Contrary to popular belief, I believe the best hamburgers are definitely a slow food. Just because McDonald’s made hamburgers into the archetypal fast food, it doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice the concept of a real high quality burger. While it’s rare to find a burger joint that is willing to keep their customers waiting 15 minutes or more after ordering, T’s★Diner (T’s Star Diner) is and is proud of it.

To be honest, the first time I visited T’s, I baulked at their “slow food” sign (pictured). I was in a hurry and all I wanted was my fix. Even takeaway was fine. But the clock was ticking away and so I had to suppress the urge, swearing to come back again another day. After all, this guy seemed serious about his hamburgers… How could I continue my search for the ultimate Japanese hamburger without trying one of T’s. (If you haven’t read the previous installments then you might like to read my reviews of Awajishima Burger and Okinawa Jef Hamburger.)

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of T’s. After all, it wasn’t really a burger joint, it was a diner right? And the menu seemed to be filled with a bunch of typical Americana (that you’d expect to find in your typical diner). But I was pleasantly surprised. It turns out that the owner of T’s (who is also probably the guy you’ll see standing behind the counter most of the day) is a devoted connoisseur of hamburgers. When I asked him why on earth he bothered to open up a diner in the middle of Takatsuki (高槻, near Osaka), he gave it to me short and simple:

ハンバーガーが好きだから (’cause I love hamburgers)

As you’d expect, he has traveled the US to get a sample of the real thing but I really liked his story of how he trained after he got back to Japan. It turns out that there is a town in Aichi prefecture (愛知県) near the headquarters of Toyota (in Toyata City) that is famous for its diners.

I must own up and admit that I have never been there. (If any stippy readers out there have, I’d love to hear more about it in the comments section below.) Apparently you’ll see more diners there than in downtown Chicago. It seems the owner spent several years learning the trade here before starting his own in his home town of Takatsuki. While you may laugh and say “Who on earth visits a burger joint in Takatsuki?” (I certainly did) you might be surprised to hear that he receives a regular flow of international clientele who come to get a swig of the cool-ade we know as Americana.

Ts Diner, Takatsuki Osaka - My hamburger and beer

So what’s so good about his burgers. At first sight, the menu looks pretty low key actually. While you can order a burger with two patties, there are no extravagant toppings to be seen here. T’s prides itself on the flavor of the patties and rightly so. While I’m usually a fan of a burger with plenty of other toppings between the pattie and the bun, I enjoyed sitting back and savouring the texture and juiciness of the beef in the bun. I think I’d almost forgotten how important a high quality pattie was until then. Even so, I couldn’t quite settle merely for a plain old hamburger and went for the cheese and bacon burger (900 yen). Yum. Quite to my surprise, the bacon was thickly sliced premium bacon (厚切りベーコン) and balanced the beef in the burger perfectly. I’ve also had the chili burger at T’s which I do recommend for any chili con carne fans out there.

For some reason there is a 500 yen minimum charge at T’s but it includes a free drink so if you’re happy to augment your hamburger with a jockey of nama (生, on the tap) beer then you don’t really notice. It might be a bit of a sore point for cola drinkers though. Perhaps it’s because he can’t make money out of the hamburgers charging only 7~900 yen (although the double pattie burgers cost 1,500). At the moment the diner is only open for lunch and dinner but it closes very late (5AM) and the owner hopes to be able to open it 24 hours a day at one stage (in true “diner” style). I’d personally prefer him to stay open all afternoon as I’ve been passing through more than once between 3~5PM wanting a burger only to find that they are closed. And, quite frankly, how many people are gonna come and have a hamburger at 3AM in the morning at Takatsuki? Although being very close to Highway 171 probably guarantees him a bit of late night traffic. To T’s credit, you can order a hamburger anytime up to 4AM in the morning. Not many bars stay open that late and offer food much past midnight. Please keep that in mind next time you’re wandering in Takatsuki in the wee hours of the morning.

There’s something about T’s that just doesn’t feel quite like the diners that I know from back home. The music is great (he has some really golden oldies music videos playing in the back) but perhaps it is the atmosphere. It is “Japan size” as far as a diner is concerned (It can probably only seat 10~15 people) and lacks in buzz: I’ve never seen more than one customer (beside myself) there. I’d hate to see him go out of business so all the more reason to visit more regularly, I guess! I’ve decided to give T’s Diner two stippies. Just like Michelin is very kechi (ケチ, tight) with their stars, we here at Stippy don’t take our hamburger ratings lightly. Perhaps if there was no cover charge, the option of an egg in the cheese burger and a little more buzz then I might, just might, have been tempted to consider three. All in all, I can highly recommend a feed at T’s.

T’s Star Diner
Tel: 072-672-0721
Web: http://www.ts-star-diner.com

How to get there:
T’s Diner is located between Highway 171 and Hankyu’s Takatsuki-shi station (阪急高槻市駅). There is an arcade heading out on an angle to your left (the one before Centre Rd センター街) and T’s is a couple of blocks walk down it. Look out for the blues brother statue or the Betty Boop holding a hamburger that they have out front. From JR Takatsuki it’s a good 15 minute walk and easiest to cut through the Osaka Medical College Hospital (大阪医学大学病院). (It’s just the other side of the Hankyu railway if you sneak under the line in front of the hospital.)

Address:
2-11-5 Johokucho, Takatsuki, Osaka
大阪府高槻市城北町2-11-5南園ビル1F

Hours: 11:30AM~3:00PM / 5:00PM~5:00AM

Map:

大きな地図で見る

Design Festa Tokyo 2009

If you are tired of all the doom and gloom that appears daily in the newspapers, nightly on TV, weekly, monthly, yearly… in the media in general, then it’s time for something else, something new, something worth both your time and your money, no?

In a city as replete with distractions as Tokyo, rivaling no other city than perhaps New York for the limitlessness of its possibilities, there is always something else to do, see, hear, eat and generally check out. With that in mind, grab a thick black marker and circle the dates May 16th & 17th on your calendar. Done? Good! Now, write in bold, black letters; “Design Festa vol. 29” Got that? Okay, now put away your marker. It’s really that simple.

If you want to spend a day, or two, meandering around the largess of what has to be one of Tokyo’s, and Japan’s, most innovative, architectural anomalies; if your eyes want to flit across a microcosm of Tokyo’s and Japan’s artistic community, peppered pelle-melle with some international flavor; if you yearn for strange, unique or kawaii gifts, knick-knack or doo-dads, if your ears want to drink in some new sounds, if your fashion sense is piqued by fresh, new designs and, if your palette desires some good food & drink, then come and behold what has loosely been coined ‘artistic chaos.’

The shear numbers say it all. Fifteen years strong, 28 volumes, 100,000 exhibitors & more than 9 million visitors – how much larger can an art event get? Next month we’ll all find out as Design Festa vol. 29 takes place, rain or shine, at Tokyo Big Sight’s West Halls 1, 2, 3, the Atrium and outdoors.

Envisioned as a no-strings-attached, nonjudgmental, non-corporate, freestyle art fair for anyone and everyone, Design Festa first opened its doors in 1994. Initially held at Harumi’s International Trade Fair Hall, before moving to it’s current location, Tokyo Big Sight, in 1996, it has developed into Asia’s (if not the world’s) single, largest art event held under one roof. Sometimes reminiscent of the mother-of-all flea markets, anyone with any artistic talent, no matter how latent or developed, can rent a booth, or a block of time, and be granted their fifteen minutes of fame.

