Preparing for a Year Studying Abroad in Japan, any Advice?

[steven]

I wish I could answer more indepth about where you will be living... as far as here goes, fishing is almost part of the culture it seems. We have a big river and people like to fish in it around this time of year (all through the summer). If you have a river nearby, that might be the safest way to go. The beaches here (Toyama Bay/Sea of Japan area) are fine... people catch fish all the time at the beaches here and you can eat them raw (like squid and stuff). It might be different over there though... I don't know about fishing in the winter though. You could probably catch stuff but it might just be too cold.

If I were you, I'd befriend some people with similar interests as you as they will know what the deal is with the fishing over there. I wouldn't bring a fishing pole or anything like that if that's what you're thinking about (unless you can really get it compact). I'd just wait and get one here or have a friend lend you one during your stay. I've seen rods w/ reels go for as cheap as 30 00 yen and just reels alone going for about a 1000 00 yen used.

I know you're going to study abroad and that has to do with school and stuff, but you can get real studying done by doing stuff like fishing with the locals and all that. I hope you make a lot of good friends doing that. That's one of those things they can never teach in a school.

Sounds really cool... I'm thinking of getting into fishing this summer myself.

As an aside (not that everything I write isn't an aside), you might be interested in checking out the major fish market in Tokyo. If you're interested you can look up the details yourself, but do be aware that there is a strict ediquette banning things like flash photos etc. You get to see those giant tunas and stuff that sell for like 10 grand and stuff like that. If you're willing to make the trip and wake up before the crack of dawn it might be a good experience while you're in Japan. It's one of those places that I think foreigners have more interest in than Japanese people, so (besides the workers) you'll probably see more foreigners than Japanese people there.

[Misericordias]

The person who represented the college I will be studying in said that some of the professors go fishing from time to time. I would really like to go fishing with them, but I am afraid that there will be some major hurdles to overcome (such as age, for one) before I can go fishing with the professors. I know US professors, once you reach a certain level of familiarity, can become very amicable and nonchalant about many things, but how would I go about fishing with my professors? Is that just something out of my realm?

There's also the question about drinking. I understand Japan to be a drinking culture (please correct me if I am wrong), but I don't drink due to personal reasons. Would it be rude for me to decline an offer for a drink or would it be best just to accept it and hope that the other people are inebriated enough to not notice I haven't drunk any alcohol?

Thank you once again for answering my questions!

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Misericordias

The person who represented the college I will be studying in said that some of the professors go fishing from time to time. I would really like to go fishing with them, but I am afraid that there will be some major hurdles to overcome (such as age, for one) before I can go fishing with the professors. I know US professors, once you reach a certain level of familiarity, can become very amicable and nonchalant about many things, but how would I go about fishing with my professors? Is that just something out of my realm?

The student - teacher culture is very different in pretty much every way than that in the US. There is a huge amount of respect toward teachers and professors, but at the same time there isn`t much of a wall at all between them and the students. In other words, you can still be giving them the utmost respect while going out fishing or drinking with them. It can be a pretty strange thing to wrap your head around when you`ve grown up having teachers exist in a sort of different level of the world. Here it is pretty normal for kids to grow up going over to teachers` houses to play, etc. The respect is in how you talk to them and treat them, not in the activities. And from another view, the activities do not give any excuse for a lapse in respect either. Things that would imply a close relationship or friendship simply do not.

If you bring up the subject of fishing with them, you may be surprised to be invited almost immediately. I would just let them know that you are interested and see what happens from there.

There's also the question about drinking. I understand Japan to be a drinking culture (please correct me if I am wrong), but I don't drink due to personal reasons. Would it be rude for me to decline an offer for a drink or would it be best just to accept it and hope that the other people are inebriated enough to not notice I haven't drunk any alcohol?

If you start out from day one saying that you don`t drink - you should have no problems. If you drink like a fish and then one day say no thanks, everyone will want to know why and you may get some pressure. Just stay consistent and you shouldn`t have any problems. Out of politeness you should take a sip of the drink you get for the cheers - but after that sip no one will probably care at all if you order a soft drink. (And might even be happy about it if you`re splitting the costs by person, as it means they will pay less.)

I`ve personally seen a LOT more pressure to drink at universities in the US than in Japan. There is nothing "special" about it here, so there isn`t really any of the "get them trashed!" mindset. There is a lot of casual drinking, but not much binge drinking, parties to get people drunk, etc.

