At long last, a follow-up to our year-old post on strange Japanese customs. To recap, we put a blank sheet of paper on the wall and asked students to write any strange customs or cultural things they noticed in Japan on that paper. Last year we gave you numbers 1 to 20. This year, numbers 21 to 46:

21: Japanese gear shift! (We don’t know exactly what the student was surprised about – are they very different from those in other countries? Almost all cars in Japan are automatic, but also allow manual switching.)
22: Traditional Japanese bath (You are expected to wash your body before you get in the bath, and everyone shares the same water.)
23: Japan is the #1 importer of reggae. (It’s true that reggae, and hip-hop, are very popular in Japan – there are always posters and fliers around the downtown area for concerts.)
24: Girls stopping dead in their tracks to yell かわいい！ (“kawaii”, or “cute”)
25: Overly complicated toilets (Many Western-style toilets in Japan include heated seats with temperature control, adjustable bidet functions, sound effects, and more.)
26: Customs has a mascot. (Sometimes it seems like almost all companies and offices have a cute cartoon mascot – even the tax office puts little animals on their documents…)
27: Everyone assumes I’m American. (Japanese people do have an unfortunate tendency to ask foreigners “Are you American?” This can be very annoying for non-US people.)
28: Bus drivers turn off the bus during red lights. (This is most likely to help reduce pollution. There is a fairly large campaign called “Stop the idling”.)
29: and my friend told me there’s a sign on the bus saying that the exhaust is good for the environment!
30: People saying えええええええええええええええ (“eeeeeeeeeeeeee”, an expression of surprise. Usually said with a rising intonation).
31: Public buses have no priority over other cars, and no separate lanes.
32: No napkins even in good restaurants. (Although, to be fair, they do give you a wet towel instead.)
33: I went to a Japanese party and they were separated into 先輩 (“senpai”, senior) and 後輩 (“kouhai”, junior).
34: Bike riders wear gloves to protect themselves from the sun, but no helmets!
35: Why do so many people hand out packets of tissues but it is rude to blow your nose in public?
36: Hand basin on top of toilet cistern. (This is often considered a case of good design – the clean water going into the toilet cistern can be used to wash your hands after using the toilet.)
37: Little flashing lights on kerbs and junctions at night.
38: Riding bikes with high heels.
39: Look! There’s another 外人 (“gaijin”, foreigner)! (Yes, foreigners are still somewhat rare in Fukuoka, but the number is increasing all the time!)
40: No laughing in the movie theater. (This might be because subtitles aren’t as funny as the original movie, but in general Japanese people are pretty quiet at movies – even scary ones.)
41: Swatting flies by clapping your hands.
42: Girls shave their arms and eyebrows as well as their legs.
43: There’s two settings on the toilet handle, 小 (“shou”, small) and 大 (“dai”, big).
44: The public transport system – it works!
45: There are billions of vending machines!
46: My host father took off his pants after dinner because he was too hot! (We’ve seen this in several places, actually, including teachers at a high school unzipping their pants when hot.)

The Japan Times reports that London magazine Monocle named Fukuoka as the best city in the world for shopping! Reasons include the compactness of the central shopping district, the big selection of brand names, and the closeness to Asia.
Fukuoka was also chosen as the city with the 17th highest quality of life in the world – and only the second city in Japan, after Tokyo! Cities were ranked on a variety of factors, including friendliness, safeness, cleanliness, transport and more. Fukuoka is on this list for the first time, perhaps showing how much its profile has grown in recent years. As if you needed another reason to come here!
The original article is for Monocle subscribers only, unfortunately, but if you happen to be one of those, click here to read Fukuoka’s entry!

Alternatively, the article seems to be available as a PDF here, although perhaps not for long...

A couple of choice quotes:
“Friendly, cosmopolitan Fukuoka is tiny in comparison to Tokyo, but it beats the Japanese capital hands down with its cuisine and shopping.”
“these days it’s all about Fukuoka”

It's nice to hear that everyone else is finally catching up with what we knew years ago!

