What would you do with 4 months in Japan?

[pierrot]

I still go to Japan twice a year for extended periods of time and I still hang out with the same rowdy bunch that I did back then, but we're all older and wiser now. We ditched the Shibuya dive bars for Naka-Meguro lounges and Daikanyama cafes, but it's just as fun.

I studied at Aoyama Gakuin for a while, so I ended up doing both of those. Generally sleaze-d around Shibuya and Roppongi (god I hate Roppingi) with other international students, and hung out in Azabujuban / Nishi-Azabu and Yoyogi with the ohime sama.

I'm going to say something that could potentially set some people off, but I personally find most Japanese women to be unlovable, in every sense of the word. Maybe just something about my age, but I would generally rather slam my face into a brick wall than listen to them talk....


There are a lot of experiences to be had in Japan, but I'm so jaded at this point that I can't really recommend any, except for one: The Yuki Matsuri in Sapporo. There's a lot of festivals in Japan that the locals are always really proud of; Yeah, yeah. Whatever. The Yuki Matsuri is seriously, unequivocally, one of the most fantastic things I've ever seen in my life (up there with Thunder Over Louisville) and almost makes the time I spent there feel worth it. It's too bad I didn't pop into this thread a bit earlier, 'cause it's usually during the first or second week in February, but it's not an option. Your brother has to go to it. I'm (sort of) from New England, and I have never seen ice and snow sculptures like the ones at the Yuki Matsuri. it's also cold as balls in Sapporo. So, layers, probably.

Where is your brother staying in Tokyo, by the way?

I usually made it a point to show people Kyoto, especially if they were visiting me in Tokyo. It's a good counter city to Tokyo for balancing the impressions of urban Japan. I would recommend fall for the foliage, but it seems like he won't be there until then. Hiroshima is pretty cool also; kind of a much flatter San Fran vibe. There's the sand dunes in Tottori, too.

I would just tell him not to bother visiting places in the Kanto area, since he'll be living in Tokyo. Much better to get out to Kansai, Chugoku areas, or the islands, with any time he has to travel, for the difference in culture. Also, tell him to start watching Himitsu no Kenmin Show. That should give him some ideas of various attractions and things in different prefectures. (It's also kind of funny.)

Finally, the gundam is pretty cool to see. It keeps moving around the country, but last I saw, it was behind the mall in Odaiba (where round 1 is).

And a couple pictures from the Yuki Matsuri, why not:

[EvilRyu2099]

Also, Japanese chicks do drop trou (frau?) for foreigners. Specifically tall/dark/handsome and/or rich/bad-boys. (But really, women and men in most countries have this compulsion.)

You'll find sluts everywhere in the world. Making blanket statements such as this is not only racist, but absurd. I like you and your posts, Pakopako, but you need to realize that this stereotyping is stupid and destructive. I'm married to a Japanese girl, and she was never like that. I'm sick of people making stupid assumptions about Japanese women just because they watched that James Bond movie with Sean Connery. I don't know how many times I've been asked if my wife walks on my back. People in America assumed bad things about me, such as "I married a child bride from Asia" because she looks like a high schooler (to American eyes) and therefore I'm a pedo, "I married a Japanese woman because I'm a male pig and Japanese girls are subservient and easy to push around" (anyone married to a Japanese woman will know that the truth is far from this), "Japanese women are sex pots because that's how they are depicted by porn," etc.

Hey, you know, black people are so dangerous. They'd kill you to take your wallet just because you're white. Better watch out for those black people. They're all the same.

Hey, suddenly, blanket stereotypes aren't so cool anymore, are they?

Cut the crap guys, and let's get back to the topic at hand.

+1 Couldn't have said it better myself. I also, don't think the statement he said in parentheses was part of his original point either..

[SamuraiMegas]

4 months worth of Japanese chicks.

[EvilRyu2099]

It seems everyone here has an obsession over asian girls... O_O I love em all!!

