Comments on: The overclocked city and reverse homesickness

By: Wildcard

Wildcard — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:40:07 +0000

I’d like to visit Japan someday, though my restricted finances and minimal spare time make it a distant possibility.

Anyhow, that all made for interesting reading and the photos are pretty cool too. I’m deeply envious..

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:11:59 +0000

@korosora: looking forward to more of your holiday snaps! And yeah, karaoke is fun…shame I was too self-conscious to join in though… orz As for Shinjuku station, it’s well-organised as everything is over there but it takes a while to realise how everything’s laid out. The layout is clever and all, but damn…

By: korosora

korosora — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:34:31 +0000

>>I miss wandering around Shinjuku, even when getting lost in the station drove me nuts.

LOL.
I totally know what you mean.
That station is a clusterfuck.

By: korosora

korosora — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:08:40 +0000

I came back last week.
Epic adventures were available from questmasters in each district.

Apparently, I can still socially acceptably date a 16 year old. Lelangir, I had good times in karaoke rooms.

I’ll probably upload pics on my blog and facebook later today, but came back from somewhere else last night. Jetlagged.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:52:31 +0000

@Kiri: all I can say is, good luck in getting your trip organised because it’s somewhere I really recommend you visit. The weather will no doubt be A LOT colder than I went though!

@Kadian 1364: I can imagine that sort of thing happening actually. Small towns are bad for that sort of thing anyway, but since Japan isn’t nearly as multicultural as, say, the UK (ethnic minorities make up a larger proportion of the population here) I daresay an outsider would stand out even more in a crowd.

@lastarial: it’s great to hang out with locals because they really do bring shops and eateries to your attention that you would’ve missed otherwise, as the two guys in Machida proved. A peculiarly Japanese thing is that, because they take on the role as hosts, they insist on paying your share of the bill for you! It takes some tactful persuasion to share the cost with them, without coming across as insulting. I have quite a few cringe-worthy moments too, but they were often quite amusing too.

@lelangir: numerous, smartly dressed and thanks to my strict moral code, very much off-limits. I don’t want a criminal record…

By: lelangir

lelangir — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:02:55 +0000

HOW WERE THE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS?

By: lastarial

lastarial — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:34:02 +0000

My favourite memory from my first trip is my (girl)friend and I getting talking to a Japanese couple who were sitting next to us in a restaurant in Kumamoto (they wanted to see the phrase book I was throwing about). I say talking, but only my partner spoke both decent Japanese and English.

Anyway, they ended up taking us to lots of great hangouts over the rest of the evening (and into the small hours), of which most were tiny and hidden away and we were noticeably the only foreigners. Lots of fun, and they treated us to everything (I still feel bad, but they would have it any other way).

Plenty of embarrassing stories about me being the stupid gaijin that just make me cringe now.

By: kadian1364

kadian1364 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:26:50 +0000

I’ve only second-hand stories to tell, but when my sister visited Japan to see her boyfriend who was teaching English, she toured the small-town, downright rural community he lived in as well as visiting Tokyo. If you thought you stood out in a big city like Tokyo, try being one of maybe three foreigners in a tiny, traditional community of about 1000. What I hear from her boyfriend, the social pressures are only magnified when one’s a foreigner and in a position of relative respect and authority like a teacher. It’s like everyone has their eyes on you, which I don’t even doubt is true.

By: Kiri

Kiri — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:26:05 +0000

Reading about all of this makes me excited and nervous about my planned trip to Tokyo in December (still unconfirmed, but I’m banking on it). Glad you had a good time. :O