/jp/ - Japan/Anime

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sad bump ;_;

>>43876
thank you bumping my thread. I even forgot it existed

I went to Japan with my parents when I was around 14 but at the time I was a childish moronic weeaboo (with the distorted /b/tard definition) so I doubt that my experience would have much to offer to anyone here. Decades later I've come to realize that as a western otaku visiting Japan is not really the quintessential goal that a lot of those new to otaku culture would make it out to be. Even if I wasn't a shut-in I still believe that it is best to appreciate this sort of art through the comfort of your home and with the means that are readily available to you.

>>43914
Japan actually sucks massively, doesnt it? Never been there, but from what I've seen, it looks good superficially. It looks even more of a shithole than South Korea (which is a capitalist dystopia).

>>43916
I only visited certain places in Tokyo during my brief time there but from what I can recall it was a pleasant experience. The streets were clean and the aesthetically pleasing, and the people were respectful and civilized. However this all comes from my limited and incomplete view from when I was a child. I also have to admit that despite my great interest in otaku culture, I never took the time to learn about Japan's modern economic and political affairs except from when they were relevant to studying the milieu of a certain visual novel or manga I was reading.

>>43916
>more of a shithole than South Korea (which is a capitalist dystopia)
Now I know you must be talking out of your ass.

>>43919
How? You literally become a felon for downloading mp3s in Japan. South Korea doesnt have such laws, I dont think?

>>43920
I mean, haha laws comparison time.

Russia: mp3 downloading is so rampant they gave up on prosecuting basic Vanyas and Vasyas downloading music - they tend to put the possible harm to selected music makers and movie makers in the device's price instead haha.

Japan: ==2 years!==

著作権法第119条は、著作権、出版権又は著作隣接権を侵害した者に対して、十年以下の懲役若しくは千万円以下の罰金に処し、又はこれを併科すると規定しています。また、営利目的で自動複製機器を使用させた者や、著作権侵害品の頒布目的での輸入行為を行った者についても、五年以下の懲役若しくは五百万円以下の罰金に処し、又はこれを併科することが定められています

Dumping some random pics I took with my phone

Went there twice, around Tokyo and some towns in the neighbouring districts (Nagano, Matsumoto, Enoshima)

I have never been a weeb but 3 years ago some guy I knew on the internet kind of hyped me up into preparing for a trip, he said he would visit in a year and a half and gave me some pointers for how to visit, so I ended up diving into the language and now I am trying to get to a point where I can hold a full convo with a native (right now I can't do much more than read N4-N5 graded readers and ask for simple stuff)

I never brought back anything fancy from these trips, just sweets for the family and material in Japanese I wanted to study (right now I have some sort of a hentai tankoubon, a childrens book and a bunch of PS3 games)

Going there is pretty disorienting at first (12h plane trip from my home country, then having to book an express train ticket because the airport is 80km away from Tokyo and checking in at the hotel where the front desk knows like 3 English words), but after a first night of sleep it is like visiting a first world country except cleaner, quieter and more into politeness

Usually I just wander around, try to do everyday stuff without using Google translate and barely plan anything

I have visited a bunch of museums and places but there are not a lot of famous ones except the Tokyo skytree, the Meiji shrine and maybe the Tokyo national museum (idk if it is well known)

Best memory is probably getting complimented on my japanese by a tourist helpdesk employee (my japanese was garbage but it was still very nice of her)

Japanese food is honestly not my thing, they have plenty of good dishes but I find the taste very mild and not satisfying at all so I usually just eat random stuff from kombinis (incredibly cheap)

My favorite japanese food is probably the chocolate flavored tofu stick, I can't describe it but it's basically so bad that it's good

I will probably go back next christmas and I hope that I improve enough to become at least semi fluent by then

>>44087
thank you for sharing! I saved all your pics. so you were not alone but with that guy? do you plan to go alone next time?
I also want to go to japan but I'm scared getting mocked by japanese or other foreigners for being a poorfag background and a peasant background. I'm not confident enough

>>44088
A few more pics if thats your thing

First trip I flew alone but met the guy a few times around Tokyo (we went to teamLab planets and odaiba together with another friend of him)
Second trip I was all alone, next time I plan to meet him again if possible

Frankly I dont think you need to worry about interactions with the locals or other tourists, not everybody will have the same experience but I have never seen anyone get mocked or bothered (except like a few street vendors who try to give you free tissues or get you to come to their bar in kabukicho - and you can just ignore them completely)

In my experience most locals come across as cold or hostile either because you are in their way (trying to have a conversation with a random guy on the street is generally not a good idea) or you're at a helpdesk and they are bothered because you dont speak japanese

>>44089
thanks. since I fon't speak japanese, it will be a burden for locals, I don't want to cause any trouble

I went to Japan in summer 2013 (back when they still loved tourists) a group trip organized by an anime/manga forum. Fifteen days, mostly spent between Kyoto and Tokyo, with the usual mandatory stops (Hiroshima, Nara, Itsukushima etc). Main attraction was that it was that, being a group trip, it was dirt cheap; and I assumed it'd be more fun with weaboos like I was myself back then.