Design Festa Sprawl (last year's event, click to enlarge)

And a blur it can be. Held over two days, a considerably limited amount of time needed to really get a sense of the depth and breadth of the entire exhibition, Design Festa is communal, fun, funky, loud, overstimulating, crowded and amazingly well organized. First timers may be overwhelmed by the number of booths, exhibitors, events and performances,while seasoned vets know that a bit of forethought will streamline their experience.

Through their website, www.designfesta.com, information leading up to the event is posted at fairly regular intervals, giving potential visitors the chance to execute their plan of attack, while others eagerly await haphazardly discovering something new, exciting and even strange, just by wandering about.

There are the hundreds of booths to peruse while shuffling along, a variety of performances and shows where you can take break and relax for a bit, live bands more-often-than-not thrashing about outdoors, mini-bars set up in strategic places, and the restaurant area where long lines are common, but move efficiently enough to make your refueling stop easy to bear.

Design Festa will be held at the futuristic Tokyo Big Sight

So forget the economy, geopolitics and all the rest of that stuff, and lose yourself in another world, one of fun, art, music, fashion, performance, food & drink. Inundate your senses and drench your peripheral vision, but don’t forget to load your camera and wear your walking shoes, ‘cuz there’s tonnes to see and miles to walk at this biannual art explosion.

Let the chaos begin!

Event Information:
Date: May 16th (Sat) & 17th (Sun) from 11:00 – 19:00
Location: Tokyo Big Sight West Hall 1, 2, 3, 4, Atrium and Outdoors
Map (click to enlarge):

Nearest station: Kokusaitenjijo-seimon (Yurikamome Line) or Kokusaitenjijo (Rinkai-Line)
Tickets:
FREE for children 12 years old and under
In Advance – single day ticket: ¥800 / two day ticket ¥1,500
Door price – single day ticket: ¥1000 / two day ticket ¥1,800

Article by Stephen Lebovits

Breastfeeding: Baby formula product marketing and your doctor may make you blind to the benefits

It really frustrates me the number of heart-ache stories that I hear from friends who’ve been totally convinced by the Japanese mass media that their breasts aren’t good enough for their babies. Just as depressing are the number of stories that I’ve heard where mothers in Japan who had previously believed that breast is best, have been convinced by their doctors (after only a few weeks of trying) that they’re not making enough milk and switched to formula or a mix of formula and breast milk. Whereas 90% of Japanese mothers when surveyed before giving birth suggest that they want to raise their child on breast-milk, only 3~40% of them are still exclusively feeding their babies breast milk by their three month check up. That is lower than most countries in Asia, and is extremely low when compared even with developing countries – what makes Japanese mums feel so unhealthy/unqualified that they can’t breastfeed properly? It’s not because they are rushing back to the work force, the vast majority are dedicated (and motivated) stay-at-home mothers. It’s because a combination of dated medical practices and an advertising dollar focused publishing industry has lead Japanese mothers to believe that there is a good chance that their breasts won’t be making enough milk. If you introduce me to another Japanese mum who cries to me that her breasts are 出が悪い (degawarui, don’t make enough milk) then I think I will take to her doctor with a knife! While I profess to have no official medical background, I’m hoping that my views as a novice Daddy-san in Japan will be able to save a few couples from resorting to an unnecessary evil. (This is the second article in this “Daddy-san” series. Make sure to also read part one).

To be very clear, I have absolutely no qualms with mothers using formula for lifestyle reasons: because they want to go back to work, because they want more freedom or because their husband wants to be a stay-at-home Dad, etc. I know many people who were raised exclusively on formula and they have been able to function as normal human beings. I’m angry because there is a significantly large number of mothers out there who want to feed their babies breast milk but are actively discouraged by (a) their pediatrician, (b) mass market literature claiming to offer information on bringing up babies, (c) stealth marketing by infant formula companies and (d) their parents (who grew up in a time where formula was erroneously thought to be better than breast milk.) Let’s be very clear about this. There is absolutely no doubt that breast milk is the best thing that your baby should be drinking. Your baby can and should be fed exclusively with breast milk (that also means no water) for approx. 6 months. Even after you gradually introduce real foods from 5~6 months onwards, your baby is best drinking breast milk at least until 12 months of age if not longer. The list of the benefits of breast milk over formula is very long and growing. My favorite is that despite it being totally free, it also provides higher immunity and hence lower medical expenses for the child’s entire life. You can find a long list of the benefits all over the web and in most English books on child rearing.

The Japanese deception starts the moment your wife begins reading the pregnancy magazines by Benesse and the like. Have you ever wondered why these publishers can afford to publish so many magazines on pregnancy so regularly despite Japanese mothers giving birth to less and less children every year? A healthy advertising budget from the infant formula companies help. Whereas English books often focus on the potential difficulty of breast-feeding and the need for support from the father, Japanese magazines seem to paint the world as if it is totally normal for a mother not to be able to make enough breast milk and that to top-up with formula is the norm. This is called kongo (混合, mixed) and refers to feeding your baby part breast milk and part formula.) Perhaps it works because of the perennial Japanese complex of having small breasts (which is known to be totally irrelevant) or perhaps it is just because first time mothers are lacking in confidence and hence willing to believe what they read in a magazine written by a company that runs English language schools (Benesse owns Berlitz remember!). Someone please explain to me – If the human race has survived for so many thousands of years, why on earth would breast milk not be enough to raise your child? Needless to say, I’m yet to see a Japanese book written by an academic that doesn’t paint the picture accurately. For some reason, it’s the colourful magazines written by editors – not academics – that survive on advertising and sales of other products to their readers, that have become the trusted source of information for Japanese mothers. If you are a new gaijin Daddy, I definitely recommend that you come to your own conclusions about breast feeding after reading a book or two written by an academic. Here are some great ones:
The New Father: A Dad’s Guide to the First Year by Armin Brott or
Baby Love: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby’s First Year by Robin Barker

Unfortunately, “information” magazines are only the tip of the stealth marketing iceberg when it comes to Japanese formula companies. Most of the professionals that you have trusted (yes, your sanfujinka too) are probably on their pay-rolls. One of the key conditions for becoming a baby friendly hospital (BFH) is not to accept free samples or other forms of financial assistance from infant formula companies. Given that 70% of Japanese public hospitals are loss making, I guess you can’t blame them for seeking out private sector subsidies like this but is it fair to sacrifice the health and well being of our children while doing so? (See our article on BFHs in Japan for where to find one – they’re few and far between).

Take a look at these pictures taken in our nearby hospital (you can click to see a large version of them).

