Japanese Culture

[Loniat]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

How so? AFAIK the Americas were horse-free in 1492. If that's just a myth then enlight us. (Horses did exist there in prehistoric times but they became extinct).

Western Hemisphere != Americas.

Indeed horses were not found in the Americas since the last ice age.

[Itachi-evil]

Actually i hate the real Japan, but in the same time i love it.

In reality everything is just a absolute contradiction to the reality especially in Japan i think.

With animes/manga you can flle from the cruel real world.

It is all a CONPIRACY!

I love Japan cause, my whole life, only consists of animes/manga, so this is almost more important to me than nutrition!

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Shiokaze

It was like the 4th day after I met her. We know each other pretty well by then. And she seemed really interested before I started on the girl.

Even if you were with her for 24hrs/day for 4 days - I'd have to say its impossible to "know each other pretty well" either in japanese or any other cultural sense. Unless someone is really that shallow, it takes months or even years to really understand someone and that's if they let you.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Even if you were with her for 24hrs/day for 4 days - I'd have to say its impossible to "know each other pretty well" either in japanese or any other cultural sense. Unless someone is really that shallow, it takes months or even years to really understand someone and that's if they let you.

That's what I thought, but I kind of feel like an alien saying things like this.

Four days of living in the same home, IMO you're no longer a stranger but somewhere between aquaintance and friend (not living in the same home, still aquaintance). To me you would be a friend, but I still wouldn't know you very well. It would take months of constant contact (not disappearing for a month then coming back for example) for me to begin feeling you're a good friend I know well. And years to finally begin really understanding you.

I'm not trying to be conceited, talking only about myself here just for the sake of talking about myself -- I think this applies to lots of people. (Well... most people I know, anyways.)

[AVPlaya]

Originally Posted by Shiokaze

Okay, I just came back from Japan on a school exchange. One question I have is kinda weird. I was showing my host sister pictures of my friends on my facebook. I am a guy, before I start talking. The first person I talked about was my friend who is a guy. The second person is a girl. She wasn't a girl friend, just a friend who is a girl. Before I finished talking about her, my host sister just walked away. So here is my question, do Japanese girls know the difference for a guy having a girlfriend and a girl who is just a friend? Or are they offended for a guy to talk about a girl in front of them? Because, I have many friends who are girls. I know this sounds like a really awkward question, but my other classmates got similar responses from their host sisters when they showed their host sisters there friends, both guys and girls.

This is kinda strange. HOW did you talk about your friends? What words did you use? Of course Japanese girls knows you can be friends with opposite sex. I doubt that was the case. How did you talk about your friend maybe the reason why they walked away. They would expect you to talk about your friend in a very high manner, but if you talk bad about them, even in a joking manner, they would be either be offended or thought that you're an inconsiderate person. Since I don't know what you've said, I can only tell you what they might expect. Unless you are extremely close with a person, you're not supposed to say anything negative about a 3rd person, even as a joke.

Originally Posted by hyperlion

two questions.

1.What are the most view of Japanese when it comes to international marriage?

2.What would their reaction be if someone mentions the issue with their history textbook?

1. Depends on the person and the persons involved in the marriage. You have to be much more specific than that to avoid an overtly generalized answer.

2. You mean how they edited their text book? Again it depends on who you ask. Most kids don't really care, and some right-wing adults gets really defensive. These are sensitive topics.

Originally Posted by Itachi-evil

Actually i hate the real Japan, but in the same time i love it.

In reality everything is just a absolute contradiction to the reality especially in Japan i think.

With animes/manga you can flle from the cruel real world.

It is all a CONPIRACY!

I love Japan cause, my whole life, only consists of animes/manga, so this is almost more important to me than nutrition!

Most Japanese feel the same way as you do. The truth is modern Japan is an relatively difficult place to live, especially for an Japanese. Many are stuck in a profession they have no interest in and yet they can't get out. A serious mistake can end your career and sometime your life because second chances are rare. Japanese adulthood is cruel and demeaning, especially compared to the pampered childhood. This is why Japanese entertainment is so far-out, and the otaku culture is so prevalent. Modern society create the pressure for people wanting escape, and that pressure is higher in Japan than any other modern culture. We as gaijins really gets it all - we get to enjoy their entertainment yet we don't have to live their lives. We can take the best and ignore the rest. They can't.

[psycho bolt]

Well I think this is somewhat related to the discussions above. I found this nice website that shows Tokyo in the 1880s. A good example of how much has changed.

http://deputy-dog.com/2007/09/02/the...raph-of-tokyo/

Sigh, I wish I could walk the streets of the edo period.

