it. For those of you who don’t know… Daijirin is kind of like the Webster’s or the Oxford dictionary of Japanese; it is arguably the single-most defining modern Jap-Jap dictionary there is, a truly massive tribute to the Japanese language, and this app pulls everything together perfectly for the iPhone.

Get this, all 238,000+ entries in the dictionary are laid out in a beautiful grid which you can scroll both horizontally and vertically. You can literally scan word to word across the whole language! Now that alone would be enough to keep me entertained for hours, but the dictionary has also added illustrations for many popular entries, more entries than were in the most recent print edition and a bookmark and history function to help you build your next vocabulary list. The cherry on top is that you can also select any word within a definition to jump to the definition for that word.

Screenshots

Yes, it is Japanese only, made by and for Japanese people. It may look expensive compared to most other apps, but to have this on your iPhone is worth several times what they’re asking.

Now all we need is the Daikanwa for iPhone…

7. Kotoba!

Developer: Pierre-Phi di Costanzo
Price: FREE
App Store: Get Kotoba! at the iTunes store
uquery link: Kotoba!

While it’s not the monster dictionary that Daijirin is, Kotoba! is an amazing feat in and of itself. This Japanese-English iPhone app is great for quick translations and has a surprisingly complete and reliable index of words. I honestly think this is as good as or even better than the Genius J-E dictionary that is in most people’s hand-held electronic dictionaries (but not the E-J dictionary as I will explain in a moment). I have this app, use it frequently, and highly recommend it to anyone, including all travelers, students of all levels, Japanese native speakers, and anyone else who comes into contact with Japanese on a regular basis.

I do however have a couple reservations about this program. My biggest gripe: all data is indexed by Japanese word. This is great for looking up a Japanese word in English, but not so great if you’re going the other way. A search for an English word brings up a list of difficult-to-differentiate Japanese words that contain your query in their translation/definition, and you have to check each of these entries one by one, a pretty frustrating process that can also make it easy to pick the wrong word.

Screenshots

Also, a recent update seems to have resolved a lot of issues with bad and incorrect example phrase translations. But I still can’t help but be wary when the romanizations for many sentences have had their spacing inserted by someone who clearly had no business doing so. Kotoba! does differentiate between “Certified” and regular examples, thankfully.

8. 漢字でQ (Kanji de Q)

Developer: GYRO Inc.
Price: $2.99
App Store: Get Kanji de Q at the iTunes store
uquery link: 漢字でQ

Think you’re good at kanji? Think again. This app provides a simplistic yet fun quiz-game interface to help you polish your Japanese with around 4000 難読 (nandoku = difficult to read) words. This app was intended to be challenging for Japanese natives so it’s definitely only for advanced learners.

Screenshots

This app also makes for a great party game if you’re out with Japanese people. There’s a few apps like this but this one seemed to me to have the largest and best selection of words.

9. Kamehameha

Developer: Issay Yoshida
Price: FREE
App Store: Get Kamehameha at the iTunes store… NOW!
uquery link: Kamehameha

Yeah right, as if there was any chance at all that I would not list this toy.

Screenshots

Press start to begin “charging” your Kamehameha beam, and when you’ve built up enough energy (= when you’ve struck fear into the heart of your opponent by dramatically saying ka~~me~~ha~~me~~!), then you thrust/swing your iPhone forward to release the beam (HA~~~~~!!!!!!!).

Just remember to check to make sure your iPhone has its usb cable unplugged first… and be careful not to actually hurl your several hundred dollar 3GS into a concrete wall or your friend’s forehead.

10. TSUZUMIN

Developer: Tempus Fugit, Inc.
Price: FREE
App Store: Get TSUZUMIN at the iTunes store
uquery link: TSUZUMIN

Instant Japanese atmosphere. I love these sounds.

Final Word

Well, that’s all for now. If I find any more awesome Japanese apps around the app store I’ll be sure to let everyone know. I might post a follow-up article on apps from the Japanese store once I get around to figuring out how to get in… anyway, follow me on twitter since that’s the one place I will definitely post cool apps I find, even if I don’t get around to blogging about them.