I guarantee you that there is not a single mother (or father, or grand mother or 3rd cousin twice removed) who doesn’t check out the photo of their loving little baby who’s just been born into this world. Better yet, this sign is right near the front entrance so even patients coming for other illnesses are likely to have a peek. What better subliminal messaging could you hope for than a rather unsubtle add from Meiji for their infant formula called hohoemi (ほほえみ) when you first see the face of the newest member of your clan? This hospital is known in our area to be highly respected for its sanfujinka (産婦人科, Ob/Gyn). With a reputation like this, why does it have to stoop to paid advertisements from one of Japan’s major formula manufacturers? Or is this hospital just like many other hospitals in Japan where the male Ob/Gyn’s claim that they can stimulate breast milk production through special Zen breast massages before resorting to formula when they proclaim that it is the mother’s fault as her breasts don’t produce enough milk. Rather than focusing on the joys of breast massaging, we need Japanese doctors to spend more time explaining how difficult breast feeding can be. Let’s face it, it’s not easy and it doesn’t come naturally to the baby or the mother.

Historically mankind have had grandmothers around to teach breastfeeding to the rookie Mums. But because the baby boomer generation decided that formula was “better” than natural breast milk, we can’t necessarily rely on the elder generation anymore. While America was just as guilty of throwing out the breast in the 70s, they’ve also come to the rescue of the younger generation with lactation consultants to take their place. We had a lot of trouble with breast feeding. My baby refused to grow in line with the pediatricians expectations for most of the first month of his life which was very stressful. Ironically, this is not that uncommon. It takes different babies (and mothers) different lengths of times to get into the swing of breast feeding – very few people get it right in the first week or so. We were lucky enough to have the support of two lactation consultants who helped my son and wife latch better. There is a vast shortage of internationally accredited lactation consultants in Japan so if you’re expecting or have just given birth you should book one ASAP (see the link below).

I’ve heard of some very unsettling stories in Japanese hospitals that have even resorted to giving formula to babies within the first few days of their lives. Even perfect breasts do not manufacture milk for 2~3 days after the baby has started suckling. You’re lucky if you get more than a teaspoon of a liquid called colostrum during that time. That is totally natural and your baby can survive for a few days on the fat stores that he built up in the womb. More to the point, the colostrum has vital nutrients to boost your babies immunity that are sacrificed if the Mother gives up breast feeding from day one (reference). While none of this is obvious, it only takes some caring advice from a responsible midwife to calm the first-time mother who is worried that it’s taking “too long” for her milk to come in. Then, except for a very small percentage of women, the amount of breast milk slowly increases as your child suckles on the breast, creating oxytocin. Oxytocin not only stimulates breast milk production but it also speeds up the recovery of the Mother’s body which is why mothers of formula fed babies are less likely to have a smooth and quick physical recovery.

Ironically, when your baby isn’t growing “fast enough” in the first few weeks of his life, your pediatrician is not necessarily the best person to rely on for information. He is there to ensure that your baby meets certain growth targets which are deemed to be “normal.” He’s not a lactation consultant and he hasn’t studied very much about the female body. It’s no surprise that he’s going to be quick to suggest a “boost” of formula to help your baby hit his growth targets. When we were in that situation, our lactation consultant kindly explained to us that we could sakunyuu (搾乳, express) milk from my wife’s breasts and feed it to him via a bottle or syringe (we actually elected for a blunt syringe as we didn’t want to promote nipple confusion). Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases in Japan, the doctor is more likely to portray a “now or never” need of urgency and bully mothers into adding formula to boost their babies weight. Sure that is the easy option but it is rarely the only option. Less than 2% of the population actually have breasts that cannot produce “enough milk”. Make sure that you’re wife is seeing a lactation consultant from day one so you have the option to express before you’re forced into using formula. While it is a tiring process, expressing gives your baby a few more weeks to learn how to suckle independently. Better yet, you don’t have to worry about your babies weight-gain in the interim. If you are going to try it out, make life easy and go straight for the automatic ‘milking’ machine (for want of a better term). We rented ours from Medela after battling with a manual pump for way too long (you can find your closest rental agent on their homepage). I can’t stress enough, you should be able to supplement your babies milk intake with expressed breast-milk before you have to resort to formula top-ups. You’re wife is only going to have the confidence to do so if she’s been talking to a lactation consultant from day one.

The stealth marketing of the formula companies does not end there. One of my friend’s mother works at the local shopping center. She visits the baby section once a week or so to hold sessions for mothers on baby nutrition. If you’ve ever been to a Jusco or a big shopping center, you’ll know what I mean. In the area where they have the nappy changing tables and the baby scales, they often have a room which is used for these nutrition seminars. Sometimes it is once a week, sometimes once a month but local mothers come to get a free checkup on their baby’s health and to “learn” about how they should be feeding their child. What a great idea, huh? Apparently the advice that my friend’s mother give ranges from how many mls of miruku to feed your child each day and how to prepare solids for slightly older babies. Hold on a second. Did you say miruku? Yes, and that is specifically miruku (ie. formula milk) and not the natural stuff (母乳, bonyu). On further questioning, it turns out that my friend’s mother is not even employed by the local supermarket, she is employed (and trained!) by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. (大塚製薬). Yes, the company that makes the biggest selling brand of formula in Japan, Beanstalk (for some reason pronounced beanstark (ビーンスターク) but don’t get me started on that). How stealth is that? I guarantee you that every week, huge numbers of innocent, unsuspecting mothers around the country are being fooled into believing by their local “baby nutritionist” that they should be substituting their own breast milk for formula. Not only are the hospitals and the publishers working against us, but the supermarkets are, too. I guess it makes sense. The supermarkets get a free “entertainment act” that not only attracts shoppers but also promotes shopping, not to mention that this likely boosts formula sales right after the deed. Who can we trust?

Good book for your Japanese partner: 「母乳の方が楽だった？！おっぱいでらくらくすくすく育児」

So as a new-chum gaijin parent in Japan, what should you do? The simple answer is education. Read up a lot in English yourself and do your best to subtly pass on the more important messages to your Japanese partner. Try to find a lactation consultant and better yet find some decent literature in Japanese written by a medical professional. If you’re wife is struggling with breast feeding or not totally on board with the idea, I personally recommend this book (cover pictured here):
母乳の方が楽だった？！おっぱいでらくらくすくすく育児
(Bonyuu nohoga raku data? Oppai de rakuraku sukusuku ikuji, “Breast feeding is easier?! Raising your healthy child on the breast with a minimum of effort”)

It’s written by an internationally accredited lactation consultant (Kitano Sumiyo, 北野寿美代) who realized one day after retiring as an official 助産婦 (josampu, midwife) that she’d spent her entire life focusing on babies and how the baby could get more nutrition while ignoring the mother completely. She then decided that there must be an easier way of breast feeding that was enjoyable and rewarding from the Mother’s perspective. That lead her to studying more about international standards of lactation and her ultimately coming up with this book which mixes the best of both Japanese and Western methods.

Finally, let me leave you with a list of the ingredients of Meiji’s Hohoemi formula – yes the one that advertises in my local hospital (See baby pics, with ads above). This is just taken from the back of the pack, I’m not sure if it includes the 30 different additives that the Japanese government approves for including in infant formula. (source: オーガニック食品最前線) or not. While I know that thousands of Japanese babies drink this every day and still grow up to be strong and healthy adults, I ask you – do you really think that this could be better than breast milk? Ironically, hohoemi means smile. I wonder who it is that is smiling.

