How to Buy Happiness

For my first 朝礼 of 2013, I decided to talk about "buying happiness." It's not what you think it is - my speech was wholesome and the ideas I presented about buying happiness are based on articles I have read on the internet that talked about the same topic.

幸福はお金では買えないとよく言われていますが、本当にそうなのでしょうか？
物を買ったり、お金を使って、旅行などをすることで、永遠に幸せになれるわけではありませんが、しばらくの間は少し幸福を感じませんか？これは幸福を買ったと言ってもいいのではないでしょうか？

あるインターネット記事で見たのですが、幸福はお金で買うことが出来ます。とは言え、幸福が買えるというのであれば、「では、何を買えば幸せになれるのか」と聞きたくなりますね。その記事にはいくつかのアイデアがありましたが、その中のひとつについてお話します。
幸福を買いたいのなら、物質的な物ではなく、経験を買えばいいのです。経験を買うというのは、たとえば旅行に行ったり、何かを体験するということです。もっと具体的に言うと、新しい携帯電話を買うよりも、同じ値段なら国内バスツアーにお金を使ったほうが値打ちがあります。

ある研究で、物にお金をよく使う人と経験にお金をよく使う人の幸福度のレベルを比較したものがありました。その結果、やはり経験にお金をよく使う人の方が幸福度のレベルが高いそうです。

Yoyo Market: Online Seller of Imported Goods in Japan

If you're a foreigner living in Japan, then you must have experienced missing some of your favorite foods and snacks from your home country. While there are many shops in Japan that sell imported goods, they can be pretty expensive. And by expensive, I mean, half the quantity for double the price!

I love nuts and I have been craving them recently. But I'm not craving ordinary peanuts. I want almonds, cashews, and pistachios. These are sold in groceries but they are sold in rather small packs so whenever I buy them, I immediately run out! Yes, I eat nuts like they have 0 calories.

So, I searched and searched and finally stumbled upon Yoyo Market. Yoyo Market sells imported goods at relatively cheaper prices as compared to physical shops that sell imported goods here in Japan. Normally, at least as far as I have seen, a 500g-pack of cashews costs Y999. At Yoyo Market, you can buy 1.13kg of cashews for around Y2000, which, if you think about it, is a little cheaper than if you buy at a physical store.

Vacationing OFWs: POEA Processing for Return to Job Site

It's Christmas season, and lots of OFWs come home to the Philippines for a well-deserved vacation. However, we must not forget that after the vacation, we still have to go back to our job site (country of destination) to continue working and earn back what we've spent during Christmas and New Year. In order to be able to go back to your job site, you need to undergo the same process we went through during your first time applying as an OFW - that is, to go to POEA.

The requirements for processing are the following:

1. Valid passport
2. Valid visa
3. Around 3,000Php for the fees 

Here are the steps for processing (name-hire/direct-hire only):

1. When you arrive at POEA, ask the guard for your number and the Member Information Form and Pag-ibig Form. Fill up these two forms.
2. Submit the properly filled up forms and wait for your number to be called at Table 2. When you are called, submit the forms and your passport to Table 2. Wait for your name to be called at the table beside Table 2.
3. If there are no problems with your documents, you will be then be directed to Table 7 for the OWWA membership renewal. For my case, I paid Php1,200.
4. Next you will pay PhilHealth at Table 6. I think I paid Php1,030 for this.
5. Then you will have to pay for Pag-ibig membership. They only require you to pay for a month's contribution, so you will only have to pay Php200.
6. After that is the POEA processing fee at Table 5. The processing fee is Php100 for vacationing OFWs, while it is Php4000～ for first-time applicants.
7. After you have paid all the fees, you will be called again to the table beside Table 2 where you will receive your passport, receipts, and 4 copies of your OEC. The OEC is what you will present at the airport so that you won't have to pay terminal fees.

Autumn Destination: Sandankyo

The wind is cool, trees are changing color, night comes earlier. It's autumn.

During this season, the Japanese love to go on hikes for 紅葉 or viewing red autumn leaves. And one of the famous autumn hiking spots here in Hiroshima prefecture is Sandankyo (三段峡, Sandan Gorge).

Sandankyo is in Akioota-cho, Yamagata District in the northern part of Hiroshima prefecture. It is roughly a 2 and a half hour-bus ride from Hiroshima Bus Center by local bus (or 1 and a half hours by express bus). It is most famous for Sandantaki (三段滝), which is a picturesque 3-tier waterfall. You will see that most - if not all - hikers, local and foreign alike, bring their cameras, lenses and tripods in order to get a breath-taking shot of the waterfall. Not that the shots would need any editing - the scene is just beautiful in all its natural glory.

Sandantaki, framed with autumn colors.

Facebook Groups "Seen by" Feature

The days of lurkers in Facebook groups are so over.

If you are a member of a group on Facebook, then you have probably seen this new feature:

It's the new "Seen by" feature, which displays who has viewed posts on a Facebook group. "Posts" include everything from simple greetings, to photos, and links posted on a group.

Now perhaps this was added by Facebook with good intentions of upgrading user traceability and preventing spam, but if you're someone who just likes to browse through others' posts on your group without actually engaging with them, then you might not like this feature.

Before, you can read posts on groups "privately". By privately, I mean that no one has to know you ever read them. But now, with this new feature, you read something and you wanted to ignore it - say, someone is inviting the group members for a get-together party and you simply didn't want to go - you can't get away by saying you haven't read the post so you weren't able to go. With this new feature, you will feel compelled to somehow reply to the post just because the poster knows you have seen it. No more excuses about not reading the post because the poster will know exactly who has seen it and when. So much for lurking.

On a more positive light, for important group updates, it might be helpful in tracking and knowing if every group member has seen it and have become aware of the news. But really, that's all I can think of in the "positive" light.

If you ask me, I would say this new feature isn't all that bad. But - there's a but - it would be really nice if Facebook provides users an option to disable/enable this feature because currently, it is added there by default and you can't disable it. Sneaking it in by default really caught users by surprise and they are not happy.