Scott Johnston

  An updated version of the  Apartment Hunting in Japan: Or Remember Your Wallet December 8, 2022 Published online at  https://medium.com/japonica-publication/apartment-hunting-in-japan-1033d56b6501 Searching for an apartment Looking for an apartment was relatively easy in Japan. I highlight the word: looking. This was our process several years ago when we rented an apartment in Hyogo, Japan. We made an appointment for a visit to a realtor and showed up that day. Outside there was a board listing the guests for the day, and ジョンストン、my name in katakana, was there. The moment we sat down, a lady pointed at the DRINK MENU. A reminder — we are in a realtor’s office, not a coffee shop — and I got some hot coffee and grabbed some of the candies in the jar next to me. Extra energy in the apartment hunt. After showing us four places on the internet, we turned around and a van was waiting for us with a worker standing by the door. We got in the van, and the employee did his obligatory 90-degree

  Framed Photographs in Japan No Smiling, for Now September 21, 2022                                                             Photo by  jun rong loo  on  Unsplash Published online at https://medium.com/japonica-publication/framed-photographs-in-japan-581378ffea3f The other day I visited an elementary school in Japan and talked to the principal about helping teach English at the school. Behind him was a row of former principals, mainly men, all very serious looking, and no one smiling. Later, I remembered that in each school’s music room there is a row of frowning composers. Image by  Gordon Johnson  from  Pixabay Of course, the photographs on Japanese money do not include smiling people. This lack of smiling is supported by Japanese immigration.  The Immigration Services Agency of Japan’s website  states about a photo of a smiling person: Subject’s expression is not neutral. Smiles are not neutral. This means that smiles for passports are not allowed. I realized that official photog

  Funeral Flowers in Japan: A Humorous Experience Sending Flowers October 27, 2022 Published on  https://medium.com/japonica-publication/funeral-flowers-in-japan-4888b5a7a4b7 An American friend of mine passed away in Osaka after we moved to the Kanto area. He had planned his funeral so that it was a chance for friends to come and say goodbye. We contacted a friend involved in arranging the funeral, and she said sending flowers would be fine. Since Yoko, my wife, and I could not attend, we wanted to send flowers to the  otsuya , the wake, and the  ososhiki,  the funeral. For us, this sounded simple: Visit a flower shop and ask them to send the flowers or wire an order of flowers, as we do in the U.S. We had the phone number and address, so easy, right? Wrong. So starts the cultural bump that my wife and I faced as we nonchalantly began our adventure attempting to send flowers to a funeral. We entered a flower shop and asked them to send flowers to the funeral home. The person looked at