Hohoemi Milk Formula Ingredients: Lactose (乳糖)、adjusted edible oils (調整食用油脂)、refined soy bean oil (大豆白絞油)、palm kernel oil (パーム核油)、fractionated pig fat (yummo!) oil (豚脂分別油)、refined fish oil (精製魚油)、milk serum protein (乳清たんぱく質)、butter milk(バターミルク)、casein (カゼイン)、fructooligosaccharide (フラクトオリゴ糖)、dextrin (デキストリン)、salt (食塩)、milk phosphatide extract (乳リン脂質抽出物)、yeast (酵母)、iron pyrophosphate (ピロリン酸鉄)、calcium phosphate (リン酸Ca).

If you have any stories about breast feeding in Japan, either happy or sad ones, we’d love it if you could share it with us in the comment section below so that hopefully the broader community of gaijin Dads (and Mums) can benefit.

Here are some more handy links and contacts that might help your breastfeeding challenge:
• La Leche League Japan (English), ラ・レーチェ・リーグ日本 (Japanese)
• Japanese Association of Lactation Consultants (NPO法人日本ラクテーション・コンサルタント協会)
• Japan Breast Feeding Association (日本母乳の会)
• Japanese Midwives’ Association (日本助産師会)
• Unicef: Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (English), ユニセフ:母乳育児成功のための１０カ条 (Japanese)

Price of cheese in Japan to rise 30% if politicians don't clean up their act

Yes it is getting to the stage where I am very tempted to run to my local supermarket and start buying cheese in bulk to get me through the rest of 2009! Why? Because if the parliament doesn’t get in order, focus its intended agenda for March, then it is highly likely that the tariffs on 415 different imported goods could go up by as much as 50%!

How could that be if there has been no debate in the cabinet about raising tariffs. That’s a pretty good point. The culprit is not in new legislation set to be passed, it is in old legislation that is about to end. Remember the fiasco surrounding petrol prices this time last year when the opposition party refused to let the LDP force through a renewal of their ‘temporary’ tax cut on oil imports? Well this is a similar situation. It seems that the Japanese government – in all their wisdom – designed their tariffs law (called kanzeiteiritsuho, 関税定率法) so that any reductions that Japan had agreed to under WTO would only have a shelf life of 12 months and that if the government didn’t approve the existing tariff cuts every 12 months then they would automatically shoot back to the higher levels that they had before Japan signed onto WTO tariff cuts. What ridiculous logic. Can anyone tell me how that came about?

Even though it doesn’t feel like it when you go shopping at your local Seijo Ishii (成城石井), right now cheese imports have no tariffs on them at all in Japan. However, if the government is too busy with Ozawa’s illegal slush funds from construction companies then from April 1 Cheese could all of a sudden be slapped with a fixed 30% tariff. That is a lot if you eat real cheese (not that torokeru (melty?) stuff they put on pizzas here).

Some other key items on the list of 415 imports include beef, malt, tobacco and alcohol. How many other vices could they be targeting? Remember, it is a recession. And where would you be in a recession without vices? So maybe it makes sense to stock up on a few steaks, fags, beer, and a lot of whiskey – not to mention the cheese!

Okinawa: The JEF Goya Burger - How many stippies did it score?

Review #2 – Jef Burger, Okinawa:
For some reason whenever I visit Okinawa I find myself expecting to land in a mini-America and see American signs, restaurants, customs, etc all over the place. Then I arrive and remember that the locals have done a pretty good job since 1972 of reversing the American influence gained (if any) during the 27 years of occupation. Naha isn’t really that different from most other marginalized regional cities in Japan. I personally don’t find the beaches there to be all that attractive, so besides visiting the Aquarium, there is only one thing left to do: eat! And If there was one part of American culture that must still be alive and well, I figured it had to be the hamburger.

As soon as I had a spare moment, I rushed to the front desk and asked the concierge where the best hamburger in town was. Without any hesitation she recommended that I tried out a hamburger from “Jef”, Okinawa’s only local, home-grown chain of burger restaurants. This had to be good. Going back to our rent-a-car, I consulted my guidebook and noticed that it was indeed Jef that I’d subconsciously circled when I was doing my pre-visit research before I left home. With a Goya Hamburger and Goya Rings on the menu, how could I miss it?

Okinawa Goya (ゴーヤ)

Disappointment Number One. The Goya burger (ゴーヤーバーガー, 282 yen) wasn’t a real hamburger (click on photo at top of article). It was more of a Goya Champuru burger (Goya Champuru, ゴーヤーチャンプルー a famous Okinawa stir-fry dish that includes egg, Goya and spam amongst other things). In fact the Nuuraru burger (ぬーやるバーガー, 314 yen) was closer to a “Goya burger” as it had a slice of spam included in it. I just got the Goya Champuru burger as I’m not a plain spam straight out of the can fan so my burger was more like a Goya omelet slapped between a bun. The buns were plain and there wasn’t anything else in the burger besides the (lukewarm) omelet so I must honestly say I was quite disappointed.

Jef goya rings - too thin, no taste

Disappointment Number Three. Run by a local entrepreneur, Jef prides itself on being local and procures 100% of its produce from within Okinawa. Then again, I doubt they could afford to keep their prices so low if they had to import everything from the main land. Because the Goya is procured locally, they also offer 100% freshly squeezed Goya juice (300 yen). I don’t know about you but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that anywhere else before. But… And you guessed it… The juice is only available through the summer months and so I wasn’t able to quench my curiosity. While I’m picking at nits with their Goya menu, I have a sincere question to float about it. How exactly do you spell Goya? I’ve heard before that the last vowel of Okinawan words (like the dash at the end of Champuruu チャンプルー) are often shorted when they are (mis)used in Honshu but this restaurant manages to spell Goya in two different ways on its menu! While the burger is called a ゴーヤー burger and the drink is called ゴーヤー juice, for some reason the rings are called ゴーヤ rings. Any ideas?

Jef Goya Burger Okinawa - The inside of the store

The verdict: 0 Stippies

How to get there: We visited the Sunrise Naha Branch because it was closest to the main strip in Naha. If you are walking away from the airport down Kokusai Rd (国際通り), take a right at the market and walk straight through to the other side. You’ll hit Heiwa Rd (平和通り) and its on your right.

Tel: 098-867-4941

Address: 1-1-5 Tsuboya, Naha, Okinawa (沖縄県那覇市壷屋1-1-5)

Hours: 8:30AM~9PM (the Yonabaru (与那原) and Tomigusuku (豊見城) stores are open 24 hours a day.)

Map: Click here

Website (Japanese): http://www.yonabaru.jp/kigyo/jef.htm

If this review wasn’t enough to turn you away from Jef then I’d recommend that you jump in your rent-a-car and try one of the other branches as this one doesn’t have a real car park and is shoved in the back of a cramped strip shopping center (商店街). Apparently at the other branches they operate the store as a “drive in” hamburger restaurant. You know the old fashioned kind that you would expect to see in Back to the Future (or the Flintstones) where the waitresses whiz out of the shop on roller skates to serve you at your car window. I’m not sure if they really have roller skates but it might add just that little bit extra piece of novelty value to your visit to make it worthwhile. (And while you’re at it print out this JTB coupon for a 10% discount).

