Archive for Lifestyle

Japanese air conditioner usage

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With summer fast approaching and the Meteorological Agency predicting it will be a hotter than average summer over most of the country, let’s take a look at a recent survey by DIMSDRIVE Research regarding air conditioners

Demographics

Between the 18th and 26 of April 2007 DIMSDRIVE Research received 8,925 valid replies to a private internet-based questionnaire circulated around members of its monitor panel. 54.5% of the sample was female, 0.8% in their teens, 13.4% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, 30.2% in their forties, 14.3% in their fifties, and 5.5% aged sixty or older. As a bonus demographic fact, 27.3% of the sample had a pet.

My current domicile is cooled mostly by Daikin air conditioners, which I wouldn’t really recommend to anyone, but we ended up being sort-of stuck with them. My previous residence was all National/Panasonic, which are very good. However, I have on reliable authority that the cleaning robots inside some of the newer models are very noisy, and it was my experience that unless you are a smoker or live close to a busy road, cleaning is not really that bothersome.

Note that in Q5, according to the Cool Biz and Warm Biz initiatives you should set your heating to 20 degrees Celcius in the winter and 28 degrees Celcius in the summer. Barely one in five during the summer and perhaps the similar amount in the winter follow this advice.

As a side note on the usage of drum-type washing machines, I suggested to my Japanese wife that our next washing machine be a drum type as they use less water, but she said she’d lose the ability to wash blankets and other large items.
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Where not to take your Japanese girlfriend on a first date

goo Ranking recently published another rather entertaining survey, this time on where people would least like to go on a first date to, with both male and female versions published.

As usual for goo Ranking, there is no demographic information available about the sample size, only that the votes were gathered between the 19th and 20th of April from members of the goo Research monitor group. The top voted location was awarded 100 points, and the others awarded a score representing the relative percentage of votes they got.
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Daytime drowsiness and dozing off

How often do you feel drowsy during the day?? graph of japanese opinionHaving previously looked with DIMSDRIVE Ranking at average sleep times, and more recently with goo Ranking on avoiding nodding off at the wheel, this time let’s look at drowsiness with DIMSDRIVE Ranking’s 115th survey – how often one feels drowsy, at what time of the day one feels drowsy, and what one does to counter drowsiness.

I get drowsy about 9pm or so most nights, but I just have to try to endure it until bed time, although looking at the survey it only deals with sleepiness during the day time. It’s quite amazing, however, that at least one colleague at least once per week falls asleep during meetings, or at least closes his eyes and appears to be lightly dozing. When there is mass meetings, mass snoozing is never far behind, although that might be due to the majority of speakers being deathly dull…
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Mobiles help strengthen Japanese parent-child relationships

Has parent-child communication changed due to mobile phones? graph of japanese opinionNepro Japan recently reported on an interesting report on parent-child relationships and email. This perhaps could be considered a follow-up to a previous survery on how people have seen society change due to mobiles.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 6th of April 2007 Nepro Japan collected 3,866 responses through a menu option available through the public menu systems of NTT DoCoMo’s iMode, SoftBank’s Yahoo Keitai and au’s EZweb. 42% of this self-selecting survey was male, 3% in their teens, 36% in their twenties, 42% in their thirties, and 18% aged forty or older.

Not being a parent, and not having a parent in this country, I cannot comment on any personal experiences.

In Q1 there seems to be rather a lot of orphans! Perhaps it includes people who have fallen out of touch with their parents.
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Gambling in Japan

Have you gambled this last year? graph of japanese opinionCentral Research Services recently published a survey on a topic I’ve been keen to find a survey on, namely gambling. I’d still like to find a more detailed survey, especially to see if lottery scratch-card addiction is an issue, as the promotion of them on television is extremely irresponsible in my opinion.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of July 2006 (CRS are always slow to report their surveys!) they conducted face-to-face interviewed with 2,000 randomly selected individuals from all over the country. 1,379 successful responses were obtained.

This topic covered legal gambling in Japan, namely horses, boats, cars, lottery, football pools, and of course pachinko and slot machines. Stuff like internet gambling or holidays to Las Vegas were outside of the scope of this survey.

I’ve only indirectly gambled in Japan, due to someone giving me a year-end lottery ticket. I’d love to visit a Pachinko Parlour sometime, but I’m scared to go as I fear I’d either go deaf or inhale far too much second-hand smoke!

However, the Pachinko advertisements on television are often rather interesting. Thanks to Japander for uploading!


