Anyone here ever been to japan?

Anyone here ever been to japan?

I wanna go so badly. I haven't been there, but I might be exchanged. :ennuie:

Yes, many times. I know many that "want to go" but I think Japan isn't the most tourist friendly place in the world (though they are trying to get better)...if is better if you go have some place to stay. Unless you are royalty or a movie star, staying at a hotel is pretty unthinkable unless you plan on going for a weekend. Knowing someone there to show you around is very key.

le sigh. Lucky Lauren. I added her on lj.

Me and Mike might do a tour of Asia before I go to university. We've looked at hostels. Seems pretty good value really.

I stayed here on my last trip for a few nights - good price and not too difficult to find.

http://www.sakura-hotel.co.jp/

English speaking staff too.

For travel around Tokyo, subways arent really so difficult to figure out (id heard horror stories). Just get a bunch of guide books and subway guides a month before you go, do some research for what you wanna see and it shouldnt be so bad.

For all the horror stories you hear about Tokyo, it is easily the most tourist-friendly (ergo non-Japanese speaking friendly) city in the country, at least by design. The citizens are more used to foriegners and tourists, so will be less anxious to assist a lost gaijin as compared to Kobe, Hiroshima, Nagoya, etc... Kyoto natives are used to directing both native Japanese and tourists around, so it's no bigee there. The friendliest folks I have found are in Nara, and it a a great place to visit, if only for a day or two.

Has a wonderful 2 week holiday in Japan in 2004, touring with a busload of North American Godzilla fans!

In short, I've never been to such a clean, tidy, polite country in my life!

Couldn't find the JU-ON house though, darn it!

Lucky thing Pygar. Glad you had a good time. Best avoid the Juon house of course, but then it may be looking for you?

Oh no, better hide:hiding:

Anyone still read this thread? Anyhoo, in three weeks two friends and I are going to Japan, and the Sakura hotel is exactly where we're staying!! We plan to spend the first week in Tokyo, and the second travelling (although we have no sleeping arangements in other places, eeek!). But damn, those rail passes are expensive (well...I guess that's in keeping with everything else in Japan!). We don't know anyone over there, but one of my friends study Japanese at university, so his knowledge will be of considerable help! I have been learninng Japanese since six months (although since age 7 I want to learn it, but never had the time or facilities), so hopefully I will get to try out my insufficient skills too (I'm prepared for the "baka gaijin" line lol)!

How exciting! I love going to Japan with people who have never been there, because there are so many "Wow!" experiences....mostly good.

Rail passes are expensive....but in the long-run, worth it if you want to travel around (which I recommend. Tokyo is only ONE part of Japan. Tokyo is to Japan like New York is to America. It's big, it's beautiful, and it's its own entity. I am sure London to England is the same thing). I lived in and love the Kansai area...though it's a bit different language-wise from what you have studied. Don't worry about being a "baka gaijin" but do worry about where you will stay...there are no "cheap hotels" you can crash at easily, so it's better to plan ahead. Hostels exist, but not everywhere....

wooh we're going to japan! (not like that song by the vengaboys)

You are completely right, Judge Rage That's why we want to travel around, and see as much of the country as possible, cos the scenery and architecture is absolutely stunning. But there's so much we want to see and do in Tokyo too (although I hope we don;t just end up living in Shibuya the whole time!).

Aaah yes, I've read alot about the differences in speech and accent in Kansai. Kansai ben it's like a whole different language! And my friends (both are men) know not supposed to say the abbreviated form of "te form verb + shimau" because it 's considered homosexual in Kansai!! That's so funny

where did you stay?

Tokyo is great, and it's easy to lose yourself for days or weeks there, but there is so much more. I think I said it before, but we did our honeymoon in London, and as much as I loved it, and wanted to stay longer, I wish we had ventured out of the city.