By the way, the other hamburger restaurant that my concierge recommended (as a backup) was A&W. A&W is supposed to be famous for their root beer but I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between it and the root beer that I drank at Jef. Because A&W doesn’t even have the goya novelty value of Jef’s menu, I’ve decided not to include it in the Stippy.com quest for Japan’s finest Hamburger. You’ll see why by clicking on this link to the AW burger that I ate (the Mozza burger).

Have you found a more authentic burger in Okinawa? They must exist somewhere! Let us know about it in the comments section below?

Bringing up a bi-cultural kid - it can be confusing

It turns out that while the world knows a lot about bringing up babies, maybe there aren’t as many universally agreed upon facts as I’d thought. Almost one year down the track from becoming a Dad, I’m wondering if there is any topic that isn’t disputed from one culture to the next. But I guess that is one of the things that makes bringing up a baby – your baby – so eye opening when your partner is from another culture. Generally what we believe is best for our children is a concentrated version of the kool-aid that we drunk as a child, or at the very least, what the society that we were brought up in led us to believe. I can tell you now, you will learn more about Japanese culture by having a baby than you ever will by taking the class of the similar name in first year University!

Maybe you didn’t fall into the same trap as me, but I never got around to reading the 9th chapter of any of the “month by month” books on pregnancy. In fact, I didn’t even bother buying any books on bringing up an infant. I was too focused on the pregnancy and on how big my baby was after X number of weeks. I wish someone had have sat me down and just said: “Stop reading the pregnancy books. The baby will pop out regardless of what you do! Start reading up on what you’re gonna do after the big day now because as a sleep deprived Dad you won’t have the time or the energy to be reading anything for months after your baby arrives!” In fact, just like most of the stuff that I wrote in the pregnancy series is most relevant to Dads who aren’t pregnant yet, I have a funny feeling that a lot of this series will be most relevant to Dads who aren’t Dads just yet.

Even mono-cultural Dads don’t have an awful lot of time to recover after the birth before the reality of your new life sets in, but you, the newly Knighted bi-cultural Dad, are in for twice the onslaught. The differences will start to slap you in the face from the first few days in the Hospital. Whereas most English (language) academics are now recommending a more natural environment for your newborn, Japan interestingly chooses to focus on cleanliness and often puts this before many other considerations when it comes to your baby’s health. Take your baby’s belly button stub for example. Whereas you’d probably be encouraged to ensure it was clean with warm water back home, the standard in Japan is to regularly sterilize it with alcoholic swabs. (This used to be the norm in the West, too, but recently Doctor’s are discouraging it as they don’t understand the potential side-effects for the baby from the alcohol). The desire for sterilization doesn’t stop there, most nursing Mums are encouraged to rub their nipples with alcohol before breast feeding. I guess they deem a little grog to be better for the baby than what other potential germs could be on its Mummy’s breast. Clearly babies have been breast feeding without sterilizing breasts for thousands of years so I’m not sure why we’d want to start now. I’m guessing that this must stem from the poor hygienic conditions in war-time Japan but I’m not sure. (If anyone knows the real reason, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.)

If you’re lucky enough to learn how to bathe your babe at the hospital, you’re probably wondering why you can’t let water in your baby’s ears or whether you really do need that gauze on his/her stomach at all times. Then there is the perpetual desire to feed him/her mugicha (麦茶, wheat tea) from 2 months onward or the Japanese book that insisted that if your baby doesn’t eat rice regularly during infancy then they won’t grow up to be a real Japanese person. (Yes I really read that in a book about rinyushoku (離乳食, solids)! The list goes on…

Believe it or not, we’re not much better. Have you ever tried explaining the nursery rhymes that you sing to your child to your Japanese spouse? How do you go about explaining why you dance to and laugh about a song about Tuberculosis? And what about rationalizing poor Georgie Porgie’s pedophilic tenancies? Even better, why on earth a dead man in a ditch and the flaws of the judiciary system shows it’s face I don’t know. Don’t get me started on teapots or people with four names. (Sorry for the Windows media stuff, couldn’t find mp3s..)

But most of these differences are just cosmetic. The last thing your baby wants is a tense house because of small difference in opinions and most of these you just have to wash under the bridge as being interesting and educational. My intention is for this series to focus on areas that I found either confusing, frustrating or educational while bringing up my son in our bi-cultural household. For most gaijin like me, living in a foreign country, it can be difficult to get balanced information with your family living in another country and the local medical staff speaking another language (in more ways than one). Hopefully this series will serve to be a bit of a resource for foreign parents in Japan who are keen to share their questions, worries and advice with out parents. I’ll be writing from a Dad’s perspective but there is no reason to limit it to just men. In fact, I have a funny feeling that there should be a whole separate series for Gaijin Mum’s in Japan married to Japanese guys and their experiences. In the meantime, this will be the story of how I endeavored to become a balanced Daddy-san. If you have any requests or worries to begin with- don’t hold back – share them with us in the comments section below.

Yuri Fujikawa's Sexy Photo Book Cover - 藤川ゆり写真集

In America, former movie stars make good Presidents. In the East, it seems, it works the other way: it takes a politician to become a popular porn star. If you’re lucky enough, you might have seen some photos of the hottest property in Japanese politics, Yuri Fujikawa (藤川ゆり) showing off her cleavage at a beach in her hometown of Hachinohe, 八戸 (not to be confused with the real porn star, of the same name! Warning – NSFW link).

For those that are not up on their Aomori geography, Hachinohe is a smallish town in the east coast of Aomori prefecture at the tip of Honshu. It’s biggest year round tourist attraction is its rather dull fish market (Hasshoku Centre, 八食センター), usually full of local elderly folks, and US Marines from the nearby Misawa Airforce Base (presumably because there is nothing else for them to do in their time off). Anyway, I digress – the point is, that Hachinohe is an extremely quiet, down-to-earth, and above all conservative community. Throw into that mix a young (hot) representative who just released a gravure DVD and a sexy photo shoot book, and you have some fiery topics of conversation for the population of sleepy old Hachinohe (and far beyond!).

Anyway, before we go on any further, here is the first part of Yuri Fujikawa’s DVD (You can watch the full DVD at the bottom of this article!):

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was mentally preparing to write an editorial piece complaining about the new lows that Japanese politics has stopped to, but maybe it’s not quite as bad as it appears. After all, she does have a bit in common with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Ronald Regan.

Yuri Fujikawa in the Hachinohe Parliament

What is more important to a politician than grass roots support? As even a joshikosei (女子高生) can see with the current nejire kokkai (hung parliament, ねじれ国会) it is very clear that a political party can’t instigate real change without a firm majority. Likewise for individual candidates. Without a solid margin between you and your closest competitor, politicians are forced to parade populist policies to the electorate in order to win votes. What we really need are politicians who have the balls to announce controversial, ground breaking policies and they can’t do that if they’re constantly worried about the next election. When Fujikawa was elected to the local parliament in Hachinohe (八戸) she won double the votes of her nearest rival in the Komeito (6962 vs 3665) and drew the biggest voting turnout (56%) in the town for 12 years despite it being a rainy day. That is what I call a mandate. How is that any different to our old friends, Ronnie or Shuwa-chan (シュワちゃん, what the Japanese call Arnie)? Let’s take this and run with it for a moment (and please don’t bring any parallels with Sarah Palin and her beauty contest).

