Japan FAQ

Well honestly I was in a bit of a bad mood when I came up with this post, but I really want to post it as it amuses me so. Basically these are some questions that come up quite frequently on forums about Japan and sometimes I think they are just so silly. So please enjoy them, and know I am not trying to tease anyone, it's just some fun.

Q: "I am _____ inches/cm tall, will I stand out in Japan?"
A: Are you Japanese? No? Then you are going to stand out in Japan.

Q: "I really like _____ (Tacky&Tsubasa, Gackt, anime characters, etc) so I want a Japanese boyfriend."
A: Um, just like real men in America don't look like Brad Pitt, real men in Japan don't look like celebrities either (and they certainly don't look/act like anime chara). Closest you can get is a host I guess. Good luck with that.

Q: I'm ____ (white, black, latina, etc) will Japanese boys like me?
A: Do any guys like you? But seriously, most Japanese men will be curious enough to casually date you or have sex with you. However if you want a serious relationship it will be tougher, and if you have your heart set on Japanese you might have to lower your expections.

Q: Are people going to stare at me if I go to a Sento?
A: Look, yeah. Stare, hopefully not.

Q: I am visiting a Japanese person's house, should I bring something along?
A: Chocolate, alchohol, flowers.

Q: I am (13-15) years old and I love anime/manga, now I want to live in Japan, how can I?
A: Well it's true Japan is the best place to get your anime goods (although I really didn't see them that often) but if thats why you want to live in Japan.... research a bit more first.

Q: I want to live in Japan, it's the coolest place on earth!
A: That's a rather unrealistic view, now isn't is.

Giri-choco and Vday

I think anyone who has interest in Japan probably know a bit about Japan's version of Valentines, but I will give a quick summary of it before I talk more heavly about it.

Basically Valentine's Day in Japan is celebrated by girls and women giving chocolate to men. There is no boys giving to girls, and no classmates passing around paper greetings.

There are levels of chocolate too. Honmei-choco (prospective winner chocolate) is for your romantic interest, giri-choco (obligation chocolate) is for your male co-workers, boss, etc. and tomo-choco (friend chocolate) is for your friends. In addition to chocolate, a woman may also give a necktie or other other type of nice present to her partner for Valentines. It seems a tad commericial and un-fair, but there is a complimentary holiday, called White Day on which the men must return the favor and give a present to the women whom gave them chocolate. The candy companies invented this holiday as a way to market white chocolate and marshmellows, but now man give a wide variety of gifts.

The Japanese have a wide array of opinions on these holiday traditions, but the most common seems to be that they feel it helps aid communication (in the case of giri-choco). It seems a bit absurd to western views that chocolate can help office communications run smoother, but in a reserved society like Japan, it might just do the trick.

I asked Shouma if he had gotten any chocolate today and he said no and was glad for it. When I asked him why he felt that way he explained: "It's better to not get chocolate, because then I don't have to spend any money later (White Day)"- He should count himself lucky that he is not an american man, and expected to give chocolate, flowers, a card, buy dinner and perhaps even jewelry.

What is the best gift to recieve on Valentines in my opinion? I'd have to say it's the chocolate okonomiyaki made by Tora-ya. It looks as good as real okonomiyaki and tastes even better.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Girl Bars

So what business is giving Hostess bars a run for their money? Girl Bars of course.

The basic concept of Girl Bars is you pay to talk with the cute girl bartenders. Typically you'll get in on a 1500-2000yen cover and then you'll be forking over 800yen per drink. For this low price you get the opportunity to talk casually with adorable young girls. Better yet, since girl bars are bars they can stay open till 5am, later then your average hostess club. And if you're willing to pay a bit more you might enjoy some extras like mirrored floors and extra sexy costumes.

Now in all honesty, yes Girl Bars are cheaper then hostess clubs and they offer a much different and more relaxed atmosphere. But I thought generally that's what happens in bars, you talk casually with the bartender, enjoy your drinks and stumble home. And you don't have to pay an over-inflated price to do it.

As they are gaining popularity, it's obivous that the sararimen approve, but foriegn opinion seems to vary. Of course you got your schlubby men saying "With mirrored floors I can see their panties! Hell yes!" and on the opposite end spectrum you get "Typical sex-obsessed Japanese".

I guess my opinion falls somewhere in the middle. I feel its sad that these men will pay money just to talk to a young girl, but atleast it seems like a decent job and good pay for the girls. However all in all I feel its just another sex business that contributes to Japan's declining birth-rate and the increasing rate of sexless marriages.

