Going to Japan in Summer
 

Hi there.
I did not came here for a while =P

Here's the deal, I want to go to japan, my father told me that one of this days we would go there, but it will take a lot of time for us to go there.

I'm portuguese, I wanted to know if I'll be well welcomed there.

How much it will cost the trip, in euros? I've been reading a lot of this forum's topics, but I want all this together. I have 150 euros saved, I know it will cost a lot more.

I'm a girl, when I go there, I'll use two ponytails on the sides of my head to look as japanese as possible.

As it will be my first time in Japan, I would like to know which places I should visit first, and were should I sleep?

Are the videogames and mangas and whatever cheap in Japan? I wanted to buy something for my DS :D

Is it really necessary to know japanese? I know the numbers 1-20, I know how to introduce myself, i know jhow to ask "what's this/that" and a few more things. Nevertheless till then I can still learn a lot.
I'm 16, it's not too late to start learning japanese, no? I shall learn it in a school within two years.

Well, since you're Portuguese you will hate you and you will not be welcomed. Just kidding. I'm assuming when you say Japan you mean Tokyo? How long do you expect to stay? Give some more details. Please don't wear two ponytails on the side of your head because it doesn't look good. It will look better if you just have one ponytail. I don't know how much DS games cost in Portugal but Europeans tend to go to other countries outside of Europe to buy things because their currency is strong. Most games are in Japanese. It's not too late to learn the language.

Thanks.
If I go to Japan it will only be for a week, cebause my father only has 2 weeks of vacativons.

Yeah, if I go to Japan, I would want to go to Tokyo first.

Here in Portugal DS games cost a lot, 40 euros it's its normal price, nevertheless, FF games cost 44 to 50 euros. I'm a lot interested in one DS game where we can learn kanji, I believe.

My father told me that Japan sworda likes Portugal, because they have vocabulary such as "Biidôro" (vidro in portuguese), which means "glass". Do they really like Portugal?

As i'm full of tests the current week, I'll be hitting hard in Japanese the next one (I just hope I have said the right expression =P). Oh,. and by the way I'm on "humanities", dunno what's the right expression in english.

Within two years I'll be improving my english, spanish and learning a new language, dunno what (maybe chinese, russion or arabian, I first wanted to go to chinese, but as it's looks so much like japanese, I might write one chinese kanji instead of the japanese one =P)

I'm not sure if Japan "likes" Portugal, but there is a reason why Japanese have many Portuguese loan words in their vocabulary. Portugal was one of the first European countries to make contact and trade with Japan hundreds of years ago. Therefore, the Japanese had to use Portuguese words for the items they got from the Portuguese. Some of those Portuguese words are still used in Japan today.

Right, such as "pan", meaning bread. Some Japanese don't know the origin of some words though, so I remember a funny exchange one time where a Japanese friend was saying "pan" comes from English. Well, "pan" is a word in English... it's a flat-bottomed cooking utensil, like a frying pan.

"No", he said, "the pan you eat!"

"Huh? We don't eat pans... you must mean a pan you eat out of? We call that a dish..."

"No, I mean pan shaped like this..." as he motioned a loaf of bread.

"Ahh, you mean a bread pan, for baking bread!"

"What is bread? You should know pan, it's a loan word!"

We finally figured things out, and he learned than not all loan words are from English, and I learned the Japanese (and Portuguese) word for bread!

Someday I'll tell you about the hilarious way I learned the Japanese word for "duck"....

If you want to see some of the historical relations between Portugal and Japan, you should visit Nagasaki. They have preserved or rebuilt much of the historical buildings there, such as the island where foreign traders lived.

am i right in thinking pan is the french word for bread?

I think its a spanish word for bread. My country was never colonized by the French and "pan" is basically incorporated into our language from the spaniards. We have "pan de coco", "pan de leche", "pan de mongo" : coconut bread, milk bread, and mongo bread respectively.

Food Forum - Kikkoman Corporation

So maybe "derived from" is a better way to say it.

Ah, this is exiting that you get to go ~ ! Although, not all Japanese girls have pigtails, you know ...

Manga may be about the same price but I know that DVDs (and quite possibly video games) are really expensive in Japan.

Also, I would say if you're just going to visit any country, especially if you're going to a large cosmopolitan city, learning the language is not completely necessary. But, if it makes you feel better, just learn some simple phrases, like "Excuse me" or "Thank you".

I hope that helps you ~ ! Have fun in Japan ~ !