To tell you the truth, I was just starting to find Japanese politics interesting again. The big thanks go to our current charismatic PM, Taro Aso. First they portrayed him as uneducated when he misread some Kanji (hell, I do that all the time). Then they portrayed him as being insensitive as he publicly trashed both the medical community and pensioners which I might point out happen to be two key sources of votes for the LDP (yeah!).

Fujikawa on the campaign trail

Bet lets put aside the face value of his comments (although I must say I tend to agree with some of them) and focus on what was going on inside his brain. This is a man who is being honest with the public. Making controversial statements is a helluva lot better than consistently lying to voters with unrealistic promises around election time. Remember this is also a politician who openly admitted he was a Manga Otaku. Sure, I think that’s a little weird but who cares. He’s not hiding anything in the closet.

The kind of politician who is willing to speak out against large groups of his own supporters, is the same kind who will have the balls to announce an unpopular policy for the good of the nation (like raising the consumption tax in three years time). Aso’s problem though is that he doesn’t have enough support. He’s missing the Fujikawa mandate. Unfortunately that is going to rob us (Japan) of a politician willing to make tough decisions. In fact it has already started. The moment that Aso’s popularity fell below 40%, his mandate disappeared. The Dons of the LDP started rebuffing – one by one, each of Aso’s decent proposals – the consumption tax, tobacco tax, etc etc. Oh, and you guessed it, the only thing they let him hang on to was the evil ばらまき (baramaki, blatant handing out of cash to electorates in order to win votes) in a desperate attempt to try and win votes when the parliament is dissolved early next year. Japan can’t afford to rob the the 埋蔵金 (maizokin, the reserves previous governments had made in order to repay government debt as it reaches maturity in the future) grave. Stand up, Aso. Put on your bikini! And film a sexy DVD in the beaches of Aomori… for the people of Japan!

Yuri Fujikawa In front of Hachinohe Shiyakusho

For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the chatter on 2-channel, Yuri Fujikawa (official homepage, official blog) is a 28 year old female member of the Hachinohe (八戸) local government. She’s officially an independent but is a member of the Liberal Democratic Club (自由民主クラブ, jiyuminshukurabu) and officially campaigned with Abe in the upper house election in 2007 so it’s fair to say has a reasonable amount of LDP in her blood. In Japan’s true “tall poppy syndrome” style, she’s been criticized as being “too pretty” to be a politician. Who cares? No-one said that about Koizumi when his good looks attracted a lot of young female voters to vote for the first time. Fujikawa alienated the local pollies who had supported her Dad when she suddenly released a gravure DVD and photo book (写真集) to promote the town. Come on! The town is filled with conservative old fogies and colloquially referred to as a bee’s fart (蜂の屁, hachinohe) – it needs a bit of publicity – Good on her!

The key point here is whether or not Fujikawa is contributing to her local electorate or not. And I don’t mean by cheering up recently risutora-ed (リストラ, fired) local salary-men with shots of her cleavage (although undoubtedly a welcome side effect). As far as I can tell, she’s using her new found popularity to raise citizens’ awareness of local issues and push through policies to turn Hachinohe into on of Japan’s most environmentally forward thinking towns. Other issues that Fujikawa is pushing include as local health care, aged care and disaster prevention. No qualms there from me. She’s also been quite outspoken on the issue of the expected negative economic impact of extending then Shinkansen past Hachinohe.

While it is a little less obvious, she seems to have taken an interest in food and recently appeared at a cooking demonstration for the local consumer group, Tampoponokai (dandelion club, たんぽぽの会). Contrary to rumor, I believe that she was wearing clothes beneath the apron at the time.

Much to the chagrin of her denouncers, even if Fujikawa wasn’t contributing to policy, she’s still probably doing her electorate a favor. After all, look at the huge impact that Sonomanma Higashi (そのまんま東) has had on Miyazaki Prefecture’s economy. All he did was effectively use his popularity to appear on nationwide TV and publicize his hometown. It’s a shame that Japan still isn’t advanced enough to appreciate a female doing the same thing.

And to me, the biggest irony is that the DVD footage isn’t even that sexy. It’s clearly been a while between innings for the old fogies in Hachinohe if they think that it is erotically provocative. I doubt that many of the Chinese newspaper reporters that have been making a big fuss (here and here) have shelled out the 4,000 yen to see it either. There are rumors going around that she appeared on a TV Asahi show before she was elected where women fight Sumo battles in the snow in their bikinis (雪上ビキニ相撲). Now that would be provocative. Here are some screen grabs of her in the snow in her bikini, but if anyone has the footage please leave us a link below in the comments section – we’d love to see it.

So, what do you think of her? Here is the full footage of her DVD. Does it turn you on? Would you pay 4000 yen for it? Would you vote for her?

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 2:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 3:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 4:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 5:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 6:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 7:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 8:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 9:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 10:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 11:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 12:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 13:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 14:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 15:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 16:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 17:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 18:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 19:

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Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 20:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Aso: Just what is he worth? Stippy investigates how Japan's politicians (legally) hide their true wealth from the public, and pay incredibly low taxes on their real estate in the process

For a start, in Japan there is no need to disclose any bank deposits that are on call. With Japanese interest rates as they are, something like 60% of all deposits in the banking system are on call so it’s likely that our friendly politicians also have a reasonable amount of cash stashed away in perfectly legal domestic bank accounts that we don’t know about. Furthermore if they are smart enough to cancel their teiki yokins (term deposits) a day before the first day that they are sworn in and shift the cash to their futsu koza (Savings Account) then we will be none the wiser. I’m assuming that the main reason for disclosing cash balances is to look for sudden and large changes which might smell of bribery, so with interest rates in Japan being almost the same for term deposits and savings accounts, there should be no reason why one has to be disclosed, and the other not. Seems like a gaping loophole that has been left open on purpose to me. Given the large expenditure associated with most political behaviors, I doubt if we would really notice with a once a year snap shot anyway, but clearly we have absolutely no transparency without seeing all deposit information. Who on earth came up with this rule? It is astounding.

And then there is land. For those of you who didn’t read it, you might be interested to read that Aso is the biggest land owner in the cabinet. He has a total of over 25,000m2 of land dotted across the country in four locations (five if you include his wife’s rental property in Setagayaku). Will he will really be representing the average Japanese battler. But what caught my interest this time was where he owns the land and how much he’s claiming it is worth. While I’m not an expert on his rice paddies in Fukuoka, I do know a little about central Tokyo real-estate. Does this man really own 2,215m2 of real-estate in Shibuya? That is over 700 tsubo (this being the Japanese way to measue land area, where one tsubo – or “坪” – is about 3.3 square meters)!! For people who haven’t been looking at Tokyo real-estate recently, I can tell you that anything over 150m2 is unusual in central Tokyo and people usually drop their jaws when they hear that to own property near the station at Den’enchofu (田園調布) you have to own a minimum of 100 tsubo (330 m2. Yes, the law says that you cant own a block of land smaller than this withing thre reaches of the station!) We’re talking 7 times the “very rich” factor.

