Research on General Japanese Living

[steven]

Do you know any Japanese? I think you would learn the most about Tokyo by talking to some Japaense about their day to day lives. I also think that unless you've been there it's hard to understand just how massive it is. I'd check out maps of the train/subway systems and look at google maps' street views where they are available just to get an idea of what you're dealing with.

Tokyo seems like the holy land for most foreigners but I can't really stand it for more than a quick vacation... even still, I'd rather go somewhere else. It's too crowded; the amount of people is just too overwhelming.

With that being said, if you're talking about some kind of chance meeting in a city of that size, it's kind of interesting. I've never really bought stuff like that, but two weeks ago I was in Nagoya Station (which is also one of those mega-ly crowded places) and I met a friend there by chance.

Not to reiterate too much, but I think that writing about a place that you are thouroughly familiar with is quite a task, let alone a place that you know nothing about. I think that by looking at the massiveness of tokyo you might reconsider things.

Try looking at it this way: some Japanese person decides to write a book about an American in Los Angeles even though she doesn't speak English and has never been there before (or America for that matter). The person then goes on and describes places where crimes often happen and goes into detail about other things like day-to-day lives of regular people and the places they like to hang out at.

Seems like a far fetched idea... but I don't want to be a complete naysayer. I don't know if you want it, but my advice is to learn about it by experiencing it or talking to a ton of people who are experiencing it. Right now it's like you're trying to build a 10,000 piece jig-saw puzzle without more than just a few of the pieces. That will lead to an incomplete work or something filled with fantasy... that's what Tsuwabuki was talking about if I understood correctly. You have to create an atmosphere filled with Japanese (or Tokyoan) idiosyncrasies. However, you have to present it in a way that will be condusive to the idea that you are writing for an English speaking audience.

[sarasi]

Originally Posted by xHikariXCutenesSXAmex

Well, it's kind of complicated. My story is about twins who get slipt up (by their own choise) after the death of their parents. I just need popluar places that are well known, things that would be likely targets for criminal activity, just the general layout and how these places are connected; how someone would get there.

Yes, and how old are they? Male or female? Are they wealthy or more working class? Do you want them living in the centre of the city or out in the suburbs? What kind of criminal activity? You are still being quite vague.

[Nyororin]

I am going to give my personal opinion on this...

Stick to places you know, or places that don`t exist but are still within your culture and experience... Otherwise leap to total fantasy. Anything that falls between those two (places that exist but are filled in with lots of fantasy) is really going to fall flat for anyone that doesn`t share your exact background. Especially for people who do know the location and culture you`re writing about, and who can tell at a glance how much fantasy there is.

You just don`t have the background to write a believable Japanese character. And please don`t take that as an insult - it`s pretty common. I couldn`t write a believable (insert pretty much any nationality other than Japanese or American - and even American is getting kind of doubtful these days) character no matter how hard I tried. Even if you do tons and tons of research, get the setting down to photo-realistic levels, you still have the problem of how the characters would act and react to various things. No matter what their personality, people are so heavily influenced by their culture and lifestyle that without having some sort of experience in the same culture and lifestyle... It is pretty close to impossible to write a good believable character.

I avoid at all costs books and movies of this type. I have read some truly horrible published books taking place in "Japan" with "Japanese" characters. It is almost always in name only, as they do things no Japanese person would do, say things no Japanese person would say, and live in a place that certainly isn`t Japan. In the end it is cringe worthy and completely ruins a book no matter how great the writing or story is.

One of the best pieces of advice for writing is to "stick to what you know".
And if you don`t do that, "stick to things that no one knows".