Japan

[JurseyRider734]

I want to go to Japan, too.

Only I wish I could go to Japan in the 1800's. =(

[RevenG-]

Japan now is ok but it's changed a little too fast. So it's not as cool anymore =(

[Chromer]

Japan not cool? You sir have earned yourself the "WTF N00b" Award. Be Happy.

[Sorceress_Sakura]

Hey, I love Japan! You didn't take me?

[Chromer]

I only takes girls who can translate the kanji for me.

But seriously, I just want to go to Japan so I can play DDR, eat Takoyaki, and hopefully get to know some japanese girls a little better in one of the hundreds of love hotels around Tokyo.
















Oh yeah, and learn about that cultural stuff too. LOL

[msbrunnettemickey]

Chromer just earned an award!

OMFG I LOVE JAPANESE GIRLS FOR LIFE! THEY ROCK MY FRIGGEN' SOCKSSS AND I WANT TO MARRY ONE ONE DAY SO SHE CAN MAKE ME RICE AND SUSHI

Kinda lame but true.

Btw. Chromer, this is how you write Japanese in Hebrew :
Girl: יפ×*ית
Boy: יפ×*×™
General: יפ×*×™×�
Japan: יפן
Language: יפ×*ית(which is also how you spell Japanese girl) wtf.

[esupin]

Hopefully Varia does not end up with culture shock.

[AasumDude]

*yawn*

and thus concludes the circle of life.

[jewpinthethird]

Originally Posted by Varia

nerdy mcnerd: I leave Japan on June 30th. Man, I want to host Japanese students. Especially girls, because the majority of Japanese guys I have met are more on the boring side. Plus it's really funny to hear the girls scream at everything. I need to go on some sort of quest...I have to see how many times I can make a girl scream in one day. hahahahaha I just thought about that and it has a rather sexual meaning. Oh well. I guess that can count too.

They flip out OVER EVERYTHING.

Do you have a Cell Phone that works in Japan? Or do you plan on going to any of the big cities? It would be insane if we met eachother in Japan...INSANE.

[Diabolicus]

Good luck in all your travels.

[jewpinthethird]

Varia, how is the school system? Like, how long are the school days, clubs, lunch, all that jazz. And the whole school shoes deal...being that you are a gaijin, are you required to follow all those "rules." My Japanese teacher said we would most likely have to bring a pair of shoes especially for school, but we wont be required to wear uniforms.

I'd just like the 411, since I will be in your shoes in a few months. Also, how long have you been studying Japanese?

[Varia]

So yeah, I haven't really been able to use a computer for a while. Lame.

But vacation has started niggros 8)

Golden Week. I have...10 days off. Today is my 2nd day off. I haven't been doing much during my vacation because my host mother's father just died, so my host family is occupied with family stuff. But today I went to this game store. Your guys' socks are going to fly off. Ready? They are selling elite awesome IIDX controllers for about $55 a piece. I am sure you guys have all seen cstarflare or whatever his name's IIDX controllers. Those. For $55. Holy crap I am buying one. I don't even have an IIDX game, but I am going to buy a controller anyways. And there were those mini popn controllers, too. They are like $38. The IIDX games themselves were a bit expensive. I think 7th style was like $40 and 9th style was close to $60. Oh, and PS2's here are like $150. I don't have a PS2 of my own, so I am just thinking of buying one here and stuff. So yeah, pretty awesome.

jewpin: I don't have a cell phone. I am probably not going to get one. It is a huge pain in the ass to get one right now. I have to get the signatures of myself, my host family, my mother and the study abroad company. All that takes around a month to complete, and that is just to be able to buy one. It'd be awesome if I could get one, but as stated before, it is a huge pain in the ass.

As far as traveling goes, I am pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I live an hour away from Nagoya (by train). I mean, I could go there if I wanted to, but there is a good chance I'll get myself lost and stuff. Well, that's basically the case of me going anywhere in Japan. It's easy to get out of nowhere, but hard to get back. But if you're gonna be in Japan while I'm here, it would be pretty cool if we could meet up, Even though it would be a million times easier to meet up in Cali because we live like 3 hours away or something.

School. Well, school is school. I mean, of course it's different and stuff, but it's not all like woahmg this is mars guuuuyyysss!!!!!!!!! I'll lay down my schedule for you (what I remember of it).

School starts at 8:30 sharp. There is a short homeroom for like 5 minutes, and then the learning commences. Wait wait. Before I get into my schedule, I should tell you about other stuff.