Planning ahead

I really enjoyed my last trip to Japan, which was my life-long dream, and now here I am planning my next trip to Japan. I honestly never thought I would make it there once but I am really happy I have the oppertunity to go there again.

My tentitive dates for travel are within the last two weeks of may or the first week of June. Thanks be to the government in this case as I will be funding my airplane ticket with my tax refund and that rebate. Otherwise I highly doubt I could fund this on my 12$ an hour job.
I will be visiting Fukuoka and Saitama (perhaps) this time. However I am still debating on how I am going to get to Saitama from Fukuoka. Flight seems the easiest for me.

Sadly this trip will not be nearly so long as my first, I am thinking somewhere 9-13 days long depending on when/how long my friends are availble for hanging out. I'm not really sure how much money to bring, besides hotel, transportation, and food, because I think most of the things I wanted to buy from Japan were purchased in December and November.

Who knows maybe I will find some Gackt goods I can't pass up haha.

Gyudon Tonight

Ah, one of my true loves from Japan - Gyudon. Today I thought, well I like gyudon so much and I can't just walk down the street and eat it at Suki-ya anymore so I might as well try making it. I reached some recipes on the internet and ended up using This One.

Well it turned out tasting alright (besides the dashi releasing an eye watering stink in our kitchen, perhaps I will talk about the smell issues with dashi at further length in a later entry). The two problems we had with it were it's difficult to find the highly-marbled thinly sliced beef around here, and we didn't have any sake. It seems like you really need the sake to make it taste just right. But otherwise I was so happy! I will be trying this again as soon as we can pick up a small bottle of sake.

Mt. Aso in the Distance

Snow in Kumamoto

Yesterday Kumamoto recieved a light dusting of snow, I'm not sure how much of Kumamoto actually got snow but I can safely say Aso City was white for awhile.

Everytime it snows in Kumamoto Shouma makes sure he tells me asap. It seems he wants me to be sure that Japan gets snow too, like Minnesota. Well not like Minnesota so much haha.

I never got to see snow while I was in Japan, I know the time and location plays a big part in of when snow falls, but still it would have been nice to see some flakes for Christmas.

Oh Christmas in Japan is a rather big let down, especially for someone like me who is really big into "American Christmas". I mean there are all these decorations, lights, music and then on Christmas - nothing. It's like, what was the point of all that?

Tanuki

Here is a short movie of the Tanuki in Ueno zoo. The sad thing about Ueno zoo is that all their enclosures are so small and out-dated. However besides the usual animals you see at zoos they had some interesting animals from Japan and other places I had never seen before.
Ueno park is a nice place to visit, I hope next time I go it isn't dark and cold. But besides the park, Ameyoko-cho and some interesting shops there isn't much to see in Ueno haha.

Photos from my trip

Well I'm back in the US again.
The sad thing was I had unreliable internet access (locked with parental controls no less) at my place in Yokohama. Thusly I wasn't able to update at all.
Now I've pretty much lost any interest in writting up a report.

So please take a look at my pics from Japan!!


Also feel free to browse the pictures at my Flickr album Here!!

Small update

Haha, Its been so long since Ive written anything...Its kind of hard to know what to write now!

Well I have had trouble accessing the net so thus my lack of updates but I have done many wonderful things! Living in Japan is very interesting.

Ok I will talk about today then:
First I went to the Volks Show Room in Yokohama, its really close to the west exit of Yokohama station so its not very hard to find. I was really happy to discover the had a large portion of the store dedicated to Super Dollfie. So I bought a wig and grabbed some free wet tissue packets with Amakusa on them hehe! Oh also I visited the Harajuku Tenshi no Sumika which was really nice and I bought my Dolpa 18 guidebook so I can get into the Dolpa.

After that me and Shouma went to eat gyudon at Suki-ya, and it was pretty tasty and the bill was only 1000yen then we went to a department store and I played around on the toy floor while Shouma sat in a massge chair haha. I bought some more Gashapon, which I am buying all the time since machines are everywhere haha

My favorite thing is trying out new food especially breads. I have eaten so many kinds of melon bread, regular, chocolate chip, cream inside, strawberry. Ive seen Chocolate and coffee flavor, but havent tried. Suffice to say I gained 3kg T_T

Sadly I cant upload any pics since this isnt my computer...but I will when I get back home in 2 weeks!