That Japan thing
May. 25th, 2004 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
noahgibbsThose of you who read the previous entry are aware that I'm going to Japan in June. For those who didn't: read the first sentence of this entry carefully, there's a hidden implication about a foreign country I'll be visiting.
For those who are curious: I've got a friend who's teaching English there for a year. She's a little over halfway done with her time there. I'm unemployed, and thus easily scheduleable. I'm certainly not going to get enough vacation to spend much time there in the next six months, at least once I'm employed again. And hey, I've only been outside the country twice, and they barely counted (England, twice, with the family, as a teenager).
I'm thinking of it kinda like Burning Man: I hadn't been camping in something like fifteen years, so I decided to camp in an alkaline desert environment with high winds, and then plan to be there for days before anybody I knew showed up. Whoo!
Well, similarly, I'm going to Otaru on Hokkaido, definitely not prime tourist territory (like, say, Tokyo). I know almost zero Japanese, and I'm going to need to take care of myself most of the time because my host has to work while I'm there, at least on weekdays.
I expect to do a lot of hiking, ride a lot of trains and eat a lot of noodles, which sounds like a pretty good way to see Japan. I've arranged for a Japan Rail pass to help support that expectation. I'm working now on how to set up my phrasebookage so I can appropriately apologize for myself at all times, including but not limited to my non-grasp of the language. Luckily, as my host pointed out, I'm instantly recognizable as foreign, so my halting "Nihongo o hanasemasen" should be redundant. That's "hello, I am a dog", or perhaps "I don't know Japanese", depending on the sense of humor of my source material.
Anybody know about customs and what I can reasonably bring there or bring back? I don't have anything I'm especially worried about planned, but I've never really done this before. Will I have no trouble getting there with basic supplies and coming back with random Japanese gadgets, or is there stuff I should worry about?
For those who are curious: I've got a friend who's teaching English there for a year. She's a little over halfway done with her time there. I'm unemployed, and thus easily scheduleable. I'm certainly not going to get enough vacation to spend much time there in the next six months, at least once I'm employed again. And hey, I've only been outside the country twice, and they barely counted (England, twice, with the family, as a teenager).
I'm thinking of it kinda like Burning Man: I hadn't been camping in something like fifteen years, so I decided to camp in an alkaline desert environment with high winds, and then plan to be there for days before anybody I knew showed up. Whoo!
Well, similarly, I'm going to Otaru on Hokkaido, definitely not prime tourist territory (like, say, Tokyo). I know almost zero Japanese, and I'm going to need to take care of myself most of the time because my host has to work while I'm there, at least on weekdays.
I expect to do a lot of hiking, ride a lot of trains and eat a lot of noodles, which sounds like a pretty good way to see Japan. I've arranged for a Japan Rail pass to help support that expectation. I'm working now on how to set up my phrasebookage so I can appropriately apologize for myself at all times, including but not limited to my non-grasp of the language. Luckily, as my host pointed out, I'm instantly recognizable as foreign, so my halting "Nihongo o hanasemasen" should be redundant. That's "hello, I am a dog", or perhaps "I don't know Japanese", depending on the sense of humor of my source material.
Anybody know about customs and what I can reasonably bring there or bring back? I don't have anything I'm especially worried about planned, but I've never really done this before. Will I have no trouble getting there with basic supplies and coming back with random Japanese gadgets, or is there stuff I should worry about?
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Re: Japanese
Date: 2004-05-25 06:54 pm (UTC)Further re toilets - the Japanese electronic toilets in the hotels are SOOOOOOOO freakin' cool. Warm or cold water sprayed anywhere you like, heated seats......my favorite quote heard while I was traveling with the team - college age man comes downstairs in the morning and says to his father (also travelling with us) - "I didn't know there was so much to anal stimulation!" Yeah....... :)
Culture note - the Japanese REAAAAAAALLY don't like to say no - be very careful what you ask for and about - for example, innocently asking the chairman of lacrosse where he reccommended we go for dinner wound up with him picking us up at our hotel and taking us out to an amazing 4 level restaurant in Tokyo - his treat. If you say - "hey, this would be neat" often people feel obligated to make sure you get to do whatever it is.
Politely dropping the head and making a chopping motion in front of you while saying "sumimasen" over and over is the way to get through a crowd. And everything you've heard about merciless pushing onto trains is true - all politeness is out the window.
Shabu-shabu is delicious and tasty. As is the BBQ version I can't quite remember. Japanese curry is a cheap and yummy meal - and the word for curry is almost the same pronounced koo-ry therefore fairly easy to explain that you want it - thick stewy thing full of chunks of carrot and potato over rice - can be served with thin fried pork cutlet as an added bonus. Food is usually accompanied by pictures or models - noodle houses are sooooooo wonderful. Tea and a hearty bowl of soup sitting on tatami mats is a beautiful experience.
You will in fact have to take your shoes off fairly frequently. Make sure your socks are presentable and your feet don't reek. Nothing personal - I don't know your feet. :)