Classrooms. Your classroom is your classroom. I am a member of classroom 25. I do not go to classroom 37 or 12 or 19 or 982739587258. 25 is my class, and my class is 25. I mean, I can go to other classrooms, but I don't take classes in them. Students rarely go to other rooms for classes. The usual is teachers coming and going. Of course science teachers and such cannot lug around equipment with them to each classroom and stuff, so we go to the science room for science class. Each classroom has about 40 students. Different grades are not put into the same classes. The is, unless, you are awesome and special like me and get to do things regular students can only dream of 8)

Oh yeah, I am a second year student. That is the equivalent to 11th grade in the American school system. After vacation ends, I'll take some classes with the third year students. I want to try out different classes because it is pretty hard to associate with people outside of your own classroom unless you already have some sort of connection with them (ie. friends from middle school or something).

Rules. I get cut a lot of slack. Like, I am given so much slack that I am made of slack now. I don't have any homework and I never have to study. Well, I have a little homework. I am taking a like...it's similar to home ec. We are knitting. That is my only homework. Knitting. It's pretty fun actually. If you don't understand what they are saying in classes, you can just space out and stuff or read a book or whatever. I recommend you listen, though. Spacing out is much easier than listening, but even if you don't understand much, listening to the teacher helps your Japanese. Besides, you actually can learn something. For example, in my koten (�典) (Japanese literature that is super old) class, I learned that sebaya was the equivalent of shitai back in the old days. After learning that, I wanted to know what shitakunai was. So a couple days later, I asked the teacher outside of class and he didn't know. So I was all like ohsnap teach you don't know?!?!11 and the he was like ok I'll look it up. So then the teacher told all the students he teaches about this incident and my cool points rose a few and stuff. Plus I learned what shitakunai back in the old days was (it is sumaji, more stronger, seji). So things like that are cool. Listen.

I have 7 periods everyday. The schedule everyday is different, but it repeats every week. So I have a different schedule every day, but the same schedule every week. Classes are 45 minutes long. Lunch is uh...40 minutes long. As far as lunch goes, my host mother makes me bentou everyday. bentou or really horrible sandwiches. Don't eat sandwiches in Japan. The only option as far as buying food at school goes is the bread lady. She just brings a crapload of different kinds of bread which you will never find in America unless you go to some Japanese market, but even then you probably won't find them. They aren't really that good, but that's probably because I am not Japanese. There are drink vending machines on campus that are pretty nice. They are way way cheaper than the regular vending machines. A Coke in a regular machine is 150 yen. A Coke in the school machines is 100 yen. Pretty much a 50 cent difference. As far as recommendations go...you just kind of have to buy things and try them out, because explanations are just too hard to give. But you need to try the jelly drinks. They are basically cartons of Jello-like stuff. They are usually pretty tasty and just fun to drink because they are jelly.

Clothing. I am assuming you saw the picture I posted earlier of myself. I'm wearing the white shirt, black pants and that navy blue...thing. I don't know what to call it. Even if you don't have to wear a uniform, I recommend wearing something like I am. The black pants and white shirt is fine. The white shirts are not like your everyday white shirts, though. They are like business man shirts. They cost like $20 each. But they are really nice and comfy and good-looking and stuff. Anyways, you should wear the pants and the shirt because it will just feel really really weird to stand out like that. I mean, even with what I am wearing, I stand out. But if I just wore whatever to school, it would be like AWHAWHAWHAT?!?! I would stick out like a sore thumb that was not actually a thumb, but something really huge and has a lot of lights and gadgets and makes a lot of noise.

Shoes. Skip the idea of those stupid little slipper things. They aren't made in your size. You are a pretty tall guy, so I am assuming your feet are on the large size. There are no shoes in Japan that fit me. The shoes I wear in school are like Keds or something. I'll take a picture of them later...oh crap, they are at school. I might not be able to take a picture because my camera is being a hookerface right now and not working. I have a semi-working camera at my house, so if I can take my shoes from school home for a while I'll take a picture of them. But that is a big hassle so I probably won't do it. To put it simply, they are like old man shoes. Kind of like a mix between loafers and tennis shoes. I wear those to school. Oh yeah, they are at school because everybody keeps their school shoes at school in lockers. The lockers are pretty small. Basically just made for shoes. As far as taking off your shoes in other places (restaurants, home etc.), socks are fine. If possible, don't sit at Japanese style tables at restaurants. It hurts and is small and your legs go numb in like 10 minutes. Sit at tables whenever possible. And don't try sitting Japanese style, like, sitting on your legs. It's kind of hard to explain but I think you know what I7M talking about. That is a good way to cut off blood circulation to your legs.

Hey I'll finish this later because I have to go home now. I still have to talk about clubs and stuff. Catch you guys later.

[jewpinthethird]

Thanks Varia, that helps a lot. My Japanese teacher was talking about sitting Japanese style...I wasnt really paying attention, but she was laughing and saying something like "you guys are going to hate it" or something...and I can see why.

I guess meeting up in Japan wouldnt work very well, since I'll be in Katsuyama, which is also in the middle of nowhere.