Let’s just assume that the newspaper was correct and he does own 700 tsubo of land in Shibuya. According to a source of mine (and a bunch of police offices suddenly standing guard outside his property since he became PM) I’m lead to believe that Aso’s property isn’t just anywhere in Shibuya, it’s in Shoto (松涛)! Shoto is the area to the West of NHK between Shibuya and Harajuku which is known to boast some of the most expensive residential property prices in the country. If you have a spare 600 million yen, you might want to check out Mikitani-san’s old apartment (ala Rakuten fame) there which is up for sale at the moment near the New Zealand embassy. Yes, you did read right. 600 million yen for an apartment. So I wonder how much Aso’s plot of land is worth – after all that’s what this disclosure is all about isn’t it? Well according to the Nikkei, this huge block of land is worth a whopping 290 million yen. That’s only a touch over 41 men (410,000 yen) per tsubo. Please tell me where I can buy some land anywhere in Tokyo for that price! To put that in to perspective, a quick search on yahoo 不動産 (Yahoo! Japan’s real-estate section) (include a link?) suggests that the going price for houses in that general vicinity is closer to 800 men (8,000,000 yen) per tsubo. Land in Shoto could be worth even more because it is so rare to hit the market. Taking this conservative value, Aso’s land should be worth closer to 5.5 billion yen (that’s about $60 million USD depending on what day you decide to check xe.com).

This is a photo of Aso’s residence. If you click on it, you can scroll around, and check out his ‘hood on Google. He lives right next door to the Embassy of New Zealand (maybe that’s why his land is so cheap!):

Prime Minister Aso's house - We value it at 5.5 billion yen, but the PM says it's worth only 290 million. Now that's disclosure!

He’s really doing Japan a service with his friendly disclosure. I wonder if the average citizen realizes how vastly these property values are understated? Then again, maybe they don’t even care. Apparently the rationale behind the number is that this is the figure used in calculations for the annual property tax that he pays to the government. (固定資産税の課税標準価額). Surely that makes this scam even worse? Not only are they grossly understanding his net worth in such a way that most people in Japan would have little to no understanding of, this also means that he gets away with paying tax calculated on a real-estate value which is only a fraction of what it is really worth. While I’m generally opposed to taxes on real-estate like this in spirit, I can’t see how the PM can justify calculating his tax based on a value of his house which is approximately twenty times understated. I thought Japanese had a socialist taxation system but clearly they aren’t taxing the land owners enough.

To rub salt into the wounds of this disclosure property, his property in downtown Shibuya seems to be deceptively understated also. Taking the value at its face, he clearly lives in a dog house (albeit a 200+ tsubo dog house). The “disclosure” article notes that the building on this property is only worth 9 million yen. Given that it usually costs between 50~100 men (500,000-1,000,000 yen) per tsubo to build an ordinary house then we’re out by a factor of 15~20x. That of course is assuming that his house is of the same quality that you and I would order if we built a house. Has anyone seen what sort of house this Aso lives in? You can get the general picture from the image above, but it is huge! (Not a “mansion” on Japanese standards, but a real mansion!) I’m assuming that the rules allow you to just disclose the fully depreciated value of any buildings and that his house is over 20 years old, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.

If you were hoping to get some stock picking ideas from their share portfolios then you’ll probably be disappointed. Most of the politicians just seemed to own shares in their own family holding companies (“~興産”) and boring blue chips. The most commonly owned stock was NTT (3 pollies), followed by Hitachi, JAL and Nomura (each owned by 2 pollies). Notably no one owned shares in Livedoor which I only mention as one person still seemed stuck with shares in Seibu Rail (西武ホールディングズ), another major Japanese company to be delisted for fraud a few years ago. Most of the other information isn’t of much help although I did get a bit of fun out of comparing car fleets amongst them. While I know that Toyota do make good cars, they felt a little over represented with 10 of the new cabinet members driving one (versus 3x Nissan, 2x Merc (Sato and Hatoyama) and 1x Audi (Aso)). Perhaps Aichi prefecture has more of an impact on Nagatacho than we thought.

Tasteful front door of a nurse flavored Fashion Health establishment in Akebonocho

But why the sudden boom now? Besides the substantial slow down in M&A in the rest of the market, it seems that demographics are the real catalyst for this boom. The shop owners in this industry are no exception to the aging of society that is troubling the Japan of the 21st century. As their owners slowly reach 70 years old, even owners of “Fashion Health” look forward to their own happy endings and think about retirement. I have a funny feeling that the shacho (社長, president) of such companies have a few more day to day “issues” to deal with in addition to keeping the accounts balanced and would enjoy the peace after retirement more than most. I really can’t imagine how an elderly man would keep his own against a dispute with his friendly neighborhood Yakuza.

Quite recently the owner of “A”, one of Kabukicho’s most famous fashion health establishments is said to have rode this wave of M&A and sold his business to a more energetic young entrepreneur. According to our sources, the greatest number of similar transactions have been in Shinjuku and Yokohama although due to the nature of the business, it is hard to get hard figures.

The beauty of the concept is simple. Unlike call girl services, the customer doesn’t have to pay for a hotel room. What you save him in hotel dollars, he can spend with you… being more of a frequent flier. Although as the shop operator you have to provide rooms, at an average take of about 8000 yen for 40 minutes, you hardly have to worry about capacity issues. Popular stores are said to turn over there rooms about 5 times a day. Even when you factor in that the shop splits the take 50:50 with the “companion” that still makes for 20,000 yen per room per day. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to work out that with a tiny 10 room building you are talking 200,000 yen a day or about 70 million yen a year. If you are willing to compromise on quality (and safety standards) then it’s unlikely that a building that size is going to cost you more than 150~200 million yen even in Tokyo/Yokohama. Needless to say this is a gross yield and so you have to subtract a bunch of other costs first but your ROI will still be quite respectable.  For the owners, it’s not a bad deal either – they’re willing to shift into a slower gear and they get a bit of a golden parachute to thank them for the efforts in building the business.

The transaction must be structured carefully. Because the law states that the license for fashion health can only be continued for one generation, this loop hole only exists for owners who were smart enough to own their business and apply for their license through a corporate entity. That way, after any sale, the owner and operator of the business remains the same and it is only the shareholders of the business change (this is a trick that is often used in many countries to avoid real-estate transaction fees and taxes). All the new “owner” then has to do is change the management of his company and he has control of his newly purchased entity. Sounds a helluva lot easier than M&A for normal Japanese companies!

Unfortunately, there is a bit of competition out there. The main buyers so far have been owners of large-scale “health” shops in Susukino and Akebonocho who aren’t afraid of throwing their money where their pants are.  It’s also an attractive option for entrepreneurs in other sub-sectors of the industry, hoping to spread some of their risk.  The most recent transaction that I’ve heard about is for the lease hold of a small shop in Akebonocho (曙町), Yokohama with only 5 rooms that apparently changed hands for 30 million JPY. In that neck of the woods your going to struggle to get 500% occupancy like our previous example (damn that would mean a gross yield on investment of 100%!!!) but you’re still going to get your cash back in a very short time.  Part of me feels sorry for the shacho getting screwed out of the business he built his life on for such a low price, and the other part of me recalls the havoc that unexpected law changes have done to the consumer finance industry recently and I think that perhaps he’s just lucky to get anything for it.

What do you think? Are you interested?  I remember when love hotels were all the rage about 10 years ago.  A bunch of foreign investors came into the market and bought enough love hotels to make a private REIT style investment fund.  Annual yeilds were supposed to be north of 25%.   If anyone ever hears of an opportunity to invest in a Fashion Health REIT, please drop us a line!

