How to pay taxes?

Income tax in Japan is based on a self-assessment system (a person determines the tax amount himself or herself by filing a tax return) in combination with a withholding tax system (taxes are subtracted from salaries and wages and submitted by the employer).

Thanks to the withholding tax system, most employees in Japan do not need to file a tax return. In fact, employees only need to file a tax return if at least one of the following conditions is true:

• if they leave Japan before the end of the tax year
• if their employer does not withhold taxes (e.g. employer outside Japan)
• if they have more than one employer
• if their annual income is more than 20,000,000 yen
• if they have side income of more than 200,000 yen

Employees, who do not need to file a tax return, will have their national income taxes withheld from their salaries by their employer, and an eventual adjustment is made with the year’s final salary. Prefectural and municipal payments have to be paid separately by the employee upon notification by the municipality.

People, who are required to file a tax return, such as self-employed persons, must do so at the local tax office (zeimusho) between February 16 and March 15 of the following year. The tax return for 2009 has to be filed between February 16 and March 15, 2010.

So it was a short and sweet stay, but I am graduating from Share house. (hopefully, I hope.. if all goes well)

I had a lot of fun in the share house! First of all, the people were all really nice! When I first moved in to the share house, I was a bit nervous! Coming to a foreign country, and living with random people from other countries!! but it turned out that they were all really friendly! and it was so nice to meet and get to know people from other places. I’ve met some Japanese people from many different parts of Japan, Europeans, Asians from different parts of Asia, people from Australia and even people from Canada =). It was really nice to come home to a group of friendly people and chat a bit before I went to bed! Second, where I lived (Nakamurabashi) was sooo convenient! I might have written this before, but the apartment is literally 2 minutes away from the station, and the station is surrounded by cheap super markets, drug stores, bars (izakaya), restaurants, 100 yen shops… everything that I need was always so accessible! I think I’m really going to miss this place ='(

I had a really really good time here, thank you!

Ok, so… coming from Canada, Halloween was a big event every year. So needless to say, I was shocked to hear that Japanese people pretty much do not celebrate Halloween at all!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve dressed up for Halloween. It was always the best time of the year! I loved to go trick or treating… I mean… the amount of candies you can get out of just walking few miles… hahaha Eventually I grew out of trick or treating, but I remember I never grew out of dressing up! It was always so fun! Especially when I entered university, it was a really really big event. All the girls would dress up as french maids, angels, police woman, fire fighter, playboy bunny… you know… the usual and go to clubs… I really miss it =(

So.. this year I’m a little disappointed to find out that Halloween is not big event here at all. Apparently only in Roppongi.  Maybe I will have to check out Roppongi on the 31st?? But.. good news! GABA will have Halloween party on the 24th at it’s learning studio. It’s really hard to imagine the learning studio, where students come to study English seriously every day gets turned in to a drinking hall… and I’m a little nervous about getting drunk in front of my students (I have no control…) but it should be good times!! =) It’s this Saturday, I’m really looking forward to it!! I’ll put up another blog on it… given that I remember what happenes that night.

I’ve been reading a lot of Japanese novels recently. I first started as a way to study Kanji, but recently, I’ve really gotten in to it! So for this blog, I thought I’d recommend some books that I think is really worth while reading:

1. Mueito – This is a book by Watanabe Junichi. Some of you may now him by his famous novels such as “shitsurakuen”.. I won’t go in to detail about this one. Mueito is Japanese means “lighting without shadow”… you know, one of those lighting that’s used in the operation room. This book sure enough is about doctors and how they deal with life and death. It was really difficult to read, but definitely very interesting. If you have time, I recommend you to pick a copy up!

2. Kuchu buranko – This is the 1st book in a 3 book series… it’s basically about a doctor (maybe psychiatrist?) That deals with patients with different types of problems. It sounds dark and heavy, but it’s actually really really funny and interesting! I couldn’t stop reading it and I was finished in a day! The main character is absolutely hilarious. He makes you look at life from a completely different angle.

3. Fumouchitai – This novel recently became a TV drama! The drama is of course very good (it stars my favorite actors and actresses!) but the book itself it really good as well. If you’re unfamiliar with the title, the book basically follows an ex soldier who returned to Japan after being captured and held in Siberia for over 10 years, and it’s about his life (as a merchant) there after. If you’re interested in Japanese history, or if you like historical books in general, this is a really good book for you!

