HOW TO: Find motion sickness medication in Japan

With all the shaking happening lately in Japan, particularly in the Tohoku and Kanto regions, many people may be experiencing some form of motion sickness (I know I probably would be if I was living in Tokyo...) In fact, someone blogged about it somewhat recently via the Wall Street Journal. Not that it is anything compared with those still living in evacuation shelters up north, waiting on food, supplies and temporary shelters, but some of you might be wondering what kind of medicine to get if suffering from motion sickness and related symptoms. Since Golden Week and summer will be upon us shortly, many of you may be traveling at some point, perhaps to volunteer, take a trip home or go on vacation.

For those unaware, I suffered from a six-month long illness over a year ago, called labrynthitis. It's a viral infection of the deep inner ear, which affects your balance. I couldn't walk or stand very well for months, and found myself nearly passing out or falling over if I stood too long. Let's just say riding in cars, on trains, or in planes was a horrible experience for me - one I had never experienced before as I generally don't have problems with motion sickness. It took months to get a diagnosis, and just as long to figure out what type of motion sickness medicine was the best to use and the most effective (I received varying types from doctors here and from my doctor in the US as well). So for those who do suffer regularly, I now understand your pain.

You can easily get over-the-counter motion sickness medication in Japan, and if you want something even stronger I would suggest seeing a doctor. As for what different types of drugs do, try doing a google search about motion sickness medication to learn more about the different types of drugs and why they are used - that way you can choose something you want or something similar to what you've used in the past.

HOW TO: Take great travel photos when you visit Japan

Who doesn't like taking photos when they travel? And Japan is no exception - especially for those of us who live here and still take photos on a regular basis! David, of JapanDave.com is one of those folks - although he takes it a few steps further with his lovely HDR (high dynamic range) photos. He's here this week to offer some photography tips, particularly for those of you new to photography and wanting to capture some great shots while you're in Japan. - Ashley


So you want to score some great pics on your Japan trip. Great! I'm not going to give you a sightseeing guide (Kyoto) or tell you what you should shoot (Kenninji). Instead I'm going to give you some tips to help get you some really great snapshots instead of the typical boring ones that put everyone to sleep.

Prep

1. Learn your camera

This may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised. Many people buy a new camera right before a trip and just assume they can figure out how to use it. Well... You don't want to return from a trip only to discover every, single, photo is out of focus because you had the camera in "macro" mode the entire time, do you? (I've seen this happen. Seriously. Wasn't pretty.) At the very least, take the time to read the manual and practice a bit.

Whoops

HOW TO: Find kale in Japan

Finally! At long last, I've discovered how to find kale in Japan. It seems as though it should be simple, right? You can purchase boxes and packets of 青汁 (あおじる, aojiru, green vegetable drink, often in powdered form) everywhere - in supermarkets, drugstores, specialty shops. Searching for "ケール" (kale) on the internet results in page after page of results for aojiru. And sure, aojiru is great, in all its dry, powdered kale glory. (For those that don't know, aojiru is also sometimes comprised of barley grass and other green type vegetation). Aojiru is great to mix in smoothies, with milk or soy milk, or just with plain water. I'm a huge fan of aojiru, but I figured with the prevalence of this magically healthy drink, finding actual kale leaves would be no problem.

青汁, aojiru

Not so. To date, I have yet to see kale in any supermarket, farmer's market (in my area) or online. I've tried other ways of searching, but to no avail. Until yesterday, when I thought to try searching again, but this time for "kale leaves" specifically, and lo and behold, real results! For the record, I found these two phrases the best to use when searching for real kale leaves online:

ケールの生葉  or  ケール生葉　

HOW TO: Find pollen counts in Japan

Today's guest post comes from Paul of Just Another Day in Japan, a blog full of interesting and useful tidbits about Japan and life here. Please do go check it out after you've read his post below!  -Ashley


It's that time of year again - the days are getting warmer and longer, the flowers are blooming, the pollen is invading our bodies like a hostile enemy force...

Ashley has already written a couple of posts about how to battle this enemy (how to beat hay fever in Japan; allergies in japan - how to deal), packed with useful terminology and treatment techniques, but today I'm going to share a method for gathering some intelligence on (pollen) enemy movements and positions.

Our main tool in this conflict is a useful website I actually came across in another one of Ashley's earlier posts, how to find out how fast your laundry will dry: tenki.jp. Think of it as our special spy satellite in the battle against... Whew, this war metaphor is growing a little cumbersome - time to shed that and get down to brass tacks.

Here's our starting point, tenki.jp. Don't get distracted by all the links or that big ad (Ooo, 83%!). If your Japanese skills are non-existent to minimal, don't worry - I'm gonna walk you through this.

First, click on 花粉 (pollen) in the second row of links right below the main logo. You can see it below circled in red.

Click on our friend circled in red to go to the main pollen report.