My Home, Your Trashcan

This morning I was standing in the kitchen preparing an English muffin for breakfast when I heard the familiar sound of something being shoved through the slot in our front door. If you live in Tokyo, this is certainly not an uncommon experience, but most businesses pile up their flyers in your mailbox rather than bother to walk from door-to-door leaving them inside your apartment. Usually, it's the religious types or the gas or electric meter readers who have to be at the door anyway who will trouble themselves to leave their detritus in your genkan (entryway for shoes).

While I'm accustomed to having to clean up the odd copy of The Watchtower or a slip of paper from the electric company telling me how many kilowatts I've consumed this month, I have never experienced what I did this morning which is someone pushing a small handful of papers through the door. When I looked down, I felt like someone had just used my door slot as a litter bin.

From a certain point of view, there really is no difference between tossing trash through some one's open window and into their home and dumping a bunch of advertising paper onto their floor via the door slot. I have to go over and pick it up and toss it in the trash now. It's a much more obnoxious thing to do than leaving it in the mailbox as junk mail (which is as inevitable in life as rude people and dogs piddling on the carpet) which at least comes in stacks in a container outside your domicile and are easy to scoop up. I'm sufficiently civilized that I never toss a bunch of papers on the floor in my apartment but someone else can come along and legally do so.

In the recent past, there were problems with people tossing inappropriate things through door slots as a form of vandalism or possibly revenge for perceived injustices between parties. At one point, there was a rash of incidents where people were cramming food through the slots, particularly cooked bowls of ramen and vegetables. Some people also poured paint into the slots to leave a more permanent mess.

After those incidents, one would hope the government would attempt to regulate access to door slots and only allow them to be used for things like failed parcel delivery notices and newspaper delivery (which is, after all, the main reason for the slots as newspapers don't fit in most standard mailboxes). Unfortunately, the government is either too supportive of the businesses who want to litter your life with advertising or too disinterested in enforcing any sort of regulation to trouble themselves with this issue.

Pachinko

Click on the picture to see a larger size one which is relatively readable.

Pachinko is one of those parts of Japanese culture which you hear a lot about back in the west. In the past, there was mainly fascination with the way in which the game works since it's relatively unique. These days, we tend to hear a lot more about parents who are addicted to pachinko whose children suffer injury or death due to neglect.

Technically, pachinko is a game and not a form of gambling but, in reality, it is gambling. Cash cannot be paid out directly for wins but people can take their wins around the corner to a shop and exchange them for cash. This is one of the reasons the game is so addicting.

The fact that this sort of back door gambling occurs right under the noses of the police is an indication that this is another one of those illegal activities that the Japanese just look the other way on. This sort of thing happens a fair amount in Japan. It follows the cultural trend of dealing with problems in a "case by case" fashion. They can enforce laws when they choose to but don't choose to unless they have a compelling reason.

I've been in a pachinko parlor exactly once and I hated the experience. I tried the game but couldn't see the appeal and the places are very noisy and full of smoke. The atmosphere and environment feel very seedy and they definitely have a Las Vegas slot machine feel to them.

While I don't go into pachinko parlors, I often walk past two local ones. One of the things you can't help but notice about them is that they frequently remodel. Part of the reason for this is that they change the machines but a larger reason may be they just want to offer a gaudy new design so people will not get bored with the environment. Perhaps a new look makes people feel like they're doing the same thing for the thousandth time in a new place.

The local pachinko parlors have gone through a kaleidoscope of themes and name changes but the business is always the same. The flyer pictured above was in our mailbox announcing changes to one of those places. It reminded me that one of the things that often goes hand in hand with Pachinko is cartoon characters of scantily clad and/or women with breasts that would make Dolly Parton feel inadequate about her upstairs. On this flyer, the cartoon seems to be reflecting the current fad in Japan of "maid cafés". I guess it seems to be trying to appeal to the otaku crowd that gets off on subservient cosplaying women. The black triangle in the corner is a coupon for a free drink.

My Craptacular Mailbox

It seems my mailbox had a flyer explosion as there were 12 pieces of promotional garbage in it. There were only 3 actual pieces of mail in amongst this big mess.

The flyer with the babe on the left is for a new health club near the local JR (Japan Railway) station called "WOW'D" (short for "Work Out World" it seems). The main selling point of this place seems to be that all the equipment has video screens built into it so that you can watch something while you exercise (perhaps motivational video since the slogan for this slick joint is "motivates everyone to be fit"). It's also got higher rates than the place nearby that my husband uses for swimming.

Three of the others are menus for delivery places. The biggest one is a Chinese restaurant that we've had food from before. It's okay but heavy on the noodle selection and light on chicken dishes and neither my husband nor I is a noodle fan. They also used to feature a picture of what looked like a whole baby pig (snout, eyes and all) on the front of their menus and it made us too sick to even open their menu. Eventually, they changed the picture for that dish. The tiny menu is for an overpriced steak place and another is for a sushi restaurant. Of course, I think that there's no such thing as a steak restaurant in Japan which isn't overpriced.

My husband and I don't get delivered food or eat out much because we're trying to live frugally and delivered food costs between two and five times more than eating in. We sometimes get pizza or curry but the places we order from do not leave flyers in our mailbox. Perhaps they get enough business that they don't have to paper bomb us all the time to get customers.