Kansai-ben can seem like a whole 'nother language, and in some ways it is. Kansai-jin often spout that kansai-ben is the "real" Japanese (as Nara and Kyoto, Kansai cities, were capitals before Tokyo, which is now the home of the "official" Japanese. The basics are easy to pick up, but if you are a new speaker or learner of Japanese, I would only learn them for listening, not for speaking. Not that anyone would make fun, but it might sound like a Japanese guy landing in L.A. saying "Whatup, dude?"

I lived in Amagasaki for 3+ years. It's an industrial city located right between Kobe and Osaka. My wife is from Nishinomiya, a couple stops closer to Kobe on the train, and we go back there once or twice a year.

Neither of us have heard the "te form verb + shimau" = gay in Kansai idea before. It's not natural Kansai-ben, so someone might make this connection for a Kansai native, but I am sure a foreigner would not be pegged as gay for using this very normal Japanese. In Kansai-ben "te form verb + shimau" is "te form verb + mau" (future/present) or "te form verb + motta" (past). Keep in mind there are as many forms of Kansai-ben as there are neighborhoods between Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, so there are variations on that.

Enjoy your trip! I will check if you have any more questions before you go.

...

cheers Judge Rage and Rasen

wow, JR (who shot JR lol), you live there for 3+ years? Honestly, how was it? I would love to spend a year in japan (but this is not possible if i don't win the lottery and quit my studies lol)...however, I can expect it must be difficult for gaijin to adapt to a foreign way of life. Can you tell me, honjestly, do you think this is so? Cos I said this to a Japanese person on another board and he really took offence, he assume I was criticizing I was not criticizing, but rather try to be objective: Japanese is such a complicated language both to speak and write, and if you are not fluent, misunderstandings will abound, i'm sure. Plus, takai takai takai!!

Neither am I criticizing here when i say that a gaijin in Japan is unlike a foriegner in say north America or the UK (as you've probably guessed I'm a foriegner to the UK...and still I don't feel at home here!). Most of the population in Japan is Japanese (give or take a few Koreans, Korean-Japanese, Chinese and Chinese-Japanese etc), and Westeners still are strange. I'm trying not to make this sound like a criticism, but you understand what I'm saying? It can feel lonely because as a Westener you really ARE on your own, and often not granted access to the social circle simply because you're not Japanese. Wherever you go, there are good and bad people, and I'm sure there are just as many friendly and welcoming Japanese as there are clicky ones. This is just my own guess; i do not proport it to be fact. Maybe i say it cos of the experience I have already in the UK, but i'm sure it carries some grain of validity?

nonetheless, I'm sure i will enjoy my vacation

Don't worry, Pocky, it would take a lot more to offend me.

Being a white person in Japan is a unique experience. I have heard some Americans in Japan say "Now I know what it's like being a minority..." Well, yes, and no. You are a minority in a country that doesn't really acknowledge minorities, so you are sometimes seen more like an extended-stay tourist. It is certainly not the experience of, say, being an African-American in Tennessee, or something like that.

Where I lived was an industrial city square between Osaka and Kobe, so I was in a very urban environment. I really liked my neighborhood because I explored it and found friendly places to go and eat and drink (not that there weren't unfriendly places...but there were expensive snack bars, which were VERY friendly, and then very expensive). Let me look at your points one-by-one.

1) I went there on the JET Program. It's an international program, bringing native English speakers to Japan to teach English conversation in public schools. The salary is more than enough to live on, and all you need is to garduate from college. Look into it! They pay your way there, your way home, and it is a blast.

2) Accepting the way of life came from me. If you aren't sure if you can hack it....need your exact coffee, exact bread, exact pasta, well, then it might be hard. However living near Osaka and Kobe, I could get more varieties of food than I could in America. Food is the biggest issue, I think. There were afternoons I would say to myself "I want some Kraft Mac and Cheese, a Totino's Party Pizza, and a Quarter-Pounder" (not all at the same time, mind you), and was sad I couldn't have it. But like homeless people, gaijin get wily. You can find "comfort foods" at reasonable prices with a little cleverness and good connections. I used to travel for about 20 minutes on train to one itty-bitty bagel stand, the first of it's kind in Osaka, to get bagels and cream cheese. Now, thankfully, bagels have gotten hip, and you can get them all over at the clever chain-store "Bagel-Bagel".