Oh and by the way, all of these apps are compatible with 3.0.1 OS. I also wanted to try 食べログ but it told me I need 3.1 and I’m too lazy to go through re-jailbreaking my iPhone…

Further Reading

Here are a couple links to more articles around the internet with Japan-related iPhone app info. Happy surfing!

• A guide to useful iPhone apps in Japan by Wide Island View
• How to access Japan-only apps, also by Wide Island View
• Roundup of Japanese grammar/vocab study iPhone apps

Sharemo is Japanese ingenuity at its best. It’s a new kind of website, dubbed “social sharing“, where people can list things they have but don’t need around the house, and borrow or take similarly listed items from other people across the country.

Sharemo homepage

Click to enlarge.

Every item sent through Sharemo is paid for on delivery, so you only pay for what’s shipped to you. There aren’t even any fees to sign up. Interested yet? I thought so…

This almost sounded too good to be true, so I decided to sign up and check it out for myself. Here’s what I discovered…

What do you need to sign up?

1. a Japanese physical address
2. a Japanese mobile phone email address
3. some knowledge of Japanese language or a Japanese friend
   • The website is in Japanese only.
4. about 5 minutes

Sharemo works as advertised

I quickly set out to find a couple small items to test the service. After browsing through a small selection of Sharemo’s more than 35000 listed items, I eventually selected this Nintendo DS game and a couple of Haruki Murakami books. I requested the items through the Sharemo website on a Saturday night, received shipment notifications (that told me how much shipping would cost) on Monday (for the DS game) and Tuesday (for the Murakami books), and the items arrived at the time I requested (9~12AM) on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Fabulous!

Each item you borrow from someone on Sharemo has a share period (シェア期間), which in my case is 10 days for the game and 90 days for the books. This period starts after I order the item and during this period no one can put a request in for it, but after it’s over the item becomes available for the next user to request. How long you will be able to keep it after the period is over depends on if there is someone who wants it next, so basically you just wait. Then when another Sharemo user decides they want one of the items that I currently have, they “order” it, I get access to their mailing address and I send it to them COD.

In addition, if you are “borrowing” from someone in the same city as you (or somewhere close), you can even privately arrange with the current holder to go pick up the item yourself or meet somewhere and exchange, which will save you the shipping fee. Some people will contact you after you make the order and suggest different shipping methods to try and save you some money.

What’s available on Sharemo?

There’s a lot of junk on Sharemo, to be honest. Used baby clothes, AV cables for your TV and so on. You know, the kind of stuff that’s left over at the end of a garage sale. But everything is nicely categorized so you can find something you want fairly easily. Personally, I think Sharemo is most useful as a resource for finding…

• Video games
• DVD movies
• Books & manga
• Kitchenware
• Small appliances

But you can also get things like used clothing, musical instruments and sporting goods. Here’s a sample listing and a part-by-part translation (click to enlarge the picture if you can’t read the numbers).

Listing Translation

Click to enlarge

1. suihanki = rice cooker
   • This is the title for the item listing.
2. furi- = free/available
   • This is the status of the item.
   • There are 4 different statuses:
     • Available (フリー/furi-),
     • Being Shared (シェア中/shea chuu),
     • Take only (引き取り限定/hikitori gentei)
     • Retired (引退/intai).
3. Listing period.
   • How long the item will be listed on Sharemo for before it is retired, the original owner chooses this when they list (or as they say on Sharemo, when you “デビュー = debut”) an item.
4. shea ninzuu = number of sharers
   • The number of people that have shared the item so far.
5. kategori- = item category
   • In this case: Appliances/AV/PC > Household > Kitchen
6. shea taishou = share target
   • People can specify a minimum R-point class for an item, either to add some assurance that the persons borrowing are reliable Sharemo users or just simply as a kind of reward for other good sharers.
7. shea kikan = share period
   • How long you will be able to have the item before it can be requested by the next Sharemo user.
8. Item options
   • 引き取り/hikitori = Take — 不可/fuka = Not allowed
   • 入れ替え/irekae = Trade-in — NG = No good (not possible)
     • For multiple items being shared as a set, this is an option for you to keep one of the original items, replacing it with a similar item of your own. (good for clothes, maybe? hmmm…)
   • 付け足し/tsuketashi = Add-in — NG = No good (not possible)
     • For an incomplete collection of items (ie. a manga series that is missing a volume or two), this indicates whether sharers are allowed to add the missing parts if they have it.
9. o-da- suru = place order
   • The button is deactivated because we don’t have enough R-points (see #6)
10. sheamono ID = Share Item ID
11. joutai = Condition
    • Whether the item is in good condition, damaged or broken.

