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Have you ever been to Japan?

Skye-N-Rain VIPAdmin
Kadrama wrote: they're saying it could take several months to get the nuclear plant totally taken care of. but if you're not in the danger zones you're fine.
just certain areas you might want to avoid that's all.
if/when i go it'll be mainly tokyo so i'm not worried about it, though i might visit some other areas if i can. honestly i'd go right now if i could. they need a boost in tourism to help the economy recover


Well people can always go down south of Tokyo like Nara, Hiroshima, Osaka, etc. Those places are safer than Tokyo even if i'm not mistaken.
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ladyfaile
Suvena wrote: Oh, it was. Nikko National Park especially with the Toshogu shrine and the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys. :D


i've seen photos of the shrine from when my brother in law went there, really cool. he brought back an english tourism guide to the park and shrine also, really interesting. it's also got info about all kinds of things like shinto and the different spirits and demons and festivals and so on. i wonder where it went i didn't get to read the whole thing yet =/
he also got me a little figurine of a cat that has some kind of legend or something there, i forget the story
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ladyfaile
musicalposter wrote: Well people can always go down south of Tokyo like Nara, Hiroshima, Osaka, etc. Those places are safer than Tokyo even if i'm not mistaken.


true true. when they first were getting really concerned about the radiation my BIL and his gf and a whole bunch of his coworkers all went to Osaka for a few days. their theatre was closed for a couple weeks since it wasn't appropriate to perform a show at that time, so he spent time there and then came home for just over a week. life has gone back to normal for them now though they're not selling as many tickets still. they fill up the theatre by giving free tickets to evacuees. helps boost morale for some people plus it's always more fun to play to a full house so it's win-win
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boredandtwitchy
My dad was supposed to take me to Japan as a high school graduation gift back in 2005, but financial circumstances, etc., etc. Basically, I ended up not going. However, if I get this job I'm interviewing for tomorrow evening, I'd be teaching in a country-I-don't-want-to-name-because-I'm-superstitious-and-I-don't-want-to-jinx-it that is about a two hour flight away from Japan. And hopefully I'll get the double pleasure of visiting Japan and seeing one of my good friends who has been teaching English in Toyama for the past two years.
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Skye-N-Rain VIPAdmin
Platinum wrote: true true. when they first were getting really concerned about the radiation my BIL and his gf and a whole bunch of his coworkers all went to Osaka for a few days. their theatre was closed for a couple weeks since it wasn't appropriate to perform a show at that time, so he spent time there and then came home for just over a week. life has gone back to normal for them now though they're not selling as many tickets still. they fill up the theatre by giving free tickets to evacuees. helps boost morale for some people plus it's always more fun to play to a full house so it's win-win


Oooh smart.
majoolove wrote: My dad was supposed to take me to Japan as a high school graduation gift back in 2005, but financial circumstances, etc., etc. Basically, I ended up not going. However, if I get this job I'm interviewing for tomorrow evening, I'd be teaching in a country-I-don't-want-to-name-because-I'm-superstitious-and-I-don't-want-to-jinx-it that is about a two hour flight away from Japan. And hopefully I'll get the double pleasure of visiting Japan and seeing one of my good friends who has been teaching English in Toyama for the past two years.


Good luck :)
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ladyfaile
ooh yes good luck!
if it's where I think it is, you'll love it. my brother's friend did it and kept renewing his contract to stay longer because he loved it so much. he ended up meeting a girl there and getting married, and the two of them started their own school!
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Aya
I was at Japan a week(i think...) after the earthquake happened to check up on my dad's relatives... hopefully they were fine but almost all the glass thingies (plates etc...) were broken and I had to go and buy replacements xD

Before I visited at that time, my dad literally went to my school to come and pick me up x.x I didn't even get to pack my things at that time xD

But I go to Japan at least once a year so that finalizes things up since I have a Japanese father xP
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boredandtwitchy
Thank you, Skye and ladyfaile, for the well wishes!

@ladyfaile: I hope the country you're thinking of is the right one since the experience of your brother's friend sounds lovely! I'm not really hoping to find a husband out of the deal (sorry, Mom!), but I am hoping for awesome students and glorious drunken weekends. And maybe a concert or several.

@Aya: Glad that your family in Japan is fine! =)
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ladyfaile
also you reminded me that i wanted to look into teaching esl in Japan, i just checked it out and you need a bachelor's degree to get the work visa. boooo i only have a college diploma
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zareba
Luckily, we had good weather. Though, it was raining when we went to Nikko. Yep, went to Miyajima Island. I also thought going to ground zero was really haunting... Gives you a surreal feeling.
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Kawaikochan
I've never been, and even though I've studied Japanese, I don't particularly want to visit. Like, I wanna visit because I want to visit almost everywhere in the world, but I'm not obsessed with it. I don't think it's Zion or anything. From what I hear it's a really conservative society that doesn't always look favorably upon non-japanese, especially if you're not blonde haired and blue eyed, which doesn't really mesh well with me because I'm uber liberal and brown, lol. However, there are some beautiful locations, the people generally seem nice, and they're not in a middle of a civil war or anything that would make it really dangerous, so it's on my list of places to see :)
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Bi a
kukuku wrote: I'm uber liberal and brown


HAHAHAHAHA @ Brown .. that is something i usually say :P ... but is it really conservative ? i wonder..
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Kawaikochan
azdeji wrote: is it really conservative ? i wonder..


I have never visited so please take my opinion with a grain of salt (possibly an entire salt slab, lol), but from what i've seen, in Japan there's "a way" of doing things and divergence from that way isn't really appreciated, particularly in less metropolitan areas. However, as with any population, this is a generalization and societies are constantly in flux.

In an attempt to steer the convo back to the op, for those of you who visit Japan often or lived there for a while, what has your experience been?
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ladyfaile
i think they're conservative when they need to be, but less so these days than they used to be, and can really let loose when they're able to.
they just have very different/strict rules of etiquette than what westerners are used to. for example if you're on a bus with a friend it's ok to talk to each other but if you're alone you shouldn't talk on a cellphone, that's rude. my BIL took us shopping with him via skype on his iphone and when he got on a bus he couldn't talk anymore but he had earphones on so we could still talk to him, we were trying to make him laugh
there's so many etiquette rules for eating, meeting people, how to speak to someone older than you or in a higher position than you careerwise etc.. it's a good idea to read up on this stuff before visiting there.
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Bi a
cheru wrote: i think they're conservative when they need to be, but less so these days than they used to be, and can really let loose when they're able to.
they just have very different/strict rules of etiquette than what westerners are used to. for example if you're on a bus with a friend it's ok to talk to each other but if you're alone you shouldn't talk on a cellphone, that's rude. my BIL took us shopping with him via skype on his iphone and when he got on a bus he couldn't talk anymore but he had earphones on so we could still talk to him, we were trying to make him laugh
there's so many etiquette rules for eating, meeting people, how to speak to someone older than you or in a higher position than you careerwise etc.. it's a good idea to read up on this stuff before visiting there.


very interesting..
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