I'm going to take your advice on the whole "white shirt, black pants thing." And I will probably go out and get some of those Keds shoes. Dont bother taking a picture, I understand what you mean.

Anyways, thanks again man. That really answers a lot of questions.

[WolfofOsaka]

i used to live there it's ok...

[Varia]

My guess is that you lived on a base and you can't speak much Japanese. Well duh it's not going to be cool. That is not Japan. That is just my guess, though. I have met lots of people who are living in Japan through the military or whatever. Not many of them speak Japanese and not many of them see much further than the general area the base is in. I met one guy who could speak Japanese pretty well, except it was really really bad. It was super super super translated English. He basically had all the grammar down, but his Japanese was not Japanese at all. That's my impression of the Japanese you get taught when you are stationed in Japan. Not to mention he spent all his time trying to pick up girls and go to Roppongi and stuff. Sorry, that doesn't really have anything to do with what I was talking about. I just hate a lot of the assholes that use the military as a way to destroy cultures and have sex with the women. Oh and yeah, a good amount of the military guys stationed in other countries I have met are super assholes. Just huge pricks. I hope they get used as fodder if they ever go into battle because they probably deserve it. Come to think of it, I dislike a rather large amount of the foreigner population here. Their reasons for coming here are some of the worst I have ever heard. Not to mention a lot of them are just as bad as the military guys. And holy crap, the English teachers. I despise them. The ALT (American Language Teacher) at my school is this fat, 24 year old girl who has been here for almost a year now and has not gotten past super basic Japanese. She can barely even read any of it. She just hangs out with all her other stupid ALT friends who can't speak Japanese. I mean, this is not to mention that their abilities in the English language are not above average. The whole thing with being able to go teach English in other countries if you have a BD is stupid and ridiculous and there are so many things not right with it. The ALT at my school goes to each class once a week. Once. That does nothing for the students. So in her spare time (which is a rather large amount of time), she just sits on her fat butt and reads books and does nothing to develop her Japanese or enhance her experience in the country. She is the head of the English conversation club at my high school. I went once. I will never go again. She speaks to the kids as if they were retarded. She even uses noticeably incorrect English with them. I mean, yeah, I understand these kids are not super at English, but what does horrible English do for them? They are actually really good at English. It's just that it is really hard to hear English well because their language is comprised of like 140 sounds, whereas English has several times that number. Conversation is lso a problem for them because of the same reason. Due to the lack of sounds in their language, it is extremely hard for them to develop the abilities to make other sounds. But the biggest problem is just that they are shy, which is connected with their inability to distinguish the sounds of English. That's not always the case, though. The other day these girls waved at me. You know, just like a "hi" wave. Not like an attention grabber. I waved back to them and asked them where they were going. They then started that giggly stuff and didn't say anything, so I was like "You can't speak Japanese?". I was speaking to them in Japanese, and was wondering what was up, because, you know, one would expect people to be able to speak their mother tongue. Then after another minute or so they said they were going home and giggled off into the sunset. That was the weirdest situation I have been in. But I was expecting something like that. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

I don't even know what my topic is anymore. I just started complaining about stuff. Sorry.

Anyways, clubs.

There are lots of different clubs. The majority of them, however, are sports. At my school, the clubs are...let me see if I can remember them all.

Sports:
Baseball (They don't use real baseballs. They use those soft balls that look like huge golf balls that are used in batting practice.
Soccer
Tennis (There is also a soft tennis club. They use a softer ball)
Badminton (All girls. You can probably practice with them, but you can't join)
Volleyball (Same case as Badminton)
Kendo
Various kinds of martial arts
Archery
Ping Pong
Basketball
Track
Rowing

Other:
Music (It is actually like choir club)
Photography
English conversation
Gardening (What...?)
School newspaper

That's all I can remember. I think I got all the sports, but there are 5 or so missing from the Other category.

Clubs meet (usually) every day after school for an hour or two. They all have uniforms and special shoes and their own equipment. So if you want to join a club, be prepared to shell out some dough for a uniform that doesn't exist because you are too huge for the sizes they make. Practice for sports clubs is really different than it is here. It's not really fun at all. They basically just do drills and well...practice. They rarely ever have little practice games amongst themselves during practice. Like, I watched the Badminton club one day...they just hit the birdie (I think that's what it's called) back and forth for like an hour. Now I know you are thinking, "But isn't that what Badminton is?". Yes, it is, but in a different sense. They just hit it in order for it to go over the net so their partner could easily hit it back to them and so on and so forth. Oh yeah, there is a lack of the presence of coaches. The coaches are teachers, and I guess teachers are way busy or something, so they never actually coach the teams or anything. All the clubs are pretty much student run. The coaches just go to games and stuff. Speaking of games, there are like 2-4 a month. I myself would prefer a sports team at a high school in America.