First of all, if you ever go there for more than a few days, *bring laxatives* - the rice based diet will absolutely wreck you. Then, for the love of all that is holy, do *not* go in August like we did - summer in central Japan is one of the worst climates on earth. March-April is the sweet spot.

Trip itself was fun enough, some places were nice surprises (Hiroshima is actually a very nice city), some I knew I'd like (2013 Akiba was still worth a visit, I hear it's gone to hell now), some were idiotic tourist traps my Naruto-addled trip buddies wanted to see at all costs, making us waste precious time (ie Iga - the McDonalds of ninja villages).

Best experiences were def the food, I don't know today but back then eating out was comically cheap; itsukushima (Seto has to be one of the most beautiful coastal areas on earth); and spending three months' worth of salary in Akiba.

As for language, most people actually sort of spoke rudimentary English but you're better off with at least tourist-level Japanese. I needed to find a place and tried to approach these two succubi, they refused to help until I greeted them in Japanese; then proceeded to offer directions in English…

Anyone else ever noticed the sheer quantity of fences in Japan? Like in the pics of >>44087, the first one has an fence against the hedge, and the third one has these little post and wire fences for the garden on the right. Or the first pic of >>44089, there is the fence on the low stone wall boxing the ramp in, and then another fence inside the ramp itself, with a railing.
Ever since I noticed that, I keep seeing them and it's pretty overkill at times. Fence builders must be busy in Japan.

>>44100
I'm the one who posted the pictures
I'm not claiming to be an expert but central tokyo seems to be fenced up indeed, a lot of them near roads and houses (in that one pic at night, the left part of the pic was actually houses) and of course near cliffs and lakes and stuff
In the countryside (especially in between cities) there were much less sidewalks so not so much

I went to Japan back in 2012 with my dad because my Japanese grandma wanted to visit her brother there. She stayed with her brother most of the trip while my dad and I only stayed in Shinjuku. We both didn't have smartphones and didn't speak Japanese so we were too afraid to ride the trains because we knew we'd get lost and not know how to get back to our hotel room. We did have a nice time wondering all over Shinjuku and eating tons of delicious food everywhere. My dad and I's favorite food is fried rice so we got that almost everywhere we went, easily the best fried rice I've ever had, dad agreed. We also loved the gyoza and ramen there. Even the convenience store food blows most American food out of the water. I loved those convenience store sandwiches with perfect white bread and no crust, I could literally eat those everyday every meal. Anyway, eating was mostly all we did.
We also visited some card shops and random malls. My dad tried getting directions to a card shop off the internet and we got lost and wondered through some dark alleys at night, luckily we were in Japan because they seemed liked the kinda place you'd get robbed anywhere else. I remember wandering into this hole in the wall manga store and seeing some crazy doujinshi stuff, I don't even know how it was legal and how someone could just sell it in a store, lol.
Anyway, overall fun trip, Japan's a pretty interesting place. In the US I live in a rural area so the first couple days I was there felt overwhelming at times with all the people.

I'm a wizard who's been living in Japan for about 5 years now.
I'll give a brief rundown on my experience.

Prior to going to Japan, I was a college student in the US, and had studied Japanese as a sort of minor to my degree, ended up being the first exchange student post-covid to go to the country from my university.
Ended up in Shizuoka for about two years, and I definitely wasn't prepared as I thought I was.
Language, culture, etc. None of my ability was up to snuff, and I ended up isolating myself in the atelier of my college, painting and slowly getting more and more unhinged.
Had a hard time communicating with my classmates, and when they found out I was older than them, they were noticeably colder and showed me more half-hearted respect.

Anyway, the foreign exchange ended, and since I was on track to finish my American degree in a semester, I applied to be a research student for an extra year to graduate while abroad and prepare myself for a work visa. I graduated without issue, and continued my painting research under a Professor Urabe (love this man), but I was mentally breaking from the stress and isolation. I tried to make friends, but I was always a loner in the states and never learned how to make friends with my own people, let alone foreign people.
During the last stretch of my student days I had a full manic episode, got fired from my part time job, and ended up violently threatening my coworker, who I was roughly twice the size of.

Having burnt my bridges in Shizuoka, I took the cash I had remaining, got on a train with CVs in hand, and only 3 months left on my student visa, and went job hunting.