Most of the rest of the flyers are for massage and relaxation services and, ironically, "recycle" shops that will pick up items you don't want anymore (for a fee in most cases) and clean them up and sell them. I say it's ironic because these flyers make the most frequent appearances in our mailbox and represent the greatest waste yet the shops themselves are supposed to be reducing waste by recycling items rather than allowing them to be tossed in the trash.

In the past, a much greater portion of the paper left in our mailbox was for various pornographic services. Some of it was for "Q-dial" girls which I think was some sort of phone sex service. Some of it was for purchasing porno videos and the rest possibly for back door ways to access prostitutes. Some of it was pretty funny stuff. I'm guessing that the internet has offered a more discreet and cost-effective means of reaching their target audience than having someone drive around in a scooter dropping flyers in mailboxes.

The main problem we have, aside from the tremendous waste this represents, is that real mail can get lost in the pile of trash unless you painstakingly sort out each and every piece. It's been a great concern when we've had to wait for communication from the immigration office. When you apply for a visa, you fill out a postcard which they send you to notify you that your application has been processed and you have to return to get your visa. The card can easily get lost in such a mess and then life can be very complicated as the card has a deadline by which you should appear at the office.

In the United States, this sort of mailbox pollution is illegal. You can only get into mailboxes via junk mail. I'm pretty sure that it has little to do with the U.S. being more enlightened and more to do with the postal service making sure they get paid as part of the customer snail mail spamming process.

Building a Holiday (Halloween)

As Luis mentioned in his blog, the Japanese seem to be pushing Halloween as a holiday more and more each year. A flyer that was recently left in my mailbox which includes the above insert seemed to further support this notion. The above picture (click it to see a larger version with more detail) was included as part of an (Sony) Avic sale flyer for T.V.s, DVD recorders, and video cameras. The picture is printed on light card stock and says "Avic Halloween Festival (matsuri)". The box at the bottom is for kids to write their names and ages in.


The back of the insert talks about the fact that this is a (coloring) contest and that applicants get the jumbo bag of "Big Katsu" items pictured in the lower right as a "present" for entering. The items in the bag appear to be a variety of salty, deep-fried snack foods. There's nothing like getting your kids started on their hardened arteries as early as possible.

While I don't think Japanese kids will ever embrace trick or treating because the concept of going door to door for free candy doesn't seem to suit the Japanese character, I do think they could eventually build festivals around it that will allow kids to dress up, play games and get free treats. The contest Avic is offering seems to be a move to that end. As with all holidays, where there is a commercial opportunity, companies will be exploiting it.


I have to give Avic credit. The presence of this unusual Halloween flyer (at least I've never seen one like it before) made me pay more attention to their ad. I paid attention to the fact that HD flat screen T.V.s are outrageously priced (between $4000-$8000) and thought about how I hope our T.V. doesn't crap out on us for a long while.

Order Your Christmas Cake Now!

This morning I went out early to get some milk from a convenience store and found the flier pictured above in the bag when I got home. Today is October 7 and Christmas cakes are already being advertised? I thought the U.S. pushed Christmas early and often but this definitely has it beat. I guess that, without Halloween to peddle extra wares, the Japanese shops have to milk Christmas for all its worth.

For my friends in the U.S., I'll explain a few things about Japan and Christmas. First of all, it's not a national holiday here. It's more akin to the way Valentine's Day or Halloween are regarded in the states. You don't get the day off but there's junk around to remind you to consume as many holiday-themed goods as possible.

Additionally, the Japanese celebrate differently. It's generally not celebrated as a family holiday. In fact, one of the traditions is for young men to give their girlfriends expensive jewelry (a Tiffany's box is a plus) and go for a night of action at a (usually expensive) hotel.

Another tradition is eating Christmas cake. I'm not sure where the notion that this type of thing is traditional in the west comes from but, unless they've been told otherwise, many Japanese people think occidentals celebrate Christmas by having a birthday-cake style cake and having a party. If you click on the picture of the flier above and load the bigger version, you can see the types of cakes more clearly. Of course, they also have to have plastic Santas on them!


As an aside, since I was feeling lazier than usual, I indulged in a carton of wicked Milk Tea. I love this drink but only indulge in it about 4 times a year because it is incredibly bad for you. In addition to being as full of sugar as a soft drink, it also contains coconut oil. Given my fondness for coconut, this is probably one of the reasons I like this tea so much. It has a nice floral tea taste as well so that helps. Ironically, while I love this pre-made Lipton tea, I'm generally not keen on their teabags as they are weak and bitter (especially what is sold under a yellow label in Japan). My former boss used to say he thought Lipton teabags were made with the sweepings from the floor where they process the tea.

Messy Hands

There's a chain of stores called Tokyu Hands which specializes in items the Japanese might call "lifestyle goods". Each floor is devoted to different categories of items. It's different from most department stores in that it carries a large selection of craft-making items and DIY tools. Unlike in the U.S., it's rather difficult to locate such things, at least in Tokyo.

I think this is in part because space restrictions in Japanese homes discourage people from pursing more elaborate hobbies such as those related to carpentry. Most men don't have garages they can set up shop in. Most people don't have garages that they can keep their cars in for that matter. The best they tend to have are car ports or parking areas just big enough to park in.

Other reasons probably include the fact that the Japanese already have a whole host of hobbies as part of their culture which are different than western pursuits and men don't seem squeamish about learning things like flower arrangement. The former president of my former company used to proudly display pictures of his flowers.

The flyer pictured above says "Hands Quality Bargain" and offers a whole host of items for sale. I'm not sure what "Hands Messe" is supposed to refer to but my best guess is "Hands Message".