4. Deguchino nai umi – The title translates to “ocean without an escape”.. or something like that. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with Kamikaze (the Japanese airline pilots), but many people are not familiar with the submarine version of that. This novel narrates their story from a Japanese perspective of the pearl harbor. This book will really open up your eyes, and the ending is brilliant.

5. Himitsu – this book is by Higashino Keigo. He is very good at writing mystery novels and I have to say this might be one of his best novels. It’s really really really unbelievably sad… but a really good story at the same time! The story begins with a terrible accident that takes away the life of a mother in a family of 3 people… or does it….? very very interesting! =)

cheers!

2 days ago, I went to Ameyoko in Ueno for the first time.

If you’ve never been there, I really really recommend it!! Many of my students at GABA suggested it to me so I decided to give it a try… and it was really really fun! It’s basically a huge market on a really long road. The street sells many things from bags, shoes, clothes, fresh fish to fruits and vegetables! And, everything is on discount!! If you search hard enough, I’m sure you’ll be able to find lots of treasures there!

I went pretty late at night, so many shops had really good bargain sales. (Like selling 7000yen tuna for 1000yen @___@) There were some really cute bags and shoes there too.. and they were all really cheap!! But.. my impression was that it had a lot more stuff for man than for woman… for some reason.

So, as you know I like to talk about food and drinks. This day, of course, my main purpose was to go drinking (I spend way to much money on alcohol every month!) anyways, my friend and I found a sketchy little Yatai (Izakaya out in the open) under the railway in a small alley. and wow… when I talk about dirt cheap, I mean this place! My friend and I ordered so much food.. and alcohol, but the bill only came to 3000yen. This is a miracle in Tokyo. But… there was a catch. The next day I had such a bad stomachache I couldn’t move.

So… do I recommend it? …. yes!

After Nagoya, my boyfriend and I took his car and we went to Ise city in Aichi prefecture. Our first stop was the Ise Shrine. Apparently, it’s supposed to be the best shrine in all Japan. When we arrived at Ise shrine, I could understand why. This might sound a little cheesy… but there was something really sacred about the place. It had lots of animals running every where (but mostly roosters for some reason) and everyone was very kind.

After Ise Shrine, we drove to Toba. Toba is the city beside Ise, and it is famous for its pearl museum and aquarium. I didn’t get to go inside the pearl museum, but I did get to go to the aquarium. It’s been a long long long time since I’ve stepped inside an aquarium, so I was really really excited. The fish in Toba were beautiful!!

After the Toba aquarium, we finally arrived to our destination, the Toba hot spring resort. This hot spring resort was unbelievably beautiful!! I’s right beside the ocean, and our balcony overlooked the ocean. The resort had about 7 different hot springs, varying in size, temperature and different types of minerals contained in the hot spring. I tried all of them, and each one of them was very very relaxing. The best thing is… our room contained it’s own private hot spring!! nice eh… =)

The hot spring was super nice, but so was the dinner. Every luxury dish you could imagine… was put out in front of us. To start of, Ise lobster (Ise ebi), kaki, awabi (different types of oysters), matsutake gohan (very expensive mushroom cooked with rice), matsuzaka gyu (the top grade beef in Japan) etc. etc… omg… the list continues.

I was really sad to leave the resort, and I definitely want to go back!! I’ve been to few different hot springs around Tokyo, but nothing compares to this one in Toba!

For the last part of our vacation, my boyfriend I, we drove through Matsuzaka to eat more of the famous Matsuzaka beef. Although it was very expensive, even for lunch, I was glad we paid the money. MMMMmmmMMMmm!!

Anyways, I’m not back to reality… and it sucks.

So I took 5 days off of my work and I went to Aichi Prefecture (Nagoya) and Mie prefecture (Ise, Toba, and Matsuzaka) for my summer vacation.

I’ve never been to any of these places so I was very very excited.

My first stop was Nagoya. Initially, I wanted to take the bullet train as it would save me a lot of time, but after considering the cost, I decided to use the night bus (in my case, very very early morning bus) and I convinced myself that I’d be able to see lots of things along the way if I road the bus. Well.. actually.. I slept for half of it, and for the half that I was awake for, I could only see farms.

But I was very surprised to learn that Japan had so much nature!! It’s really really beautiful. I might sound really ignorant and stupid, but for the longest time I really though Tokyo = Japan.