[steven]

Yea Nyororin is totally right about that one. You have to make it clear from the start that you don't drink and people will get the drift. If you do decide to drink at some point, you may be in for it though! My coworkers love to drink (but there are some people that don't drink at all).

I've seen some people get away with only drinking sometimes, though. Only women, though. If men quit drinking for a while, it's usually because they got like 'red carded' from their doctors (with high blood pressure or something like that).

about fishing... kinda
Speakin' of being invited to things, don't be dissapointed if you do get invited, but the person doesn't follow through with the invitation. That happens a lot, actually. It's weird from my American perspective, but I understand it from a Japanese point of view as a form of politeness.

Also be a little careful of what you say if you do go out with people (or happen to go to their house or something more private like that). If you show too much interest in something they might just give it to you. I've read about it/heard about it more than actually seen it, but I have seen it. Just recently I was at a snack late at night and a guy brought some of his wife's umeboshis there and I kinda jokingly said it would be great with some rice... and he actually went back home and brought rice back (although he did live next door). I felt a little bad (but it was some really good rice, though)... but it could've been worse. I've heard of people giving away things that I would think are prized possessions to people. I used to give free English lessons to a lady nearby and I noticed one day that this beautiful piece of wood was missing from their entry way (one of those things that you see in gift shops for like 5+ grand). Apparently her husband gave it to someone and she thought nothing of it (although they did have alterier motives as they ended up moving away after that so I assume they just wanted to get it off their hands, but something like that... sheesh).

[Misericordias]

Thank you so much for answering my questions! It really is a big relief to know that most of my problems won't be anything that will cause major problems. In that vein, how should I approach phones? I've talked with a couple of people regarding this issue and I have received varying answers ranging from 'I can't purchase a cell phone due to my residential status' to 'I can purchase a cell phone (including a plan) because I am on a student visa'. Which is correct? Also, since Japanese phones are a bit more technologically advanced compared to US phones(especially in the camera section, I heard Japanese phones can have 12 megapixels!), would I not need to purchase a camera if that was the case?

[steven]

This is just my perspective: I am not a huge cell phone guy. With that out of the way, I did cancel my home phone. I have a nice nikon camera for taking pictures, therefore I did not need a super ultra deluxe camera on my phone. I just got the bare bones type of phone... one of those ones from "last season" or whatever. It was free when I signed up, and I've dropped it down multiple escalators and it's still working great (I wouldn't imagine an expensive phone with a nice big camera lense faring so well).

When I got here, I wanted a phone as soon as possible and all I could get is AU, even though I wanted docomo. Softbank was cheap, but I heard a lot of band things about it. I lucked it with AU because it works really well in the remote mountain areas I tend to go to a lot, whereas docomo doesn't. Softbank doesn't even work in town sometimes. At any rate, when and what kind of phone you can get when you get here depends on the company and area. I had a friend on a different island who could only get docomo when he first got here.

The people here are just as sheisty when it comes to selling phones and using confusing language to get you signed up for all kinds of crap you won't need, so you may want to bring someone who you trust and who knows Japanese with you when you get a phone if you can (and not someone who will persuade you into getting a $600 phone if it isn't what you want).

Phones also have e-mail like a computer. You get your own adress and everything. After a few months you'll get all kinds of fishy mail in Japanese. I think it's like some kind of conspiricy that the cell companies have to rack up your bill. You can also use your phone to scan QR codes-- you might wanna look those up as I don't do it too often. Sometimes you can scan one and get a discount at a restaurant, too. Even local places have done it around here. You'll get mail from them, too... but hey, I got lunch for like $3 that way.

It's funny you bring this up, because I've been in the mood to go and haggle my cell phone bill down. I don't know if I said it yet, but you can haggle in a surprising amount of places in Japan... and a lot of Japanese people don't know that.

A bit of advice: put your phone on silent for as much stuff as you can. I can't imagine anyone wanting their phone to ring everytime they get mail. If you're in class, you definately don't want that to happen! You can also use your phone for a calendar and set alarms for dates and stuff... something that caught me off guard was that the alarms will ring even if you shut your phone completely off... that was really frustrating for me! Be careful of that one!

