Now Japan.  Sigh…Japan has obviously done their marketing research and have taken TV advertisement to the extreme.  Forget bargains (they don’t exist in this country anyway) & forget some crazy carpet emporium salesman screaming down your neck.  Think catchy.  Think extremely catch & extremely annoying!

The average Japanese has a lot on their plate so to speak; long hours, low pay & the attention span of a deaf goldfish.  Keeping their goldfish food handy, Japanese television stations have cooked up some nasty ways to keep people glued during the ad-break to the point where you find yourself actually paying attention to these damn ads.

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Here’s a quick run-down on some of these advertisement methods:

Half way through the ad break, a short teaser of what`s to come on the TV show you are currently watching will show, making you think the ads are over…fooled!  Fooled again for the 7,322nd time.

Almost every TV advertisement (No, really!) finishes with a computer mouse click with the company’s name typed into an internet search engine, displayed in katakana (a Japanese writing style used when writing foreign words).  This method accomplishes two things; it draws final attention to the ad & allows you to visually see how to search for the company using katakana.  You have to understand that the internet URLs were made for English and not Japanese, so as annoying as this method is, it’s extremely effective to a Japanese audience let me assure you.

Catchy telephone numbers.  Every number…every single telephone number is sung and I can’t recall otherwise.  Quite often the company name is also sung and there’s nothing more annoying than walking around all day reciting the name of some company.

English songs!  English songs!  English songs!  If I received one yen for every time I heard an English song during the commercials I’d be rolling in cash.  English is cool in Japan - its a social status & most Japanese listen to foreign music.  If you come to Japan to get away from trash music like Destiny’s Child & Britney Spears, go refund your airline ticket.

The last one I will mention makes my gut churn every time I see it.  Balding.  Many men, regardless of the country are losing their hair.  Some company here in Japan has created some kind of artificial hair that you (simply?) glue onto your head and presto!  You’re not bald anymore.  The sickening thing is that these advertisements always have a young, Japanese chick (maybe even a teenager) with a huge chunk of hair glued to either their arm or forehead.  They smile.  They give the hair a few tugs to let you know just how strong their product attaches itself to you and then, well…you throw up.

If you have a child, you know just how much children absorb from TV advertisements - toys, games, food; there’s just no end to it.  Do them and yourself a favour and never bring them to Japan because children advertising campaigns are ridiculously over the top as you have probably already guessed by now.

No one can escape the constant bombardment of advertisements here in Japan & it’s probably why 100% of the entire population wear glasses or contact lenses.  Okay, maybe it’s not 100% but to tell the truth, in over two years living in Japan I have not met anyone who doesn’t wear one or the other.

Think back to your last 700ml bottle of spirits. How much did you pay? Probably quite a bit I should think. In Australia a bottle of Jim Beam fetches for around $30 and Wild Turkey about $40 - a fair chunk of the price coming from government tax.

The price in Japan for a bottle of Jim Beam and Wild Turkey is 1,300 yen and 1,600 yen respectively. This equates to around $13.00 and $16.00! (One Aussie dollar is roughly 100 yen).  If Vodka is more your taste then a bottle of Smirnoff will set you back 900 yen ($9.00).

The reason you can buy cheap alcohol in Japan is because consumption tax is set at a rate of 5 percent for everything, unlike other countries where governments tag as much tax to alcohol as possible. The same 5 percent consumption tax naturally applies to cigarettes also. A pack of 20 costs 300 yen.

Now, how about going out to drink at a bar you ask? Things start to get a little more expensive here, rivaling prices you are probably more familiar with. On average you will pay around 500 - 600 yen per drink varying from place to place.

However many places such as izakaya`s and yakiniku shops have a nomihoudai (all you can drink) deal, giving you access to many but not all drinks on the menu for 90 minutes (Beer is always included)! The price varies from place to place but for around 1,000 to 1,300 yen you definitely won’t be disappointed. That’s right! 90 minutes all you can drink for a measly 1,300 yen, meaning you can party hard without busting your wallet.

I seriously doubt you will find a better deal than this, anywhere.

kanpaiii…!

(cheers)