You can also find consumable items like cosmetics or food and drink. And there’s even a category just for pet food (?!). (Note: most consumable items listed on Sharemo are typically “take only” items, not to be returned or passed on.)

Can’t find what you want? Well that’s okay, there’s a request board where you can ask for someone to list a specific item for you! The guys at Sharemo really thought this out pretty well.

Get free stuff (and keep it too!)

Example of an item you can take for free

Listing, borrowing, and sending items on Sharemo all accrue “R” points. Members who have been using the service for a long time and who have saved up many points have access to a wider selection of items to borrow.

But members can also use their Sharemo R-points as a kind of currency to “take” items from other people. These “take only” items (listed as 引き取り限定) can be “purchased” with an amount of your R points specified by the person who listed the item (0 to 1000 points—yes, there are items you can take for 0 R points). You still have to pay for delivery, though.

From what I’ve seen of the items so far, most of the “take only” items are available for 100-500 points, which is not that much considering you get 500 points for signing up or listing an item and 100 points for passing on a borrowed item. You also get points for things like logging in and commenting on an item.

Get rid of your junk

Well, not everything is easy to get rid of, even on Sharemo. People probably won’t want to pay the shipping cost to borrow or even take your stinky old refrigerator, but if you’ve got lots of old books, small kitchen appliances, computer peripherals and old clothes that are cluttering up your tiny Japanese apartment, then this is a good option for you.

Worried about shipping?

If you’re just starting with the service, there’s an element of uncertainty about the shipping aspect of Sharemo. How much will it cost? How long will it take? What if I’m not home when the item arrives? How do I send to the next person when they ask for it? Well worry not, I tested the waters myself and all is safe.

Cost is I think just about what you would expect. Delivery of the Nintendo DS game I borrowed was 600 yen and the two small Murakami books were also 600 yen shipped together. For the books it might have been cheaper just to buy them used at one of Japan’s many used book stores but oh well. I think my next test will be to borrow a coffee maker and see how much that costs to deliver. I’ll be sure to add that information into this article later.

As for delivery time, once an item is in the mail system it takes only a day or two to arrive, and you specify a desired delivery time when you request the item. But the catch is you never know how long it will take the sender to actually get around to mailing it. This isn’t really a problem though as my (limited) experience is that people are very timely with their shipments. Japanese are typically very responsible which is part of the reason a site like this actually works.

my pay-on-delivery DS game as it arrived

If you’re not home when your COD (着払い/chakubarai) Sharemo item arrives, that’s not a problem; you get an Undeliverable item notice in your postbox and you have to take it to your local post office (or go through one of the delivery re-scheduling procedures, which you can even do online), where they’ll ask to see your ID and then give you your item and take your money.

To send your shared item out again, simply put it in an envelope, box, bag or whatever the thing fits in and take it to the post office. Tell them you want to send it via 「ゆうパック着払い」 (yuupakku chakubarai) and the staff will be able to help you.

The history of Sharemo

Apparently Sharemo has been around for some time on the Japanese mobile web, but it opened its service up to more users with a standard desktop-browser website this Summer. At the time of this article they were still running their grand opening campaign which gives users 500 R for signing up.

Sharemo is owned by Enigmo Inc., a Tokyo company focused on internet shopping and marketing services.

Relevant links

• Sharemo website
• Enigmo website (English)
• Official Sharemo English-language profile page
• My profile on Sharemo!
• Sharemo on Twitter (though they never tweet…)
• A smaller, older article on Sharemo at Techcrunch

Okay, that’s a wrap. Happy sharing, everyone! Let me know if you find anything interesting