The busy summer season means that this blog doesn't get updated nearly as often as we would like, but much has changed in the last month or so that we would like tell you about. For today, though, we wanted to mention one recent thing that we are very proud of.
We receive students from several agencies, including Languagecourse.net, which is based in Barcelona. They ask returning students to provide feedback on the school they studied at. Throughout the last year, GenkiJACS received an average customer satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5!

In Languagecourse.net’s own words:
"Only the very best schools receive the Excellence Award ... to certify that superior customer satisfaction has been acknowledged by LanguageCourse.Net. The feedback of your clients showed that your school did excellent work in providing satisfied customers throughout the last year. Overall rating: 4.7 (out of 5.0)"

Here's the actual document:

If you visit our main site, you may notice a little black bar in the bottom-left-hand corner. This is a chat box, and if it says "Click to talk to GenkiJACS rep!", you're just one click away from us! We can't promise to be online 24 hours a day, but when we are, we're happy to answer your questions straight away. And you're almost completely anonymous - no login is required, and the only identifying information sent to us is your IP address.

The service is provided by Hab.la, and is theoretically platform-independent. However, if you have any problems using it, please do drop us a line!

Unfortunately, at first only sales and marketing reps will be available to talk to you - no Japanese teachers on hand to answer your grammar questions instantaneously just yet, I'm afraid...

In our never-ending quest to improve our students' Japanese, we've linked up with Japan Online School (J-OS), a Japanese school offering webcam lessons over the Internet, to offer a special discount to GenkiJACS students who sign up with them.

First, the problem:
Many students tell us that they don’t have a chance to practice their Japanese after returning to their home countries. Without practice, you WILL forget what you studied, but if there is no Japanese community in your home area, keeping up your conversation practice can be very difficult.
This is where an online school like J-OS can come in very useful. Trained teachers and private lessons ensure that you don’t forget the Japanese you learned at GenkiJACS!
After considering all of the major online schools, we chose J-OS because of the good structure of their lessons, the quality of their teachers, and the simplicity of their system.

Now, the package:
Standard private lessons are roughly 1,900 yen for 50 minutes. However, GenkiJACS and J-OS have teamed up to offer a special deal for graduating GenkiJACS students:

1) Free trial lesson (normally 980-1280 yen)
2) 1 extra lesson free when you first buy lessons (so, for example, 5 lessons for the price of 4)

There is no extra cost to students for this - GenkiJACS pays for your trial lesson by cutting costs elsewhere. We took this step because we don't want students forgetting the Japanese they spent time and money learning, and the only way to keep it up is regular practice!

This deal is only open to graduating GenkiJACS students. If you are a GenkiJACS student who graduated between January 1st, 2008 and now, you are also eligible. Contact us for details!

A former student of Genki Japanese Language School wrote the following report after her stay in Japan. Her reflections on her time here may be useful for others thinking of coming to Japan, so we have received special permission from her to reprint the report here. We should warn you, it's long, but it's a great read!

Myself as Other and the Beauty of Internationalism

I sway with the rhythm of the train traveling the forty-five minutes from Chikushi Station to Tenjin Station. I am crammed between business men all holding identical black suitcases and young women in high-heeled boots and short skirts text-messaging to unknown recipients on their cell phones. All around me, men and women sleep in seemingly the most uncomfortable positions, and yet I wonder at their collective ability to wake up right as their stop comes up. “Gojyosha arigatou gosaimashita,” the cool feminine voice rises above the familiar clackaclackaclacka of the train, “Kono denshya wa Fukuoka Tenjin-eki kyuuko desu.” As the polite recording goes on to explain that the next stop is Futsukaichi, I finger the flash cards attached by a ring to my purse, feeling flustered and yet never more at home. As I savor every moment—my third morning, my fourth morning—I feel the disconcerting prickle on my skin that tells me that at least one person is staring at me. I look up, and a businessman turns away. I look around and two more women pretend to be looking at something incredibly interesting just to my right and left. I am unsuccessful in fighting the urge to roll my eyes, and then wonder guiltily if Japanese also know of this American expression. Here I am, all of my American-Woman-Jewish-Latina-White-Bisexual self, and yet to those around me, I am only known as one thing: gaijin, foreigner—other.

