Second that too, I lived in yoksuka when I was a kid, we never lock the door at home.. Uncle lives in Omiya, same thing, never have to lock anything.....

Yes that is another huge boon..being safe. Even in Tokyo it's an everyday thing to see elementary school kids riding the trains alone or in groups of 2-3 other small kids going to and from school.
As the media fear-mongers everyone into believing there's a rapist or murderer around every corner this may change though.

because japan just like my country doesn't have diverse native ethnicity as opposed to england or usa where blacks, hispanics and the rest of the world is represented in masses. i maybe see 3 black people in a month. and that is just maybe. and i know for a fact that they don't speak my language. same is in Japan. they can easily tell people apart from looks and their likely language ability because just like with my country there are almost no other native ethnicities (except for some other asians like Korea or China)

so, just because your country is coloured like a rainbow doesn't mean it stands superior to other that aren't. that is why they don't bother.

Omiya-ku in Saitama? That's where I'm going to be living as of Monday!

Love and hate
 

Love....the history
Hate....how people dont care about it very much

Yes :) Where about? Ojisan is over at Minami Nakamaru....

In Omiya itself, not so far from Omiya-eki.

If you are trying to argue that wearing shoes into a home is cleaner than not wearing shoes into a home, then you cannot win.

Not wearing shoes is cleaner. Believing so is not arrogant or superior.

lol...I was going to leave these comments be because I thought we can move on and sometimes people get upset and say things they regret but just to point out the complexity of our emotions and our arguments:

if THOSE words are a "little extreme" what would you call these:

Note: These are our Mods!!! lol

Neither one was reprimanded at least publically for their words but now a man explains his paradigm, his opinion, his outlook on this subject and multiple mods have called him out for his 'extreme' words.

Anyways!! I think we can move on and respect each other (or .. they'll just ban me lol) BUT: to continue with the topic: I love anime!! (oh i sed it..the ultimate swear word!) and I think .. i kind of dislike the gaijin. I thought we could all be friends but .. they're just too cliquish and "cool" for me let me tell ya

No, you're just extremely racist. Because you don't see a lot of minorities in your country, you just assume they can't speak your language..

I said his word choice was extreme, but I didn't say it was inappropriate. There is a big difference.

I'm obviously not trying to argue that, otherwise I wouldn't have been the one to bring up white carpet and whatnot. Just that your reasoning for it having to do with sitting style is what I don't believe.

In regards to shoes it's funny to see my daughter at daycare taking off her shoes when she enters. None of the other children or adults do but she hasn't broken the habit yet from her time in Japan. We have no shoes in our house either. It just feels weird these days wearing shoes into a house after so many years of not doing it.

I love the fact most Japanese people I've met so far, are kind and very eager to help...

I hate the fact that japan is still a f*cked up country... it has some serious social issues (i.e. karoshi, hikikomori, the suicidal rates, the way colleges are dumbing down...)...

I can't make you believe it. I would just say it isn't based on a sense of arrogance or feelings of superiority.

That is not just happening in Japan. It is alive and well in America too.

best,

................john

Just out of curiosity, for the ones that don't live in Japan, but have been there and wish that you are there now, do you use Google street view to "walk" around places you are familiar with to help satisfy your urge to be in Japan?

Cus.. I do sometime.. am I weird??

I do. Can actually see my house on street view which surprised me as it's off the main road in a pretty small town.

I have done it, too.

Yeah, count me in on that.... Chalk it up to nostalgia. But sometimes I use it to see where I want to go next time, so I can get an idea of what it looks like.... If anything, I might take a screenshot and keep it on my phone for reference.

I do. Sometimes to see if places I've been have changed at all, or to try and remember exactly where something was. Recently though, I've been stalking where I'm heading to; useful to get an idea of the layout before I even arrive!

Whew, glad that I wasn't the only one, thought that I was developing this weird obsession or complex with Japan.....

I use it all the time, nearly every day, to show my students where I've lived and for them to show me their hometowns around Japan.
It's amazing how even little tiny cities in Japan have streetview!

This one old lady student I have hadn't been back to her hometown since pre-war when she was a kid, she nearly broke out in tears seeing her old neighborhood.

Isn't some technology wonderful that way?! I've done it in the streets of Madrid I used to live on. Not that I'm a child of the streets... the apartments I lived in, that is....

what do people think about western food in japan?
i looove japanese food, but sometimes i will get cravings, and a lot of times people i'm with will want "western" food..and i can't help but notice that anywhere in japan I go there are millions of italian places, some english pubs, korean/chinese places, but not a whole lot else..generally speaking. i found a mexican place, with great food and service, and every single time i've gone everyone else there has also been a foreigner (and this is in an area where it's normally somewhat rare to see one). most of the italian places are average..a little surprised that it's acceptable to use ketchup as a topping for pasta in restaurants but other than that ok fine..
McDs and KFC, although I don't consider them real food, do taste better in Japan than in the US for some perverse reason

it's worse when i get japanese food cravings in the US though, because most of the japanese restaurants etc. are run by chinese, and the food quality is very poor and non-authentic BUT most people have not lived in japan so they can't tell the food isn't that great by comparison, hell it's pretty good by american standards, add on to the fact that most people can't tell japanese/chinese apart..there are some great noodle shops and restaurants in new york though, a few inside boston as well

I only found one Spanish place on Aoyama Dori close to Shibuya Eki, but it was closed when I went to eat there. Not that I was looking for many Spanish places, but I was craving some good Spanish food and was wondering what the Japanese take on it was. I am used to the Chicago take on Spanish food and I'm not all that thrilled about it....

wow thats actually a good idea... time to take a trip down memory lane :D

NO GOD! PLEASE NO!!! NOOOOOOOOOO - YouTube

;-;
American universities... why... WHY...

If you have a powerful enough computer, you should install google earth.. the 3D buildings are awesome.... i "walked" around minato mirai the other day on google earth, its not 100% accurate, but I'd say 85%.. of course, the livelihood sensation is still missing.. but then, whatever ease that crave

How about looking at places you grew up?
I know I do that, and I live in Japan permanently. The chances of me actually visiting the town I grew up in are pretty close to nil as all family has moved away. I check up on the house I grew up in and the neighborhood around it...

A bit late but anyway..

I love just about everything about Japan, but if I have to choose 1 thing.. Then I think it is music. And the culture.
Actually I don't "hate" anything....

No, I don't. Modern technology is great, but this is one reason why I also hate modern technology. Because people are able to be everywhere they wish without leaving their seat. What if in the future this technology develops further (it will) and every home has it's own simulator wich you can use to walk in the streets of Tokyo while you're at home?
The idea is terrible. It takes all the fun out of traveling.
And apart from that I hate Google, so I wouldn't use it anyway.