Japan

SunTzuWarmaster · Post by **SunTzuWarmaster** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:12 pm

I'm going to Japan in a month or so on essentially an all-expenses-paid trip, for a week long trip because my work is paying for it. My girl is coming because we are both big fans of someone else paying for room/board on vacations. I have to work during the week (Mon-Fri), but I have a weekend to do whatever. She will have the entire trip to be a tourist. I figure that there are a fiar number of y'all that enjoy Japan/Japanese culture, so my question is this: what should I do?

We have already gotten started with learning Japanese, and have a couple of places that we need to visit (where we are staying, Tokyo, etc.), but the trip is largely uncoordinated at the moment.

The people where we are staying will speak English.

Suggestions?

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:01 pm

SunTzuWarmaster wrote:I'm going to Japan in a month or so on essentially an all-expenses-paid trip, for a week long trip because my work is paying for it. My girl is coming because we are both big fans of someone else paying for room/board on vacations. I have to work during the week (Mon-Fri), but I have a weekend to do whatever. She will have the entire trip to be a tourist. I figure that there are a fiar number of y'all that enjoy Japan/Japanese culture, so my question is this: what should I do?

We have already gotten started with learning Japanese, and have a couple of places that we need to visit (where we are staying, Tokyo, etc.), but the trip is largely uncoordinated at the moment.

The people where we are staying will speak English.

Suggestions?

Well, a good move if you're going to get the tourist thing, is to get cards with names of food/etc printed (or written) in Japanese on them. Also, if you'll be taking a cab (unlikely), get the name of the place your staying and have it written down in Japanese, so you can show the cabbie.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:38 pm

How much of Japan do you plan on seeing? Are you sticking around Tokyo, or heading to other places like Kyoto (or somewhere in Hokkaido like Otaru "the Venice of Japan" (because it has a canal and a glass museum))?

Japan has some really nice urban planning, in that habitation tends to stick to flat areas, leaving pretty much any large hill as park land. Even just a bit out of Tokyo there are some really nice hikes.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:35 am

Do some Japanese tourist classics.

You know, see Mt. Fuji, do some sharking, visit ancient hot springs, sample the local subway groping, maybe see a few popular shrines...

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:27 am

If you're in Tokyo, if you plan ahead, you can spend an afternoon as far as Kyoto or Osaka, but that would be both spendy and neat ^-^ They have fast trains.

-Crissa

Count Arioch the 28th · Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:37 pm

Try really hard to not break any laws while you're there, the Japanese don't fuck around when it comes to foreigners breaking the law.

shau · Post by **shau** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:58 pm

Bring a sword. You may be challenged to a duel during your stay. You will almost certainly be attacked by ninjas.

Quantumboost · Post by **Quantumboost** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:07 pm

If you do actually take a sword or weapon of any kind, make sure you have all necessary licences and documentation of ownership, and that the weapon is an "art object". This goes back to the "Try really hard not to break any laws while you're there".

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:23 pm

Get used to being ignored.

Also, tell your lady friend to be careful on trains. You, or she, may already know about gropers, but it's best to safe.

Most of the architecture in Japan is ugly concrete boxes, get used to it.

SunTzuWarmaster · Post by **SunTzuWarmaster** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:46 pm

Heh, we are actually extra-careful not to break any laws on this particular visit.

I have 2 days (the weekend), and each night (something like 5 nights).

She has every day and every night (something like 7 total days).

We are about a 2-3 hour train ride from Tokyo, in kick-ass accommodations (5-star, essentially). Anything is fair game. The current thoughts are to spend a night in Tokyo (up high, if we can), have have her tour Kyoto during the week, but those were decided just a moment ago and can clearly change.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:18 pm

Heath Robinson wrote:Also, tell your lady friend to be careful on trains. You, or she, may already know about gropers, but it's best to safe.

Gropers don't go after foreigners. What keeps the victims from smacking the gropers is culturally-induced shame, which non-Japanese are notoriously short of.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:29 pm

Yeah, generally the Japanese will go to some lengths to avoid touching you in public spaces. Seriously, they'll shove each other out of the way to get a seat on the train, but they won't treat you to the same.

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:55 pm

angelfromanotherpin wrote:Gropers don't go after foreigners. What keeps the victims from smacking the gropers is culturally-induced shame, which non-Japanese are notoriously short of.

And here, I thought it was the fact that rush hour trains in Tokyo are packed to the brim, making gropers anonymous and practically unreachable even if they could be identified. I heard these stories, y'see, about people being pushed into trains rather forcefully by the station personnel.

I guess I should have said "don't bother travelling during rush hours, it's worse than in the US" instead.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:47 am

Make sure to activate your Gaijin Smash any time you want something. But be careful, some of them know how to perform a Super Counter and walk around with two fully charged super gauges just for that purpose.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:50 am

Boolean wrote:Yeah, generally the Japanese will go to some lengths to avoid touching you in public spaces. Seriously, they'll shove each other out of the way to get a seat on the train, but they won't treat you to the same.

They fear catching a case of Second Hand Fatness And Arteriosclerosis from us Westerners.

When you return please tell me if some of them really do smell like ramen farts in public, and how posh the talking toilets were.

SunTzuWarmaster · Post by **SunTzuWarmaster** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:34 am

Everyone in my lab is tall. Like, no one is shorter than 6'3". There were a group of people on the other project that I work on that went over there for the previous trip. One of the taller ones (6'7"?) said that he had to duck everywhere and that people on the street would just look up at him sometimes (especially young japanese girls). He has some humorous pictures such as: him standing next to a building where the doorway is literally at his shoulder and giving a handshake to a sumo wrestler that is smaller than himself. I was reminded of that for the Gaijin Smash.

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