Useful Advertising

In the wintertime in Nagoya, it isn't uncommon to see some poor guy out on the street in the cold, freezing his unmentionables off as he braves the frigid temperature to hand out packs of pocket tissues with his employer's advertisement attached to or imprinted on the packaging. More than once, I've had to tear through pictures of scantily clad women posing for anything from hostess bars to massage parlors to get to the pillowy soft, milky white, deliciously free tissues inside. Our own English school hands out tissues as well. And in the summer, it's plastic fans with advertisements. Whatever is most useful at the time, hence increasing the likelyhood a passerby will take the camouflaged ad. I've handed out tissues myself, and not everyone takes them. Though old ladies are usually a sure bet, there is nothing worse than seeing someone handing out only an advertisement, with no tissues or fans or anything really useful. Poor guy can't seem to lighten his load. Anyway, tissues, fans and the occasional candy or free dry food sample are the most common (in that order) but I recently got an individually packaged mask with an advertisement in the mail. Though it was a first, I cannot say I'm surprised. So simple and practical--I can't get enough.

Japanese Christmas Lights

I spotted these while browsing in Tokyu Hands, a popular department store in Nagoya Station. LED Christmas lights that run about $70. For this much dough, I'd hope you got the well-deserved bang for your buck: that is, no sporadically lit, or completely dark strands after only a year's use. Let's hope whoever forks over the money for these doesn't have to deal with the same problems those of us who refuse to spend more than the cost of a couple of candy bars on a strand of Christmas lights.

Moving Day

We've completed our third move since coming to Japan last September. From our overpriced, yet undoubtably convenient apartment in downtown Nagoya, to our 6 month stay in Freebell, the apartment building more commonly known as gajin central, to our newest place in Yagoto. The move from Freebell was fairly easy, as we hired a moving company to do the dirty work. Though Marlow and I have prided ourselves our 'ghetto solutions' (we're the crazy foreigners you might spot dragging 3 futons or a small refrigerator on the subway) we opted for the moving company because our new apartment building doesn't have an elevator. As it turns out, there is a price you can put on not hauling large pieces of furniture up 4 flights of stairs, and it's about $370. Our apartment agency scored us about a $100 discount, which sweetened the deal. We basically sat back and let these two guys do all the work. With 30 minute travel time included, these fellas were done in less than 3 hours. Thanks guys!