Anyways, my purpose to Nagoya was food!! Nagoya is famous for dishes such as hitsumabushi (bbqed eel on rice). miso katsu, miso nikomi udon… and everything else miso. As I only had 2 days in Nagoya, I couldn’t satisfy all my hunger pangs and I only got to try hitsumabushi and miso nikomi udon. They were really really delicious!! But really over priced I thought.

My impression of Nagoya was that it was a very strange city. Almost everyone drove a Toyota (go figure) and there were so many pachinko shops! (apparently pachinko originated from Nagoya).. but people were a lot nicer than the people in Tokyo I thought, and overall I had a really good experience and a lot of fun =)

to be continued…

my lawyer friend came and for a moment she and her friend talked, and blurred out something like “i cannot be as 瀟洒 as you, threw away/let go of everything and just left …”

it all started when she all of a sudden talked about “air-ticket”, saying it was cheap and it cost her only $900 for a around trip ticket, so i told her “wo, that is not bad, consider i paid $800 f0r my one-way ticket~”

then her reaction was, “wo! one-way ticket ah~, why not buy the open tickets?”

i answered, “because it is only good for 1-year …”

yes, cause when i bought the ticket, i did not know when to go back anyway … no other choice but to have to choose 1-way ticket.”

but of course, in american english, one-way ticket is used to show “determination”, so i guess it sounded determined to her.

she also asked me, “have you gotten used to living here?” (since her another friend also lived here but not like it here, but rather live in houston, wow, ok …)

i told her right away, “i got used to it even before i came.”

and she was laughing a little. haha. but it is also true, u know.

sometimes, actually, most of the time, i forget that i am in tokyo, a place that i NEVER even thought ONCE before 2008 that i would be living in …

a few years ago, actually almost started from 8 years ago, my japanese uni. friend already asked me, “if you like japan so much, why don’t you just come here and take some courses? study the language so maybe you can get a job here …”

i was like … “ah, .. that is a waste of my precious money, if i want to study, i can study by myself  (in my own present country).”

i am not disputing now that one cannot study on their own, but, … how to say, it is really different.

a few days ago, i happened to flip through a small japanese language book that i used to try to “study” a few years ago. i am really surprised, how much words on it now seem so familiar to me, like 80% … while, at that time (a few years ago), there is just no way i can put those words in my head …

i have to admit the progress seems very natural, as i only study less than 2 months since i came to japan, never able to concentrate in class and all, and still … just looking at this old book i realize, i have already made such a progress (STILL VERY POOR OF COURSE compare to the students’ standard here), but comparing to a few years ago, so naturally, the progress has already been made … and, i have to admit, it did really surprise me, and make me a little happy .. because of the satisfaction, the progress … it is not completely futile …

language is a curse, but it is interesting to be able to use it as a tool to talk to my chinese friend, since i cannot speak Mandarin; and use it as one more way to speak to my hong kong friends, on top of our fluent cantonese, sooo interesting, really, there are something, you just HAVE to say it in japanese and it will make a huge difference in meaning, yes. convenient!

amazing, i always thought i MADE myself to be here, i thought it was not natural, in a way, like i pushed it … but now, i think back … no …

especially yesterday, my lawyer friend from US came to tokyo and we met, and after i spent a whole night with her and her friend, i am starting to realize more …

actually, as scary as it may seem, it is almost like GOD made tons of obstacles for me in US, then … pushed me to break down and had to leave … why would i think so? because now i am so much more wide awake, and start to realize, it was so powerful that it made me, such a thrify person, to overlook the money issues, and “learn the language”? something that i always find so “what the heck!”, and now i am doing it …

because if i want to leave US, the place i like to go is japan, but since my job field is not in high demand and my native language not english, so i cannot work here, so the next thing that i can do is to make myself a student, even though, i really have not much interests in learning a language start from the beginning … sigh, troublesome leh!

so that is where i am now … don’t know for what, when i wake up i have to go some silly language school, then a few months ago, know about these public exams, oh mine … then, it makes no sense not taking them, cause then i would leave and take nothing with me if i have no certificate of any kind … -_- … and then, level 1 can give you a chance to work in japan …

so all of a sudden, is like, … wo, hold on, so now, there is a way, and seems not very far-fetched that, you might be able to work here for real … and then it came the money problems, ok, maybe you do not have enough money to stay, there is no way i am going to sacrifice so much! cause managing my crap small investment in US, really distract me from studying, … but then, all of a sudden, a month ago, i started to have part-time, it was GOD-given … since my japanese so poor … then today, these days, the US stock markets went way back up … so … maybe, it is possible …?

wow, so what the heck is going on?