Breast feeding at a Baby-Friendly Hospital in Japan

Has your wife already chosen her Obstetrics & Gynecology (Ob/Gy) Doctor in Japan? Have you met him? (I use “him” as unfortunately the vast majority of Ob/Gy’s in Japan are males) Did you go along to help scrutinize him? Call me paranoid but we went and interviewed 4 different doctors before we decided on who we wanted to deliver our baby. It’s astounding how different one Doc’s perspective can be to the next.

This is the sixth installment in a series about my personal experience of being pregnant in Japan (or perhaps I should say, of my Japanese wife being pregnant). I decided to start writing this series when I realized that there must be a significantly large population of gaijin dad’s out there who are making all of the mistakes that I have and wished there was a bank of information somewhere to save them some of the pain. In that respect, this installment might be most relevant to Dad’s who haven’t even gotten pregnant yet or are in the early stages. If you’re too far along in the pregnancy, it’s likely that your wife has already decided on which hospital she wants to use. That could be fine, but I don’t want you to overlook how important such a choice can be. With a bit of balanced information from an international perspective you might want to rethink your priorities. There doesn’t seem to be very many independent, balanced sources of information for Japanese people, let alone gaijin parents so hopefully I can shed a little more light on the Japanese hospital situation here. If you haven’t already, you might like to catch up on the first, second, third, fourth and fifth installments of the series before reading on.

Although it might seem painfully obvious, choosing the right hospital is a very important decision in your wife’s pregnancy. Most people just focus on the size of the room, the kind of food that is served and the price but there are a whole lot of other things that you need to take into consideration when choosing a hospital for delivery. Although the private health system is almost non-existent in Japan, Ob/Gy is one of the few areas where you have a pretty wide choice and certainly don’t have to rely on the large scale 総合病院 (general hospitals / Sogo Byoin) if you don’t want to. There are thousands of tiny Obstetrics & Gynecology clinics (called 産婦人科 / sanfujinka) dotted around the country which specialize in nothing but pregnant mothers. Many of them have a limit on the number of patients (often a single digit one) and so can provide a very personal service compared to what you might have expected if you have ever needed emergency treatment at a regular hospital in Japan.

Although you often have to pay up front in cash for Ob/Gy services in Japan (remember, credit cards generally aren’t accepted in Japanese hospitals at all), the Japanese government will give you a cash payment of 350,000 yen per child as long as either you or your partner are working in Japan and paying some sort of government insurance. (While it’s nothing to celebrate, you are actually even eligible for the cash in the case of a miscarriage as long as the fetus reaches 85 days or more!). While most clinics structure their fees so that you are charged spank bang 350,000 yen, some in remote areas with aging populations are proactively charging less (so that you can profit from the birth) in order to attract young couples from the cities. By the way, if you’ve recently had a baby and you haven’t applied for the government subsidy, it’s called “出産育児一時金” (Shussan Ikuji Ichijikin) and you can apply for it up until 2 years after the date of birth of your child.

Check out the price. Check out the size of the steaks they serve you to celebrate the birth of your child, but more importantly check out the philosophy and policies of the doctors, nurses and midwives. And this doesn’t just refer to being organic or having/not having an epidural. If you need a list of questions to ask, there is a great template in the book, “The Expectant Father” that I introduced in part two of this series (it is still my favorite book on this subject matter by the way). But if you’re hoping to breast-feed your baby exclusively, I recommend that you add the following few questions for Japan:

• What percentage of children born in your hospital last year drank formula at least once?
• Under what circumstances will a baby be fed formula? (especially focusing on if nurses ever feed babies formula without consulting the parents)
• Do you have, or can you recommend a lactation consultant?
• If the mother is deemed to have a low supply of milk or the infant is not putting on weight fast enough, what countermeasures do you recommend and after how many weeks?

One of the big problems is that although many hospitals claim that they are all natural/back to basics, or that they encourage breast feeding, this often means little more than them giving private breast massages to your wife for the few days after her delivery. The reality is that many of these doctors were educated a long time ago and aren’t up to date with the most recent academic thought and they are more likely to trust what they hear from the visiting salesmen from the major pharmaceutical companies (who also, strangely enough, leave plenty of samples of their products). Hell, it is so hard to keep a hospital profitable in Japan that you don’t have time to do your own extra research.

So, I ask you this question? Who do you trust more? The quack down the road from you who operates a small scale clinic that is only viable because of government subsidies and strategic bribes from pharmaceutical companies? Or the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF? Yes, there is a better way of judging how reliable your Ob/Gy really is.

It turns out that WHO and UNICEF have developed a global criteria for what they consider to be a Baby-Friendly Hospital (BFH), under the BFHI (Baby-Friedly Hosptal Initiative), which encourages and recognizes hospitals and maternity centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding babies, which includes protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding.

The BFHI Ten Commandments
of Breastfeeding

The concept stemmed from the fact that (almost) all Mothers use a hospital when giving birth to their baby and almost all of those Mothers are heavily influenced by the practices of that hospital and the teachings of their Ob/Gy and/or midwife that delivers their baby. If the hospital is so focused on the bottom line that they skimp and cut corners when it comes to education or even worse give misinformation to their customers due to a lack of continual independent education then there can be serious repercussions for the long-term health and welfare of the babies born there. Pretty simple, eh. Well WHO and UNICEF have now designated over 20,000 hospitals in 152 countries as being Baby Friendly Hospitals. How many do you think exist in Japan? 48. Yep. Japan has less than one quarter of one percent of all of the BFH’s in the World. What are the criteria that the WHO and UNICEF use to judge hospitals? It turns out that they have 10 simple rules for becoming a BFH and they center on making your birth natural and giving your baby the best chance it can have for a healthy birth and to reduce the probability of allergies and other medical risks developing in later life. They cover everything from giving the child a chance to bond with it’s mother on the breast immediately after the birth to not accepting free or low-cost substitutes for breast milk (ie. Powdered milk). You can read the details for yourself on their official website entitled, “The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” which also has a link to all of the 10 commandments of breastfeeding. Perhaps most interestingly, it gives you an insight into what so many of the world’s hospitals are messing up.

Perhaps you might think that BFHs aren’t for you, but please let me try one more time to convince you. We were lucky enough to find a BFH that also met our other needs (including geographical) and I’m convinced that it made a huge difference in terms of emotional support and acceptance (from the midwives to my wife and I) and was key to a flawless entry to the world for my child. Before you finalize your hospital, please see if there are any Baby Friendly Hospitals near your home. If there is one, give them a visit and find out how they’re different to your current hospital. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Below is a list of all of the BFHs in Japan (as at July 2008). As far as I know, this is the only English language list of Japanese BFHs. As you’ll notice, the biggest problem is that there just aren’t that many BFHs to choose from (Damn, even Burma has more!) but by spreading the word to your local Ob/Gy you might be able to help change that. If there are any readers out there who have actually been to one of these BFHs, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section (at the very bottom) so other gaijin parents can benefit, too.

List of Baby-Friendly Hospitals (BFH) in Japan:

(Click on the Japanese name to jump to the homepage of each one):