Research on General Japanese Living

xHikariXCutenesSXAmex · (#1 (**permalink**))

Hello,

I'm writing a book and my main characters are supposed to be Japanese but my knowledge of the living style is limited to what I've learned from my ettiquete guide. I did search but I didn't find anything similar to what I need and Google is useless.

I need to know things like daily life routines, how natives navigate Tokyo and surroundings, popular hangout spots and such. I don't have much of an idea.

Any help (maps, pictures, ect) would be very nice. Anyone who helps will be noted in the sources of my book.

Thank you!

atheistwithfaith · (#2 (**permalink**))

Are you hoping to get published, or is this just for fun?

Tsuwabuki · (#3 (**permalink**))

You should really spend time here if you're serious, because nothing we are going to tell you is going to be enough. You will make mistakes, and some pretty glaring ones...

...which is why I no longer read anime fanfiction anymore. It is impossible to suspend disbelief when every other paragraph describes something that would never happen in Japan, doesn't exist in Japan, or has some aspect of Japan I know a lot about completely wrong...

xHikariXCutenesSXAmex · (#4 (**permalink**))

Published! No! ^^ This is for a geography/creative writing homeschool assignment.

...would be cool though....

Anyway, spending time in Japan is pretty much impossible for me right now. Unless my parents win the lottery, I get a grant or scholarship of some sort, or some generous soul donates the money and helps me get over there. I'm saving but I only get five bucks an hour once a week for three hours if i'm lucky, minus 10% religious purposes and 50% of the remainder for gasoline. I really need as much information as I can get.

Hotch · (#5 (**permalink**))

You should read some concerning books and put yourself into the living. From this way, you can get a good book

xHikariXCutenesSXAmex · (#6 (**permalink**))

Do you know of some good ones? I've read lots of books but it doesn't feel right.

steven · (#7 (**permalink**))

I had some books in college that were interesting. They are a bit dated, but are suprrisingly accurate in some areas (while also surprisingly innacurate in others).

"Communicative Styles of Japanese and Americans" by Barnlund is a decent one. It talks a lot about language and communication (which often goes beyond simply language in the general sense). I think it has a lot of explination of the "between the lines" styles of English and Japanese which might something to look at.

"Doing Business with Japanese Men: A Woman's Handbook" by Christalyn Brannen, Tracey Wilen was one of my favorites. It's good for a laugh sometimes, too. Even though I'm a guy I learned a lot from this book. It is pretty old, although a lot of it hasn't really changed. A lot of it is written by the people who had different kinds of experiences. Some of them have advice on how to handle it (some is good, some isn't). Even though you can laugh at a lot of it (and some of the parites involved look at it humorously), it does reveal a lot of the darker (depending on your perspective) things in Japanese society.

"Japanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk like a Native Speaker" by Horvat is another one that has some neat stuff about it. It talks a lot about culutral differences and has a lot of little anecdotes.

There are more... some are better than others, but I think these books give a pretty good insight on a lot of Japanese culture that foreigners are concerned with. None of these books are "cover to cover" books in that you can open them up and read a little portion and get some knowledge like that. They might be discontinued, but I recall picking up used copies on amazon. I got one for like under 20 cents if I remember correctly.

Edit: As far as writing a book with a main character from a place you've never been to before and having him/her go around to famous places that you don't know much about goes, I personally think you might want to reconsider. You might as well make it about a fictional place LIKE tokyo or whatever, because it's gonna end up like that anyways. Assuming he/she's in tokyo, most of the people they will interact with will be Japanese, too... which will be extremely difficult to pull off. At any rate, if you are interested in Japan and want to learn about what people are like, those books that I mentioned might help you get started before you take a dunk headfirst.

xHikariXCutenesSXAmex · (#8 (**permalink**))

Thank you veryu much!

sarasi · (#9 (**permalink**))

You need to be a bit more specific with some of your questions- where the natives hang out? What age group are you thinking of? People in their 50s don't hang out in the same places as teenagers. If they're teenagers, rebellious teenagers or "good" ones?

People in Tokyo largely get around by (very crowded) trains. You must have found something during your searches that told you about a typical day for an office worker or high school student. If you want us to help you with that, again, tell us whose typical day you want to know about.

xHikariXCutenesSXAmex · (#10 (**permalink**))

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.