» Read More

A very belated congratulations to former student Peter Gee, who was married to his Japanese fiancee in Fukuoka in December! He gave us permission to post his lovely message and photos, so here they are:



Hi Everyone!

These are a few pictures of my wedding from last Saturday in Fukuoka. The ceremony was beautiful, my wife was even MORE beautiful.
We had a ceremony in a chapel at first (all of the orders given in Japanese, of course), then we had the reception filled with speeches from family and friends to wish us luck in the future, followed up by the nijikai (second party), and a sanjikai (third party). Unfortunately i broke my promise of controlling my alcohol intake by the end of the san jikai and was really drunk. Lucky for me, my wife is very forgiving.

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you again to everyone for making my experience at Genki JACS so enjoyable. The flowers on my last day and the card were so thoughtful.

Thomas-san: if I ever visit Roche in Basel i would love to visit you =) Good luck in Switzerland and I hope you had a nice flight home.
Makus-san: I have no doubt that you will find a Bijin in Fukuoka. Going to rainbow plaza will speed up the process exponentially, trust me! Please be nice to the teachers and no chair throwing!
Patrycja-san: Enjoy your time in Fukuoka until March! It would be cool if you become a translator for Japanese to Polish and vice versa.
Mitsuko-san: You`re leaving soon too aren`t you? I hope you`ve fully recovered from your cold by now and are enjoying your last days in Japan until you go back.
To all of my energetic and helpful teachers: The fun atmosphere you created in the classroom and the natural way you all taught Japanese was exactly what I was looking for in a Japanese school. I am sorry I won`t be able to stop by the school with my wife before I leave but I will be sure to say hi the next time I am in Fukuoka.

Take care everyone,
Peter

Today we find that students have created not one but TWO competing GenkiJACS Facebook groups! Booya! What other language school can say that, eh? (Oh, right, Yamasa has three...) Whether you already graduated from school, or plan to visit in the future, join one or both of these groups to meet up with other people in the same situation:

Genki JACS Facebook Group 1
"Were you a member of the Genki JACS school in Fukuoka City, Japan? Then you should join this group! Keep in touch, eh? Share photos! Reminisce. Whatevs."
Admin: Stephanie Throssell

Genki JACS Facebook Group 2
"For students or alumni of Genki Japanese and Culture School, Fukuoka Japan. Because what is a day without having fun with the Senseis of Genki? I swear, my Fridays are going to seem lonely as hell without a party going on from here on."
Admin: Eric Detweiler

If you haven't been to the school yet, the guys and girls in these groups are a great resource to give you info on what the school is really like. Have fun!

Like all Japanese language schools, summer is our busiest period. Courses are filling up quickly for summer this year - much quicker than last year! - so we recommend booking early where possible. Additionally, if it is possible for you to come outside of summer (i.e., from September to May), we would definitely recommend it! Coming outside of summer means smaller Japanese classes, more personalized attention from the teacher. a wider range of accommodation options, and of course avoiding the summer heat! In particular, Fukuoka can be lovely in September/October, and April/May - not too hot, not too cold.
We continue to offer a 10% tuition discount for returning students for study between September and May.

In general, Japan is a very safe country. However, it’s still important to use common sense and take safety measures, especially for female students traveling alone. Recently, a GenkiJACS student was touched inappropriately while walking home alone in the evening. As a result, we have brought in a few new policies:

- All female students are provided with a free personal alarm, that emits a loud noise when its button is pressed. Students are asked to carry this at all times.
- The cost of cellphone rentals has been cut from 1000 yen per week to 500 yen per week. This is to make it easier for all students to rent a cellphone, so that they have an emergency contact method.
- Host families are being instructed on ways to keep their students safe, such as picking them up from the station in the evening, and teaching them the best roads to walk.
- We talk to students at orientation on the first day, to provide some tips on staying safe in Japan.

Hopefully these will help to make sure Japan's crime rate continues to be among the lowest in the world!