[Abbott]

Originally Posted by Shiokaze

Okay, I just came back from Japan on a school exchange. One question I have is kinda weird. I was showing my host sister pictures of my friends on my facebook. I am a guy, before I start talking. The first person I talked about was my friend who is a guy. The second person is a girl. She wasn't a girl friend, just a friend who is a girl. Before I finished talking about her, my host sister just walked away. So here is my question, do Japanese girls know the difference for a guy having a girlfriend and a girl who is just a friend? Or are they offended for a guy to talk about a girl in front of them? Because, I have many friends who are girls. I know this sounds like a really awkward question, but my other classmates got similar responses from their host sisters when they showed their host sisters there friends, both guys and girls.

I personally find looking at pictures of people I don't know to be incredibly boring. Though not as boring as hearing stories about people I don't know. I have a friend who carries her camera with her everywhere, and always tries to show people mind-numbingly boring pictures of what her and her other friends have been doing. I doubt it's a cultural thing, more of a, pictures of people are boring, thing.

[Tasdern]

Originally Posted by Shiokaze

Okay, I just came back from Japan on a school exchange. One question I have is kinda weird. I was showing my host sister pictures of my friends on my facebook. I am a guy, before I start talking. The first person I talked about was my friend who is a guy. The second person is a girl. She wasn't a girl friend, just a friend who is a girl. Before I finished talking about her, my host sister just walked away. So here is my question, do Japanese girls know the difference for a guy having a girlfriend and a girl who is just a friend? Or are they offended for a guy to talk about a girl in front of them? Because, I have many friends who are girls. I know this sounds like a really awkward question, but my other classmates got similar responses from their host sisters when they showed their host sisters there friends, both guys and girls.

I’ve never been to Japan but I have a thought about this.

Ask yourself; why this family was a host family? Could it be that they wanted you to socialize with your host sister?

Are you still in touch with the family and particularly the young lady? How did things go after that time?

You may be too young for the movie Better Off Dead from the ‘80s.

[Vexx]

This might as well go here.... after all, cicadas (kumazemi) are part of japanese culture and a standard technique in anime for saying "Hey, its August". The black cicadas are over 6 cm long.

Recent article in the scientific magazine Nature about the summertime arrival of cicada being the noisiest of the four year cycle. Sound measurements at some Osaka parks have hit 94 decibels... that's loud enough to damage hearing with prolonged exposure.

The little buggers are also causing Internet outages. They mistake the overhead fiber-optic cables for tree branches and puncture them with their ovipositors to lay eggs. In the last two years, Nippon telco has recorded over a thousand cases of cable-severing or water damage resulting from their egg laying. NTT West has designed new cables without grooves and with an extra protective sheath to combat them.

They sound rather like the cicadas I grew up with in Texas though we rarely had more than a handful in a given acre there.

[Tasdern]

Cidadas are common in the Mid Atlantic area. They are the sound of summer.

[Abbott]

Cicadas are a little annoying, but the noise is a consistent hum that you get used to after a while. It's the frogs that annoy the crap out of me. They make Cicadas seem quiet.

[Risaa]

I hate cicadas with a passion. Far too many times have I stood next to a nice big tree and had dead cicada bodies fall on me. GAH! The last summer I lived in an area with cicadas, I avoided all trees and brought a water gun everywhere with me... so I could shoot them off. >:x

I'm going to be living in a mountainey-foresty area of Japan in about two weeks (boo hoo, I miss my home already) and I'm NOT looking forward to cicadas come summer...

[Diaboso]

when I get out of college the first thing im going to do is go down to japan and enjoy it for a week. whens the best ime to go to have fun but not be drown in other tourists?

I have no problem with cicadas they are a common place

[Zero Shinohara]

when I get out of college the first thing im going to do is go down to japan and enjoy it for a week. whens the best ime to go to have fun but not be drown in other tourists?

I have no problem with cicadas they are a common place

Well, then we have a plan in common. However, the idea is to go before I get out of college, which will be in, hopefully, two years' time. I'm planning on finding a job and working my ass out to both maintain a good GPA and get a few bucks to add to my "pilgrimage" money and, hopefully, have about $5000 by next summer. I'm not sure if that's the best time to go either, so having some info on the Japanese tourist season would be nice.

Personally I'd like to get a car and do a little cross-country with no certain destination apart from certain hotspots I'd love to visit. Akihabara is a must, and if possible I'd like to go pay a visit to Saitama. Not sure if 5 grand would be enough for that, but if I remember correctly, 1 dollar was worth roughly 156 yen yesterday. Take out 2000 to pay for the flight ticket and I should have roughly 460000 Yen left at the end. What can one do with this? I'll survive sleeping under a bridge, but I refuse to eat food from the garbage. What's left will be used to buy anime stuff, of course.

