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07-07-2008, 03:15 AM
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Don't listen to the Chicken Littles and the negative ninnies of the world. Just pack your bags and go!  
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07-07-2008, 03:18 AM
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07-07-2008, 03:56 AM
Of course there are bad things in Japan. But it is to a large extent relative to where you are coming from. In my case I dont like the food because my own country the US has the best food in the world. And Im not referring to the type of food that originates in America but rather the variety, availability and price. Back home I used to eat a lot of good Thai, Vietnamese, Iranian and Tex-Mex food, but here that stuff is sparse and overpriced. Also the variety of sports drinks are lame. Most of them are this sweet grapefruit flavor. I miss the 50 flavors of gatorade in the States.
I dont like the weather either because it is too cold in winter and too hot and humid in summer. Again it cant compare to the moderate climate of southern California. Everything else is okay though. Whatever I dont agree with I try to avoid or ignore, but sometimes I just deal with it. The pluses more than make up for the minuses. I think the most important thing is to just accept Japan for what it is and make the most of it. Even if it is not the same as home, or didnt meet your initial expectations.
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07-07-2008, 04:26 AM
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Sounds like a typical So Cal response. I've been reading postings on this thread and I can't believe how narrow viewed many people are. It's called ethnocentrism and under the field of International Business and it comes up quite often. I have lived in several countries and I always make adjustments so when I first started to study these concepts, I didn't get why these things even needed to be taught because I always make adjustments to local cultures but it seems like many people don't. What I could tell is that only few people here have good understanding of Japanese culture and others probably don't even speak the language even if they live in Japan. If you live in English speaking countries, wouldn't you expect foreigners to speak English? Guess what, same thing is also true in Japan, Thailand, and other major tourist destinations in Asia.
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07-07-2008, 04:34 AM
Sorry for the double post but another thing I want to emphasize is people's ability to speak the local tongue.
I run into to people who lived in Japan time to time and many of them act as if they are specialists and know everything about Japan. I'm a nice guy so I won't challenge them and let them have it but I always ask them one question, "Do you speak Japanese?" In many cases, people don't. They think they do but in reality, they don't. I can see why Japanese people want to ask foreigners every time whether they speak Japanese or not because not many people are fluent and the ones who are fluent are rare. My advise is that before you claim yourselves as Japan experts, make sure to get JLPT1 or 2 and then people will take your words seriously.
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07-07-2008, 07:36 AM
Wow what a thread. I can't really add much..I do enjoy reading the many intelligent posts on here however.
Now I've only lived in Japan (saitama/Tokyo) for 4 months in total. So you may feel that I don't qualify to give any real insight. But here is my negative list: * The price of meat. From what I experienced, it was kind of hard for me to get a decent piece of meat, to a decent price. Chicken was OK priced, and pork wasn't amazingly expensive, but cow meat I could almost never buy. My meat intake was mainly in Yoshinoya  That might differ if you don't live in Tokyo though.* Trains were crowded at certain times of the day. Altho this isn't such a big minus as they came so frickin' often. I would like some night trains though, so one didn't have to stay out 'til 6 every time. But I understand the purpose. * Specialized restaurants not being very specialized. By that I mean that many of the italian or whatever restaurants I saw never had any italian people working there. This meant that the pasta (in this example) didn't seem very genuinely italian to me. Here in sweden it's not hard to get real genuine foreign food (for a decent price). * The police. Maybe MMM or someone else more experienced than me will set me straight. But my experience of police in Japan was that they failed to act at the few occasions when I saw something happen. Whether it was a domestic disturbance at our guesthouse, or drunk 'gaijins' outside a bar, their work (as I saw it) was to me sub-par. Maybe some of it comes down to cultural differences, but in my view of the police anywhere a drunk guy trying to fight the police goes down before you can think to blink. Quote:
You mean the bragging rude types of guys/women right? Because I think anyone really trying to learn a foreign language and speak it as best they can should get praise, and not put down because they didn't pass a test.
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07-07-2008, 08:22 AM
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People that I'm talking about are usually nice people. But they just lack real insights because they don't speak the language well enough to really understand. And I have all respect for people trying their best to speak foreign languages but it is a different subject matter when you decide to be experts. How would you feel someone who lived in Sweden without speaking the language talking like he or she is an expert of Sweden who knows everything. I believe being able to speak the language opens many doors and this applies in Japan as well. If you don't speak the language, you would end up staying at places like Roppingi where you don't need to speak Japanese and live in a denial. Whether you are rude or not, I don't want people like that to talk shit about my country. It's like my roommate who lived in Japan for a short period of time and talks like an expert with little Japanese ability. I will listen to opinions of people who lived in Japan for fair amount of time and can speak the language well. As far as the testing goes, almost all the long timers in Japan have JLPT because it is a government issued certification and it proves that your Japanese ability. It's like TOEFL for English. I'm sure people from English speaking countries don't want someone who scores low on TOEFL to act like experts of their countries.
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07-07-2008, 08:36 AM
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Of course speaking the native language opens doors. But as an example; I have a friend who is over double my age. He's been to Japan more times that I can count, in various lenghts of stay. He doesn't speak much japanese at all (I really don't know why, as he is interested in the japanese culture and life), but I'll tell you this: He doesn't have any problems at all getting along with and understanding japanese people, or living wherever he pleases. Language is not everything. Quote:
I'm with you on the note that people shouldn't proclaim themselves experts, and that people that's taken the time to learn japanese usually would have a greater knowledge of life there. But everyone not speaking fluent japanese will not end up hanging with drunk gaijins in Roppongi. Quote:
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07-07-2008, 08:44 AM
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four areas where i think japan suck, or as they say in my line of business, four areas with improvement potential. respect for traffic rules - cars drive against red, ppl ride bikes on the pavement (even coppers do this), cars not using blinkers, cars not letting pedestrians cross at zebra crossings and so on. smoking - too many japanese ppl smoke, and not enough is done to accommodate non-smokers view on women - women r still discriminated against bank service - banks close to early, they charge for bank transfers, some banks even charge for bank transfers within the same bank, just different branches, it takes to long to do things, it took my two hours to open an account and still some of the benefits with that account takes one and a half months to kick in 蒼天（そうてん）翔（か）ける日輪（にちりん）の 青春の覇気 美（うるわ）しく 輝く我が名ぞ 阪神タイガース ※オウ オウ オウオウ 阪神タイガース フレ フレ フレフレ
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07-07-2008, 09:02 AM
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I was just using it as an example and it's not a good comparison since English is pretty easy language to pick up and you don't need to have TOEFL scores to prove that you are fluent.
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