[SamuraiMegas]

Before you say I'm too young, I take this as a hypothetical question as if I were 21.

[hashiriya1]

It seems everyone here has an obsession over asian girls... O_O I love em all!!

Yeah, I have an Asian fetish. Partly because I'm Asian.

[EvilRyu2099]

I'm part Asian also, but I seem to appreciate anything with XX chromosomes..

[o.pwuaioc]

I like them all. Black, white, Asian, eskimo, up and down, near and far.

[hashiriya1]

I still go to Japan twice a year for extended periods of time and I still hang out with the same rowdy bunch that I did back then, but we're all older and wiser now. We ditched the Shibuya dive bars for Naka-Meguro lounges and Daikanyama cafes, but it's just as fun.

I studied at Aoyama Gakuin for a while, so I ended up doing both of those. Generally sleaze-d around Shibuya and Roppongi (god I hate Roppingi) with other international students, and hung out in Azabujuban / Nishi-Azabu and Yoyogi with the ohime sama.

I'm going to say something that could potentially set some people off, but I personally find most Japanese women to be unlovable, in every sense of the word. Maybe just something about my age, but I would generally rather slam my face into a brick wall than listen to them talk....

I hate Roppongi, too. I been there like twice. Once for the Roppongi Hills opening, and back there again to see Terminator 3. That was a loooong time ago. I've driven through it a bunch but that doesn't count. I would have just not hung out with them. I never hung out with other foreigners in Japan because I thought it would be detrimental to my immersion into the culture.

I know what you mean. It all depends on the person, though. I've met a lot of annoying Japanese girls but I've also befriended and dated an equal amount of non-annoying ones.
I found girls who speak the Kansai dialect to be less annoying, even though I am not a big fan of Kansai. You meet tons of Kansai people in Tokyo who are miserable to be there because they find Tokyo people annoying, too. They're more down-to-earth and genuine compared to Tokyo people. My fiance is from Kansai and speaks Kansai-ben to me even though I speak only speak hyojungo sprinkled with a bit of Touhoku-ben.

This holds true no matter where you go, though. As mentioned, there are sluts worldwide, and there are annoying people worldwide. I can't generalize an entire race based on a few people. But I will say that I'm from San Francisco and hearing girls from Los Angeles talk makes me want to kick puppies. I lived in LA before and I hated every second of it.

[pierrot]

Oh, Roppongi Hills is the nice part of Roppongi, I think. I actually don't mind Roppongi Hills too much, as long as I'm going to it from the Azabu side. The clubs and bars are just the worst, though. It may as well be NYC, which is cool for some, just not my thing.

Most of the people that I actually really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with in Japan were other foreigners, though. Even though I generally stared down other foreigners while walking on the streets.

I hear what you're saying about not whitewashing a group of people, but all the excessive make-up, frou frou-ey clothes, incessant desire to look, sound, and act (key word) "cute," is just motivated by insecurity, I feel. I have certainly met exceptions, though; Some Kansai girls I've met definitely seem more comfortable in their own skin, but I find them unappealing for other reasons. The main thing is that, while I've gotten to know plenty of Japanese girls well enough to know about their lives and interests, I've never felt like I actually knew who they were. I don't find this to be exclusive to Japanese women, either, and I find the faults to be more societal than individual faults. Suffice to say that even though they seem to love me, I just don't mesh well with Japanese women. (Or Korean women for that matter.) Someone has to love them. It just isn't me.


That said, I find dialects to be adorable--especially Hokkaido-ben and Aomori-ben: The Dialects of the Stationary Jaw--and since Japan caters specifically to every weird fetish, they have a show just for me (sort of) called "Hougen Kanojo." Second season went and put it in a high school setting, though, which kills it for me a bit.

I'm assuming you like Kansai girls, hash; Have you heard of Mihara Yuki? (NSFW, by the way. Not too bad, just not super safe around wives or children.)