As far as clubs in the Other category go...they are pretty much all different from each other. You have to go check them out for yourself. I recommend you stay away from the English conversation club because in general, they are usually "I have an interest in English because it is super cool and I like to listen to Western music that is horrible and the lyrics are garbage but I don't understand them so it's cool" clubs. There tends to be very little conversation with the exception of conversations in Japanese. Unless there are several English speaking people in that club, I recommend you steer clear from it.

But actually, I recommend you don't join a club at all. I recommend you take walks around your city and talk to all kinds of different people. That way you can see your city and get in Japanese practice and make lots of different friends. The other day I made friends from a high school in another city. Being in a club won't help your Japanese that much, and usually just creates friendships based around the club activity, so baseball buddies are pretty much just baseball buddies. I think it's much better to go around and talk to people, because that way, it is much easier to create real friendships. And don't wait for people to talk to you. Of course a lot of people will talk to you, but there are a lot of people who would really like to talk with you, but are shy or whatever. If someone waves at you, wave back and give them a smile. Present a friendly image towards everyone. If somebody is looking at you (because you are a huge white person), just give them a friendly wave and go back to what you were doing. That kind of throws them off because they don't expect it. I do that to people walking on the streets a lot and at school, too. And hey, sometimes it starts a conversation.

When you arrive in Japan, you should get your body used to the time difference as soon as possible. The time differenceis your biggest enemy during the first few weeks. It really screws with your body, so you have to kind of force adjust yourself. I can't give you much advice about food except to try it. I personally can't stand most of it, but some of it is pretty tasty. It's a hit and miss thing and is usually different for each person.

SUPER IMPORTANT!!!!!!

Get an electronic dictionary. Most useful thing ever. Seriously.

DON'T FORGET!!!!

I have been studying Japanese since December of '03. I slacked off for a month here and there, so it's pretty much been around a year. The thing that helped me most was chatting with Japanese people and sending them emails and stuff. I also made a few penpals. Penpals are awesome. I don't know about boy penpals, though. I actually don't have many male Japanese friends. The girls are just way more interesting and fun. And you know, guys will be guys. Talking about porn and sports gets old pretty fast. Man, Japanese girls love to talk. If you want resources for finding Japanese email friends or chat rooms or whatever, let me know. I bet you are probably thinking "Chat rooms? What a loserface". Well you can go sniff a dog fart Mr. I am no better than pocket lint. You can meet people from all around the world and learn about different cultures and stuff. It's cool.

Well, I think that about sums it up for now. Hello huge ass post #2

I gotta get going. I'm meeting my friend today. She's from Kagoshima (bottom of Japan). She went to Aichi Expo with her Korean friend and because Ena is only an hour away from nagoya by train she decided to come visit me. Cool stuff. She is one of my friends that I made through email. I plan on meeting many more of them.

Crap I am supposed to be at the station in less than an hour and I haven't really gotten out of bed yet.

Get ready for a possible huge ass post #3

Ignore the last part, because I am posting this message kind of late. I just got home from meeting my friend. She is one of my cool chat friends. I haven't met her before today. She is pretty cool.

Picture for you because I am cool. I would have taken a whole bumch, but my camera is kind of...out of service at the moment. This is from my friend's cell phone. I want to show you guys the purikura I took with her

[Varia]

but it seems like I have gone over the character limit or something so my message got cut off.

Anyways, if possible, I wanna show you guys the purikura I took with her. It's kind of hard to explain, and it's very rare to see it in America, so I wanna show you guys.

Well, here. This is one that my friend sent me. Purikura is cool. The level of cuteness far surpasses that of any anime song that Kilga has or will ever step. You guys just don't understand cute.

[esupin]

So would you say you are still having a good time, or has some of it worn off?

[Varia]

The good times are just starting.

I've pretty much gotten used to everything now, and my Japanese has improved a lot. Knowing the routine and being able to communicate on a higher level really helps. When I go back to school, I am going to be able to meet a lot of new people because I will take some different classes.

My next big challenge is traveling out of the city by myself. It's kind of hard, because I don't really know how the train system works here, but if somebody taught me I think I'd get it.

Unfortunately, I will just start to feel really comfortable and in tune with everything here right about when I have to leave.

3 months is just too short.

[Omeganitros]

Wow.

[jewpinthethird]

I do have a Japanese penpal. Actually, it is the girl that I hosted in March. She's cool, and she likes Evangelion. But, since it is the Golden Week, she's been on vacation so I havent heard from her in a few days. I'm also going to start emailing some of the other Japanese students who stayed in my city. However, I would like some information on the chatrooms.

I'm only going to be staying in Japan for a little over 2 weeks...so I really wont have enough time to adjust to anything. The program is kind of a sampler of Japan. But I do enjoy my stay in Japan, I will most likely study there during college for awhile.