And somehow I think this isn't the right topic to post this, but since I'm also interested in the months of the year that have the lightest tourist influx...

[raikage]

Be aware that in Japan, you drive on the other side of the road.

In fact, if I were going I probably wouldn't look into renting a car at all, unless you want to go into the more remote parts of the country.

I'd be more concerned with weather, than with tourists. I assume most tourists go when the weather doesn't suck, so what can ya do?

[Zero Shinohara]

Be aware that in Japan, you drive on the other side of the road.

In fact, if I were going I probably wouldn't look into renting a car at all, unless you want to go into the more remote parts of the country.

I'd be more concerned with weather, than with tourists. I assume most tourists go when the weather doesn't suck, so what can ya do?

Just like in communist russia, car drives you?

But yeah, the idea was to actually go to some of the remote places. I'm not very versed with the japanese geography, but if I remember correctly, Hokkaido has quite a lot of memorable scenery that I'd love to visit ( I'm a lover of beautiful and epic natural landscapes, so... ), besides the fact that, even if I come from the south, I'm not really fond of hot, damp climates. ( Don't ask me what I'm doing in Florida, though. )

But getting a rental might be extending things a little bit, especially when you have a tight budget. It's unfortunate, but just like finding myself a lovely miko-san to whom I'd marry and be happy ever after while gathering firewood in the forests of Japan, going on a cross-country trip to see the country as a whole just doesn't seem possible for now.

But what about areas with mountains and stuff? I'm a whore for high places

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Zero Shinohara

Well, then we have a plan in common. However, the idea is to go before I get out of college, which will be in, hopefully, two years' time. I'm planning on finding a job and working my ass out to both maintain a good GPA and get a few bucks to add to my "pilgrimage" money and, hopefully, have about $5000 by next summer. I'm not sure if that's the best time to go either, so having some info on the Japanese tourist season would be nice.

Personally I'd like to get a car and do a little cross-country with no certain destination apart from certain hotspots I'd love to visit. Akihabara is a must, and if possible I'd like to go pay a visit to Saitama. Not sure if 5 grand would be enough for that, but if I remember correctly, 1 dollar was worth roughly 156 yen yesterday. Take out 2000 to pay for the flight ticket and I should have roughly 460000 Yen left at the end. What can one do with this? I'll survive sleeping under a bridge, but I refuse to eat food from the garbage. What's left will be used to buy anime stuff, of course.

And somehow I think this isn't the right topic to post this, but since I'm also interested in the months of the year that have the lightest tourist influx...

Naturally, just like most countries, mid-Summer and Winter holiday season are the highest traffic time, and also the most expensive time to fly. It will literally cost you more than double the cost to fly during those vacation times. I would suggest going during Spring or Fall seasons, to save you both massive travel costs as well as turism traffic.

As for driving in Japan... well, I hate driving anywhere, and Japan is one of the worst place for me to drive, becuase of the insanely narrow roads. The fact that you're only few inches away from another car is insanely frightening for me, and because Japan has the most efficient public transportation system in the world, I would never drive in Japan myself, if I have a choice.
There are some two-way roads in Japan that's about the same width as a one-way road in United States.

As for where to go, well, depends on what you want to see.
For example, my otaku friend says "I don't really consider this vacation 'traveling to Japan'. More like, 'visiting Akihabara'".
If you like sight seeing, I would suggest visiting popular old cities such as Kyoto and Nara, as well as checking out places like Miyajima isle off the coast of Hiroshima. Beautiful place.

Staying in Japan shouldn't cost you too much, as long as you grab a fairly inexpensive hotel. It costs more than an average hotel in US, but not mind-bogglingly more. In fact it's the travel cost inside Japan that's gonna cost you the most, especially if you frequently use the bullet trains. However, JR has a pass that only non-Japanese resident can purchase, that you can use over and over, that can get you seats in almost all of JR trains, including both subways and cross-prefecture bullet trains. It will cost you around... I think 250 bucks or so per week, but it's well worth it. (Since if you're traveling between prefectures, each ride is gonna cost you over 100 bucks anyways).
Keep in mind, the JR pass only works on JR rails, and not on the local subway rails. Thankfully, JR have damn near the whole country covered.

Originally Posted by Zero Shinohara

Just like in communist russia, car drives you?

