EVACOMICS BLOG

It is very difficult for foreigners to rent apartment in Japan due to language barrier and lack of guarantor. The rental procedure is also very complex and you are required to pay lots of fees like gift money, key-change fee, agent fee, deposit and first month rental. I blogged about this bad experience 4 years ago when I first went for my house hunting: Rental Nightmare in Tokyo . However with this CLIHO shared house, you can rent your own private room in a Japanese house setting and environment easily.

Earlier in Oct last year on my post about my trip to Japan , I mentioned that one of the reasons I returned was because I was invited for a company's staff magazine interview. One of their sections is called "TALK!", featuring someone not from the company who is actively promoting themselves outside of Japan. ( Click here to download a bigger size  or click here for the translated article by Shizuhi! ) So now, the article has been published and I can reveal which company it is! TADAA~ Yes, it was my honour and privilege to be invited for an interview for an article in Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal's staff magazine called "鉄の絆" (literally means connection through metal, but you should imagine it more poetically). Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal is the world's second largest steelmaker, so you can imagine how nervous I was...

If you want a nice restaurant in Tokyo to chill out with friends/colleagues and experience traditional Japanese culture at the same time, this is it! Shinjuku Awaodori Restaurant  (新宿 阿波おどり) is a new Japanese traditional dance themed restaurant located right outside Shinjuku station's East exit and sits right next to ABC Mart (shoe shop). Very convenient!

Kochia is actually Bassia scoparia (syn. Kochia scoparia), which is a kind of grass that turns red during fall. You can see the sea of red at Hitachi Seaside Park (ひたち海浜公園) in October but 19th Oct was the last day in 2014 to see this plant before they change to brown.

Kawagoe Festival is an annual event held every year in the 3rd weekend of October. The place is within 40mins train ride from Ikebukuro and has buildings preserved from the Edo period.

Akihabara Well actually we went to Tsukiji for early sushi lunch first but I won't blog about it since I already covered the topic in my  Tsukiji article  last year. Do note that they will be moving out of Tsukiji in early 2016 to allow redevelopment for Olympics 2020.

My friend had never visited Mt. Fuji before so we signed up for a day tour from HIS Travel. We departed from Shinjuku early in the morning and we reached there within 2.5-3 hours by bus. This wasn't my first time at Mt. Fuji's fifth station and you can read about my previous trip here , when I visited a farm and an ice cave.

So the main reason why I visited Tokyo again was because of an interview by a Japanese major company for their staff magazine. I am not allowed to disclose any information right now but hey, I can post my "selfie" first! The interview took like an hour or so with me sweating profusely because of the walk from the station to the office. (I hope my photos turn out fine...)

October was still freakin HOT when there's sun! So if you are going to Disneyland on a sunny day (except for Winter), bring a cap or something!!! My friend and I were both horribly bad at waking up early so we ended up arriving late (like 11.30am) at the park. By then, queues for all the popular rides had become very long. For tips on getting fast passes, etc. you might want to check the following Tokyo Disneyland survival guides here: http://tdrexplorer.com/tips-for-dealing-with-massive-crowds-at-tokyo-disney-resort/ http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3016_tickets.html http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201308/3624/

I am definitely not into a cup of nothing nutritious for 343kcal but my friend was. So we went to Nissin's Cup Noodles Museum at Yokohama to spend our rainy day there. In fact, many fans thought that I would be stuck at my hotel because of typhoon but its strength had decreased dramatically and became a heavy rain instead. Having stayed at Tokyo for 3.5 years and experienced typhoon a couple of times, I learned to always check JMA a day before for a more accurate weather forecast. Thank you all for your concern! ^^

I finally have some time to blog about my 9-days Japan trip (12-21 Oct) for work and holiday so I decided to start with my budget hotel review. It definitely feels good to be back after I left there for a year!

Finally the end of my day tour on 19th Sep 2013 at Enoshima, Kamakura!

I thought I left Hase area (the one with Big Buddha) for Enoshima in my previous blog post but discovered from my photos that I actually went to another temple: Hasedera (長谷寺). This is what happens when you don't blog soon!

WHOAH~ 7 months had passed since I left Japan but I still have some blog articles to clear before my next adventure (if my book sells well?)! This is about my trip to Kamakura on 19th Sep 2013. Kamakura is approximately an hour train ride from Tokyo and is a popular tourist destination for short get-aways. It's also called Little Kyoto for the numerous number of temples and shrines.

Continuing my previous post about my visit to a  shrine for marriage on 6th Sep 2013, the last part of our day tour was this Tofu House at Ibaraki prefecture called Sashirosan no Tofuya (佐白山のとうふ屋).

Continuing my  previous post about sunflowers , our tour brought us to this shinto shrine called "Izumo Taisha". This one is a subsidiary branch in Ibaraki prefecture and the main branch is at Shimane Prefecture. Hence, they call it Izumo Taisha Hitachi branch...（出雲大社常陸教会）...urgh…long name.

I know it is late January but it is never too late to share with you my beautiful sunflower photos taken back at 6th of September last year :P

Tochigi is famous for their strawberries but this place called  Ichigo no Sato  (meaning Strawberry's homeland) had other fruits for people to enjoy during other seasons. I would have picked Nagano prefecture, famous for their grapes, but the Sunflower day tour that I had signed up for on 6th Sep brought us here instead.

My family trip on 3rd Sep continued with a one day tour to Mt Fuji, except that it was a Japanese tour  :P The tour was special because they bring people to an "experience" farm called Makai no Farm". Basically it is not the actual farm that harvests milk for the mass market, but one that was designed to allow kids and family to spend time with farm animals.

I went to Tsukiji several times with friends (both Japanese and foreigners) so I brought my family down for some fresh sushi on their first day in Tokyo. However this post will be a compilation of ALL my trips down to Tsukiji so you can have a better idea of what to expect.