Went to Aichi, made a pit stop in Nagoya to inquire on work, then onto Gifu City, and from there, Ise. Spent a few days in Ise having a mental spiral and eating fried oysters and drinking beer (shoutouts to the folks at the Naiku Isekadoya Taproom, took good care of this insane whiteboy).
Not having much luck, I went from Ise to Nara, and finally to Kyoto, where I had found work surprisingly with the cold approach. It wasn't good work, but they managed to get me a working visa using my oil painting degree from the US and my certificates from Shizuoka.
Worked there for a few years and actually became N2 level fluent in the language thanks to the constant interaction with my peers. Mentally, I chilled out and began working through my issues, after receiving a bipolar 2 diagnosis. Made actual friends with Japanese people, many of which I still keep in contact and visit with to this very day. First time in my life having friends like this.

I wanted more than just bottom of the barrel corporate art work for bottom yen though, so I found a new job in Aichi, and went there after a good 2 year run. This was an actual Japanese corporation, not just a little LLC, like my last job, so the pressure was on, and I sorta broke.
I ended up checking myself into a mental institution, and my diagnosis was changed to schizophrenia.
Upon that happening, I chose to inform my company, fully expecting for my time in Japan to be over, but instead they paid me for my missed work time, gave me a bonus, and said that my health was more important, and that I do good work and they want to keep me on board. This is not normal, but the company itself put a lot into me and decided it was better to take care of me than to just let me go, that or some laws protecting schizos I don't really know.

I'm still at the company to this day, studying for my N1, and am on the fast track to PR even with the stricter new laws.

Sorry for the blog post, but if I had to tl;dr, even schizo wizards can make it in Japan if they try hard enough.

>>44376
How do you feel about your time in Japan? What are the pros and cons of living there for a long time as opposed to in the West and are you planning to stay indefinitely? I've been told that for job-searching native english speakers are more valued than an ESL from Europe, specially for language teaching, also heard japs value degrees and work experience a lot so if I have neither it might not even be worth trying? I'm young but not too young.

>>44377
Honestly, my continued residence here is done purely out of stubbornness and pride.
Logically I know it's not where I should be, but I've done and given up so much to be here and get gud at the language and customs that going back now feels like a waste.
Pros are simply that it's safe, homogeneous, and easy to navigate physically. Life is stable, no upheavalor anything like that, and the employee protection laws are strong as hell and will keep you employed, even if you don't deserve it. It's stable, though in my case I'm the unstable element and just have to hold it together.
Cons are… harder to list. A lot of it is little things that add up, and for fellow wizzies they would likely mostly be insurmountable (language, social skills, general life and job skills, etc.) being of massive importance. Stigmatization and ostracization from our own native societies makes life for our types more difficult than need be, so imagine it x100. I'm isolated, and there is next to no support. Only reason I'm still standing despite it all is because I was born under a lucky star and am an idiot savant in my field (language, art and design). Most people like the ones on this website wouldn't last a year due to how crushing the adjustment period is. I've known gaijin who were otherwise healthy completely spiral into addiction and psychosis their first couple years and never recover.
I do plan to stay indefinitely, mostly because like I said, I'm stubborn and prideful. I feel like… at some point, it has to pay off. My hard work and sacrifice can't be for nothing. There HAS to be something at the end of it. I don't know what I'm looking for in all honesty however.
Not sure about the ESL stuff. Like I said, lucky star and an idiot savant, I managed to skip that grind and work in a more specialized field. I don't even use English very much, just some interpreter stuff for my company occasionally.
You say you have no degree, which means… basically you can't even get a CoE or Working visa. Unless you're from like Vietnam or SEA and get a technical intern or specialized worker visa you've got to be a college grad or have 10 years in a single field of work experience.
Sorry, it's strict, but them's the rules.

>>44376
Language-wise, what would you say has been the hardest to get better at (Grammar, kanji memorization, listening comprehension…)?

>>44376
Is this a true story or schizo ramblings? Post some proofs… Anyway I have read that any foreigner can go to Japan as a student to a Japanese language school and take part time jobs and while at it search for an employer that is willing to give a work visa, apparently they have a shortage of workers in nursing homes and other crap jobs as such

>>44401
that is, if enough money is available for enrollment, visa and living expenses, this what keeps me from trying it out

>>44401
NTA but he mentioned you could get non-qualified work if you're from SEA. Pretty sure he's referring to the Specific Skilled Worker (SSW) program. I read a bit about it and those exams are usually done in poor Asian countries but exceptionally you can also travel to Japan to do them there if you're from any other place. I've read on plebbit that working conditions for those jobs are bad but honestly I'm starting to get increasingly desperate about leaving Europistan and Japan is what's come to mind, the future of their economy is not looking good according to some people though… Also read to get those student or work visas you need to prove you have enough money in your bank account to cover your expenses, all this information obtained from the comfort of my bed so take it with a pinch of salt.