But yeah, the idea was to actually go to some of the remote places. I'm not very versed with the japanese geography, but if I remember correctly, Hokkaido has quite a lot of memorable scenery that I'd love to visit ( I'm a lover of beautiful and epic natural landscapes, so... ), besides the fact that, even if I come from the south, I'm not really fond of hot, damp climates. ( Don't ask me what I'm doing in Florida, though. )

Hokkaido? Hmm... I guess if you like Canadan like climate...
There's not much to see there other than nature, and some damn good seafood, and it's pretty darn far from Tokyo.
If you're gonna visit Hokkaido, you may need to check in at a hotel there for a few days, and then check back in at the hotel in the main isle when you're done. Just getting there on train is gonna take 1/3 of the day, so you may better off flying there. (Very costly, but much faster)

Quite frankly, even if you visit many diffrent places in Japan, most of the places are gonna look the same.
Sure, Hokkaido and Okinawa is totally diffrent, but that's the northern edge and the southern edge, and not even on the same island.
The main Japanese island is pretty much the same no matter where you go... only diffrence are the diffrence between citites and country side.
So rather than spreading your travel plans thin and wide, I suggest focusing on where you want to visit.

[SeijiSensei]

I'd go to Hokkaido just to see Hakodate after watching Noein. The cable cars and mountain view over the harbor look quite lovely. There's an extra feature on the Noein R1 DVDs that tours Hakodate with the seiyuu for Haruka and the director. According to the latter, there was an massive investment in shipbuilding in Hakodate than was immediately abandoned by its developers when the market for large ships moved from Japan to other countries like Korea.

I've driven on the "wrong" side of the road in the British Isles. It's not that hard to get used to except for turns. I recall being very confused when I drove out of Shannon airport and needed to make a left from the left lane. After a couple of hours, it all feels natural.

[aohige]

It's not the "opposite side of the road" that's the problem in Japanese road. Like you said, it's easy to get used to after a while.
It's the insanely claustaphobic narrowness of the road that's frightening.
Like this. Keep in mind these are two-way roads.



As well as these.



This is what many average suburbs of Japan looks like.
And that's why I don't like driving there.

[Zero Shinohara]

@aohige:

Ah, thanks for the very useful information

And I probably understand what you mean in regards to the narrowness of the roads, since I come from a place where narrow streets are very common as well. However, unlike in Japan where the problem is mostly lack of space, it's lack of government funds back in my hometown . And the reason I'm wanting to go very soon so eagerly is probably mostly for sanity purposes. Being a mountain-lover, old-school-type of guy whose life is basically dictated by his otaku ways, I'm not really fond of the spacious, lonely, flat and "pop" South Florida. And obviously, doing a pilgrimage to Akiba is a must, at least once in my lifetime.

And I actually didn't think Hokkaido would be that far away from the mainland, but guess I was wrong. If I have the chance to go, flying would probably be out of the question for money reasons ( and you bet losing 8 hours of your day is more acceptable than losing quality merchandise! ), so I'd be taking the train like you said. And perhaps it's more enjoyable for the scenery? I've never been on a train, so if you can't even see crap because it's going too fast, then let me know.

Quite frankly, even if you visit many diffrent places in Japan, most of the places are gonna look the same.
Sure, Hokkaido and Okinawa is totally diffrent, but that's the northern edge and the southern edge, and not even on the same island.
The main Japanese island is pretty much the same no matter where you go... only diffrence are the diffrence between citites and country side.
So rather than spreading your travel plans thin and wide, I suggest focusing on where you want to visit.

I see... well then perhaps I should be narrowing my interests and going to a few hotspots around where the majority of the high-priority must-sees are located. And maybe that way I can actually enjoy the trip more than trying to see everything at once and not spending enough time to dig out the little secrets of every area, right? I'm not an experienced traveler, but everyone I know says that focusing on a certain area is always a better idea. And that way, I can have an excuse to come back more times, right? :P

As far as going on the spring... Well, I only have a week off during Spring Break and Fall doesn't have quite a lot of free time... guess I'm a little crippled when the issue is time, huh. But oh well, I'll see what I can do. By the way, a quick google search just brought this up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're getting 1-5~ domestic flights for roughly $85 each, that's gotta be one hell of a deal.

How about english? Can you >survive< without knowing how to speak or read japanese or you're better off bringing some knowledge of it with you? I'm aware that most places nowadays have tourist guides in many languages, but I'm not 100% sure if your average otaku will survive without being able to say "One Akano daimakura purizu" to the store clerk. Hopefully that won't be the case - I'm learning the basics little by little and hope to get there with a rough understanding of the language. Reading or writing will probably be a problem, since I'm not focusing on those.

Anyway phew, sorry to extend these for so long. But it's really nice to have people who've been there to talk to and ask what you want Thanks a lot.