3) I majored in Japanese and was fairly fluent when I arrived. However, I was sent to Kansai, which speaks a different dialect than what I learned, so it took me a few weeks to adapt to the dialect. After a few months (and a few pints) I was speaking it like a native. Many people I know went there without knowing a lick of Japanese, and left after a year, or even sooner (breaking their contracts). In my experience, 95% of Japanese do not speak enough English to be able to direct you much farther than a bathroom or train station. Knowing some working Japanese is a must. Focus on speaking and listening. I had friends that could read names on maps that native Japanese couldn't read, but they couldn't have a conversation. In three years I probably WROTE Japanese 10 times. My reading got awesome, but my writing went to the birds. I never needed to write, so I didn't (remember I was teaching English...which also improves once you are forced to teach it).

4) I was never "lonely" per se, because I found places to go and made friends with local folks. But I was lonely at home, so I ended up spending more money than I wanted to. One thing I saw ALL the time was gaijin translating the prices into pounds or dollars. Big mistake. A pint costs about 5-800 yen. That might be expensive by American standards, but I wasn't in America, I was in Japan. After a while I got a part-time job in a bar owned by an American man and a Japanese woman. That helped supplement my income and keep me from sitting at home.

5) There were certainly conversations I couldn't participate in because I didn't have the cultural background. I didn't know all the TV shows from the 80's or recognize the old pop songs when they came up on karaoke, but I did make an effort to keep myself up on what was popular at the moment. (In an attempt to really date myself, I bought a first run Tamagochi the week they came out. I think it was 1500 yen. 3 weeks later people were buying them for 10 times that. I did have fair-weather friends, but now I can still go back to my old neighborhood and see Japanese friends a decade later. There isn't a big party or anything (and I get to go back once or twice a year) but last year I saw one of my best friends, I hadn't seen him in 8 years, we laughed and told stories for a couple hours. I don't know when I will see him again. It might be this year, it might be 2016. I was attracted to people who were attracted to me because of my personality, not my country of birth. All of my friends over in Japan now (and there is just a handful) were my friends because they liked ME, not my American passport. But, you are right. It's easy to run in circles where you feel like decoration. Sometimes you gotta roll with that, too. I ate at some of the nicest restuarants, drank at some of the most expensive bars, danced with some of the most beautiful women, simply because I was a red-haired, Japanese-speaking gaijin. And some of those are my favorite memories...be damned they don't remember my name today. I don't remember theirs either....but I didn't pick up the bill, either.

6) You are right, Pocky, there are good folks, and there are folks that want something from you. If you have picked that up in the UK, I am sure you will have that sensitivity in Japan. Just like the USA and UK, the Japanese government is NOT the people. When they make crazy statements or laws, chances are they are NOT representing the mass opinion. A little common sense can take you far.

I would love to hear what happens.

It's really easy to be an ex-pat in Japan if you want to, and get hooked up in the right circles. I worked with a guy from Manchester a few years ago that lived in Kyoto for 11 years. He knew about 10 words in Japanese. I was really shocked...(he was a University professor)....his wife and young daughter had picked up on the language, but he hadn't. That was bizarre to me...but I guess there were enough English speaking colleagues to keep him. Personally, I always loved, and love finding hole-in-the-wall pubs or in-the-middle-of-nowhere pubs to grab a pint and meet the locals. A couple years ago I took a young buddy of mine there on a business trip....we found ourselves in the middle of a rice field/factory district ...there was one lone light shining. It was a little rock and roll bar, and we ended up going there about three times on out trip. We has no wheels, but some one would always volunteer to drive us home to where we were staying...and that was nice. And it wasn't because we were white...it was because we were from out of town, and didn't have a way home.

...

thanks for the replies Rasen, Mandy and Judge Rage

I'm going out now, so I will reply tomorrow or Monday