SORABYCO | Life in Japan

I love yakiimo , the roasted sweet potatoes sold ready to eat at supermarkets in Japan. They are warm, sweet, and especially tempting when the weather gets cooler. But I do not buy yakiimo every time I want a sweet potato. For everyday eating, I usually buy uncooked sweet potatoes at the supermarket and steam them at home. My method is simple. I wash the sweet potatoes, cut off both ends, place them in a steamer over cold water, and start heating from there. I steam them slowly over low heat and check the thickest part with a chopstick or skewer. Once they are soft all the way through, I take them out, cut them in half lengthwise, and leave them uncovered for about 5 to 10 minutes before eating. It is different from roasted yakiimo, but that is part of what I like about it. Steaming gives me sweet, moist sweet potatoes that I can easily enjoy at home. After making them this way many times, it has become our usual way of cooking sweet potatoes at home—almost like our own little family r...

I drive for most of my shopping in Japan, even when the store is not very far away. Over time, it became automatic. If I needed something, I grabbed my car keys. If it was only one small item, I usually added it to my shopping list and waited until my next grocery trip. Recently, though, I started thinking, “Am I walking enough?” I spend a lot of time at home, and driving for almost every errand means there are days when I barely walk anywhere. Then I ran out of bar soap. The supermarket is about 1.1 km from my home, and I only needed one or two bars. It was a cool October day, so instead of getting in the car, I took a small reusable bag and walked. It turned out to be much easier and more pleasant than I expected. I bought what I needed, got some walking into my day, and used no gas for that trip. That gave me a simple idea: instead of making separate time to exercise, I can sometimes use a small errand as my reason to walk. I’m not giving up my car. I’m simply trying to stop using i...

If you live in Japan, you may see a garbage collection schedule that says something like “2nd and 4th Tuesday” or, in Japanese, 「第2・第4火曜日」 . This means the second and fourth Tuesday that occur in that month . It does not mean the 2nd and 4th day of the month. For example, imagine the Tuesdays this month are: 6th → 1st Tuesday 13th → 2nd Tuesday 20th → 3rd Tuesday 27th → 4th Tuesday In this case, “2nd and 4th Tuesday” means the collection dates are the 13th and 27th . It seems simple once you know it, but this was one of those small Japanese 생활 rules that confused me when I first started dealing with garbage collection in Narita, Chiba. I remember looking at the schedule and wondering, “Does 2 and 4 mean the dates? Or the second and fourth week?” Now I know exactly what to look for. How “2nd and 4th Tuesday” Works Japanese garbage schedules often combine items collected every week with items collected only once or twice a month. For example, you might see something collected every Mond...

When I first moved in Japan, there was one thing I didn’t know: changing my address at city hall does not automatically set up mail forwarding with Japan Post. If you move to a new address in Japan and want mail sent to your old address to follow you, you need to submit a separate change-of-address notification, called a tenkyo todoke (転居届) , to Japan Post. Once it is registered, Japan Post forwards eligible mail from your old address to your new one free of charge for one year from the date you submit the notification . I wish I had known this when I first moved. At the time, I contacted companies and services one by one to tell them my new address. Updating those addresses was still necessary, but Japan Post’s forwarding service would have been a useful backup for anything I had forgotten. City Hall and Japan Post Are Two Separate Procedures Changing your registered address with your city or ward office and asking Japan Post to forward your mail are separate procedures. Your municipa...

After the recent heavy rain, I saw news reports of serious flooding not far from where I live in Chiba. Some homes had been flooded on the first floor, and residents were still dealing with the aftermath. Because it was only a short drive from my home, it did not feel like a disaster happening somewhere far away. I started wondering, “Could I help, even if it was only for a few days?” That led me to another question that may be familiar to other foreign residents in Japan: Can foreigners join disaster volunteer work in Japan? Yes, foreign residents can take part when they meet the requirements set by the local volunteer center. Being a foreign resident does not automatically mean you cannot volunteer. However, each disaster volunteer center decides who it is currently accepting, and recruitment may be limited to people living in a particular city or prefecture. So the first step is not going directly to the affected area. It is checking the official volunteer information and finding ou...

