Originally Posted by Henbaka (Post 529892)

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.

t.

Originally Posted by blimp (Post 529924)

u r probably right that i could do with a wee clarification even though we seem to agree on at least the first point.

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

Originally Posted by tommasi (Post 529929)

Sorry, when I say talk shit, it doesn't mean someone is talking bad things. It's an expression in English and in this case, people making comments about Japan based on false assumptions. To me, that is someone talking shit.

Of course I meant when you live in those countries, your ability to score high on those English proficiency tests would help you better understand local cultures.

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.

Originally Posted by Paul11 (Post 529932)

Are these really bad?

Originally Posted by Henbaka (Post 529934)

Oh, yeah I understand then. Talk shit as in saying false things.

I don't know if english is significantly easier per se than e.g. japanese (with kanji excluded). Had I spent as much time studying/reading/writing/speaking japanese as I have english, I would've been fluent a good while ago.

Originally Posted by tommasi (Post 529935)

Yea, maybe I shouldn't say that English is easy.

It's not fair for me to say it since I have lived in English speaking countries for 7 to 8 years in total.

Anyways, how is your program going?

Was it you attending Keio Univ. course for a year?

Originally Posted by Henbaka (Post 529937)

Yeah, well I feel english is "easy" now too, but then again I had alot of training.

Oh, yeah, I will study at Waseda U actually. But school starts around Sept. 16, so I'll probably leave for Tokyo in Sept. 10 or so. And yes, I'll study there for about a year, until school ends in late July (I believe). Right now I'm just working up as much money I can and waiting.

Originally Posted by tommasi (Post 529942)

Waseda U is a good choice for average students.

Keio has a higher price tag on and it's kinda hard to hang out with people who go there.

Anyways, enjoy your life and experience in Tokyo.

I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Good luck.