Day Cares For Sick Children In Fukuoka

NOTE: I have not yet tried the services below but thought it useful to share with you. Not knowing about such places has cost me tens of thousands of yen in work absences.

What are these places?

These are mostly pediatric clinics and some hoikuens designated to provide temporary day care for sick children or those recovering from illnesses. Parents who are unable to take care of their children, due to work or other reasons, can admit their children in these care centers.

New Hyperdia Facelift

I like it, but I am more inclined to the older version. New is better though! Viewers will notice in my Hyperdia post that the screen captures are outdated. I will update this when I get free time soon.

Japanese High Tech Toilet Panel

Ever wondered what on Earth these buttons are for,  and what will happen if I just press this one?

I have not come across one of these toilets with an English explanation yet in Fukuoka. That’s why I decided to post this interesting topic for the curious

Remove Permanant Marker on Whiteboard

I must’ve come across this simple trick some 4 years ago but doing it again today was so face saving. I had accidentally used a permanent marker on the classroom white board. The thickest zoukin (house-cloth) and the hardest wipes couldn’t remove the ink. Students were entering the room for the next lesson. What could I do? Something clicked – the white board marker!

I wrote over the permanent marker with the white board marker, following carefully every scribble detail. The class started 3 minutes later. Regardless, we had a clean white board to see a video presentation on the  History of Halloween.

Understanding Hoikuens (Day Cares) In Fukuoka

Difference Between a Hoikujo, Hoikuen & Youchien

Basically, there are public and privately run nurseries, day cares and kindergartens. Not all child rearing centers are called hoikuens. A nursery is a hoikujo. A day care is a hoikuen and a kindergarten is a youchien. Hoikujos and hoikuens generally offer care services. Children are taken care of in situations where parents cannot

Documents Required For A Working Visa In Fukuoka

I visited the Fukuoka Immigration Bureau to apply for a change of status of residence or more like extending my work duration. The company I work for provided most of the necessary documents while I presented the rest. The submitted documents are similar to those considering a change of visa status from dependent, student etc. to a working visa; speaking of which, I once was a dependent.

CDs For The Next Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse July '09 in Fukuoka.

The solar eclipse has come and gone and maybe won’t appear again for another 50 years or so.

For me, I had the opportunity to view this heavenly wonder without a hassle. I didn’t spend a yen on a pair of fancy eclipse glasses, I didn’t have to travel some distance ,under this rather irritating weather, to be part of history (no offense to those who did). I simply found a good view in the school building and leaned out for

Help! Where Can I Find A Doctor?

I had to rush off to the doctor the other time. I had had an ailing sore throat for the past week.  I could hardly swallow anything. The pain became unbearable the night before as I coughed and cried with frustration when the irritation got worse. So yesterday, I decided to rid myself off of this anguish. I cycled almost 8 km to the nearest emergency hospital I knew, which was Chidoribashi in Hakata Ward

Cool In A Pool

Got this ad from a Summer Time Party ad at a train station.

Hey! Any mothers out there. I just came across this information on the Fukuoka City page that might be of interest to you and your kids. I think this is great! Quite surprising though cause I never knew this site existed.

The Hyperdia Timetable For JR Train Goers

A very useful travel tool to have

I became interested in train schedules when I went for my ‘first’ official job interview in Kitakyushu. Again, like I mentioned in my first post, I have very, very little spoken Japanese and simply a non-existant kanji ability – so it was a real blessing to come across the JR Group website in English! Of all the useful information I came across there, the most valuable was the discovery of the Hyperdia-Timetable software developed by Hitachi Information Systems,Ltd. The beauty about this system is that, again, it’s all in English and practically covers the whole of Japan’s train stations and trains timetables – well Kyushu for that matter. Ok, all I am trying to say is – Hyperdia-Timetable is quite an extensive as well as an impressive system. Click here if you need help in getting started or follow the 4 step guide below. Before you know it, you will become an expert in pulling up train schedules!

So let’s have a look at the basics of how to do a search. Please let us know if you have a better site to share with our readers.

Do your first Hyperdia-Timetable search

Step 1

Visit this page

STEP 1: To and From. Enter the name of your starting point and destination here. Names in the database can sometime be different to how they are actually pronounced or spelt. The search will return a ‘Destination not found’ result if that is the case. For example, the Fukkou Daimae is spelt Fukkoudaimae in the Nishitetsu Bus schedule search. With Hyperdia-Timetable, it is spelt Fukkoudaimae. Simply try different spelling variations of the name until you bring up the schedule with one the system recognises. This is not a big problem and the results are rewarding alright.

Step 2

Step 2

STEP 2: Fine tune your search here. There are a number of options available here for you. 1. Select the date and time you plan to take the train. 2. Check the drop down menus to make sure you have the correct start point and destination. 3. Select the type of fare – whether for Reserved, Unreserved or the Green seat. 4. Check or click the route you want to take – whether it be the Limited Express,  Shinkansen or Airplane. Results for both the Local and Rapid Express trains will automatically show up. 5. Click Start to pull up your times.

Step 3

Step 3

STEP 3: Your search results here. This is my favourite part of the search. It’s here that I do a little roaming around, in and out of the schedules. You can click on the small icons on course table to get detailed and precise information on the schedules. Also  check the stops your train will be making and at what time. See the plaforms to get on and off. You may get more than one search result so the most important information to extract from multiple results are the Required time to travel, the total Distance of travel and the fare. This will help you to select the most convenient schedule to use. Bear in mind that some results may include a walk to the Nishitetsu Train station. Other’s may include an all-round trip which takes extremely longer and not to mention the fare involved (see STEP 3.i). Go for the longer trip if you decide to do some sight seeing round the place.

Step 3i

Step 3i

STEP 4: Record your schedule. Simple. Just do a screen capture and print it out or write the times down on a piece of paper. For me, I like rearranging them onto the Excel spreadsheet to make them look prettier. I know, the latter is time consuming but I like to do it when I have the time…err…more like squeeze the time for this.

Apart from the Hyperdia-Timetable

The Jorudan software development company has a Travel Route Finder system called the Norikae-Annai which provides much the same information as Hyperdia. There is also this JR’s Rule on Passenger Tickets page that I found quite a brilliant compilation for ticket information. Excellent for new comers. Take a look when you have time.

A JR Train

I became interested in train schedules when I went for my ‘first’ official job interview in Kitakyushu. Again, like I mentioned in my first post, I have very, very little spoken Japanese and simply a non-existent kanji ability. So it was a blessing to come across the JR Group website in English and specifically, the Hyperdia Timetable which was developed by Hitachi Information Systems, Ltd. The beauty about this system is