Japanese Taxes From Scratch

This morning I paid our Japanese taxes. I never stop being amazed that handing over a huge stack of cash at the post office is such a normal thing. Or that you can withdraw so much money from an ATM to begin with.

This year John and I did our taxes on our own, following last year's return (prepared by an accountant) as a guide. It took the better part of an afternoon, but at the end of it we felt so accomplished. It's a fairly straight forward process, I think that American taxes are a lot more complicated, but of course it helps if you can read Japanese. The form itself is in Japanese, but we had instructions in English, plus John's reading ability and the google translate app on my phone which can scan and translate text at least passably well (a recent amazing discovery - all thanks to Raku!) 

I remember our first year here taxes weren't being withheld and we were so stressed out, trying to estimate how much we should be saving ourselves. We used this tax calculator as a guide, and it was a huge relief when it turned out to be pretty accurate.

The funniest part about preparing our own taxes came when we discovered that rather than providing an addressed envelope there was a large piece of paper that we were supposed to cut out and assemble ourselves. Who knew tax time would turn into craft time? Good thing we had a glue stick lying around.

In better news, the sun has come back after too many gray days, flowers are blooming everywhere, and the weather is slowly warming up. The official cherry blossom forecast says that they will start in Tokyo two weeks from today, but a few of the early blooming trees are already in blossom. I'm so excited to share this magical time of year with my sister!

Gluing up our tax envelope

The cherry blossom marketing is back

Okame Sakura - one of the early blooming varietals 

Pastel sunset over Roppongi and Azabu Juban

American Kitchen Appliances in a Japanese Kitchen

Before moving here I couldn't decide whether or not to bring my kitchen appliances with me.  The problem is that the voltage of the electricity here is slightly lower than in the US.  This doesn't matter with anything that uses a charger, like a phone or a laptop, because the electricity is converted anyways.  But it means that a clock that is plugged in will run more slowly so it won't keep time, and our light bulbs aren't quite as bright here.

I tried to research online how my kitchen appliances would do here, but I couldn't find any concrete answers.  Raku told me she couldn't find the answers either, so they left all sorts of things in the US or got rid of them.  I'm writing this post in hopes that it will help other people when they're trying to find the answers that we couldn't.

 I knew that space would be limited, and I didn't want lots of useless items sitting around, but I also knew how useful these items would be if they did work.  So, I gambled and brought everything.  And here's the great news - everything works!

Our toaster broke during the move, so I can't vouch for it.  But, I read that heating elements wouldn't work.  This hasn't turned out to be true because I've cooked several successful meals in my crockpot.  I've found that the heating element is fine, but because of the lower voltage it doesn't get as hot, so I just use the high setting for low, and everything comes out perfectly.

My food processor also works perfectly.  I've been trying to decide if the blade actually spins slower, but I can't tell.  And even if it does it doesn't effect the performance at all.

My hand mixer and my stand mixer both work too.  (Raku and I used them to make a cake yesterday!)

On a side note, our lamps and my hair straightener and curling iron are working as well.