Job Hunting For New Graduates

Job hunting of new graduates in Japan may be a bit unique.

First, there is an unwritten rule in a dress code. For example, they have to wear a black suit and shoes and a hair style for women is almost fixed.

Haven’t you seen these job hunting students wearing the same outfit in Japan?

The recruitment standards of Japanese companies also may be different from that of foreign countries. It is not very important for Japanese companies if new graduates are immediately effective.

Japanese companies prefer someone who has a potential and can fit in their companies.

They do not mind supporting and providing training from a basic level.

Also, the step for job hunting is unique here. Students start job hunting approximately a year before graduation and in most cases, they find employment before graduation, then new employees start working all together in April.

Deco Ben – it is one of the art

Lunch time is the most relax time in a day.

Many people bring lunch box to work or school and eat them.

To make family enjoy or surprise, mothers sometimes make Deco-Ben which is Decoration Lunch Box.

Cutting seaweed or sausages in cute form and put them in lunch box makes lunch box very funny　 or beautiful.

It is one of the Art, I would say.

A small purse in a purse (BAG IN BAG in Japanese)

Generally speaking, women love purses. Men may not be able to believe it, but a number of women have shelves and shelves of purses in their closets.

Why do they have a lot of purses even though they can carry only one purse?

Because, they choose purses to suit their clothes or scenes, they want to have options!

But, it is troublesome to change purse contents every time. Most of women have a lot of things in their purses such as a wallet, makeup bag and handkerchief etc…..

This “BAG IN BAG” resolves the problem!

You can put everything you need in this small purse and then, just put it in your purse.

Isn’t it easy? 

This item may be an indispensable item for women who love purses. 

Cats repellent

Have you seen a number of plastic bottled placed in the streets or gardens?

These plastic bottles are placed to repel cats, it is said that light reflected on the bottle is diffused and surprises cats. This method was featured on TV about 20 years ago in Japan. Since then, it has been popular all over Japan. However, it seems to be ineffective against cats unfortunately.

There are plenty of other cat repelling goods such as flavoring agents which cats do not like.

It may be effective temporarily, but cats may get used to the smell or it may get washed by rain.

Some people may build fences around their houses for repelling cats, but it may be easy for cats to jump over fences with a height of 1 or 2 meters.

In recent days, the Japanese company developed a device which emits ultrasound waves in random order to repel cats.  According to research, this device seems to be the most effective one for repelling cats! 

Have you seen Maternity Badges in Japan?

Recently a lot of expectant mothers wear maternity badges which you can get at city hall.

Especially in the early stage of pregnancy, it is difficult to tell if she is pregnant and of course you are never supposed to ask.

When expectant mothers go out, they have a lot of worries such as cigarette smoke, crowded trains or buses and morning sickness etc..

If an expectant mother wear this maternity badge, it is easier to tell that she is pregnant, so people around her may pay more attention to her!

In these days, some restaurants, workplaces and public transportation facility create posters to make expectant mother-friendly environment and put up these posters.

Surely, if expectant mothers wear these maternity badges, it is easy for everyone to recognize and care for these ladies.

For expectant mothers, maternity badges are very helpful! 

Erasable Ball Point Pen

Have you heard of “Friction Ball” which is the erasable ball point pen?

It is well-known these days in Japan.

Also, these pens are popular as souvenirs at airport.

This Friction Ball has several unique features.

1)     Your handwriting becomes transparent because of the friction-generated heat.

2)     No eraser dust! By rubbing what you wrote, you can erase it!

3)     No damage to the paper! You can rewrite over and over!

Fiction Ball is available in various colors such as black, red, blue, pink, green…..

Also, you can find very cute Hello Kitty or Disney Friction Ball.

Which Friction Ball do you want buy? 

Japanese Newspaper in a rainy day

Regardless the weather is fine or rain, newspapers are always in our post early morning. The accuracy of the newspaper delivery makes us surprise.

What makes us more surprise is that the newspaper in a rainy day, the paper is wrapped with nylon cover not to be wet.

Raining or not depends on the area, so all the works like wrapping and inserting ads are done by newspaper delivery man before they deliver the papers.

Sakura Coupy and Tombow Color Pencils – famous coloring items in Japan

I’d like to introduce Sakura Coupy and Tombow Color Pencils today. Both are very famous and popular in Japan as coloring items.

Sakura Coupy is a remarkable looking. Its performance is between a crayon and a color pencil. As you can see, each Coupy is made with a lead only. But Coupy is solid which is perfect even for children. It’s very economical as it lasts longer than crayons and color pencils do.

Maybe you’ve heard Tombow company which makes many kinds of pencils. Color pencils from Tombow are very durable and great quality, though they are inexpensive. That’s why Tombow’s color pencils are so popular in Japan.

  

UFO Catcher – What a fun game but irritating sometimes

There is a game machine called “UFO Catcher” in Japan.

There are many gifts in the machine and we pick them up with hands like machine.

The gifts are mostly toys like teddy bear or some cartoon dolls.

The point of this game is how well you can control the arm machine.

We control the arm with some buttons. It sounds like very easy but actually it is very difficult.

Firstly, we need to have good sense of perspectives, secondly, the arm itself is very loose so it is easy to drop the gift even you catch them. Thirdly, the gift seems like easy to get but actually it is placed in very difficult point and angle.

One game costs about 300yen, if you miss, people want to keep trying until you get them. It happens that buying them is cheaper than playing game and get them.