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Cheap IP phones do not necessary mean longer talk times

Since changing to an IP phone service, how has your talk time changed? graph of japanese opinionjapan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into the use of IP phones.

Demographics

330 members of JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in the private or public sector completed a private survey conducted on the 21st of April 2007. 62.4% were male, 15.8% in their twenties, 49.4% in their thirties, 26.7% in their forties, 6.7% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

The main promoter of IP phones (and the biggest provider of “free” wireless connections in Japan, but that’s another story!) is Yahoo! BB, who can often be found in front of railway stations and the like thrusting ADSL routers into the hands of unsuspecting passers-by for them to use as both internet connection ports and as telephones. Their service allows free calls to other Yahoo! BB users, and almost all standard phones can just plug straight into their routers.
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Most Japanese can’t bear to be parted from their mobiles

If you leave home without your mobile phone, you...? graph of japanese opinioninfoPLANT recently reported on a short but interesting survey they conducted into what people usually carry with them, excluding mobile phones and cash.

Demographics

Over a week between the 10th and 17th of April 2007, infoPLANT collected 7,038 self-selecting respondents to a survey available through the DoCoMo iMode mobile phone menuing system. 35.3% of the sample was male, 6.7% female. For the results persented below, the 173 people, or 2.5% who carried nothing with them were eliminated.

I would love to have seen them ask about mirrors, as it seems that the vast majority of women in trains, and quite a few men, have them stuffed away in their bags for emergency make-up sessions.
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Ask What Japan Thinks of tea-related drinks: survey 2 of 2

How often do you buy teas in 500ml bottles? graph of japanese opinion[survey 1] [survey 2]

Between the 22nd and 29th of March 2007 DIMSDRIVE Research surveyed its internet community regarding tea and tea-like drinks from plastic bottles. This is the second of a pair of rather similar surveys on tea drinks.

Demographics

6,477 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research internet community completed a private internet-based survey. 40.3% were male, 0.5% in their teens, 16.8% in their twenties, 36.5% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 13.2% in their fifties, and 4.4% aged sixty or older.

This is a survey I’ve been looking for for a while, as I have wanted to do an “Ask What Japan Thinks” on tea, as I do get a few visitors looking for this sort of information, so I hope the information helps you out.

Note that in Japan plastic bottles are called PET bottles, with PET standing for polyethylene terephthalate, it appears. These bottles are usually recycled separately, so most public areas have a bin for these types of bottles only. You are supposed to take the cap off (some bins now have a separate opening for them) and the label, but I must admit to not doing either, although I do always use the correct bin.
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Ask What Japan Thinks of tea-related drinks: survey 1 of 2

How often do you drink plastic bottled tea-related drinks? graph of japanese opinion[survey 1] [survey 2]

Over the first five days of April 2007 MyVoice surveyed its internet community regarding tea and tea-like drinks. This is the first of a pair of rather similar surveys on tea-related drinks.

Demographics

17,539 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based survey. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

This is a survey I’ve been looking for for a while, as I have wanted to do an “Ask What Japan Thinks” on tea, as I do get a few visitors looking for this sort of information, so I hope the information helps you out.

Note that in Japan plastic bottles are called PET bottles, with PET standing for polyethylene terephthalate, it appears. These bottles are usually recycled separately, so most public areas have a bin for these types of bottles only. You are supposed to take the cap off (some bins now have a separate opening for them) and the label, but I must admit to not doing either, although I do always use the correct bin.
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All-you-can eat restaurants in Japan

About how often do you go for all-you-can-eat meals? graph of japanese opinionBetween the 1st and 5th of April 2007 MyVoice looked at all-you-can-eat restaurants. This is perhaps a subject dear to many foreigners’ hearts as they can find the portions in Japan a little small. This survey does not, however, cover all-you-can-drink offers.

Demographics

17,261 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based survey. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties.

I’ve got a few favourite all-you-can-eat restaurants in the Kansai area, and we tend to visit about twice a month. Rather than just listing them, let’s try a Google Map of the locations.

Click here to visit my custom Google Maps map.

My number one top spot is Solviva atop of the Hankyu Terminal Building in Umeda. It’s 1,890 yen for a varied selection of Japanese farm cooking, with some organic veggies here and there. There’s about forty dishes to choose from, then another ten or so desserts, organic coffee and tea, and a wonderful view from the counter seats looking north over Osaka. There’s also an alcohol menu with interesting shochu, from boring old wheat or potato base to milk via corn and sesame.

I also discovered this interesting page of reviews of other all-you-can-eat locations in Osaka.
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