A package never arrives. You notice a charge you do not recognize. A subscription is difficult to cancel, or you have a problem with a service but have no idea who to contact. These situations are stressful anywhere, but they can feel even more confusing when you are living or traveling in Japan and Japanese is not your first language. Fortunately, there are official places to start. If you live in Japan, you can check the new 消費者トラブル解決ナビ (Consumer Trouble Resolution Navi) from the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan. It provides FAQs about common consumer problems and helps you find a local consumer affairs consultation service if you need further assistance. The website is mainly in Japanese, but you can use your browser's translation feature to make the information easier to read. If you are visiting Japan, there is also a separate Consumer Hotline for Tourists , with multilingual telephone support and an English website. Here is what each service does and how to use it. ...

I went grocery shopping today and noticed bags marked 新米 (shinmai) in the rice section. Shinmai means newly harvested rice, and seeing it arrive in stores around this time of year is nothing unusual in Japan. What surprised me was the price. I actually stopped and took a photo because I wasn’t expecting the new harvest to be this inexpensive. One 5kg bag of 2026 shinmai was ¥2,100 , while another was ¥2,400 at the supermarket I visited. After the high rice prices Japan has experienced, my first thought was simple: Should I buy extra while it’s cheap? For now, I don’t think there is a need to rush and buy several bags. Rice prices at supermarkets have been trending downward in 2026, while the latest government outlook points to sufficient overall supply. That does not mean prices will continue to fall, but current information does not suggest that ordinary households need to stock up simply because they are worried about running out.  For most of us, buying the amount we normally ...

Every fall, fresh chestnuts begin appearing in supermarkets across Japan, and I always know chestnut season has arrived. I like chestnuts, but for a long time I hesitated before putting a bag in my shopping basket. Eating them is easy. Peeling a whole pile of hard chestnuts is another story. Before I bought a chestnut peeler in Japan, my hands would get tired and sore after peeling several of them. I also wasn't sure what to do with the chestnuts I couldn't cook right away. Should fresh chestnuts go in the refrigerator? Can you freeze them? And is there an easier way to peel that hard shell? If you've just brought home a bag, the most important thing to know is that fresh chestnuts are more perishable than their hard shells make them look. Don't leave them sitting at room temperature for days. If you're going to use them soon, keep them in a cold part of the refrigerator. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) recommends putting chestnuts...

Finding an old power bank in a drawer raises a surprisingly simple question: how do you actually get rid of it in Japan? I usually check my local city’s disposal rules first. But when I have only one old power bank, I do not always want to keep it at home until the next convenient collection opportunity. Once I no longer use a battery, I also feel a little uneasy storing it for a long time because lithium-ion batteries can overheat or catch fire if they are damaged. For me, taking an old power bank to an electronics store while I am already out shopping is often the easiest option. If you need to dispose of a power bank in Japan, there are two practical places to start: Check your city or ward’s disposal rules, or see whether a nearby electronics store accepts rechargeable batteries. Several major electronics retailers offer battery collection, and JBRC also has a search tool for participating stores and municipalities. There is one important exception. If your power bank is swollen, d...

Stuffed animals can sit on a bed or shelf for months, quietly collecting dust. Then one day you pick one up and wonder: Can I just put this stuffed animal in the washing machine? Sometimes, yes. But not every stuffed toy is machine washable. The first thing to check is the care label or the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions. A toy that can be washed with water is not necessarily safe for a washing machine, and some stuffed animals are meant to be washed only by hand. Toys with batteries, sound units, delicate decorations, glued parts, or fragile seams may need a different type of care. There is another question that comes up when living in Japan: What if the stuffed animal is too big for the washing machine at home? Can you take it to a coin laundry? That depends on the laundromat. Large machines do not automatically mean stuffed animals are allowed. So before choosing detergent or a washing cycle, find out two things: how the stuffed animal itself can be cleaned and whether the mac...