[Nyororin]

In the end a cell phone camera is just going to be a cell phone camera. The lens and photo processor are crap, so no matter what the specs may be the photos still look pretty bad. I would definitely NOT want to rely on my phone as my sole camera. In fact, unless I am explicitly taking a photo to mail to someone via phone, I probably never use my cell phone`s camera at all.

I am going to second the bad stuff about Softbank. They are the kings of hidden charges and shady contracts. You sign up for a plan that says it is only so much a month, no matter what - but that "no matter what" doesn`t include every circumstance in which you would use the phone. I`ve heard of people signing up for the cheapest package plan with "everything" included and getting bills of 100,000yen the first month because they used something other than the "everything" and didn`t know it. Plus, their phones are crappy, their coverage sucks, and their reception in covered areas is iffy.
Docomo has the widest and most extensive coverage over the country, the largest network, the fastest reliable data transfer rate, etc etc. AU is second, but they have areas where the coverage is strong, and areas where they just don`t reach at all. Docomo in general covers the most.

As for phone spam - try setting up the spam filter. :P It`s there for a reason. On any of the services you can even set it up to accept only mail from addresses you have pre-approved. But in general, if you set up the basic filters spam is pretty rare. If you don`t bother, it`s kind of like setting up a free mail account and, well, keeping the spam filters all off.

I am personally pretty pleased with Docomo`s unlimited data packet plan - it is in three steps - if you use virtually no packets/data that month the base fee is 300 something yen (it includes 300 something yen worth of "free" packets). Between 300 and 4000 it charges by the packet - and once you hit 4000 the charges stop and you are basically unlimited.

[steven]

Honestly I suck at phones in English, so I didn't know there was such a thing as a spam filter on them. I've learned something new haha. I'll try to fix mine tonight because since a couple weeks ago spam has been coming at like 12AM and it's starting to get on my nerves. I get anywhere from 1-5 spam messages a day!

I think Docomo is more widely covered, like you said... but around here AU seems to have the advantage (it's pretty inaka around here). My phone gets reception in the gnarliest mountain roads I've ever seen. Then again, when docomo gets a signal it's stronger than AU's (which seems to be at a constant 2 bars around here).

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by steven

Honestly I suck at phones in English, so I didn't know there was such a thing as a spam filter on them. I've learned something new haha. I'll try to fix mine tonight because since a couple weeks ago spam has been coming at like 12AM and it's starting to get on my nerves. I get anywhere from 1-5 spam messages a day!

I think Docomo is more widely covered, like you said... but around here AU seems to have the advantage (it's pretty inaka around here). My phone gets reception in the gnarliest mountain roads I've ever seen. Then again, when docomo gets a signal it's stronger than AU's (which seems to be at a constant 2 bars around here).

I`m sure AU has it`s areas of coverage where Docomo is lacking. Docomo just seems to be the most consistent over the entire country. Back 8 years ago, the ONLY phone you could use at all along the northern coast was Docomo. And even then it was stand on the roof and aim the antenna in a certain direction. KDDI then took the incentive and saw a chance to take over the market up there so installed a bunch of antennas and bragged about having better coverage and offered discounts to customers in prefectures along the sea of Japan from Shimane to Niigata. This is probably the reason you have coverage in the mountains around you - you`re in Toyama, right?
Unfortunately, it was sort of one big installation and they don`t upgrade that much. Some areas that were part of their big campaign back then have actually lost service when the antenna reached the end of it`s life because there was so little use that it wasn`t worth the money to replace it.
Docomo installed their antennas in large numbers around "centers of population" - sometimes on the top of the only house in the area. This means better and more reliable reception in general where people are, but the occasional patch of out of range when you`re in the mountains.
Docomo replaces their antenna and extends their areas all the time - they have the resources to do so as they are part of NTT, which is partially owned by the government.

I know way too much about cell phones and Hokuriku coverage.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I`ve personally seen a LOT more pressure to drink at universities in the US than in Japan. There is nothing "special" about it here, so there isn`t really any of the "get them trashed!" mindset. There is a lot of casual drinking, but not much binge drinking, parties to get people drunk, etc.

I think there is some confusion with this area, as public intoxication is more prevalent in Japan rather than the US. It isn't uncommon to see (especially but not exclusively) younger people passed out in restaurant booths or at train stations. Here someone would call the police if someone was that drunk in public. Public intoxication is illegal, and the bar or restaurant serving them could be fined or even closed.